Ep. 15 - Rhetoric vs Reality on the Jan. 6th Riots, Money and Endorsements in Politics, Simone Biles

Rhetoric vs Reality on the Jan. 6th Riots, Money and Endorsements in Politics, Simone Biles

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the FCB Radio Network.Come of the best personalities and we're real
tuck Lists. Funline a FCB Radiodot Com. FCB this is now not
another political podcast. They can't takeyou no more. We met siland for
Toulon on the FCB Radio Network Episodefifteen. Not another political podcast. We

(00:27):
are back and you are in theNAP. I want to thank everybody for
coming back for another journey with me, Colin Jackson and always my friendly always
uh L cool j F podcast championAlex Harper. How you doing hard?
Thank you, Thank you. Iappreciate the intro. I did Kiara Davis

(00:51):
the show um the last week andthey told you always met my name up,
So my name is Alex hart foror harp. Harp is much easier,
less syllables, everything like that.Shout out Tara, Tara was the
shout out Tara. Yeah, mostdefinitely. Shout out to the whole FCB
family. Shout out to Kia forcoming to Cleveland doing a live show.

(01:14):
I heard it was very great.I had some previous engagements, but you
know what, wall stop right there, stop right there, stop right there
and now so Colin Jackson, Ladiesand gentlemen, has taken the leap of
faith and became an engaged man andsoon to be married. So I want

(01:36):
to congratulate him and his lovely newfiance. So I want to congratulate you
both and wish you both the bestof luck moving forward. Man, I
really appreciate that. I really appreciatethat. Man Like so, uh yeah,
that's where I was when the liveshow was happening. Um. But
I do believe that this podcast andknapcast thhe an app ask where you can

(02:00):
find us on Twitter, is amajor family. Um and when you all
listening on Apple, on Spotify orour favorite iHeartRadio, you're a part of
that family. So with that beingsaid, I like to ask not only
uh my, my wonderful co hostAlex Harber, who's been with me through
a lot of stuff in a shorttime, and our producer, uh Darvo

(02:23):
Morle the Kingpin, to actually betwo of my groomsmen for my wedding in
April. Whoa, whoa? Okay, what's the colors? Though? Every
color don't suit me? I needI need you, I need you to
say yes before you can talk aboutcolor. Job. Yeah, yeah,
that's sure, man, I'll behonest that's what's upped, man, that's

(02:46):
what's upped. Man. Um.But yeah, you know, I'm not
in charge of the colors. Iain't been in charge of anything since that
ring dropped last Saturday. But youain't been charging nothing before then. You
just didn't. Man. We ain'tnever gonna get your show. You keep
check the shots at me. Uhyeah, but no, I ain't been
in charge of anything, but thisis one thing I got to pick.

(03:06):
So I definitely want y'all to bethere share that special day, um,
and you know with all that,I also want the NAP to be involved.
So uh, any wedding ideas y'allhave, y'all can tweet us.
Um, you want to tweet mecongratulations, please do that. But the
biggest thing you can give me asan engagement gift is a like on wherever
you're listening to this at so UM, I really appreciate the knap casts and

(03:29):
NAP family and also YouTube. Sowith that, I think we'll get into
episode fifteen and so okay with youHarper? Yes, yeah, first off,
shout out Australia, Shout out Australia. All right, I'm ready,
I'm ready to go. You're readyall right, that's what's up, all
right, number one, Segment oneof episode fifteen. We do have a

(03:51):
developing news story. As January sixthmoves farther and farther into our our previous
memory and we get deeper into twentytwenty one, we're beginning to see some
of the fallout from that action,not only in a political structure, but
also in the judicial system. Nowpeople who were called rioters and and and

(04:13):
implicated in the quote unquote assault onthe Capitol ability on January six are now
getting their sentences hard. The firstman actually sentenced to prison was sentenced to
serve eight months in prison with twentyfour months of supervised release on the first
felony sentencing within that saw door orthe January six actions. He is not

(04:36):
the first person who be sentenced,though, a man by the name Morgan
Lloyd, forty nine year old hairsalon owner, was sentenced to three years
probation. Uh, there's also afew other people who have been sentenced to
probation, but we had the firstperson who's actually sentenced to prison. So

(04:58):
I want to open this up toyou, Harpen, and you know,
tell me what you think about thesentencing of these individuals. Is it fair?
Is it not fair? Are thereany discrepancies you see with other actions?
What do you think? I thinkwe should flash back to the episode
we did just after the event,because I knew when nobody about to get

(05:20):
no real time as as somebody,as somebody that's been through the judicial system
more than once. Unfortunately, youstart to kind of see, you have
an idea of what certain charges carriousfar as sentencing and how the severity of
which people take them. So onceI started to see the charges come out,

(05:41):
and it was more of like trestpassing, loitering, all these extra all
these charges that weren't really equated tothe same sort of mass hysteria that you
would think would becoming based off thenews stories. So based off the narrative,
this was the worst thing that's everhappened in our country. Was yeah,

(06:03):
it was insurrection. They would tryingto overthrow the government, all these
other all these just detrimental things,and and and some of it was to
paint, you know, our formerpresident in a terrible light, and some
of it was to push agendas andnarratives and those types. But at the
end of the day, just strictlystaying on the sentencing that were that was

(06:25):
handed out. I mean, slapon the wrist isn't even you know,
it isn't even comparable, because eightmonths sentence for somebody, I mean,
to the average American citizen, letme stop me, let me step back.
So to the average American citistement,jail time is serious. Somebody going

(06:46):
to jail is a problem. Likeit's like, oh my god, they
went to jail. It's like thebig you know, a big thing.
And eight months, I'm sure tothis man's family, a day in jail
is too long. Um, there'sa lot of things that happened to family
and family dynamic when you go tojail. But what I'm saying is more
so not to the person that hasto do the sentence, but the sentence

(07:06):
compared to the Oh this is soterrible. This is the worst thing that's
ever happened. But we're only givingout eight months. We're only giving out
I think the first woman that actuallygot sentence got probation. Um, there's
there's no real and everybody's not gettingsentenced. So that's the other thing.
That's the other part. Everybody's notgetting charged, everybody's not getting sentenced.

(07:26):
So I those thousand people thousands orsold people two thousand, a couple thousands.
Every was of people that you actuallysaw there. I think they've only
actually charged a couple of hundred.I don't even think it's a hundred.
But I'm just to be generous tosay they've charged a couple of hundred people,
and all of them are with youwere posing for pictures. You probably
got charged. Yeah, yeah,yeah. The guy that had his feet

(07:46):
up on Nancy Pelosi's desk, he'sprobably gonna get charged. Um. I
think somebody took some mail, You'redefinitely gonna get charged. Um. But
they had it seems as though theyhad a core group of people that they
want to make sure they get chargestoo, and they want those charges to
stick, um, you know,whatever whoever they end up being. But

(08:07):
those those now, those five orsix they gonna get stroked. Those are
the five or six that gonna getright. But the vast ninety five percent
of everybody else that's gonna get chargedare gonna get sentences comfortable to what he
got. Eight months, nine monthshere, you know, all those type
of things. Because another thing withthe criminal justice system is it favorites those
that have um um, it favoritesthose that have like assets, it favorites

(08:31):
those that have disposal income, andif favorites those haven't been in trouble before.
And those three things are characteristics ofand I'm assumming and I'm generalizing all
those things, but those three characteristicsare people that I view I think of
when I think of the people thatrush the Capitol that day. Yeah.
Yeah, And I think you boughtup a couple of good points. But

(08:52):
the first one I just want toreally really harp on, and I made
that punt on purpose. M isthe outrage versus what the actual ramifications of
this are. The outrage is you'recompletely right, they made this like these
people are the enemy of the state. They are They assaulted a prestigious place.

(09:18):
And it's something we talked about,you know, um on one of
the first episodes when January sixth happened. You know, our government, these
buildings, they're just buildings. It'sit's it's it's nothing magical about them.
We are not impenetrable. We peoplecan get into them, they can do
what they wanted to do. Butyou know, I think for a lot

(09:39):
of Americans, the prestige they holdon these buildings is what offended them more.
And then once you take that offof it, right, and you
would just imagine that this is yourregular I don't know, community center.
If people storm the regular community center, these are the type of numbers they

(10:00):
would get either type of uh judicialactions that will be taken against them.
Well you have well, you youhave an actual decent comp And when the
couple of years back, remember theytook over that like Ranger Station or something
like that, UM in the inDakota. Maybe I had, but it
was it was something along those lineswhere they took it over for like two

(10:20):
to three weeks. But got Imean it and I didn't mean it,
uh shoot nothing. They they theybasically turned they I want to say,
and I know I'm getting this storycompletely wrong, but I want to say
they took it over um in protestof someone being arrested or something like that.
I'll have it in the second segment. I have the better, better

(10:41):
details in the second segment. Butthe mom more so point was your to
your point of it's just a buildingthat was occupied or taken over by another
group of people. And once youtake the stigma of this is the capital,
This is the picture of what America'sright. When you take that away,
it's literally just them trespassing UM onpublic property. And I also echo

(11:07):
another point you made about the politicalramification and why people want to make this
such a big deal, um andand not to diminish what it is,
but but taking it into you know, kind of real understanding of what happened,
Uh, January six is more valuableto Democrats than I'd say, I'd

(11:28):
say Jim Crow's right above that,and then Slavery's right above that. But
January six, it's the third mostpowerful campaign tool, um that the Democrat
has anytime they're running against a Republican. In twenty twenty two, you left
out COVID and COVID might so,so those top five most useful campaign tools
without having to get to policy.So you know, when we even that

(11:52):
we're seeing these stories about what's happeningin these people, I think there's a
political uh advantage to one side overanother in that. UM. I think
that you know, most politicians aregoing to use that to their advantage.
UH. And and if you're aconservative, you're you're stuck in a in
a hard spot. UH. Ineither you know, do I do I

(12:13):
look at it for what it is, or do I go with what I'd
say a lot of Americans think aboutwhen they mystify government, they they make
it something to admire rather than somethingto that serves us or should serve us.
So you know, um, look, I don't I don't know if
this guy should spend the rest ofhis life in prison for going in in

(12:35):
the Capitol. Uh. You know, I'm not sure what damage he calls,
but I don't know if he's spendthe rest of his life in prison.
I think that at least giving himsometime does at least send a message
I say, hey, you can'tcan't just walk into buildings. Um.
But but ultimately I guess, yeah, right right, I mean it's kind
of our building, right. ButI think that ultimately, you know it,

(12:58):
I think this is very similar tothe Derek Chauvin case, and that
for what the outrage that we weregiven for what people seemingly feel, there's
not going to be enough time.There's not going to be enough time to
give out to when it's a quoteunquote assault on our democracy. But I
think we all need to look atthis and take it with a grain of

(13:20):
salt, and hopefully, as thesesense things keep coming down, hopefully when
this commission is over out of theCongress, we can move on as a
country and start making some political decisionsnot based on a single day it's action,
a single man's word, or anytragic event that happens in our country,
because we all need to be politicallysavvy to make the best decisions for

(13:41):
all of us here in America.With that segment one, none of the
political podcast and you're in the napWe'll be back hot topics, celebrity news,
in depth interviews, and a wholelot more. It's the Outlaws Radio
Show. Listen on the iHeart Radioapp or where ever you get your podcast

(14:01):
today. That's the Outlaws Radio Show, not another political podcast. This is
the Knaw Segment two, not anotherpolitical podcast. We are back. Episode

(14:24):
fifteen is all to a great start. I got two grooms, man,
I gotta get another five. Accordingto my fiance to Matt Church, Brian,
I need I need as totally seven. Brother, It's it's gonna be
crazy. Uh yeah, yeah,it's gonna It's okay, all right,
we should wear can't take cloths andtake a knee. They would love that

(14:48):
pandering. It's a pandering wedding.That would be fun. You're getting real
political, all right, whatever?Uh, So again, please give us
those likes and comments on that whateverplatform you're listening to this podcast on.
Of course, we hope you're listeningto on my iHeartRadio, and of course

(15:09):
give us those tweets th e andapp cast uh And with that, I
let Heart clean up his story fromthe first segment. Yes, and full
disclaimer, I've said this before inpublic, but I'll say it again on
our show, So I don't havea problem being wrong. And the course
more people need that, more peopleof illustrating my point like to, I

(15:35):
want people to fact check what I'msaying, but I want them to fact
check it with the context that Isaid it it. So I'll say something
and be wrong because the context ofwhat I'm saying is bigger than whatever the
fact is that I'm talking about,and people can take that inn where they
want if they feel as though it'swrong, it's fine. But it's kind
of similar to if I if I'mtelling a story about someone being shot and

(15:56):
I say that he had on theblue pants, but he really had a
great pants that it doesn't make adifference. So what were you wrong about?
So what I was wrong about?Right, So bringing it to the
point I was wrong, but Ikept saying in South Dakota it wasn't.
In the last segment I said thatthey took over a ranger station in South
Dakota to illustrate the point about they'retaking over a government building and there's being

(16:17):
something similar to that. So backin twenty sixteen, armed anti government protesters
took over a federal wildlife refuge inOregon. Not in one of the coaches.
It was in Oregon, and itwas in the name of they were
upset over they were accusing officials ofunfairly punishing ranchers who refused to sell their

(16:41):
land, and they took up Theydid demonstrations for different issues and things like
that, but to the bigger pointof they took over government building. Now,
mind you it's a federal wildlife refugein Oregon and not the Capitol building
in DC. But it's still acompet that if you take your emotions out
of it. There has been,uh, there has been a recent memory.

(17:03):
In recent memory, there has beenI guess, occupying a federal building
or whatever. That's a good wayto say. And then you know,
just to one of those one yougotta remember the chop in Portland, UM,
and you gotta remember they tried tostorm the White House. You know,
these are just building, these arejust places. There's nothing really special
about them. But on the segmenttwo, uh, you know we are

(17:27):
we are at Cleveland based podcast,so we get and we're political political politically
political based podcast. I don't knowwhy that was so hard to say,
but we have a major, majorUM congressional election happening in our area.
As most of you all know,the new Secretary of HUD UH is the

(17:49):
Honorable Marshall Fudge. I believe that'sthe homie Marsha fo yo homie UH the
hometown. She is a hometown herohere. The eleventh Congressional just a little
history, was one of the firstmajority minority districts created after the Civil Rights
Movement. One of the Stokes brotherswas actually the original congressman person and it's

(18:14):
basically been held by a black womanever since mister Stokes retired. There.
With that being said, we havea special election because of that appointment to
HUD and that will be over onAugust third, I believe, But that's
not the interesting part. There aretwo candidates in the race. I won't
mention eithern one by name, butaccording to Open Secrets with the Today finance

(18:41):
and campaign related website, this isset to be one of the most expensive
congressional races of all time, ifnot the all time. One candidate raised
over three point eight million dollars.The other candidate is reporting over two million
dollars, a lot of that moneycoming from outside sources, uh and and
and and what we kind of wantto talk about in this segment is money

(19:03):
and the endorsements, UM and howthose two things are connected and attributed to
each other. Now, we allknow that uh endorsements from Congressional Black Pack
and and different places like that oftendo come with money, UM and and
and and It's an interesting situation wehave here in Cleveland where outside money is

(19:25):
actually leading the fundraising for what's supposedto be a local race, so hard
problem. I kind of want toask you what is your feeling about money
and politics generally, UM and kindof how this race is shaping out with
the money that's coming in and theinfluences that are being uh kind of interjected
into this race. So my my, my general feeling about money and politics,

(19:49):
I mean, I'll start there,My general feeling about money and politics
is that the money and politics swaysthe voter that hasn't been paying attention.
So if you have a voter,a very educated voter who's been paid intentions
to voter history, public comments,public persona, the fact that you have
a big money endorsement isn't gonna swaythat voter. However, if you have

(20:12):
you have voters that are like,hey, my local chapter of whatever is
endorsing this candidate, Now I'm goingto endorse this candidate too. And again
it's it's no shade, no nothing. You know, I'm not speaking badly
about people whoever, however they decideto come up. They can flip a
cooin for wherever I care for whothey decided to vote for. But I

(20:33):
feel like money is aware of thosemoney pick those votes that your content wouldn't
have, and and that that's kindof that's trying to high view the money
play. And then to this particularrace, I mean, and this race
is similar to races around around thecountry. I'm sure that it's supposed to
be a local race. But ithas such such large repercussion or repercussion gramma

(21:00):
location there we go help. Yeahwords matter, Um, they had so
much Yeah yeah words matter, man, all words matter. Um. But
um, it has so many ithad so many ramifications throughout the at the
national level that that's why you're gettingso much outside money into this. What's
supposed to be is I guess localat some local election. But to my

(21:23):
question is, though, what reallydoes it matter if they're getting endorsements because
they're in the same party. Thisto kind of keep it in context,
yeah, yeah, this is aprimary election on August thirds election. Yeah,
it's a primary election because Marcia Laftand because it's a majority minority district.

(21:44):
It's assumed that whoever wins the primarythen wins the seat because that's what's
been going on. So right,that's the that's the voting pattern. So
but but my thing is that youguys are splitting You're not splitting hairs,
but you're split the same pool ofpeople as far as endorsements go. So
what's the difference And if you endorseum, I'm trying to I'm trying to

(22:07):
refrain from using name. So that'sthat's the reason I'm kind of chopping through
this. Yeah. Yeah, butit's it's a situation where if all of
the same group and four of usare going for this person and the other
six are going for this person,that doesn't make either one better than the
other. If that makes it,yeah, I would say that that's no.

(22:30):
I would say that's definitely the natureof primary elections in general. Um,
this one, because of the moneyand because of the endorsements, is
one that's very unique for me.I've never seen anything like this in politics.
You know, you got four wasit four point two million dollars being
spent just in television and radio adsAnd that's not even walking around money or

(22:52):
money that you'll spend on getting certainpeople to endorse you. Um, you
know, I think you hit iton the head though, that the money
spent doesn't really affect the educated,in depth voter who's been following these people,
following their legislative record, following whatthey've done and what they haven't done.
Um, you know, the fourpoint two million dollars you're spending isn't
really gonna sway that voter. Butfor the I guess what you would call

(23:15):
the uneducated voter. Uh, itdefinitely makes a different there there. Um
On the endorsement side, I meanyou look at these lists of endorsements these
people have. It goes all theway from attorney generals to former first ladies.
Um, you got you got therappers getting in there. You got
people like Killer Mike coming to Cleveland. You got uh p Diddy shout out

(23:38):
to Diddy, um get shout outto kill them. Side to Killer Mike,
man, I was, I was, I was in the building with
Killer Michaels there. Oh killers,Yeah, he was grateful. Shout out
him. Definitely. See what wewould do, Yeah, definitely somebody we
would love to have him a napcast. I don't know if we were able
or even smart to talk with him. But uh, you know you got

(23:59):
mayor, you got mayors throughout kylehaCounty split, and you also have these
pastors split. And you know youall you all know this because of our
private conversations. But you know Idon't refrain from you the turn pool pit
pimps um and some of these peopleare yeah, I know right, some
of these people are literally selling theircongregation and their influence for votes. Um

(24:22):
and and it makes you ask,well, what are they getting out of
it? And then when you seesome of these ridiculous numbers about how much
money these campaigns are getting, wellyou gotta ask, well are some of
these pastors getting some of this money? Um? And how much is that
endorsement worth? At that point,I think it really so go ahead,
no, no, no, no. I I was just gonna say,
like you, you're heading down theslippery Look. Man, you know you

(24:45):
can't talk about people's past I know, and I don't. I know,
I don't, I don't. Yougot you gotta remember you you got so
so so you're more religious than you'remore religious. Hey, many my pastor
doesn't do the city people right rightright? I do, I do,
and my pastor doesn't do endorse them. But I really appreciate him for that,
um, for not doing endorsements.But you know, you have to

(25:08):
wonder how much weight all these endorsementswhole. And I think we talked about
that in a bit of the preproduction. Um. You know, an
endorsement for James Clyburne, depending onthe individual, may might be worth as
much as a one for puff Dad. So it's a really interesting question there,
um And you know, I would. I think you have some really

(25:29):
interesting things to say about what anendorsement is really worse, So I'll let
you continue with that. So andand that's the thing because to me,
in an endorsement, and I'm gonnabe honest, So I just look at
things differently. So I look atthings as the individual. So I would
never and that's why i use termeducated and un educated. I'm not saying
the person's intelligence level. I'm thinkingI'm speaking more sort to how much they

(25:52):
pay attention to politics and the thingsthat of course of course so but so
so for me, endorsement really doesn'tmean much other than that's who you cool
with, like like so like it'snot really because I ask you can you
can see through it? But yeah, but no, no, no,
yeah, but here's the thing,because you can have somebody that has the

(26:14):
endorsement of the Fraternal to police.So so we go back in history,
and I'm just I'm not gonna doit, but I'm just saying in general,
but if we if we went backin like campaign history and we looked
at all just the corrupt politicians thatwe know of that were found to be
corrupt. Now go back and findout how many these people got the endorsements
from the Order of Police, lookback and see how many people got endorsements

(26:38):
from these churches, look back athow many people got these endorsements from nonprofits
and all these other type of things. And then so nine turns into we
gave the endorsement, but we don'thave nothing to do with what they got,
what they did when they got there. You see what I'm saying.
So it's like, so how much, Yeah, my check cleared, I
wrote the check. That's it,and and that's it. That's all.

(27:00):
So endorsing somebody is cool, likeand you know in the black community,
you know, if you endorse somebody, if you stamped somebody for any and
something happens badly, the first thingis gonna you're gonna say it. Man,
let me tell you about your boy. Man, let me let me
tell you about your people. You'reresponsible for your cousin. You're responsible responsible
because you endorse that you endorse thatman, you stamped that man. You

(27:22):
told me that he was solid andhe turned out not to be so.
But that doesn't happen in politics.You can endorse anyone. Whatever they do,
they just do. But you hadto you know what I'm saying.
You can say, hey, wellI'm not gonna endorse you for re election,
but what good endorsement anyway, I'mgonna do what I want. I'm
elected now, Like so that's whythe endorsement thing really just is like,

(27:44):
hey, that sounds good, butpass right in the check? I mean,
what really good is the endorsement orpassed? And when I said the
check clear, I said, someof these people who getting given even endorsement
might probably getting paid. That's justmy personal opinion. They may. I
mean, it's a possibility. Itwasn't not outside of the realm of reality,
and and and and and and whatkind of closed segment too by you

(28:07):
know, talking about you know,this is a again, a majority minority
district. There is a lot ofquestion of if these really need to exist
anymore. I'm not going to tryto answer that question. But what the
scholars have seen in majority minority districts, that's that there is no competition.
You know, there is no competitionreally when it comes down to general elections

(28:32):
because of how these districts are setup and because of the voting records of
majority majority minority communities with that said, this eleventh Congressional is showing so much
character because it is now a competitiverace, a serious competitive race, which
does not happen in majority minority districts. And the only reason I bring that

(28:55):
up is because where particularly Black peopleare in majority already minority districts, with
poverty and all the things that comealong with that, it is so important
to have that competition. It isso important to have those diversity of ideas.
And as a coach, Felisa says, beyond that battle field of knowledge,

(29:18):
and with the money and the endorsementsand all the other things that are
happening here in the eleventh Congressional,I think it's even more clear how important
that battlefield of ideas are, becauseyou know, I feel like ideas are
getting lost in political races, andI think we're seeing a great example of

(29:38):
that now. So don't know what'sgoing to happen with the eleventh Congressional,
but when it does happen, wewill be here to talk about it.
Not another political podcast. Segment twoone most segment ago You're in the nap
do you feel like everyone is yellingat each other but no one is listening
to each other or themselves. I'mCura Davis, host of Just Listening to
Yourself, a weekly exercise critical thinkingand drawing our talking points all the way

(30:03):
out to their logical conclusions, becauseI believe when we take the time to
examine our own talking points, wecan realize we're not always saying what we
think we're saying. Download Just Listento Yourself with Cia Davis on iHeartRadio,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get yourpodcasts. Not another political podcast. This

(30:26):
is the naw and we're back segmentthree to last segment of episode fifteen of
The NAP And once again, youcan always tweet us at thhe napp cast,
and of course we need those likesin comment on whatever platform you're listening

(30:48):
to, their listening to your podcast, entertainment Heart. I mean we're gonna
end this, I guess on alighter note on a little something that's not
necessarily politics, but something that's youknow, dominating news cycles and in black
Twitter. Uh. Simone Biles,aka the goat of gymnastics. Uh Aka,

(31:08):
you know I'm shooting three pointers andthey're calling them two pointers. Uh.
You know, the one that's beenflipping for the last what eight to
twelve years. Uh recently pulled outof not only the team participation part of
the Olympics, but also the individualpart. Uh over there in Tokyo.

(31:30):
There in Tokyo, right, Yeah, them in Tokyo this year, and
I'm surprised they went on so thatthat was that's a money play, but
go ahead all the way. Uh. She follows a list of other athletes,
particularly Naomi who was playing tennis umu in the Olympics, as well
as athletes throughout the NBA. Ithink Kevin Loved took some time off for

(31:52):
mental health, uh, Damar deRosen and Kyrie Irvin who are yeah,
who are all uh prior or tithingtheir mental health above the health of I
guess their sports career. Simone actuallyhad a small snap food in her vault

(32:13):
on day one and basically said thatshe was so pressurized in what she was
doing that she was worried about gettinghurt in her future accents so hard.
But what do you think about athletesprioritizing their mental health in situations like this?
Well, I think, I mean, first of all, I feel

(32:34):
like in any situation, mental healthis the most important thing that you can
have, So you know, itaffects a lot more than if you have
poor mental health. You end uplike you have physical issues. It's hard
to concentrate your decisions or influence.So mental health is one of the most
important things that anybody can do forthemselves in general. But I can't.

(32:57):
I'm sure it's harder now facing thepressure of being a black athlete representing the
United States YEA in this current climatebecause I don't know someone Biles, I
don't know anybody that's on any ofthe Olympic teams. But I can assume
that as a black athlete, youhave peer pressure or pressure, not even

(33:17):
necessarily peer pressure, but you haveoutside pressures that wants you to protest here,
protests there, and they're constantly askingyou, well, why are you
doing this? Why are you Whyare you represent a country that doesn't love
you? You know, all ofthose type of things because of a top
of rather competition on top of youcoming in with the most pressure anyway,

(33:43):
because you're the defending champion and basicallyevery you're the defending gold melist in every
event that you participated, so youliterally have to defend your title versus everybody
that's coming to knock you off aswell as deal with the pressures of your
own personal goals for yourself, aswell as deal with the pressures of people
looking at you like well as ablack athlete, you should be doing this

(34:06):
that in the third or you shouldn'teven be here, or you shouldn't even
be here. And that's and that'sthe other thing, because even if you
look at the let's say, youlook at the like the bass and the
United States basketball team like they justlost. So who's to say that some
of it is because they feel likewe shouldn't even be here? Who say
that there's not a person on someof those Olympic teams that have trained their

(34:29):
whole life to be here and nowthat they got here, it's tainted because
they don't have the fen fear,they don't have the support or feel like
they have the support of UM theUnited States that they're representing. You know.
So, and I can't say thatthis is completely what's going on in
her head because I don't know.Again, I don't know personally, so
I don't know what on her life. But just as on an outside looking

(34:52):
in, that seems like one ofthe biggest stressors that you can have of
preparing for a competition at this levelbecause manage this is the best in the
world. This is the best inthe world. And then also having the
social pressure of you're supposed to bea role model. What are you doing

(35:13):
that? You know, you're lettingthe black It's just you know, it's
a lot that it's a lot.It's a lot. And I don't want
to include Shakari Richardson necessarily in thisconversation because she did not actually make it
to the Olympics actually compete. It'scompletely different. But I mean, actually,
yeah, that's a completely different situation. It is. But she did
bring up her mental health, youknow, um in in her Yeah,

(35:37):
well reason not excuse wasn't Yeah.The clearification is because she took full responsibility
for it. It wasn't like aoh woe is me? I did this
by accident type of thing. SoI commend shout out to her, but
taking full responsibility for her decision andher actions. The only reason I say
it's different is because um sear Richardsonwas a up and coming and soon still

(36:00):
has a few departs sporting those typeof things, so everything and she is
achieving. She's achieving for the firsttime. So these are all mouthstones that
she's hurdles she's getting over. Forexample, nobody's gonna tell sear Ridinson,
hey, you shouldn't run into onehundred because America doesn't love us like,
you know, like it's like,no, yeah, I've worked my whole

(36:21):
life to get what are you talkingabout? However, with Simone Biles,
by you being at the pinnacle ofthe sport, you have the additional eyes
on you, you have the additionalHey, the third the third alternate on
a gymnastics team takes a knee,nobody cares. But if Simone Biles with

(36:42):
taking knee during national anthem, thisis the biggest story ever. And you
know all that has happened, andI actually think they put rules in place
where they can't do that anyway.But right, right, right, No,
But to your point with Simone,man, you gotta remember who this
girl is or who this young ladieswoman is. M falls kid was getting
uh sexually abused by her culture duringthe last Olympics. Her brother was recently

(37:05):
up from murderer here in Cleveland.I mean, she's been through a lot
um so I would imagine her mentalhealth is already strained. Um and then
you add in, you know,the patriotism part of you know, am
I really an American? Uh?Do I feel like I'm an American?
But you know, I don't thinkthat certain people within the media did America

(37:27):
any justice by the way they attackedher and saying that she was weak and
that she didn't love America. Howcould you do all these things? What
like? That doesn't work? Yeah, but it's the mentality of you work
for us, So yeah, it'sit's the mentality of how dare you take
a day off? You work forus. You can't take a day off

(37:47):
right now? Like, and I'mnot even saying white people, I'm not
even putting in that. No,just yeah, just as Americans, you
have people that are like, hey, you're you're you're in in the crazy
We just looked it up in preshow. Is that not only do they
not get paid, but Simone bilesnet worth isn't like she's just up and
breaking the bank. She's making alot. Lebron James Lebron dreams at all.

(38:12):
Who's a billion? Ni Simone Bilesis ten million up, that's it?
Yeah, which isn't a lot.She's ten million, ten million net
worth and it is not a lotthis In fact, she did more harm
to herself and her brand than anyharm or anything anyone else can feel about
the situation, because this is hermoney time. This is the time where
you win the medals, you getthe endorsements, you're on n Witty's boxes.

(38:37):
So if her mental stability wasn't enoughto because she knows this more than
we know, she knows what youhave on the line, she like she
has she has the attard um gota seal? Yeah right, that she
has a sale. Who's a betterbrand ambassador for the sale than me standing
on the gold medal podium. Butat the same time, if she felt

(38:59):
likentally it wasn't worth it. Whatevershe had to lose, whatever it has
God just wasn't worth it, thenwe have to completely take that into consideration,
that she's really willing to risk everythingby sitting out simply to preserve her
mental health. So people that thatthat were attacking her were just stupid.
I think it's just that's just aswhen it comes out to I guess for

(39:22):
heart, Uh, for me,I would just like to pay back off
that last point. If some bonemop Biles feels like her mental health is
worth her not competing in this Olympics, then I don't think we as Americans
should be um necessarily jumping on herbecause we don't really have that much to
lose. We'll probably think it's mybusiness, right, We'll probably still win

(39:44):
some medals. I think we tooksilver and the all around team, um,
you know, and at the endof the day, it's the Olympics.
Then it doesn't it doesn't make usany money. But let me ask
you a real question. Yeah,who cares about the Olympics right now?
Like like seriously, like see likeif you really like this isn't really and
you can look at it, likethe ratings are down on the Olympics.

(40:05):
The enthuistic by the Olympics. Theyweren't even sure if it was gonna go
on. There's no real hanger passsimone bios. There really isn't a hanger
hat athlete that everybody is kind ofgetting behind and rooting for. So y'all
don't really care about Olympics like thatthey only you don't care about Olympics now,
I'm not. And you know,when my grandmother passed a couple of

(40:30):
week a couple of months ago,and I was in the middle of like
I was doing like three or fourevents at Harp was with me in a
row and there was this one momentwhere I was literally in the parking lot
about to break down, and Harpjust said, man, lead us alone
and go home, because your mentalhealth is more important than anything. And
you know, that's one thing Ireally appreciate him for. But I think

(40:51):
some bone bios might have had oneof those moments, uh, you know,
maybe after her vault, and youknow, I, you know,
I just hope the best for her. I pray for Naomi and everybody battling
any type of mental health issues becauseit is really important in this country,
particularly for African Americans and for anyminority or any marginalized group that they value

(41:15):
their mental health more than the dayto day of whatever we're doing. So
with that segment three and not anotherpolitical podcast, Episode fifteen, we will
see you on the other side.The FCB Radio Network first class broadcasting worldwide,