Freedmen's affairs radio
This program will focus on political, social and cultural concerns for descendants of American slaves who are the freedmen of 1863 and the foundational black Americans of this nation. The intended targeted demographic are generation x, millennials, and like minded people who are committed to the fight for reparations and justice for FBA and freedmen
Freedmen's affairs radio
Freedmen's Power: Navigating Reparations,/& Black Grassroots Influence 🇺🇸
Thank you for watching Peace, peace.
Speaker 2:And welcome back to Freedman's Affairs Radio, the Freedman's Network. We're back this week. I'm your host, your gracious host, Aaron Vaughn Black, and right off the gate, we want to thank you for tapping back in with us. And on today, today, the 7th of January, we got a special guest. Well, he's not a guest, this is his home. We got none other than Divine Prince from the Freedmen's Project. Come on up and say hello to the family. Honest, honest.
Speaker 1:What's going on, brother? It's a pleasure to be here, man. I really appreciate you saying this. My home, that's love right there, and I just want to make sure I let the family know that I appreciate this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the Freedman's Affairs Radio, freedman's Network. And you're from the Freedman's Project and this is your home brother. You have a whole floor To yourself. When you come here, you have a whole floor to yourself. When you come here, you got a whole wing to yourself. Whatever you want to come up here, oh man man. Whenever you want to come up here and spit whatever you want to talk about, the top floor is yours, man.
Speaker 1:That's love man and that's a gracious host right there. So just real quick, you know. Just some housekeeping For those that you know. Just some housekeeping for those that do know you already know for those that don't. Let me give a brief description. Brief introduction to myself. My name is Devon Prince. Like our brothers just said, I am the current president of the US Freedmen Project, the only organization in New York City, new York State organization in New York City, new York State, fighting exclusively for those families that survived the horrors of enslavement in the United States of America, were emancipated and are now fighting for our medial justice and what was stolen from our ancestors here on this land. So that's just who I am in short, but we could definitely get into more of it as the conversation progresses.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, now, as I opened up, as I opened up, I usually open up with the math for the day and we're dealing with seven, and that is God and how I see that is good orderly, good, orderly direction. That's how I see it, and you know we want to stay close to these things. But I want to play a real quick clip from uh, none other than the late great.
Speaker 2:uh, revin ike and um, get his, get his synopsis on it and tell me what you think it is before. You know, just we just opening up before we get into the to the gist of what we came up here for today. Here it is, check this out, check this out.
Speaker 3:God is within you. The power and the potential that you need to be successful and prosperous are within you and you have to work with that. You believe in God.
Speaker 2:Yes, I believe in God, but I believe that God is within the individual.
Speaker 3:I do not believe that God is apart from man. I do not believe that God is a big man in the sky. I believe that God is the big man within me and you and you. God is the big man within everyone, not a big man in the sky. I am God appearing as me, and this is true of everyone. I teach this to everyone you are God appearing as you, but in the one God which is really consciousness or self-awareness. Every man is God of his own experience. But you see, this is another thing. People do not like to accept self-responsibility. People like to have a convenient devil that they can blame when they are lazy and don't do what they could do for themselves. And it only goes to show you that human nature says that well, I've got to have a scapegoat. But in this philosophy there is no scapegoat it's you.
Speaker 2:Man, what do you think about that, Devon? Where are you at with that?
Speaker 1:I mean, man, that was oh man, as soon as I heard the term. They need a convenient devil to blame. Oh man, that was so deep, that was so deep and so apropos to everything that we're going to get into today as this conversation goes along. Man, that convenient devil concept is not only in religious beliefs, is not only in the religious circles, if you will, but in every arena and every aspect of life, especially in this political game that you know we've been navigating, you know doing this work.
Speaker 1:That convenient devil concept is something that we see a lot of people lean on and rely on to be the excuse they need when there's things that they know or see needs to get done, and need an excuse on why it can't get done or why they don't want to do it. So that portion, right there, is what stood out to me the most. But those are some gems that was just dropped, and especially that the next thing that hit me was just the concept of when you accept that that God is within you, then you take responsibility as well for things that get done and the things that don't get done, and that's another thing that's plaguing us just as a people, and I don't mean us as freedmen, just as a human race, that level of responsibility, that self-responsibility that people love to circumvent and kind of just dodge whenever they can. So, man, that was some deep knowledge right there.
Speaker 2:Man, that's why I played it, that's why I played it up here. That's why I played it Because I thought, man, when I got it, see, this is how, when I wake up every day, this is how I look at things. This is my view, just what the late great Reverend Ike said. That is my view. It's the same thing that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. You know, that's how. That's how I look at it, that's how I look at things.
Speaker 2:So I thought that would that would be proper to play up here today. Um, you, you gracing us with your presence up here, and I thought it, thought it'd be proper. I just wanted, I wanted to sneak that in there on you, man, like you know. And, um, yeah, yeah, this is what we're doing, man, but yeah, it's going that that and what he said is going, we're going to be, uh, glazing, it's going to be a brush for us to glaze over some of the things we're going to talk about up here. And, um, where do you want to, where do you want to start, man?
Speaker 2:Um, I've been, I've been thinking these last few days how I was going to conduct this thing, but usually, brother, you know, when two minds click together, they can just get up here and spit about whatever and it can just go and we can just go. So I didn't structure anything. I know we're going to talk about the recent hearing that we had here in New York State and what's been going on and that and we you and I hadn't really touched bases since the, since that meeting, but we didn't really get even get to talk about the election and stuff like that in the past year, and what's going on with the Freedmen and which direction is the Freedmen Project going in and what we need to be doing as individuals in this work.
Speaker 2:So you know, if you have any ideas where we should start or man, that's a great question.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's a loaded question. That's that. That's a. I feel like that's a loaded question because there's so many different areas for us to go into and start. Um, it's almost like, yeah, how much time we got right because there's so many different avenues that we could go don't worry about.
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm sorry, don't worry about the time. Don't worry about the time we can. My last program. I stayed up here and I was by myself. I stayed up here about no, no, no, no, no the last week's podcast. I had my brother King up here, big King Malik. I had him up here and we stayed up here almost two hours. We stayed up here almost two hours. We stayed up here almost two hours, me and him. We have that kind of type of chemistry where we just bounce off each other and we just go and just go and you look up at the clock and, oh snap, we almost been up here almost two hours and I let it go just like that. I let it go just like that, but you know we don't yeah well, that's when you, okay, Go ahead.
Speaker 1:No, that I let it go, just like that, but you know we don't yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, that's when you, okay, go ahead. No, I'm sorry, good. No, I'm sorry, good. Um, what I try to be mindful of, see this is like I was saying on on last week's uh podcast, that this thing, these conversations we're talking about, it takes in a certain kind of mind, an inquired mind, to appreciate what we're talking about. It takes in a certain kind of mind and acquired mind to appreciate what we're talking about up here. See, I always tell people now, sometime I get up here and I talk about some of the things going on in in in the community.
Speaker 2:As far as you know, you know who's beefing with who and what. I don't. That's not my lane up here and if you're looking to be entertained with that kind of stuff, you're in the wrong. This is the wrong place for you. But if you're looking for wholesome conversation about our people and what we're doing, the work we're doing, and our liberation and and our, um, freedom, this is this, this is the place you're going to get that discussion up here. If you're looking for me to get up here and talk about, you know these little ratchet stuff going on in the music world, the dramas now whenever cats like Diddy and lately Jay-Z been in trouble with these allegations and stuff like that. You have to talk about these things because this is what's going on in the community and this program is. I niched it down to specifically foundationals, fbas and, you know, freedmen.
Speaker 2:I don't really talk about other communities up here, I specifically focus on our community. Now there's times like this past week here with things that has happened, with the situation with the two attacks in Louisiana and the other one in Las Vegas. See, this stuff concerns us. But when it doesn't concern us, and then you know, all the way up until the election, from the DNC convention all the way up to the election night, I covered, you know the political thing because that concerns us. You know the pilot, the political thing, because that concerns us. You know. But mainly, I try to, I need this, this program, down to our concerns. You know our cultural concerns and, uh, things like that, political, cultural and and you know stuff like that. But yeah, so we we do have a lot, you know a lot of a lot of real estate to cover because, um, as, as I said, last week I closed out the 2024 and then you know, this is the first program of the new year.
Speaker 1:So you know, but, uh, your thoughts bro definitely man if I was saying, as we could definitely jump right into um this past election, even though it's the first of New Year.
Speaker 1:I think what I found in my assessment of this past election is I've seen way too much commentary from the talking heads, from the mainstream media, from other sources that have been framing the election and its outcome either from a more left-leaning or flat-out Democrat perspective, or more right-leaning or flat-out Republican standpoint and viewpoint, and what's missing is that freedom standpoint, like what does it actually mean for us, what happened to and for us this election cycle and what do the results of it mean for us, our families and our community? And so, just looking at the state of affairs now for the Democratic Party from a freedom standpoint, from a Foundations Black Americans standpoint, democratic Party from a freedomist standpoint, from a foundation of Black Americans standpoint, what we find is that this is one of the most important elections in our lifetimes and in a very long time for our community, with the way in which we made noise online, offline, in political circles, letting this Democrat Party know that there are demands on the table for our vote, and when we see that those demands specifically remedial justice and reparations, not just at the local level, but at the federal level, we see that those were not met by this Democratic party and Kamala Harris, even though she was doing and they were doing everything they could to convince us that they were doing everything they could to convince us that they were advocating for our needs. And she even said out of her own mouth you know that. You know, black men in a black vote are a constituent that I have to fight for, just like I would any other. But then they tried to pass empty symbolism or as policy when we told them specifically what those policies that we needed, what they were going to be, what they needed to look like. And so, you know, just looking at the way in which everything unfolded and their reluctance to give us exactly what we said we needed, you know now we are in the catbird seat come 2026 and 2028 to let them know hey, you know, if you are giving us exactly what we need and what we say we want, then you know there's going to be some consequences and repercussions moving forward in this political game that we're not going to allow.
Speaker 1:The same old, same old. I'm going to take a hold about political reality. What do you think? What do you have to say about that?
Speaker 2:Well, the first thing I want to address what you said was when she finally got the gumption to cop to the reality of. She had to work for the black man's vote. You know, it was way too late, because, if you remember her last campaign, when she ran back in, I think it was 2019, 2020, and she did the interview with the, with the sister from the griot, from uh, what was that? Like that child's name? Um, I forget it, but that's when she made the statement. So I'm not gonna sit here and say I'm going to do something only for black people. No See, we remembered that. We remembered that and the grassroots were very guarded in regards to that. This time around, for the 2024 thing, when they, when they coronated her, we was we. We was automatically guarded for that, because we know what you said. We didn't forget what you said.
Speaker 2:So now fast forward it to after your coronation and you realize, as time was passing by, you realize that there was a— See, divine. This is so crazy because they're never going to admit it. None of the legacy media, none of the mainstream people, never going to admit that it was us here on the grassroots that shook the table and made them fall to the floor and crash. They're never going to admit that. They're going to come up with all the Hispanic vote, this vote, that, this, that misogyny, you know, sexism, all this other stuff. The bottom line was you need the Democratic Party, needs black people as a whole to vote at 95% or more in order for them to win. That didn't happen because black men did vote, but instead of 90% it was more like 77% voted for her. That's not going to fly for them. That's not going to work for them.
Speaker 2:Now work with me on this one and tell me what you think. If it's anywhere between 43 and 48 million of us Friedman, right, fba, that's 77 percent that voted for her. Now, when black women voted for her like 94 percent better or 92 percent I forget what's known as 92 or 94% better but some of the sisters were following their men and not voting, especially in the grassroots. Now we rounded that up here at the network here we rounded that number out to about 10 million of the grassroots that either sat it out or they voted for Trump or other people. Now, in the beginning I was looking at Jill Stein. For a little while I was looking at Jill Stein, but then, when she went on I think it was the Breakfast Club, and she talked about her things. Then she went on Jason Black's program, the Black Authority, and he grilled her pretty good, he questioned her pretty good and after those two situations I said nah, nah, she ain't talking right. She got some good ideas, but she ain't talking right, especially about the reparations and things like that.
Speaker 2:Now, cornel West, I was hoping he would come out of the gate a little better, but he got all the way up to the starting line and just his knees gave out for some reason on certain topics or whatever. So, that said, that's my posture, that was my posture going through the whole thing. That was my posture going through the whole thing. So I'll round that out to about 10 million of us that stood pat and didn't waver and that's what shook the table up and caused them to fall off the edge and fall to the ground and crash. What say you, sir?
Speaker 1:No, I am definitely 100% on board with you. Just to kind of give that extra context, the sister you were talking about in 2019 that did the interview, her name is Natasha Alford. That's who sat down with her from the Griot and her now infamous final words to the free community talking about she's not going to do anything. That's only going to benefit black people. No, and you know, in addition to her doing all this legislation, her and Joe Biden oh, there you go.
Speaker 3:So I'm not going to sit here and say I'm going to do something that's only going to benefit black people. No, no, there it is. That's only going to benefit black people. No, no, there it is, that's only going to benefit black people.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, I meant to get that out of my own bank but I left it there, and it's a good thing I did, because that's what I was talking about that clip right there, and we were guarding yes, we were so guarding because of that.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing. Here's a couple things that they failed to mention purposely, in my opinion and that the black American grassroots, this Freedmanist FBA movement. What we understood then is what they tried to ignore then and tried to play us and pretend wasn't the case. Now is that in 2019, when she said that, even before she said that the grassroots was already on her bumper letting the public know now she's not black american, she's damn, they're not even afro-caribbean, like she's not. This idea that, because she went to hbcu and she's telling y'all that she's black, kinda, and alluding to it and dancing around this people of color thing, she's not one of us. The bottom line is she was not one of us, she was not rooted in our story, even though everything about her identity that they were trying to run on in 2019 was trying to tell us that she was us, and so back then we had already shut her shop down to the point where she didn't even make it to iowa, like she didn't make it to the primary.
Speaker 2:She couldn't get out. She couldn't get out the gate. Yes, could not get out the gate. Lack of fun.
Speaker 1:Lack of support. It wasn't there. And so what's crazy is that her political, her political story is one of getting her start with, you know, low down willie brown we ain't gonna go into detail with that too much unless you want to and then she comes on the scene and doing all the things that she's doing in California, which is riddled with scandal and controversy. Then she tries this run in 2019, where she gets shut down, doesn't make it to the primary. She's on the stage calling Joe Biden a racist rightfully so. And then Joe Biden, to kind of coalesce the community around him and Clyburn's co-sign, they come in. He come and says I'm going to appoint a black vice president and out of all of the candidates or potential people he could have chosen, he chooses the one person that's not black at all. And that's the way she goes from the trash where she would have been, on the trash, heap of political memory. She then gets thrust back into the spotlight and becomes his VP. Everyone votes for them and Biden, because you know for those that did support Biden for whatever their reasons, but, more importantly, because he wasn't Trump. And then she's the VP and then she uses that to catapult herself into the 2024 race because he becomes too old to run and we don't know what's going on with his mental faculties. And she's still that same unpopular candidate that she was in 2019.
Speaker 1:Nothing had changed, except now the mainstream media were trying to convince us that she's now popular, that everybody loves her, that she was doing an amazing job as the VP. She's always been popular and people have always wanted to vote for her and make her a nationwide candidate, and that just was not the case. And us, as the black American grassroots, were telling everybody like no, she can't. I don't know where y'all getting these numbers from. I don't know where y'all getting popularity. And then we found out that much of our campaign was being was being financed and funded by all that dark money from the oligarchs and whoever else was donating to her campaign, where she had billions of dollars raised and that is what they were using to convince the people that she was popular enough to be picked on a nationwide level, which she had never been that candidate on her own. And so you know.
Speaker 1:And then we get to the situation where black men are saying, like no, we just not being seen, like these barbershop things I put together. Those are fugazi, like we know that's not real. And then she comes and says, ok, I got something for y'all. And we look at those policies and there's universal policies for everybody Garbage, garbage. And so it was right, it was disrespect all the way around. And so that's where we stand now, to where obviously we understand that you know the Republicans aren't championing any of our causes that we need and deserve as the free men in this country, but now we're finding out that neither are the Democrats. The only difference is that the Democrats cannot win.
Speaker 1:Going back to your point, bringing it full circle, the Democrats cannot win unless we and when I mean we, the Black American, the Friedman Foundation of Black American Voting Bloc, not just come out and support them. We got to come out in the astronomical numbers that no one else comes out for candidates in order for them to win. So we got to be in the high eighties, low nineties, high nineties for them to win. And so when that does not happen, even though it still looks like, oh man, they supported her at 70% and the women still in the 90s or high 80s. Now it's got to be high 80s, low 90s, at least from both constituents, from black men and black women in order for them to even have a chance. When that number is not reached those levels, they have zero chance.
Speaker 1:And this election was just another indicator of that. And I love it because now we've essentially solidified ourselves. If we continue to make demands and let them crash and burn, if that's what needs to happen, we've solidified ourselves as a swing vote and that is the vote that gets the attention, that is the vote that commands policy, not one that is captured. And for far too long we've allowed the black and Afro-immigrant gatekeepers to corral us into being the captured electors, to which we get no policy, but they get whatever kickbacks and set-asides that are there, and they tried that this last election. I'll lay in here for you to get in. As we see, we're rolling, getting the $350K and Al Sharpton's getting the 500k, but they did not move the needle. So they are in trouble moving forward as far as what they're going to do for livelihood, because the Democrats have seen that they no longer have the influence over us as a collective, as a voting bloc, as they had in the past collective as a bottom block, as they had in the past.
Speaker 2:Bro, you making it difficult, me difficult for me to follow you up here. Uh, I'm trying, I'm gonna try my best to stay with you here. It is okay. Let me address this one thing. As far as the black thing, there's two things I want to say to. That is um, we are no longer on this, this identity thing. Don't bring, don't march another melanated person out there to us, and they're planning on doing that with this guy. There's a guy that I think they're going to use as a wild card in the 2028 election. I can't recall his name now, but he's a Caribbean, from a Caribbean background, and he has a family, black children, black wife and all that, and I think they're going to march him out there. But leave us alone with the identity politics. That ain't going to work, no more. Not with us.
Speaker 2:The other thing is Candace Owens did a amazing job at digging up excuse me, at digging up that woman's background about her family, and I don't really care for Candace Owens. She's been a professional white, white backside kisser for for so long and that's what that works for her. That's where she gets her, her bread was buttered and she made a name for herself and she's, she's, she's been doing well with you know, in that lane. But she did an amazing job of exposing VP Harris's family background. Not that that most of our people glossed over that and didn't want to pay no attention to that. Back to what Reverend Ice said no, accountability, we don't want to hear nothing, even though it's true. We don't want to pretend like it's not there, but she brought that out, she did an amazing job doing that and it was just awesome and it worked to our advantage.
Speaker 2:So that I say to that the other thing is that you talked about what was it? You said Us realizing we have come to a point with this past election. We have come to a point where we're now leaning into power that we didn't understand before. We're starting to lean into that power and this election revealed these things. And I said this on this program. I said this I don't know how many times that this election we will be, if we play our cards right, we will be in a prime, pivotal position, because now that we done shook the table and pieces done fell off the table, you understand, both parties are going to have to realize we got to take them more serious. We're going to have to come at them Now. The Democrats are still being hardheaded, from what I can see. Now, the Democrats are still being hardheaded. From what I can see, the Democrats are still being hardheaded and trying to pretend that they don't know what really happened. They know what happened, but the thing is, this has put us in a very prime position as far as being able to angle and negotiate our demands and what.
Speaker 2:The things that we want Very, and most people don't want to see that. You know, they just focused on oh, she's a black woman and oh, she's a woman, and you know, abortion. We want the women to have a right to do what they want with their bodies. This is all most of these people were talking about. That's all they could talk about. That's all they could talk about. That's all they were thinking about. They weren't, and a lot of times, as Jason Black, I think, who says it a lot of times that this is not a sprint, this is a marathon.
Speaker 2:Stop thinking about the short game.
Speaker 2:Don't think about the short. Think about the long game, because that's what that's the ultimately where we're going to, where the rubber is going to meet. The rubber's going to meet the road and we're going to have our biggest battles at you. Think about all this little small stuff and things. You know, uh, things that we really, if we get the things that we demanding, you know, uh, things that we really, if we get the things that we demanding, we'll be able to take care of those things on our own.
Speaker 2:But we want to, we want, we want to be able to depend on on white mommy, white daddy, for for a lot of the things that we can do for ourselves. And we got to get, and we are getting getting out of that culture because the more, the more these years progress, the more the baby boomers and the silent generation most of the silent generation are gone, but a lot of the baby boomers, each year they're falling off and falling off and falling off and when we get them out of the paint because they're not even going to be significant soon coming, they're not even going to be significant soon, soon coming. They're not even going to be. They're not going to be even a thing for us to just just go on to the side, you know. And another thing I wanted to speak to not veering off too much is, um, the other day they, they did the uh swearing in for the congressional black caucus. Did you see that?
Speaker 1:What was swearing in for the congressional?
Speaker 2:black caucus. Did you see that? What was that? You said the swearing in of them. Yeah, they did some kind of ceremony with the congressional black caucus. They did that. Did you see that?
Speaker 1:no, I didn't get a chance to see the um actual swearing, and what I do know is that they just appointed yvette clark, yvette clark, caribbean woman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, caribbean woman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right that we're going to touch on that as well, but I did not get a chance to see the ceremony. What?
Speaker 2:did I miss? You didn't miss anything, you didn't miss anything. Is this a ceremony that they do, I guess, when the new year comes and all that stuff? I guess they do that, or whenever election cycle, that stuff, I guess they do that, or whenever election cycle. I don't know the formalities of it, but they did this. They did a ceremony for for the congressional black caucus the other day and um, it was hosted by uh, they had leticia james up there talking and they had um maxine waters and all, and jim kleinberg.
Speaker 2:When you look at the they paint, when the camera pan from left to right, right to left, to get a view of all of them, bro, the whole, the whole, the whole camp is geriatric. All these people are senior citizens. Why are y'all still there? Why are y'all still there? Jim Clyburn, you know these people, people, they, they want to die on these posts. Uh, sheila jackson lee, she, that woman knew she was sick. Why you didn't step down and let some fresh blood get up in there?
Speaker 2:Same thing with um, um lewis, that that little, uh, what's that little nigga name? Um, uh, john lewis, john lewis, he knew he was sick. And the other one there, uh, what's his name? Um, uh, john lewis. John lewis, he knew he was sick. And the other one there, oh, what's his name? Um, what's that cat's name that when he died too, he also died too? Um, he, him and john lewis was lookalikes. I forget that guy's name. But anyway, these people, all of them, senior citizens, the whole congressional black caucus, bro, and I'm looking at this and I'm saying you know what? This is one of the major problems that we have. We don't get nothing done because of these, all these old Negroes up here that done made a nice substantial living out of selling the black community down the pipes.
Speaker 2:Down the pipes, getting their little, getting their little cut, you know, their little crumbs for them and their families and not doing nothing for for the, for black society and all those old negroes up there and they, they got their right hand raised up and all of this here and then and leticia james was talking, and you know I'm saying like this is why we don't get nothing done and this is we got to, the grassroots got to come up. We got to start raising up some, some political people like marcel dixon and people like that, and get some of these young people and then get these, these old negros out the way because they ain't doing nothing. They're not doing anything. They won't. They'll. They'll go fight for these other people right there in California, maxine Waters, maxine Waters, right there in California, in her district where she's at. It's about 4 million Hispanic people there and like 700,000 black folk there, foundationals, so it's the Hispanics putting her in office. This is why she's going when the pie is thrown up in there and time to slice the money up. This is why she do for them. She won't do nothing for our folks and this is what most of these.
Speaker 2:Jim Clyburn his district is like the sixth poorest district in the nation. Sneak. What is he going to do? When you talk to him about reparations. He tell you hell, no, you ain't never get it. You'll never get it. That's the first thing he says. That has to be addressed too. These old Negroes, we got to get them out the paint man.
Speaker 2:Most of these old black clergy's and preachers and stuff like that, these niggas. Let me calm down a little bit because I'm going to go off the rails. But yeah, man, go ahead though, yo Mike.
Speaker 1:You know, don't go off the rails. Don't go off the rails.
Speaker 2:We still on point. You know, you know, something was funny. It was funny because I told you what my intentions was at that. Funny because I told you what my intentions was at that when I saw that dude, that senator, senator, sanders.
Speaker 1:Senator Sanders.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 2:When he when I was looking at I forget what it was CNN or one of them, one of them legacy media and they announced the New York State reparations plan. And when he made the statement he made, I said yo, if I ever see this dude, I'm going to take off on him, I'm going to crack him. I ain't even going to say nothing to him, I'm going to just crack this dude. Wherever I see him at, it's going to be on on site. That's what I had said. That thing made me so mad and it hurt me so bad. And that night, when I saw him there at the meeting there, that night, my heart like you know how you get nervous because you know what you're thinking in your mind Word, and that was my plan I said I'm going to approach him and I'm going to ask him. You know I'm going to ask him about it and if he say the wrong word, I'm going to take off on him. And you know, as I thought about it, I'm glad it didn't work out that way because, as I thought about it, I said this ain't the place for that and I don't want them to think we a bunch of thugs or nothing like that and I didn't want to. You know, it wouldn't have been proper for me to act up in that fashion. So I'm glad me and him got to talk. We had a nice long talk actually.
Speaker 2:And then, because when y'all came in the door, right when y'all came in the door, he realized he said yo, I think some of your people's right there. I said yeah, that's the. Y'all was at the door, you know, registering in or whatever like that. And I looked over and that's them. Y'all was at the door, you know, registering in and whatever like that. And I looked over and seen y'all. He said yeah. He said I think those people just walked in. I looked, I said yeah, that's them, you know.
Speaker 2:But by that time me and that man sat down. I didn't approach him in the house the way or nothing like that. But that was my original plan and that's my word is born up here, I'm telling you, bro. I said I promised myself, I said if I ever see this dude in person I'm gonna take off on him. But that's not the, that's not the way to handle things. And I'm glad things worked out the way they did because that's that's. You know, that was some personal, personal stuff and you don't want to be, you know, behaving like that. People have a right to say whatever they want. Whatever you, you must be able to navigate around. Um foolishness, because when he explained it to me, he, he copped the plane. He was like he was just kind of trying to, in other words, he was sucking up to them.
Speaker 2:He didn't say those words exactly like that to me, but that's that's where he, that's the route he took you know he he was like no, you know, I didn't really mean that, I was just, you know, I was just playing up to them, you know, whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1:I was like okay, man, but don't, don't, don't be making statements like that, don't make statements, because then you put you put us in a bad light that way right and how, and how slimy is that, you know, I mean like, like, I know there's no excuse for what you said, but how slimy is that to say, oh, I was just saying that for them when, when you think about it, there's no scenario in which they say that or say anything disrespectful to their own. For us it just doesn't happen. You know I don't believe him, but you know, even if let's say he, you know we gave him a bit of the doubt and and you know we believe that he said it just to appease those in the room. Like, just what does that say about you and your character If you're willing to do that against our people, your ancestors, to appease this group of people that would not do the same for you and just to give the context for the listeners that don't know what we're talking about. Right, right, you know, when the law, the bill for the task force that we're currently dealing with, that we're going to talk about before this is over, was being signed into law, at that ceremony, where it was signed into law, senator James Sanders from Queens he got up there and he equated let me not say equated he said that his ancestors that were involved in the great migration from the South to various cities in the North were immigrants as well.
Speaker 1:So the same way, you have immigrants that come from different countries to the United States of America looking for a better life. He said that his ancestors that migrated from the South to the North, still within the same country that they built, that they were the same as immigrants, and that is very dangerous rhetoric, because there are only two groups that are not immigrants in the United States of America that's the Native Americans and that's the American Freedmen, the Foundation of Black Americans. We are not immigrants. We did not come from one country to another country. We were taken some of our ancestors were taken from the concept of Africa to this landmass where our ancestors then built the country that everybody else immigrates into. There was no country for our ancestors to immigrate into, there was no country until our ancestors built it, built it, and so that is a very, very clear and important distinction to make, and so to say that his ancestors that were involved in building the United States of America are immigrants, the same way in which immigrants come from their home countries to the country of United States of America for a better life, for a set of size for resources, for opportunities. That's very disrespectful.
Speaker 1:And Senator Sanders said that in a room where a bill was being signed to honor what his ancestors had done, and our ancestors as well, and to sign into law a commission that would look into those things that our ancestors had done. And in that moment, where he was supposed to stand loud and proud for his ancestors and our people, he said that they were immigrants. And so I just want to commend you as well for not going off on them but also having that righteous anger to say you know, I think this is worthy of me, to just go up in his mouth, you know, saying based on what he said, because when I asked him that this was right, after the bill had been signed, he came to a Christmas party. That member Lucas, who is the champion of the American Freedmen Bill in the Assembly that the US Freedmen Project works with directly and we've worked with her closely throughout the entire process, ms Lucas right, she was for a day.
Speaker 2:Ms Lucas, entire process, ms Lucas, right, ms Lucas? I remember Ms Lucas. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, nikki Lucas, assemblywoman Nikki Lucas, from East New York. She was throwing a Christmas party in East New York that same December that the governor eventually signed the bill and I confronted James Sanders, senator Sanders. He came to that Christmas party. He went to shake my hand and I respectfully declined. I said, no, it's all good, you won, we lost, it is what it is. I'll be a man about it, but I don't got to shake your hand. So he was like don't look at it like that, that we won and you lost, we all won. I was like, no, we all lost.
Speaker 1:I was like because we already know that that bill, that bill is a race-based bill that is unconstitutional and it is shoehorning people into our justice claim that don't deserve to be here. Now, that might be your personal belief as far as Pan-Africanism goes, but this bill is a loser for all of us. But, more importantly, I got to ask you a question and while I got you, let me ask you directly. I was like what possessed you in that signing ceremony to say that our ancestors, your ancestors, you, in that signing ceremony, to say that our ancestors, your ancestors, were immigrants when they were citizens, migrating from one part of the country to the next, based on domestic terrorism that was being sanctioned by the United States government. And he looked at me, he smiled, he said I got an answer. And then he just looked at me, smiled and walked away. He never answered.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad that, even though his answer was disingenuous and probably a flat out lie, that he gave you an answer. He was man enough to sit down with you and gave you an answer, because when I asked him that and like I said which maybe like a week after that signing ceremony he looked at me and knew that he had no answer, that he was not going to try to defend the indefensible. And I just looked at him and I was like, yeah, that's just typical of who you are to say some shit like that Excuse my language, I don't know if we've heard here Okay, yeah, and then to then, you know then, to fight for that bill no one is unconstitutional and then get up there and disrespect your ancestors and our people by saying that they're immigrants. That was just too. You know, beyond the pale. Like I say, he had no answer for me.
Speaker 1:So I'm glad he answered you, but, more importantly, what I'm most proud of um is that, based on the conversation he was having with you, without him knowing that me and you are connected in any way. When he saw, saw me come into place, he was like no, they're going to be your people. So I am just excited that he can recognize our people, whether he knows that we are together or not, just based on our conversation alone and for the simple fact that we advocate for our people, for our lineage, for our ancestors, unapologetically and I'm glad that is a hallmark of us as a people and us as a movement, because that was so powerful when you told me that, that just made me smile and know that we are doing the right thing. For him to make that correlation, without knowing that you and I had ever corresponded together, but to know that, oh no, y'all together based on what you've been talking to me about today, I don't know that just put a smile on my face.
Speaker 2:Right, I don't know if it was my posture, but he, because we was inside the room when I approached him, we was inside. He said brother, can we go out in the hallway? I don't know if he said something, because on everything, on everything, I was going. I was going to crack that dude. Right, I was going to crack him right there, on on, because I promised myself it's on, because I'm not one of these.
Speaker 2:I'm not one of these dudes that get on these, these platforms and do the studio gangster stuff. I don't. I'm not no roland martin and I don't. I don't call people out their names, I don't talk about nothing, I don't make threats and stuff over these airwaves when I put it in my mind I'm going to see this cat, that's what it's going to be, and I'm not no tough guy. None of that stuff. I'm not none of that, none of that. But the reason why I took that so personally? Because my grandfather, on my father's side, was a sharecropper and I know the story. I know the story of how my father said he came to New York.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You understand, I was fortunate enough when we were going summer vacation down south when school let out, I stayed with my aunt who was living in the house that my mother was born in, a house that had no bathroom, you understand. So I know what the story of my grandparents and great-grandparents were. Those people were sharecroppers. So when you equate them to people that come here willingly under a different constitution from their homeland, we never left here, we never. And even the ones that were brought here there was, we were here. When they talk about the natives, they talking about us. Now you got the red native americans or whatever like that. But this is how a lot of us got mixed got. A lot of the indian people got mixed up in the, uh, freedman thing and some of the freedmen got mixed up in some of those dodge rolls and and things like that.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Because we were already here. So when you start making them kind of equations like that, that's a direct violation. And I took that real personal. My grandfather was a sharecropper, my father's father was a sharecropper and they lived on. How the sharecropping game went is that my father got 10 brothers and four sisters. He had 10 brothers and four sisters. There's only one the baby girls are left, that's my aunt May. Salute, aunt May.
Speaker 2:Anyway, they had to work the land. They were allowed to live. They had a little shack or something on this farmland or whatever. They allowed the families to stay there and, um, they had to work the crops and work the farms in order for, when harvest came, they for the, for the, for the crop owner to take his produce and stuff to market. This is how they do to the big market every year and share crop. They were supposed to split the proceeds from from the crops. They would tell my grandfather every year that they broke. Even they didn't make a profit.
Speaker 2:Now, these people really weren't educated. They didn't know how to count, they didn't know the. You know the math like that. They didn't. They didn't know. So they got beat every year. But they had a place. They could. They had a place they could. They had a little shack they could live in and, um, they had a little food and this was. This was the things really they were working for. It was. It was another form of slavery, it was just a gentler hand of slavery when you look in the sharecropping and that's where my grandparents came from.
Speaker 2:So that that statement he made it affected me directly, because how dare you, how dare you? We never left this land, we never left this constitution. We were still under it. You don't equate those people with us. Those people come here willingly. When they come here, that is their reparations, that's reparations for them. Now I want you to bring me up to speed real quick, because the bill that you're talking about in question so in other words, this bill that they passed, that they did the ceremony for is this bill including all black people and engulfs all black people? Or this is a thing where it's, you know, a study for all. You know, even if you migrated here, because we know, we know that unless you do a lineage based thing, that the rest of it is just you just wasting time. So bring me up to speed on that, cause I never got a chance to sit and talk with you about that.
Speaker 1:Great segue, great segue, so yeah, so, um, just to bring it back a little bit before we bring it full circle. So again, just bringing up her name, because I think she is worthy to be named Assemblywoman Nikki Lucas. When this bill that we are currently dealing with right now was making its way through the legislature, she stepped up to the plate, looked at what we put together. You know. We sat down, revised it, refined it and we introduced, which is still there. You can look it up. It's bill number A07828B. Again, that is bill number.
Speaker 2:Let me write it down here Bill number 78828B, the letter A. Let me write it down Bill yeah Number seven, the letter.
Speaker 1:A no the letter A.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh Zero, seven, uh-huh Eight to eight and the letter B. Okay, so again for the listeners that's going to hear it on the playback, that is bill number A07828B. A07828b that is the actual American freedman bill. We got a bill entered into the New York State legislature that was calling for reparations, remedies specifically for our families, a status-based bill that would have established a bureau. It called for us to be a line item in New York State budget and it called for a New York State Freedmen's Bureau, office of Freedmen Affairs, for us and at the same time, to start a task force that looked into remedies for our families that were enslaved and eman that bill around the assembly.
Speaker 1:For the record, carl Hastie, who is the Speaker of the House, and Andrea Stewart Cousins, who is the President of the New York State Senate, they got together behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:We found this out later.
Speaker 1:At the time we didn't know what was holding up the bill, but what was happening was they had gotten together and they were trying to hold our bill because they always knew they wanted to pass some version of the bill that we're dealing with right now.
Speaker 1:So they were having meetings in the background holding our American Freeman bill so that it could not be called up for a vote so that it could not be given the proper attention that it deserves, because they wanted to go with this of African descent reparations bill that we're dealing with right now, and so I want the family to know that, because we had a chance to have a bill that was constitutionally sound, that was based on our lineage, based on the status given to our lineage, but, more importantly, something where we wouldn't have to worry about any challenges coming from Ed Bloom or any other quote-unquote conservative activists that would challenge it based on race, because it wasn't based on race and it was going to put us into the budget and give us a office of Freeman Affairs at the state level, something that we've never had in New York State.
Speaker 1:As well as being one of the oldest ethnic groups and demographics of New York State, we've never had our own office in New York State that deals with us specifically. And so what we do have now is the bill that we're currently dealing with, which calls for reparations, remedies for people of African descent.
Speaker 2:So it's a waste of time because that ain't going to pass. It's a waste of time.
Speaker 1:It's 100 percent a waste of time. It's a hundred percent of waste of time. And what's what's so nefarious about it is, like I said, that they held our bill up to make sure we couldn't get a vote, that we couldn't get the support that it needed so that we could actually have a real reparations bill to vote on. But we, our organization, the US Freeman project, um, went and made New York proud. Obviously, in my humble opinion, we went to a workshop that they at a weekend that they hold every year, every year in February. It's called the Black excuse me, the Black Puerto Rican Hispanic and Asian Caucus, essentially the POC Caucus, and we were the only organization, since these bills hit the New York state legislature, to educate and go to that weekend and teach on reparations. We're the only organization to do it since they started introducing these, these bills, back in, you know, in 2020. And so we then, at that, that same workshop that we taught in, taught on in 2023, we told them what needed to be done to get it right, gave them examples. We even brought in voices from California, who was going through their task force at the time, to ensure that we got it right, and everybody in the New York State legislature got that information and still decided to support this bill that they know is unconstitutionally sound. So when people say, oh, it's the Republicans or the Democrats, they just didn't know. No, they know. And so when this thing comes out, gets challenged and fails, no one can sit there and say, oh, if we just knew how to get it right, we could have got it done right. No, you knew how to get it right, you decided to go this way. And so, in my estimation, if you have the right information, and so in my estimation, if you have the right information, you still choose the wrong information. That shows me that you don't want it to pass.
Speaker 1:Because this bill, like I said, calls for of African descent, and of African descent means two things, can only mean two things. Let me say it that way. One, it means everybody black that has any African ancestry that goes back to the African continent. That's a race base that's going to fail. The only other thing that African descent can mean is that it's everybody that has African descent, and that is damn near the majority of the globe, including white people like Elon Musk, shalise, theron, all the white Afrikaners, also those that are not black black but they're not white either, like there is a member of the assembly, um, he got up when the bill was being argued and said hey, my parents immigrated to uganda, had me there, I'm of african descent too, and you know what?
Speaker 1:He's 100 correct. In fact, he said oh, you know what, I'm of af descent too, and you know what? He's 100% correct. In fact, he said oh, you know what I'm of African descent, but I know this bill wouldn't give me reparations because they can clearly say I'm not black. And who better to decide who's black and who's not than the US government? Because they've been doing it this entire time. And so he was saying that to support the bill, not knowing he was pointing out the fatal flaws in the bill itself.
Speaker 1:And so that's the reason why, at every meeting before the bill was signed, we were urging the governor to veto this bill and clean up the language, and why we, as an organization, have been at every task force meeting letting them know hey, this is the definition of African American, this is the definition of American freemen, this is the definition of African descent. You have a language problem in this bill because it's going to be challenged if you uphold to what this bill says to study, because you're studying it based on people being black. And now, not only is that unconstitutional, it's also immoral, because afro immigrants, though they face discrimination, did not go through the same thing as the american freemen on us or you, and therefore should not be involved in a remedial justice claim or reparations claim. Racial justice claim yes, you can do that work if that's what you decide to do, but racial justice and reparations are not the same thing and it should never be conflated as such.
Speaker 2:Now, my thought on that is that Ed Bloom, dude, he'll eat that up. He'll eat that up like like a piece of chewing gum, and he's already.
Speaker 1:He's already. Matter of fact. I think you left before I had a chance to testify at the same meeting we just went to in Queens. I did, but I brought that up because, yeah, that's and that's fine, because the same day day of that same day that we was there in Queens, the New York Sun, I believe it's called it's a conservative newspaper they ran an article where Ed Bloom was quoted as saying whatever comes out of New York, we're going to challenge it, based on race, because the legislation is calling for racial remedies. So he's already said whatever they come out with, we're challenging it and if they do anything for people of African descent, he's going to challenge it and he's going to win.
Speaker 2:Of course he is. Of course he is. See. Now, my thing thing is this. Now the bottom line to this thing they formed this committee to do this. They put up there was five what five million dollars allocated for this thing. So basically, it's just a pie split for these people. That's on this committee, correct?
Speaker 1:Basically, that's what it looks like. Yeah, basically, and to that point too, let me just add this because, in addition to us letting the legislators know exactly how to get it right, everything we've been saying and that we warned about is coming to pass. At the same time, we were letting them know how to get reparations right. We were telling them that, hey, you're going to need more money than you. Then they were asking for no money. In fact, in the original bill, asked for no money, they got five million, which is still a drop in the bucket. But we were telling them that you need to ask for enough money for this thing to actually have legs, for you, to hire people, for you to advertise it, for you promote it. And so we told them that there was that you need to have you, that you needed to ask for some money, which they did not do. And then we also told them that one year was a joke, obviously because we saw what happened in California. They needed two years and they weren't even an official slave state, like New York was, and didn't have the stock market like New York does, didn't have Wall Street like New York does. So we told them that you need money. We told them that you need to have more than one year, and we told them it can't be of African descent.
Speaker 1:And now what you have? You have Edward Bloom getting rid of the challenge of African descent. You have them asking for more money, and again we're going to ask the governor to extend the time, because a year ain't enough. So had they just listened to us in the beginning, we would not be where we're at right now. But because they did not, everything that we said was going to come to pass as far as the pitfalls are concerned, are coming to pass, and now you have an extra fight that you didn't have to have. If you did it the right way and got it all up front, it could be smooth sailing from here until this report, and then we could actually get some remedies and some reparations done. But because you wanted to do it your way, and and and and um push ideologies instead of actuality. Now we're dealing with all these pitfalls that could have been avoided okay, my question to you, divine.
Speaker 2:My question to you is this there's two things I want to know, being we're dealing with this particular bill that we know is garbage, it's going to get shot down, it's going to get annihilated, right when the Freedmen's Project. Which road is the Freedmen's Project going to take in dealing with this? Do Nikki Lucas come up again, maybe in another session, to bring a bill back?
Speaker 2:and make it lineage, or where do we go with this or we are, and the second part of that question is this being that they've done this, so they essentially played the same type of games that they played in California, basically, they did the same thing here, basically that they played in California, basically, they did the same thing here, basically. So now getting ready, preparing for 2026, do we start getting our people ready for the 2020, to get some of these people out of here? Which way are we going with these two questions?
Speaker 1:Great questions, great questions. So let me address something that you said. So, technically, there's still space. Are they trying to run the same play that california ran? Not exactly, but to have the same outcome? Yes, but there's still space.
Speaker 1:And this is what the us room project and we've been, you know, imploring the, the grassroots to do is to let them know. We see, you see, like this is what these and you know you gave a powerful testimony letting them know, like it ain't, we ain't got no time for the games. We see you, we see what they did in california. You, you see what happened with this election. It's not going to be without consequences. That is our role, at least from the us human projects perspective to let them know hey, we see you, we, we see all all the BS that's going on. Just know that, we know that you guys are trying to do this or do this wrong on purpose. But you still have a shot, you still have a space because, as a, even though the bill calls for unconstitutional remedies to be suggested, the task force itself could decide that, hey, just like California did, to say hey, you know what the community of eligibility on this thing needs to only be American freedmen needs to only be foundational black Americans. They can decide that regardless of what the legislation says. So when you know Lurie, do you have any favors? Comes up and says, well, we're bound by the legislation. No, the legislation says that the task force can decide anything they want in regards to this report. So even though the legislation says, oh, you need to be looking at things, for you know African-Americans and people of African descent, you can narrow that to whatever you decide to do as a task force.
Speaker 1:So that's essentially what we've been pushing them to do letting them know, hey, this is what has to happen. In fact, we're looking to have a call to action come up, because we know they're going to ask for more time and get rid of ask for more money. So we're organizing a call to action very shortly where we're going to be saying hey, listen, we need to hit up our local politicians and say, hey, before you give the okay or go to the governor for more money and more time, here are changes that need to happen to this bill, because if you don't make these changes, more money and more time is going to be a waste of money and a waste of time. So that's coming soon as well. So look for that. But that is what we've been pushing for them to know. Hey, we know, based on the letter of the law of the bill, you can. You can craft this thing in such a way. So that is only um, the American Freeman, and that way it could be status-based and we won't have to worry about anybody challenging and winning Um and so.
Speaker 1:But if that does not happen, to your next question, absolutely, come 2026, people need to be voted out of there, like we need to make a hit list, so to speak, a political hit list. Let me just be so politically correct. So we need to have a political hit list where we're seeing the people that are involved in this and anybody that's involved in getting this wrong and and doing this wrong. As a community, we have to enact consequences, because without consequences, they're just going to stay in office, but two, they're just going to keep doing it because they didn't face anything for it. So we got to get in the habit of when people don't do what we say to do, or don't do what we sent them to do and don't do what we elected them to do, then we can unelect them and we can send them someplace else, and so that is where our future plans coming into 2026 and 2028 are looking forward in regards to this legislation and any legislation.
Speaker 1:And so the last thing you mentioned that I want to make sure I address before we move on to the next question is that, at this point in time, what we're focused on and what we're looking to do is we're looking to focus on two things that are essential, whether they get this bill right or don't get this bill right.
Speaker 1:That is, disaggregating of the data, making sure that we have our own category as an ethnic designation, or at least data being collected for us in the state of New York, and also a state-level Freedmen's Bureau where we actually have a committed office where we get to go and we can have specific services and resources and other sides for our people.
Speaker 1:Regardless of whatever they come up with with this bill. Those, those things can be enacted and proposed now, and that is what we're looking to focus on, as this new 2025 session is slated to start this month. So that is what we're looking to do, regardless, over, above and beyond of this task force getting a disaggregation bill the same way they signed it for the AAPI community and the same way they gave the MENA, middle Eastern, north African their own designation for forms, we're looking to have the same thing for our demographic and we're looking to rally support around that and get that legislation sponsored and connecting with our local politicians to support it and bring it up for a vote in this session, as well as a state-level Freedmen's Bureau. And that way, regardless of whatever happens with this bill whether they keep it race-based or not we'll have some of the foundations in place for us to get the remedial justice and specific policies that our families deserve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that's what I'm looking at, because, you know, right off the rip I'm going to say Governor Hochul doesn't want this. Those people, most of those people up there on that panel, on that committee, don't want this. They know this thing is going to fail how they got it and that's their way of blocking us from getting what we need to get. So, with that said, yeah, this is why I'm looking at 2026, and we need to start campaigning, getting our people together to get some of these people out of here. Start campaigning, getting our people together to get some of these people out of here. And, like you said, the good thing that will come out of this is that we will have headquarters of sort to have think tanks and stuff like that and consider our next moves and different things like that, and I'm so glad for that.
Speaker 2:And I have something. I'm going to chop it up with you about it, not over the airwaves, because I don't like doing that, because it jinx to me, it jinxes things. But I have some ideas in my mind that you know, just for us to have place, you know substantial places where we can be at and and and strategize and stuff like that. But I'll talk to you offline about that and um no doubt no right, um did, we did, we um did.
Speaker 2:Is there anything you want to go back into with the, with the general election? You want you, because we kind of segued out of that real quick. But is there anything you wanted to address regarding the general election?
Speaker 1:Not the general election, but I do want to go back to something you said, and kind of it ties all together, when you brought up the CBC, and I want to bring up Yvette Clark, because Yvette Clark some years ago I think it was in 2011, if.
Speaker 1:I'm not mistaken I can get the exact year it was, but either way, she introduced some legislation as a congresswoman. Now it didn't go anywhere, but just to let us know what type of time she's on and has always been on she introduced a bill that was going to disaggregate the data for the Afro-Caribbean community, because she's Jamaican and I have no issue with that. I am saying that as we continue to move forward as the American Freedmen Community, as the Foundation of Black American Community, we have to understand that, regardless of whatever accusations or slander they throw our way, it is okay for us to be politically self-interested, because all of these other people you as the Black American community always has an immigration, always negatively impacts the native born community, and that's us. Again, remember, there's only two groups that are not immigrants in the United States of America. That's the Native Americans and the American Freedmen, the Foundation of Black Americans, and so we have to understand that we can't allow them to sway us and get us off of our square.
Speaker 1:We have to stay steadfast on advocating for our community and speaking truth to power, whether that's to a white supremacist, whether that's to an immigrant or whether that's to somebody that's somewhere in between.
Speaker 1:We have to stand on our square because, again, like I said, she is the new chair, so she's going to try to use all of our capital that we needed and that we used to create a congressional black caucus that was supposed to be just for us. They're going to use that to benefit their people and we are going to have to stand strong and advocate for our people, no matter what they say, no matter what they do, no matter how much they try to guilt us or shame us or anything of that nature. We have a right to advocate for our people above and beyond anybody else, and that is what has really powered this movement to the height that it has and is going to go beyond. And, with that being said, I know we want to touch on it. I'll bring it up, unless there was something else that you wanted to go into, and you can ask whatever question you want, but I want to make sure we touched on the Fat Joe hip hop debacle as well.
Speaker 2:OK, yeah, I just wanted to let you know. Midway through your diatribe just now, I messed around and unplugged the thing there, so the people weren't able to hear you, but I've got it plugged back in. So they caught the larger part of the last part of what you're saying. That's my fault, that's my fault and I wanted to let you know that before we go up here. But they caught most of it. They caught most of it.
Speaker 2:Got you it got you. Yeah, well, all right, it's all good it. You know, shit just happens, man. I'm, I was, you know, the wires were under the under my table here and I just unplugged by by accident. But they, they heard most of it.
Speaker 2:They heard most, but it was a little segment that they weren't able to hear because I had my foot touched the wire and unplugged it. But yeah, so yeah, that Clark woman. Yeah, I was listening to Philip Scott and what he was saying about her. Yeah, see, that's a part of getting all these people out to paint and that's a good segue into the fat joke thing. Everybody has delineated from us from day one. From day one, as soon as people's countries were able, were being let into the United States in larger numbers. This is when they started their delineation and planting their flags.
Speaker 2:Now that we're doing it, now that we're doing it consciously, doing it, purposely, intentionally doing it, it's a problem. Now, we're divisive, we are haters, hate mongers, we're this, we're that, and all we're doing is taking pride and trying to fight for our liberations and our compensations and stuff like that. And it's a problem. Compensations and stuff like that, and it's a problem. Now, I didn't get, I didn't the Fat Joe dude. He's been using the N-word for the last two, three decades. He's been doing that. You understand, he knows exactly what he's doing.
Speaker 2:Now, my thing to that is we don't own the word. We don't own the word and that word does not defy us. It didn't come from us. A lot of us use it. Sometimes I'll slip and I'll use it. I'm crazy man, I ain't going around there. You know that's been in our culture.
Speaker 2:Now, devon, if me and you are brothers, we got the same mother, same father. Whatever the case might be, we live in the same household. We brothers Me and you could fight all day long, every day, but my homeboy can't come in my and and visit my house and fight. My brother and I stand there. So that's what I equate that to. Now this dude has been running his mouth and bumping his gun. See what they're mad at. They're mad at that. That when they back to that dnc thing, see, I think that that that this fat joe dude, he's tied in with them dncs. And when he came out back here last year ago or some time ago with that comment he made about, uh, hip-hop was created 50, 50 blacks in puerto rico, and then he ran out the room didn't give no history, no explanation on it, or nothing ran out the room and he's been catching pushback from that.
Speaker 2:Then you had Dr Colon and, and this one and that one coming up, or Joe Conzel, and all these people, crazy legs, and all of them coming up saying things to that direction. When we got you, we got crazy legs on film and audio saying that the break dancing came from the Coca-Cola's, what they call us Go to Coca-Cola's, from the, the, the Moreno, the Moreno dance. Right now, when Tariq puts out the, the microphone check documentary, that nullified any kind of argument they had. Because what you had in that documentary and I spoke to one of the brothers that was in the film, I'm very close with him DJ FaZe, and I spoke with him on Saturday, saturday I spoke with him and he's very close to Lord Jamal and he was in a film and they are upset because what you have is all of the pioneers from the very beginning were in that documentary first rapper, the first MC, coca-cola Rock, the first break dancers, trixie and Sasa. You got the first person to rhyme over music, dj Hollywood. All of these people are the first. This the first that Now Kool Herc didn't get in. They wasn't able to get Kool Herc for the documentary because he doesn't do interviews. Grandmaster Flash was supposed to be in it but there was a scheduling conflict. According to Tariq, there was some kind of schedule, but he was willing to come on. And they've been ever since the documentary touched down. They have been sore, had a sore behind ever since then because it kills every argument.
Speaker 2:You have Busta Rhymes oh, black people don't got no culture. First of all, you claim to be God body. Where did you get that from? If we ain't got no culture, where did you get that from? And you talk about the father who is the father Foundation of Blackba, right. So now what I've been doing, you know.
Speaker 2:Instead of you know, people are, uh, writing comments and different on different platforms and barking at fagot and this and that, listen, man, get him out the paint, and how you get him out the paint and tap them pockets. At the same time, there's a dude called. He has a YouTube channel called the Check-In Report. He has all of the emails and the corporate numbers and I've been on the phone with White Castle this week. I've been on the phone with White Castle, I've been on the, I've emailed CVS and this week coming up, it's going to be Rock Nation and I'm going to be hitting stars in Paramount. Those are the people who sponsor, those are the companies that sponsor Fat Joe.
Speaker 2:So don't argue with him. Just get him out of the paint and then you're throwing threats. You're throwing threats of violence. You know there was supposed to be some kind of video where he was in Harlem talking about yo. I'm outside, we got the guns and da, da, da, da da. Listen, don't fall into none of that. Let these sponsors his sponsors know that he's being antagonistic and he's threatening violence. First of all, you're a federal convict. You've been convicted federally and you're riding around with guns looking for people for trouble. Really Okay, We'll let your sponsors know that.
Speaker 1:That's deep. I didn't even know about the threats and shit like that. That's wild, and man, that's just wild. Like you said, don't even get mixed up in there, because that's some Asian shit. I know I'm going to be protected by the stuff I bring out, but if I get you to bring your stuff out too, I'm going to get the pass and you're going down. Like you said, it don't even make no sense to even take it. It ain't even worth it. Like you said, it don't even make no sense to even take a day. It ain't even worth it, like you said, because that's not even going to get them out the paint, as effective as it would be when you start tapping them. Plaques.
Speaker 2:This is what I'm saying. Now for the New Year's thing. He did a segment I didn't watch it for the New Year's Rockin' Eve on ABC7, right, they do that big thing every year the ball drop thing. I didn't watch it, but I did email ABC about what's been going on and his anti-black harassment. I did email them and I let them know. Anybody who's listening to us, who's tapped into us, do the same. Go to that brother. There's a brother. He has a YouTube channel called the Check-In Report and he posts all of the emails. You need to go to all of the headquarters sites. I've been on the phone with White Castle this week. I'm going to email the headquarters and I'm going to be. I did CVS the other day and I'm going to be hitting up Paramount, roc Nation and Starz, the cable network, starz I'm going to be on them because he's in business with these companies.
Speaker 2:So that's where I'm at with that. We ain't got to go into no big thing with you, buddy. We ain't got to go into that with you, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, it don't mean, no, it don't even. You don't got to sink down to that level and you know, take it to the point where somebody gets hurt, whatever the case is, like I said, especially since he's more on the protective side. I though he was doing anything for the um with the uh, uh, rock and Eve stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he did a performance. From what I understand, he did a performance. What we, what we were trying to do was we were trying to uh get the emails out so that ABC would maybe cut his part out, or, do you know, do another, do another, something else and get him out of there. It didn't work and I heard he did his performance or whatever. But that don't stop nothing, cause we still on your bumper, buddy, we still on your bumper. So that didn't, that didn't. That didn't stop anything. We still on the grind with it. That's right, and we're going to stay on.
Speaker 2:Listen, man, listen. If we was able to shake the table to crash a whole party, imagine what we could do with this little dude. You get him out the paint quick. See people talking about oh, he should apologize. No, we don't. We passed an apology.
Speaker 2:This dude has been using the N-word for decades now and he's been told about it. And he put out a record saying that who going to stop me? And he's been told about it. And he put out a record saying that who gonna stop me? And he kept going on Nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga. He said it a hundred times in his song, so he knows exactly what he's doing. Even his own people some of them are Cuban links in them. They've been on his back about it. You understand what I'm saying. So, no, we don't want no apology because at this point the apology wouldn't be genuine anyway. So, no, keep the apology. We want you out to paint and we're going to touch them pockets. And let you know, because you heard I don't know if you heard the clip with Math Hoffa where he said on that channel oh, these broke niggas. Yeah, I did hear that.
Speaker 2:And then he went at Lord Jamal because you know, back in the summer, lord Jamal put up a challenge. He said all of y'all, let's come sit to the table and talk about this. Crazy Legs, fat Joe, busta, rhymes, krs-one. He said y'all, come, come, bring what you got and I'll bring my people and we talk about who created this. None of them accepted the challenge. He, he put that challenge out there. It was a week for a week. None of them answered. None of them, not one of them yeah, I saw that.
Speaker 1:I thought that he and then he even reiterated it, saying like hey, you know, don't get mad like when, when, when, uh, he first made the comments on matt hop, matt hopper. He's like wait, hold on. Now you got all this to say you, we could have had a whole conversation about it. And here you are, you know, running off at the mouth in the safe space, when we could have had the conversation live and direct. If y'all got all these, you know, if you know you're staying on truth and staying on business, we could have been having this conversation publicly.
Speaker 2:They don't want the conversation. None of them want the conversation Buster, none of them. Because the thing, here's the thing right Now, I'm older than them guys. I'm older than them guys. When this thing started, divine, I was a child, small child, seven, eight, nine years old. I was that small when this thing first popped off, before it even had a name, you understand. So now, if I'm that small, where were y'all at? So how do you, where are you getting your information from? You wasn't even around, and that includes KRS-One.
Speaker 2:Now, what they do is they try to relegate everything to the Bronx. Yes, the pioneers of the culture were raised up to the Bronx. Yes, the pioneers of the culture were raised up in the Bronx. This culture we call hip-hop was born out of youth, actually youth gang culture, pre-teenage youth gangs. A lot of them were pre-teenagers in the early 70s, right Now. Most of them were pre-teenagers in the early 70s, right now. Right, most of them were from the bronx. Right, the pioneers. But when you go into their family, they'll tell you all of them king mario, hollywood, coke, larocque. All of them tell you my family from north carolina, my family from south carolina, my family from north carolina, my family from georg, my family from North Carolina, my family from Georgia. All of them came from the South. Their families were based in the South and a lot of them were born in the South and moved up here. So when you start talking that oh, it's a Bronx thing, it's a no, bro, it's not a Bronx, it's a Bronx thing. Yeah, this is where it popped off at, where the parties and the culture popped off at. But the genesis of it mainly in the South, all over the country, really, wherever foundationals were at, was the genesis because of our culture. And then when you look in the 1920s and 30s and 40s and you see the Jubilees and people like that and the different groups and crooners and stuff like that, you see where the culture came from. And these people were all over the country, coming from everywhere.
Speaker 2:You know Pigmeat Markham Pigmeat Markham the first, technically, was the first rap record. Pigmeat Markham here Comes the Judge. I remember the song as a little, real, small boy. I might have been five, six years old, but I remember the song. Here come the judge, hear ye, hear ye. That was Pete Meade Markham. He lived in the Bronx but he was from the Carolinas. So this is what they saw about. This is what they mad about, because and it's like Lord Jamal said the reason why they have such a bug about it is because something that they love so much have such a bug about. It is because something that they love so much, the culture that they love so much and a lot of them have made a living, their careers, off of it, like Fat Joe, and they love the culture so much it comes from people that they actually look down on because of the color thing, because in Fat Joe's paperwork it's been put online he's white, he's classified as white.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So this culture that they love so much, this is why they try to hostile Bogart and 50-50 and get out of here man.
Speaker 2:I remember growing up. Yeah, there were some Puerto Ricans that were cool with us and when they start saying Latino, I like to put it to specifically the Puerto Ricans, because they were around us more than any other of those groups. They were around us more and some of them they lived in the prizes with us, lived next door to us and we played together, went to school together some of them, but they did not partake on a large scale. It was very minuscule that they took part in our extracurricular activities like the park jams and house parties and stuff like that. They had their own culture. They were listening to their own music.
Speaker 2:We were listening to music that our, that our mothers had our 45s and albums that our mothers and fathers had in their um record, um, those big consoles they used to have and stuff like that. You know the Aretha Franklin's and James Brown music and Rufus Thomas and stuff like that. That's what we were listening to. You go in their houses. They were listening to Spanish music, so that's what they got a bug bug. You go in their houses. They were listening to Spanish music, so that's what they got a bug about. But you can go ahead and add on to whatever you want, to that, but I'm because I'm glad we touched on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm glad we touched on that too. Like, nah, I think you know, at this point, I think you, you know all I need to be saying on that like, I think you know we can start rapping at this point. Um, you, you know, we, we touched on everything that we need to touch on and I think that was the last piece. That was, you know, that's kind of political but, uh, you know, but on the, on the fringes, uh, you know, a little social stuff. So I think that's a perfect place to, um, you know, get ready to wrap it up.
Speaker 2:All right, but I just want you to know, brother, we want you to come back here. We want you to come back and, like I said, this is your home here. Anytime you want to get up here and spit man and got something to get out to the people, we want you to come back and, and, and and talk, just like we did today. Just like we did today.
Speaker 1:Is you hearing that feedback, or is that me?
Speaker 2:No, that's my outro, that's my outro.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I want to make sure. Okay, got, you got you. That's my outro yeah, yeah, man, okay. So I just wanted to say, man, it's been an honor. Man, I feel honored, I'm so glad that you allowed me to come up here and definitely this will be. This is just the first, but definitely not the last.
Speaker 2:Alright, that's it. Family respect life, love justice, cherish freedom, treasure peace. And me and Devon are gonna tip out of here on some some Pink Panther stuff and we and we gonna see y, me and Devon are going to tip out of here on some Pink Panther stuff and we're going to see y'all next time. Peace, that's right. Peace.
