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
We're Done With Empty Symbolism; It's Time for Tangible Benefits
The peace, peace, and welcome back to freeman's affairs, freedman's Network. We're back here again today, april 15th 2025. The math for today we're dealing with is knowledge power. Knowledge power is the math for today, and that borns equality, right, equality, right. And this, the topics we're going to be talking about today, is congruent with equality, because this is the way politics is supposed to be set up, in equity and fairness. And, on the line with me, I got he's he's back, family he's back, and no further ado, I got my man, divine Prince, on the line.
Speaker 2:Come on on Divine and greet the folks. What's going on, family, what's going on? Feels good to be back. You told me that this would be some or was already my home to spend with you and the family. To just get back home, man.
Speaker 1:It really does. This is your house. It's going to be your house today, bro, and I'm going to let you spit. Whatever you want to talk about, we're going to get into and that's what it's going to be. So, family, you ready, Without further ado. Devon, where you want to start at.
Speaker 2:Man, I just want to make sure that, uh, we hold true to what you just said today's math is, and how you segway that into equality, um, and things that make.
Speaker 2:If I wanted to make sure, I kind of discussed on what's going on in the current, uh, political arena around diversity, that same equity and inclusion, and just let the FEM know that, even though initially those initiatives and those policies and programs were set up to benefit us, those foundations of Black Americans that you know, that was given the status of freedom, now what it has become is a perverted version of what it was supposed to be, where currently, to any DEI program, policy or initiative, the overwhelming majority of the benefits and positions go to white women.
Speaker 2:Where only 4% of the positions and benefits of any DEI program or contract of any of that nature has been laid at the feet of the Black community. And we understand, because of the lack of disaggregation in the data, that 4% is a combination of not just us but also the Afro-immigrants that have come over largely after 1980. And so if we parse that out to find out how much of that 4% actually goes to us, it will be even less than that. So it right in line with what you talked about. There is a need for us to create, in the ashes of what is being dismantled, programs and policies on the political arena that benefit us and are just for us. So instead of 4%, we will be getting a hundred percent of those things that we advocate and fight for.
Speaker 1:Yes, man, I'm in 100% agreeance with you on that. Now, speaking to the DEI thing, speaking to that, it was kicked off the way it was kicked off. It was kicked off by the black clergy with the boycott thing, a nationwide boycott of DEI for companies, walmart, target, et cetera, et cetera, and it fell flat. And then the way it was done, the way it was done and presented to the people, it wasn't good. The optics of it here in New York City, al Sharpton with the Costco thing, the optics of it was terrible. It was a, it was a performative type of thing for the cameras. He gave them $25 gift cards to go into Costco's to shop, because Costco is one of the conglomerates that didn't bother with the DEI thing. They left their program the way it is, on the surface. Who knows how they're doing it on the inside? But they left it alone on the surface and this is supposed to be a buy, what they call it, a buy-in for costco, right, right, and it was a. It was a terrible optic gave them 25 gift cards. You can't get nothing out of target for 20, 25, damn near nothing. Anyway. The people took the cards, cameras watched them go in the store and they went right back out, never shopped, and it looked bad. Then what?
Speaker 1:A week, about a week or two ago, jamal Bryant had to finally come out and say how ineffective that it was. He copped to it and it was a bad idea to start with, because you have, for one thing, you have a lot of creators and people, entrepreneurs, that are in business with Target and Walmart and different places. You have black entrepreneurs that are in in actual contracts with these companies and now some of them, because of this thing, a lot of the. I think it was target that started nullifying the contracts because of this as a backlash. Like I said said it before target makes on average daily from the black consumer $12 million, which is a drop in the bucket. Compared to their daily profit margins. It's a drop in the bucket. It's not even significant. So this is why they took the bold stand that they did to nullify the contracts with the entrepreneurs and it actually ended up hurting black business.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm wrong, but this is how I read it, okay, and I argued with some people Some people call me and text me back and forth and and we went back and forth. You know, sometimes people see things different. I saw it as it wasn't. It wasn't a good look, it wasn't a strategic maneuver at all. You did that as a performative thing for the cameras. Then you had the Jamal Bryant do it when he was giving his sermon I don't know if you watched it and he was doing all that performative and God, you know the crap they be doing. You know the hooping. The hooping, yeah, like a hog getting ready to go to slaughter or something. You know what I mean. So, because that stuff plays on the emotion of our people, our people are very emotional and they know these pastors and preachers and ministers know this and they play on that and this is how they get their money.
Speaker 2:But you go ahead, bro. Yeah, no, and I want to just say, because I mean this is a very multilayered and nuanced conversation conversation, as most of our conversations now have to be, because of just the multiple layers they have laid on top of what they've done. It's no longer cut and dry, black and white, right? No pun intended. And so to your direct point what you're talking about, I mean just if we're going to be frank and we home right now, and we home and we talking with the family, so you know, when we talk with the family we can speak plainly. And so you know I'm not going to sit here and disparage any good, legitimate work that Reverend Al might have done in the past. But even when we get outside of him actually being a certified, documented informant right, when you look at his body of work, we got to talk about it, right, but even outside of that we could get back on that we see that has happened to Reverend Al is what has happened to too many of our organizations and public figures over time, throughout time in our history in this country, and what he has become has just been controlled opposition, and so what he's paid to do is to dispel and disperse any energy from our community that will become radical and inspire, create and force the transformative change that's needed to make a real impact in a way in which his symbolic gestures are claimed to do or claim to be about right. And so I mean, one day we got to do a show just on Reverend Al right, like if we can really go in and break down what he represents, but, more importantly, what he has done and what has been done through him by the system of white supremacy to just continue to hold and halt any type of progress that our community has achieved. And and before I let you back in, I also want to just talk about what jamal bryant represents. Right, he see, there's a reason. Both of them together represent and are the reasons why and this is no shot at our sisters, because we love our FBA sisters but you know, what makes us different is what makes us great, and the yin and yang right and his doctrine are designed to appeal to our women and to women in general, because it's really based on a lot of feel good, empty symbolism. And our sisters are very empathetic and lead with their emotions, which again makes them great when we're paired up together, but separately and in the way in which these, both, both these systems separate us. That's the reason why, inversely, a lot of our foundation of black American men have just kind of checked out a bulk of those institutions, because when we think about it logically and see how much of this is empty symbolism with no tangible substance, we like, all right, man, you go ahead. We know we not going. Are we allowed to curse up here, do you, bro? Do you All right? All right, so we not going to shit on you. I mean, that's just man cold, you know what I'm saying. We not going to shit on you per se, but when we see you on the bullshit, we're going to be like, all right, get ahead with that.
Speaker 2:And that's why, you see, in both of their congregations, if you will, the overwhelming majority are women and older people. I won't even call them elders because some of them is just not elders in the way in which we respect elders, based on wisdom and still pushing for the community. So that's why you see the demographic and makeup of their congregations look like it does. And now that they're wholly threatened by what we're doing in a grassroots movement because, again, we don't play into those gender roles, and now, more and more, there's a whole bunch of, there's a rising tide of our sisters that's like nah, we're not with the empty symbolism bullshit either. We need tangible results for ourselves, because we got some things going on for our families, our babies and for our men that we are standing beside. And this unit that's coming together based on tangibles is something that they are very, very afraid of and working feverishly with the power structure, mind you, to try to quell so that they can maintain some power, the status quo and some level of order.
Speaker 1:OK yeah. I want to. You know, I had my big brother, king, up here about a week or two ago. About two weeks ago I had King up here. I don't know if you heard the playback.
Speaker 2:No, I got to go listen to that episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was long. We stayed up here about an hour and a half hour and 40 minutes. We stayed up here that day. Anyway, he reminded me back in the 90s, um, right over here in Brooklyn at the slave theater.
Speaker 1:They had a program there and Al Sharpton was in touch with with uh, asada Shakur, you know Tupac's aunt slash godmother right and he was trying to get Assata Shakur to come to to the slave theater to do a lecture, right, but he had the feds on speed dial. This was, this was a trap to get her to come here. If she came here, they'd have got her on US soil. You know she's been gone over to Cuba, exactly, you understand, and that was the trap to get her to come here to arrest her on US, united States soil. Wow, they'd have had her when I had forgot about it. But King, big King, reminded me. Malik was up here two weeks ago and reminded me of that. And that's when we because back in the days I loved it revving out, fat, revving out with the tracksuits and stuff and the perm and everything. He was a freedom fighter, he was fighting for the folks. A lot of it was very opportunistic stuff he was doing, you know, because you know he was almost like, but he nonetheless, he would stand in the face of that. But then, but then when he got hooked in with don King and the mob guys, it was Michael Francesi and them, and Michael Francesi recently spoke to this and he said he told on his YouTube channel. Michael Francesi said he said I'm telling you, the black community.
Speaker 1:That guy, reverend Al Sharpton, is a rat and he's no good. He will sell y'all down the pipes. This is the worst Because, remember, they had to record of him on a video with the cowboy hat and he's. There was some kind of big drug deal supposedly had went on, or he was plugged into a drug plug or something like that. And Don King well, they went to Don King and was the mob guys, because you know, don King always been juiced in with them guys and they went to Don and was like Don, who is this guy? We don't know him.
Speaker 1:Don, I think Don King vouched for him and, you know, said some good things about him and they was trying to do business with him, but he turned out to be an informant, a rat. It's one of them guys and the only reason probably why they didn't kill him because the mob had a little respect for the black community back then. The mob had a little respect for the black community back then. They was, you know, because you got to remember, back in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad days, when the Nation of Islam, the FOI, they were really strong. They gave the mob headaches A lot of people don't know that, but they gave the mob headaches. I know of personal stories that I can tell you that people, the players that were involved, told me personally the Colombo family, all of them, five families. They knew the presence of no matter. For why, guys, you know, brother Glad.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's heavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, brother Glad man, I could tell you stories for days. I remember one time just getting on veering off a little bit, they I think it was the Colombo family back in those days they were hijacking trucks and during that time in the early 70s, late 60s, early 70s, the Honorable Ajah Muhammad had fleets of trucks bringing fish, meat and produce all over the country. One of those families hijacked a couple of those trucks, right, yusef Shah, and those trucks were coming to New York. Yusef Shah, who was Captain Joseph of the FOI of the East Coast region of the Nation of Islam FOI paramilitary, east Coast region of the Nation of Islam FOI paramilitary. He called the bosses for whichever family that hijacked the trucks and said look, y'all got 24 hours to get them trucks back. I think it was two or three trucks that they hijacked. He said y'all got 24 hours to get those trucks back with every bit of merchandise that was in them. They got those trucks back with every bit of merchandise that was in them. They got those trucks back.
Speaker 1:There was a mutual respect that the mob had with the Nation of Islam. You know the FOIs at that time, most of them dudes were gangsters that came into the nation at that time, most of them guys were street guys, so you know. But yeah, but back to it, revan Al. He was a he's a creep man, he's a real creep. When he did that move with defense, that attempted move with Asada Shakur, I lost all respect for him.
Speaker 2:Hmm, man, I could imagine. It's rumored too that you know, on a less you know nefarious note, but still underhanded deal, that is said that he got his show on MSNBC, you know, because at the time Tom Cass was being sued for racial discrimination, was being sued for racial discrimination and you know it's been said they used that to pay him off, to provide them with cover, to say, hey, they're not really racist, they didn't do what they did. And so, you know, in true rap fashion, he was like let me get what I can get and then I'll give you guys cover. You know he's been operating like that for a really, really long time.
Speaker 1:Really long and it just I don't see how people but you know people are easily manipulated, manipulated, same thing. Now, I don't know much about this jamal bright dude.
Speaker 1:You know this dude, he's been in all kind of sexual scams, scandals and with his marriage and all that stuff so how are y'all still going to see this dude man and giving him that kind of accolade the way you do? But, like you said, it's mostly women and these dudes, these dudes, they come from the hustle. They come from the hustle, so they know how to talk to these women. You understand, you know it's a form of pimping.
Speaker 2:I'm just being honest, it's a form of pimping. I'm just being honest, it's a form of pimping Prosperity pimping.
Speaker 1:Yeah, prosperity, pimping, yeah. So, but Revenant, we have a long history with him here in this city. Because, you got to remember, all these cats were tight with Trump, and I was arguing with this the other day with some folks, that's right, all of them were tight with Trump because and I was arguing with this the other day with some folks, that's right, all of them were tight with Trump because Trump, trump gave Jesse Jackson, I think, a million dollars to start his campaign for his presidential run.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Million dollars when Jennifer Hudson.
Speaker 2:That's a million dollars in the 80s.
Speaker 1:Yes, Back in the 80s, right Jennifer Hudson when her family was murdered? Do you know? He put the rest of the family up in Trump Towers for six months. Free of charge. Free of charge he went to court with Michael Jackson every day when Mike was on trial for the accusations charge. He went to court with Michael Jackson every day when Mike was on trial for the accusations with the children.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I didn't know. Damn, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:He went to court with him every day. He was tight with Oprah and all of them. He was their guy. He was Democrat. Then Now they'll bring up they will bring up the Central Park Five. Right, let's talk about that real quick. Let's talk about that real quick. Yes, let's.
Speaker 1:At the time, donald Trump was a. He was not a politician, but he was a registered Democrat. The prosecutor, the mayor all Democrats at the time, the media what they were saying at the time when the media, what they were saying at the time when that happened, we got them. This is what the press was putting out. We got them. The police commission all of them was Democrat. The whole gamut, from top to bottom, was Democrat.
Speaker 1:He took out an ad I think it was in the New York Times or the Post, I think it was the Times. He took the ad out that they should get the death penalty Based on the information. They coerced those boys into confessing. But see, they were silly kids in the park. Now I met one-to-turn politician Y. Now I met one to turn politician Yusuf. I met him.
Speaker 1:We was doing at the time, I was advocating against the death penalty at the time and he was doing the same thing and I met him at a meeting up in Harlem and I got to talk to him and he subsequently he's a politician now, but anyway they were silly kids running around doing in because central park back in those days that's where everybody went. That was playing hooky. From school I went to school, high school in manhattan, so everybody went to central park. Either you was going there to rob or you were going there to hang out and you know, smoke your weed or do whatever and kids would be wowing. Back then they called it wowing and that's what happened.
Speaker 1:But the cat that actually done the assault on the woman, he confessed to that years later, yep, and said those boys had nothing to do with it. But see, my thing is this why would you? I'm not copping to nothing. You're not going to make me confess to nothing I didn't do. I never confessed to anything that I did and I know I did it and I'm not confessing to it.
Speaker 2:Talk about that.
Speaker 1:And we're going to talk about that a little bit later before we depart. But back to these guys. Back to these guys with this thing, though it's just, their time is up, their time is up. This movement we got going. This movement is taking on and it's getting stronger. There's more momentum, growing day by day. That's why I brought you in on the Godzilla tip, because that's how it's growing.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:But you go ahead, bro, I'm talking too much, you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, now, I was just going to just to piggyback on what you were saying a couple things. Right, so going right back to well, piggyback on what you were saying a couple things, right, so going right back to well, let's start with what you just said and we can work back to old Reverend Al. Right, so, real quick. Just like you said, everybody involved with that Central Park Five were Democrats. That's what needs to be known and repeated. And they don't care about that. They never cared about that case. They really don't even give a damn about that case until and unless it's time to use it to try to score cheap political points against Trump and using that as a segue of ineffectiveness. Let's not forget that just during this last election cycle, the failed campaign by that Indian lady, kamala Harris they paid, they paid, they paid, they fooled Reverend Al yeah, $500,000. Let's not forget half a million dollars. They paid to Reverend Al and they paid that to Reverend Al to squeeze the last little bit of influence that up is because her campaign failed. She paid off Reverend Al and she paid off Roland Martin. And what we found out because of that is that, like you said, this movement is so much more powerful and I speak for myself than I thought it was at this moment in time For us to be able to cause that campaign to crash and burn based on her disrespect of our community, with her cosplaying a foundational Black American woman, then pretending to promise us men that she was going to create some policies for us, and come to find out there were universal programs for everybody else. We're done with the disrespect. But not only are we done with the disrespect, what we've seen going back to that Target quote-unquote boycott with them in Costco. It quote unquote boycott with them in Costco to his check it pass and his dwindling influence over our community. We're also done with the gatekeepers. And that's a beautiful day for us as a group and as an ethnic group and for this movement at large, because now it's us calling the shot. We get to say no, we're not with the anti-symbolism, just to tie that in a bow to bring it back around to the target.
Speaker 2:Like I said, quote unquote, boycott what they established during that time when they were talking about making some moves. This was on their website and I think this is important for the family to know. Okay, that year when they did it, it said hey, the CEO, brian Cornell, who was the CEO at the time, to share their team's steadfast commitment to stand with Black families, share their team's steadfast commitment to stand with Black families, to stand with Black families, to stand with Black families and fight against racism. Target kicked off the work with a $10 million pledge to advance social justice and support our communities. But that was just the start. Since then, target has established REACH, r-e-a-c-h our Racial Equity Action and Change Committee to create an action plan to guide our way.
Speaker 2:The six founding members are senior leaders from across Target with diverse perspectives and expertise across the business. Now I'm bringing that up because that remember they said we want to stand with Black families. Now they said that. But then when we talked about the money, it said to advance social justice that's everybody and support our communities. We don't know what communities because they didn't even specify Right, they threw the switch around Exactly because then, when we get to the racial equity again, racial equity that's everybody, because everybody has a race. So we hear these words, we think it's us because that's how we've been conditioned to believe. But once you say racial equity, that's equity for all races.
Speaker 2:And check this out, the six founding members of the senior teams they put together in the name of standing with Black families but giving $10 million to social justice. Out of the six members, there was only one Black American person. On this, on this, on this committee that's supposed to stand with our families against racism. One out of the six was a black American and she was a woman. Right, right, there's a white woman on there. Three quote unquote people of color Hispanics and a continental African.
Speaker 2:And this is what happens.
Speaker 2:Dealing with seeing that we know the Republicans ain't shit in certain, in certain light.
Speaker 2:Right, we know that. But this is the thing that the Democrats do on the liberal side of things. That makes it look like they're doing something for us but are practicing white supremacy with a smile. And we got to get much better at calling it out so that we are now more policy over party, and that means any party, because true liberation in the political sense for our people is demanding policy from any side I don't want to say both sides from any side, I won't even say both sides, but any side and making a decision based on that, so that the anti-symbolism that gets trotted out by the left and this fake, rugged individualism, you can put yourself up by the bootstrap that gets peddled out by the right. We can do away with all that shit and say, no, we are taxpaying citizens. We've been paying in for the longest, with the highest and longest outstanding unpaid justice claim debt and this government, regardless of whatever party, is going to pay that and we're going to make sure it gets paid in full.
Speaker 1:I'm with you. I'm with you 100% on that Divine, great point you just brought up. And while I got you on that right there, I want to ask you, and I'm quite sure the audience wants to there's people that want to know this too. Now, I listened to the other night. Uh, dana and judge joe brown was on and they did a, they did a live show and they were talking about. They had some calling people and they were talking about.
Speaker 1:Some of the folks were talking about the freedmen and the reparations thing, and both dana and judge joe brown well, you know he gets a little gravitas and he's talking we don't need that shit. Good, if you could do all this stuff for yourself. You don't need the government this, this and that and then this constant trope about we are perpetual victims. We fall into the because. Now, I don't. I haven't asked Dana this question about, and I want to ask her this Do you think, because we talk about reparations, we're pushing for it, we're advocating for it? Is that what you call us we being perpetual victims and we're looking for handouts?
Speaker 2:This is the talk man, that's a great.
Speaker 1:This is the talk and this is. I'm tired of that trope about oh, y'all waiting on it, we're not waiting on the government. It's just like when somebody owe you some dough in the streets or whatever the case might be, yeah, you're going to get some more money, but you still want the money they owe you. Just because I'm still getting money elsewhere doesn't mean I forgot about what you owe me. So I'm tired of the trope about us being beggars and we're waiting on government handouts. We're doing what we got to do. Part of now, dana I understood, because she did explain some of it. We can. There's a lot we can do for ourselves. There's a lot because we've done it before. Historically we've done it.
Speaker 1:Black Wall Street's all over the place, but a part of that is galvanizing the people under some kind of call. I think and this is a perfect place to start with the reparations you have different ideals of what reparations should be and how we should go about it, but nonetheless it is a conversation. We can all galvanize around Tangible benefits laws to protect us. We can all galvanize around tangible benefits Laws to protect us. Once we do get ourselves to a financial independent state, we're going to need laws to protect us because of what happened before, when we got to where we needed to be and people just came and just took things from us to where we needed to be, and people just came and just took things from us and they targeted us with different. What do they call those things? Those laws, those Black codes, the black codes, the when they destroyed the townships, these?
Speaker 2:Eminent domain.
Speaker 1:Eminent domain and all of this stuff, urban renewal and things like that. This is how they finessed us and got that stuff away from us and finessed us. So we need protections against that. But I'm tired of the trope that we're just sitting around begging for reparations, for a government check. That's not what we're doing From this microphone right here. Divine I, when we with the foolishness, when the people in the community are with the foolishness, I call it out. When they was back here about a year or two ago, they was doing all that shooting and carrying on around the country on 4th of July shootouts and at these events in Chicago, there I was saying I got right on them. I got right on them. If y'all don't cut this foolishness out, these people are going to declare martial law in some of these cities where we at and you're going to have the military locking down these urban cities where our people at, if y'all don't cut this foolishness out with these shootings and carrying on. That's what I said from this microphone. So it's not like, no, we're not sitting around waiting for a government handout. First of all, it's not a handout.
Speaker 1:Now, judge Joe Brown. I love him, I respect him and everything, and he has a very traditional mind when it comes to constitutional things, but he's in character most of the time so he gets very grovel in his tone. You don't need that shit, you know he's, but he means well. I believe he means well and, like with some of us, he's. But he means well, I believe he means well and, like with some of us, he's fed up with some of the behavior and I understand that. At the same time, at the same time, you are out of touch with what's going, you don't? I've heard some of his, some of his tropes and, in my opinion, judge, you're out of out of touch with with the youth. They not, these kids are not all. These kids are not suckers and punks. Gotta, you, gotta remember a lot of us older cats dropped the ball and left these kids out here. So you know. But can you speak to that? Can you speak to that, please, devon, speak to that.
Speaker 2:Man, I could. First of all let me shout. I want to give a shout out to my sister, dana with the data, and I will go as far as saying the big homie, judge Joe Brown. I actually was on a show with Dana with the data and on the judge, and I won't go as far as calling it a debate, but we went back and forth on what you exactly what you talking about on one of her live streams and you know, you know again, I'm, I'm who I am, regardless of the company and regardless of whatever respect level or cashier the person has. So what I'm about to say is nothing I didn't say to the company in regards to whatever respect level or cash that a person has. So what I'm about to say is nothing.
Speaker 2:I didn't say to the judge's quote-unquote face because it was online, but everything that you just said and pushed back on I said straight up to the judge and let him know that I disagree with you and this is why and this is how what you're saying is not factual from my perspective. And at the end of it he was like you know what, brother, I don't really believe in reparations like that, but I'm digging what you're saying and the way in which you're going about it. So that is out there on Dana with the Data's YouTube show. Y'all can look that up and see my conversation that I had with the judge. So this is not something that I'm making up on the fly or that I did not say to the judge directly when I had the chance to be in his company. And again, I have respect for Judge Joe Brown.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I'm going to look that up because I never saw that playback. I never saw it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, definitely look that up. That was a great conversation and he had again some of those same talking points and I want to say this because you know, we know we know too short that his favorite word we ain't going to go there, but I just want to say my favorite word. As you guys would come to understand as we get to know each other's family and I come home to the station more often than not my favorite word is nuance. You're going to hear that probably more than I say any other word outside of reparation, right, and so the nuance in this conversation is something that we have to become very, very well aware of, because once we understand the profile of the person we're speaking to, we'll understand the reasons why they're saying the things that they're saying. So when we talk about those of us and I'm talking about us you know, obviously we've got the white supremacists, we've got the Afrants and they have their own profile and they think differently than we do, for their different reasons. But right now I'm specifically talking about other foundational Black Americans, other American freedmen, and why certain things come out of their mouths in the way that it do and the way that it does. So first we'll talk about those of us that kind of lean more liberal or Democrat right that don't necessarily stand on the same business that we in grassroots stand on wholeheartedly. So you'll hear them talk about and sympathize with other groups that they claim are other marginalized minorities or quote-unquote people of color, because they have been socialized with that particular line of thinking to include everybody together. Because we are all in the same boat, we all have the same plight and if we work together we can overthrow the system. That's a very general kind of framing. But if you understand that portion of it, then you understand why people on that side will say oh no, we got to fight for the immigrants and we got to fight for DEI and we got to fight for this and fight for that because that's their ideology.
Speaker 2:Now to those of us and it's my firsthand experience that this is the category that Dana falls into I love that sister and Judge Joe Brown. Really Much respect to Judge Joe Brown. No, no, no, no, no, I'm getting ready to say their profile. Okay, that was the sole. The other profile was for the more liberal Democrat leaning Right. Okay, got you, got you. My fault, my fault it. More liberal Democrat leaning. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. My fault, sister Dana. Now you good, you good, because I'm kind of idiot.
Speaker 2:I wasn't really clear because I didn't get a chance to finish that statement, but Sister Dana and Brother Judge Joe Brown fall into the other side, the more conservative, right-leaning perspective or ideology, and in that one, that's where you get the rugged individualism, that's where you get the respectability politics, so to speak, and that's where you get this idea that they lean more right. Where it comes down to oh no, if I made it, you can make it. The whole bootstrap myth comes on that side of the line. And because of their conservative leanings, that's where you get the respectability of oh, those people are just doing wrong and they deserve what happens to them. And so when you get somebody that feels like you, whatever happened to you in a system you deserve, if you feel that way, then you also have to feel that anything that you want to happen to you positively, you can affect that within that system if you just work harder or do the right thing. And most of the time they become a victim of their own. Funny that they want to call those of us that want reparations for what was done to us being victimized. They become a victim of their own levels of success. And so what happens is they sit there and turn around and say, well, I made it, I didn't make any excuses, so now you got to do the same. And if you do exactly what I do, then you can get what I got. Now we all know that that's not the case, but their ideology is built on that, so that's why it comes out of them in that way more oftentimes than not, because that's just what is at the foundation of their being.
Speaker 2:And so, to talk directly to what you said, and he says that a lot. Here's the fallacy with that, here's what's wrong with that from a factual standpoint. We don't even got to talk about feelings or where each and one of us sits. Let's just take the facts. Because what they said neither side lines up with facts. And that's the beauty of us as the grassroots, being in the middle, taking the nuanced position, looking at both sides, seeing what we can take that does apply, and then applying it. But when you're on either side, you're not factually correct, you're just partially correct, and you're taking that and then you push it out to suit your ideology.
Speaker 2:And so when the judge says, oh yeah, you just have this victim mentality. Well, we got to go with the facts. Have we, as a demographic, been systemically targeted still to this day and victimized 100%? No one in a right mind or being honest would say no to that. So is it a victim mentality? If you have been victimized? No, you have been a victim of a crime. Who would say to somebody filing a class action suit oh, you're just operating in your victim mindset? No, you would have to prove the case and when the case is proven that you are victimized, you get restitution. That's where we're at in the program, not a true class action lawsuit in the way of the judicial branch. But we have already proven our case that we have been victimized.
Speaker 2:Now it's time to demand the restitution. Now it's time to demand the reparations. We have never sat around and waited for anything. We don't have that luxury, never. We're the only demographic in this country that has ever gotten it out the mud. That's right. That's right. When you hear that term, we're talking about us. That's right. There's no one else that has done it.
Speaker 2:And we know because, again, factually, we just got the update on how bad it really was when that same Trump that people say, is doing all these negative things and then criticizing Doge, and they are doing some things that are questionable and can be viewed as negative, but the bottom line is through those actions guess what they uncovered US aid. But the bottom line is through those actions guess what they uncovered US aid. And what did those US aid members show us? That we already knew and was trying to tell the family that there ain't a demographic in this country outside of Black Americans that is not held up by some form of government funding, aid resources and subsidies Period, by some form of government funding, aid resources and subsidies period. So we got to dispel that myth that there are people, based on their decisions alone, achieving some level of success in this country through some rugged individualism or some bootstrapism. That's just not the case. Every demographic has gotten public assistance of some kind, even if it's just government subsidies, and so we have never gotten a chance to just sit around and I'll say this before I take a breath. So this could be more of a back and forth, but I'm not done with this particular subject, the.
Speaker 2:The bottom line is this what most people don't realize, or most people don't even know, is that Black Wall Street was built through some form of reparation. It wasn't rugged individualism. Those people were given that land for the ills that was done to them. A lot of those people that went to Oklahoma and founded Tulsa were our ancestors or some of our ancestors that were enslaved by the five civilized tribes and civilized just means slave-holding tribes. Look that up. So when we talk about this idea of, oh no, we could, could just do it without reparations, when no other group has ever done it without money, resources and funding from the federal government, that's a trope that has been invented by the right wing to encourage us to not look for redress like every other group does. When they are aggrieved by this government, they seek redress and demand it and get it, and no one bats an eye. We're the only people that's supposed to not get the redress that we deserve.
Speaker 2:And when you said that and talk about if you got money and somebody else owes you money, are you going to say you don't need that money because you can make more or you can get it on your own? Nah, and I'm going to quote the great scholar Big Worm. He said it's not only about the money, it's the principle, it's the principalities. I don't care how much money I got. If you owe me, you owe me.
Speaker 2:You think Verizon says you know what. We made a billion dollars last year, so you don't owe us on that bill. They come in and get their $50.22 for your internet and so guess what? They owe us and we're working. They owe us and we own businesses. They owe us and we hustling. They owe us, and some of us are on public assistance. They owe us and we hustling. They owe us, and some of us are on public assistance. They owe us, and some of us use EBT. They owe us, and some of us are multimillionaires, guess what. I don't care what our standing is in this country. You owe us, and just because I made a billion dollars last year, I'm coming to get my $52.23 for that monthly service, because it ain't only about the money, it's about the principalities.
Speaker 1:If I might add on to what you're saying, I'm trying to hang with you, bro, but you're making it very difficult. I'm going to try to hang with you, though.
Speaker 2:Now you're already with me, bro. You're right here with me.
Speaker 1:Here it is. Dana made a statement that she don't want to hear nothing about what happened before because she wasn't born yet into none of that slavery and stuff. I wasn't born into slavery, however. I was born into Jim Crow, you understand. My grandparents were sharecroppers. I don't know if I told you was it you or King. My father, his father, was a sharecropper. My father had 10 brothers and four sisters. The little ones could go to school but if the other ones were old enough to work, they had to work the crops in the farm. They weren't allowed to go to school. I think my father got caught because he was one of the younger ones. It was about three or four other brothers under him. Baby, uh, the two younger girls, but the two older sisters, they had to work. My aunt Vera and my aunt, uh, jeanette, uh, jenny Weeds, they called her, and anyway, I saw with my own eyes what that life was like, because my I, when we would go down south, when school let out in the summer, we would go down there.
Speaker 1:I actually stayed in the house that my mother was born in a shack. It was a shack, I think it was. Three bedrooms, a little room in the kitchen, no bathroom. They had a fresh water well in the front and they made a makeshift sink where they had a well, a pump, not a faucet, a pump where they wash dishes and stuff. I saw what that was and I've heard the stories. My father had told me directly how, doing sharecropping, his father would get beat every year because when they harvest the crops they would take the produce and the meats to the big market to sell and they would tell my grandfather oh, we broke even. We didn't make a profit. But he had a shack to stay on with his kid family and they had food they could eat and he would give them a few dollars here and there, you know, but that was the cost.
Speaker 1:Now, don't you think that had an effect on my family through the generations? Those people, though I had 10 uncles. Think that had an effect on my family through the generations? Those people, though? I had 10 uncles from my father. It was 11 boys and 4 girls. We got one aunt left, aunt May. She was the youngest girl. I watched those people die through the decades of alcoholism because they were so hurt. Even people drank themselves to death. I had an uncle. My father's baby brother died when he was 33 years old. Uncle Bill Right, I saw, I seen the pain, you understand. So in the state of Mississippi it took them 130 years after the emancipation to ratify the 13th Amendment in the state of Mississippi.
Speaker 1:Right there. 1995 is when they finally eradicated the 13th Amendment. It took them 130 years to do that. We ain't talking about no far, far away time. Yes, I understand what Dana and them are saying. I understand the mind that Judge Joe Brown has, but man don't sell a short like that. Then, on top of all of that, you're talking about redlining and all these things. Housing discrimination this stuff ain't stopping until the 1965. Discrimination bills and stuff for housing. Housing discrimination this stuff ain't stopping until the 1965. Discrimination bills and stuff for housing, fair housing I was born into that, did I?
Speaker 1:Yep, yep all of this, all of those things were had a residual effect on my family. Where would we be at had my, my grandfather, was able to buy that land or purchase that land? Come on that land that my mother and them was born on, it was from a man that the man named was Otto Miller, the Miller place they used to call it. That's where my mother grew up, was born in that house, in that shack, and they worked that land. Well, actually my grandfather had left for a time and my grandmother was doing domestic work in town. When she had to go to do the domestic work in town, you know they couldn't come through the front door, they had to go around the back to come in and do the work.
Speaker 1:I saw that Divine. I saw that Because actually I called my mother mom, but my grandmother we called her mama. My mother would always get mad at that. You know why y'all call her mama. That's your grandma, right? You understand? I saw that divine. So when you say things like that and you go back to the state of mississippi in 19 not until 1995 they did, they Did they finally eradicate the 13th Amendment? Now let's, if we can, you got anything else to say on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted to say something real quick. I couldn't just leave it there. Go ahead, check this out, check this out, and I won't be long, because I know we got other topics to get to and we ain't going to be up here all night, all morning, man listen, until tonight. So, dana and Judge, joe, and all those that well, I'm going to say all of them I need to speak for those two because I, you know, have interacted with them and know them. They are smart enough to know exactly what you said, and that's why I'm saying what happens is that you take what you know to be true and you force it through this ideological lens. Right, because they can't acknowledge what you just said and what we all know, and still be of the mindset of just do it on your own, and so a lot of their identity is built up in that. Oh, I can just do it for myself.
Speaker 2:And once you give way to that, a lot of people are too afraid to live in that level of truth. Right, because I can speak for myself, I'll let you speak for you. I don't think there's any limits on me based on me, but I know there's limitations on me based on this system. Now does that mean I sit here and do nothing? Hell no. I ain't never just sat around and did nothing the day of my life, but I am aware of the limitations, and so that's a space that's kind of hard for a lot of people to navigate. So they got to convince themselves that either on both sides of the spectrum is oh, I know that it is, and I convinced myself that nothing I'll do will matter, so I'm not going to do anything. And then the other extreme is there's no problem with the system or any drawbacks. Now I can do whatever I want because I'm free and nobody controls me, and if I want to make it happen, it'll happen. And we also know that that's not true. But they happen to live in one of those extremes, because in the nuanced area is where it gets a little bit more difficult. You can't just put life on autopilot. You got to be nimble and quick on your feet and head on a swivel, and most people don't want to live like that. So they live in the easier version of those two realities and they just happen to be on the side of oh, I can make anything I want happen, even when they see that that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:And so just to kind of talk about, what you talked about is this and this idea where she said, you know, you said she said, oh, I don't want to hear about nothing in the past. Again, she's too smart to say anything like that and really mean it outside of forcing it through her ideological lens. Because if we just take simple math, simple math, simple numbers, simple money, it's something called compound interest. If we just take 10 generations and one family got a chance to just continually pass down money that gained compound interest for 10 generations, any other family for 10 straight generations had anything that they earned stolen before the next generation started. You can't go back to generation five and say, okay, hey, just because you wasn't born in the first generation, and say, well, I don't care what happened before five generations, let's start from here and move forward. That's ridiculous, because you missed out on five generations, on the power of that compound interest, and for the most part by generation five, with the family that did get compound interest. That's more than you'll ever get by generation 10, even if you started from generation five, because they started from Generation 1.
Speaker 2:And so I think about that and I think about how, in 1874 is when the Freeman Bank was closed, that's right. And at that time, over 60,000 depositors had roughly about $3 million worth of their deposits stolen, never to be returned, never to be fought for. You know, we put us in a bigger place to fight for that now, but never since then. But based on what I was just saying, with that compound interest Divine, not even compound interest. It's not even compound interest. We're just talking about direct to direct comparison $3 million in 1874 and today's money is close to $70 million in 2025. Now, if we added compound interest on those deposits because those families wouldn't be able to pass that wealth down, I won't say only God knows, because a good accountant knows how much that $78 million turns into a compound interest calculated from 1874 to 2025. See, this is the type of stuff that makes sense. When you are operating in truth and not pushing through an ideological lens. You understand very clearly that all that was stolen. Yeah, please, please, guys.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be real quick with this one. I want you to come right back to it. Good thing you brought up that Freedman's Bank and the amount the $3 million, and then the $70 million subsequently in today's money. Because if you go back to my grandparents and my great-grandparents, where do you think the distrust came from? People of those eras putting their money in the banks? They didn't do it. My grandmother and them. They put the money under the mattress. My grandpa and them had a private place where he'd keep money. He didn't go to no bank. When my grandmother needed something, he would go to wherever his hiding place at and get her whatever she asked for and gave it to her, and that was that they didn't trust the bank because of what happened. That $3 million that just was taken from them. This is what I'm talking about. The effects, the resounding effects, the residual effects of what happened to us was passed on down. My grandmother wasn't a slave, my great-grandmother she was probably right out of slavery, but they got the effects of what happened.
Speaker 1:Some people didn't trust banks. They didn't trust God, they didn't trust nothing because of what happened. Some people didn't trust banks. They didn't trust God, they didn't trust nothing because of what happened to them. That's why they kept money under the mattress and in shoe boxes and dug up holes out in the backyard and kept piles of money down in those places. Big big things are coins. They didn't go to the bank with that stuff because of what happened to them. It had an effect on later generations. So don't tell me, oh, I wasn't born in it. I know it had an effect on me. But go back to your point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's just, like I said, an ignorant statement when you're dealing in 100% of the truth and not ideologies.
Speaker 2:And I think that's what we got to be very careful, when we hear people speak, to understand is it them speaking out of truth or is them speaking out of their ideology?
Speaker 2:And once we start asking that question and applying that, we can take a lot of stuff with a grain of salt, dismiss a whole bunch of it and not even get caught up in getting emotionally invested in anything that they think, because we know you ain't speaking true, we speaking out that ideology and let's just keep it pushing. I ain't got time to waste with you because you don't even believe what you're saying and if you do, you just really a slave to that, to that, to that ideology, and that's a whole different issue that you need reparations for right. And so the bottom line is this is just like you said to even begin to think that what has happened in the past and accrued over time doesn't affect the present is just ridiculous. We just had a reparations public hearing task force public hearing. It was yesterday. Well, not yesterday, it was early, it was on oh my goodness the 10th April 10th, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:That was the one in co-op right. Right, that was the one in the Bronx, oh man you should have reminded me I would have made that one man.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I got you. Next time I got you, I'll make sure. So the next one is going to be in May I forgot the exact date but I'll get that date. But it's going to be in Long Island, so we'll see if we're going to make it out there. I think it's a, is it Westbury? Something like that. I'll get the matter of fact. I'm going to look it up while we want to tell, the family can hear about it too, before we get off. But that one was a special one for me because my grandmother lived and died in Co-op City. So I'm a Brooklyn boy, but you know, I got origins in the Bronx, up there in Co-op City. But I'm saying that to say to kind of mirror your story, when my grandmother worked for sharecroppers in Wilmington, north Carolina.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's a crazy story out of Wilmington. You know the story.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, and I'm still doing genealogy to see if we are linked to or have any family or friends, descendants of what they? You know what they did in Wilmington, that's a whole other show, but I'm still looking through that, some documents and stuff like that, to find out if there's any links to my family and what happened to those, um, those uh early political leaders in that area. Um, let's just drop this point home so we can move forward. And I love telling this story and I think it's perfect for this situation.
Speaker 2:We all know what happened with george floyd and and how he's still a caricature for the white supremacists to beat up on what most people don't know talking about oh, I didn't live there and I wasn't there, so I don't need to hear about it was that George Floyd's great-great-grandfather. His name was Hillary Thomas Stewart. He was a slave. He got freed in the mid-1860s, you know, based on the Civil War and emancipation. So he was a freedman and this brother, despite having no education, taught the enslaved people how to read and write. During the time it was illegal, but he himself acquired 500 acres of land by the time he was in his 20s and he subsequently had that land stolen by white farmers. And so we take that and project that forward to George Floyd's great-great-grandfather never had his 500 acres of land stolen if George Floyd, even in that store Passing counterfeit Passing counterfeit allegedly, allegedly right To then have a modern-day slave catcher kneel on his neck until he was dead a modern day slave catcher kneel on his neck until he was dead.
Speaker 2:See, this is the stuff that we talk about and that's ignorant to even begin to say where it says oh, the past don't matter where, everything that has happened before us has led us to this point that we're at now. And even if you want to go down that ridiculous rabbit hole of well, I don't want to talk about slavery because I wasn't born there, guess what Jim Crow and the black code was not that long ago and guess what, neither was redlining All practices that are still done today. And so, unless you're going to start your claim for reparations today or tomorrow and get it litigated on that day or tomorrow, tomorrow and get it litigated on that day or tomorrow, eventually you're going to have to reference some stuff in the past to justify your argument. It don't make no sense, cause, again, she was speaking a lot of that system, but she was speaking out of our ideology and not out of our intelligence, and we can leave it there.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, great stuff, stuff, great stuff, great stuff. We got to get to moving fast on two things we want to touch on before we cut out. One is oh, finally, you know, we the professor, black truth always tells us that when white supremacy is done with their tools, they don't shelve them for reuse, they break their tools. They don't shelve them for reuse, they break their tools because they're no longer useful, and we saw that the other day with Jason Whitlock. I don't know if you heard, I don't know if you heard.
Speaker 2:You heard about it. We talking about with Nick Fuentes. Nick Fuentes, yes.
Speaker 1:Nick Fuentes put Nick Fuentes yes, nick.
Speaker 2:Fuentes put foot all in that big old chunky behind of his yes.
Speaker 1:You see, yes, yes yes, you see, you know you're no longer useful because what it is? They're tired of these bootlicks being put in front of them, these mouthpieces Essentially, that's what they were there for for white supremacy to hide behind them. The Candace Owens, vince Ellison, april Chapman, jesse Lee Peterson this dude we're talking about Jason Whitlock, thomas Sowell and a bunch of the others. They say what white society can't say. That's what they were being used for. They take refuge in behind you. These are talking points. They're sick of that now because it makes them look weak. This is what Tyreek was kicking on his show. It makes them look weak. So they're sick of you now. You have no more use for them. You got blind people coming over to the Republican party. They're saying well, the Democrats we know the Democrats ain't about nothing, so let's go over here to the Republicans and see what they talking about. They don't really want that. This is why the position where we in right in the middle we ain't on either side is the best place where we can be at and this is where our strength is at. You see, the Tim Scotts and the Byron Donalds, these bootlicking dudes. All you're doing is re-egurgitating the talking points for them and they sick of you. Now we got to respect these Negroes, get out of here. So, jason Whitlock, your big chunky behind, they sick of you and he let you.
Speaker 1:Nick Ferentz said the quiet part out loud. You got your wake up call, bro, and guess what? Guess what? All the smoke you always got for black folks. You notice these bootlicks. They always got smoke for black folks. The black church, this, the black church, that Black pastor, this black pastor, that it's just like you, me and my brother, you my homeboy, me and my brother. You come to visit me and my brother fight, you know, and I call them all kind of names and stuff. That don't mean you can do it, that's still my brother. So now, how would you be looking at me if I allowed you to go upside my brother's head? True, you follow me. Now they done, told you Jason Whitlock. But here's the thing. I think it was either. It was nearly full of that said, if you want to find out what's really inside of a black person, sit him in front of a white person.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:And Jason Whitlock.
Speaker 2:Ask him in front of a white person.
Speaker 1:Right, jason Whitlock went out like a straight punk. All the smoke you always got for black culture, this black culture, that black black, this black black that y'all act like savages animals. Then the people who you talking up for called you a token. You ain't nothing to them. And how did you respond to that? You held your head down. I don't care if if he's racist. I don't care if some white people are racist. And you know their favorite thing they love to run to Jesus after that Mm-hmm Yep.
Speaker 1:They love to run to Jesus. Now you're getting religious Dumb. People ain't got no use for you. Man Boot, looking never ends well. Never ends well for you. Jesse Lee Peterson is a joke, but I understand the hustle. You're talking this stuff because you're getting paid. They don't respect that. You're making it a hustle for them. This is what they truly believe in. You don't really believe what you be saying. You making money off of it and they tired of paying you money for what their ideal is. That's right. And you responded like a straight sucker man. You held your head down and you were so gentle. If Nick Ferentis wants to call me or tell you he wants to have a conversation, a conversation for what? He told you what it is, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk it out.
Speaker 1:Ain't nothing to say. The dude spit in your face and told you ain't nothing, get out of here, move your ass around, man, you understand? Yep, same thing, same thing, and we're going to get into this and we're going to get out of here. Same thing with these Negroes. You hear them About this incident Out there in Texas With the, with the young man Camelo Anthony. Right, same thing. He should have just fought with his hands. Why did he have to stab him when they come to find out? Well, my thing is this. My thing is this they took his phone and smashed it out of his hand, smashed it on the ground. At that point it's a robbery and if it was an iPhone that phone was over 1,000 hours would have made it a felony right, that's a felony Right.
Speaker 1:Why isn't that remaining brother arrested? That kid didn't just pull out that knife out of his bag and just went to stab him. He had reason to beat it, that's right. He was in the competition. Those two brothers were football players, not track competitors, and it's coming out that they really shouldn't have been there. They had no reason to be there. They was there to support their alma mater, but they weren't competing.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Then you set a million dollar bail for something that should be a manslaughter Now, where the young kid messed up at, he ran his mouth. This is why they tell you don't say anything because it's going to be used against you. And he, he didn't know the kid was dead. He asked him is he all right? You're talking too much. But he don't know this. He hasn't been groomed for that.
Speaker 1:But these two twin brothers were known bullies, from what I understand. Now, before I go any further, I want to make an apology to the family because last week I made a statement about it that there was a toxicology report that came back that showed the kid on drugs. That is. That was a rumor. That is true. I apologize to the family for making that statement and we here on this treatments network we are not beyond reproach and beyond apologizing when we're wrong. So I do apologize for that misinformation. Man, that's huge. How is this 5'6", 130-pound kid? They said. How are you going to fight a 6'1", 225-pound boy football player? He's a track star and there's two of them Now. He already told them don't touch me, don't touch me.
Speaker 2:He told them they were he already told them don't touch me, Don't touch me. He told them they were warned. That's right, that is man, you're 100% on that. And just to kind of piggyback on this and then go back to what you said previously, just, you know, I don't know how much of the family are fight enthusiasts, whether it's boxing or UFC, but for all those, much of the family are, you know, are fight enthusiasts, whether it's boxing or UFC. But for all those that are like, yeah, you know, he should have just fought him with his hands or his excessive or whatever, the case is that you're trying to spew out there to negate his valid self-defense claim is what you're essentially asking him to do. If you're a boxing fan, is you're asking him? Let's just say he's super skilled, right, let's just go with the assumption that both of them are equally skilled. You're still asking a Floyd Mayweather to engage in physical combat with a Tyson Fury.
Speaker 1:Yep A damn near 90 pound, almost 100 pound advantage.
Speaker 2:Right, and more than that, because I undersold it. It ain't Floyd Mayweather versus Tyson Fury, it's Floyd Mayweather versus two Tyson Furies.
Speaker 1:That's right, Because they were both taking part in the accosting him. They were both accosting him Exactly. This is from eyewitnesses.
Speaker 2:They were both accosting him. Yep, that's right, and so this idea that he can just he could afford them more. Listen, when there's that much of a weight difference and there's two of them, they could have took his life with their bare hands. And I don't know how many of y'all have been in a street fight I've been in a couple in these mean streets of New York.
Speaker 2:It only takes one wrong hit to fall back your head on something and that's it. It don't even got to be that they beat him to death. It could be one wrong hit, and we're talking about hits coming from two directions, from two bullies that are bigger and stronger than you are. I'm not sure how his representations don't argue the case, but I know I view that as a life and death situation. I've seen fights go terribly wrong when both people are evenly matched. So being overmatched and overpowered to those numbers, to that degree, and with potential racism or white supremacy fueling it and egging it on, only God knows what that man protected himself from that day that's right, that's day, that's right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, but you got the last word, divine Cause, when we've been up here a good while. Now, we've been up here a good while and I'm gonna give you the last word, brother. Oh, but before you do that, before you do that, before you do that, um, is the email campaign still up and running?
Speaker 2:I was. I was going to be part of my, my, my last word Go ahead, take off, go ahead, nah, nah, it's all good, it's all good. Um, what I wanted to say is, um, kind of touch on before I get to the very last word or last word. I wanted to also just make a comment about what you talked. Similar to Nick Fuentes, because even though he is a white supremacist, let's not forget that he is a white, hispanic white supremacist. That's right, that's right, and we have to understand that.
Speaker 2:Again, going back to not viewing things as factual but viewing things through ideology, the Democrats and the left wing will tell you that Nick Fuentes is a person of color, a fellow historically marginalized gentleman, because he's Hispanic. Nigga, please, I like that, oh man, and so I'm bringing that up to say, at the last public hearing in the Bronx, we had another Hispanic gentleman get up on the mic and talk about how he did not want to see reparations happen for Foundation of Black Americans, really, because he felt that it was unfair that the government gets to choose whose dead ancestors are important and whose are not. Mind you, he was an immigrant from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1:He didn't even have no business there. Really, to be honest with you, he had no business there. There was no place for him there.
Speaker 2:At all, and I'm saying that to say, in the same way in which Nick Fuentes encroached on Jason Whitlock's face, regardless of whether we know him to be a coon or not, there has to be a deep dive done on these Hispanic slash Latinos that truly believe that it is well within their right and agency to step into Black American spaces and territory and speak against our claims and doing what we're doing Like they're back home in the country with their abuela, like this has to stop.
Speaker 2:And so again, we understand who Jason Whitlock is, and this is by no means a defense of Jason Whitlock at all. But again, to quote my man, big Worm, it's the principalities. And so I'd be damned if I'm going to side with a conquistador against anybody that is Black American. And then we could discuss Black American business and how much of a coon you are once we get that conquistador out the door. And so, because we have to talk about Jason Whitlock's response to Nick Fuentes versus his response to Stephen A Smith, a fellow from the left wing, again speaking about ideologies, both of them are detrimental to Black American progress.
Speaker 1:They're just on separate sides of the same coin, stephen A to come to Stephen A's, a little bit of defense for him. He ain't bad as Jason Whitlock at least not at all at least Stephen A will tap, dance around us a little bit too and try to appease us too. He don't go full coon now, he won't do that.
Speaker 2:Without question, I agree.
Speaker 1:Jason Whitlock. See what happened when I'm going to tell the family about him and I told my boy this the other day. What happened with Jason Whitlock? Dudes like him have a built-in hate for their own culture because look at you, you're a big, fat, unattractive man.
Speaker 1:You've probably been hurt by some, some beautiful black women, anything you got sexual wines you had to pay out of your pocket for and that never and and chas probably tapped his pockets and robbed him, and when you see that kind of hurt on somebody when they constantly got smoke for their own, that's usually what it is.
Speaker 2:Yep Agree wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1:Now you got brothers and it's not always about the looks. I know some fat jolly brothers ain't attractive or whatever in the face. That ain't for men to judge anyway. But I'm saying, man, they't attractive or whatever in the face. You know that ain't for men to judge anyway. But I'm saying, man, they get all the women in the world, Some of the baddest chicks, because of their personality and their charisma and their swag. It ain't about their looks, it's about their charisma and their swag they have.
Speaker 1:Biggie Smalls was a prime example. Remember what he said Black and ugly, as ever, however, However, you understand. So, Jason Whitlock, you haven't, you're not that that means you don't have the creativity to invent yourself and to become a ladies' man. That's all that is is hurt when you see people kicking that and there's a market for that. For black people to talk about other black people, there's a market for that, there's an audience for that and there's money to be made in that.
Speaker 1:I could get up here and go in on culture all day and talk about what's wrong with our community. I could do that all day and I probably. We have a big old studio and money and you know, papered up from from white folks would probably be sending me donations because that's what they want to hear and it's a black man saying it. But I don't do that. We struggling up here it's a grind Not a struggle but a grind. But I could take the easy way out and say you know what I want? A bunch of. I go on YouTube, get a bunch of clicks and views and likes and create a PayPal and a Cash App and, man, we'd be rolling because there's an audience for that. But you ain't going to get that here. But you go ahead, man, you got the last word bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know. I just wanted to say I know I promised the family that I would have that address, so I do have it. The next New York State Reparations Task Force meeting will be on May 6th from 4 pm to 8 pm. Again, that's May 6th, from 4 pm to 8 pm. I believe that's a Tuesday, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, it's a Tuesday, the first Tuesday in May, and it's going to be at SUNY College at all Westbury's recital hall. That's two to three store Hill Road, all Westbury, new York. One, one, five, six, eight. Again that is going to be on May 6th, 4 pm to 8 pm. Suny College at all Westbury's Recital Hall, 223 Swarthill Road, old Westbury, new York 11568.
Speaker 2:So, in line with that and the segue to the last word currently making moves in the New York State Legislature, we are true believers in the New York State Legislature. We are true believers in the fact that you cannot accurately repair a thing until you accurately define a thing. And as I've said before, and I believe I said it last time I was here with the family, african American is insufficient. It is a catch-all term for everybody with melanin in the United States of America that has any ancestry that links back to the continent of Africa. So that means Afro-Caribbeans, continental Africans, afro-hispanics and foundational Black Americans are all listed as African American according to the federal government. And so in New York State we have a bill which is A6341A Again, that's A6341A and for the first time in in history in New York, it would mandate that the state of New York disaggregate the data so that we can have our own category for resources set aside and, more importantly, start the process in us being able to have policies specifically set aside for our group. So again, that's A6341A. You guys can go read it for yourself and, if you feel so inclined, to start making calls to your local politicians, assemblymen, senators, assembly people, city council, whoever, community leaders and let them know that there's a bill that accurately defines all of us within the black ethnic groups, that we can start getting policies done that would stand the test of time against any constitutional challenge that we know was coming from the quote unquote right wing activists. And so, as my brother mentioned the email writing campaign, currently what we're doing is that we are getting ready to formulate that and have that go live. It could be at the touch of a button and you guys can um, click that button and send the emails out to the politicians in new york, um, whether they be by committee or your own personal, and all those involved with signing this aggregation legislation for other groups, because they've done it before.
Speaker 2:This is not groundbreaking to the point where it hasn't been done before for any other group.
Speaker 2:It just has never been done for us. In 2021, they did it for the AAPI community and in 2024, they did it for the MENA. So now it's time to do it for us, especially since we are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, ethnic group in New York State. So once that goes live, please follow us on Twitter X whatever you decide to call it at US Freedman PRJ, so that's at US F-R-E-E-D-M-E-N-P-R-J, so you can stay abreast on what we're talking about, what's happening, and as soon as that call to action goes live, you will see it there and you can participate and we can start making this happen. Because if we don't advocate for us and that's just not here in New York State, but anywhere across the country what we have seen is no one else is going to advocate for us. The great thing about it is, like my brother here just said, we are on the clock, we are on the job, and now we are here advocating for ourselves. So everybody else has got to get out and lay down.
Speaker 1:There it is. That said family, that said. That said you must respect life, have respect for life, love justice, cherish freedom and, most of all, keep the peace. Y'all go in peace and keep the peace and come back and see us next week. We'll be back here at the freedman's network and um, thank you, brother, thank you for coming up here and gracing us with your presence. And yeah, it's been real. It's been real, it's been real and it's been tight.
Speaker 2:No, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Peace Woo. Hey, papa don't take no mess. Papa don't take no mess, papa is a man.
