Picture this - a rambunctious child, full of energy and curiosity, yet pegged as an adult long before his time. Sounds unthinkable, right? But it's a harsh reality for many black and brown children due to the disturbing phenomenon known as adultification. To unpack this sensitive issue, we've invited the one and only Ty Taylor(@taylorty), lead singer of Vintage Trouble (as well as a million other things you may or may not know him from), down to the studio to help chop up this delicate topic and put the male perspective on the other side of this 2 part episode.
Our heartfelt conversation with Ty brings light to the challenges faced by black and brown children who are unjustly pushed into adulthood because of societal perceptions and punitive justice systems. Ty's personal stories, along with our discussions around identity and self-reflection, reveal the damaging consequences of adultification. We also touch upon the hypersexualization of children, a distressing repercussion of the weakening family structure in black and brown communities. But it's not all darkness and despair. We also explore the potential of positive role models and influential celebrities in bringing about change and rebuilding these communities.
The episode concludes on a hopeful note as we explore available resources and emphasize the importance of unity and solidarity during such challenging times. A revisit to our past episode with Maya and KC (@dazitdazall), adds a different perspective to the conversation. We urge you to join us in this enlightening exploration into the adultification of our brothers and sisters children - an episode that promises to stir your emotions, provoke thought, and inspire action.
The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline has counselors available 24 hours every day to talk with children and adults about abuse and neglect. To reach a Childhelp counselor, call 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) and then press 1.
SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Maiya Sykes (@maiyasykes). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats), with assistance from Larissa Donahue. Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
Picture this - a rambunctious child, full of energy and curiosity, yet pegged as an adult long before his time. Sounds unthinkable, right? But it's a harsh reality for many black and brown children due to the disturbing phenomenon known as adultification. To unpack this sensitive issue, we've invited the one and only Ty Taylor(@taylorty), lead singer of Vintage Trouble (as well as a million other things you may or may not know him from), down to the studio to help chop up this delicate topic and put the male perspective on the other side of this 2 part episode.
Our heartfelt conversation with Ty brings light to the challenges faced by black and brown children who are unjustly pushed into adulthood because of societal perceptions and punitive justice systems. Ty's personal stories, along with our discussions around identity and self-reflection, reveal the damaging consequences of adultification. We also touch upon the hypersexualization of children, a distressing repercussion of the weakening family structure in black and brown communities. But it's not all darkness and despair. We also explore the potential of positive role models and influential celebrities in bringing about change and rebuilding these communities.
The episode concludes on a hopeful note as we explore available resources and emphasize the importance of unity and solidarity during such challenging times. A revisit to our past episode with Maya and KC (@dazitdazall), adds a different perspective to the conversation. We urge you to join us in this enlightening exploration into the adultification of our brothers and sisters children - an episode that promises to stir your emotions, provoke thought, and inspire action.
The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline has counselors available 24 hours every day to talk with children and adults about abuse and neglect. To reach a Childhelp counselor, call 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) and then press 1.
SLAP the Power is written and produced by Rick Barrio Dill (@rickbarriodill) and Maiya Sykes (@maiyasykes). Associate Producer Bri Coorey (@bri_beats), with assistance from Larissa Donahue. Audio and Video engineering and studio facilities provided by SLAP Studios LA (@SLAPStudiosLA) with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art and media, SLAP the Network (@SLAPtheNetwork).
If you have ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info@slapthepower.com
There's also the idea that a lot of African-Americans live in homes where, from the time they're seven, their fathers say to them you know, be a man, yeah, yeah. So even the things that are caught inside of the homes and Taught inside of the homes are gonna make some of these kids, things that don't seem like they're bad things, to say man up, yeah, you know, sure, and I don't think in many white homes a kid falls, hits his Head on a tree, comes home crying and their father's gonna say man up, met up right.
Speaker 3:Yo yo yo. The world may not need another podcast, but it could definitely use a slap. That's right. Welcome to slap. The power show that blends artistry with advocacy, and today is a very, very, very special day for me. It's kind of part of the reason why I was inspired to kind of set this up and and do this show and everything I'm gifted, blessed today to have not only as our interviewee but also as a guest host today I'll give you the. I'll give you. This is a podcast or an audio medium, but for the people that are you looking watching at this on the YouTube's individuals, you see this. But for those that are in the audio medium, I'm gonna tease this a sec.
Speaker 3:He is the voice of character Lester Grimes on the HBO series vinyl Created by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger. I've never actually heard of those people, but maybe some people have. He studied drama and music at Carnegie Mellon University, in addition to his work with his first band, dakota moon. He was also basically not even basically here was also the best contestant on rock star in excess. His music career has included parts in Broadway musicals Joseph and the amazing Technicolor dreamcoat, pippin, songs for New World, greece and we will rock you. He's best known as the lead singer of a band you might hear about all the time on this show vintage trouble. He recently released a stunning and original jazz album called the newvo mid-century romance songbook. He was the best man at my wedding. He's my best friend and all around one of my top Human beings, favorite human beings ever on planet earth. Please welcome the one and only mr Ty Taylor.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's so interesting. Whenever you do a show like this, you assume that you know most of the background information came from Wikipedia, so I just it did. Yeah, I was just paying attention. No, no, no, there's a lot of stuff that's left off.
Speaker 3:No, it's a ton of stuff, that was that was me just saying, like there's more than what yeah, no, I know there's a lot more and we'll get into it and that's what I'm kind of stoked about. I wanted to put that out there for people that actually don't know that might be coming from a from a different angle, and it was. It's obviously I knew all the, the, the stuff, because you my best friend and everything but the part of the, the reason this platform exists is because the opportunity to help people You're the truest artist that I know that I've probably ever met, as far as you just channel things into art always, and I feel like we've been blessed because if you help one person with a song and it comes back, you realize you know the offering to god. The work is, is, is being done. This particular issue for those of you the Saw our previous episode, maya and KC, star of Dazz, it, that's all, and my, my regular host here.
Speaker 3:They did part one of a two-part series on something I just actually even sort of found out about. I knew the context of everything, why this is, but I didn't even know the word Adultification. And this is part two of a two-part series, the the adultification of black and brown children. And you say you know why? Do I need to hear about this, why do I need to learn about this? And, like a lot of things, awareness or just even being aware of a problem is the first start right, and that's where I feel of your vehicles like these are particularly effective. And one of my most in this, in this area, that in this lane, one of my most sort of transcendent Artistic experience is is the last song on the jazz record that you have on hand, and you know I'll let you kind of get into that, but it it is the most truest sense of kind of synthesizing a concept that is horrific into art and into Clearing and catharsis for oneself. And that was the reason, probably the main reason, why I was inspired to have you as the co-host on this Maya.
Speaker 3:They did the girls episode on the girls perspective, on the adultification of black and brown children, and so I appreciate you trusting me and coming on the show to be, you know, co-host on on this with this topic as well, because I know it's particularly, it's a, it's a sensitive topic. I, I appreciate the girls even putting me here. Why is a? You know, you know half Cuban like I, you know, you know why am I talking about this, but I believe that's what makes it even more potentially powerful Is that there's not only data, but it's great to hear from somebody that's kind of lived this and you might say to yourself what is adultification?
Speaker 3:What does that even mean? Right, and why do I need to care about it? And it's, it is basically Our children growing up way faster than than they need to. And the reality is, uh and Maya kind of quoted this in the first one you know, a lot of teams are in a hurry to grow up. I was in a hurry to grow up. Were you in a hurry to grow up when you were a little kid? Did you want to be like, did you want your driver's license and shit like that? Like?
Speaker 1:I didn't, you didn't. No, I mean because I, I don't know, maybe as a kid, maybe because I started performing when I was so young, I was always surrounded by adults, so I basically spent my life living in an adult world. My siblings were all 10 years at least older than me, and so I never really thought about wanting to be older because, I mean, besides driving and I wasn't really that excited to drive I said, have nightmares about driving. So I wasn't really thinking about wanting to drive. No, the night nightmares about driving, just just just always being behind the wheel, the car, yeah. And obviously you know I'd already had sex by the time I was eight. Sure, who has it? No, I mean, but I literally had. So that's different.
Speaker 3:Oh right, right, Right yeah, fair Sorry Sorry, charlie Murphy yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's good to laugh about that. Yeah, I'm. No, I didn't think about. I didn't think about growing up fast. I know most people do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and like a lot of people I was. I was sort of shook because I realized an extension of slavery. Like a lot of people, ava DuVernay's documentary, you know 13, kind of laid out how OK. Well, when the when slavery ended, when emancipation proclamation came, and then reconstruction and everything, the next move was to incarcerate people. Because that's basically that's the way that we now modern day slavery is incarceration and our incarceration rates are, you know, through the roof and things like that. But how often do people that aren't of color concentrate on the realities of how the black and brown family and and people of color, how that family has sort of been systemically eroded?
Speaker 1:Right. I think one of the really quick things is that on the surface it might seem like and this is not me, obviously, saying anything negative about Ava's presentation but incarceration, yes, is the next age, but then what about all the stages that aren't seen? Like you talk about the five senses and there's a sixth sense that's just kind of flying in the air and these kind of things. You know, 99 percent of what we are experiencing we don't see. So I'm not, I don't. I personally don't think incarceration was the next step, because there are so many types of slavery that African Americans live all day long on the streets that people are unaware of why it's happening. So there's a slavery, according to old slavery, that doesn't have to do with being behind a person. So that's my thought about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, well, that's the fair point and I think you know to kind of piggyback on Maya's information and the stuff that she gave me, but basically there's been a bunch of research that has been released as of late that kind of lays this out in a way that it feels like its time has come. As far as raising this issue because one of the things is the study founder will credit this in the show notes and things like that but it was recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and it found that African American boys as young as 10 years old are significantly less likely to be viewed as children than their white peers. It also suggests that it could have serious implications for the way that African American boys are viewed by the criminal justice system and society as a whole. And there's a Georgetown study which Maya referred to and basically it conducted. It shows black male children were consistently singled out as troublemakers and received disciplinary action five times more likely than their non black counterparts. Black youth are more than four times as likely to be detained or committed to juvenile facilities as their white peers, according to nationwide data in 2019.
Speaker 3:And a couple of states. This has gotten better since this study, it was in 2019 and there's some, there's some, but most of them are still shitty and going in the wrong direction. And so, to your point, there's a systemic issue. If you have people that are like you said, there's a different form of slavery. If you can't, you know, if you can't get a job, there's a different form of slavery. If you're caught in the system and you're, you know, homeless, and there's a different form. There's all kinds of different forms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't kind of say if you're talked to differently or if you have to question the words you say because you're afraid that it won't get you into a job, not only a university. Question the words that you have to say because it won't get you into a job. And also, besides the things that were listed before, there's also the idea that a lot of African Americans live in homes where, from the time they're seven, their fathers say to them you know, be a man, yeah, yeah. So even the things that are caught inside of the homes and taught inside of the homes are going to make some of these kids things that don't seem like they're going to say man up, yeah, sure, I don't think. In many white homes a kid falls, hits his head on a tree, comes home crying and their father's going to say man up, man up.
Speaker 2:Right, so there's that.
Speaker 1:Or do you want me to give you something to cry for?
Speaker 3:You know yeah like give you something to cry for. So they're all there. All of my dad gave me that shit, that's for sure. Shout out to the chief.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah. So there's that kind of thing that makes people grow up and then only because the statistics are higher for African Americans, with separating, like you know, being single parent homes, yes, yeah. So then obviously the guy, the seven year old guy at home with his mom, he actually is the man of the house.
Speaker 3:And that's why I was bringing up the incarceration point earlier is because the sort of systemic mission was to just remove the male figure out of the center of the house, right, and so what is? And then that way you can erode the black family.
Speaker 3:Anyway, you can incarcerate them means that they can't vote, and if you can pull their vote out you can steal elections which you know they've been doing from you know, for a long time with respect to gerrymandering and just manipulating the political system to where minority rule still happens and it's basically because of a system that's sort of holding by gerrymandering, do you?
Speaker 1:mean nigger rigging, I mean no, I mean that's where it comes from. I mean they've changed. Gerrymandering was not a phrase, yeah right. It's in the West Web dictionary now is like this technical thing. They've taken it back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I the reason why I was also so interested to talk about this issue with you is because we've spent we spent so much time together and we've seen, you know different parts of the world that sort of kind of treat this situation differently, but it seems in America, you know, the original sin is still part of the problem and it is. It's one of the things I want to do is try to figure out well, how, first of all, like I said, make raise the awareness, and then, second of all, how can people help Right and how can? How can you know I a lot of people who know me knows I. You know I also grew up around black family and there was no father figure there, you know, and there was a lot of in a primarily black neighborhood actually it was all black neighborhood. There was most of the most of the families that I would play with and play with my friends in that neighborhood did not have a black male role model in the, in the household and it really it never clicked with me because my mom and dad divorced when I was very young.
Speaker 3:So I just kind of you get into you think it's into a the click where, okay, you know you don't you can take advantage of your mom, right it's. If you want to be a little mischievous teenager, that's a, that's kind of a good thing. I never actually looked at it as a bad thing until you start to realize you have kids or you have friends that have kids and you realize how important the balance of everything is. Was there a point that you realized that? Was there a point that you sort of realized around your neighborhood that any you know I know you also grew up in Montclair, which is a slightly different yeah, I wasn't around single family. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Single parents Single parents.
Speaker 3:Did you have a? Did you? Where was your first experience where you kind of felt like you were sort of singled out by the police, For example, did you have an experience where you were like I didn't, no.
Speaker 1:No, I mean I, which is the problem. Only because it was probably happening, you know, all around In black neighborhoods. No, but I said I did grow up in a neighborhood where it was mixed but it was at a different financial home status level, you know. Yeah, and so I didn't think about a lot. When I got older I actually was teased because I seemed like I was growing. A lot of the people that looked like me assumed that I didn't like them because I acted like the people that were unaffected by being pointed out. You know I was. People didn't look at me and and think that I was trouble. I just didn't have one of those. I didn't put out that kind of energy and it's kind of affecting me a lot as I've gotten older, like. So a lot of this adultification you're talking about. I guess I just skipped over a lot of the stuff that would make it apparent in me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you know, when the whole George Floyd thing went down, I'm the friend that everyone came to To ask, you know, for forgiveness. You know for the way, you know white people have treated black people over time, the way white people, white kids, how they, you know, would tease black kids, you know I would. They were all coming to me to apologize, but they were only coming to me to apologize because I was a safe choice, because I was the one that you know that seemed. They didn't do this consciously, but they were coming to me because I seemed like the African, african American that was least affected by being black, hmm. And so it was easy for them to come to me, because I wasn't gonna lean into them about the stuff they hadn't done. I was going to speak to them in the way that they were used to being spoken to, and it would have felt Great. It would have felt like a nice, evenly Leveled, balance, great, communicated therapeutic session. Yeah, so it came to me because it was gonna be easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I look back at it now, now that I've been doing a lot more studying about the things that I kind of glazed over Because I was either in a better neighborhood or because I didn't want to seem like people that were acting meaner than me, you know, yeah, so I missed it, but now I've been studying a lot of it, I realized more and more every day about the problems that African Americans has as we have, as we get older and it's really Now.
Speaker 1:I can't watch anything that reminds me about All the judgment that I had toward other African Americans that seemed to be carrying the seed of the situation, that we ran with them, people that were carrying the seed of slavery every day Because it hadn't still been fully dealt with. I used to look down on that energy only because I I Was thinking about the things I were taught, things about good manners, the things about how to speak to people, the way to Communicate perfectly when you're in a job situation, the way that you're supposed to talk when you're doing a college interview. When I was in school, even I, you know, we had, you know, but the points of great speech. So I was even told I was saying my last name Incorrectly my entire life, you know. I was saying Ty Taylor and he was like no, you're Ty Taylor, and so they corrected my name for me. So all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:So I was for people that kind of don't understand that explain that like like the, the Infinetics is a way there's, but when I was in college there hadn't been an abonics talk yet we hadn't been the abonics dictionary, that and talked about, um, regionalisms. Actually they separate us sometimes in great ways, just like an accent, like we love a good southern accent Sometimes, but not if it's a southern accent that lifts, is, you know, right? I think I think what's the? Part are at the end of that inward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's not a good accent but, um, there there are lots of points of speech that we learned and so basically, with those points of speech, ours it's kind of homogenizing us to um, look like we look, but speak like White people and then so that makes us seem like the house, that the house inwards, yeah, and so I basically had been living my life like a house nigger and and it's been hard for me and I feel, you know, I do therapy, so it's like, you know, don't feel guilty. I feel guilty, but guilty in a way that I deal with it every day. So I'm trying to get rid of the guilt by doing the work. And until I do the work, it wouldn't be fair of me to not feel guilty because I've never done anything physically to anyone.
Speaker 1:But I've had a lot of Judgment in my mind and I even I've gone through periods well, even separate, different parties and different friends, because I knew not to ask this person not to be a certain way, but I didn't want to put them in the same room with another person that I would then have to juggle about the, the tie that's pretending to be white and and the tie that is black. You put these people in the same room and they're gonna go at it and I'm gonna have to stand in the in the middle of them like fucking Switzerland. Yeah, and and both sides were like I'm betraying them, so my adultification. It actually has to do with becoming more black.
Speaker 3:What, which is fascinating to me as well, and I love it and, as your, as your friend, I you've always been an inspiration in general to so many people. But I love the blossom, I love the, I love the even yet more empowerment and I it was. It's funny, I'm gonna put the link in the show notes. But there I was talking to Bree the other day about how you, on stage, anytime I've ever seen you with another artist, you always go up to the line. You know, but you won't pass the artist right. You know, but you, you get, you get, you'll put it right up there. And I know you and I'm like, okay, that's tie at 90%, but that's class that he's leaving that 10% for them. You know, on the stage it's a fucking bananas performance.
Speaker 3:I saw it yesterday. It made me cry. I wanted to call you right at the time it was going. I was like no, I'm gonna save it for show because it was the way it was the I I guess I could say the artist. It was with Joss Stone and the knock on wood and I and and I was like I show in Associate producer Bree this. And I was like you just got to see this because it's a.
Speaker 3:It's a master class in almost how you played to the. It's like you played to the. The frame that's around that that is still no. Looking back at it now, it's less than the frame that. You are right you, you just stopped at where that person's you. It's a kind of stature is in everything. Not no props to Joss Stone. He's been fucking amazing and the whole performance is it's kind of live. But it when you came out it it's a such class that you would leave that space for other people to be themselves. But now, looking at you, you know, seven years later, ten years later or whatever it's it's, you know it's a beast and that guy was a beast in that video.
Speaker 1:Yo, this is a different kind of beast where you are now and so it's a when you kind of partner with something like that, I always think that it would have been a worse performance.
Speaker 1:It had had I tried to do everything I could do right, because then it becomes about someone trying to outdo someone, or someone or Someone being insecure enough being insecure, they're gonna try and outdo someone. Yeah, so the second you step on stage with two featured people, it's about Collaboration. And the second that one steps over that, to me like you know how to help those verses, things like sometimes if people are singing together, you're comparing, whatever. Sure, the second you step over it you lose. Yes, you know, I mean well said, because because then again, if you have more, then you should treat it like a Pressure cooker and then you get to give as much as you have. People feel it, but they know that you're keeping it going wild at a certain peak. Yeah, you know, you're not just being boring or doing less of yourself, you're doing the same amount of yourself in a smaller container.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had a moment as a kid you, you, you, you're aware of this, and where I was it was right before my 21st birthday, it was about about, I want to say, a week before, and I was out Hammered, just just being done. It's like how were you drinking when you weren't 21? Yet? This is sidebar. We're at a Hooters Christmas party, if. But the.
Speaker 3:The funny thing is we had done some Drugs in the bathroom, we had gone out, smoked a joint, we had, we had I was already drinking a bunch of Long Island ice teas and you know, the drugs that we I took taken at the time was was, you know, some hallucinogenics, and I had no business behind a wheel. I had no business behind a wheel, but we had a place where we had a kind of an after-party setup. That was a couple of miles away From where the party was and I was driving to that. I went the wrong way down a one-way street, I got pulled over by cops. I had an ounce of weed in the dash like, and you know, they handcuffed me, put me in the back of the car but then walked me to where the the party was and basically they let me go and I remember I was coming on my my acid trip and I remember coming through the door and being like they were like Don't ever fucking do this again, don't ever let us see you do this again. And this is a.
Speaker 3:This is a early birthday present from the Tampa Police Department, right, and I, you know it was. It shook me to the core and everything. But that wasn't even something until George Floyd and some of the conversations you and I had after that, to where I actually Got a chance to sort of go back to that moment and realize If I would have gone to jail in that moment, my life would have changed. I was, you know, and you don't get out of the system and if my face would have looked, you know, a different color than it did I, probably I would have been arrested, you know, especially in Florida, there, and it it's something. Did you ever have? What's your first experience? Yeah, you're lucky, but did you? Where was the first place where you kind of felt a different? You know, chris Rock has this thing where, even when he's driving Anywhere he's like, even though he's Chris Rock, it's, it's fucking if he's driving in a red state or something like that.
Speaker 3:He's on full alert. Did you ever have like a moment where you were like, oh, my white friends or whatever are treated differently than you know by the police?
Speaker 1:Yeah but I guess my guess would be that those stories are told enough. So I think, in a way, to deliver a unique kind of story for me, I was the one. If I'm with my black friends and we get stopped, I'm pushed forward to be the person that speaks. Yeah, you know, you and I even have a mutual friend. You know he and his brother and myself we were coming out of Seventh Veil strip club and you know he got stopped and thrown against the wall and you know he was demeaned and I had to speak to the cops and this guy is one of the toughest people I know, one of the biggest guys. I know he's hands up against the wall, pants pulled down them, searching him. We weren't doing anything, by the way, and you know, and because of the fact that you know again in quotes, you know I might have that HN kind of personality. If you haven't been paying attention or you've just jumped on, that means house nigga Because I was in that kind of category. I knew what to say, I knew how to get the cops out of it and I you think that I speak correctly regularly. When I started speaking to his cops, I didn't speak correctly. I spoke white. Oh word, yeah. And so I was giving them all that.
Speaker 1:But I experienced it. I mean, I've experienced it. Besides that, you know, my father was incarcerated when he was, like when I was young, and it's because he was because for a reason that he stood up for my mom. And you know, because my mom was being harassed I mean not really harassed, literally just whistled at and my dad, that hurt my dad's pride so much that he beat someone to almost a pulp no, to a pulp, but there was still a heartbeat, so it wasn't murder. And so, again, he was defending his wife, and if a white person was defending their wife, it would be, you know, defending someone's honor. And you know, let's talk about that. And no, you don't have to go to jail. So I have had experiences like that.
Speaker 1:I mean, we shared that story oh, no, no I just remembered one when I was seven, you know, when I was 11 years old I used to go to I was already doing commercials and stuff and I lived in Moncler, new Jersey, but I would take the bus by myself to New York City. So I had to go to New York City for a costume fitting for a commercial Think it was like Capri Sun or something and I was walking down the street and I got thrown in the back of like the paddy wagon with all the kids that were playing hooky. So I got thrown in, obviously because I'm black. I was like don't you see this Izod Lacoste shirt? I've got on, you know, this pink Izod Lacoste, these tan chinos and these pain lovers, like I'm not cutting stuff I got stopped.
Speaker 1:Right, but they didn't look past my neck, yeah, yeah. And so they threw me in the paddy wagon. Of course I get thrown in the paddy wagon and it's only other black kids, so when I get inside that van, they know I'm white.
Speaker 1:The black kids so then I'm in the back of this paddy wagon and they're ripping into me and of course they're calling me faggot and white.
Speaker 1:And oh, look at you, I'm literally crying and I'm in the back of this thing and I'm thinking like I can't say to these people I'm filming a commercial, so I'm just keeping my mouth quiet. The police precincts, we go there and they call my school and they find out that I'm not black and then they found out that I wasn't playing hooky and then he just let me out of the precinct. They didn't take me back to where I was. They didn't take me to take the 11 year old back to where they picked him up. But again, if that was a situation where a police would have taken care, was trying to reprimand any white kid, it found out that they were not correct, they were in the wrong, that they would make sure that their parents wouldn't have heard that the police let them go at the police station, that kid would have been brought back, if not, to where they picked him up, where he was going to.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean. They just let me out on the street, and so that was a situation where I definitely knew being black was making me feel different, but as an adult I didn't think about it that much.
Speaker 3:It's funny we have the same story and the result is exactly as you say. One of my earliest memories was a guy hitting on my mom my mom's Cuban and younger like it was a Cuban restaurant we were in and my dad wasn't having it and assaulted a guy and it was definitely a different. It's a different situation If he would have been, if my dad would have been black, I'm sure he would have been incarcerated like your dad was. And it's one of those things where here we are in the 2023, about to be going into 24, and it still.
Speaker 3:I kind of ask myself, like what can be done, you know, other than trying to figure out where are the role models right In the communities where it has become? You know sports figures and things like that, and so you have great, great models like your LeBron James and you know you can go down the list. But in places where you know well, I take that back they throw their money around. Oprah throws her money around to help people and things like that same with LeBron and stuff. But where are the sort of civic leaders? Because when it came up, you know, sort of before we were born, they would just kill the civic leaders right, they would just get them out of the way, the ones that would kind of show the way on how to sort of rebuild the family structure in black and brown communities.
Speaker 3:And that's the place where I feel like it's an economic issue as much as it is, you know, sort of cultural or anything else. But you know, I do believe and we've lived it and you've shown it to me, art can be one of those ways that can kind of seep through in a way that is empowering. And you know, one of the areas that was new to me was the hypersexualization of black and brown women. Now, growing up in like a primarily or around a Latin neighborhood, it was kind of the same thing with the women. I remember the girls would just be so early, would be pregnant so early, and then when we moved to Tampa or when we got set in Tampa, you realize that that was. We were in more of a suburb environment and it was a lot less. But the hypersexuality of the children feels like. Do you think that's an extension of not having the father figure there or a strong family unit, or is it just sort of the culture and the way that are advertising and things like?
Speaker 1:that are now. I haven't done a statistic search about it, but I mean, I guess it's a lot of different things. I don't know where it lies, as far as you know, looking at a graph about it. But I know a lot of times it's also because of social media now. So yes, it could be a home thing, but anytime a kid turns on their computer, yeah, you know they're gonna.
Speaker 1:They're gonna, especially women, girls at that time they're gonna see, they're gonna dream about how life could be as they get older and if there's them, if there's a makeup shop, if there's a Bra shop, if there's a way to wear a tighter skirt, they're gonna see that and they're gonna try and go to that shop of that store and Immulate it. You know, like we watch so often those movies like with our TV shows, or the woman comes down the steps, the girl comes down the steps and the father's like, no, you're not. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. I put in real life. You know. I think what really happened is most kids are smart enough. They're not gonna come down the steps like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah you're gonna have something in their bag. Yep, yeah, and they can do that change when they get out of the door, so there's no way to really stop them from doing it. And now, of course, the difference is Kids get to watch porno. Yeah, it used to be that you couldn't find it. You can find that everywhere on the internet. So the women and the guys, and Everything in between the women and the guys, you're gonna you're gonna try and get to whatever is gonna make you feel the most adult or seeming like you know people will want you.
Speaker 3:They hit on this on the other episode, on on, like the situation, with like that, how back used to be with Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis marrying, you know, a 15 year old, 16 year old or? Mary and Mary and Joseph.
Speaker 1:Mary, they go really good, yeah, that's a whole thing. You know 13 and 42.
Speaker 3:Hey, hey, but, or R Kelly on how it was, like you know, and and the, the trope that he kind of threw around was, well, well, women back then, or even even now there there was a you know why wouldn't they want to be with an older guy, and stuff like that, and that's just awful. It's really awful, especially now because of so much pressure that's placed. I think that there there's a strong statistic I saw, which basically it's hockey sticks on the invention of the front-facing camera and Instagram Made the rise in female teen suicides. Just goes, shoot through the roof, right. And it's because of this, this sort of the Perception of the self-image, you know, and we, we have dear friends that have kids that are in that age range, that are dealing with it all the time and stuff.
Speaker 3:And you know, I, I kind of feel like, as we do what we do and and everything do it, was there ever a time I would? You don't have to get into anything you don't want to get into, but I know, you know that when you do, you remember sort of feeling hyper sexualized as a kid because you were, you had sass or you had style or you kind of. You know, you are, you were, you were bad ass from a very, very you know you're a bad ass out the gate. Your middle name's Nazareth, right, you know. But you and do you have a hyper sexualized moment where you realize that, oh, or if, and it wasn't you was it. You know Around you where you were, like, oh, the, that it was you know hyper.
Speaker 1:Well, again, there are all these things that go on the goat. You know, when people talk about subjects like this, you know you think about like did you don't have to be Jody Foster against a?
Speaker 2:While walking ball in a short skirt to be sexualized.
Speaker 1:I don't have that moment of doing anything to have anyone be attracted To me and think that it'd be cool. But just, that's just people's personalities. A predator, predators gotta be predators. Hey, you know, you know, but for me it was just really about proximity. Yeah, you know, yeah, you know, it's just you know who's the closest to the horniest person? You know, there's eyes. They're eyes closed, they just reaching over. Yeah, yeah you know, I think yeah, Um and so important yes it's like it's not.
Speaker 1:I mean, yes, you can sexualize Yourself as a kid and just because you're excited about a celebrity, maybe you want to be like, so you dress a certain way and then maybe that's gonna lure people on. But that's gonna lure in, you know, the punks. Yeah, it's gonna lure in the amateurs. Yeah, the professionals are the ones that are gonna be like it's good, like the priest that's going to lure in the person that's not dressed sexually. They're in church, they're the kid there, they're so advanced, that kind of predator. Yeah, that it's not about being sexualized. They're gonna go with the person that seems to least sexualize because for them that's that's clean, that's that's blank canvas yeah, right, you know that's like that's, that's that's whatever their demonic mind thinks. It gets off more on, hmm, on something that is, you know, pure snow. Yeah, fertile soil, not fertile soil yeah, dry, flat soil, yes, you know because you're right, it's um, which is which is crazy.
Speaker 1:So for me, my you know again, it wasn't about being some young kid. That was exciting and sassy because I was still shy, I was still the smallest kid in the classroom and even though I was already a professional actor.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Um, I didn't wear that around, you know, when I was around, I had to to not be that way in order to not get beat up by the people that Were bigger than me and tougher than me, that would be insecure by the fact that I was making dollars already. Yeah, you know. You know they're gonna find a way to be mad. No, no, no, you know they're not gonna find a way to be mad, they're already mad. They're gonna find a way to torture you. So I didn't flaunt mine at all. So, you know, I was kind of like prime. Yeah, yeah, there's a predator around. You know, I'm the one they go find. Yeah, because I'm the one that seems like an angel, mm-hmm, and for them it's, it's, it's. It's sexier to destroy an angel than it is to destroy a little devil.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, a fair point. That fair point. I, you know, I the song on hand and every every time I see it I have, I have a lot of trouble, even just just because you mean so much to me and it's it's. It's always even hard to go through and at the same time I know you use that as catharsis and so you know we're gonna put a link to the record and let inside the show notes and Stuff. That way people can kind of check it out on their own. But I, you know, I applaud you on your way on the journey as far as how you synthesize things into, into Productive and creative and positive.
Speaker 1:You know things and again, again, because maybe this is a unique perspective on it my superpower being able to synthesize and To see the cup as half empty rather than there's half full rather than half empty it is a huge. It's been a huge thing for me because it's it's allowed me to be successful early. It's allowed me to be surrounded by great people. It's allowed me to be the kind of person that can be optimistic and and spread that and teach that and Radiate that, but also, at the same time, the fact that I haven't carried some of the anger from some of the things that I had as a kid. It's made me feel a little bit like ignorance is bliss, like maybe so much of my joy and so much of my unique Optimistic energy is because I've blocked something out, mm-hmm, and so I'm not going to do. You think?
Speaker 3:that's a path I actually. I'm actually Appreciating the ability to do that nowadays in a way that is not Not oh no, no, I'm paying attention something doesn't need to be paid attention to, but I'm not letting an energy in at a time that I am not fully prepared. How?
Speaker 1:to. I think it's different as we get older opposed to during your formative years, because it happens during your formative years.
Speaker 1:Then you know, like you just sweep stuff under a carpet. Yeah, emotionally and mentally, yeah. So, yes, in my life, now I do that. I almost even come, cuz I'm already tired of dealing with you. No, no, but like in my life, I do that, but that's now. Yeah, back then you, I, you know.
Speaker 1:No, I see, what I want to say is I can't think of it as a negative thing. I just know that it happened because without it I might not be in California, I might not be sitting behind this mic right now, I might not, you know, look like this. No, but all those things that have brought me to I am. I don't want to say that I want to poo poo the idea that I've been an endure you know what I mean or that my resilience is like a trampoline, but I think it's made me miss some important things and I'm glad that I have an awareness right now in my life that I don't even I'm not even angry at myself.
Speaker 1:I said I feel good, but I don't feel angry at myself. I just know that I don't have a whole lot of life to live, not double the life that I've lived. So I'm more eager to get the real answers. So it doesn't make me upset or angry, it makes me eager. You know, I chomp at the bits to find the information that I've been negating all my life and figure out how to use that now. And so everything feels new to me the way I choose clothes, the colors, the fact that I want to wear as many colors as possible, the idea that I can sing differently, the idea that you know that I can write differently, that I can sing songs, like the meaning of songs that I've sung all my life. They mean something different. Now, like you know, I'm sad. I'm singing respect for something, and just the I read the lyrics and sing lyrics. It all means something different to me as the person that's choosing to dive in to the hurt that comes in the adultification of African Americans.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you again for trusting me here and anyone you know. Another part of this is you're not alone, and Maya and I, when we talked about this and Maya, you know, brought this, this, the idea for these two shows to me. We wanted to make sure that people know they're not alone, and you brought up a great point about how your formative years are. A lot to everything is, you know, sort of happening to you, and as you get older, you realize everything's happening for me and the difference and so for you know, anyone, anyone that kind of feels lost out there.
Speaker 3:We, you know the, we're going to put the information for the Boys and Girls Club of America and for the Los Angeles Urban League, both of which are sort of resources, on ways that you know can help people in inner cities and people of color, children of color and things like that. And, you know, before we get out of here, just to kind of lighten it up as well, I like and this is this is interesting to me because it's a dumb game, but it's really cool you pick two cards you get to. You have to answer one of them, though.
Speaker 1:Okay, but why don't we answer it under the? Under the umbrella and and of of somebody else no of. African American adultification.
Speaker 3:Okay, I love it. Am I now? Am I? The just is going to be a matriarch.
Speaker 1:You have to answer it honestly and include adultification in it.
Speaker 3:I love this. I love this. Okay, so go ahead, choose one. As an African American you can't choose first you?
Speaker 1:can pass. I'm going to. I'm going to feel like I get in the order Great. So, this one is do you let?
Speaker 3:little things get in the way of the big things, that's, that's a. That's a, that's a softball. I feel like that one's too easy.
Speaker 1:No, it's not. Yeah, because you got to do adultification. All right, cool.
Speaker 3:So the way, the way that you, that I do not let the little things get in the way of the big things is is don't grow up too fast, right Don't? Is because you need to give yourself time to figure things out, and I slow down, slow down too fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Feeling groovy the NDI re that happened to be Simon.
Speaker 3:Garfunkel, there's the NDI re one too. It's slow down, baby, you're going too fast. Anyway, she was just ripped them off. Yeah, she might have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right, we should look at it, but as as she's taking it back all the stuff the white people took from black people.
Speaker 3:Hey, you don't do what you got to do. But so yeah, I would say, don't, I don't anymore. I work really hard not to let any kind of the small things get in the way of the big things, and that's because I don't. I learned from the adultification of other kids and I don't want to be that perfect.
Speaker 1:My question is what do you have a? Oh, first of all, there's no question about this I need my glasses. What do you love about your hometown?
Speaker 3:That's as an adultification from a perspective.
Speaker 1:Yeah yes, I do this right. Yeah, then can, we can just keep it. So let me see what do I love about my hometown? What I've learned is because of my hometown. It saved me from a lot of the heaviness that a lot of African Americans go through in the process of adultification. But what I? I love it for that reason. But it's a love hate relationship because also hate the fact that it visor'd a lot of the things that if I'd seen them shining as bright as they did, I might have dealt with some of the things I'm doing with it right now a lot sooner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, fair, fair. Mr Ty Taylor, thank you so much for coming down, thank you for being here it is and thank you for trusting me around this topic. I appreciate it and I look forward to all the future synthesis that is to come and sort of taking these things and weaving them into good for people and continue to do it. So thank you again for being here. Thank you, yeah.
Speaker 2:Slat the Power is written and produced by Rick Fari-Odill and Maya Sykes, associate producer Rikori audio and visual engineering and studio facilities provided by Slap Studios LA with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art, slat the Network. If you have any ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or if you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slap the powercom.