Tractor Theory: Piloting at 36,000 Feet w/ Mr. Nobody - Ep. 46

What's good, fam — welcome back to Three for the Founders, where Brotherhood meets the breakdown.

Look, every now and then we get a guest who reminds us why we started this show in the first place. Today's that episode. We're sitting down with a man we're calling "Mr. Nobody" — an active commercial airline captain who's been flying since 1991, and who's choosing anonymity on purpose. Not because he's got something to hide, but because he wants you to judge the ideas, not the man. No race, no age, no resume flex — just the truth, standing on its own two feet. Real They Live energy, if you know the film.

And the timing on this one isn't an accident. We're recording this fresh off a stretch where the administration rolled back equal opportunity hiring protections by executive order, the Supreme Court cleared the runway for vote dilution against Black voters in Louisiana v. Callais, and ICE got the green light to use race in enforcement while colleges got told they can't use it in admissions. Sit with that contradiction for a second. Meanwhile, you've got a Sigma — Victor Glover, our fraternity brother — piloting Artemis II around the actual Moon. 252,000 miles. And somewhere in the middle of all that, some random commentator on the internet said the quiet part loud: "If I see a black pilot, I'm gonna be like, boy, I hope he's qualified."

So yeah. We needed to have this conversation.

Mr. Nobody takes us through it all — sixth-grade dreams of flying, a father who served in Vietnam and never made it past 27, gatekeeping that started before he could even drive a car, a military pipeline that tried to steer him into a missile silo instead of a cockpit, and a commercial aviation career where he's been "the only one" in nearly every room he's walked into. We get into the Tuskegee Airmen, the "tractor" metaphor for how status and insecurity drive race relations in this country, getting boxed in by a cop on a private airfield he legally owned, and what it actually feels like to be 6'2", 250 pounds, in a crisp uniform, knowing 200 passengers are sizing you up before you even say a word over the intercom.

This is a deep one, brothers and sisters. Grab something to sip on, settle in — Part 2 is already in the works. Let's get into it.

Thanks for joining us. Still got questions? Other things to say? Hit us up at Three for the Founders on Instagram, Facebook, or  YouTube and let us know. Til the next time...left on Founders...we out! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

So you know things have been a little janky. Uh I had to go and get a new job. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Don't be just we got time, we got time. Hey. So I am now the football coach for the Wakanda Football Club. Whoa. Just messing with y'all. Oh, dude.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Man, I was like. Dude, don't do that. First of all, first LeBron gets a grandkid, and then you. And then I get a new job.

SPEAKER_07 0:36

I was like, We're brothers. We're happy and we're singing and we're colored. Give me a hard one. All right, cut and print.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Beautiful guys. I don't like that.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

Welcome to Three for the Founders, where brotherhood meets the breakdown. We've been having these conversations for years. And now you are invited to join us. We'll say the things you are afraid to say and ask the questions you've always wanted to ask. Three brothers, all truth, no filters. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

We are Three for the Founders, a podcast hosted by three fraternity brothers who decided that the truth about America is too important to keep to ourselves. Every week we sit down to name the systems, trace the history, and follow the argument wherever it leads: race, power, education, faith, and what it actually means to be American. We are a historian, a mathematician, an equalizer, bound by brotherhood and committed to honesty. This is where brotherhood meets the breakdown. And so we want to let you know this is the most anticipated amongst us because we've been trying to schedule it for probably four or five months. Episode of Three for the Founders. Yes, sir. And so we titled it Flying While Black. Mr. Nobody has some experience with that. But why are we talking about this? Yeah. Racism is rearing its ugly head again in the United States in virulently violent ways. Donald Trump has officially said it's okay to discriminate when people are being hired for jobs by rescinding equal opportunity by executive order. The Supreme Court has said it's okay to discriminate against black people, diluting their votes and ignoring section two of the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana versus Calais, the Supreme Court decision doing that, was decided April 29th, 2026, which was about 30 days ago when we're recording this. And ICE is allowed to use race as a reason to attack and assault people, but colleges and universities are not allowed to use race in admissions, except. So beyond these moves back to the 1860s for the United States, three other things have come together, along with our guest, Mr. Nobody, to pique our interest in black pilots and their experiences in 2026. Charlie Kirk, you all remember him, he caught a bullet. If I see a black pilot, I'm gonna be like, boy, I hope he's qualified. Right. Famous quote. Brother Victor Glover of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., who is a United States astronaut, piloted NASA's Artemis II mission from April 1st to April 11th, excuse me, 2026. He drove a spaceship for 10 days, covering 252,756 miles around the moon, which is the furthest that human beings have ever flown in space. Yep. Without any further ado, I'm gonna let LeBron introduce Mr. Nobody.

SPEAKER_05 3:35

Yes. Yes, I'm so happy to have Mr. Nobody here on the show today. We've been through hell and high water together. And he's one of the most phenomenal, talented human beings on planet Earth, and probably one of the most humble. He will never toot his own horn. But, you know, if you can say who is a Renaissance man of the 21st century, Mr. Nobody is definitely a Renaissance man. He has a point of view that's unique, timely, and he's always looking to the North Star. What is the end goal? Not in this moment. So I'm pleased to have Mr. Nobody on our show. Let's give it up for Mr. Nobody.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 4:26

On the good on the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

Hi.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Well, two, so two questions. One, Mr. Nobody. Um you want us to, we can we can record right now, and then we could just put this in the vault for a year. Yeah, yeah. Or we could just put it out in audio, call you Mr. Nobody, and let you right talk. Here's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_04 4:55

I like the nobody aspect because it gives them it's like it's like the martial arts. They don't know which way you're coming. They don't know if you're coming left or right, up or down. It's like, okay, so here's this here's these thoughts, but they can't say, oh, it's because he's this. You know, we he's doing saying that because he's this guy. Whereas if it's nobody, the thoughts speak for themselves.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

You see what I'm saying? Okay, now you you Ralph Ellison, you're the invisible man. I got you. I got you.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

So the knowledge, the knowledge speaks for itself. You can't say, oh, a black guy said that, or an old guy said that. You know, it's just the thoughts. So you have to process it without any other background knowledge. And you have to say, is that makes sense or not? So I like that element of it so that you know, kind of like distilled down to the pure elements.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Okay. So what do we call you?

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Uh Mr.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Nobody.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

Yeah, let's do Mr. Nobody, uh uh uh uh citizen of concern. Uh uh trip how movies uh that are supposed to be comedy and absolute fiction, you look at them now and say, wait a minute. That's kind of what's happening. Uh for the audience, there's this movie, uh it's like, I don't know, I think it was made on like $2 back in the day. It had Rowdy Roddy Piper called They Live. Got my man, I forgot the brother man acting with the big gap tube. He's always like the school principal or the damn janitor or something like that. He got the gap tee over talking like that. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. He's always like helping Rocky or something like that. He's that guy. I forgot his name.

SPEAKER_05 6:34

Oh, that dude, I know you're talking about, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

In this movie, it was done probably like 1983. It and the nerd hall of fame, it has the longest gratuitous fight scene in history. It's like it's in the goodest book of world record because it's so ridiculous. Anyway, the premise of the movie is that Roddy Roddy Piper's a regular dude. Some guy runs up, he's dying, he gives him these glasses, he says, put these on, and you'll know the difference, and something like that. He puts them on, the whole world's under mind control, and there's these alien things that are running the planet, and then you put the glasses on, it's it blocks the mind control, so you can see what's actually happening. The whole movie's a trip, and there's one part of the movie where uh he's running around, he's like, Oh, you look crazy, and then all of a sudden they realize that yo, we have one that can see. That's what I'm getting at.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

So when when they say they live 1988, the man, and there's Roddy Paper, Roddy Piper, Keith David. There it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Oh Keith David!

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yes, that my man is good.

SPEAKER_05 7:36

That movie was killing it too. The funny thing about Keith David, yeah, in 2015, I get a phone call from him. I'm like, huh? How'd you even get my number? Yeah. He says, I'm doing a movie and I need to know math. So I was he came to my house and I tutored him for like six months. What's that?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

LeBron, of course you did. What else are we gonna find out about you, tonight, LeBron? How many secret identities do you have?

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Don't ask. So uh, Mr. Nobody, uh, I have a few questions, but the first one is how long have you been piloting? How long have you been flying planes? Yeah, and what made you get into that profession? What made you get into that situation? Why are you a pilot?

SPEAKER_04 8:32

I was in the sixth grade. So you have to remember during that time you had the space race, that it was a puppet show about space, a lot of space stuff was happening back then. And uh you have to remember this was new, this is right after the Vietnam War. So um we had black and white TVs, and uh you would see TV only was on certain hours of the day, so they had to make it real exciting during that time. And I saw people ripping around these jet things. I said, that looks kind of cool. And uh, and then the other thing too, as a kid, you have to look towards your natural talents. My talent was some people can have the silver tongue they can speak on. My talent, I could operate any type of vehicle: dirt bike, snowboard, uh, BMX bike, skateboard. That was the thing that was my that was my little superpower, was making things uh go. And um then I found out that they got to have fun and have time off, and they paid pretty good. I said, Oh, that's my that's my gig. So that was sixth grade. But here's the trick. Sixth grade. So here's the trick, though. So my dad, which again, this is interesting, African-American man in America had no rights for anything, but they made him go to Vietnam. He went in and he uh he went in to, you know, they say pick your poison. You can either get drafted or you can choose your own path. So he went in, he went in to go be a dental tech, he wanted to go be a dentist. And uh, but they still, even at that, they still made you do a tour. So they sprayed it with Agent Orange. So he ended up getting brain cancer at 27, so he died. So I'm like two and a half. So I got my mom, we in San Francisco. Uh there's no network. That's another thing that's really critical. There's no network on how to do the biggest thing you had was Encyclopedia uh what Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica.

SPEAKER_07 10:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 10:25

I hope that that had some information. And during this time was interesting. I was a Boy Scout, I did all this stuff. Um, I had decided that I said this was like a great job. I should be able to do this. I'm like, hey, I'm in the sixth grade, I didn't know that there was uh uh ceilings for you know, this is a black job, this is uh whoever else type of job. So they let me know real early, even at that age, I didn't know what they were doing to me. There was an event at one of the Boy Scout things where they said, hey, we're gonna have a pilot come and tell you how to be a pilot. I walked to the door with my mom, because I got no dad now. I'm like, you know, at this point, I'm like in a fifth, sixth grade. We go to this thing, and they say, Oh no, you can't come in. And my mom's like, What are you talking about? No, no, this is uh, they give me some yon, you know, run around like, oh, they were they were gatekeeping the profession. So it's a little like, yeah, you can't come in. You know, this is only for our guys. I'm more we're watching other people just walk in freely. I'm like, well, wait a minute. So anyway, I remember that at the time, I said, Man, that's messed up. I don't understand that. Years later, I ended up at UCLA, uh, a school that we're familiar with. And uh again, nobody can tell me. Anyway, so it wasn't just in aviation, it was in everything in life that you were doing that you weren't supposed to be at.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

If you played that wasn't a black thing.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

If it's not a black thing, if you were at basketball, no problem. Uh you're doing some football, get your head knocked in, no problem. But if it was tennis, snowboard, skiing, uh, always hit pushback because they were guarding it. This is not for you. Anyway, I'm hard-hitted, so I kept at it. We had the uh, who's the people on campus that used to do the uh FSP? FSP, uh, there was a brother, man, he was real cool. I was like talking to people, they're like, how do you become a pilot? I don't know. They didn't go to the Air Force. So you guys will probably know this. I was in the Air Force while we were in uh while we were in school. Like I was.

SPEAKER_05 12:19

Oh, that's right. You were in the Air Force.

SPEAKER_04 12:20

ROTC. Most people didn't even know that. Yeah, I was in the ROTC. So every summer I had to go away to camp and stuff. I did that for four years, and then when I got out, uh again, they were gatekeeping, they gave the gig to the general's kid. They only have one spot.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

So we uh hold on. I just need to be clear because I don't understand quite. Yeah. So at the end of my understanding of ROTC, the reserved officers' training corps, is that you they help pay for school, and then you're supposed to do four years after that. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_04 12:53

No, it depends on what you get. So in my case, um they would have paid for school, but since my dad died as a military person, the school was covered under the uh GI bill, something like that. The tuition anyway, long story short, what's supposed to happen is you go through, you get out, and they give you a billet. So mine was supposed to be pilot. Uh they don't but they give you what again you learn about the military very quickly, they give you what they want to give you. So uh after that, they wanted to give me a missileer. What's that? I said, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Is that the one where you go sit in the hole, just like you and one other dude, and you like are in charge of pushing the button if something happens? That's that's the job.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

Yeah. So those jobs suck. Yes, exactly. So I said no, thank you. And then uh and then I had known the guys from the Navy, so I went over to the Navy. And I ended up going to the Navy. Same, same type of thing. Uh they said you're supposed to go off fly, etc., blah, blah, blah. Uh, but just kind of a quick again, a quick picture. Each of these steps is because they're gatekeeping. The society, I'm not trying to go too deep in all in one episode, but I look at the whole history and uh I can't remember the exact term, but it's like a resident alien. It's like you you live in the country, but you're not of the country. Like Muhammad Ali said in his famous quote, the one I love, is that he says, I I went out and won a gold medal for this country, and I can't even get a cup of coffee in my hometown. During the summer, I would go when I was younger, I would go to Mississippi, Alabama, is where my folks are from. I got to be right up in old country. Like I still saw that even though the laws had changed, they hadn't taken down the side, colored. They hadn't taken them down. And uh it was I was in Mobile, Alabama, in a place called Stateline, Mississippi. It was a trip because you got this system of mutual understanding and functionality without being satisfied. And my grandfather, the big thing down south is to have a tractor. So the man got John Deere. Man didn't do something or another. He had a knockoff, he had a T-Mu tractor, and uh it was the weirdest thing because as a kid, I'm like, you know, I'm like between the ages of six through 10, 12, you know, every summer I would go down there for three months, and it was like this weird, easy to understand. They pull up to each other and they stop and they acknowledge each other. His tractor's higher. As long as that dynamic was maintained, everything was good. You know, they nodded each other and they would move on. If you got out of pocket, they've got sideways. So uh I've always kept that you know, kind of like a third eye, as they say. Anyway, long story short, um going back to the flying thing, uh so part one is I said I'd like to do it, I don't know how to. Part two was there was a lot of gatekeeping on how to get there. Part three was trying to navigate the constant pitfalls of people telling you that this ain't the job for you. Like I look at again the Tuskegee Airmen, I was lucky to meet them back in the day. And I look at them, I said, Man, these guys were sharp. They were the most deadly pilots of the war. But no matter what they did, when they got back, they still got the sign that said, colors only. They still got the sign that said, Um, you know, this ain't for you.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

So hold on, Mr. Nobody. Yes. Just for those who don't know, the Tuskegee Airmen were the black pilots who flew in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. And just like uh Mr. Nobody has talked about gatekeeping, like they had to go through extensive extra training and extensive extra testing and extensive racism and white supremacy, even to be able to fly. Yes. And they if if you haven't seen uh HBO's fantastic depiction starring Lawrence Fishburne and Alan Payne and Courtney Vance, um, called the Tuskegee Airmen. When you have some time and you want to learn something and you want to be entertained at the same time, the Tuskegee Airmen is an amazing movie, and those are the people that Cat Mr. Nobody is telling us about right now. So these are the people that he's met in his career.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

To meet them in person is uh it was amazing. At the time I met them, I guess they were probably in their late 70s, early 80s. This was, I don't know. I've been flying since 1991. So how many years is that? And it's 2026. So 35? Been a minute.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

Mr. Nobody, yeah, hold on for one second because um I have to share this because we we've known each other for so long, but I never heard that story. That your life was pivotal in the sixth grade, because that's when my life changed in the sixth grade, when my father told me I had to be a mathematician after my father did two tours in Vietnam. Yep. But you know, yeah, exactly. You already know. And so the gatekeeping is not ringing the bell with me, and I'm like, yeah, it's had this weird emotion, like we shared an experience that I didn't know we shared because and you said later in the math department, they were gatekeeping with me. Yes. You I went to Professor for Help, he said, you know what? Maybe you're not smart enough to be a mathematician. Why don't you change your major or something else? So all those gatekeeping things you're sharing are resonating with me. So I just want to acknowledge that, but go ahead, keep going, Mr. Nobody.

SPEAKER_04 18:57

There's so many other aspects that we'll get into. For instance, me, my particular situation, I'm trying to be a pilot. I'm 6'2, 250 pounds black guy. I'm supposed to be playing football. To this day, I can't walk no place without who you used to play for. But it's like, so I can't be the pilot. I gotta be out here busting my head for your entertainment. So I got a double women gatekeeping. I got the gatekeeping because this ain't the job for you, but this one is, and why aren't you there? I went to all boys' private school in San Francisco. That was like college prep, we know how to use to back in the day. I was one of the 800 kids at the school, 20 kids in class, five, two from Africa.

SPEAKER_05 19:42

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

So the coach of the team was pissed off at me because I didn't play football. He's like, no, the only way you don't go is if you play football. So he's pissed off that um now. So forget about still, I'm still trying to figure out to be a pilot, but I got these other people not only pushing back on the flying thing, but also pushing back that you need to be doing sports. They refused to give me a letter of recommendation because I didn't play sports. Wow. And my GPA 38 something. But I needed this letter. He said, because you didn't play sports, I'm not gonna write you a letter. My friend who had a 1.9, a person with blonde hair, got his letter no problem. You're not gonna give me a letter of recommendation because I didn't go out there and chomp and sambo for you on the field. So now you're gonna try to again cut me off. And again, you have to remember for pilots, especially back then, you have to have a four-year degree. So if he's chopping me off here, I'm not gonna make it to part B. Despite my age, I was at a store and I had a woman swear that I played for the Seahawks, and she was mad at me because I wouldn't sign an autograph for her.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

I'd like to state for the record that has never happened to me.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

Okay, I'm just at the store trying to buy a drink, and this woman's sitting there having the, she's like cussing me out. I don't play for the Seahawks, man. You just told me if you don't want to sign it, that's fine. I'm like, wow. So now you're a liar. Yeah, now I'm a liar. Now you're a liar.

SPEAKER_05 21:04

Now I'm a liar. I'm like, you should have said, you should have said, bitch, I'll sign your boarding pass though.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

But this is but this is this is the this is the problem when you get in the this is the sad part, man. This is the sad part. Your dad dealt with it too. He came back and he still couldn't go to Woolworths and get a cup of coffee, but they could send his ass to go fight.

SPEAKER_07 21:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Um, I'm gonna go back to the story super quick. It just kind of frame everything. Uh I feel well traveled globally, and I feel, again, well-versed history-wise. I've looked at everyone's religions, cultures, history, background type of thing. And I feel that America, for some reason, is specifically unique in this quality. Um I likes to say, oh, other countries had this and other countries had that. They did, but it was never the same as it was here. I don't have a grasp on this, but someone likes to work on it. understanding how the US is so different than all the other places on the planet that you can go to war for this place and come back and still not be enough. Yeah. American race is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

It's unique. It is unique.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

It's not oh it's and I and I very much don't have the recognition. Exactly. All the way back, I went to the Navy, I did the Navy thing. I ran into a bunch of the same type of stuff, this weird camaraderie thing. I got my option to get out, I got out. And I'm glad I did because it allowed me to get my schedule going like I wanted because uh the airline thing is based on timing. When you get in uh it's like a riding a wave you got to ride it all the way to shore. So if you miss a wave you're just out there in the water floating like a lot of guys they miss the hiring wave and they just you know they never make it. Being a pilot surfing metaphors and um anyway kind of the same thing with aviation you have World War II you have Vietnam because all the pilots came out of the military back in the day. Vietnam and then the Gulf. So you gotta if you don't catch one of those slots good luck you know you gotta be current are you flying right now if you say I used to fly they say well you used to be inside this room go bye you're done so again it's timing. So I'm gonna put the the back of the book in the front here's my overall rapping synopsis America has never dealt with this original sin of creation and as a result you'll never be right until you figure out the the the until you uh reconcile your original foundation and a country apparently appears to not want to acknowledge that underlying um transgression I guess you would call it right so because of that kind of like the old school until you do right by me I just think I come everything you do gonna be wrong. I'm gonna wrap it up out the Navy no jobs engineering again I'm waiting on my slot I'm just like I'm on I'm the surfer I'm waiting on the wave to break when the wave comes hit it boom got in and then constant gatekeeping I mean that's a trip man because the dudes will smile in your face and turn around and do dirty on you. Last thing because they teach you bad when you're doing this like the military you're sharing a room everyone's bunked up these dudes three dudes that weren't like me took the wake up call this is before cell phones this is before your own phone alarm they took the wake up call and purposely let me sleep so I'd show up late to class and they said if you miss class you're out of the program. Oh man sabotage they and they did this on they snuck out purposely they had a meeting the night before to be like okay we just gonna get out it's gonna be funny we're just gonna sneak out and leave them up in there asleep and then blah blah blah. So I'm waiting on alarm oh because they had the the that's that when you said to get a wake up call on the phone. I'm waiting on the wake up call I'm like man I don't know so I finally wake up I said oh hell no I look at the place I'm by myself so these other three dudes got up and left left me in their sleeping knowing that they said the next day if you miss any part of the class uh you are out of the pro you're you know you're you're done so I I I still had my gangster piece so I walked in and uh I had to punk everybody because else I would have lost my gig I walked in old school you used to get that finger put on people's forehead yes and the guy at me like uh mr mister's nobody you're late you know you know what we said I said no no no hold up a second hold up if I'm going let me tell you who else is going I walked up I went on each of their forehead like I was pledging them this one this one I just all going too I took his chair I threw his chair out I said if I'm going they're going too I said I told I told the instructor dude I said he was lost on guy that didn't look like me he said um uh these guys took the phone you could you could you could say they white it's okay that's where they oh yeah yeah I come and very southern type they uh I punked I said I said if I'm leaving they leave it too they took the phone call and intentionally left me in the room and the guy the the instructor guy I felt was not being raised he looked at them was like really dudes because he knew he knew because that was his culture he knew what they were doing and all three of them just sat there looking stupid you know he's like you know sit down sit down we're fine but my point is it's stuff like that always always always uh that makes me think about a question Mr.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Nobody so in that room you're the only black dude absolutely then there's another room once you're like now you're initiated now you're doing this training and getting the hours that you're talking about. So through the training process in becoming a pilot it's safe to say almost every single room you were in almost every now almost every every every every um the other thing I did I'm I'm leaving out some of the details so again remember I told you I had to say current when I was at I did engineering so I was able to get an engineering good job back in the day I'm in San Jose I'm working in San Jose I'm making pretty good money I'm able to you know slide through I bought an airplane I fixed it up so that I could fly it I used to see how you threw that in John that was that was smooth the snail I was sliding by yeah yeah normally that means you know I was able to pay my rent nobody said I bought a plane you bought an airplane back in the day yes you did but back in the day all right we used to fly to Mexico all the time yeah I used to get around a little airplane how you gonna get pulled over by the highway patrol in an airplane but I don't know how you go get pulled over by the highway patrol in an airplane this is what I'm talking about it it's a trip are you a resident alien when you're out of your lane every so you go back to your question how many days every day how about that every day I'm flying this airplane that's my airplane with my name on it I'm flying to an airport in northern California again it's not like I'm down south someplace you figure liberal California whatever I landed on this runway up in uh Clear Lake Northern California I can see the cop you know how we got that built in sense there's a road that goes along the airport which they usually do there's a highway patrol car one of them old school five O's I see him turn around and come back I said no I because my sense my spidey sense went off I said I know this fool's not gonna come over here and bother me right he's gonna come all the way back through through the fence he gonna drive and usually the airport's not just a trace child he got to wiggle and ziggle to get to the place he comes out on the field like in a 5-0 whipping it wow I'm like okay he rolls up and then and then he thinks he's slick uh okay so you guys know I did the martial art thing so I trained a lot of cops and work a lot of cops so I know their tactics right so he does like a slick blocking tactic he puts his car in a certain angle that is going to block the plane if I tried to hop in and take off so I see he's already coming in in an aggressive posture.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Right he comes up hey how you doing good nice day so uh there's an airplane he's sharp he's like three for three so far dead I'm like yeah sure is you know who the owner is I said you look at him here's the question he said oh there's your airplane I said okay I said look I saw you turn around on the freeway on the uh on the road over there so I saw you come back in here so I'm gonna cut to the case yes it's my airplane this is my paperwork uh you're not legally you have no authority on this field to be asking me anything because this is a it's a private field so you're not even supposed to be out here but it's my airplane if you've never seen a black guy fly before I also used to fly in the Navy what what what what what the guy was sitting there flying he he was he just couldn't believe that that he was seeing what your tractor was taller than his yeah my tractor was taller than his and again why you saw you saw John was taking a sip that was not nice LeBron you were on a spit take in your T MU 5-0 but I saw him I because like you know we got that sip I'm like he's gonna turn around oh my god so I honestly John to tell you I got stories every day yeah uh it doesn't to come up to the future um to the present again so I've flown in every part of the country I've been flown in different parts of the world it's the worst in America which is crazy other parts of the place is like okay here to this day before Charlie Kirk whatever um you know we got fret that's astronauts doesn't matter you're not in the box that you're supposed to be in and that's what it all boils down to. You know what I'm saying? I was like you know Sigma's in space.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

I'm sorry I will get a shirt here it is Sigma's in space uh next time you talk about Sigma's in space I'm gonna be like look man we gotta get this shirt going Sigma's in space it's there we go Sigma's in space people don't realize the level of scrutiny that you have to go through like uh every six month physical check zero physical uh frailties you gotta you know you always gotta be tight you can't you know like again y'all know I didn't I never drank I mixed them but I never drank them I have one question I have two questions that I really need to ask you is flying a plane like driving a car that's one okay hold on okay I'm listening and the second one can can you listen to the Three for the Founders podcast while you're flying or do you have to be paying direct attention at every second they keep re-engineering the airplane like I was just watching a lot of stuff we do is fail your analysis how did these guys die same thing you did in the military why are they dead don't do that that's the that's the that's the message why they're don't do that so that's what we do because here's the here's the real life for us I can't get health insurance I'm still classified as a high risk individual really you're kidding me hold up wait you don't have health insurance life insurance yes but health insurance health or life I have to use the union to get uh to get we have a union that provides our uh insurances because on the civilian market I even took I even went AGI they do like corporate CEO they say here's your policy they called me back on Monday said nah man no we're gonna get here's your money back we don't want you they turned me loose they gave me all my money pilots underwater welders yeah parachuters yeah it's a it's a considered to this day it's still considered a high risk profession so uh because if you mess up you ain't gonna get a chance to really do much about it so again I mean so in that way it's like a car AG they insured Michael Jackson and they wouldn't insure you can we ain't messing with you they said we ain't touching you right when I was asking the question I meant when you push back right yeah I know you when you take off that's a thing yeah you got to check your your vectors and your like I'm just making up words now yeah yeah you gotta check your vectors and your wind speed and all this stuff yeah but is there any moment in there where you as the pilot and I assume you have a pilot you have a co-pilot do you have a third not a not not anymore not not really anymore.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

If you do it on an international flight and they're not helping you per se they're just like a relief pilot so when you get in to go back and take a nap if the flight's real long.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Right. Yeah but you have to be paying attention when you're sitting in the pilot seat you can't be listening to a podcast or I don't just shoot here's why I'll tell you why again here's the other thing that's peculiar about us everything I do is not Mr.

SPEAKER_04 34:36

Nobody doing it it's the black guy doing it. Ah there it is so everywhere I go so always on always on and like one of the things that stress at the job you can't do nothing stupid out on the street because they won't say Joe did something stupid they'll say airline stupid they'll never separate you from the so you got number one you got the pressure of your position on you but then on top of that you're the black game pilot of which there's five percent one point I was people like what does that mean? So if I had a hundred dollars help me out LeBron am I right if I had a hundred dollars black pilots are a dollar and fifty cents that's it a dollar fifty the math is math so and again it's it's not because the skill set and whatever it's just opportunity circumstance and gatekeeping I mean again you know it's it's a it's a covenant thing and they keep it locked up for themselves and it's been like that ever since I was in the sixth grade. Yeah and to this day even to this day um the my funniest perversion is watching the heads look when I get on the plane to this day mommy mommy Ray Lewis is flying the plane what is the tight end from the Seattle Seahawks doing in the cockpit better oh I was walking the other day so the the the thing I do now is interesting man is a trip I guess celebrities do this too do you decide to engage or you just let it roll off yeah I'm walking and I'm oh looks like the pilot's out here so I guess it won't leave us well look he's a big guy too it looked like maybe you can play football if you're not flying the plane and I'm just sitting there they sit and like I can hear you.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

You're right here you know I do I just act like nothing and just I just ignore him or do I turn around and say something you should tackle him into a wall and be like yeah I haven't done that in a while but you see what I'm saying it so it's yes it's the only thing I know where they your judge so John back again not only you only one in the room you're the only one in the airport damn near yeah so and it's constantly that so you walk through the airport and you see the eyes staring at you you feel the he got them wings on got that nice shirt on the I mean he got it look good he's feeling that uniform like when I'm picturing you missing nobody I'm like that's the coolest guy in the whole place.

SPEAKER_04 37:14

It's got to be looking good you got but in your mind is all the voices that you've heard coming up coming up right you got to make it look good because otherwise even look at his pants all wrinkled what at the looking at what top of shirt is up man my shirt's always got the crispy on it it's got to be tight because I know there's 200 people when I'm getting on the airplane that are judging me.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

By the crease on your pants by the tilt of your hat I've seen some slubby pilots in the airport. You know it's kind of like seeing your kindergarten teacher at the grocery store you're like no you what are you doing here?

SPEAKER_05 37:46

Damn but I had a quick question too yeah so in terms of flying airplanes what because I I want listeners especially young people to to understand like that it's possible that it can be done. So what what careers would you say are comparable that they're familiar with comparable to flying and then which would you say are or it's more challenging than what type of career?

SPEAKER_04 38:12

Okay if that makes sense a couple part all right so Antonio let me go back I'm gonna hit I'm gonna go two part the part you're talking about listening to the podcast I don't because here's the problem when you're funny especially if you're a captain you be laughing while you're flying exactly this true but if you're the captain you're not just the captain you're the black captain so I can never ever be caught slipping ever so true there's rules that are in the book you have to also other other things we always say is think like a lawyer there's rules in the book that says you're not supposed to do that so if someone ever sees you doing that you've compromised yourself and you can't let you see you can never let your adversary see you weak. So that's number one number two you're playing the whole system through like when I take off I absolutely plan on winning and landing safely at destination Z. So I as I'm flying I'm counting okay that was grateful for that yes that was C so there's there's no gap in the middle no so right in my head I got the whole thing scripted out so it looks easy to me because like I'm doing it because I've been doing it for so long but the whole time I'm clicking my whole the whole seven hours I'm finally going to click click click click click click click so I'm expecting that at this point at two hours and 11 minutes the fuel light should go off. Boop okay that if that doesn't happen that triggers something else and then I'm also you're also monitoring the weather there's outside factors other aircraft you're only a thousand feet apart you're coming at each other head on that's too if you guys want me to I don't know that we should have had you on the dude when my Uber when my Uber my Uber says Ronaldo is a thousand feet away that's close dude 500 600 miles an hour head on with somebody and you just that you wave at each other like see ya trust that they're doing what they're supposed to do too everybody's got to be tight. Yes everybody's tight on the program everybody okay guys are tight we're all tight other otherwise you have issues so anyway so yeah you I don't do it because you know I just did a seven hour flight the other day I'm clicking the whole time I'm like okay at three hours I'm gonna have weather issues okay I got to tell the flights and sit down okay I got to figure out how to go around it without shaking everybody out of the seat okay I gotta not the airplane can break you have to not break the airplane why are you telling me these things Mr Nobody you asked the question I'm about to get on a plane on Thursday.

SPEAKER_05 40:38

Hey see Antonio that's the difference between talking to a white pilot and talking to a black pilot no bike goddamn white pilot you know we we have a little turbulence it's taken your ass down all right Mr.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

Nobody look man we want to hear all the deep stuff but uh you have to you have to humor us because we just have like simple little questions about flying and one of them is the pilot's voice. Yeah yeah first of all do you have to do they train you to talk a certain way because it sounds like every pilot sounds exactly the same. Yep and I can't understand a word you say when we're like two or three hours on the fly you're like I just want to let you know thank you. Is that on purpose?

SPEAKER_04 41:21

Here's what's happening everybody on planet earth has agreed because people that speak English set the rules that you have to have a certain tone and cadence so that you can understand each other. So the Japan airline guy speaks in English the France Air France guy has to speak in English you're talking to each other so by taking that inflection it removes everyone's individual accent. So the French guy the style guy whatever we all kind of got that same monotone thing and we're talking super fast.

SPEAKER_05 41:57

Like because again imagine there's 500 airplanes in a sector you're all talking on a party line how big is a sector it's not that big you're quote you said 500 planes on a party line I'm like I remember that from the 90s that was hard to do everybody's on the party line so you have to be like Roger that you know number 251 go here.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

It's got to be quick quick quick quick you ain't got to hey how's it going you know hey man how you doing man all the act yo man down south man no accents all the accents gotta be drowned just the Roger Lilt you get this monotone you start abbreviating stuff like I'll you start abbreviate like you know you know airline 251 and 350 that's it boom that's just quick he doesn't business you just said something to somebody yeah and and but again everybody can hear me say it too so we all hear each other right we all hear each other at the same time so the I hear the Air France guy you hear that and then you're listening to multiple radios I got like three radios going at the same time so I but they're not hearing you tell the stewardesses to sit down.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

No not unless you mess up and talk on the radio instead of the PA which on the PA you'd be like the PA's in the Hi this is your captain Mr Nobody thank you for joining us on Three for the Founders where I am making you uncomfortable by telling you the truth the plane can break but please try to relax have a seat enjoy Regina she's the chart in charge of the crew tonight but here's one example again the thing a lot of stuff is messed up as a pilot you're like dang I hope that doesn't happen to me those guys at uh UPS the other day they took off and the engine came off the plane don't the engine came off don't John look it up real quick don't they ground it up the John look it up real quick I mean it knows your propensity where did I put that engine I know I had it just face it it was just here

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Drop it? What happened? I got the video from the airport, the surveillance. And uh Louisville, Kentucky, I flown in that airport probably a thousand times. Wow. So anyway, these are things that five days ago. Things you can't control and things you can't control.

unknown 44:17

My god.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:18

I mean, that's that's like that's but but what I'm hearing you say is yes, we kind of all is it official? Do you or do they talk to you when they're training you to be a pilot? Hey, you gotta talk a certain way. Yeah. Or does that just happen because oh, they train you?

SPEAKER_04 44:30

It's it says you gotta stop all that gibberish. You can't be, you gotta make it quick.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

So you can't do LeBron Samuel L. Jackson thing as a pilot.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

Don't be don't don't be clowning, we ain't got time for that. You know, there's there's 500 other people trying to get a word in here, and sometimes it's it's time critical. Like uh, I need to make something change right now. You up here flapping your lips, we ain't got time for that.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

So But even like you say, even in the cadence, there's a way to talk to the passengers that makes them feel a certain way. And there's a daily show comedy sketch about this where, like, like, oh, do you want are you a white person who's racist and you don't like black pilots? We have like they have a guy stand in and do the announcement like a super white dude.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

Yep, like it's still one of my funniest movies, a soul plane still.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

Of course. Any plane supplies a soul plane, bro. You know this.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

So then I gotta ask you, yeah, how did you feel about flight?

SPEAKER_04 45:25

That was a silly movie because I uh I to this day I still get called Denzel.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

Well, yeah. Compliment. I mean, we have a Denzel theme going through here. I mean, he wasn't in centers, and that's as bad.

SPEAKER_04 45:39

That's what I get.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

I hope he wasn't, I hope he's not Denzel. See, and then they got a bullshit on you. It's not even that they're calling you Denzel, they're saying, Oh, I hope the black pilot's not drunk.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

Drunk, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

Exactly. Ain't that? So I get that, man.

SPEAKER_04 45:56

I saw that movie, I said, this is stupid. First of all, there's too much fake stuff going on. I've flown that airplane that they've they show in the movies, the MD80. Um the thing I don't, I heard a comedian make an interesting point about this. He said, if you want to be black and get an Oscar, you got to have some strife and turmoil that is not realistic in your life. You got to be a runaway slave, or you got to be a mammy that made it, or a drugie that got over it. Or a white person has to save you. Like uh, you know, every teacher movie, you know, White Shadow, the other one, Michelle Pfeiffer.

SPEAKER_05 46:36

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_04 46:37

Or Blindside. Blindside.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Black people have beds.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

We have beds. Newslash. We fly planes.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

That was a good pull.

SPEAKER_04 46:50

He ain't never had no bed. And the one that to this day, is he dead? I think Clark Duncan Duncan, the Green Ball.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Oh, Green Mile. I'm sensing a theme here that these are all black and large black men that you have been called at some point in your life or career.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

You're good at me, boss. And why do they think black people magic?

SPEAKER_00 47:20

John Coffey.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Yeah, but we are. No, let's be real. Because we are.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

You are. How are you gonna shhh? Give him the meat, boss.

SPEAKER_04 47:31

I watched, I watched this, I couldn't even put my mind to this low level to watch this movie. I saw the excerpt. This fool said, Can you leave the lights on? I'm scared of the dark. He 500 pounds. Talking about you scared of the dark. So anyway, this this same kind of demp is them.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_04 47:59

But they so when you see the Giselle thing, what's he doing? He's oversexed, he's high, he's disheveled, he's got family trauma in the background. Most black parts I know, they're great. They're living great, man. They they got a cool wife, they happy as pie. They ain't got no crazy drama in the background, but they wanted this perception of constantly having something wrong if you're a black person, is is uh is a detriment.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Uh see, and that's why we're taking a left turn into Denzel's movie career right now. Yeah, but that's why when people say training day was a great movie, I'm like, no, it was a failure. You didn't see Malcolm X, and so you want to say, let's give it to the gangster cop who's like I'm fucking King Kong. Yeah, instead of understanding that when he portrayed the minister, like he was in his bag. He was in his bag.

SPEAKER_04 48:55

You have to show that you are broken. So I like to break things into this simple thing. You got the big tractor and the little tractor.

SPEAKER_07 49:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 49:03

I and I do LeBron knows about this too. I do real real estate stuff. I would have to hire a white person to show my stuff because I can't have the bigger tractor.

SPEAKER_05 49:14

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 49:15

Because it hurts people's feelings. And it and it things go sideways real quick. To this day, I still do that.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Do you do you buy a piece of land everywhere you land? Kinda. Holla. See, I knew it. I knew it. You got 26 random hit tractors. This Negro got a portfolio. Yes, he's like f a tractor. I have a combine.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

It's fine over just surveying.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

But you see, one of those, I'll take one of those.

SPEAKER_04 49:43

But I gotta have a surrogate. I gotta operate through surrogates in.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

You operate in Whiteface. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 49:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:52

Which is crazy. And then in the country that you're supposed to have full citizenship, etc., to this day and age, as a team, you want the team to win. It can't be, I just want the offense to win, but I don't want the defense to win. The whole team gotta win. Somebody in the country gotta say, okay, look, let's just squash all this and get on the same page. You know, at some point, uh, I think it was uh was it Reagan said if the alien showed up today, everybody will be on the same team as humans. I don't know who that person is gonna be to initiate that reconciliation because the whole thing is stupid. Any woman on this man on this planet can get pregnant by any man on this planet. That says you're all the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 50:35

So at some point you just gotta have the basic understanding that you know what? That's cool. All right. Stop all this. Well, you your practice is bigger than my tractor, blah, blah, blah. How about everybody can have a cool tractor? You know, that that's that's the big picture I take away from all this stuff, because again. It's every day. It's uh green mile, it's football, it's Denzel, every day. But Mr.

SPEAKER_05 51:02

Nobody, you are a threat to an image they have in their mind of who they are. Correct. Correct. Or drive a nice car.

SPEAKER_03 51:11

What happened when you drive a nice car? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 51:13

What do you man, you weren't there? Okay. I flew here's the thing, dude. I got I've never been stopped so much in my life. Here's here's a funny one. I'm gonna tell you super quick. I'm off topic. But real quick, 15 seconds. I fly down to LA. I'm in Santa Monica Airport. I'm running out. A friend of mine lives in borrowers cars and busted Hyundai. His brother left it to him and let me drive it. It's free. We drive in the Beverly Hills, I gotta stop six times within one block. Six times.

SPEAKER_05 51:42

There it is.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

They pulled us over, like we literally went like 10 feet and pulled over again, got to the stoplight, pulled over again. I said, Yo, are you serious?

SPEAKER_04 51:52

So when you're not where you're supposed to be, they let you know.

SPEAKER_07 51:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

So again, going back to the profession.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. Yeah, so Mr. No, but I have to say this right now. So when you tell these stories, you need to understand how important it is to someone like me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it might, I mean, and I know that it's hard, and Antonia and I have gone back and forth on this, whereas you know, I said like the sad truth is it always ends up falling on the shoulders of the oppressed to educate the oppressors. Right, right, right. You know, and it's terrible. But you telling these stories, it it flips on the head this whole ridiculous notion that, oh, I see a black pilot, I worried if he's qualified. It's listen, it's the exact opposite. I see a black pilot. I'm like, considering all the shit you went through to get there, I've never felt safer on an airplane, except for the airplane's brake part. But besides that, except for the engine fell off. Yeah, that's part. Like, I would wish more white people would understand what it's like to be to fly while black, to understand that you had to you had to jump over so many uh hurdles, and it's not something in the past, like you said, it's something you do from the moment you wake up walking through the terminal all the way, like you are always on, dude. Always. I feel so safe with you at that time.

SPEAKER_04 53:10

Because again, you have to be on point. I mean, back in school, I was always on point. Always because you had to be, because they're gonna go back and look. Yeah, they're gonna go back and look, and then they'd be like, oh, oh, oh, there it is. We can't start.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

There's some pictures from some new Delta parties that would uh disqualify all of us here from uh uh background check. If we ever wanted to be into politics or aviation, yeah, I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_05 53:35

But John, you know, what what I find interesting is that it's always a constant comparison of tractors, yeah. And if my tractor is smaller than yours and I'm white, I have to justify my inadequacy. See, it's all about the the a feeling of inadequacy that propels the racism. And as long as you're doing worse than me, I can justify my lot in life. And if I have to look in that mirror, if I have to scrunch up the money to get me, my wife, my kids on this flight, and I go and my little white son look up and see a black pilot, I'm done as a dad. See, and that's the that's the story we don't tell the feeling of inferiority behind the racism. To me, that's what the case is. It's always you can't be better than me.

SPEAKER_04 54:31

I feel like that trace DNA is still in this country, it's crazy because um when you take a global mindset versus this is my block and that's your block, when you say we all on earth, when you put on those glasses, you I think a lot of people don't do that. And they see things differently. If once you do that, you see things differently. When I talk to other people of every race on different parts of the planet, I don't want to say I get a much more intelligent conversation, I get a less tribal conversation. What do we always tell our people? Oh, you need to pull yourself up for your bootstraps, right? You need to start over, you need to re-rebuild every every generation has to build themselves. Do the real empires do that? They don't. Did Queen King Charlie need to go make himself king? No, he inherited it. Oh god. Does Paris Hilton have to go start a whole hotel chain? No, she inherited it.

SPEAKER_05 55:26

Inherited.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

The biggest gaslight, the biggest hustle is to tell people that you're supposed to start over every generation. When the real players don't, the real players don't start over, they pass their stuff on.

SPEAKER_00 55:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 55:40

That's the secret sauce.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

That sounds like a pivot into reparations.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

I mean, that's cultural priorities. But here's what I'm gonna say. Yeah, yeah. We've been trying to get Mr. Nobody for months, and this is exactly why. So you've been a privilege to participate in this conversation just as we've been privileged to this conversation. And this is simply part one. Yeah, I don't know if it's gonna become for the founders because he flies all over the world and he got things to do.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

But he is retiring.

SPEAKER_02 56:11

And then you can see who he is. This might be my five gig. As we always say, left on founders. There it is. We out and space.

SPEAKER_05 56:25

Thank you for joining us. Still got questions? Other things you want to say? Well, hit us up at threeforthefounders.com on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok. Or send us a text through Buzz Sprout. Remember to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcast and share the pod with someone you think can benefit from it or add to the conversation. Till the next time, Left on Founders. We out.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Thank you for listening to the Three for the Founders podcast. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of any professional or academic institution. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. Listen at your own risk of becoming woke.

SPEAKER_02 57:15

Um I think they made that movie. It was called Snakes on a Plane.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

Snakes on a Plane. Yes, they did. They did make that movie. Snakes on a Plane meets Air Force One. That's good. Oh, that's a good one right there. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

That's because Han Solo was in it.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

Okay, Antonio. I think it's time that LeBron and I had a talk with you. Um Han Solo is not a real person. There's a thing in grown-up land called ACTA. Um they play Pretend. His name is actually Harrison Ford, and he has a life outside of the Star Wars universe.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

I feel like that's what I said. Han Solo. Hon Solo.

SPEAKER_00 57:53

I feel like that's what I said. This is an intervention. Actually, LeBron told not to come because we'd be a little concerned about the reality. Calling people Han Solo. Oh man.