Product of circumstance

I expected to interview Travis Luke about his summer camp...

Instead, we ended up having one of the most honest, REALEST conversations I've had in a long time.

We talked about why some kids believe they're "grown" before they're even teenagers, what a 13-year-old's dream job revealed about the adults around her right here in Albany, why South Georgia parents are often just trying to survive, and why people with ordinary 9-to-5 jobs may be exactly who young people need to see.

Whether you agree with every opinion or not, this conversation challenged me to think differently.

Here's a snippet of that interview. Listen with an open mind... and let me know what part stayed with you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

I go off all the highest kids I'm gonna look for, have for the sound back to school with a different attitude, different outlook on education. So that's why I go for the behavior kids.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Okay, so why did you start off going for kids who are more like at risk?

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Because those are the kids whose parents are not even gonna sign them up for summer school. Because they don't dealt with all year the school calling because they in trouble or they talking back because they're doing something wrong, so they're not gonna go sign them kids up for summer school because they know they think, okay, well, this is my little free break, then I'm not gonna have to have someone calling me. Also, I go out with youth kids because if we don't go out for the kids that causing a problem or are at risk of joining gangs or getting involved with gun violence, then how are we gonna actually ever see change in our city? We're not if because if you most of the kids who parents can pay $125 a week for camp or $9 a week for camp, they're not gonna be high-risk kids that we need to have somewhere during the summer.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Like we need to have the kids that are in these poverty-stricken communities, you know what I mean? They're overrun by destitution. These are the kids that we need to have during the summer because we could take them during the summer and just, you know, the the the school system can work on math ignorance science. But we do this year, we will be having math and reading because with United Way, we're gonna do the math collective with those, with the um, the the or I forget the name of the the um the software. But for the most part, I work on behavior the whole the whole summer. So then don't most of my kids that went to school with came to the summer count last year. I one thing I just embedded in them is that it's consequences behind every choice.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:51

So I got a video where I'm asking them this question, like, so what happened when you get in trouble in school? And they'll break it down. My mom or my dad got to get out for work, they gotta come out to the school, they gotta get me from school, so now they're missing work, and we already have a hard time paying bills, and I want a PS5, and I want these shoes, and I want these clothes, and I want these beat headphones. Well, how are you gonna get that if you're acting up your school calls and mom and dad to leave? And they will walk that down for you. So that's what I would focus on. So I didn't have to go out of school, but like two times this year.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Yes, like two, two, like two times. On a summer camp, it's not for the summer.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

It's a beginning. Like we're gonna deal with your child all the way through through school. We're gonna go to the school. If they have issues at the school, we're gonna go to the school, we're gonna show up at their honors' days, we're gonna show up at their field days, we're gonna show up at their sports events. Like, it's not just a summer camp. No, no shade to other other summer camp, but on when you get introduced to owners academy, it's not just for the summer. It's like a community. Yeah, it's like your beginning. You know what I mean? It's like your beginning. Like, a lot of kids, we we we put them on our own sports team. So now even on the summer camp, they doing the basketball, the football, the soccer. We're gonna be real big in soccer this year, so they're doing the soccer, so it's not no situation where they just coming for the four weeks or six weeks, and then they're like, alright, we'll catch up with you later. See that summer. So we deal with our kids year-round. Like they actually become owners' kids. That's what we call them.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

So it's so much passion behind what you're doing, but that's because you kind of came from the same type of background that you're now trying to rescue these kids. Right. So walk me through that. What does that look like?

SPEAKER_03 3:34

So that's when I got in my most trouble during the summertime, because mom and dad got to go to work. So there, and I'm the oldest, I'm the oldest uh sibling, so it's like, okay, I'm in charge. You know what I mean? So I'm just doing whatever I want to do. So just looking at the need. Like I already can see, because I'm I'm in these neighborhoods on a regular basis. So during the summertime, I'm seeing kids just wandering around. They're on the end of the road on buy cigars or whatever the case may be, walking too far down the street to the store. Or they just I see them, you know what I mean? Like I'm not a I'm not one of the people that come to work and go back home to Lee County.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Like I'm I'm in these neighborhoods on every, every every single day. Like I'm in one of these neighborhoods. So it's like, why not give them something to do? You know what I mean? Like, I'm not gonna charge a fee, but I will do a registration fee. And if you could pay the registration fee, great. But if you can't cool, then the registration fee is gonna get spent the moment I get it on the kids. Like even with the money that I'm getting from the summer collect, I'm not taking a salary. Every dime of that money that I raise will be shown and proved that it was spent on these kids. Because I deal with kids in real need.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Like, so yeah, that's that's what I come from that. Like, I didn't, I didn't, I don't even remember going to summer account when I was young.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Really?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah, I don't think I ever went to a summer account. We went to the the gym and played basketball during the summer, got a billibo back then, we called a billion bow. But as far as just like going to a summer count that's gonna teach me, you know, educational behavior, whatever the case may be, I don't I don't think I ever went to one.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Like I don't in my whole life, like now that I think about it, I never thought about that. I don't think I ever went to a summer count. I went to the gym. Like we my mama couldn't afford to send me to the YLCA.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

And the boys clubs kind of fizzled out. You know what I mean? So it was like 120, what? $50 a week.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

So so what would y'all do? Like, because you got involved in like some gang activity and stuff. So what was your summer like? What was it like growing up in Albany?

SPEAKER_03 5:25

I'm grown. Yeah, I ain't a kid. It's the summer. Mama at work, I'm grown. I see to do with everything that grown up people do.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

If I see the cigarette of a grown mama smoke this cigarette, grow up people doing it. I'm doing the same thing because, like I said, mom at work, dad at work, a tea at work, grandma at work, everybody at work. And I'm the older sibling. So I'm and that's probably like now that I think about it, I had my first kid when I was 14 years old.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Yeah, I had my first child of 14, but it was like I my mama at work, dad at work. So like during the summer is like I roamed, I got into tons of trouble. You know what I mean? I won't say this being free during the summer led me to gang. I won't say that because it was a bigger picture with the game life, but just growing up fast, yeah, not being able to not go on, not the summer. Yeah, do what I wanted to do during the summer. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Like, you say you was growing.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Yeah, I was grown. Yeah. So and I so I get them a space where there could be kids. Like even when um I'm getting ready to set up my classroom. So my classroom would consist of bean bags, stand-up chairs, and also tables and chairs. Because kids think differently. Like everybody can't sit at that desk and just be still and pay attention. Some of them may need to go sit on a beanbag. Somebody may need to go do it, stand up at the stand-up desk. You know what I mean? They may be spinning around in a circle. But as long as when they get through spinning, if I ask them, what's the definition of sad? They could tell me the definition of sad. I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

They gotta stand on their head, it's okay. You know what I mean? Basically, Olders Academy creates an environment that they're comfortable in. Yeah, they make the environment theirs. They come in and they're like, oh, I don't want to sit at the table. Okay, we'll go stand up and stand up this.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Do you think that these kids are misunderstood?

SPEAKER_03 7:09

Without a doubt. Without a doubt. But see, you you you just said it. Kids.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Kids. So how do I don't understand how society don't write a kid off? They're kids. Like, I don't, I don't care if I see, if you got a gun, you're a kid. So I handle all level, every kid, every teen, preteen, eight, from eight to eighteen that I deal with, I deal with them as they are kids. I I had a had a um kid tell me one day I was up to talk to a group of kids. Oh, well, you know, I did 18 months. I said, so that's stupid. Like, you so what you want a badge of honor because you went and did, you you gave away 18 months of your life?

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

I talked to him like a kid. Most people would have been like, oh, I'm gonna give Ron D look. He did 18 months. Yeah, you no, you're still a kid. I don't care if you did 28 months. You're a kid. So we don't deal with them as children. We deal with them based off of the perception of society. We deal with them based off their behavior without even asking why you're behaving this way. Now, I don't, I don't know, no, it's it's always punishment because of course we think we know everything. Yeah. Because we are the adults.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

But have you ever just sat down and just asked the kid, like, oh, why are you acting like this? Like, come on, let's right. That's what I do. Even even with even with like the kids I deal with or the teens I deal with in the streets, I give them a hug. When I walk on tour and I shake their hand, I bring them in, I get, I embrace them. Bro, how your day been? You alright today? You know, you eight? How you feeling? Okay, well, and if if there's a situation where they get into trouble, you know, you had a bad day? You ain't asleep last night? Like, what happened? Because I learned that from dealing with kids that I know that was that had been that's dealing with PCSD because I dealt with PCSD. I dealt with survival remorse with my brother being killed and me still living. I've dealt with social anxiety because I didn't know how to communicate. I didn't know how to communicate, so the moment I feel like you're getting the best of me in a conversation, now I want to fight. Or now I want to act out. So that's the only thing that's going on with these kids. We don't want to look at the situation where all it is a small town. So one person may get killed over here on the east side, and we just looking at how it affects the games of, you know. But no, that's that's a 30 D kids uncle, 30 D kids' cousin, 30 D kids person they look up to.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Like, but we're not gonna address that because we just feel it's so instant, it's been made so normal now. Like it's just like, alright, whatever. You know what I mean? So it's just we don't, we misunderstood them as their kids. No matter what. Simple. Simple as put, I ain't got no no new recipe or nothing. I treat them like they're kids, no matter. I don't care, like they got a gun that's bigger than them, okay? He's a kid with a gun that's bigger than him. I don't see him as a criminal or a gang member or a bad, bad person. I see him as a kid. So why do you got this gun?

SPEAKER_00 10:06

How did you get the gun?

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Yeah, how did you get the gun? Like I just had a conversation with another dude this morning. We were talking about what happened at the um the with the killer last night. And I said, bro, I remember when I was younger, I used to lose my gun all the time because it was so small.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Okay. We had a little 25. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

That was our gun. We didn't have them, you know, the big assault rifles just laying around, like everybody got them.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

So it's like growing up, I had a 25, you know what I mean? Like, you're probably not even gonna die if I shoot you with this gun. It's just so small, I'm losing them. Like, I can't even keep up with them because they're so small. So it's like, I remember one time, like I'm telling my buddy the morning, I don't remember going to the probation office with my gun in my pocket. Because it was so small. I sat down like, oh Lord. There's nowhere I got a gun. People build me. Well, that's my way I got my got my gun.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

If you can say stole them. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

So we were stole, and then people would sell them all the time. Like a little 25, you could buy them for $50. $35, $400, little, little, little bit of guns. But you you now so I ask, like, where do you got this gun? I don't go to them and Joe, oh, you're going to jail, you're gonna be you. No, hey, why? Oh, we in tour with such, such, such, and you need this. You might need apology. If you gotta carry a gun around with 30 bullets in it, bro, you might need to go make amends with them people.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:28

So this is, I treat them like they're kids. I don't see them with a gun and turn the other way. And the reason why I can do it, because people used to do me like that. People would see me with or without a gun and be like, oh, that go translute and go the other way. Based off of what somebody else said about me. You ain't even had a chance to even talk to me or understand me, uh, no, nothing about me beside they say, oh, he's uh this and he's this, he's this. Like, you don't get, you know, even even when I was we were just talking, I was just talking about the juvenile court system. And that's why my program is so vital within the city. I was just telling her that the judge, and I respect her for doing it, because it's probably what a lot of them think. They just don't say it in my face and say, how do we not know that you're not recruiting these kids for games?

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_03 12:11

Yeah, look me there in my face and say that. And it's probably a lot of them that think that way.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

And never even met me and never even had a conversation with me. And ignoring all the work that I'm doing in the community for the free. I get nothing. I don't get don't this money for United Way is the first batch of money I ever got in four years. And I've been doing this for four years.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

And just spending out your podcast.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Four years. Four years. But they still look at me as if how we do not even know. But one of the reasons they feel that way is because you very rarely see me post about what I do with the kids. If you don't hear about it, for the most part, you don't know about it. I don't post it. I got enough content for the last four years that I can I can chop up and not have to make no more video for 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

But they don't know. So it's just like, oh, I heard he was this. But I don't put it in their face. What I do in the community is because I do it for God. Like, this is the first time we're gonna go on record with saying that. We've been tossing the idea around me and Antonio Strain. We've been tossing the idea around of doing what's called God gang. Because I get kids out of game when they want to belong to something. So, okay, boom. When I get you out of the game that you're in, you're gonna, if you choose to, you come over here and be a part of God's game.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

But I don't, I don't put it in their face enough. Like, he don't put it in their face enough. We do a lot in the community, so it's like they just assume I have a conversation with somebody that probably like me because I'm the person that you see every day. I'm not gonna change. I'm not gonna tap dance, I ain't kissing no ring, I'm not doing none of that. Either you're gonna deal with me or you're not. Because I do everything I do in the face of God. Like, I don't do nothing for man. I don't man, how man feel about me is okay. They've been thinking of worse of me since I was 13 years old. I'm 41, now so what do I keep my dinosaur after you start caring about what a man thinks?

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Right. It's time when you sure don't care.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Wow. So how is it hard to like, I guess, go through life when you had a rough past? And I remember when I first met you, one of the things that you said, and it always stuck with me. Um, they always saw you on TV for doing something bad, right? And now you on TV for doing something good. So is it kind of hard to navigate like trying to move away from that I guess rap that you got in the past and now doing something good to still have when people look at you like sideways with like a little eyebrow raise that don't bother you?

SPEAKER_03 14:45

No, because everything that I've been through was my greatest gift from God. That's why they can't do nothing with me. Like I respectfully, it ain't it's pretty much you can't put nobody beside me and put a group of game members in front of us that they can do what I can do.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Fair point.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

They can't do what I do with at-rift youth, high-rift youth, kids that ain't listening to nobody, the kids that got the guns that's vacant. They can't do nothing with them kids. So I wouldn't be, I would be in the same boat as them if I didn't have that pass.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Because they can't tell their kid to Google them.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

That part.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

They can't tell them to Google them. Or they can't tell their kid that. Like I've I've I've spoken at the turn to school, and I could tell this kid, I can just look at him. I posted about it. I can just look at him, I could tell he didn't care about nothing. Automatically, we click. When I say we, I he he a juvenile now because he had some time to go do it. We clicked like this. He literally sent me a message that said, bro, please keep me close to you. He wanted the last kids I got out of the gang. I'll show you the messages. Like he was like, like, I need I want to be around you. You know what I mean? But that came from me telling him, go ask the toughest person you know about Travis Lou and call me back. Whoever you think the toughest you know, call them and ask them who I am. And he's gonna call my site, me like, and I tell him, I don't glorify none of that. I only told you to do that so you don't know I already been through what you're about to go through. And telling you not, it's not worth it, don't take yourself through that.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Yeah, it's cool that your uncle that you that that everybody in your family scared of, that they feel like gangster that told you, like, oh no, home, he who he says he is. Yeah, he somebody I used to be up under or be around, or uh man, I wish I could have been part of his crew. Yeah, I'm that person. But I got nothing from her beside this story that don't use it and redirect these kids.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 16:26

So I don't shy away from it. I don't care. It don't bother me. Like, introduce me as a former gang leader. It's okay. Yeah, it's okay because that's part of my bliss, that's part of my anointment. That's one of the reasons why if you wouldn't have got 10 kids and put them 10 kids in this room and went and got 10 more people that do the work that I do, and we all sat in here quiet, and you ask that child, which one of these men you want to mentor you? Nobody can't say a word. 10 kids, eight of them gonna choose me. Because they can look at me and tell like it's something different about this one.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

Like like this this he looked like he might know something. You know what I mean? And it ain't even a tattoo. When you go through struggle, you it sticks on you.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

It's part of your aura. They part of your presence. Yeah. So I don't have to say nothing. Like every time I do a speaking engagement, kids never leave.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

They never want to leave. They want to stick to me like that. I'm like, I gotta go. Like, I, you know, I'm gonna come back and see you when I get a chance. And I give them my phone number, they're gonna call me, they're gonna inbox me on Facebook. I got some of the iClouds on my phone, it'll make no sense. But they're not gonna get that. They're not gonna tell me that they're in the group chat. I'm in a group chat right now with kids from Radium America.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

I started putting on Facebook. I fucking phone.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

I'm in a group chat with kids from Miller Acres, and I'm up in the middle right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

And we be able to just fuss. We be fussing because they're gonna slip up the cups. I'm like, see, y'all know I'm in here, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

I'm uh I'll never get in there talking about who can fight and who can't fight. And then I get in there and say, so how much am I gonna make? Yeah, maybe we'll never worth a billion dollars. Then he fought with 50 times, and you tell him you finna go fight for free, or then they gonna recover. So now you're gonna turn to the show climb.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

I just had an argument with them yesterday. Oh, Miss Travel, you know, they be trying to be so hard, they're gonna continue to try, you gonna fight every time? Yeah, I said I did the same dumb stuff. And guess what? I'm gonna spend half of my life in jail. I tell them, get rid of the rollover in place. You know what that means? You're gonna be in a bed so low that you gotta roll over the place. Yeah. Ain't no rollover, throw your leg off the bed, gonna be off the bed.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

So let's talk a little bit about your camp, right? So I guess why was it so well you kind of answered that already, but can you share a success story that sticks with you?

SPEAKER_03 18:35

I got this kid, uh, his name is BB. He renamed himself BB Luke.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

BB Luke?

SPEAKER_03 18:42

That's his name.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Like Lil Baby Luke.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

Yeah, so he just BB Luke. So when I first met BB, he got kicked out the football team. Um, he was getting suspended for school, he was terrorizing dentist home projects. Like he just was just everybody's BB just was just bad. That's what that was his label. So I remember um coach, the coach for the Georgia Heat, because I'm the behavior coach for Georgia Heat, but the president we would talk, he was like, Man, this the kid BB, man, he he got a lot of potential, but I can't do no winning attitude. So I'm like, I'm like, BB, like my boy, I've been kicking with BB. You know what I mean? I was like, I wonder why he ain't on the team.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

She's like, man, BB come out here and just terrorize everybody. So, okay. I get BB, get him back on the football team. BB get player of the game almost every game.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Really?

SPEAKER_03 19:27

BB get player. BB is a great on all level. Like the coach at MLK, Leonard Academy, was like, I need BB. I need him next year, bro. BB, in school, they the teachers know him as BB. Not Brandon Stovy know him as the BB. So you know he's out here giving E for all the hell. He giving it up. Yeah. So oh BB was my success story because at the end of the year, I got him, took him, got his haircut, brought him my outfit, socks, boxes, shoes, got his haircut, everything he needed for artists.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Let him play it in the championship football game and all this. Somebody came on and was like, you know BB suspended, right? So I'm like, BB, you ain't been suspended all year. You wait till the end to be suspended. And I'm like, BB, first of all, you would have played in the championship game.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

I would have got your haircut, I probably would have still did all that, but but BB, there ain't no way you done had me to go do all this stuff for you.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

And just to get suspended.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

And get to Honest Day.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Because they had to go back home with me that day, they wouldn't let him stay at school. So I go, I I could posted a picture when I had all the kids on the day from the owner's council. And I was standing up and I was recording. I said, I'ma whoop him when he gets out of here. So he don't got suspended for school. He's going across, he finna go for the style. So I bitch and he ain't getting damn award. BB not only got rewards. BB got about seven rewards.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

And a medal.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

I couldn't even say that. When he came back to us, I said, boy, that might have save you for your whooping. That might save you right now. But he's my success story. And he's so smart and he's so loving. Like I brought them to church and he was like the one that was adamant, like, I want to be baptized. And I was just like, I can't, I'm about to let your mama do that.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Like, that ain't he asked me all the time. I call him a rat now. I'd be like, I'm here at church, BB. Where you gonna take me to get baptized? But he was terrible. But we even wouldn't suspend, even with no way, and I and I say it's a success story, but I can say it's some truth in it. But but it ain't gonna be where people gonna be like, okay, well, that really okay, well he got suspended from school, you know, such such such. But he um he told me, I said, What do you mean? I said, What happened to me? He was like, What did the teacher say? He was really waiting for his opportunity. That's what I said. He said, What culture I mean? Told me you don't like bullies. Oh no, you feel the universe. I caught you. I didn't tell you to go fight a bully. I just said I don't like people that are bullies. I didn't say you were like, well, people that you don't like, you fight. I said, no, no, no, no, I didn't tell you. They like where you get it from, BB. So he's like, no, you ain't tell me that co track, but I I don't know. So he was like, I said, what happened? He said it was a kid bullying a girl. And he just waited, like, okay. Well, I get suspended for this.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

It was worth it to him.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

To him. So he was smart enough to know, like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Cause the teacher verified, like, yeah, I had to told the kid a couple times to leave the girl alone. So you know, you're like, but maybe War am I, I say you waited all year long, BB. You be in no trouble.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

But speaking of girls, because I know like a lot of people they think that the trouble youths are just our males, like the males.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

You know why?

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Why?

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Cause they ain't in the streets with them. The women are the problem. You better talk about it. Yeah, they the problem. They the problem. And I'm gonna tell I'm gonna tell you a couple reasons why they the problem. Do you think I'm gonna ask you a question? Do you think we would have an Obama if we didn't have Michelle? No. Okay. Bingo. Beam, being being 95 won't go on. And I do this if I show you my speaking, this is what I tell the girls. The black woman is the backbone of the black culture. If you're gonna go for the pants sagging with his boxes matching shoes, they're gonna continue to do it. If you go for the bad guy, they're gonna continue to do it. If you go around them guys with the gun, they're gonna continue to do it. And if you continue to let these fulfill you fighting, they ain't gonna respect you. Forget you wearing the short clothes and your private showing. Just the fact that you were getting in a neighborhood, meet up. Fight, get record, boys not doing that. No. They're not doing that. And I wish they would. It's under the guns, but they're not doing that. So they you think that you know how much how hard it to fight?

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Yeah, and then post it and I would live in a lot of lows. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

You can't get you can't show me five videos with some dude metaphors.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

No.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

You can't show up, but we can go on Facebook and click in the girl fight. And let me see up. But you're talking a lot to be bitched up for the next year. And they gonna keep being on your algorithm. So I talk to them about that. I talk to them about the example that they put out. I don't get into that because it's like, okay, well, you're a woman or a young lady, cool, dress how you want to drink. But if you go for anything, we ain't gonna give you anything.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

I don't talk to them like they I talk to them like for a man. I'm a man. I'm gonna tell you right now. If my girlfriend or my wife let me be out every night, I'm gonna be out every night. And she don't say no, oh hey, baby.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

You need to come on it. Yeah, you need to come on it. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

But if you if you if you're okay with me selling drugs, I'm gonna continue to sell drugs. Yeah. But if I love you and I wanna be with you and you tell me, I don't, I don't like the fact that you're in a gang.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Or if you don't talk to them, period. We hey, how you doing my name, such, such, such? Well, you in a gang? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't I don't I don't I don't talk to gang members. Yeah if they did that and if they stopped acting like gang members themselves, yeah, we'll be a lot better off. And I'm gonna tell you right now, a lot of times, and I'm and I I can go back, we can go biblical, I can go back to the beginning of the gangs. Yeah, most of these gang wars have started because it was a girl somewhere in the mix. Yeah. Most of the stuff that's going on in Albany, who aches it out of the girls. Yeah. If you go back and look at the murders that have happened in Albany, Georgia, and you look at it, you can correlate between this person, this person, or whoever side of time, it be the girls that get on there and they egg it on. Or they get on and they put a battery in the bed bag.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Versus them saying, Y'all need to stop. Y'all shouldn't be doing this. No, they're not gonna talk about who passed on this side and they family, they all with this girl. So now the bars over the side feel like, hey, I got to spin up. Yeah, so that's only people that feel like it's the bars is the people that come do their nine to five and go home. That's they feel that way. Not the people that in the community, the people that really dealing with these kids.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

I had a I didn't got you started. Look at you.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

I had a I had a I had a group of kids. Where do you want to be when you grow up? Um, I I really want before before the world got into your brain. I wanted to be a firefighter. Who do you want to be when you grow up? Oh, I want to be a lawyer. What do you want to be when you grow up? A stripper.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_03 26:31

A stripper?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

So so now, now let me just show you the difference. A person that ain't been through nothing, they don't understand that, will look at her sideways. No, the first thing popped in my head?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

What?

SPEAKER_03 26:43

She's dealing with an older guy. Because we and I all been in Georgia. Which stripper you seen with a Mercedes or a bit around here? If she was in Atlanta, I could say, oh, your aunt, your auntie uh or your sister must be a dancer.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Yes. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Like, when you get this idea, being in Paul Benny, Georgia, you sleeping with somebody that's older than you, because ain't no young boy putting it in your head. You're dealing, she's 13, she's about six feet tall.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Straight up and down, okay. You're dealing with somebody older than you. So now I walk off. Hey, so um, who your boyfriend is? She laughing at. No, no, no, no. I know he's older than you. She looked at me, she said, how you know that? I said, Well, what would make you want to be a shrimp? You're dealing with somebody that's older than you.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

I said, I'm gonna find out. I said, Well, how you gonna find out? You don't know, I ain't don't tell him out of my business. I said, 'Cause for one, it's somebody in your family, or somebody that's come around your family, or somebody that lives in your neighborhood, because you ain't got no car to go with nobody.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

But you got to go through that life to understand that life.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Wow, which opens up a whole nother world of problems too. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

That's what I'm trying to tell you. But an average person will see that and be like, oh, she just hot, or she just renting. No, no, no, no, no. She's a kid. Yeah, let me bingo.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

So now let's have a conversation because somebody they older than you has to put that in your head. You ain't pulled it out the clouds.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

You're dealing with somebody older. What a strippers and all the charge. But for you to be like, I want to be a stripper.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

That age.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

And this is what you encounter every single day.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

I deal with it every day.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

So now me and her have a conversation, and I say, well, okay, now so if you don't want me to do the any digging, you gotta show me you don't deal with that person no more.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Cut it off.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

I could have went and did all kinds of stuff, but then I lose the respect and the connection with everybody else. So now we're just gonna I'm gonna just leave that alone. Because obviously he's older than you. Probably don't trick you into dealing with him. But hey, listen, we gonna figure it out. But I deal with that, although that little girl looked me dead in my face with a straight face and said, Ain't damn boy said nothing crazy. Everybody wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer or play basketball or go to play some NVA in the NFL. That girl looked me dead in my face and said, So what do you think is like the disconnect?

SPEAKER_02 29:14

Because I think like having this conversation with you, I'm realizing that I'm the nine to five type of person who, you know, not really understanding that lifestyle and unfortunately their environment. Right. So what's really like the disconnect? Is it because we just don't have conversations or we just don't understand? Like, what is it?

SPEAKER_03 29:33

You don't know your value in it. So you think that because I don't been through everything, I don't want to need to see. They need to see you. Hey, I've never been to jail. Hey, I don't have a bunch of kids. I'm not meeting up and fighting nobody, getting my hair pulled out. I paid $250 for this hair.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Yeah, I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

I'm not doing that. So they need to see that. They need to see these people that never been in jail because they think everybody lives this way because this is the environment they spend their life in, whether it's on their phone or whether it's in reality. This is what they live. So they that see if you know, like, oh well, huh, okay, that make kind of makes sense because I'm the example. It's the same thing with me. Like people saying that I'm I'm genuinely serious about stepping away from that life.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

So now you have other people that want to step away from that life. Yeah, other people that's watching me that I don't even know watching me. They'd be like, oh, uh, you know, I see you post this. I'm like, you follow me? Yeah, man, I follow you. We do such and such and such. I'm like, but you the leader to such and such such guy. He's like, yeah, yeah, but I pick I'm picking up what you're putting out. I I'm I'm rocking with what you're doing. So I'm the example. But they need to see them girls need to see who's finna fight. I'm not doing no fight.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah, I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

I'm not you going to jail.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Yeah, you can fight with a lawyer. I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Hope your folk got some bomb, man.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Listen.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

They need that because you know what their mama's saying. We go down and I'm gonna go down there and fight the mama. What the we a jump, I fight a child and they buy my child.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

We do have that a lot. And then that's showing up in the schools now, too.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Stupidest thing in the world to say.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

If my mama or my dad will fight a child, and I can tell you that I'm gonna tell you a story. And she won't mind me telling it, because we're cool now. Unawell child gets put out of my program but their parents is unruly.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Really? That's the only rule.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

You can run through that wall. Yeah, we're gonna put it in past the tree. We got an issue. They done ran through their wall here. He's gonna say, all right, Luke or my sister, but I done fix it. But a parent that is unruly, you could take your child right on back with you. You know why? Because if you're acting that way, it's nothing on my baby to do to help them. Nothing. Because I only got before a few hours out of the day. Yeah. They're gonna go home and hit mama on the phone all day to my how she'll fight and oh yeah, I ain't nothing on the baby to do with this. Had a girl, Lother Son. Love, this my, I ain't gonna say the name, but then my dog. But he was five, but he the size of an eight year old. But but he got a problem hitting. He got a problem because he big. He'll ball up a runner to the kids, like he got an issue like that. So what I what I what I did was he he was hitting on everybody, and I kept telling him to stop. So I'm old school. I don't say nothing. I'm not fit to tell you to keep stopping. Yeah, you're gonna get just what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

He went over there and hit BB.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Oh, not BB.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

BB tore him up.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Now the mumble car. I wanna fight B with BB with that little weapon. Who fight who? Oh no, no, no, no. You can get your child and leave. You're not fighting a kid. Oh well, he does this and it. I said, your son had been hitting on everybody in here. And I told him to stop. Now I told him you're gonna hit the wrong kid. And that kid gonna get on your mind. Well, where was you when you were doing? I said, sit right though. I said, I let him got off about five or six seconds and I broke it up. I said, guess what though? Bet you hit nobody else in then.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

It's true.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

He hit nobody else in then. The BB got off of him, he was a better kid. But watch this. Everywhere that kid sees me, and I put him on the program, every, this reason why she called me, she apologized, she apologized, I still wouldn't let him back. I still wouldn't let him back. I said, because I don't want that energy around because I'm not gonna let you hurt a kid. You can forget that. But every time that little boy sees me, he he she actually have to bring him to me when he gets in trouble at school. So we still have a great relationship, but so now what she knows is you can't go out and act like that.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Yeah. So now you you already identified that there's an environment problem, social media problem, males, females, and now it's the parents. Right. So what can what can parents do to try to fix this? Because I mean it starts at home. We can't keep depending on people in the community to do the job that we supposed to do.

SPEAKER_03 33:48

We have to fix the parents.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

And how? How do we do that?

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Giving them everything I just told them to get them kids. So they need the same behavior modification course. They don't know how to communicate. They don't know how to win. What woman, you know, gonna sell them with a kid, gonna sell them and go fight a kid that you're gonna go to jail and leave that same kid out of fear for themselves.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

That's a mentality thing, then. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

So we have to address that.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

We just look at it like it's the angry black woman. No, we need to address that. Do you know how stupid that sounds? This is how I'm just gonna be honest with you. This is what I tell them. You know how stupid that sounds? So you telling me that you're going to go fight a kid for your kid and go to jail and leave your kid out here by themselves?

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

So they need, they they have attitude problems, temporal problems. They have the the the they don't know how to decipher between my put placing my priorities over my principle. Because off principle, you do something to my kid, I'm gonna do something to you. But off a priority, oh no, I can't be the no, you gotta go to jail. Because I gotta be out here to take care of my childhood. My priorities is not my priority for me to go to jail and leave my child out here to feel for themselves. Parents can't be parents because they're trying to figure out how to or figure out how not to roll Peter to PayPal.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

Teachers can't be teachers because now they got to be the parents. Because the parents ain't can't send the child to school with a right pair of shoes on. Now the teacher got to try to do something about it so they don't get into an argument in school. Or this kid coming to school and they and you in in in or hygiene ain't together, you gotta try to bring the kid some clothes. Or you gotta try to bring some deodorant for this kid so it won't be disrupted in the class. If the teacher can just focus on teaching, we'll be cool. If parents can focus on parents, we'll be cool. But they can't because either they robbing Peter to PayPal, or they dealing with a man and they got two cents rubbed together. Never two, nothing but a hope and a dream. So parents ain't able to be parents, so they you gotta think about it. You're a parent with, I'm just gonna say two kids.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Boy and a girl. Girl 16, boy 14. 16-year-old girl, she run away from home, she talking about to you, she trying to fight you, you can't tell her nothing. The 14-year-old he involved in gangs, he got a gun. Your boyfriend ain't uh ain't doing right, nine one of their daddy's around. You try to figure out how to keep them with some clothes and shoes and keep them fit, and also pay the bills. The moment that kid do the smaller thing, he gonna she uh she or he take a time on.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:16

Ah, I've heard them call these call the duck the children the B-word. Talk to them crazy, and I'm just like, from the outside looking at more people like, oh, that's wrong. I'm just like, no, you don't know what that lady going through.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

That's true though.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

You don't you don't know what that woman going through.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

It's like they're always operating in this high intensity, stressful environment all the time. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

So just think about if you take those parents and you see trying to prioritize.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:38

You take those parents, you teach them that because I'm gonna say nine out of ten. I would say ten out of ten. But nine out of ten of the people in the part of the streaking community don't know their credit score.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

I'm all my woman can stand beside that.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Really?

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Nine out of ten. Because that's one of the ones once I lunch life learning institution, whereas I'm lunching on my birthday, that's gonna be part of the thing that I do. Like, I'm God will I can have the funds or have the time to go in and help restore credit and teach them about credit. Because they don't know their credit score. So you gotta think about somebody wrong, Peter to PayPal, don't know their credit score, probably make a $15 and $18 an hour with this one. I'm gonna give them that. On top of rent is crazy, gas crazy, fool crazy, kids crazy, boyfriend crazy, husband crazy, co-workers crazy, your homegirls crazy. Like, what you expect this family to do? You have to you have to bring some you have to bring a formula to the whole household. That's why I say onus is not just the summer count. The sum account is just the beginning of the new kids that I'm going to meet, who's gonna be able to call me. They win clustering, not the problem. The drug dealers, not the problem. The game members, not the problem. The problem is part. The problem is lack of education. The problem is lack of opportunity, the problem is lack of jobs. That's the problem. We pay attention to fix some of those things and we can get somewhere. That's what I do. I don't just invest in the kid, I talk to the mom, I talk to the dad, I talk to the auntie, I talk to the older sister. Like, all my first name, basically with anybody that's been through my program, all they people know me. Everybody know me. It's this is a this isn't, like I said, the summer count is the of course because everybody got the summer counts this year, that's the objective. But with owners, like we're gonna see you again in August.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Like we're gonna, we're gonna buy you a pair of shoes, God willing. We're gonna buy everybody. I did it last year. So hopefully God will provide like he always does. But I'm gonna buy all of them a pair of shoes at school for school.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:43

Yeah, I'm gonna make sure they got school clothes. If it ain't nothing, but on first day of the uh first day of school uniform. That's why I operate in that manner because now that the parents see, okay, this wasn't just a playthrough and trying to make someone out of my child. He really listened to my child. So now I can tell the parent when I pull up, like, why you out here with no clothes on like that? Like, I'm drop your son off like.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:06

You out here in your night now. Oh, you right, coach travel. I just would come for night. Okay, well, you know, you gonna come outside like that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

It's almost like if you're turning into a father in the community.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Basically. Yeah. Cause everybody, then that's exactly what it is. Like, we go to most of the communities are gonna be in the area. The parents call me coach. Like everybody coach, coach. Everybody's gonna call and talk to me. You know, sometimes it gets overwhelming, but I know for a fact one day I'm gonna be able to provide the needs of most of them people. Yeah, like it get overwhelmed sometimes because they'll call me like we don't got no food today. Food high. So whether I'm gonna go to the restaurant and get them some food or go by the store, it's still gonna be the same situation. And I'm knowing that the summer's gonna be rough.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

Because you went from you went from the school feeding your kid to at least two meals.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 40:00

You just gotta get them something together around seven, eight o'clock. They ain't there all day to eat up the snacks, the chips, and the cookies that you got in your pantry or whatever. They feed it be there. So now it's they're gonna run out of food a lot. I'm telling you what I know, what I've witnessed, what I've lived growing up.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

So, how can people help you out this summer? Because you're funding it out of pocket. You finally got some funding, but we're gonna need more because this is a year-round thing. So, how can people donate or help out?

SPEAKER_03 40:27

So I have a I have a donation button on my website. My website is it's onusworld.com. I t-s-o-n-x-w-o-r-l d dot com. Also, uh, I'm not real big on need money. Drop me off some Gatorade or box of chips or pack of cookies, whatever you feel, they can bring it to the school. Uh, you know, contact me via social media and I'll come get it. You know, I don't, I'm not real big on people having to donate me money. If you want to go to Sam's and buy me a two box of them hot dogs with 80 in it, bring them. I want I want them. You know what I mean? So I'm not real big on I put the donation button for people that don't want to go through this to the store or whatever the case may be, but I take anything. I've had last year I had an offer, I wish I still had a number two. I had a lady, she brought me chips from her house. She like, you know, she could tell she was well off. She's like, my grand, my grandkids won't eat these chips. And it was like the golden flake chips. I see, I was she had like three, four boxes of them. And I I invited her in, I said, watch this. It was it was around snack time, and I put that box up there. Hey, total, total, they I man, I had to tell them to put one back. Yeah. Like really, really, really, really know me, they know that this was what I was destined for this. Cause I always been this way, I just was selling drugs to do it. That was the only difference. I was breaking the law to do it. Other than that, I've always given back or school supply giveaway, uh, fed the community on Thanksgiving, did Easter badges. Like I've always done that stuff. I just was selling drugs to do it. I've always brought kids' shoes and paid people bills in the neighborhood and made sure AC had groceries. I've always done that, because that's how I was raised. So the number is 229-603-5915. So any donation can be dropped off at 2804 Phillip Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31701 or 703 West Broad Avenue at Albany, Georgia, 31701. And um if you if you don't, you know, have a conversation, you can reach me via email at Onus O N X U S I N C at Gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

You are literally God's hand.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Appreciate you. Appreciate you.