In this, the first episode of Season 11, I commemorate 60 years of life in the United States of America and why I will continue to fight for our freedom and progress, in spite of the challenges. I will also present a special surprise for the listeners.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:06 Welcome. I'm Eric Fleming, host of A Moment with Eric Fleming, the podcast of our time.
00:00:06 --> 00:00:08 I want to personally thank you for listening to the podcast.
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00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 make this moment of movement.
00:01:04 --> 00:01:10 Thanks in advance for supporting the podcast of our time. I hope you enjoy this episode as well.
00:01:11 --> 00:01:16 The following program is hosted by the NBG podcast network.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:56 Music.
00:01:56 --> 00:02:02 Hello, and welcome to another moment where Eric Fleming, I am your host, Eric Fleming.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 And today is special.
00:02:06 --> 00:02:13 This is a hot mic episode, first of all, so I always like to have those every
00:02:13 --> 00:02:21 now and then, just so I could have the time to just say what I want to say about certain things.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:29 But it's also special because this is my first episode being a 60-year-old. That's right.
00:02:30 --> 00:02:34 As this drops, my 60th birthday would have passed.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:45 And to be 60 years old as a black man in America is something that people should not take for granted.
00:02:45 --> 00:02:53 But a lot of the people that I've admired in my life, I didn't get a chance
00:02:53 --> 00:02:55 to meet because they died young.
00:02:56 --> 00:03:03 Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Maker Evers.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:11 Those guys didn't even get to be in their 40s. And here I am at 60. So it's a blessing.
00:03:13 --> 00:03:19 And it's a privilege and an honor. And, you know, a lot of my high school and
00:03:19 --> 00:03:24 college classmates, some have already started their 60th journey.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:32 The rest of them are on their way. And I hope that all of them have fun,
00:03:32 --> 00:03:38 are as grateful, and that they're in good health to enjoy it.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 This is important.
00:03:44 --> 00:03:48 And we're also in a very unique time.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:55 And, you know, all my life I have been in the United States.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:57 I just did something on Lemonade.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:08 And, you know, I've been to 32 states in my life, including Alaska.
00:04:09 --> 00:04:15 And, you know, most of them were business related in some way,
00:04:15 --> 00:04:19 shape or form, but a few of them, I got to be a tourist.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:25 And, you know, it's just this is a great country.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:30 Are there problems? Yes. Are there challenges? Most definitely.
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 Are there some bad people out there?
00:04:34 --> 00:04:34 Yes.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:45 But the whole concept of this country, what we as black people have done to
00:04:45 --> 00:04:50 shape it and to move it forward, it's something to be proud of and it's something
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 we're fighting to maintain.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:58 And so that's something I want to continue to do.
00:04:58 --> 00:05:04 And so this episode, I'm going to get back to my old fighting ways and just
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 riff or rant or whatever you want to call it,
00:05:07 --> 00:05:16 because I've got some things on my mind and the person who inspired me to do this is back in office.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:22 So, yeah, these first few days,
00:05:23 --> 00:05:28 the 10% of the first 100 days of this new administration has taken place.
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 And, yeah, we got a lot to talk about.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:39 But before we do that, as always, it's time to have a moment of news with Grace G.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:46 Music.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:53 Thanks, Eric, and happy birthday. An American Airlines passenger plane carrying 64 people and a U.S.
00:05:53 --> 00:05:57 Army Blackhawk helicopter, manned by three soldiers, collided near Reagan National
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 Airport with no survivors.
00:06:00 --> 00:06:05 Pete Hegseth was confirmed as U.S. Defense Secretary after a historic tie-breaking
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 vote by Vice President J.D. Vance.
00:06:08 --> 00:06:12 Trump's immigration crackdown has led to thousands of arrests in several U.S.
00:06:12 --> 00:06:17 Cities, averaging 791 arrests daily since January 22.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:23 The U.S. avoided a trade war with Colombia after it agreed to accept deportees,
00:06:23 --> 00:06:24 averting threatened sanctions.
00:06:25 --> 00:06:29 A federal judge blocked Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship,
00:06:30 --> 00:06:31 deeming it unconstitutional.
00:06:32 --> 00:06:36 Quaker groups sued to stop immigration raids in places of worship after Trump
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 rescinded guidelines protecting these areas.
00:06:40 --> 00:06:45 A Trump administration policy pausing federal financial assistance was rescinded after a U.S.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 Judge temporarily halted implementation.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:53 The Trump administration plans to reduce the federal workforce by offering financial
00:06:53 --> 00:06:57 incentives for 2 million civilian workers to resign.
00:06:57 --> 00:07:02 Senate Republicans defended Trump's firing of inspectors general from multiple
00:07:02 --> 00:07:06 agencies, despite legal requirements for prior notification to Congress.
00:07:07 --> 00:07:12 The Trump administration fired over a dozen Justice Department lawyers involved
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 in criminal cases against him to strengthen control over the department.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:21 The U.S. Air Force will resume training with a video about the Tuskegee Airmen
00:07:21 --> 00:07:24 after ensuring compliance with Trump's DEI ban.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:31 The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to Mississippi's lifetime voting ban for felons.
00:07:31 --> 00:07:36 A transgender woman sued over Trump's executive order requiring her to be housed
00:07:36 --> 00:07:42 in a men's prison, citing constitutional violations And former U.S.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced
00:07:44 --> 00:07:50 to 11 years in prison for bribery I am Grace Gee, and this has been a.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:58 Music.
00:07:58 --> 00:08:03 All right. Thank you, Grace, for that moment of news. Hi, Eric.
00:08:03 --> 00:08:04 How are you? Happy birthday.
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 Grace, Grace, you're here.
00:08:08 --> 00:08:12 Well, thank you for the birthday wishes. I greatly appreciate that.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 And I greatly appreciate you being live because I'm going to tell you something.
00:08:16 --> 00:08:20 I've had a couple of folks like saying, Eric, did you hire one of these?
00:08:20 --> 00:08:24 Are you doing the AI thing? I said, no, no, no. Grace is real.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 She's a real person. We've interacted and all that stuff.
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 And so, and thank you for having me on. This is a real treat.
00:08:31 --> 00:08:32 I really appreciate that.
00:08:33 --> 00:08:37 Well, you know, I was trying to figure out how we could make this happen.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:45 And since this is my birthday episode, even though I'm not going to be talking
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 about a whole lot of happy things in my birthday.
00:08:48 --> 00:08:53 So I wanted to have a good moment. So I'm glad that you decided to do this.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:59 And, you know, and and I just wanted to say from the jump, I greatly appreciate
00:08:59 --> 00:09:08 your professionalism and the support that you've given, because a lot of times we as black folks,
00:09:08 --> 00:09:13 you know, we just do our thing and we we kind of let everybody be in their own
00:09:13 --> 00:09:14 space in their own orbit.
00:09:14 --> 00:09:19 But it's very rare that you could have a professional relationship for somebody
00:09:19 --> 00:09:23 and then they're supportive of what you do.
00:09:24 --> 00:09:28 And so, you know, you know, and helping trying to raise money for me to go to
00:09:28 --> 00:09:33 Chicago last summer and just, you know, giving me advice.
00:09:33 --> 00:09:38 I mean, that's been invaluable because you've been doing this for a while.
00:09:38 --> 00:09:42 So I take that take that very seriously. So I thank you for that.
00:09:42 --> 00:09:46 Thank you. And I thank you. It's been wonderful working with you.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:51 I think it's been over a year now that I've been doing the newscast for the podcast.
00:09:51 --> 00:09:55 And it's been really wonderful. I mean, I have to say, you're amazing to work with.
00:09:56 --> 00:10:01 There's that. And I really enjoy your podcast. And I really enjoy your passion
00:10:01 --> 00:10:06 for news and especially news that affects people of color, which is so important
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 to have Black voices in the journalistic world.
00:10:08 --> 00:10:14 And so I thank you for your passion and your enthusiasm, because I know this is not easy.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 This is work. And you've dedicated so much of your time and personal resources.
00:10:17 --> 00:10:21 And that is so commendable. And I really feel that.
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 And I'm so honored to be part of this.
00:10:24 --> 00:10:27 So tell me the truth. Now, when I first approached you with this,
00:10:27 --> 00:10:31 what was the first thought that kind of went to your mind?
00:10:31 --> 00:10:33 It was like, well, you know, I don't know.
00:10:33 --> 00:10:37 Or did you did you go into it like this should be interesting?
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 You mean this particular interview or working with the podcast?
00:10:41 --> 00:10:41 Working with the podcast.
00:10:43 --> 00:10:51 When we first met, I didn't know you. So I kind of just approached it as a professional thing.
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 But I noticed that the news was really for us, by us.
00:10:54 --> 00:10:57 And for that reason, I was very into it.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:01 And as I got to know you and your mission and your purpose and your heart,
00:11:01 --> 00:11:05 I knew that this is something that I want to be a part of as long as you'll
00:11:05 --> 00:11:09 have me. Well, and just we just keep praying.
00:11:09 --> 00:11:13 And, you know, that's why I'd be trying to make these pitches for folks to subscribe
00:11:13 --> 00:11:17 and all this stuff so we can continue doing what we're doing.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:23 But as long as I'm able to, we're going to keep this going. So tell the audience
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 a little bit about Grace G.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:31 How long have you been doing this? And I mean, just broadcasting in general,
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 is this something you've always wanted to do?
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 Tell the audience a little bit
00:11:36 --> 00:11:40 about you. Well, I've been doing this for a minute, more than 20 years.
00:11:40 --> 00:11:45 I came up through the worlds of traditional broadcast news and television news,
00:11:46 --> 00:11:50 worked my way up from cable news to local news and eventually to the network level.
00:11:50 --> 00:11:57 But right now I'm basically focusing on voiceover and putting my talents out
00:11:57 --> 00:12:02 that way because I can do it from the comfort of my own home.
00:12:02 --> 00:12:07 And ever since the pandemic, I knew that I needed to live this life right now.
00:12:07 --> 00:12:13 And my passion is to travel. And so I travel the world and do my voiceovers
00:12:13 --> 00:12:20 for this podcast and for some other clients. And I'm basically following my passion as you are.
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 And it's been a beautiful thing so far, the transition of that.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:28 Well, it definitely shows in the way that you handled your business.
00:12:28 --> 00:12:34 And I think the listeners really appreciate, you know, how you how you bring
00:12:34 --> 00:12:38 the news, even though it's only a couple of minutes per episode.
00:12:38 --> 00:12:41 I think it's raised the quality of the show.
00:12:42 --> 00:12:46 You know, I mean, we got nominated again for another award. So,
00:12:46 --> 00:12:52 you know, it just seems like everything was, you know, just kept going on and on and stuff.
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 And hopefully that part of it will continue, too.
00:12:56 --> 00:13:03 So you mentioned that you travel a lot. And I understand that you're a black belt in karate.
00:13:05 --> 00:13:14 You got all this stuff going on. What was it when you decided to do just the voiceover work?
00:13:15 --> 00:13:20 Was it more of a self-care move? Was it more of a, you know,
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 just going in a different direction with your talents?
00:13:22 --> 00:13:28 Why did you decide to do this as opposed to staying in the grind of network news?
00:13:29 --> 00:13:33 Everything you mentioned is part of it. But as you said, it's a grind.
00:13:33 --> 00:13:37 And at that point, I had been doing it more than 20 years on a very high level
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 as well on the network level.
00:13:39 --> 00:13:43 And as a Black woman in that space, it's not easy.
00:13:43 --> 00:13:47 It really isn't. And so I think at that point, I was experiencing a significant
00:13:47 --> 00:13:53 amount of burnout and the pandemic came along and it really brought us face
00:13:53 --> 00:13:58 to face with our mortality and to know that this life is for the living.
00:13:58 --> 00:14:02 And that's the primary reason I decided to embark on voiceover.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 And of course, a lot of the skills are transferable.
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 I'm still talking on the mic and that's what I do best.
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 That's what I went to school for. That's what all my experience is in.
00:14:11 --> 00:14:16 So I knew that I could do this. but voiceover allows me to do it remotely in
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 my own space and in my own time.
00:14:18 --> 00:14:23 And that is very healing for me. And of course it provides so much flexibility
00:14:23 --> 00:14:27 and to be in control of my own time and of myself,
00:14:27 --> 00:14:31 because being a voiceover artist is essentially having your own business and
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 managing your own clients and delivering.
00:14:34 --> 00:14:38 And I like running my own business and I like showing out when I'm ready.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 And if I'm not, then I have that option as well.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:46 And to have that kind of agency over my own life as a Black woman in America
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48 in these times is amazing.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 Yeah. And, you know, we've had
00:14:51 --> 00:14:55 to go through a couple of journeys together where you needed that time.
00:14:56 --> 00:14:59 And, you know, and that's really cool that you could do that.
00:15:00 --> 00:15:03 And of course, the quality of news broadcast goes down when I try to do it.
00:15:04 --> 00:15:05 But... Oh, no, don't say that.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:11 But, you know, but but look, we're all human and I understand that.
00:15:12 --> 00:15:16 So one of the things you kind of touched on when you were saying news for us
00:15:16 --> 00:15:19 by us, why is that important?
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23 You know, a lot of people are just like, well, the news is the news.
00:15:23 --> 00:15:30 But why do you think that our perspective is important in conveying news?
00:15:31 --> 00:15:38 Because we know us and we deliver it with that native knowledge and the sensitivity that it requires.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 And I saw that very clearly when I worked with the networks.
00:15:42 --> 00:15:46 And I think on a network level, they recognize that as well because they will
00:15:46 --> 00:15:52 often put the Black reporters on the Black stories because there is a racial
00:15:52 --> 00:15:57 sensitivity there and a knowing that someone who doesn't participate in the
00:15:57 --> 00:15:58 culture simply won't have.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:02 And there's nuances and subtleties that other folks are just not going to get,
00:16:02 --> 00:16:07 you know, and also we know what's important to us.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:11 And and that and setting the agenda is critical.
00:16:11 --> 00:16:15 And that's what black journalists do. That's what you do. And that is so important.
00:16:16 --> 00:16:20 Well, you know, and I appreciate that. I'm not really a journalist.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:25 I don't think because, you know, I do interviews and all that.
00:16:25 --> 00:16:32 But, I mean, I tell people up front that my thing is it's my show. It's my opinion.
00:16:32 --> 00:16:37 And, you know, it's like I try to base it on facts.
00:16:37 --> 00:16:46 But, you know, I don't have that rigid obligation to be non-unbiased, right?
00:16:46 --> 00:16:52 But how much of a challenge is it for you or anybody else in the profession
00:16:52 --> 00:16:59 to try to take your emotions out and just cover the story as is?
00:16:59 --> 00:17:08 And do you think that we've basically not succeeded in that over the last few years?
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 That's a good question. But first, I'd like to say you definitely are a journalist.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:13 You're a citizen journalist.
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 And there are journalists who give their opinions all the time.
00:17:16 --> 00:17:20 They call them op-ed, and you do it very well. So I definitely would put you
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 in the class of journalists for sure.
00:17:23 --> 00:17:28 But as far as the news is concerned, I'm sorry, Eric, I lost my train of thought.
00:17:28 --> 00:17:33 Tell me that last question again. So how hard is it to be unbiased?
00:17:33 --> 00:17:40 And are we, is it, is people, are journalists, as I defined it,
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 kind of failing in that over the last few years or so?
00:17:45 --> 00:17:48 Well, as I mentioned, I think there are different types of journalists.
00:17:49 --> 00:17:53 And those who give their opinion, I think are still very valuable because as
00:17:53 --> 00:17:58 we mentioned before, the opinion that is native to Black people is so important
00:17:58 --> 00:18:02 to put out in the world and to make room for that voice.
00:18:02 --> 00:18:08 But as a journalist myself, working for the networks, I was trained in a certain way.
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11 And it's probably the more old school kind of way because, you know,
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 I have some experience on me.
00:18:13 --> 00:18:19 And the way I deliver news is to research the heck out of it, talk to all the players,
00:18:20 --> 00:18:25 get the sound bites and the right information and present it as factually and
00:18:25 --> 00:18:29 as neutrally as possible and let the public make their own decision.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:35 That is my style of journalist because that's the way I was raised in news.
00:18:35 --> 00:18:39 But I think in this day and age, there's room for so many voices.
00:18:39 --> 00:18:45 And as the news really niches down, as we're seeing all these podcasts and news
00:18:45 --> 00:18:50 outlets that exist purely on social media or online, we're getting more of the
00:18:50 --> 00:18:51 diverse voices out there.
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 And I think that is good and bad in that.
00:18:55 --> 00:18:59 Not all journalists are like us and fully vet the facts before they give their opinion.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:05 And that's something to be careful of and to know and take everything with a grain of salt.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:11 But by and large, I welcome all Black voices and all voices of color because
00:19:11 --> 00:19:16 I think they have value in the space so long as they pay attention to the facts
00:19:16 --> 00:19:20 because the facts are important. It's the foundation of what we do.
00:19:20 --> 00:19:29 Yeah. And I echo that welcome because, you know, we're not a monolithic people.
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 So, you know, there are people to the left of me.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 There are people definitely to the center and the right of me.
00:19:35 --> 00:19:41 But we all need to be heard because, you know, one of my one of my favorite
00:19:41 --> 00:19:45 people in the world was Charles Evers, Megard Evers' brother.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:51 And Charles, even though he was a big Robert F.
00:19:51 --> 00:19:57 Kennedy senior supporter, I mean, he he was there in California when when Robert got killed.
00:19:57 --> 00:20:03 And but he was a Republican up until the end when he died.
00:20:04 --> 00:20:09 And now he would support some of us that were Democrat, you know, that were black.
00:20:09 --> 00:20:13 And that's what he told me. He said, he said, Eric, I may be a Republican,
00:20:14 --> 00:20:15 but I'm a black man first.
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 And I think that's important for
00:20:19 --> 00:20:23 us to know that it's like, regardless of where you are in the spectrum.
00:20:24 --> 00:20:30 You got to look out for whatever you're doing should be looking out for your folks.
00:20:31 --> 00:20:36 One last thing I want to want to want to mention and kind of get your your take
00:20:36 --> 00:20:42 on it, because it kind of relates to how politicians are doing stuff now.
00:20:42 --> 00:20:45 So when I was in college, I wrote for the school newspaper.
00:20:46 --> 00:20:53 I literally did do real news reporting when I was with the two black newspapers
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 in Jackson, Mississippi.
00:20:56 --> 00:20:59 And so after that, I got elected.
00:21:01 --> 00:21:04 So a lot of those people, of course, were still around.
00:21:04 --> 00:21:09 So especially a lot of the black journalists, we all used to hang out.
00:21:09 --> 00:21:12 Now, you know, I'm an elected official and they're still with the press,
00:21:12 --> 00:21:15 but we all used to hang out, have drinks and all that stuff.
00:21:15 --> 00:21:21 And what that related, how that worked out was that if they needed something,
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 I wouldn't necessarily be in the story.
00:21:23 --> 00:21:26 But if they needed some background or something like that, they would find me
00:21:26 --> 00:21:27 at the Capitol or somewhere and
00:21:27 --> 00:21:32 say, hey, Eric, so explain what exactly is this? Why is this happening?
00:21:32 --> 00:21:37 Why should people be concerned? You know, like that. It just like it's a technical advice.
00:21:38 --> 00:21:43 And the way I look at the news now, the way I look at politicians now,
00:21:43 --> 00:21:44 it's like they're using social media.
00:21:46 --> 00:21:52 You know, it's like there was one congressperson who had like a three page job
00:21:52 --> 00:21:57 description for their communications director and like two paragraphs for the legislative director.
00:21:59 --> 00:22:03 You know what I'm saying? It's just it's just it's a different vibe now.
00:22:03 --> 00:22:10 And so what what did you what do you think about my approach as opposed to what's
00:22:10 --> 00:22:15 going on now in trying to be a politician and put your name out there?
00:22:16 --> 00:22:22 Well, I think social media is a very necessary part of any business in this day and age.
00:22:23 --> 00:22:27 You're almost weird if you don't have a social media presence as a public figure
00:22:27 --> 00:22:31 or as a business. So I feel like it's extremely necessary.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:36 And for a large demographic of people, that is the best way to reach them.
00:22:36 --> 00:22:41 So I think for a politician to utilize social media, I think is extremely smart.
00:22:42 --> 00:22:47 And also it provides an informal way of getting to know someone.
00:22:47 --> 00:22:53 So I feel like those moments that social media can provide like a behind the
00:22:53 --> 00:22:57 scenes or just a snapshot of somebody's day as they're in transit,
00:22:57 --> 00:23:04 I think is so useful to allow the public to get to know a person or as it were,
00:23:04 --> 00:23:05 in this case, a politician.
00:23:05 --> 00:23:10 So I actually welcome the use of social media in terms of politicians and marketing,
00:23:10 --> 00:23:16 and you can't get anywhere without it in this day and age. So I think to embrace it is good.
00:23:17 --> 00:23:23 Okay. So I'm a dinosaur, or you're saying I ain't got to get drunk no more to
00:23:23 --> 00:23:26 hang out with the press. Okay, that's fine. If I decide to get back in.
00:23:26 --> 00:23:31 But there's always space for that. I mean, that face-to-face is invaluable.
00:23:31 --> 00:23:34 And as a journalist, that's how you get your sources, both official and unofficial.
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 So don't stop doing that.
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 But but social media is a must, I believe.
00:23:40 --> 00:23:46 All right. Well, Grace, look, I know you've got other clients and and and all this kind of stuff.
00:23:47 --> 00:23:50 And, you know, I greatly appreciate you taking the time out.
00:23:50 --> 00:23:57 I think, you know, the listeners should appreciate the fact that you're a real
00:23:57 --> 00:24:02 human being and that, you know,
00:24:02 --> 00:24:06 that you are an incredibly talented professional person.
00:24:06 --> 00:24:11 And I'm honored that I'm in your circle. I'm honored that I'm in your presence.
00:24:11 --> 00:24:14 And we're going to keep this going.
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17 So I appreciate you. Thank you so much for doing this.
00:24:17 --> 00:24:22 Thank you. I appreciate you, Eric, and I appreciate your support because you
00:24:22 --> 00:24:28 are like the most encouraging, positive client that I've ever had, to be honest with you.
00:24:29 --> 00:24:32 So I really appreciate your presence. If I ever need to pick me up,
00:24:32 --> 00:24:36 all I need to do is look at your text messages or emails and that'll do it.
00:24:36 --> 00:24:40 So I appreciate your spirit and your support. Thank you for having me.
00:24:40 --> 00:24:45 All right, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much, Grace. And all right,
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 guys, it's time for my rant. So you're catching on the other side of this music.
00:24:48 --> 00:24:59 Music.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:06 All right. So how cool was that? Y'all got to hear Grace G outside of just giving us the news.
00:25:07 --> 00:25:12 I'm so glad, Grace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again for doing that.
00:25:12 --> 00:25:16 I greatly appreciate that. And that's probably the best present I'm going to
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 get for my 60th birthday.
00:25:19 --> 00:25:25 So I greatly appreciate you coming on and just, you know, kind of talking a
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 little more than just giving the newscast and stuff.
00:25:28 --> 00:25:35 So, guys, she is real. But those of you who doubted that, she is real.
00:25:35 --> 00:25:40 She's a sister, and she is an incredible, beautiful, enlightening human being.
00:25:41 --> 00:25:46 And it is my honor and privilege to work with her each and every podcast.
00:25:47 --> 00:25:53 All right. So let me start off my rant with a poll.
00:25:53 --> 00:25:59 So the one poll that I pay attention to that seems to be the most accurate,
00:26:00 --> 00:26:04 and I am trying to get those people on because I respect them.
00:26:04 --> 00:26:08 And, you know, there are other good pollsters out there.
00:26:08 --> 00:26:16 But as far as news outlets go, the Reuters Ipso poll is probably the most spot on out there.
00:26:16 --> 00:26:23 And, you know, no disrespect to Samadhi Thomas,
00:26:23 --> 00:26:31 my pollster and resident, you know, and Samadhi, I need to get you back on the
00:26:31 --> 00:26:33 show, too, at some point.
00:26:34 --> 00:26:41 But, you know, the Reuters-Ipsos poll was really, really plugged in this election
00:26:41 --> 00:26:47 year, and they were really on it as far as how close this election was.
00:26:49 --> 00:26:52 You know, I think they kind of looked at it.
00:26:53 --> 00:26:57 When you look at the numbers that Harris was winning or was going to win,
00:26:57 --> 00:27:03 but not really because it was like, as far as popular vote, I think, you know,
00:27:04 --> 00:27:10 they kind of had her winning, but in the swing states, it was looking a little shaky.
00:27:11 --> 00:27:18 And they were one of the few ones that did it without any editorialization or anything like that.
00:27:18 --> 00:27:22 They were, you know, They would interview political scientists and try to get
00:27:22 --> 00:27:27 their viewpoints as, why do you think these polls are reflecting that?
00:27:29 --> 00:27:37 So this first rant is going to be based off of a poll that they did after the
00:27:37 --> 00:27:41 first week with the new Trump administration.
00:27:42 --> 00:27:50 So let's go through that. All right. So ending requirements that government
00:27:50 --> 00:27:52 employees report gifts or investments.
00:27:53 --> 00:28:01 Now, that was that's a story that has not really been covered on the national news.
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 You know, everybody's been focused on the immigration raids.
00:28:04 --> 00:28:11 And, you know, we just had this recent tragedy with the plane crash.
00:28:12 --> 00:28:16 And so many beautiful people died, you know.
00:28:17 --> 00:28:23 So condolences to all their families. Howard University lost an up-and-coming law professor.
00:28:24 --> 00:28:29 You know, the U.S. figure skating team lost, you know, some up-and-coming young people.
00:28:29 --> 00:28:32 I think one of them was like 12 or 13.
00:28:33 --> 00:28:37 And I haven't looked at all the names yet and all that stuff.
00:28:37 --> 00:28:40 These are just from the early stories. I think they just started releasing the
00:28:40 --> 00:28:43 names as I'm recording this.
00:28:43 --> 00:28:48 So, but yeah, you know, just terrible.
00:28:50 --> 00:28:54 And, you know, and then the president gets up there. Well, I'll get into that.
00:28:54 --> 00:29:03 I'll get into it. But anyway, but this, that executive order about the government
00:29:03 --> 00:29:08 employees not having to report gifts, That's that's Clarence Thomas's birthday present, I guess,
00:29:09 --> 00:29:14 whenever his birthday and all these other folks to do the griff.
00:29:14 --> 00:29:18 So I'm surprised that story hasn't had a lot of traction, but there's only so
00:29:18 --> 00:29:21 much time to deal with all this confusion.
00:29:22 --> 00:29:28 However, Reuters, Ipso asked people about it and 77 percent of the people said
00:29:28 --> 00:29:32 they're not in favor of that at all. Right.
00:29:33 --> 00:29:39 On renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, 70 percent of the people
00:29:39 --> 00:29:42 said that's stupid. They've been out in favor of that.
00:29:43 --> 00:29:48 Hardening the January six protesters, pardoning all of them,
00:29:50 --> 00:29:52 62 percent said they didn't appreciate that.
00:29:54 --> 00:29:59 New tariffs or taxes imposed on imported goods from Canada.
00:30:00 --> 00:30:03 60% of the people said they didn't like that.
00:30:04 --> 00:30:08 Ending birthright citizenship, which is unconstitutional.
00:30:08 --> 00:30:14 It was like, you know, when a judge says, uses words like blatantly and stuff
00:30:14 --> 00:30:18 like that, they're pissed off that they even had to entertain them.
00:30:18 --> 00:30:22 Just so you know, if you're planning on going to law school or.
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24 Or, you know, if you're in a court
00:30:24 --> 00:30:31 case and the judge uses terms like blatantly, he or she is not happy.
00:30:32 --> 00:30:37 Fifty-nine percent of the people said that they're not in favor of that.
00:30:38 --> 00:30:39 Fifty-nine percent also are
00:30:39 --> 00:30:44 not in favor of ending federal efforts to hire women or racial minorities.
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47 That DEI stuff, right?
00:30:48 --> 00:30:52 59% of Americans said they're not in favor of ending that.
00:30:53 --> 00:30:57 56% of Americans are not in favor of withdrawing the U.S.
00:30:57 --> 00:31:04 For the Paris Climate Accords, which is, I guess, every time this joker gets
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06 in office, it's like, boom.
00:31:07 --> 00:31:13 So once he's out this time, then maybe we'll be in the Paris Accords for the
00:31:13 --> 00:31:19 remainder of time because the next Democratic president will put us back in.
00:31:20 --> 00:31:23 But again, 56% of Americans are not in favor of that.
00:31:23 --> 00:31:30 55% of Americans are not in favor of new tariffs or taxes on imported goods from Mexico.
00:31:31 --> 00:31:39 So you're looking at about 58% of the people are not in favor of tariffs with
00:31:39 --> 00:31:41 our two biggest trading partners.
00:31:43 --> 00:31:48 And then new tariffs or taxes on imported goods from other countries,
00:31:48 --> 00:31:51 54% said they're not down with that.
00:31:52 --> 00:31:56 So the majority of Americans, even though he said that's what he wanted to do
00:31:56 --> 00:32:02 and he got elected, so he's trying to figure out how he's going to do it.
00:32:03 --> 00:32:07 The majority of Americans are not in favor of that. And I think the message
00:32:07 --> 00:32:12 is getting out that people don't want to pay more money.
00:32:13 --> 00:32:16 They basically elected this guy because they said they didn't want to pay more
00:32:16 --> 00:32:17 money than what they're paying.
00:32:18 --> 00:32:22 So they're not there. And I think they're starting to get educated that if we
00:32:22 --> 00:32:26 impose tariffs, that they're going to be the ones the consumers are going to
00:32:26 --> 00:32:29 be the ones that's going to bear the brunt of the cost.
00:32:29 --> 00:32:32 So at least that message is getting out there.
00:32:33 --> 00:32:37 Here's one that kind of surprised me. Fifty two percent of Americans were opposed
00:32:37 --> 00:32:41 to delaying the ban of tick tock in the U.S.
00:32:42 --> 00:32:45 And I didn't look at the generational breakdown on that.
00:32:45 --> 00:32:50 But it's interesting that the majority of Americans were not in favor of delaying the ban.
00:32:51 --> 00:32:55 If the ban was going to happen, the law was passed, then let it happen.
00:32:56 --> 00:33:02 If the Supreme Court or somebody else determines it's not the case, then so be it.
00:33:03 --> 00:33:09 Closing all federal government DEI offices and firing all federal employees
00:33:09 --> 00:33:12 working in DEI initiatives.
00:33:13 --> 00:33:18 It's pretty evenly divided, but 51% of Americans said they're not in favor of that.
00:33:19 --> 00:33:23 So the majority of Americans are not in favor of ending DUI,
00:33:24 --> 00:33:35 Lord have mercy, DEI, and ending federal efforts to hire women and racial minorities.
00:33:35 --> 00:33:42 The majority of Americans polled as of this poll seem to think it's a good thing
00:33:42 --> 00:33:45 to have diversity, equity, and inclusion.
00:33:47 --> 00:33:52 Now, where he does get some support is requiring all federal employees to work
00:33:52 --> 00:33:54 from an office rather than allowing remote work.
00:33:55 --> 00:33:59 Forty nine percent of Americans felt, yeah, it's about time to go to work.
00:34:00 --> 00:34:01 Right. So.
00:34:02 --> 00:34:08 It didn't get 50 percent, but. You know, it's a plurality.
00:34:08 --> 00:34:12 It thinks it's forty nine forty sevens. So it's pretty close, right?
00:34:13 --> 00:34:22 Also, 49-47 in favor was imposing a hiring freeze on all federal government agencies.
00:34:23 --> 00:34:30 So there is a sentiment that people think that government is maybe too big.
00:34:33 --> 00:34:36 So, you know, but again, that was 49-47.
00:34:38 --> 00:34:42 Easing restrictions on fossil fuel drilling and production.
00:34:43 --> 00:34:47 That's even more even. It was 48-47 in favor, right?
00:34:48 --> 00:34:54 Because the truth of the matter is, if you just went wild, and,
00:34:54 --> 00:35:00 you know, this is an issue that I've been dealing with since the 90s.
00:35:00 --> 00:35:08 We were in Alaska for a meeting, and, you know, there were people talking about
00:35:08 --> 00:35:14 drilling into ANWR, which is the American, what the Arctic National Institute.
00:35:16 --> 00:35:19 Wildlife Refuge, so A-N-W-R.
00:35:22 --> 00:35:26 And, you know, we know there's oil there because Proudhon Bay,
00:35:26 --> 00:35:28 I think, is north of the refuge, I think.
00:35:29 --> 00:35:33 I had an option to either go on a cruise or go to the oil refinery.
00:35:33 --> 00:35:37 I went on the cruise, so I can really accurately tell you, but I think Proudhon
00:35:37 --> 00:35:39 Bay is north of the refuge.
00:35:41 --> 00:35:47 And, you know, so you got some drilling there. And part of the deal was that
00:35:47 --> 00:35:52 all Alaskans get a check out of that, right?
00:35:52 --> 00:35:57 Whatever money that drilling company, I think it was ARCO at the time,
00:35:58 --> 00:36:05 whatever money they made off of that, then the citizens of Alaska got a dividend.
00:36:06 --> 00:36:07 That's the only way they allowed them to do it.
00:36:08 --> 00:36:12 And, you know, and then, of course, we had the Keystone Pipeline controversy
00:36:12 --> 00:36:15 going through Native American land, all that stuff.
00:36:16 --> 00:36:23 So, you know, the reality is if people get what they want, you will see a reduction
00:36:23 --> 00:36:25 in your gas of five cents.
00:36:27 --> 00:36:31 But the trick is you won't feel it for about three or four years because they
00:36:31 --> 00:36:36 got to drill it and they got to refine it and they got to sell it.
00:36:36 --> 00:36:42 So, you know, it's going to take time. And we're already the biggest oil-producing
00:36:42 --> 00:36:44 country in the world again.
00:36:45 --> 00:36:49 So, yeah. So most Americans are kind of like, meh, meh, not so much.
00:36:50 --> 00:36:52 They are in favor of it, but barely.
00:36:53 --> 00:36:54 Again, 48, 47.
00:36:56 --> 00:37:00 Now, here's the one that kind of correlates with the other one about the hiring
00:37:00 --> 00:37:06 freeze. 61% of Americans do believe that the federal government needs to be downsized.
00:37:07 --> 00:37:15 So that's one thing that President Trump is going to get or has support for.
00:37:16 --> 00:37:22 Now, I don't know if they didn't ask if they felt that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
00:37:22 --> 00:37:29 were probably trustworthy enough to make that happen in an unofficial government agency.
00:37:30 --> 00:37:35 Yeah, we're talking about government efficiency and you got two people running
00:37:35 --> 00:37:41 one group, which is basically those two guys because they've got a caucus,
00:37:42 --> 00:37:47 I guess, in the Senate of the House now or committee, whatever they want to call themselves.
00:37:48 --> 00:37:52 But it's an unofficial agency. And these these folks are not going to give you
00:37:52 --> 00:37:56 a report till the 4th of July, 2026.
00:37:57 --> 00:38:03 So, you know, but but there is a sentiment that the federal government is too big.
00:38:04 --> 00:38:12 And I've had some ideas in the past about how to go about downsizing federal government.
00:38:12 --> 00:38:21 But I'm always kind of tepid about that because of what we just went through where.
00:38:21 --> 00:38:26 And it's very clear that Elon Musk and some other corporate folks got in Trump's
00:38:26 --> 00:38:32 head and proposed this idea to buy out two million government employees.
00:38:33 --> 00:38:39 You heard that mentioned in the news, two million. They want to say,
00:38:39 --> 00:38:45 OK, guys, we're going to you're going to go home.
00:38:46 --> 00:38:52 You're going to take early leave, early retirement, however they want to phrase it.
00:38:54 --> 00:38:58 And by the end of September, that'll be your last check.
00:38:58 --> 00:39:02 You'll be in employment until September the 30th of this year.
00:39:03 --> 00:39:05 But you ain't got to report.
00:39:06 --> 00:39:12 You know, so basically you want to pay people not to work, even though you've
00:39:12 --> 00:39:16 passed an executive order to mandate everybody to show backup at work.
00:39:16 --> 00:39:22 But you want two million federal employees not to come to work and to get paid.
00:39:22 --> 00:39:26 And then you want to replace them with all of your folks that you've been interviewing
00:39:26 --> 00:39:29 under this project 2025 deal.
00:39:30 --> 00:39:35 So you're going to be paying two people for the same job until the end of September.
00:39:35 --> 00:39:42 But you want to cut government, the lengths that these people will go through,
00:39:42 --> 00:39:49 the knots that they will tie themselves up in just to get what they want is
00:39:49 --> 00:40:00 frustrating and agonizing and infuriating and just hypocritical.
00:40:01 --> 00:40:11 But they will do that, right? just to continue to fight this lost cause of maintaining
00:40:11 --> 00:40:13 white supremacy in America.
00:40:16 --> 00:40:20 And, you know, it's just sad, really.
00:40:21 --> 00:40:30 I don't know why they think they have to do that. I don't know why they continue to pursue that.
00:40:30 --> 00:40:37 When it's been shown, right, independent people Studies in the corporate world
00:40:37 --> 00:40:44 have shown that the more diverse a workplace is, the more profitable it is for that business.
00:40:45 --> 00:40:53 Let me say that again. The more diverse a workplace is, the more profitable it is for that business.
00:40:54 --> 00:41:00 And as I always stress, the United States is the only country in the world where
00:41:00 --> 00:41:06 every country that exists in the world is represented within its citizenry.
00:41:07 --> 00:41:13 So this is the land of opportunity. This is the fertile ground to show that
00:41:13 --> 00:41:16 diversity, equity, and inclusion works.
00:41:18 --> 00:41:25 Because affirmative action was about quotas. you had 100 white employees,
00:41:25 --> 00:41:29 no black, no women, 100 white men, right?
00:41:29 --> 00:41:38 No black, no women, no Asian, no Latino, just 100% white men.
00:41:39 --> 00:41:44 So affirmative action, which started as just government and government contractors,
00:41:45 --> 00:41:50 kind of became the, you know, the practice practice.
00:41:52 --> 00:41:57 And, you know, people are like saying, oh, well, they've taken my job.
00:41:57 --> 00:42:01 If it was your job, then you would be working it, right?
00:42:01 --> 00:42:09 So what companies did was they just started hiring folks, and they were trying to get X number.
00:42:09 --> 00:42:15 So we'll say 25% of our workforce will be minority, right?
00:42:15 --> 00:42:19 We'll be either another ethnic group or a woman, right?
00:42:20 --> 00:42:26 Some said 10, some said 15. When you had government contracts going out, it's like, OK, well,
00:42:27 --> 00:42:31 you know, we'll be the main contractor and we'll subcontract out at least 10
00:42:31 --> 00:42:35 percent of the award that we get to do a government project,
00:42:35 --> 00:42:40 because that's what they call the money that they get awards. Right.
00:42:41 --> 00:42:45 You know, and different state legislatures pass laws saying,
00:42:45 --> 00:42:48 well, you've got to meet at least this minimum threshold.
00:42:48 --> 00:42:52 You can more than welcome go over that. If we set it at five,
00:42:52 --> 00:42:54 there's nothing saying that you can't have six percent.
00:42:56 --> 00:42:59 Right. If you're at three percent, now we got a problem.
00:42:59 --> 00:43:04 But if you're over the five percent minimum, more power to you.
00:43:04 --> 00:43:05 We appreciate the effort.
00:43:05 --> 00:43:09 Right. And there were tax incentives tied into that and all that.
00:43:09 --> 00:43:11 So people started doing it. Right.
00:43:11 --> 00:43:15 And so people started getting opportunities to do stuff.
00:43:16 --> 00:43:20 Right. That's the equity part. That's the inclusion part.
00:43:20 --> 00:43:25 You know, they had the same rules, same contract.
00:43:27 --> 00:43:31 And some had simple jobs, right? Like in a construction, they build in a highway,
00:43:31 --> 00:43:34 but they got to do some infrastructure work on the side.
00:43:34 --> 00:43:40 Okay, well, we'll subcontract out for this black company to do the pipes.
00:43:40 --> 00:43:42 Okay, lay the pipe down. Okay.
00:43:44 --> 00:43:53 We might get somebody else to, you know, we might pick a Latino company that sells us the asphalt.
00:43:53 --> 00:43:56 You know what I'm saying? And it was like they were just trying to meet that threshold.
00:43:57 --> 00:44:01 Even the banks were involved. That was the whole point about the Community Reinvestment
00:44:01 --> 00:44:08 Act, that if you have branches in the black community that, you know.
00:44:10 --> 00:44:15 5% of our assets will go to making sure that black folks have loans for housing
00:44:15 --> 00:44:17 and business, primarily business.
00:44:18 --> 00:44:24 Now, they limited that to funeral homes and restaurants and liquor stores and churches.
00:44:25 --> 00:44:34 So eat well, pray about it, you know, get drunk and then die.
00:44:35 --> 00:44:37 That's basically what black people need to do.
00:44:38 --> 00:44:42 But nonetheless, there was a law that had a set aside.
00:44:44 --> 00:44:49 And so people of Donald Trump's ilk and circle don't even want that.
00:44:49 --> 00:44:52 They say they want merit.
00:44:53 --> 00:44:59 And all merit means in dog whistle terms, which was the word I couldn't think
00:44:59 --> 00:45:02 of last week, is white folk.
00:45:03 --> 00:45:11 So when you hear the term DEI, that's the replacement for the N-word now, right?
00:45:12 --> 00:45:19 That's the new N-word. With DEI higher, flip back the country a few years,
00:45:20 --> 00:45:23 a few decades, that's an N-word higher.
00:45:23 --> 00:45:29 It's the same thing. So when they talk about merit, merit means white.
00:45:30 --> 00:45:34 If they could get away with saying an honorable hire, that's what they will
00:45:34 --> 00:45:38 do because that's what they're good at is the word salad.
00:45:38 --> 00:45:43 Taking words that are positive and making them negative, taking negative words
00:45:43 --> 00:45:50 or neutral words and making them great because all of us are supposed to have merit, right?
00:45:51 --> 00:45:55 All people that are hired are supposed to have a certain level of merit.
00:45:56 --> 00:46:00 You want them to have a certain level of honor. You want to have a certain level
00:46:00 --> 00:46:05 of expertise. You want them to have a certain level of competency, right?
00:46:05 --> 00:46:11 It doesn't matter what the job is, whether it's being an air traffic controller
00:46:11 --> 00:46:18 or a neurosurgeon or a landscaper or a painter.
00:46:20 --> 00:46:26 These are skill sets that people have to have. Some may require more mental
00:46:26 --> 00:46:30 and physical coordination, but they're all skill sets.
00:46:30 --> 00:46:34 No different than the athletes that we watch in our leisure time.
00:46:35 --> 00:46:36 Those are all skill sets.
00:46:37 --> 00:46:44 The people that we listen to on our records. Well, I'm dating myself on our streaming services.
00:46:45 --> 00:46:53 Right. That's a skill set. So you want people to have merit, all people.
00:46:54 --> 00:47:00 But the way that these folks want to define merit is merit means white,
00:47:01 --> 00:47:04 DEI means black or inward.
00:47:06 --> 00:47:09 And, of course, there will be people saying, oh, that's not true.
00:47:09 --> 00:47:12 That's a lie, blah, blah, blah. Actions speak louder than words.
00:47:12 --> 00:47:20 And the machinations that you go through to create the word salads indicate
00:47:20 --> 00:47:23 that that's not a lie. That's true.
00:47:25 --> 00:47:31 Because if merit was about merit, then you wouldn't have senators asking,
00:47:32 --> 00:47:40 hey, Pete Hexhef, are you going to get rid of the black man who's the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Right?
00:47:41 --> 00:47:44 Now, he has that luxury as the new Secretary of Defense.
00:47:45 --> 00:47:50 If he wants to do that, if he said, look, I just I want the people that I'm
00:47:50 --> 00:47:54 comfortable with in that position. It's no reflection on General Brown.
00:47:55 --> 00:47:57 That's just what I want.
00:47:58 --> 00:48:01 Couldn't really argue with that. But the fact that they were playing word silent
00:48:01 --> 00:48:06 with it and being evasive is like, yeah, he's going to let him go.
00:48:06 --> 00:48:07 And he's not mad enough to say he will.
00:48:08 --> 00:48:11 And he's not man enough to say that he's going to do it because he's a black guy.
00:48:12 --> 00:48:16 Because they said during the campaign that General Brown was a DEI hire,
00:48:16 --> 00:48:19 just like they said the vice president of the United States who literally had
00:48:19 --> 00:48:23 to get elected to the position was a DEI hire.
00:48:23 --> 00:48:27 That when she was the attorney general of California, that was a DEI hire.
00:48:27 --> 00:48:30 When she was a U.S. senator, that was a DEI hire.
00:48:31 --> 00:48:36 So the American people are into DEI. According to this poll, it sounds like they are.
00:48:37 --> 00:48:44 So they will elect people or try to elect people on merit, on trust.
00:48:44 --> 00:48:50 I believe this person can do the job. Now, we go all the way back to my favorite
00:48:50 --> 00:48:52 slaveholder, Thomas Jefferson.
00:48:52 --> 00:48:58 And I say that sarcastically because he was a brilliant man who was a man of
00:48:58 --> 00:49:03 his time who shouldn't have owned slaves. LeLon had sex with him, but it is what it is.
00:49:04 --> 00:49:10 He was a very, very profound thinker, and he understood the precariousness of
00:49:10 --> 00:49:15 democracy, even though he was against this federal system that we have.
00:49:16 --> 00:49:17 That's on the record, too.
00:49:19 --> 00:49:22 That if we're going to have this democracy, then the people have to be educated.
00:49:23 --> 00:49:29 And so what do people do that want to be in power and take advantage of ignorance?
00:49:30 --> 00:49:31 Then they make sure that people ain't educated.
00:49:32 --> 00:49:38 I mean, there's no way in my mind I would have thought that somebody would get
00:49:38 --> 00:49:41 77 million votes and say that they want to get rid of the Department of Education,
00:49:42 --> 00:49:45 when the man who created the department was on his deathbed.
00:49:46 --> 00:49:50 Absolutely amazing. 77 million people voted for a man that said,
00:49:50 --> 00:49:57 I want to get rid of the department of education and didn't offer a reason why other than wokeness.
00:49:58 --> 00:50:04 And again, that's that word salad stuff like the opposite of woke is sleep.
00:50:05 --> 00:50:11 Either you are woke, meaning that you are conscious, meaning that you are functioning
00:50:11 --> 00:50:15 during the day or you are asleep in your bed, on your couch,
00:50:15 --> 00:50:16 on the floor, wherever you sleep.
00:50:17 --> 00:50:25 And you're not functioning. You're resting. So the opposite of woke is rest.
00:50:26 --> 00:50:26 Sleep.
00:50:28 --> 00:50:32 So 77 million people voted for somebody that wants the nation to be asleep.
00:50:33 --> 00:50:36 They don't want them to be woke. They don't want them to be conscious.
00:50:36 --> 00:50:39 They don't want to be them to care. They don't want them to make an effort.
00:50:40 --> 00:50:45 That's why you got these billionaire people like Peter Thiel.
00:50:45 --> 00:50:48 And I don't even know this Curtis Yarvin dude's a billionaire,
00:50:49 --> 00:50:52 but he's kind of the guru of that thought. Right.
00:50:53 --> 00:50:59 Saying that we don't need a democracy. Why? Because people that look like me.
00:51:00 --> 00:51:01 Have been getting elected.
00:51:02 --> 00:51:07 People that come from my community have been getting CEO positions.
00:51:08 --> 00:51:13 People that look like me are giving you the news. They've replaced Walter Cronkite.
00:51:14 --> 00:51:16 Some of y'all don't know who Walter Cronkite is. That's okay.
00:51:17 --> 00:51:20 Most of the people that listen to this podcast kind of know at least the name
00:51:20 --> 00:51:23 or remember, oh, yeah, that was the guy that used to do the news.
00:51:23 --> 00:51:25 Yeah, the most trusted man in America at one point.
00:51:26 --> 00:51:30 I don't think there's any journalist that will fit that category now,
00:51:30 --> 00:51:36 because there's so many people out here. But, I mean, CNN used to tout themselves
00:51:36 --> 00:51:39 as the most trusted news network and all that. That's fine.
00:51:41 --> 00:51:47 But as far as sentiment goes, it's not the same as when Walter Cronkite was doing the news.
00:51:47 --> 00:51:53 Anyway, democracy doesn't work for these people because it's not white Christian
00:51:53 --> 00:51:56 males that have access to it anymore.
00:51:57 --> 00:52:03 Like when the country was actually founded 248 years ago.
00:52:03 --> 00:52:10 Only white men that had property, there was no religious attachment to it, could vote.
00:52:11 --> 00:52:18 Most of those white men were Christian of the Protestant denomination, right?
00:52:18 --> 00:52:25 They were either Calvinist or Methodist or whatever, Episcopalian, Presbyterian. Yeah.
00:52:26 --> 00:52:30 Again, you know, the two oldest schools in America, Harvard and Yale,
00:52:30 --> 00:52:34 were theological seminaries when they started.
00:52:35 --> 00:52:40 And the leadership of America has been derived from those two schools.
00:52:41 --> 00:52:44 Harvard being liberal, Yale being conservative.
00:52:46 --> 00:52:56 So anyway, yeah, it's, you know, and that's the crazy thing.
00:52:57 --> 00:53:03 The majority of Americans don't want a country divided.
00:53:05 --> 00:53:12 Now, they want people on the other side to think their way, to come on over
00:53:12 --> 00:53:16 to their side, but they don't want the country to be divided.
00:53:16 --> 00:53:19 There are people that already are having buyer's remorse.
00:53:20 --> 00:53:24 Basically two weeks in, just off of the executive orders.
00:53:24 --> 00:53:30 We ain't even got to the meat of governing yet, right? To see these raids that are happening.
00:53:31 --> 00:53:36 And people, even comedians, were trying to warn you about this, right?
00:53:37 --> 00:53:41 I don't want these illegal aliens in America All right, well,
00:53:41 --> 00:53:42 go pick your own strawberries.
00:53:43 --> 00:53:48 Go pick your own oranges. Go pick your own tomatoes. Grow your own tomatoes.
00:53:49 --> 00:53:52 I'm not great at it, but it's fairly simple to do for most people.
00:53:56 --> 00:54:04 Why do we not make that correlation? Because we are trying to, the powers that be,
00:54:04 --> 00:54:15 are trying to dumb down America enough where we don't like people that don't look like us, right?
00:54:15 --> 00:54:21 It's one thing to be cultural and support your culture, whether you're Irish
00:54:21 --> 00:54:26 or Italian or Anglo-Saxon or Croatian or whatever.
00:54:26 --> 00:54:32 Just like if you're Dominican or Cuban or Puerto Rican, Colombian.
00:54:32 --> 00:54:42 If you're from Nigeria, Chad, or from, as my boy said, Detroit or Chicago or
00:54:42 --> 00:54:44 Jackson, Mississippi, right?
00:54:45 --> 00:54:50 Everybody's got their own cultural niche, their own tribe, their own connection.
00:54:50 --> 00:54:58 Sorry to intermingle with community, but we've got to do better.
00:54:59 --> 00:55:06 And so let me put a pin on that and pick that back up on the other side.
00:55:06 --> 00:55:24 Music.
00:55:25 --> 00:55:33 All right, and so we are back. So where I left off was we got to do better.
00:55:33 --> 00:55:40 So me and some coworkers were having a conversation, and his one brother said
00:55:40 --> 00:55:44 that we were talking about marriage,
00:55:45 --> 00:55:52 and he said, you want to be in unity instead of just harmony, right? Right.
00:55:53 --> 00:56:00 So what does that mean? That means that when you're in harmony, you coexist.
00:56:00 --> 00:56:08 Right. When you're in harmony, it's like you do stuff within your own space, within your own vibe.
00:56:08 --> 00:56:12 You don't try to impose anything on anybody else.
00:56:15 --> 00:56:22 And, you know, you don't try to do anything to get your better half mad because
00:56:22 --> 00:56:26 you don't want to deal with conflict, right? But then there's unity.
00:56:28 --> 00:56:34 And the best analogy was like if you have a best friend, I mean a real best
00:56:34 --> 00:56:40 friend, especially guys, you know, you and your best friend are going to have
00:56:40 --> 00:56:42 an argument. You're going to have a fight.
00:56:42 --> 00:56:49 You might actually have a physical fight, you know, but at the end of the day,
00:56:49 --> 00:56:53 you're going to make up and you're going to be friends.
00:56:53 --> 00:56:59 Even if you're mad with your friend, if somebody else tries to come in and do
00:56:59 --> 00:57:02 harm to your friend, you're going to come through for.
00:57:03 --> 00:57:08 You're going to defend your friend and you may bring some other folks with you
00:57:08 --> 00:57:09 to make sure that happens.
00:57:10 --> 00:57:12 Right. And vice versa.
00:57:13 --> 00:57:19 That's unity. Because even if we're angry with each other, even if we disagree
00:57:19 --> 00:57:25 on something, we're going to have each other's back when stuff gets hard.
00:57:25 --> 00:57:27 We're going to take care of each other.
00:57:28 --> 00:57:31 We're going to lift each other up when we need to be lifted.
00:57:32 --> 00:57:35 And we're going to push anybody that tries to do us harm away.
00:57:36 --> 00:57:39 That's unity. That's real unity.
00:57:41 --> 00:57:45 Now, what we try to do in a political society, in a nation-state,
00:57:46 --> 00:57:47 is to at least have harmony.
00:57:48 --> 00:57:52 Right? You know, we try to give each other space.
00:57:53 --> 00:58:01 We try to coexist with other folks without infringing on their rights or making them uncomfortable.
00:58:02 --> 00:58:08 We're not comfortable, we try to accommodate people just so we can just kind
00:58:08 --> 00:58:10 of keep this thing moving.
00:58:10 --> 00:58:17 That's the bare minimum of a nation state, of a community, is harmony, right?
00:58:18 --> 00:58:21 We just coexist. That's what Booker T. Washington pushed.
00:58:22 --> 00:58:29 He said we can be diverse as the fingers in the hand, but united as a fist, right?
00:58:30 --> 00:58:38 When the hand is open, that's harmony. Each finger functions on its own, does its own thing.
00:58:38 --> 00:58:41 Some have more function than others. Okay.
00:58:41 --> 00:58:47 You use the index finger more than your thumb. You really can't do a whole lot without the thumb.
00:58:48 --> 00:58:52 You do more with your ring finger than your pinky finger. You know what I'm saying?
00:58:54 --> 00:58:59 Again, that's why typing is a great exercise because you utilize all your fingers,
00:58:59 --> 00:59:02 but they're not all closed together. They're separate.
00:59:03 --> 00:59:06 That's diversity, right?
00:59:06 --> 00:59:11 Each finger has its own function, but it accomplishes one goal,
00:59:11 --> 00:59:13 which is to get this document typed.
00:59:15 --> 00:59:19 Booker T. goes to unity like a fist.
00:59:19 --> 00:59:26 That fist symbolizes strength. That fist symbolizes power. That fist symbolizes resistance.
00:59:27 --> 00:59:30 That's what we've got to get to. We've got to get to the fist.
00:59:31 --> 00:59:37 That's why the symbolism of the raised fist in the African-American freedom
00:59:37 --> 00:59:41 movement, you can call it the civil rights movement, you can call it the black revolution, whatever.
00:59:42 --> 00:59:49 But the African-American resistance movement, the symbol was the fist because
00:59:49 --> 00:59:55 we had to show unity and we had to show strength to go against forces that wanted
00:59:55 --> 00:59:58 to deny us just our mere existence.
00:59:59 --> 01:00:00 And that's where we are now.
01:00:02 --> 01:00:07 I would love to live in America. I've lived in America now 60 years, officially.
01:00:09 --> 01:00:14 Never lived anywhere else. Literally have never set foot out of the continent
01:00:14 --> 01:00:16 that we call North America.
01:00:16 --> 01:00:19 I've been to Canada, I've been to Mexico, the only two foreign countries I've ever been to.
01:00:20 --> 01:00:23 I haven't even been to Hawaii. I haven't even been to Puerto Rico.
01:00:23 --> 01:00:28 I have been on this rock, this piece of rock that we call North America,
01:00:28 --> 01:00:32 on this big rock that's spinning around in space called Earth.
01:00:33 --> 01:00:39 It's only I've been there. But, thank goodness, America is diverse.
01:00:39 --> 01:00:46 So I've experienced different Latin cultures I've experienced Native American
01:00:46 --> 01:00:52 cultures I've experienced black cultures different Asian cultures right,
01:00:52 --> 01:00:55 I've experienced white cultures,
01:00:55 --> 01:00:59 to me you grew up in Chicago if you don't know any white group you're going
01:00:59 --> 01:01:03 to know the Irish folks you're going to know Polish people you're going to know
01:01:03 --> 01:01:08 the European Jews if you grew up in Chicago you're going to run into these people.
01:01:11 --> 01:01:15 Because if you grew up in Chicago, New York, you pretty much are going to run
01:01:15 --> 01:01:21 into every ethnic group that you could possibly imagine, right?
01:01:22 --> 01:01:24 And most urban areas are like that.
01:01:25 --> 01:01:30 So you learn to coexist. Now, I tell stories all the time. When I grew up in
01:01:30 --> 01:01:32 Chicago, I grew up on the South Side.
01:01:33 --> 01:01:35 I didn't have to interact with white people if I didn't want to.
01:01:36 --> 01:01:40 When I went to the store, black folks were running the store.
01:01:41 --> 01:01:43 When I went to the bank, black folks were running the bank. Now,
01:01:43 --> 01:01:48 it may be a white corporation, but in my neighborhood, black folks were running it.
01:01:49 --> 01:01:53 Most of the police officers I dealt with were black. Most of the firefighters I dealt with were black.
01:01:55 --> 01:01:58 Teachers, everything. Now, I had white teachers.
01:01:59 --> 01:02:04 I had Latino teachers, right? It got more diverse when I got to high school
01:02:04 --> 01:02:06 than it was in elementary school.
01:02:06 --> 01:02:09 But, you know, we've had some interaction.
01:02:10 --> 01:02:17 But it wasn't forced upon us, you know, and we weren't forced to be separate.
01:02:18 --> 01:02:23 But we could unite when the Bears did something good, when the Cubs did something
01:02:23 --> 01:02:26 good, when the White Sox did something good, when the Bulls did something good,
01:02:26 --> 01:02:27 when the Blackhawks did something good.
01:02:27 --> 01:02:33 We could unite on those things because those guys were representing the city
01:02:33 --> 01:02:40 of Chicago and the city exhibited pride and unity. behind those teams.
01:02:41 --> 01:02:43 It's the beauty of sports, right?
01:02:44 --> 01:02:48 And we like to say that politics is a game, is a sport, but we don't.
01:02:50 --> 01:02:55 Like that. Kind of stay in our little tribes, even in politics,
01:02:56 --> 01:03:03 when that should be our main rallying cry as far as unity,
01:03:04 --> 01:03:05 as far as showing strength.
01:03:06 --> 01:03:08 But we got people that don't want that to happen.
01:03:09 --> 01:03:16 We got people that, in some twisted, control-free kind of way,
01:03:16 --> 01:03:18 they just want white people to be in charge.
01:03:19 --> 01:03:22 White Christian men, to be specific.
01:03:23 --> 01:03:28 If you're white and you're male, but you're Muslim, no. Now they've thrown in
01:03:28 --> 01:03:33 heterosexual and biological, whatever.
01:03:34 --> 01:03:37 But if you're a white Christian male, that's pretty much the thing.
01:03:37 --> 01:03:41 So if you're a Christian male, but you're not white, then you're not part of the club.
01:03:41 --> 01:03:45 If you're white and you're Christian, but you're a female, you're not part of the club.
01:03:46 --> 01:03:49 Your rights are not to be as respected.
01:03:49 --> 01:03:55 It goes all the way back to the Dred Scott decision where Chief Justice Taney,
01:03:55 --> 01:04:00 I think his name was, Taney, Taney, whatever, said that a black man has no rights
01:04:00 --> 01:04:01 that a white man should respect.
01:04:02 --> 01:04:07 That's the mindset these people are in. So when they can just casually say,
01:04:07 --> 01:04:10 oh, well, it's a DEI hire. When you have the President of the United States.
01:04:12 --> 01:04:21 Catastrophe like the fires in California or the terrible plane crash in D.C.
01:04:22 --> 01:04:30 He doesn't talk about trying to enact policies that will make that situation
01:04:30 --> 01:04:35 go away, make it safer for people.
01:04:35 --> 01:04:41 He wants to place blame. And so in both of those instances that have happened
01:04:41 --> 01:04:47 on his watch already, he has thrown out DEI, right?
01:04:49 --> 01:04:52 And we're trying to figure out why are you doing that?
01:04:53 --> 01:05:01 Why are you even mentioning DEI when it has nothing to do with planes and helicopters
01:05:01 --> 01:05:04 colliding or trees catching on fire?
01:05:04 --> 01:05:08 What does race have to do with disasters?
01:05:09 --> 01:05:15 And he said, well, it's all about competency and standards.
01:05:16 --> 01:05:24 So you think if this world was all white, that a helicopter and a plane would not collide.
01:05:25 --> 01:05:29 If this world or this nation was all white, the trees wouldn't catch on fire.
01:05:29 --> 01:05:32 Is that the argument you are making to the American people?
01:05:33 --> 01:05:39 And there are people in America that are buying that. That's what you're trying to convey to me.
01:05:40 --> 01:05:45 And then you get offended when people use the term insane or insensitive or mean.
01:05:46 --> 01:05:50 That's so out of touch. That's so deranged.
01:05:51 --> 01:05:59 That you think that the world would be a better place if just white Christian men ruled it.
01:06:00 --> 01:06:02 That the United States would be great again.
01:06:03 --> 01:06:10 If white Christian men ruled it. Yeah, that's not what any of us signed up for.
01:06:11 --> 01:06:16 Those of us who have taken an oath for office or taken an oath for the military
01:06:16 --> 01:06:21 or taken an oath for the police department, that's not what we signed up for.
01:06:21 --> 01:06:27 The United States Constitution doesn't say these are the rights for white Christian
01:06:27 --> 01:06:30 men and these are the rights for everybody else. It's not how that works.
01:06:31 --> 01:06:35 There are some people that wanted it to work that way, and very fortunately
01:06:35 --> 01:06:39 there were smart people, smart legal scholars.
01:06:42 --> 01:06:47 Able to successfully challenge that concept and win, which goes back to what
01:06:47 --> 01:06:49 I said in the first half of the show.
01:06:49 --> 01:06:53 There are people who are saying, well, the only way we can stop that is that
01:06:53 --> 01:06:58 we got to stop democracy altogether, that we got to have an authoritarian rule.
01:06:59 --> 01:07:03 And those people are right when they say, well, you know, corporations are like that.
01:07:03 --> 01:07:07 They are authoritarian. It's like everybody's going to wear this suit.
01:07:07 --> 01:07:08 You remember the joke about IBM?
01:07:09 --> 01:07:13 Those of us old enough remember, you know, Everybody at IBM had to wear the
01:07:13 --> 01:07:15 same suit, same tie, all that kind of stuff.
01:07:16 --> 01:07:19 You know, the dress codes, all that kind of thing.
01:07:20 --> 01:07:25 You know, well, you've got billionaires now who have built cultures where people
01:07:25 --> 01:07:29 can dress how they want, work from home, work at the place, whatever they want to do.
01:07:30 --> 01:07:32 As long as they do the work, right?
01:07:35 --> 01:07:39 And, you know, but that's all part of diversity, too, right?
01:07:39 --> 01:07:47 Because diversity is not just color of skin, level of melanin in skin. It's about thought.
01:07:48 --> 01:07:52 There are some people who think maybe you should only work four days a week instead of five.
01:07:53 --> 01:07:58 There are people who think, well, I just need you to come to the office two
01:07:58 --> 01:08:01 or three times a week instead of being here all week.
01:08:02 --> 01:08:07 That's diversity of thought, of how to get stuff done, of how to be productive.
01:08:08 --> 01:08:16 But these folks don't want that. These folks want you on the plantation as long
01:08:16 --> 01:08:20 as we can legally have you here. We want you in our sight.
01:08:20 --> 01:08:26 Now, they're not too stupid to realize that you probably need to go home so
01:08:26 --> 01:08:29 you can buy products so these companies can exist.
01:08:31 --> 01:08:37 Go to the bank. You got to go to the grocery store. You may even have to go to the doctor.
01:08:38 --> 01:08:41 So you got to be out of the office for something.
01:08:43 --> 01:08:47 And they're hoping that you can accomplish all that stuff on the two days that
01:08:47 --> 01:08:50 you have off, which is Saturday and Sunday, which is when everybody else is
01:08:50 --> 01:08:52 off. So good luck with that.
01:08:54 --> 01:08:59 The poor service industry, that's why they have to be open 24-7 almost,
01:08:59 --> 01:09:02 because that's the only time, you know,
01:09:02 --> 01:09:06 they have to accommodate all those folks that have to work and need stuff,
01:09:06 --> 01:09:12 because they would like to leave at 5 o'clock too, but since most of everybody
01:09:12 --> 01:09:15 else is leaving at 5 o'clock, they got to shop at some point,
01:09:15 --> 01:09:19 so they stay open to 9, 10, 11, some 24 hours.
01:09:20 --> 01:09:24 Not so much 24 hours now after COVID, but you get what I'm saying,
01:09:25 --> 01:09:29 right? So these folks are not, I guess, that evil.
01:09:30 --> 01:09:34 They don't want to give you a day off to vote, though. Definitely don't want to do that.
01:09:34 --> 01:09:38 If there's any holiday that should exist, election day should be a holiday.
01:09:40 --> 01:09:46 Because it's supposed to be a celebration of democracy in the truest sense of the form.
01:09:46 --> 01:09:50 It's a day where the people decide who their leadership is going to be.
01:09:51 --> 01:09:55 Why do you need to work on that day? It'll be there that Wednesday.
01:09:58 --> 01:10:02 That first Wednesday in November. I promise you the work that you didn't do
01:10:02 --> 01:10:03 on Tuesday would be waiting for you.
01:10:04 --> 01:10:08 If you couldn't get it done that first Monday. Right?
01:10:10 --> 01:10:14 Juneteenth, you got Martin Luther King Day. What do you mean we got that?
01:10:14 --> 01:10:19 We didn't even ask for Juneteenth. Y'all gave that to us, thinking that might
01:10:19 --> 01:10:22 stop us from protesting police brutality.
01:10:23 --> 01:10:30 We appreciate it, because that's the day we remind you that slavery existed.
01:10:30 --> 01:10:35 So we appreciate that. We appreciate you recognizing a man who was so great
01:10:35 --> 01:10:39 that he didn't even have to be president to have a holiday. We appreciate that.
01:10:41 --> 01:10:47 But, I mean, the other days of the year, you want us to all celebrate July the
01:10:47 --> 01:10:52 4th, and then you get mad when brothers like Reverend Thompson get on his podcast
01:10:52 --> 01:10:54 and recite the Frederick Douglass speech.
01:10:55 --> 01:11:01 Because Frederick was right. We weren't free on July 4th, 1776.
01:11:01 --> 01:11:07 We weren't freed. We didn't get to be free until January 1st,
01:11:07 --> 01:11:09 1863, and then Juneteenth.
01:11:10 --> 01:11:13 Two years later, when everybody finally got the word, right?
01:11:13 --> 01:11:16 Two years later. You know, a whole war had been fought by then.
01:11:17 --> 01:11:23 Like I said on a previous podcast, you know, this is just, this is like a bad relationship.
01:11:24 --> 01:11:28 Brothers like Marcus Garvey said, well, let's leave. Let's just leave.
01:11:29 --> 01:11:33 Y'all put him in jail. Y'all found a reason to shut him down.
01:11:33 --> 01:11:37 He was one of the most influential Americans in history.
01:11:40 --> 01:11:43 Company, had the largest circulating newspaper in the country,
01:11:44 --> 01:11:47 one of the biggest African-American organizations in history.
01:11:48 --> 01:11:50 And all he was trying to do was convince us to leave.
01:11:52 --> 01:11:56 He was, just get up out of here. Let's start our own nation.
01:11:56 --> 01:12:00 And y'all put him in jail right here in Atlanta, Georgia.
01:12:01 --> 01:12:05 Then Atlanta became the black Mecca. Isn't that ironic?
01:12:06 --> 01:12:10 But I digress. It's a bad a relationship. You don't want us to leave.
01:12:11 --> 01:12:15 You want to tell us everything. You don't want us to have good jobs,
01:12:15 --> 01:12:17 but you want us to pay taxes.
01:12:18 --> 01:12:22 You need us to work at certain jobs, but you don't want us to go to school to
01:12:22 --> 01:12:24 learn them. You want to cut off our money.
01:12:25 --> 01:12:29 You want us to pull ourselves, buy our own bootstraps, but you don't want us
01:12:29 --> 01:12:37 to start a business even to make boots, let alone have them or afford to get them. I'm just saying.
01:12:38 --> 01:12:42 The NRA supported gun control when the Black Panthers showed up.
01:12:43 --> 01:12:47 But now the Proud Boys are here. I know we need to have guns everywhere.
01:12:48 --> 01:12:58 I mean, when you break it down like that, it's kind of hard not to see or not to feel some kind of way.
01:12:59 --> 01:13:03 So when Donald Trump gets up there and says, DEI, he was trying to blame somebody
01:13:03 --> 01:13:10 black for the fires, which is just as ludicrous as Marius Reeteller Green talking
01:13:10 --> 01:13:13 about space lasers funded by Jewish financers.
01:13:13 --> 01:13:19 I guess I don't know where the Jewish part came from, but the Jewish space lasers. Remember that?
01:13:20 --> 01:13:21 And she's still getting elected.
01:13:22 --> 01:13:23 She's still getting elected.
01:13:25 --> 01:13:27 She literally introduced the bill.
01:13:29 --> 01:13:35 Came from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. But her people are struggling,
01:13:35 --> 01:13:39 just like everybody else, to pay bills and to buy groceries.
01:13:40 --> 01:13:46 She ain't introduced NAMM bill for that. That's the Southern coming out of me, NAMM, nada, nothing.
01:13:47 --> 01:13:49 She ain't introduced nothing to do that.
01:13:50 --> 01:13:53 Georgia's not even touching the Gulf, whatever you want to call it.
01:13:55 --> 01:14:01 But we're hung up. And so as long as we're divided, as long as we're fighting
01:14:01 --> 01:14:05 each other over stuff that should be simple and make sense,
01:14:05 --> 01:14:11 Madison Avenue is trying to get you to think right because they want you to
01:14:11 --> 01:14:12 buy their clients products.
01:14:12 --> 01:14:16 But they really are trying to get you in a mindset because it's like it used
01:14:16 --> 01:14:22 to be, well, we got to have this particular couple and all this stuff.
01:14:22 --> 01:14:25 So now it's just like, hey, you, I need you to be that male.
01:14:25 --> 01:14:26 I need you to be the female.
01:14:26 --> 01:14:30 And, you know, y'all either dating and married, whatever. But we need you to
01:14:30 --> 01:14:33 both be riding this Lexus, right? It don't matter if they're black,
01:14:33 --> 01:14:34 Latino, Asian, whatever.
01:14:34 --> 01:14:37 It's just like, look, y'all two good looking folks, jump in the car.
01:14:37 --> 01:14:38 That's how they do it now.
01:14:39 --> 01:14:45 Because they understand that America is diverse. The money tells them that America is diverse.
01:14:46 --> 01:14:49 And it's not the traditional leave it to beaver family.
01:14:50 --> 01:14:54 Because two men, fine, get in the car. Two women, get in the car.
01:14:54 --> 01:15:00 That's how they work now because they understand that money is green and it's
01:15:00 --> 01:15:06 coming from everywhere, not just white Christian males.
01:15:07 --> 01:15:14 But these people that now are in the position of leadership in this country don't get that.
01:15:16 --> 01:15:21 And it's like how aggravating it is for them that they have white women that are elected.
01:15:23 --> 01:15:28 As much as, I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laura Loomer were fighting each
01:15:28 --> 01:15:34 other because one point Marjorie was riding in the plane with Trump and then
01:15:34 --> 01:15:37 Laura replaced her and they got into it on X.
01:15:39 --> 01:15:43 And I don't like neither one of y'all because y'all are white and Christian,
01:15:43 --> 01:15:48 but you're not male. so you'll never be higher.
01:15:49 --> 01:15:55 Phyllis Schlafly was an anomaly, but strategically, they needed to have a white
01:15:55 --> 01:15:59 woman to try to stop women from getting equal rights.
01:16:00 --> 01:16:07 You know, Byron Donalds, Christian, male, not white. So he's only going to ascend so far.
01:16:08 --> 01:16:12 You're in a good spot right there. This is where we need you to be.
01:16:12 --> 01:16:17 But if he runs for president, bro, nothing.
01:16:17 --> 01:16:19 Tim Scott showed you that.
01:16:20 --> 01:16:26 Christian Mayo made him get engaged. I assume, I think he did get married to this woman.
01:16:27 --> 01:16:32 Made him do that. But he ain't quite. So he couldn't be president.
01:16:33 --> 01:16:37 And as much criticism as you say you have for the Democratic Party,
01:16:38 --> 01:16:41 at least options are being thrown out there.
01:16:41 --> 01:16:46 And they make it out of the primaries. Can we say Barack Obama and Kamala Harris?
01:16:47 --> 01:16:52 And look at the names. Who would have thought that the first black president
01:16:52 --> 01:16:58 would be named Barack Obama, that the first black vice president's first name would be Kamala?
01:16:59 --> 01:17:01 You figure it'd be like Susan or Richard.
01:17:03 --> 01:17:08 That's why some white folks will call him Barack Barry, just so they could feel comfortable.
01:17:08 --> 01:17:14 So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not a psychologist, took a psychology course,
01:17:15 --> 01:17:19 took a sociology course because it was required, but I'm not licensed in that.
01:17:20 --> 01:17:31 But I do know, being a black man in America for 60 years, that this white male Christian mindset.
01:17:34 --> 01:17:40 And the only way we can cure that is that we got to stop electing people that suffer from it.
01:17:41 --> 01:17:46 I don't care if they're Democrat, Republican, white, black, Latino,
01:17:46 --> 01:17:53 Asian, male, female, LGBTQIA+, doesn't matter.
01:17:54 --> 01:18:00 If they have a mindset that only white male Christians need to run this nation,
01:18:00 --> 01:18:05 need to have a say-so, They're the only ones that exhibit merit.
01:18:05 --> 01:18:10 Then those people need to get their sickness cured and they don't need to be
01:18:10 --> 01:18:13 given positions of power. Not anymore.
01:18:14 --> 01:18:19 I have been saying ever since I started this podcast in 2019,
01:18:20 --> 01:18:24 which, by the way, welcome to the 11th season. I forgot to do that.
01:18:26 --> 01:18:35 That they don't they don't need to be they don't need to be in these spots I've
01:18:35 --> 01:18:41 been saying it I've always said that this is like the last gasp of white supremacy,
01:18:42 --> 01:18:43 well bro,
01:18:45 --> 01:18:49 we're going to have to pull the plug doesn't look like it's going to die naturally
01:18:49 --> 01:18:54 so we're just going to have to cut the respirator off can't keep it going.
01:18:54 --> 01:18:58 It's not benefiting us in any way, shape, or form.
01:18:59 --> 01:19:04 It's only causing division, only causing strife, only causing grief,
01:19:05 --> 01:19:08 only causing anger, pain, and suffering.
01:19:09 --> 01:19:14 The one objective that you're supposed to have in leadership,
01:19:14 --> 01:19:19 especially political leadership, is when you are given that responsibility to do no harm.
01:19:19 --> 01:19:26 But if you only believe that white Christian males, white male Christians, Christians,
01:19:26 --> 01:19:31 whatever, however you want to phrase it, should be the ones in charge,
01:19:31 --> 01:19:35 the only ones that have merit, the only ones that have honor and distinction.
01:19:36 --> 01:19:40 You can't lead anymore. You can't elect you anymore.
01:19:41 --> 01:19:45 We've got to get somebody that understands that DEI is not the N-word,
01:19:46 --> 01:19:51 that DEI is the objective, and not the DEI that they're projecting,
01:19:51 --> 01:19:57 which is didn't earn it, but diversity, equity, and inclusion.
01:19:58 --> 01:20:04 We were saying equality, but no, it's time for equity now, which means if you've
01:20:04 --> 01:20:08 got to go above and beyond to create the playing field, make it happen.
01:20:09 --> 01:20:15 That the world that you live in is not one shade, deal with it.
01:20:15 --> 01:20:20 That you're going to have to gather your comfort zone to interact with other
01:20:20 --> 01:20:22 human beings, make it happen.
01:20:23 --> 01:20:28 Those are the leaders. From the last episode, I said we got to elect American leaders.
01:20:28 --> 01:20:31 America is diversity.
01:20:32 --> 01:20:39 America is equity. America is inclusion. Period. Full stop.
01:20:39 --> 01:20:41 That's the whole concept.
01:20:42 --> 01:20:43 For the majority.
01:20:45 --> 01:20:49 All right, just say the whole 248 years, going on 249.
01:20:50 --> 01:20:56 We've given deferential treatment to white male Christians. I think that's long enough.
01:20:57 --> 01:21:04 I think it's time for us to pick people of merit, regardless of what they look like.
01:21:04 --> 01:21:11 I think it's time to pick people of honor, regardless of what they look like. Period.
01:21:12 --> 01:21:23 We have got to go into the voting booth from every election henceforth and pick American leaders.
01:21:24 --> 01:21:30 Doesn't matter if you're a first generation American or a 10th generation American,
01:21:30 --> 01:21:33 if that's possible. I think it is.
01:21:34 --> 01:21:37 You got to pick American leaders from this point forward.
01:21:37 --> 01:21:44 You got to pick people who understand the basic concept of diversity,
01:21:44 --> 01:21:49 equity, and inclusion because that's what America is.
01:21:49 --> 01:21:55 No matter how they spin it on Newsmax or OAN or Fox News or whatever,
01:21:56 --> 01:22:00 if they didn't believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion, Harrison Faulkner wouldn't have a job.
01:22:01 --> 01:22:04 And some of them other brothers and sisters they got over there at Fox,
01:22:04 --> 01:22:07 and I don't even know who's over at OAN or Newsmax.
01:22:07 --> 01:22:11 I don't watch it. But I,
01:22:12 --> 01:22:17 that they hire people who are not white male Christians.
01:22:17 --> 01:22:24 So why promote a political agenda that doesn't support diversity,
01:22:24 --> 01:22:25 equity, and conclusion?
01:22:26 --> 01:22:32 Right? It just makes sense. You could be an American leader and be liberal.
01:22:32 --> 01:22:34 You can be an American leader and be conservative.
01:22:34 --> 01:22:39 You can be an American leader and be radical. We can debate those ideas as Americans.
01:22:40 --> 01:22:45 We're in that tight fist mode where we're all trying to be unified and make this happen.
01:22:45 --> 01:22:52 We can come up with the right solution if we work together and we respect our diversity.
01:22:53 --> 01:23:00 We think with a mindset of equity and we're inclusive to make sure that everybody's got to say so.
01:23:00 --> 01:23:03 We can do that. It's not hard.
01:23:04 --> 01:23:11 We've seen pockets of it, but now it's time to, as Dr. King would say, live up to our creed.
01:23:11 --> 01:23:14 And Dr. King was very eloquent in saying that,
01:23:15 --> 01:23:20 and I can't find the exact quote now, but I remember he said something that
01:23:20 --> 01:23:24 we have to understand that not everybody, and he used the term Negro because
01:23:24 --> 01:23:30 of his time, but he understood that not every black person thought the same way.
01:23:31 --> 01:23:35 And there were some black people that actually were going to work to hurt other black people.
01:23:36 --> 01:23:40 Our job is not to judge. Our job is to love them anyway and keep it moving.
01:23:41 --> 01:23:45 In the National Football League, brothers play against each other.
01:23:45 --> 01:23:47 Literal blood brothers.
01:23:48 --> 01:23:51 But you're not going to stop me from trying to score that touchdown.
01:23:52 --> 01:23:56 I'm not going to let that, because you're on the other side.
01:23:57 --> 01:24:01 Well, after the battle, we'll get together.
01:24:02 --> 01:24:06 But if my objective is to get to this point, you're not going to stop me.
01:24:07 --> 01:24:10 So we have to accept that, that there's going to be some black folks that are not on our side.
01:24:11 --> 01:24:16 You ain't got to call them names. You just got to work around them. Do what you got to do.
01:24:17 --> 01:24:22 Force the gatekeepers to open the gate. Just like there's women that are gatekeepers.
01:24:24 --> 01:24:26 53% of white women prove that they're gatekeepers. Right.
01:24:27 --> 01:24:36 Here's what it is. But we as a collective have to make a commitment and focus
01:24:36 --> 01:24:39 on electing American leaders,
01:24:40 --> 01:24:45 leaders that understand that diversity, equity and inclusion is our strength.
01:24:45 --> 01:24:51 Is what makes us the most unique nation on the planet, the most blessed nation
01:24:51 --> 01:24:57 on the planet, the most powerful nation on the planet. It's not a weakness.
01:24:58 --> 01:25:01 It's not a fault. It's our strength.
01:25:02 --> 01:25:04 Thank you for listening. Until next time.
01:25:05 --> 01:25:52 Music.