Speaker 1: Baby, what's up? I was able to vote for two
Speaker 1: years before I actually voted a Confessions of a delinquent voter. Huh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but baby, I did the same dead ass. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Cadine and we're the ellis Is. You may know
Speaker 1: us from posting funny videos with our boys and reading
Speaker 1: each other publicly as a form of therapy. Wait, I'll
Speaker 1: make you need therapy most days. Wow. Oh, and one
Speaker 1: more important thing to mention, we're married. We are. We
Speaker 1: created this podcast to open dialogue about some of life's
Speaker 1: most taboo topics, things most folks don't want to talk
Speaker 1: about through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead
Speaker 1: ass is a term that we say every day. So
Speaker 1: when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts, the truth,
Speaker 1: the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We're about
Speaker 1: to take pillow talk to a whole new level. Dead
Speaker 1: Ad starts right now. This story time is going to
Speaker 1: take us back to the year two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: Two th That was a good year? Was it? Was
Speaker 1: it good year? That? Yeah, we're two years in. That
Speaker 1: was going into my junior year of college, and was
Speaker 1: it no, my sophomore year of college when so no,
Speaker 1: that was my junior college two thousand four, Yes, your
Speaker 1: junior because jun college we started dating, and I remember
Speaker 1: dealing with listening to all of the voting issues that
Speaker 1: happened in the two thousand election. But at that time
Speaker 1: I was only sixteen and I couldn't vote, And I
Speaker 1: remember it was it was George Bush versus Al Gore,
Speaker 1: and there was a whole discrepancy about Florida and the
Speaker 1: popular vote, but Florida being announced that as a Republican
Speaker 1: state and George Bush actually winning the presidency. So I
Speaker 1: remember saying to myself, when I'm able to vote for
Speaker 1: the presidential election in two thousand and four, I was
Speaker 1: going to participate. So in two thousand four was the
Speaker 1: first time I actually voted, And it wasn't until two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight when I actually started making money and
Speaker 1: we were voting again, and I went and I voted
Speaker 1: for President Barack Obama. That I realized that there were
Speaker 1: so many other elections in between two thousand and four
Speaker 1: and two thousand and eight that I should have been
Speaker 1: a part of. In order to help the man that
Speaker 1: I wanted to be president put forth the legislation that
Speaker 1: he was proposing so voting for the people locally and
Speaker 1: on the level that really impacted you, which I'm surprised
Speaker 1: that because your mom is an avid voter and she
Speaker 1: is always texting us in the groups remind us about
Speaker 1: voting and regardless of the election. I got to give
Speaker 1: credit to my mom. She was always that way. But
Speaker 1: me being at the time and then I was playing
Speaker 1: college football, better things to do. I was doing the
Speaker 1: football season, My focus was not on voting, and then,
Speaker 1: to be honest, the reason why I didn't vote until
Speaker 1: two thousand and four and then start focusing more on
Speaker 1: two thousand eight was because I always had this idea
Speaker 1: that my vote didn't count absolutely all right, So election
Speaker 1: day is November three, Lord, and with the presidency and
Speaker 1: dire need of change, it is crucial people, crucial for
Speaker 1: our communities to get to the polls. If you're not
Speaker 1: getting to the polls physically, there's voting early, they're sending
Speaker 1: it in by mail. Uh. Shaun King is going to
Speaker 1: join us today, um to share important information surrounding the
Speaker 1: election and things when it comes to voting, and it's
Speaker 1: funny listening to your story time. I will also say
Speaker 1: that I was guilty of thinking oh, when I turned eighteen,
Speaker 1: like automatically I should be able to vote. So I
Speaker 1: remember going to the polls with my parents. I want
Speaker 1: to say it was like a local election happening. My
Speaker 1: mother took me and I went and my name wasn't there.
Speaker 1: So I was like, but I'm eighteen, like I should
Speaker 1: be able to vote, not knowing that there's a process
Speaker 1: to be able to register to vote to then be
Speaker 1: able to vote, you know, And that's just something that
Speaker 1: I just kind of went over my head. And you know,
Speaker 1: my mom was kind of like, girl, didn't you know
Speaker 1: you were supposed to register? And I was like, I
Speaker 1: thought it just kind of automatically happened. When I was eighteen,
Speaker 1: my mother took me to register to vote. I hear
Speaker 1: that my mother. My mother shout out to Karen Ellis,
Speaker 1: you know, play the games when it comes to voteing.
Speaker 1: My mother don't play no games. And I want to
Speaker 1: I want to speak to the people as to why
Speaker 1: voting is so important and how it became important to me. Um.
Speaker 1: When I retired from the NFL in two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: I came back to Brooklyn and I started to mentor
Speaker 1: young athletes in Brooklyn. I always talk out the prototype
Speaker 1: Sports Performance Lab. And I remember, I'm dealing with so
Speaker 1: many issues within my community that the president couldn't change,
Speaker 1: you know. I had I had a couple of young
Speaker 1: men who are dealing with our law issues, had a
Speaker 1: couple of young men who was whose families were dealing
Speaker 1: with health issues. And when you think about these things,
Speaker 1: these things directly affect us daily. And it was more
Speaker 1: important for me at that point to know who the precinct,
Speaker 1: who was the head of the precinct, who was the
Speaker 1: district leader, who was the alderman, who was your city councilman.
Speaker 1: And at that point, that's when I started going to
Speaker 1: these these meetings. And I remember going to the city
Speaker 1: council meeting and we live in Crownhouse, Crown Heights at
Speaker 1: the time, and I remember walking in there to speak
Speaker 1: to Councilman Cornegee, and I remember seeing the place filled
Speaker 1: with Hasidic Jewish people and I remember saying to myself,
Speaker 1: were we have like an even split in Crown Heights
Speaker 1: between the West Indian Black American community and the Hasidic
Speaker 1: Jewish community? But when I walked into this, make me
Speaker 1: we were under represented. So everything that was happening was
Speaker 1: happening based on the people who were making demands and
Speaker 1: saying these things need to change. And it was at
Speaker 1: that point that I realized, you know what, I need
Speaker 1: more funding for my program. I got to know my councilman,
Speaker 1: I gotta know my older and I have to know
Speaker 1: who the district attorney is because um, we had a
Speaker 1: young man who was dealing with and arrest issue and
Speaker 1: was facing murder charges and it was important for us
Speaker 1: and his family to know who the district attorney was
Speaker 1: going to be. So at that point, it's like, wow,
Speaker 1: here I am focused my whole life on the president President.
Speaker 1: And the sad part is there were times where I
Speaker 1: voted because my mom was on my back, where I
Speaker 1: walked in there knowing it don't matter if I vote
Speaker 1: because New York is a historically blue state anyway, and
Speaker 1: the electoral college is gonna vote for him anyway. So
Speaker 1: what's the point. And it's like the older I became
Speaker 1: and the more I gave involved in my my city
Speaker 1: and my my neighborhood, that I realized, Man, there's so
Speaker 1: many more things that we can focus on than just
Speaker 1: the president. Listen, I think about times i've walked into
Speaker 1: make you Know my vote count, and I look at
Speaker 1: these ballots and I don't know these people on the ballot.
Speaker 1: So at that point, I'm just like, is it an
Speaker 1: any Meani mighty Mo? And it's like a shame on
Speaker 1: you moment that I have for have not done my
Speaker 1: research and do my due diligence going into these voting
Speaker 1: you know, polls to actually pick for somebody that I
Speaker 1: know will evoke some sort of change that I want
Speaker 1: to see happen. So there's really a process around educating
Speaker 1: yourself when it comes to voting and making sure that
Speaker 1: you are really understanding who is fighting for what does
Speaker 1: it align with what you're looking for? And I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. We didn't do a karaoke today,
Speaker 1: but I'm thinking about that song that My Baby's Love
Speaker 1: from Bob Marley, Get Up, Stand Up, Yeah, stand up
Speaker 1: for your right? That was that was Cairo song back
Speaker 1: in the day, speaking of standing up for your rights.
Speaker 1: I think there's an important aspect of voting for a
Speaker 1: presidential candidate that people don't take into account. Right, And
Speaker 1: I'm going to be very clear this year, I'm voting
Speaker 1: for a Biden, right and it's not because I'm a
Speaker 1: huge Biden fan. I talked about this all the time.
Speaker 1: When you talk about the crime Bill and the fact
Speaker 1: that he constructed this bill, and you think about mass incarceration,
Speaker 1: and you think about the Clintons, the Democrats have not
Speaker 1: necessarily represented black people and people of color in the
Speaker 1: best way over. I think it's over of the jail
Speaker 1: population are male population of black and brown men, right,
Speaker 1: And you figured a lot of that came from what
Speaker 1: we talked about this before the War on drugs and
Speaker 1: how they weaponized the police department in order to arrest
Speaker 1: and lock up black and brown men, even though the
Speaker 1: crack epidemic wasn't as big as the cocaine powder cocaine
Speaker 1: epidemic was at the time that they declared the War
Speaker 1: on drugs. In actual war on drugs, cocaine was a
Speaker 1: way bigger deal. But you could be on cocaine and
Speaker 1: get away with it. But you know, that's in the
Speaker 1: different story. What I look at for a presidential Canada
Speaker 1: is also their ability to appoint judges. Right. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: to this date has appointed a hundred and ninety four
Speaker 1: of the seven hundred and ninety two judges that have
Speaker 1: life terms. Think about that, think about that, and I
Speaker 1: think it is important. You can say what you want
Speaker 1: to say about Joe Biden about Donald Trump. I'm not
Speaker 1: a fan of either one of them. Like, to be
Speaker 1: perfectly honest, I do think they're both out of touch.
Speaker 1: There's seventy plus your old white man. How could they
Speaker 1: possibly know what it's like to deal with the issues
Speaker 1: we have to deal with as a millennial black couple.
Speaker 1: They just don't. But you look at Kamala Harris and
Speaker 1: even her track record as a district attorney is questionable.
Speaker 1: People say, oh, she was doing her job. Yes, she
Speaker 1: was doing her job, but she was also allowing things
Speaker 1: to happen under her watch that allowed for the incarceration
Speaker 1: of black men and women in California. Right that was
Speaker 1: eleven years ago, I believe. But she's had way more
Speaker 1: legislation and made changes during her time as in the Senate,
Speaker 1: So she hasn't She didn't stay at that point. She
Speaker 1: did make some changes. My thing is, who is Biden
Speaker 1: going to surround himself with is a cabinet that's going
Speaker 1: to represent a more diverse America. Donald Trump has already
Speaker 1: proven and he's only going to surround himself with older
Speaker 1: white males who stay out of touch with what's going
Speaker 1: on in America. You don't have to fire for them
Speaker 1: to be in touch with exactly. So for me, when
Speaker 1: I'm voting, I'm not just voting for the man who's
Speaker 1: gonna sit and I'm voting for the person who's gonna
Speaker 1: appoint judges and also someone who's going to have a
Speaker 1: cabinet that looks like America, you know, saying what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And people don't get that. People get how you vote
Speaker 1: for this guy? He did not crime. Billers like, how
Speaker 1: can you vote for Trump? He's a biggot. Whoever you choose,
Speaker 1: You have to choose and make your decisions based on
Speaker 1: the totality of what the presidential seat requires. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's not just about their record, because
Speaker 1: if we learned anything from Obama, one man can't change
Speaker 1: the whole country teams in eight years. You need a team,
Speaker 1: You need people, and you also need Congress. You need
Speaker 1: the entire legislative branch to be able to represent American
Speaker 1: the way it looks in this see any kind of change. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna vote. We know who you who, You're
Speaker 1: gonna vote for. But the fact is that people need
Speaker 1: to be out and vote. And one thing that I
Speaker 1: am extremely disappointed in and really give a side eye
Speaker 1: two um, and we'll talk about this more with Sean,
Speaker 1: is just the fact that we can do so many
Speaker 1: things nowadays with just a fingerprint or with your eyes,
Speaker 1: you know, facial recognition, global entry. There are all of
Speaker 1: these technologically savvy ways to be recognized and to do
Speaker 1: things nowadays. And it really makes me wonder why can't
Speaker 1: voting be the same way. Why can't I be in
Speaker 1: a different state than my voting state and not have
Speaker 1: the ability to vote and vote accurately and efficiently where
Speaker 1: I am It has to be snail male and hand count,
Speaker 1: you know. And and people want to say the system
Speaker 1: is broken, though again, just like racism, the system is
Speaker 1: designed to work the way they wanted to work, because
Speaker 1: if there's anything that makes voting more efficient for people,
Speaker 1: it's not going to have the outcome that they want.
Speaker 1: That's the truth. It's not. So that's a major side
Speaker 1: eye that I give. Y'all can figure out a way
Speaker 1: to make this ship easier for people. This is another truth,
Speaker 1: and people don't like to hear it. America in totality,
Speaker 1: the people, the American people are not a country of biggots.
Speaker 1: The laws are biggoted, the people in power are biggest,
Speaker 1: but the vast majority of Americans are very different than
Speaker 1: what America was fifty sixty years ago. It's the truth.
Speaker 1: People don't want to own up to believe it, but
Speaker 1: it's the truth. It is the truth. We have to
Speaker 1: find a way to make a change, and I'm excited
Speaker 1: to Sean can go be here with it? Absolutely, we
Speaker 1: are going to talk to Sean. I mean, it's been
Speaker 1: a long four years of appearing a whole lot of
Speaker 1: tragedy and disappointment one after the other. So it's time
Speaker 1: to elect a new president. November three is election day
Speaker 1: y'all all over the country, and hasn't been dramatic enough,
Speaker 1: baby boy, the speculation surrounding this election I think is
Speaker 1: gonna be up for the whole oscar. It's just not
Speaker 1: even funny at this point. But yeah, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: Shaun King joined us and we will talk more and
Speaker 1: get some insight from him around voting. So Shaun King
Speaker 1: is here with us today to help us prepare for
Speaker 1: the upcoming presidential election. Shaun King, the writer, civil rights activists,
Speaker 1: co founder of Real Justice Pack, father, husband, so many things.
Speaker 1: Welcome Shaun King. Yes, yes, Before we get started, though,
Speaker 1: I want to say the Shaun King because everything that
Speaker 1: he's doing now pushing forward the voice for Black America
Speaker 1: and for disenfranchised people, I think s importantly because he's
Speaker 1: taking a huge step in making a huge sacrifice for
Speaker 1: both him and his family. So I'm gonna say the
Speaker 1: Shaun King. We welcome you, brother, thank you for joining us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you both. So Sean, Um, in a digital
Speaker 1: age of activism, you have also become a celebrity in
Speaker 1: your own right. So before we jump into the voting,
Speaker 1: we just want to know, particularly about the challenges that
Speaker 1: have come along with the added pressure to constantly have
Speaker 1: to defend to the public or the public's perception of
Speaker 1: who you are. Because, like we said, well you know, Sean,
Speaker 1: the father, the husband, the man, You're still fighting the
Speaker 1: good fight. So how do you how are you able
Speaker 1: to um work around those challenges that have arose? Um
Speaker 1: with that it's a lot actually, Um, When when people
Speaker 1: ask me that question, just like you are, try to
Speaker 1: be super honest about it, like it's not clean. It's
Speaker 1: it's hard. It's hard for my family, it's hard for me.
Speaker 1: Every day I'm dealing with some type of for loss,
Speaker 1: allegation or accusation or crazy rumor or trending topic. I
Speaker 1: think over the years, I've gotten kind of numb to it.
Speaker 1: And I don't even necessarily mean that in a healthy way.
Speaker 1: Like you, you just grow kind of numb to the negativity.
Speaker 1: And if you, if you see it all the time,
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't allow it in my mind and
Speaker 1: in my heart and still have a productive day. Like
Speaker 1: as soon as as soon as we finished this episode,
Speaker 1: I'm leading us that I have a staff meeting to lead,
Speaker 1: and that's how my day goes. It's like one important
Speaker 1: gathering after meeting. And if I if I log into
Speaker 1: Instagram and allow something ugly that somebody says to take
Speaker 1: me somewhere different, I couldn't even be effective. And so
Speaker 1: what I found is even when I respond to something
Speaker 1: crazy that somebody says, like with an honest, thorough answer,
Speaker 1: it informs the two of you. It informs people who
Speaker 1: are supportive, but the people who are detractors, they literally
Speaker 1: don't care. They're not they're not looking for answers. They're
Speaker 1: not looking for the truth. They're just kind of throwing daggers.
Speaker 1: And and so what I have found is I've spent
Speaker 1: so much time answering critics, and what I found is
Speaker 1: they don't even look at the critics. They don't even
Speaker 1: look at my answer to at all. They don't they
Speaker 1: don't care. It's funny because I was I was just
Speaker 1: looking at a movie trailer for a movie coming out,
Speaker 1: Judas in the Black Messiah, and it was talking about
Speaker 1: the Fred Hampton story and pretty much how the federal
Speaker 1: government UM is able to discredit black leadership by pretty
Speaker 1: much using all all forces around them, whether it's a
Speaker 1: local government, whether it's law enforcement, social media. At the
Speaker 1: time they didn't have social media, but using cointel pro
Speaker 1: style tactics to pretty much discredit anything you say. And
Speaker 1: I suppos that you made about that and having that
Speaker 1: conversation with former members of the Black Panther Party, and
Speaker 1: and can you speak a little bit about UM, how
Speaker 1: do you find the strength because I don't even want
Speaker 1: to talk about how you define it. We rent want
Speaker 1: to talk about how do you find the strength to
Speaker 1: continue to push forward when you know these style of
Speaker 1: taxes are happening. Well, what first, These types of attacks
Speaker 1: are happening not just against me, but against anybody who's
Speaker 1: out here being effective. Anytime you try to challenge the
Speaker 1: status quo, just challenge the way things are. Depending on
Speaker 1: how much you're trying to challenge it, there will always
Speaker 1: be opposition. And I guess what stings is. It's one
Speaker 1: thing to know that emotionally, like I know historically that
Speaker 1: that's how it happens. It's another thing to be in
Speaker 1: the middle of it and to actually experience it and
Speaker 1: deal with it. And the most effective tactic really from
Speaker 1: Quintell pro is not to turn the me to you
Speaker 1: against you. It's not to turn famous people against you.
Speaker 1: Is to turn your own people against you. And and
Speaker 1: when when that happens, And that's in some ways some
Speaker 1: of the biggest challenge that even Malcolm faced, and in
Speaker 1: some ways it's one of the big challenges that Martin faced.
Speaker 1: We see him now is just like this super heroic figure.
Speaker 1: But when when Dr King died there was a pole
Speaker 1: just taking almost three weeks before he was killed. He
Speaker 1: was deeply unpopular, not just with white folk, the majority
Speaker 1: of black folk also disapproved of Doctor King, which people
Speaker 1: had effective. Yes, Now, if you ask anybody who was
Speaker 1: alive in that final year of his life, they will
Speaker 1: all now tell you they loved him. But in that
Speaker 1: final year it wasn't true. And he was when when
Speaker 1: Malcolm was assassinated, he was literally the least popular black
Speaker 1: leader in America. I mean, he was as if you
Speaker 1: could imagine in your mind, a very unpopular black leader
Speaker 1: right now, Malcolm was about at that level. Now we
Speaker 1: have retroactively imposed kind of a popularity on him didn't
Speaker 1: really exist at that moment. What I what I do
Speaker 1: every day, there are two or three things that I
Speaker 1: have to kind of remind myself of, almost like a
Speaker 1: mantra um. There are goals that I have that I'm
Speaker 1: fighting for that are that are bigger than me, bigger
Speaker 1: than my popularity, bigger than how anybody feels about me.
Speaker 1: And so in a lot of ways, I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to keep my eyes on the goals that we're pursuing.
Speaker 1: There are people that were trying to elect their laws
Speaker 1: that we're trying to change, their policies that we're trying
Speaker 1: to shift. And what I've learned is my poul like personally,
Speaker 1: my popularity is up and down, and I can't allow
Speaker 1: my self esteem and and and my own value to
Speaker 1: kind of ride on that popularity roller posts are like
Speaker 1: there are days where I get an award from Rihanna,
Speaker 1: and then there are days where I'm trending and people
Speaker 1: are clowning with memes and everything else. And so when
Speaker 1: I'm getting the award, I don't allow the award to
Speaker 1: make my head get big. And when I'm trending for
Speaker 1: something ugly, I don't then all of a sudden feel
Speaker 1: horrible about myself. I kind of just try to be
Speaker 1: even been killed through it all. I have to remind myself.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I have a family that loves me.
Speaker 1: I have a what I've been with my wife almost
Speaker 1: twenty five years since we were kids. Um we have
Speaker 1: we have five kids that are doing well and great.
Speaker 1: I have a I have staffs that I love and
Speaker 1: work well with, teams of friends and supporters. But there's
Speaker 1: something about our psyche that can allow one negative thing
Speaker 1: to take us in a weird place. And I've tried
Speaker 1: to I've tried to get beyond that, and it's taken
Speaker 1: me probably ten years to figure out how to be
Speaker 1: above that. But you just can't allow your your popularity
Speaker 1: on any giving day to dictate how you feel about yourself,
Speaker 1: good or bad. Well, one thing I've learned about American
Speaker 1: history is that, um, anybody who was on the right
Speaker 1: side of politics, especially social justice during that time, is
Speaker 1: always considered the villain and made public enemy number one.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at everyone loved Dolly when he
Speaker 1: was dying, huge parade, The whole world loved him during
Speaker 1: the time when he was speaking four Blacks in America,
Speaker 1: he was public enemy number one, had to give away
Speaker 1: his titles. You look at Colin Kaepernick four years ago,
Speaker 1: he was considered a terrorist. Like I used to look
Speaker 1: at memes that Colin Kaepernick, and now he has billboards
Speaker 1: on in New York. And you know, it's just funny
Speaker 1: to me that we as a people continue to watch
Speaker 1: these things happen cyclically, you know, so over and over again.
Speaker 1: But every time it happens, it's like, no, this guy,
Speaker 1: you know, but this guy is really the terrorist this time.
Speaker 1: All those other times we were wrong, but this guy,
Speaker 1: this guy, and then later on in history they will
Speaker 1: be praising and said he was right the entire time.
Speaker 1: It's just it's part for the course. So let's get
Speaker 1: into some of this this voting. Because I told the
Speaker 1: story about and during story time about the first time
Speaker 1: I voted. I was twenty years old and it was
Speaker 1: during the two thousand and four elections Bush and Kerry,
Speaker 1: and I didn't understand the importance from and I had
Speaker 1: two years that I could have voted, you know, from
Speaker 1: eighteen to twenty on different elections, and I really did
Speaker 1: not understand the importance. And I didn't understand voters suppression.
Speaker 1: Because so can you talk to us a little bit
Speaker 1: about what's going on in this election and how we
Speaker 1: can avoid voter suppression and things of that nature. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: first off, I think you, as a young voter is
Speaker 1: probably almost identical to most of us as young voters
Speaker 1: like I have to put that in some ways off
Speaker 1: on our school system and educational system, and even just
Speaker 1: as a society. We focus so much of our energy
Speaker 1: on the presidential election that when you turn like my
Speaker 1: two oldest daughters their eighteen and twenty and so they're
Speaker 1: getting to vote for the first time in the presidential race.
Speaker 1: They're getting to vote for the first time this year.
Speaker 1: But when I was eighteen and nineteen years old, I
Speaker 1: had I had no real understanding about city council races,
Speaker 1: um local school board races, state senators, state house races.
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the organizations is that I
Speaker 1: run Real Justice. We help elect new district attorneys all
Speaker 1: over the country. We've now, we've ousted it twenty horrible
Speaker 1: district attorneys and replaced it, replaced them with brilliant, compassionate
Speaker 1: women and men all over the country. How I was
Speaker 1: probably in my early thirties before I even understood what
Speaker 1: the district attorney was. And some of that is just
Speaker 1: how our educational system works. And so even that in
Speaker 1: some ways is its own form of voter suppression. Voter
Speaker 1: suppression is anything intentionally or unintentionally that prevents people from voting,
Speaker 1: prevents people from wanting to vote thinking that they can vote.
Speaker 1: And this country, the United States, has one of the
Speaker 1: lowest average voting rates of any developed countries in the world.
Speaker 1: Only about fifty percent of Americans vote in presidential election.
Speaker 1: In most developed countries, it's closer to sevent in some
Speaker 1: countries like Australia. Uh in Australia, you are required to
Speaker 1: vote and if you don't vote, there is a fine.
Speaker 1: So they have been Australia, it's called compulsory voting, and
Speaker 1: over of all Australians vote. It's a part of your
Speaker 1: civic duty, like just like, yeah, you pay taxes, you
Speaker 1: should be forced to vote. It makes sense and and
Speaker 1: so and in Australia is not the only country that
Speaker 1: does that. And so we have just about fifty percent participation.
Speaker 1: And and what that means is when so few people
Speaker 1: participate is the average American is a non voter. And
Speaker 1: even people that we that you and I know, that
Speaker 1: we think are voting, they're not voting. We should assume
Speaker 1: that half of our friends, half of our followers, they're not.
Speaker 1: And some of it is that they're so busy. Some
Speaker 1: of it is that they're confused on where they vote.
Speaker 1: Some people don't know if they're properly registered. So we
Speaker 1: can tweet it and post it an instagram it, but
Speaker 1: there's still just a real low understanding that people have
Speaker 1: on how and where to vote. It's it's partly because
Speaker 1: of our system. It's super unclear. Um and that's what
Speaker 1: we're recorded. I think that's done on purpose. Because you
Speaker 1: said something last night we were talking about, is that
Speaker 1: you can go to an airport now stick your fingers
Speaker 1: on a device, or let them look at your who
Speaker 1: the hell you are? Right? How is it possible that
Speaker 1: we don't have this technology? They'll just vote wherever you are,
Speaker 1: regardless of where there should be something in place. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can do so many things electronically now, you know,
Speaker 1: you go to the airport, you look in the machine,
Speaker 1: clear looks at your eyes, and it knows who you are.
Speaker 1: Why can't we do something like that? We could, But
Speaker 1: the real answer to that is there are people in
Speaker 1: power who understand that they will stay in power when
Speaker 1: fewer people vote. And we could absolutely have sophisticated technological
Speaker 1: systems that are safe, secure, just like like you said,
Speaker 1: just like clear at the airport. We could have those
Speaker 1: types of things. But our our country also spends so
Speaker 1: little money developing our infrastructure, not just our voting infrastructure,
Speaker 1: but anything from roads to bridges, to our school systems
Speaker 1: to our health care systems. So all of these things
Speaker 1: are underdeveloped, and it's it's the American way in some ways.
Speaker 1: And so I was gonna say, we saw just this
Speaker 1: past week in Origin of people waiting in line for
Speaker 1: ten to twelve hours to vote, and I and we
Speaker 1: called that voter suppression. I saw people say, well, why
Speaker 1: is that voter suppression? Well, it's voter suppression because people
Speaker 1: were passing out in line, people had to leave and
Speaker 1: go work, people had to leave and go pick up
Speaker 1: their kids. Yeah, it's a it's a way to discourage
Speaker 1: people from voting. And yeah, it's frustrating, super frustrating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's also now the question to that, you know, what's
Speaker 1: going to happen at forty five decides that he will
Speaker 1: not peacefully leave his seat, you know, if he's not
Speaker 1: re elected in November. So what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: Are there any legal protections that are in place to
Speaker 1: prevent this, or how can we prepare for something like
Speaker 1: this because a lot of people are saying there's going
Speaker 1: to be a whole civil war if if things don't
Speaker 1: go his way come November three. Well, first, Donald Trump
Speaker 1: has all but said publicly over and over again that
Speaker 1: he already thinks this this elect is rigged, that the
Speaker 1: voting is rigged against him. He's already kind of projected
Speaker 1: that after election day he's not just going to accept
Speaker 1: the results the way we've seen every other presidential administration
Speaker 1: before this. Due the difference is if you go all
Speaker 1: the way back to two thousand when there was a
Speaker 1: contested election that went all the way to the Supreme Board.
Speaker 1: The difference was neither one of them were incumbents. They
Speaker 1: were Bill Clinton had his final term, and so it
Speaker 1: wasn't like one of them could just say I'm staying
Speaker 1: in office. Well, now we're going to get a contested
Speaker 1: election against someone who already has the position, and we've
Speaker 1: never really had someone like Donald Trump as president, and
Speaker 1: so they're they're probably three scenarios. The first is is
Speaker 1: difficult but possible, and this would be the best scenario,
Speaker 1: is that Joe Biden wins on election day in enough
Speaker 1: states that can declare their winner, that he wins by
Speaker 1: a landslide, in enough states that say we certify that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden wins that on election night, he actually crosses
Speaker 1: two d and seventy delegates and the media declares him
Speaker 1: a winner. Joe Biden may not, I mean, Donald Trump
Speaker 1: may not immediately accept it, but that's the best case scenario,
Speaker 1: is that Joe Biden crosses to seventy. And I've seen
Speaker 1: a couple pundits kind of show where Joe Biden would
Speaker 1: have to win for that to happen, he he would
Speaker 1: have to win almost every contested state if he won
Speaker 1: in a shocking way, if he won like Texas or
Speaker 1: something like that, then that would easily push him over
Speaker 1: that the more likely scenario. And this is not like
Speaker 1: a conspiracy theory or doomsday. Because of the pandemic, tens
Speaker 1: of millions of Americans have already voted by mail, and
Speaker 1: that's okay, and I don't want to discourage anybody from
Speaker 1: doing that, but about half of American states don't begin
Speaker 1: counting those ballots until the end of election day. And
Speaker 1: and so what that means is for twenty states where
Speaker 1: millions of people have voted by mail, those votes don't
Speaker 1: start to count until late on election night. In those
Speaker 1: states are already saying like, hey, it's gonna take us
Speaker 1: several days to count them. So to be fair to
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, and for a moment, if I was if
Speaker 1: I was president and no one crossed the two seventy
Speaker 1: thresholds and there were still millions of votes out, if
Speaker 1: I'm Joe Biden or Donald Trump, I'm gonna say no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: You're not a winner because these votes have not all
Speaker 1: been counted. Now, not only would Donald Trump be right
Speaker 1: to say that? And we have to say this because
Speaker 1: the roles may be reversed where Donald Trump tries to
Speaker 1: declare himself a winner before votes in Arizona and Ohio
Speaker 1: and Wisconsin have been counted, and say say Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is up on election night in some of those states,
Speaker 1: but none of the mail in violets have been counted,
Speaker 1: then Joe Biden has to be the one to say
Speaker 1: on election night, hold on, tens of millions of votes
Speaker 1: have not even been counted yet, you can't declare yourself
Speaker 1: a winner. That's probably where we're going to be. And
Speaker 1: that's not a doomsday scenario. It's just it's a result
Speaker 1: of the pandemic. And there is a small chance that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden could win on election night. I don't see
Speaker 1: a good chance of Donald Trump winning on a let
Speaker 1: He could still win, but I don't think that he
Speaker 1: would honestly win on election night. Um, the more likely
Speaker 1: scenario is it's going to take a couple of days,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's gonna be difficult, man. Well, rounding things
Speaker 1: out with you, Sean, because I know you have a
Speaker 1: lot going on, so you we just want to talk
Speaker 1: real quick about we had an opportunity to actually speak
Speaker 1: with presidential hopeful Biden UM about his campaign, and we,
Speaker 1: you know, we believe that the conversations like that are necessary,
Speaker 1: especially for the black community, UM, and especially now. UM.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people are really feeling like they're
Speaker 1: just going to have to choose between the lesser of
Speaker 1: two evils. You have you know, Kamala Harris, her record
Speaker 1: as a prosecutor, you have him in the legacy of
Speaker 1: the ninety four crime bill. UM. People are rightfully leery
Speaker 1: of their willingness to be able to bring positive change,
Speaker 1: especially to people of color. So, you know, giving their reputations, UM,
Speaker 1: what what do we have to look forward to if
Speaker 1: they're elected? How we can how can we continue to
Speaker 1: put pressure on Harris and Biden to meet our needs
Speaker 1: and demands if they are to be elected into office.
Speaker 1: So I was a huge critic of Joe Biden, and UM,
Speaker 1: I am I'm not a Joe Biden fan. I'm not
Speaker 1: a Joe by a sup order. UM. I've I've written
Speaker 1: long pieces about his record on mass incarceration and criminal
Speaker 1: justice in general. I have to remind people, though, that
Speaker 1: in all elections, not just presidential elections, but in governor's
Speaker 1: races and mayor's races, often your favorite candidate doesn't win.
Speaker 1: So I work with the Bernie Sanders campaign. I love Bernie,
Speaker 1: I loved his policies, I trust his integrity, and but
Speaker 1: Bernie's not the nominee. And and so for me, as
Speaker 1: as I am one of those people who have a
Speaker 1: huge beef with Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden on
Speaker 1: his worst day, and then I say this as somebody
Speaker 1: who was incredibly critical of him, is still better than
Speaker 1: the best version of Donald Trump. The Donald Trump he
Speaker 1: has now told. According to the Washington Post, they have
Speaker 1: a live tracker. Why they tracked how many lives details
Speaker 1: every day he's told twenty three thousand lies, which is
Speaker 1: the most any human being has ever been measured to do.
Speaker 1: Three thousand. That's just in the three and a half
Speaker 1: years of his administration. And those are just the public
Speaker 1: lives that we know of. On a good day, he's
Speaker 1: dishonest on a on a good day for him, he's
Speaker 1: still a bigot. And and so even Donald Trump's role
Speaker 1: in mismanaging the pandemic, all of those things. When I
Speaker 1: go to vote, and I haven't voted by mail, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go either vote on election day or vote on
Speaker 1: an early voting day. I am not pumped up and
Speaker 1: charged about voting for Joe Biden. In a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: I'm going to vote against Donald Trump. With all of
Speaker 1: that said, I have several friends who work for the
Speaker 1: Joe Biden campaign, friends and I love and trust. I've
Speaker 1: had several dear friends who have endorsed him and have
Speaker 1: helped craft some of his policies. We will have not
Speaker 1: just more access but leverage with Joe Biden. Um. When
Speaker 1: Joe Biden appoints judges or Supreme Court justices, all of
Speaker 1: those things, we are way more likely to get people
Speaker 1: who not only look like us, but agree with the
Speaker 1: way we see the world. And I plan on when
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is elected, just for me personally, I plan
Speaker 1: on going kind of back to my role as a
Speaker 1: critic of Joe Biden. I've tried to hold some of
Speaker 1: that back during this campaign, but some of us need
Speaker 1: to hold him accountable, and that that kind of what
Speaker 1: I see my role as See It's funny because I've
Speaker 1: taken this stance and educated myself on American history, understanding
Speaker 1: that throughout time, the difference between Republican politics and democratic
Speaker 1: politics has been overt racism versus covert racism, and crime
Speaker 1: Bill has been in a perfect example of that. But
Speaker 1: when we're choosing a and I try to tell people,
Speaker 1: you're choosing someone to sit in a position, but you're
Speaker 1: choosing someone that's also going to choose a cabinet and
Speaker 1: also appoint judges. So for me, when it comes to voting,
Speaker 1: I want to vote someone who was going to I'm
Speaker 1: going to vote someone in who was going to think
Speaker 1: about people who not only look like me, but people
Speaker 1: who are also dealing with similar struggles who don't look
Speaker 1: like me. Because ultimately, it's not only about just being
Speaker 1: a black man. What about black women, what about the
Speaker 1: LGBTQ community, What about all of the other different demographics
Speaker 1: and misrepresented people in the government. If we continue to
Speaker 1: vote the same old seventy plus white males into office,
Speaker 1: they're only going to focus on that demographic. And for me,
Speaker 1: that's what needs to change. It's not just about the
Speaker 1: black rhetoric and whatever, because it's important that we've had
Speaker 1: a black president before, and even during that eight year presidency,
Speaker 1: we felt neglected once again, we felt neglected and I
Speaker 1: think it's fair for us to hold people accountable. I
Speaker 1: feel like now is the time where we use our
Speaker 1: voices and we speak about not just the policies of
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, but the cabinet he's gonna put in and
Speaker 1: the judges he can appoint. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Well, Sean,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you. We thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: We know you have to run. Hopefully we can do
Speaker 1: this again. You're also an alumni and Black Love Doctors
Speaker 1: like yeah, I love that. Yeah, those are my people,
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad we get to to tell our
Speaker 1: stories there. You know today you're interviewing me, but uh,
Speaker 1: so much of why I am who I am as
Speaker 1: because of my wife and and we've been together so
Speaker 1: I'm forty one, we've been together since we were fifteen
Speaker 1: and sixteen, and you know, so much of what I
Speaker 1: do I do not just because she empowers me to
Speaker 1: do it, but she really makes it, makes my whole
Speaker 1: world work. She's a great I'm a terrible manager, guilty, guilty,
Speaker 1: And uh I've tried to get better. I don't just
Speaker 1: like I'm trying to grow and get better every day
Speaker 1: at that. But without her, yeah, you wouldn't even know
Speaker 1: me without her better complementing those those weaknesses and elevating
Speaker 1: the strength. So thank you so much, Sean for taking
Speaker 1: the time. Love to you, Love to your family. We're
Speaker 1: gonna pray for you always, perfect family, Keep fighting. Anything
Speaker 1: we can do to help get the information out, um continue.
Speaker 1: Hopefully we can keep this line of communication any any way.
Speaker 1: We can use our platforms to to push anything that
Speaker 1: you want to push forward. Man, we're here for sure.
Speaker 1: I appreciate his honesty, you know what I'm saying. If
Speaker 1: people really look at history, anytime a black person, not
Speaker 1: just a black man, black person, black man, a black
Speaker 1: woman decided to speak up for the injustices done to
Speaker 1: black people, they're often villainized. And I can honestly say
Speaker 1: I think that this is happening to Sean, and I
Speaker 1: wish the best for him and his family, because it's
Speaker 1: not easy to sit where he's sitting. It really isn't.
Speaker 1: We can all sit back and throw stones and say
Speaker 1: he should be doing this, he should be doing that,
Speaker 1: Why isn't this happening? But until you're able to sit
Speaker 1: down and discuss things and see the work he's doing,
Speaker 1: you can't agree. I agreed. I mean it takes a
Speaker 1: lot to put himself and his family out on the
Speaker 1: forefront like this. So um, major respect out to you,
Speaker 1: Sean King. All Right, you know what, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. Um, we had a lot going on in
Speaker 1: this episode so far. Let's move into listener letters after
Speaker 1: we get into some ads. All right, so stick around.
Speaker 1: All right, So we're back. Now. That was a heavy episode,
Speaker 1: very important, very educational, enlightening. Hopefully you guys are registered
Speaker 1: to vote and you get out there and let your
Speaker 1: voices be heard. But right now we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: some listener. I just kind of lightened things up a
Speaker 1: little bit. I see you with the black leather on,
Speaker 1: I see you a little Angela Davis makes me feel
Speaker 1: a little you know. So I got on a white shirt.
Speaker 1: Letters are black and it says radical, Right, you want
Speaker 1: to be that radical change? You see that radical? But
Speaker 1: a black letters got to be on the white shirt.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you're hilarious. Alright, So let's start with
Speaker 1: this first. Listen to letter, alright, he says, Listen, I
Speaker 1: have recently gotten to a place where I feel like
Speaker 1: I have done so much growth. I went through therapy
Speaker 1: to work on some of my issues I saw within
Speaker 1: myself and the pattern I saw in my family. So
Speaker 1: I feel like a new person. I'm alright, just graduated
Speaker 1: from grad school, talk about it, and I live on
Speaker 1: my own. I'm at a point in my life where
Speaker 1: i just want to live life to the fullest. I'm
Speaker 1: a seditary, so I feel like it's my calling to
Speaker 1: go see the world. However, that's your favorite word, you
Speaker 1: love saying that it must be a sagittarious thing. However,
Speaker 1: I feel like I get stuck because I often think
Speaker 1: about what others say. To a certain extent, I feel
Speaker 1: strongly when it comes to my emotions, so I I
Speaker 1: feel hard when I feel guilt. I do what I
Speaker 1: want because I am young and I don't want to
Speaker 1: take for granted my young years. But I do worry
Speaker 1: about what others think, like family members. I always feel
Speaker 1: guilty when I do what is not expected of me.
Speaker 1: What advice do you guys have for a young black
Speaker 1: man in his twenties wanting to live life unapologetically nice? Alright? Brother? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, being as super smart sagittarius as I
Speaker 1: can see, um, you seem to be very aware and
Speaker 1: touch you know of your emotions and the way you feel,
Speaker 1: the fact that you've been to therapy, you've already been
Speaker 1: to work through family patterns and all that stuff. I
Speaker 1: think that's a great thing. So you're already ahead of
Speaker 1: the curve, because some people are still trying to figure
Speaker 1: that out well off into their their years. Um, I
Speaker 1: will tell you. For me, I had a very similar
Speaker 1: situation where I got very concerned about what people think
Speaker 1: and people being the collective, just people in general, but
Speaker 1: also yes, family friends, all that good stuff. I will
Speaker 1: say de Voo being the total opposite of not if
Speaker 1: it's about what people think, you saved my life, bro,
Speaker 1: because there was for a long time I was just
Speaker 1: very like, you know, kind of tiptoeing around things that
Speaker 1: I wanted to do with things that really ultimately made
Speaker 1: me happy. And I really had to assess, like who
Speaker 1: was at fault here, who was going to suffer the
Speaker 1: most if I was not true to myself? And ultimately,
Speaker 1: you do one thing, somebody has an opinion. You do
Speaker 1: the other thing, somebody has an opinion good or bad.
Speaker 1: So if you really live your life riding that roller coaster,
Speaker 1: kind of like what Shawn said in his portion of
Speaker 1: the interview if he was to just like you know,
Speaker 1: relish on the highs and then really beat on himself
Speaker 1: on the loads. Everybody's gonna have an opinion about whatever
Speaker 1: you do, so you might as well do what you
Speaker 1: want to do anyway. Sounding like I know, I know, squeeze,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying I've really adopted that philosophy in life.
Speaker 1: Who cares. If we had listened to family members, we
Speaker 1: would not have the platform that we have right now.
Speaker 1: If we listen to people saying, y'all doing too much.
Speaker 1: Y'all doing all this stuff on the internet. What y'all
Speaker 1: doing You're doing it for likes, you're doing it for this,
Speaker 1: and here we are because we didn't listen to it.
Speaker 1: We didn't bro do your thing. If I can go
Speaker 1: back into my twenties, okay, twenty year old, two year
Speaker 1: old ding and be like, sis, here's the team on
Speaker 1: doing what people expect you to do, or like worrying
Speaker 1: about what people have to say, let me tell tell
Speaker 1: you living my whole best life. This is the analogy
Speaker 1: I give some of my kids who have the same conversation.
Speaker 1: They're like, man, you know, I don't know what to
Speaker 1: do with people saying that I'm just do this. People
Speaker 1: saying I say this, nobody knows anything. Okay, listen to me.
Speaker 1: They don't know nothing. We all wake up every day
Speaker 1: and we fucking guess. We're guessing. There was a point
Speaker 1: in the world where everybody knew the Earth was flat.
Speaker 1: Think about that. Think about there was a point where
Speaker 1: everybody on Earth knew the Earth was flat. And then
Speaker 1: what happened? We find out the Earth is round. But
Speaker 1: at some point everybody was telling people, don't don't go there,
Speaker 1: don't don't go sail out in the ocean, because you're
Speaker 1: gonna fall off the edge of the earth. So you
Speaker 1: know what happened. People wasn't sailing because everybody was telling
Speaker 1: them what to do. And it wasn't until you pull
Speaker 1: up your own sail and you use the wind to
Speaker 1: gus you analogy through anhalogy, brother, find out that the
Speaker 1: world is around on your own. That's what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just bring it to that. Put yourself up. If you
Speaker 1: listen to everybody, you're gonna walk around thinking Earth is flat,
Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say, and be severely unhappy and
Speaker 1: put your sales up. Put yourself up, be the wind
Speaker 1: beneath your own wings or your own sale or but
Speaker 1: the wind beneath you say are the wings? There's a song,
Speaker 1: So I got that. But I was just trying to
Speaker 1: like what you're supposed to be on my You're supposed
Speaker 1: to be the wind beneath my wings. I was sailing
Speaker 1: on my analogy. I was sailing on my analogy. I'm blow.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna blow under your wings. I love that. See
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You see how I go through. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, but honestly, honestly, bro, there's no wrong decisions
Speaker 1: in life. You make your decisions and you deal with
Speaker 1: the consequences that you create, and you deal with it.
Speaker 1: And if your family is your family and your friends
Speaker 1: or your friends and they love you for who you are,
Speaker 1: they're gonna support you either way. And if they don't,
Speaker 1: now you know where you stands period, period, period with you.
Speaker 1: All Right, onto the next one. That was pretty easy.
Speaker 1: Do you want to read for it? Okay? My family
Speaker 1: is from Guyana and moved to New York where my
Speaker 1: mom was a team. She hasn't been a guy. You
Speaker 1: love guying these people, these people too, shout out wayn
Speaker 1: year with shout out my auntie Angie raised me. She's
Speaker 1: guying you finish your homework. She hasn't been a fan
Speaker 1: of any boyfriend I've had on and usually doesn't mind
Speaker 1: her opinion, doesn't give her opinion soil after things have ended. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm with my boyfriend about a year and I love
Speaker 1: him very much. My mother will smile and keep KEI
Speaker 1: in front of my boyfriend whenever he's around, but if
Speaker 1: he's around for too long, she can be rude and
Speaker 1: snappy behind his back. We recently had a conversation and
Speaker 1: she basically said that she feels he's not good enough
Speaker 1: for me. He works, so you're not good enough for me. No,
Speaker 1: y'all you not good enough for you? Ye? He works
Speaker 1: in mechanics. You know he works in mechanics and has
Speaker 1: stated in the past that he doesn't plan on going
Speaker 1: back to college. Basically, my is did they give you
Speaker 1: a hard time with who you chose to love a girl?
Speaker 1: Why are you going to start? Do you think that
Speaker 1: it has to do with the culture and how parents
Speaker 1: view their girl child. Do you want to do this
Speaker 1: or you want me to take this? I know, devil,
Speaker 1: I know, I understand. Okay, listen, yes, MEMI hated me. Me,
Speaker 1: Me hated me, all right. She thought I was a thug,
Speaker 1: a hooligan, a dumb athlete. I thought I was gonna
Speaker 1: just take a door away and destroy her life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty mad. Look now, look that's what happens when you
Speaker 1: do things and don't care what people have to say.
Speaker 1: I literally was like, this is my boyfriend though, and
Speaker 1: I love him, but I don't really care what you'll
Speaker 1: have to say. So here we are. But I do
Speaker 1: understand the perspective of Okay. For example, me growing up
Speaker 1: in my household to very strict West Indian parents who
Speaker 1: did not really want their girl child out in these streets,
Speaker 1: and it was go to school, come home, go to school,
Speaker 1: come home. Like that's just that's just what it was.
Speaker 1: Um so yes, my mon, did No, I didn't. I
Speaker 1: was taking detours sometimes, you know what I mean, I
Speaker 1: was taking I would say, that's awful det I was
Speaker 1: not like that. I wasn't on tour like that. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But I'm just saying, in order
Speaker 1: to just get a little bit of freedom, you just
Speaker 1: start to like, you know, deviate from like the coming
Speaker 1: straight home goodbye to be Sody started his miike off.
Speaker 1: That being said, when time came for me to start
Speaker 1: bringing boys around, okay, and this was until you didn't
Speaker 1: start coming around til we were what eighteen years all.
Speaker 1: At the time, my mother literally said to me, conty,
Speaker 1: you could have walked through the door with Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: himself and I would not care. I wouldn't care. I
Speaker 1: absolutely wouldn't because you're my daughter, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I know what's best for you. And at that time,
Speaker 1: I just wanted you to focus on yourself and schooling
Speaker 1: in career. Jesus Christ, yeah, pretty much, and Jesus not
Speaker 1: good enough for you. No, Well, I don't know. We
Speaker 1: might be in the rapture right now and not even
Speaker 1: know it, so who knows, um. But no, in all seriousness,
Speaker 1: we I did have a hard time in the beginning,
Speaker 1: just because I think it was my parents idea of
Speaker 1: wrapping their mind around the fact that there was a
Speaker 1: young man who was now going to, you know, share
Speaker 1: my attention, that I would have been taken my eyes
Speaker 1: off of the prize, and at that time, the prize
Speaker 1: was getting my education, starting a career, building things for myself,
Speaker 1: being an individual, being independent, which were valid points at
Speaker 1: the time, they were valid and they're still valid now
Speaker 1: and it's almost like we look back now. Of course,
Speaker 1: hindsight is deval and I both say that mom did
Speaker 1: have some points she didn't and wanting me to focus.
Speaker 1: She did definitely didn't give you a fair shot in
Speaker 1: the very hold on, hold on, hold on. She did
Speaker 1: have some points, right, But you can have points, and
Speaker 1: then it's being rude. You can't be rude to other
Speaker 1: people kids, because you know what could have happened you
Speaker 1: you You wasn't taking detours then, but you want to
Speaker 1: detour now, right, And I could have deed towards you
Speaker 1: away from your family, because that happens a lot in families.
Speaker 1: Some people are so hard on the significant other, right
Speaker 1: that once the significant other finally grabs the heart of
Speaker 1: that person, they separate them from their family because it's
Speaker 1: like you treated me so bad before. That is very true,
Speaker 1: and you you're going to choose once you choose the
Speaker 1: significantly extended family myself, yeah, me and me too, my
Speaker 1: extended family too. You see the family, you know, the
Speaker 1: families tight That person falls in love with someone who
Speaker 1: everyone else in the family didn't approve of, and now
Speaker 1: they go off and live their life and create their
Speaker 1: own family because that's what people do. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: certain things in your life that I'm going to be
Speaker 1: able to provide that your family and your mom can't, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm not I wasn't gonna talk about the detours,
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But with that being said, there
Speaker 1: has to be a way for you to speak to
Speaker 1: your mom about being rude. There was a point in
Speaker 1: our our core relationship, well, I didn't come to your
Speaker 1: house for about two years, right, and then it becomes
Speaker 1: all it becomes awkward for me because we were in
Speaker 1: college at the time. We would come home on the
Speaker 1: weekends and there was like a well, I want to
Speaker 1: chill with my family, but I want to chill with
Speaker 1: but he was like, I'm not coming to your house.
Speaker 1: So then I feel divided because it's like I want
Speaker 1: to chill with my boyfriend the weekend and kick back
Speaker 1: and you know, have a good time with our families,
Speaker 1: but then I can't because he doesn't feel comfortable in
Speaker 1: my house. So we did have a period of about
Speaker 1: what two years maybe that this was going on, until
Speaker 1: there was finally like, you know, my mom extended the
Speaker 1: olive branch. I think when she saw he wasn't going nowhere.
Speaker 1: When I made to the NFL, it was around that time.
Speaker 1: Oh see, mom, that was a bad time. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was a bad time. I could could have school drop
Speaker 1: had been gone. And the thing is, it's not even
Speaker 1: like a man woman thincause people said, you know, is
Speaker 1: it a girl? Just that how people treat their girl child?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no. I hear so many horror stories
Speaker 1: about young women who are treated by the young man's family,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why would you treat somebody's daughter like that?
Speaker 1: Would you want somebody to treat your daughter like that?
Speaker 1: I have three boys. I have three boys, right, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to be very particular about who my young
Speaker 1: men choose. I want them to have a standard that
Speaker 1: they can live up to and be proud of and
Speaker 1: live and have a person that's going to make them
Speaker 1: a better person. But in no way do I plan
Speaker 1: on disrespecting anyone's daughter, because when I have my daughter,
Speaker 1: I don't want to nobody disrespecting my daughter. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Daughter situation that we in season four,
Speaker 1: you still talking about, y'all. Congratulations to mommy and Daddy
Speaker 1: we got a baby out of Pampers. We've retired the pampers.
Speaker 1: Pampers when retired the detour, only the detour still working.
Speaker 1: The's still a chance for me. It's still shot. They
Speaker 1: tell you there is no and in sight for anything
Speaker 1: being normally getting. It's always detours in this life, always
Speaker 1: detours in this life with devo. Oh my god. It
Speaker 1: always comes back to the respect other people's kids, facts,
Speaker 1: and if they love your child the right way be,
Speaker 1: even if you don't, even if you don't understand everything
Speaker 1: they do. Because even your your father doesn't understand everything
Speaker 1: I do. Your father don't know how I make money right,
Speaker 1: And one thing I see about your father, though he
Speaker 1: was always respectful and I always welcome in his presence,
Speaker 1: That is true. Yes, yes, yes, for sure. You told
Speaker 1: the story all the time when you went to ask
Speaker 1: my father and mother for my hand in marriage, and
Speaker 1: my father was just like sure, fine, by you guys,
Speaker 1: do what you guys do. Your mother was like, Mary,
Speaker 1: just give your daughter away like that. You have not questions.
Speaker 1: You can totally see it. I wasn't there for it,
Speaker 1: but I could see you sitting at the table with
Speaker 1: my mother and my father and my father being his
Speaker 1: usual just laid back, chill, like, hey, you want to drink,
Speaker 1: let's chill. You gonna marry my daughter? All good? Take her?
Speaker 1: Take her. That's one last person for me to have
Speaker 1: to support. What is and my mom just being like,
Speaker 1: you're just gonna give away our first board like that,
Speaker 1: how dare you? The funny thing is your father you
Speaker 1: have questions? You always have questions? What questions you have?
Speaker 1: Asked the question? Then he said and got him walked away,
Speaker 1: and it was me and your mother sitting there, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, and then you had to get drilled,
Speaker 1: So do you have any questions? And she didn't have
Speaker 1: no question, has no questions, So I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 1: You are be cool. So I gave her a pound
Speaker 1: like I was like, all right, did that? I was
Speaker 1: like that, I'm out most awkward conversation. I love it.
Speaker 1: But then at the actual proposal, everyone was in tears
Speaker 1: and happy and excited and all that good stuff. So
Speaker 1: good luck to you sis. Go ahead and have that talker, mom.
Speaker 1: We gotta sometimes have those talks with our very stern
Speaker 1: with in the appearance and let them know what time
Speaker 1: it is, like, this is what's happening now now in
Speaker 1: the yes and if you'd like to be featured as
Speaker 1: one of our listener letters, email l us at dead
Speaker 1: ass Advice at gmail dot com. That's d E A
Speaker 1: D A d V I. I messed up to ask
Speaker 1: me to ask you never mess at the ass. I
Speaker 1: don't never keep your hands over there. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get that daughter. Email us at dead ass advice at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. That's d E A d A S
Speaker 1: S A d V I c E oh god, dead
Speaker 1: as detours. But it moment of truth time is simple,
Speaker 1: Go and vote. I don't care how you do it.
Speaker 1: I don't care how you do it, if you do
Speaker 1: it early, if you're mailing it in. I plan to
Speaker 1: get my ass on a plane and I'm going to
Speaker 1: New York. I have some other business to take care of,
Speaker 1: but I said, you know what, I'm going to position
Speaker 1: my trip around election day. The lines may be long,
Speaker 1: but you know what, I have it in my mind
Speaker 1: that I'm going to dedicate that time to go out
Speaker 1: and physically vote in New York that's where I'm registered. Still,
Speaker 1: go back to Brooklyn, you know, see my peeps, and
Speaker 1: attempt to make a change by voting. I'm going to vote,
Speaker 1: so I encourage you to do the same. Moment of Truth.
Speaker 1: I was today years old when I found out that
Speaker 1: over fifty only a little bit over of Americans are
Speaker 1: registered to vote. And that's that's embarrassing. But we got
Speaker 1: a whole lot of complaints though, who registered to vote?
Speaker 1: That's the only thing I have to say, registered to
Speaker 1: vote and go vote. Moment of Truth registered to vote
Speaker 1: and go vote. And of course be sure to follow
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