Speaker 1: Wait that ass up in the morning Breakfast Club. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the world most dangerous morning show to Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Charlomagne and God Angelie Ye dj Envy had to step out,
Speaker 1: but we have a special guest in the building. She's
Speaker 1: got a new book out called Black Women Will Save
Speaker 1: the World. Miss April Ryan, Good morning, Good morning, Charlomagne.
Speaker 1: How are you? I ain't blessed Black and Holly Favorite.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling? I'm blessed Black and Holly Favorite?
Speaker 1: This way there you go, Yes, let me see you.
Speaker 1: Black Women will Save the World. But the title is
Speaker 1: self explanatory, yes and no, but you didn't add the
Speaker 1: last part an anthem. We're gonna sing it over and over, okay,
Speaker 1: anthem black women will save the World, and an anthem okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: to keep it going. Because what happens is people forget moments,
Speaker 1: and when we forget a moment, we lose out. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, black women are rising
Speaker 1: in number as head of household, rising in number as
Speaker 1: the breadwinner in a household. And with that said, we
Speaker 1: are taking care of everyone everything and not taking care
Speaker 1: of ourselves and not being heralded as a champion as
Speaker 1: a shero and we are that. I know, those stats
Speaker 1: got to be flawed though. And the reason I say
Speaker 1: those stats are flawed because they've always been the head
Speaker 1: of household. They've always been a friend who is it's
Speaker 1: rising in number, it's rising in number, and you know
Speaker 1: you got when when you have And that's saying a
Speaker 1: lot about the structure of the black family. Now you've
Speaker 1: got a mother who's the head of household, and then
Speaker 1: what do you do is she's by herself and she's
Speaker 1: got kids. Sometimes we bring the kids along to help
Speaker 1: us fill in the gaps. And that goes into an
Speaker 1: issue that I talk about in the book for Black Girls, adultification,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know, we make a lot of
Speaker 1: our children become more mature than they need to be.
Speaker 1: They lose out and and it's so interesting. A friend
Speaker 1: of mine who's in the book for Drinka Newton, the
Speaker 1: widow of Hughey P. Newton, head of Black Panther Party,
Speaker 1: she said, you know, some kids are given fairy tales,
Speaker 1: others and nightmares. And I think all children should have
Speaker 1: fairy tales. And these are numbers that prove it. Because
Speaker 1: I believe in the book it's black girls are eleven
Speaker 1: times more likely to be suspended yes than white girls
Speaker 1: in school, and nine times more likely to be arrested yes.
Speaker 1: One dad is the adultification adult young girls adultification that
Speaker 1: way in so many other ways. And it's just at
Speaker 1: this point we have to nurture not only ourselves but
Speaker 1: in the community. But we have to figure out how
Speaker 1: to help navigate what this world is giving to our
Speaker 1: young black girls who are future We're going to be
Speaker 1: the next heroes, next generational shiroes. I think. I mean,
Speaker 1: if men are being honest with themselves, you got to
Speaker 1: say that the women have been the CEOs of all
Speaker 1: lives forever from the grandmother. You have to say that
Speaker 1: are our covering And I still say that, you know,
Speaker 1: but we are strong in the home. We a lot
Speaker 1: of times to the decision makers, we are for the
Speaker 1: most part, having your back, you know, not just some
Speaker 1: of us. You know, take care of the dinner, some
Speaker 1: of us take care of the wash, but we got
Speaker 1: your back in so many other ways. We have a
Speaker 1: hard time at work, but who's there are a lot
Speaker 1: of times for us as we are taking care of
Speaker 1: the home, taking care of you, taking care of the
Speaker 1: boss at work, then going to church and figuring out
Speaker 1: you know, being the usher or you know, the choir
Speaker 1: member or the deacon ass and then going to the pta.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's so many, so many things we have
Speaker 1: to juggle, and yet we don't get our flowers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of times we're also taught
Speaker 1: to kind of you know, endure like you said, a
Speaker 1: lot of things. Yeah, especially in the workplace. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: And and I love you. I love your move I
Speaker 1: love your entrepreneurship. I love your business mind. You are
Speaker 1: not staying in a place that okay, I'm stay here.
Speaker 1: You're moving higher. You're looking for higher. And unfortunately a
Speaker 1: lot of black women don't have that that sisterhood to
Speaker 1: say let's push it further because they don't see people
Speaker 1: who look like you and I in the workspace. A
Speaker 1: lot of us are alone and cannot talk to other women.
Speaker 1: And I believe in community and sisterhood, so we can
Speaker 1: bring forward that move be another angela. Come on now, now,
Speaker 1: let's talk about you and your space that you occupied.
Speaker 1: When we talk about being the only black woman's that
Speaker 1: so people have some history on who April Ryan is. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm the only black woman. I'm the longest serving black
Speaker 1: female journalist in the White House. White House, Yeah, white
Speaker 1: House correspondent. And it's you know, it's especially when you're
Speaker 1: focusing on black issues. It's a hard road and people
Speaker 1: want to isolate you. They want to call you the
Speaker 1: angry black woman. Do I look at angry shamn? No,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm happy. If you are angry, you have
Speaker 1: every right to be. But no, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: fall into that angry black woman's stereotype because people want
Speaker 1: to say when you bring up issues of a community
Speaker 1: that's underserved with the highest numbers of negatives, and every
Speaker 1: cat should be but they want to label you was
Speaker 1: that instead of saying, no, no, no, let's take a
Speaker 1: look at the steps, they want to divert attention from
Speaker 1: the real issue and blame me when I have nothing
Speaker 1: to do with that. I'm trying to ask questions to
Speaker 1: get answers for a community that is hurting, and I
Speaker 1: just happened to be along the way, a black woman
Speaker 1: asking those questions. You've had those moments, some adversities you
Speaker 1: faced as the White House correspondent. Some adversities yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you saw it. Yeah, being told you, you you know, sit down, Trump,
Speaker 1: Trump told me sit down. Sean Spice says, stop shaking
Speaker 1: your head. Yeah, he wouldn't take your question because you
Speaker 1: was shaking your head. He say, yeah, that was crazy.
Speaker 1: Sarah Huckaby Sanders, who's running for governor of Arkansas, told
Speaker 1: me my question was stupid and you know, been targeted
Speaker 1: by Fox News death threats just for asking questions of
Speaker 1: the Black community, a community that they didn't want to
Speaker 1: deal with. So and you know this, You know, the
Speaker 1: black community has issues period, and then at the White House.
Speaker 1: Everything comes to the White House from water, peace and
Speaker 1: everything in between. And in between all of that is
Speaker 1: the black community who still is trying to figure out
Speaker 1: why is my water not safe to drink? Not just
Speaker 1: in Jackson, but in Flint still, you know, policing issues,
Speaker 1: you know, Ahmad Aubrey, George Floyd, you know we and
Speaker 1: then what about our economy? You know, we're we When
Speaker 1: the gas prices were slashed a couple of months ago
Speaker 1: and the President opened up the Strategic or Reserve allowing
Speaker 1: for millions of barrels to be released today, guess what,
Speaker 1: Black folks didn't see that price loring because we were
Speaker 1: having price gouging in our community. You know, you could
Speaker 1: go across the street and see a five dollars and
Speaker 1: something gallant of gas and across the street it would
Speaker 1: be four dollars, when in other parts of America was
Speaker 1: three dollars and some you know, gon gas buddy, And
Speaker 1: that's how you're really How about that that app I
Speaker 1: love that or cheap gas or whatever. Yeah, let me
Speaker 1: tell you, Yeah, I get it. What are you thinking
Speaker 1: about the treatment of VP Kamala Harris? Then, in relation
Speaker 1: to this book Black Women Will Save the World an anthem?
Speaker 1: What do I think about the treatment in the media
Speaker 1: and just by people in general speaking about her? Well,
Speaker 1: number one, being a black woman, people are hypersensitive about that,
Speaker 1: and some of the things that were coming out about
Speaker 1: her or about her staff or just unheard. It was
Speaker 1: just a lot of gossip and chatter and it was
Speaker 1: ugly because she was a black woman. Okay, And as
Speaker 1: a journalist I said, okay, this is interesting, But as
Speaker 1: a black woman, I saw it for what it was.
Speaker 1: I looked at it on two from two lenses. And
Speaker 1: no matter what you think of her, she is the
Speaker 1: first black woman to be in that position. She moved
Speaker 1: and I talked about this in the book. She moved
Speaker 1: Joe Biden forward. She pushed him to move forward on
Speaker 1: matters of phrase, because actually did when she Okay, you
Speaker 1: don't remember that debate, you don't remember remember that, But
Speaker 1: it was like after she did that, when she called
Speaker 1: him out on the bus, and it was like after that,
Speaker 1: it was like almost like she got a phone called
Speaker 1: it like shot and she kind of did a lot
Speaker 1: since well let me but let me say this, and
Speaker 1: I talk about this in the book. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of It was a tense time. It was a
Speaker 1: huge moment that I witnessed at the NAACP presidential Forum
Speaker 1: debate when all the candidates were there except for Donald
Speaker 1: Trump anyway, moving on um and she wouldn't get out
Speaker 1: of her her van, her her knobby wheeled vehicle to
Speaker 1: come and talk with all of the other candidates. She
Speaker 1: didn't come out and meet with Joe Biden. There was
Speaker 1: a tension there and Joe Biden was caught on a
Speaker 1: hot mic on stage with me saying you know my heart,
Speaker 1: you know my heart. He was hurting by it, and
Speaker 1: then backstage it was like you know my heart, you
Speaker 1: know my heart. Kamala Harris was not seeing backstage, Wow,
Speaker 1: she was It was it was so tense. There was
Speaker 1: a come to Jesus moment. Somewhere, there was a road
Speaker 1: Damascus moment or something for Joe Biden because I never
Speaker 1: thought the way he felt that pain, that those two
Speaker 1: would come together for this moment. So something happened. There
Speaker 1: was a coming together. But what happened was George Floyd right,
Speaker 1: this was a transformational moment. And then you had Amy
Speaker 1: Klobshar saying you need to have a black woman as
Speaker 1: your running mate, and he had a list to include
Speaker 1: Stacy Abrams, Susan Rice, Karen Bass, so many other sisters.
Speaker 1: The credit to that did that for the USA today,
Speaker 1: that Angela Ry and Sonny and all, yeah, let's give them, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: most definitely. And that pressure. It took pressure from all
Speaker 1: sides to make that happen. And you know, Sonny and Answer,
Speaker 1: they took a hit for that. They took a hit
Speaker 1: and Enjoy Read and Tiffany Cross, they took a hit
Speaker 1: for that from the party, from the Democratic Party. We're
Speaker 1: standing up, pushing for what was right, what was right.
Speaker 1: When you stand up and speak the obvious, you get ridiculed,
Speaker 1: you get pushed back. It's it's terrible. So anyway, So
Speaker 1: there was a push, everyone was saying it, and George
Speaker 1: Floyd was more transformational than what we know that whole situation.
Speaker 1: So now after all of that, we have the first
Speaker 1: black woman vice president or a woman of color who
Speaker 1: identifies as black. We have Katangi Brown Jackson. That makes
Speaker 1: us all proud, um. And this is this is as
Speaker 1: a black woman, not as a journalist, but as a journalist.
Speaker 1: I'm still marking the moment, you know. And then you know,
Speaker 1: you have Susan Rice. You have the real Fudge, Marsha Fudge.
Speaker 1: She will knock down anything to make sure our housing
Speaker 1: is straight. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, you have
Speaker 1: so many Chalanda Young, Office of Budget and Management. You
Speaker 1: have black women in Karine Jean Pierre, black women in
Speaker 1: spaces and places that we've never occupied. And that's just governmental.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about CEOs. Let's talk about the moves upward.
Speaker 1: And this is a moment no one has said anything about.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, I got a market because
Speaker 1: if you don't market and say, wait a minute, this
Speaker 1: is a moment of history, we lose the advances Black
Speaker 1: women have taken a lot from a lot of different people,
Speaker 1: a lot of different groups and now it's time to
Speaker 1: say we're here and we're not rolling it back. And
Speaker 1: I love the idea of sisterhood because I do feel
Speaker 1: like that's so important in essential. Yeah, because you know,
Speaker 1: when you reach certain levels, you're alone, and that's unfortunate.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times, you know, we have that
Speaker 1: test and we don't have anyone to breathe life to
Speaker 1: us with the testimony to help us move forward. So
Speaker 1: Chicago Mayor Laurie Lightfoot told me that she talks to
Speaker 1: the mayors and all the black women may yes yes, um.
Speaker 1: The mayor of dcote yes yes. Mariel Bowser for DC.
Speaker 1: When Kesha Lance Bottoms was the mayor of Atlanta, when
Speaker 1: there was a problem going on, she would say, you know,
Speaker 1: let's get together. They would have these calls. She didn't
Speaker 1: go into it because she couldn't tell me too much,
Speaker 1: but she told me enough that they say, Okay, I
Speaker 1: got this. Another person say, oh, I've been through that,
Speaker 1: and but this is how you're going to get out
Speaker 1: of it. You know. They were a support mechanism for
Speaker 1: each other. The black DA's right now, who are facing
Speaker 1: a lot of problems about voting, and especially ones in Georgia.
Speaker 1: George's like ground zero right now. They all come together
Speaker 1: and talk amongst each other, to support one another. There
Speaker 1: is a strength and sisterhood in these rarefied spaces that
Speaker 1: we read. Did you do you feel like that speaking
Speaker 1: of dad, do you feel like they rallied around Marilyn
Speaker 1: movie the way the issue that I don't think. So
Speaker 1: let me say this. I'm a child of Baltimore City.
Speaker 1: I'm a child of Baltimore City. And you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people got a glimpse of Baltimore. But Freddy
Speaker 1: Gray died in police custody. The word failure is built
Speaker 1: into the very existence and people in Baltimore, people of Baltimore.
Speaker 1: Marilyn Mosby went out and tried to get accountability for
Speaker 1: the death of a black man who didn't have chances,
Speaker 1: who had lead paint poisoning, you know, didn't have chances.
Speaker 1: His mother had issues in life, real hard issues in life.
Speaker 1: She tried to get accountability for people who for someone
Speaker 1: who was discounted someone the people were just discounted and
Speaker 1: she never got that. She tried to hold the officers
Speaker 1: accountable and after that she was vilified again, a black
Speaker 1: woman standing out seeing the obvious. She was discounted from
Speaker 1: that very beginning, and she did the unthinkable, unthinkable, the
Speaker 1: unimaginable to push a system to find account for the
Speaker 1: death of one black man and police custody. And she
Speaker 1: was vialified and they went after Yeah, put charges on
Speaker 1: her and everything. Yeah. I didn't know you from Baltimore.
Speaker 1: I will never hear you say you. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: don't you look I'm not okay. Let let me, let me,
Speaker 1: let me, let me say, let me say this. Don't
Speaker 1: you talk about my city. That's one thing you won't
Speaker 1: do you No, no, no, it's car hockey book and
Speaker 1: let's zinc. I don't know. Do you know? You know what?
Speaker 1: You are so wrong? I don't talk about South Carolina. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's you know, you know you and your tobacco and
Speaker 1: your hush puppies and your bull peanuts. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: do too. Oh my god, on the side of the
Speaker 1: row with the bag man Chalmagne, don't do it. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be I'll be that Friday. Actually bring a bag,
Speaker 1: you say. All over the country, remarkable black women are
Speaker 1: discovering ways to heal our community and write new narratives
Speaker 1: about what's possible for black women to What did it
Speaker 1: like the healing process look like for you? For me,
Speaker 1: the healing process looks like a standing appointment every Tuesday
Speaker 1: morning at eight fifteen with my counselor after after you
Speaker 1: have mental health, after you have a president of the
Speaker 1: United States and all his minions, including I'm a rosa,
Speaker 1: which I'm not even gonna talk about anymore. Go after
Speaker 1: you and try to diminish you, take your career away
Speaker 1: from you, from you. You know it's black people. It's
Speaker 1: taking a long time and a hard road fuss to
Speaker 1: get to where. We have to go through a lot
Speaker 1: of turns and nooks and crannis to get where we are.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna try to take me down. No, make
Speaker 1: me think something's wrong with me. No. Um, the back
Speaker 1: of the book, you see me this joy and that's
Speaker 1: my real hair. I lost a lot of my hair
Speaker 1: from stress. That's I remember you said they sent the
Speaker 1: envelopes um to your house. Yeah a Caesar, say I
Speaker 1: got a Caesar, Say I bomb? How about that? You
Speaker 1: remember those bombs sending out bombs to the Clintons, And
Speaker 1: I got them before everybody else did. To our home,
Speaker 1: to my home where my children live outside of Baltimore. Wow, Baltimore.
Speaker 1: The amount of stressed that and then to do your
Speaker 1: job because I have to work. I don't have a
Speaker 1: silver spoon. I have to work. And to go into
Speaker 1: a place that there's confrontation, you know that's going to
Speaker 1: happen every day. What what sweeth hell was I going
Speaker 1: to walk into next? How are they going to try
Speaker 1: to try and embarrass me in front of the world
Speaker 1: on television? Diminish me. It's like every day is a fight.
Speaker 1: You got every day is a fight, I mean a
Speaker 1: real fight. And then when I would leave the White
Speaker 1: House Charlomagne, there were people outside waiting for me. People
Speaker 1: were waiting for me, and I wonder how. I don't
Speaker 1: know how. It was nothing but God. But let me
Speaker 1: tell you something. They wanted the Baltimore to rise up
Speaker 1: in me. I wouldn't let it. The best way that
Speaker 1: I can continue to do is just to keep focused
Speaker 1: and keep moving. I have never seen anything like it
Speaker 1: in my life. I can't believe I'm still here, to
Speaker 1: be real honest with you, they played dirty and hard
Speaker 1: first with a petty at the time of petty President.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that wasn't all he was. He was more
Speaker 1: than petty. He was dangerous, he was deadly his words.
Speaker 1: Look at what he said about miss McConnell. Just reason nobody,
Speaker 1: I mean nobody cared. You know, I kept screaming it.
Speaker 1: You know, they talked about they went after Maxine Waters
Speaker 1: for Fredrinca will Congresswoman Fredericka Wilson. They wouldn't after so
Speaker 1: many people. But here I stand. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why I wrote this book. Because they were
Speaker 1: vilifying black women, talking so ugly and dirty about black
Speaker 1: women who are out here fighting for us every day.
Speaker 1: And I said, they're not going to write the narrative
Speaker 1: about us. We're not angry, we are She rose with
Speaker 1: the Invisible Cave. Do you think it's like an unfair,
Speaker 1: unfair pressure put on black women in those spaces too,
Speaker 1: like a like a vice president Kamala Harris, like people
Speaker 1: don't look the other vice presidents to save, you know,
Speaker 1: people heavy. I've asked I've asked her that personally, like
Speaker 1: you know, are you going to be the superhero? Every
Speaker 1: time you ask the stuff you get her in trouble.
Speaker 1: And also with Katanji Brown Jackson, it's like they're making
Speaker 1: her the face of the Supreme Court. But even that's
Speaker 1: a little unfair because we know it's sixtreme conservative majority.
Speaker 1: There's really not much you can do six three. But
Speaker 1: but it's not much she can do right now. But
Speaker 1: let me tell you what she can do. Her opinions
Speaker 1: and her decisions and her discussions that she's offering now
Speaker 1: on issues that are on the court. They move move
Speaker 1: to the next level when the future comes about with
Speaker 1: that same issue, you know, and they'll look at what
Speaker 1: she said to help figure out a law, figure out
Speaker 1: how this issue should stand or not stand. With Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: she is the first black vice president, black woman vice president,
Speaker 1: and she's got a portfolio that matches being a black woman.
Speaker 1: But she also has a portfolio it's one of the
Speaker 1: heaviest ever from immigration to abortion, to voting rights, etc.
Speaker 1: And people are watching, especially in this moment, as they
Speaker 1: listen to you guys, you know, and watch the little devices,
Speaker 1: these thousand dollars devices in their hands. People are watching
Speaker 1: the promises made from the campaigns. People are watching the
Speaker 1: moments when these hidden variables pop up and how they
Speaker 1: handle them. And people are so desperate right now for
Speaker 1: change because the promise was equity and inclusion. People are
Speaker 1: looking for that. People are so desperate. That's we are
Speaker 1: in a time that we've never seen before and prayerfully
Speaker 1: we'll never see again. But people are so desperate for
Speaker 1: change and they hope for a better day. I think she,
Speaker 1: you know, in a lot of ways when you talk
Speaker 1: about those variable moments that you can get invariable. When
Speaker 1: she got asked about racism, is this a racist country?
Speaker 1: And because she couldn't say yes, you know what, let
Speaker 1: me let me say that and I will say this
Speaker 1: about that. Um, the FBI. I wish, you know, somebody
Speaker 1: would have given them the FBI stats that they could
Speaker 1: have quoted, you know, because they're saying, you know, white
Speaker 1: supremacist activity is a threat to this nation. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: and then when Tim Scott got up there, uh saying
Speaker 1: what he said, you'reself killing him? Um, who might eat?
Speaker 1: He might not like boil peanuts because he's definitely not
Speaker 1: like you like you think you. Okay, he might like
Speaker 1: the Cajun but he liked it, I like the regulars
Speaker 1: with Sulter. Does he like a hush puppy? I think
Speaker 1: he might like hush puppies. I don't know. He's real different,
Speaker 1: he's extra so anyway, No, but when he got up
Speaker 1: there saying there's not racism in America, I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what America you're talking about. Especially is
Speaker 1: in one breath you say I've been racially profiled and
Speaker 1: then in the next breath there's no. I'm like what?
Speaker 1: And you knew instinctively at that moment. I knew before
Speaker 1: that that that that policing the George for Justice in
Speaker 1: Policing Act would not go through. But when he said that,
Speaker 1: I knew it had no chance because he already skewed
Speaker 1: the conversation. But I just wish someone would have given
Speaker 1: the President and the Vice president and understanding that the
Speaker 1: FBI came out with that report because they missed the
Speaker 1: mark on that one. Well even without the report. To
Speaker 1: your point, you're a black woman, like that should be
Speaker 1: a no brainer one and asked about you know, as
Speaker 1: a black person, should no brain one asks this a
Speaker 1: racist country? First? That's what I think you talk about
Speaker 1: Obama and his ratings dropping the most from a single
Speaker 1: incident since we're talking about race, and yeah, that that
Speaker 1: beer summit. Yeah, he never got back the white vote.
Speaker 1: He lost a large portion of the white vote when
Speaker 1: he talked about skip gates and policing and racial profiling.
Speaker 1: That moment was a thread that carried throughout his eight years,
Speaker 1: the policing issue, and he never got that white vote back.
Speaker 1: He never got it back, no matter how hard he tried.
Speaker 1: So you think it's it's more of a I can't
Speaker 1: don't want to say certain things because I don't want
Speaker 1: my approval, So let's let's be honest. The first term, Um,
Speaker 1: Barack Obama had to walk a very thin line. You know,
Speaker 1: he was the president who happened to be black. Race
Speaker 1: and politics will always follow him. But you remember this,
Speaker 1: the Tea Party was basically created because of his elevation.
Speaker 1: You had Donald Trump on his heels talking about, uh,
Speaker 1: he's you know, born in Kenya. Something did time. It
Speaker 1: was a huge He spent time that that was the
Speaker 1: foundation of his run for president, all on the back
Speaker 1: of the illegitimacy of the first black president, the alleged
Speaker 1: illegitimacy of the first black president. So at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, Um, for any president the first term,
Speaker 1: you're gonna walk a certain line, and Barack Obama had
Speaker 1: to walk that line even straighter. And taller than any
Speaker 1: other president. But that second term, oh you know, it changed.
Speaker 1: He was I saw a swag I hadn't seen before.
Speaker 1: You know, he couldn't commit political suicide. But during that
Speaker 1: first term, when when George excuse me, Trayvon Martin was
Speaker 1: killed and he went out there saying something that he
Speaker 1: could have been my son White, the White press was like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? What do you mean? I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the hell are you guys thinking? What do you think?
Speaker 1: I mean? I explain the burden to bed? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I don't understand. I mean, some things are so
Speaker 1: obvious and maybe we all speak a different language. I
Speaker 1: don't know. And I'm like, what do you think he meant?
Speaker 1: And it's like, oh, you're the president. You shouldn't have
Speaker 1: this problem. Let him take his hat off, all of
Speaker 1: his esteemed clothes and walk down the street with that pop.
Speaker 1: He's just a black man like any of us. I mean,
Speaker 1: even as president, they treated him like he was just
Speaker 1: a black man like any other You see people putting
Speaker 1: their fingers in his face, you know, yelling at yelling
Speaker 1: at him during a uh well that oh that what
Speaker 1: do you call those things? Can't you remember? Right? Now
Speaker 1: my mind. Stay of the Unions. No, oh, they didn't
Speaker 1: put a their finger in the face. They screamed out,
Speaker 1: you lie. Yeah, somebody nobody jumped in his face. And
Speaker 1: Stay of the Union. Remember that woman who pointed it
Speaker 1: was pointing at him in his face. Whether they were
Speaker 1: walking the runway, Yeah, yeah, that was that. That was
Speaker 1: outside on the on the tar map, but no one,
Speaker 1: Stay of the Union. That was the most disrespect I've
Speaker 1: ever seen president of the United States. You lie, and
Speaker 1: it was ugly, and it all boils down for me
Speaker 1: to race. Yeah, they may not like what he said.
Speaker 1: A lot of You've seen them with decorum sit down
Speaker 1: when they say something, and they won't stand up in
Speaker 1: a plot and give scouts. But to scream out in
Speaker 1: that chamber to the first black president or to any
Speaker 1: president is sacrilege and politics. Did they make your job
Speaker 1: harder as a White House correspondent to ask about black
Speaker 1: issues when you know, like politicians don't like to talk
Speaker 1: about black issues. Let me say this, I've had Republicans
Speaker 1: say that I'm a bleeding heart Democrat because I asked
Speaker 1: the issues, and I have Democrats saying I'm a Republican
Speaker 1: because they feel that I'm wrong for pushing it in
Speaker 1: their Yeah, pushing it in their face even though their
Speaker 1: base is black. Look, I'm like, I'm doing my job,
Speaker 1: you know, and it shows that I'm not favoring one
Speaker 1: party or the other. But it's a hard job. But
Speaker 1: that's not the issue. The issue is the story impact.
Speaker 1: I think people will you guys talk to the world
Speaker 1: every day so they can have something to uplift them,
Speaker 1: to make them feel a little bit better, and give
Speaker 1: them information that they can use. And that's what I do.
Speaker 1: Give you information that will help you move on with
Speaker 1: your life to understand what's going to break it down,
Speaker 1: break it down these thou arts, wherefore their asses in
Speaker 1: a way that you can really understand. Oh wow, this
Speaker 1: is how it happens. This is what impacts me. So
Speaker 1: you can take this and beyond with information so you
Speaker 1: can move about your life. What do you think about
Speaker 1: these upcoming elections, because it nws like a lot of
Speaker 1: people are even who word Democrats are moving away from
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party. So let's let's start for the general election.
Speaker 1: When you have two hundred and ninety nine Republican candidates
Speaker 1: who say that they don't believe that Joe Biden is
Speaker 1: the legitimate president. Let's start there, and then you watch
Speaker 1: these crazy debates. Did these slugfest matches with the people
Speaker 1: who are not saying I believe in trumpsm but they
Speaker 1: have the ideology versus someone who's trying to stay in
Speaker 1: the old way of politics. It's a crazy matchup. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you. Val Demings gave it to Marco
Speaker 1: left him stunned. The other night. I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: she said, what does she say? I'm disappointed to you.
Speaker 1: You used to not lie? He was like, he was
Speaker 1: like in shock. I said, come on, I said, what
Speaker 1: I mean? It's almost entertaining where you want to sit
Speaker 1: and watch a nice uh you want to watch it
Speaker 1: with a nice box or some kettle popcorn or something.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like wow, oh yeah, but you know.
Speaker 1: But and the reason why in Georgia, and Georgie's ground
Speaker 1: zero for all of this. I mean, it's so many
Speaker 1: elections there that are heated. And that's not even including
Speaker 1: the abortion issue with herschel Walker and his chat and
Speaker 1: his in his in his his uh what is it
Speaker 1: his star shaff starn Brary that has no active duty
Speaker 1: requirement to it at all, I have an honorary degree
Speaker 1: from South Carolina State University. Doctor. Okay, I'm anna doctor
Speaker 1: to you. I'm anna SeeMe doctor from Morgan State, from
Speaker 1: Gaucher and from Classland. Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, okay, honorate
Speaker 1: hello doctor? How you doctor? I can see him being
Speaker 1: proud of his badge. I mean, but you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to use it. Okay, so you're not supposed You're not right,
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to use so so so if I
Speaker 1: come up here, holod doctor Charlemagne, the god you're not
Speaker 1: supposed to do. You're not supposed to use it? Are
Speaker 1: you using it? Oh? My god? You're not supposed to
Speaker 1: you You're not supposed to use it. I got three
Speaker 1: and I'm walking around here like, hey, I'm just April
Speaker 1: you doctor? Yea, all right, doctor? Anyway, this is crazy,
Speaker 1: but no um for Stacy Abrams. Getting back to Stacey Abrams.
Speaker 1: The reason why the heat is on her and so
Speaker 1: many people are watching. She's a winner. Remember that she
Speaker 1: didn't win the gubernatorial election the last time, and she
Speaker 1: may not win it this time, but she's a winner.
Speaker 1: This one black woman set out to change the mindset
Speaker 1: and change the demographic and the way the state of
Speaker 1: Georgia looks. You got Atlanta and then you got the
Speaker 1: rest of Georgia, which is totally difficult. She changed that state.
Speaker 1: It wasn't purple. It went from red to blue. And
Speaker 1: she did it quietly, and she told them though, she
Speaker 1: is a threat to them, and that's why Kemp is
Speaker 1: making his machine, is working overtime to make sure the
Speaker 1: margin is not close that he will defeat her. So
Speaker 1: Stay says some real stuff. I was done a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago with her, and she said that you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not the lack of enthusiasm people had, it's
Speaker 1: the lack of trust that they have in the overall
Speaker 1: party that may be impacting candidates like her. So while
Speaker 1: you were down there, did you see all those crazy ads?
Speaker 1: Those ads are horrible. I mean, if I was a
Speaker 1: Georgia resident, I would be scared to go to the polls. Yeah,
Speaker 1: crazy thing. I saw him on both sides of though,
Speaker 1: like I saw it. I saw it once for Rope huh,
Speaker 1: right exactly, and I was like, wait a minute, it's
Speaker 1: like everyone's tearing down each other. And you know, Stacy
Speaker 1: Abrams is a person you can't trust. They marked her.
Speaker 1: It looks almost like she's a criminal. Is It is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And I mean, if I was a resident in Georgia,
Speaker 1: I would be confused. I wouldn't want to go because
Speaker 1: those ads are terrible. They're they're tearing down people more
Speaker 1: so than they're talking about the issues. She said Georgia
Speaker 1: was the worst place in the nation or whatever, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, for certain issues, it is, you know,
Speaker 1: for Baltimore. I love my city, but Baltimore is a
Speaker 1: crime capital right now, you know. And I'm scared when
Speaker 1: you tell the truth, you are vilified and then they
Speaker 1: make you a She rote later, you know, think about
Speaker 1: the Black Panther Party, seventy percent membership women. They were
Speaker 1: vilified back in the day when they were trying to
Speaker 1: make sure our children were eating breakfasts for free, when
Speaker 1: they were trying to create clinics, free medical clinics. And
Speaker 1: guess what now, what's the government doing feeding our children?
Speaker 1: What's the government doing having clinics? Black women are moving mountains,
Speaker 1: and we're not getting the distinction or the or the
Speaker 1: recognition that we should have. That goes with the erasure
Speaker 1: part of the book. Yeah, yeah, where you talk about that,
Speaker 1: even with the me too movement to say her name movement,
Speaker 1: and even what you're discussing right now. So I know
Speaker 1: we want everybody to read the book Black Women Will
Speaker 1: Save the World an anthem, But can you talk about
Speaker 1: erasure and how we see that here in the United States? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: let's talk about because Mikia Corbett doctor, Because Mikia Corbett,
Speaker 1: the black woman who made the Maderna, the Maderna vaccine.
Speaker 1: Do you hear her names about that? How about that?
Speaker 1: That part the erasure? And I was excited when I
Speaker 1: said that exactly. I was like, let me make sure
Speaker 1: I pronounce her name right. And we reported on it
Speaker 1: and everything. She got a lot of flat too, though.
Speaker 1: I remember when they put her on televison, everybody like,
Speaker 1: see they trying to put a black face out there
Speaker 1: just to get off. She made the number one vaccine
Speaker 1: to fight against this COVID vaccine, this deadly COVID virus
Speaker 1: that we're still dealing with. A black woman did that, Okay,
Speaker 1: a black woman turned Georgia blue stronghold Georgia that we
Speaker 1: were watching with amd Aubrey. Okay, when we show up,
Speaker 1: we show up, but they don't give us credit. End
Speaker 1: of story. I mean, there's so many everyone. When I
Speaker 1: run out in the street and I'm talking about this book,
Speaker 1: so many people say, you know, this touched my heart
Speaker 1: for that exact reason. When I bring up a comment
Speaker 1: in the office, they don't give me credit. Someone else
Speaker 1: takes the credit. This is at the highest level, and
Speaker 1: at the mid level, and at the lowest level, the
Speaker 1: erasure of what we do, what we bring to the table.
Speaker 1: People take credit for what we do or they don't
Speaker 1: even want to acknowledge it. You talk about Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter in the book quite a bit and the founders,
Speaker 1: and then you see the other drama that's surrounding that
Speaker 1: now and how that movement is being vilified and even
Speaker 1: the women who started Black Lives Matter. So here's the
Speaker 1: deal for Black Lives Matter. Black lives do matter, and
Speaker 1: the reason why it was put in place because black
Speaker 1: people were being killed in the hands of police. It's
Speaker 1: not saying all lives don't matter. It's saying, at this moment,
Speaker 1: we need to recognize a life that happens to be black.
Speaker 1: People forget that black people are important too. People forget
Speaker 1: that that the concept of it. I stand by that
Speaker 1: because when we go out in the street. We are
Speaker 1: black people who are susceptible to that very same thing.
Speaker 1: I matter, I matter, I matter. That's all that is
Speaker 1: and all the other stuff behind it. I'm sorry to
Speaker 1: hear that, but at the end of the day, the
Speaker 1: concept of everyone mattering is important. But when you don't
Speaker 1: take into account of black life, that's a problem. Again,
Speaker 1: going back to Freddy Gray, that life mattered and there's
Speaker 1: no accountability. George Floyd's life mattered. He got street corner
Speaker 1: justice instead of being able to go to a courtroom.
Speaker 1: You know, Ahmad Avre was hunted down like an animal.
Speaker 1: His life mattered. And let's talk about Emmett till how
Speaker 1: about that. That's the movie's playing out in New York
Speaker 1: and LA. Yeah, that's right, and that's it. Yeah, lynching,
Speaker 1: the lynching of black people in this country. Our lives matter.
Speaker 1: And the first thing they try to do is make
Speaker 1: it seem like you are a bad person because you
Speaker 1: bring it up right or no, I'm talking about even
Speaker 1: for when you get killed by the police, when you
Speaker 1: get oh yea, his toenails, his tonets were dirty, he
Speaker 1: smoked weed before, or he's been arrested before, and therefore,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's the narrative always that, And
Speaker 1: I think with the mod Aarbury, they couldn't find anything right.
Speaker 1: And a mod Aarbury was dreaming of a bigger life
Speaker 1: going into this home and a community that had Trump
Speaker 1: signs all around on the corners and houses. Because they
Speaker 1: didn't tell you that before the trial, because they didn't
Speaker 1: want to skew the perception of what was happening. They
Speaker 1: said he was trust passing, and he might have been,
Speaker 1: but how many people walking. He didn't steal a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of people. They had videos. People kept going in
Speaker 1: that home. But they said, this black guy who was
Speaker 1: coming through our neighborhood, they were already upset because he
Speaker 1: was black and he was a guy running through their
Speaker 1: neighborhood and they didn't want him there Trump signs all
Speaker 1: over the place. They hunted him down on the back
Speaker 1: of a truck with a shotgun that shot him through
Speaker 1: his body, That went through his body like an animal.
Speaker 1: There's no justification for that, none. And that's when people
Speaker 1: cry black lives matter, because it didn't matter at that time.
Speaker 1: I'm a black woman who's been pulled over by the
Speaker 1: police too, I've been profiled. You know it's not just
Speaker 1: our men. Can you say her name, Brianna Taylor? Can
Speaker 1: you say her name, Sandra Bland. Yes, black lives do
Speaker 1: matter when people feel that, you know, it goes down
Speaker 1: to our toenails. Been dirty again with the mont Aubrey
Speaker 1: at the end of that trial. So I'm like, it's
Speaker 1: a lot Kanye and their drink champs and the George
Speaker 1: Floyd situation and now the family has a law suit.
Speaker 1: I want to know immediately what you do when you
Speaker 1: saw that clip? You know, I try not to what
Speaker 1: you know what? No? What did I think we have
Speaker 1: to really as a journalist. Now let me let me
Speaker 1: put on my journalists hat. We have to really see
Speaker 1: what's there and stop giving attention to someone who's in distress.
Speaker 1: That's it as a journalist. You know. Uh, there's all
Speaker 1: these conversations about freedom of speech. I don't think people
Speaker 1: really truly understand the First Amendment because like you can,
Speaker 1: you can, you're free to say whatever. They are consequences
Speaker 1: behind him for defamation and libel. If you say something
Speaker 1: that someone doesn't like, it could be consequences. Family story
Speaker 1: in Kanye Alex Jones, well, no, his his the baby's
Speaker 1: mother for two hundred and fifty million dollars um. That
Speaker 1: child is, That child has lost her father. That child
Speaker 1: is dealing with a lot. You know. Yeah, people are
Speaker 1: supporting her, but she doesn't have her daddy, and she
Speaker 1: will always remember, she will always see that horrific image
Speaker 1: of her father. I don't know if people are looking
Speaker 1: for attention, but we have a responsibility. It's not okay,
Speaker 1: we have a responsibility as journalist. Um Tucker Carlson shouldn't
Speaker 1: have done what he did, having him on that show,
Speaker 1: and he was sitting there smug and watching and he
Speaker 1: loved it because he was like, oh, this is ratings.
Speaker 1: That's all he was thinking in his mind because Kanye
Speaker 1: was giving him everything he wanted. He knew Kanye wasn't well.
Speaker 1: I saw Chris Cuomo bring up the issue. You know,
Speaker 1: I take my antidepression medicine. I don't know what you
Speaker 1: can do for Kanye, but what I know is I'd
Speaker 1: rather not talk about him, and I'd rather not amplify
Speaker 1: the ignorance of his message. I agree. What do you
Speaker 1: think about Alex Jones then? And that's um. He needs
Speaker 1: You know, people, the only way you you impact people
Speaker 1: is by hitting their pocket. But right, so enough said
Speaker 1: with that one tail, How should we look at the
Speaker 1: role of journalism and how it impacts politics, especially right now? Mm,
Speaker 1: because I don't feel like there's a lot of journalism
Speaker 1: out there. Ye are you reading the Greel? Are you
Speaker 1: reading my piece? Do you read my stuff? Doctor Charlemagne? No,
Speaker 1: we got a news letter. You know what. See he's
Speaker 1: so high and lofty. Go to the greel dot com
Speaker 1: and look at the politics section that April Ryan dropped down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of people have platforms now who aren't necessarily journalists. Yes,
Speaker 1: And that's the unfortunate piece because we have a lot
Speaker 1: of citizen journalists out here who give a lot of
Speaker 1: opinion without facts. And that's part of the problem where
Speaker 1: we are so uninformed and we're not believing what we're
Speaker 1: seeing because so many people are talking things that are
Speaker 1: just not true, giving us information that's skewed. The onus
Speaker 1: is now on the reader, the listener, um or the
Speaker 1: watcher to figure out what his opinion versus fact. The
Speaker 1: line is blurred. And then because you've got a lot
Speaker 1: of people out here who are just pushing things out
Speaker 1: for to make themselves, to make a name, to be
Speaker 1: on the breakfast club or to just push a narrative
Speaker 1: that's not true, and it's a sad time. I mean,
Speaker 1: the greatness of social media, the greatness of technology is everything,
Speaker 1: but when you have people abusing it because it's so open,
Speaker 1: we have anyone jumping on it's true. Do you agree
Speaker 1: with seeing and moving away from opinion based commentary to
Speaker 1: more what they say, what they want, fact based news.
Speaker 1: I think, um, I think it's a good idea because
Speaker 1: we are so as you guys just pointed out, we
Speaker 1: are so confused about what's what, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of news organizations I think there's a moment for opinion.
Speaker 1: I do. I do believe there's a moment for opinion,
Speaker 1: but I also believe there's a moment for fact. But
Speaker 1: we have to differentiate between the two. And there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot of people getting in trouble because I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, Miss Ryan, they do not know the difference.
Speaker 1: I was literally having a discussion yesterday with somebody about
Speaker 1: the whole George Floyd Kanye thing and it was like, well,
Speaker 1: why is he getting sued for his perspective. I'm like,
Speaker 1: it don't matter what your perspective is. When something has
Speaker 1: already been established as a fact. He has a large platform,
Speaker 1: and he has a very large platform, and what he
Speaker 1: says speaks volumes to a larger and broader community that
Speaker 1: wants to downplay and change the narrative and the impact
Speaker 1: of that. That's what it is. The impact. It's not
Speaker 1: the fact that he's just Kanye. The impact of what
Speaker 1: you're saying it's devastating and who you're giving it to
Speaker 1: and where you're getting it from. You're just repeating white
Speaker 1: supremacist rhetoric, the same rhetoric that they who's to try
Speaker 1: to get this guy off. He's repeating it from Candace
Speaker 1: Owns his new best friend. So a documentary that I
Speaker 1: would never watch? Do you think it's important to watch things? No? No, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's important that I see what's out there so I
Speaker 1: can be informed, Like coming here, you know, who knew
Speaker 1: we were going to talk about him? But you know,
Speaker 1: but I haven't watched her documentary. I don't want to
Speaker 1: watch her document right because I already know the basis
Speaker 1: of it. I've talked to people in George Food's family.
Speaker 1: I've talked to people in the community. I've talked to
Speaker 1: people who were there when it happened. I've talked to
Speaker 1: Keith Allison, the state Attorney General. I don't need to
Speaker 1: hear Candice Owens, you think people like attention from being
Speaker 1: a contrarian and saying things that especially as is it
Speaker 1: attention or are you being paid? Well? Does it? Is
Speaker 1: there a benefit of payoff for you? You know? I mean,
Speaker 1: if you are this juxtaposed to your own community that
Speaker 1: you went into and ask for help from the NAACP
Speaker 1: for something that happened to you many years ago, and
Speaker 1: then you go polar opposite, you wonder why. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's more than at tension, right, It's got to be
Speaker 1: more than attention. M Well, ab Ryan the world, you know,
Speaker 1: like Bishop td Jake's told you, I hope that you
Speaker 1: are celebrating myself. Thank you, and I love that you
Speaker 1: came in here and you, you know, gave me, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just lifted me up. And I want to
Speaker 1: make sure we do the same thing for you. I mean,
Speaker 1: thank you, sister. Black women will save the world an anthem.
Speaker 1: Make sure you celebrate yourself. I went to Martha's Vineyard
Speaker 1: for the first time. Did you love it? Yeah? I did.
Speaker 1: I need a little more time there because it's different,
Speaker 1: but it's it's Yeah, So how long were you there?
Speaker 1: I was there during that time where they have the
Speaker 1: Black Film Festival. Yeah, I was there for the first
Speaker 1: two weeks, so we didn't see each other. I was
Speaker 1: only there for like two days though. Oh no, you
Speaker 1: need announced and there was not a lot of good
Speaker 1: places to stay stay, so I didn't get to stay
Speaker 1: in oak Bluff or anything. Really did you stay in Eggartown?
Speaker 1: I have no idea. It was not really. Okay, next
Speaker 1: time you come next year, reach out to me so
Speaker 1: I can tell you and take you to places. The Coole.
Speaker 1: Hannah Jones and I and my friend Tracy, we were
Speaker 1: running through the island and my fiance we were running
Speaker 1: through the island. We thought we were like the only
Speaker 1: ones we had. We have a blast where we go.
Speaker 1: So next time you go. But that's my place, that's
Speaker 1: been my respite. And yeah, next time you go, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take you to the inkwell and baptize you in
Speaker 1: the Polar Bear heaven. So congratulations, great accomplishment, great buck.
Speaker 1: Black women will save the world. Thank you, Brian if
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club