In this episode we break down the Black and Brown MAGA supporters and the reasons they're driven to the cult.

America 20 to life.

Yo, excuse me, Ms.

Lynn.

Yeah.

Have you ever seen a show with a couple on the mic with bad content and it don't come out right?

We tight.

They never tight and that's not polite.

Am I lying?

No, you're quite right.

Well, tonight on this very mic, you're about to hear where the best podcast of the year.

So.

So here we go, Screen B.

Also, if you didn't know, this is our show.

Hey, I like that.

Here we go.

Erica the Life.

Welcome, welcome, welcome to America.

Tuner to life.

I'm your host, Mike Lynn.

Here my beautiful wife and co host, Erica Lynn.

What's up, babe?

What's up, y'all?

We wanted to bring y'all some liveness today so we can discuss some of the things going on with everything across the world.

It's been a lot going on.

It's been a whole lot going on.

Right.

Want to touch base on all of that, which we wanted to touch base on some things that we had posted on America over the last couple days that are happening in the communities and just get an overall sense of how people are feeling about all of what's happening and transpiring.

They were a lot of having to do with when we talked about politics anyways.

It was all national politics is what we talked about and discussed.

So, you know, we, we didn't really get towards community politics and what was going on here in the city, at least on the phone on this, on this platform.

And we're going to talk about what that looked like and what it looks like today as we sit here with, you know, scores of news breaks with executive orders that are coming and how those are actually affecting us day in and day out.

So we're gonna have that conversation here today.

I think one thing that we had, I posted on our Facebook page, if you're, if you're watching our Facebook page that I really wanted to address and we were going to address today, which will give a lot of context to what is transpiring right now in the world and how, how did Trump become president?

Right.

Is this, this, this black MAGA and Hispanic Maga or Brown maga?

And I want to give perspective and I think there's nobody more unique to be able to do that than Mike and Erica, you know, black man who's really entrenched in the civil rights movement in our communities and really understands what it is to be woke and understanding what that means.

And then you have, you know, Hispanic woman who is the same person as me pretty much on that perspective, but has an understanding from a Hispanic perspective.

And there's so much nuance in that.

My end too.

There's just a lot.

This is a long standing issue and fight that I think it's been a.

Big part of our fight.

Yeah, like a lot of people don't understand it.

Like the majority of our support comes from allies, not people of color.

It's crazy when you think about that.

Right.

But when we're trying to liberate our communities, a lot of that support doesn't come from our own people who are, who we're trying to help liberate.

Right.

So, and there's a reason why that is.

And there's a reason why you see a lot of black, you know, folks out in the world in the communities that are Trumpsters and they believe that what's happening right now somehow is for the good of all black and brown people.

And so we're going to break some of that down today.

And how that misguided understanding of the world led to a, you know, a second term of this, you know, a second term of this president that in all sense of the word, we really can't call him that.

This individual got a second term after everything that transpired, after all the jail stuff, the felonies, the all this stuff, how a person like this comes into power again, we're going to discuss that today.

So.

And what the ramifications are truly for what we're dealing with right now.

So before we get into all of that.

How you doing, babe?

Everything good?

As good as it can be, I guess.

So I'm doing well, I'm doing better.

I'm doing, I'm feeling pretty good today compared to how I was the last week.

I was sick, you know, I had a little, a little bug and I'm good now, so I think I feel a little bit better.

I'm excited to jump back into work.

We just got back from Florida about two weeks ago and I was super excited to get back into.

Engaged in the work that we're doing and getting really going.

And then I got sick and then it just laid me down for a week.

So I'm back.

Last matter of fact.

Dang.

Today's Tuesday, tomorrow's Wednesday.

It's been a week.

It has been a full.

Whoa.

So last Wednesday, yeah, I ended up in, in the, in the urgent care and, you know, whatever the case is.

And now here we are, so all well.

But, yeah, feeling good, you know, for the most part, looking good and ready to get this thing cracking.

And so I, you know, we've been sitting back watching all of what's been transpiring.

We haven't really come on here and, and had an opportunity to get on here and talk about it.

But, you know, we've been taking notes.

So just so you know, we've seen everything that's happening and transpiring.

We've also had, you know, some incidents of our own, you know, evolving from, I believe.

What I would believe to say is, you know, Black Maga, to be honest with you.

And, and, you know, this is going to be a very.

I just want to give, I guess, a trigger warning.

There's going to be some verbiage used in this communication today that may be hard, that shouldn't say harmful, that people may not like to hear.

And I think that it's important that we use that context, though.

So saying what we need to say in this, in this moment, I think is important to the conversation.

And so, you know, just, just be, just be mindful.

Yeah.

And I think it's important to name that for us, as much as we are truth tellers, we are storytellers, we are commentators.

So all of that, a lot of times when we're going to recount something to you, it's going to be verbatim on, like, how it happened.

So it's.

Yeah, it's going to be unfiltered because that, that just needs to be when you're truth telling, you know.

Yeah.

I mean, if there's one thing that I know that I don't do is lie.

I mean, and so, and I don't like to tell a half truth.

And I like people to have all the information because I've told stories to people that I think there's going to Be something exciting and everything.

I'm watching their faces.

I'm like, they ain't really.

They're not sugarcoat.

But I'm not changing the story just because you ain't feeling it.

It's still going to be the same story, my guy, like, so it doesn't matter, you know, but that's the point.

Like, this is what it is.

It is what it is whether or not you like it or don't like it.

We're going to talk about some very sensitive stuff tonight.

Today, we're going to talk about black people who have lost their way, who have never been educated on their own community, in their own cultures, plight in this, in this setting.

We're going to talk about black people who really internally hate themselves because they see themselves as a victim to blackness.

We're going to talk about what that might mean in society and how it looks.

We're going to talk about how you can understand and identify these people.

We're going to tell you how that affects everyday situations when these people are in power.

We're going to talk about that from my perspective as a black man, when I see it.

And then, and then from my perspective, it's like this division that we've kind of felt since the first term of Trump that has only gotten so much more intense and, like, wider between the Hispanic community.

Because if you know anything about the Hispanic community, it's a very religious community, often very rooted in cat, you know, Catholic religion, very rooted in, like, patriarchy type, you know, cultures, culture and norms and social norms.

And so it's like we're battling all this.

So for us, it's very deep rooted.

It's deep rooted.

And it goes after generation.

So you have this divide of those of us that are on one side of this and have been since forever, and then the other side that is like that maga.

The maga, like, you know, talking points, regurgitating and just standing strong and thinking that their proximity to whiteness somehow shields them from all of this.

So it's just coming to a head right now, and I'm just in, like, disbelief that you can't see what's happening to us.

Because for me, it's not of them and us as Hispanics.

Like, it's all of us.

So it.

So it's.

It's a very different conversation.

You know what's so funny about that different conversation?

I've seen a lot of Hispanic folks reaching out, saying, like, where's the black community supporters in this?

Like, what you mean, my guy?

Where Y'all is at.

For the last five years, yo.

I mean, some of us have been.

There's some conversation.

No, but I mean, as a whole, you know what?

I.

You know, I don't even.

Look, you say some of us have been here.

You're right.

But I will say this at the same time.

We didn't have to ask for it.

Didn't seem like we were all on the same page.

Black.

Whatever the case is, when people talk about woke, I always look at it like, you mean, like, empathetic.

Like, people who care about others.

Like, I have to be.

I have to be called woke because I don't want to see babies, you know, ripped from their parents at the border and throwing cages.

Like, this is what started it for me.

And I got in all of this trouble.

I was like, no country that I've ever loved or cared about would.

Would snatch babies from their parents at the border and lock them into cages.

That's what my post said.

And all.

Did I get in trouble for that?

Oh, they was all.

They was up and freaking arms.

But the whole point of the matter is, like, you don't feel the same way.

Like, what do you.

Like, I got to be awoke to understand that snatching a little baby that has no idea what's going on, screaming and crying from their parent and throwing me in a cage is a good thing.

Like, come on, man.

Like, that's the.

That's the.

That's the definition of woke.

Call me woke.

Call me woke, then.

And so, like, you know, I was watching Joe Rogan the other day, and he was talking about, you know, like, being on one side or the other, and he was like, I was at the Trump.

He said, I was at the Trump inauguration.

And, you know.

You know, of course, everybody's like, well, if you were there, you got to be a.

Because you were at the Trump inauguration.

And I agree.

You got to be a.

But at the end of the day, what he said following that, I thought was pretty cool.

He was like, you know, and the guy said, well, what'd you think about?

He's like, what'd he say?

It was a show.

Or, you know, it was.

It was disgusting or some along that line, right?

He was just like, yeah, it was terrible.

And so.

Hold on a second.

I'm gonna get back to this.

What's going on?

Nothing.

Okay.

I know.

I seen partially, but anyways.

And so he was like, yeah, it was a show and he started to explain it and he was like, you know, I don't, I'm an American.

He's like, I'm not, I'm not a damn or a Republican or left to right.

He's like, you know, I, I, there's some things that I agree with that the right does, and there's some things that I agree with the left.

And I don't think I should have to be like in a barrel because of one or the other that I agree with.

And I, I couldn't, I couldn't, like, you know, there, there's, there's, I guess, aspects of what some folks on the right say that I'm like, you know, I can kind of understand that perspective.

I lean way more left than anything, obviously, especially when it comes to human rights and all of that good stuff when it comes to economics.

Sometimes I do understand where, you know, we want to be more savvy when it comes to spending our money, especially when it's overseas and things of that nature.

Right.

And so I, I get that perspective that Joe Rogan was coming from, but more line.

I feel like, you know, there is this neck, there is this negative connotation to not agreeing with one side wholly or the other.

And I think that that's, that's a travesty that we're in that space in the world where I can't say, you know what?

I do agree that we shouldn't be spending a ton of money helping Israel.

Oh my God.

What are you, you know, and then at the same time, I do agree that, you know, you know, and just whatever the case is that, you know, I can agree with certain things and disagree with things on left or right.

And there's this, there's this mode in the world that that's just not possible anymore.

Yeah.

I think that a lot of what we're seeing right now is like, the dangers, like how dangerous identity politics are.

When you start to just, your identity becomes so aligned with the politics side of things, it's like you start seeing the cult like behavior.

And that can happen from all ends of, like, both sides ind, like just that cult like behavior of identity politics.

It becomes very dangerous because we stop fact checking, we stop looking for the true answers.

We, we're not being objective.

We're, we're kind of in that echo chamber and, and it turns people kind of against each other.

And so now we're at a space where it's like, no matter what comes out and what happens, it's so Us versus them.

And now that us versus them is now happening between minority groups.

Yes.

So great point.

Great segue into when I was speaking on, you know, folks saying, you know, where are these folks at?

And I think it's just a realization that, like, I always talk about, like, people don't recognize, and I didn't recognize until it knocked on my front door that I need to be engaged in this stuff or even know about it, right?

And, you know, I don't want to cut to the end of the conversation, but I will say this part of it, this is an amazing learning experience for everybody in the world.

Like, this is a time when I'm like, finally you get it.

Finally you see how that can affect you personally right here in little old Lansing, that big old thing that's happening up there.

Like, I'm seeing people acknowledge that, oh, my God, breaking news.

They're pulling, you know, Medicaid away.

And folks who are like, you know, just think about this for this perspective.

You know, we always talk about the MAGA folks always being like, the poor white folk, right?

Like, how can y'all be maga And a lot of times, poor black folk, right, how can y'all be MAGA when all of the things that they're trying to put in place are going to snatch these things from you?

But they haven't had to realize that.

They're having to realize it now.

Not.

Not that I like that this is happening to anybody, but it's like, you know, this is a moment in time when it's like, people are recognizing, like, oh, this is.

This is affecting me.

Like, I brought him in because I.

I bought.

I, you know, I.

I bought into the boot, the BS and the.

In the.

In the cult, like, stuff.

But now, like, they.

I just got a letter saying that, like, they just shut down my child's daycare because of it, right?

Or I got a letter saying that, you know, there's no more free lunch at school because of this.

So, like, all the things that you were benefiting, right?

All these things that you were benefiting from while you were sitting, you know, with your neck beard on your couch with your MAGA stuff all around you.

Now you're recognizing, like, everything that we have been saying for the last six years was true, but sometimes people got to live through it.

And this is that moment, right, where people are living through it.

So.

And then it's like, think about this, like, how all of the, like, the realizations happening right now of what things are when we keep trying to tell People stop oversimplifying things, stop listening to talking points.

So when you lead with hate in divisiveness, you think DEI is just black and brown people.

That's racism.

You're leading with hate.

But now we're finding out, oh, actually, DEI actually benefits white women.

No.

So in a major way.

No, no, no, no, no.

Let's say it, let's say it appropriately.

That wasn't the appropriate way to state it.

DEI benefits mostly white women.

What I mean by that is, out of the DEI efforts that are going on around the country, the beneficiaries of that, the most, the people, the demographic that benefits the most out of that are white women.

And why?

Because there's more white women.

Again, because they're of the majority.

When you think about race.

Yeah, when you think about race, they are the majority of, of the folks in these positions, but are considered.

If you just think about it from this perspective, you're, you're walking down the Capitol Loop downtown And you see Ms.

You know, the State Building come out and everybody comes outside for a fire drill.

90% of those people are going to be white, probably about 40% of them are going to be white women.

Just look at the demographics.

There you go.

You break things down by demographics.

So when you think about dei, white women, women, period, are part of a protected class.

So those white women who was running with their husbands up there to go vote for Trump didn't probably recognize that when they're talking, and I shouldn't even say this, running with their husbands, let's just say plainly voting for Trump, thinking that, yeah, we gonna get them, you know, whatever the case is, they couldn't have never realized that this was going to hit them this way.

I mean, because they just didn't do any, any.

They didn't look into anything that they weren't.

Lead with hate, lead with hate, lead with bigotry, lead with bias, lead with discrimination.

When you lead with that, this, this is what happens.

And it's affecting again.

Another, you know, you're, you're, you're literally hearing stories come out about veterans being directly affected right now, and they're saying, I didn't know that this was going to do.

You didn't know make this right.

So veterans, I believe, so Veterans, I believe, disabled.

So this is all the folks that are, that are benefiting from DEI ultimately.

And then there was a list, and it was a list that told you, like, the high, the hierarchy of how, like the most people benefited from it were white females.

Right, or white women.

And Then, you know, it went down the list.

And I don't know exactly the list of where people fell on it, but veterans were on that list, disabled folks were on that list.

Obviously any, any type of indigenous folk, you know, LGBTQIA plus were on that list.

Obviously African American.

But I almost want to believe, because of the minority, that African American really do play in the workplace and so on and so forth.

They really, they were at the bottom of the list of people who actually benefited from dei.

I mean, and let's be honest with you, because I had a conversation on this very show about six months ago, matter of fact, it might have been a little bit longer.

It was during the time the East Lansing was doing their reversity.

And I explained to you what reversity meant.

And I said reversity is where these organizations and people and places and municipalities, they called about, talked about all this diversity training, all this stuff they were going to do.

And we're going to hire diversity and we're going to do all these things during the time when George Floyd was murdered.

And it was like the thing you had to do in order not to get your activists from your community to show up at your house, you had to do this type of stuff.

Everybody was into it, right?

And then after the thing started to wane and after these municipalities and corporations, organizations had all kind of withstood the big blow of it all, they started to do this thing which we call reversity, where they started to reverse all of the diversity efforts.

And you've seen this polarized in East Lansing.

When East Lansing got rid of their mayor, their first black mayor, right?

The man and Ron Bacon, they, they ran him out of town.

They ran half of the allies they had on their council out of town.

They ran their fire chief out of town, they ran their police chief out of town.

They ran every piece of inkling of black that they had in the place.

They ran it out of town.

Then el East Lansing in Court Inc.

Or whatever they're called.

What are they called, Eli?

Information.

Yeah, East Lansing Information ran this whole hit piece on Annelane Hardy, who is their DEI person out there in East Lansing, and stated that her, that, that the Lane Hardy and Ron Bacon and all of them were doing all of that.

We're talking to each other and making all of these accusations that they were like doing things on work time for MLK events and all of this, like just basically anything that any white organization or people would do.

They made this whole hit piece because somebody from inside, white person from inside Wrote, wrote an article to Eli saying this is what's happening.

It's a baseless investigation and find unfounded claims.

But Eli ran it, so it was true as far as anybody's concerned.

And then they did like a full investigation on whether or not they did this in East Lansing.

Like official remind you, East Lansing been on the chopping block forever because of their issues out there with diversity and black folks.

And they tried it.

And then here comes the reversity.

And this is what's now happening across the country.

You see Targets pulling out of all diversity efforts.

McDonald's pulled out of diversity efforts.

I think there's Walmart, might have been one.

I said Target.

There's just tons of these organizations that did this huge diversity push that are now yanking it all back.

And today's.

Right now, right now time, right?

And so obviously, you know, any organizations that are doing that type of reversity stuff, like, you know, what we're saying we've seen in East Lansing happen is happening right now.

You see what side of the stick they on, right?

And so at any rate, I just wanted to bring that to the attention that the reversity is happening in our communities and we're gonna see how this affects people, man.

I mean, this is something that we knew was gonna happen when the uprising came.

And I think this is where tenure comes in in activism, advocacy.

Is that as you go along in this process.

And I've been on boots on the ground for a long time with this and not, not nearly as long as some of my mentors and folks that I grew up with in this game, you know, But I've been in this long enough to know.

I've seen the cycles.

I've seen the people get pressed into action.

I've seen the ebbs and flows of activists and advocates and so on and so forth.

I've seen it all.

I've seen fake people that come involved just because it behooved them or suited them in some form or fashion.

You know, I've seen all of it.

And I think this is the first time that I've realized reversity on a high level like this.

But we've seen it happen tons of times where people, you know, make all the claims that they're going to do better and they're going to do this, that the other while they're dealing with an incident.

And then as soon as the incident is over, the reversity happens.

So, you know, that's it.

This big vacuum that's made, you know, after they're no longer in trouble.

No longer in trouble.

What you got everything good?

Yeah, no, I.

You know that.

I know something happened yesterday.

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

So anyways, Black maga, what I've seen over the last two weeks or so is a lot of misinformation.

I don't want to say misinformation because that's not the right term.

I don't want to say ignorance either because I feel like ignorance is not a choice.

So I would say, or maybe is ignorance a choice?

No, that's the term of ignorance.

Like willful ignorance.

Willful ignorance is a choice, but just ignorance.

A lot of times it's just, I didn't, I don't know any better, but I'm like stating facts, I'm like forming opinions because I just don't know anything about.

Let me tell you the most damaging aspect.

And I talked about this too a couple years ago.

Sophistry.

Where will you look the definition of sophistry up, just so we can.

I want, I just want to get it verbatim.

Yes, the verbatim definition of sophistry, you know, it's really crazy, but it's so, yeah, so I heard this term on Tik Tok actually.

And you know, because tik tok, it.

It's not educational, but you know, it's super educational when people dig into these things.

You hear from folks who know what they're talking about.

But one of the terms that was brought up is sophistry as being one of the most dangerous things that are going to affect our community going forward.

And sophistry is a logical fallacy present in formal arguments.

It is the use of fallacious, superficial arguments.

In other words, of sophism is a false statement that appears to be true.

It is assumed that sophistry is used when one means to deceive.

And sophistry is usually considered to be deliberate.

So sophistry is what we're seeing, a lot of people do when they're having this argument about whether or not what's happening right now is beneficial or whatever the case is.

And they're making these arguments that seem super true.

Like on our post, one of this guy got on there and I had actually ended up having to ban him.

And I hate banning people.

But when people start to do things like accuse folks of being like KKK members or, you know, whatever the case is, those I can't keep you on our page.

Just directly blame.

Just, just, just being harmful.

Right.

So at the end of the day, you know, he was just making this argument that somehow all this.

That's happening is beneficial to the black community.

And making this case that somehow.

And was like, laying down evidence from his perspective that what.

What Elon Musk did when he did the.

The Nazi salute, I'm not going to do it.

But when he did that salute, that it was like, it didn't matter because Nazis were for black people.

And, like, they didn't.

Like, black people weren't their problem.

It was.

It was just Jewish people that they had a problem with.

And, like, that was good.

So that was okay.

It's like, what an argument, you know, it's like the problem with that is that people believe this out here in the world.

So the second part of what you just read, what's a simple definition of sophistry, is tricking someone by making a seemingly clever argument, like a philosopher who argues that up is down and somehow.

Convinces you because they make a good argument to the point to where you almost start to think like, damn.

And so why is soft history so dangerous?

Because a lot of people don't know.

So if somebody has a deliberate intention to misguide you, it's easy when you have no idea about the subject they're talking about.

And most people in the black and brown community are not paying attention to politics, but they are somewhat paying attention to, you know, what their favorite artist said about it or, you know, what their grandma said about it back in the day.

And they kind of formed a form, formed an understanding about it from that perspective.

And so you got a lot of people who I'm watching right now, like, bro, you're literally.

I watched.

I would listen.

This is so funny.

Yo, I was at the barbershop this morning, and I was watching.

We always.

I go at the same time every week, for the most part, which I might have to change now.

Set this broadly on here, because then that makes myself vulnerable.

But anyways, I was sitting there.

I was watching Price is Right, and this woman was on there, and she had hit a 75, and she was being super annoying.

And if anybody watched Prices right this morning, you'll know that she was being super annoying Black lady.

And I was like, yo, chill.

She was like, should I stay?

Like, taking all types of extra time.

She's wanting to be on camera.

Anyway, this other lady comes up and she's.

She does her thing.

She holds.

She.

She rolls a 10.

They're on the wheel.

She.

She hits a 10.

This woman has 75.

She rolls a 10.

She's like, I gotta go again.

She doesn't really know what's going on, so she goes again and she gets a 75.

Right.

And the black lady who's underneath her number, if you ever watch it, you know that when they win, that when they.

When they make their number, they go over here.

No, they go over here and they wait, wait.

They wait under their number until the next person spins the wheel.

Yeah.

This is the.

The big wheel, right?

Yep.

The woman wrote a 10 first, then she wrote a 75 next.

Listen to what happened.

This is what I'm talking about.

The woman that was the woman that is the Asian woman, the woman who rolled the road ultimately rolled the 85 on the wheel.

When you add the 10 and the 75 up.

She was watching the black lady's response.

The black lady response.

Guess what she does when she rolls?

She jumps up and down and screams like, ah.

Like she thought she won.

So what the lady over here do, she walks off the screen.

She thought she lost because she was just paying.

She was paying attention to her response.

She didn't even take the information that was in front of her face.

You just wrote a 10.

Drew's told you you need a 75 or you need a.

This is what you need to win.

You need a 75 or 65 to tire.

Or 70.

He told her.

Yeah, she rolled the 75, but didn't calculate what she just seen in her face.

She was just watching the illustrate.

She was watching the illustration in front of her.

And decided by the illustration in front of her, not all of what she's seen.

Not all of what she's seen in front of her.

The illustration in front of her that she lost as she walked off and Drew had to pull her back, like, wait a minute, you won.

And the late.

The black lady was like.

She moved off.

And so the Asian lady was like, oh, I won.

What do you mean, so what do I do?

And so they swapped places.

And it was like, but what.

The point I'm making is all the information she had in her face didn't matter.

The illustration of this woman cheering blocked her mind of all of that.

And she thought she lost because of that.

I mean, that's what I mean by sophistry.

Now, if there wasn't.

If there wasn't a.

I don't know if the black lady did this deliberately, but let's just say she did.

If there wasn't a judge or a Drew or a community around to say.

And that you actually won.

Yeah.

And that just happened and that just happened.

It would have just been what it was.

Do you get what I'm saying?

Yes.

Because she got.

You allowed yourself to get distracted and didn't even pay attention to the fact.

Yeah, you got distracted and then just went with a narrative that was sport.

In front of you.

No matter what.

You just seen that, it was like, oh, I must have lost, cuz she's cheering.

She would never be cheering for me.

And sometimes that's our news cycle.

Like, that's literally how our media works.

Let me distract you.

And now let me put a narrative in front of you.

And we're all too distractive to pay attention to the truth and the facts.

And then we.

But we keep.

We get taught all the time, like by these people.

Like, you just don't know.

Like, you ain't reading, you ain't paying attention.

You ain't paying attention to your yo, your history here.

You ain't read the Constitution.

Like, yo, listen.

And so I just kept asking, I just kept asking the question of this individual.

Just explain to me then, bro, like, how, how what Trump is doing right now is going to affect this positive.

Of course he couldn't.

He just kept going back to his sophistry.

But I'm not a person that can fall for that because I'm educated and I understand that.

I pay attention.

So when I could see this coming from an angle, I don't believe nothing you got to say after that.

After I see you trying to come and deliberately tell me some bullshit, but average people don't.

Yeah.

So that's that.

That was a really, really good parallel, yo.

But God puts me in all types of places and position to see that.

I didn't know why I was watching that.

It was hilarious.

Me and KP was dying.

Like, yo, this chick didn't know.

She like, she, like how she not know.

She just paid attention to her whether or not she win or lose that was relevant to this conversation right now.

Wow.

It's just like there in the back of your head, back to the nuances.

The nuances.

So I just want to.

Going on.

We.

We could talk about folks that are deliberately misguided and honestly, let's talk about Black Maga.

Right?

Let's talk about Black Maga for a second.

We could talk about those who are deliberately misguided, but I think it's a deeper, a deeper problem when it comes to Black Maga that I figured out from the Black Magas that I know.

And those who, you know, haven't really said they maga but like, all the hints are there, right?

Type stuff.

There's certain qualities of this individual that, that I've identified through this process.

And you know, just to be completely transparent, like, this is who we know we're talking about right here, right?

This is who everybody who's seen Boondock Saints, we know.

This is the person we're talking about that's a black maga.

This person.

If you know this person or have you ever seen his name's Uncle Ruckus on.

On Boondock Saints.

He is a black hating.

You know, I don't want to say white woman loving, because that's not necessarily a negative, but at the end of the day, he's a black hater.

He doesn't like anybody black.

He hates black people, he hates black culture.

He hates.

He hates black kids, he hates black thought, hates black rap music.

He hates all of it.

But it's very internalized why he hates it because all of that stuff that I just said makes it so he has to deal with the people he wants to love disliking him.

That's the internal hate part of it that you.

You recognize that white people don't like you because of.

This is how they see it.

Now, this is not my interpretation.

They don't like me because of you.

I could.

I would be loved if it wasn't for you and your loud music.

If it wasn't for you and your backwards hats.

If it wasn't for you always intimidating white folks, they would actually like me.

So the fact that I have to be a part of your class and be with you makes me hate you and me because I have to be a part of this and because I have to be a part of this.

The white people who are really want to love me hate me because of you and all the things you do.

I got cussed out by this guy at a community meeting the other day.

I wasn't going.

I wasn't going to bring this up, but I got.

I got literally cussed out by Uncle Ruckus at a community meeting the other day because of this type of internal hate that this individual has for himself.

Because of my what.

How should I say, my unapologetic blackness.

It aggravates his inner soul that I love being black, that I represent being black in any space that I'm in, that I don't mind coming into hostile environments and making sure that we're centering black voices.

That aggravates him so badly that his eye popped out of his head just like this.

As he was listening to me speak.

I didn't know.

I didn't know if you were gonna let me have this conversation or not.

No, I.

You know what?

I.

I wasn't going to do this, and I'm not going to do it, so it's yours.

This is the thing, though.

So this is like a.

This, this was a very, very interesting.

And.

And I don't want to say traumatizing because it was like a, A, A levels to traumatizing because of the position that we got put in in this particular situation, but when we say irritate someone's soul, like, it didn't start or end with the incident that ultimately it ended with.

Like, it started so much earlier where you could hear.

I wanted to.

So I wanted to.

Do you mind if I just tell you?

Like, I just want to tell.

I mean, I don't.

I don't care.

Like, you know, it's your story.

You was there.

It's your story.

I was there.

I was right there.

Yeah.

So it's your story.

I can't tell you part of the conversation.

Watching the conversation.

And ultimately I had to take it upon myself to take action on the conversation.

Remind you we're talking about black maga and.

And black hate.

Right?

That's what.

That's what we're talking about.

Something with something we know exists and already knows.

Absolutely.

And we write not a record, but.

I want to say we let live.

Like, we let live in a lot of spaces.

And we understand.

We know where people are coming from.

And, like, we let that space lie, even though folks come into the space as black and brown.

And when we say, like, all skin folk, all.

All kin folk ain't skin folk, like, my gosh, that cannot be more overstated right now because we constantly have to remind people that we are not a monolith.

You are not a monolith.

That's so important.

It's so important right now when we're dealing with the complexities of all of this.

So we're having a conversation.

And.

And I'm actually.

You know what?

I'm gonna pull up something that I.

Something that I sent.

An official thing that I sent.

Hold on a second.

That tells.

I think this need to be a little more context.

No, I am.

But I'm not saying.

I'm not gonna read, so I'm not gonna read it yet, but I'm gonna tell you.

I'm gonna re.

I'm gonna read you what I said.

Because, mind you, where.

Let me just set the setting.

Let me Say, I hate to ask per air, but, like, if I.

If you don't mind, I want to read the whole thing.

And I'll take out anything identifying, but it'll give you the most context.

But to lay the foundation for what I'm going to read you, the entire conversation was, as always, because what is Mike going to do when there's an issue that comes up in a community meeting, a community group, any type of setting where we're talking about policy, anything.

Let me set the stage.

Let me set the setting on that part.

Okay?

Because I don't think that a lot of people understand the context of why I even show up to these events.

I'm bigger, in my opinion, than having to show up and keep doing this.

I do it enough in every arena that I'm in, But I also recognize that I have to show up in these spaces because everybody that's in those spaces ain't necessarily watching here.

So I do believe there's certain things on the agenda that affect absolutely black and brown people.

Let me just.

Let me just name this aspect and set the context to this for.

For a second.

The reason that I go to neighborhood meetings is because I.

Nobody like me is in them.

None of the people that I'm kind of like, this is ain't none of them.

But the majority of the people that I'm out here battling day in and day out for are not in those spaces.

So I show up in those spaces.

I show up in those spaces to make sure they're, first of all, represented in those spaces.

Secondly, not just represented, because representation could just be me being there, but represented by the way of advocacy and activism, if needed.

Right.

I'll be the one to say the thing to make sure that y'all don't know this ain't gonna be okay, and we ain't gonna let it ride.

So I just want to name that.

I go to these community events for that reason and take time away from all types of other things that I could be doing.

I literally learn nothing at these meetings.

I'm not hearing anything that makes sense.

Right.

I'm not.

Since they make sense, I'm not necessarily hearing updates from them that I don't already know about.

When I go to these community meetings, in most cases, we are getting inundated with stuff we've been known for months and been working on and dealing with.

I'm literally coming here to hear the response of the community on that such subject and then make sure that I'm centering black community and voice in that moment.

Right.

And so just understand that when I show up to one of these events, it's why I'm not coming, because I need to hear what whatever person is going to speak about.

I've heard them speak, amplify, sometimes, often.

I've heard them speak.

I've already know what's going to be said.

I have a whole script of why I'm going here, what I need to say, what voice I need to amplify, so on and so forth.

So that kind of sets the understanding.

The other, the only other part I wanted to mention is when I talked about, you know, folks that I'm representing out here in the world, you know, the most marginalized folks don't have time to show up to community meetings.

So can you wonder why in these community meetings, a lot of times it's folks who have all their basic needs met.

And the most, for the most part, a lot of times these are folks who are, you know, leaving their job at GM because.

Or they're coming to the meeting and they're, they're.

Their understanding of their action and them needing to be in this space is because there's kids that walk on my lawn every day and I'm getting super tired of it.

Where can I go to take action on this problem?

And they find their local neighborhood association or whatever the case is, or, you know, I could go on and on with stories about why people get involved, but I recognize that very early on in my advocacy that these rooms are not for us.

They're not where I'm at, they're not where my people are at.

So.

But they're.

I obviously, they're honestly deciding a lot of what happens in the environment that we live in.

So this is why I go to our community meetings.

This is why I go to our council meetings.

This is why I go to committee meetings.

This is why I go to these spaces, because we're not represented there very well, if at all.

And secondary, the people who are a lot of times a part of our vertical violence, and you guys have heard me talk about vertical and horizontal violence, if you haven't, Google it, a lot of the people that are part of our vertical violence are in these meetings making decisions.

So I just want to get all ends of this, on all ends of it.

I just want to give context to why we're even in these meetings.

Yes, there's, there's reasons, but I recognize.

When I'm in there, most people don't agree with.

I'm about to say, and we have to we have to really understand that, that often we're like coming into combative territory.

Yes.

We are not in a.

A safe space.

Safe space or a brave space.

Like neither of the two.

It don't matter if they look like me or not.

I know we about to come into a combative environment.

And I'll.

This is what I'll kind of describe it as.

As if you are, if you're in any type of neighborhood group on Facebook.

Like a neighborhood Facebook Facebook group.

Yeah, that's similar.

And it's not all because a lot of them do a very good job of trying to set a really good agenda.

Etc.

Etc.

Some of them do.

But yeah, I shouldn't say all.

Some of them do.

I think some are really trying to come along with the.

Regardless of whether they do or don't though, the people that show up often, the conversation in the comments and all the complaints will devolve into a lot of what you see in the neighborhood group Facebook groups where you see the complaints.

Didn't you have to get out of like the Westside neighborhood back in the day?

Because it was pretty bad.

I think I jumped out and jumped back after a while because it got.

It got real bad and then they, they moderate it better now, but it still gets so also like the neighbors app, if you've ever been on the ring neighbors app, that's even worse.

But just that vibe, if you know, you know, I'm hoping that if you.

Know, you know, if you don't know inboxes, we can explain that's the vibe.

Okay.

But we show up, we make space or the scanner group and you don't.

Just think about that.

The scanner group, all those groups like that are all problematic as.

Yes.

And we all know it.

We know how we see it.

So we're in these spaces and we continue to show up often knowing that we're going to have to deep breath and say the thing and like might be the only one saying the thing and you know, nobody, everybody's going to.

Stare at you like, oh my gosh, what did he just say?

We know that's going to happen for sure.

Or be like mad uncomfortable.

Yeah, we know.

So a really big thing, A really big part of this is setting the tone of the conversation is the conversation was about an issue that absolutely should.

Center impacts affects all of that.

The black community.

And that is the, the.

Wait a second.

I should.

Okay, no, no, this is the point.

Don't say that.

Yeah, I'm not gonna say that.

So just know that it's a major project that's coming to the city of Lansing that involves that.

It does involve African American folks that should have African American voices at the center of the conversation.

And not just any African American voice, but there should be some very specific folks who have been working in this arena for a long time should be.

In this conversation diverse, credible, experienced, etc.

Because that matters who, not how.

If you know, you know.

Right.

But what I, what I was going to say is I'm going to preface this as a truth teller that anything I omit is because I don't.

I'm.

I'm omitting anything identifying because I wanted to.

We want to talk about the issue.

Right.

Because the issue.

This isn't going well.

It's not going well.

Yeah.

The fight's not going well at all.

And, and, and I handled it as best.

Mike handled it better than we're gonna.

Tell you about how good I handled it in a minute.

Better than I've ever seen anyone hand it better than I would have.

Let me tell that part of my story.

I absolutely will.

But again, this is a conversation without being too identifying.

That absolutely was Mike centering black voices, which is what he does in a room.

If you've met him, if you've been in spaces, that is what he's also absolutely going to do from start to finish.

I could sense and feel because I'm in physical close proximity space proximity to this individual.

I could feel when he says irritate soul.

I could feel the soul being irritated by their body language, by their actions, by their tone of voice, by their directive conversation, the content of their conversation just continuously getting more and more agitated.

This person wanted to say why is everything got to be about black?

That's what this person wanted to say.

And I think eventually did actually say that.

He actually did say that during this process.

But so enough context now I'm just going to read you what I ended up deciding I had.

And of course I talked to my husband first because I'm never gonna.

We're a team, you know.

But I was very upset because I couldn't really do or say what I wanted to do or say in that moment.

You haven't really given the context of what happened and made you write this.

That's why I was talking about.

But the.

What happened is anything.

So you're going to tell the story what happened through your letter?

Yes, I think don't.

I feel like it's detailed.

It's your letter.

I.

One thing you got to know about me, I don't play when it comes to words, I'm very intentional.

So I want to give the facts.

I try to keep it to the facts and direct.

So I'm just going to read it to you.

So I had to write this last week and again, anything be caught, be.

Patient with her because she does have to read this and omit a lot of we're not trying to yet identify this individual.

So I'm going to pause if it feels like a weird pause.

I'm omitting an identifying thing.

So to whom may concern I am writing to address an incident that took place during and after a community meeting on involving during a discussion about what we said.

That is absolutely an issue that was definitely that needs to have black voices centered.

During this conversation, my husband and I named Mike voiced that there are far too many black voices missing from the conversations up to this point and that said organization may not be best suited to be the conveners of community with this as a priority.

Mike is very dedicated and vocal on centering black voices in plans, policies, anything that involves or could impact the black community.

During this discussion it became very clear that was very agitated with say set.

Individual or something like said individual.

It made it became very clear that this individual was agitated with the conversation.

Based on the comments and the tone of his additions to the conversation, it was decided at this point to adjourn the official meeting and certain members remained to continue talking with Mike And I.

Let me just say this real quickly.

There's context to that part and why this meeting I asked to adjourn so that we could get into a safer space to have this conversation because I felt that it was necessary because of conversation I know had happened before to explain some history, context in context to folks about why we didn't believe or I didn't specifically believe this organization specifically should be the ones convening this conversation.

I'll get into that as we go along and I'm not going to again going to name anybody.

But I think it's important to talk about what I talked about about five minutes ago about this this understanding of why the group convened.

Why did this group convene.

I remember I know a lot of times people talk about the origination of policing, right?

And policing coming from the fact of slave catching.

Right?

That's where police originated.

That's the facts.

100 no question white people did not police themselves this way when back in the day they would just go grab somebody and they'd fight in the middle of the street or whatever the case was.

There wasn't police necessarily.

Yeah.

An oppressive force like that.

There might be a sheriff out west right then late time like as policing had already been started.

But the point of the matter is it was originated and brought together for that purpose.

So we cannot forget that as we're moving along, even if it's 300 years later.

So.

Meaning even with the organizations that we're talking about in this perspective, the history matters.

And it wasn't even long history.

4, 5, 6, 10, well, eight years ago type history.

So that's why that conversation was in there.

And I asked to break the meeting because there was ears in the room that didn't necessarily need to hear disparaging information.

Not false.

Disparaging.

Disparaging information about the organization that we were at.

I didn't think that the room needed to hear that.

Let's just keep the individuals here that should probably need to hear it.

Information that this entity has acknowledged.

That's right.

Admit.

I mean it was a good choice.

No question or argument that they know that this organization has been.

But again, contrary to popular belief.

Yeah.

We're giving the.

The respect and the nuance to say.

To not air your ass in front of everybody.

Yes.

Let's have the.

Like we're doing now.

What do we always say?

We always try to have conversations in private.

Always.

Like we did now.

Like we have been doing for two damn weeks now.

Damn near on this entire situation.

Yeah.

They're saying this next part.

I don't know how it's hard.

This next part.

It was more comfortable writing it out.

It was mad uncomfortable sitting.

You want me to read it?

I mean I would because again, I'll read it.

Where's.

Where this is when Mike gave a.

You know, like when we say offensive language.

This was said verbatim.

I bleeped it out in there, but made it clear in there that.

That I'm paraphrasing this, but it is bleeped out.

That word was not bleeped during this.

And so this was the most uncomfortable part for me to have to sit through.

Okay.

So.

Okay.

So the board may remain to continue talking with Mike and I.

It was during this conversation that said individual made comments.

I will paraphrase, but I heard the entire conversation on how he hates Lansing and Lansing.

That there are only two kinds of not bleeped out at all at as it was said.

And again, she didn't write this.

I'm saying it in Lansing.

There's only two types of.

In Lansing.

Ones that work for the state or that want to work for the state that he loves being in Atlanta because it's all black people there.

So if the police stop you or there's problems with the job or manager, everyone's black, so you can't call it racism.

He then made a comment directly.

Let me see.

Hold on.

Okay.

He then made a comment directly to the room in reference to Mike, that this is what's wrong with niggas.

He was asked repeatedly, are you seriously saying that?

And he continued to double down.

The N word alone was unacceptable, hard R or not for him to be using especially aggressively in that space representing our side.

I know there's still.

Well, yeah.

Is that it?

Okay, so I'll resume hearing it again.

Makes me just as, like, upset.

Now, wait a second.

Where did you send this?

Who'd you send this to?

I sent this to the org that this person is a part of.

This person is a part of an organization?

Yes, I sent it.

That organization has a board.

Yes.

This person is a board member.

And this was sent to that board?

Yes.

Okay.

That's who this was.

Context.

Because at this point, I'm gonna be honest with you.

This was sent because enough time had passed.

No accountability.

You had given a week.

I'd given a week.

I'd given plenty of time for some.

Something to happen out of this.

So good.

Other context is this person was also a member of the board of the meeting we were at.

Yeah.

And I'm.

And if that's okay again, that's in here.

So again.

So again, I got the N word alone.

Harder or not again, for me, be using especially aggressively in that space representing your organization.

He then took it a step further and during an exchange with my husband, began yelling, cursing, stood up and told him to shut the up.

B.

This was a hard moment multiple times.

Stood up everything before storming out of the building.

So I want to tell you.

I want to.

I want to just name, like, the trauma of that moment, because now I'm.

I'm witnessing someone antagonizing my husband in a way that now I have to worry about what's now going to transpire because I now feel like, you know, you're antagonizing to the point of you're trying to get a reaction out of.

Out of this person.

I was intentionally to get a reaction.

Very intentional.

The first shut the up was okay.

It didn't get the response.

They didn't get no response.

And it was like, shut the up again.

Then it was a pause.

Then I can.

I can't even begin to Verbalize how proud I am of how it ultimately turned out, because I've definitely seen different outcomes.

Different outcomes for sure.

But I just name in that moment how awful it was to be sitting there in this space.

I felt.

I felt very alone.

I felt like he was alone.

I felt very unprotected.

We felt very unprotected because not one single solitary fucking person in that room stood up and said, like, you need to leave.

No, nobody.

Let me.

Let me.

Let me just say this real quick, because I'm.

I'm respecting that.

That's how you felt.

I know, and I want to acknowledge how I felt in the situation real quickly.

I did not feel in danger because I know myself.

I felt in danger.

And I'm talking about physical danger, like, as if this person could actually whoop me.

I didn't feel that part at all.

What I did feel is, you know, somebody said to me one time, and I'm just gonna recount this conversation.

Keep.

Hold your space.

This is important.

I was in a.

This is how I have to learn sometimes.

I was in a space with a bunch of white people, and there was a black woman there with me.

And there may have been maybe one or two.

Maybe she was the only black woman there with me.

There was a bunch of white folks there, though.

We were in another community meeting of sorts.

And there was a white woman that was in this room that was kind of attacking this black woman.

And there were other white women that were kind of joining along in the attack.

And I didn't think that it was what the person was saying was not attacking, but the way that they were going at this woman was attacking.

Right.

It was kind of bullish behavior.

And I was just, like, sitting there like, you know what I mean?

I kind of feel them, you know, black woman, like, I kind of understand what they saying.

And she was like, I don't feel safe right now, and was like, you know what?

I'm leaving.

And I was like, how you don't feel safe?

I'm here, yo.

Like, what you think I'm gonna let somebody do to you?

Why you in here with me?

Me, right?

This is me, yo.

And it later got told to me that it's not necessarily that physical harm would come to her.

It's that she felt as if she, like, was being accosted.

And nobody even understood the accosting was happening.

And that's what's like.

I was just like.

When I got that told to me, I was just like, wow.

And then, you know, the danger part of it is not necessarily how what might happen to her, but the reaction that might come from her to this individual puts her in danger as the only black woman in a room full of white people.

So, you know, there's a.

There's a.

There's a grownish.

Well, not grownish, but blackish.

A blackish episode where this little white girl comes up on the elevator, and Anthony Anderson opens the elevator, and he looks at this little white girl, he's like, I ain't get on the elevator.

You know, this is the reality of being a black person.

And we have to recognize in spaces like this, like I was that day, that I can't respond how I would want to respond in this situation, because I'm freaking in danger right now.

If I even act like I want to do some aggressive, this whole room is going to call the police.

And so that's where I'm in danger, that you would come at me in a situation like this, trying to provoke an attack on you physically.

You put me in danger in this space, and I'm in danger from the aspect that don't nobody else in this whole room understand what's happening right now.

Right?

That's the part that when that woman told me that, I was like, I get it, yo.

And I'm sorry.

I didn't have any idea that that's how you felt or even that that was a thing.

I get it now, because now I get it when she told me that.

But now I went through it.

I sat in a situation where I felt like I'm in danger right now, because there's a lot of reasons why I.

I, like, in my history, and people that know me notice I have literally done unthinkable things to people for way less.

And as that slurred out of his mouth, no anger came over me in that moment.

And I'll just be honest with y'all.

I felt like God was testing me.

Like, you know, I heard this other thing this woman has said, who kind of works in the same realm as I do, and she was like, you know, when you are preaching peace and you're out here doing good work, people are going to test that in you.

Especially when, you know, when you come from it, especially when they know you come from violence, they're going to test.

Are you really.

Calm down.

Do you really believe in peace?

Are you really preaching peace?

Are you really able to stand on what you say?

And I didn't really know if I was, to be honest with y'all, up until that moment in that space that I was in.

I didn't know if I was able to be strong like that.

There's been times when I felt like jumping over the table on people, but they stopped in enough time for me to be able to gather myself and not do it.

That's the first time I've been in a situation since the last time I broke somebody nose, that I was actually being verbally attacked and threatened.

And I was in like, I swear to God, like, it was told to me, like, yo, Mike, I was just so proud of how you responded in that moment.

And I just couldn't even like it.

Just a wave came over to me like, you're okay, physically, you're okay, right?

Ain't nothing.

There's nothing gonna happen there.

Because at times, if I felt threatened, this immediate thing was to be just the most aggressive person in the room.

This is where I've come from.

This is what I know.

This is how I know to defend.

And I don't know that I was going to respond that way.

So the question being asked, Mike, is Mike really healed from his violence that he's brought on the world?

I don't.

I didn't know for sure.

I wasn't positive.

Yo, I'm telling you that I'd be saying it.

I'm sitting around, young bucks talking to them like, man, y'all gotta be able to turn the other cheek.

Conflict resolution, know your conflict styles and you should be able to talk through that process and not use your hands and violence.

I was saying all of that, but I hadn't been tested.

I'm a grown ass man.

I'm 43 years old.

When you think the last time somebody called me a bitch was when you think I've been in a situation where somebody was like, well, then what you want to do and push me?

I'm not in situations like that.

Until this moment, I hadn't been in a situation where somebody did that.

First of all, it's a couple reasons.

First of all, I set a precedence in my life where people just knew that shit was always a possibility.

I might just take your face off in this moment right here and crash the out.

That might just be what I do.

So people understood it, they seen it before, so just didn't test it.

This individual didn't know that didn't care about none of that or was trying to provoke that out of me.

And for whatever reason, God pulled over me.

I was able to learn something about myself in that moment.

Then I'm gonna carry on for the rest of my life.

I Know now, you cannot provoke me out of me.

You cannot move me off my square.

Now I can have a conversation of lived experience with my young bucks.

I.

Hey, look, I've been through it.

Dude called me a.

Told me shut the up in front of my wife.

Told me he hate.

Told me he hate Lansing.

All the.

All the people that I'm in this community working my ass off, blood, sweat and tears and fighting for.

He told me he can't stand none.

Of y'all in a room full of mixed company.

In a mixed room of company.

And I stood on that, and I.

I was able to stay calm in that moment.

Yo, I appreciate you, brother.

You taught me a lesson, man.

I didn't know that about myself.

I didn't know that I could withstand that and not go upside your head.

I digress.

And I.

And I let us sit with that for a while because I was.

I was very proud of all of that.

It's great.

But as I sat on the events of the day and it just.

Time went on and I realized, like, no accountability is being taken whatsoever from.

From said individual at all.

And I had made the point after the meeting, after this happened, because I want to make clear we were both put in a situation where we couldn't react the way that we wanted to, because that's another part I was going to say I was very much silenced because of the way that this individual was acting.

I couldn't even say what I wanted to say because I couldn't be sure he wasn't going to get aggressive with me.

So then I have to be silenced and shut up because you are acting, you know, erratically.

So it's like we both got put in this position.

I need you to tell the correct story on that.

Don't say it.

You can't say it as if I was going to let anything happen.

No.

So the point of this is, the position we get put in is because.

When I told you be quiet about.

I know when I heard you was about to say something, I had to tell you that.

Because if he said anything to you.

That was going to be the.

What I had just learned about myself might not be true.

No more.

Exactly.

And I know this, so I know this.

Again, we know things.

We know the dynamic.

I know how hard he's being pushed right now.

I know how antagonistic this person is being.

So it's like I have to protect him.

So let me just not engage with this individual because now all of that hard work he just put in sit right next to me.

Where I'm, you know, over the last.

10 years was gone.

Because if I, and this is something I know, if he would have engaged with me with anything other than silence, that was gone.

And my husband would probably be in jail.

And that's just something I knew inherently.

So I was like, you know what?

So again we put.

But now that we know that, don't try it.

Don't think that's going to get me out of pocket.

Yeah, I think that's the thing that we need to understand as humans, you know, just stop doing that shit.

So again, they say the people that.

Talk the most shit, be the first ones to call the police, man.

Never the answer.

It's never the answer.

They can run their.

Yeah, violence is always unanswer.

And you don't know.

You never know when that option.

Because in, in a list of multiple choice options, violence is always on the table and you never know what option somebody's going to pick that day.

So like, I just tell people that all the time, like, be easy, man.

Have some respect out here.

Have some way about yourself.

So ending that, that, that situation, I went on to, to say, if you're.

Just now joining, first of all, go back about 20 minutes, then start again.

Yeah, just be honest a lot of.

Times because you might jump in and be like, what?

Yeah.

So moving on to finish the remainder of my official letter, my official complaint to, to this board.

The comments made by this individual are not examples of implicit bias which often operates unconsciously.

They were explicit, intentional and harmful.

When anyone verbalizes harmful stereotypes or rhetoric about black people, it reinforces damaging narratives.

It erodes trust and legitimizes discrimination from others.

That part legitimize discrimination for others.

This is why I'll be very mindful when the stuff comes from black folks.

This was a black.

This is a black man that said all of this.

That's even worse because often that's used against us.

It's why I have.

Oh, this person said it's why I have a lot of nuance with my people.

Yeah, so we're gonna tether, tar and feather all the black people around.

And so, and so said they didn't have a problem with it.

So I said, you know, REEF forces damaging narratives.

All that.

This is, this is especially unacceptable.

From his platform in an organization committed to.

And I named basically their mission statement as, you know, an org.

And I.

You gotta be careful here.

Yeah.

With a focus on black and minority population, basically y'all deal with a lot of black and minority populations and issues and Things that come up concerning and impacting black and minority populations.

This is facts y'all just do.

I went on to say by.

By geographical.

By just where you're at.

I want to highlight that much of the work that we, Mike and I do with our co founded organization, the Village, has focused on bridging the gap between what many see as two cities.

This is largely why we and I named something that we do that tries to bridge a gap, specifically with this.

Neighborhood in this area.

Because everyone and I went on to say that.

And we also invite our community, the Village community, to your things.

Because we can see the divide in the makeup of the attendance of each of these.

And situations like this are harmful to this work.

So I needed them to understand this is detrimental to more than just that moment.

Yeah, or to us.

This has a ripple effect.

I thought your letter was amazing.

It gave them every reason to understand they need to do the right thing.

Go for it.

All the work that I do in my day job is centered on racial and social justice.

I'm tasked with managing projects through equity, centering the most impacted and amplifying the unheard voices.

Bias in leadership, regardless of race, cannot be excused or ignored.

As far as I know, the board, the.

The organization in which the space that we were in, in that moment has taken steps to address this incident since that individual serves on that board as well.

So they did what they needed to do.

They addressed it.

They did the right thing.

They did the right thing and they were all witnesses to all of this.

Accountability is essential if this individual is unwilling to step down.

I urge this board to upload its bylaws as outlined below and take appropriate action.

I then copied and pasted their bylaws and their bylaws state that they can.

I'm going to paraphrase because I know how sleuthing I be.

But they're bylaws.

Look, Samara's like, I already got to go back and see who they talking about.

We are taking a very intentional approach not to name this individual.

Why?

And I'm going to tell you all why.

Because we're trying to give this individual a way to walk away from the situation which should have happened.

Because that's all we've asked.

All we've asked is that you can't be empowered, bro.

You can't be in no situation where you are directing traffic for the reasons.

Erica, just.

I'm not even halfway done.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

So the articles I will just kind of paraphrase that is that they can be removed.

And the main reasons that you can be removed is I'm, I'm.

I'm.

I'm trying to.

I don't want to directly because like I said, I know my sleeping ass.

Will.

Will.

Will find something disruptive, disrupt.

Disrespectful, unethical, just basically.

And I'll use a loose term that I know the fire department use.

Anything that's unbecoming of somebody serving on this board or representative.

Anything unbecoming is what their bylaws state.

Yeah, that.

That's.

That's what their bylaw state.

So all I asked is that they uphold their bylaws as which stated.

So the return I got was that enough an investigation was going to happen?

And I'm like, okay, oh, I forgot.

I forgot to put the pictures up.

This is what he looked like when he called me a.

Right here.

That was what he looked like right there.

So I was like.

We was talking about center black voices.

He was getting angrier and angrier and angry.

So I forgot about that.

And, And I want to, you know, say like, that was the response.

We're going to open up a formal investigation.

Etc.

I'm like, do what you got to do.

That's fine.

Got it.

You want me to show the list of witnesses?

So this is where.

When I said were not in a good place is because this is the response that Mike received.

I put Mike on the witness list because I'm the complainant here.

I'm the person in the room.

Since nobody else was going to do it.

Nobody else said anything that day.

Nobody else was going to acknowledge the fact that y'all did what you were supposed to do as an org, but this other org that this person serves in a leadership position on, ain't nobody addressed that.

Or maybe they don't know, but that person's not going to address it.

They haven't taken any accountability at all in any way, shape or form.

And I'm not going to just sit with that.

So I did what I was supposed to do.

Send this over, give them a witness list of everyone, including Mike.

And this is what he.

And I'm amped up about this.

I'm not gonna lie like this.

We got a whole other product.

Product to get to.

Let's fix this.

Let's finish this.

Because this is.

This is a small.

I shouldn't have brought this up.

Just put it up.

Okay.

Just put what up?

Put.

Put the letter responses, the.

The questions that you were asked.

Okay, well, first of all, here's the letter this is a letter that I.

Want to hear y'all's opinion.

This is a letter that I received today.

This is basically in response to Erica's investigation complaint that I had nothing to do with.

Erica sent this letter investigation, complaint.

They responded to her.

Can you give me information from all the people who witnessed it?

So on and so forth.

She did, and so on and so forth.

So this is what it is.

My name is such and such, and I am such and such at this board and received a complaint regarding such and such, his name about an incident that occurred between him and yourself at the community meeting.

So that right there is already off.

Whack.

This didn't happen between him and myself.

This person did this thing and nothing to do with me.

This person did this thing.

Based on the allegation the complaint, the board has determined an investigation will be will be conducted.

Please see the below questions and feel free to respond at your earliest convenience.

If you wish to be interviewed by phone, just let me know and we can arrange the time to speak.

Thank you for your time and assistance in this matter.

At this point in time, I'm like, man, cool.

Y'all doing the right thing.

That's what's up.

But then I'm like, hold on a minute.

What you mean answer questions?

Then I get to this part of the page.

Can you please share what occurred between you and board member such and such on the meeting at such and such time and date?

Number one question.

Who instigated the verbal altercation between the two of you?

I don't.

I.

I want to touch on these, but I'm going to read them first, then we'll come back.

Did such and such make any derogatory marks or offensive comments regarding black people or otherwise people of.

Of color?

Can you specify what you witness him say, is this the first time you and such and such have had such verbal disagreement?

If not, can you please provide examples of past incidents between the two of you?

5.

How long have you known and worked with such and such as it relates to the Lancet community?

That's like, I've known this person for 15 years.

You've only known him for two.

I've known him for this long.

He would never do that.

Is that what y'all trying to set me up for with that question?

If there's any additional anything that you would like to add regarding this incident, this situation or incident.

They're asking if I have anything else.

Let's just break these down.

I'll be honest.

I take issue with every single one.

I honestly the entire email, in my opinion I do too completely the issue because I feel like you should have been the one that got contacted last, last, last.

So let me just explain how you would do an investigation keeping in mind that there's a victim in this situation as somebody who got this done to you don't contact that person first with a who, who, who, who instigated this.

Does it matter if I'm in a situation where I'm at a space and I am having an argument with somebody that I started and you take it overboard and you say some derogatory, effed up racial stuff.

It don't matter who started or into or the integrity it does.

None of that matters.