Have you ever stood at the crossroads of patriotism and cultural identity and wondered where you fit in? That's the heart of our Black History Month episode, where we, Bryant, Keith, Danny, and Steve, gather at the Iron Table to stir up a rich dialogue blend, celebrating black men's resilience and diversity. Anchoring our conversation in personal experiences and the nuances of our identities, we dissect the cultural reverberations of Usher's Super Bowl performance and the complex dance of family life in the pandemic era, infusing our introspection with humor and a deep sense of historical significance.
Navigating through the symphony of our nation's anthems, we debate the inclusion of the Black National Anthem at the Super Bowl, pondering its ability to either bridge gaps or widen them. The NFL's attempts at engaging with its Black fan base post-Kaepernick become a canvas for us to paint our thoughts on patriotism's multifaceted challenges. We carry this tune into discussions of systemic inequalities, the bittersweet symphony of civil rights, and the power of collective action. Personal tales open windows to previous generations' struggles as we underscore the vital role of storytelling in shaping the future.
As our episode crescendos, we explore the profound influence an individual can wield, likening it to a pebble casting ripples across the fabric of society. The simple act of smiling in public, especially as black men, becomes a provocative yet powerful catalyst for fostering unity as we unravel the significance of this gesture in our closing chapter. We part with a reminder that truth and accountability are not just part of our vocabulary but the foundation of our brotherhood at the Iron Table—where we stand firm in the belief that we, as men, are here to sharpen one another.
Have you ever stood at the crossroads of patriotism and cultural identity and wondered where you fit in? That's the heart of our Black History Month episode, where we, Bryant, Keith, Danny, and Steve, gather at the Iron Table to stir up a rich dialogue blend, celebrating black men's resilience and diversity. Anchoring our conversation in personal experiences and the nuances of our identities, we dissect the cultural reverberations of Usher's Super Bowl performance and the complex dance of family life in the pandemic era, infusing our introspection with humor and a deep sense of historical significance.
Navigating through the symphony of our nation's anthems, we debate the inclusion of the Black National Anthem at the Super Bowl, pondering its ability to either bridge gaps or widen them. The NFL's attempts at engaging with its Black fan base post-Kaepernick become a canvas for us to paint our thoughts on patriotism's multifaceted challenges. We carry this tune into discussions of systemic inequalities, the bittersweet symphony of civil rights, and the power of collective action. Personal tales open windows to previous generations' struggles as we underscore the vital role of storytelling in shaping the future.
As our episode crescendos, we explore the profound influence an individual can wield, likening it to a pebble casting ripples across the fabric of society. The simple act of smiling in public, especially as black men, becomes a provocative yet powerful catalyst for fostering unity as we unravel the significance of this gesture in our closing chapter. We part with a reminder that truth and accountability are not just part of our vocabulary but the foundation of our brotherhood at the Iron Table—where we stand firm in the belief that we, as men, are here to sharpen one another.
Welcome to the iron table, where iron sharpens iron. So should men sharpen men. I am your host, bryant Godine, and I'm joined by my brothers, keith, danny and Steve. We're your waiters, serving you accountability and truth. We now bring you to our program already in progress. Welcome to the iron table. Iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men. Today is a special day. Not only are we recording in Black History Month, but we're showing just the different elements of black men. Throughout the beginning of time We've got cool black guy, winter black guy, black black guy and light brown black guy. But seriously, it's the iron table where iron sharpens iron. So should men sharpen men. Little housekeeping things. We've got to give thanks where things is due. And, of course, the iron table doesn't own the rights to any of the music used during this segment. Yet we appreciate the talents and crafts of musicians and only use the music to honor their gifts. So today we're going to keep this light and fresh. As you see, we're serious today because this is a serious topic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're serious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're always serious, but today we're extra serious because we got our thinking caps on what is that that you have on Steve? That's that January 6th edition.
Speaker 3:This is the end of the world. Hat when it's negative. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:I'm sweating right now. Politics, arctic cold, that's a place.
Speaker 1:Black people don't go to Arctic cold, you never know. At least you'll be prepared. As always, we got Keith with a nice hair. That's that thick 70s.
Speaker 2:This is protest hair. This is walking with Martin hair. This is hiding with Malcolm hair. This is that good hair. This is that Jackson 5. Shwap, shwap hair.
Speaker 3:I was in the people.
Speaker 1:And, as always, we've got Elle, elle the barge.
Speaker 3:So close.
Speaker 4:What's going on, fellas?
Speaker 1:It's good to see you guys. It's been a minute since we've had a chance to sit and talk. Before we get into, I just got three questions for us today. Any updates? What's been going on for you since? I think it's been about them, probably been about a month since we had a chance to meet. I'll start. Family had. Covid was dodging it like Neo. The Mrs caught it, then the young guy caught it the clone. Thankfully, everyone is OK. It was a mild case. They got the medicine that they needed and we were able to quarantine and remain safe Throughout. It was like a two week period. It was like back to back. I was like hey said nobody wants me to have any rest, I'm sitting there spraying everything you know, basically like so glow just you have your nerves to know types who's he talks.
Speaker 2:I'm talking to you. I'm glad you had the opportunity to step up and take care of your family. Black man.
Speaker 1:Oh, have some technical difficulties. Must have AT&T.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can't hear me still.
Speaker 1:Now we can hear you. I don't know if you're breaking down on my end. I'm running like five different programs at the same time.
Speaker 2:I was not prepared yeah no, I was, that's me. That sounded like a very complicated two weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh it was. It was a first. It was trying to keep him away from his mama and then trying to keep his mama away from him. It's like they just wanted to just see this back and forth.
Speaker 2:You asked what you messed up.
Speaker 1:You, let you, let him get in, fortunately, his, his grandma, grandma got it. So she had picked them up. So she and she had pictures hugging all on phone. But you know, I was like you know who the super spreader is your grandson. Other than that, things have been cool. Work as usual. Thankful to to be here. I know particular order.
Speaker 4:It's black history month. Yes, sir, we black, even if we yellow Black, black Every day. Yeah, usher did the Super Bowl. He didn't have no Jerry curl.
Speaker 2:But, but that's still the blackest Super Bowl I've ever seen.
Speaker 4:It was. It was pretty black.
Speaker 2:It was roller skating. They didn't have a, they didn't ask. You brought Atlanta to Vegas as they did.
Speaker 4:He did actually bring Atlanta to Vegas, though I must. I must give my man that he brought Atlanta to Vegas and you think?
Speaker 1:his what's that you think his his Super Bowl halftime show was better than Michael Michael? What?
Speaker 4:are you? No, wait, wait, what are you? What, what? Yeah, let's just end this now. Don't make me take the glasses off, I'm just asking.
Speaker 1:I'm just asking, you know it's. I've got to ask what the people are asking for. You know, was this one better? Was it on the same level? Is Michael?
Speaker 3:What was Michael? Just stood there and yeah just like five minutes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just, you would just fall out.
Speaker 3:He had to do. All he had to do was just stand there. He did with stand there, right there, you just, he just he just stood there for 10 minutes.
Speaker 4:He stood in one spot longer than usher was on stage.
Speaker 3:I was just here, just standing there you go, there's your answer. There's your answer and everybody loved it.
Speaker 2:He just right now, just today, no just just look what the sunglasses on and then I think at one point he changed positions like five minutes, the five minute mark. He changed positions and he do like a pop.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he does it. Oh, he moved out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:All right, what's better than the Janice?
Speaker 4:Well, it wasn't Janet, it was Justin's.
Speaker 1:No, it would always be Janet. Justin was just a means to an end. It was Dennis for me. You know, I didn't even see the halftime show, I just kept hearing about it. I was like oh yeah. There's. There's no video footage available, I guess maybe on the black web or something like that.
Speaker 2:It's not on YouTube To the people. It's out there.
Speaker 1:It must be on special YouTube, like if you take off the child protective.
Speaker 4:Yeah, my kids grown. We got, we took the filters off, we took them off.
Speaker 2:They at these kids at a certain age, they don't do no good. No way these little pirates know how to get around so much of this stuff. I mean, I try, we still got to try, but but, as you know, as protectors of the home, you still got to do something.
Speaker 1:But these kids, these little you know how to block us from getting to it?
Speaker 2:That's right it's. It almost becomes what prescription med caps become for old people, where it's for the kids, but now the seniors with the arthritis can't get to their meds because the cap is on too tight.
Speaker 4:That's actually facts though.
Speaker 1:And then they're asking the kids to open it up.
Speaker 2:Open it. Open it. So there's what's the password for the filter. I know you know it. Give it to me, I can't. I like myself out.
Speaker 1:All right, so you were talking about the Super Bowl, usher.
Speaker 4:You know, you know what I want to ask, brian I don't know if I'm out of line, but, like the Black National Anthem, do you think it should be sung during the Super Bowl?
Speaker 2:No, because she got booed. And let's sing. She's a sweetheart, but she got booed.
Speaker 1:Did she got booed because of the song or because of how she sang it? I mean, was she off key? I didn't watch. I didn't watch it at all. I'm going to be on. I didn't watch the Super Bowl. I didn't watch any commercials.
Speaker 4:I saw the second half and so I saw half time in the second half. That's what I saw. But just in general, regardless of if somebody did a good job or not, do you think that it's appropriate to have everybody celebrating with what is now known as the Black National Anthem at the Super Bowl? If you were a white person, how would you feel about it? If you were Hispanic? If you were Chinese, do you think it's, oh, it's cool? I mean yo, they built this nation, you know what. Or you like.
Speaker 2:I'll jump, I'll dive into this one, because I feel two ways about it. I feel like it really doesn't have to be sung at these events because it's a sporting event and it's not necessarily something where it necessarily fits in per se. But I do feel like the NFL. You know, after the whole Kaepernick situation, you know they, they, they needed a way to appeal to the Black fan base and so and it's in February, so it was probably recommended hey, before the national anthem, let's sing the Black National Anthem.
Speaker 2:And you know, from reading comments on social media, there are a lot of people who are not a fan of it. I feel like they feel as it divides more than it brings together. But I think that part of that is the ignorance of why it's so. I feel like this if we go to the Olympics and there are other countries that play their national anthem and we don't complain, then sometimes we need to shut up and just not complain. It's, the song is three minutes and you can sit just like. You expect us to kneel or not kneel. You expect most of us to participate when, when the national anthem is being played, you want everybody to be patriotic and stand up and you know, do whatever we're going to do. We're not asking you to even stand up, we just ask you not to be rude, not to boo.
Speaker 1:All right, we got. We got a response from up north.
Speaker 4:Talk to us.
Speaker 3:Steve. So actually just a question so are we, are we saying that the national anthem is the white national anthem?
Speaker 4:That's a really good question.
Speaker 1:Now, originally, when it was written, it wasn't written for to be used as a black national anthem. It was more of like a rally cry to, you know, to bring awareness to injustice and to, you know, invigorate people to to fight for, you know, social and you know, civil justice. But I don't think the the the writer intended it for it to be the national anthem that represented the first that's never sung.
Speaker 2:That answers. That is a reason why the third verse is never sung.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I thought you were talking about the black national.
Speaker 1:You talked about the, the, the national anthem, because I heard black national anthem the national?
Speaker 3:No, I say it's the national and you see the. Is that the white national anthem? Because if we have a black national anthem, what's the white national anthem? Is it the national anthem?
Speaker 4:Well, I was going to say it's not technically when, when the writer of Lift Every Voice and Sing wrote it, it don't say nothing about Africa in it. If you analyze the song, it's actually a song that can apply to any oppressed people in any nation, any land you know, in any time period, and so I think that somebody grabbed hold of it and said this is going to be our national anthem. But I don't know if, when he wrote it, he was like OK, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4:Now y'all sing it, you know and stand up, but it's a masterpiece of just literary genius that ended up being adopted as, but I don't know that it was intentionally created as such, and so I'll say the same thing about. I don't know what do y'all think is. Oh say, can you see by the dawn's early light? Is that the?
Speaker 1:The first verse. Yeah, that's cool. But, as you, as we know, when you get to, you know. The third verse, that's when it gets. Oh, that's what we'll see, yeah.
Speaker 4:And it's still there.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's not going, we just don't sing it.
Speaker 4:So is it? I guess what Steve is saying is is is that the national anthem for all Americans, or just white Americans?
Speaker 2:It's intended, I would say it's intended for all Americans, but I don't. I think we we accept it, but not necessarily always adopted. We will we recognize that this is our, this is the country where we live? Because, I think again, what I think some people non minorities do not understand is that there are two Americas. They want to believe that there's just many people want to believe because they want it to be one America. We want us to be under one roof and understand that there are two Americas. Unfortunately, based on what has happened and continues to happen, there are other divisive things in this country, down to religion and politics, classes. I mean. There's so much stuff that divides us as people that race is not the only thing, but when it comes to race it is. We're still very divided as a country.
Speaker 4:So that brings me back to OK, do we really want, do we, must we have it at the, at the Super Bowl, like if it's something that's going to divide and cause people to start booing, and cause people to just like is it worth it? Is it like are we doing it anyway? Or it's like you know what, we'll do that when we do our thing. But great question, steve.
Speaker 1:I will say go ahead Go ahead.
Speaker 1:I will say that the first verse is meant to be patriotic. You know, if you think about it, it's patriotic. It's like any song if there's certain parts that a soprano will sing, certain parts that a tenor, that a bass, that an alto will sing when it's not your time to sing, don't sing it. That's what I was going to say Like. So I looked at the first verse as you know, kind of a patriotic bring us together, us versus everybody. Does it nest? Do I necessarily need it sung at that game? I don't think it's really. I don't think so, but I don't care.
Speaker 3:What does it mean to be patriotic? What does it mean to be patriotic? What does that mean?
Speaker 1:Hey, willing to fight for your country. You know, have a sense of pride from where you are from, because, I mean, we're from America, we reside in America. I mean we can't go back to Africa and like, oh hey, you know, we're kind of caught in the middle.
Speaker 4:If you are true to our native land, what land are you talking about? B.
Speaker 1:Man. I'm American, I'm African American, but I kind of understand more of America than I do Africa, and it's not my fault, it's just where I was born, where I reside, spend most of my time. Will I one day go to Africa?
Speaker 1:Maybe, Maybe, if the funds are right, the opportunity presents itself and we go out there and maybe I'll have. I think what Steve always said in one of his comedy specials you know, you go on some place where it feels like home, yet you've never been there. You know, maybe I might feel that, but I mean, I'm from Maryland, Born in DC.
Speaker 2:Steve keeps talking about Japan. Now I got to go because he said how wonderful it felt in Japan.
Speaker 3:So and let's see, let's see I'm glad that you said that, keith, because I'm asking these questions about what does it mean to be patriotic and doing all these things? And we're talking about things that a country that is very decisive, very divided, very red and blue, and it seems as if like nothing is really getting done. And if you look at certain things, that it's it's it's almost hate, to the point to where you'll see certain on the was it a Senate or something like that something was going on where you have a certain point of time where you have one side is the Democrats, one one side is the Republicans, and when somebody says something I think it was Joe Biden somebody was saying something One side would clap but the other side would just not saying anything at all, and it's like what this person is saying is correct, but we're so divided that we're willing to not clap and applaud the things that we know was right, just because that's the opposing team. So again, that goes back to what does it mean to be patriotic? Is it that we're being patriotic to something that really needs to be revised, because we've all lost sense of what it really means to be a country, and my experience in Japan was kind of scary. When I say scary, it let me know how.
Speaker 3:Somebody told me that their, their, the symbol of their flag is togetherness, and everybody else on the outside was the red dot and everything Right on the house. Everybody's on the outside and we are to center, we're together. Wow, when a country like that is together, so much, so, so, so much is that you cannot divide them, and they see a country like us, that's very divisive. What do you think that's going to lead? We can't be the superpower forever.
Speaker 1:And it's going to come from.
Speaker 3:It's going to come from within. So again, to talk about being patriotic, talking about fighting for your country. A lot of people have that thought. That sentiment is like why would I want to fight for this country when this country can't get anything done? There's certain things in certain states that is appalling that these things exist in the United States of America. And there's a street called Kensington Street somewhere in, I think, Pennsylvania. You would think that this is under a third world country. The way that this particular street looks, the way things are going on, it's, it's. You would never think that this is America.
Speaker 3:But this happens in our country that we are so patriotic for. We're willing to fight for other things. We're willing to fight for other other countries, other nations. We're not even fighting for the things that people need in our own country. So we're talking about wanting to fight for our country, wanting to be patriotic. It's. Sometimes you have people looking at certain things just saying but we're not right here, we're not right here. Why is it that we are celebrating something? That's just not right, Even black history. But let's take it back to us. We still got to be. We still got to. We're still the books to be able to vote. Every year is 25, 25, 25 years.
Speaker 3:We own the books to be able to, and it's like we OK with that. So at a certain point it's like why can't we make this permanent? Why can't we make? Why do we have to vote on this every 25 years? But it's things like that, it's like that's because people don't know. I think people don't know.
Speaker 1:It's not. It's definitely not taught in the schools. It's definitely not taught in the schools, but it's also forgotten at home. You know, what everyone used to fight for is now become, I guess, common here. Remember the struggles that our parents had to go through. Their parents had to struggle even more and their parents parents had to struggle even more. Now our children don't have to struggle as much because we've achieved to a level that we don't pass on.
Speaker 1:Those stories of the water hoses, the dogs, the, the, the needing of affirmative action, the, the fact that you can have a degree but your white counterpart may have less of that and they still get hired because of their skin or because of or. The only way that our country could really be even is if we both started at neutral, at even an even playing field. But we know that that's not going to happen. We know that. You know that 40 acres in a mule is probably worth a lot more than what it did back then. But they're not going to. They're not going to retroactively or give it back to us or give us what that value is. There is a reason that there are the haves that have nots in the in between. So that is.
Speaker 1:This country was started because they got labor that did not cost them. They didn't originate Other other cultures. Everyone brought something in. They brought a certain group of people in black people, and they use that resource to build their wealth Because they used to have indentured servants before then, and I mean indentured servants means you got to pay them something, or after they've been hired you got to pay them something, or after they've paid their, their debt, they're free to go.
Speaker 1:So the only way to to continue to make money hand over fist is to bring in people that you're not going to pay, that you're going to use religion, use fear, use advanced technology at that time, confusion, you know taking them from different tribes and they had different languages and and separating them. You know, beating them physically, mentally, emotionally so that they can never come together to realize that if there's just the slave owner, is his wife, is kids, four or five people versus 30, that those 30 don't believe that they could overtake those four or five. So that's the country that that established, which is why there's deep seated hate, division and there's always going to be that division, because this is how it was built. It was built on division.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think that that's that's right, Joe Keith, what you gonna say.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say sorry I was. I was gonna say Dang it Left.
Speaker 4:Let me. Let me just say this one thing, since we talk about Black History Month in 2016,. I was a missionary overseas, in the middle of the South Pacific, and on the last day of February I just had an epiphany. I'm watching all my social media timeline Everybody just head over heels, just on racial tensions. And I'm sitting here in this foreign country running a school for English language learners and it hit me. It's like, oh snap, I'm not black. For the first time in my life, I realized I wasn't black. No one in that country looked at me as though I was black. They weren't eyeballing me when I walked in the store. They weren't pulling me over when I was driving down the street in my car, they weren't, you know, indifferent to me. When they found out that I was the administrator of the school, they saw me as American. They didn't see me as black. I had no clue that, how much of a heavy weight I was carrying until it was off my neck and I was like man.
Speaker 4:I didn't know what to do with myself. And so then, when, like you talk about Steve and these other countries, I have some friends who, like I'm not bringing my black sons to this country because I know what it's like to just live under that yoke of oppression, and you constantly worried about whether or not they're gonna make it home alive. And so this is real, and so I'm grateful for the experience. I think that we do live in a very opportune time where we have access to resources and knowledge, but it is a clear and unmistakable fact and reality that we are still very divided, which is why I brought up the question in the first place. Why should we have that song which is just going to the vice, just gonna pour fuel on the fire for them to get even more agitated, even more? And this is like is it worth it?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I'm gonna be the advocate, but I'm gonna be the advocate why this song needs to be played every so often. I'm not saying it has to be at every Super Bowl, I'm not saying it has to be at every performance. Or you go to black church is gonna be there every week during February, but so you're gonna have to accept it there. But the reason why it should be played is because we have an opportunity if we decide to pick and choose parts of our culture that we wanna put out. So much of our culture is chosen in Cherry Pick, not by us, true, like we see. We see a lot of entertainers who we didn't. We don't co-sign what they do. We're not in support of what they do, but because other people do it, they end up representing us as a people.
Speaker 2:Songs like this aren't hurting anybody. Like you said, this song could be for any group of people in any oppressed situation anywhere in the world at any time. So I know you don't like it, but if we as a people said this is what we want to represent us, it's not hurting you. We're not condemning you. We're not trying to evoke white guilt or shame. We wanna celebrate the unity of our people with a three-minute song.
Speaker 3:No, no, Keith, don't say that. Don't say that, no, because I'm gonna be the devil's advocate on your part. Go ahead, come on, come for me the unity, the unity. And so I'm gonna say no. I'm gonna answer your question, Danny. No, because at a certain point in time here's the thing I wanna ask you guys this question too how did we get our civil rights as black people? What was the defining thing that really kind of got us our rights as black people in the United States? Emmett Till, I'm sorry to say what.
Speaker 1:You said one thing Emmett Till's death. That was a catalyst to see how brutal I mean. Once it got out, people saw how brutal white hate was towards black people, that they would do this to a little boy.
Speaker 4:I was gonna say just the media, the media at large. It was embarrassing for a nation that would have in its founding documents that all men are created equal, to watching them get shot with water hoses and bit my dogs and hot coffee poured on them. It was literally a PR campaign. They had to go and do damage controls like okay, yeah, I guess we do need to, because if there was no media I don't think there would have been a civil rights movement. That's just me.
Speaker 2:No, that's true.
Speaker 3:So here it is. I don't think that it was our singing, I don't think it was our marching, I don't think it was even immediate when we start hitting a pockets.
Speaker 4:Yes, oh boy.
Speaker 3:The boycott, the boycott. They don't care how much we sing or how much they don't. Oh, that's what they. We can do. Whatever we're gonna do, they'll go ahead and sing. They'll go ahead and march. They'll hold a visual. It is what it is. We'll be back to normal. They'll be back to spending their money, because we're very big consumers. When we hit that pocket, we hit that pocket. Guess what? All right, hold on now hold on.
Speaker 2:Okay, here you hear some, and I always would say here's some things. The NFL strike didn't do that, and that's why.
Speaker 3:I think they're quiet.
Speaker 2:I think they're intentionally, I'm sorry, no, exactly.
Speaker 3:So, going back to what you said, keith, that's why I feel that I heard somebody say I don't think we were at it. Naacp, the big thing they do in downtown Detroit, it wasn't every year. And I heard one of the speakers say we need the young people to step up to continue the struggle. No, I don't wanna struggle because what's been going on so far hasn't really worked. You know what I mean and I'm not saying that. And this is the reason why I say even the National Anthem it's for. I mean the Black National Anthem, for us it's good and we're talking about unity. I'm tired of hearing us trying to appeal to others people to say hey, recognize us, we're human beings, we are, we're this, we're that. Why, when we don't treat ourselves, when we don't have that unity ourselves, how can we expect them to treat us not like animals, when we're acting like animals?
Speaker 3:He preaching now I'll be honest with you, and this is I almost said it here, but I had to bring it back you know what? A six, I don't know how old, what she's 15 or 16, a 16 year old girl. She's on life support right now, but I think they just took her off the life support. There was a group of there's a house in Detroit. About 20 people were in it. A car comes by, two people get out and they fire off 20 to 40 rounds into the house. Guess who gets shot, guess who gets hit, guess who gets hit? Nobody in that house, except for that little girl gets shot in the head and she probably died today. Right, but we're talking about unity. These things happen and there's no outcry about, hey, us as a community we gotta do better. But we're still trying to appraise to everybody else and to say, hey, recognize us, recognize us. Why should they? We treat ourselves like animals, like animals.
Speaker 1:This is I mean, we were bred. I'll say it we were bred to do that.
Speaker 3:We know better, though. Here's the thing. Here's the thing you said something about. It takes education to know certain things that are going on and certain things and whatnot. Here's the thing. They don't hide nothing now. They do everything in plain sight. What happens? Go back and look at when they did the voting for us, you know, every 25 years. Go back and look at see what the biggest controversy was back then. Right, and I say that to say everybody's even fast forward thinking about now the cat Williamstang. Everybody's fucking stormed this. Just because they're doing something over here in plain sight. They have channels where they have people. They have channels where everybody's like they're passing these bills, they're passing these laws. They're not. You can see this. They're not hiding it. They're doing it in plain sight. But because we're so focused over here on this nonsense and being further splintered and divided that we don't recognize what they're doing, so we fail to educate ourselves when they're telling us what we're gonna do, what they're gonna do and what they're gonna continue to do.
Speaker 3:But have you been there, the National.
Speaker 1:Collector. But I mean you're talking about a people, our people that for majority have been told that you're not worth anything, you can't be anything, you won't be anything. You've taken resources away. You know when I can do a whole thing on welfare and how they strip fathers from the home and basically told them you know it's your child, we better taken care of him. You're not there and the mother's believing that and not wanting the father because of money, when you don't have money to feed, to clothe to it turns a person into trying to survive, and so a lot of black people have been trying to survive and to survive morality kinda goes out the window in order to survive.
Speaker 1:And it's just been something that's been perpetually taught. When there are certain people, unfortunately, that are still on social supports, that are struggling in schools, the schools don't have the necessary resources. It's there's so many reasons and factors that are added into the reason why we, as a people, can not unite on a positive thing, but we can unite on something that is. You know what is it? A culinary buffoonery.
Speaker 4:Yeah on some. Why? Yeah, it's just like. Yeah, I think, going back to what Steve originally said about you know resources and like it is, when the resources are impacted, money makes the world go round, at least here in America. Capitalism Capitalism is all about the almighty dollar, and it's not so mighty anymore because they just printing money, they just printing, printing more, but they gonna make sure that you pay yours and we'll just print some more for the rest, and so it is what it is.
Speaker 3:And then they tell you that you, they can't do that, because if they just print more money it's inflated. Come on now.
Speaker 4:That's all they're doing is putting money they make money come on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but going back to, like you brought the money thing 381 days, that Montgomery bus boycott was Like we forget. We think it was some. We read in the history book it's a paragraph no, for 381 days people walk to work. For 381 days they were like 300, that's over a year. That's winter, spring, summer, fall. 381 days to the point where they had to. And even since it's Black History Month, we have a Rosewood, we have Tulsa.
Speaker 4:Why is it that they were so just? Why is it they made laws to prevent us from reading? Why? Why did they have to make it a law?
Speaker 4:Because you know that if these people actually become educated, actually become self-sufficient, that they're gonna be able to wake up and say, hey, what are we taking? This? That don't make no sense. But at the same time, I don't think that it's always a black and white thing, because the Underground Railroad wouldn't have existed without some really good white people and there's a lot of people who died in an effort and an attempt to free us. But we've gotta get to the point where we stop all the division, where we stop all of the pointing the finger this one, that one because at the end of the day it don't mean a hell of beans, and here's what I mean by that. At the end of the day, we know that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. So all division is coming from one place. Whether you pro-life today and you pro-choice tomorrow, or COVID comes and you switch and you pro-choice today and you pro-life tomorrow, all division is from the enemy. And so we gotta wake up and see that we're being bamboozled and get to it.
Speaker 1:What do we wanna wake up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well.
Speaker 1:That's the thing. If does it mean that we all need to wake up or that those that wake up I'll start Do? Those that wake up maybe move in a different light and it sounds like move in a light that affects pockets. So do we all need to be there or does it need to be just strong, influential people to do it?
Speaker 3:I think that we all need and here's the thing you guys imagine, if the NS, black players in the NFL, black players in the NBA, come on, and black and black players, um and on, major League Baseball. Right, I'm missing something. No, I'm not missing.
Speaker 4:Hockey, I mean never mind.
Speaker 3:I'm going to be on some of the hockey. Could you imagine oh, you know what let's. Let's take baseball out the picture. Basketball and football. Could you imagine for, let's say, two years that all black players said we're not playing? Hmm, oh, that's what it was. And then take, take NBA, nfl, um college basketball and college football. If they said we are not playing at all. What do you think would happen? What would happen? I don't think it would happen.
Speaker 1:You want to know why? Because there are some that make more money than others. And if it's about money, yeah, you got your, you know your upper tier NFL and NBA basketball players. But those regular guys that, while they're still making a million, it's not a million. You know, they got to pay their agent, they got to pay taxes, they got to help their mama, baby mama, you know the cousins, whoever comes out. So can that person afford to not make?
Speaker 2:The same conversation they had with the boycott, where they told people I know you need to catch the bus, but you're not catching the bus now.
Speaker 3:And here's the thing for those, for those who are the Steph Currys or the LeBron LeBron James who have so much, because this is so important to us to be as of one mind. I'm going to help those that are not the LeBron James, that are, because I can afford to, because now this is bigger than me, this is about us. Could you imagine if they were willing to?
Speaker 1:do that. Why haven't they done that?
Speaker 3:It goes back to what Danny said. This is this is also some this there's, there's, there's spiritual references to this, the why we at a certain there's, there's there's there's some division, and that we, why we are not of one mind?
Speaker 3:because it could be, because if that was to happen, do you understand this economy would stop. Yeah, just that, just on, just on that, right there. If they just said you know what? We not playing, no more, forget these contracts, forget everything. And they did it for two years. Could you imagine the money that be? Which of the trillions of dollars, is two years?
Speaker 2:This country only makes laws when it, when, when we move, for instance with the, the Black Panther Party. The only time gun laws were ever passed in this country was when we got together with our froze and got some guns. What about our heads? I think we have Jerry curls to, yes, because, but my point is they pass laws to say, hey, we can't, we can't, this is not allowed. Flag on the place, we can't do this.
Speaker 2:There's a reason why there's, as Danny alluded to, coming together. It's scary because it's. It's I can't remember the book, the title of the book, but it a lot of, a lot of people living in the late 1800s or actually pre-slavery. The about pre the abolishment of slavery and like right after, there was a fear and and it still is. If we get our act together, the world is going to shift. This country will shift quickly and good and bad ways, but it's there's some truth to that.
Speaker 2:But we have to do what we need to do to first come together just individually on on a community basis. Like you said, I don't look for leaders to lead us to a place per se now. We do need to organize and we do have to have leads that that help us balance. But the reality is that we we see what happens to our leaders. Many of them are. Many of us are afraid to leave because we don't want to die. And then we've seen, actually now that FBI records and in all these other records have been released, we've seen where plants have been put into place to derail movements. So now a lot of people aren't trusting of people who come into lead, whether they are intentional or unintentional. So it's, we're all jacked up in the need of help.
Speaker 2:But again I go back to saying we know what we don't like as a culture. Culture we need to first deal with it in house and clear out some of this mess we call entertainment in in or called teaching, even the books. In school I saw something online where they had to get a they sent home permission slip saying your kids will be reading a black book and and the parents had to sign off on it that they were okay, like there's a reason why we have to deal with race. I don't want to pretend like we don't have race issues in this country. So it's, it's. This is a multi-layered conversation with so many pages and so many unpack boxes that again I don't. I don't know what we can do with it, but should I still say the song can be sung every once in a while and it ain't gonna hurt nobody.
Speaker 4:Well, I'll say this. You know, in Martin Luther King's letter to the Birmingham jail I don't know if you've ever read it, but it's, it's long, it's long you could tell he was bored. Right nothing is long, but it's one of the best.
Speaker 2:It is somebody really talks about it as much as I have a dream.
Speaker 4:He and I get a dream was sexy, it's safe.
Speaker 1:It's safe.
Speaker 3:It is you you answer one of his questions, keith, you answer his questions. Why, he asked. Why is it that you know nobody wants to do it? What? Not? Because we soft now Nobody's, nobody's willing to die, nobody's willing to die for this. Hmm, we saw now.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean it's not coming back, right?
Speaker 3:right. Yeah, that is the death. Think about it, though. But but think about it though in the 50s and 60s.
Speaker 1:There was one time. I'm gonna tell you that now. They did not work to die.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 1:No, it was okay with it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, even, even, even. What's the name? Nelson Mandela. You know when it was during his trial. He's like you know what. This is a cause for which I hope to live, but it's one of which I'm also prepared to die. There you go, and so there's men that there were.
Speaker 1:Like that then, yes, and now yeah right you know what do they have to lose, but they're right, not right Already had script for them, so that I mean, losing your life was what the you know, I don't have a life. What I don't have a life.
Speaker 4:I'm miserable I can't find a job, jumping on the slave ship.
Speaker 2:I can't take care of my family because I don't have a job. I can't buy a house, I can't buy a car, don't have food. Like what life of my life again, it has to be better than this. So I can't vote because I got a felony Right. So now we have a society where we've been given a few things like MBA careers and a degree hanging on the wall.
Speaker 1:So a lot of us, four hundred and eighty individuals, and half of it now is the illusion of acceptance.
Speaker 2:It's a delusion of acceptance, because the moment they don't like you and none of it matters. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:Uh-uh, they can not like you. They can hate you the moment that you don't make them money.
Speaker 2:That's what you can care about. Yeah, I'm going to say one you.
Speaker 1:All right. So I'm going to post this question because you're going to hijack what I really wanted to talk about. So you know, we, we not. I guess we're not talking about Jesus today.
Speaker 4:So it's like history my Jesus was never mind.
Speaker 2:Thank you Do power parks. After that, men to school.
Speaker 1:No, but. But look at the question at the bottom. I mean, because we're talking about change, we're talking about, you know, unity, moving the needle. I mean, what can we, as black people, do now to stimulate meaningful change? Not just change, but meaningful change? It doesn't mean that we're going to see it in our lifetime, it doesn't. I would like to see it in my lifetime. I would like to, in order to know that you know what I did and did something. But what can we do?
Speaker 4:I'll say this One of the things that Martin Luther King did, and many others, is he sat and had civil dialogue and conversation with people who disagreed adamantly disagreed with him. And in his, in his nonviolent way of sitting down and having discourse with people, he the conversations that he had, and you know who else was really good at this. Malcolm X was good at it. Muhammad Ali was really good at it as well. He was sitting down. He's seen some of these interviews where Muhammad Ali is talking to these guys.
Speaker 3:He's not holding back at all.
Speaker 4:And he's, he's giving them a spin and a perspective that it's just like, yeah, what you gonna say about that? And it's just like, yeah, I'm just going to sit over here and be quiet because I think that our society has gotten to the point where we have zero tolerance. We can't, even in a presidential debate, have civil discourse yeah, much less in, you know, have have a real dialogue about race in this country and, and what still exists? There's still racial divisions everywhere that you look, even in our, our church denomination, it's just like right church, black church, it's like, really.
Speaker 4:So I think that a part of it is being able to sit down and have dialogue and discussion about with people who we disagree with and being willing to stand up to the point where we'll lose everything for what we believe in, because nowadays you don't have people who are willing to do that. Everybody's looking out for the world no, no, and as long as that's the case, we're not going to have any more man and man marches. We're not going to have any more. I have a dream speech, because everybody's just worried about the bag that they can get for their own family and the collective mind that we used to have. That's the thing of yesterday. I don't know that we get it back. That's just me.
Speaker 2:It's intentional Cause we could. We could control you better. If we give you a few, we give you scraps from the table. We can give you a few little things because, again, with your grandparents, we took everything and that didn't work, because that just made them angrier, like that led to boycotts, that led to them hurting our pockets, that led to riots and protests. Now, like I said, we give you simple, we give you a false sense of inclusion in some cases, and that's just doesn't just apply to black people. Again, this is, this is everybody. This is again, this is bigger than race, this is the enemy.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you a false sense of inclusion. Look at all the lies the devil told Eve before she ate ate from the tree. It was a false sense of inclusion. You, just you eat this, you gon' be good. You gon' no much, you gon' no more than God. No, and and I think we're, we're being fed the same lie, just in a just in a different format and in a different way, to further splinter us, like you guys said, just further splinters what is already splintered. Steve, what were you going to say?
Speaker 4:You were. You were about to talk. Yeah, steve is chomping at the bed.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to let my answer man.
Speaker 3:No, I don't we got a guy, Steve we got that switching over to.
Speaker 1:Apple. That's the only answer I'm not going like the the the, the Thanos snap.
Speaker 3:But no real talk. Um, I don't think that it's possible. At this we are, we as a nation are turning into um Sodom and Gomorrah, to where nobody in the Bible could change Sodom and Gomorrah and God had to just level it. So, somewhere on earth, sodom and Gomorrah was and it is. It's rebuilt, there's something else new on it and it's changed at that point in time, but it's no longer Sodom and Gomorrah we are going to. We're we're too far gone, I think, at this point, to infect some change, and it has a lot to do with how we are going to. How we are going to. How we are going to, we are ingesting um, our, our, our, our media technology being able to, um, get all things at the speed of light in the palm of your hand and the fact that, um our opinions. Everybody not only has an opinion, but it's celebrated that we disagree beyond, beyond, beyond reason.
Speaker 4:That's what it is.
Speaker 3:You have a lot of people disagreeing beyond reason for the sake of just disagreeing, because I don't like you or your view is different from mine. So therefore, there's nothing that you can say. Even if you were Jesus Christ, even if you said that, I know people that would argue with Jesus Christ if he, if he, as they did in the Bible, yeah, Think it's, it's beyond I, I, I feel like it's beyond repair at this point and again, sometimes you got to just let hey, God do your thing.
Speaker 1:So this, beyond repairs or really any reason to do anything, I mean I'm not like referencing back.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, steve. Oh, referencing back to what that lady said and that in the ACP thing we need young people to keep up the struggle, what are we doing? So if I'm damned, if I'm doing damn, if I don't? Because if we, if we keep up the struggle, no results. If I don't do anything at all, no results. Something, something's not right. At that certain point in time there has to be some divine interventions, because the things are just so, it's just so bad, not just the actions that are going on, but the human being, the Americans thought process Right now about towards each other.
Speaker 3:It's just so bad, I'm not talking about black or white at all Just how we treat each other, and that's why it was such a shock to go over to Japan and see how collective they were. Perspective we better hope, we better hope, we better hope. But is that because I mean thinking about Japan versus?
Speaker 1:Japan versus US. I mean Japan, that's all one culture here, and this is I mean talking about the Bible. This is the only nation that came out of the land. We're talking about. Daniel rose from the ground, where everyone else came from the sea, which meant a lot of people. So here it started out small. They brought in different cultures. They brought in again, brought in black people, started that hate, started the division, in order for one to succeed and the other one to go down. Of course, every other place you go to is going to that does not have the stain, the stench of slavery, is going to look better than where we are from.
Speaker 3:But think about what they did, what they they do to us as kids, to I won't even say brainwashes, but to end doctors into this way of life. In school, every day, we set the pledge of allegiance, and a part of that pledge of allegiance is said one nation under God indivisible.
Speaker 1:It wasn't written for us to say it. I mean, let's be honest, if we weren't supposed to read it, it wasn't. It was not originally meant for us to say it.
Speaker 3:What's the point behind that, right, what's the point behind having somebody recite that every single have a child recite that every single day. What would be the point of that?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's to you know, whatever pride or self worth that I might have in myself, that was of my culture is slowly, just like each day, just a small of it, just going down, and then that, as we talked about, patriotism comes up. So identity and culture is down here, but patriotism is up here. So now, going back to the patriotism, that's where we are.
Speaker 3:Yes, I think people in Japan are patriotic for their country Because there was no division.
Speaker 1:There was no. It wasn't built on slavery. To my knowledge.
Speaker 2:No, we are definitely built on division, we thrive on division. No, that's how money, that's how money's made, that's how money Exactly.
Speaker 4:It's marketing, it's messaging, it's the whole nine yards. You have to have division or you're not able to accomplish whatever it is that you want to.
Speaker 2:It's just about that. Think about the fans that hate the other fans that don't know each other. You got in green Jersey, I got a blue one and I hate you. I don't know you Crack you.
Speaker 3:The best person in the world. I won't Jill and crack your head because my team, my team, is better than your team and we sit and we're not even in the stadium. My people have lost their life over these debates. People have lost their lives. I see some of these on line. They get.
Speaker 2:they get really like, really personal, as though they are talking about their blood relatives who they've lived with and like this is family to me. How dare you talk about my Chicago Bulls from 1997. That is my favorite team.
Speaker 1:But you know even that it takes a person away from their reality Absolutely, Because they're real.
Speaker 3:I said this, though, again because we have no we have.
Speaker 3:No, we have no victory. We're not experiencing those victories in our own life. We're experiencing those faith victories and there's some energy being transferred with that man. It's it's. It's sinister, to be honest with you. We talking again, going back to now. We're talking about, you know, christianity. We're talking about the most high on this, this demonic forces at part and see, here's the thing, a lot of people don't like to talk about. You know, we talk about, hey, really do this and do that, and unity. There's an important piece to this. We're forgetting about the spiritual aspect of what's going on. We talk about war with other countries. There's this, there's a war between good and evil all the time. That nobody's talking about. But we, one nation under God, right, but nobody will talk about God.
Speaker 1:Make sure you say in division.
Speaker 4:In divisible no in division. In division one nation under God. In division yeah. You in line, you in line.
Speaker 1:Liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3:I heard somebody say don't don't vote for the green party, because that'd be just a waste of time, because you're giving, you're giving your way to the vote because you're taking votes away from them. So, whatever would just help that other person lose, let's just do that. So we're willing to just suicide for the sake of that other person lose, right, mm? Hmm, okay, okay, all right.
Speaker 4:All right, I gotta believe go guy, I gotta believe that that that, even while it is unfavorable, that we can still make a difference, that we can still be a committee of one and make our little corner of the universe a little bit better than it was before we got here, because it, at the end of the day, each one of us has to to give a report and I want to hear well done. I want to know that, the influence that I have, even if it isn't on a global scale. What did I do with it? What was I able to reach the young man who was, you know, trapped in this cycle of gang violence? Was I able to educate a young, a young sister? Was I able to give a scholarship to? Was I able to have a conversation with somebody who doesn't look like me?
Speaker 4:I had a command right in the middle of COVID. Everybody was so bored. They started taking down these Confederate monuments and I'm sitting down there in Ron DeSantis, florida, and there's this lady who was at one of the Confederate monuments that they were getting ready to take down and we just started having a conversation and we have very different views, but for the first time, she heard somebody's view who doesn't look like her, because it was just civil discourse it was it was. It was so refreshing to her and to myself to be able to have just a conversation and to be able to see and understand that we're not that different after all. You know what? At the end of the day, we all just trying to make it, and if I feel threatened by you, that's evidence of my own insecurity. And we all have growing to do and if we take advantage of the opportunities that we have, coming together will produce much more fruit than trying to be separate and hating on somebody because they got on a green jersey and I got on a red one.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I'm glad you you gave that, that anecdote, that story because what I think, in order to really affect change, is we got to stop looking at on a on a macro level and go to the micro, use that influence that you have. There's a quote, and I'm probably going to butcher it up, but it says that even the light of the tiniest flame is more powerful than the darkness around it. So we all have influence somewhere and, granted, we got influence in different places. So if we just reach one person, that one person might reach someone else. It might change their trajectory. And I think we have to.
Speaker 1:I think that's when the movement really started, when people started talking, you know, individually, coming to like, hey, this ain't right, what can we do? Well, I can do this, okay, good, you got that, I can do this. And they. And it was like a ripple effect. That one, that one tiny stone. You toss it into that lake, it's going to make a ripple. It may not go to the other side, but at least it still is able to move water. It moved more water than the size of that stone.
Speaker 1:So I think if we, if we as a, as an individual. Let's start at the individual level, realize the power that we have, the influence that we have. One person can affect change in one other person and that's monumental. And I think we lost sight of that by media, by, you know, maybe looking at you know, yeah, you got Martin and Malcolm and you know, but they started small. They had to talk to one person in order for that one person to believe that they were good enough to be in front of a group of people. So we got stopped trying to get to the you know, worry about getting crossing that goal line when it's really a game of interest, if you want to talk about a football reference game of interest.
Speaker 3:I want to say this too, because I think that a part of this to me, stop being a pessimist, pessimist, pessimist. I think that a part of this. I'm going to turn you guys about this in a second. That part of this is going to be us being able to give other people accolades for the good things that they're doing. You know what good job and I want to go and I want to let you guys know, we're doing something right.
Speaker 1:So the enemies trying to stop. I can't even hear what's right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Steve, I think that you got a lean forward? Yeah, or is that? Is it the mic on your earphone? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, a lot better, there we go.
Speaker 1:You had to hand it up. So I was talking.
Speaker 3:Okay, I was talking.
Speaker 1:Oh, same thing, you, I'm out. Lean a little to you, lean a little to your right.
Speaker 3:Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Speaker 4:Yeah, see look you're hearing better now. Okay you look, you got a great after.
Speaker 3:So I want to say every, as we're talking right now, a meteor comet, whatever it is, just flew through the sky and lit up the entire sky. I got like eight windows right here looking over these acres, right, just lit up the entire sky Right, and again I forgot that we were recording, almost jumped out my seat, scared the heck out of me. But sometimes those, those signs or whatnot from God to just saying, hey, you're doing something right now. And that goes back to giving accolades to those that you see are doing well. And I want to give you guys kudos for what you guys are doing, but what we're doing, because this is what I guess people really need and again, having an understanding that we have a duty to do these particular things and to be able to say, hey, good job.
Speaker 3:Because we don't hear that anymore. How many times do we hear from just even our friends, even our family, good job, even though we know that you're doing a good job? It's it's power in telling somebody good job, well done, you know. So I want to give you guys that kudos. And that just kind of spoke to me about hey, you know this, there is spiritual things at play here, but when you have your heart not just your, your, your eyes and your ears open to hear God. You know definitely, let it come through. You know what I mean. But that just kind of spoke to me. Just want to let you guys know. Hey, you know, keep doing what we do, keep doing what you do.
Speaker 1:How to the people To the people. What was that quote again, ryan?
Speaker 4:about the flame and the darkness.
Speaker 1:So it's basically like, even the light from the like tiniest flame is stronger than the darkness around it. It's, it's, that's the gist of it and, like I said, when I heard it, when I saw it because I saw it on a poster when I saw it, I was like you know what? That's right. No matter how dark it could be, that little flame has more power than the darkness around it. And we as a people, we as men, we as just individuals who know God shines upon us, who have and and even the, the good that is in us is from God. So let's just put it out there. We are, we are inherently bad, but that light cannot be silenced or snuffed out if we're willing to shine it. It may not get us across the, you know, five miles down the street, but that's not how far we need to see, it's just the immediate area in front of us and I think, as a, we lose sight of that because we want to see change, we want to see things on such a grand scale and forget that grand is. It is subjective, that one individual, that one concept. We've got our children, we've got our spouses, our significant others, we've got our co workers, we've got. Every person that we come in contact with is an opportunity to let this light shine. So, Steve, I'm glad you, you know you gave us as kudos.
Speaker 1:You know I gotta tell you this is what season three of the iron table and it's this right here is what I envisioned it to be when I first thought about it. You know, having brothers come being willing to talk about anything, everything. Yeah, I might have had a predetermined set of questions, but that wasn't what was needed today. It was a serious conversation about how to invoke change and remind individuals that you have power, you have influence. You don't have to be on Facebook, tiktok or whatever to influence, but we have those mediums now. You can put something out there, positive content to counteract the negative content. And it's not about the number of people that look, the number of views, it's the fact that you're putting out positivity into the atmosphere. It will get carried to the individual that needs to hear it, and that individual may tell someone they may not, but if it changes them, then you have just the same a glimpse of, I think, god's power to influence and to change.
Speaker 4:This is good to be.
Speaker 4:I got my closing remarks, if you're ready for them. It's a quote from Harriet Tubman. I saw him at a monument in Delaware. You talked about the power that we have. We have power. We have power. Harriet Tubman, who was born a slave. This is on her monument that's in Delaware. She says these words.
Speaker 4:I had reasoned this out in my mind. There was one of two things I had a right to Liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, but it's just recognizing the power of our ability to. We have power. The power is in our ability to choose. The power is in our ability to act. The power is in our, our, our, our internal agency that we don't use nearly as often as we we should in order to do good. Even a woman who was born a slave recognize she had power, because most of us like, oh, she couldn't do nothing, she was a slave. She's like, no, no, no, I got, I got power. I can do one or two things. I can sit here and have my, my freedom, or I can have that. And so, going back to what Steve had to say a little bit earlier, where's the real men at? You know, when are we going to rise up and be willing to lay it all on the line and stop being super hyper focused on me myself and I?
Speaker 1:All right, keith, see from that, y'all wrap us up.
Speaker 2:Okay, um final remarks. I also end with a quote, my favorite quote, from my man, frederick Douglas Nothing's on my mind.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, well, trump still thinks he's alive, apparently, but that's another. That's another conversation in itself, but I use it often it's easier to build strong boys than repair broken men, and so Black History Month is is all year long, it's not. It's not, it's every month, it's not just February. I think part of learning about ourselves in this current or this modern era requires us to look at where we come from, look at the struggles, not repeat them, like Steve said. The lady said, no, we don't want to live in it, we don't want to repeat it, but we do want to look at it, we want to analyze it, we want to see what can we do different to bring the change that we want to see, and what do we want to do as a culture? We have a lot of broken men. So I think the path to getting out of a lot of this decay and a lot of this, this, this mess that we're in it, comes with us as men Helping other men heal. And so because, again, even with the civil rights movement, it was it took a lot for it to be done and, yes, it hit him in the pockets, but at that time a lot of fathers were still in the home who well, the women control a lot of the money too, but there were a lot of men part of this organ. When you look at these videos, there were men out there with these dogs getting bit, getting hit with these hoses A lot of our struggles. Now we don't see our men fighting for anything like we used to. So in a lot of the times I don't even, I don't even fault some of them because they're broken, they don't, they're not able to fight, they. Many of us have been beat down and worn down to a nub. So helping restore the men in our community is definitely something that we need to continue to do, and this week it just starts with, like y'all said, just going into somebody, saying I see what you're doing and you know, and I'm just going to acknowledge it and celebrate it and shout you out because I know, and then don't even have to be nothing hey, family man, I see you over there taking care of your family.
Speaker 2:I've said that what's up, what's up, dad, and he left. He left. I saw him with his kids picking his kids up from school and his kids were giving him a run for his money. But but I wanted to encourage him. You, you're doing all right. You're supposed to be frustrated this parental thing ain't easy. But he laughed and I kind of lighten the mood and then he was able to handle the children differently because it took some of the stress out. But my point is this take time to intentionally recognize people who need support, because that's the only way we get to a place where we feel healthy and well enough to come together to work together. So that's my closing remarks, that's all.
Speaker 1:And our black and white brother.
Speaker 3:Since we go on the theme of quotes, I'm going to take a quote from one of hip hop's most illustrious groups, daylight Soul, from a song called Mistakes is High. One of the verses he rhymes, I think that's that smiling in public is against the law. I'm going to just leave you guys with that quote. Right, that thought process of, especially for us as black men, of smiling in public, being able to smile to your fellow man, that being the start to that conversation of good job, can we at least smile and just say hey? What keep alluded to? Can we just say hey so that we can say good job, right.
Speaker 2:We're going to smile in it.
Speaker 3:There you go, smiling and think about that. I think that he wrote this was in the 90s. I think that smiling in public is against the law. We got to change, we got to fight each other if we can't even smile for each other and tell each other good job.
Speaker 4:Nobody else to do the same.
Speaker 1:Alright, fellas, this has been real. I'm always blessed to be able to walk away from the table when you guys are there just dropping nuggets, just whole meals of truth and perspective. That needs to be heard. So Until then I was been an iron table where iron sharpens iron. So should men sharpen men. And for all those brothers out there just know, that you are enough.
Speaker 1:Well, it's closing time. We are glad you stayed with us this long. The bill oh, we tore that up, for truth and accountability are free. You want to leave a tip? Sure, we take your money. But what's even better is if you share this with someone you know. But there's always room for more at the iron table.