The Iron Table
The Iron Table
We Aren't United and Mind Your D@mn Business
Would you know how to navigate the choppy waters if a family member's private life suddenly became very public on a platform like OnlyFans? Join us at the Iron Table, where Bryant, Keith, Danny, and Steve dissect the entangled web of family dynamics and the digital age's adult content platforms. We're not just talking about the shock and the why; we’re peeling back layers on the societal shifts that are redefining employment, privacy, and the very essence of public versus private lives. Our candid conversation also highlights how some people are turning to unconventional means to pay the bills, from selling feet pics to the gig economy's wilder shores, and what that says about our culture today.
This episode is a deep dive into the heart of our communities, assessing the effectiveness of different forms of protest and the role of reparations. We question whether financial compensation can truly address systemic inequalities or if empowering solutions like education and economic strategy are the key to lasting change. As we examine the strategies that unite us and fuel collective action, we also recognize the enduring spirit of resilience and entrepreneurship in the Black community, challenging stereotypes and celebrating the divine qualities inherent in all of us. It's a discussion that spans from the civil rights movement to Colin Kaepernick's knee, highlighting both the power of unity and the necessity of personal accountability.
As we wrap up this thought-provoking session, the Iron Table serves you a final course of introspection and a call to action. We stress the importance of improving ourselves first before seeking change externally. Reflecting on historical lessons and the infinite potential of proactive leadership, we leave you with an empowering nudge: disconnect from the digital noise and engage with enriching experiences that could reverberate through your own community. It's about shaping a stronger, united path forward, and it starts with you, our listeners, right here at the Iron Table.
Welcome to the Iron Table, where iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men. I am your host, bryant Goddard, and I'm joined by my brothers Keith, danny and Steve. We are your waiters, your short-order cooks, cooks serving up pride in a unique way.
Speaker 1:Today we are serving our main dish accountability with a side of truth. Sometimes you might laugh, sometimes we might get deep, but always we will use respect for self and each other. This isn't that discussion designed to make you forget about your troubles. It's designed to help you remember who you once were and will be leaders. So come, pull up a chair, sit for a while, for truth and accountability is always on the menu. We bring you to our program already in progress. All right, good evening. It's the iron table, where iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men? As the intro said, I am Bryant and I'm brought to the table by my brothers, keith, danny and Steve, and tonight is going to be a pretty interesting night. I don't think we really know what we're going to talk about until I kind of put the questions out there. But before we get into that, steve actually had a good icebreaker, don't?
Speaker 2:do it, Steve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go on, steve, don't do it. Nah, go and do it, People need to know this.
Speaker 2:Steve don't do it bro.
Speaker 1:Nah, I mean we need to be able to Go ahead go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2:What?
Speaker 3:No, I mean, we will be able to Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. What do you do as a man, as a husband, as a father, whatever, when you find out that your mother but it's not even just leave it to your mother your mother, your sister, your aunt, your daughter has an OnlyFans page?
Speaker 1:Now for those who don't know what is an OnlyFans page. Now for those who don't know what. What is an only?
Speaker 3:fans page. I've never been on it before, but I've heard, I've heard it's. It's a, it's a venue where you can um, I'm off, well, no, I can't say pay to play, uh, but it's something where you can. You know, you see somebody, maybe on a camera and they are doing things, whether it's playing the piano, whether it's some, maybe they're reading, they're opening things such as boxes, or maybe they're taking off some clothes, or maybe they're doing a, you know, sexually explicit act with other people and you pay for that subscription to see these particular things. A lot of times it is of the latter, when we're talking about sexually explicit content and people get paid.
Speaker 3:They get paid some big bucks or whatnot. So in the land of influencers.
Speaker 3:I don't know this. It's some big money to be made out out here with this. Um, I think a lot of even porn stars are transitioning to that because it's, you know, instant money and it's, I think it's, direct. You know, um, they can control that. But, um, a lot of times, um, you know, I think a lot of some teachers have gotten fired, um from you to hey, you know what? Said teacher has the OnlyFans page. Okay, you got to go.
Speaker 3:But what do we do as men, as fathers, as husbands, when we find out that maybe our mother, maybe our aunt, maybe our sisters, or maybe our daughters or, heck, maybe our brothers, maybe our fathers? You know, they on there too. Our sons are on OnlyFans. Now, I'm not going to say what happens if our wives are on there, because that's a whole other, different story. You know what I mean. But again, you know, it's something that is very real. Out here I've had some clients where they have found out that you know somebody that they know, not really a significant other, but you know somebody that they know is on this particular platform. It makes them feel a certain way Because a lot of times everything is all good and dandy until it hits home. So, you know, we don't have any problems watching somebody else until, oh, you know, mama on there, you know, shaking it fast, you know, or doing something explicit, but it's, you know, at the end of the day. You know how are we supposed to feel about that.
Speaker 2:No, mama, no Mama, no, that's what you do.
Speaker 3:Mama, no, mama got needs too, she can be.
Speaker 1:Mama can always ask for money, say, hey, I'm a little short baby. I done, raised you, brought you into this world.
Speaker 3:It's time for me to we not talking about bill money. We're talking, like you know, six figures. I think that they made.
Speaker 2:I'm established money for some of these people not everybody no, I don't, I've never.
Speaker 2:I don't have an account either. I've never seen it, but I I remember when there was a big stir about it and they, I thought they kicked all of that. I thought they stopped all of that, but apparently I already know. People said you know they found ways around it because at first so my understanding was you couldn't intentionally go in to do adult material. You had to for my, what I understood in the article you had to. People were like, like you said, they would cook or play the piano, like they would add something in it. People I know people are voyeurs, but it's really I don't want to call them weird. People are weird. You pay money to watch somebody since we're using the theme play the piano naked. I don't know.
Speaker 3:What would you do? What would you do but mama, sister or daughter?
Speaker 2:this is real. It is real because we've dealt with this before, except it was at a strip club when we say we.
Speaker 1:I want to make sure that you leave me out of that there was a client don't act like you weren't there, brian, last Thursday.
Speaker 2:Don't act like you weren't there, Brian, Last Thursday night. Don't act like you weren't there.
Speaker 1:I was not there. I don't even know what I was doing Thursday. But I'm going to say this I'm going to have to take it for secondhand knowledge because I don't want to go on there looking for what you told me. I don't want to look at my mom, sister or anybody that I really know on OnlyFans. I don't even want to go on there. My browser has never gone to OnlyFans.
Speaker 3:Nine times out of ten. Somebody's going to come to you and say hey just want to let you know X, y and Z.
Speaker 1:You know the source. Hey mama, what do you do?
Speaker 2:What do you do like?
Speaker 3:what do you do like when you don't? Go for it. Yeah, okay, that's, that's rule number one don't go looking, don't go looking.
Speaker 2:No, you don't, because you don't want to see. You don't want to see that, you can't unsee, that you don't sure. Yeah they go by their stage name juicy, lucy and the the Wild Bunch and the Wild Bunch.
Speaker 1:Now what if you find out after they've made a big financial purchase on your behalf, Do you turn it back in?
Speaker 2:I was going to say, well, I was going to use a letter and say that, but I'm going to try to keep it PG. But um, mm-mm, mm-mm, no, you, um, mm-mm, mm-mm, no. I mean, I'm good, I don't want no parts of that. That's blood money. I can't, I absolutely cannot.
Speaker 1:So you're saying you would turn it back on. She done bought you a car, said here, son, son, here is a car, your dream car. You're like no, I don't want it anymore, I'll turn it in in about a week. No, I mean, I accepted it cause at the time I knew that it was.
Speaker 2:It was a gift of love now I will say this have you seen the Kevin? The Kevin on stage, church Churchy. I don't know the part where the little girl comes to him to pray for his OnlyFans. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's hilarious.
Speaker 2:The pastor to come and pray for his OnlyFans. He's like I can't pray for his OnlyFans. He's like I can't pray for St Patrick. This is how I take care of my family. This is my job. I'm not going to be praying for your OnlyFans. You out there showing stuff. She was like what do you think I'm doing? He was like you're showing all kind of inappropriate stuff. He was like no, I just show feet pictures. He was like feet pictures. He was like what? She basically lets him know that she makes five figures selling feet pictures. He's just like oh, my goodness, let's pray. He starts praying for the Lord to his only fans. Then he says Lord, we're only fans of you, dear God. He's going all into how she needs to return 10% to this ministry or that God will curse it and strike it down in Jesus name, and so it's actually hilarious. But it shows that conversational dialogue between somebody who's just like well, I can't support OnlyFans, wait what? You just showing feet pictures, that's it.
Speaker 1:And you make it. Onlyfans is trying to say is that we're not just about porn.
Speaker 2:There's other forms of who gonna pay for feet pictures, though I don't understand, I've never been on. Onlyfans Look.
Speaker 3:That's big business. That's beyond weird though.
Speaker 2:This is like feet pictures. I'm going to pay my hard-earned money to get a picture and videos of your feet.
Speaker 1:What the hell? Maybe you're tired of seeing feet, East Coast feet. You want to see some West Coast feet.
Speaker 3:I'm going to have to blow your mind, danny, because there is a segment of stuff out there where a woman can. What's the PC? What? That's the PC where you can in a bag and ship it to the sad person for about $6,000 or $7,000. What the?
Speaker 1:Isn't that Kola Guard?
Speaker 3:I don't know what it is, but you doodoo in in a bag for thousands of dollars. Thousands, oh Thousands.
Speaker 1:There's something for everyone out there.
Speaker 2:Stop the episode, cut it off. Stop it.
Speaker 3:No, no, no. You ain't got to show no naked nothing. This is what me and Nika call the backup plan in case everything else fails. People are willing to pay for these particular things. They pay for them. So it's like at what point do we, you know? I mean, I'm sorry. So it's like at what point?
Speaker 2:do we, you know?
Speaker 3:I mean, I'm sorry, she's like that's the backup plan If you had a daughter and she's saying hey, I'm making $200,000 by doo-dooing in a bag, you know, once a week. Huh, huh, I mean, what do you say? What do you say? Don't do that, don't make six figures. Don't make $100,000 to $200,000 a year by doodooing in a bag.
Speaker 1:You can make it another way. You can make it another way. That's what you're supposed to say?
Speaker 3:What other way do you think is easier making six figures than just? Doing something that it's going down the drain anyways.
Speaker 2:If you have a healthy body, you're going to do that daily, maybe multiple times a day. That's money down the drain.
Speaker 1:The iron table is not suggesting that people go to OnlyFans with a plastic bag in order to make I'm not saying they should, but what do you say?
Speaker 2:Because, going back to the original question, we live in a generation now where we got a lot of kids whose parents have been documented on social media or have leaked and it's bigger. I mean, there's always been parents who were dancers and things like that where, but it was on a smaller scale. Now you have everybody with a platform doing all kind of craziness, and how do you go to school and the whole class has seen your mama or your daddy?
Speaker 3:But I'm shaking it or getting some or receiving, or getting some Receiving.
Speaker 2:Right, just the most graphic and unpleasant ways. But you go to school, but it's become more common to have kids and not think that those two lanes will ever cross, because, oh, I did that 10 years ago, 15 years ago.
Speaker 1:I am so glad that we grew up in the 90s.
Speaker 3:Oh, no, no, uh-uh, they catching it too, because that documentary, the Freak Nick, people were scared that that was going to be released.
Speaker 1:I didn't go there.
Speaker 3:But you don't know any of your relatives that went there and all of a sudden you see me. Ain't that real? Ain't that Junebug? That's Auntie Lee-Lee.
Speaker 1:Why she?
Speaker 2:Ugh, she nasty. I don't know. I'll say I don't know what I would do. It would be, it would just be mortifying. But it's reality. It's the world that we live in and I've made peace with the fact that for this generation, it is more common than not for them to exchange inappropriate material via text message and these social media apps Like, and what you think is going to happen to it. You think that it went just in the cloud and disappeared. It's there and for the right price and the right. It's there and I think we just I don't know. It's just one of those things that we I, I hope and pray that I don't have to deal with, but for those who do have to deal, if I ever had to deal with it, I don't know what I would do.
Speaker 3:Would you think of your relatives or your loved ones any differently because of this?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I mean, if I know that you are pooping in a bag, and you are, I don't care how much you make.
Speaker 3:We're not saying the pooping, we're just saying I'm trying to. I don't see that in the pooping.
Speaker 1:We're just saying I'm trying to. I feel like it's hot. I don't see that in the other stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And definitely don't do it using my electricity and my camera equipment and all that no.
Speaker 2:I mean you're not disowning family, but you definitely got to have a come to Jesus. It's just like what.
Speaker 3:What in the what we doing, what we doing?
Speaker 1:here. You know what they doing. Everyone knows what they're doing At this point what's your mindset?
Speaker 3:What's your mindset right now? Why are we going to this particular extreme?
Speaker 1:The money. I'm glad we're talking about it, because most people will go to only fans for money, right? Yeah, so, um, I was having this conversation with keith and um, I think you know we had this in the chat where I'm starting to watch shows from like the 80s, 90s. I'm like catching up on rock um, phenomenal show. Um, if anybody can get a hold of it, watch it. But then I'm also watching 90s. I'm like catching up on Rock Phenomenal show. If anybody can get a hold of it, watch it. But then I'm also watching the Boondocks and I never watched it when it first came out and I suggest anyone who watches it because of this. There's a lot of language, a lot of language.
Speaker 3:That was on Cartoon Network and they said, said every bit of words, all of it. They said all the words okay.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that must have been Adult Swim very late at night, because the the language used.
Speaker 1:Lebanese yeah, so, um, so one of the episodes that I saw was about MLK. Um, apparently MLK came not back to life, but he was in a coma for, like you know, 30 plus years and when he came back, society had changed, even got shot for, died for None of that, it just evolved. I mean, people, just our culture, just went to hell in a handbasket. It was just depravity. Every negative thing you could do you were doing, and so he was trying to. He was disappointed. He was trying to motivate the people in the way that he was used to doing it.
Speaker 1:He was like we didn't throw chairs. What we did was we went marching, we went talking to people. We nonviolent meant that you didn't throw a chair at somebody, but then, ultimately, someone struck a nerve and he went off. He went off in a way that he just and it kind of, I guess, woke. According to the episode, it kind of woke the community up and activism started and then change happened. So my question and it's just a couple of them it's like what would you think would take to unify our culture?
Speaker 1:And at this, point is it even possible, I mean outside of you know an act of God. And we all here will say you know, pray, you know, try to, you know, have positive thoughts. But what do you think? Have positive thoughts, but what do you think? Do you even think it's possible at this point in the evolution of man life? And then, if not, then I guess that takes care of the second part. But for those who think it can be, I think it's possible.
Speaker 2:It's opening bags.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:What I've learned, what I believe, is that when times are good, everybody's just like everybody's. You know, I'm doing my thing over there. But when things get bad, when they get really bad, when they really start to suck, when there's a global catastrophe Take 9-11, for instance 9-11 happens and nobody in New York talks to anybody. Everybody just walks. They're just straight ahead. There's no kind of like hi, good morning, how are you? Today? It doesn't happen. Nobody talking about God at all either. No, anybody doing none of that. But after 9-11, people holding hands with strangers hugging them.
Speaker 3:God bless America, oh my goodness, you ain't hearing nothing.
Speaker 2:Churches were packed out and everybody was coming together. It takes crisis. That's what it takes. It's not going to happen in times of prosperity. It's going to take a crisis of biblical proportions. It's going to take a crisis of biblical proportions to get people to come together and to actually unify and to do anything. That Because right now everybody's comfortable. Why should I be worried about anything? I'm in my little designer, alexis cage, with my AC and I'm just like no, I'm good, I'm good, I don't have to worry. Take the movie.
Speaker 3:Independence Day, the world didn't care about anybody at all until a threat from above was like oh, if we don't get together we're not going to survive. Like you said, it's going to take a threat that that impacts those, those two parties, to just say, okay, let's chill out. There's, there's bigger things to think about than our petty, you know, arguments that we're thinking about right now. You know, and even for our culture, again, it's comfortable. We think that we have arrived to a certain degree, to where, you know, we think that, how can I say this? What did Paul Mooney say? The illusion of inclusion. You know, they, it doesn't. It's hard to say, but again it's. It's this illusion that not only have we arrived, but that everything is okay. And you know, sometimes you gotta, you know you gotta face a threat to understand that. You know what? Everything's not okay.
Speaker 3:Again thinking about, again, like I was telling you guys through in the chat, it was just so very, it was insane to see the amount of energy that people put towards this, the draft that's going on. But meanwhile there's two wars, two separate wars in the world going on right now and we're really our energy and our focus is on, you know, people running up and down the field with a piece of plastic, you know. But again, until again. Maybe, if this war hits home to us, then maybe guess what you know, our priorities will then shift, but again, for even our culture, until something really major happens again, maybe it probably won't. You know, we're even under the illusion that we have the right to vote. Yeah, we do every. How many years was? Was it every 10? Was it every 15?
Speaker 2:One of those. Yeah, every 20 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got the right to vote. Other than that, it's up to some other people to make that decision. We're under illusion right now, until it hits the fan. I agree with you, dan.
Speaker 2:Keith you think it's?
Speaker 1:possible, do you? Think there's even a point at this time.
Speaker 2:I think we have been lulled to sleep with pseudo freedom. I know the term woke has been overused and abused and just railroaded and just totally just taken out of now, it's just taken out of context but I really feel like, um, as a people, we are asleep because we, we have the comforts kind of alluding to what Danny and Steve have already said we have the comforts of what we think make us happy, um, when, because the the reality is we are in crisis every day. Like you said, we, our neighborhoods, we don't have money. Like I heard a video today and said white people don't wake up and think about us.
Speaker 2:We, the only like we wake up, thinking about, like what everybody else is doing Meanwhile we're, you know, we not coming together and focusing on what we going to do about it. Like like I'm I'm impressed Chinatown keeps their money in Chinatown. We're not coming together and focusing on what we're going to do about it. I'm impressed Chinatown keeps their money in Chinatown and they do business as a community, so to speak. Same with the Jews yeah, the Jews in Dearborn, they have a nice size Arab population. All these groups do business collectively or responsibly, where we really have a survivalist mentality.
Speaker 2:We have a survivalist mentality where we will throw the whole tribe under the. We will drown the whole tribe. How did we get here in the first place? Somebody had to sell us. Yeah, so it's. Or you got people trying to escape the freedom and somebody snitched John running to night balls. Somebody had to tell. If you look at the state of the world, like Steve said, the world is on fire and things are not looking good. Even with our political climate, things are terrible. But because somebody gave us a couple of dollars to get a Tesla or got that purse or them shoes, them Jordans, I got my second pair of Jordans. I'm on my way. We get lost in what is really important and again it's intentional. I think it's bigger than just race or politics. This is a divine distraction.
Speaker 3:There you go. Distraction right there. Distraction Because everybody's worried about P Diddy, but a lot of people ain't never met the man a day in their life. But we worried about P Diddy. But a lot of people ain't never met the man of day in their life. We worried about this man over here, but don't care about what's going on in your schools and your own neighborhood, but you worried about P Diddy. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Distractions.
Speaker 2:Meanwhile, your schools are falling apart.
Speaker 3:No toilet paper, no books.
Speaker 2:No books, no toilet paper and when we're worried about what we're going to do with the teachers.
Speaker 1:There's got to be no teachers. Swallowed up, I'm glad y'all brought up the lack of resources. So then this Do you think reparations would truly solve the problem?
Speaker 2:Absolutely not. We would go out and buy 15 pair of Jordans, some 22s. The money would be gone in two weeks. It would be done.
Speaker 1:So you're saying that, okay, I agree. What are you laughing at?
Speaker 3:I think he said it so quick I didn't even get a chance to say it.
Speaker 1:You can agree and expound upon it. I'm going to say, yes, reparations is not the answer, because our culture has been designed to always think about not having and then, as soon as you get something. It's not about developing generational wealth, it's about living for the day. You know, tomorrow is not promised. And so, yeah, they're going to buy Jordans. But my thing is, after you buy Jordan, like Jordan was the number one shoe, if you had Jordans, you felt like you arrived. But if you have a whole bunch of money, is Jordans really worth it then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, street cred.
Speaker 1:But you don't no longer have to worry about the street cred.
Speaker 2:That's the most important thing. You have to have money. What do you mean? I'm willing to test it out because I don't think everybody's going to mess it up. I think there will be some people who could handle a little bit of reparations and I would be glad to take my 40 acres in the music.
Speaker 2:What percentage of NBA and NFL stars who are brown skin, go broke and have nothing to show for it after they finish playing, and what percentage of them actually did wise things with the money and have something to show for it afterward? What percentage? Do you think more people have a better life or do you think they end up right back where they came from? I think it's gotten better than it used to be far better. I don't know the exact percentage, but I know it is not as bad as it used to be, because I used to just bring these guys in, dump a bunch of money on them. No litter, no financial or literal financial literacy, no training or nothing. No, no accountant, no age. Well, even though some of them were stealing money. But it has gotten better, but most of them still, do you know, blow their money.
Speaker 1:But going back to reparations, that's what we've always heard. If we just got our 40 acres and a mule, we would be on the same level.
Speaker 3:But we got to define what it shouldn't be. Reparations shouldn't be I'm going to give you some money. It shouldn't be that it should. Reparations should look like how sometimes it looks like for other cultures where there's certain things they don't have to do, like other people have to do, like there's some cultures that when they come into this country, for like the first 10 years, they don't have to pay taxes, you know? Or maybe reparations should look like hey, you know what? Guess what, you get to go to school. You get to go to college for free. We're not going to put you further in debt because of what we, you know. Reparations should be looked like as hey, we're going to be because you were at a disadvantage. We're not going to put you at a further disadvantage by just being the ultra consumer and just give you some money. We're going to make things for you that will generate wealth easier for you. Hey, you know what? We may give you a, a break on your taxes, or again, maybe free education for you, something like that.
Speaker 1:But I mean, you got people that don't have.
Speaker 2:Well, you took money from me. Why not give money back? You took money from me. Why not give money back? You took opportunity. I mean, I get the opportunity but you actually took money. You took things away from me. Why not give it back? Like I was talking to Brian about earlier, the Black Wall Street, when those people were killed, massacred. Many of them had millions in the bank. Like they had money in the bank. The banks didn't find next to kent, the banks didn't find out who this money belonged to. Those banks held on to that money, move right on so a lot of people have that again. There's there's an anger, and this isn't all. Naturally, isn't all black people. But there are a lot of people who, whose families were connected to that and still remember that, and so I don't want you to just give me a give, give me a, a discount here and there. I want what you, what you stole from, is the devil.
Speaker 1:Well, not just what you stole, but what is the current market value of that? Now you want the current market value or what it could have been. You know if it was, you took a hundred acres. What is a hundred acres worth now? Now I saw this beautiful property I think it was in like Montana, it was over 200. I think it was like over 200 acres and it was like 7.5 million had a nice house on it. I was like, man, if I had that, I would, you know, I would like that. Nobody, no neighbors nearby, can you know, give land to friends and family like?
Speaker 2:not here.
Speaker 1:Here's a couple of acres. You just got to build your own stuff. But I mean again reparations. Are we agreeing that?
Speaker 2:reparations no-transcript now, we can't go back and undo slavery.
Speaker 1:But what is the answer in order to kind of what would the level playing field be?
Speaker 3:I think the level playing field means that you take somebody out of their equation. We're looking to another source to be our savior and us acting right, accountability, us having accountability for our own actions, of how we act now, despite what we know they did to us. Now that we're doing it, we're doing to ourselves. Just be accountable as a culture about hey, we're not going to allow certain things to be done or our image to be out there like that. There's certain things that you'll see on um music award shows that only our culture will be allowed to do. Right, you know, no jewish, no asian, no mexican, no arab.
Speaker 3:If some of the things that have been allowed on on on tv in the name of entertainment entertainment, if any of those cultures did that, they would have been held accountable like no other. That person would be like no, we're not allowing this person to represent us in this light, but we just do whatever. We go to award shows and have our behind out, have the ta-tas out, all that stuff shaking it all about, and we okay with that. There's no outcry but like, hey, that's not a fair representation, so we don't even hold ourselves accountable. So my thing is, how is it that we would be able to receive some reparations on something when we can't even hold ourselves accountable.
Speaker 1:Without reparations, it makes no sense well, I think we're just gonna be. I mean, we've shown that depravity and just just being outright I'll say all right, stupid, you know, is what's profitable. People are getting paid.
Speaker 2:They're getting rewarded for doing outlandish things, bringing attention to themselves doing whatever Our reward is going to be able to do OnlyFans now. Is that what? Is that our new way to get back what's ours? If you think about.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you think about the evolution from like slavery to now slavery, you know massive would say you know you do good, your reward would come later. They never said when later would be. And now you've got a generation that doesn't care about later, doesn't care about what their image will look like five years the next day, and they're trying to get theirs now because they don't believe that they're going to live to whenever later might be. So that's where we are, that's where things I mean and it's only going to get worse. But I like how you said, steve, you know accountability but we're not able to hold ourselves accountable because we don't really know what accountability is.
Speaker 1:It's like, after grandma and mom, you know, you got the what is it? The crack epidemic where you had, you know, babies being parents of babies and nobody holding them accountable. Everyone trying to. You know, hey, let's get such and such off of drugs. You know they'll be OK, we're going to forgive them. You know, and I understand. You know, support when you don't know how to really support, you enable and as a culture we, you know, we enable easily because we don't want someone left behind. We don't want to, you know, ostracize somebody for the poor choices that they made or hold them accountable, but at some point, when your decisions, your choices, directly affect me, there has to be a line.
Speaker 3:Exactly. But again, what you're talking about is when we're talking about accountability. How is it that we should be able to have a monetary reward if we can't hold ourselves accountable for even, let's just say, having that monetary reward? If I can't hold myself accountable, I'm going to be no good with money. There's no point to a reparation if I cannot hold myself accountable, not only as a person, but us as a culture. What's going to be a point? Because here's what's going to happen. They're going to give us let's say, for instance, they give us 40 acres in a mule or whatever. What's the point if we're going to lose it or we're just going to squander it? We're just going to be consumed. What's the point? Because what we're doing with our wealth now? What do we do? Not even our wealth. What are we doing with our money now? What are we consuming it on? What are we doing with it now? Because you know, black people ain't poor. We spend money. We spend money, we're the biggest spenders.
Speaker 3:Exactly. So what are we doing with our money? Now we're spending money.
Speaker 2:Whoa, I didn't see. That's not fair. We don't spend money, we just don't have no money after we get it.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, what they call that in logic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that is complicated. It's complicated, complex, but yeah, I mean, I hear what you're saying. I do also want to acknowledge the people who are setting the standard and who are doing something different and we don't want them to go without being seen and heard and appreciated. But, by and large, most people broke and the the realities. They are what they are. If you follow even people like Dave Ramsey talks about what percentage of people in America just have nothing like don't have, it's bigger than any one micro issue.
Speaker 2:I think that ultimately it kind of goes to us not living in accordance with the principles that are in the basic instructions before leaving Earth. And you know, yes, we still got. You know this is the iron table. We know that there's a C-O-N-spiracy that is always at work to give privilege to a certain group and to keep the other group at bay through different means. But what I'd love to point out is this we're not stuck where we are. We can improve If somebody's going to give us something or if somebody's not going to give it, and I think that we're better off working for it, because what I've discovered in my own life is the struggle builds a strategy.
Speaker 2:Because we are such a, why are we so resilient? Because we had so much resistance. Resistance we become the inventors, we become entrepreneurs, we can become people who are able to rise from the ashes, and I just want to salute the brothers and sisters who have and to encourage those who have not yet, because if you're breathing, like Proverbs says, even a live dog is better off than a dead lion. Let's go, we. We've got opportunity to, uh, to do more than we're doing now, and that's what I want to encourage everybody, including myself, to do, because, um, we don't have to settle. We can have so much more in this season.
Speaker 1:I see we playing with the pictures now yeah, it's got to be channels, it's got to be Chubb, it's got to be Chubb. So I, I agree, but those individuals who are getting there, going there on a path there, need to at least leave a pamphlet or some breadcrumbs. Or those who aspire to be there, to get there, but I don't believe everybody wants to be there. There are some people that are okay in their dysfunction, aspire to be there, to get there, but I don't believe everybody wants to be there.
Speaker 3:There are some people that are okay in their dysfunction because it's functional for them.
Speaker 1:So I'm not disparaging people. You know those who who can't because they don't have the resources. You know this is for those that can, that choose not to, it's your choice. But yeah, if we get there, we've got to at least leave some markers for others who may wander to try to find that path.
Speaker 3:You know, I got a question to a word that Danny just used called this notion of resiliency. What is that? What does resiliency look like? What does it look like, especially when we're talking about black folk, because I hear that a lot of like, you know, you guys are just very resilient, just resilient. What is resilient really mean for black people? What does that?
Speaker 2:mean, I don't want to hog the mic, but Hog it. For me it's you got kicked in the balls.
Speaker 1:Can I say that you just did you said a lot of stuff on this table, so balls is the least.
Speaker 2:We can blame the Detroit music on the pre-broadcast. What's my point? Again, I'm back, I'm back, we rise, I'm back, I'm back and we rise. That's probably not the best season we're in right now the reason why but, here's the reason why.
Speaker 3:But but here's the. Here's the reason why I'm asking that go ahead. Here's the reason why I'm asking that what, what group of, what group of people, what group of or culture that you know isn't resilient well, yeah, I think that people, as it's innate within us like it's the God in you, like there is no way.
Speaker 2:Keith just wrote out he said I'm a head out Spongebob. I think that no, it's a quality that is in our DNA, just by virtue of us being made in the image of God. Like you can't keep the image of God down, like you have, you could put Jesus in the tomb, but he coming up. And that same power rests in us With every breath. Where did this breath come from? It's God's breath. He's in you and you will rise. Your chest rises, your heartbeat. We sleep, we can't survive without being so vulnerable that we can do nothing, we can't see nothing, we can't know anything. We just have to rest and abide. And this, all of our physiological functioning, is a reflection of, like a miracle, a miracles after miracles being made manifest in our, in our bones. And so for me, it's God, that's me, it's God to me.
Speaker 3:And it's not specific to any one race or anything like that. When we talk about this, there's a lot of times where we, even as therapists, we have to go through these things called cultural competency, continual education, Just having an understanding of what makes every culture this and that. And when it comes to Black people, competency, continued education, you know, just having an understanding of, you know what makes every culture this and that. And you know, when it comes to Black people, it's just a very resilient bunch and they're just really just very resilient. And it's like well, what race have you known that just died? They just don't know no race is going to do that at all.
Speaker 3:So, again, some of these monikers that we're being receiving and I'm glad you brought it up with the spiritual aspect of it is that we take on more of those monikers of oh, just just resilient, You're just a, you know, just a, very, you know, you know persistent people.
Speaker 3:But we're not thinking about no, we're also very spiritual people too as well about we're also very spiritual people too as well, and that has been taking a back seat for a very long time, because even our spirituality or even our churches are now being I don't even say, made fun of, but it's almost a joke.
Speaker 3:Again, I've said this before all of the particular shows that are talking about the black church now is just filled with drama, sex, murder, all those particular things, so that the one thing that really binds us together is being made a mockery, you know. So, again, when it comes to people thinking about cultural competency and what makes up us or whatnot, I wish people would speak more of our spirituality and what we really are, because, you know, these other attributes are, I mean, they're there, but that doesn't make up, that doesn't make up the totality of of who we really are, you know. But again, a lot of times that's taken out. For you know, like we just said, the seal in spiracy to what they say, keep the black man. Down to what they said, keep the black man down, but you know it's like his work.
Speaker 1:That's why I've been re-watching shows in the 80s, the 70s and the 80s because it was about just wholesome, you know, trying to uplift our culture. But that reminds me I did watch. I only watched like an episode and a half just to see where it was going of good times. Can't watch it, it is gone.
Speaker 3:The cartoon Cartoon.
Speaker 1:Yes, the cartoon, it is gone completely off the rails. But going back to the resiliency you know, as as a people, I mean even as an individual culture, you will notice really only what your culture is doing. And so that's why we, you know, I think we say that we're resilient and I think the world acknowledged that we were dealt probably a very I mean we were dealt a bad hand, a very bad hand. And so to get as far as we've gotten in general not if you look at each, you know, individual year or each decade, because you can find something negative in each of them. And even right now we've acknowledged what's the media portrayal of us is just terrible.
Speaker 1:We, we looked at our resiliency because we were dealt that bad, hey, and so that's all we see and that's. It's almost like a motivator. Remember where you once came from. You were once Kings and Queens. You can get back there. The only way you get back there is you got to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting. It's like just trying to motivate instead of saying we're there, we got to keep saying that we're almost there, because if we feel like we're there, then we're going to stop and look at where we are now. Are we there?
Speaker 3:but see, but that, but even even that, even what you just said we were once kings and queens that whole, that whole moniker. Again, yeah, like you said, we still are. Even spiritually we're kings and queens. But to say that we were, you know, when people say you're once kings and queens, it's like, oh, I was once great, but I'm not. I have to get back there. Instead of having that mindset that I'm already there, it's just something spiritually and mentally that I have to prepare myself for it and say, hey, you know what they say, like you know, physically you're in the earth but you should not be of the earth. So again, we have to be thinking of at a higher frequency when we're talking about, even spiritually we're kings and queens. But again, you know, when they talk about being woke, you got to be. You have to sleep first to be, to be woke, to wake up.
Speaker 1:But think, of the narrative. I mean, if slavery how long ago was slavery? And we were indoctrinated with their religious views of like you know, hey, your is going to come later. Right now, you need to do exactly what I said. This is what the Lord said and you're going to get this later. So, by the time we really got to the point where we understood it for ourselves, think about, you've got 400 years of being told that you're nothing, that you're going to get it later, and all this stuff. And yeah, it's easy to say we were once kings and queens. Because we don't believe it, we were never taught to believe it. Those that believed it or that even experienced it are no longer here and their stories. You can pass down a story. You can't pass down an experience.
Speaker 3:True, but the thing about it is what you just said. Do people even care right now that they were once a king and queen? That's the, that's that's the biggest you. Do they even care? They look at you. If you were to say that to most people, they look at you like maybe don't get out my face with that go man come on, don't you see the game on?
Speaker 3:get out my face, you know people don't care and and that's it's so sad that you know, when we're talking about some of the things that we're talking about, it's it's amazing. It's amazing how, you know, I would have some conversations with people at a previous job and you know, some people would kind of gravitate towards the conversations, but then you would get some people where you saw you were resetting their brains. They were like, you know, it would just just stop. So many people just do not care. And it's sad because it's more people that don't care than that do care. And it's like, at that point, what do we, what do we do with those that don't care, like, how do I, how, how do I integrate myself with you if you don't care about not only your spiritual and mental well-being but you don't care about nobody else's or your culture?
Speaker 1:You don't care. You don't have to meet the person where they are. You don't have to do exactly what they do.
Speaker 3:What does that mean? To meet somebody where they're at? What does that really mean? Meet somebody where they're at? What does that really mean? Does that mean that I have to cater to their BS too, and not hold them accountable?
Speaker 1:Do I not hold them accountable? You can hold them accountable, but you can't hold them accountable at 100%. You got to give them baby steps.
Speaker 3:No, we ain't got time for baby steps.
Speaker 2:You do without that the Bible's clear. The Bible's clear. The Bible's clear when it says that for those, basically for those who didn't want to do what they need to do, god gave them over to themselves. It's like, because you can't make anybody do anything, so you do, even within your people. Sometimes you have to say okay, you guys go to the east and we're going to go to the west, because if we're not all moving in the same direction, then we don't need to move together.
Speaker 2:There's a reason back in the day, when they were doing the nonviolent protests if you're going to fight, don't come. You can be a part of the struggle and you can yell from the back, but you can't be on the front line because on the front line we said no fighting back. We said but you can't be on the front line because on the front line we said no, fighting back. We said don't hit. So if you're gonna hit, you got, you gotta, you gotta move, you, we, not, we not on the same page. And then there's the other side, down the street. Go up to that's in alabama. You go up to new york. Michael mack said shoot back. If they hit, you, punch him in the face, punch right back. So again it we don't. We're not even with the civil rights struggle, we weren't all on the same page. But you had to find facts, you had to find the side that you, that you understood, that spoke to you even so there's clear that doesn't look like you don't care.
Speaker 1:That just means that you're but to.
Speaker 2:But to a person who doesn't agree with your point. I can understand in some cases how it can come across you don't care, and some, because sometimes it's true sometimes, why should I care that? You know they don't care. Like my one of my favorite michael jackson songs, they don't really care about us.
Speaker 3:Um true, they don't care about nobody. All they care about is money, about money. So why should I care? So what? So, again, keith, think about what you just said, though. You know, even if we're marching, hey, if we hit back or if we don't hit back, actually none of those ideas, none of those ideas really work. The marching, protesting, and the silence, and nonviolent, that didn't work. Violence didn't work. You know what worked? Hitting their pockets. We said, oh, we're not going to consume what you want us to consume, we're going to hit your pockets. Oh, now I can have a right to do X, y and Z because I'm hitting your pockets. So both of those, both of those ideologies, never work. There's a third ideology that said I'm not going to spend what you, what you want me to spend. Ideology that said I'm not going to spend what you want me to spend.
Speaker 1:That worked. Do you think that's possible now? Do you think that we have a collective moment where people do not pay?
Speaker 3:We've talked about this, but remember what I told you. I said can you imagine what would happen if every NBA or NFL player just didn't say I'm done for a whole season? It collapsed the economy. It collapsed the economy, but again you ask for a solution. That's a solution right there. That's one solution where you just say, hey, these bunch of people just stop.
Speaker 1:What they're going to say is well, if we don't go to the arenas to play, then the person who works the concession stand won't get paid, the ball boy won't get paid, there'll be no jobs for.
Speaker 2:When Trump was in office in his previous term. I don't remember exactly all the details of it. I know he said something to. He made a lot of Hispanics angry. He said some stuff to the clean people who do a lot of hispanics angry. He said some stuff to the, the clean people who do a lot of the manual labor. The cleaner people clean hotels. So a lot of them went on strikes. They didn't show up to pick the fruit, they didn't show up to clean the hotels. They didn't show up to do a lot of the work they did. And it was only 24 hours, it was only a day. And when I tell you exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Somebody probably tapped him on the shoulder like but you're talking about a unified group. Yeah, chill out. Exactly A unified group. Exactly that's what he did. We all have to do as a unified group, but Kaepernick decided to kneel.
Speaker 3:That was the moment. That was the moment. That was the moment we missed.
Speaker 1:James still playing.
Speaker 2:Some people did kneel with him, but when he got cut from a team nobody put pressure on the team to add him back on. It was just like and you can't make them. But again there was a lot of division. Even with that act, you know he's disrespecting our country and he's not. You know that's, that's a reverend and that's disrespectful. We I can't support anything that. You know I'm in the military. I can't agree with that. Like, again, you have a lot of people who have a lot of ideologies and it's going to be hard Look at.
Speaker 3:Christians and how many denominations we have, because we all can't agree on what this one book says, right, right. But you said, but you said, like, hey, what happens, if you know, if, if all the sports people stop, okay, what about the people that does, the concessions, the tickets, all those things and whatnot? My thing is, you know, being of kind of one mind, it's like the money is there to help those out that this is going to affect. Because guess what? Guess how much money we spend in lottery that we never get but that we never see every single day. Just take black people. How much money do we spend at the lottery? How much money do we spend at the casino? How much do we spend at the strip club? How much money do we spend on all these particular things that we don't need and we don't see it, and we don't receive an investment back in that could be going to, oh you know what? This is going towards, the cause. This is going to the. What do they call it? Go fund me for, hey, for our cause.
Speaker 1:That's what they used to do Bake pies bake sales fish fries yes.
Speaker 1:When the bus thing, they said you got a car, you going to pick some people up, you going to take them to work, but that was a small sample size in a small area, one city we're talking about. What can we do? I will say, even on the East Coast, what is something that realistically can be done that would tip the scales in our favor? Can we even come together? Because I mean most of the nba right, and they set out what one, how many games, because it was in the bubble, what one game, and that was, I think, the milwaukee bucks. They were just like, yeah, we're, we're not playing right and there was a threat.
Speaker 1:Now how many days? Until they were playing again.
Speaker 3:Because sometimes I don't think there's a plan, sometimes because we do need to. You know, we got a plan. We got to be at all one sound mind and just say, hey, this is the plan, this is what we're going to do, these are the, this is the protocol, this is the things that. Hey, that we're. You know the shortcomings that may come. We got to have a plan. We can't just be in our feelings and just say we're not going to do this, it's got to be a plan. It's got to be thought up.
Speaker 2:I know this is something that is way left field, but to me they connect in my head. When we unify the Black family, that will directly impact our ability to unify with each other, because a lot of the issues that we have in our homes and not just husband and wife, I'm talking about a lot of the issues we have in our homes. I'll just speak in general terms. When we get to a place where we can unify amongst our own family and it will extend to how we deal with each other, because we don't know how to heal, we don't know how to forgive, we don't know how to move forward, we don't know how to work together A lot of us it's I hate you, I don't like what you like, so I can never talk to you again.
Speaker 3:It's not even just again bring to what you bring to the table. What you bring to the table malcolm and mark talked a lot.
Speaker 2:Apparently they or they talked enough. I won't say a lot, I wasn't there, but they talked. They weren't enemies, they like the. The way history portrayed it as I grew up, it made it seem like they didn't like each other. Not necessarily.
Speaker 2:They didn't agree with each other's approach initially, but they talked and and they built. They started building rapport, and, and that spoke volumes to me because, again, being able to talk to people that I don't agree with um and I even saw that working in a prison, I didn't agree with a lot of, a lot of the approaches of some of some said gang members, but I understood. But I can listen and understand and I can hear his side, he will listen to my side, and sometimes we can find a place in the middle where, ok, you don't have to be no punk, I agree, but you ain't got, you ain't got to have nobody either, like there's a middle ground in there how you can diffuse the situation without ending up back in here, right, and so I think we as a people have a lot of growing to do with each other individually, because we'll never work together.
Speaker 2:Everybody will always be, there will always be somebody the ticking time bomb or the Judas, there will always be dysfunction amongst us. So until we start healing individually and collectively, how we? How would we come together?
Speaker 3:You're right. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Especially, the division between the black male and the black female is at an all time high right now.
Speaker 2:You know. So I have families going through this civil rights movement and it's easier to come home. Like you said, you got help. You're working together. Even though you don't agree. You may not agree on everything, you still did it together. I don't know if I'm marching and somebody hit my wife, or a dog attacks my wife. I don't know if I could not fight back. I don't know. That's why I said that movement probably wouldn't have been my movement. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:I think I'm team Magneto. It's a reason why Professor X is in the chair, Right. But you know what? That's crazy. But I just even that whole. You know the whole moniker of that. You know Professor X was really Martin Luther King and Magneto was Malcolm. Professor X, at any point in time, could make himself walk. He could make himself walk. He just chose not to, Just chose not to had the power to make himself walk.
Speaker 1:And that's true power there, power to not do what you could do, even when someone expect or, you know, really wants you to do it. It's like no, I'm good. Choice is our most powerful gift. I will always believe in it, but we blow it.
Speaker 2:And we don't ask for reparations, but we blow it like we would reparations, but I still think reparations. Let's put it on the table, let's talk about it all right well I think some of us will make some good decisions with it I'm getting.
Speaker 3:I'm getting some 30 inch rounds. I don't know what danny talking about. He left me still in the 90s. They ain't on 22s, no more. They on 30s.
Speaker 2:That's tiny 22s they on 30s.
Speaker 1:At the eyesight of Mr Williams, it's about time for us to wrap this up. But I'm going to do something different. I'm going to yeah, he look like he's sleepy, but I'm going to pose this question. We're not going to talk up. Nope, that's not the question that I wanted. This is where is this no? No, y'all see this question. You know why do men feel the need to defend themselves to their significant other when there's an argument over who, over what hasn't been done or what was done. We're not going to talk about this.
Speaker 3:I was about to say. I know you're not asking this right now. Come on man, this is. This is kind of no, no, no.
Speaker 1:This is to kind of set it up for the next time we come to the table. We've all done this, we've all gone through it, but I'm not even going to touch upon it. I just wanted to bring that up. Yeah, that's right. Probably go through it next, before the next time we record, we probably all will have a story on this, but I thought I'd do something different pose a critical question for the next time. As we wrap it up, any last words, we probably should start with Danny, because you do look sleepy.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you like me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll just just say in terms of my last words is, when it comes to unity, a lot of times we're looking for somebody else to do something. What are you doing? You do something right now, and if you do something by yourself, then you unify with yourself. And if somebody comes and unifies with you, then then focus on what you can do. A lot of times we focus on what we can't. So do what you can where you can, how you can, with whom you can.
Speaker 3:Sure For sure. If I can add to that my final words for today Trying to unify with other people. Like you said, man, we need to unify with other people. Like you said, man, we need to unify with ourselves first too. So, you know, take some time out away from these cell phones. Read a book, just read a book. Put the cell phone down for a second, read a book, just chill. You know, we don't always have to be in our screens, you know. So in order to center to, in order for us to be centered as a people, we've got to be centered individually too. I think that one of our biggest problems is these cell phones.
Speaker 3:So you know, pick up a book. You know, right, reverend.
Speaker 2:Jones, there ain't no Reverend Jones here I'm going to look you in your eyeballs and say Swallowed up Terrible and swallowed up Terrible.
Speaker 2:Last words, I feel like unity is a thing that we all need for the sake of humanity, kind of like that 9-11 that should we go back. We had Y2K, we had 9-11. We had the blackout in Detroit. We had a lot of situations I'm thinking about a lot of things that had happened where I saw people change and I saw the best and worst of people. But it did show me that people can come together, people can work together and it shouldn't take tragedy, it shouldn't take desperation, but unfortunately right now it does. We are comfortable, but I'm urging everybody to just kind of wake up, shake yourself, realize that the world is on fire and we should be taking more time to be accountable for what we say and do.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, this has been the Iron Table. Iron sharpens iron, so should men sharpen men. I'd like to thank my brothers again for taking the time out of their busy schedule to just not only talk about, but also be about the thing that we all want to be, which is leaders. Alright, fellas, you know it's been real. I'm gonna have to put that on mute, cause last time y'all was, you know, singing during the outro and it's kind of I'm tired of that because of rec stuff for this episode.
Speaker 3:You need for this episode. He need a picture of Chappelle as Rick James.
Speaker 2:With that, that unity ring unity how many of you get to sing but me?
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go ahead and sing. I haven't even started the.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go ahead and sing. I haven't even started the outro I'm going to be short. I'm out of water, I ain't ate dinner yet and y'all know I'm falling asleep, so go ahead.
Speaker 1:What's the outro?
Speaker 2:All right, fellas, this has been real, so I'm not supposed to sing during the outro. No, this is closing time. I hate you.
Speaker 1:The bill. Oh, we tore that up, for truth and accountability are free. You want to leave a tip? Sure, we'd 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.
