Episode Transcript
I really stress that everybody's community is only as strong as the residents that live there.
Today on the slide with Mr. Anthony Brown, we'll be discussing the history of our political positioning. We'll also be discussing strategies that we can apply today in order to be able to advance our initiatives. And we'll talk about what the future of our political destiny is in America.
You're listening to The Slide Podcast with Tavares Bethel.
What we attempt to do is to always speak, blunt, blood raw, straight from the city of Jacksonville, to connect the economics , politics, education in the streets. So we slide on every concept, we slide on every topic. We're going to just jump on and we're going to slide.'
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Today I have with me, Mr. Anthony Brown. Mr. Anthony Brown is a wonderful community activist here in the Jacksonville area. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a town hall meeting that was hosted by city councilwoman Jacoby Pittman. And uh, since that time we've been working on forging a relationship and you've been doing a wonderful job leading in the city, having initiatives successfully passed through city legislation.
Could you give us a little introduction and could you introduce yourself to us for a second? Yes, certainly. My name is Anthony Brown. I have been in the community advocacy space. Since 2005, 2006, I was stationed in then Fort Benning, Georgia, where we dealt with the Katrina evacuees. Since I've relocated back to Jacksonville, Florida, I've gotten involved in several different organizations, including the NAACP, Urban League, et cetera, et cetera.
But we haven't had the success with those organizations until we formed our own, which was Red Alliance for Justice, which initially dealt with the injustices of redlining here in Jacksonville, Florida since 1938. We have been instrumental in getting two pieces of legislation passed here locally, which was the redlining resolution that was passed sometime in April.
And then here recently, Donna Deegan, the mayor of Jacksonville, just signed off on the Durkeyville bill that's going to be a study that's going to allocate 200, 000 conducted to the study, to, be a series of town hall meetings, et cetera, et cetera, for the community to be able to be involved in shaping some of the vacant lots that the housing authority here owns.
So for us, we're excited. We do understand moving forward that if we really want to see something come to fruition in terms of tangible change, we're going to need the community to come out. Which is why we have a series of town hall meetings that we do every third thursday in which we invite the community to come out.
And then we also at the end of these town hall meetings stress the importance of civic engagement and what that looks like in the community. In some of the areas that we advocate for, if we had, a little bit more civic engagement, a little bit more involvement, we could go down to city hall and we could build the credibility of the community that's advocating for the things that we all know it needs, just like any other community.
So, as I say, that began with my intro, I really stress that everybody's community is only as strong as the residents that live there. If we want to be a strong community, we need the residents to come out, be a part of these town hall meetings moving forward, because if not, these communities will be just like any other community that's being predatorized.
It will be genderfied and it will be a community that used to be. So I say all that to say this, I'm excited to be on the town hall today. I'm a very black and white person. I love everyone. But right now my concern is about Durkaville Myrtle Avenue, the core Northeast or Northwest, rather Jacksonville, Florida, and seeing that community be restored to the robust, thriving community that it used to be.
Thank you. Thank you for that. Hey, so before we, , dive into some of those things that you're doing right now today. Let's take a step back and let's look at, , how we got where we are, today. Now, we know a lot of, members of the black community, you know, , share, democratic views in principle, right?
How did we get here? Right? What is the political evolution of our community? How did we find ourselves with some of the views that we shared today? I think here recently, when I say recently, I'm going to talk about the last 60 years with FDR and then some of the other democratic representation that we've had at the federal level, most black folks have associated the democratic party with the party of the black community.
On the surface, it sounds good because of the new deal policies in terms of the, the, the civil rights act bill, and the voting right bills that were passed in 64 and 65 respectively. , those things, at least on the surface were fine. But here recently, there hasn't been anything that's come to fruition in terms of tangible change in the community.
And now we're at a crossroads. Do we stick with the democratic party? And I'm talking about black people specifically, or do we. Kind of where our options and at least try to be courted like every other demographic, or at least other demographics do. And I think right now we're at the place until the point with this election between Biden and Trump, two individuals I have no respect for on any level, but at the end of the day, my thing is if, I hold my vote and I'm intentional about what I want and what my demands are.
And one party is willing to go all in with what our demands are. Regardless, if you're red or blue, I think you should do that. The problem is a lot of us are still on the blue plantation. We think that we're going to be shamed. And these democratic apologists are going to come out and just drag us across the street, the whole nine.
You ain't got nothing to lose. And I know Trump said that, but I'm not a fan of his either. But what I am a fan of is. What we don't do is we are not intentional about our own politics and our own representation. Okay, man. A, a, a, Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Jesus. You hear him over here? Hey, he being real intelligent, but it sound like the man just said, vote for Trump.
Hey, hey, hey, I'ma, I'm gonna ask you straight up, straight up if, if a Republican, and this is my camera right here, okay? Yeah. You look in the camera. If a, if a Republican candidate was going to give you those things that you asked for, do you go on election day and vote for Donald Trump? Because it's in line with what your, agenda is.
Do you vote for Donald Trump in favor of your agenda? If Donald Trump says that he's going to give black Americans reparations, I vote for Donald Trump right now. If Biden says he's going to give us reparations, I vote for him now. If Cornel West says, I'm going to give you reparations, a person who's not Democrat or not a traditional Democrat or Republican who may be on the ballot says, we're going to give you reparations.
I urge black Americans to do that. Now, before you answer my question, I know there's a lot of people out there saying just reparations is enough for you to vote for that person. Yes. When you have women out there who are feminists who are talking about sexual reproductive rights, they're not concerned about everything else.
They're concerned about that. They are willing to go all in based on one topic that concerns them. Guess what I'm willing to go all in with? Reparations for black Americans. If Donald J. Trump says, hey look, Anthony Brown or activists or a, whatever you are, black man, whatever, we're going to give you reparations right now.
I'm saying to the world, Democrats, Republicans, whatever in between, I'm willing to vote for Donald Trump. If he says he's going to cut the check. Anthony Brown just told y'all how y'all going to get that vote. So if you want the vote or the black community as per Anthony Brown reparations, what, what would a reparations package look like?
From your, from your desk. Reparations package and or construct would be similar to what the so called Native Americans have, which is a plot of land that we were promised with the special order 15 before the president was assassinated. And then they repealed and gave all that land back. And some of the area that we're sitting in right now here in Jacksonville.
We would be a protected class. There will be legislation for us in terms of an anti black bill that we still have not gotten since the 1800s, since we were being lynched. We've always been advocating for some bill of that of some sort. And of course there will be some type of payment, some monetary payback or restitution.
Most people push back on that because they feel as if to give us money would mean that we would misappropriate the money. My pushback on that is you never say that about another demographic, for example, the Native Americans. Some say they're on the reservation drinking away their money, but who cares if it's owed to them?
If it's such a big issue, why has it been given up to this point? I'll tell you why. Because even though you're taking the lowest common denominator of black people and using them as a case study to not give the money, the reason why I'm in favor of you giving the money is because folks who have yet to be able to create generational wealth now have an opportunity to pay off debt.
Now I have an opportunity to start that business. Now I have an opportunity to group fund and come together and build institutions that at this current, Predicament or the current situation they find themselves in. They don't have the ability to do that. Keep it up. That would be my pack. Hey, keep it a book.
Keep it a book. If our community get that money right now, I'm kind of so in the mind frame of Dave Chappelle, where you say Cadillac is becoming the fastest growing. Car dealership in America at breakneck speed. So, so, so my question then is, is, does that really happen? What does that look like? Our community get that money.
What do you really think happens with that money? That money comes to our community. I think, just like I said, I think you have a certain amount of folks who take it and use it on rims and use it on things that are not productive and superficial materialistic items. And then I think you have a large segment that would buy land.
Like the 19 people that went out to Georgia, like the people, man, who want to start their own business. I'll take it a step further. Data has shown us, and I used to be that guy, but data has shown us in books like the color of law, the color of money that black people in terms of a demographic per capita, save the most amount of money out of all demographics.
The data also shows us that if given an opportunity, what little we can do a lot. So the narrative, in my opinion, is a little bit overblown because the narrative of what black folks look like all the time is such a negative one. What I'm saying is reality and the data are saying one thing and the perception of black people are saying something totally different.
Yeah. I, and I'm a proponent of being able to push. that that critical thought, right? because it's necessary. Yeah. If a joke is gonna go by rims and chicken wings, do that. But my thing is one from amongst us need to be the rim seller. One from amongst us need to own the chicken farm where we're gonna go and purchase all this chicken.
I don't care what you do you do with your money at this point in my life. You know, after you've lived and you've seen some things and you know, a lot of us walked, have walked around. With that messianic complex for many, many years. But right now, it ain't even so much as pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.
It's really just stop making excuses for the things that I know I should be doing, and then just go out and go do that, right? And then for those of us who possess that passion, for politics, you know, gain a little bit of an understanding about the strategy that needs to be employed. Because right now, when I see us move towards, polling stations in droves, for me, it's not a celebratory thing because I'm knowing that you finna go in there and you finna waste your damn time because the majority of us are making decisions based on emotion and it's not based on strategy, right?
Because based on what you just said, as are, as, as eloquently as you articulated it, right? We may need to consider. Other options, right? Because the options that we have considered up to this point just aren't working out for us. Like what, what does our present political situation look like from your desk?
Right now it looks piss poor because either the narrative is you vote blue, no matter who, like most of us do at an, at a high 80 percent in some cases with black women, almost. In the mid 90 percentile, or your alternative is to vote red, just because you're tired of what the blue is doing. I'm not a fan of either, or I'm a fan of starting right now for those people who are in the political space to.
Identify that person who was 20, 21, 22, who was a political science major, or who's been doing community work, or who was a person who has credibility in the community, groom and finance that person. So when it's time for them to run, because you've already done the work two, four, six years out, you already know that they're invested in because you've already done the heavy lifting.
What I don't like about when we talk about politics is we always tell people to go vote. But when you vote blindly, somebody who's done those things for that candidate knows they're going to get something back on that return. So what I'm telling black folks, and everybody else for that matter. If you want to return on your investment in terms of politics, you got to put some skin in the game.
And that means coming out of your pocket for the politician, as opposed to just a strip all the time. Hold on now. Hold on.
We'll come back and we'll tap back into that point later on. But, but, but now, now people say that you got to vote. Our, our four parents, our forefathers, Sacrifice their life for the right for us to be able to vote, but there's not just two votes. There are three votes, right? And a lot of times we don't look at how we can leverage the power of the third vote In order to be able to achieve our political aim because we feel like we need to be rewarded or we don't have a delayed sense of gratification.
I want to be able to experience pleasure now, not understanding that this four year period of time is a small sacrifice in a 500 year period in which we've been mistreated and taken advantage of. What's four years? Right? What's four years in order to be able to prove our political worth, right? So it's yay, nay, and abstention.
It's not yes or no. It's not black and white when it comes to politics. That abstaining from voting says a lot, right? Because then when the individual has the opportunity to see, If those individuals who abstain would have been moved to say yay or nay, now we can create the momentum that we need in order to achieve a result, but we don't do that.
We don't look at the strategy of that. I think one experience like that one time where we show our individual, our political might give us the ability to be again to make change. Real strides in our community. We're getting ready to lose a lot, I believe, in this political cycle, more than what we can particularly, anticipate.
It's our responsibility now to chart a strategy that we use to go forward. What would it look? And we don't want to give up too much of the game, right? Because my mom would say the game is to be sold, not told. But what would a framework of a strategy That, or as much as you could share in this space, what would a framework of a strategy look like for our current reality?
Are you talking about at the federal level or are you talking about at all levels of? I'm saying, cause, cause really, in our community, we shouldn't even care who the president, right? If we talking federal, at the federal level, but , I'm saying from you as a, as a community leader, where do we start?
We start with the educational component. And, and the reason I bring that up is I have to go back not to put a plug in, but I'm gonna put a plug in. Our town hall meetings and what we're talking about at our town hall meetings is essential for us to be able to educate the average person on why your political representation is important.
For example, I'm going to start at the local level. Even if there's somebody who represents your area has been voted in and the people have voted that person in, if you don't like it, you can get enough participants, you can get enough people sign a petition and you can get that person removed. And whoever the person is that you want to take over for that person has been removed.
You're already know, well, you were already know that that person is ready to step up and represent you accordingly. If we go to the state level, whether it's a state rep, whether it's the governor, et cetera, et cetera. If you've already laid the template for what you expect, I want this person to bring some resources to some of these red line areas, specifically an area that we deal in.
If that person is not speaking on that level and on that language, you have somebody who's ready to step up and do that on the federal level. I'm going to say something that's probably going to be a little bit shocking. Me personally as a leader. And if anybody's listening, I'm looking at the camera right now.
I wouldn't vote for either one of them. I would either vote for Cornell West, Who's openly supported reparations. If he makes it to the ballot, who's in, if he's an option, or I would not vote and write in who I wanted to invoke down the ballot. So for those who don't know what voting down the ballot is, all it means is.
I write in the presidential, representation who I wanted to be outside of the red and blue representative. And I merely vote for everybody else who was on the ballot. Now some people say I've sat it out or I haven't participated, but as a military vet and as a taxpayer, I did make a choice. Both of the people, man, that were representing the Democratic party and the Republican party respectively, I didn't like.
I did like an alternative. So instead of me wasting my time and my vote that I think is precious, I would much rather write it in. Let me tell you another reason I do that. Black people tend to do better when there's somebody who's perceived to be a tyrant in office, it's easier to organize them, it's easier to, to make them have more of a sense of urgency.
When Biden was in office and going back to the black man, President Obama, when he was in office, black folks, man, were in a state of paralysis. They didn't do anything. They didn't advocate. They didn't do anything of that nature. For the most part, with the exception of a few people, what I'm saying is neither one of them care about you to that extent.
So if Biden goes back in the office, he's not going to do anything for you. If Trump goes in office, he's not going to do anything for you. If the worst case scenario for most black folks is Trump is in office, maybe you will have a little bit more intestinal fortitude, more balls about advocating what you need to get in your community.
So at the local level, there's some things we can do at the state level. There's some things that we can do. And at the federal level, because the electoral college and the corporations and the oligarchs are going to decide the president. Anyway, there are also some options that you can take. That are unconventional.
I think, I think that's very, very good. So, so again, for those of us who are listening, right, the strategy is we're going to start with education. We're going to prepare locally, right? We're going to make an impact at the state level, and then we're going to use power at the federal level. That's not now.
Now remember if you don't know who your state. Congressman or your state senator is, and you know who your, your us senator is, or your us congressman is, you're really playing a game to act like you know what's going on because you want to be able to have, good commentary while you standing around the water cooler, but you ain't necessarily really making any impact because Marco Rubio don't care nothing about what you're talking about right now.
You probably should be trying to figure out who is that person at the state level that mirror that function inside our actual reality. Me personally, I had an opportunity. To, um, so talk to a gentleman, , several years ago in the city of Killeen, Texas, by the name of Larry Smith and Larry said black people are in a terrible situation because they're going to vote Democrat.
And since they're going to vote Democrat, Democrats don't make policies. In order to be able to support that community because they know that black people are going to vote Democrat. He say, likewise, and this was a Caucasian guy. He's saying, likewise, Republicans don't make policies with black people in mind because they know they know you're not going to vote for them.
See, see, here goes the thing on people. And it's just my, this is just my opinion, right? This is just me running my mouth, but. It makes more sense to deal with an individual, even if you dislike them, that would keep their word because they understand how to do business than to befriend an individual that don't have no intention on paying attention to whatever your actual need is.
And I think that's what we have right now in the support structure of our political framework. We have a group of individuals that will tell you whatever you want to hear. But don't have no intention on ever, ever really making a good on their promises. You know what I'm saying? That's like having a, that's like having a significant other that always talk to you about your anniversary, but don't never celebrate it.
Let me speak to that because right now, cities like Chicago, New York, LA, et cetera, et cetera, they're having issues with the migrants coming in, illegal immigrants, those folks, man, who are legal, et cetera, et cetera. What I admire about them. Even though in a lot of these black communities, they've been undercut.
There's a book, shout out to Roy Beck. It's called last and the hiring line talks about the history of immigration, how it's affected black communities since 1820. So there is some data that's talks about how immigration negatively affects black people. But anyway, what I do like about the migrants that are coming in is they understand politics more than white and blacks.
They understand that I'm going with. The political entity that's going to give me tangible resources, whether that be housing, whether that be money, whether that be education, whether that be transportation. And I bring them up and I bring up a lot of Hispanics in this space because my admiration is it doesn't matter if I'm a Republican one voting cycle.
I'll switch. And go to the Democrats in two and four years, if I feel like it's going to be beneficial for my community, there is no real, emotional tie or investment in being blue or red, other than the fact that I want to have green for generations to follow. And so my thing is why are white people loyal to the Republican party?
You're part of the 99%. Why are black people more loyal to the democratic party? You're part of the 99%. If you really want to be revolutionary, we would all get together and say, look, I'm getting my clock clean. Mortgage prices are out of control. We all got to move in together. These jobs are not paying me anymore, but food and everything else is going up.
Why don't we vote for what's in our best interest? Now that's conversation probably for another day, but the point I'm trying to make is, I don't vote down those lines. And anytime I'm giving people any type of advice, politically, I always tell them that politics, according to Claude Anderson, is quick pro quo.
Something for something. It's not based on who looks the cutest. It's not based on what fraternity she's in. It's not based on if he's black. It's not based on if he's a racist or he's not a career politician. What is he talking about giving you that's going to be beneficial for your community? It's not that hard.
We make it hard because we use everything else as an excuse not to do the work on the front end so you can get something on the back end. Hey, I'm like this and you know, um, yeah. I don't generally vote. I don't generally vote and I'm going to put that out there. Yes. And for the way that I can carry on in a political dialogue.
See how you just said. Okay. Okay. I don't generally vote. I don't generally vote because as a member of the United States. Period. Okay. I voted twice. I voted once for Barack Obama in the parking lot at my momma house because the lady walked around and she brought me the ballot. And then I voted again for, I voted again for county commissioner, John driver in bell county, Texas, he was the first democratically elected black county commissioner in the history of that county.
I wasn't going to miss it. I wanted to be, I wanted to be a part of that process. All right. So me, I generally don't vote as a member of the United States military. I'm vote. I want to support the individual who got the best defense package. But at the end of the day, It don't matter who was the president.
I still was going to have to perform my function. So that means that the office of the president, whether the Democrat or Republican is not as profound, because it's not like with a democratic president, then we don't, anything that Republican had, we'd have to do it again. So real quick, not to cut you off.
I already hear some people saying, but the Republican president is going to give you more funding for you to do your job at an optical level. So is there something to that or you don't even look at it at your, at your level in terms of that affecting you? Because that's absolutely not true. The Republican president is not going to give the soldier more revenue in order to be able to live for their family better.
Right? They might increase defense spending so that way we can get more missiles and planes and boats, right? But it doesn't make the quality of life for the soldier better, whether Republican or Democrat. And we've lived under both of those type of administrations as members of the United States military.
So as members of the United States military, what I'm looking for is real politicians. I ain't heard one yet. I ain't heard one. That says something and it makes sense to me to, um, be able to move America's sons and daughters into harm's way. So when you want me to go out and vote for a president, I want to go and vote for a president that I feel like is at the tip of the spear and is going to make a decision that is going to benefit America's sons and daughters, and if you have to make a decision to put America's sons and daughters in harm's way, Then when we go to go pick up our gear and deploy, you need to be in the first seat on the plane, right?
That's my, that's my opinion as a, as an individual who has served 22 years in the military at the highest level. So anybody with an opinion about my voting or my decision, not to can frankly kiss my ass. Cause they ain't done any of the things that I've done in support of this grateful nation.
Right? So, so, so my, my, my, this, my decision to abstain, Is I'm abstaining because that is also what I fought for. I fought for the right to not have to pick one of you. Sorry, jokers. And when I find somebody that is going to actually live up to those values that they espouse towards, then I, then I will only go down that line.
I I'm going to second opinion. Cause I've been in 19 years myself in the U S army, but it goes back to my strategy. If we're talking about a president, the people are the entities that control people. political elected officials, quote unquote, are the corporations and the oligarchs. And for those people who don't know what oligarchs are, oligarchs are people like the Roosevelt's, the Carnegie's, the DuPont's that have a wealth, have generational wealth, have control, uh, a part of the bill of burger group.
And they are part of a lot of these secret societies that control our fate. From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep. If you're in my mama age group, they call him the muggety mug. Now my point, my point is, you know, Clarence Thomas, he's one of the nine on the Supreme court. Uh, the billionaire has been giving him some gifts and doing all kinds of stuff, taking his family out the whole nine.
A lot of people have a problem with that. I don't because he's nomics, which simply means. I'm going to invest in my rep, in my representation, whether it be Al Capone, whether it be the commission or whether it be somebody who is the hunt family who owns the Kansas city chiefs. I have a, I have skin in the game.
It doesn't matter about their character. Are they going to bring to me what I want quick pro quo, which is something for something. Are you going to bring some resources to my community to hold nine? And if you understand that. You don't get caught up into the morality conversation. You don't get caught up in what they should be doing.
We live in United States of America, a country that was founded on slavery and the creation of capitalism on the backs of human beings. So the morality conversation shouldn't, shouldn't enter into it. What are you willing to do in order to make your situation better and know the game? I had a friend of mine the other day said, You know the problem with being successful?
People just don't know the game. They don't know how to play the game. They don't know how to win the game. Patrick Mahomes has the opportunity to win three Super Bowls in a row as a quarterback. And we got all these great quarterbacks in the league. They understand the game. They may be an active participant in the game, but they don't know how to win the game.
And it's a black folks and every other group who's not getting anything from their political representation understands the game. They know how it's played. I never get upset because if I didn't put no skin in it and I don't have all the people in the community behind me, we ain't gonna do it. And black, and I know what black people saying, we ain't got the money.
You may not have the money, but you got the influence. You got social media. You got the power of, of, of popular culture. You got, you got people in different countries, man. If I walk down the street, it's a third world country with Tupac and Biggie on as a mural. Use what you have that's and use that leverage to your point.
I believe as a person, man, who's going to retire in the military has been in for two decades as a person who's worked that don't drink and smoke. If I decide not to vote, that's my choice. No Roland Martin, I'm name calling or any other, uh, democratic shield or, or democratic apologist is going to shame me into voting for somebody who said in the seventies that he's not a fan of integration.
Although you have the black community who's still in support of Donald Trump, who did what he did in the eighties in terms of going against central park five and keep them black folks, man, from going into the housing, et cetera, et cetera. Both of them have blood on their hands. So I don't feel like I have to pick the lesser of the two.
I'm going to pick the best for the community. Yeah. And it's unfortunate because when you're, when you're a public servant, you know, your whole entire life is out front in order to be examined. Even for us, as we sit here right now, you know, the more statements that we make. The more attention that we garner, the more individuals will want to be in our life, right?
Because nobody really want to be happy for you. Ain't nobody really trying to celebrate your successes, but guess what? These is regular people, right? They make mistakes. They say things it's 2024 in a country that to your point, it's Is morally decrepit, or it was founded on the black on the back of slavery.
So, so why, at all, not nothing against any of you beautiful black people that have something to say about politics and all that kind of stuff. But the fact of the matter is, it is what it is, man. Like, Knock it off, right? Stop trying to rule an individual into believing that, you know, , times have changed or that something is different.
The same values that these individuals had at the foundation of this society is the same values that they possess today. , it's our responsibility in order to be a little tougher in order to be able to understand what we're trying to get to and then go and move towards getting it. Right? And, and, and that's just what it is, right?
We can't expect the whole entire system to change to be able to attend to Our particular need, we have to be willing to change in order to be able to, , requisition the resources that we require. That's just what it is. It's not personal. It's not a group of individuals. I had an opportunity, really, at one of the beautiful town hall meetings that you We're constructing and, um,, in a young lady, she stood up in there and she said they get paid when we are poor, right?
And when she said that in my mind, as I was sitting to the back as a high school dropout from Miami, Florida, that had opportunity to become a senior leader in the United States military, go on to achieve educational success and now serve as a leader in that Amazonian network. I was asking myself, who is they?
Right. Who is the day? Because in my life, the day has always been me. Right. And so, and so the only individual that have ever prevented me from achieving something that I set out towards accomplishing had been me. Now, now I ain't going to act like it's not a very, very real, system in our society that keeps individuals behind.
However, once you recognize that it exists, if you stay behind because of it, Then you accepted that right now. I don't agree with what the joker name is. The black dude that, uh, that, that Donald Trump used to always drag out to make say stupid stuff. Um, doctor, um, what the dude name is used to work for the place up there in Maryland, uh, with the stem cell research and all that stuff being Carson, being Carson, neurosurgeon, a neurosurgeon, being Carson.
Now, a, now, now a big car. So we're saying slavery, uh, was a choice, right? I don't agree with that kind of stuff, right? I don't agree with foolishness. However, today, right? Niggerliness, poverty, right? Slothfulness, right? Right. Apathy, right? Those are choices that we, that we are making today, right? We making those choices today.
Now our ancestors probably have opportunity to make those choices by virtue of their circumstance. But for us who are sitting around right now, trying to keep it all the way, uh, a hundred, try to be extra gangsta. And you know, you ain't really, really did nothing for real. Right, knock it off. It's time for us to educate ourselves and get as intelligent about the strategy of success as we can, because that's what it is.
Strategy is a success. All you have to do is apply yourself every single day consistently for a period of time and then you'll see the change that you aspire towards. It is what it's going to require in order to be able to change our condition. It's not going to happen overnight. Nobody is going to fall out of the sky looking to try to rescue us.
That ain't what's happening. Ain't no help coming. It's us or nothing. I guess Right. I want to speak to something too. Um, I think a lot of times with folks, we, we have to address that the Koonin and the buffoonery is monetized. Um, there was something in the Virginia colony called miniaturist, manumission, miniaturist, meaning merit manumission, meaning free.
I do something for something and then I can become free because of it. Dr. Anderson talks about it extensively. and really what it was, was there were three or four things that the slave could do in order for him to, to get his freedom. First thing he could do is, create something for master. He would have an opportunity to have his freedom.
The other thing that he would do is he would, , save master. Let's say the house caught on fire or the child got sick and he would jump on top of the child and save the child. And maybe there was an opportunity for him to get free. The third thing is maybe he invented something. And the fourth thing is tell on another black person who is planning an insurrection or a slave revolt, over the a hundred and something, almost 200 something recorded revolts.
It was always a black person that was doing it because it was monetized. Fast forward to today, you still have people that operate on mandatory as manumission. And so what I'm saying is because there is a dysfunction with how we do our politics. Because those types of activities are monetized. If you don't have a code of conduct, if you don't have a code of engagement, that I had when I played sports or when I've been in the military for the majority of my career, then you're going to have people run amok.
And a lot of the talking heads on the YouTube spaces, social media spaces, and on some of these major platforms. They're operating on mandatory manumission. And unless you do something to them or hold them responsible financially, or even put your hands on them, they are going to continue to run amok. And that's what needs to be established and only building institutions and putting the family back together.
So we can have this level of education. Can you start to attempt stem to tide? We can talk all day, but until there's something actual, something Actually in place to hold people accountable, they're not going to do their politics right, they're not going to eat right, they're not going to engage right, and they're most certainly not going to do anything that has the best interest of us as a collective.
Hey, thank you. Thank you for saying that. Now, let me go ahead because this is our first, our or rather our inaugural episode, right? So let's go ahead and let's address some elephants in the room. Um, I am a person of African descent. I am a citizen in the United States of America. In America, there was slavery, right?
That slavery was perpetrated by a very small percent of the Caucasians in this environment. And a, and a great majority of that small percentage benefited. It's, it's a larger population of Caucasians in this nation that had nothing to do with the, with the process. How, however, um, as a result of the power of that process, some of them emote.
And still feel the connectedness to the process as a result of the power of the process. I'm saying all of these things right now to say, as we, , journey down this path together, there may be times where we address uncomfortable subjects, but there, there are no races. In this space. , it's going to be some, some forthright and matter of fact type speaking because we've paid the price in order to be able to talk directly to, these concepts, but as a Caucasian person that's listening, you ain't got to be afraid of other things that's being said because black people really don't, you know, Um, dislike, uh, uh, Caucasian people, because the fact of the matter is not enough of them have even had an interaction with a Caucasian person to formulate an opinion, uh, about them.
And after having spent, um, you know, time in the military, which I contribute to being a factor that normalized interactions between human beings, you learn about, you know, uh, what's really inside of the heart of people and not inside of, uh, respect of color, because once you peel back that color, that's probably one of the.
More simpler concepts of the human, experience. We give it far too much power, to control , our realities. When in fact, it's really a very, very simple process. Either here, here's the, here, let's, let's pull everything away. Either you're smart or you're dumb, either you're rich or you're poor, either you're strong or you're weak.
Right. Either you're white or you're black. I knew somebody from Cali said either you're white, you're black, or you're Mexican. I'mma, I'mma, I'mma, I'mma, I'mma, I'mma let that be what it is, cause Just three, just three races. He said just three, he said three races. He said either you're white, or you're black, or you're Mexican.
Now, I don't know how true that is, but you know, So how does the Asian person feel about that? I, I guess, hey, listen, I ain't from Cali. He said you're white, you're black, or you're Mexican. So I guess if you're Asian, you're like Mexican and white or something. I don't, I don't, I don't particularly know. But, but, but I would say that the military person.
Yeah, there was a man. Absolutely. Chief warrant officer. Hey, but I would say all kinds of demographic people. Absolutely. But, but I think, I think the fact that the matter is at the end of the day, it don't matter. We're human beings, right? And some of those human beings are from some regions of the planet and the region of the plant they from, they look like that.
And some are from other places and they look like that. I ain't trying to Simplify concept and I know it's some very very scholarly individuals that would try to take this and break this down from the diaspora perspective What I'm saying is that you can go to hell because nobody cares, right? It's not it's not moving us towards more peaceful resolve and how we interact as human beings We just want to be smarter than somebody we don't want real solutions And what our children require is real solutions because all over this nation, we are losing our children Because we don't understand strategy, right?
We don't understand how to plug politics in and what role it play. We don't understand education and the nature and the role that it play. We don't understand economics and the nature and the role that it play. And then I don't even know why we want to talk about God. We don't need to pull him out of his place because we don't understand how to use it.
Right. Until we learn how to use the systems, what we should do is we should go all back to square one and let's re educate ourselves because we're wrong about the majority of things that we think we're wrong about the majority of this stuff. Our stories. are baseless. The stories that govern our society, our reality, our existence, they're baseless.
We need new stories. But our, our problem is that we're too afraid to sit down and say, you know what? We can edit that because it don't make sense the planet that listen the planet wasn't created in seven days It took trillions of years to get to where we are right now, right? There's nothing wrong with being able to attack a problem set creatively critically Come on, man.
Just, I'm here for it. Hey, y'all know where to find me. Hey, taterhead got the number. Nobody's afraid to have conversation with y'all because a some gave all gave some. It just is what it is. And right now we're at a place in time and reality where as the as the adults in this society getting ready to inherit.
Immense power is our responsibility in order to be able to write some of these situations in order to be able to lay a foundation for our progeny. And if we don't do that, then we fail just like every generation before us. And I think that we got the ability to do it. Like, the people that I talk to that's in our age cohort, I think y'all pretty cool.
You know what I'm saying? And if y'all pretty cool, then like and subscribe to this channel. That's a shameless plug. Hey, I still got it, Gina. Hey, still got it. But hey, hey, this is the outro a thank you for coming and sitting down and spending time with us today. It was really beautiful. This is the start of something special.
I'll say goodbye to the people before we get ready. Yeah, I just want everybody to know that if you are serious and intentional about being a part of the change you want to see, I encourage you to come to our town hall meetings every third Thursday. Uh, 14 Oh five West state street. Uh, we give you an educational component, an upliftment component and the civic engagement call to action component.
So again, this is Anthony Brown, co founder of red Alliance for justice. Love being in this space. And hopefully, man, we'll see you there. You want to do the work. Let's be prepared and do it. Hey, again. That's Anthony Brown with the red Alliance for justice, man. It's been an honor to have opportunity to sit with you this afternoon.
I look forward to doing more as we move forward. Appreciate it. Thank you.
