EP 202 Proving Your Blackness : A Christian Perspective

What's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and I would like to welcome you to inspire guys people where we balance faith and business To guide you to your purpose. This is episode two oh two proving your blackness a Christian perspective So we don't get into some controversial topics today, you know things that I kind of been sitting on I've been sitting back observing what's happening in the world and I'm gonna tell you like this, you know, I'm saying Just hear me out. I know like we live in a world man It's so tough to have some of these conversations because everybody want to be so triggered, but just so you know I guess I should send I can talk I can talk people I should send a trigger warning we gonna talk about some really controversial things today I'm gonna try to do that from a Christian perspective on with some integrity some character not like we're not gonna bash nobody I do want to like peel back some layers on some of the things that's been going on in the world particularly for real in the Last three years as race has become interwoven with politics and Corporate and just America and wrapped up in some other agendas as well And you know I'm saying as a black man.

I feel like, you know a black person, you know, I'm saying I feel like, you know I can talk about it But I'm gonna tell you like this if you black you might get mad if you watch you might get mad And I want to I really want to try to like really kick it on some topics in a way that maybe we don't use usually kick it Especially especially publicly or honestly because most people who talk publicly have some type of agenda that they're behind So they got to say certain things and that's not how they talk for real at home or in a barbershop about a topic So look at the end of the day. We're gonna try to tackle something that's really challenging in the best way possible But definitely speaking from a Christian perspective I think there's gonna be some value here for black people Christians white people Indian Chinese regardless of which are races we're gonna be doing with a lot of principles, you know, I'm saying this is a principle driven conversation But we're gonna really maybe get into some things that are a little uncomfortable and I'm not trying to be right That's the whole thing about today. Like I'm really not trying to be right I'm just trying to peel back the layers on on a conversation in the topic that has a whole bunch of nuance in my opinion So, you know like sit back relax and enjoy the inspiration we'll be right back with the show I saw every hill you had to climb Hi, what up, what up? This is episode two of two proving your blackness a Christian perspective What I'm a lawyer shine the case I see y'all in the comments talking John look man, let's jump right into it first Thanks first.

I want to start this conversation off with more of my philosophy, right? I think we live in a world that is driven by a real witness So when you think of when I sit back and observe and you might feel different again I'm not saying I'm right about all this stuff But I really want to kick it about this stuff because I think we have to talk about it to progress beyond it And especially as believers, I think we've handed over a lot of these really important conversations to the world We're now I'm seeing Christians kind of have the worldly conversation or at least the worldly perspective Whereas like the world is leading the church and that gets really weird to me When we're specifically talking about things of God and things that are in the Bible and principles that are in the Bible So let's first deal with this We live in a world that is so sensitive that it's created an environment of agreeableness and the reason is dangerous is because when the surface It seems cool. You agree with me. I agree with you.

We can rock together, right? So I'm this political party you this political party. We can rock together I'm this color you this color we can rock together, right? And with this agreeableness This like kind of tendency towards agreeableness has done is created a society that doesn't value trustworthiness All right, so hear me out You know for some people just the fact that like the title of this episode like proving your blackness The moment that I say something that you disagree with you will literally turn it off or get angry or like This is one of those shows especially like YouTube I'm getting weird comments like from people and that's cool But my point is the moment you hear something you don't like you lose your cool you lose your emotions You can't even hear somebody out because you don't like what they say you don't agree with them The reason this is a problem is because what that says to the mainstream media to people with particular agendas It's like yo as long as I say what they agree with I can manipulate them because they don't value trustworthiness Do you know how easy it is for me to say something agreeable?

All I gotta do is sit back for instance and watch the narrative in the world And if there's a particular narrative going around Unless she was Donald Trump, right Donald Trump is an easy topic to me the narrative or the it seems like the consensus for what people can say publicly You know is that you know, hey you you are against Trump, especially as a black person, right? So then it becomes easy for me to sit back and look at that and be like oh we bashing Trump That's cool. Okay. All right cool I'll do that too the problem is I can do that to manipulate you to bring in other things or to get you on my side But you can't really trust me you feel what I'm saying?

Like I said back the last couple years and watch people specifically curate messages so that people can like them And here's my point I would rather see your real hand like I would rather know that we disagree if I can trust you so here's my example Let's say you I don't even use let's say you vote Democratic I vote Independent Well, if I hear you out and I'm like why is this person voting Democratic and you know the reasons why and you standing on some real strong Reasons and I know where you coming from like all right cool We disagree but we could be cool. I would rather that over a person that votes just like I vote simply because the world told them to vote That way so as it relates to media for instance Like we are just looking for a bunch of agreeable people and agreeable topics And that's just not a realistic world because on top of that the moment we disagree with somebody Then we lose our mind and we not hearing them out is like well So are you telling me that the only people that should open their mouth and use their voice are people who 100% agree with you? I don't even think that's possible first of all. So that's the other thing that this is doing is creating this world where like It's delusional for people to really think like you think your cousin your best friend the person next door You think this person just because y'all like pump where the same flag pump the same agenda Whatever, you know black lives matter blue lives matter whatever I don't care what side of the fence you want if you think that just because somebody were the same t-shirt as you like That y'all actually agree on everything Somebody line, bro.

I would rather I would rather know that a person we agree on these three topics We disagree on these two and then you don't challenge me. I'm a challenge you. That's what I prefer So I'm saying that you know for a reason what I've done What up genie how you feeling? I'm saying that for a reason because I feel like what we've gotten caught into right now is that we're only listening to people We agree with which means we're not getting the other size of the story like and we not really have an intelligent conversations We're not really having layered in nuanced conversations because the moment somebody open their mouth and is not like Representing what your favorite politician says then you put them in a box or you like now you are like identifying them and calling them Something that they not now you calling them out of their name now They're a bigot because they don't agree with you like bro.

I like I like all flats when I order my chicken I know some people like drumsticks imagine if just because you ordered drumsticks I'm like I'm done with you I don't want to hear nothing you gotta say because you like drumsticks and we like all flats We don't all flats gang over here like it's you can make a group out of anything bro Like you can make a gang out of anything we wear this color you wear this color Hey, we this we on this side you on this and I understand as human beings were super tribal and that's why we do this But we have to stop cutting people off simply because they disagree with us If the person is trustworthy I value that over agreeableness now I'm not being literal like with everything. I know there's like, you know, there's a lot of nuance to even that statement We go oh, so we can walk together. Let's they agree come on. Let's not be out of context I'm speaking in the context of how we emotionally carry ourselves throughout the world and we are how we interact with people and engage with people It can't be simply based on just fully agreeing with you.

All right, bet bet it up. I love it All right, so let's get into it. The first thing I want to talk about is I want to talk about a genre So if you've been following an NBA or not Again, you may agree or disagree with my perspective on this But whether or not you've been following an NBA or not John or John or I believe a 23 year old superstar player for the Memphis Grizzlies He's one of them new up-and-coming players the face of the NBA one of the new faces of the NBA So a person that has the opportunity to be the next speaking as part far as face not, you know Talent necessarily, but Kobe Bryant LeBron James like the next, you know I don't even I don't consider Giannis the face of the league But he has that kind of potential where he just got his own shoe He just got some endorsement deals and then he found himself a couple months ago in a situation right around two months ago On Instagram live flash in a gun in a strip club. Now.

This is a young black man playing a sport, you know He's you know, obviously a famous athlete and this this conversation got a lot of people up and down on different sides Really upset so John Miranda was suspended eight games, which was a little tricky. He said he went to some rehab and let's fast forward to This week or last week, you know He went through all that stuff and then just here two months later He was on Instagram live with one of his own boys and lo and behold John Miranda is on their flashing a gun So this is the sports world in particular and probably other worlds up in the uproar where everybody has their opinions A lot of black people like people mad at him like bro You trying to act like a thug and you ain't about that life and I get it I've listened to a lot of perspectives, but there's some interesting things and layers I want to peel back on this There's there's telling him because he grew up middle-class with both parents that you know, you ain't about this life You shouldn't be doing this this another that another all right So I want to I want to talk about this because I think this is challenging number one I think is real interesting how we view black people with both parents now. I get all the statistics I get the stereotypes and all that stuff, but It's interesting for me to hear people say like yo, you got both parents You ain't grow up in a hood joint about that life But I want to defend John Miranda a little bit at least in thought at least philosophically All right, I think John Miranda might have been proven as blackness Well, like like I legitimately think part of what John Miranda might be doing and this is Mike, right? I don't know him Obviously, I'm giving a perspective based on observation and I feel like he might be trying to prove his blackness now You might be looking like that on the extent Why would he be trying to prove his blackness?

Well, I want to talk about some things in the black community and in the world at large that I think both blacks and Whites and others can learn from this conversation where at least maybe spark a thought or maybe you disagree and that's cool But hear me out when you grow up You know in America as a black person in the last, you know, however many years Let's just say between the 60s and now, you know, most of us I don't know I don't have the numbers right I'm from Detroit I grew up in Detroit and I could just tell you that you know, the city was 88 percent black And so most black people if you in Detroit You was 88 percent of the time was a black person and when you grow up in the hood, you know what I'm saying Which also gets a lot of stereotypical? Negativity around it that is perpetrated by black media artists and all this stuff like we paint a lot of these pictures It's perpetrated then others white America everybody else buys into it as well But my whole thing with John Miranda is like all right When you grow up outside of the hood because most black people grow up in the hood the reality of it is I've taught the people that feel pressure because they don't feel as black as everybody else because the reality of it is the hood culture is pushed on black people By everybody by black people by non-black people like everybody pushes the hood on black people to a point where the hood is literally So much of our identity that even when you make it out you can't make it out hear me out Even when you make it out the hood you can't ever really make it out. Why is that? The music I look at these artists right and I have a feeling it's just an inkling This is literally just me being a marketing and business person looking at the landscape of the world I think it's gonna be a lot more.

I think hip hop is gonna take much more inspirational Route over the next couple years. That's kind of the next wave that I personally see potentially happening in music There's a lot of like inspiration taking Christian and godly principles But wrapping up wrapping them up in the ways of the world and they have to do that mostly for political reasons But I think that's gonna happen when you look at music for what it is today The music perpetrates a lifestyle that these young players and young people like John Moran when you get into NBA Which is very hip-hop driven. It's a hip-hop culture in the NBA You start wanting to be what you see Because all the songs are telling what they do what they did to get there and what you ain't if you not them And so when you grow up in a community or a culture of people that constantly elevates a certain lifestyle a lifestyle of being a hood gangster Thug who you would kill what you would do like if that lifestyle is elevated people wheel-cub it that lifestyle So when you have a young person like a John Moran who has both parents Even when you think about the way we talk about why he shouldn't be carrying a gun or flashing a gun like it shows you deep down in the layers How it's almost like a softness associated with that where you ain't really black you ain't from where we from so you talking Y'all going these commercials and all this stuff and talk all this black stuff and all this like and that is just you talk about it Simply based on skin color, but then once we really start peeling back the layers What you really talking about is culture you really telling black people if you ain't from the hood you ain't black And if you don't act like you from the hood you ain't black So that's why I believe we see a lot of these rich kids now who are taking on a cultural appearance of the hood, right? And we're calling that black culture.

That's not black. That's not a skin color. That's culture That's like based on where you at in society you feel what I'm saying And so all this stuff what it does is perpetuates a lot of stereotypes But I'm trying to put you out at least a little bit in the mind of a young black man That is growing up with both parents and now being looked at by his peers That's soft and the reason I'm calling them his peers is because when you grow up playing basketball black basketball If I was white that'd be horrible that'd be a clip Blasket ball when you grow up playing black skin that's horrible But when you grow up playing basketball basketball Basketball is one of those sports that you know you got to go to the hood like I heard on Jay Williams talk about this Jay Williams from ESPN who played for Duke and was drafted by the Chicago Bulls He grew up in middle-class America his father was an executive at I think American Express or something like that So Jay Williams is a perfect example what I'm talking about of like, you know people will even now like be like Oh, he ain't black enough and what you're really saying is culturally he ain't good enough But when you do that you put pressure on people who are not from the hood to continue to live out these stereotypes And part of the reason why is because we never actually teach people how to be successful How to move in the world and even the people who learn it and they are not being honest because There's monetary value in perpetuating the hood lifestyle. What do I mean?

You take these major artists? I'm not even gonna call nobody out specifically you take a major rap artist today major hip-hop artist pick anybody that's rapping about guns and killing people and Rapping about being so good and so gangster, but also lives in a You know, 10,000 square foot mansion in in you know, the most wealthy parts of America with neighbors that are probably 100 millionaires billionaires neighbors that are executives and leaders at corporations and things like that So meaning their kids go to private schools with these people's kids and their children are living a completely Different lifestyle they're living a completely different lifestyle than they portray but they're perpetuating his lifestyle because the record companies and you know some of the corporations are You know, paying a high fee for making trendy music that hood kids can relate to and in a hood kids go out And they live out your music while your kids grow up in a protected bubble in the best parts of society and affluent neighborhoods They're growing up in diverse neighborhoods. Their friends are of other cultures and races. These black kids are taking all type of other cultures of prom Most of the time I'm just being real again We're gonna talk about some uncomfortable things but not from like I'm not trying to trigger you like this is like We've got to be honest.

You feel what I'm saying So hopefully y'all can understand the reason I'm saying I'm trying to take control of these things from a Christian perspective But some of it is uncomfortable and so I got to be real with you when I watch these Unwealthy black people when I see their kids go to prom I very rarely see like as an example of black young men take a black girl to Prump like all the time So I'm like wow, this is interesting these people who are perpetuating this hood culture like in presenting it as as their reality When it's not their reality, they're just paid to do it I blame them also blame the corporations and executives who pay them to do it and perpetuate those lifestyles So this is not just blaming black people or whatever But I'm trying to uncover some layers about how we all have accountability in these cycles that are happening and you have these rappers and hip-hop artists That are perpetuating this lifestyle and I'm looking at eight kids on the Instagram page and they go in the prams and in luxury cars and Design or clothing and they go in the prams with all type of cultures Well, I'm like wait a minute y'all pressure in the regular every day folk down here like us like we got to be separated And we got to be mad at each other. Yo girl. Yo, son. It's taking a white girl to prom, which is perfectly fine to me You feel what I'm saying?

I'm not saying that's a problem I'm saying it's a problem to perpetuate it as a problem so that normal people in society are buying the mess and living out the mess While you're in the Hollywood Hills living the luxury lifestyle with all types of cultures You're doing business deals with all types of cultures. Meanwhile young black people like John Moran are trying to prove their blackness Do you feel what I'm saying people? I am on YouTube right now, Jan. Um, all right.

So that's the John Moran thing. That's at least some of it now The reason I'm talking about this is because we have to get to a point where it's okay to be black To be middle class to be upper class to be successful without perpetuating even if you didn't come from the hood I gotta say this. I gotta I gotta sit my water first sit my water. Oh, this is so uncomfortable.

Don't worry We all have accountability white black everything. All right, so one of the one of the more interesting things to me is What are we gonna do? Over the next, you know, 20 years when a lot more black people start not being from the hood We don't know what to do with this. What am I saying?

So take Clay Thompson and take on Stephen Curry Austin Rivers you're looking at NBA right now, right in the NBA today There are a lot of sons of NBA players in high school basketball and college basketball today There are a lot more sons of NBA players. This is a good thing to me. What does this mean? Why am I pointing this out?

Back in the 90s most players that made it to the NBA were first generation NBA players making it out of rough neighborhoods for the first time And this is how they was gonna make they mama rich and body mama house and take care of their family And that is the story of so many of us, you know who come from the hood, right? And so that's that's a cool story I come from the hood. You know, I'm definitely I'm not I'm not rich I'm not NBA rich for show for show. I know we're near it But you know, I might have made it out you give it.

I'm saying I might have made it somewhere in life And as you start going to maybe different levels in life It it becomes uncomfortable because nobody has ever taught you how to live outside of the bubble So imagine growing up your whole life in this bubble where things work a certain way and you have to survive in this bubble You got to carry yourself a certain way you got to act a certain way You got to be willing maybe to do certain things carry a certain aggression and then you make it outside of that bubble And you have to adapt and that's not really that comfortable for us We don't know how to feel about people So what am I saying? There are so many people because some of the people made it to the NBA, you know over the last 23 or 30 years They went and had kids and they kids grew up rich So I think his name is Cole Anthony played for the magic his dad was in the NBA again You have brony that is in college now Dennis Robinson goes to USC with Ronnie You have so many of these kids now clay times and stuff. I mentioned that they grew up. They're not from the hood So so I like we got a we got to think about this like like they not from the hood, bro Steph Curry ain't from the hood.

He grew up rich. I don't know what to tell y'all. So what am I pointing this out? Pretty soon We're gonna have to start more and more dealing with like yo, how like how how do we teach people that it's okay black and non-black Like we not all the same and it's okay if you're not from the hood because how can you how can I make you prove something that you are?

philosophically what I'm challenging right now feeling back a layer is the idea that being black is equivalent to being hood I Know some people again They like perpetuating this they love pushing this because you know Whatever they can gain from it whether it's some type of clout from being tough or some type of monetary value or whatever But the reality of it is we do society a lot of harm when we keep pushing the idea that being black is equivalent to being hood Why do I say this? I'm gonna prove my point. I see a lot of Famous pro black people do this what I'm about to say right now a lot of famous pro black people if a if a black person says something They disagree with they openly say yo that person ain't black like let's still you know what they say Let's trade this person and we'll take this person and so what you're saying is black isn't about your skin color It's not about your DNA. It's not about your ethnicity It's not about the fact that you came from the same place as me or you had the same struggle as me These people are pushing the idea that being black is about being agreeable to a certain position Whether it be political whether it be social no matter what it is is that we're selling ourselves and our identity as part of some type of Political agenda for the world bro.

Let me tell you something. I'm from Detroit on the east side Our cars got stolen the ones got pulled out on me fights happen like Chasing my people was like listen bro. I hooped in the project like you can't If I don't if I don't vote like you vote, bro You can't take that from me. So this idea that Who you are is attached to like how like like your ideology like no bro even if like let me tell you this Well white person and I'm gonna say this man.

This is something I said before you know like sometimes I envy white people for this particular reason Is that white people get to be whatever they want in America specifically talking about America? I'm like you know international audio listeners, you know, this might be a different conversation I know that culturally in different places this looks different But sometimes I envy the white people in America because they get to be whatever they want. What do I mean by that? You know is white people in the KKK.

Obviously we don't see every white person wearing a white hoodie and think oh my god He's in the KKK if a white dude is at the gym and walk up behind me and he has a boy here And I don't think oh my god. He's a scared right white people get to be rich They get to be poor they get to be middle class. They get to be white collar blue collar They get to you know live in mansions or trailer parts They get to you know do all of these things and they steal white steal white black people like what the ideology that I'm trying to Peel back right now is this idea that we can only be one thing and that and not only can we only be one thing We have to prove it to each other. I know I'm brown have to prove like I don't have to think like you I He's talking about and it's a very it's a very Unfortunate thing that happens and I'm not talking just to black people I'm talking to white people too because there are white people that want to put you in a bubble based on the stereotypes that they have seen in Hurry and I love y'all know that but at the end of the day I'm just trying to be real about the fact that like yo You might have had a bad experience with a black person You can't treat every black person you deal with like they are whatever your past experience is the same way I can't treat every white person based it has some limited perspective because one white dude stole my car It is something and I'm just scared all white people that doesn't doesn't make sense y'all And so like again, I know this is an uncomfortable conversation I'm not trying to be right I know there's a bunch of things that I'm probably missing as I had this conversation things that I might listen back and be like I should have said this or I should have said that but what I'm trying to talk about is the fact of like this idea of proving black Black that blackness I can talk I can't talk people I'm gonna tell you one of the one of the things that the reasons this is important I feel like in a black community in order to change some of these stereotypes We have to be willing to elevate people who are not portraying a hood lifestyle or mentality at all for example, Dr.

Ben Carson Dr. Ben Carson is one of the most successful and smartest black people in the world now Granny he does have a school downtown Detroit named after him But I very rarely hear him celebrated and especially when he was on the republic inside of politics Um, you know, I saw people trashing him. I saw black people calling his wife ugly I saw this on the internet bro I saw it and I'm looking and I'm like bro Do you know who this is like we talk about celebrating and highlighting somebody who has done amazing things and created opportunities for other Black people and it's like the moment that somebody goes outside of the bubble. He from Southwest Detroit, bro He from the hood he was a troubled young man and his mom pushed him and made him read books and things like that There's actually a movie about his life that I watch but like we don't even celebrate him He don't matter why cuz he not dancing because like not his wife ugly bro She looks just like your auntie like what are you talking about if we if we Perpetuate the stereotype that any black woman that looks like this is ugly Like what are you saying?

So we want other cultures to look at a black woman that just because she not have naked or in music videos Or she's not you know, your idea of cute. We want people calling him ugly That's wild to me. That's so wild to me fan Not our culture and totality facts MJ Bell here. Here's the sad thing about it.

I think what has happened is a lot of the celebrity black folks have allowed, you know money to come in and sell each other out This happened, you know at various times in history where people were definitely, you know Bought out and you know given opportunities to keep perpetuating a certain mindset and agenda and the reason that I'm talking about this Is because on all sides I want us thinking about it and in order for us to progress beyond it There has to be some conversation I might not be right about everything I'm saying today But that shouldn't cause you just because you don't agree with me to shut me out Maybe we should have a conversation maybe there's more for me to learn or think about maybe there's more for you to learn or think about But this idea that like oh you don't agree with me you ain't black and I'm gonna get on Instagram publicly and like the great Some person you ain't black cuz it isn't that I don't buy it Also don't buy the idea that we can't be cool with other people I don't buy the idea that you know all white people are bad or something look I'm gonna go into the next part of this conversation that is probably the more difficult part of this conversation So if you if you think I've said anything difficult so far then You know more to come let me sit my wall hear me out Gotta take some water breaks for this conversation fam. It's super wild up I want to talk a little bit about the impact of slavery on black people and white people in America I think the I think that we Minimized the impact of things that happened to us in life I've said this about on the pandemic personally the last three years two and a half years I've alone that that stuff really was was thick and lastly It was rough and I don't think people often take time to sit down and say how did this affect me? I've done that personally so I said I don't mean my wife had talked and I've been like alright This is how I think it affected me These are the things that I think I'm battling out of or the bad habits that that I picked up or you know You always talk about the fact that like friends don't meet up anymore like you know people don't interact with people as much as they used to and These are some of the some of the things that came about from the pandemic kids are not interacting right? So maybe you like no I get with people got it out But your kids they grew up in a different environment.

So we won't really know the effects of the pandemic for years from now So what you think about slavery real quick again? This ain't like one thing I want to say is I don't believe in a victim mentality It's not my way. It's not my belief nothing that I'm talking about today on any end like this ain't about none of us Feeling sorry for each other so if you white you don't got it. You don't got feel sorry Oh my god feel sorry for me you black you don't got feel sorry This is about us progressing in a way that we have conversations especially as believers and brothers and sisters in Christ Which I believe we are no matter what color you are you believe in Jesus Christ and have accepted him as as your Lord and Savior You are my brother or sister in Christ black white Chinese and otherwise So this idea that we're allowing just even the art our ethnicity to define so many so much of us and become limited by it It's also alarming But I think some of it too is because we're allowing the world to lead the conversation the world is having the difficult conversations And so they're manipulating it and guiding and influencing people to think a certain way So I'm having conversations like these again not to be right not to say oh I know everything I'm talking about I'm giving a certain perspective focusing a lot on the black side of the perspective because I'm black Like at the end of the day that has been my life experience.

So I'm talking what I know and what I have lived what I live every day, right? So so here's the here's the other side of it Civil discourse I could not agree more. I couldn't agree more in J Alright, so I want to talk about a little bit the impact of slavery. So just just follow me hear me out on this You know I'm saying don't tell me up if you take something for 400 years Let's just say we started today and I said I'm taking everybody that's over six feet tall if you're over six feet We're gonna put you we're gonna take you down to a field in Georgia We're gonna chain you up and for the next 400 years everybody that's six feet You know you're gonna be enslaved and in 400 years later they became free and then I started creating laws against people that's six feet Here's what I want you to understand the impact.

I believe a slavery it did a number on black people We know that I believe that I believe that we still see some of the residue of slavery to that because there's no way You can do that for 400 years and just expect in a hundred years that it's gonna be okay Like I don't believe that at all I believe that the residue of it because a hundred years hear me out It's not it's not that many generations my grandmother's 86 like we are not that far removed from slavery as we think we are Which means we're not that far removed from the ideology or some of the things that people held on to did a number on black people It also did a number on white people so did a lot of the things that was going on in the 60s These things let's just first just sit back and say to ourselves that these things did a number on us There have been times in my life personally that I've had to sit back and change some of my philosophies or things that I believe are doing My life because I had to actually realize I've where did this come from? Why do I feel inferior well like why am I feeling oh I get it right there? There's um, I'll give you all the easy one look no further than how most black people historically have disciplined their children versus white people Boy black I'm gonna tell y'all right now, you know, I know that you know, I know there. Oh my god, you know People go to jail right now.

Look my grandma had us picking switches off of a tree to get what I have been with a switch plenty of Times now, let me say this that sounds I'm gonna say it's not how worse than it is not that it ain't bad But for me when I look at it if you have these people that are older and their parents may have been the first generation Were second generation born free right? How were how what was the way for 400 years of black person was disciplined or they did something wrong they were whipped That that's what was ingrained in somebody's life for 400 years. You do something wrong. You get a with it Well, you make you set those people free the only discipline they know is So what like and go get go get a tree so so it sounds crazier and crazier the further we get away from it But I want you to understand something that is a lot of people's reality I know for me growing up.

I'm just I'm just keeping it a hundred percent which are like I was looking at white people getting put in time. I'm like, whoa, what are they doing buddy? And no disrespect y'all no disrespect, but I'm just telling you culturally where I came from and how I grew up Yeah, I was looking at your like oh, he's not about to listen to her Listen if I would have gotten a time I would have been the life I was getting whipped Whipped you feel me and so what am I saying the older I got now at first I used to say like yeah, you know You got what I'm like older. I got I'm like wait a minute.

Hold on Brett like I'm not telling you how to discipline your kids By the way, but I am telling you how I thought how I think through and I also don't have children So I haven't had to be I haven't had to deal with this personally I do have nieces and nephews though and one of the things I realized is I got older and really started looking at you know I'm not a history buff, but I've looked at some history and understood some things about slavery I've read some books book or T Washington Frederick Douglass. They're autobiographies and I'm like, oh, I believe whipping your kids And feeling like that's a rite of passage is a residue of slavery. I believe that my grandma because her mama did that to her My grandma 86 again think about that like if somebody born in what the 1940s then any her parents might have been born in the 1920s and eight parents might have been born right towards the end of slavery or the first people free So that's three four generations You only three three to five generations away from slavery and so depending on how old your family is and so my point is They just passed down what they knew right? So why does this matter?

Why am I saying this? I'm gonna tell you why? So I look at how We told my proven your blackness, right? But we got to peel back these layers of understanding But one of the things for me Let's fast forward a little bit and I go back now I've been working in corporate America for 16 and a half years about a grace of God I've been able to build and grow a career from entry level up to the senior man is senior sales manager position I've had you know multiple national jobs now and then able to work with all different type of people I've worked on some headquarters initiatives for fortune 50 organization And like I've been able to have some exposure by the grace of God to a lot of things and I'm always taking notes So other people may just be there it may just be work for them But it's such a even to this days every most things I experienced I'm experiencing for the first time my parents never experience my grandparents never experience So for me like when it comes to something like career I've had to change so many things about myself and it's so uncomfortable y'all I had to realize I was being inferior Why why was I being inferior right and again keep in mind?

This is not a victim entirely I don't need you to feel sorry for me. I change when I recognize things in myself and feel convicted I change and I am smart and brilliant able to grow I've been able to grow my career God has gifted me So even if circumstances have been up against me I can overcome so I don't want you to think the fact that I am about to outline certain circumstances That I mean these to be excuses for anybody who's currently in that situation at all on any level So at the end of the day we get overcome like I've overcome many have overcome far beyond me like and done way more things than I've done So this is not victim mentality. This is being honest. Hear me up So for me a corporate America, it was like all right.

I found myself when I first came in kind of not really I didn't know how it went. I didn't have no mentors I didn't like again. I'm kind of rough around the edges. You know my first day on the job I was I was trying to fistfight somebody.

I'm just keeping a hundred with y'all my man cusset and Like for me, I was just you know not too far removed from seven mile at the time like you call me on my name We got so we like I'm at work like these like I squared up with him like let's go My man was like completely dumb white dude. We cool now. I got blessed. So he was like bro was going on But again, it's like bro.

You don't talk to me like that like we bought the fight So I was rough around the edges My point with all of this is because I've been able to grow my career I've taken the things that I've learned I bring them to this podcast and I challenge the people around me So there are times that I'm dealing with young black people and I'm seeing inferiority in them I'm seeing fear in them. They want to settle when you come from our community and this is it because you're black This is because of the way you were raised or the culture you come from and I'm specifically saying that because I don't like all these stereotypes They're like just because someone is a certain skin color They're not as smart or they would know I'm bread don't got to do with that It's the fact that you were raised under a site certain ideology that I believe is residue of slavery So you got a break out of that so you can tap into your true potential and show who you really are So when I'm challenging black people sometimes that's from the hood and sometimes going through that phase I went through where they don't they have a scene, you know hired in there They had a scene there ceiling so they believed that the floor is the ceiling and they comfortable One of the things I realized is like okay, there's inferiority. There's passiveness. There's fear Well, a lot of us were raised to be well behaved hear me out.

I'm not saying that it's bad to be well behaved Do you feel me? I'm not saying it's bad to be well behaved But what I'm saying is if we come from slavery where everything is yes, man. Yes, sir Serve like and again, I know sir can be a positive or a servant leader a servant of God here the context of what I'm saying We come from this this like this ideology of being less than and serving yes, sir Yes, man I said master and I believe that even once black people were freed and you just happy for freedom You just I'm just happy just to be free massive or you ain't my master no more free and I'm not making fun of slaves I'm just trying to act it off for y'all. What's my point?

Well, if we were raised to be well, well behaved you have to be careful because there's a thin line between well behaved and inferior I Watch some of my wife friends even to this day raise their children now again Some of this stuff is culturally it's kind of wild and crazy to see and figure out how you feel about it But they let they keep say way more stuff they kids be I seen white kids around me that look like I'm like my man Five and he my man like he looking like he on the world in his mind. He run a place It's some funny ways I've even dealt with certain people even in corporate America like where there's a hierarchy There are times that I see less level of white people seem way more comfortable acting like they the manager Then then a black person at that level that may be more respective or more fearful of the hierarchy And I believe I literally believe that's a residue of slavery of the aspect of like when you have One side being raised to think that the world is theirs and they and they going out and acting like you in one side being raised to believe that They're less than and you have all these problems in the world is against you and whatever and then that is weakening us All right, my point with this is I don't believe we've graduated to the point where we're telling the black success stories because the success stories Don't fit in will with the agenda to continue to perpetuate Only the bad side of growing up black and America or all this stuff not saying it's not challenges I just don't buy into all of it. Also don't buy into the fact that you know Just because I'm black my life is worse or your life is better just because you white or whatever I don't buy into all that stuff, but I understand there's nuance on every side Now I want to say this I listened to a podcast the other day By Jordan Peterson somebody that I highly respect I like his book 12 rules for life I think he's really smart a white guy white Canadian and there was a white woman I don't remember her name and they were on this podcast and they were talking about Some of these issues with black people now. I'm giving the other side of the coin you feel me and this is where look Just hear me out.

You're not gonna agree with everything. I say that's cool We should be cool to agree to disagree all that you don't gotta hate me I'm not trying to make you hate me. I'm not bashing nobody, but I'm trying to be honest. I Don't I don't easily fit into puzzles you get what I'm saying I don't easily fit into little boxes that people want to put you in boxes and like you not going to agree with everything I think I'm a unique person my brain is unique my thoughts are you meet God created me the same way he created you and so At the end of the day fearfully wonderfully may like we're not created just to think every thought the same way or then a world would be Though but I was listening to Jordan Peterson Genus so I love you too, Jen.

I love all my listeners All right, so I was listening to Jordan Peterson and they were talking about black people and I Disagree with a lot of that was it and I like Jordan Peterson again We should be able to disagree with people and still be okay It wasn't that I disagree with everything he said But they were talking about some things like fatherlessness in the black community and how black people need to deal with that as it relates The crime and jail and all these things I have some truth to it But here's something I want to challenge Specifically the Republican side of politics on because I think Republicans miss a huge opportunity that to me Democrats kind of Manipulate and milk this opportunity to kind of speak to the black community and speak to the emotion of it and kind of really get people's votes That way and I think the Republican sometimes want to deal with facts and logic Which can be cool, but sometimes do that absence of empathy and so as an example I've heard certain people talk about the pandemic and I don't want to get into all that But I've heard them break break it down and talk about the effects of it and all the ins and outs and everything they have wrong with it You know saying people when they when they talk about black people they don't talk about slavery or the the bad laws That created some of the problem now. I think it's a little challenging to say Hey, yo, you an Americanize just go out here get this job We all got problems, whatever, but let's be real about something and I know a lot of other races has slavery and other parts of the world But but I want you to think about something I've heard immigrants who fled their country to come here for you know a chance at America the American dream But imagine if the best country in the world which I believe America is I still believe it's the best opportunity I really do but imagine if the best opportunity in the world is where your people were oppressed It's it's where the ideology that you are less than was it happened and so There are aspects that created this fatherlessness There are aspects that created some of the ways that some of the violence and things So so my thing is simply this we have to deal with both sides of the coin We we can not only blame like I'm a blame you for you know, hey, why are y'all got so much crime here? Why y'all got this? It's like well, hold on breath Um, you know my grandma Maybe she couldn't go to college born in 1940s I don't don't give me caught up in the timeline and stuff But but you know you had a lot of force segregation So even the idea of like AME black churches and a lot of this segregation was created, you know by discrimination Like it wasn't it wasn't about choice at first black people even after being free from slavery We have to deal with this as believers.

We're not allowed to go to white churches for the most part So so black people had to create bubbles of black people right and do things this way And so I think as a society we all it's not that you have to take blame because your great grandfather was racist or did something or you know Or you owe me something. I don't walk around like people owe me anything I just walk around like yo, let's be fair About maybe why some of these things exist you feel what i'm saying Uh mj bell says it always baffles me when rich prominent black people talk about they are oppressed or white liberals So yet it's the wildest thing and listen. Thank you. It is wild.

I could not agree more I'm like bro you rich Okay, so this is what I meant when I said we have to start telling the black success story Because black people what we're doing is we're getting successful and we keep retelling the same story It kind of reminds me about movies these days, you know how they don't they don't really come out with a lot of new movies They just keep remakeing old movies I'm like we don't got no new ideas, bro Like come out with the like what's the new thing show me the new thing show me the the movie about the black guy That's an executive that never so dope that didn't make it out of the hood These are the stories of the future because again step curry ain't from the hood clake time today from the hood A lot of these mba guys are no longer from the hood because their daddies were in the mba A lot of them they mamas is white they families is white dudes is mixed like you got to live with this Like we don't have to perpetuate but this is what happens when you allow the world to keep that narrative going and where I want to challenge Um all sides of it. Um my white brothers and sisters as well is You have to be careful how you fight this stuff because i'm seeing that this is what i'm seeing y'all Again the same thing on opposite sides. I'm seeing some white people be so angry Let's let's deal with diversity and equity and inclusion for a second. Right.

Just we don't touch on it from the black perspective I've heard this personally personally. So i'm i'm talking about personally. I'm not talking about what the rest of the world is I've personally heard some white people complaining about like, you know, he got that job because he was black Or they're trying to feel his diversity number now again. This is a very nuanced thing.

It reminds me of like gentrification These are not easy conversations and everybody tries to talk about him in his black or white fashion But i'm like this isn't black and white. I agree with certain aspects I disagree with some aspects and I don't even know how I feel about others But we've pushed each other so much to pick aside politically Or based on some other agenda or group that people can't even be honest about the unsure of their feelings or emotions, right? And so that's that's kind of what we've done and what we have Created in society with pushing people throughout these things, but when I think about diversity, right? So I heard white people complaining and I was just like, wow, that's interesting.

I thought it was really interesting. Why? because There was also a very long period of time, you know, and still exists where people were passed on jobs Specifically because they were black so so this to me is a this is a conundrum. I'm gonna tell you why Because the the question is how do we fix this stuff?

That's really a lot of what we're talking about and the answer is not the solutions All the solutions that have been presented today because a lot of those solutions are prevented based on people wanting to Events themselves right and get revenge, but but God, you know, we should let him avenge the battle is the Lord's And you can never make something right like there's no way to make slavery right y'all realize that there's no way from a human perspective That's what people argue about represents and different things. There's no way to actually like go back in history and make it right in the past But we just have to figure out what's the best way to progress and move forward and that shouldn't be creating more separation and um, Division and segregation, but this diversity conversation is interesting because All right on my hand you have people that are like, all right as an example they may say hey, we need, you know, 10 percent Um, a black executives or 10 percent of black people managers at this at company A B or C, right? And some people start getting mad like what do you do if you're not black? Oh, but let's say this part first things first Black people don't have it that great because we are now lumped in with every other diversity group So it's not like it's just our party first of all Is women is gender is algae?

It's it's all kind of thing. So it ain't even just the black party anyway So it's like we ain't even really getting our own Situation to start off with so I think first and foremost it's fair to say like you got a chill on that the other aspect of it is well How do we at least be honest about the fact That there's a discrepancy because Even if you say no, I don't believe people were passed on because they're black all right. I'm gonna give you that I got another angle remember I've been in corporate america 16 and a half years And I have had a lot of visibility to a lot of things one of the things I can tell you is that an English? You know, it's who you know, I know you know that already it's your network And so even even steel today, it's all about your network most people believe it or not Have not gotten into high jobs based on their performance or skillset alone There's a bunch of skilled people who are stuck at lower levels because they don't have a network meaning They don't have mentors They don't have sponsors and supporters and people who are willing to put the sample approval on their names so they can move forward So just by default alone if you have a good old boys club and let's say that good old boys club is you know All white men.

Let's just use that. No, fiss of the white man is watching this I don't want you to be offended. We know that has happened in certain things, but don't feel bad my brother But if you have that Quite naturally if you want to just eliminate the idea of racism or holding somebody back because they black you've created a system Where you will keep promoting the people within your network that is potentially quite normal I'm not even blaming you for that aspect, but the problem it creates is that over time Only people like you were being promoted and it created a discrepancy where these other people by default potentially if it's not because of their skin color We're just blocked out from opportunities Just simply because they weren't like you in your group And you might be like what's the big deal with that? Here's the problem.

These opportunities are life-changing You know when I grow in corporate America and when I've gotten certain promotions or different things That means I am able to go to another tax bracket That means I am able to invest or start now thinking beyond just my salary as a source of income because now if my salary is More than enough and I'm not now I'm out of the cycle of survival mode, right? And so then if that gives me that opportunity then I make certain decisions and and investments or things then now my family or my children or Generations may be changed off of these things. So we cannot downplay The impact of job opportunities and I'm specifically talking higher up job. I'm not talking about your everyday job Nothing wrong with every day job if you have that this is a faith and business show I want to stretch you to think beyond just your normal nine to five We're talking about um high level management executive opportunities life-changing opportunities that I can only speak for my family No one in my family had ever had life-changing salaries life-changing Opportunities before and so when I had to fight to get those things and grow and develop to get those type of things Then what happens is now You can start going to teach other people or open in the door We're now giving other people a network so you can bring other people in I'm only saying this for nobody to feel sorry for themselves but we have to be honest about how things work and With that said it may be necessary then because if you are not going to just let people in the network You know that ain't like you by default Then the system may have to change to some extent to allow other people in so that they are not hitting a ceiling and hill back simply because they are not like you These are some of the dynamics that we don't know what to do it because we're so offended or we're so upset Just because someone thinks that again, I may not be right.

I may not understand your perspective I'm not trying to be right right now I'm trying to have a nuanced conversation and peel back some layers to get us thinking and maybe figuring out better solutions to some of these problems Now here's the other side of the diversity thing. I do think it's challenging If you start pushing things in creating an environment where Now you do the reverse and this is where as human beings we want to avenge ourselves We don't typically we typically want revenge in our flesh, right? We don't want to just make something right. We don't just want equality or fairness necessarily We want to do to you what you did to us.

That's how people are. I'm not saying I literally want to do that I'm saying human beings are that way so we get in these situations and we've got to be careful where we were start creating a situation where now Okay, now you create the opposite and you start blocking them out These are things we need to seek the lord on brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm specifically this as a christian perspective because I'm outlying I'm outlining some of these tough conversations again. I know I'm not scratching the surface You probably watching this feeling and burning like but he didn't say this and he doesn't don't worry about it I'm not trying to be right I'm not trying to say everything that needs to be said in the world about these topics that are very nuanced What i'm really trying to get you to do Is we need to come together and point to christ for the solution In order to have a solution to this stuff as believers in unity We got to make ourselves slightly uncomfortable Now I come in and you for listening to this so far because that tells me that at some point I might have made you cringe at some point you might have disagreed with me or thought I went a little too far I thought I sounded a little too black or why you saying it's black people why you saying fy people But the thing is you don't realize is that none of that matters to me more than the fact that Jesus christ is our savior And if you're a christian and i'm a christian, I need to be able to sit on and listen to you and listen to your life experiences And even understand why you disagree with me remember for me trustworthiness is more valuable than agreeableness So if you disagree with me and i trust that it's not coming from a place of um, you know anger or you know Trying to troll or trying to be negative like I can hear you out Don't mean i'm agree with you if you might change my mind we may have to have some discussion But I believe that as believers we need to fight against this tension that the world is creating And create an environment in god's church where you can be white you can be black you can be democrat you can be republican you can be independent And maybe I disagree with some of your stances on something but I shouldn't hate you or cash you out simply because I disagree with you Especially if you a brother or sister in christ because if you say and i'm saying that mean we're going to heaven together I don't think heaven go ahead no democratization.

No independent section, no republican no pro this or inside that section Think it's going to be about giving you life to christ And i'll tell you what what is kind of hurtful to me is that as christians We are identifying more with our worldly ethnicity than our heavenly ethnicity I'm looking to buy one so much of it is about being born again, you know, he's the he's our father like he came to say this is about family christianity is about family Amen, we got to look at christ It is important. Yeah, and so look man I know I might not have said everything you wanted to hear today And it will probably be things that I that I want to address more on this show Again, i'm not trying to be right man. I don't think i'm just the most right person in the world But i'm trying to figure out How do we start engaging these conversations as believers And if I never am able just to share with you It's like yo, this is my experience growing up as a young black dude making my way and finding my way in the world These are some of the challenges. These are some of the thoughts.

These are some of the experiences These are some of the cultural things that i'm up against and Again, some of that is internal pressure black people always want to like we want to kick somebody out the race in a minute Like you ain't black if you ain't black if that whole idea is savage to me It's savage You know, there was there was something that i believe Frederick Douglass said in his autobiography that um It was either him at Booker T I think this was said in Frederick Douglass and he talked about what slavery looked like in the beginning Versus towards the end and he was just talking about how we went from a darker tone to a caramel tone when you look out at the slaves He was saying that for a specific reason because the Masters had raked so many of the slave women that now the children were starting to be born Of mixed race and ethnicity and Frederick Douglass himself was a half white man These are things we don't ever talk about or deal with like even the idea of like when somebody's mixed with black we just call him black That'd be funny to me like that man white too like y'all might hate him. He wanted y'all too A lot of these people are of mixed Ethnicity Frederick Douglass didn't know exactly who his daddy was they he had an idea Um that it was this one particular slave master, but he wasn't sure So think about that Just think about like this this created so many things so many ripple effects on both ends That I think like part of it is like we don't deal with this stuff because we were rather argue about who's right or who's wrong No, it just it happened Um, it happened, you know, so you have some people's like give them all reparations like okay. I don't think that's a great idea Oh some some of like people be mad at me right now like oh dog you messing up the bag like whatever like bro You couldn't handle a $2,400 stimulus check without financial literacy What you're gonna do with millions of dollars of reparations money doesn't solve money problems Ain't nothing you could do to go back in history and and reshape what slavery was but what you can do is educate What you can do is create opportunities and that's why I am pro opportunities for people Because if people have been blocked out of opportunities and you and you create opportunities like not give see and this is a this is another Um, you know misconception to me about some of the opportunities. It's like no, you don't just get some like I'm black in corporate america I didn't get promoted this year.

There's a lot of people got promoted You don't just get promoted just because you're black that ain't how it worked either There's there's I mean A reality it ain't as many black people being promoted as people think anyway like that that that has not translated at That high of a level. There's been some improvement But look bro We all have to deal with The different nuances of all this stuff And I just think there's a better opportunity for us to figure out how to do that together Then to do it while fighting each other while claiming that we christians like we should be welcome at each other's church like You know, I don't know. It's just these are difficult conversations, man And I think a lot of people don't want to tell the truth on either side because the truth Doesn't fit your political political side 100% It doesn't sound good to say publicly because people don't know what to do with it. It's like what do we do now?

We have the conversation Each person figure out like we brainstorm. How can we do that? How can how can you do better? How can I do better in my life?

What can I do better? I've tried to better myself. I've tried to you know again when you grow up in a city that's 88 percent white I mean black I grew up man. I didn't grow up around white people bro It was two about two white people that I grew up in one in middle school one or two in high school Like and they were culturally black like you know, I'm saying like culturally they grew up on the same streets We grew they acted culturally black so You know from me coming into corporate America It was a challenge to like try to open up and try I still struggling some ways I'm just being a real child like I still struggle some ways connecting with people who are from different places culturally and like It's like maybe it's not as easy for me to just naturally communicate with them or understand or whatever So there's a lot of dynamics, but I don't even know pity I'm here to figure it out.

We gonna go up that my whole thing is figure it out and grow like there is greater in you regardless of what you are Who you are like what circumstances you would born with like you can grow and that's why I don't want us I'll finish up and say this the reason I don't want us to continue to perpetuate That just because we're from these tough situations that we got to always be from the hood Or if we don't act like this we ain't black or we like no because we make it other people think that and so they looking at us Like like they watching a bt movie. It's like bro. I'm not that character You know what I'm saying? Just like I don't think every white dude is tony stark like bro trust me like I am not the villain.

You know what I'm saying? And so I just think we all on every side hopefully there was enough blame to go around because everybody gets so triggered You know I'm saying if you hold anybody accountable, but I think there's accountability for whites blacks others like people in leadership If you a leader there's accountability for you to figure out what is the right way um To do these things especially as a believer you feel what I'm saying? What you say jin, I think the truth sometimes takes some examine in our own hearts and that can beat us and I agree And that's why I opened up with talking about agreeable versus trustworthy We were rather listen to somebody we agree with because it doesn't cause us to have to examine ourselves But when we listen to someone we disagree with we have to examine and think through and i'm gonna go back real quick to the jordan peterson Um point on the podcast. I was listening to it wasn't that the things they were saying some of them aren't true I'll tell you specifically the problem I have with with with their their show They were only talking about black people through the lens of data And this is a this is a mistake that I think sometimes republicans can make because data is good Data can lead you to facts, right?

But what happens is if i'm only data to you and i'm in there's no relationship then there's a coldness to that, right? So some of you this example Imagine, you know, let's take a third world country any third world country, right? Imagine i've never been there the philippines i've never been there um, and I don't know what it's like to be in the philippines um But I look up data online about the philippines and how certain people became in the third world country So it's like then I start talking about them as if they're not people their only data That's challenging to me We have to talk about people through the lens of people which might mean that you need to go get some experiences Not with elite black people because a lot of times what happens is this you'll have successful people is like, oh, hey, you know I've had I've literally had people tell me this so i'm not making this up like hey My kids best friend is black damey was at our house yesterday So, you know it's specifically saying this in the context of a conversation about race that they spark to convince me that they're not racist because A black little boy there is friends with their son Sorry, man, like that means nothing to me Um Again, you need different experiences with people who are not from where you're from or at the same social class or whatever Because we need to view people as people we need to view homeless people as people homeless people are not just a statistic That you just talk about go in volunteer at a homeless shelter like a lot of people do Go in volunteer with some type of organization where you can get in the midst of these people so that they are not just data to you anymore So My biggest problem with the Jordan Peterson conversation was it was you know Two white people having all these conversations about everything that's wrong with black people and again some of the things were true But i'm just like yo, I could tell y'all they spent five minutes around no black person from the hood Or y'all ain't spent five minutes in the environment of the data that you're talking about And I just think when you spend time with people and know them as people So i'm gonna give you a straight up straight up example right you can look up data and say that hey 50 of black people without a father the men grow up or 30 of black men without a father grow up and go to prison Right without their father in the house. So So if you if you keep perpetuating that data then every time you see a black man without a father You see him as the data, but here's the difference Let's say, you know, you know, you you become friends with a black person that grew up without a father and invite and you go to a barbecue with them And then you experience The the case study in real life and you experience like oh the fool was good we danced we laughed.

Oh, but he didn't but he didn't have his daddy Oh, but so I can't look at every person that don't have a daddy as whatever whatever like like we we got to like stop Making the stereotypes reality without experience and I think that goes for black people too. You can't blue view white people I've heard this too. I've heard black people say this all white people racist all white people got some racism in them like there are There are a lot of people to believe that but it's like bro like You are you cool with any white people? Have you put yourself in a position to get around them in their environment and see that maybe Some of what we all call racist racist is just cultural differences This is the important of understanding culture how you grew up has an impact on you I don't know.

I don't I don't know another way to put it. Hey, but what up fam? How you doing? Thanks for y'all got you got able watching watching the podcast.

Hopefully you enjoy in this able, you know, I'm saying But I think look we we perpetuate these things because we haven't put ourselves in a position to get cool with some white people And get them a chance not to be racist or don't take every little thing is racist There are some things that are just cultural differences Like if you grew up, let's just think on the most on the most basic way as possible If you grew up rich right every day of your life, you know, by by 16 you had a sweet 16 with 200 people there and you're Your parents bought you a new car and all that like that's the only life you know You might go to the hood if he was born and well and be like, oh my god, what's going these people who are that? That's black white or anything. You think beyond say, little dog. Let me not let me God forgive me I'm not gonna make it about no kids.

I don't I like doing that. You know, I have to catch myself But just think of these celebrities and they kids They kids not going to the public school with your kids, bro That's not going they used to go into school with security on so that create that cultural growing up a certain way creates certain type of people Sometimes and so sometimes we just gotta understand you calling somebody racist and you just don't understand them Where they're ignorant about things about you and they never knew like some of these dynamics I talked to people in Michigan all the time that don't know that Detroit is one of the most segregated cities in the country And they live here I'm talking white black or whatever is white and black people that every time I throw that statistic out of like Detroit At least was 88% of black. I think that's changing if you come downtown I'll probably because downtown has been gentrified. There's a lot more, you know, white people in downtown now than it was You know seven or eight years ago.

Um, so those numbers could be skewing somewhat if you look at downtown But in the city is black and so that means when you have segregation, all right, let me say this and I'm be done Why do y'all oh, I got to say this segregation? Why do we think segregation was a bad thing in the first place, right? Like we went through this whole desegregation period where black people can go to this school or have this job or drink out of this water Phone that stuff happened too We got to look at all that because this stuff has an impact on people's mind on how they think it would be no different if you took a Key right now if you had two kids, let's do it like this case then don't do this for real Please don't do this for this is an example to prove a point if you had two children Both the same mom same dad and you took one of them and told them they can drink the clean water They can you know have snacks for they can go to school they can read and write and took your other kids same color No racial or ethnic difference and so then you got to drink dirty water. You can't go to school You have to do labor.

Um, you're gonna beat that child Do you think is there any part of you that thinks those two children are gonna grow up and likely be the same? And race has nothing to do with it. Just culturally how you raise them most of us know now imagine you do that And when that child grows up and have a baby you you do this child over here They get the for generation at the generation they get the harsh treatment the child over here for generation after generation they get great treatment At some point we're gonna come to a crescendo where everything hit the fan and we see and live out the results of both sides I believe it's crazy as it sounds to some people. I believe that's what we are now I believe we are mostly Living out the result on every side of all of the mess all of the stuff from all the past 100 200 year whatever it may be And I think the world is taking advantage of it because they're seeing an opportunity to push their agenda So push their politics They're seeing an opportunity to take control of the narrative the philosophical um, you know Kind of makeup of the country and the believers are simply falling in line because we're afraid to discuss the reality We're afraid to be different.

We're afraid to lead Lead the narrative lead the conversation Don't sit back and allow yourself to hate someone just because they're a different color of you like that's so wild because I mean White people what is white anyway? When you think about it. It's like people be from ireland they Italian We're just calling them the color at x-gen. What is black like it's some people from the karibbean from african descent Um from hispanic, mexican porta rico all this stuff.

It's like, bro We all like internally we are all mixed up a whole different kind of way It's like if you make some corn cornbread and throw a little jalapeno in it and I make a cornbread and throw some onion in it It's like that might the corn and the bread might look the same. It's gonna taste a little different That's good. We're unique. So even we try to box each other in is like, oh you black you got to think like this Oh, you white you got to think like this y'all got to hate each other.

Uh, it's like bro. Hold on. I got I got some Hispanic in my background. Oh, you know, you over here.

It's like, okay cool I got some Irish and man like we are different y'all and that's a good thing So I'm trying to boxy trying to box people in you feel what I'm saying what you say Gable says using washclops as a poor person thing is this You know what able I don't even know how to say I don't even know what that mean, bro Uh, we don't have to get a you know what? Hey, but we don't have to get you we don't have to I'm gonna have to do a separate webinar with two for that question No, I don't know. I don't even know what the question mean. Um I don't maybe it is and I just don't know but look the reality of it is it's like We all have different experiences and the biggest thing to me about white white and black people Um, and again, there's other races too.

So not to leave nobody out. Um, but we all have these different Different perspectives based on how we grew up and the real challenges we don't know what to do about them We don't know like how we feel about it And the reason I the reason that I'm troubled by the world is because the world is just about narratives now We're not about the truth. So things like gun violence it becomes a narrative I mean as somebody to be a rapper that raps about guns all day long But then make a post and say hey, we must end gun violence in america It's like wow, that's very amazing to me That is like amazing that you can even say that but it's perplexing some of the things that people say and do now Just for the sake of saying the right thing and being agreeable and so That's the world we live in here, but I dare to be different them. Um, Look man, I hope this conversation has blessed somebody.

Um, I don't think I know it all I don't think that everything I said is just 100 fact because I said it A lot of this is opinion and perspective and nuance and trying to at least, um, uh, Share share some things, you know, I'm saying able agrees. What is it? What does he agree with? Able I believe is jennison Shout out to you jenn for having your son watching to listen to the podcast and able I appreciate you checking it out And these are you know Hopefully helpful conversations more so to get people thinking again I'm not trying to be right, you know, I'm saying I really not like because I don't think I'm just right I think there's stuff I have to learn too and I'm trying to learn as well, but but I do know I know how I feel about my experiences in my life and some of the things that I've seen and I try to bring those things to the show And sometimes it's challenging because people so triggered and everybody so sensitive that it's like man You can't even share this kind of stuff because the moment somebody disagree with you.

I probably got five Uh, I probably lost five subscribers making this podcast, you know, because it doesn't fit perfectly with um, with how some people feel So so I get it. We live in such a triggered and sensitive society But I think whenever you live that trigger you position yourself for people to only tell you what they think you want to hear Which means you're not getting the truth. You're just getting agreeable people Um, and you can't really trust them So it's like I would rather you tell me when you disagree or tell me when you see something different and we talk through it as long as It's respectful on both sides. We can talk through it and work through it But um, this this idea that that you have to agree with me is just weird All right, so able a group agrees with the amount of effort people put in just to say things that are agreeable Okay, yep And so it's a real thing like so it's like you can't you have to now be careful to say anything that you think that might be disagreeable because somebody You might take it as your um Something else and again, that's exactly right because you're not being honest.

So look man It's a lot of it's a lot of things I was talking about segregation and You know the idea of segregation like there's a reason that we desegregated because I don't think we should be in bubbles Um identify based on the color of our skin and I think the more that we continue to do that in 2023 on every side Um, you know to worst off the worst off we are as a society and look I've lived in neighbor I've lived in neighborhoods where you know Neighbors act like they didn't see me bro. I ain't exist. I'm telling you standing right here. I'm not right here And look my grass is cut my stuff.

I don't do that. I'm up. You know, I said my grass is cut my eyes look good We out here we chilling and again, you don't know what stereotypes people doing with or you don't know if they just mean people Like sometimes if I'm being real, you just don't know you don't know what people's angles are Um And that's tough too for all of us to know like is this person being mean to me because they mean or because I'm black and they're like Like there's a lot of thoughts that go through everybody's head with this stuff and um It's not easy, man But I just think we got to be mature enough to start talking about it and peeling back the layers And just think a conversation like this today. This shouldn't be controversial I didn't say anything to offend anyone.

I didn't say anything out of pocket But we're so sensitive we could spend anything Um to be negative in nature when it's like truly the goal is to bring us together And the only way to really do that is to start looking at why we really are apart and why we really are separate And some of the things that have happened in our lives and throughout history to kind of drive away between us But I will have you um know that even when I read these books about slavery I'm gonna tell you one of the most amazing things and this is why we should read these type of books One of the most amazing things that stood out for me when reading both the Frederick Douglass And Booker T Washington's book and this is why I advise even white man my white black and white read these books Understand the history you'll also see some other things what stood out to me was that there was a lot of white people helping There was a lot of white people helping these black people with these slaves escape helping these slaves learn how to read There was a lot of white people that had good intentions So even in the midst of the darkest of times There were whites and blacks coming together to build a school Booker T Washington built the school with the help of white people with the money from white people So kudos to those white people imagine being a white person living during the times of slavery And being willing to support black people man. That's crazy So imagine if I'm being if I'm treating a black people a white person bad today just simply because they white You white your ancestors you you got to apologize because your answers. What if your ancestor wasn't one that bought the school fam This this is why stuff be weird. I just seen stuff on the internet with like white people like apologizing to black people I'd be like oh if you don't get away from me If you don't not get away from me apologize into me and how we gonna solve the problem Me and you can come together to figure out how to help some kids over here or help create some opportunities over there I can help we can help each other progress and move forward but all this living in the past like me We need to tell inspiring stories.

We need to understand history so that we can understand how to build towards the future But history will conflict with a lot of the things being said right now I'm telling you Booker T watching to some of his best friends was white Some of the people he trusted the Moses white. I'm just telling I'm just telling you the real We got it. We got to take it all y'all see what we like to do We like to pick vixen pieces of these stories and these experiences to to curate our narrative that we want to push Um to either love or hate one group and it's like oh bro. There's listen I'm telling you right now regardless of what side of the fence you want with this stuff If you the super pro black person and you think you people be thinking they got it all figured out Go read these books You're gonna find something to make you challenge that if you're if you're a white person It's just thing all black people this way whatever black people ain't smart Whatever, okay, buddy You're gonna see some of these people in history slaves turn it to some of the smartest and most brilliant minds in the world That's why I tell people don't tell me what I'm not bro.

Anybody who tell me what I can't do I'm not trying to hear you I'm not trying to hear don't tell me what I'm not don't tell me what I can't do I could do anything I put my mind to I'm just as good as anyone else I can learn anything anyone else can learn like I do not buy this idea that I am less than just because I'm different and I'm telling you all the reason I say that so emphatically is because part of the problem Ooh, this I gotta say this Excuse me. Let me sit in my water. I sit in my water. My wa wa Um, I don't know.

I just said that by the way. Wa wa Who says that? Are you a baby? Are you a freaking baby, Jermaine?

All right, so let's think something I love case studies and examples, right? So here's one of the dynamics that people struggle with A lot of successful black people want to tell the story of the struggle Now the story of the struggle is important to me because it is real It's a real experience that people need to understand And there are still people who need help and opportunities created and resources brought to them So I do think understanding the story of the struggle is important, but here's where it gets tricky Sometimes people tell that story so much that I've seen white people buy into it And in buying into this story that black people have had it so hard and they're less than That actually causes the white people to look at the black person as less than so now They all feel sorry for you and they don't think you could do anything yourself And they think everyone needs a hand and train a wheels and an opportunity because you did such a good job At paying one side of the picture and didn't tell the other side of the story You don't tell the Booker T. Washington and the Frederick Douglass success stories of how they made it out and endured and when they were given Opportunities or when they took opportunities what they created from there and how they partnered with white people to grow and those type of things And became advisors of presidents and those same white people look to them for advice and guidance Like those are some of the stories we have to tell so that we understand both sides of it Yes, people are in the hood or they're challenged and they need resources at hill but no, they are not less than Some people just need an opportunity to learn or to grow and some people in the hood and they just smart already Like like let's tell that too We don't know why everybody's in the situation they're in so we can't just look at someone and think they're all the same or that We got them figured out and I'm not in the business of making people feel sorry for me because when people feel sorry for you They look at you as less than I am not in the business of allowing anybody to look at me as less than So I don't like to tell those stories in a way that portrays me as like some You know, oh hopeless loser that just waiting on someone that just No, bro smart. They're smart.

They're smart A single man with up some folks just need to push from their father or father figure that's facts We talked about that a little earlier And this is where like all right, so I'm working on something I'm working on this series called the millionaire mindset I'll give y'all a just a sneak peek into something that I'm gonna cover there and um over the next few weeks I'm hoping to start rolling out at least it'll probably at least be a three part series a podcast um broken into three parts but all around a millionaire mindset and how to how to change the way you think about money Excuse me and a part of that. I'll do all the sneak peek at it I have a section of it and this is more like this is like life-changing like It's a life-changing um, you know presentation. I believe because I'm really given like a lot of the The detail behind how how I personally came from nothing to at least something at least a little something You know, I'm not nowhere. I'm not nothing crazy But so many times we look at we want to how do you become a millionaire a multi-millionaire a hundred millionaire?

How do you become a famous rapper and sometimes we don't realize like, you know, sometimes it's about How do you be how do you get out of survival mode and become a you know A well-being citizen that's able to take care of yourself and and not live check the check and and have You know take care of your family like how do you go from how do you have financial literacy those things? We're dealing with that one of the things that that we talk about in there and there is charity Charity is something that I believe people have completely mixed up and what do I mean by that? All right, what charity is and what charity isn't charity isn't? Isn't intended to create wealth But it is intended to create opportunity And what I mean by that is, you know, I remember growing up there were let's say if it was one Christmas where you know A good fellow box was one of the one of the things that I remember getting before so let's say it was one Christmas and you know People donated toys and whatever dot-dot to the good fellas organization And we got a good fellow box and that edits our Christmas and that was something we needed or one of that Christmas great Or let me make it let me make it more plain.

Let's say you take a homeless person that um All right, now I want to go down it because because now I'm getting I don't want to give away pieces of this whole idea The point I'm making is that charity is something as needed, right? So there may be a kid that needs a computer for school this year that you should have charitable organizations that are really helping the community But what we should not be doing is conditioning that kids to think that they should need the charity all the time Meaning you don't want to raise the key in a way Where the charity is the expectation for them You want them to take the charity and say now you have the computer now go and do something with it You don't want to need a computer every year from this organization. Don't just come back because it's free actually come back later and donate to it I've been blessed by the grace of God to do that There are charities that I remember that that did things for me And I got something from when I was a kid and as I've gotten older than I've been able to give to those charities I've also been blessed to be able to make certain connections with other charities Um, some locally and Detroit and leverage some of my corporate relationships to okay Here's a donation to that charity and I remember one year we raised a few thousand dollars at a corporate event And I was asked to find a charity and I found a local Detroit charity ran by two black women That was giving shoes to kids and I remember I was to take them to check It was such a blessing to me So I met I went it was downtown at a school to drop a check off and to take them that check was one of the best feelings I ever had simply because I know the feeling of getting something from the charity But the charity is to create an opportunity not to create an enabling habit of just living a lifestyle of feeding off charity So that's one of the things we're going to talk about and so those are some of the nuances and things that I like to deal with Look man, if you haven't learned anything else from this episode, hopefully you understand it like I like to deal with the nuance I don't like to deal with all this oh black or white and let's try to act like we know everything and I'm right you wrong all this Like I like to peel back the layers and really start thinking through some of these things in an in-depth way Because if I'm being honest some of this stuff seemed weird and fake to me when people just saying the right thing I'm like bro. You don't really believe that dog.

You don't really believe that do you? I was out where was that was this an ATO? Where it takes us? I don't know where I was at.

I did a lot of traveling recently I was somewhere man and it was a group at the hotel that was identifying as cats Yeah Yeah There's a group of people identifying as cats and they was dressed up like cats They was walking down the regular streets think that was downtown Atlanta, maybe Identifies cats Now I'm looking I know I'm quiet right now, but I can't talk what I'm telling you yet. They identified as cats What I'm telling you is there's some stuff that I'm seeing in the world today and I'm thinking of myself Oh, so we ain't talking because we scared And everybody sensitive and we don't want to offend nobody so we can't even say crazy stuff is crazy. No, you just gotta come on, bro I don't think I don't think everybody believe all the stuff that they talking about. I think that some people just you know Look Um, the digital world has changed the way that we communicate It's changed freedom of speech.

There's so much in america that has changed about Um, what you can't can't say how you can't can't feel I just I just know for me man I'm not trying to prove who I am to somebody like instead of pointing out like you got I remember A presidential candidate said a couple years ago if you don't vote for them, you're not black And I'm like, man, y'all just rocking with that, huh? I'll just That's cool. Somebody could tell me. I'm not black like A white person can tell me I'm not but I gotta prove my blackness through my vote I think that's where we are as a society.

I think that's where um, they're trying to push a lot of people is push you that this is the black ideology This is black culture. This is how the culture feels So they give you the answer to the test and then until you choose the answer we chose for you This is how black people feel. All right, feel this way and if you don't feel this way like no, you gotta feel this way to prove to me you black If you don't feel this way, you're not black. Come on, bro What?

Imagine, come on white people. Come on. Imagine somebody telling you you're not white if you don't do this. Come on.

I'm sure y'all to hurt that y'all Culturists to some extent too. Like come on, bro. Like well, you gonna tell me like man, please Listen, this was a good time and hopefully um, you enjoyed it as well shared this show. Um, to please do subscribe on youtube at inspire guys people Share the show that somebody people, you know, I'm saying tell somebody to listen it is.

I know it's uncomfortable I know you disagree with some aspects of it again. I'm like listening back and disagree with some myself It wasn't about being right. I was trying to have a um, honest conversation and hopefully um, unite versus divide and that's really the goal It's hopefully you understand that we can disagree and still be brothers and sisters and still Be neighbors and still be co workers or whatever like but what was the most concerning to me is that there's this idea in the world now that if you Don't agree with everybody you can't even talk Like you can't even say what you feel if you don't agree. That's scary to me That's or you're being ordered.

You're misclassified as something that like no, that's not what i'm saying But i'm saying is that there's nuance what i'm saying is that uh, some things are Not as black and white to think through or I don't know how I feel about that. So Look, God bless y'all Love y'all. Hopefully y'all enjoyed the show got some amazing things coming man. I'm still building I'm super inspired right now.

Um and building these and building during these times because I think God has really given me Um some creative um thoughts and ways to approach things and I really want to share man I really want to share these experiences with people and sometimes it's hard to help people because people so trigger you feel me Chris Jones, what up bro super scary times my brother Hopefully everything going well your way man But look man share to show with somebody if you're coming in late check it out from the beginning Check out on youtube because I chopped these shows up and share them and short clips for you to digest also The inspire guys people to podcast facebook page is growing. You know, I'm saying we just crossed over a thousand followers on net Um, which we've just been pushing over the last two months or so So I'm feeling good about the growth of the show more people coming in and listening But also i'm grateful for you. This is about community Um, this is a place for christians to believe to think to feel free to be who you are as a believer And not have to suppress your faith in christ as an important part of your life as you think through your politics as you think through business As you think through faith your church whatever it may be This is that place for christian creatives entrepreneurs and believers business people So really try to figure that out and talk it through and it ain't just about me being right It's about you sharing your perspective. So I welcome your comments I welcome your emails.

Um, hit us up on instagram and inspire guys people Look share your feelings and thoughts as you listen back to the show openly share with some friends Even if you disagree shoot me an inbox tell me share with me like how you think it through something We don't have to argue man This is about conversation with the ultimate growth goal of growing the body of christ So that we don't let the ideology of the world seep so far into the church that it separates us or um just weakens us Right because i'm gonna be real i see a lot of christian leaders, especially like gospel artists and stuff and i'm like Man like gospel artists and new staying in the news for everything but the gospel no shade no offense I'm like bro like y'all like y'all ain't even talking about god. I'm seeing gospel art Isn't I don't even want to get into it, but every time they pop up on my screen You don't got nothing to do with god I'm like y'all just what y'all doing fam y'all trying to be messy trying to fit in with the world trying to be like about the world And nobody ain't gonna follow that the world is not the world is not stupid the world is smart too They don't want to follow nobody that's that's corny like that's corny to say it's corny to say you're a believer and not act like it Do you feel me? It's really corny to say i'm a believer and then don't act like it Like bro, what is y'all doing? And so you know man look these are the things in the world we living in um anytime A lot of these gospel artists speak about tough issues.

They just say the same thing the world say i'm like bro You can't you can't tell me if I asked 10 different people. Hey, how do you feel about civil rights? You're not gonna get 10 of the same answer you lie. I said the name this episode you lie Prove to me you black agree with me.

Come on, bro. No, I see it a little different fam You know i'm saying like that's cool. You see it differently. Maybe I changed my mind too Like that's the whole thing like maybe we have a conversation maybe you challenge something Maybe i'm like yo if i haven't taken care of and i'm open to hearing what you're saying Maybe maybe i look at some differently But if you just mad and triggered and cut me off because I disagree or I grew up different like I said We ain't gonna get nowhere.

I still listen to our Rockwood Jordan Peterson I use his podcast as an example because I didn't I didn't necessarily like the way they did the one show But he got a bunch of dope shows. I like Jordan Peterson a lot. You know i'm saying Can only serve one guy fam that is for sure. Look love y'all god bless y'all man This show is intended to be a little longer than most because I had a lot to say and I didn't want to rush it But i'm excited um where Makes the black you know what jean i'm about to get out of here before you offend me I'm joking.

Look i bless y'all. I love y'all man. I share the show Thank you all so much for listening comment and i'm just engaging this conversation Please share your thoughts as well man and uh having amazing amazing