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Dec. 13, 2023 - Louder with Crowder
59:28
So, I Went to a Black Barbershop... | Black & White On The Gray Issues
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Time Text
Canada has not only done blackface, he's done it like 15 times.
Damn, really?
This is the Prime Minister.
This is the worst one.
Oh!
Oh, okay.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Oh, wow.
The chasm between white and black Americans is growing wider with each passing year.
Views, culture, general outlook on life are so different that even living in the same community, sharing the same space, is something that's almost unfeasible.
At least, that's what you'd believe if you're an avid consumer of legacy media.
If the world falls apart, trust should not be doled out easily to anyone, especially white people.
Here's the thing I've noticed, and you can comment if this is the same for you.
It doesn't match up at all with my lived experiences, and that's what's inspired me to actually do it for the likes of these legacy media outlets.
Refuse to do it.
Get out into the community and have real conversations with average Americans.
Black Americans.
White Americans.
Not caricatures of what the media thinks black people are.
People like Van Jones.
Black people are at risk from police.
In the latest installment of this series, I've made my way to a cultural mainstay in modern black American society, the barber shop.
Because really, what better place to find authentic, unfiltered perspective than the place that's iconically known as the breeding ground for conversation in the black community.
And what did I find?
Are black and white Americans as far apart from each other as we've been told?
Well, see for yourselves.
This is Black and White on the Great Issues.
You, uh, you gonna redo your beard?
What are you gonna do?
You gonna make me look like a photo-negative Drake or some sh**?
Well most people, from my estimation, most people are afraid of the backlash that's just gonna come with it if you get it wrong.
at that time.
Okay.
Come on.
We don't.
Why people don't go, why people don't get their hair done like this?
Well most people, from my estimation, most people are afraid of the backlash that's just
going to come with it if you get it wrong.
Yeah.
You know, whereas, you know, I think you have the room to be wrong if you don't know what,
who's to say that you wrong.
Like I said, I, one of the things I agreed with you with was, so what you're saying is, so for all this time that this has been correct, now this short amount of time, everybody's got to change on the dime and come to the other side.
That's going to be hard.
Yeah.
It's gonna be hard to change people's minds.
I'm a he and a her.
That's it.
That's about all I got.
Yeah, I know.
That offends you.
I can call you by your names, but that's it.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, look, I think they always try and misconstrue it, right?
This is, we're talking about like the divide and conquer from the media.
It's like, look, just because I think that male and female is a thing doesn't mean I hate you.
Doesn't mean I hate you, but you can't restructure society and not replace it with anything.
Like, they don't have an answer.
It's like, so how many genders are there?
Well, I don't know.
Well, how many can we put in a driver's license?
Well, I don't know.
Well, how many pronouns do I have to learn?
Well, I don't know.
Whatever someone wants.
Well, that's stupid.
Now you gotta go to each individual person and preface everything with what's your pronoun.
Yeah.
Instead of just, hey, Ted, what's your name?
You know, hey, guy, what's your name?
It's way too much.
And I know society has villainized anybody that doesn't.
If you don't sway with the alphabet community, You're gonna catch the wrath, you know, if it's possible.
Well, look what happened with Dave Chappelle.
When they came after him, and then he doubled down, which, you know, made him a hero, basically.
Yeah, and he was independent enough and independently wealthy enough to where you can't stop my money.
See, that's the thing.
If you're attached to anything where they can cut you off, that's the power they have over you.
But if you're independent of that, if you can't take my bread away, you know, you get a little more freedom and a little more leeway to kind of operate like that.
Well he, yeah, he experienced that.
That was, you know, that was kind of new.
Right, where the LGBT, like they came for... Oh yeah!
They came for a, like a black celebrity.
And a big celebrity.
Yeah.
And a big one at that.
But he had people, he had people standing up for him.
Oh, of course, yeah.
Oh, and he had, he had alphabet community people standing up for him.
Oh yeah.
We're trying to practice, you're trying to impose way too much upon people.
Oh yeah.
You know, uh...
Alright.
When you abuse or mistreat somebody, that's one thing.
But things that people don't know or don't understand, you have to give people room to grow to that understanding.
And even if they never do understand, you gotta find a common ground
to where you can at least get along.
Yeah.
Yeah, oh no, yeah, a lot of people don't realize, like my booking agent, he's a gay Cuban.
And he's the, you would think if you didn't know, like super gay.
The most homophobic motherfucker you've ever met in your life, just because he'll be like, these trans people are out of their, I watched him, I swear to you, we were at a steakhouse right here, and he's gay, he's there with his boyfriend, he's against gay marriage and he's gay, but it's just really, he's like, well I just don't understand, I'm just gay, I don't want to get married, it's like this, they're pissing me off.
I'm like, William, you can't say that.
He's like, no, you can't say that, only I can say that.
But he was sitting there, he had two drinks in, and the server was a white woman.
She goes, I don't really understand the whole, like, the new gender queer, like, pansexual.
And she's asking him because he's gay, so she thinks he knows.
And he's a gay Cuban guy, and he just looks at her and he goes, they're all murderers.
I'm like, I'm just telling you, having lived in these... It used to be drag queens were funny.
We did drag queen shows.
We weren't doing it in libraries with children.
This has gone way too f***ing far.
And he loses his mind.
He loses his mind.
But not all gay and lesbian people are on board with all of this.
That's the thing too.
They're not represented.
Right, it's never absolute.
It's never absolute, but the loudest, the squeaky wheels get to all.
So, you know, if you get enough loud ones that are on that side, they kind of drown out the ones that are, you know, a little more sensible or a little more amenable to other people's ideas.
Yeah, you would think it's one of those things where there's a real disconnect.
Like, Connell, you were talking about in the military, like people who are, you know, people with pens versus people with guns.
There's a real disconnect between elites in power and the average American citizen.
Oh, there's a huge disconnect.
Yeah.
You put a bridge between that, man.
You put a whole, you say you put a whole bridge up.
Sorry, I can't hear you, I got the razor.
What was that?
I'm saying I didn't hear you.
I was saying there's a real difference between the elites in power and the average American citizen.
Oh, absolutely.
Like, they try and make it seem like either, you know, it's like roots with gay dudes or you're pro-LGB.
It's like, no, hold on, there's a middle ground where a lot of people are like, no, do whatever you want, that's fine, but you can't just say there are limitless genders and then in Canada they'll fine you for hate speech if you use the wrong pronouns.
Yeah.
Wow.
Oh yeah.
I have a friend, you know this is why I come from background as a comic, a friend in Canada who was fined for a joke.
For a joke?
For a joke.
So the freedom of speech doesn't extend to Canada the same way it does here?
No.
No, not at all.
And it wasn't even like, it wasn't even a racist joke, or it's not that I would make it acceptable, it wasn't racist, it wasn't sexist, it wasn't homophobic.
It was a joke about a kid from a Make-A-Wish Foundation who, he was like on their version of American Idol.
And, uh, what happened is, you know, everyone supported this kid.
So I'm butchering the joke because I don't remember it, but he literally got fined, put before a human rights tribunal.
His joke was like, okay, we all supported this kid.
We all wanted him to be on Canadian Idol.
And the kid was awful, right?
But it was like a make-a-wish thing.
He's like... And so we did it.
We supported it.
We voted for him.
But now this has gone on five years, and he just, like, he still won't die.
Right.
That was his...
But it turns out the kid's mom lied about what he had, later on.
Oh wow, so like the girl, that was her way to get in.
Like the girl that, the girl that her mom made up all the s**t that she had?
The Munchausen by Proxy thing?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's called like Munchausen by Proxy.
Yeah, yeah.
She runs Fletcher.
Yeah, yeah, that gypsy, the gypsy girl.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He was fine for that joke, and the mom was like, this caused unbelievable... They had people donating so much stuff, man.
They was like, they was making money.
He ain't over 50.
Yeah, it's uh...
I didn't know Canada didn't have that level of freedom.
Oh, no country outside of the U.S.
does.
There's not a country that has freedom of speech enshrined in the Constitution.
And, of course, it's limited here now, too.
Oh, yeah, if it comes with consequences.
Say what you want.
But the consequences that come with it, can you deal with that?
No, I don't even think you can say what you want anymore.
When you actually have the government telling Spotify to take off Joe Rogan, to me, that's pretty corrupt.
You're not even free to say what you want anymore if it's the wrong opinion.
It's high-level censorship.
Yeah, exactly.
It's where the line blurs between what you want and what hurts somebody else.
Right.
And there's a responsibility in the person that's saying something to be able to be cognizant of how what you're saying has an impact, period.
Oh, wow, look at that.
Yeah, I get it.
Way better.
Weight cleaner.
I look less homeless.
I'm gonna start everybody here over there.
Nice talking to you.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, I know.
But you don't have the freedom of speech.
Like you said, you gotta deal with the consequences.
No, no, no.
Quite absolutely.
But when did the world become so damn sensitive?
Yeah, like always, like, always, everybody got a different level of playing, right?
Right.
Everybody finds a different level of what's playful.
To some people, playful is, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna walk behind you and I'm gonna kick, you know, kick your feet and make you trip over yourself.
Haha, that's playful.
And to another dude like Dwight Howard, maybe it's playfulness trying to, you know, playfully grab your genitals.
Some dudes don't play like that.
And everybody don't play the same.
I don't think they're... I think those are sex offenders.
I don't think that's... Everybody don't play the same.
Oh, this is the old grab my balls games.
I mean, Dwight played the game, I guess, you know.
No, but the problem, like, use Dave Chappelle as an example.
Okay, it's one thing you don't like what he says, right?
Right.
Don't go see him.
Right.
It's another thing when you're trying to tell venues that they can't host him when other people want to see him.
Right.
Like, he's, I mean, he's one of the... Well, and then on top of that, you got to factor in that the whole foundation is that his art form is based in It's being just that.
That is his art form.
Now you're trying to tell him he can't practice his art.
That is his art.
That's exactly what the art form is.
Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what the art form is. That's what comedy is.
Yeah, no, that was really one of those issues. He lost some venues.
It's just, the thing about it is absolutely...
Oh, here. I guess I'll sit here.
It was crazy, but there aren't many people who could... Here's the thing, for every Dave Chappelle you see, right, who's able to do it, like you said, because he's independent, there's 20, 30, 200 more who are just getting started, and they get absolutely shut down, where they can never build a career, because someone says, no, no, you said that, you're not allowed to be at the party.
I mean, look at Kevin Hart and the Oscars.
Yeah, because he made a gay joke eight years ago.
Yeah, I know.
Well, I guess they really showed him.
He's like the richest comedian on earth now.
That guy is all constantly working.
My God.
I don't even know how that guy is walking upright at this point.
His money allowed him to save himself.
How many times did Cat Williams get arrested?
Was it like 400 times in 82 months?
Hey, he said He said, arrest, but no conviction.
I've been arrested many times, but I've never been convicted.
You ain't never seen him out?
Oh, this motherfucker doing a Cat Williams over here, thinking he's the only one.
Gotta keep your pimp man strong, motherfucker.
He never been convicted.
Shaving that man's head with my bent-back paper clips and shit.
He said he's never been in court.
Isn't he coming to, uh... Winslow?
Winslow, yeah.
Yeah, I'm straight.
Remember that video of him getting choked out by a 14-year-old?
Yes, sir.
That's playing soccer.
Oh my God.
He was playing soccer?
He was playing soccer.
Something about a 12-year-old.
I know, that was tough.
About a man-boy.
He said it was a man-boy.
That was tough to watch, though, man.
I felt bad for him.
You're like, this guy must be having a rough time if he's getting choked out by a 12-year-old.
I mean, you've had to make some bad decisions to end up in that position right there.
Yeah, absolutely.
To ask some questions, but... No, they went after him a lot.
He sold his car.
He lost his opportunity.
Kevin Hart got the turn that was after his head.
Yeah.
It was his time to beat that guy.
Yeah.
But because of the trouble, Kevin Hart was able to step in and take all of those opportunities.
parlay him into what he is now, but he did it to himself.
So, yeah, he's done well for himself.
But we say Kevin Hart made money hand over fist.
I mean, could you imagine if like prior were coming up today?
Can you imagine?
Like there's no way that guy would that guy would get in trouble immediately.
Yeah, he said he's the best ever.
My conversation would be the right.
He wouldn't be able to tell the same level of the story.
He doesn't.
When the rich boy wouldn't be there, he wasn't from there.
I know it wouldn't be Richard Pryor, but, you know, Eddie Murphy wouldn't be Eddie Murphy if not for Richard Pryor.
Dave Chappelle wouldn't be Dave Chappelle.
But as far as... Richard Pryor is the one that put all the music on.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I know.
I know.
But... You can't offend either way.
That's the problem.
Some voices probably should be, like, I ain't gonna say shut down, but, like, some stuff you just really don't want to hear.
Like, I don't never want to hear Sexy Red again.
You hear what?
Sexy Red.
You ever heard of Sexy Red?
Who's Sexy Red?
Do the homework.
Waste about 15 minutes of your time and do your homework.
Sexy Red.
He's a young rapper.
Oh, you know, I do know Sexy Red.
I was still thinking of comedians.
He was saying Red Fox.
I was like, is this like a new Red Fox?
Sexy Red?
Everybody's freedom don't need to be free.
Yeah.
That's just it.
Everybody's freedom don't need to be free.
Well, they can say it, but the problem is... I mean, yeah, but... Like, the problem is you have people who amplify, like, the people who try and suppress a voice like Chappelle, then they amplify a voice like whatever it is.
It could be Sexy Red or, you know, f***ing Cardi B, whatever it is.
They're like, oh, no, this is... I mean, the fat pride thing is a big thing now, too, where you're like, oh, we have a health problem in America, and then we're like, no, no, you can't say doctors are not allowed to say you're obese.
You don't want a body shame in it, right?
Do you want a body shame?
Yeah.
Which, I don't even, what was that term again?
Body shame?
Yeah.
That was invented by fat white women in like 2018.
That's real talk.
She lost an argument with her husband and she was about to be checkmated.
She was like, are you body shaming me?
That's real talk right there.
That's what that Kenyan's calling it.
Once again, if somebody's able to attach a level of offensiveness to any Any conversation that you have, they put you in peril of being ostracized and alienated.
Oh, I got sued by one of those fat models.
Yeah, because the problem is she was out there saying, like, this is healthy.
I said, no, your blood type's pudding, bitch.
Like, that's not healthy.
And she said it caused her irreparable damage, mentally.
I'm like, no, what's causing irreparable damage is your liver right now trying to keep up with the enzymes that are flowing through your, like, it's one thing to be overweight, right?
We all agree, don't just beat the shit out of, or make fun of someone because they're struggling with their weight.
It's another thing to tell everyone, no, no, you have to say that everybody is beautiful and healthy.
That's a lie.
That's the problem.
The problem is the lie.
People attach so much of their own feelings to what everybody else is supposed to feel.
Once again, for anybody that's obese or whatever, if that's truly how you feel, as long as nobody's exacting any punishment upon you, they should be able to feel how they feel about that.
Insult you or badger you over that, but I also don't have to go along with you saying that this is healthy and this is, you know, if that's your measure of beauty, so be it.
You can't put that upon anybody else.
Yeah, but now the problem is, yeah, I mean, we have, like, it's also a problem, too, when you're paying, right, your taxes pay for healthcare.
Like, we have a strange system, you know?
So, and this is not a new thing.
Okay, you know, you'll hear women often say, like, oh, you don't have to deal with the unrealistic beauty standards.
You know, men, only women.
I go, hold on a second, name me one fat pride male model.
One.
Well, they go, they go, Oh, Chris Farley.
They go, I go, these were comedians.
They were hilarious.
They weren't considered sexy.
They had to be talented.
Like no one said, so I actually here in Dallas, when I was starting up, I opened up for Bruce Bruce.
You guys know him?
It was Bruce Bruce, black boy with two eyes and me.
I want to talk about eating shit on stage.
Nineteen-year-old white me opening up for black boy and Bruce Bruce.
But that guy was, I mean, that guy was huge.
And he would joke about it.
And it's like, no one's going to go up and make fun of him for being fat.
But he's also not saying, I'm a sex symbol.
Like, it's two different things.
That's the issue.
Exactly.
Bruce did say, I used to knock him down with that boy.
Granddaddy, can I have that?
Oh my God.
Dude, I used to piss myself laughing.
Yeah, it was an experience, man.
It was a trip.
It was back in MySpace.
I won a MySpace comedy contest, and the prize was to open for... That's how you got to open?
That one, yeah.
And they were like, you get to open for Bruce Bruce.
And I was like, oh.
And they were like, you have to pay for your plane ticket.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I saw it at the Improv, yeah.
I get paid to open up for somebody, but I wanted to because like a big audience at that time and
I didn't know he came out with like an entourage like it was a fighter you ever seen him live yeah
It asin yeah, yeah, so you know like he has like the lights And he comes out with like his whole crew and he walks out
slowly So I was like you know that's not something I was like hey
Bruce Bruce, and then he's nowhere and the music starts I'm like, hey, Bruce Bruce, ladies and gentlemen.
And then he comes out of the back room, and he just looks at me, and he starts walking up slowly, and I'm like, hey, keep it going, Bruce Bruce, Bruce Bruce.
And I was standing on stage, I had no idea he was gonna do it.
And boy, when he got to that stage, you could hear, like, it was like thunder.
People love that, man.
He's one of the few comedians I've seen.
He was funny from the very beginning, the whole entire time until he left.
He was funny the whole time.
A lot of times you'll get a lull in a scene, but he was funny the whole time.
Did you see him when he hosted Def Comedy Jam when they taped in New Orleans?
I may have seen that.
That wasn't Def Comedy Jam.
That was the one that was on BET.
Well, which one was that?
I went to the tapings too.
I went to the tapings too.
Yeah, I was in New Orleans in my comedy uniform.
Yeah, it was in New Orleans.
It was at the Orfield Theatre.
It was at the Orfield Theater.
And we was there the same time!
Yeah!
That was great.
Are we filming this?
on the road as much as I mean doing the show every day so it's kind of like it's
comedy but it's not stand-up comedy but yeah we film this do some of this every
day so I'm usually in the studio every day like you know doing stuff so it's
it's it's kind of like a middle ground between like a late-night show and I
guess sort of podcast it's a hybrid but then we do this stuff on location and
it's a mix where a big part of this honestly is you know I was I was in
also traditional media for a long time so like I'd be on Fox News and CNN and
all these different places and what you saw the change my mind thing it started
I pitched that to all the networks and they said no one's gonna want to sit and
watch just like two normal people talk for an hour and not be edited and I said
well we're sitting here talking and you guys give us four minutes
and you want us to hit talking points, like there's nothing productive.
I said, I think people will watch it.
And they said, absolutely not.
So I went and did it, and it worked.
Turns out people wanted to see real interactions.
And once you get out of the media bubble, you realize that most people share a lot more in common
than they have that's different.
And it's just, it's a house of cards.
And I think you had a good idea, because, you know, on the four minute segment,
you're hitting the surface with people.
Right.
You give somebody 11 minutes, 18 minutes, then you really start hearing how they feel and what they... Yeah.
That's what I got from you.
When you talk to those people...
I said, the lady Madison, she was, she stood out to me because I remember you telling her, look, we've been talking almost 30 minutes.
You could tell she was really speaking, because at first it was cool.
She was kind of surface level with it.
Yeah.
A lot of time y'all got going, she was like, well, look, I don't believe in it.
You could really get, you really get an opportunity to hear how people actually feel.
Yeah.
You know, people are going to give you their representative first.
Then you get to be committed.
Yeah.
The problem that you run into, if I'm remembering Madison as the right person, is culturally, like, white women, if they yell and they shout at you, they think they win.
Because a lot of dudes are like, okay, they get browbeaten, like, alright, I don't want to upset her, because they don't want to be accused of being sexist, or...
Oh, absolutely.
You know, as a black man, I totally understand.
The last thing you want to be in someone's truck is to be with a white woman.
Yeah, as a white guy, too.
So you definitely don't want to be on the wrong end of that.
Well, because it's like if you see a black woman yelling at a black man or even a white man, you're like, oh, he probably said some shit.
Like he probably did something.
But if it's a white woman, she's like screaming rape.
I mean that's the real problem too.
That's the nature of what we do.
We're conditioned to just react to stuff instantly.
A lot of that conditioning comes through.
The environments we were raised in, or, you know, stuff that we, you know, brought in as entertainment throughout our lives or whatever, or just, you know, like I said, just whatever factors that created the environment we were in growing up.
I know.
I know, and it's like, if you just say, let's say there's a mass shooting, or whatever it is, a tragedy, and if you just say, hey, hold on, let's just wait a minute for some information.
Right.
You don't care about the dead kids?
Like, no, no, I do, I'm just saying, when have we ever made good decisions without just Jumping to conclusions.
Like, just reacting immediately.
You never make good decisions that way, right?
But we're conditioned, like you're saying that way.
We're conditioned to just react.
Yeah.
You need a new click.
You need a new reel.
What part of Canada are you from?
So, I was raised in Montreal.
Have you spent any time in Canada?
Never been, man.
That's somewhere I like to visit.
I've never been to Canada.
Don't.
Don't.
It's a stupid place.
Man, I heard Toronto was nice.
Okay, have you guys seen our Prime Minister?
No, I don't even know who the Prime Minister of Canada is, man.
Have you guys, do you guys not know, like, he didn't just do blackface.
Have you seen this?
You said what?
The Prime Minister of Canada has not only done blackface, he's done it like 15 times.
Damn, really?
He don't give a damn.
No, I didn't.
No, no, he just like, it's just because he has the right of, like, he would go to sports games and paint his arms and legs black.
You went all the way in?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But now he says, like, oh, I support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirited community.
He's just Mr. Progressive.
Everyone's like, oh, that's fine.
He did blackface, like, so many times.
Man, I didn't know that.
Oh, he's a piece of s***.
Oh, my gosh.
Justin Trudeau is the biggest piece of s*** in the... Canada has a lot of beauty, but, like... I've got to pay attention.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, here we go.
Do we have it?
This is the Prime Minister.
This is the worst one.
Yeah, I'll show you.
Well, he's doing exactly what you think he's doing, but think he better not be doing.
Oh yeah, that's just one.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, okay, here's a perfect example.
Like, context over content.
Oh yeah, yeah.
I think he's playing it like he's at a football game.
He's actually trying to imitate a black man.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, okay, here's a perfect example.
Like, context over content.
We were doing a show live at U of M.
So it's a big theater, like 2,500 people.
And, you know, it's right on the border of Canada.
And so this guy's done blackface like 15 times, right?
But a lot of people don't know it.
So you need to raise awareness.
So what we did was we said, Hey, we have some guests here and we had celebrities.
We said, and we have the prime minister of Canada in the audience.
And it was just a dude in horrible blackface.
And people are like, what's that?
And then we show the clip.
So the joke is, not blackface, the joke is the Prime Minister is in blackface.
And that's the kind of thing where people could say, well, hold on a second, you're doing blackface.
No, no, we're mocking the guy who you just saw doing blackface.
Right.
Because people should know that shit.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
But sometimes the joke becomes more offensive than the fact.
That's what you have with Deschapelle.
Yeah, that guy, yeah, that wasn't cool at all.
No.
Like I said, when you said the blackface, I said, and then you said sporting events, I said, okay, well maybe he's out there like the football guy with the half blackface.
No, he's actually imitating the black dude, black dude, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
That ain't cool at all.
No, it's not.
Legs and everything.
Yeah, with the front wig on, yeah.
I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was doing too much.
He put a banana down his pants, too, for one of them.
And the Canadians elected this guy.
Well, here's the thing, right?
So I'm like, obviously, like more conservative leaning, but since he calls himself Mr. Progressive now,
they forgive him.
They go, oh, it's fine.
But like Megyn Kelly, we were just talking, Megyn Kelly, you know why she got fired from her job?
When they were talking about blackface, it was a conversation.
So you see that guy's the Prime Minister of Canada, and they say, oh, it's okay.
Megyn Kelly said, well, I think there's an important difference between, like, blackface or, like, when I was young, you know, Diana Ross was really popular.
So, like, my friend who was white dressed up like Diana Ross with the big wig for Halloween, like, that's not racist.
They fired her.
Oh, wow.
Like, I mean, you can disagree, but I agree with her that if a little girl loves Diana Ross, that's not racist.
She just loves Diana Ross.
Once you align yourself with the alphabet, Bob, you're going to those numbers.
That's wild.
Think about that.
Once you align yourself with the alphabet, Bob, you're going to those numbers.
And because they're not the ones being shown.
showing the shame, they're willing to overlook that aspect and be like, well, yeah, like
you said, that's cool.
Now had he made a transgender joke or he showed up as a transgender, then it would have been
a problem.
Right.
Well, it's just, I don't know, it just, doesn't it seem like sometimes they're just, they're
using these different groups?
Like, I will tell you this, like, a lot of politicians, I, I watch it and I go, they're using the trans, they're using the black community.
The black community, when it's convenient, they go, oh, you know, they go out, they say black lives matter, they do that, and then what do they do is they go back to redlining, or they don't do shit for the black community.
But they say the right words.
That's what all them cameras are.
Yeah.
Purposeful youth, you know, yeah your group is what I need at this moment
Right.
I can do and say something that'll garner your favor for that moment
Yeah, and then once I've gotten what I need now I go back to what I risen with this tending the do right go
back to the yeah, that's how black tend to get Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah
some Some.
And when I say blacks, I mean just as a whole.
I don't mean the individual.
No, of course not.
But you do have some, like in everything else, you do have some that are working towards the right stuff, but they just get overshadowed by some of the bullshit that you don't really get to hear about them.
Well, that's one thing that I definitely Like, as there are certain things that, first off, I think a lot of the idea that people think is white privilege is bullsh**.
If you want to ask me about it, I can tell you.
But there are certain things, like for example, young black boys.
I had a good friend who was black, and he loved metal.
So he was really into Slayer and Iron Maiden.
And I watched his black friends tell him, like, what the fuck are you doing?
You can't listen.
And they told him he needed to listen to hip hop.
And he just got shit on.
It's like, this kid just liked metal.
He was a comic book nerd.
That's one thing we don't really have as white.
Now, we don't have the community that black people have, that is like this, which is really productive.
But we also don't have those expectations like, hey, you're a black man.
You shouldn't be listening to Iron Maiden.
And that's gotta be tough.
That's gotta be tough to deal with.
Like, that's something that we don't have burdened on us as white people.
The expectation of what you are.
To be black.
You know what I mean?
Sometimes, like you're talking about, where they'll say, like you're saying, if someone's trying to do good work, sometimes they'll say, like, well, you're not really black.
You ain't black enough, right?
How many times do we hear that?
Exactly.
Well, who gets to say that?
Exactly.
That's the lesson.
I never thought about it from a white person's perspective, but that does come with being black.
Yeah, you know, out of instances and spaces, the expectation of how you are to conduct yourself
expectations of you are kind of laid out for you. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Where a lot of
times where you do choose to be free, you know, what you are, you're going to be ostracized in
a lot of places. Like, why are you doing that? Yeah, I don't really did it to him.
Money for a trap mail, right? Tell me if I'm wrong. Anytime you go somewhere, right,
and you're the minority, automatically you have to make yourself less threatening.
Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
It's innate.
It's innate.
You have to make yourself less threatened because people view you as threatened.
I think sometimes, yeah, I think sometimes that's true, for sure.
Brother, multiple countries, wherever I've been, it's that way.
You have to make yourself less threatened.
Well, I don't know if it's like that way in Uganda.
I mean, I think they've probably been more threatened for me.
But the countries that I've been to, you have to make yourself less threatened.
And then once you're accepted, like in Korea, you know, once you're accepted, then you're good.
You're good.
But you gotta be accepted.
I mean, think about it.
You brought up Ukraine, right?
Remember when the war first broke out in Ukraine?
When the Africans were trying to get on the train to escape, what was happening?
Well, they were pushed out.
They couldn't get on the train.
You know what I'm saying?
So, wherever we go, it is a work that we have to do to make ourselves accepted.
So, I mean, this is what I was talking with them back there.
So, if you have to, like in 2023, in America, Who do you think, like, do you think that people are in an even playing field and everyone has their own different struggles or hurdles to overcome?
Or do you think that... Playing field's different.
Playing field's not even.
So who do you think has the easiest?
Here's the difference, right?
I'll give you an example.
My daughter went to LSU.
Right?
And was doing well at LSU, but wasn't getting the support from the professors that she thought she needed.
So you know what she did?
She transferred from LSU, went right across town to an HBCU Southern University, and she feels like she at home.
Yeah.
Because she has school, and teachers, and people that look like her and care about her.
That's the way they make her feel there.
She didn't feel that way at LSU.
But does she know that they didn't treat her, they treat her that way because she was black?
It's just, it's just, it's just being, here's another example, right?
I went to the Bayou Classic this weekend.
I used to go to LSU games all the time, right?
Went to the Bayou, go to LSU games, great.
Great atmosphere, everything is good, great game, team, people, family.
Yeah.
But when you go to a Southern University HBCU game, it's totally different.
how you feel, how you act, what I'm up to, my people, you know, people that look like me.
I mean, I just had a... that was the best time I had was this body class
and a long time in the sport I'm in.
Well, there are plenty of people who look like you on the field.
I got that, but not in the same way.
At LSU game.
In the Southern game, everybody on the field, everybody in the stands, the media, everybody.
Everybody in the parking lot.
Everybody.
I will say, I was surprised to find, because I grew up with the misconception, growing up in back rooms with the divide between Southern and LSU.
I grew up with it.
What's up, Greg?
What's up, Greg?
I'll be with you in just a sec.
I grew up with the misconception that LSU, you know, when you go to LSU, it was always going to be racist because, you know, grew up with that misconception of bad rules.
Like you got that side of town, they don't fool with us.
It used to be like that.
It still is in certain parts.
Depends on where you go.
But that's another discussion.
Yeah.
But when I first went to an LSU football game as a kid and was working, working the parking lot, scared out of my mind because I'm like, Oh, yeah.
I don't know.
They're going, you know, somebody gonna do something to me.
And then, man, these people were just so nice, like, hey, come grab some, uh, we got some food over here.
It's just love.
You know what I'm saying?
But every environment ain't like that.
That's the right.
Every environment ain't like that.
That was just LSU.
That was just the LSU game.
You know what I'm saying?
Those same people, put them in a different environment, they treat you totally different.
And I've run across some of the same people, from them same games, in different environments, and it's like they flip the switch.
It's like, look, get away from me, Darkie.
Like Dave Chappelle said.
Let me pose a thought real quick.
So the headline is, we as black people are over-expanding.
Now, let me follow up with that by saying, I'm from New York regionally, and I travel the world, you know, and live in many places in this country.
So everywhere you go, there's a Jewish community.
Robust.
There's a Mexican community, Bobas, meaning they all stick together, but when you go to our community, what do you see?
Yeah.
You know, everywhere I went with his head okay, it's tarnished because of the crime, like us
not allowing the crabs in a barrel thing, us not allowing each other to succeed. Why is that from your perspective?
Or everybody's in your perspective?
Well, I guess the question, yeah, the...
Why?
Right?
And the problem is, and I appreciate that you're able to ask it, because guess what?
If I ever answer that, even as far as an opinion, where I say, this is what I think, it's racist.
Right?
So white people don't want to answer that question because they don't want to be accused of being racist.
Well, what do you do when so many of your representatives are white people?
Right?
Where they go, no, no, I need to check my privilege and not answer.
I can tell you, for example, where I'm from in Detroit, I can tell you why that's the case in Detroit.
It's not the same in every city, but if you go back to Lyndon Johnson and the model cities, Uh, program.
You know, he said, I'll have those N-words voting Democrat for the next 60 years.
Detroit, people don't know this, because my dad grew up in Detroit.
His home, that he grew up as a child, just sold for $8,000.
Like a 22 square foot home for $8,000, right?
He lived in downtown Detroit.
He watched tanks go down his road for the Detroit riots.
And what happened?
It was the wealthiest city in the country in the 1950s.
For all people.
White, black.
It was the Paris of the Midwest.
And they said, you know what?
We're going to come in.
We're going to centrally urban plan this city.
It was the model cities program, right, where they put a bunch of money into it because they wanted to take credit for a successful city.
That came with modern sort of welfare systems, benefits, but it also came with strings attached.
What happened?
Detroit went from the wealthiest city in the country to an absolute war zone.
The government came in, engineered it, and screwed that whole place up.
So typically speaking, my answer is whether you're white, whether you're black, whether you're Latino, whether you're LGBT, like, when the government says, hey, we're gonna fix this, it usually makes it worse.
That's a big problem.
And it does go back to Lyndon Johnson and the idea of... And they said they were gonna buy black votes.
That was a big part of it.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, I hear that all the time.
Yeah.
Which, I mean, I think now we're separated where people are able to have different opinions and it's pretty good, but let me ask you this, because you said you think, okay, so the playing field is not even.
And I think that that's true in some ways, certainly, like, culturally.
I don't know that I believe in, like, systemic racism in the government.
That's just...
But why do you think, this is something that always, it's just a curious question to me, why do you think suicide in this country is exclusively a white male problem?
70% of suicides in the United States are white men.
White men are twice as likely as black men to kill themselves.
I can tell you a little bit from personal experience, but a lot from just... Black people, we consider, just in general, taking yourself out is a non-negotiable.
Right.
Like, you was just brought up.
Like, you ain't gonna take yourself out.
First of all, God ain't gonna forgive you for that.
Faith, I think it's big faith.
It's a huge thing.
It's a huge thing.
God ain't gonna forgive you for that.
And then, secondly, it's just, you know, it's been taught as a cowardly way out.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
In a lot of circumstances.
So it's like, but, you know, some people, like, there's always outliers.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
But that wouldn't account for two times the rate.
And I think, I think one thing that definitely that I've, we were talking about this, like this is why we, we do this and talk like in groups and places like this.
The one thing that white men, a lot of white men lack in 2023 is community.
Is what?
Community.
Community.
So like, this is, for example, like I was just talking with, um, with Maya and Jasmine about this, where she was talking about single parent households.
And she said, you know, and sometimes it's a deadbeat, you know, dad who doesn't want to be around.
And she said, but sometimes it's true.
You have a mom who doesn't want him around, you know, and he wants to support his kids, but she wants to take the money for herself.
So she was very balanced.
In the white community, if your marriage fails, or, you know, you get fired, you don't have camaraderie.
People are like, hey man, you know, you'll get the next one, or hey, I'm here for it.
You're shamed right away.
And so, white men, typically, they just isolate themselves, and that's the biggest contributing factor to suicide, is you have a good social support network.
And that's, that was the thing is, The experience of historically being black in this country, you've had to recognize strength in your people.
Right.
Right?
So that amount of strength is not going to allow you to get to the point where you say, I'm just going to take myself out of here.
Right.
In general.
And so that will make up for that two times the rate and with the faith thing added into it.
Oh yeah.
Faith is a huge thing.
That's a big reason, obviously in the black community.
It's still like, it's not offensive to instill faith in your kids.
Yeah.
Where?
Yeah, right now in the white... But still, you have to think about, like, the isolation.
That's... I know that, you know, especially if you're telling, like, if you're telling a white man... And I say this because this is taught in universities.
Check your privilege.
You don't know struggle.
And then your marriage fails.
You lose your job.
You're like, well, I just must be a screw-up because I have every advantage, right?
We don't have anything tough going on for us.
And if you tune into the media, and it says, like, yeah, what are you bitching about?
You literally have people, right, saying, like, white tears, which, I'm not saying everyone, but I'm saying I know from experience, having had suicide, especially coming from, you know, military family and friends, where a lot of them take themselves out because they feel lonely.
You don't have this, typically, where, like, white men go, and they're comfortable just being themselves.
around people there's no community and so they take themselves out and it's a it's a real problem especially since covid suicides numbers are different like there's a more white mouse than our black mouse too so right no i mean even its percentage yeah it's crazy high i mean it's like you're twice as likely just to take your own life and uh yeah I think a lot of that has to come with distance traveled as well.
Most black people, and I'm not saying all because there's always levels to it, but most black people, we face struggle throughout our lives.
So when struggle and hard times hit, the adversity doesn't affect in the same manner as somebody that's had much less adversity.
You know, if you grow up poor, inner city, less than, you lose a job, shit, that's just another time.
But if your life has been somewhat privileged, maybe not top of the line, but middle class or whatever, and you hit those hard times, where have you been trained to deal with that adversity?
So when adversity hitting you at 27, 28 years old and you've never had adversity, it's going to hit a whole lot harder than somebody that grew up struggling.
They're not going to panic.
They're not going to look for the end game or the end way out because they're going to look at it like, Well shit, it's just another time I got to get back up and dust myself off.
Whereas, if I've been bred to be a success, and I've been taught that success is all I'm about, when I do fail, I'm going to take it a lot harder.
Because now, Talked about the expectations of the black person.
Now, what you sound like you're saying is, the white man has expectations.
You're supposed to be successful.
You're supposed to do this.
You're supposed to do that.
And when you don't do those things, now, you in your mind, you're taking it as, I'm a total and complete f*** up, so, why do I need to stay here?
Whereas a black dude gonna look at it, it's just Wednesday s***.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I think there's some... I mean, it wouldn't account for, like you were saying, because there are more white people, but as a percentage.
In other words, there are more poor white people, too.
So the percentage still, they're still in any social class.
So even, in other words, a poor white person or a rich white person is still twice as likely, generally, to commit suicide as a poor or rich black person.
A lot of white people have adversity, just like there are black people.
But they're still more likely to kill themselves, no matter what.
White people don't highlight poor white people.
White people highlight white people that are doing well.
The outliers, the trailer park white people, the people that are on the welfare, white people never highlight those people.
They don't get put on magazines.
They don't get put into the ads.
They just brush to the side with the rest of the common people.
So white people that are less than, They're left to kind of fend for themselves, so I believe they face adversity like we do.
But you know what?
White people probably figure that, once again, it's a Wednesday for them!
We ain't had s*** already!
Now they still may kill themselves, because black people do kill themselves, just at a different rate.
Yeah, at a much lower rate.
But the poor white boy don't feel the same way as the white boy that went to St.
Mark's or the Green Hills.
His life hasn't been the same, so if his lights go off, he just gonna find him a candle and open the window.
The rich white guy, his lights go off, he's thinking, damn, how did I wind up at this point where I'm standing like this?
I mean, economics and your social upbringing, I think, has a lot to do with it.
I can only speak for the black people.
The faith part does play a big part.
Oh, that's a huge part.
Well, that plays a huge part with the black people.
Because my grandfather was a Baptist minister.
So, suicide is one of those things that you just don't even contemplate.
Right.
Yeah, because once again, like they said, God's not going to forgive you for that.
And if black people, if we haven't had anything, we've had a heavy dose of God.
So we understand, well, I can't do that because I'm not going to get into heaven.
So, you know, that's usually, that's going to be one of your last, last options.
But I guess, in other words, if you could, you know, there's the old story or the allegory of, you know, everyone wrote their problem down on a piece of paper they put into a hat and they could pick any problem that they want out of the hat, right?
And invariably they picked out their own problem.
Yeah!
Because then you know how to deal with it.
So, I guess the question would be, if we all, I think what we're agreeing on is like, God, faith is way stronger in the black community, and community in general, right?
There's a stronger sense of community, black community.
Would you rather, if we accept the premise, right, just assuming here, that, okay, there's this white privilege as far as, let's say, wealth or a starting point.
Would you take that over having the faith and the strength of community that you have?
Would you take that as a greater, would you take what white people have as a leg up as a greater privilege or the
values of family and God and dignity?
What's, what's worse more?
I'd take the family and God.
And because that's how I was raised, so that's, that's what I'm gonna stick with.
But I'm not gonna lie, I peek at that other side, don't be like, well s**t, if you mean to tell me I'm gonna get pushed to the head of the line in a lot of instances, start from a farther up place, that is appealing to you.
But because I've been so deeply entrenched in what I came from, that's all I know, I'm gonna go with the familiar.
Like you said, I'm gonna pick my own problem.
Well, I'm saying at this point, pick your own blessing, right?
Pick your own blessing, like raising a wealthy family or raising a family that values God and community.
If that wealthy family not gonna be filled with love and faith, I don't want that.
I'd rather come from where I came from.
Ugly things happen in pretty houses, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If I couldn't get the good family with your bread, I'd rather just go fight for my own survival and make my own fortune.
Yeah.
Yeah, because that's not the big differentiating factor.
When you look at it, you see people who are miserable, who have money, who kill themselves who have money.
You see both black and white.
The most important thing you see invariably is like relationships that matter?
Absolutely!
Money is nothing but more than the two months.
All money does is means you don't have money problems.
That don't mean you don't have problems.
So a poor guy and a rich guy both gonna have problems.
The rich guy just not gonna be worried about where he gonna get the $200 from.
Right.
Poor guy is gonna have that.
But the problem, you gonna have problems with God.
I would rather have an attachment to a community and a family with a faith and an opportunity to give me some money to have bread and then kind of be somewhat detached.
I wouldn't want that.
I'm concerned though too because now you see it like this will hit all communities.
People are more disconnected than ever with social media.
Oh, man.
You'll even see with black or white younger generations, they don't interact with people as much.
They don't have relationships.
So if you think of what we see with where suicide is highest, and it's in people who are isolated, every one of all racial groups, they're all isolating themselves now, looking at a screen.
I don't know when the stats come in, but I don't think it goes well.
In 20 years, man, what the world will be, I haven't the slightest idea, because like what you said is, people, it's too easy for a person to isolate themselves.
Yeah.
It's much, much easier for you to.
Stand outside and just watch your phone then truly interact you know we because we work in a barbershop This is not forced interaction, but this is, uh... Abnormal.
Yeah, this is an outlier.
Yeah, people come in here looking for the interaction.
Right.
But this isn't the norm.
No, you have a generation where most of them don't go to church.
Fewer of them than ever are playing sports.
Man.
You know what I mean?
So you think about that.
I mean, it's like 40%, depending on the stat you use, of young men who aren't interested in even dating women, because they're afraid of being falsely accused, or now they have porn on the internet, so they don't even care anymore.
Where are you going to get that interaction?
Because that's pivotal as human beings.
And we see it all the time because the younger generations as they grow up now, their interaction skills are very poor.
They don't really know how to hold a conversation with someone, you know, male to male, male to female, female to female a lot of times.
They don't know how because it's much easier for them to express themselves Digitally than it is for me to actually sit out and engage.
We see them in here.
They'll be sitting chairs apart and they'll text back and forth rather than just have a communication.
I know.
They'll text back and forth and that's not gonna be good for you.
So here's a picture of my tits.
Look at her tits.
Right.
They're right there.
Exactly.
Exactly.
It's just this is where society is pushing us and if you don't force and make your children A part of a community.
They'll grow that way.
Yeah.
Well, that's why you were talking about to bring it back to like the LGBTQA AIP plus.
That's the actual acronym they use now.
Yeah.
Yes.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer.
I mean, they hijack the whole alphabet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But now you have over 20% of young people identify as part of that.
Well, why do you think?
Because they're getting this stuff.
It's flooding them on social media.
They're inundating them with it.
They're inundating them with it, man.
I'm sorry, you know.
I'm an older, you know, I'm an older person.
I'm, you know, in my 50s now.
And I can go back to when, you know... Do all black guys in your 50s look younger than me?
Jesus.
You guys are from Louisiana, man.
You didn't.
You didn't.
You know, if a person was... If you were gay...
You definitely wasn't gay at 10 and 11 years old, right?
You know, if you wind up being an adult that was gay, or either you hid it extremely well, or like you said, if you're going to inundate kids with that message, and not only the message, but let them know that it's okay, don't let anybody tell you you can't be this or you get to choose to be these things, you're giving them options.
Oh yeah.
I grew up with boys and girls, that's it.
Yeah.
It's boys and it's girls, but as we've progressed in time and society says, you can't tell your kids that they have to identify as that.
But I told my kids that they had to identify as that.
That's just how that's going to roll.
But when you open up and give children options, you're doing way more than what they need to be allowed to do, because a child's mind is there to be shaped and molded, and it's going to be shaped and molded by what you give them the opportunity to.
We grew up in a time where, you know, you couldn't watch that movie.
You ain't old enough to watch that.
You can't listen to that music.
You don't need to be hearing that.
If you just let them have everything, and you give them the option to be whatever they want, Well, you taking your chances on the wrong thing, Sticky.
No, you're absolutely right.
Yes.
Only thing with me, Mike, with that is, is I got a ton of freezes.
That's right.
I got so many.
I don't have no problems.
You know, but what gets me is this.
When somebody comes and tells me that God made him a stuntman, that gets me right there.
Because then I set them down, right?
I say, let me ask you this question.
Say, hello?
God's perfect, right?
They say, yeah.
I say, God don't make no mistakes, right?
Right.
Right?
They say, yes.
I'm saying, he is flawless.
All right, now, come on.
Right?
Right?
I say, yeah.
So tell me how he make no mistakes.
You mean that they're gay?
Yeah.
Tell me how many.
You don't know.
It's a choice.
So, I'm going to play it.
I've read that, yeah.
I don't know that's been confirmed.
for Kim Daniels, American King Daniels, first name of Bobby, you know, King Daniels.
I've read that, yeah.
I don't know that's been confirmed.
Google it, I'm gonna leave on that.
Google it, Google it on Bobby.
King James is a hoe.
Google it on King James.
Thanks, man.
Thanks, man.
I said you talking about LeBron.
Huh?
You say, you said you talking about LeBron?
No, no, no.
King James.
Not LeBron.
King James.
You talking about the first name of Bobby.
Yeah, it is.
But that's the real thing.
Like, you can have these conversations here.
I'll tell you, like, in the white community, you just... Like, Dave Chappelle experienced what white men have been experiencing for a very long time, where it's like you are not allowed to have an opinion.
White women go apeshit.
If they're liberal and they're like, I can't, you're homophobic, you're transphobic, so most guys, they just don't say anything.
That's a rough way to exist, too, man, you know.
I mean, I've always worked in a black barbershop, so I really don't have a level of perspective.
I'd like to know what a white barbershop is, what the conversations are like on a day-to-day basis.
Because realistically, the talk we have in here, this might just be a random Tuesday
if the right topic comes up.
We'll just come across this and everybody will chime in.
But I would hate to be in a group or category of people where there's no, like you said, the sense of community.
The barbershop, this is the last place a black man can be all the way black.
You can come here and be all the way black.
On a lot of jobs you don't get to express yourself.
You have to contain that blackness.
You have to put your corporate self out front.
Yeah.
But here, you can come here, you can tell all the lies you want, you can be the person you want to be,
you can come and tell your, and bury your truth.
This is that last place that we have for that.
And I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to not have that.
Yeah.
It's the last bastion of American freedom.
That's, that's, yeah, yeah, you know.
I've been getting my, I've been getting my hair cut my whole damn life.
I've never had this.
Totally.
It's not the same thing.
See, I've never, I've always assumed that, you know, when the white guys go into barbershops, I've always assumed that it's like the Mafia movies.
When you see them in there, again, they are good.
They in there talking with the hot cow.
Well, yeah, they're like guineas from New York.
Yeah, see, that's how I've always envisioned.
That's what must be what the white barbershop is like.
You know, but like you said, because they're a subsection.
Yeah.
of white America.
And they might have that, that the general populace may not actually get to occupy.
Yeah, that one I think is healthy.
I mean, imagine just kind of, if you do this, let's say, how often does a customer come in here,
on average? Once every...
You're going to get a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly.
That's generally, that's the general rule.
Okay.
Most people probably come in like every two weeks, maybe?
Every two weeks is probably more consistent.
Think of how valuable it is, like, a reset.
You know what I mean?
You're having a bad week, you're having a bad two weeks, you come in, you see familiar faces, you can talk.
Imagine you're going ten, twenty years, and you never have that.
That's what we're seeing in this country.
Yeah, that would suck.
Hell yeah, it's terrible.
That would suck.
Because these guys, each and every one of us carry our own experiences and our own opinions.
And sometimes it's just good to hear a different opinion on what's something you're dealing with or something you want to know about.
Yes.
This guy over here, he might be well-versed in something that I'm having a question or issue with, and he able to really just drop some game on, and I really don't even know him.
Yeah.
But he can just say that, and he can be comfortable, and he feels comfortable enough in here to express himself.
The conversation we're having about the alphabet mafia, you can't have this conversation everywhere without fear of retribution.
And you see it, you know that because you're experimenting with it by talking to people.
People get turned sideways if they feel offended.
But this is one place, you're going to have to check your feelings at the door when you come in here.
Because you're going to get a lot of real.
I don't want to say insensitive, but nobody's going to be, uh, we're not here to badger you or to disrespect you, but you're going to get a dose and a level of truth from this place that you're not going to get in a whole lot of places.
And we pride ourselves on it.
That's what our motto is.
Nobody makes it.
We don't let nobody make it.
But I appreciate the fact that you had the wherewithal to want to come and get this perspective.
Oh yeah.
We do this all... What happened would be, you'd have so many... Like if we discussed affirmative action, for example, like on campus.
I think we did at SMU.
You'd have a bunch of screaming white people telling you about the black community.
And I would go, but none of you are in the black community.
So we just, I just started saying like, let me just go to the black community.
And they'd be like, no, that's bullshit.
We don't, they don't speak for us.
They would say, we don't agree with that opinion at all.
That's the problem most people have.
They're not willing to see it from the other side.
You know, just like you said, you open my eyes on a lot of white perspective just in the time you've been in here.
The white male thing, you know, I've never been one, so it's a lot I don't understand.
Because the lack of community, I never thought about that.
I never thought that a white guy could go most of his life and not have a clique or a spot where he can come and really truly just let his hair down and be vulnerable, because that's what most people don't recognize.
So you can come in here and tell, you know, come in here and tell your boss, man, I lost my job today, man, damn, I don't know what I'm going to do.
Right.
And without fear of being judged in that aspect.
Yeah.
I didn't know that a white guy might not really have that place he could go express that.
I didn't understand.
I didn't know it.
You'll get it like, you know, military and that's why you see, you know, you see black, white, like if you're in the military you're all in it together.
Or you'll see it like in certain sports.
So like, you know, coming from like a grappling background.
If I go into a new city, it's like okay I can go to a grappling school and we're gonna have something in common.
Right.
It's not a race thing, it's just we all share this in common, the hard training, getting your joints blown out and all that stuff, you know, because you're wrestling dudes.
Like, wrestling teams, I'm sure it's the same with football or, I mean, in Canada, hockey, it's like, these guys just, they bleed for each other.
But as far as just day-to-day, like, once you're out of college, once you're, okay, you don't have sports anymore, you don't have a school to go to anymore.
Yeah, where do I find that commonality?
A lot of people just, they drop off that community aspect.
If they're not doing church, like you were saying, faith, if you don't have church, what is it?
It's nothing.
Yeah, standing on an island by yourself trying to navigate.
Yeah.
That's, that's something I think, you know, beyond the, whether black, white, like just we need to get back to communities, strong communities of people who care about each other, man.
Absolutely.
All right.
I'll get going anyways.
Yeah.
You guys talking about you have this, the only place to be truly black.
And then I looked in the mirror.
I'm like, Oh my gosh, I'm the whitest human being on earth.
You probably thought I was a narc.
No, I think, I think he got to be.
Oh yeah.
Well, that guy's not white.
He's transparent.
He would make Larry Bird look at him and be like, dude, can you black it up a little bit?
Alright, thanks.
Thanks, man.
What's your name, man?
I'm Big Mike, man.
Big Mike.
Is everyone big here?
Big Phil, Big Mike?
What's your name, man?
Andrew.
Andrew?
Nice to meet you.
Hey.
Doug.
Doug?
Thanks, Doug.
Oh, D-O-E.
Oh, Don.
Don!
I thought you said Doug.
Alright, Don.
D-O-N.
Hey, Don.
There you go.
Like the Don.
Who is it, man?
Sorry.
Travis.
Travis?
Nice to meet you, man.
I appreciate it.
What's your name?
Whitest guy on earth.
Grant.
Grant.
Sorry, I'm giving you a tough time.
Sounds nice to have on you.
Remember, none of this is possible without you.
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