Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Addressing the Racist Attacks in Atlanta. Plus, John the Scorpio on Matt James's Bachelor Season.

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss the terrible, racist attacks against Asian Americans in Atlanta (11:00), Saweetie’s viral comments about threesomes (27:00), Kanye West’s wealth (34:00), and unpacking the notion that Black people have to conform in order to succeed in society (42:00). Then they have Matt James’s brother, John the Scorpio, on the show to discuss his music career and his brother (1:00:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Our learning's on is Ivan Lathan. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. Rachel! What's up, Van? How's your week going? How are things for you?

My sister's been here. My older sister. Now, I know y'all've heard me talk about my younger sister. She's gone now. But my older sister was here just for a couple of days. So that was nice to have big sis in town. You're the middle child? Hmm?

You're the middle child? We've been through this before. And I will not let you stereotype me. Yes, I am. I'm a proud middle child. Don't say you could tell that either. Yes. So that was different.

That was nice. I haven't seen my sister since Christmas. What does she do in life? What's her thing? She's stay at home mom. Oh, this is the sister that had, do we have an update on your nephew? How is he doing?

Oh, my nephew was so good. So remember they had him. If you're just, if you knew to higher learning, I talked about my nephew before. My nephew, little Alistair, was, they had the kids in groups. They had an odd number. He's the only black child in his classroom. And they sat him by himself.

And so my sister couldn't understand why he was having trouble in class or he was getting like bad marks and he was acting out because he was sitting alone. All the white kids were together. My black nephew was sitting by himself. So my sister and my brother-in-law took it up with school. They fixed it. He is in a group. There are three people in his group.

So he feels like really empowered. He's like, there's three of us and there's two of everyone else. So it's really great. So yeah, my nephew's doing fine. Thank you so much for asking. Yeah, I like that. You know what's interesting about your nephew?

What is his name? Alistair. Alistair. Yes. Your sister decided to give her son a comic book villain name. Oh, you know, I don't know this. Which comic?

No, he's just like, Alistair. Like that's the name of somebody who like years, years from now, he'll probably run like some big tech company, Fortune 500 companies. Yeah. And you have to with like the first name Alistair. You cannot work. You can't just, you can't have like a normal job and have your first name be Alistair. Alistair is for a man of purpose. Hey, Alice is coming. Everybody perk up in the boardroom. Here he comes. It's time for us. Alastair, you know? Is that what it does to you? Exactly. Let me ask you. Here's the thing. Okay.

Like, for example, people that name their kids like Jeeves or Coleman, like you know that you want your son to be a butler. You know, if you name your kid Jeeves or like Coleman, hey Coleman. You know what I mean? Like Coleman is a name for a nice butler that's going to help you out. As a matter of fact, I think Coleman might be the butler's name. And Arthur. Arthur, am I wrong about that?

Let me see. You ever see Arthur before? You've never once seen Arthur with Dudley Moore. Are we talking about the cartoon? You know, we're not. You know, we're not talking about the cartoon. So Arthur is a movie about a guy named Arthur Bach. Then they ran it back in Arthur, too, on the rocks.

So Arthur is like a, he's a playboy. He's never worked a day and is like, He's a millionaire playboy, right? And he has to marry this woman named Susan. All right. His family has set this up, basically. He's all kind of like an arranged marriage. She's not really.

I don't recall asking for the details of the movie. Arthur. Arthur doesn't want to marry Susan because he meets Liza Minnelli, who is a waitress. So this is a throwback. Yeah, this is the early 80s. Yeah. Yeah.

And so he meets Liza Minnelli. but he's, I think. I don't think it's Coleman. Is it, is it Bert? No, it's not. Now that sounds like the name. It's Hobson. It's Hobson. It's Hobson.

Hobson. Hobson is played by John Gilgood. And like, look, and here's the deal. And then they run it back, Arthur, too, on the rocks. Because they get money that he loses all of this money. And then he's got to get the money back. Anyway, you've never seen author before? You never heard.

Never even heard of it. You've never heard of the movie Arthur. Would you like for me to repeat myself? It's so amazing. So you've never heard the song, We caught between the moon and New York City. I know it's true. Maybe I heard the original artist.

do, but the best that you can do is fall in love. You never heard that song? What? What is Christopher Cross? He should have pushed your head your hand up.

Does Liza Benelli sing it? No, it's Christopher Cross. You never heard that? You've never heard that song before? I'm man. I'm so sorry. Maybe it's generational. Yo, have you, have the real,

Have you guys never seen Arthur? Now you know they haven't. Now you know the rest of the crew. What the fuck? They're younger than me. Like Trudy, Isaiah, have you guys never seen Arthur before? I've never seen Arthur. Galica.

Galica. I did find out that this song, Arthur's theme, peaked at number one. It's a number one record. Never. Never. I need to see Arthur. I need to at least see. Maybe I've seen it.

the cover art. I know it's crazy. Arthur, movie. I can't believe you got it. 1981. Never. 1984. Never in my life.

Arthur, too, on the rocks. No. They remade Arthur. Oh, hold on. They remade Arthur. Alcoholic billionaire playboy Arthur. Arthur Bach. Look, they remade Arthur some years ago and it had Russell Brand.

It had Russell Brand. Definitely didn't see that. No, no, Van, no, no, no. Never heard of it, never seen it, don't want to. Not making the list. It is a really great movie. How do we get to Arthur? Honestly, how do we get to Arthur? I'm being serious. It's a really great movie.

But how do we get here? Oh, Alistair. It's a really great movie, though. Seriously, not even, no bullshit. Arthur is a really great. Does he more nominated for Academy Award for his portrayal of Arthur Bach, the delightful little man. Anyway, whatever. So your sister was out here. You guys, did you guys go anywhere? We went to dinner a couple of times.

We went to Olivetta. Went to Scopa. Scopa, okay. Oh, you? Scopa. Have you been? I've been to Scopa. Scopa is very nice.

Very good. Great, both great restaurants. Yeah, took my sister's some places you should never been before. Have you seen, have you ever seen the movie Arthur before? Is that with what you call it, Russell Brand? No, it's not with Russell Brand. No, the remake. Get out.

She's half right. She's half right. Get out of here. Take your dog with you. Get out. Yeah, get out. Close the door behind. This is why Kalika and I get along.

This is why we get along. Man. I'm out. Island. Like, what's, like, is it, I guess it's me, right? I guess I'm the only one who watched the movies. No, it's just the wrong circle. Like you're appreciated in other places, right?

That's why you've been invited on the rewatchables multiple times, and I never have. No, you would have to be invited on the watchables. You couldn't get invited on the rewatchables. That should be a show. That should honestly be a show. Oh, man, pitch it to Bill. Like people who, like people who've never seen these movies

that have like Bill and Ted's, that was called her Ted and Bill's adventure. What was it called? You know the name of the movie. No, Bill and Ted's new adventure. You're about, you're getting on my shit. Come on now. Wait, wait.

No, like, honestly, I truly can't remember. Bill and Ted are the names, right? Yeah, Bill and Ted are their names, but you're fucking with me, and I'm not doing this. Okay, Bill and Ted's great adventure. Right? Anyways, imagine if I, if I watch these movies for the first time, and I have a natural reaction. It's like those people who do the YouTube videos where they hear a song for the first time and they get their natural reaction.

This is a thing. I don't know why watchables doesn't exist. Watchable. There are a lot of people out there. There are. I'm sure there are. Watchables, no. Look, you haven't seen Arthur.

By the way, Jackson, Trudy and Isaiah, I get that. You're not out of the Arthur range of things. I'm six years younger than you. Six years younger than me. I wasn't even born when Arthur came out. Let's look at, let's look. I love that you said that. Let's look at when they made an Arthur sequel, Arthur 2 on the rocks.

2011? No, not that one, man. Arthur had his own sequel before they rebooted it, and they should have never done it. Arthur II on the rocks, 1988. That's two years after you were bouncing, baby. Three. I was three.

What was I supposed to do with that? I was one when Arthur came out. Did you have a question? Did you have cable growing up? Did you have cable? We did. We did. What, what channels did you have?

I know y'all had TBN. Y'all had the Christian channel. Y'all, I know, I know y'all had all. I know y'all had all. It's all about grandmother watches. It's like, all she watches, I know over and over again, the judge will come out and be like, it's time for watch a movie.

And you guys would be like, we're going to watch the Ten Commandments again, Dad. No. It's a great film about Moses and the exodus of the chosen people. Okay. That was not my childhood. My favorite part is the Mount Sinai. When Moses comes down and he's got the tablets,

these are the lessons of your life. Are you done? That's the judge. That's the judge. Okay. We are going to take a break. And when we come back, we are going to discuss some things that are not so fun to discuss,

but we would not be the podcast that we are. if we did not talk about these things. So let's go ahead and take a break. Reset. Come back and talk about what we have to talk about. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you?

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trim fire. Tap this ad to learn more about Tramfaya, including important safety information. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and make it a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. you don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Okay. As I'm sure everyone who's listened to this podcast right now knows, there was a terrorist attack in Atlanta earlier this week. A man named Robert Aaron Long

faces multiple counts of murder and aggravated assault after he shot and killed eight people at massage parlors across Atlanta. Six of the eight victims here were Asian. All right. It looks like a coordinated, direct attack

to provoke fear and to I can't, I don't even know what to say in these situations. It looks like something done to terrorize the Asian community. Absolutely. As it looked like that.

That's precisely what it is. All right. So there's been a lot about this story. So we're going to pack a couple of bullet points from it, number one. Number one, the Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds came under some fire because he seemed to intimate that this attack took place because Robert Aaron Long is a sex. He has a sex addiction. And he had an issue. And there was even a point where the sheriff had said, or Captain Jay Baker said, he had a really bad day

and this is what he did. That is in response. Let's put this in context, wrong with it. Captain Jay Baker said, yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. Okay, a really bad day.

That's in response to someone killing eight people. That's remarkable. That is an absolutely that's a remarkable thing to say in that I don't even have the vocabulary to adequately describe what frame of mind you have to be in, how detach you have to be from any empathy or reality to say that somebody's bad day is him killing eight people. It's weird. It's not detached.

It is, it highlights how white people see white people. He would never use that phrase to any other race, any other ethnicity than white people. None. That's exactly what it is. When you see a white person, there has to be a reason why that happened. He is a homegrown terrorist. He is out here terror. terrorizing specific people. And you want to categorize that as a bad day. It is nothing other than,

oh, there must be some other reason. And furthering the thought that they're going to seek out what that other reason may be because he was having a bad, like this just simply can't be because he was a homegrown terrorist and was hating a specific type of person and on a mission to hunt those type of people down. it's got to be something else. No other person type of person other than white people gets that kind of benefit of the doubt. Yeah, it's kind of a thing to where

white supremacy is somebody white doing something wrong and people saying a good person did a bad thing. And when somebody black or somebody that's not why it does something wrong, you hear that's who they really were all the time. Now,

what makes this issue kind of deeper is that Captain Jay Baker had shared an image of t-shirts that said COVID-19 imported virus from China, C-H-Y, dash, and A. That's the way Trump says it. He had shared those images on Facebook. Now, here's a deal. What I'm about to say next isn't really so much to Captain Jay Baker or Robert Aaron Long or any other people, right? Okay. These terrorists that are in our society, they're essentially drones.

All right. They have to get activated. Okay. Something activates that. These people have these things and they have these capability. They get activated, right? So for months and months, people were talking about the fact that calling COVID the Wuhan flu. and calling it the China virus was going to had potentially the opportunity or had the chance to increase violence against Asian Americans

across the country. And we saw that, right? We saw people saying that. We saw Asian Americans discuss this fear. And not just in this instance right now, but over the past months, we've seen that really

that fear manifests itself. It's real. It happened. And just to let you know, that wasn't just the Trump people who were doing that. Bill Maher was on his show, calling the China virus. Yeah, calling it the China virus.

Bill Maher was on his show talking about the fact that we call other viruses, other diseases, by the names of the day. where they come from. Yeah. Where they come from.

And, you know, we did that in different times. There's a whole bunch of things that we used to do that we don't do now. So, yeah, yeah. Your words don't have to be the thing that you don't have to use your fists to punch somebody in the face. Not at all. Your words can punch somebody in the face. Your words can activate ideas in people's minds that then make them go out and do things

like this. So nobody is talking about. censorship, but we are talking about compassion. And compassion is understanding that there's a real world cost when you make the, when you make a

virus or a pandemic, when you attach that to somebody's culture, you're going to get stuff like this. Now, we have Jackson on our show, Jackson, who's a proud Asian American man, and rather than to take up more oxygen, I think it would be

appropriate if we let Jackson talk about the way he's feeling right now and kind of how he sees things. Jackson, you want to jump in? Sure. I'm half Asian just for the record, so everyone's fully aware of my ethnic background. I'm one-quarter Chinese, one-eighth Japanese, one-eighth Korean. And there's one thing that I want to unpack that I think people are not the first to do this, obviously, but the idea that this guy's sex addiction is being used as a way to describe what he did and separate it from racism is completely backwards. Because the fact that he attacked these massage, these primarily Asian massage parlors, really illustrates and goes to show the fetishization of Asian women,

in a way not dissimilar from the fetishization of black men, I think. And to try to use that as a way to separate what he did from racism is backwards. It actually proves how racist of an attack it was because he attacked these people that he claims to have a sexual addiction towards and that he wanted to stop himself from that addiction by doing this. And I think the point that I really wanted to make is the one that you made, Van, and one that Mina Kimes and Pablo Tori very artfully made on ESPN, around the horn, around the horn on ESPN yesterday, and that words matter.

And in the same way that words mattered when President Trump suggested people stormed the capital, words mattered when President Trump called it the kung flu on national television at his rallies and two people across the country. Like, this is this type of violence against Asian people is not something that's new, much like the violence against black people that we've seen in the last year, It's not something that's new. But it's rising. And the NYPD reported that hate crimes motivated by anti-Asian sentiment jumped.

Listen to this number. 1,900% in New York in 2020. It's just not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence. And words matter. It's just not a coincidence. I'm sorry. You'd have to be a fucking moron.

Right. it's just not a coincidence. And I don't have a ton more to say. It's been trying to process everything that's happened in the past 24, 48 hours, whatever. It's been, but it's really, it's obviously disheartening. But one thing that I do think trying to be, trying to not just focus on the negatives, I think it is one good thing is that it allowed a place for Asian people to speak about this and to be heard. Because for a long time, Asian people have been painted as this ethnic group

that doesn't speak out against things when they happen to them. And that's really hard. And this is providing an opportunity for people to be forced to listen and to understand that this is not a new issue discrimination towards the Asian American community. And it's not an issue that's going to go away unless we talk about it and we address it and we understand the the depths of it. So the one thing I hope that comes out of this is that there's just more awareness and more education about these kinds of issues and that we can try to work as a community to make sure this doesn't happen anymore.

Well said. Well said. Well said, Jackson. And I think it's important for Van and I to acknowledge that, you know, like we speak a lot about issues that affect the black community. But it's so important that we speak. out against what's happening to the Asian community as well and letting you guys know that we stand with you, we stand by you. And I think what's so troubling about not just what happened,

but how it's being handled at the moment. The fact that we are giving or they are giving any type of consideration as to whether or not this is a hate crime is despicable and it's disgusting. This person had an M.O. He was targeting a certain type of person. He was on a mission hunting down these people going after them to where he was creating widespread fear against a certain group of people. This is a hate crime. And I know the state of Georgia just made hate crimes a thing. They were late to this. And they didn't enact this until after Amad Arbery. This is long, long overdue. But something that Jackson said is that this isn't new. And I think it's important for all our listeners to know that by the time

this hits mainstream media, it's been happening. It didn't just start when you just heard about it. We've been seeing reports. We've been seeing social media posts from the Asian community pleading for help, trying to bring awareness about what is happening in their community. The community has warned us. And just like racism didn't exist against black people in 2020 after George Floyd just because people woke up and started realizing their privilege and were awakened to aware of what was happening. It has been happening. The same thing has happened to the Asian community. And if you don't know how this country has discriminated against Asians back into the 1800s, then please do your research on that from the Chinese Exclusion Act. That ban, no, excuse me, before that, the Page Act banned Chinese women from immigrating to the United States.

the Chinese Exclusion Act did not allow people to immigrate here. Chinese people to immigrate here. Then you don't even get started on what was happening after World War II with the Japanese internment camps that were happening here. So there's a long documented history against for the Asian community being discriminated against by this very country. And most recently with what former President Trump has done and how he has racial, a virus. We talk about health care being politicized. He also racialized it when he called it Kung flu virus and China virus or flu, whatever it was that he was saying. So it's so important to know that it is deep-rooted. It didn't just start. And it is, we need to stand together and we need

to support what is happening to our Asian brothers and sisters. Yeah, treat the disease. And the disease is racism. We don't treat the disease by. pretending it doesn't exist. Exactly. Denial of racism is racism. You treat the disease by coming up with a treatment plant enacting that and being

bold and brave and standing up to it and fighting it. That's why we call people who are fighting these things that ravish your body heroes because it takes a hero to look at something that is trying to kill you

and then decide that you're going to take that thing on, full-throat, to end a four-throat way. And it takes heroes to do this type of stuff. I certainly stand with the Asian community. I stand with them, and I won't just stand with them in tragedy. I'll make sure that I'm available to stand with them

when it's time to build something as well. I just when it's time to put our arms around each other, because in order to have an American community, we have to be active members of an American community. So that's that. I don't know what's going to end up happening with Robert Aaron Long. There doesn't seem to be much mystery

in the fact that he was the perpetrator of these crimes. So we'll see how fast justice moves down there in Georgia. But no matter what happens with that, you can't get back the lives of the eight people who were killed. And the eight people that were killed were killed, in my opinion, because someone decided to take a moment of American history and make it into an agenda.

And nobody thinks it matters until we're wiping up the blood. Scary times. Okay, we're going to take a break. Come right back. Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away.

Trimphaya, guselcomab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections in tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away. Explore what's possible.

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with immonada jolada jolada where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janado's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. All right, listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna put something into the podcast

that we didn't discuss because it's just starting to become a big deal on Twitter. I want to ask, I want to get your opinion of this in real. real time. So, Soidi was on a podcast with Justin LaBoy

and Justin Combs. Okay. And she was asked the question. And the question was about a threesome. Like, how do you, how does she want to do a threesome, whatever? And she says, she loves her man so much that she would

allow her man to pick the guy that they would have the threesome with and everybody went crazy because they're saying that sweetie, that that's not a threesome. They say two guys and one girl's not a threesome.

What is that called? They say that that's a, it's an argument right now between men and women on Twitter. Men are saying that two guys and a girl that's not a threesome. They said that's a train. Rachel had to take a drink.

Rachel has to take a drink. We're just to take a drink. You don't think that and there, and the Sweetie's getting some criticism for that. Why? What are your thoughts on this whole thing? I don't think. It's like semantics here.

Three-sum is three people, okay? It's three people. I don't care what those three people are. It's three people. That is why it's called a threesome. It is not gender specific. So if Soidi wants to say it's another man, that's a threesome.

You don't get to sit out here and call it. a train is more than three people. I'm sorry. I think we can all agree on that. A train? I don't think it's a train if it's just two people. I don't think that's a train. I think a train is, you know, there's a lot of compartments. A train is a lot of people.

A threesome is three people. Which, by the way. Those three people may be. By the way, we have to like destigmatize the train itself. Like people like group sex, even the sentence, man, we're going to run a train.

It makes it seem as it's something that the woman doesn't want. Like she's getting ran. It does. Yes, it does. She's getting ran through. Yes. What if you like? What if, do you think there's anything wrong?

That's called an orgy. Well, no. Well, is it trained in orgy? Well, no. If it's group sex, it's not, it doesn't matter how many people or how many, how many, is there a specific number? Does it have to be even? Okay.

So this is my question. Is an orgy, okay, so if there's one person, let's say it's one lady or if there's one man. And then there's, if there's one man and there's five women having sex with the one man, but they're not having sex with each other. If there's one lady, but there's five dudes having sex with the lady, but they're not having sex with each other, is that an orgy? Because in an orgy, isn't everyone kind of having sex with, with everybody in an orgy? I'm looking up the definition of Orgy.

It says sex party consisting of at least five members. So what do you call four? So what's the four sit-in is in between, right? You got the threesome. You got the Orgy. What do you call for? A Quartet? What is four?

Is it not a four-sum? I guess that's what it is. Forcum. So Orgy starts at five people. I never knew that. I didn't either. So a threesome is so then there's so there's just so it goes up. I said a quartet.

It's so you know quartet. What are you trying to see? It's a quartet. So then so you go masturbatory processes, duosex, I guess the angel. Then you got threesome, foursome, and then at five it becomes an orgy. Full blown. And it doesn't, it doesn't specify who has to be having sex with who. How many, like, what gender roles are being played?

It's just the number of people participating. It's a, like, certain definitions at a wild sex party. Excessive drinking is what it said. Oh, so Orgy is five people. And by the way, we know why people want to do what they're doing online about this. This is misogyny. This is like she can't be a woman with agency over her body and want to have sex with two guys at the same time.

That has to be something tardy with that. Like having a threesome as a guy is something that every guy wants. Ha ha, ha, yeah, bro. A pie kappa. You know what I mean? But like a woman wanted to have sex with two men at the same time. There has to be something lewd and tardy and untoward about that. Like, it's weird.

It's like so many different things, right? Like there's all these negative terms for women, but not for men. It's just the society that we live in. It's the way that things go. Good for her for saying that, though. And didn't the rumor start that they broke up because of this podcast? Isn't that where the rumor came about? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

They broke up because of the podcast? No, I don't. What I saw trending on Twitter was that they broke up. And I tried to research it. I tried to find the source. Like, where did this originate from? Why are you saying this? They unfollowed each other.

Well, all I could find was. the clip that you're referring to. So people are trying to allude that that is what happened. Like maybe Cuevo didn't like that. I don't know, Cuevo is an FCF owner like myself

in fantasy controlled football league. Are you friends with Cuevo? Maybe we could reach out? Can we get him on the podcast? I've never met Quavo before. I've never met Quavo before ever in life. Here's the thing. What?

I can't believe that he would break up with her for that. This is all speculate. This is Twitter, right? Our source is Twitter. I'm just saying when I was trying to. I think the speculation is that she, because she said on the podcast that she doesn't like liars, she said it a couple of times. So I don't think the rumors that the pod is what caused them to break up as much as it is

her sort of subtly hinting at it on the podcast. Okay. So we're starting rumors here right now. You're starting to rumor. They didn't break up because of that. I am. I am. This is why the game of telephone never works.

It's crazy. You know what happened? I think I have, I think there's some bad juju on me. Because every time I think about something that goes left, I was literally just thinking, damn, Quaybo and Suuidi been together a long time. I literally was just thinking that a couple of days ago. Like, we don't talk about their relationship. I'm like, we don't really talk about their relationship. Because they're good.

They're not putting us all in their business. Obviously they're not good. Obviously. Speculation. Good. Speculation. Speculation. Look, big week for Kanye West. It was reported earlier this week

that Kanye West had become, and I am not, like, in any way, exaggerating here, the richest black American in history. Once again, that Kanye West was the richest black American in history. Forbes put out an article.

and where they said that Kanye West's net worth was $6.6.6 billion. $6.6.6 billion was what he was worth because of the valuation of his company over there, the Yeezy company over there with the dealers and stuff like that. Now, though, it seems as if there's been some change here. Because Forbes has corrected themselves and said that, Kanye is not worth $6 billion, that his easy gap deal is worth $6 billion, but he actually is worth around $1.3 billion,

which is a whole hell of a lot of money, but would not make him the richest black man in history. Right. Do you care either way is my question. I would like to preface this answer by saying, this is not a topic that I suggested in the rundown. It was fans who said we would no longer talk about Kanye West. And once again, here we are.

Facts, not negative facts. This is a true story. I'm just letting people know there. Listen to the podcast. So to answer your question, I don't care. Imagine having 99 problems. Imagine having 99 problems. And one of them is that, oh, you don't have $6.6 billion or whatever it is.

You actually have 1.3. Right. What? Like, what? What? What are we even talking about here? You're still a billionaire. And even if you, if you fell out of that, you still have millions times millions times millions. I mean, you know, I think Kanye's doing just fine. I think the reason that this even made news is because he's in the middle of a divorce or they're trying to figure out their divorce. I'm sure they have a strong pre-nup. I'd be shocked that that pre-nup said anything other than you keep what you had before and I keep what I. I have and we deal with the kids. So, you know, kudos to Kanye for the, you know, there's only seven black people that are on the billionaires list out of what, like, 600 plus people. So, you know, he's still a billionaire.

Kudos to him. Do you have a pair of Yeezys? No. Fuck no. Oh, I do. Fuck, no. Okay. Don't be saying it with that kind of like force when you're the one who,

you're the reason we're talking about him today. But you're the, but you're, but you're, but you're, but you're, but you're going I'm talking about you got some Yeezys on. They were a gift. I'm stomping in my white supremacy loafers. Check out my white supremacy. I'll never look at them again. Check out my white supremacy.

Stopping and tearing the streets up in my white supremacy shoes. I bet if I bought you a pair of yeasies, you wear them. Fuck, no. Yeah, he would, y'all. Look, look, and they really don't have nothing to do with all of that. It's not, I'm against. First of all, this is Vann's opinion, and Vann is in no way saying that anybody is wrong for one Yeezys, going to buy Yeezys, support it, buy it, nothing like that, none of that. But I'm saying for me personally, number one, I don't even agree with that whole thing.

I don't agree with the, let's put out ridiculously high-priced shit and everybody's going to clamber for it and wearing a status. symbol like on your feet. That's just not, that whole thing is not. But he's not doing that. People are reselling it. They're selling it at a price at a limited amount. And people are reselling them. There's nothing wrong with doing it. It's completely okay.

But he's just not for me. But that's not what he's doing. You're selling like $250, $300 like hoodies and shit like that. That shit is like mad expensive. It's very true. But look, that's cool. I know, but that's like high fashion. High fashion, Adidas shit.

I know it's high, the shoes are high fashion. But when I'm telling you is all of that stuff, that stuff is just not for me, period. Like, I don't, like it's not a, you know what I mean? Like, I like a good champion hoodie. You know what I'm saying? Something like that. Something very, you know, wear it.

I'll remind you that the last podcast, you said you spent $1,000 on shoes. I did one time in life. Because there was some drawings that I had to have. And because I had to have big feet You all Had to have them It's a deal

Because I had big feet Right I could not find These drawers anywhere Except in Where a size 14 Did not need to be a story detail Except on the resale market

So I bought them Look everybody do whatever they want But I'm not fucking No no use these for me But look A Support The brand

That's what I'm supposed to say I don't care But I get it Um Yeah Now, last thing about this before we move on, there were people who, in this is interesting to me, people who were saying,

yo, I don't fuck with Kanye's politics and I still don't like the Trump stuff, but I have to hand it to him, $6.6 billion. I got to give it up. That's amazing. For you, does making money, does someone being a successful business person

in their accomplishments in that arena, is that in any way does that make you have more patience for some of their past political or social transgressions? Because they have more money? Well, I'm saying because to me, I'm looking at that. And people are saying, hey, I know we don't fuck would have to be here, but we got to impress $6.6.6 billion. We have to celebrate that. The question is, do we?

No, you don't have to celebrate it? Just like, I'm not celebrating it now. We're just talking about it. No, I'm not going to celebrate it. I mean, you know, like, yeah, you love to see black people succeed, but I'm not going to You know what I mean? I'm not going to celebrate. Listen, just because he has 6.6.

No, he doesn't. Excuse me. Just because he has $1.3 billion, doesn't mean that I'm going to forget the things that he's done that are detrimental to the black community. You know what I mean? He didn't give me a billion dollars

to forget about that. If he gave you the billion dollars, would you forget about it? In two seconds, just like your friend who said the Chick-fil-A. The Chick-fil-A could endorse slavery. As my brother said that, this is the worst joke, I'm I'll tell you guys right now.

I told this on the live business of them. You do. My little brother back in the day was like, yo, spin me by Chick-fil-A. And I was like, you know, no, I don't want to go to Chick-Fillet. You don't go to Chick-Fillet. It's like they don't support.

They down on the LGBT people. We can't support Chick-fil-A. And he goes, man, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm super down with the struggle, bro. I want everybody to live and love however they want. But he goes, but Chick-fil-A could support slavery. It's so stupid

And I would be up in this line The chicken sandwiches is a sit And I laughed That was so funny He was like yeah Of course it's a bad funny joke He was like he was like forget about them Like

Like they could be after us And I was still By the way Which shows you his commitment Rachel Rachel I have a question for you This is a question that I'm going to ask It was on my Instagram

Okay. Okay. So I got this message. I got this DM and it caused a conversation on the old Grammy gram. All right. So this is the message.

It says, you know I love you. Let me start with that. But didn't I just, but dude, I just listened to you and Juliet on the Bachelor Party podcast. Shout out Juliet living. Well, I understand that you don't think that black people should have to modulate their behavior

to be an example for all black people to white people. However, that isn't reality. Your own co-host couldn't say what she wanted to Chris Harrison while he blatantly disrespected her on her own show because as a black woman, she can't just do her. In corporate America, we can't just do us. We have to conform to white expectations in order to survive.

I think you've been lucky in that your career has enabled you to be unapologetic in your blackness. Most of us do not have that love. luxury. I only began to get it when I decided to open up my own business. I hope you read this and discuss on higher learning the ability to be unapologetic and whether or not Matt has it. So this comes because on Juliet's podcast, great podcast, special party podcast, I was annoyed by the fact that Matt and Emmanuel Acho, well, actually Emmanuel Acho said this, then Matt agreed.

Lachos said that he lives his life as a black man, having to go to society, and having to represent what everybody's opinion of black people are and always having to be on his best behavior or something like that, and then Matt agreed. And I said absolutely not. No, hell no.

I'm not doing that. I refuse to do that. And this very intelligent listener replied with a completely to me valid perspective that I couldn't disagree with more and because it became such a conversation piece on Instagram

I thought I would ask you about it and see what you thought. Do black people have to conform to white standards in order to make it in corporate America? Okay. First I want to say something in regards to that message. shout out to a thought warrior. We love all thought warriors.

But what I was doing in that interview was not conforming. That was purely a choice I made to sit back and let him speak and be heard because I needed people to focus on what it is that he was saying rather than focusing on the debate

that could happen between the two of us. That was a choice. That was not conforming. I just want to get that straight. there was intention behind how I handled myself in that interview. And I explained that in a prior higher learning podcast. And I would suggest you go back and listen to that. Do I feel like black people have to conform to make it in corporate America?

I believe that you have to play a game to a point. I do believe that I wouldn't say conform. But I believe that there's a game to be played in any of this, whether it's because you're black and you have to be a certain way or a woman or whatever it may be. So like, yeah, like you got to play a little bit of it. It's a game of chess, but I wouldn't necessarily say I'm like I'll give you for an example, being the Bachelorette, right? As vocal as I am now, I was always myself, but I wasn't as vocal as the Bachelorette.

I feel like I 100% represented who I was. People who watched me who know me were like, that was Rachel. I didn't compromise my values or who I am as a black woman by any means. What you saw was the real Rachel. However, once I made it through and I got into a certain position, I had a position of power. So now I can speak from a place in a way that I necessarily would not have been heard of before. So I played a certain game to get to a position of power to now where I have influence because of how I work the system. So to that extent, I understand it.

You know what I mean? It wasn't that I was conforming is that I was playing a game of chess to get to a point where I'm in a position of power to make a difference. And I think that there's a distinction between the two. You know what I'm saying? What is the distinction? Describe to me like what the game of chess would be. Okay. So if I came in, if I came into The Bachelor, when I went to my audition and one of the first things an executive producer said to me was,

so we struggle with finding people of color, black particularly, to come on the show. Okay? It was like in my audition after I made it to the next round. And I said, and I'm paraphrasing here. And I said, well, I'm so glad you brought that up because I was going to bring that up if you didn't. You know, how do I feel comfortable as a black woman coming on your show when you don't have black people represented? So this is me being myself. This is what I said.

And they said, well, that's actually been an issue because of, because we haven't. Now people don't even want to come and be a part of the show because they don't feel themselves being represented. It is very rare we get somebody like you to come into the room and desire to be a part of this show. Right. And so I talked about like how I would be on the show, you know, like I would represent. at myself as a black woman and it's a problem and like maybe I would pave away for other people. Okay, I get on the show. I would say that I was outspoken.

I would say there's actually things that weren't shown on the show. For example, one of the girls called me a bully. I spoke in an ITM about how that is, she called me angry and aggressive and I had not done anything. Right. And I spoke out about that, like how those are stereotypes placed on black women. She's described me as angry black female. They chose not to play that because they felt like the audience wouldn't receive that well. They would choose her over me.

That was a decision executive producers decided to make. So at that point, I started to realize the audience that I was dealing with because I didn't watch the show before. And it was like, okay, I was myself, but I wasn't calling every single thing I saw out, right? I became the Bachelorette. I represented myself as the Bachelorette. I was vocal about certain things that I wanted for the season. I was vocal about how I wanted to look and how I wanted to look. I wanted to present myself.

But once I got to a certain place, it's like now I'm in a position that no other black person in this franchise has been. I have a position of power where I can speak out and people will actually listen to me because this has never been done before. So I guess it's hard for me to go back to your original question to say, what's the distinction? I can just tell you how I did it, how I played it. And then, but I didn't lose myself in the process, right? I didn't conform and be what they wanted me to be and stay in that lane.

Right? Like I was myself, maybe I was toned down a little bit. But once I got to a position where I had a platform to speak out, I used that. And I feel like that's what people do, right? Like I might not necessarily, in corporate America, people don't necessarily call out everything. But once they get to a certain position, then they're in a place where they can bring other people up because they pay. away. Does that make sense? It does.

It does make sense. It's hard for me because there's two things. Number one is I legitimately have been sort of existing in the same sphere since I was like 12 years old.

And for the hard thing is it's never cost me anything, really? you know, maybe some people might say that it cost me my job at TMZ, but I didn't give a fuck right. Well, that's what that person who wrote you said, right? Like, it's, you've been, that's what he was saying, or she out of those here. Yeah, but it, for me, I fundamentally disagree with any toning down of anything. And I'll tell you why.

Okay. Because it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. Wait, wait, what do you mean by that? It just doesn't. it doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't, it, it's only, it's a, it's a temporary fix. Like, what, what I, what I mean by that is like, that's, like, what's, no, I, I, I see,

I, I don't, I don't, I don't think that. Look at how Chris, look how Chris just spoke to you. And look where Chris is right now. I understand that. But what I'm telling you is that you toning it down didn't stop the bachelor from getting to the place that it was going to get. It just prolonged. It just, it just, it just, it just prolonged it.

That's not true. It still was coming. Okay. I didn't say that because I, because I toned it down. And by tone it down, I meant pick my battles, right? I didn't lose myself in this process by any means. I remember my sorority sister was like, man, you played the game and then turned around. And as soon as you were out called the Bachelor racist with your whole chest.

And I feel like it's not that I expected that because I came through and I had a position that I was going to change every person and every and the, in the end. entire system. But what happened is because I came through first and I didn't just say, oh, I did it. You know, like, good luck to everybody else. I continue to speak out and call things out. And I could be heard in a way that a contestant wasn't because they didn't have the position of power I did from coming through the franchise. And changes have been made. Is it where it needs to be? No. And honestly, it probably never will. But there are things that have happened that I feel like would not have if I hadn't done things the way that I did, gotten to the place that I did within the franchise.

Yeah. I can't, I can't really argue with how you chose to go about the Bachelor or how anybody chose to go, chooses to go about their job or anything like that. I really can't, right? Yeah. Everyone has been in situations where they have to decide what makes sense for them, okay? I will just say this and this is a true fact. Okay. anytime you are in a position to challenge white supremacy and you don't, you emboldened white supremacy. That's not what I did. I'm not saying you did that.

Because I can't speak to the specific situations that you were in. What I can tell you is that I know that sometimes people have to do things, but, and I get it. And by the way, it's also, for whatever, ever reason, the person that wrote this made a good point. It's worked for me. From even very on at TMZ, I'd be out there saying my funny

shit, but every time something was wrong, I was the I-I-I-I-I guy, right? So that type of situation, it was almost like I was cast into a role of being that dude. And if you, and it's crazy, if you look at my coworkers from Best Buy back

in the day. When I finally got on TV, they're like, it's good to see you haven't changed. It's good to see you haven't changed. It's good to see you haven't changed. It's good to see you haven't changed. And a part of that has to do with the fact that I have an anxiety disorder. And I'm being serious when I say this. And things trigger me and I respond in the moment.

And then whatever happens after that, it just kind of happens. You know what I mean? But just look, if you're, all of these standards are set by people that are keeping these standards the way they are for very specific reasons. They're not, they're unapologetic when they tell you what you. have to be. And really, the only way to combat that is to be unapologetic and telling them who you are. But I did. Well, I'm not, I guess, I'm, I guess I'm trying to understand when you say that you toned down. What did you tone down? Okay, so here's, for, for example, when I walked in my audition, I said, y'all have a problem, right? I didn't sit there and say, you're racist.

I chose my words. That's what I mean by toning down. Is that what you would have said? Because to me, I never jumped to that conclusion. Like honestly, there is a racism problem within the, like the way that the system, right? It's systemic, right? The way that they choose leads, it was a certain prototype to the contestants

as you choose leads and only choose contestants that look a certain way. It's the whole process, the casting process, the type of black woman has to look a certain way to come on the show. Same with the black man. Like, the system is racist.

Right. And so I didn't sit there and say that, but I told them that they had a problem. And I never strayed away from that. It's not like I was like, oh, I love what you're doing here. And you guys are so great. And I didn't talk like that. I was always me. I was known as the outspoken black attorney.

That's how I was billed coming into the show. So when I say, so I guess I feel like I was. So when I, I guess when I say, toned it down, I don't mean like I wasn't myself. I just mean like, I wasn't like, yeah, you guys are, you guys have a racism issue. And it was more like, y'all have a problem. Do you see what I'm saying? So I get. So, so for me, number one.

I'm very different for maybe some other people of color that have come through. You know what I mean? Who might be a little bit more, make people feel more comfortable. There's a reason that I don't have as many followers as a person of color that other people of color do in this franchise. Yeah. Because. Yeah. No, I understand.

This is not about you. No, no, I know. I know. But you ask me the question. So I guess I'm just trying to explain how I was. I know. Okay. So for me, it's to the point, I am, I understand that people have to do what it is as they do.

And by the way, you never tell people, you never tell a person how to feed their family. You never tell them that. Because they're going to people, people that turn around and look at me and go, van, well, it doesn't matter how you spoke up at TMZ. You know what TMZ is yet you are still there, right? And that's a solid point. And that's something that I have to do if I want to get to the next thing. My thing is, once you're in the room, and I've been going through this recently on other stuff,

once you're in the room and you hear something that doesn't make any sense or you see something that's not right, if you do not speak to it, you have now become a part of it. So whatever playing of the game, and I should have asked, because my response to that whole thing was simply no. What I should have asked is, what do you mean by tone it down? What do you mean by not be able to be yourself? Because there is something that's going on that in these comments and in this conversation where people are equating being black or acting black or presenting yourself as black as being

ratchet, being super loud, or being all of these sort of stereotypes and things like that. Like you've got to tone it down. like you can't come in here blasting fucking meek mill No that's not what I'm in No that no What I'm telling you is

You are there's There's going to be no quarter for you Right They're not going to remember That you were one of the good ones When it comes time for the bloodletting They're going to hang you up the same way I don't have to go into all that

You are correct White supremacy is completely unforgiving. The minute you mess up, they're not going to remember. They're going to say, hey, there you go. They're going to demand perfection from you while they show you all your flaws. So to me, I think the only way to combat that is to be who you are.

I agree with you. And that's why we need solidarity, because if you can't be who you are in the spot where you at, then you need to be able to come get me and come get Rachel and come get Jackson and come get Trudy and come get Isaiah and say, hey, they're not letting me be me. you shouldn't have you shouldn't turn around and become one of them whatever it correct you should say hey they're not letting me be in me so yeah I get it but that's conformity and I don't think that anything that I have done has shown conformity you know what I mean like that's not me uh and I think that maybe that's so like maybe we're playing with words here

or you know like you said like you wish that um whoever wrote that you would have asked the question of like what they mean by that I think there's a difference between playing a game, toning it down, and conforming. Conforming is a strong word. You're becoming something that you're not. Yeah. All right. Look, you guys, we got a tree for you coming up.

Speaking of Bachelor, we got somebody adjacent to the Bachelor Nation that is not conforming at all. This is more of more interesting interviews we've ever done. We got John the. Scorpio next on higher learning. You guys, it's going to be a good one. This episode is brought to by Viori.

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So which one are you trying first? Find two good creamers at your local retailer in the creamer aisle. This is one that I'm excited about on higher learning. We have somebody who I think is actually going to blow. I'll be honest with you. I'm going to put it out there. I think this brother is about to blow. We got John Scorpio on higher learning.

Now, first of all, John, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Appreciate you. Now, if you guys don't know, we were put on to John of Scorpio. What was this? A couple of weeks ago, Rachel? A couple of weeks ago, yeah, yeah, yeah.

A couple of weeks ago, John came into our knowledge because he's the brother of Matt James, who was this past leader, the bachelor. You guys all know who Matt James is, especially if you listen to this podcast. Well, Rachel said,

did you know that Matt's brother is a rapper? And she says the song and I'm not going to lie to you, John. I was waiting for the shit to be corny. But it goes. And yeah, and we started having a conversation about you and that and your career and things like that. Why don't you tell me, before we even jump off into this, my first question is, tell us a little bit about you. And, like, just tell us who John the Scorpio is.

I think I describe myself in my music, so, you know, the best way I can really say to really get a feel of who I am is to just listen to my music. That's a great tease to promote your music, too. How long, first of all, how long have you been rapping and what made you get started into it? I started making music when I was about 24. and it's just been like a, I don't do it all the time. It's kind of whenever I feel motivated, you know? Okay.

Whenever you feel creatively inclined, you got out there and you do your thing. Right. There's a lot more to me than me just making music. Tell us what else is, tell us what else there is to you. Well, I like, I like riding my bike with the homies. I like, you know, smoking bud. I like occult sciences, you know, wisdom.

And I'm a real spiritual person. So that's really, I'm into astrology. So those are things that I'm really into. Tell us about the occult sciences aspect of it right there. Like, what is that? I'm not sure what that is. When we say occult sciences. I mean, like, hidden sciences.

like studies is like esoteric wisdom and stuff of that nature. Okay, I'm going to say the obvious here. You and Matt are so different. Okay, let's just talk. Let's just say the obvious. Very different. Very different. In a number of ways.

And I'm really going off the religion aspect because one of the first things Matt did on his season is pray. And he talks about Christianity. And he talks about that belief. But for you, what we're, what we're, first of all, I have to ask you, because I come from Bachelor World, are you okay? Like, because I got to check on people when you're affiliated with the Bachelor. It can be a lot. It's a very toxic audience.

I don't know if people have been coming in you at you in that way. But how has that been for you, that attention coming from being affiliated with this show? That's a good question, Rachel. You know, they're going to hate and say negative stuff no matter how great or how bad of a person they might perceive you to be. So I really don't care too much about the negative comments that I see or come across. It doesn't really affect me. To be honest with you, I'm just focused on the positive stuff that people say. And it just kind of confirms like my whole vision, what I've seen for myself.

and, you know, I'm just thankful. Now, tell us a little bit about your relationship with your brother. Like, you guys are very different, very different. And I'm going to be honest with you, John, but be honest with you. So when we played your song here on our podcast, we tried to play it, I don't know if we actually had to cut it out because we couldn't get the rights to it, but we played to it. We were jamming telling people how hot the song was.

I actually gave Matt some smoke because I said this music is, dope, but and Matt has such a big platform that I haven't seen him, if it was my brother, I haven't seen him promoting. And this is, by the way, not to start no shit. I'm just, I'm just saying, I was joking, but I said, I haven't seen Matt, like, promoted or put it out there or anything like that. But you guys seem to be very different. Does it even matter to you that, that he hasn't, like, tweeted or said anything,

this is my brother, he's a rapper, anything like that. No, I remember you referred to him as a, weenie or something like that. I say it all the time. Yeah. And I just want to clear the air on that. I mean, I hear where you coming from on that, but in no way at all, do I look at my brother's a weenie?

I'm very, he's very supportive of me. It's just that to be honest with you, like my lifestyle, my ideology, my views, there's so much different from his that I didn't want to compromise what he has going on with his personal program. It was you. You decided you, that's, okay, so you decided that you didn't kind of want to, like, muddy the message that he's got going on.

Right. Okay. I really, I didn't put any pressure on him to push my program, what I got going on. So I respect what he's got going on, and I'm very proud of my brother. And like I said, I didn't want my,

I didn't want people, to misconstrue my ideologies and the way I carry myself with the image and what he's got going on for himself is a man. You're a really great brother. And to never have been a part of this bachelor world, it seems like you get it. You understand how this audience can be, how they can. I used to word toxic before, so I'll just keep it there. One, a lot of people are concerned and wondering how Matt is doing. Matt tweeted something the other day about Google therapist near me.

How is Matt doing with everything right now? I actually talked to Matt like two days ago. And, you know, I called him for that very same reason just to see where his head was at. Right. And he's in a good spot. Like, he's good. You know, people don't need to worry about Matt. He's, I mean,

What he's dealing with right now is just, it's kind of like he's going through like a detox phase of all the stuff that he was dealing with, with ABC and being, you know, in the spotlight and doing interviews. And he's just, he's in a better place. Like, people don't need to worry about how he is because he's doing good. That's good to hear. So you brought up the weenie roast earlier And I wonder what is it like for you to watch people

Criticize your brother who don't know him, right? So he's a public figure now. He had been a public figure for a little while. He's on TV. I'm going to have fun with it. People are going to have fun with it. People are going to have opinions about it, right? That's part of being famous, a celebrity in the limelight, or whatever.

I even had opinions about an interact. that Matt had with you guys' father, which I thought was inappropriate for it to be on television, but I'm not his brother. So what is it like for you to watch people who don't know him have opinions on it? Like I said earlier,

people are going to say in hate or say whatever they feel. It doesn't really bother me at the end of the day because I know where I'm at in my heart towards my mind. my family. So to answer your question, what other people say or think

it really doesn't hold a big impact on my mental space. Let me ask you this, John. Did you ever watch the show before Matt was on it? Rarely. Like, I've come over to my mama's house and, you know, she, we'd be eating and, you know, it wasn't like something like a routine that I would, like, I watched it.

every now and they, you know? Okay. So, and I'm asking that because I was the first black bachelorette. And I've been very vocal about the lack of diversity, the lack of inclusion, the way I feel like the franchise has misrepresented black people and really not told their stories and was very vocal about the needs to have a first black bachelor. They chose Matt. With everything that is surrounded, Matt's season and not.

Matt, how do you feel? Like, as your brother, you know him watching all of this go down. Do you feel like the show has mishandled Matt's season and Matt's love story? I hope that I'm, like, I'm not trying to like answer my question, but all I can really say is when I went there, I kind of told him, I had this conversation with my mom. I said, this to me is not like what I perceive personally as reality and like an actual real dynamic that somebody would experience in an everyday life.

So I really kind of looked at the show like, I couldn't really take it like serious because, you know, who in their right mind could come to a serious conclusion in two, three months for, you know, like a lifetime decision, you know? Well, John. Logically in my brain, that's just how I think. Well, Rachel did.

She married the guy that she was on The Bachelorette. We've been married for almost two years. You know, lightning in a bottle. I don't mean anything, I'm sorry about. You don't know, John. We're just fucking with you. We're just fucking around, bro. Like, you know, John, you seem like a very deep, serious, spiritual, and grounded guy.

You know, you do. You seem you're very pensive with everything. You're very thoughtful. I want to know what do you think about the racial climate in the country right now? Because that's part of what I would say is the impetus for all of the uproar and the hubbub that was going on on that season is the space that we're in right now culturally as in regards talking to race. Do you have your own thoughts, sort of, from your view? point on that? And America's been dealing with racism since the early 15,600. So to me, it's nothing new. I mean, I acknowledge it. I experience it, especially being here in the

South. And, you know, I don't, I don't like it. I don't think any person of color likes experiencing racism, but, like, I'm at a point now where, like, my mentality, how I perceive life, that's just a small fact. That doesn't really bother me. Like, what I'm trying to say is that doesn't affect me because I don't allow it to. How, what do you do to not allow racism to affect you? I think a lot of people will want the answer to that question.

I just feel bad for the person that has their mindset, you know? And it's just like, that's how they feel, then, you know, that's pathetic, you know. I can't do anything about it's out of my control. You know, things that are beyond my control, I try not to focus on. John, what's next for you? What do you, like music-wise, what are you working on? Because we love. I'm just taking it day by day, Rachel.

Like I said, I'm thankful. Everything that's happening right now is stuff that I, had already began to put in work to manifest. So, like I said, the doors are open, the sky's the limit. You know, I'm open to receiving streams of revenue from all angles,

wherever it comes. So I'm just thankful. That's all I can really tell you. Amazing. Do you have a plan? Do you have a way that you're looking at actually like conquering the music game are there people that you will want to work with? Who works with you?

Oh, yeah, for sure. I got my cuss right here. Shout out to 10thism. This is my brother right here. This is my brother from another. What's up? And I got my name, KB. You know, I'll stay with it.

We got the whole click here. This is the crew. I stay, like, surrounded with good people, you know? So, in regards to the race issues, all we can say is we do not support, oppression against black people by police or anybody in this world, you know what I'm saying. And just to further elaborate on what he was saying, you know, what he met is we all need

accountability for ourselves. You know, we as black people, we got to stand up for ourselves and take care of our issues. Nobody else is going to take care of them except us, you know what I'm saying? That's what he's talking about. What issues are those? Police brutality, economic oppression, you know, just even the mentality. that's forced on our people, you know, from what we see, but we're forced to believe in and stuff like that.

Are y'all, like, a collective, y'all crew, do you all have a name, you have a brand or anything that y'all trying to promote, like the three of y'all? Not in particular. You know, these are just some of my day ones, you know, the real ones that's been through a lot with me. We're just a part of his team. We support John.

Family, you know, 100,000 percent. We kind of each have our own things going on. Respectfully. John, a lot of people, people thought you were a breath of fresh air when you came on the show. And I know when I talked to Matt, he said what I love about my brother is he's unapologetically himself. He doesn't try to be anybody else for anything. But a lot of people were saying that you should be passing out roses. I don't know if you saw any of this. Would you ever do The Bachelor?

As far as me coming on the show and doing what my brother when he went through? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not the right one for that. No. I knew you were going to say that by the way. because he smiled and then his brain process it and he was like, nah, that's not my shit. Because he went, no,

no, hell no. And you don't think you would make a good bachelor? No, sir. I would love to see you. I'm not even going to lie. I would love to see you as the bachelor. I have different views on marriage. So, you know,

that's another reason why I wouldn't be the right candidate for that. John, I've never been... Maybe that's the change of course they need. John, I've never been more interested in the answer to a question than the one I'm about to ask right now. John, what are your views on marriage? I don't believe in marriage, personally. And a lot had to do with just what my parents went through and just what I've seen other people go through. And personally, I just think it's...

The whole concept behind marriage is like a religious type of... it stems from that and I'm not really into religion so I'm good on that. Van kind of mentioned this earlier but we didn't really go in depth on it since you did just mention because of what like how you grew up. Did you think that the conversation that happened between Matt and your father should have been televised on national TV? I definitely feel as if that situation was exploited a little in a in a sneaky way. you know, for whatever agenda they thought might have benefited them.

But that was a real conversation. I think we all felt that. And I could still see the positive that came out of it. Okay. Well, John, look, we're going to be following you, bro. You're on the radar now. Now you're ready for the, you're ready for the. you're ready for the fame and the accolades

and everything that comes with it. You seem pretty grounded. And to be honest with you, Van, I'm not really too, I don't care about the fame. You know, I'm more so focused on the money and just being able to support myself and my peers and my friends and everybody around me that loves and cares about me.

That's really, that's my main priority. Well, tell everybody where they can follow you, where they can support what it is that you're doing because I know I know they're interested because when we when we talked about your video and your YouTube page, everybody went over there. We were trying to send everybody to you.

You guys, when you shot me out, I was in Portland visiting my homie and, you know, we just got back from a snowboarding trip and we were listening to it in the car and it was like, it was at 1.8K when you, before that, and then it went from like that to 8K. So like I said, like I appreciate,

you like for real y'all are dope and i respect both of you guys thank you thank you whoever's interested in you know hearing the latest music and stuff they could go on my um soundcloud john the scorpio type that in the search box YouTube I've got a few old songs on there and then my music video got to do better is up there

and then my Instagram obviously John the Scorpio that's where you can check me out of. All right. Do you have any questions? Do you have any questions for us, John, before we let you go?

No, I don't have a question. Well, I do have one question. I just want to say something. I, I restart, you know, I'm into astrology, and I found out you were at Aries? Who, me? Yeah. He's in Aries.

April 16th. I fucks with Aries, man. Oh, I appreciate that, bro. Oh, a Taurus can't get no love? Y'all look cool, but you're my opposite sign, so you know. I know. Listen, I dated the Scorpio. No, no, no. He is not lying.

No, he is not lying. I dated a Scorpio. It is not work. High, highs, low lows. John, let me tell you something, bro. I know it's going to happen. I hope and pray that you blow. Because I don't think I've ever talked to a realer human being on this shit.

The conversation I just had with you is the most genuine and authentic person that I think that I've ever interviewed in my entire fucking life. So I appreciate you, bro. We do. We really do. All right, man. Peace. That was John and Scorpio. Appreciate you joining us on High Learning today.

Thank you so much. Nice to meet everybody. Nice to meet. All right. That, interesting dude, that John, the Scorpio. Interesting. What do you think? Do you think he had, I felt like he had a little, he doesn't like the winning roast?

You got that feeling? I got that feeling. He came ready. I said you call my brother O'Ready. You know what? I was about that. Energy. He said, he said, you ain't going to talk about my brother.

And I appreciate a lot of people question whether or not he and Matt were close. Clearly they are. Yeah, definitely are. It was good to see that. He definitely has Matt's back. A lot of love. A lot of love. Speaking of that, real quick, last episode of The Bachelor,

before we get to Mailbag, God talk about it. Matt chose Rachel. Is it Kirkconnell or Kirkconnell? Kirkconnell. That's how Emmanuel said it. Rachel Kirkano. And then they did after the final rose and he broke up with her own after the final rows.

Matt came in with a brand new beard. A brand new beard. The beard kind of goes straight out. It doesn't go down. It was interesting. Okay, first of all, he had this beard on the reunion with the women. I don't know why you're saying this is new.

Have you not been watching? Have you not been watching? He's had the beard. He also broke up with Rachel prior to this after the final rose. So they broke up with it. They broke up with her. But he, so when she got on there,

they basically said that they can't get back together. He can't be with her. She has to go do the work that she has to do. A couple of questions about this. Number one, I thought that the final episode of The Bachelor was a fucking snooze fest. It was the wackest. Okay, I didn't enjoy it at all.

All right? I didn't. Okay. I got to say, 3.5 weenies. 3.5 winnings. Because of the episode? For the last episode and then I'm going to go four winnies for

after the final rose. Wow. Why? Why was he a weenie? Because I just felt really, I want to give some winnies to Emmanuel Acho as well. I think you were going to do that. Because the whole thing seemed very, very contrived. It's a

taped show. It was a taped thing. I get it, but I will tell you this, though. I do believe that feelings that he was that he was talking about on there, that they were very genuine, that he definitely, look, I don't want to be a part of this. Like he doesn't, but the way that they rolled everything out, I don't think it served him and I don't think it served Emmanuel either.

It just looked, it was a drag to watch. For the first time, watching after the final rose, I could see people, OG fans of The Bachelor, who have a problem with all it is, looking at that, I felt sad for them. I felt sad for the Bachelor Nation subrated people. What did you want a manual to do that you felt like it was a drag? Well, number one, I think the whole, I already told you about it,

I think the whole we have to, you know we have to be. Emmanuel Ocho is dynamite on TV. The whole we have to be perfect and stuff like that. It was just, it just, it didn't seem like they were talking about it. It seemed like it was just another very special episode. episode of The Bachelor. It was just a drag to watch. It was cringe, awkward.

Cringe, whoa. The whole nine. Never heard you say that word. I feel like I'm glad it's over. You can't tell me you enjoyed it. I'm thrilled. It's over. I've never been more excited for a season to be over with.

Thrilled. I was in the best mood Tuesday, the next day. And then they brought, they gave Michelle a show, which I love, but we know why you give Michelle a show. And that's how I feel about it. that Listen It had been rumored

For weeks That it was Katie All of a sudden You want to say Guess what? Surprise, twist We have two bacheloretts Come on y'all

Right I like Michelle a lot But this is the problem With the franchise The answer is not Giving us A Black Bachelorette If you're really trying

To fix your issues That's not it I just I hope to talk to Michelle. That's all I'm going to say about that. I got a lot to say. I don't feel like it. I like Michelle a lot.

I don't feel like getting into it. Glad you brought that up. Not full. Don't like the fact that you're going to give us. Oh, we got a white bachelorette. Now we're going to give you a black bachelorette. We got a white host coming in to fill in for Chris. We're going to give you a black one too.

I'm just, I'm not for it. Not for it. That's not going to fix the issues. I will say that I thought Emmanuel did fine, because I thought Emmanuel did what Emmanuel does. The reason Emmanuel was able to come in and have those conversations because we talked about this on the podcast before, Emmanuel's conversations ain't for black people.

They're not for us. They're for white people. And it is about making them feel comfortable. And it is about asking not maybe a thoughtful, insightful question, but not a question where it's really going to hit like that. Because, like, for example, I would have said to Rachel, why did it take so long for you to apologize? She answered, I would have had,

five more follow-up questions. That's not the type of show that it was going to be. Speaking of Rachel, have you seen the rumor that her mom is running a racist that's not a rumor? Matt James chat room. What is going on? She, it's, they created,

it's wild out there, y'all. It's so toxic. Like, Bachelor Nation, get, you know what? Y'all are going to be the reason this show doesn't exist anymore because you're so damn toxic. You're going to be the demise of the, the show and the reason it's taken down. You're nasty, you're vile.

You're harassing Matt for a decision that he made. He supports the girl. He's allowing her to do it on his own. Like, let's move on. The Facebook group was created, it was called We Love Rachel. And basically, it was all these people who were saying, we love Rachel.

And by Rachel, not me. Okay, Rachel, Kirkano. Facebook hates me. They love Rachel. They create this group, but all they did was bash Matt. that was all it. And they made Rachel Kirkconnell's mom an administrator. And

she held that title until her own daughter got on her Instagram and called her out on it basically. And you got to realize when you see that type of behavior from Rachel's mom, Matt had to get away. Okay, Rachel has committed to saying she's going to, you know,

I hate to use these cliche phrases, but you know, she's going to do better. You know, got to do better as John Scorpio would say. She's got to do better. But when you have a family like that, why would Matt want to be a part of that? Because when you're with somebody,

you're also with their family. This is tough for Matt. Matt's in a bad situation. I'm just glad it's over. Everybody can move on. And we will not be covering the next season. We're not doing it. Sorry, y'all, Thought Warriors.

We got so many other things to talk to y'all about. Bachelor is not one of them. All right. Jackson, quickly, we got time for a couple questions. Mailbag, let's do it. Run a song. Mailback time. Time to read your letters and then we'll reply to them.

Oh, it's mailback time. Write us with your queries and we'll chime in. From Stephanie Kalina, what is a talent that you wish you had? Oh. Like her example was she wishes she could sing. Well, that would be singing or dancing.

It would definitely be. If I could sing, I would sing all the time. Everybody would know. I wish I was really good at flipping. Flipping what? Like a back flip? Like a doing a backwards flipping stuff. Man, you could teach yourself that.

No. That's it. No. I've tried. It doesn't work. Can you do it on trampoline? Yeah, but I get afraid. What a terrible talent.

I want to be able to do it. What a worthless talent. Unless you're going to go on, like unless you're going to go on to be an Olympian on the floor, what a worthless talent. Okay. Well, I mean, number one, here's the deal.

When I was a kid, we got to like the fourth grade. But you're not. University of Terrace, University of Terrace, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We got to like the fourth grade. And people started like doing backwards flips. I never wanted to do anything more. they started doing, like, they were run

and they would do a backwards flips. I remember there was just one little dude at the bus stop, and he used to always do backward flips. And I looked at him, I was like, damn, you're like a ninja. I just, I can never do it. Run up the wall. If you were still in fourth grade, that would be

an appropriate answer. But seeing how you are, it's the wrong four, you are four zero. No. Can we do the next question, please? Yes, we can. Yes. from Diana Fee

If you had to live somewhere that was not The U.S., where would you live and why? Oh, good question, Diana. Diana Fee, Diana Fee, can pay the fee, Diana Fee. Okay, where would I live?

That was not the U.S. Probably Vancouver. I like Vancouver. Vancouver's cool. You know what I mean? I haven't really thought about this that much. What would you live that's not the U.S.? I was really expecting a more exciting answer.

Okay, I have two. A place that I've been and that I've never been. So a place I've been, Greece. I would live in Santorini. Super chill, low-key, everywhere you look, 360, beautiful views. The way of life is just like whatever. I just, it's, I love it.

I love it. Carefree. A place I've never lived. lived, it would be someplace to Africa, right? Just to be... I know you're going to say that. Why? Is that a stereotypical answer?

I knew you're going to do that. But I want to get home to my roots and to my people. I have heard friends that I know that have been to Africa describe the feeling like no other. Just what they see, what they feel, being connected, just seeing black excellence. That's why I enjoy Black as King so much. and when I just hear people talk about what it felt like to go for the first time, I want to feel that.

And you want to live there? Is what you're saying? Well, yeah, that's the question. Which part of Africa? Because you can't just say Africa it's a bunch of different countries with their own cultural, it's a whole continent.

Their own cultural identity. You know what? I'd want to find out, I would want to do a test to find out where my people come from and that's where I would want to be. So somewhere on the west, on the west side.

Last of the west side. The west side after West side. Last question. Let's go. From Elon Patterson, who was one teacher that changed your life? Claire Hewlett. Claire Hewlett. Claire Hewlett.

My AP history teacher. First government, then my AP history teacher. Mr. Newbauer. What great. Passed away now. I learned that Mr. Newbauer's passed away when I moved back to Louisiana, moved back to California.

It was it was sixth grade. It was six grade. Mr. Newbauer at York elementary school in Hawthorne, we only lived out here

one year. LA we moved back. And he let me direct a play. Wow. Like he had, we had did this play. It was this play, I guess, it was like modeled around

Beatles songs and all of these Beatles songs in it. And I wasn't, because out here in California, they were going year-round school. And they didn't, I was on track C and the play was happening on track A, but he knew that this was the type of thing

that I liked. So he let me come back to school and help him with the play. And I saw kids really lines. We taught each other's songs and we did all of this. And I was a part of at sixth grade like a little production. Right. And from then I went and was a part of the AV club and all of that stuff like that.

But he saw it and he did what teachers were supposed to do. He saw a spark and he lit a fire. He's like, man, we got a play coming on. Like, we didn't do that. I never forgot him. And after the play was over, after the play was done with the play ran. It was a success. Everybody came.

He took me to sizzling. Like he, he, he, he, he, he took you to sizzler. It was 1991, man. It was a different time. Sizzler was a fucking big deal to me. He took me to Sizzler. We went to Sizzler, we ate, and yeah, I always thought about it. I came back.

I wanted to go pop up at York Elementary and, and say hello to Mr. Newbauer, but Ms. Newbar had gone on to Jesus. So, he, that was, that was the guy that, I remember. Shout out to Mr. Environment. Oh. Well, mine is Claire Hewlett, just because I went to a small, private Christian school, my entire life, everybody, most of the people look the same, they thought the same. It was very much so a bubble until Miss Claire Hewlett came.

And she was Australian. She had a black husband. And I knew it rattled people at the school. And she was just all about, she's the first teacher who really taught me to think outside of a box, free. rethinking, really just expanded my mind. It was because of her I decided to apply to NYU. I just wanted more. She's just like really taught me to think for myself.

She was the first teacher to really do that. So always, always really meant a lot to me. A lot to me too. All right. I don't have an unexpected ally of the week. Do you have one? Not at all. Not after a week like this.

Absolutely not. No, I do not. Tell you things, caps off. Do not stop learning. High learning is, we'll see you again next week. Guys, once again, self-care. Take care of yourself. Take some breaks.

Meditate. Do your thing. I'm Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay. Yeah.