Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Barbie Snubbed? Plus, DEI in the Friendly Skies

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to the 2024 Oscar nominations (2:52), before talking conservative outrage over DEI in the airline industry (21:50). Then, Colman Domingo’s cast as Joe Jackson (42:37), and NWA’s set for a Lifetime Achievement Grammy (52:35). Finally, Tim Scott embarrasses Rev. Al Sharpton (1:07:17), and a pastor blames God for telling him to launch a crypto scam (1:13:57).  Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, about warriors. What is that? The Oscar Award nominations came out. Okay. Your reaction, were you surprised? Were you, um, or was it just typical? Typical, what happens with the Oscar nominations where usually women and people of color are disappointed. It's an interesting year.

We'll get right into it. Let's get into it. Pleasant. Well, let's have maybe pleasantry. Yeah, actually we should because we have good news. Oh, yeah. Oh, you guys, we got to let you guys know. For the second year in a row, we've been nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Yeah, give it up. To the entire team, thank you guys so much. And guys, you have to vote. So we'll put that out there. You need to vote. You have to vote. This time we want to win. And here's the thing.

Yeah, we can't have you saying fuck LaVar Burton. Yeah, here's the thing. Here's the thing. We want to win this time. Okay, last time we didn't make a big deal about it. This time we want you to vote. And I just want to call somebody out right now. The ringer has a decision to make because nominated in the same category with us is the Bacari Sellers podcast.

Congratulations to him as well. Fuck that, nigga. Baccari, I know you can hear me. Coming for you. We're coming for you, Bacari. Okay. We're coming for you, Baccari. right now we want to win.

It's, we understand that it's all about, uh, celebrating everyone and each one teach one, pull each other up by the bootstraps, each other's straps and we want to be together the Rainbow Coalition and all of this stuff. Dr. King,

yeah, wrong. Right now, dog eat dog, crap in the barrel. There can only be one statue when it's coming home to HL. So Bacari, bro,

you got enough. Bacari already. got enough, guys. Baccari had been on CNN for a long time. Baccari been in the Congress. Baccarry had been doing all of this stuff. He know Bill Clinton. He know Hillary Clinton. He know all of these people. Baccarry already got enough. It's our time. Well, coming for you, Baccarry. Listen, Baccari, congratulations to you. I'll say it. But also, we were nominated last year. So this is our year. Congratulations to all the nominees. It means a lot to be recognized. We absolutely want to win.

and we're going to be asking for your votes. And we're going to be asking for votes all over the place. Go and vote. As soon as we have more information on how you vote and where you vote and when you vote, I know that you vote on the NAACP site, got to vote. Got to vote this time. We're trying to win. We're trying to take.

I'm trying to add a trophy to the case, baby. Okay, so back to the Oscars. I want to, first I got a shout out my friends. I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. First I got to shout out my friends. American fiction, Corey Jefferson. Five Academy Award nominations for court.

Oh my God. Five Academy Award nominations for court for American fiction. Is this his directorial debut? It's his first fucking movie. That's incredible. Oh, my Lord. We are on top of the world.

Five Academy Award nominations for court. Best Adaptive Screenplay. Best picture. Best actor. Jeffrey Wright, best supporting actor Sterling K. Brown. And I think best composer or something like that they also got. If you guys have not seen American fiction, you must see American fiction. I could not be more proud of Cord, of Tracy Ellis Ross, of Jeffrey, of Sterling K. Brown.

Everybody involved in the film. Just a fantastic achievement for Cord. in his first movie, the sky's the limit, brother. Oh, my God, man, enjoy it all. What an amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing accomplishment for your first movie. Did you read the book? I never know there was a book. I saw the movie for the first time, like a year and a half ago.

Oh, no. Hold on. Let me tell you. It's based off of a book. Yes, a book called, the book's called Eurasia. Erasure. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.

Yeah, I'd never read the book before. Never even heard of it. But screened it for us a year and a half ago, we went and we saw it. Just everyone over at T Street, just there was so supportive of him. It's filmmaking the way it should be done. So shout out to Ford. Oppenheimer, nominations. Huge nominations.

Kills of the Flower Moon, 10 nominations. Nothing for Leo. Nothing for Leo. Which there was a lot of hype that he was, this was like his best performance ever. So that's interesting. But more importantly, Lily Gladstone became the first indigenous woman to get an Oscar nomination. And that's huge, hoping that she wins. You know, other places, there are a lot of movies.

Very tough year. Poor Things was nominated. The story becomes Barbie, though. Barbie becomes the story. when you look at it. And color purple. People, there was a lot of talk about that. Was there?

Yes, there was. A lot of people, but like, go ahead, talk about Barbie and we'll move into color purple. I just don't want to talk about color purple. Let's talk about color purple first then. I didn't hear as much outrage over color purple. Well, because you don't like it. And that's why. It's because you're not, you don't like moving.

I didn't see it. I know. I didn't see it. You didn't even take the time. You bought tickets. Actually, actually. Actually. Actually, no. Actually, I did see it.

Here's the thing. I just watched it. It's not that I didn't like the movie. It's just that I wasn't really upset that the movie wasn't nominated for a bunch of different aspects. Okay, well, a lot of people had expectations that it would be. A lot of people, I thought, I got one nomination. I think I don't want to say this wrong, so Donnie, please correct me, but Fantasia. was not nominated. No.

A lot of people thought Fantasia would. Some people thought Taraji would. I did not think Taraji would. I thought Coleman would, but he was nominated for a different movie. Rustin. Yes, he was nominated for Rustin Best Actor.

I thought he would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Plain Mr. in Color Purple. A lot of people were upset that it was nominated for Best Picture. So the nominees for Best Picture were the holdover's American fiction the zone of interest

Barbie Oppenheimer Poor Things Past Lives Anatomy of a fall Maestro Killers of the Flower Moon Those are the nominees And not even for best original song

And I don't know if it could be So I don't want to say that wrong Because I don't know if that counts That it came from the musical So I have no idea But I thought Fantasia's song I'm here should have been

nominated in that category as well So I think especially because especially when you hear interviews and you hear Fantasia talk and how she almost turned down this role because of everything it brings out of her because of the themes that she can relate to her own life, how much it takes out of her. You just and her performance is incredible as well as Daniel Brooks. Now, I would have been shocked. I'm sorry, Daniel Brooks stole the show to me. She deserves that. She was nominated. Yes, no, no, I know.

She deserves that nomination. And I really hope she wins. I really, really do. But I'm shocked at that the color purple didn't get more. I am. Stacked year. Stacked year.

Stack year. A lot of these movies are very good. Stack year. But yeah, Barbie had a lot of people talking because Greta Gerwig was not nominated for Best Director. Barbie was nominated for Best Picture. Ryan Gossack.

was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I knew it. Yeah, he was fantastic. He was great. Yeah, she was fantastic. Best original screenplay, best adaptive screenplay, should I say, because they ruled it adapted.

So, because of Barbie's IP, so Best Adapted Screenplay, it was nominated for. And then it got two nominations in Best Song. I'm Just Kin was nominated. and what was I made for an absolutely beautiful song by Billy Elish was also nominated at the end of the movie. But a lot of people talking about the fact Redick Gourwig was not nominated for Best Director, which is a very tough category for women over the course of the history of the Oscars, have been nominated and have won even less than obviously than they've been nominated.

People were saying that between her and Margot Robbie, there should have been nominations for both best actress and best director. I did not think that Marco Robbie should have been nominated for best actress. I'm not saying she didn't do well. I'm not saying I wasn't, it was great. But even when I walked away from that movie, I knew Ryan Gosling was going to be more on track to get a nomination than her. There wasn't anything that was the movie itself was good and great.

but her performance, I thought, didn't rise to that level, in my opinion. So I wasn't shocked that she didn't get it. Now, Greta Gerwig, that was shocking to me. I don't understand how a movie, first off, she's directing it. This movie had so much hype. It ruffled so many feathers. It explored so many themes. There were moved, like, I mean, it was a movement in itself, and she was at the helm of it.

And I don't understand how that isn't rewarded with at least a nominating. in regards to best director. I just don't. You? You saw it? Yeah. So, Margo Robbie,

people saying that Margo Robbie isn't nominated. She is nominated. She's nominated as the producer of the movie. So she's nominated for Best Picture. If Barbie were to win Best Picture, which it won't. It won't. But if it were to win Best Picture,

Margo Robbie would win an Academy Award. So I always look at this, this stuff based upon what it is, which is a popularity slash contest of art, right? So when you're looking at the directors that were nominated for Best Director, you're looking at Jonathan Glazer, Christopher Nolan, Yorgos, Lanthamos, who directed poor things, Martin Scorsese and Justin Trit. Justine Triad.

There's a lady there. It's a woman. She's nominated for Anatomy of a Fall. All right. The question for me is always this. Did you see these movies? If you saw these movies, which I'm not talking directly to you, Rachel.

If you saw these movies, which job of directing here, do you feel like Gritted Girlwood was superior to? When you look at the actresses, did you see the performances? Which ones of the performances did you feel like Margot Robbie carried better than Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, Annette Benning, Carrie Mulligan, or Sandra Heller? And let me tell you something. I do think there's one in there. Annette Benning and Lily Glassstone was nominated for best actress, not best supporting actress. Annette Benning and Nyad.

Guys, Nyad was an abomination. But was her acting? They were both nominated. Nyad is not an Oscar movie. I could have definitely seen a nomination for Margot Robbie or even Fantasia over Annette Benning in Nyad. I saw Nyad.

Nyad is fucking stupid. Let me tell you something. Nyad, let me tell you, both, there were two movies that came out, two biopics that came out that were laughable this year. One was Nyad and the other one was Ferrari. Do you guys ever see movies where a character in the movie is acting in another movie? No. Give me an example. like entourage.

I'm sure some of you guys on here have seen entourage. Have you guys seen entourage? Do you ever watch the show? Entourage. I might have seen one episode. Donnie, have you seen an entourage?

What, what, what, what, what am I, like, where, who am I doing a podcast with? It ain't a movie or TV show podcast. Sorry. What are you, what have you guys, what have you guys,

What have you guys, are you guys up on shit? Like who? Okay. Bo, hold on. No, no. Okay. Have you guys seen Tropic Thunder? Yes.

Okay. All right. So you've seen Tropic Thunder. Okay. You know how in Tropic Thunder, they're making fun of Robert Downey Jr's character. And then they show the character in the movie acting in another movie and the movie is ridiculous.

That is what Niyadh and fucking Ferrari were like. It's like, Vinie Chase is fucking Pablo Escher. bar. Like the movies are like laugh these laughable over the top biopics that are like really to me stupid in a

almost a spoof lampoon type of way. Ferrari wasn't recognized for it. Maestro wasn't that. Mestro wasn't that. Could have been, but it was rained in. Maitro wasn't that. NIA I could not believe that they were nominated for the NIA movie. Shout out to Diana

the Nyad and the swimming and whatnot. I could not believe they were nominated for the Nyad movie. Couldn't believe both of them got nominations. Couldn't believe they were nominated. I was shocked. But Hillary Clinton and a lot of ladies are mad about the Barbie snubs. They feel like they should have been nominated more or they should have been leading the nominations.

And they feel like the biggest nomination was for Ryan Gosling's performances. Ken and they're upset about it. Rachel, are you upset about it? No. I mean, I think I said this on this podcast. If I didn't, I've said it to friends. I saw the Barbie movie a week after it came out, so there was a lot of hype. I thought the movie was good.

I didn't think it was amazing. I didn't, I just wasn't, I'm honestly a shot that, I'm honestly shocked that America is nominated for a supporting actress. And I'm saying this, and I didn't even see the other movies, okay? I mean, I've seen some, but like not most of them. I think Greta deserved a nomination, but because to me, Margo Robbie's role in bringing it to life was more important than her playing Barbie. You know, this was an idea she had. She really fought for this and from idea to being, you know, this extremely successful movie. To me, that deserves a nomination as well, which is what she got.

but I also think that it's on brand for people to be outraged as well. It fits the narrative of, you know, women not getting recognized the same way. It fits the narrative of, you know, this is a woman, a movie about women empowerment. And Ryan Gosling is the one who gets nominated instead of Margot Robbie. I just think it seems to be, as I said on brand for people to be outraged at this. not outraged. I think it's odd. Greta wasn't.

But I'm not. For director. Because she was for screenplay, for director, for director. She was nominated for screenplay along with her Noah Bauman. There were a lot of moving parts

I felt in Barbie. And, you know, she was at the helm of it. So I don't know. But Greta, yes. The rest,

no. We're going to bring on Trayvon 3, friend of mine, partner. of mine. We're going to do more robust talks about the Oscars as award season heats up, but I will say this. I think it's interesting that the Ken part, which was the best part in the movie, was the best part in the movie. I think that deserves some examination

of why it was the best part of the movie. The Ken part was the best part in the movie. You leave the movie His performance was fantastic But you leave the movie Thinking wow That's the type of role That someone takes That is a lot of fun

That you bring a lot to That you can get a lot out of Barbie almost in a way played To Straight Man So that King could get his shit off And I think it's an interesting thing Because I thought about this a lot To think about

How male-centered things really are Like the movie doesn't work without Ken. Right. It doesn't. The movie works. The movie almost works. You could almost take Barbie out of the movie before you could take Ken out of it.

No. And I mean, to me. It takes away from the point of the movie. It does. It takes away from the point of the movie. It does. But at the same time, what I mean to say about that is that,

how I mean that is, The point of the movie is the Barbie character finding who she is outside of the world that's been made. But the only way that she can do that is through the lens of masculinity and hypermasculinity and toxic masculinity. So in a way, in the Barbie movie, masculinity and men are still centered. Well, yes. Sorry. Go ahead. I mean, that's it.

They're sintered because you have to call it out, right? Like, you have to recognize it is the problem. It is the issue. And so it is centered because you're calling out this very problematic thing. And you do that through the lens of Barbie. Yes, it is Ken who's guiding you through it, but you do it through the lens of Barbie. So you can't have one without the other.

It's true. It's just an interesting thought. Because sometimes when I'm talking to other black people, Negroes, the conversation becomes, how do we have a conversation about us without like centering white people? Right? How do we have a conversation about us

without coming back to how we're being treated by people who aren't us? And it's a, it's a conversation to have, right? It's that movie. And, well, also in these white movies, right, 12 years of slave. You watch the movie and it's about everything that the guy went through, but then at the end, Brad Pitt comes into the movie,

and Brad Pitt is the savior of the movie. It's just difficult to tell a black story now, then, or before. We're getting better at it, where in some way, like, whiteness isn't at the center of what's driving the plot. Either we're being held back because of it, or we're trying to overcome it or whatever. That's why I loved Moonlight so much. much.

Moonlight just ain't got shit to do with white people. You know what I mean? It's true. Moonlight ain't got shit to do with white people. Like nothing to do with white people like at all.

This is a black story about black people living their black ass lives and the journey of this young black man. So I loved it because of that. You know what else doesn't center white people? The color purple.

Hmm. Just saying that's an example of it. It's the color purple. not center white people. Color purple doesn't center white people. They just made a better version of it. You know what I'm saying? So I got to go.

Wow. I look. I fuck it with the color purple. I support the color purple. It's just I like it. Not with your analysis. Not with your. You want me a lie and say I thought it was the best movie the year.

No, I don't. I don't. I did not see it in the theater. I did not. I bought two tickets. Didn't see it in the theater. But I did watch it. That sent me a screener and I watched it.

Go see the color purple. Have fun. going to see the movie. All right. Let's take a break real quick and come back and get into some DEI. D.E.I. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injection. under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-incheck Tramphaya, proper training is required.

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Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receiving. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at vandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash herms. Okay. Rachel, when you get on a plane and you see a black pilot, are you scared? Can't even tell you the last time I got on a plane and saw a woman or a black pilot.

But to answer your question, no. I'm more like, oh. So you don't get on planes and see black pilots that much? and I fly a lot. No. I can count on one hand the number of black pilots that I've seen. I just flew.

I also don't see pilots a lot. I just flew. And I had going to Louisiana, I had a black pilot and coming back from Louisiana, I had a woman pilot, a lady. Do you look in the cockpit? because I don't see, come on, Van.

I don't see the pilots normally. Well, when you're leaving. And sometimes I'm like, black. When you're leaving, they come out and they say goodbye. Not all the time. And I say hello to them. I say, hello, pilot. How are you?

Appreciate you. Thank you for, you know, getting us here safe. And then we get off the plane. You just don't have time to say. say hello. No, I always think the flight attendants, they're always standing there. I always say hello. Even if I slept the whole flight, I say thank you for your service. But I don't see the pilot a lot. Maybe if you're one of the first people off the plane in first class, like you sit, then maybe the pilot comes out for you. But the rest of us, so wait a minute. So wait a minute.

You're telling me that you think the pilot comes out to say goodbye to the first class passengers. And then he goes, he or she, goes back in the cockpit and was like, let the rest of these motherfuckers. He exits the plane after the, after first class. He or she, see what we're doing? He or she, you're right. I did it.

I did it. But to your point, I don't, I don't see pilots a lot. But when I do, I really can count on one hand. Why God was like he flew in Desert Storm or some shit like that. But I'm excited when I see diversity in the cockpit. I got to be honest with you. People are upset. They're saying that D.I.

It's going to stop pilots from being able to land planes efficiently. They're scared to fly with women and Negroes. Charlie Curt, this is the new thing. You guys have to understand. There's always a thing, right? So CRT petered out. They won maybe one or two elections off that, but it didn't last. It didn't have legs to last all the way to 2024.

Education standards had a little bit of legs. Book banning had some legs for the right, but not marathon legs, sprint legs. And now we're to DEI. And DEI is going to be the thing that they're going to run on here in 2024. And they're saying that they're afraid. They're afraid to travel in the sky because of unqualified DEI hires. black men, black women, women that are flying these planes. Charlie Kirk was saying that he really bothers him.

He's afraid. Run the clip, Don. And that's why I think this United story and the DEI story hits so hard because we've all been in the back of a plane when the turbulence hits or when you're flying through a storm and you're like, I'm so glad I saw the guy with the right stuff and the square jaw get into the cockpit before we took off and I feel better now thinking about that.

You want to go thought crime? I'm sorry, if I see a black pilot I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified. Well, that's the, you wouldn't have done that. You wouldn't have done that before. That's not an immediate, no, you wouldn't have done that before. That's not who I am. That's not what I believe.

It is the reality. The left has created. What world are we living in? I just am so sick of the shit. I mean, First off, the DEI policies existed when Trump was in office under the FAA. This isn't something that just popped up under Biden. It existed under their Lord and Savior Donald Trump as well.

But for some reason, you're triggered now when there's absolutely no evidence that creating pilots or recruiting pilots, excuse me, that aren't white means that it puts any type of passengers or flights at risk. I mean, do you realize how stupid that sounds that these airlines are more concerned with what people look like in the cockpit, that they're willing to put themselves, like, or make themselves liable to have unqualified pilots fly these planes and possibly have lawsuits from passengers and families and be put out of business all because they're concerned about what people look like. It's wild that they think,

that they have now equated, we talked about DEI a lot, we talked about it in education, as we talked about programs as we see states continuing to cut funding and programs across the country. But this idea,

the diversity, equity, and inclusion equals lack of merits or knowledge or intelligence, anything like that, is so wild that we continue to push this theory. and there's absolutely no evidence that that's not true.

I mean, that that is true. So I'll try to look up numbers on this. I tried to look up numbers on how safe you are based upon who's flying. You're playing black pilots, whoever. It's hard to find. It's difficult to find. I try to look at some numbers. There are some gender differences.

Okay. Some gender differences. are. There's been studies on this. These studies wouldn't have been wouldn't be stuff that people would look at now, but you know, these studies go back like 2001 and stuff like that. There's some gender differences.

But not differences that are like marketed. The difference is why the plane crashes. Not if the plane is crashing more. Like, male pilots

are trade speed for accuracy sometimes. So a little mishandling and stuff like that. It's like, it says right here, air crashes involving female pilots are mostly due to mishandling of the plane while those with male pilots are more due to flawed decision-making and inattention. So it's not necessarily the rate of it.

It's that pilot error is different based upon gender. and that kind of makes sense, right? I mean, socialization and all of that stuff. It says males trade accuracy for speed. They would rather do something faster than do it accurately. Women tend to be more cautious and pay greater attention to totals and rules. The authors say women may have mishandled planes because they had less flight time and experience on average than men. So there are stuff.

There's stuff out there that looks at cultural things when it comes to, when it comes to, handling planes. And there is stuff, right? There is stuff. If you read outliers, there's an instance in outliers where Gladwell makes the point that he believes that this one particular airline, this one particular airplane crashed because the pilots were foreign. And the country that they come from, they have more of respect for authority there. So as they, they, as they were coming in some place in New Jersey, I believe. I haven't read the book in a while. They were running out of fuel.

And they had them in a holding pattern. They were going back and forth. But they were running out of fuel. And rather than say, hey, we're running out of fuel. We need to land. They come from a place where the air traffic controller is an authority figure. So they were waiting for the air traffic controller to notice their situation. and they weren't being aggressive

about saying, hey, we need to put this plane on the ground. Whereas had that been American pilots, they might have been like, we don't give a fuck. There's less allegiance to authority there. We don't give a fuck. We need to get on the ground right now.

And so the name of the chapter is like the cultural reason for plane crashes and stuff. So I'm not saying that like in all of this stuff that there's like a, that culture doesn't have to do with what it is, how you do your job,

but when you do your job or whatever. There's always a cultural component. It's almost everything that you do. This group doesn't like this. That group doesn't like that. But what I am saying is that there's a deep, deep sickness. Like a deep sickness that exists on the right. Like a deep sickness.

If there was, if there was statistics, stats, if there was a conversation to be had about this, I would be willing to have the conversation. I'm not too precious about stats of information not to have the conversation. I did as much research on it as I could. It's very hard to find. There's probably no difference. All of that stuff that goes into it.

I'm into talking about it, like where you're safer, when you're safer, how you're safer, and how I did find was other statistics that said black people are more likely to die in plane crashes than white people. Like, you know what I mean? You know, I found some statistics that pointed to that. And I thought that that was interesting. And I was interested to look into why that might be, okay? But the sickness is so deep on the right right now that I sometimes don't think that we speak to it enough. Because we write it off.

Like, that's just them talking. Like listening to them talk and in that same sentence, listen to Charlie Kirk and the rest of the guys up there attempt to either walk that back or sanitize it in some way. It's interesting to me, the right is attempting right now to erode just the fundamental American trust in anyone who is. isn't a straight white male. And I know that we intellectually know that, but I don't think that we are emotionally confronting the idea of that. Intellectually, we know that they feel that way, but I don't think people really know what that does to the psyche of people.

American society cannot operate with that type of mentality. It can't. Like, it was tried. it was tried, a society where only straight white males, where only they matter, it was tried. And it has been tried for a long time. And what it inevitably leads to is disarray, dysfunction, rebellion, people fighting for their lives, their existence,

and their futures in America. Like it doesn't work, it won't work. It won't work. It's not going to work if only one group. It just won't work. The country will rip itself apart at the seams before that happens. Now, a lot of people listen to this

and they're thinking, man, that's how it is now. I'm not saying that straight white males don't have the power in America. I'm saying that in order for America's society to work, there has to be some understanding that everybody has a place and everybody can work and do jobs. The most, I'm struggling to articulate this because it's like the more I thought about it

when I was looking into it, the more I came away thinking, this is the end of the country. Like, this is the end of the country. The end of the country isn't about, the end of the country isn't about political fragmentation. The end of the country to me is about

the inability or the unwillingness for people to even recognize that the people that they share their community, their society, their country with are capable of doing things average jobs. Like being a pilot, as much as it's a, it's an awesome thing to do, it's a job that experience lends itself to you being good at it. Flight time, where you flew, how you flew, the amount of equipment that you're, that you're familiar with, where you got your experience, how you do it.

Like, there's flight time that goes into it. There's the amount of planes that you've been on, the amount of different planes you can operate, there's certifications that go into it. this is a job that anybody can do. Well, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. That's it. No, I'm just saying. Like, it's like literally saying that only straight white men can be pilots is literally like saying only straight white men can make pizzas. Well, here's the thing.

The people who believe what they're saying, I do think that there's this inability to see it in the other way. The people who are actually pushing out this rhetoric, they don't believe it. it's a calculated move in order to make you fear something that's not like you and in order to maintain your hierarchy in this society. I do not believe that they think anything that they say, just like they say at the end of that clip, well, like, I don't want to believe. It's not my fault. I believe this. It's their fault. It's fear mongering what they're doing. And then you have people who listen to that, who don't do the research, who don't look that up. For example,

United Airlines is what kind of stirred this all up because of something that their CEO, said a couple of years ago. Well, the reason he was talking about DEI in regards to aviation is because, especially since COVID, there has been a huge shortage in pilots. A lot of people either left the profession, didn't want to deal with it because of what was happening with the airlines. And when you look at the pool of who they're pulling from, who has access to have 1,500 hours of flying prior to even being considered a candidate, when they all look the same. That costs money. that comes you come from a certain socioeconomic status. So what they've done is create an academy that allows people who are interested in this

and who look different to be able to fund them to be able to participate in flying. And they will have all the, and first off, you have to apply for it. So you have to have a certain knowledge and expertise. They give, they, you go through that training and then you qualify to become a pilot possibly. They're implementing certain structures to give, give them the knowledge for people who normally wouldn't or experience who wouldn't normally get it. So I'm saying all that to say to your point, I feel like what these people, the sickness that you're talking about, the people who are at the top who are spreading this sickness, know exactly what they're doing. And they're doing it to maintain.

Yeah, but I guess I'm more so pointing to you saying, you said something along the lines of like they don't know or I don't want to say, I don't want to misquote you. I believe the people listening don't care to know. They accept it as their truth. So we should also say something about, well, pouring through all of this stuff, and it's all jammed up in my mind, which is why it's coming out staccato. When I was looking at all this stuff, you know, the flight time that you need to be a pilot period has gone down over the years. The planes have become more intuitive.

Yes. And so the planes, the planes have become more. more intuitive. And so because the planes have become more intuitive, what you need to do to, like, there was a time when you thought all your pilots were ex-military and all your pilots had flown in the Navy. That's gone. That's actually been gone for a while. Like, that's been gone for a while. Last year was the safest year in aviation ever. All of this stuff I'm looking up as I'm pouring through stats. It was the safest year

in aviation ever. So if DEI is more of a thing that it's ever been and last year was the safest year in aviation ever, I could make an argument that at least anecdotally

the more niggas that fly to friendly sky, the better shit goes. I could make an argue at least anecdotally. Last year, safest year, like one of the safest year is like zero stuff

went down. Like last year, zero stuff. So look, I'm just, it's, once again, I'm just on the right,

you know, we're going to get back into the whole thing, but on the right, think about what the narrative is. The narrative is, we don't care about your history, we don't care about your experience, we don't care whether you work, and we don't think that you're good enough.

The essential message coming from the right right now. And I challenge anyone, anyone on the right to come on the podcast and debate this with you. Anybody. The central message from the right right now

is that black people's history doesn't matter. Black people's capability doesn't matter. Black people's ascension and concerns don't matter. Our academic scholarship doesn't matter. Who we

are in this country. just doesn't matter and any time we try to make it matter it's unfair to white people that is the central crystallized message coming from the right

and can I also add in relation to what Charlie Kirk and all of them we're talking about they're also saying that all black people are the same they all come from the same status and in order to succeed it has to have be related

it has to be related to DEI the fact that he said When I see a black pilot, I'm automatically thinking this. You have no idea of that pilot grew up with his parents being able to afford to send him to flight school at a young age. Or he, you know, worked another job and was able to do that for himself. You assume that black people, the only way that they can succeed is through DEI. And that's also attributed to that. You have no idea about that about any pilot.

Right, right. You don't know that about like you really, you, it's. wild to look at somebody sitting in the cockpit of a commercial airliner and then assume that they aren't qualified. I'm moving on. You assume that the motherfucker that's up there that they kind of know what they're doing. And that assumption is what I'm trying to get to. That assumption is part of the American trust. The assumption that you go to a restaurant and the people know how to cook is part of the American trust.

The assumption that you go to a doctor and that doctor is qualified is part of. of the American trust. Like there's a certain level of societal and communal trust that has to exist for a society to operate at optimal levels or actually at basic levels. And once you erode that, like purposefully, once you erode that, once that's actually gone, you just can't function. But also in his story, he's like, I see a black pilot. I'm like, man, hope he's qualified.

And then what did you do? Get on the plane, take your seat, land safely, and keep it moving. You know what I mean? Like, you're not even telling that part of the story. All right, go. Let's move on. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window?

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They're bringing back the Michael Jackson story again. Have we had enough? Have we had enough? I don't know. They did Jackson Family American Dream back of the day. Was it called? It was the American Dream. The American Dream.

And it is fantastic. It was a TV series. Fantastic. Limited series. TV. Angela Basker. Angela Bassett as Catherine.

As Catherine Jackson and then my home boy from Welcome back Cotter as Joe is, yeah. Cooley High, welcome back Carter. I didn't think I knew that. Hey, good. I'm glad you like it. As Joe Jackson.

And then Terrence Howard. Yeah. He played Jackie. He was one of the Jackies. What's old boy's name? And Jason Weaver. Jason Weaver. As a young Michael Jackson,

I'm going to say this one more time and I hope that everybody gets it, man. Jason Weaver is a living legend. Jason Weaver I'm not going to disagree with that. Yeah, because you can't. No. A young Simba?

Think about Jason Weaver. I used to have a crush on him back in the day. Like his kid? Just think about Jason Weaver. Think about what Jason Weaver has accomplished. man. Jason Weaver did the Lion King. He was young Michael Jackson. This boy

was cooking. He's cooking. He got the shy right now, right? One call away with Chinky. You like that record? Ed do. One call away. When I pet the batty, one call away. Okay, let's let them take it. Hold on. That's

I got that. Let's let's look at Jason Wevers. I just hit that bitch. But there one car away. If you want to come, want a one call away. Make you my baby. Chinky came on that bitch

like he was buddy guy or something. Oh, I forgot he was in drumline. Drumline? Jason Weaver. Did you watch smart guy? Uh-oh. Smart guy. Not him being in one of your favorite shows.

Thea. Thia. Thia. Yeah. Yeah. But all. Thia. Jason Weaver,

Brandy, I'm telling y'all, man. I want to have a whole show. Seriously, I want to do a show, like a live show, where I just bring up people like in the Apollo or something. Well, we just talk about Jason Weaver and Tisha Campbell. You know what I mean? People like this that have done so much work, great work. Think about the career of a Tisha Campbell.

Think about it. School days. Martin. My wife, because these people are legend. A little shop of whores. Little shop of whore. I've been doing it since she was a kid. Think about a Tisha Campbell.

Think about a Robert Townsend. All, everybody want to go. Now, you know, Meteor Man is one of my favorite movies. Think about a Robert Townsend, man. Think about these people. Think about your people. I know everybody want to talk about Leonardo DiCaprio.

Cool. Think about what a Robert Townsend has stuff. Think about Hollywood shuffle. Think about Meteor man. You know what I'm saying? Think about the parenthood. Think about Robert Townsend. think about these people

a Jason Weaver How do we not put the five heartbeats? How do we not say five heartbeats? You know what? I'm in. I'm in on the show. I'm in on the show. I'm in on the show.

I want to do the show. I want to do a show. Just a live show when we just come up there. I wish that, see, if I was a billionaire, if I was like, if I was, if I was Elon Musk, I'd just be like, man, get 15 million to Tisha Campbell. If I was Elon Musk, if I was, if I was, I'd be like,

I'm not saying these people are doing good. They all got much. I'm saying if I was, if I had that type of money, I'll just call Jason Weaver up. I'd be like, man, 30 million, bro. No. Go take you. Give you 30 million to somebody else. Give them, I give him his flowers, but 30 milwaukee.

See, come on. See, come on. Why can't, why Jason Weaver deserve 30 million? Okay. He gave me $30 million worth of memories. I'm just saying, I love these people. I love these people. I do too.

I just want to say, I love, everybody's listening to the podcast. This is bad podcast. podcast right now. I'm saying I don't I don't like these people. I love these people. These people are the people that I like. You know what I'm saying? I like Giancarlo Esposito. They give him his props. But I like these are the people I like when everybody's talking about oh who you like whoa, you know what? I'm almost there as a producer. We've got a movie coming out once again is premiering at the Pan-African film festival directed written by Boas Jaquine. Jerome Baum, Mecca, our movies premiere.

But see when I, next five years, I'm gonna be one of the biggest producers in this game. I believe it. And my movies, my movies are gonna have Tisha Campbell and Jason Weaver and then bitches. Robert Towns is going to write my right and direct.

We're about to get our shit. What is he about to do? He's hanging out, probably somewhere counting money. He's rich. All right. So back to the story. I'm sorry,

I went off on a tangent of how much I love these performances. It's true. Colman Domingo is playing Michael Jackson's father in a biopic. The film is coming out April 18th, 2025. Colma Domingo is playing Joe Jackson. The father of Michael Jackson is eight siblings. And I can only hope that this part will be in the movie. Which one of Joe Jackson's...

Which part? It was Joe Jackson's most adornest statements ever. Donnie, can you play it? I didn't know anything about him being sick, but regurgitating. But if he did gurgitated, he gurgitated all the way to the bank. It's so bad. I don't know that statement. It's so bad.

You know what? Listen, I go back to my original question. Wait, man, come back. Come back. I can't remember. I can't. I can't. Every time you hear it, it's like the first time.

Oh, yo, I can remember the first time I heard him say that. I'm like, yo, Joe, you got to be more serious about that. Those are serious allegations, Joe, yo, I apologize to everybody. I'm sorry. I'm not that woke. That's funny. This nigger said, I didn't know nothing about him being sick and gurgitated, but he but, like, didn't laugh.

That's the coldest part. He was serious. That's serious. He was serious. Now, I go back to my original thing. Do we need another Michael Jackson movie? As much as I love Coleman Domingo, you know? And Michael's nephew is going to be playing him, which, you know,

and maybe we need a pallet cleanser because I feel like we had that flex movie, and we do need to see something more serious. So maybe we are due for one, but I don't know. I don't know. For some reason, I'm not like super excited. about this? I'm at this point generally

against any biopic that is done by the family or the person themselves. Because you think it's watered down? What'd you say? Because you think it's watered down? It has to be.

There's no way for it to not be. If the biopic is done by the family of the person or by the person themselves, it's not going to be good or there's only so good that it could be. So that goes for straight out of Compton.

It's a great segue to the next topic. That goes for straight out of Compton, that goes for the Whitney Houston movie that goes for whatever it is. If they are doing it, that goes for this Bob Molley movie that's coming out right now. I haven't seen it yet.

But my expectations of the movie is that there will be some things that are missing from it because it's being told about the estate. And so to me, I think that, That's my thing. If I want a real look into somebody's life, I just don't think the family is good at telling those stories. I think don't think the estates are good at telling those stories.

And so the closer it is to the actual person, to me, the, I mean, if Michael Jackson's estate is telling this story, obviously we can tell you right now. And I'm not saying that they are, but I know that the family's involved, right? So if Michael Jackson's family, if the estate is telling the story, then obviously they're going to be parts of this. And we don't even have to imagine which parts that are going to be glossed over. Well, that's the real problem. That's what you're really upset about. You're not going to get this scene.

You're not getting it. That's what you're really upset about. I got to be honest with you. I personally think it's Joe's most enduring words that he's said. It's honest. But that tells you a lot about Joe Jackson. Michael Jackson in that situation is talking about how upset he was. was and how performing made them sick and how Joe's treatment made them sick.

And Joe said, if you were sick, he was sick. All right. NWA. You're familiar with them. I'm assuming you've heard of it. I have. NWA, of course, pioneering gangster rap group. Easy.

Q. M.C. Wren. Yella. Dr. Dr. Okay. One of the most important rap groups of all time. One of the most influential rap groups of all time. Influential. One of the most successful rap groups of all time. Pioneers of hip hop, gangster rap hip hop, West Coast hip hop. You can't overstate what NWA did in terms of their impact. You can't. You can't talk about whether or not it was good or bad, but you can't act like they weren't impacted. They are set to receive the lifetime of,

Achievement Award to 24 Grammys. NWA will be among other recipients of the prestigious award, which will be presented coming up here. February 3rd at the Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles. Other honorees this year, last night, Donna Summer, love Donna Summer, the Clark sisters, Tammy Winnet, and Lori Anderson. According to the Academy, Lifetime Achievement Awards presented by vote of the recording Academy's National Trustees to Performers.

who during their lifetime have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to feel of recording. Rachel, some people are mad about this. Some people are saying that NWA's past, the violent music, the treatment of women in the music, the things that are in the music

should not be celebrated to where they deserve a lifetime achievement award. So it's not some people, it's black women. And there should be, and I, oh, you don't think it's just black women? Black women are very upset. Most of what I've seen the people that are critical of this. It's just interesting.

This tweet that sparked this is from a black man. Interesting. That's not the tweet. I guess when I was looking at it, I was looking at old tweets the foot people have said about hip hop and the string relationship. See what just happened? A black man put this on my radar. Please don't do this.

A black man put this on my radar. I apologize. I got the tweet came from a woman. Most of what I've seen has been that way. Let me put this. Let me put it this way. Historically, the outrage has come from. from black women bringing it to light about how problematic the lyrics were from NWA and its members

and how that impact has had other people mimic that type of rhetoric in their music as well. You can't deny that. So in addition of them, yes, bringing political awareness and talking about racism and police brutality, they in addition, within that, we're also talking about women, particularly. black women and they're and being very sexist and misogynistic as well. And that too is something that has trickled down into rap and hip hop. And that historically has been talked about by black women. I apologize to the black man who tweeted that out. And I'm not saying they're the only ones. I'm just talking about historically. Y'all going to come at me anyway. It's fine. All right.

It's interesting because a lot of times when you have these conversations about individuals being problematic, or maybe their music being a little bit problematic. People talk about this thing of separating the art from the artist. But when it comes to NWA, they're connected. When you look at what was left out of Straight Out of Compton, when it was 25 years later before Dr. Dre acknowledged what he did to Dee Barnes. I mean, there is a history of problematic behavior in Michelangelo. and whoever else, there's a history of problematic behavior from particular members of NWA,

and then they were actually speaking about this in their songs. So they were speaking to truth in their lyrics about police brutality, about racism, about political awareness, but then they were also being very truthful in the way they were degrading black women. And so I understand the outrage that people have or how upset they are at the Academy the Recording Academy for wanting to honor this because you can't separate the way they talk about black women or women from their music. So in the sense, you're honoring not just the influence that they've had on rap, you're also honoring what their music was about. The only thing I would say to

that is if you look at other people who've been honored for Lifetime Achievement Awards, there are the problematic people who have domestic violence and have been very abusive to women as well. that have received this award. And it just seems to go in line with people try to separate the art from the artist. I guess that's the line. I feel like I interviewed Harvey Mason Jr. one time. And he even spoke to this because it was in regards to, oh my gosh, what is her name? Kesha.

And Dr. What's his name? Dr. Luke. Dr. Luke being nominated for a song. for writing and she's been very vocal about the abuse that she suffered by him and he was still nominated and there was this conversation even by Harvey Mason Jr. about separating the art from the artist. It's just what people do and I'm not saying it's right but I don't think that it was going to they were going to make an exception this time for NWA when they've given other people lifetime achievement awards who also have problematic behavior towards women or problematic lyrics or just

historically have just been bad people. So the guy that pointed this out that I saw this was like, it was actually retweeted by D. Barnes. We should probably speak D. Barnes's names here. Speak to our, speak truth, love, and light and safety over our sister, D. Barnes. She retweeted someone named at Truth Minister. That's T-R-U-T-H-M-I-M-I-N.

So maybe I saw the retweet. I-S-T-A. And so he tweeted, he tweeted this out and he's actually been on it for a couple of days. One tweet says, so women's groups were outrage about Bill Cosby, Art Kelly, and Jonathan Majors, but a silence about the fathers of rape rap in W.A. Getting a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Something else that should be said when we're talking about violence against women

that was in NWA's music, we should be honest that some of that stuff has to do with like sexual assault and rape. Yes. Not just, I mean, I don't want to say not just. I'm not talking about I'll smack a bitch, a bitch ain't shit. We're talking about like, like some wild, wild, wild, wild shit. And that's, that is on top of all the other lyrics about murder and about things like that. It was the hardest of the hardcore rap that existed at that time.

Of course, there were other guys out there that were making that rap at the same time. They were unapologetic about it and they were breaking through. and making America look at some really ugly things, right? And they weren't trying to be anything less than outrageous. This is what I would say. The point that you made when you came back around to it is the central point. The point is if NWA's musical achievement doesn't allow them to go into the Grammy Hall of Fame or get a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award,

then we would probably have to reassess so many other people. Yeah. that had Elvis Presley married a 14-year-old girl, you know. And so we'd have to assess that about a lot of different people, right? And look at that. So I have less of a problem with them being given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. I just think that their contribution to music and who they are merits that. I don't have a problem with that at all.

What I do think, though, and I think that NWA, these guys, Dre and Cube and and Wren and the rest of these guys because besides easy, I think they're also around and yelling. I think that there should be a conversation led by them and led by brothers of this era, right?

Sure. It's not to excoriate them, a conversation led by them about what they felt like their music meant at the time, who they were at the time, and how they want to see the world now. And I think that is the only real way

to get to some type of understanding here. And I'll tell you what, an opportunity was missed with Straight Outta Compton, in my opinion, for that conversation to begin. Because what could have happened in Straight Out of Compton is the actual assault on D. Barnes could have been shown,

the actual treatment of Michelle A. and other women, the, I guess, the cost of some of the music, the cost of some of the attitudes, the cost of some of the behavior could have been shown. And that could have started a conversation,

a very deep conversation, about that time in hip hop, that time in our community, that time in our society, how we looked at it then and where we want to be now. But by sanitizing it, they didn't just erase

the experiences of those women from the story that they told. They erased the opportunity to have the conversation in a robust and comprehensive way. It's a conversation we keep trying to have. But rather than have the conversation,

I think it gets to be a problem because everybody's looking for a villain. Everybody's looking for a Lex Luthor or a Joker or someone like that. I'm just saying because it's easy. When you have a villain in the movie, it's easy to say that all the evil that is happening right now is because of that person.

If you watch the Dark Night and then you take the Joker out of the Dark Night, well, there's no story. Mm-hmm. Because everything that's happening in the dark night is because the Joker has a fucked up way of looking at the world. Well, that's not how things are in the real world. The guy that's fucking up is sometimes your dad.

It's sometimes your brother. It's sometimes you. It's sometimes your friend. It's sometimes your sister. It's sometimes your mom. There's a community of people that are doing just enough bad and letting just enough bad slide for bad to continue. And the only way you legislate that is through conversation and through honesty. And so when the movie was somehow less honest than it should be, what it essentially

said was there was really no problem with it, that there was no problem with some of NWA's music, that there was no problem with some of the ideas that were in it, that there was really nothing wrong with it. Right? And everything else was for dramatic sake. And so for me now, I don't think that they shouldn't be allowed to be to be rewarded for the genius that they put across lyrically and musically. You can't tell the story of hip hop without NWA. And if you're going to tell the story of hip hop at the Grammys,

you've got to put it in there. But the reality is, for us, the community that has buoyed them, I think that era of rap, particularly, that era of rap coming through, even when I watch ain't nothing but a G thing and a guy runs up behind the girl and he pulls her bikini off,

her breasts are exposed, and then she runs after him. When I was a kid, the only thing I used to think about that was, God damn, I wonder why they blurt it. Like, I want to see her breast. When I was a kid, I want everyone to think about this. Ain't nothing but the G thing.

The video comes out. It's 1991, 1992. The volleyball scene. We all know the volleyball scene. The sisters there, beautiful black woman. Guy runs up behind her, pulls her shit off,

and her breasts are exposed and they're blurred and things running around. When I'm a kid, I'm not thinking, oh my God, how fucking embarrassing and humiliating for that woman. What I'm thinking, as an 11 or 12 year old kid watching the videos, I want to see her breasts. Is there a version of this where I can see her breast? I want to see her breasts. There's nothing that's being taught to me about how wrong that is. There's nothing that's being taught to me about like how fucked up that is or what happened after. Like what, like, what's the deal?

Nothing's like that going through my mind. What's going through my mind at that time is I want to see her breasts. That's how you get to school and start playing games with these little girls. And that's how that's part of it. So I'm joining on once again. I'm sorry, guys. But what I'm saying is that like we can put NWA into the Grammy Museum. But we also got to talk about this stuff.

But we got to keep talk. about it. And we got to keep talking about it. And we have to take accountability and responsibility for what we've tolerated. And they have to take accountability and responsibility for what they put on wax. And that's a bare ass from them, the guys. Well, in addition to yes, and everything that you're saying is true. And in addition to that, and I don't know who does that come from. Is there a mark next to their name with the Recording Academy? Do they go back and do that for everybody else? Do they, is there a whole thing on the Recording Academy where they talk about all these people that have received this type of award, but then tell the other side of the story. Because what happens

is, and what happened with Straight Outta Compton, if you don't know about Dee Barnes, or you don't know about Michelet or any of the other things that, or you maybe aren't well-versed in their lyrics, you take Straight Out of Compton as Bible, especially with the Dr. Dre and an ice cube behind it. So in a sense, you're almost becoming a revisionist and rewriting history because you're telling your story, your biography, and people are taking this, especially to a new generation as, oh, this is what they went through.

These are their struggles. You know, like, surely they didn't leave anything out. And your people are, you're building a whole new era where it takes out all of the violence against women. And it rewrites it. And who's to say that's not what they were trying to do? I don't know.

Probably, yeah, they probably know what, you know what I say. Even with these movies, that's why when they made these biopics, when the people are involved and family involved, it makes me less apt to fuck with it. All right, Tim Scott is back. I can't.

You love him. I just can't. Go ahead. Oh, what, Rachel, why don't you just come to charge that? Tim Scott is the man. I'm not doing.

I'm going to be honest with you. I had, speaking of people from South Carolina, be honest with y'all, man. I had people years ago reaching out to me telling me Tim Scott was all right. You did. I'm going to ask some of y'all about this.

I had people reaching out to me years ago telling me Tim Scott was all right. You said it on the podcast. You're like, I hear he's a good dude. I hear he's a good guy. People would say Tim Scott was all right. The Opportunity Zone stuff, which was phantom gentrification,

which we all kind of bought hook line and sinker, which you really should have thought. I had people telling me Tim Scott was a good guy. and Tim Scott has turned into mega-cone. This is like a, the whole Tim Scott situation to me, and you guys, I'm sorry. I don't know how else to describe it.

It's a very, very ugly thing to say about someone. I'm sorry. I really am sorry. But this, watching Tim Scott in this entire thing, it's, let me tell you what it is, guys. It's not about politics. It's not. It's about weakness,

with Tim Scott. It's not about politics. Okay, Tim Scott's a black Republican. He's a black Republican. He's he's bending the knee before Donald Trump fine. But God damn, it's like he's bending the knee and his knees are on his own balls. Like it's, there's a weakness.

There's like a gelatin spine. There's a bending of the knee. There's a good old boy. Slap on the back, head rub thing. here that's like so viscerally upsetting to me. It's different. I even think like Byron Donald's is a big time Trump guy. I think Byron Donald's talk his shit a little bit better than Tim Scott. I think he he comports himself in a way. I mean, he is different with him. Like it's different with him. I don't feel like he's as weak as a Tim Scott is. I don't

fuck with Byron Donald's politics at all. But at least I respect the fact that he stand on his shit. Scott seems like the biggest weekly ever. Al Al Sharpton, he agrees. He says that Tim Scott's behavior is humiliating. There's no other way to describe it.

So this is what Tim said about Trump. Two great senators, which is hard. I mean, did you ever think that she actually appointed you, Tim? And think of it. Appointed and you're the senator of his state, and she endorsed me.

You must really hate her. No, it's a shame. It's a shame. Uh-oh. I just love you. No, that's why he's a great politician. I saw some tweet where they put his face on Samuel L. Jackson's, because it is giving Calvin candy.

It is giving Django. The Django. I can't. I gave it all in the last podcast. I mean, Tim Scott is Tim Scott. This is who he is. He's only going to get worse, especially as he is possibly being considered

to either be vice president or have some position in the administration. The way he's talking, he might be going to be trying to be secretary of education because he's been doing that since last year. But I can't keep talking. I mean, Tim, he is who he is at this point. He loves Trump.

he gave him Trump who was it at that time that said Trump was like a father to him it wasn't a black man

it wasn't a black man it was Kanye West well wasn't it conier west oh no wasn't it am I tripping

did Kanye West not say that Trump was like a father to him Kanye West hold on Kanye West Trump

father did I just make this up no Kanye West Donald Trump is a father figure. Who makes him feel like Superman. What is what is Trump? I mean, come on.

What is what is Trump doing to y'all? What what is Trump doing to y'all, man? God damn. It's like Trump's nut has intimacy in it or something like that. What is Trump doing to y'all? Tim Scott looks like a fool. Like this is what Reverend Al Sharpton said about Tim Scott. There are few moments in my life.

I've been more embarrassed than to watch Tim Scott, who, you know, I know Tim and I are both practicing Christians, but I don't know if he could pray like that to the other side. I mean, it was humiliating to watch what Tim Scott did as a sitting senator. And one time it wasn't even, he wasn't even on the script. He interrupted Trump to pay homage. And so I had to say that because it's bothered me all night. He's doing it right here.

It says it's just that I love you, Mr. Trump. It's not that I hate Nikki Haley. It's just that I love you from Senator Scott. It's not a good day in my life to watch Tim do that. I mean, to think that we fought to see people like him, black becomes high elected in the South and to do that he has a right to be a republic. has a right to do Donald Trump, but to do it in such a way that is so humiliating was troubling. Let's put it that way.

I'm trying to be as nice as I can. Cash trading himself. He sold his soul. He has sold his soul for it to be possibly the vice president. There's no turning that. By the way, the buck breaking happens on both sides, by the way. The book breaking of black male political figures, it happens on the left. It happens on the right.

The buck breaking happens on both sides. Tim Skye is being buck broke right now by Donald Trump, and this nigger loves the dick. I'm going to be honest with you. Okay. Loves it. He does. It's true.

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How do you feel about religion right now, Rachel? We could almost create a segment at this point. Let me ask you a question. How do you feel right now in your life, Rachel? How do you feel about your relationship with God? My, well, especially I'm going through my own trial and tribulation right now. I believe in faith and I believe in a higher being and I believe in prayer. And so I would say my relationship with God is a personal relationship that your first question was asking me about religion.

with stories like the one we're about to talk to and some of the stories that we have covered, it's tough. When you grow up, I grew up, and I've talked about this, in a very pragmatic, religious home. I got it at home. I got it at school. First Baptist Academy was a Christian school. It was in my friend group. It was everywhere. And you almost become robotic in the things that you say about religion or the things that, because you know it, right? Like, you know that Bible verse. You know what you're supposed to say when you worry. You know you're supposed to say when this happens.

You quote this Bible verse. You talk about this parable. And it becomes routine where you don't feel it. And it's been interesting as I've become an adult and I've been challenged in different ways that I wasn't as a child. I've been able to seek out my own relationship the way that I want to. And it's not tied down necessarily what I was told to do or what I had to do. as a religion growing up.

So to me, that makes it even more special. When I see stories like the crypto pastor or, I don't know, name them, I don't know what else the other ones we've talked about, it makes me question the people that create the religion, the people that are behind it. Because not that we all aren't without sin, but it seems to be so self-serving that for people who aren't Christians or attached to any other religion, I understand why they have issues with it because it seems more about self than it is about the community or the congregation,

which is what they're preaching from pulpits. And so for me, my walk has become something more personal than it is tied to things that I was taught, if that makes sense. So what we're talking about is there's a pastor's charged with cryptocurrency fraud. And he says that God told him to do it. He's a pastor in Denver. God told him to sell cryptocurrency that could not be cashed. He's facing civil charges along with his wife for marketing a digital coin that prosecutors say was practically worthless.

And then he used the proceeds to go on lavish lifestyles. His name is illegio Rigaldo. Rigolado, and his wife, Caitlin Ragholando, charged Thursday in civil complaint, Denver District Court. This is him talking about it. If I can just communicate to your heart to heart and tell you how we got here, and it wasn't just like we had a million dollars sitting there and we decided to go crazy with it. So how this whole thing started is the Lord told us in 21 to walk away from our marketing company, and we have had a lot of success raising millions of dollars for different

clients and he said, I'm going to do a new thing. And then he took us into this cryptocurrency. It was a different cryptocurrency other than an index coin at the time. Well, that cryptocurrency turned out to be a scam to basically put it the best way I can describe it. And I said, Lord, I said, you told me to do this. Now there's people involved in this. What do you want me to do? And the Lord said, I want you to build this the way that should be done. And so that original cryptocurrency was already overvalued by four times. And so the people, who bought this, they were already basically four-xed leveraged on this. And so the Lord says, give that to them, but also give them a 10x. So if someone bought a thousand dollars worth of

index coin, we were basically given them the index amount of $10,000. So a 10x on top of it. And I'm like, well, where's this liquidity going to come from? And the Lord says, trust me. So that's fine. So we keep moving along. God keeps confirming. God keeps showing. God keeps showing up. God keeps opening doors. We're not even marketing this thing. People are telling people that are telling people. And it just comes in. And a lot of you were there from the very beginning and you'll be able to relate to this. Well, as money is coming in... Cut this, Nick off. Cut this thing off. It doesn't matter. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. Okay. So, look, I'll tell you what I'm going through. Rachel's very well put, by the way,

I would say. And I do have something to say about maybe something that's going on with you. If I'm allowed. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. Okay. So this is what I'm going through. And this is why the religion thing is bothering me. So I look at this. You know, we've talked about like stuff that's going.

on that's happened. Like, God has always been hard for me. Like, always been hard. I've always had to try. I think that makes sense. Because, like, I was always so inquisitive that I would ask questions that, like, people didn't really have answers to, you know? And I would delve into things that, um, that, uh, that would, like,

affects the adults in my life. They would challenge the adults in my life. You know, I would get stuff and I would ask my dad, I'd be like, well, say how, where, why? In one time, we were in class, because I was just lapping everything up. We're in class and like, the teacher tells us that, you know, the sun's going to burn out one day.

And the sun is supernova. The supernova star makes a black hole, whatever. And the sun is going to burn out with them. I'm like, so the sun doesn't last forever? And I remember I asked the teacher. I was like, well, what lasts forever? She goes, nothing does. You know, like nothing does.

Like everything has, there's a natural order of things and everything is subject to the natural order of things. And everybody else is looking around in the class and they're like, oh, okay, well, it makes sense. You see a leaf brown on the ground. You know that that leaf was orange of greens. the way things go. I could not wrap my head around that concept. I'm sure there were other kids

that could. I'm not trying to make myself so. I just couldn't wrap my head around that concept. All the way home on the bus. All the way, I'm just looking at everything and everything I see, I just see decay. I see, I look at old people, and I became obsessed with pictures of them like when they were younger. I just see everything starts to look. I'm literally, I'm literally like eight or nine years old at this point.

Everything starts to look old. Everything, I'm like, how did this building look when it was new? How did this Burger King look when it was new? And I started getting obsessed with like new constructions of things. Like how something looks when it's brand new as opposed to when it's been there for a couple of years. I'm just asking all of these questions about the cycle of life, like all of that stuff. And all that comes from like the divine order. And I'm trying to ask questions to adults.

And adults are saying, number one, asking these questions in it of itself are sacrilege. And number two, these questions don't do anything but make you work. worry. I've said this before on the podcast before. My dad's favorite, favorite, favorite saying when it revolved around me was, damn, that boy always worrying about something. He always worrying about something. That boy don't do nothing but worry. That boy don't do nothing but worry. And literally the only thing that saved me from that, from going through that angstiness all throughout my high school years were breasts and ass. Once girls got involved in, I'm just being for real. Once girls came into my being,

I just had something else to just obsessify. I still fixate on. I was still deep into movies. I was still deep into that. But, you know, I will come home and I will watch MTV's the grind. MTV's the grind or I would see Ananda Lewis on Teen Summit

and just, it just wouldn't. It was gone. It just, it was gone for a while. And then post college, not post college, but like after high school, when I'm back into my deep into my intellectual brain and also high school is very competitive and you're trying to keep up with your classmates you're doing all this other stuff in my brain it kind of all came back i'm saying all this to say this my relationship with god has always been one where i had to feel god like i had to feel god like you can never tell me god to me you couldn't because none of it ever made sense right because i see you like i know you you you're telling me but i know you you you're telling me but i know you you you you're telling me but i know you I know you. Like, I'm with you.

I'm around you. I told the story before. One of the holiest rollers I ever was around in my whole life. We're at Jefferson Lakes apartment complex. It's Christmas Eve. We walking down the sidewalk. We see a wallet on the ground. The wallet is full of money.

It's full of money. It's right outside one of our neighbors' houses. The wallet is like literally full of money. And I'm like, I bet that's a homie right here. Go knock on the door. I never forget. He goes, nah, she mean,

go knock on the door. You keep that, it's Christmas. That's a Christmas blessing for you. I'm like, a Christmas blessing for you. I'm like,

bro, this man might be going out to like go buy his kids some fucking, some fucking toys today. It's Christmas. And this is one of the holiest Rose heaven. That's a blessing.

Would you at least try to see what are you going to give you? Take a hundred out of it. Is that that motherfucker fat? I'm like, nigga what?

I'll walk on the door, knock on the guy's door. Give him his wallet. He's looking like, oh, shit. He might have been there doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. He was looking like, oh shit. I'm like, yeah, bro. Be careful, man.

Somebody might have some gifts on you. He's like, you need anything. And I wanted to take a couple of dollars because I didn't have no money. But I didn't just to spite my cousin. Just despite this guy who always preaching to me. I'm like, nah, I don't need that. That's good. It's for your kids, man.

So, like, my thing with God was I've always felt a pool to the supernatural. I've always felt a pool to God. I've always felt comforted by God. I've asked God for things that God has given them to me. I have to admit, the last three years, I'm in the void, man. Like, I'm

like drifting. I'm out here. I'm trying to figure things out. Like, I didn't put so many people in the ground, man. And it's like, it is uh it is there's just so much going on that i'm i'm i'm detached the energy i like i i need something i need these people to be better now i need them the people i need everybody who is who's been

saying this all this time i didn't need it before i need them to be who they say they are now because like because now it's like, and this is why like, I think that I've been talking about this a little bit more and a little bit differently recently because like, I need help. Like I'm, this podcast is not therapy for me.

It's not, I have a therapist. I just talk to it. It's a great therapist. One of the best therapists I've ever had. I have a therapist. It's great. But like,

I feel like we in the ninth inning, I feel like people need it now. They people need it. It's not before in the 80s and the 90s. Things were bad, right? The country was different. The community was different. You got more accidental fellowship than it feels like you do now.

And for people that say I'm out of the loop, I just was back home. I just was in Louisiana. I've been to Louisiana back and forth going back and forth the whole time. I'm there. I'm talking to people. I'm talking to family. I'm talking to other people. I'm trying to do the whole thing like is, is like, is like, it's gone.

Like my dad, when my dad died, like my dad had, my dad carried two Bibles and he would say that he carried one Bible for himself and another Bible in case someone needed it. I got both of the Bibles here. When I went through his truck, he had both of the Bibles. So he had, he hadn't found anybody together. the one too. Like, I'm like, I need y'all to be better now. Like, I need y'all to, I need to see, I need to feel it. The people that claim to be, that their lives are led by the word, the actions, and the example of Jesus Christ or God or religion or Yahweh or whomever, like, I need inspiration.

Like, I, like, I'm, I'm, for the first time in my life, the connection that I, have felt with something higher has been replaced with pain and anguish and loss. I've never not gone through that, but I'm in the middle of it now. Like I only, I only ever feel God in my grandmother's living room. Oh, that makes so much sense. Like, I'm in the grand, the house with, with, with my grandmother and my mom, and I look at those two women and I go, God made them. When I'm with Crystal Ellis and Geraldine Ellis, when I'm with those two women, I'll look at those two women and I go, God made them. They could not exist but for God. Just because of, you're making me emotional when you say that. I'm sorry. I just felt that. That like really

made me emotional. I'm sorry. So that's when I feel like, okay, I'm okay. Like that, that's, that's, That's what I feel that. Other than that, I'm drowning. And none of these people, it feels like it's all bullshit. I think. It does,

man. Sorry. I love my grandmother so much. You're so right. You're just so right when you say that. Like, I just, yes. I think that, and maybe the question is for you,

I guess, I just, maybe I learned from a young age, and I think I've said this on the podcast. If not, I definitely wrote about it in my book of, I experienced a pastor who impregnated somebody in the congregation. I had a baby, and I saw it at 10 years old. I saw it divide the church. I saw all of that. And I guess I learned at a young age. I had not learned yet about developing my own. I learned that earlier. I still did. of what I was told. But I saw the imperfections and the people that lead it and kind of learned to not put so much faith in the person and that it was bigger and above that. I saw how problematic

and self-serving, how people are manipulative with the word to benefit their own agenda, young. And it always stuck with me. So when I see some of the things that are happening that we've talked about on this podcast, like this crypto pastor, I guess I'm just always like it's above them. I never really thought of it that way. And that's why I guess I mean about developing my own relationship and doing it that way.

Because I still need it, but not necessarily from that person. Because they're problem at. They're people. Does that mean? I don't know. Even listening to you saying, even listening you talk about people, I'm like, you got to look past them. People are flawed.

People are bad. I think, I do. I think. more so what I was saying is that I am probably at the point right now where I do need like a little help just trying to understand everything and it

and it's like because before really man look like I've talked about I joked about like the panic attack I had in Brobridge the legendary Brobridge panic attack Brobridge I don't know that's where you were yeah so we're on our way to to see Glenn play shout out to Glenn Davis my first cousin, by the way, Glenn, don't get no trouble.

I love you, brother. I love you, man. I love you, I love you, little cousin. Don't get no trouble. I love him. What a great guy. Like, even that, like, being around him and then being around my, my Uncle Ray's son and, like, talking to my Uncle Ray's son, great kid named Bishop. And I'm down there, I'm talking to Bishop, and I'm telling Bishop,

I'm like, Glenn Davis, that's your cousin. and I'm talking to bishop And Bishop doesn't cut off from his family It's like there's just so much work to do For these young men that are in my family There's like so much ball dropping That's been done For a long time

I look at him and I see his fucking dad in him And it's just I see his fucking father Like he doesn't even know the version of his father That I knew when I was a kid It's so odd for me getting older Like I see your dad. Like I see your dad. I see the guy who taught me how to ride a horse.

I see him in you. I just want you to have everything in the world that you need to have. So I start, since I don't know how to be an uncle, I just start buying shit. So you know what I'm saying? Like I just, I want you to feel like somebody with your last name loves you. And then I feel that way then I come back here and it's just weird. But what I was saying is that like, you know, When I'm, I have the panic attack.

Ryan freaks out. I love you, Ryan. If you can hear this, thank you for helping me that day. Ryan freaks out. I freak out. The fucking, uh, the fucking helicopter comes. Pick me up. They put me in the helicopter.

They fly me to the hospital. They don't know what's wrong with me. A 320 pound man is, is his heart rate is 190 and he's not doing anything. They have no idea what's going on. I'm telling you, I'm in the, I was fine before I even got to the hospital. I'm in the thing and something just went, you're okay. I'm like, you're okay. Like something went, you're okay. Like, I'm right here. I was by myself. Like, something literally went to something literally with, you're all right. You're all right. Just calm down.

You're okay. And I remember I almost popped out of a trance. I picked up. I looked up. I could see my heart rate on the little thing that the medi, that the, that the medical helicopter has by the thing, I could see my heart rain on it. I could see them talking. They're talking about whether or not I'm using cocaine. But I started to be able to hear everything, right? I started to be able to hear, like, it broke me out of my trance. Like, something comforted me.

And by the time I get to the hospital, I remember we come to the front of the hospital. I'm not trying to make anybody believe in miracles. I'm just telling the actual thing that happened to me. By the time we get to the front of the hospital, the doctor, like, we get there and up there willing me in. literally on a gurney and they go, well, he's right now. And the doctor goes, we're admitting him. He flew here on the thing. Like, we're admitting him. And so I'm like, okay, cool. I go in there. By the time, by the time they get me, by the time I get in there, the blood pressure is fine.

My heart rate's come down. I've had an anxiety attack, right? But so, and they're like, they're like, he's fine. Boom. Boom. Everybody comes out. Ryan and Geno come out. Everybody's in. By the time I get there, it's been whatever time. Everybody's in Lafayette. they didn't drove up. And like I'm holding on to that. And that stuff like that is like why I just came out to L.A. Like why I was able to leave all my family. I never felt like I was by myself.

And now I feel like I'm by myself. Well, that was faith. And I'm like now, now I feel like I'm by myself. I feel like I'm by myself. I feel like I'm just out here. And there's an ask from everyone. There's a thing from everyone. there's always something for me to measure up to.

There's always something to fix. There's always something to do. And I'm trying to lean on something. And all I see now are people that are so fake and broken and full of shit. And I'm kind of, I don't know what to do. I, and I don't know specifically what to tell you to do, but like even going through, you know, the things that I'm going through right now, I have seen my friends show up for me and my family obviously too

and that has given me the strength to keep going like leaning on them in my circle and people I trust and I feel protected and I feel safe and that encourage me even when I can't see beyond the next thing it's like honestly given me more than I thought Like, it's like, like, what's the word I'm trying to say? It's strength in my faith, not maybe a little bit of humanity, but just staying with the people who know me and get me, right? Like, even right now I'm in Aspen.

And this was at a couple of girlfriends who were going on a trip already here. They're like, hey, if you just get your flight, like, we already have the room. This will be great for you to get away. You can just surround yourself. And it's been healing for me, you know, waking up in the morning, just like with my girlfriends and just talking. And it's like friends looking out for me has just like really, it's given me a lot of hope. So I don't know if that's what you need. I don't know.

I don't know what to tell you. But it's really helpful for me. Yeah. I get it. Like life is a lot right now. I mean, life is good. Like life is good. Like things are going well.

Like things are moving well. Things are going well. But the questions that I'm asking now are, they're different like bro like it it always before was about and we'll get off this but it's always before it was always about

like man how am I going to be I remember I used to ask my quick I used to ask myself at 28 I just woke up and was like how's it going to happen for me like what's going to happen like how's it going to happen like I'm playing a lot of basketball

I'm writing I'm doing all this stuff but it's ever going to happen am I going to be like 41 or 42 years old still trying to get something sold still trying to do this, like still trying to, how's it going to happen? And then just the faith, I've always just been guided to do the thing and not care about it because I knew that I was moving in the right direction. I knew that something was there was something for me, that there was something

for me to grab, that there was something for me to go towards. Like, I never questioned the way my steps were ordered. I just always, and now it's like almost to a point, it's like, Yoda could not see the future of Anakin Skywalker because the dark side was clouding it. Like Yoda could look and yoga could look into the future and kind of see what was kind of going to happen to you. But like the dark side clouds everything. Like you can't see I can't see what's going to happen. And that was because fucking Skywalker and Palpatine were up to some shit. Palpatine was up to some shit.

He was clouding the Jedi on purpose so that they can see that this nigga was going to become Darth Vader. So I don't know. I kind of feel that now. And now it seems like all I see from that side is a lack of compassion. Yeah. I see like people that are supposed to be godly that are chronically on social media judging people. Yeah. That are tearing people apart that are politicizing God.

That is just no, there's no love. There's no, there's nothing to fall into. There's nothing to actually believe in. There's only something to fear. And I never felt like that before. They really, really, really, really, really dropping the ball. And so I might block everybody that talks about God on social media besides a couple of people. There's one guy, the It's Revlon guy.

I know y'all don't like him when he says, stop scrolling. I'm about to pray for you. I know that it gets annoying sometimes when he does that. But he comes through, my man, Brian comes through. I don't know. Anyway, that's enough for that. That's enough for that. Take 10 caps off.

I'm sorry we got heavy at the end, but do not stop learning. I am Van Lathen, Jr. I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.