Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Brick Lady, Dresses on Black Men, and Florida’s Miseducation

Episode Date: January 20, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay are back to discuss the surprising numbers coming from the second COVID surge (05:46), masculinity and black men in dresses within Hollywood (14:33),and Florida’s State Board of Education passes regulations against DEI programs (46:18). Then they get into the surprising revelations regarding Roda Osman aka “The Brick Lady” (1:07:14). *Re-uploaded due to errors/updates within ‘Brick Lady’ section* Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Additional Production: Aleya Zenieris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on. It is I, Van Lathen, Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. Let me tell you something. Tell me. First day of negative testing.

That's happened. You are COVID-free. Are you symptom-free? Yeah, I've been feeling better since, like, Monday was the worst day. And I've been feeling better. The last couple of days, my energy came. Really, yesterday was like the first true bounce back day. And so then I was like, and then I was like, how could you tell?

Text messages. Oh, yeah. Fingers were moving. And then, you know, after that, I was like, maybe I'll test tomorrow and see. But I can feel when the COVID leaves. Shut up. I can feel when it's gone. Whatever.

I can feel when the COVID gets out of my body. Why do I look like I have COVID and you look fresh as a daisy? I'm the one who looks like they just rolled out of bed. I'm in this onezy. I look like my lips look ashy. I'm the one who looks like they rolled out of bed and been sick. You look like you ready to go. Hit the weekend.

Yeah, so oncey. I love a good onesie. You probably got it. No, don't say that. Don't put that on me. I don't want you. I got enough going on. I don't either.

I have to be stuck in my room with COVID too. Good thing about COVID is I've been drinking so much water. That is good. That's good. It's very, very impressive. Very impressive for myself. Look,

it's time to get into the podcast, the pleasantries. You know, the reality is, my energy's still down. I'm still going to spend another day in bed. I've been working. I've been getting so much writing done, you know.

I am going to take a walk to see the sun. Let me get that vitamin. Wait, question. Are you, when you write, do you type or do you actually handwrite? I type. Oh, never mind. Why? What do you do?

My thought process is better if I handwrite. Interesting. So, like, when I did the bar exam, majority of the people were typing. their answers, I hand wrote the entire thing for two and a half days because I just might, I think better that way. So my friend introduced me to this thing called Remarkable, which is like this tablet. I just got it so I haven't opened it up. So I'm not going to do a great job explaining it. But it's like a digital thing and you feel like you're writing. But then you can transfer those

notes into a PDF or whatever may be. So I thought for you, you know, you being this writer, if you handwrite, this would be something great for you. I get it. for you, but it's, I'm not, I can't afford it. You know it's crazy? If I'm journaling, I handwriting. Do you journal daily, weekly? I weekly journal. Wow. I wish. If I journal, it's handwritten, but if I'm writing it out, it's pop-a-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-ppppppilodian. I don't journal often, but when I do, it's because I come from a therapy or I used to go to this life coach.

And, you know, she was like, you need to write this certain way about being grateful and visualizing. in certain things. So I don't write often, but I will, every now and then, and I'm curious if you do this, come across a journal, and I'll read it.

And I'll be like, damn, that's what was going on back then? I recently came across this journal, and I was just like, wow. I came across a journal entry. I came across a journal entry

that was about a sexual experience that I had one time. It was very funny. Let's move on. Let's go ahead and go into the show. I have to talk about it because I just saw. No, what are you told? Nobody invited you to give full details.

You said enough. Okay. This is what we'll do. We won't do it right now. But I'll give a little farther for the Reddit. I recently came across one of my old journals when I was back home. Hit us up in the Reddit story. Kiss of Mint?

Yeah. You titled it? It's the kiss of mint incident of 2002. If you want to hear about the kiss of mint incident that was in my journal in 2002, let us know on red. Kiss of mint is the name. You call them soulless jackals. Of course they're going to want to know.

I have to admit, even I am now a tag curious that it's titled. Kiss of mint. Save it for a future podcast. Hopefully we'll be in person on Monday because everybody is healthy. So if we're in person on Monday, I'll tell the kiss of Nick story. I'm testing every day. Because I'm going out of town next week and I don't want to be sick. That's a Neggie.

I want you to take it in front of me. What? You all believe that I could test negative? No, I know you're not irresponsible. All right. Yes, Monday, in person, finally. We haven't had an in-person pod all year. That's true. All right. On the other side of this break, a little news that hits close home.

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The U.S. is in its second largest COVID surge ever. I'm a part of it. Ever? Yeah. Test positivity and wastewater data shows that viral activity in the U.S. is higher than it was this last time. With wastewater data, especially rising rapidly the past several weeks. the graph is showing the peak of COVID COVID outbreaks. It's our new normal people are saying

it's intensified according to the CDC which is of course an organization that has all the credibility in the world over these last couple of years. They've fucking basically destroyed the CDC but Americans are still dying of COVID 1400 Americans a week still dying with COVID. A week?

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, thank goodness we're talking. I mean, I'm, I really thought you misspoke. Go ahead. Sorry. I didn't think they interrupt you. No, that's why.

I just, well, I'm just shocked by that. Not that I thought, obviously, we know COVID is still with us. We know that it, you know, it's kind of like a roller coaster. They'll say COVID is surging right now. And it seems like a lot of people get it. And particularly with the holidays just, just coming through the holidays, it makes sense that there's been a surge. But to hear that 14, people a week.

I'm not, what, that's, that's, what, 5,600 a month? That's a lot of people. I don't know math and stuff. So that's like over 60,000 a year. Still dying, 1500 Americans. And we're not talking about it. And I think because, you know, most people at this point have had it, majority of people have gotten through it.

And so it takes away like before when the unknowns, right? What's going to, what am I going to feel like? What's going to be the effect on me? or a lot of people may not have had someone close that they know pass away from it and so it doesn't affect them the same way. But to hear that is shocking. All right, so you've fallen victim to it.

What are they saying? What should we do? Before I get to that, let me ask you a question. 1,400 Americans died of COVID a week. Why do you think we are talking about it, Rachel? Well, I mean, the first thought is that this is what we do as a society. Something's big. And then we move on to the next thing.

And obviously, COVID was with us for a long time because of quarantining and there was something new. And we were all trying to adjust to it. But I feel like now that people have adjusted to it and they may understand it a little bit better than they have before, they've put it in another box like the flu. and it's just something that lives amongst us and people will get it yearly, maybe multiple times a year, or they won't. And now we have preventative,

not preventative measures, but once you get it, there's certain things that you can take to lessen your symptoms and, you know, to move to get through it. So I think that's why we don't talk about it because we seem to be on the other side of it. I have a one-word answer,

and that's capitalism. Okay. Joe Biden, the president, any president would have done this, but Joe Biden is the president. The pandemic is over. Saying that the pandemic is over was a statement not specifically about science or medicine. True. You know, epidemiology. It was an economic statement.

Yeah. It was a statement that said you can go to the movies. You can get on a plane. you can go to a restaurant, you can get from behind your computer with Zoom, you can get back to work. Pandemic in America is an economic term. It's a term that means how much we have to do to reenter into capitalism or how much we have to do to shield ourselves from this disease. that's really at cross-purposes with the money-making entity

that the United States is. That's what it basically means. It means, hey, we're in a pandemic, so you can't go spend money here because you'll be around other people. You can't spend money there, so you can't be around other people. You can go to the health club.

The health club makes a buck. You can get on public transportation, so the public transportation makes a buck. All of the things that we do, it makes you kind of think about it in American society is to drive economic, the economic engine. I'm not making some sort of moral judgment about that.

I'm not making that. I'm not saying, oh, this bad. I mean, I think we all have our quibbles with capitalism and the way that it affects our daily lives as human beings who are supposed to be able to live expressive lives where we're trying to better ourselves and the constraints that capitalism puts on that. But what I will say is that when you make a decision

that a pandemic is over, you're basically making the decision that people can go spend money again and that decision doesn't really have anything to do with how significant a COVID surge might be or the changing invariance or anything like that that has to do with whether or not the amount of people that are going to die from this thing are low enough that it's okay for money to be made so it's not about if people are going to die. It's about what a lot of things in America are about, which is the acceptable number of deaths and the acceptable number of deaths in exchange for economic activity and what that is. Right now, it's about 1,400 people a week. So what I would say to the entire situation

is this, you know, that's kind of the calculus. that we're going to do. We're going to decide basically how safe something is. And we'll just do it with COVID. We do with all kinds of things. We're going to decide how safe something is based upon, you know, how much money we're losing by sort of negotiating it. Now, what I would be interested to know is if 1,400 people a week are dying of COVID,

which you say was how many people a year? I said 5,600 a month. 5,600 a month, which is how many people per year? Math time. 67,600. Now, you know what I would be interested in knowing? It's how many flu deaths a year are there? I literally just looked it up while you were talking.

How many? I'm getting a couple of things. Give me a bad flu year. $52,000. Okay. So it's, which is shocking to me as well, that many people die of the flu. Oh, the flu would be knocking niggas out.

I mean, yeah, yeah. I'm what? Is that wrong? It's just we're talking about people dying and you're like, yeah,

I mean, I'm not trying to do. It just caught me off guard. I know you're not making light of it. It just, the way you said, it just caught me off guard. Sorry,

it just caught me off guard. But yeah, I mean, it had me on my ass two years ago, bad. I thought it was COVID, and it was the flu.

Right. I still haven't had, it's checking, still neggy. I still haven't had COVID as bad as the worst flu I've ever had. But by the way, guys, that means nothing. Okay. I'm not trying to, don't, don't come from me. I'm just saying. Okay. So what we're saying is that a lot of the reasons why we're not talking about COVID is because we've made some other determinations. COVID is not the flu. it still remains a disease that we are learning about in real time, that we haven't had a hundred some odd years experience with,

or longer even that we've had experience with the flu. So it's still a very, very serious thing, and I want everybody out there to protect themselves because we still got a lot of winter left. A lot of winter left. You know what I'm saying? Rachel. Yeah.

What's your opinion of black comics and dresses? To be very honest with you, before this became a whole thing, and we're starting to hear the comedians who have not worn dresses or the ones that have talk more about this, I never even thought about it. It was never a big issue for me, whether it was Medea, whether it was Martin and Big Mama's house, whether it was Shannay or Wanda,

I just was like, it's a form of comedy. Yeah. And I guess as I name those, like Jamie Fox, Martin, who else did I name? So many people have done it. So many people have done it. My point is it's not a defining thing of them. I don't look at them.

Maybe Tyler Perry, we do look at Esmondia. But he also has done so much more of that. But it's not a, it wasn't a choice that totally defined them to where that that's all that they became. So I did not put so much weight on thinking of Martin and Big Mama's house because he's done so much more and has been so much more impactful with his career. So it wasn't a big deal. You? I don't really care. I don't look.

Yeah. So, yeah. I see this as an issue for the performer. You know? Like, it's subjective. Right. It's all about how you interpret it for yourself. Right.

Cat Williams has triggered so many relevant social issues from his interview on Club Shay-Shay, which we are, you know, we're coming off Dr. King's birthday. We're essentially treating Kat Williams on Club Shay-Shay as if it was the I Have a Dream speech. That's very true. It was a very entertaining interview, well conducted by Shannon Sharp, by the way.

People would say whatever, but they want to say. I thought when somebody cooking, you let them cook. And that's what Shannon was supposed to do. And that's what he did. I mean, we're essentially treating Cat Hart, cat, not Cat Hart. Wow. We're essentially treating Cat Williams' interview like it's a new book of the Bible,

which is very interesting. We love Cat Williams. I think Cat Williams is one of the smartest guys. Just so good with words that I've ever seen talk. Not just be a comic but talk. But it's interesting how we're treating the interview as if it is the gospel from on down from heaven. And it's changing the dynamics. This is interesting time.

He talked about comedians wearing dresses. And then it came up, the Marlon Wayans, who's obviously, very famous for the movie White Chicks when him and his brother Sean wear dresses and white face

going for the Cat Williams double tank right there it took the fucking gold and the silver they were white and they wore dresses he was being interviewed

on the cruise show shout out to my homies over at the cruise show 92.3 here in Los Angeles and Marlon Williams gave his opinion about the whole dress wearing comedy thing

let's listen to that What about the black man putting on a dress conversation? You talk to a black man that put on a dress? I don't know. That conversation to me is, it's silly because it's a negative thing that is only in black people. We have for some reason been programmed to look down on the craziest parts about our experience that we're supposed to not embrace our past, not embrace our history, not embrace our heroes, not embrace our different levels of comedy, that we have to be this way. When Robin Williams puts on a dress and his Mrs. Doubtfire, he gets nominated for an Oscar and white people think is brilliant.

His community embraces him. When Dustin Hoffman puts on a dress in Tootsie and he wins an Oscar, he's labeled Brilliant. When black people put on dresses, all of a sudden were labeled by our own people like something negative. And I'm like, we did white chicks. That's a classic movie. It's a classic. I don't care what nobody says. It's a classic.

That whole thing about, you know, you put on a dress and you selling out, that is not an artist's mindset. When you are an artist, you know, you go out and you create art. Thank you very much. by the way, I would like to say it's Ashley on the ones and two today. Donnie is off doing something. I don't know. Start a family or I don't know what the hell's going on with Donnie. It's a kind of situation.

It won't be here for us being here for his own family. Look. So Marlon is right in that situation. Like dressing up in drag, what we can call it, is so common in comedy that it's almost passe in this point. everyone has done it. Tom Hanks did it. Busom Buddies was the show. The whole show was about Tom Hanks and his roommate dressing up as women so that they could either get a job or live in a specific apartment that was for women only. It was the apartment that was for women only in Bus and Buddies. Do you remember this show?

The apartment was for women only and they didn't have enough money to afford a different apartment. so they dressed up as women and the bosom buddies they were in drag every single time. Do you remember that show? I know the graphic. I never watched the show. Right.

Probably wouldn't have been allowed to. Tom Hanks, bosom buddies. So you've seen it. You've seen it all over the place. It happens all the time. It's not that big of a deal. So Marlon Wayans is right. I will say this.

There are a couple of things here that I think are. Okay. Number one, the concept of black masculine. Jamila Lemieux in the comments when I posted this made a fantastic point that a lot of this has to do with homophobia, right? I'll read Jamila's comment because it was so on point and then I'll add something to it. Amazing. What she said was this. Most of the critiques of black men in dresses are little more than homophobia, but no one ever talks about the hateful way

those men usually depict black women. Mrs. Dalfire and Tutsi did not depict white women as obnoxious and unattractive. Chenet and Wanda made a joke out of sisters. When the white men put on a dress, the joke is on them. The black men put one on. It's usually on us.

That's actually true. That's actually true for the most part when you look at it. Wanda, Sheney, all those characters right there. And that's something that has to be considered when you're talking about this argument. Yeah, no, I think that it's to her point to add on to it,

it's the negative light that it puts on black women. And it also perpetuates this idea that to be entertaining on television, whether it be scripted or reality, you have to be a black woman. You have to fit into a certain box. You've got to be a mammy. You've got to be a Jezebel. You've got to be the aggressive black woman.

You have to be the loud black woman. Like you can't. just be. And those characters that she named in her comment are perpetuating that stereotype. I'll add a couple of things on that observations that I have about this. First of all, once again, comes back down to the individual performer. Waring a dress is just another thing that if you are uncomfortable doing it, that you should not do. If you are uncomfortable doing something as a performer, you should not do. You should not have to say something that you are uncomfortable saying, you should not have to do something that you are uncomfortable doing.

Now, your level of comfort based upon different things, is going to have to do with a lot of stuff, right? Yeah. I do want to talk about black manhood specifically here in a little bit more of a holistic sense. Okay. And it's going to all be anecdotal, so I hope everybody allows me a little latitude here.

I say anecdotal from my history. My expression of manhood, especially as it was taught to me, was both an affirmation of something, but it was also a reaction to something. So my father's expression of manhood was about how he saw the world and about how the world saw him because he was a black man from the South. and being that he was a black man from the south, his manhood was constantly being litigated by people who society had said were more man than him. Because remember, he was a boy. It was not a man.

The men made the rules in his society. They sat around on juries. They were at City Hall. They had contracts. They made deals and then told him when to work. They ran stores and then told him and his father when they could buy food and when they could eat and when they could celebrate and when they could protect their families and when they could do all of that type of stuff. So that's how manhood was taught to Southern Black men. Southern black men said no.

And they protected their families. They picked up their guns. They made great history. They planted. They farmed. They did all of this stuff. Black manhood was a defiance of something. Like a defiance of a social order that said that you are less than a man.

So guys like Malcolm X and guys like Dr. King who stood up and said, I'm a man. This is my family. This is my gun. This is this. that's why for me personally, as it was taught to me, asserting who you are and drawing a clear line means so much because anything less than that is seen as an act of cowardice

and an act of not just cultural traitorship or cultural cowardice or whatever, however you want to put it, but this intense failing of your family and who you are, right? Now, I get that and that exists. And that's why in a lot of places, not just where I'm from, being a man is more about what you won't do

than it is about what you will do. Right? It's about how they can't make you do something because it's reactive to what they've been trying to make you, do. Like come over here, boy. No, I won't come over there. I'm a man. I'm not a boy. Boy, do this. No, I won't do that. I'm a man. I'm not a boy. Boy, let me come over and fuck your wife. No, you can't take all of your shit. No, you can't take that. I'm a man, not a boy. It's a sort of reactive situation. So a lot of people look at that now in all of these places and these structures where white people run stuff. And we go, okay, well, you're a man.

based upon what you won't do, right, based upon what you won't give to someone, how you won't compromise yourself. That now has gotten messed up with sexual Congress as well, right? And so you think that white people who run all of these places are threatened by the assertion of your manhood. They're threatened by how you assert that. So they want to emasculate you by putting you in a dress, by saying, okay, well, you're telling me what you will and you won't do.

you're asserting your manhood, let me tell you what I can do. I can dangle this amount of money in your face, and I can put you in what I believe to be is a sign of a masculization, which is you being in a dress, a sign of femininity, should I say. I don't even know if that was word.

A sign of femininity, which is you getting an address. And if you get in that dress, right? If you get in that dress, if you choose to get in that dress, that's you acting to that. That's you saying, okay, well, everything else that everyone said, all the nose that they said,

that we could be looked at as men, they don't matter, because I'm saying yes to this. And if I know that you are trying to emasculate me and I do it anyway, I'm submitting to that. I'm saying that that's okay. And all of these things are being like worked out. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But there's like something that's missing there. The missing thing is, to me, us still centering what white people, what white Hollywood or what anyone would think about us as men before we do something.

A man, manhood to me, this is the last thing I say about it because I'm throwing it on, is not about what you won't do. It's about what you will do. Yeah. It's like it's not where you stick your dick, right? Be it in a woman or in a dress. It's about where you stick your heart.

Like, is your heart in your family? Is your heart in protecting your community? Is your heart in being of your word, being responsible? is your heart of building like blocks so that people know that they can rely on yourself. That's masculinity. That's the type of masculinity that my father, even in his flawed way, tried to teach me

and guys like Jason Wilson, who is a mentor of me, try to teach me now. It has nothing to do with that. If you want to wear a dress and you don't feel emasculated wearing the dress, then wear the dress. Right.

If it's funny, do it. If it works, do it. If it's a thing, do it. If you feel like they're trying to play with, play with you, don't do it. That's it. But I can tell you one thing, like setting up structures and hierarchies about who's more man based upon what we feel like they're willing to do or that they're not willing to do is exactly the way white people treat us.

Like, we learned that from them. We learned how to measure our manhood and redone. reduce ourselves to being less than men from white people. Like, they taught us how to do that. They taught us how to set up these little goals, right? And now we're doing the same thing. We're rebelling against each other, trying to set all of these standards.

I challenge everybody out there to give a fuck about your family and give a fuck about your community and give a fuck about the people around you and give a fuck about protecting the women in your community, protecting the children in the community, protecting yourself and your brothers. that's what makes a man. Stop talking about dresses.

Half the niggas I see commenting on this shit. I look around, y'all, look. You were doing so well. You were doing so well. I don't want to come down. Look. All right.

Let's just move on. That was great, though. That was great. I mean, so, so, like, I feel like you shut it down. We don't need to talk about this anymore. that really captured exactly what the issue is and can we move on from it. And your challenge to be to what it is to be a man.

This is what you need. Family, community, sense of self. Come on. Just that's it. Usher, let me ask you question. Usher, I'm sorry. I was about to go. I don't want to go off.

You know what I mean? No, no, don't. He was almost there. Some of these dudes is like, like, some of these dudes I see in the comments and they're like, man, I'll never wear just, I know you, dog. I know you. I was back at the crib and I lent your people money.

Like, I know you, nigger. Like, I know you. Also, people are like to say what they won't do until they get an opportunity to do it. Some of y'all, I know you ain't talking. I just had to check in on you. I know you. You wowing.

Why don't you go? Look, anyway. I'm not taking the person of just saying manhood. It's great. It's great. It's great. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Cream. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies.

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Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Usher. Did you see the vote cover? Yeah, I was confused when I saw it. What's you confused about? I saw the Usher cover and I was confused. I thought, is it a cover?

Is it like, is it a print cover? Is it a digital cover? There were so many people on it. Usher surrounded by children, I thought, is Usher a football coach? And we don't know. Does he coach one of his kids' teams? Who's the white lady in the picture?

Truly, these were all thoughts. And I thought, and because I was so confused by it, I just scrolled. I just scrolled by. I was like, not understanding what's going on, never seen a Vogue cover that looks like this before. Must not really be a cover. And I'm going to move on to other things. That was my first thought. You?

I don't know that much about Vogue. I don't know enough to be offended. I've never seen anything like that. I wasn't offended. I just, I understand it deeper now, but I kind of was like what's happening here, but I also did not care that much to really do the research to find out.

I thought, oh, I sure must coach a football team. That's cute. That's right on time for Super Bowl. That's really how I was thinking. So I guess on the cover. of this is it's Usher and he's wearing a willie shaborea jacket and pants can't even see the pants and model Carolyn Murphy wears a moo-moo-moo-mew jacket skirt. Mew-Mew.

Mew. Is that how you saying? Boo-Fi, moo-moo. Milk-fi, moo. Milk it, milk-it, milk-it, milk it. Milk it, milk it, milk it, milk it, milk it. God damn, we got to get Al on the podcast. Move, fine, move.

Mook it, milk it, milk it. He was around campus dressed up as a cow. Bro, hits from the streets was the funniest show on TV at a time. Amazing. Right. At one time, bro, I swear to this. At one time, hits from the streets was the funniest show on TV. Let me tell you something about Hollywood before we get back to Usher.

Al is a legitimate Al is a legitimate funny comic genius nigger like legitimately hilarious bro like legitimately hilarious He's got a great career but they're underusing him hits with the shit's hilarious

It was great It even got to me You know what I mean I didn't get to watch that much And I even knew about it Okay So he's on this cover with Carolyn Murphy. She's wearing a, what are you saying?

Mew, Mew. Mew. And they got kids on here. You got number 10, number 11. They're from the Junior Gales. And I know this team from somewhere. The, I know the, I know the Junior Gales. So Junior Gales is like a mini, bitty team.

Junior Gales football. It's in Las Vegas. Oh, yeah, Bishop Gorman. So Bishop Gorman is a big time high school out of Las Vegas Tate Martel went there, a bunch of people with it. He got some of Bishop Gorman. It's like one of the best schools. So look, people were mad.

They said not enough usher on this cover. My question is this. Why did Usher do the cover? Because it was Vogue. So if Usher's okay with the cover, then what the fuck we mad about? It's a good point, right? Usher obviously signed off on this, his team did.

He's also not going to say no to Vogue because it's Vogue and he's in that world and has never been on the cover of it and it's still considered an honor to be on the cover of Vogue. But I'm looking at number seven more than I'm looking at Usher. Usher is like the fourth thing that I see on this cover.

I see Usher. I see this kid number 16 in bare feet, and I'm wondering where his shoes are. I'm trying to figure out who the woman is. And then I'm like, oh, that's Usher. What it looks like really? It looks like this is their family. It looks like he made it with her.

And these are all the different versions of child that they have. It just, you know. The title says Usher's Super Bowl MVP. I just, they're children. Like, we're talking about Super Bowl, professional. It doesn't match up. I would love to talk to the person who had the concept for this and trying to understand it, because it makes absolutely no sense.

And most people don't know Junior Gales. Most people don't know what that is. I think people were just confused. Yeah, I mean, they have them featured all throughout here. and he's featured with her. I mean, some of these shots are fucking amazing. It's Usher and this black car outside Alliance Stadium,

Allegiant Stadium, where the Super Bowl's going to take place out there in Vegas, which is going to be a total shit show. So look, he's with her and all of these things, and they pointed out that there have been other stars like Harry Styles, people like that, that have done vote by themselves.

But apparently it's Usher and Carolyn Merci. Murphy. Are they in a relationship? No. They pointed out that this isn't the first time this has happened with a black man on the cover of Vogue. Right. Because they had LeBron James on the cover of Vogue too and he was attacking or something like that.

We was there on the phone. He had his arm around Giselle. And he was going, ah. And he was making a phase. And she was like, looked like a damsel in distress. And, you know, people were comparing it to other things. So, okay, so Vogue, not fucking with y'all.

not with. Vogue on fuck with you all like that. I mean, I think people were like, y'all aren't buying the magazine anyway. But I think it, listen, you could make the argument

in a lot of things. Why do you care? Vogue isn't fucking with you anyway, to use your words. But there is something to talk about if this is what Vogue does when it comes to, and I don't read it.

So I don't know if there have been just black men solo on the cover before that aren't models. this is what it seems like Vogue does with Black men. I wonder, has Kanye been on the cover of it, maybe with Kim. I would imagine Kanye's been on it because, I don't know, I might be miss speaking. But if this is a pattern, then this seems to be problematic for arguably one of the most coveted covers when it comes to entertainment is Vogue, the U.S. Vogue, and the fact that black men can't stand alone on it. It's a problem.

I'm looking at Lizzo on that bitch. It doesn't matter that you don't read it. It's that this is an influential magazine with very influential people behind it, and this is how they want to portray black men. That's why people get upset. I'm looking at it. So I'm seeing some black men on the cover of Vogue, man.

I'm seeing Will Smith was on that bitch. Oh, no, this is men's Vogue. I'm sorry. This is different. This is not the regular Vogue. LeBron was the first one to ever cover it in 2008. The first black man ever? First black man to appear on the cover of Vogue, U.S., LeBron James, and he had Jazeel.

And the way they portrayed him was in that way we just, we said. Yeah, I mean, look, if it's something to be concerned about, that it's something to be concerned about, I guess my thing is that I wonder why Usher wouldn't have been like, I mean, we're not talking about some, even LeBron, right? LeBron don't know shit about that, especially in 2008. LeBron was probably like, I'm down, you know? I don't know why I didn't feel that way, sound that way. But like Usher, I feel like Usher's at a point his career to where he would know whether or not he's being played, right?

I'm not trying to downplay this, but I was surprised that people cared so much, you know? Well, I think it's an interesting statistic. I mean, I didn't care before, but now I'm kind of like, wow, have, Black men really not been on the cover by themselves of Vogue? That's kind of interesting. Why not? Do better Vogue. You goddamn Vogueers over there.

I can't believe what you've done. I'm fucking mad. I can't believe what Vogue has done. Vogue, do better. What? Some people care. Okay. And it is probably.

it is problematic. I mean, okay, did you care before that the Bachelorette didn't have any black people that had been to lead? No, that now you do because we're family.

That's different though. That's different. Why? Because, and that's actually a good, a good point, but that's different because that's making it seem like

niggas don't love me. you know, you have, it's like, it's like, you go years and years and years and you got the foremost American show of love. And then you are, that's just not, not just for the fashion. The bachelor is supposed to be for the whole audience. And then it's like, we're not love. Like, I don't know who Mew is or I can understand. Because you're not in a fashion. Right.

So I'm saying it's like, it's different from the Bachelor, right? The Bachelor is a more widespread, wide marketed, big cultural entity than Vogue. Am I tripping? Maybe Vogue is bigger than the Bachelor. Yeah, Vogue is huge. Vogue has, like, everybody knows Vogue, I would think. Most people know that Vogue is a magazine. If not, there's a song, there's a dance move attached to it, whatever it is.

Vogue is a thing. And the fact that you're saying that, give that, Ashley, the fact that you're, saying that black men aren't fashionable enough, you know, classy enough, worthy enough to grace the cover of your magazine alone does say something when it's the most prestigious magazine in this country, in the world maybe. It says something. I get it. You've converted me. Fuck, Vogue. Fuck them.

Okay. That's the bottom line. you that there are multiple black people on this cover, though. It's a bunch. Might be the most black people that have ever. That's what Vos is going to say. This is the most, most diverse cover we've ever had. This is D-E-I right here.

Is somebody at Vogue right now going, these niggas will never be satisfied. We put niggers on the cover of Vogue and they told us it wasn't good enough. We didn't just put usher. We put all the little niggas and other little liggas. and other little biracials. We got everyone covered. This does look like

it looks like a fucking Target commercial on the cover of Vogue. That's exactly what it looks like. And just I just want to let everybody out there know we've talked about this before. Look, it's okay. Just put some black motherfuckers in the commercial name. It's really all right.

I guarantee you black families get up and go to Target together. But every target commercial is a black man. a white woman and three little curly head niggas going to Target I gotta watch you don't see the

there's a biracial agenda there's a biracial agenda and it's fine shout out to all the biratials out there we fucking with y'all I already told y'all we fucking with y'all

you're fucking with us but I watched the Target commercial I'm like man can foe niggas go to Target I'm just being for real I'm just saying I watch the Target commercials and all of these commercials

and I'm like, can a black family can foe niggas wash their clothes? Can foe niggas use for brews? Because they put it all together in this one specific way it's like, like, hey, black, white,

all together, and then we all eat Jimmy Dean's sausages together. I'm like, yo, man, can fuck? Niggas eat Jimmy T's There's no way you watch this many commercials. I don't believe you.

I'm going to start watching now. There are people are going to watch this. People are going to watch this and be like, yeah, every commercial is like a nice, biracial family going to McDonald's. My question is, can foe niggers go to McDonald's together?

That's it. I know it's all black families that fucking go to Target. I guess they're trying to show we're all getting a long. Lank. Whatever, bro. It's great.

I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it, man. But can foe niggas? Go to Lowe's. All right. D.I.

Way into the topic. Fail. Go for it. Dei. Let's go. Florida said, fuck it. Florida State Board of Education passers rule to permanently prohibit,

permanently prohibit D.EI and public colleges. Florida State Board of Education announced Wednesday that they have implemented strict regulations to limit the use of public funds for diversity inclusion, diversity equity inclusion, shall I say, programs, activities and policies at the 28th state college campuses. The board said the rule prohibition, prohibits Florida college system institutions from using federal state funds to administer programs that categorize individuals based on race, sex, or for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment.

Ben Crock weighed in on this. We continue to go down a misguided path of censorship in Florida, because in addition to the passage of the new rule, they also replaced the course of principles and sociology. the course in American history. And of course, we know what the educational guidelines down there in Florida are light now and the way that they'll be teaching this history in a whitewashed and inaccurate way. Are you waiting?

Are you done? Are you frozen? I was like, what's happening? Listen, I'm so sick of this. I'm so sick of talking about it. I'm so sick of a new story coming out, whether it's Florida, whether it's Texas, or one of them states in between. I am so sick of us not just rewriting history, but actually redefining words and initiatives all in the name of self-preservation. Obviously, there's a need for DEI.

And for some reason, we want to change what the word diversity, equity, inclusion mean. And for some reason, they want to say that that means, well, not for some reason. said it for self-preservation. They, as statistics come out, I think we've talked about it on this podcast, specifically in Texas, white people are not the majority anymore. And so we're continuing to see them grasp at straws and try to reinvent things or redefine things in order to keep themselves at the top of the food chain, to keep themselves at the top of the social caste system, of the hierarchy, whatever it may be.

DEI is obviously important. I don't even need to go through it and explain all of it. We get it. They're trying to teach the world through a single lens to students when that's not what this country looks like. That's not what these colleges are made of. And that's exactly what they're trying to create. I am so sick of it.

I am so tired of it. But I know we have to talk about it because it's continuing to happen as they're getting rid of these programs, as they first got rid of funding, and now they're getting rid of these programs. I mean, I don't know. I'm just about, DEI is rooted in the Equal Pay Act. It's rooted in the Civil Rights Act. It's rooted in the Anti-Discrimination Act. It's not just about race. It's about gender. It's about religion. It's about disabilities. It's about so much more than just race. And that's what they're trying to define this as. And it's just frustrating that you have to remind people of what words and initiatives are

because you have people out here who are willing to lie and then you have other people that are backing it up and implementing it into law. I guess my question is with an issue that's the ideological divide is this deep. What's the best way to go about fighting you? Because

I mean, getting in the weeds of the PEO, I think. deep deep and there are some voices that are anti-D-EI that you would think are people that are around the edges of the ACLU or other individual other you don't like the ACLU? Well, I'm just saying they do some things that cause people to raise eyebrows from time to time. So that's not shocking to the ACLU. people in the ACLU. Not necessarily people in the ACLU, people who are formerly affiliated with them, people at other free speech and free expression organizations that, you know, have big problems with the DEI, particularly on college campuses and things like that. And there's nothing

that's particularly compelling to me. I don't mean, I don't look at it like there's anything compelling. But I do want to be able to fight this particular battle in a very direct and detailed way. And I'm looking for the way to do that because from where I sit, from where I sit, it's black people, women back. Black people, women, gay people back. Okay? We don't want anything that includes them, but we don't want America to have to see them.

So what we'll do is make them political punching back and show everybody else in America, particularly candidates like Ron DeSantis who want to make these gigantic national pushes for power. Hey, we'll show you.

show you that we're against these people taking over America by kicking the eye and the ass every place that we can. I do feel like different than CRT, though, and a couple of other things that they've used as this particular type of cudgel. This one is a lot more pernicious. Not a lot more pernicious because, you know, when you're in the middle of the CRT fighter, you're in the middle of talking about America's history, be it, 1619 project or anything else

that leads to what mindsets and things like that but you know you have people now that are really leveling some outrageous claims and planning upon the

base instincts and fears of Americans saying that planes are going to crash out of the sky because black women are piloting them and saying that every single aspect of your life will be worse because of diversity and inclusion, which gets back to this really

underlying thought that the only way that America can work is if it's in the hands of straight white men, which is at the base of white supremacy and a lot of economic and economic, physical, and emotional violence that people will be on the other end of.

if you think your life is on the line when you walk on the plane and your pilot is black, some of these people, the reactions that you're going to have, the what it might make you think or say or do, you know what I mean? So, I mean, there's got to be a direct intellectual way to fight this. But, but that's the thing.

You want an intellectual way to fight something that's not intellectual. They're literally changing the definitions and the meanings and the history of words and initiatives or just factual things that happen. CRT did only exist in higher, in like college and beyond. Yeah, college and beyond. They were talking about something that they didn't even need to get rid of. DEI gets rid of programs. It gets rid of teachings. It gets rid of jobs. People are losing their jobs because of this. Their well-being. It's actually, that's why they moved to DEI because CRT wasn't doing anything. It's just something that they just pushed out there that was a talking point. It had no actual effects. This does. I mean, within what Florida is doing with

this, they also replace principles of sociology with American history. Sociology 101. I looked up the syllabus of this and they're telling people, oh, it's teaching them woke ideas. I looked up the University of Florida's um object that course objectives for this and it's all about just teaching concepts and theories and methods that sociologists use it is social and behavioral science courses to in history principles terminology underlying theory or method methodologies cannot speak use used in the social and behavioral sciences

It has nothing to do with it's specific to be to race to gender. And that's what they're lying to people so with. So it's it's hard when you say what are you specifically, you want an intellectual argument for something that's not logical. How do you combat that? And the people who choose to believe that don't care. And in addition to that, I will say, it's not like DeSantis is just up there spewing these things out.

He's got a whole Congress state legislature behind him that's supporting it, that's passing these things, that's taking away funding and changing laws, putting bills up, changing the law to rewrite it in a certain way. That's the issue. If he alone was just saying it, it wouldn't have any effect. He's actually getting the government to pass laws to put it into effect. By the way, I don't think I'm out of the woods yet.

I think I can see a faint line here at the bottom of my test. How long have you been, Van, put it up to the camera. I think I can. Other way. Okay, put it down. I don't see anything. Like, hold on, let me see you. I don't.

No. But you're not out of the woods. You're going to rest. And the fact that we've been podcasting for an hour and you're still staring at that thing. I think it's a faint line. I'll be honest with you. It's good. Guys looks like Monday.

We will not be in person. I'm not really. risking it. I'm not risking it. We'll see. We'll see because it's Thursday now. So if I can test, if I can test negative Saturday and Sunday, we got to take a chance. You know what I mean? We got to do it. I'm not, I'm out of the contagion stage. I'm just going to come in with a mask on. It's fine. I got you. Um, no, but you're making sense. I still want to be able to to maybe parse this apart a little bit more. Doing a little bit more. It would be nice, right? DEI situation because the

obviously we could talk about this to we're blowing the face. No, DEI is now becoming a, like I said, it's a mascot. It's a mascot. It's another mascot. Another one. That's the right. And not the far right, guys, the right. Stop saying the far right.

There's no such thing as the far right now. All right. It's the right. The right is using DEI as a mascot to scare Americans into believing that as soon as the Mongols get control of the country that it's going to be run into the ground. I mean, that's what they say.

The Mongols. I mean, we're the Mongols. Speaking of the Mongols, the Dallas Cowboys have announced that they are retaining Mike McCarthy the 2024. The coach, they can't do a fucking thing, correct, it seems like.

They're retaining him. Rachel, what do you think? I'm obviously upset. for a number of reasons. Mike McCarthy was brought in because, even though he went to one Super Bowl with the Packers, he is this offensive mind, he's a play caller,

and he was supposed to take the Cowboys to New Heights. He didn't even inherit, inherit, a bad team. If anything, Mike McCarthy has shown us mediocrity. Yes, we're winning 12 games, but we go no one. when we step into the playoffs, which is what's important. And it doesn't matter if we win 12 games when in history there have been teams that have

won less games, have worse records and make it to the Super Bowl and sometimes win the Super Bowl. So the fact that we have this winning season, or we've had seasons where we've, that with records that emulate what we did in the 90s, in the 90s we were actually getting somewhere. We fired Kellyn Moore because he was supposed to be this offensive genius and he couldn't take us anywhere. So we bring in Mike McCarthy to lead him, then we fire him, Kellermore. Mike McCarthy is doing the play calling and we're exactly where we were before. And I just don't understand, especially in this class right now of coaches that are available,

whether it be collegiate or professional, we actually have people to pick from and to entertain bringing in somebody else. When Mike McCarthy has shown us that he's just not capable of doing that, I think that's why we're so upset because it's like, like you have options, better options that you had last year. What are we waiting for? What did Mike McCarthy go into that meeting and say where you said, you know what, we're going to give him one more try. Majority of our team was healthy. We have a stacked team and the fact that we still couldn't make it happen.

And we lost to the Packers who got better the second half of their season, who had a very young team and a very very, and a very, young quarterback and they get there and they embarrass us on this huge stage just to me was all the reason that we needed to let McCarthy go. He's still there. I said my piece, the last podcast. It doesn't even matter to me. Doesn't even matter. Keep McCarthy. Oh. Keep McCarthy. Take them. I'm tired. Would you have, would you have preferred a specific coach? Was there a specific coach that you wanted? I don't know. Like, do, do you? Do you have, like, There's, like, Belichick is doing interviews, right?

He would not fit in. He and Jerry are not going to get along. That's the thing. Who's going to get along with Jerry? I don't know. What about Jim Harba? I don't think he'd get along. I don't think so.

And I don't think he's, I don't, I think he's going to stay at Michigan. I doubt it. You think he's going to go? Yeah, I think it's done. I only say that because he's done it before. And then he went back. And so I'm like, oh, maybe he's just going to stay in college. He's won.

He's brought Michigan their first solo national championship since fucking World War II type era. And I think he wants to win a Super Bowl. I think he wants to. At his heart, he's a great coach. At his heart, he's an NFL guy. He's a lot. Well, listen, if he goes to the NFL and it doesn't work out for him again, colleges will take him right back.

I just, I don't. I don't know. I just know we don't need Mike McCarthy. There's got to be some changes. It can't be. I mean, this is this last year. But you know what?

I said that last year too. I was like, if he doesn't produce, this is it. You would think that he's pre-fired. But I can tell you one thing. I was ecstatic to see this. Of course you were.

Because it only upset the fan base and that's what you relish in. I spent so much time on Cowboys message boards the last couple of days. The meltdown is fucking fantastic. Let me tell you guys something. You guys might wonder why I'm against the Cowboys. I'm against the Cowboys.

Rachel is the quintessential Cowboys fan. You're a troll. I told Rachel this team would flame out. And she refused even in the face of overwhelming evidence. And the Cowboys appear like this in the 90s. You guys, if you were around in 94, 95, 93, 96, just these people. and suffrable. Just throwing

fucking Emmitt Smith in your face. God damn Nate Newton. I love Nathan. You know what I'm saying? Like just all kinds and just throwing these people

in your fucking face. Jay fucking Novichick. Did he even play for them? Yeah, Jay Novichick. He was with the team. Darryl Moush Johnson. Oh, we got the best line.

But you know. us. But you know us. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I know fucking Darren Woodson, the fucking guy with the hooks on his fingers that they act like he can catch the ball easier. He was a Super Bowl MVP. Never heard of the nigga again. He picked off Neil O'Donnell twice. All you just, cowboys, cowboys, cowboys. And then, of course, when Prime got there, then just took it up to another fucking level of the dick sweating that happened to the cowboys. And since then, the cowboys have been out. ass.

They haven't been able to do anything since Tupac's high. Yet every single year that you're telling us it's going to be different when they keep doing the same shit. We're positive change.

We're optimistic. That's what that is. And we just want every year to be our year. And people like you, trolls like you, all you do is feed the fire. Wow.

And you, And you give us, you might make me come back. But honestly, I don't want to talk Cowboys until January 2025. Oh. I really don't. All the next season, no Cowboys stop. Mm-mm. It doesn't mean anything.

We can go undefeated. It doesn't mean a thing. It doesn't mean anything. We still got to get to the playoffs. Because before it was like, can we get, we're not getting to the playoffs. All right, we get to the playoffs. First round. WallCard.

I think it's a favorite. Win the NFC East? Who cares? Doesn't matter. Okay. Fuck the comments. We got to move on to something else that's a tough topic. We weren't able to cover it here on the podcast.

But there was a woman in Houston. Her name is Roda Osmond, who some months ago, very famously on social media claimed that she was hit in the head with a brick. September 3rd,

she initially claimed that a man attacked her with a brick because she refused to give him her number. All right. Before we get into anything around this,

we're going to play the audio from that as it was posted on Instagram, TikTok and other social media places. Ashley, go ahead and run that for us. Yo, this man just hit me in my face with a brick and all these black men just watch.

And they don't give them. Yeah, this man hit me. Grab the rock and it hit me in my face because I would have given my number. And all y'all just watch. What are you on? You don't see it. What are you on?

What do you want to be a man? I would try to be a man. You can do something. Y'all gonna let a man hit me in my face. That's all you. I'm really like don't understand. Like, I'm just trying to take my friend out from five years ago. Like, literally spending my home buddy, not bothering nobody.

Like, what the fuck I this? I'm in the pocket of just trying to buy some food. And like, I'm literally like, why is this fucking bust it up on me like this? And I'm looking at all these. They literally let this do all of this. They let the like really like do all of that. I never thought it was going to happen, yo. Like it's so wild.

And he's going to get away with it. He got in the car. He got away. He's never going to get caught. He's going to move on. He's probably at an after party right now having a good time. Do you feel good about yourself doing this to a woman? For what?

Like all this violence against black woman is not okay. Like what do I do to deserve this? like, what is my defense against this? So that was her claim that time. She also told officers that she had ordered an Uber and believed that the person who threw through the book, the brick at her hit her with the brick, was an Uber driver.

She said she got to the car with him, but he then tried to kidnap her according to documents. She said the suspect was involved in human trafficking and had a large group of women in the car with him. On September 4th, the day after the assault was reported, Gofummi was created and listed her as the beneficiary. The page read, Woman gets hospitalized after allegedly being hit in the face with a brick.

By man, she refused to give her number. The alleged incident happened in Houston. She says she was surrounded by men who did absolutely nothing. She says the man got in the car and left the scene after assaulting her as afraid that he would get caught. That Gofumme ended up getting frozen after several. Donors reported it as fraudulent. Okay, so let's stop right there for a second. This immediately became gender wars 101.

And you would imagine that it would. You have a woman making a claim of assault and violence against a man. And then you have bad actors, misogynist and sexes, who are saying that this never happened. There were guys, myself, my son, other people that admonished these men for saying, hey, why would you say that this woman is lying about being hitting the head with a brick

where she's got a big fucking bruise on her face and there seems to be something that happened to you. Why would she lie about that? Why would that be something that didn't happen to her? We were on break, I think, when this all went down. You might have been out of the country or maybe I was on vacation or something I can't remember. Yeah.

But did you hear about the story when it initially happened and stuff? Yes. But I feel like I heard not when it went viral that it happened. It was the stuff that came later that I think that it crossed my attention. Because, yes, when this happened, first week of September, I was on vacation and I was anti-all social media. So I saw the aftermath of it all. Right.

So there was an investigation followings. And just to not bear the lead here in this investigation, she has not been charged. She has not been charged with making this up. Thiefed by deception. Thief by deception. What does that really mean? Death by deception.

Okay. It says it's a form of theft that involves acquiring someone's property through fraudulent means, deceit, or misrepresentation. So it's in reference to the GoFunding. So, example, I say that I'm stricken with some disease. I raise money on behalf of my treatment and then it's found out I don't have that disease. Correct. That's theft by deception.

You can't do that. That's absolutely. Okay. So there was an investigation after this. And in the investigation, detectives say that they received a call from someone. And we should say that there are people that on the internet who, like TikTok, One woman named Daphne Sutton, who's a TikToker, who looked into this and started, like, parsing through it and saying,

I don't think that this happened the way that she said that happened. She put out a very, very, very viral TikTok where she went through all of Ms. Osmond's past, tried to bring up other instances where she had done similar things and tried to poke holes in this case. This is while the argument, is raging on social media about whether or not this happened, about black men's responsibility to defend and protect black women in potentially violent situations.

And it all gets back down to the fact that there just seems to be this simmering lack of trust among certain parts of the community. Trust that we won't do violence against our sisters, which we fail at all the time. Trust that we won't make false accusations against other black men that didn't have anything to do with things. Just an insane lack of trust. And incidences like this always like bubble that up to the top.

Daphne Sutton, who is white, like I say, mental health advocate, brawagher, and TikTok, she thought that she was conducting a scam. So she went to the police. She went to the police. She provided detectives with another GoFummi account that was created by or four awesome in 2020

with the same narrative of a black man hitting her. Detectives then reached out to Minneapolis police to ask about the GoFundMe, which said, help black Muslim mother to pay her medical bills.

Description read a young black Muslim single mother was viciously assaulted by private security in Minneapolis sustained emotional, facial contusions, a black eye and injuries

to her leg. She needs an estimated $5,000 to pay for medical bills. Detectives then lost it. investigation in which different parts of this story were seen not to be true. Now, I'm going to read from a couple of different articles that have been made about this.

One is from Click to Houston, and it says that this is with the prosecutor on this story. The question from Click to Houston is this. Did any of the evidence verify what Osmond claimed happened to him? Prosecutor says, no, that was not verified by any of the evidence we looked at. We were able to find video of the defendant and another person who we believed was the accused assaulter. They got into a car. They both got out of the car. The defendant then slapped the mail.

So according to what's on video, she slapped this gentleman who then responded by slapping her back. He did have a water bottle in his hand. And we think that's what left the mark on her face. But it was mutual combat. This is what the Houston prosecutor said. What role did the fact that this incident went viral on social media playing to the investigation tips that played a very big part into this? And what I understand, even before the detective had come to me, people were already reporting the GoFund me that was a fraud. And they suspected it to be a fraud.

I don't know when they froze it. But it was before I contacted, I was contacted in November and the donation was frozen for a long time. And they didn't ask, has she been accused of something like this before? Yes, somebody who saw the story, contacted the police. least here and informed them that she had done the exact same thing in Minnesota in 2020. So there's also another article about this where someone who was with her tells a different accounting of the story as well. I want to read all of this stuff just because you have to be incredibly, incredibly careful with what it is that we're talking about. Rates, before I go on,

do you have anything to say while I'm looking for this? No, no, no, no. I mean, I will say that I did not realize that I read the click to Houston article and maybe I read a different one, but I did not realize that she assaulted him to. You didn't realize that that's why they ruled it, I guess, not assault because I guess they ruled it. I thought that he did hit her. I read the hitting her with the water bottle, but I did not read the part that she hit him first. Well, I'll say that the first article was just sort of the rundown of everything that had happened, right? Right.

And there was a witness statement in there, too. I'm about to go into that too. The second one was the interview with the prosecutor, which I think they might have put out because there was so much uncertainty about the first one. So I'll just read a little bit more into this. The follow-up investigation begins. and detectives try to reach out to Osmond, but she provides her friends now. Her friend was also at the scene when all of this happened. The friend said she was not from Houston,

went out several places to drink with Osman, and she said that Osmond reportedly called her male friends to come pick them up. When the men arrived, Osman and the friend got into their vehicle, which was a dark-colored sedan. The woman told investigators that she got into the right front passenger seat, and Osmond was in the backseat with another man. As they were driving, she reportedly heard the man's reportedly heard Osmond say,

Ouch, why you hit me. But stated that she did not hear an argument before she heard Osmond yell. The friend said off the record, she did not believe Osmond was hit with the brick according to the charging documents. She said that a friend told detectives, the suspect who allegedly assaulted Osmond got out of their vehicle, got into another vehicle, and drove off. She said Osman was live on Instagram and that she tried to convince her to call the police. she gave a

statement to detectives saying all of this but saying that she would not be able to possibly identify the suspect The other man And then they got surveillance video And so on September 20th Houston police canvassed the area Of the assault that spotted surveillance cameras

On the 5,600 block Of Schumacher Before I should say this They talked to Osmond that she changed her story a couple of times. She changed her story to say that she was assaulted at the liquor lounge club. She changed what she was assaulted with. She was asked where her friend was at the time.

She got upset and she didn't want to talk to the police. This is what the police were saying. Once again, I'm not saying put all your trust into the police and all that. I'm saying she changed her story a couple of times. She asked to speak to the supervisor of the detective. Surveillance video shows that Douglas and Osmond, her friend, were talking amongst each other and walking towards

TikTok lounge, 5600 block of Schumacher. About 20 minutes later, the video shows the trio walk outside the club. They had gone inside the club together. Then they walked towards a white mazorati that was parked directly on the side of the business. Douglas was seen leaning on the front right passenger door while Osmond walked towards him. According to the documents, the surveillance footage shows

that Osmond started dancing on Douglas while her friend was in front of the vehicle talking to another man. Then they get inside the Maserati. They get inside the Maserati. They get out. And then I guess the rest of the surveillance video shows what we then saw after that.

And that's the article I read. And that article says that he hit her first? No. The other article with the prosecution. Okay, that's the one I read. Yeah. Right. Okay.

The other article. article with the prosecutor. The prosecutor that article that they talked to says that she was shown smacking him and then he had her back.

He hit her back. And then that's the whole deal. Okay. That's an artful and staccato accounting of what has happened here. I think you should also say that she's being, because she's being

charged with theft by deception. And that is based off the GoFundMe. I don't know if you said this, but the GoFundMe has an account that of what happened that evening that was not the same as what the surveillance cameras show, which is all this charge. If she didn't start to GoFundMe, then how can she be charged? It's my question as well. I think there's two parts to this. There's the assault. And then there's the felony that she is being charged with because of the amount of money that was received through that GoFundMe, which is a third degree felony. And I think you can be in jail for two, yeah, two to ten years, possibly if they move forward

with this. That's my thing. She didn't create it. She's saying she did not create it. Now, again, I'm going to take her out of word. She's saying she didn't create it. And she also said she has not received one cent from it. Hmm.

The only reason why I'm bringing it up is because it's relevant being based upon what the prosecutor said. In this article, it also states that she does have a criminal history. And honestly, it's a violent. Just honestly, she's on bail right now for a separate defense from September 22nd, 2023, felony assault and domestic violence. She was charged with, she had also been charged with two counts of misdemeanor domestic violence and still counting Minnesota. So there had been a violent past, I guess.

guess from her before, she had had some other charges in the Virgin Islands, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hennepin County, Minnesota, Williamson County, Texas, Travis County, Texas. And I guess they are asking the court to enter a $50,000 bail on the theft by deception charge that she now faces here. So that's all the information, just a spill of information that we have. So a couple of things. this is obviously being valid about like a football. She's thrown all around. This first happened. I was aghast and appalled at how many of you out there

did not believe this woman's story. Faces swole up. She's hit by a brick. I don't understand why you wouldn't believe that she was hit by brick. Do you think that men don't hit women with bricks? Do you think that men don't hit women? What is there not to be? we literally covered a story

where a man attacked a woman in a restaurant and her son then went out and got a gun and shot him. We've talked about this happens more than we would it shouldn't happen at all but more than it definitely

it should. It happens all the fucking time. Yeah. Okay. Happens all the time. I do feel like I was wrong here for defending that. But how would you

but do you, okay. Now you feel like that. But in the moment, do you regret? Do you feel like, let me ask you this, do you feel like you should have waited till it all came out? Or are you okay with how you handled it in the moment when the information came?

No, I'll do it again next time. But I think it's important to, yeah, I mean, of course I'm like, you know, like, look, let me break down believe all women as I understand it. Believe all women is, once again, we talk about things that are, you know, reactionary. And believe all women to me is a reactionary notion that has a hell of a lot of intellectual credence.

It's a reactionary notion to a point where women weren't believed. It's like Black Lives Matter. Obviously, Black Lives Matter is not this statement about other people's lives. it's a reactionary statement to a country in a situation and a condition where our lives don't matter. So believe all women, to me, it's challenging the notions, it's challenging the notion of bitches be lying.

It's a direct challenge to that notion. It's not something to be taken as gospel, meaning no matter what, believe all women. It doesn't say no matter what believe women. It says believe women. Yeah. To me, that is in direct conflict. it's a reaction to

bitches be lying. Bitches lie. Which is what people say. That doesn't mean that there are no shades to it. Right? I feel like the way

she put this out here was intellectually untrue. Number one, she was involved in mutual combat where she hit somebody. Now, if you hit Van Lathen, who is me, the fat nigga on the other side of this, Mike, you're going to get a smile

back. If you're a woman and you hit me, I'm probably going to laugh. Now, if you got a knife or something, I'm probably going to get on my horse. I'm out of here, but you don't have to worry about a situation where I ball my fucking fist up and punch a woman in the face. That ain't happened. I mean, it would have to be a significant attack. I'd have to be, it'd have to be something coming, you know, maybe if I'm, you know, like fucking Cynthia Rothrock. If your life, if your life is being threatened or something in some way, okay. Yeah. But you slapped me. I'm not coming back with a right cross. But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not these niggas.

And these niggas will give you the fight that you're looking for. So if she was wondering why nobody stepped in, it might have been because they saw her hit him. And the way that black men were specifically indicted in this situation, the way that they were specifically indicted by someone who seemed, seems to be nothing about this is certain yet. Nothing. These are, these are just more allegations. But if you were to believe all of this information, right, someone who seems to be either somebody incapable of recollecting this in an authentic way or somebody whose emotions got the better

of them and just kind of started saying stuff, I think that is unfair. I think it's dangerous. And I think that honestly, it deserves to be talked about in a way that is very serious. It deserves to be talked about in a way that says, hey, we have to be a little bit better than this when we're talking about these things. If you're specifically going to say, black men did this to me or didn't stop this from being done to me, when these guys might have seen you with someone, might have seen you hit somebody, and might have been. oh my God, that's a couple fighting. Would I still get involved? Yeah. Hey, bro.

Damn, what's up with you? Like the whole deal. But it seems to be, at least to me, a wholly different situation than the one that was laid out by her. No, for sure. And obviously, like I said before, there was drinking going on. And so it's hard for me to even form an opinion based on it because her recollection isn't doesn't match several different accounts and we haven't really heard from the other people involved.

What we do know is that there is surveillance that shows her hitting him and him and her. Now, I'm still totally against the... According to the prosecutor. According to the prosecutor. Correct. But I would imagine that they're, especially because the first article I read

didn't even say all that. And then it's come out that they're, you know, because they don't have to tell everybody the evidence they have. And I'm sure because of the backlash they are while they're not charging this man who they have now named with assault, it must be because of some type of evidence that they have that goes against that. But I still have a huge problem with the fact, whether she remembers it or not,

whether she, he did ask for her number or she got upset in the car. We didn't even know what happened inside of the car. Like there could have been, there could have been a reason she was upset and she slapped him. She hit him. He could have forced himself on her in the car. We have no idea. So it's hard to form an appearance. about it because there's so much speculation surrounding it. But what we do know, if the, based on

surveillance, is that she hit him and then he hit her. I still have a problem with it. No, nobody should put their hands on anybody like in, you know, I mean certain instances call for it, but nobody just really put their hands on anybody. The fact that she hit him as a woman and then he comes back, not only hits her, but hits her with an object in his hand. So he's not only using the force where he's stronger than her. He is aiding that force with something hard in his hand that gave her this

huge mark. To me there should be some type of charge because he used it's like if she slapped, if she slapped him and he stabbed her, you're telling me you're not going to charge him because he because she hit him first. Depends on where you are.

He used greater force than was necessary in my opinion. This is just me. This is maybe where the gender wars comes out. I think that there should be, I'm sorry. Okay, let me ask you this. You wouldn't hit her back. Why? Because I'm too strong.

Thank you. You just proven my point. You know that. No, I'm proving the point that I think that this is the point that I'm proven. So hitting women is a non-starter for me. It is. It is. It's a non-starter for me.

Now, by the letter of the law, if you enter into combat with someone, I guess it's just being... You can't use stronger... You can't use, again, if somebody pushes you, you can't shoot them.

Right. Unless... But that's not what happened. He hit her back. He hit her with something. Yeah, okay. He hit her back with something. So what I'm saying...

So would you feel different if it was a brick? If I felt like a brick is a deadly option. And so to me, if they're saying that it was a water bottle, I don't know the determination that they made. I will be interested to talk to them. Their determination that they made. By the way, this is not me in any way saying

that it's appropriate to hit a woman back when she hit you. This is me saying, though, and I want everybody to understand this. We don't know what happened inside the car. We don't know what happened inside the car, right? We do know if this were a man that he had the history of violence that she had, that we'll be saying,

hey, he probably flew off the handle and did something violent because we've seen him do it before. Right? Okay. This is what I'm saying. And this is to people. If you do not want violence done to you,

if you do not want violence done to you, if you don't want to invite a violent situation, do not. Yeah, she did. She hit him. Okay, keep going. Wait, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on, wait a second.

Wait a second. She hit him. Like, it's not an invitation to me. Right. It's not an invitation to Van Lathen. Van Lathen, Jr. is not going to hit you. And Van Lathen Jr.'s, nephews aren't going to hit you. And Van Lathen Jr., I mean, there are other people.

And you're not because you know you're stronger. You know you could do more damage. You know you could hit her. She could fall on the ground, bust her. head and it could result in death. Right, but. I'm not agreeing with the fact that she hit him. Just saying that there should be a...

But just in reality, she invited a violent situation. Is that fair to say? She's an adult human being, right? She invited a violent, if true, she invited a violent situation. If true, and assuming that there wasn't a prior situation that happened inside that car, because we don't even know why she slapped him. Okay, so if he, if he, if he, in the car, if he, I don't know, said something to her, if he touched her, if he did anything,

the slap was punitive because it was outside of the car. Right. So she's trying to get her shit back. For his shit, he's in front of her. She slaps him. He's like, I don't want to get slapped again. So now we fight. Now, I'm not blaming her.

Sometimes niggas need to get slapped. If you said something to her, if you rubbed up against it the wrong way or whatever, sometimes people need to get slapped. But if you slap somebody, you're inviting a violent situation. Fine. And so if you invite a violent situation and then you get hit back, it's kind of a situation to where you're being disingenuous by saying, I got hit back, why didn't anybody help me? She probably thought he wasn't going to hit him back. I mean, he should have.

She probably thought, like, I guarantee you she did not think he was going to hit her back. He should do. He should not have hit her back. But, like, my thing here is, like, she was hit. Everybody out there right now that's saying she made this whole thing up, that she had an allergic reaction, that she injected something into her face. I talked to a friend of mine earlier today, Melanie, and Melanie was like, Van. the post that you put up about this was irresponsible because it makes it seem like, call me out.

Like the post that you put up was irresponsible because it makes it seem like she made the entire thing up but she actually was hit. She was hit, but it's alive by omission because so many of the facts, either she couldn't clearly recollect or she didn't articulate. And we have to be able to have a conversation about that, especially when all of this shit is ammunition now.

What was your caption? My caption was, yeah, so, and then I put the first graph of the article in me. I put the first couple of graphs of the article in there. The fact that she had actually been arrested. And remember, when this lady was making these TikToks, I did not put these ladies' TikToks up because I'm not, people are sending me this whole thing.

I posted this on the internet. Y'all should be ashamed of yourself. with the whole nine, the entire thing. I did not post any of those TikToks. Those TikToks is just somebody talking shit. But when an investigation was done and it was thorough enough for somebody to come back and be like,

yo, we think that there's parts of this story that are left out. You know what I'm saying? And when the term black men gets used in there, hey, black men didn't do anything when I just got hit, when you basically absolve yourself

from any responsibility from the violent situation that it seems like you put yourself in, and then you say black men didn't do anything while this was happening. Like, look, I got to be honest with you guys. I'm sorry, I am black men. I have no problem being introspective and blaming us for what we need to be blamed for and holding us to our feet to the fire for how we need to be better and how we need to change.

I have absolutely zero problem doing that. At the same time, though, I'm going to need this accountability to go both ways. Like, I'm going to need this accountability to be something holistic that we can all do. And we have to all admit that sometimes the trauma gets involved in ways that aren't helpful or healthy to all of us. It can't just be on one side of it. And if this situation, if we're talking about the way black people treat each other and she hauled off and hit him, first of all, she knew her attacker. We should say this.

She, for her to say that somebody did all of this stuff to make it seem random in a way that it wasn't, she knew her attack her. Like she knew who hit her with the thing. And so not only is it black men didn't help me, it's kind of this amorphous black sort of archetype that did it. And we all know who he is. A black man hit you. And these other guys saw what went on.

And they're like, what's the deal? There's more to it. Yes, you are triggered by the fact that she said. Black men did it. It was the black men comment that really got you. Nah, at first it was a black man comment that to me was about accountability because I'm asking. Now, inside that thing in Chicago, I wouldn't have had that old black man jump into that. I wouldn't have him jump in. You're not going to have my grandfather. My grandfather, 90 years old. My pa-paw see two people getting down in the motherfucking rib spot.

Nigel walk out. Chill out. It's not as fight. It's not as fight. And I agree with that. That would not be the fight. Nigel walk out. You did your time. I want my papa fighting there. Like, you know what I'm saying? You're a nigga here. Yeah. You know.

But in this case, if I'm going to be, if I'm going to be critical with black men, which I'm going to have to be. But remember, I am of them. So I have to be critical and I also have to be viable.

That means there has to be some talk about the accountability of this. You know what I thought you were going to say? That means, bitches be lying. Nah, man. you were going to say. Nah, we ain't with the bitches, be lying.

Nah, we can't. I know you're not. Good. Well, enough of that story. If we can do information, I don't care. You don't care about the story. But she shouldn't be charged. At the moment from what we know,

she shouldn't be charged with a felony for this. I mean, if she gets the money, because I'm not convinced that she had her friend started, especially if she really does have a history of making accusations, and starting a go fund me, then she's fully aware that she should probably

have somebody else started for her. The moment the money drops in her account, if it ever does, then maybe I see something, but otherwise, like, give the money back,

don't charge her yet. She'd go to jail for 10 years for this. I don't think it's worth all of that. I don't think it's worth, I don't like... She shouldn't get the $42,000. I know that.

I don't think she got it. I don't think she ever got it. She said she hasn't. But if one thing's come out from this story, there have been like her account necessarily was not

what the evidence shows all right I do want to say this before you move up this is a situation where a woman was hit by man and anytime there's a situation where a woman is hit by man we should sit down and we should talk about

what that means and why we should think more of our women than to hit them and why we should be able to understand like I'm not This is the topic. I'm not trying to equate women of children. I've told you this before.

I was on a basketball court one time, like into it with a 15, 16 year old kid, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. And going back and forth and he's getting mad. I'm like, all right, son. All right. Calm down.

Okay? Uh-huh. All right, son. Calm down. Calm down there, boy. Calm down. And he wouldn't come down. He threw the ball at me.

So it threw it. threw the ball at me, so I grabbed him and put him on the ground and sat on him until his dad came. I say, hey, man. And his dad, thank you. Is that? Because I'm, since that all the time, I'm like, hey, look, he just, because I thought I was going to have to go with pops. I'm like, hey, threw ball him in the face, blah, blah, blah. I'm looking at somebody right there who's not in this situation to fight with a grown-ass 30-8-whatever-year-old Van Lathan.

You're handling. Right. You don't hit ladies. Okay. Thank you. You don't hit ladies. Women that does not give you carte blanche to hit whoever you want to hit. Agreed.

Do you though? Yes. I see. I don't walk around hitting men. I do not believe. I absolutely do not believe that it is necessary to put your hands on someone. Low key, women sometimes like when women do violence to me. Like even shows Snap.

Sure. Things like that where it's like, it's always like, see? It's always like, what, what did he do to deserve it? Even in this situation, she smacked him. It's like, what did he do to deserve? What did he do to deserve violence? So we love Snap. It's just the reason that show is successful and it continues to go on is because it is

uncharacteristic when you're talking about gender stereotypes for a woman to act out in such a violent way. And so your curiosity is piqued. That's what's intriguing about the show. Not because I enjoy seeing women attack men. It's just like, whoa, I never would have thought this. Do you think female to male violence is uncharacteristic? Do you know how many women have hit me? We're talking, Snap is about murder.

I know, but I'm saying violence. Snap to us about murder. I said, no, we're talking about murder. We're talking about another level. We're talking about death. all I'm saying is this let's just take the violence out of it man just don't hit

yeah I agree don't hit don't hit as far as this is concerned this will be a valiant about over and over again people use it for the gender wars I think it's important for me

to just be honest with the audience and the fact that I got on there and I told everyone that they were ashamed that they should be ashamed of themselves I don't feel like that's something that I shouldn't have done at all

I will do it the next time But in the event That things do not go The way that they look like they were going to go It is also okay to talk about that The story isn't over Have yet to hear from her I'm sure she will be

She will talk and she will be Much more vocal About what's going on But They have to discuss it They have to hold each other accountable They have to be accountability both ways I'm going to say

Why did Brownie come back. This line is fake. Brownie was I don't know, he was needy. He was pawing at me. So I put him in my lap. Browdy's so cute. You love Brownie. We got to go.

Yeah, we got to go. You got to stop staring at that line. You got to go get back in the bed. That's it. Yeah, that's it. No more podcast. Oh, test results aren't accurate after a half an hour. What does that mean? That means it's kind of like the same thing with

pregnancy test. Like when you, there's a certain amount of time and then like so much air, it gets so much oxygen or whatever it is that it's like, you can't really pay attention to it for now. So it's like,

LA is right. So I should test again? Yeah, just again, but yeah, you'd have to read the test within 15 to 30 minutes of it. I did.

I did and it was nothing. But after that the line came. Yeah, but then you throw the part away after that. Like the test can change like after that. Oh, my name is Alleya. I know everything about a COVID test. It's in the little packet, my guy. Oh, my God.

Snappy, come back there. Well, then I guess what? I'll be seeing you Monday. Then I'll test again right now. You guys, we've got to go. Tell you the thing caps off, but do not stop learning. I am Van Lason Jr. I'm Rachel and Lindsay.

Hi, guys.