Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Jim Crow Era of Reproductive Freedom. Plus Tiffany Haddish’s Israel Trip

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that’s resulted in the halting of IVF treatments (5:18) before they dig into Tiffany Haddish’s trip to Israel (20:41). Then they react to a viral TikTok account called Biracial Lounge (38:16) before welcoming the founder of the X for Boys Life Preparatory School, King Randall I, to discuss a recent post on safety during police interactions (47:33). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: King Randall I Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? How Learning is on. It is I Van Lathen, Jr. And it's me, Rachel, and Lindsay. We got a guest on the show later on. It's King Randall I, the first. You guys, this is a guy that has gone viral for a video

where he's teaching young black boys how to deal with the police. Is the video good stuff? Or is it respectability policy? We have them on to talk later. I'm going to tell you guys something right now. He's a young black man in his community that has taken responsibility for the young boys in his community that is trying to do it through his purview,

through his set of beliefs, what he thinks is good for them in his community where he lives. I've seen a lot of hate. I don't see how you can hate on what he's doing overall. I have some disagreements with him. At the age of 24. At the age of 24. At the age of 24. It's huge.

disagreements with him and we're going to talk about those and he was very gracious with his time we're not on the same side of the political whatever whatever but he is helping young black men every day and I'm sorry I can't fucking hate on that we got him on the show later Rachel are you excited about it I am excited for this conversation I saw the video I want to talk to him I think there's a lot to dig into so let's go uh Rachel real quick we're gonna get into the show in the second um but I just want to let people know the BBI is like, it's taken off. We got so many things in...

You're on a roll. You're like making all these things happen. You know, people are asking me, you know, you're not going to believe this, okay? You're really not going to believe this. I have started compiling submissions for the playbook. I'm sorry to tell you. You need to calm down. I love that you're, like, I know it's all coming from a place of love and you are, you know, really want to see me happy.

And I love you and appreciate that for you. But missions? No, what I'm saying, admissions. Not admissions, applications. Oh. People are hitting me up like, I don't know if I'm, if I qualify for the playbook, but this is me. This is me. I don't know if I qualify for the playbook.

Like, I was in the airport. I got to Atlanta. And there was a, there was a dude. I'm not going to lie. I didn't really have a chance to talk to him because it was super fucking early. Maybe like 6-1, had a suit on. Van. I love what y'all doing, man.

I love you, man. And, you know, the playbook, man. Don't keep me in mind for the playbook. And then me and him didn't expect, we took a picture. So you might post a picture and tag me somewhere. I don't know if I see him. But people are talking about the playbook. It's the hot sizzling thing.

The BBI. We're changing lives. The BBI is hot. The BBI is hot. Some people are upset by it. Some people, you know, are like, wait, why does Van keep talking about this? But you're really gathering people who want to be a part of what it is you're doing. I'm not even quite sure you know what you're doing yet.

You and Tracy, you just know you want to do something. Yeah. We know we want to do something. We know we want to investigate. See, it's sticky. It's sticky. We want to investigate the entire deal. I don't even know what you're investigating.

But shout out to Michael Harriet, who tweeted at you and Tracy. that wants to be, he wants to be involved. Michael Harriet is a part of the BBI. Special agent lead investigator Michael Harriet, the smartest black man on Twitter

is putting cases on you motherfuckers. We got Michael Harriet. We can't be stopped. And what a gift that something just happened to fall into my lap that totally fits with what, whatever it is y'all are doing over there at the bb i yeah it's true all right we'll get into it we're going to get into it in a second uh we're going to start with the big deal of the day and by the way it's not risa tisa and whatever that is i don't even know what that is oh fuck that

i'll tell you something let me tell you something i think people were saying people like people were saying like somebody sent me something and it was like are y'all going to do risa tisa for the big deal of the day i don't know what risa tisa is so i have no clue you know what what that is? I'm assuming this is, I don't even know that. I didn't know that name was affiliated, but I'm assuming you're talking about this 50 part plus TikTok thing. I didn't watch it.

No, I didn't watch it. If it's a movie or a show, maybe, I'll be damned if I watch 50 parts of a TikTok series. I got enough fucking drama going on. Why do I need to sit and watch 50 parts of somebody else's? I just, I'm so glad that that wasn't even a topic that you wanted to discuss.

No. No. So we're not doing that. Fuck y'all. I couldn't. And I mean that with my whole heart. Fuck that. I don't want to talk about that. We're actually starting off with a ruling in Alabama

surrounding reproductive rights. On the other side of this break. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the final with Fandul Predicts. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus.

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information. Fuck this too. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled late last week that frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization are children under state law. The 72 ruling

there was a 72 ruling, should I say, against clinic in response to two wrongful death suits. In 2021, after a patient allegedly broke into a freezer, removed stored human embryos, and then dropped them. The clinic argued plaintiffs lacked standing as parents because the embryos had not been transferred to a uterus. And a circuit court agreed with that.

The court undid it. The highest court said, but in 1872, wrongful death law and an amendment to this, state constitution made no such distinction and that the lawsuit could proceed. This is a first. No other state has defined

life as beginning that conception, which is essentially what this court ruling does, and that opens up a legal quack, excuse me, Pandora's box in terms of abortion rights

and the philosophy behind the argument pro-life versus pro-choice. It's a pretty significant ruling that has a lot of people talking. The largest hospital in Alabama, which is the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has paused IVF treatments because of this. The potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care.

is the reason why they're doing that. Medical professionals throughout the state of questioning whether or not they'll need to overhaul their approach to IVF, most likely in ways that can make it riskier and more expensive and more painful for women trying to conceive. If every single embryo, a little common sense here, if every single embryo is essentially a person, that changes everything in terms of what those hospitals have to do

and how they have to go about their business. Rachel? There's so many ways to talk about this that we would need all day. I don't think anybody, like we knew Dob, the Dobbs decision was bad. And we knew giving it to the states and allowing the states to decide what they were going to do was going to have. It was going to take things down a dark road where most of the country doesn't want to go. I don't know if, you know, I've been reading a lot about this. There's some people who said that they thought that this could happen because there are certain

conservatives extremists who are against IVF. Those are the same people who would say that they're against birth control. There's that because there's, I watched this video on this woman who was like, this is great that this is happening because people are just having sex for fun and that's the problem with birth control. And I'm like, like, they can take birth control because they just want to have sex for fun. And it's like actually a lot of married people have birth control because they don't want more kids. I think this percentage is actually higher that married people take birth control.

So it's just we're seeing extremists and conservatives take this and run with it and use the law in the way that the law is not supposed to be used, especially conservatives who believe in reading the statute and taking the text for what it is. they are still playing with this to create a world that they want to exist. For example, in Alabama, they're taking, there's a prior case before this, I think it was called MAC, where they ruled that an unborn child in utero, okay? So this is not an embryo. This is not, this is in the uterus that they believe that it is a child if it is in utero. But they were using, it was a criminal case. and they said that it was wrong for you to take, for it to apply criminally, but not extend to civil, a civil statute.

That's not what you do. So the fact that they are taking the same, well, it doesn't make sense that it would be a child here, but not necessarily under a wrongful death statute of an unborn child civilly. We're going to extend it to both. Now you're seeing this, in this decision right here, they're taking this MAC case and using something that was found, with that, but that was based on in utero, not embryos, and they're just interpreting the law the way that they want to, not to add that one of the justices in his, I think it was a concurring opinion, wrote about the wrath of God, which is also something that's not supposed to be happening.

So it's wild, the creativity, and it's not even just creative, it's becoming law, the law of the land, that they're able to do it to fit their narrative and create a world that they want and not even realize such strong implications that this has for people who want children. And I take this very personal as somebody who was on a journey. And it's, it's only in Alabama, but as you just already pointed out, we're already seeing hospitals shut down for fear of suit because nobody knows what this means. They didn't set any type of boundaries with this. ruling. So rather than be sued civilly, whether than be charged criminally about something that may happen in a negligent way or in a purposeful way when it comes to embryos, they're just shutting

it down altogether. You're having people having to use money to ship their embryos to another state. That's thousands of dollars. It's just so terrifying. Yeah. It's happening. It's happening. Yeah. We're in the Jim Crow era of reproductive freedom. that much is indisputable. What you talked about in terms of married couples before, there are a lot of moving parts in society. The timing of when you want to have a child is key. The financial status, you're blessed

if you're able to control the moment that you bring a child into the world. Yeah. If you bring a child into the world when you are ready for it, Tons of statistics show that those children are normally better care for. They perform better. They do better, right?

People have been popping out kids since we first started stumbling around on this earth. So we will figure it out. But the reality is we're living in as complex as society as we've ever lived in. And people are taking the freedoms that they have as human beings. The autonomy that they have is human beings. And they're using them to make their lives better. And I think that that's better for the lives of children. as well.

Because, you know, I say the slightly incendiary statement that we're in the Jim Crow era of reproductive freedom, it's important to remember what beat Jim Crow because that's going to be the playbook in order to beat back people that are trying to take the country backwards in terms of rights for women. the way life is defined in all of this. This effort is not unlike the effort that led to those laws popping up all over the American South. It's not unlike that. It's something purposeful, intentional that takes a lot of political will, a lot of political capital, and a lot of organizing.

Right. Guys like Leonard Leo and people from the Federalist Society and the pro-life lobby have been working on creating the set of circumstances that have led to the reality of our contemporary America right now for years. It didn't start yesterday. It didn't start with Dobbs. It started decades ago. And they started it from the top down.

They created a climate in which the Supreme Court could neutralize Dobbs or destroy disintegrate Dobbs. Excuse me, disintegrate Roe. And the trickle down from that is an ability to rewrite American popular American popular consciousness or to reshape,

should I say American popular consciousness on life, the debate around life and the debate around what women can do with their bodies. It's that serious and it's going to take an incredibly serious effort to have this move back in the way that it happened. Remember, this is a battle

that essentially most people thought had been fought in one, you know, with Roe, even with conservatives at that time, basically, basically being on the side of Roe in terms of voting for it and putting it through. And just that's changed. And it's just one of many cultural wars

that threatens to rip the country apart at the seams. But this one is going to take an incredible, amount of political will and sophistication. We're not going to tweet our way out of this. We're not. There are a lot of people down there in Alabama right now that we're looking to have children. I want you guys to think about the fundamental right here.

Looking to have children. They were going through a process in order to have children. That were getting genetic testing done. We're getting their eggs tested. They were looking at follicles inside of their body. That were doing all kinds of different things, right? invasive things, scary things, tough things, in order to have the chance to be parents,

in order to have the opportunity to be parents, expensive things, in order to have the opportunity to be parents. And now, because of politics and someone's set of morals, their ethics that they learn from their parents, those people might not have the opportunity or it might be significantly harder for them to actually bring children into the world, which is incredibly ironic, given what the right says their stated intent is. Exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. You cannot mention that this without mentioning that. And I understand why hospitals or these fertility clinics don't want to do IVF. And I think that if they don't define this and they don't get this under control, which why would we think they would? it's going to completely eliminate in Alabama because you don't know the ends of this. For example, when you get embryos, right,

not all of them turn into children. And so you have to, you freeze several because out of 10, you might get the one. And then when you defrost them, they don't all make it. So is that counted as a crime? Are somebody going to say, is that negligent? when you lose four of them and you keep six, is that four counts of, like, that's, that's,

I mean, you kill four people. I mean, four people. I mean, what, I mean, what do you want to be? That's what I'm saying. Are they, are, four kids or four kids or dead. The nurse is negligent. The hospital, the clinic is negligent. The way they handled this, they, I should have been able to keep all 10. There, there's no balance to this.

That's what I just don't think. Anytime they make these type of decisions, because it fits into their religion or their morals or whatever it may be, they have no idea the ramifications. Because a lot of conservatives actually believe in IVF and have used it. And I believe even former Vice President Mike Pence talked about IVF. And it's something that they used along their journey. I just lost my train of thought. I was going to give, I was going to give another example because it's just so bad the things that can happen. I mean, even think about miscarriages.

Are you going to charge the woman? I mean, we saw what happened up in, was that Ohio? Where she had no idea and she was charged. She was eventually let go, but she was charged. Is that what's going to happen in miscarriages? Oh, I saw you out late at night. You weren't properly caring for your child. You contributed to the miscarriage of it.

It can go anywhere. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. I've heard people talk about, can there be a Supreme Court challenge? As it stands, no. They're going to have to get really creative in how they're going to do it because there's no federal question and there's no diversity at the point. And the only stretch that I've seen is what this one Supreme Court justice put in his concurring opinion where he said, talked about the wrath of God.

there could possibly be an argument that it violates the establishment clause, right? Because there can't be a national church. There can't be a national religion. So you saying that this doesn't go in line with your religion could be an issue, but that's still a stretch. So at the moment, this is law in Alabama. And as we've said with other things, people are watching and they're probably going to do the same thing. Yeah.

It'll be interesting to see. once again, you look at this from a couple of different ways politically. This is the type of thing. I'm just going to be honest. I'm just going to say this as cynically as I can't. This is good for the Democrats. It's good for the left. This is the country in the hands of the other side.

That simple. If you are running for state office, federal office anywhere, this type of thing has to be a sobering reminder of what the future of America looks like in the hands of the extreme Magal Right branch of the Republican Party. It's a completely different America. It doesn't seem like it is, but it is. It's a completely different America. It's a completely different America than the America you lived in five years ago.

Yeah. It's a completely different America than it was when Donald Trump was president for the first time. It's a totally different America. It's a totally different America. Right? Totally different America. And if y'all thinking of voting for Nikki Haley, she agreed with this decision. I bet she did.

Okay, let's move on. Tiffany Haddish. Donnie, play the sound. Okay, just real quick. Play it, play it, play it, play it, play it, play it, play it. It's my way to tell a Vee. to Jerusalem. Then I'm going to the Dead Sea and go and give me something. Gonna have some fun. It's going to be great. Then I'm going to learn about the politics. Hey, see, I feel like I can't

I can't believe everything I see on the internet. Can't believe everything everybody's saying to me on the internet. I need to go see for myself. I'm one of those people. I'm sleepy as hell. I'm about to be sleep this whole flight. I've been up all night. and I'm going to sleep the whole 16 hours and I'm going to go see for myself I'm going to go see I'm going to see all of it Tiffany has you're going to see for herself

now just you guys let you know Tiffany went to Israel I think she's there now she she posted when she was on the plane on the way to Israel she's Jewish she's Eritrean

there are a lot of Jews from in and around that area, including some Jews, that are being denied their right of return. It's a thing. Now, that is not to say that there haven't been, there was Operation Morocco, all kinds of stuff that they've been in, it's not to say that they haven't been black Jews,

they've been given the right to return back to Israel. That has happened, right? It happened much later than the first Jews that returned to Israel and the first Ali, and the second aliyah happened in the 80s, a long time, but eventually there has been an effort to bring

the diasporic Jews from all over the place back to, but there are a group of Jews right now in and around that area who watch a very interesting documentary about it, who are being denied their right of return and there's some talk about that. However, she's

not being denied hers. She's going back and she said, amongst other things that she might come back with a little Jewish baby. She then went on a place that I used to be, and she talked a little bit about some of the backlash to the trip. I care about both sides. I care about humanity, human beings. I know this is like a lot of religious stuff going on,

a lot of control of the land, a lot of, you know, no Jews here, no this there, whatever. I don't, that's either here and there with me. It's about the human life. human beings, man. That's what I care about. And so that's why I'm here. And finally, you know, I got to ask you about this. I mean, there are people on social media

who are saying Tiffany shouldn't have cracked jokes about finding a man in Israel. I got to say in our morning meeting, it's like she's a comedian for crying out loud. All right, cut the shit off. I can't do it. I can't do it. Cut it off.

Go ahead. No, go ahead. Like just play I'm gonna sit my I'm gonna sit my drink like Tiffany was doing in business class Like Donnie play when she starts talking again please

I'm gonna hear all by myself I'm here all by myself just like I was saying in 2018 when they was asking me about Monique and her husband and I said I don't do my business the way she does business because I don't have a husband I don't have what she has

right I'm all alone that's what I'm trying to tell you guys Like, I'm doing this all by myself. I'm not, I don't have, I don't have a whole family from a man or a man supporting me. I'm doing it on my own. Rachel, why are you laughing at that? There's nothing funny about that. That was very, you're rational.

It was very, you know, I found that very touching. She, like, she, you know. No, no, no, no. I'm going to separate the two. And unlike a lot of people, I like Tiffany. No, I was just. Bam! No, a lot of people are super critical about her.

Yeah. No, and I feel like in an unfair way. I like Tiffany. I just was around her at Super Bowl. And she was in great spirit and really seemed to be having a good time. It was a lot of fun. But this seems irrational to me. I'm separating it.

I feel her when she's talking about. about doing things all by herself and she doesn't have a man and she doesn't have that support. It didn't fit to me in the conversation with what we're talking about, about the things she was saying about going to Jerusalem and to Israel and why. And that's why I was like, wait, how do we get jump to here when you're talking about this? Because we didn't play the whole thing and I encourage everybody to go listen to it if you did. But in the 15 minute conversation that she said, having on live in her business class C drinking orange juice. She's making songs about like she's going on a vacation.

Like there's not a war going on. Like tens of thousands of people haven't died. She confuses geographically where Gaza is compared to Israel. There's just, it's all over the place. And even in the clip that you just played with the TMZ, she talks about learning things that she didn't know before that are very much so out there. And so in the same conversation, she says, I didn't know that there were still 100 hostages.

She says, I'm all alone and I'm doing this by myself. My question, is she okay? That's how I felt listening to all. I know you can't answer that, but like that's how I felt listening to all of it. And this is not an accusation of drinking, like people were like all of that. That's not it.

Her thought process to me was just like, is she okay? because I've in and and you know call me you call me a Tiffany Haddish apologist whatever they're just I don't know if it's all getting to her people are very critical of her but they're just to me when she was crying it was like a breakdown that didn't relate to what the issue was so I'm not laughing at her it's just like is Tiffany okay this is what I would say so I don't see anything wrong with saying I want to to go to Israel and experience it for myself in terms of what's going on, right? There's as a singular statement, no. No, I think there's anything wrong with that, right? There's two things that make it a little, obviously things are more sensitive now, right? A lot of people I've visited the region.

A lot of people that I've talked to and who I get a lot of information from has have visited the region, right? and you hear the accounts of their trips when they come back. You know, you hear people that have visited Ramallah, people that they visited Gaza, they've been to Jerusalem, they've gone to Tel Aviv,

they've been all around in Israel. Since this. Not since this, just in the past. So this is what I'm saying. That's okay. Right. So in the past.

So wanting to go to Israel and experience Israel and see of what you heard about the culture there and what you've heard about the, society there to see whether or not it's as good or as strained as you've heard it was. There's nothing wrong with that. I think there's a different set of responsibilities when you go there now for a lot of people. Exactly. Now Tiffany Hash is a Jew.

She is going back to what she believes her ancestral homeland to be. That's another sticking point when you talk about all of this. Whose ancestral homeland it is? Whose homeland it is? Several different peoples. But obviously, if you go far back enough, I mean, that's where Jews come from. Just talk about what is being indigenous, what isn't being indigenous, and what kind of rights that gives you to thousands of years later, potentially displaced around 750,000 people and how that works. but for her

going there there's a tremendous amount of pressure on the trip now yes and the pressure that's on the trip now Tiffany Haddish can't go to Israel now and have a Tiffany Haddish trip she can't stakes are too high

if Tiffany Haddish were to go to Israel and then decide she has had fun in Tel Aviv have fun in a couple of different places and then she visits northern northern Gaza if she can even get in there

because that's a war zone so I don't yeah I was confused by that I don't know if she can if she can and if she can I don't know if she can get in there I would imagine that it would be alongside the IDF which right away is going to be a non-starter

for many people and I'm saying This is all speculative. I don't know how you get in and out there now. I know in the past I've known people that have visited and gone and all of that stuff. And it was, you know, if you're an American, you can go there, do all of that stuff. I don't know how you do that now, how she does that now. If she goes there and she doesn't go visit there, the trip looks like, in all fair,

is that she doesn't give a fuck what's happening in the South there. and she doesn't give a fuck what's happening in the West. Because I'm imagining if she can't get to Gaza, she certainly can get to the West Bank. And things aren't peaches and cream there right now either. The violence has increased it, has increased, it's been ratcheted up. Settler aggression has gone up.

That settler aggression is almost always accompanied by a little security and a little aggression from the ID. that protects those settlers that are living illegally in the West Bank. So it's just a really high-leverage trip right now for her to go on. And because it's so high leverage, it makes certain people think that there's an agenda behind it. And that's what Tiffany Haddish is running into when she's on her way to Israel. And that's what she's going to run into while she's there. Okay.

So I saw that she already did a pickle sit down with the lady. know the same lady that I'm with Noah yeah Noah the same Zionist it's a Zionist so yes the same lady who has a new book coming out with Emmanuel a show called uncomfortable conversations with a Jew right um so a lot of people are going to look at that and infer from that that Tiffany hash is on a propaganda mission to Israel I'm just being for real that's what that's what that's what But then, if you look at, if you listen to what she says, I don't know how to interpret it any other way.

I won't say it's like a propagated trip, but I'm just saying everything that she says is for Israel. And the only time she said Gaza is when she was reading comments and she said, how do y'all know I'm not going there? And even if you're like, okay, like she's going there because she wants to see everything. And she might have access that like the normal civilian cannot have.

But then when you couple that with TNZ, everything she said was pro-Israel. Well, I mean, she's Jewish. Nothing. She said she did say humanitarian. I don't want to take it away from you. She didn't say humanitarian. But it was very pro-Israel.

So what I'm basically saying is this. I'm not trying to judge her intention or anything like that. No. But what I'm saying is it's such an intensely high-level trip now that the trip is going to shape a lot of people's perspective and opinion on Tiffany

forever like forever in an act of war in a place where the whole world is watching she's going down there and it might it might feel like to some people that she's being used or that she's

going down there to put a good face on things particularly to maybe reach a black audience that seems to be, at least in some ways, less in lockstep with design as cause. Yeah, I was invited to go to Israel since the war. Invited to go. I just don't think it's, that's, I've never been to Israel.

And personally, I've always wanted to go. I would not go right now. And I'm just saying, and I'm not here to judge her either. I'm just saying that her actions say one, like what she's saying says one thing, which is why people are also saying something. That's why people are having that response. I guess is my thing.

I'm not here to judge her. She's very much so talked about how she's Jewish and she's very proud of it. But everything that she's saying, it's like, oh, and this. So you're saying all of this. And she's like, you know, she's getting emotional. She's like on TMZ saying I believe in and you know like human rights and and I'm a humanitarian.

It comes after the fact. So people are judging her from what she's saying instead of what her response is to the backlash. So it's she's going down there and she is she's going to see for herself. I really don't see anything wrong with that in the spirit like wanting to experience something. and wanting to see something. I don't, I agree with you. I wouldn't go now because I personally don't feel like the experience now typifies how things are. Not necessarily that things are different there because it's a dangerous place where people live in proximity with other people that they have incredibly, incredibly strained relationships with.

There's occupiers living on one side and the occupied living on the other side. So it's never peaches and roses, you know what I mean? But in this time right now, it's just an incredibly high leverage trip for her. And I'm wondering if it's possible for her to see for herself at this time now. I wonder if she would even be able to see the truth as it actually exists because her opinion on things because of her celebrity is going to want to be crafted so meticulously. So meticulously, buying an Israeli government that in the most charitable way that I can be, guys, this is incredibly charitable in the way that I'm being right now. Hasn't been particularly forthright in the past about things that have gone on and happened. Okay?

Now, they have it. And so you wonder if Tiffany Hash will even have the opportunity to see what the quote, unquote, real story or real situation. on the ground is there. And if it was there, how much she'll be able to report back. So, you know, it's a big deal. But once again, I just don't see it's difficult to just go, oh, she's going to Israel, get out the pitch for us, get out this. It's like it, it's, it's, it's, I don't think that that's fair.

I don't. Yeah, I don't think that that's fair. So, yeah, so we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens with, with, with, with, entire trip. And we would be remiss not to say that, you know, there was some talk before about a trip that I think she took to her homeland where a lot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So sometimes, you know, having a good heart and want to know things, you just have to pay attention with how that aligns with, um, how that aligns with, um, how that aligns with how your celebrity can be used in order to get a message out worldwide. I don't think Tip will be done.

And who's educating you? Like in response to what you're saying with Eritrea or Eritrea, who's, you're going to get educated and to learn. So whose eyes are you doing that? I mean, if that was the criticism that she got specifically with that trip. So we'll see what happens.

We'll see what the situation brings. But for her to want to go down, down there and see it for herself. I think it's unfair to demonize it for that. All right. The BBI is going crazy. Rachel, you do this one. You put this in the,

Rachel, you submitted the case file to the BBI. I was on TikTok. I have spurts. I have TikTok spurts, right? Where I like to scroll and see what the TikTokers are doing.

Because I posted some recent videos from higher learning on TikTok. People didn't like what I had say about Beyonce, they never do. But they never do. Anyways, as I was scrolling, I came across this video and the page was called the biracial lounge. So of course, I'm like immediately interested in light of the BBI conversation, which they didn't invite me into it. I'm not in it. But I am close friends with the people involved. And I, this video pops up that says

Confessions of a Quadron Oh my God I'd never heard that term before Had you? Quadron of course Okay I wasn't familiar with it I think it goes it would go

And these are all archaic terms So you guys need to like you know So it's like Molado is half And then Quadron is a fourth Coon is full Coon is full What mean Coon is full? What are you talking about?

Well, black, black, the Coon. That's where Quadroon comes from, right? Like, it uses Coon. I don't think so. She says it. Does she? Donnie, Donnie, don't know. So, wait, wait, wait, wait, because as I'm scrolling.

So Quadroon, Quadroon and then Octeroon and all that. What do you think it stands for? What do you think it stands for? It includes Coon, which is black. Okay, okay. I never, I never knew that. I've heard the terms because, I mean, they were used, they were thrown around pretty loosely when I was a kid.

I never knew that it, because they never called us Coons back in the day. I've never been by the time I came around, the Coon word for Black people was already evaporated as far as white people use it. Oh. But it was, we would call each other Coons as a pejorative, but I haven't heard. Y'all did?

Okay, okay, listen. We did not. Hold on. You call some, you never called somebody that was tap dancing for the white man of Coons. Yeah, we used it with Tim Scott. But I'm just saying growing up, growing up, not necessarily we didn't do that. But I, I mean, I still was very familiar with the word in the sense that when I dated the guy from Zachary, which is from your neck of the woods, his dad was a champion coon hunter. And I said, now what? Okay.

So look, okay, let's go. He's black, by the way. Real quick before we get into this. Before we get into this, okay. So we will go coon hunting. That's just a raccoon. See, see, see. Okay, so wait a second.

I was like, I'm sorry. Wait a second. So, like, I haven't eaten any coon in a long time. Like, I had some, yeah, I had some. The last time I had it, my dad, rest in peace, my dad claims that I loved it when I was a kid. Now, everything tastes good to me. Squirrel, rabbit, all of it tastes good to me. I haven't had squirrel in a long time.

Rabbit is, rabbit and deer are amongst the best things you can eat, right? But I remember I killed a raccoon, maybe like 92. and then the raccoon was cooked and then when I ate it, I'm like, I'm not fucking with this. My dad was like, really? He used to love some cool. I was like, nah, I don't like this. I don't like the way it's just not for me, right?

That's disgusting. Right. But look. Coon hunters. Coon hunters. Coon is up in a tree. You shoot the raccoon, he died. Like, coon hunting.

Nah, I'm going to say the name off. I'm going to say the name off camera. So you know your fellow coon hunters. Like, Coon hunters. So we definitely, you'd hunt, but Coon is just the name for the animal. When you call somebody a Coon, that is, hey, you fucking with the white man,

when you call someone a Coom. But Coom was just like the animal itself. Okay. Hold on. Donnie, with the official, with the official definition. Wiki. It is possible that the negative racial connotation

of the word may involve from Zip Coon. A song, that first became popular in the 1830s and the common use of the word Coon and Blackface or derived from Barakoon an enclosure for slaves.

I haven't heard that one. But Afteroon and Quadroon and Quadroon, I do not think have very much to do with being a Coon. I don't, I've never heard that before. What was the other word? Quadroon and what? Octoroon.

So Octaroon is an 8th and Quadroon is a fourth. Okay. the reason we're talking about all this was because of the video that came through my four-year page on TikTok from the biracial lounge page at the top I see confessions of a quadroon and this was the first thing out of her mouth

someone who is three-fourths massa and one-quarter coom Obama is a mulatto that's the one-drop rule oh god Donnie, run that back. Run that back, man. Someone who is three-fourths masser and one-quarter Coom. Obama is a mulatto.

That's the one-drop rule. You can't tell me. By Trachel. Michael Harriet. The BBI is the most needed organization in contemporary black America. Oh, my God.

What a gift that What a gift. And to my point, she said one-fourth cone. I don't, that's not what that. I don't give a fuck. I ain't ever heard that. She's one-fourth black. I know she's one-fourth black.

Because I went down a deep, I want a deep dive down this woman. She's a real poet. What's her name? I don't remember. Maya Osborne. Maya Osborne. I'm looking at her, Maya. Her dad is wife.

Her mom is, her mom is German and her dad, and the mom's dad is from South Carolina. The mom has never identified as black until recent, which Maya talks about. It's the whole thing. We got to, we got to, okay, so we got to do two things. We have to officially open a case file on Maya Osborne. Donnie, give me some sound. Something like that. We're opening a case file on Maya Osborne.

We got to have her on higher learning, man. We have to have her on the show. There's no way we can possibly not have her on the show. If she's willing to come on the show, we have to have her on the show. This is textbook BBI investigation material right here. Donnie, Donnie, just one more time, please. Someone who is three-fourths, massa, and one-quarter of Kuhn.

Obama is a mulatto. That's the one-drop rule. Bro, we lost it We've lost everything We were so hard for We lost it It's done God damn it

I'm so glad And I'm not laughing by myself Right now Oh my God All right, we got to move on then Fuck that I didn't even send it to Tray I sent it to her

Oh my gosh Damn I don't anything left in me What's next? It's tough, man. It's a tough situation with everything that's going on. You know what?

Let's talk to King Randall I first. The teacher and founder of the X for Boys Life Prep School in Albany, Georgia. He posted a video of a session he did with his kids. The session was about how to deal with police and the police stop. And it's been a lightning rod for criticism. people love it. Some people hate it. We're going to talk to King Randall about not only that video,

but about what his mission is in terms of educating young black men. Another side of your short break. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those WeatherTech seat protectors. So just to be be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast,

that's why I trust Spectrum Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Okay. You guys, we are talking to someone who I think,

whose platform I think is just beginning to grow. This young gentleman's name is King Randall I first and he is all about doing for self. He's, as I understand, opening it up a school or has opened up a school in Albany, Georgia for a lot of young men. I've told you guys before, young black men, I've told you guys before, that whenever and wherever I see someone that's doing this type of work, I will spotlight and highlight them, just like Jason Wilson is doing out there in Detroit with the cave of Adelham.

This young man is doing the same type of work there in Albany, Georgia. It's a lot younger. Okay. How old are you, King? 24 24 oh wow yeah absolutely welcome to higher learning look

here's a deal there's been one specific video from king here just recently that's gotten a lot of people talking now the video itself is six minutes long so we're not going to play the entire thing

here on higher learning but we are going to play just a little bit of it donnie you got some of it first thing I want to do is I already have my stuff ready okay you don't want to get to the car and when he gets to the car and you got to go fumbling around looking for stuff right why don't we want to fumble around looking for stuff? Exactly they're going to feel unsafe you understand?

Yes, sir. Regardless of whether they should or shouldn't feel unsafe, that makes somebody feel unsafe you fumbling around because things happen, right? Yes, sir. So when they get there, the first thing you want to do is already have your license ready and have your hands on the steering wheel, you understand? Yes, sir. Have your hands on the steering wheel?

Why? Because before they don't think you reach for love. So you're not reaching for stuff, right? Yes, sir. Okay, so that is King talking to his youngsters, his boys, and properly educating them on how he believes they should act during a traffic stop with police. You had a police officer there, and you went through all of the different mechanisms of a traffic stop, and you were educating them on how to act when you are stopped by police.

A lot of people are upset about this. What has been the back, what has been the response to the video king? I mean, we've had a lot of good response to it, but we definitely, got some surprising bad responses to it. And I didn't think you, I mean, I knew some people were going to be upset about it, you know, a little bit. But like the crazy comments they were getting, you know, talking about killing the police and, you know, teaching the kids to argue with the cops on the side of the road, et cetera. I'm just like, man, we're trying to get home safe. We can go argue in court and talk about their rights in court and all that goodness. But if I'm on the side of the road, you know, I'm not trying to argue with him over there. This is not the time to argue. I'm trying to get home. And like I told them before, you know, I've been pulled over a lot because I'm a speeder. I speed. I'm sorry. That's what I do. And I get pulled over often. I have gotten, you know, lit off so many times because of those things that I've done. Like, for example, when I passed by the cops and I know for a fact, I was speeding, I pull over before they even turn the lights on because I already know I was speeding or whatever. And they'll usually be

like, you know, just because I didn't have to, you know, come chase you because you was so polite, you know, you can go ahead, you know, just slow down, you know. And that just limits a lot of, you know, bad interaction or escalating the situation because it's not just even with police as a young man, you want to learn how to de-escalate many situations because it could lead to somebody dying or unnecessary fights or putting yourself in a dangerous position, not just with police, but with anybody. So we're teaching them to just simply be polite, you know, have manners, be respectful. And if they are wrong, then you fight it on the side, then you fight it in court, but not on the side of the road. That's the biggest thing, you know, for us, just simple manners is what we're teaching.

And they were going into all these long spills about other stuff. I'm like, this is for a routine traffic stop if you get pulled over, not for a murder investigation, for any of this drug bus or none of that stuff. It's just simple traffic stop. And most of the time, this always works. I've never had a bad experience with police, even if they did have an attitude or something like that, because I made sure it stayed safe. It's really frustrating to me to hear and like when you put stuff on social media or anytime it becomes public, you're always going to hear both sides of it. But for you, I'm wondering, was there any hesitation to put this out there in this way, knowing that there could be backlines?

and what is, because this, it frustrates me as a community that my first response when I saw this, I was so pleased. I thought, well, what's the alternative if you're not doing this? That was my thought. So for you, was there hesitation and whatever your answer is with that, how frustrating is it to get any backlash when the whole intention behind this is to save our lives? You know, honestly, every video I put out gets in it sometimes. type of negativity, no matter if it's small or big, whether we're teaching the kids how to change

oil or, you know, fix a hole in the wall or whatever, people are going to have something to say. You got people, oh, I'll do it this way. You shouldn't do it that way. Why the kids saying, yes, sir, blah, blah, blah. It's every video we put out gets, you know, a little bit of backlash. But, you know, I truly don't mind it because, you know, what has happened, you know, since I've been learning how to market, a lot of that drama that they create brings viewers to our work. And more often than not, it's more positive, you know, viewers and feet. back whenever they're giving a lot of negativity towards it. So I just use it to my advantage. You know, I'll respond to a few of them and it keeps the conversations going. I mean,

I posted yesterday on Twitter, like all the engagements that they've given us for the past three days, it's been like six million, you know, page visits, et cetera, you know, and all these link clicks and so many people sending us emails trying to help us and partner with us and give resources to our students. I just went and picked up, you know, some of our Amazon wish list items from the post office. They had three big carts of stuff that people had ordered from our Amazon wish list, all from these people just running their mouths on social media.

So again, I just let them have their way and we're going to continue teaching our students regardless. It doesn't frustrate me at all because they usually just bring in people on the back end to help us out. So I realize your young brother doing this and I think that every

situation for you is going to be a learning experience. Let me tell you why I say that. So I looked at the video and The goal and the aim of the video is incredibly noble to keep young black men safe in encounters with police, right? I think when I watch the video, two things bothered me. Two things. Number one, it's never wrong to teach a young person manners and how somebody else wants to be spoken to. That's what I've been taught.

That's what people taught me. people talk if I'm anywhere I'm from Bat Rouge, Louisiana like to a fault is sir or ma'am I've been admonished for calling black ladies ma'am because in California they don't like it

you know what I mean in California they don't like it in California it's like hey I'm not man I'm like wow I come on the internet and I go yo man is it okay that I call y'all ma'am or not like give me some give me something on the ma'am there are two things I did not that rub me wrong about the video

one is you were talking to the kids and you were and you said don't do all it is don't say hey I know my rights don't say that blah blah blah that that statement annoyed me and then at the end of the video when the police officer is talking to them in my opinion king he's talking to them through the wrong purview okay what he said was do all of these things make me feel safe make me feel safe make me feel safe and that way you'll be safe. You got to watch that. And I'll tell you why. So I wanted them to hear that because it's which this is what they are thinking. You know, and so again, you know, I'm telling them like, okay, this is what a police, this is what a police officer is thinking. So even though, you know, he's talking about from his view,

that's what they need to hear because it ain't about how I feel like he should be feeling. This is what he's feeling. So let me take that into account, you know, in every encounter. I go into because this is what police officers are thinking when they come up to my car. You know, so that was, that was the idea by just allowing him to speak, you know, from what his viewpoint was, you know, when he's being a police officer and pulling people over, it's important for them to hear him to say, even when he was like, you know, he told them to tell the truth if they get pulled over, you know, whatever like that. I ain't necessarily in complete

disagreement or agreement with that. To me, it's situational. Like for me, if I was speeding, yeah, I was speeding. I don't mind that. But if, you know, it's something may or may not have happened or something that may incriminate you that's different, but I'm not upset or anything about saying I was speeding. I mean, I was speeding, so what? You know, but as far as something serious, definitely, you know, we're not telling the police anything to incriminate ourselves. But when he was saying, you know, tell the truth,

I think he was more meaning like if he was speeding, obviously, if I'm pulling over something minor like that, then tell the truth and it'll probably help you out. So, but I definitely wanted them to hear his side. So this is my thing, though. In the video, you're, if you're looking at the video in the most uncharitable way, And I choose to be charitable when I see somebody doing the work that you're doing. If you're looking at the video in the most uncharitable way,

then you're telling the kids that the guy who's supposed to be protecting and serving them, that they need to make sure that they don't do anything so that he doesn't harm them. And let me tell you why I think that idea needs to be challenged a little bit. Number one, because there's just too many examples of the perfect victim in terms of encounters with police where things have gone wrong. And number two, in a way, even unintentionally, it excuses the police from any responsibility that they have to de-escalate situations. I mean, the reality of the situation to me is that, yeah, tell me the truth, do all of that stuff. Number one, tell them what you have to tell them. number two be very aware of your rights as an american your rights shield you from harm

and escalation by the police and then number three that police officer when he's talking to those young boys what i feel like should be happening there as well is that he should be telling them just how he wants them to get home safe just how he wants i mean he has all the power in the situation so yeah that was at the end of the video he did say that to them he said you know, three words to say is get home safe. And he was like, that's what I want you all to remember is to get home safe. That's what he told them. Word up.

But yeah, I knew that the video, anytime we play nice with the police, I think I don't like the police game. So anytime we play nice. And I'm, and I'm, I don't treat anybody in politely. No one. So police pull me over. Hey, how are you guys doing the same thing? I'm just not that kind of guy.

But I think maybe some, I think it might have rub some people the wrong way because, I mean, we're not trying to kill them. It seems like they're trying to kill us. So, you know what I mean? Yes. So this is where I pushed back a little bit on that idea. Because, yeah, no doubt we've, and sometimes we say there are so many examples of the perfect victim. You know, in the last 10 years or so, you know, considering the amount of police interactions that people have with cops, I mean, that number is very slim.

Very, very slim. Last year, there were 20 million traffic stops, 20 million, and then only 32 black people were killed unarmed, not saying that they may or may not have been in the wrong, because just because you don't have a gun, don't mean you weren't doing nothing stupid to get killed. However, but even if they were all right, that's 32 people out of 20 million stops. I don't think that's an epidemic of, you know, them trying to come kill black people. I just don't think that considering the statistics, that's crazy to me. I think that's just like saying, well, since we all going to, you know, some people can die wearing seatbelts, you know, then we're all just going to stop wearing seatbelts and we don't believe in seatbelts. Well,

seatbelts do mostly save people from dying. But even though some of you can die from seatbelts, I'm not going to stop wearing mine, you know, so that means, you know, for a lot of people who were saying, oh, well, they still can kill you. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you, but that number is very, like, it's not even a whole percent. It's literally 0.001%. You have a better chance of being hit by lightning than getting killed by the police statistically. And that's, that's reality. The statistics show that you would have a better chance of being struck by lightning than killed by the police because there are too many traffic stops. There are 20 million traffic stops every year and 32 people were killed unarmed. I think that is a successful year,

in my opinion of that that's not a that's not an epidemic in my opinion at all um um so i i so disagree with van on your point on this because i just believe the goal is to stay alive and then in my opinion you deal with everything else later i'm not saying that that's fair i don't agree with the way that we have to be but if the goal is to save your life then the goal is to save your life then the goal is to get home. And so one of the things, the first thing Van brought up is the know your rights thing. I think it's important to know your rights, but you don't always have to say it out loud, right? Because it's triggering. You can tell me about it in a second because I can see your disappointment. It is so important to be equipped to know your rights. And that's going to be my question in a second.

but I don't think that you have to necessarily, it's so unfair how I'm going to say this, because I don't agree that it's fair, that it's fair the way that this is how it has to be, but it can be triggering because you just never know who is pulling you over, what kind of person that they are, what kind of cop that they are, what kind of patience or tolerance or whatever, you just have no idea. So in my opinion, it's better to err on the side of caution than it is to be, to do something that could be interpreted, as cocky. So my question is, going back to it, with the know your rights, you teach these young men

so many different things. Is one of the things that you teach with this, your rights. Do you equip them with what is legal, what is what they are able to do and not do or able to not be done to them and to be able to done to them at a traffic stop? Right. So the video, of course, was edited and there was a whole lot that I did say, you know, that didn't get posted. The kids, you know, and it's important for you to know your rights. Absolutely. You know, and just like back to your point, I'm not saying that we're going to, you know, state all that on the side of the road.

I did tell the kids in the video also to have a dash cam with you. The reason you have a dash cam that records inside and outside is to save you and preferably one that records speed. And also you want to get a dash cam that has a 4G, no, data connection because you don't want to have to have one that has to have the Wi-Fi. You don't want anybody to be able to delete it. You want it to go to a cloud. But aside from that,

teaching the kids, you know, to know their rights because they can go talk about this in court. And honestly, I also told them in the, I'm not sure if I put it on the video, but I also said, if they're telling you to get out the car for a reason that's not, you know, real or right or whatever like that, you're going to say, I don't consent to a search or I don't, you know, I don't want to. Say it for the record. After you said it one time and they asked you do it again, get out. It is what it is. We're trying to stay alive. But what I can do later on, lawsuit, because now you, you messed with my rights. I know my rights now. So now, going to go file a lawsuit and we're going to get some money for it. But I'm not again,

not about to go back and forth. I'm just going to say, for the record, no, I don't consent. You know, this is against my rights. I may say at one time if they're trying to violate my rights, maybe twice. But after that, not saying it again, I'm just let them, let them do what they do or whatever, and we're going to go find me a lawyer and we're going to go get us some money. That's how that's going to work. But I'm definitely not about to, on the side of the road in specific, you know, talk about, you know, what my rights are, blah, blah, blah, not more than once. I don't believe in doing it more than once. But if they are not, you know, bothering your rights either, then we're not going to announce it because some people were saying, you know, oh, crack the window a little bit.

Don't, don't barely talk to them and all that. I'm like, you're, you're asking for a ticket. I'm trying to get out of ticket and trying to go home. You're trying to get them aggravated as soon as they get there. Like, I'm not even starting with that. You know, I'm not trying to aggravate the guy as soon as it gets there. Let's start it off peaceful and see if we can keep it that way. A couple of things Number one, just before I leave on the 32 for the statistics that you that you named a couple of things about that

Number one, the statistic assumes the worst in the police interaction every time, right? So that if we were talking about use of force by police, assault, abuse by police, if we were talking about unruly conduct by police and we were to then use those numbers. What you would see is that both anecdotally and supported by data that black people are the numbers definitely skew in the favor of black people being harmed by police at a higher rate.

We also have more interaction with police because we're over-policed. And if we're talking about police killings, if you're talking about a unicorn killing where a cop kills an unarmed black man like we see before, then yeah. But if you're talking about police killings, black people are killed by the police more than any other group in America, right? It's particularly last year. Now, the question is, in some of these instances that we're talking about, whether or not it was the police's job, the people who are trained in de-escalation, which is why I like what you're doing to a degree, because you're training people in de-escalation. but there has to be a way to do that as black people as citizens of the country where we pay taxes where we're the bosses of the public servants that patrol our streets right where we're the reasons why they have jobs and we're supposed to be the thing that they are looking after

there's a way to maintain a sense of citizenry and strength there like a strength there if yeah you be nice be polite to everyone but understand the reality of that you're of dealing with the police in America. And even the whole thing, I'll sue them later. I'll take them to court later. Yeah, well, maybe you will. But when you sue the police department, when you're up against the police department,

you're fighting a municipality, and it's not even, that's a hard thing to do. Even when someone is dead, that's a hard thing to do. We just talked on the show last week about a gentleman who was handcuffed in the back of a police car, acorn fell on top of the police awesome. I saw that video. Right. The cop lit off all into the thing, right?

So what I'm saying is what I don't want to do and the only reason why there's some gentle pushback is because I want to make sure the conversation is had in a holistic way. What I don't want to do is for a community of people to take onus

for what I believe is systemic dysfunction inside of the police department. like it for the systemic dysfunction like inside I could I could we could talk about so many different things we can give you as many statistics

right and as many anecdotal incidents as possible the police in Arkansas pit maneuvered a pregnant woman flipped her shit clean over she was looking for a place to stop you know what I'm saying so like like we as we push ourselves because we are citizens in this country and we

built the country and I hope that those young boys understand the power that they're lineage as black people comes with, as we push ourselves, we also have to push the state and these systems to recognize our humanity even more so. So I would like to hear more from that black cop on how precious he thinks the lives of those young boys are, because if he doesn't think that they're precious, then they'll never be treated as anything more than potential threats to his life. If he doesn't value their lives, then they'll never be treated as anything more than something that could potentially kill them.

And I do not think that white people in America get treated like that by the police. So that would be the only thing that I would say. Sure. That's understood. Yeah. Now let me ask you this. Tell us about some of the other stuff that you're doing, man. I know you, you, people get honest about this. They say that we don't ever have conservatives on the show.

You describe yourself as a conservative. What? Yeah, big time. Rachel is not on his team anymore. First of wrestling. Rachel not on his team anymore. Ah, Rachel, you don't like us. I just kidding.

I just kidding. I just kid a kid. King. Please, go ahead. You describe yourself as a conservative. Like, what would you say, like, what, what's your goal and your ethos? And tell us, tell the story of what you're doing with the boys in Albany, Georgia, how it started, why you did it, how people can support, and how your whole political philosophy comes into that. Sure.

Well, first of all, I don't even make that my calling car. I know like a lot of other black conservatives be like, oh, yeah, I'm a black conserved and all that. I'm not doing all that. You know, I'm black. You know, that's it. So that's the first thing I usually say. But, you know, the program started back when I was 19 in 2019. And a lot of these kids, I started working with teaching them how to work on cars and houses.

And at this time, I wasn't posted anything. I was just working with kids in the community, making some flyers on my phone. And I would go pass them out at basketball practices, churches or whatever like that. And I would teach these kids these different trades, given some certificates, you know, and we would make it work from there. We'll take them on some different field trips, take them to Atlanta, take them to these different museums, Black History Museums, whatever. And to hear these kids asking the questions that they were asking and basically not wanting

to be in the conditions that they were in, that's how I knew. I was really supposed to be working with kids. I started a summer camp at my house that same year. And once I started the summer camp, I saw that so many of these kids could not read and write. That was a huge problem for me. And that's where I told those kids that I wanted to open them a school one day. I didn't know how I was going to do it or when I was going to do it or what was going to get the funding from. But I was going to make it happen.

And from then on, we kept working with those kids. We did book clubs, teaching them how to spell, et cetera. Like this was just constant work we were doing because the kids are just so far behind. So this day, still working with them, you know, still so far behind and reading and writing. And I was wondering who's passing them through school. Anyway, we started posting on socials because I took Brother Ben X's class. I'm not sure if you know who Brother Ben, next year. I do, of course. But I took his social media class. Yeah, I took his social media

class back in like 2019, 2020, and he was teaching me how to market on social media. And that's when I started posting all the work that we were doing. And I started posting, next thing, you know, we get a Twitter DM, and we get the White House. Me and my students got invited to the White House back in 2020. And those kids, like, that was their first ever time found on an airplane, first time going to a nice hotel. Definitely your first time going to the White House, you know, to see the president. I mean, that was before our first trip ever. Some of those kids had never even been out of our hometown. It was an amazing

thing to see. And from then on, you know, we gathered a lot of support, kept posting, kept posting, kept posting. March of 2021, me and Roland Martin got in the argument on his show. We went internationally viral. Rihanna reached out, a whole lot of other celebrities, et cetera, and we got a lot of attention from that. And ever

since then, we kept pushing back in 2022. This is when we opened our school. We purchased 40 acres of land back in March of 2021. Then we purchased our school at the end of 2021. We then opened the school in 2022 with only six graders. And, you know, it was an interesting first year for me because we did boarding. And I think God kind of let things happen how they did just to kind of teach me where I really needed to be. What I discovered in working with these kids for so many years is that so many teenagers are like so far gone already.

I mean, like even 13-year-olds, you know, it's almost like, you know, trying to like break through a brick wall with your fist. It's very hard. I mean, so many of them have had so many different stories for being molested to being abused, et cetera. It's a lot that, you know, comes with these kids and their stories. And I used to didn't work with younger kids. But I just recently started taking, like, younger children into the program like eight and nine years old because those kids hadn't been tainted yet. You know, they're not having sex yet. they're not having, you know, doing drugs.

You know, how hard of this is telling me a 15-year-old boy to stop having sex. I mean, it's the toughest thing in the world, you know, or telling the kid who's, you know, been smoking weed to stop smoking weed, you know, no matter how many, you know, different classes we do, how many Bible studies we do, how many field trips we take them on, et cetera. Once you've had a taste of some of that stuff, it's hard to get it away. And so I don't, I don't want the kids to get to a point where a life has to start teaching them. We want them to be able to, you know, still be sponges.

And, you know, the kids, you know, that's eight, nine. Oh, no, I'm not doing it. and that, you know, Mr. King said, we can't do that. You know, like, they are already saying no versus nobody's ever told you this stuff is wrong. And you're seeing everybody else do it. So you're like, must be right because nobody's, nobody's saying it's wrong. And so these kids are losing themselves in fourth grade, fifth grade, or even like things

like commit suicide at these young ages. You know, I told someone, I was like, I didn't even know what suicide was until I was in, like, fifth grade. And the only reason I figured out what it was was because my uncle, well, my, my aunt's husband at the time, he committed suicide when he was in jail. that's my first time ever hearing that. And when I heard the word, I thought that it was some, like, mass killing or something. I'm like, because I heard the word side at the end, and we heard about homicide and genocide.

So I'm thinking someone's getting killed. They're like, oh, that's killing yourself. And I was like, killing yourself. I'm like, how do you even do that? Like, it was, it was mind-boggling to me. But then you got seven, eight-year-olds learning how to hang themselves on social media, et cetera, you know, and thinking about killing themselves. I'm like, you're not even going through any real life trials to even want to die. You know, like, it's craziness.

And nowadays, we're not creating any hardship at all for kids. And then we're wondering why they become adults and regular life stuff is happening and now they want to die. I'm just like moms, moms, dads, whatever, y'all haven't created any hardship for your kids. These kids need hardship because if you don't give them that life is going to give them some real hardship and they're not going to be able to handle it. So that's like kind of a big, you know, a jumbled up story of how we got started, you know, what we've been doing, where we are now. So definitely you could reach us. on the X4boys.org. That's T-H-E-X-F-R-B-O-I-S.

That's what I was going to ask you. How can people support you? Because I know you mentioned the Amazon wish list, so how can people support you? But really quickly, what year did y'all go to the White House? 2020. Shut up, Rachel.

I was like, wait a minute. Okay, go. Nothing. I mean, he just says Rachel, Rachel was asking y'all went to see Donald Trump. Yeah, she doesn't know who the president was. You don't think he was. I'm sorry.

You don't think anybody else thought that? I was just like, I was just like, huh? Did you all meet Trump? Yep, we may have. You like, you like him? I mean, it was a great meeting for us. We had a good time.

That's not what I asked you, nigga. King, that's not what I asked you, nigga. All right, let's get all the way. Don't show this. Hey, don't show this to the kids. Don't show this to the kids. because we're getting all the way gangster wild with it. What you were talking about is very true.

Like what, no, I just want to say something real quick. And by the way, look, I mean, our audience will probably go crazy on this, but it's the way it goes. Look, I'll say this. Two things. Number one, what you were saying about being able to get to an age with kids where the wire called it

two-seasoned, where they're two-seasoned and you can't get them back as obvious. It's very true. When I was talking to Pastor Corey Brooks, I interviewed him on the top of his, of his prospective community center across from Parkway Gardens in O'Block. Another guy who's pretty conservative. When I talked to him, I remember asking him about what he could do for the kids in the South Side of Chicago that were running around living how they're living right now. And the answer is, unfortunately, you can, you peel off who you can, but in mass, not much. And that's why what he was doing was so important is because he's trying to get to these kids before they develop into something that you can't really pull them back from.

So that's absolutely the right way. I think they got enough hardship. But I think the structure, I think the structure that you provide them with, and to be honest with you, people say what they want me and you never have to politically agree we never we don't have to agree with anything if we can agree right now that we want the lives of young black men young black women young black girls to be better i guarantee you people can find a way to work together and if you can't then you don't really love black people i'm just going to be for real with you if you see somebody doing four people even if you need to pull them to the side and go hey brother i'd have done this this

way or hey brother i'd have done this that way you can have those conversations in private and do it with respect like pastor core be on fox news and stuff like that i still fuck with pastor cori i'm as liberal as it gets i love pastor core yeah like i love him but but like but like to me if there's when i see somebody doing the work like that when i see somebody out there like that i got to be tapped in with him and it can't be about i'm not doing that so even if me me and you talking to DMs and and getting to it like that. And we have this and that and disagreements on this. We have to agree that we want the young boys to succeed.

Correct. And I commend you for that. Straight up. Yes, sir. That's where I am. I think that's where we need to get. I say we get too caught up on political stuff. And that's what they be warned from us not to, you know, come together.

And that's what I believe in. I don't really talk politics much at all anymore. I used to, like, you know, a long time. ago, but it gets nowhere. I just do work. And when you're doing work, you'll, you know, you'll meet with a lot of people. And people, you know, all the time, I tell them, I'm like, I'm affiliated with everybody. Like, I'm, I got people in the nation of Islam that will fight for me in my hometown, like serious. Like, I got a lot of people in the pro-black community that love what we do and love who I am and don't care about any politics that, you know, I may have because who cares

about that, to be honest, because at the end of the day, all the new presidents come in and whatever changes. Nothing. You know, new governors come in, whatever change. change is nothing. The only thing we could change is the people next door to us, you know, the kids make down the street from you, et cetera, like I always tell people, whoever's selling this whole thing, like the whole black community is going to change. If we all just do this one thing, it's not happening. You have to work in your own community where you are and the people next door to you that need help. You know, if we all focus on our local areas and the people right next to us instead of trying to be the Messiah and fix the whole black community,

I think, you know, we actually make more change like that versus, you know, every, trying to beat the head and spearhead the giant movement like Dr. King. Got a got, we have got to have that type of solidarity. I'm going to come in there. I'm going to come down to Albany, bro. I'm going to talk to the boys. I'm going to teach the fuck the police class. That's what be my class.

Fuck the police. Fuck the police 101 with Mr. Van. Like that's going to be my. That's going to be funny. But I do want to talk to them about accessing their power. I want to make sure we're powerful. You know what I mean? I want to make sure we're good citizens,

but we're also powerful citizens. But I'm going to tell you straight up. I commend what you're doing at that. At your age, to be doing that, brother, I wish you nothing but success. I'm serious. I appreciate you. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green.

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Just real quick, wrap it up real quick. You don't always have to agree with everything, guys. You don't have to agree with everything, okay? You can just agree on some things and then build out the relationship. There's no way to hate on what he's doing. He's trying to say... There's no way to hate on what he's doing. There's no way to hate on what he's doing.

I've seen a lot of people. I don't take away from the message. But it was... We needed to wrap it up. It just... It was... And I only say this because, especially towards the end, there was so much that I was like,

I actually fundamentally agree with some things that you're saying. Like, you can't have one without the other. But at the core, it's right. and so I just want to leave it there. You're right. You don't have to agree to do well to make an impact. You absolutely don't. And that and that's what I will say.

You know, let's just get in the mailback. Let's see what type of shit you guys have drummed up this time on Melback. Can we just go please? Let's please. Mailback time. Time to read your letters and then we'll reply to them. Oh. It's mailback time.

Write us with your queries and we'll chime in. All right, cool. First, mailback question is from final stretch. They ask, if your dogs were humans and y'all were the pets, what kind of humans would they be and what kind of pet would you be? I think that I am Bozeman's pet. Oh, my God, Bozeman would be great. Like, he'd be such a great human.

there's some there's some uh there's some he's very bozeman is very loving um he's very loving loving super loving so yeah i think he would be a great owner what about copper copper is uh copper copper's very loving and very protective and and super loyal like he's perfect to me and so he would be such a fantastic human brownie would be a brat. He would be a spoiled brat, selfish, not self-aware. I love that little guy.

But, you know, he's a little dog. So he's got like little dog personality. And he's cute and he knows it. Yeah, he is. Brownie is cute. They're like little brothers. They're little cool-looking dogs. I love those guys.

Yeah. Copper has a good influence on him. Van likes to stare at Brownie and just get lost. Brownie, like, and then like to say out loud, he's cute. Brownie's cute. He's a cute little guy. I love that little guy, man. All right, Donna, give us question C here. Oh, no, actually, question B is good, too.

It's all three of them. These are good. All right, cool. Question B is from Thai comedy. It's a movie question, but you can participate, Rachel, I'm sure. Name Wesley Snipes's top three rows. Your favorite, Rose. I want Rachel go first.

Okay. Let me think of Wesley's sight movies. Waiting to Excel. It was small, but it was impactful. Jesus. I don't know. Oh, white men can't jump. Okay.

Blame. That's a good three. I think the waiting to exhale one is an abomination. But that's good. I actually would have two of those the same. I would have white man can jump. I would have Blade And then my...

And to Wong Fu? No. But shout out. Huh? Is that what it's called? To Wong Fu. Thanks for everything. Julie Newmar.

Okay, his name of the movie. It's a great movie. It's a lovely movie. Okay. But that's not the third one. The third one I would have. Let's see if Donnie can guess. What will be the third one to you?

Oh, New Jack City. What am I saying? That's what I would have picked this. instead of waiting to excel. That would be for me. That's the third one, man. No third one. He's got about me.

Yeah, that's good. That's got to be in there, too. If we can have a fourth one, I was going to say him in the bad music video, Michael Jackson. Oh. That's a good off the wall. That's a good one.

So if I was going to have a fourth one. If I was going to have a fourth one, it would be Demolition Man. Oh, I didn't see that. Where he plays Simon Phoenix. I love that role, right? one of the coolest villains ever. We should have got a Simon Phoenix spino off

in the whole nine. I loved him at Simon Phoenix, but New Jack City. Ni No, Brown is iconic. I should have started there. And Blade. Those are the three. The waiting to exhale, you know, but you caught yourself. That's because I couldn't think,

I couldn't think of another movie, but then it's like, hello. Yeah, you caught yourself. All right, last question. All right, last one is from Dany Dumps. How many niggas you think are buying the gold enslaved matter? 90s. He's referencing Trump's new shoes.

Oh, the Trump's? Yeah, the J-6s. The J-6s? I mean, some of you coon-in-ass slave niggas going to buy them and walk around with that, you know, actually, Don, you had that audio that the guy on Fox said, you play that audio real quick. This is connecting with Black America because they love sneakers or into sneakers. They love there's a big deal, certainly in the inner city. So when you have Trump roll out his sneaker line. They're like, wait a minute. This is cool. He's reaching them on a level that defies and is above

politics. What would you do? Somebody gifted you the J-6s. That's disrespect. Yeah, it says a lot about the person. It has disrespect. They just gift. She gifted you, though. That's disrespect for you to even think. That's disrespect. Everybody is giving

black people everything except for what they need. Them goddamn shoes. Fuck them shoes Fuck them fucking shoes Some of y'all niggas gonna do it Just to be irreverent That's unserious stupid Good mailback questions today though

Well I mean the way that you've come after them Step your shit up They better Step your shit up They better Before we get out of here I want to say something real quick Okay

There was some unbelievably sad news that broke Not too long ago Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and a facia. I think it's the way you call it. Mm-hmm. Rachel, I know this is a cause that's very close to your heart. You've done work around this before. This is not unlike what Bruce Willis is dealing with right now.

Right. I'm just say real quick. I know Wendy Williams a little bit I know Wendy Williams But doesn't have anything to do With the reason why I'm saying this Love her or hate her Wendy Williams is an expert communicator

I would watch I would watch Wendy Williams on her show No punch lines No jokes Sitting down talking to people communicating to people in a way that's easily digestible to them Every single word

They're hanging on it they're clapping when they want to clap they're ooing when they're want to ooh wendy williams is just up there doing her thing um she was like she is not was she's here with us uh but at her height of her career she was one of the most consequential people in this entire business she was one of the most consequential people in a celebrity entertainment and and and and commenting obviously uh not everything that a Wendy Williams has done in her past are things or or things that Van thinks are great that I think are great.

I'm obviously not in a great position to comment on that type of stuff. I worked to TMZ for a long time. But to see this happened to her at such a young age and her to be diagnosed that with this at such a young age is gutting. Yeah. And I hope that she has to support system around her family, people that love her to be able to be there with her. in a very tough time.

And I think people that even would have things to say about her that aren't so flattering would find their humanity, would find their humanity, should I say in moments like this. So that was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly sad news to see. It's sad for Bruce Willis as well. Yeah, I mean, to them, to anybody who's going with it, I mean, anybody who has been impacted by a loved one, a friend, co-worker, whatever it may be, who, as, because they they can't diagnose Alzheimer's while you're living. So dementia, aphasia, it is so tough to watch somebody with a huge personality or just whatever they, whoever they were, be totally different.

That is tough for the caretaker, which is something you don't talk about a lot. The caretaker has it rough because the person who's going through it knows they're going through it. So then they're reacting because they're not, they know that they're not themselves at the same time. They're frustrated with that they can't remember things, they can't speak things a certain way. It is a devastating disease to watch somebody go through. And for the people who are like saying, it's karma for Wendy Williams, like shame on you. Because it is, you shouldn't wish ill on anybody like that. But I have the same sentiments as you as Wendy Williams. I did her show. And that was a big moment for me because I was a fan. I watched her every single day. I studied her. Hater or her. Hader or

lover, agree with her or not, the way that she could sit down for 20 minutes and talk to the camera with no co-host is a skill that you cannot teach. And I would study her and watch how she would do it and watch her do it in such an effortless way. And I think also to see it play out publicly, I feel is a little wrong. I'm not fully agreeing with this documentary. I think people are curious to know what's happening with her, but I don't think this is the way we should know. And so I just want to come out and say, I don't like it, you know, I'm trying to let my curiosity not get the best of me. I want to see it because I, I'm a fan of her. But I also feel wrong, supporting it. Oh, I'm out now. I'm out now. I don't, I mean, I don't even,

there's no way that somebody who is, who has that disease is fully capable of making the decision to put themselves on camera. They're not. Yeah, I'm not. They're not. And I'll say all that too. I am involved with the Alzheimer's Association. I work with them. I'm working with them right now in a gala of the spring. You know, if you have somebody who's showing symptoms or suffering or whatever, please go visit the website.

I don't know exactly. ALZ org is what I want to say, that that could be wrong. To learn more about it, but then also things that you can do is preventative measures because people are being diagnosed with this younger and younger and younger. The way you guys talk about gut health and how that is important for you, so is brain health. And there's certain things that you can do to exercise your brain to as a preventative measure if this is something that, because it is genetic,

it's something that you might eventually succumb to. All right, a lot of political stuff on Monday. We're going to be back. A lot of political stuff on Monday. A lot of stuff happening on Monday. We're going to check in all with all of the stuff that's going on. But for now, you can take your think caps off, but do not stop learning. I'm Van, Layton Jr.

And I am Rachel. and Lindsay. Bye guys.