Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 393 - Love EVERYONE ft. C.T. Fletcher

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

CT Fletcher is a fitness/powerlifting vlogger, owner of Iron Addicts Gym, a 3x Bench Press World Champion, 3x Strict Curl Champion, and actor. He is one of the most notable and recognizable figures in the fitness/strength industry. He is a heart transplant recipient as of 2018. CT on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.t.ali.fletcher/ Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Support the show by visiting our sponsors! ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT25" for 25% off of $50! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Icon Meals: http://iconmeals.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mark Bell's Power Project podcast. This episode was recorded on June 1st and it is with the legendary C.T. Fletcher. Today we talked to C.T. about what's going on in the world today. We talked a lot about George Floyd and, you know, the riots and the looting and everything that's going on. So we got his thoughts on that. We also asked him a couple of questions about his experience with racism. C.T.'s an old school cat. So he said it himself that he rode

through LA in the back of a bus. So that's how far back you go. So he's seen a lot of things in his day all the way up to, again, today, 2020. We also learned that CT has actually gone full plant-based. And just by looking at his face and the last time we spoke to him on this podcast, he looks so much healthier. So good on him. And like I said in the episode, we need CT to live forever. We need him around a very, very long time. So I don't care what diet he's on, as long as it's working for him, that makes me extremely happy. And the biggest takeaway that I think everyone's going to get is CT's mother taught him to love everybody, including those that hate you. Very, very powerful message. If you guys

appreciate what we're talking about, please reach out on Instagram at Mark Bell's Power Project. We'll leave CT Fletcher's Instagram accounts and links down in the YouTube description, Facebook description, and iTunes show notes. Reach out to him. Let him know you guys heard him on this podcast. And ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this show with the one and only C.T. Fletcher. Ka-chow.

All right, gentlemen. How are you guys doing today? We're doing pretty good, man. I've been just living off that Piedmontese, eating those burgers, eating those steaks, even amidst all this evil crap that's going on. Still got some yummy food to look forward to every day, thankfully. Yeah, we barbecued up some of their hamburger patties.

It was pretty cool. I got to cook for the in-laws, and they've never had their hamburger patties. And so I'm like, oh, just you wait. This ain't your every day. I got something for you. Yeah it was freaking awesome um and Seema anything to add sir I just got some stuff defrosting right now so I'm I'm gonna wait for it all right we'll catch you on the next one for more information on Piedmontese please head over to piedmontese.com that's p-i-e-d m-o-n-t-e-s-e.com checkout, enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off.

And if your order is $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Highly recommend. All their ground beef, for some reason, it tastes a little bit better. But definitely the flat iron steaks. It's got like 8 grams of fat for like 90 grams of protein. Insane macros. Get you jacked. Yeah.

Yeah, today we got C.Tt fletcher on the podcast been a longtime friend and somebody that i've looked up to for a long time he's been super motivational to all of us and i know to a lot of listeners that are going to listen in today a lot of stuff to talk to him about you know we got a lot of the stuff that's going on just in in the world today um everyone has seen what's been going on with the riots and what happened with uh george floyd being murdered on television there's a a lot of different things to process and a lot of things to think about ct i believe is i think he's like 60 something. I'm not, I'm not sure. Um, he's a guy who's been through a lot. He's, he's been through, uh, child abuse and him being the, uh, the age that he is. Um, he's seen his fair share of racism, especially growing up in the areas that he grew up. He is,

is that he grew up, he is, uh, he's from Compton, California, but he also grew up, uh, in Arkansas as well. He was raised in Arkansas, I think when he was young. So he knows the whole thing, man, from, he knows the story from not the beginning, beginning, but pretty much the beginning, you know, back of the bus type of stuff, different water fountains. You know, he just, he grew up with so much of that. And he has, I think some interesting views. I've talked to him many times before about racism. I've talked to him in depth about the use of the N word and like what he thinks of it. And he, for him, he doesn't, he chooses not to use it. He, he just, he just thinks it kind of adds to it. Different people have different opinions,

you know, on, on things like that. But, uh, I'm excited to talk to him and, um, hopefully, and plus, you know, he's got a new heart. The guy literally has a new heart. He had a heart transplant. Um, he had many, many heart issues, uh, over the course of several years. And he's back in the gym. He's training. He's training with his son.

It looks like both of them are so enthusiastic and excited to be, like, working out together. So that always looks really cool to see. And they're training with that pig iron. They got these old beat-up weights in their backyard that they're training with that pig iron. They got the, these old beat up weights in their backyard that they're using, you know, those, those weights that have the, uh,

the really kind of narrow, a hole opening, you know, this kind of old school barbells. You can't even find some of this stuff anymore, but anyway, I'm, I'm really excited,

really fired up to talk to CT today. And those are the ones that have like the collar that you got to spin on and they always, and it never works, never works never works ever no but yeah no this has been a really crazy few days man everything that's it's crazy how it's like it's it's popped over here in sacramento too it's like protests started two days ago where we on where it's what mond Monday? So literally Saturday night. Yeah, Saturday there were protests. Saturday night there was like break-ins and stuff. Sunday there were break-ins to shops and stuff downtown.

And now there's going to be a curfew apparently. It's confusing because there's kind of different things going on. These are not all the same people. Some of the people that are protesting are not the same people that are necessarily rioting they're not the same people are necessarily looting um i think some people you know have specifically been like hey it's a good opportunity to steal shit maybe unfortunately they've been coming through and they've been uh they've been taking stuff um all i can think about is is this is that you know um as much as i think everyone is i think everyone is in favor of a peaceful well maybe not everyone i would say i think the majority of people would be in favor of peaceful protest if they felt it was effective

um the problem is most people don't feel like that's going to be effective. When you bring in officers that look militant, they have shields and they have tear gas and they have guns. And I'm not even imposing or not saying in any way that they shouldn't have those things. I'm just saying that when you have those people there and you have the law enforcement there to try to protect the city, then it gives people somebody to fight. You know, it's like, okay, it's us against them. And it's like, well, it's not really you against them. Like that dude, you know, has a family, like that guy is just, he's, this is his job. This is his career. It's not necessarily any particular race against. But what do you do when a particular race has been subject to so many atrocities over the years? establishment. They're trying to fight the way that things are set up. Cops happen to be there and the cops are, I personally don't really know why the, why the law enforcement is even there,

but I guess, I guess they would, you know, people would just maybe like overrun a city and you just have all hell breaking loose and just have chaos. And maybe people don't think that that's healthy either. So I don't really know what the solutions are. But I'll say this. I'll say that even though it seems senseless to like burn down your own neighborhood, as people are saying, you're not burning it down because you're trying to damage your own neighborhood. you're not burning it down because you're trying to damage your own neighborhood. You're burning it down because you're so pissed and you're so frustrated. You're basically, in my opinion, what people are saying or trying to say through this message is they're trying to say, I am so mad that if I can't have certain good things in this world, then neither can you. And I'm going to burn shit to the fucking ground if I have to do it. And I actually think that that's fair. I think that the way that we've been treating people, I think it's fair for people to, to feel this way. I think it's fair that I think it's, I think that these riots, I think that it's the only way there are other ways people can have conversations, but that is probably not going to happen.

I think that people have tried to do that in the past. And I think that I am very hopeful that this will lead to something better. But there's countries where there's war in the streets every single day, like Iran ran and shit never gets any better and it's always this and it's been you know they've had like literal war going on for hundreds of years so you know i hope that's not our destination i think that um i think that we will come to some resolutions but that's just kind of my my general thoughts on it like, I think we kind of shoved ourself into this situation and I, I don't want to see people hurt each other, but I think some of it is justified.

Yeah. You know, the, uh, the killer Mike speech that has been going around, um, kind of encapsulated the whole thing. He was there encouraging individuals that individuals and telling individuals that, okay, no, later on, we need to try and take control. We need to vote for the right people. Those are the things we need to do. He wasn't in support of these riots,

although he understood why it was going on. And even so, seeing the rioting, we got to understand that a lot of people are like, how can they do this? How can they protest this? How can they protest and burn their own communities? Understand that a lot of these situations, it's not these people that are starting these riots. It's really not. There are videos of people from the outside. And I'm not talking about the umbrella man that a lot of people

have this conspiracy about. I'm talking about there are videos of people in those communities, protesters, guarding stores, because other people are trying to spray paint them and other people are trying to burn them down while they're trying to peacefully protest. So understand that it's not all protesters that are doing this, but also it's, it's, it's a really tough thing because yeah, you know, some of these people are doing this because they feel that they've been unheard. But you think about it, like there has to be some empathy for those potential small business owners,

whether they be black or whether they be up, be white. Because if you bring a business to a community and then that community, or it may, sometimes it is the media, sometimes it's not, but that store gets burned down there that you don't want to do business there.

You're going to want to just move yourself out of that community, which in itself hurts the community. So it's horrible that we are in this situation and it's, I mean, it's getting news coverage. It's nationwide. I mean, other countries are starting to talk about what's going on here. So I think this is the most vocal we've been able to be about this situation because of this. But this can't be going on for too much longer. Yeah.

Seeing local businesses get just ran straight into the ground. I'm not going to say it's the worst thing that we've seen in all of this, but it just, it sucks, you know, cause you see these business owners that, you know, not target, not Walmart, not these big corporations that are, you know, they're, they're almost like a casualty of, you know, this war and it sucks, you know, and I don't, I don't have any answers, but I just know that, that I don't know what that's helping, you helping. Because like you said, you're going to drive some business out of the community. They're not going to want to come back. It really just makes things really difficult for all sides. Yeah, irrational thought is probably not going to be solved with further irrational thought.

You know, I see it from multiple angles. I'm seeing this thing from a lot of different sides. You see one post by one person, you see another post by another person. I think one of the hard things about this is that it's a fight against like an ideology. It's a fight against like an idea and a concept. And it's not necessarily like a person. It's a, you know, as Richard Dawkins points out, it's a meme. It's an irrational meme. And a meme is like a gene. It's like passed down from one generation to another.

Like, hey, you know, Joey, like this is the way this race acts. And this is the way they are like this, and we are like that. And there's this giant divided line that kids are taught from the time they're really young. And it's like, man, how in the hell do you beat that one? Because you can't just have a class about it one day, and you can't just say, hey, here's my Mexican friend andrew and here's my black friend and see there you know it like it's not going to get resolved that quickly like it's a it's a longer

play thing and and we we've been talking about it in my household a little bit and you know talking about um you know the mixing of the races is going to continue to happen further on down the line we go, you know, a few hundred years from now, there really won't be probably as many straight up Caucasians as there are now. There'll be a larger mix and we will also be the minorities. But that's not necessarily a solution for anything either. And as we've seen before, having African-Americans in power isn't necessarily a solution either, because, I mean, let's kind of face it. They have to play the game in order to get in a position of power. And then they enjoy many of the same things that white privileged people enjoy. That's just from my, this is just 100% my opinion.

So, you know, if people are getting upset at some of the stuff I'm saying, this is just observations that I've made, you know, over the years. But these are just, it's unfortunate because it leaves you like, just like, damn, how do we? And again, I think everything always comes back to parenting. Good, strong parents.

And then I believe that some of this stuff has to be communicated in school. I really think that that would be another another huge factor. You know, I think that those things are are the only things that can help if people are compassionate for one another if people have love for one another if people are taught that like okay i understand you're a police officer but we can't beat the shit out of other people like we just can't once you hurt somebody or once you got them in a position where you feel like you're safe and everybody else is safe from whatever it is that happened, then we need to freaking, you know, we need to move on from it.

And you would hope that these police officers are armed with, you know, jujitsu and armed with ability to take people down and where they're not intimidated or scared or nervous about whether something, I mean, this guy had no, he has, he had just like, I, I've been, I was a bouncer for many years and they just, even as a bouncer and even as someone who did security at concerts and stuff, they tell you like, Hey, if you need to like, you know, throw someone out, you need to use a little force, like, yeah, kind of do, you know,

do what you need to do. But in terms of like putting someone on the ground and like laying on top of them, they tell you that. They tell you not to do that. You're like, because you don't know who you're dealing with, you know, and somebody might have a medical issue. And if you compromise their chest, you know, if you put pressure on their upper back and lay your body weight on them, that's something you don't do. And I was nobody. I was not even a cop. So I'm sure police officers, while they're informed on how to take someone out, take someone down, even kill somebody, I'm sure they're very well informed also on how to not overdo it as well.

You're seeing a lot of back and forth in terms of not back and forth but more so the the ugly and good sides of all of this for example like there's a lot of video showing how certain groups of police are responding to peaceful protest that's very very negative there's a lot of there's you know i don't know if you all saw that video from flint michigan where the sheriff like made a speech and then he started marching with protesters that's going on quite a bit too so it's like you can't paint all sides of this with just a brush you can't paint the protesters with they're looting and rioting because they're not all looting and rioting and you can't paint the police with they're all like you know they're all beating up these protesters because they're not all doing that. It's, it's super murky. Um, but at least it's visible.

Like you can see where like there is some, like there, there's video of like police and full riot gear kicking and pushing protesters that are literally kneeling on the ground. Like they're, they're, they're kneeling bro. They're, they're not standing or pushing back. These are protesters that are kneeling. And these officers with riot shields with full on gear are kicking and pushing and spraying them right now. So it's, it's, it's insane. Yeah. And how much, uh, how, how much, um, how much training do people have in riots? You know what I mean? So it's, it's obviously the people that are going to go out and riot and stuff, they're probably not really considering this and they probably don't really care.

But, you know, what's the training for writing like they don't how much real world training do you have against a riot? Not a lot. So what do you do with people that are unruly and people that are, you know, maybe seeming out of control. And maybe that person that you kick that was on the ground that had their hands, you know, even behind their back and they're kneeling, maybe that wasn't the thing that like, that wasn't the main thing that sparked you. It was something else earlier in the night because you've been there for six hours, eight hours. You just don't want to be there anymore.

You know, and so human fallibility is good. I'm not trying to make excuses for any of it but i'm just saying like these are just things that that can potentially happen when you're not you're not really how do you get trained for that the only way to get trained for it is to be in it yeah and even so right training but also like is there training when uh your your partner is being a little bit too aggressive? Is there some conversation where it's like, hey, you can also go in and neutralize the situation? And I'm not saying I would have done any better, but there was that Asian cop that was just kind of sitting there like, hey,

like probably shouldn't. And he just kind of stood there, like slouched over, didn't really, didn't, you know, again, I wouldn't have been able to do anything myself so it's really easy for me to you know be an armchair quarterback right now but maybe if there was some type of some training where it's like hey sometimes we let our whatever aggression get the best of us whatever way they can word it that doesn't sound as bad as that to be like if you do see this it is also your job to protect somebody that's getting beat up by your own you know uh your own uh your own side uh maybe that's like what you're saying right now because there's i like what you're saying right there because cooler heads should be able to prevail, you know? And, and when I went again, just being a bouncer,

my Patrick Swayze days, um, if I would kick somebody out and something happened, you know, like someone took a swing at me or something, um, I wasn't allowed to pursue that guy any further. Like we had, we had a very strict rule. You'd be fired from the job that I had. You'd kick somebody out, and the thing was it would go on to the next person. So I would detain someone, grab them, wrap them up, put them in a full Nelson or something like that, kick them out of the bar, right? Or even if I had to ask somebody to leave, and someone's like, you're an effing asshole or whatever they're going to say, right? I would place them outside.

Another bouncer would start to communicate with them. Boom, I'd walk right back inside. And so in that case, what you're talking about there is the Asian officer, you know, could have said, hey, like he said he can't. Like, what if he really actually can't breathe? You know, what if he what if he's really compromised? Why don't we let up a little bit on him? You know, and I'm sure the police officers have very specific protocols to protect them and everybody else, where that guy can't necessarily just get up and, like, switch, you know, with the other guy.

Maybe it's not as simple as that. But you figure that somebody there, they have, there's other officers there. And when the, when the incident first started within the first couple of minutes of it, there's not a lot of people around. And so it's just the officers concentrating on this one guy. And so it doesn't make any sense on why it might make sense if there's a big crowd around them and they can't concentrate and people are yelling and throwing bottles at them and stuff, but that's not what happened. It went over the course of like eight minutes or something like that, which is just ridiculous. And then also, I mean, it's horrible, but I'm sure you guys heard it as well.

well. If you listen to the way that he talks, if you listen to the way that George Lloyd is talking, the way he's communicating, it's very obvious he's extremely compromised. People don't sound like that normally. That is not a normal sound. It sounded like a dying cat or a dog or something. It sounded like I haven't heard like a person, you know, die, dying before, but that's what you, that's what you heard in that video is very clear. Like you, you hear a real true cry for help. You really, you really hear a desperate cry for help. It's, it's disgusting. Like I listened to it on my phone. Like I put it up close to my ear because I've been in situations again, where there's been fights and brawls and this and that. And like, you know, people are you hear people make sounds, you hear people make, you know, noises and stuff.

You probably even hear it in jujitsu and stuff like that. suing stuff like that. But if somebody is really compromised and they're really in a really bad spot, it's, it's different than like, Hey dude, like just let up a little bit. It's a, it's a completely different noise. It's completely different sound and how you can be a police officer for so long and not be able to understand that, not be able to hear that. It's beyond me. It doesn't make it that part you know really doesn't make any sense on why okay just take your knee out of his neck just slot it you know even if what he's doing is wrong you know even if he is a racist bastard just don't kill the fucking guy just slide your knee down into his upper back so he can breathe but like did he not i mean he he said it many times

and how does anybody else not around not understand the difference between somebody bullshitting you because they're trying to get out of a compromised position versus somebody's like they're dying like how do you not know that yeah and it's not like you i mean sorry i don't know for sure, but it seems like they had him. It didn't seem like he was going to try to run away. No, they had him. You're right. That's what I mean.

Like, so, like, if there is an argument of, like, well, he couldn't have lifted his knee up because he would have, you know, scrambled away. It's like, he's not going anywhere. Like, he could have. And where would he have, he's not going anywhere like he could have and where would he just let's just say he ran away he's handcuffed you know like how far is he going to get and you're already kind of you already roughed him up like he's tired and exhausted he's not going to get anywhere no but i think andrew like your whole thing goes to show like how strong that brotherhood is because and i honestly do think that you could sit here and you could play what our armchair what a commentator

or whatever i am quarterback i think you can do that because like you right now as you are with your mind if you were in that cops that asian cop situation i feel like you would have gotten you to have kicked him off but the thing is if you worked on the force for three or four years whatever like that guy did and developed a brotherhood and a unity with all these cops and then it more so becomes hey we're on a job we it's when we're in a tough situation we stay together right it turns into oh well he you know what y'all get away He's doing what he has to do. And you're not even paying attention anymore. It's because that brotherhood is so fucking tight.

You know, there was a, there was a video that came out and it was, um, these cops in Staten Island. I don't know if you guys saw it, but you know how people always talk about how like cops plant weed and people think people make that up. Mark, you saw it, huh? Yeah. Yeah. I know.

These dudes pulled two guys out of a car and he this cop is going around he's like god i need to find something you can hear it on his body camera he's like gotta find something can't find anything can't find anything he's going through his sweater can't find anything then he goes and he sprinkles some weed in the cup holder oh found some weed here also found some weed in his sweater this stuff happens all the time and it it's because they, they, they have to stick together. They have to justify some of the things that they do. And the people that are listening, we're not talking about all cops.

We know this. And my own brother, my own brother was subject to that kind of stuff. So in a, in a similar situation, my brother had a previous history. You know, we, we, just like we have a previous history of seeing, you know, white police officers beating the crap out of, out of African-Americans. We also, you know, we, we, we, we see it, you know, we see these kinds of things many different ways and it conditions us to believe certain things. Just like people are like, Whoa, what about the jails?

They're all full of African-Americans. So we see these things on the news. We see these things on TV. Another black guy's getting in trouble. Another black athlete gets in trouble. And we just keep seeing these things and it kind of conditions us so that when you see a George Floyd situation, as you said, it actually, unfortunately, is somewhat normal. But a lot of people are like, well, what did George Floyd do before that? And what's his rap sheet? What's his previous criminal record? And none of that matters when you're talking about real justice. When you're talking about real justice, you're talking about, well, what's the situation at hand? What happened in the moment? And with my brother, he got in trouble so many different times with the police they planted something in his vehicle because they just they they were just

at a point with him or they just really wanted to get him and nab him on something you know and so you know it can happen in multiple ways here we go ct can you hear us yet, buddy? I can hear you. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Yes, sir. Yeah. Hey, man, you're looking healthy as a horse.

I thought you got a new heart. I did. And I also turned completely vegetarian or plant-based, I should say. I can't believe it. You look amazing. You feeling good? I am. Thank you very you. How are you doing? I'm doing, I'm doing awesome. I'm,

I'm so excited to have you here on the show and you know, there's a lot of, a lot of crap to talk about today. And I, I really appreciate, you know, you coming forward and, and being someone that's that's speaking out against some of the things that are going on. I just want to guess in general, just get your general take on racism. I know that you've experienced a lot of it throughout your life since you've been around for a long ass time, since you're older than dirt, as you say in your own words. You got my age exact. Precisely how am older than dirt i'll tell you how old i

am smelly i'm old enough to have come over to uh los angeles or watts uh in the back of a bus so that's how old i am yeah and so what what are some of your your like what's kind of your general thought on just racism and, you know, just a very general, you know, kind of overview on like the way that you see it? has fuck hate on it. And I have, you know, whenever I make the post, I say something about fuck hate, people, a lot of comments say, oh man, that's ancient history and

there's no more racism. And I get all kinds of shit like that. No, why are you, racism is done. And I wish that were true, but obviously it is done. And I wish that were true, but obviously it is not. I think that on the

current situation, do you want me to talk about the current situation? Okay, current situation, absolutely people are fucking fed up and they're tired of the way this shit has been

going George Floyd is most recent but he is not a one off this has happened continuously for a long

ass period of time. It's just that this one is the freshest and the most, I'd say blatant, because he did this right in front of everybody and said, fuck it. I mean, he could see all the cell phones on. He said,

fuck it. I know you guys watch me, I know you can see this shit, and I don't give a fuck. And that, you know, that is what I think pissed people off the most, incensed people the most, this motherfucker's disregard, total disregard for a human being. I mean, this motherfucker was less, he treated this man, this human being, less than fucking dirt. If he had

done a dog like that, it would be more, it would be so much outrage and prostitution. If he had done a fucking, put his knee on a dog and choked it to death, the whole fucking country would be going crazy. But since,

you know, Mark, but there's a I got to give you more of my background. I said I came over here in the back of a bus. My mom, my brother and myself, we came over here. So I lived that. I have lived that long. That's the early 60s. Early 60s.

We came over in 62. And back of the bus but my mother raised me Mark Bell Mark Smelly Bell, she raised me to love everybody anybody who see my Instagram

my post on Twitter, they know that that's what I'm preaching all the motherfucking time love everybody because that's the way I was raised. Love everybody. And I said, Mama, but what about the folks that hate me? What about the people that made us ride on the back of the motherfucking

bus? What about them? And she said, Son, especially them. Especially because it's easy to love a motherfucker that loves you especially because it's easy to love a motherfucker that loves you back. That's easy. Any fucking body can do that.

But if you can love a motherfucker that hates you for the only fucking reason, because of the color of your skin, then you're doing something. Then you are Christ-like. It's only Christ can do something like that. Love a person that hates you. Somebody's nailed you to the

fucking cross and you love them anyway, that's going above and beyond. So that's what she required me. That's what she did. That's what she preached. So that's the requirement that was made of me from a kid.

So I learned to love everybody. But when wrong shit happens, you better goddamn well believe that I'm going to call it out for fucking wrong. And this shit is wrong. Looting is fucking wrong. Burning shit down is fucking wrong. That ain't helping shit.

It must have been very difficult throughout your life to adhere to what your mom said, because you're somebody that was you fought for this country. You were in the military and you also worked for the United States Postal Service for a long time. You know, so you've you've you've worked for this country, you know, and then this country treats you like shit. So it must have been very difficult. Have you been able to have you been able to love people back the way that your mom requested? Or is that something that had to happen with a lot of maturity? Oh, most definitely happened with a lot of maturity and a lot of, yes, a lot of things that happened along the way. Because in the beginning, I'm telling you, that's why I asked my mom the question. I said, what about if they hate you?

Because I had no problem. Like I said, it's easy. If another race or my race, they love me. That was my philosophy for many years. If you love me, I love you. I don't give a fuck what color he is. If you love me, I love you. I don't give a fuck what color he is. If you love me, I love you. I thought I was doing pretty good. So I said, wait a minute.

Mama said, no, you gotta take it a step further. I said, wait a minute. Mama, if they love me, I love them. Ain't that enough? She said, no, son, that's not enough. If you want to be like Christ, then you gotta love them motherfuckers that hate you too. I said, dang.

You asking a whole lot now. That's a whole lot. You want me to love people that hate me? Dang. I don't know more. That's going to take. Mark Bell, that took some doing. I had to die a few times before I got that shit straight. It had to die a few times before I got that shit straight.

It took me dying a few times before I got that shit straight. So, yeah, it came with age. It definitely came with age. What's been some of your own experience with racism being, you know, being in the military and being in a formal former United States Postal Service? and being a former United States Postal Service? Yeah, well, I was definitely in the military. And I went to basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. But I tell you what, the military don't give a fuck. A soldier is a fucking soldier. You're going to run into some individuals, other soldiers

that were prejudiced, obviously prejudiced, but my drill sergeant, that motherfucker kicked everybody's ass. He didn't give a fuck what color he was. He was an equal opportunity ass kicker. And you know what? I

appreciate it. I remember that. I remember that. Remember that motherfucker and respect him to this day. Sergeant Thompson didn't give a fuck who he was booting the ass. You're going to get a booting ass. And I appreciate that. As long as he kicked everybody else's ass, I didn't give a fuck.

But I was ready for the military before I got in the military because my dad was a Korean War vet. And I was ready for the military before I got into the military because my dad was a Korean War vet. And I was yes sir and no sir my whole fucking life. And I had to stand in attention and the whole deal. So when I got into the military, it was no problem to do all that shit. What about trust? Your mom told you to love everybody.

trust your your mom told you to love everybody does she give you any advice on trust because we see people that are you know they're joining these peaceful peaceful protesters and we assume that everyone's there for the same cause but then you turn around and somebody's causing up a you know a ruckus and you're just like wait what what are you why are you doing that for that's not our cause anymore and they just want to destroy things so how can we you know unite ourselves if we can't really trust each other because we think we got to kind of look over our shoulders to make sure that not everybody is just trying to you know start looting or just want to destroy something just because you absolutely cannot trust every fucking body even in business if you are any type of a businessman, Mark Smelly

Bell, I know you know this, you cannot trust every fucking body. But if you've been around for a little while, it don't take long. You ain't got to be as old as me, as old as dirt, as Mark put it. You ain't got to be old as dirt to figure out who the fuck you can

trust and who the fuck you can't trust and who's there for the right purpose and who's there not there for obviously to cause mayhem and chaos and make people and put a black mark on a good thing and we're trying

to do good we're trying to make a change we want to change we want to put an end to this bullshit and then you got motherfuckers out there out there for nothing near that purpose. All they want to do is disrupt and cause fucking problems for everybody and make it look like, you know,

that the whole thing is bad. That's their only mission, is try to look like this whole, make the whole thing look bad from a few assholes. Now, I'm curious, CT, because you've you've seen a lot of this over the years, not just but 90s, 80s, you've seen it all. And a buddy of mine, I'm only 27, buddy of mine were talking about this recently. talking about this recently and we were saying like man it's kind of sad but it's almost like we've seen all these killings of of black men like us look up like on tv and we're almost a little bit jaded to it that when we hear it happen we see it we're like they got another one do you

after seeing all of this continuously year by year does it affect you less than it used to? Or does it hit just as hard as it did in the past? That's a damn good question. And I want, I want to ask you a question before I answer your question. Have you ever been pulled over for fitness description? Yeah. And you're young. Let me tell you, I was pulled over for the first time for fitting the description when I was

14 years old. I had six cop cars pull up, two cops to a car, and they all got out with the guns drawn, pointed at my head. I'm 14. I had a pair of swimming trunks on.

Nothing else. I just got a pair of swimming trunks. I'm walking down the street from the pool. I got my swimming trunks and they jumped out the car and put the gun. If I had been the nervous kind of person and just scared because I got all these guns on me, took off running, I wouldn't be here talking to you today. So I just want to answer your question. Fuck yes. It upsets me just as much as it did in the 60s as it does right the fuck now in 2020. And in the 60s, I was in the Watts.

We lived in Watts during the Watts riots. That's where it started. This kind of thing started from experience. My dad was a preacher. We went to church.

Tanks and shit on the side of the road. Tanks and the National Guard stopping us. Hey, where you going? My dad's going, me and my family is going to church. And I'm thinking to myself, motherfucker, I want to go home and look at cartoons. I can praise the Lord at home.

These motherfuckers got guns and shit. And these motherfuckers, we going to church. I thought my dad was a fucking idiot. But we went. So I experienced that firsthand. I was a young kid but I remember the tanks.

I remember all the shit, the commotion that went on. I remember when they called James Brown in to calm people down. I remember all that shit. And it pissed me off then. It still pissed me off. Wrong is still just as fucking wrong in the 60s as it is 2020. Wrong is always going to be wrong.

And it's just as fucking wrong. I'm just as pissed off. And so when Mark asked me to do the podcast, I said, look, Mark, I might not say exactly what the fuck you want me to say, but I'm damn sure going to tell the truth because my integrity means more to me than any motherfucking thing. I stand on my motherfucking word. I've been doing that shit my whole life and I'm going to die just like that. What have you learned from your dad in terms of racism?

I know you've mentioned that you didn't get along with your dad. Your dad abused you when you were young and stuff like that. But, um, him being a preacher and stuff like that, and him being prominent in the community, you probably learned a lot of good, good things from him as well. I talk, I talk about, uh, when I talk about how I feel about, uh, uh, racism and how I feel about people and loving people. I always say

my mama told me to love everybody. You notice that, Mark Bell? I don't say my dad told me that shit. And that's why, you know, real religious people kind of rub me the wrong way sometimes, Mark Bell, when they go to church every

goddamn Sunday. But my dad, you know, he preached, you know, everybody, but he had a tad bit in him. I'm telling you, he had a tad bit in him. You know, he wasn't just crazy about every motherfucking body, and that's just the truth.

He had a tad bit in him, and he, you know, hey, he favored his race over any other and that's for sure. So when I say my philosophy on this, that came from my mom.

And my dad was the preacher now. We was in church every Sunday, every Tuesday, and every fucking Friday we was in church. So I mean, when I got in the military, I probably didn't go back to church for 20 years after I left home. So, you know, my dad and my philosophy, my philosophy on racism and how to treat people is from a mom. We had Daryl Davis on the podcast recently.

He's an activist, and he was explaining how in African-American communities, in the household, there's a conversation about racism. When a kid becomes a certain age, do you ever remember a conversation in your household about, you know, hey, you're a black male, you're going to be viewed a certain way, you have to act a certain way around police officers, and maybe around authority, like, do you remember, you know, ever getting a talk like that, or did you grow up with something similar? Of course, I remember the real one I got was when I told you I was 14 and I got to pull over all the police.

I came home and I told my dad. And, man, he was infuriated. But he called the police station and complained. Then a fucking thing happened. But, you see, he could have killed my son. I mean, if he was nervous, then shit happened. I mean, not a side taste, nothing, not a motherfucking thing. But, shit, Mark, not a motherfucking thing. But,

shit, Mark, I forgot what the question was. Oh, yeah, that's when I got to talk. That's when he gave me the talk. He said, hey, son, you know, I wasn't afraid because I grew up in Compton. So I grew up in Compton, so the police presence was,

you know, shit all the time. See, that's it, every fucking day. So when the police cars came up, that, shit all the time. See, that's it every fucking day. So when the police cars came up, that's the reason I wasn't afraid because I grew up in Compton. My dad called himself, you know, moving us up, moving to a better neighborhood. So we went to the better neighborhood. But I got to talk to my pops. I'm like, shit, I'm old. I ramble.

I ramble, Mark. So I got to put your hand, cooperate with him, put your hands on the fucking steering wheel, whatever they say. Don't get a police. No problem. I got that fucking talk,

you know, real good because we want you to be around. So this good. And man, that shit was fucking hard. I'm going to be honest with you, Mark, but that shit is hard.

Police pulled me over. Hey, get out the car and get on the fucking ground and sit on the ground. And I said, look, officer, I'm fucking 45 years old. If you're going to take me to jail, hook me up

and take me to fucking jail. But I ain't sitting on the goddamn curb. And that's just the way I fucking felt about that shit, Mark. Dale, I ain't sitting on the goddamn curb. And that's just the way I fucking felt about that shit, Mark Bell. I ain't gonna sit on the... If I'm going to jail anyway, just fucking take me. What the fuck I gotta sit on the curb for?

And that shit sometimes is not... You know, you get in a little trouble talking like that sometimes, Mark Bell. I spent a few nights and days behind bars, but fuck it. I walked in that motherfucker. I didn't sit my ass on that curb. Do you

think that, so like when you were 14 there was no social media around. That's right. People keep talking and is there more incidents happening now or is there just more publicity is there more cameras you know i think i mean a young fella uh excuse me what's your name young man what's your name my apologies andrew andrew how are you and Andrew? I'm good. Thank you for asking.

Good, good. Absolutely, there's just more cell phones. There's more cell phones. This shit been happening, you know, all the years that I've been alive, this shit been happening. I done fit the description so many fucking times, Andrew. Been pulled over for fitting the fucking... only reason I asked my ass man why are you why are you my tags is good

my fucking license is good I got insurance why the fuck are you pulling me over well you fit the description I said well what is the goddamn description it's the only description because the person you looking for is black and I'm black, what if the

motherfucker was white? Would you pull over every fucking white person? I want to know, officer, is that how it goes? All I got to do is be black and therefore you pull over every fucking black person? Come on,

officer, this is bullshit. And I tell you that my attitude have a, you know, that's just the way it was. I have spent time behind bars for that attitude. And I'm like, fuck it. Let's go. Let's go.

I think that it's just another miracle that CT Fletcher is still here because of having that fucking, you know, attitude. Because they could have got rid of me for saying shit like that. But that's that old hard head shit my mom used to tell me about. Boy, you're hard headed. Do you ever, like when you got in trouble, did you ever resist arrest?

No, no. No, no. I know better than to resist arrest no no i'm not resisting arrest i'm still here no no no no i didn't resist arrest but but you know certain things like sitting on the curb putting my hands on the fucking hood when the motor is hot and shit i ain't gonna do that shit because if we're going to jail let's go motherfucker i'm ready i ain't gonna resist just hook me up and let's go. I remember being, you know, like 300 and some pounds,

and a lady officer took me to jail. And she was little, too, man. She was little. I'm telling you how big it was. The handcuffs wouldn't close. The handcuffs would not close around my wrist. And you know that 99% of people, The handcuffs wouldn't close. The handcuffs would not close around my wrist. And you know that 99% of people,

them motherfucking handcuffs get around their wrists. But they would not go around my fucking wrist. And she's like, well, I just put them on top. And the rest, when we got to the police station, downtown LA, the rest of the guys, they was like, you brought him in? They couldn't believe it. She brought me in by herself. I'm like, I ain't gonna give you no problem. I just ain't gonna

sit on the curb. I ain't gonna put my fucking hands on you. But really, this time, I was fucking, my registration was expired or something, so I was fucking guilty. So I ain't gonna need it. Yes? Yeah, hell yeah, my shit expired. I ain't got no money. Shit. Broke. need it. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Hell yeah, my C-Dex. I ain't got no money. Bro.

You know, my mom's been like messaging me. She's been calling me. She's been worried recently because of all this stuff that's been going on. Now, obviously, like you have Samson and how like how have you been talking to him throughout all these situations? What have you guys been discussing

about all that's been going on recently? Well, my son, my son knows the basic, you know, the same speech my mama gave me way back when, you know, not to resist the police, not to be afraid of them, but not to resist them. But like, like I said, But like I said, the overriding thing is my mama's philosophy of love everybody. I mean, my grandchildren are half white. My grandchildren are half white.

I have grandchildren that are half white. So I got relatives that are half white and completely white. So how am I going to fucking send a message out of hate? I can't do that because it ain't true. I love every fucking body. But, young man,

what's your name, young man? Nsema. Nsema? Damn, I got this right. Nsema. Yeah, that was perfect. young man what's your name young man Encima Encima? damn I got this right Encima yeah that was perfect Encima when shit is wrong shit is wrong and I'm gonna fucking call the shit out

where I don't give a fuck who like it or don't like it it's just it's wrong when the shit was wrong you have an aggressive or used to have an aggressive personality and you mentioned uh having anger what was your feeling when you saw what happened to george floyd uh mark bell i wanted to jump through my fucking tv screen i want to jump through that goddamn tv screen and put my fucking knee on that motherfuckers neck until he was fucking dead.

And, and I love, and I love everybody. I still love everybody, but I want to kill that motherfucking Marvia. And that's just the truth. And then now that you, you know,

seen it and processed it a little bit more, like what are, do you have the same feelings towards that officer or you know are you able to think about it in a different way at this point i think the officer should receive life imprisonment and the other two other motherfuckers the two that was on the man also should be locked the fuck up And the other motherfucker that stood by and did nothing, doing nothing, when

you see evil and do nothing, you are just as bad or complicit as the motherfucker who's perpetrating the act. So his ass should be locked the fuck up too. As far as I'm concerned, the one with his knee on the neck,

if he got the death penalty, I would not be saved. Now, the other motherfuckers, they need to be locked the fuck up for quite some time. And that motherfucker, if he got the death penalty, because that's exactly what he dealt out was the death penalty.

And I know a whole lot of people who's not unfollowing me. I don't give a fuck. If you don't agree with that shit or you don't like that shit, feel free to unfollow me. Please, hurry the fuck up. Have you personally ever been involved

in a protest or rioting of any kind? I protested in Rodney King. In the Rodney King beating, I was walking the streets of Compton protesting motherfuckers was looting and knocking windows out and burning shit down. Then too.

But I think, you know, the peaceful protest is warranted. The people are mad they have to do something they have to let it out they have to let people know that that's enough is enough for this bullshit enough is enough that's what I'm trying to say the people

just want to get that out there then hey I'm fucking if my old ass wasn't so fucking old I'd be out there with a fucking sign my damn self but I get tired real fast. But look, okay, I gotta go home, man. You think some of the violence is maybe

necessary to get us to, like, a new spot? I think that I'm glad you asked me that. Get people to listen, you know? Yes, you have to do something that not looting or stealing from somebody ain't doing.

The motherfuckers that are stealing would be stealing anyway. Those are opportunists. They see an opportunity to steal. If they got the opportunity to steal any other time, they'd be stealing then, too. They just see a real grand

opportunity now. Oh, man. The shit, the gates is wide open. I'm a thief, roguish motherfucker anyway. So this just is an opportunity. So they're seizing upon the opportunity to do the same shit they were doing anyway.

And that's a fucking shame. But the right to protest, that's guaranteed. We have the right to protest, and I think we should protest. And there's a whole lot more good people than there are fucked up ones. And the good people, the good people are the ones that we should pay more attention to, the ones that we should recognize and try to hear what they're trying to say. These other motherfuckers trying to cloud the

picture and give us a distorted picture of what's actually the purpose of these people being out here. They want to distort the picture. So that's why they have to do nothing but cause chaos and anarchy and fuck up the picture. You know, I'm good.

I'm curious your thoughts on this, CT, because I was having a conversation with my buddy about this. And we were we were kind of disagreeing on like law enforcement. Right. Like when we look at a majority of protesters, a majority of protesters are probably not people who would loot and riot. There's probably just someone like you mentioned who goes out there, who starts something, who tries to spark a fire and get everybody riled up. Someone who would have done this in the first place, but they see an opportunity. Him and I were having a conversation about law enforcement, right? Both of us have had situations with police, some okay, some negative. But he wasn't sure if he believed personally that a majority of police are good and that a minority of police are bad. And I was on the side of like, I do think that there are a lot of bad cops out there, but I would like to believe, I would like to believe that a majority of them are really there to protect and serve all of our communities. What is your personal take on that from the things

that you've seen, from the things that you've gone through? How do you feel about that? Insane. I'm glad you asked that question. Let me say this. At Iron Addicts GM, it is free 24-7. It is free to veterans. It is free to police officers. It is free to firemen. It is free. Because the first time a motherfucker gets in trouble, who the fuck he going to call? He ain't going to call his Uncle Joe. He's going to call the fucking police.

So I appreciate police have, you know, even with the fucking encounters that I've had with police, the many times I've been stopped for fitting the fucking description. I still believe if we crazy, then we just crazy and see me. But I still believe that the majority of police officers, the ones that I've encountered are good people. They got kids.

I had fucking relatives that were police officers. So they are human beings. They're not fucking machines. So I still believe, I know there's a whole lot of folks that ain't going to agree with me. And probably some of them in my family. But I still believe the majority of police officers are good people. I think it's too many fucking bad ones. Too many bad ones. But the majority of police officers are good people. I think it's too many fucking bad ones. Too many bad ones. But the majority

of them are good. What do you think we can do to help against racism? What do you think we can do moving forward? Maybe you can first say, do you think it would be helpful

to hear more from the white community, from some of the white leaders? Do you think it would help more to, you know, for African-Americans to speak up a certain way or act a certain way? What are your thoughts? All right. Mark Smelly Bell. Smelly. Absolutely. Smelly, absolutely. When I make a post or something, I don't point out a race. I say that if you see something is fucked up, if you see something that is fucked up and remains silent, then you're just as fucked up as the perpetrator. And it don't matter what race you are. And yes, I think that white people, black people, brown people, Asian people, if you think this shit was wrong, then you got to join the fuck together and say something about it.

Don't stick your fucking head in the sand and pretend like you don't see this shit. Well, it ain't me. If the first question that came to your mind when you seen that man put his fucking knee on George Floyd's neck was, I wonder what he did, then you fucked up.

Period. If that was the first question that came to your mind, you are fucked. You are almost guaranteed to be a fucking racist or very ignorant. I wonder what he did. Whatever the fuck he did,

he didn't deserve to be fucking killed on the goddamn ground in front of every fucking body. They already had him subdued. He was obviously subdued. And the man is pleading. He called his mama,

Mark Bell. He called for his mama. When I fucking died three times, I seen my mama. So I know how to fuck Floyd felt. And if that don't fucking bother you, then you got a fucking problem. And I don't give a shit who like it, don't like.

Damn, I agree with that 100 percent. You know, that is a question that a lot of people are like, oh, I wonder what he did or what he did in the past or like, what's his rap sheet? What's his, you know, former. But, you know, here in the United States, you're innocent until proven guilty. You know, maybe in other countries they handle stuff differently. Maybe if, uh, if they thought that he killed somebody or something like that, maybe they just shoot him in the street and let him and let him die. Maybe that's, you know, what they do, uh, with in, in other, other situations, but here in the United States, it's supposed to be equal for everybody. And you're supposed to have, you're supposed to go through a process. You're supposed to be,

you're supposed to have the right to an attorney, the whole nine yards. And I agree with that statement. That was really powerful. But you know what too, like people are partially conditioned to even to even think that way and ask those questions because when you we talked about this before when you see articles where a black person is suspected of doing a crime what is it uh armed whatever does this thug does this felon does this i know you know exactly what i'm talking about people are always like oh what was he before what was he doing what was he in a gang did he did he why was he wearing that why was he doing this people are almost trained to ask those questions when it comes to when it

comes to us straight up so it's well i wonder what he did I wonder what he did the fucking that's all if that is the first then you have a problem if that's the first question that came to your mind you seen the man getting the light choked out of him if that's the first thing that came to your mind then you got a problem

it's like I want to say this before y'all kick me off of here. Mark Bell and Seymour, like you walk by a gate every day on your way to work, wherever the fuck you're going, and you see this dog.

Every day, the dog behind the fence, you're poking this fucking dog with a stick. Every fucking day, you go by and poke this fucking dog. Every day, you poking this fucking dog with a stick. Every fucking day you go by and poke this fucking dog. Every day you poke the fucking dog. One day, the goddamn dog, the gate is open and he tear your motherfucking ass up and you, oh

shit, I wonder why, I don't understand. I don't understand why the dog, you've been poking that motherfucker for years and finally he bites your ass. And you wonder, oh, I wonder. This shit been going on for fucking years. They've been poking this fucking dog for years.

And the fucking dog decides to bite back. Oh, I don't understand this shit. Oh, yes, you do. You understand. You just don't want to hear this shit. But you understand. You've been poking this fucking dog for years. And they say, I've got a fucking, you do. You understand. You just don't want to hear this shit. But you understand you've been poking this fucking dog for years. And they say, I've got a fucking, you know, let me talk to my preachers and religious folks.

You want to look. I'm a preacher, son. Jesus himself, when he went into the temple and he seen them motherfuckers gambling and shit in the temple, he got him a fucking cord, a whip, and beat their ass and kick everybody out the fucking temple. So if

Jesus can get mad, Mark Bell, then God damn it, you ought to be able to understand when these other motherfuckers get mad too. If the good Lord can get mad, Mark Bell, then God damn it, you ought to be able to understand when these other motherfuckers get mad too. If the good Lord can get mad, I don't know why they upset. If the good Lord

can get mad, you can understand why these motherfuckers mad too. That's for my religious folks. A second ago, you had mentioned, you know, it doesn't matter what your background is. If you see something that's wrong, you know, it doesn't matter what your background is. If you see something that's wrong, you know, call that shit out. It's wrong.

It's wrong. It's wrong. And I know social media isn't real life, but it is kind of like a window to what people actually are thinking. When somebody, and I'll be as politically correct as possible, but somebody of the black community posts something about whether it be George Floyd, some other injustice, something, whatever it may be. Unfortunately, there's a lot that can be posted these days. Somebody, a white person will come on and say how wrong that is. The very next

comment will be somebody, usually black, and say, take your white privilege home. This isn't for you. usually black and say, take your white privilege home. This isn't for you. What advice do you have for the black community to, again, like try to unite more people instead of saying, Oh, it's us against them no matter what. Us. Well, the whole, let me take, I had a fucking heart transplant and my heart taken out and another heart put in

I try to get this message over as much as I can how stupid racism is I have no idea the ethnicity or the race of the woman's heart that's beating in my chest right now.

When I tell you for sure, not for y'all guessing or maybe, race is so, it's just epidermis. It's just this shit on top, this skin. It's making people

hate each other and go to war. It's so stupid. I have a woman's heart. I have no idea her ethnicity, but that shows you right there how interchangeable we are.

That very motherfucker that you hate none. If they took his heart and put it in you, you keep on going. Walk on down the street. How fucking stupid is it to hate a motherfucker from what you sit the color of this shit out here? When on the inside, where it really fucking counts. What the fuck you saying?

You entertain. I can take your part, you take my part, we swap that shit out like a fucking 32-4. And keep on running. So I would tell them, I would tell them that I've been through this fucking shit. I know how stupid that

is. Join fucking hands to the motherfucker that want to hold you and join hands with him and together we can do something. We can do something about this shit. I think a good silver lining though is like, I mean, Mark

and Andrew have both talked about their children and like Andrew's mentioned how like, Andrew, what was it? Your daughter like your daughter's... I was just saying like growing up, you know, we had Black Josh or Asianosh or asian josh or this you know this person that person and and my daughter you know her school when when she had school you know it was all ethnicities more so than any of us when we went to school and they don't do that she says oh it's this person s it's this person you know c like they don't say asian black they don't do that. She says, oh, it's this person S. It's this person C.

They don't say Asian, black. They don't say white. They just do the initial of their first name. So, Nseema, I think what you're getting at is the progression, right? Yeah. The younger generations are better with this stuff. And even when you see people out there protesting, it's not all black people out there. There are a lot of brown people. There's a lot of white people out there protesting, it's not all black people out there. There are a lot of there's a lot of brown people. There's a lot of white people out there.

Some places like in Flint, Michigan, there are cops protesting with people. So all in all, I really wish and see me. You're absolutely right. I really wish the news media would focus more on that shit because it is a whole lot of white folks out there holding up

signs. It's a whole lot of white folks out there holding up signs there's a whole lot of brown folks black folks there's a whole lot of good people and that's the emphasis we have good people there are good fucking good human beings out there doing the right fucking thing

of all nationalities and that's what it's going to take all nationalities coming together that's what it's going to take. All nationalities coming together when they see fucking wrong, saying it's fucking wrong. This shit is wrong. It's not just them crazy, upset black folks.

I don't care what race you are. When you see wrong, call that fucking shit out. It's fucking wrong. Wrong is wrong. And this shit wrong, Mark Smalley Dale. I think it's everybody's job to, you know, work

on themselves every day and try to make themselves better. And when you're obsessed about making yourself better, you're not focused in on whether somebody's black or whether somebody has a different belief than you. You don't even care.

It's not even on your radar. You got an opportunity beyond Joe Rogan, and you see how that guy operates. That guy is really quick. That guy is really fast. He's flying through shit day in and day out. He doesn't even have time to really think about bullshit like that that's going to pull him away from doing some doing some of the things uh that he wants to do i know that you you know you have a new heart i think it's probably a year and a half ago or so that you got the new heart two years man two years ago uh what give us an update on you know the heart like has your body accepted it well and stuff i know there's

like weird medication you got to take for your body to accept it. And then you have a new diet. You look awesome. And I've been so motivated and so excited to see your progression from that first day of you trying to do sprints in the parking lot. You fucking idiot, by the way. But I was like, hey,

that's CT, you know, doing CT. Yeah, man. Give us an update, man. Give us an update on that ticker and give us an update on all these vegetables you've been eating yeah since the nose dive hey my fucking mind said you can do it man but my body's like i ain't in this shit so yeah i was uh since that nose dive you know i i had a lot of ups and downs. I was fucked up. And I think really until I was better, but still shitty, man, until I made the change to not vegan. I'm not vegan, but I am totally plant-based.

Vegan is more like, you know, they're kind of religious about this shit. You know, I'm just doing it for my health. It ain't like, you know, they're kind of religious about this shit. You know, I'm just doing it for my health. It ain't like, you know, I hate people that need me and all that shit. That ain't me. But, you know, I feel so much better and so much healthier since I made the switch.

That's why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I want to stay alive as long as possible. I'm going to treat this heart that I borrowed. I'm living on borrowed time and I'm going to treat it as best as possible. I'm going to treat this heart that I borrowed. I'm living on borrowed time. I'm going to treat it as best as possible. And I think not eating meat is doing the best for me. I ain't asking nobody.

I don't give a damn. I ain't trying to change nobody else's diet. But my diet is best for me. So I'm sticking with it. If you want to eat meat, that's wonderful. I ate this shit for, you know, 60 years, damn it. So what the sticking. If you want to eat meat, that's wonderful. I ate the shit for, you know, 60 years down there. So I,

what the fuck I'm going to tell somebody else. Don't do this shit, bro. I'm just doing it for me. I feel so much better. Mark. I ain't even fun. How's your,

uh, like chest feeling stuff. Is everything feel normal or does it feel like you have somebody else's heart in there? Uh, my chest, uh, as far as feeling physically,

it feels normal, but I tell you what, every now and then I talk to my donor I still talk to her I say hey you know if you get a little rough when I'm working out or something come on lady come on lady I need some help shit and I still

some things some strange things I think I smell a whole lot better now. I'm like a fucking bloodhound now. There's some differences. They do say that women have better senses of smell. Maybe like. I can smell pads off now. I don't know what.

Hey, this shit stinks. Then how has your training been? I mean, it looks like you've made a lot of progress like i think i think i saw you starting with like push-ups and stuff and what have you been able to progress to can you like bench press and stuff nowadays yeah i'm busy but uh mark is so fucking light that i don't post no videos of me bench pressing you know i think i did once but you know it's i think i saw saw you with 225 for some reps not too long ago.

No, that wasn't me. On the Smith machine, maybe, but not no freeway. I do a lot of machine work and a lot of really light and just keep the repetitions high. You're having fun with it, right?

I am definitely having fun. I thought after my surgery mark, when I can't. You're having fun with it, right? I am definitely having fun. I thought after my surgery, Mark, when I looked at my little arm, they were so swiveled up and I just had skin falling off of them. I was like, oh my God, am I going to ever get back tight?

I don't have any muscle. My arms look like my nutsack i'm like damn what's it like uh training with your son it looks like you guys are having a great time together that's that's of course my all-time favorite training partner my son samson and uh he you know when daddy can't, he can't. So we go out in the backyard and get that pig on that old fashioned pig on and have a ball. Not if they got the IAG closed down, just go out in the backyard.

It looks like he's, it looks like he's getting strong. Oh yeah. He's, he's, he's coming. He's a killer. He's definitely a killer. He coming. He coming. He's a killer. He's definitely a killer. He's coming. He's coming. Do you have any particular goals with your health, nutrition, fitness, or just keep feeling good? No, actually, I plan on doing a Spartan race. What?

Yep. That's amazing. Wow. And competing in the – they have the transplant games. It's my goal to compete in the transplant games also. Holy shit, a Spartan race? That's crazy. Yeah, I'm probably going to get some barbed wire caught in my head.

What does that entail? What's a Spartan race? Do you even know what you're getting yourself into? It's fucking a damn shorter ones and longer ones, but the obstacles are the motherfucking challenge you know you gotta go swim through barbed wire the ponds and climb over shit and uh you know i ain't gonna be doing this shit tomorrow margaret but that's my goal

wow what are the uh yeah what are the transplant games like what events do they have you know i i hope they have just about everything that the olympic games okay all of the sprints and stuff hey and i'm gonna fucking run again mark bill i'm gonna run and i'm not all the only thing i want to say is i didn't fall on my fucking face if i could do that then i'll be happy Man, I want to go compete in the transplant games. No, you don't. I'd probably get my ass kicked. Don't knock on some wood right now, Mark.

Yeah. All right, man. CTA, it's always so good to have you on the show. Glad to hear everything's going good for you. Glad to see you're happy and healthy. Where can people find you? C-T-Future.com. C-T-Future.com. And we got a, well, I can't say nothing about that,

but I'm going to be talking to you later about being a guest. Awesome. Yeah. It'd be great to have you back up at super training or me coming down there to see you again. Always love conversating with you and your family. I told my dad, I was like, I got CT on the podcast tomorrow. He was like, hey, tell him I said what's up. Make sure you tell your dad I love him.

I still thank him so much for praying for my ass when I was in between the land of the living and the dead. Pops was there. Awesome, CT. Have a great rest of your day. You too. Thanks a lot, CT. See you too later thanks a lot ct see you man that guy's great awesome he's amazing his pipes are still huge i very big yeah i was gonna

say like those arms they don't look saggy they look nice and plump and pumped he's wearing a medium shirt though that That's definitely. Yo, Andrew, I was going to say to that, to that like white privilege thing. Yeah. And like that,

like that, that's an ignorant person. Like an ignorant. It's also happening to Kevin Hart as well. Like I saw Kevin Hart make a post and people were like, Oh, it's easy from your mansion, bro.

See, that's, that's the thing. Every like, there's always going to be real stupid people. They don't understand where he came from. So now that he's wealthy, he can't have something to say about the situation that's going on. Right.

Ignorance. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, like I said, if we're supposed to all come together, it's like, here's somebody. And again, we don't know who to trust. We can. It's like, here's somebody. And again, we don't know who to trust. We can't trust everybody. CT just told us.

So we don't know if it's going to lead to like this person trolling us later, but it's like post after post like that. I would read where somebody, you know, you know, somebody who wasn't black says something like positive or they have sympathy towards what's going on.

And then they say, you're not black. Get out of here. Like this isn't isn't that is not the majority i just want to make sure everyone understands right now that is not a majority i've seen stuff like that too but a majority of people a vast majority of people black people that i know will not respond in any type of way like that well that's good and like i said so that's no that's yeah so i guess i maybe shouldn't word it when i say like time and time again but like this i have seen it more than i wish i did i guess i'll say that and that's why i'm like man like i just think that's not the right approach but i guess if you said you know yeah ignorance then i guess you can't really cure that like with one tweet of course not yeah yeah yeah this is a situation is it just brings up a lot of questions

you know it brings up a lot of a lot of questions about you know racism how prominent it is in our country still and even if what happened even if what transpired on tv you know was that necessarily racist and i i guess i would just say this, you know, I've heard people question that we've seen, you know, somebody on our YouTube channel. I don't think they're out of line for asking the question. But what I would say is that if it was a different race, I don't think he would have laid on top of him for that long. You know, I think there's some reason in that officer's mind, whether he's intimidated or I don't know what was going through his mind, but he felt the need to have that excessive force for that amount of time.

And we can't say for sure. I just got to totally speculate and say that if it was a white guy that was of similar size to him, I, you know, I, I don't think he would have used the same force or if it was an Asian guy, I just, again, it's just my, that's an opinion. We don't have any evidence or proof of anything like that, but, you know, cause some people are like, well, you know, what happened on screen isn't necessarily racist. It's like, well, okay, well then if we're going to, if we're going to be, you know, uh, if we're going to like, you know, need to hear like racial slurs or something, then,

you know, we're really, I think we're kind of focusing in on some of the wrong details, you know? One other thing too, though, that I've been seeing a lot of, and this quote has been going through like crazy on social media. It's a, it's a quote from Desmond Tutu. And it's, you guys have seen it. If you're neutral in situations of injustice, you've chosen the side of the oppressor, right? People have been posting that a lot. And people have been posting that with the intention of kind of saying, if you're not posting about this right now,

if you're not doing that, then you're taking the side of the oppressor. That's not true. That's just basically wrong. If someone doesn't post on social media about this, that doesn't mean they're taking the side of the oppressor. They could be kind of going through and kind of digesting this situation at their own pace. It doesn't mean that they need to go and plasticate all of their social media talking about George Floyd. Maybe they're just not comfortable doing that, but they're doing something else on their end. So I just want to say, if you see someone that's not posting about George Floyd on social media, do not pass judgment on that person like they're taking the police officer's side or they're doing nothing. There are a lot of people doing a lot of things in silence

much more than someone posting on social media. So it just pisses me off when I see people post that quote and it's just like, come on now. Yeah. I had somebody lump me in with like, I don't know, some other people. I can't even remember exactly what it was, but they basically are just saying that I'm racist. You know, that I, you know, voted, voted for Trump and, you know, these kinds of things like they're linking those things together. And I also saw like, in addition to that, they were saying, like, you know, if this particular company, you know, doesn't come out with like a statement about this. And it was just it was it was just so odd. I was like, you know what?

Like, these people are out of their minds again irrational thoughts not going to help support irrational thoughts what happened what happened to george floyd was disgusting and i think most people are in agreement with that and what you know what the police officer did was irrational, but to have more irrational thoughts and more irrational things behind it doesn't make any sense either. And I think what people need to be aware of and need to be maybe cautious of is that wherever companies have opportunities to make money, they will. So if a company is just like, ah, this is my best interest to talk about this guy who was murdered on TV, then they're going to. When it comes to females that are a little larger, you saw Nike a couple years ago made a push in that direction. But why did they make a push in that direction?

They didn't make a push in that direction to lose money. They didn't make a push in that direction to leave all the fit people that they've had previously. They made a push in that direction because they recognize that people of today are heavier and that there's a new standard with the way that your body looks. And they're like, hey, we're just going to lean into this because we know that we can make money. And maybe it started from a different place. Maybe it started from a little bit more of a decent spot. But even if it did, somebody in Nike is like, hey, will this make us money? Because if it's not, we ain't doing it.

You know, so, you know, don't be tricked and don't worry about not everyone's going to voice their opinion on these things, just like, just like religion, right? Not everyone's going to, you know, outwardly voice their opinion on how much they believe in God or how much they don't believe in God. Those are, those are like, those are personal things to a lot of people and the way that people feel about certain situations. You know, maybe, maybe somebody thinks it's horrible that we are, you know, that we still have soldiers overseas, you know, but like they, they, they can't really say, they feel like they can't say that because of all the judgment that's going to be placed on them. And without having like a conversation, like we're

all friends, we're able to have a conversation, you know, without being able to have a conversation, like we're all friends, we're able to have a conversation, you know, without being able to have a conversation, it's hard to like massage all the things that someone might get like riled up about. So a lot of people just choose not to say anything. And I don't think that that's, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And on top of that, I also, when somebody sees something wrong, I mean, we would all love for people to participate and for them to try to do something. But I also think that's a little bit too much of an ask. Not everyone feels that same way in their heart. And with the Asian police officer in that situation, he was not thinking that anything was going on was wrong. And maybe that amplifies the situation, makes everything even worse, because back to what Encima said, they were kind of used to these situations. That cop obviously was very used to it because he seemed pretty casual. And he was just like, oh, I'm going to periodically push people back here and there. And I'm just going to kind of

not do anything. But it's easy to look back in retrospect. And I think I'm like, yeah, OK, the guy died. So, yeah, I would have grabbed the police officer and ripped him off him. But cops have guns. They have batons. Maybe you make things worse. Maybe you make things worse for everybody else involved. Maybe other people die. And then same thing. You know, if you go back to like 9-11, you know, people are like, if I was on that plane, I would have grabbed ahold of those people. It's like, they didn't know, they didn't know what was going on, you know? And in this case, even though it was drawn out and went on for a long time, the people that were communicating with the police officers, they were doing the absolute best job they can. Even the manager of the store came out and he was like, I didn't want this to happen. He just had counterfeit money.

And he tried to go towards the situation and he was shoved back. And so, you know, I don't think there's any reason to judge, to flat out judge people on what they don't say or what they don't do. Yeah. No, I see. I've been seeing that so much. I've been seeing people just like judge people for not posting. Like it's, it's that, that makes a lot of sense with the age that we're in being in the social media age, but it's still like, you cannot force people to do something like that. You can't guilt people into giving you some sympathy because then what a lot, what a lot of people are currently doing is they're posting because they see everybody else posting, but it's not because they actually feel that way. It's because they feel I'm obligated to say something. So I will, so I can please people.

And then I can get it out of my way. I can go about doing my thing. That's what people are doing now. And no one needs any of that. I think, uh, what we talked about on the show today, I think was great on talking about like, you know, what, what was, uh, what was the suspect doing before, you know, it was George Lloyd, what was he doing before, you know, he, he got into that compromising position. We kind of pointed out like, Hey, we don't really think it matters too much. However, I, I, we've talked about this on the show before. I do think that there's some relevance to it. Now, what he did, there was no violence. There was nobody else involved. And as I mentioned on the show before, what if somebody shot a kid in the head, in the head, like blew his brains out, you know, it, it then does kind of matter. And I realized that the police officers have different set of rules and I realized that's, uh, you know, part of, part of the problem, uh,

as well, but in general, you know, we're supposed to have a fair trial. We're supposed to, we're supposed to all have a right to a lot of the same things. But even saying that in terms of, you know, being in favor of George Lloyd and not being too worried about what he did previously, the, the, our judicial system protects us in the opposite direction as well. So when they go and investigate this police officer,

even if he was a member of the KKK, that won't necessarily automatically be allowed in court because a good lawyer is going to say, hey, that's an extreme example. And I would imagine that that would just come out and it'd be public knowledge, but it wouldn't. I'm not saying that that's true. I'm not trying to spread a rumor. I totally made that up. I need to point that out. The public's perception of it could potentially put some pressure on it. But again, you know, they'll take months to get a jury. It's going to take them forever to get a jury. I've been on jury duty before. I don't know if you guys ever have.

And the process is crazy. It takes weeks for them to get to write people, even in a case of somebody just like stealing lumber from a lumber yard, much less a case that's this sophisticated. But they can't just go and extrapolate and say, yep, he was racist. And here's our three examples of him being racist. All right, good done. He's going to jail for life. It won't be like that. It's going to take them a long time to decipher what's really relevant to the situation. They need to investigate how the Minnesota police department handles their, how they,

how they instruct and how they teach and how they, like those things are going to be, you know, massively important, but them trying, the other, the defense or the, I'm sorry, the other lawyers, they are going to try to prove that he's racist. They're going to try to do those things, but just like they're trying to do those things, he's going to have attorneys that oppose them even bringing up or even bringing in evidence of any of that stuff. And I would actually be – I would be fairly surprised if the other people that are involved, the other police officers, if they all got charged with murder. I'm not saying that – I'm not saying that that's my belief that they shouldn't be. I'm just saying that I'm not saying that that's my belief that they shouldn't be I'm just saying that I would be surprised I think

maybe the Asian guy because he's just like he's prominent in the video he's there more I don't know what the other dudes were doing but I don't think I don't think there's going to be like quote unquote justice the way that maybe some people are wanting it to be i wholly

agree with you when you say that like the asian guy i don't think he's going to get charged with murder and to be perfectly honest should he be charged with murder i mean he was kind of looking back and forth seeing what was going on but was he the one with the knee on the neck right no maybe he should get something but murder i mean, I know we all want them to, we all want them to like have some type of, uh, I guess we, we kind of want revenge for them to feel kind of what he felt. That's what we want. But for, for that specific guy, for that officer that didn't have his knee on the neck, is that justice?

I don't, I don't think so yeah maybe he's guilty of being a pussy you know maybe he's guilty of being passive like maybe he's a passive guy he's guilty of something you know yeah but it's like you know yeah i could see them uh doing something to him whether it be in jail or you know for murder murder whatever but uh just to try to like um calm the situation down to be like you know like almost like a political move like hey look like let's calm down this is what we're doing and try to you know please more people than you know because if if they all were to get off except for the main officer i think everyone would be really upset but if all of them got a little something, you know what I mean?

Does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, the court of public opinion, I guess we'll kind of see how much it matters. We'll see, is this outside pressure? But you have to be really careful with that. If you're a good attorney, that's what you would be pointing out. You'd be pointing out, hey, look, you're only charging these guys. Cause you know, all this stuff got out and people are enraged. You're, you're making, you're, you're making the decision

based off of feelings and not based off of facts. And this is the United States judicial judicial system. And we were supposed to, you know, stick to the information that we have and not go based off of feelings. And I know it's like, you know, I'm not saying that we have and not go based off of feelings. And I know it's like, you know, I'm not saying that it's fair. I'm just saying like, that's, that's the way it's, it's done. They, they try to uphold that, um, wherever they can. And people could say, oh, well, you know, they do it at their own convenience and that may be true as well, but I'm just going based off of history. I think that that's a way, you know, a lot of this will go down. I think the, the main police officer that has neon George Floyd's neck,

I think he's doing like 25 to 30 years. And then the other guys, you know, I think anywhere from like three years to seven years to no, no years, you know? Yeah. But it's going to take a long time to like, how long is it going to be? Um, does it make sense to speed up our, our system? Uh, just because of what happened, like, what if we sped it up and what if, what if we messed up, you know, what if we, uh, you know, what, what if we sped things up and these guys don't get charged with hardly anything it doesn't seem smart and also then who makes decisions on which cases we really speed up you know that again like that's kind of the the thing with twitter and the thing with trump and, you know, who audits these things and then who audits the auditor?

Yeah. Then you start getting into real murky waters, you know? You know, I wouldn't want my, you know, if I had a murdered relative, I would want them to go over the case thoroughly to their best of their ability. Obviously, I would be outraged and I'd want something done right away, but not at the cost of the quality of getting the correct information and getting things as right as possible. You know, the one, the big thing that I just still want people to remember when looking at all of this stuff is that the only reason these officers are only getting charged is because there's video footage. Because if you look at the police report, they lied. They blatantly lied and said that he died when he got to the hospital.

When in video, you see that he died right there. Remember that. And then remember what people have been saying. The only reason you're seeing this shit is because it's recorded because this shit happens all the time. People die and the police reports are what people go off of. And there aren't any witnesses to prove that. So remember, like, because there's a lot of people that are messaging me like, Oh no,

this doesn't happen all the time. This is like such an isolated incident. Yeah. You know, when black people die, it's always on the news and that's why everyone's mad. There, there, there are people that are like, Oh, it's, it's only this big because it's put on the media. And I can get, I can get how I can kind of understand what people are saying there when it's, when it's put on the news, people become angry and mad about it. But the thing is, is these are not isolated incidents. Even though it's put on the news, the only reason it's put on the news is because there's video. Remember that.

This shit happens so much without any video. With purely police reports where there are lies. Okay? And again, because our listeners, sometimes our listeners will take one thing that we say, we're not saying that all police officers are bad, but there are a lot of them out there that are falsifying reports and killing innocent people. And they're not going, nothing's going to happen to them because of it.

And they also, the autopsy report, you know, shows that he has like underlying conditions. It's like, you know, I'm not saying that they made that up, but there's potential for that sort of thing in protection of, you know, potentially a lot of money, you know, for lawsuits and stuff. And they can point to the certificate and say, well, you know, he had a, B and C. And, um, I actually think that a lot of the information that has come out so far, I think in the long run, even though this is going to be a painful thing for everyone to go through, I think in the long run, it will shine light. It will shed light on a lot of things that just haven't been talked about, they haven't been thought about. A lot of times, you know, the African American community suffers from high blood pressure, high blood sugar. And that has to do with the food supply that's around them that has to do with the food supply that's around them. It has to do with there's food deserts and stuff in this country where there's nothing else around except for fast food and liquor stores.

And I know what other people say about that. Oh, Christ, how is that my fault? Well, we're not necessarily saying you're like, just hold on a second. We're not necessarily saying it's your fault. Just relax. What we're saying is that this is a problem and it needs to be addressed in some way. And how do we get to the root cause of, of these issues? And, and how do we, how do we assist? How do we, how do we help these things out? You know, that, that's what we're looking for and that's what we need. And I think I'd really love for people to, you know, hone in and, and, and really try to focus in on that. What's helpful. Like, honestly, like what's helpful. I think it's a

great question. How does this help? How does this hurt? You know, I'm going to share this information about, uh, you know, George Floyd. Um, is this going to spark people to ask more good questions or is this going to spawn more hate? Like, like I would say an edited, an edited montage of the police kicking the shit out of people may not be helpful. It does draw attention to the police brutality, but I don't know what the police are supposed to do. I don't think anybody knows what they're supposed to do. You have a riot situation.

The police ask you not to cross this line 5,000 times over. They get frustrated. You do cross the line or you antagonize them. They do something they're not supposed to do. You know, there's, there's high feelings are really high. And I think this is a, an experiment in, you know, watching people's feelings, like literally unravel, you know, right before our eyes. Yeah. And it's something that, you know, hopefully people can be in control of their feelings enough to where they can try to think in the most rational way of

how do we, how do we help? How do we assist? And I think, you know, trying to find some good people to follow, I think is a good idea. Like if you are going to be on social media and you're going to watch it, try to find good, valuable news sources, but that's not easy. But I love the message from Shannon Sharp. I've been watching all his stuff for a long time. I just suggest, you know, go check out some of the content from him. I'm really hopeful that we get an opportunity to chat with him at some point on this podcast as well. Yeah. That'd be great. That'd be great to chat with Shannon. He's been putting, he's been, he's had a lot of great commentary about everything that's been going on. Plus, he's jacked.

And he's jacked. Yeah, and CT needs to live forever. And we need that guy around a long time. So whether it's plant-based or not, I don't care. He looks good. He does look way healthier now. He looks awesome, doesn't he? Yeah, he looks really good.

Yeah, people kept writing to me today. They were like, you need to get him off that diet. And I was like, no, I think he's feeling good. He looks awesome, doesn't he? Yeah, he looks really good. People kept writing to me today. They were like, you need to get him off that diet. And I was like, no, I think he's feeling good. Yeah, he looked awesome. He looks younger than the last time we talked to him. So I think, yeah, it's working. I'll say this. To all the carnivores, let's not act like some of our vegan brethren.

I know that. You guys are happy about what you're doing. I know you guys think it's all great, but you see someone being a vegan, let them be a vegan or let them be plant-based. He's plant-based. He was clear to say he's plant-based. Let them be plant-based. Before we wrap this one up, I'd like to get your guys' opinion on what was the feeling that you had in your heart or in your stomach when you saw what happened to George Floyd?

And how would you compare that to the news of COVID-19 that you just kept seeing repeatedly? Was there any correlations or um or how do they like differ from each other uh i would say with covid there was a little bit of uh i was confused because i've again this is kind of what ensign was talking about earlier like i've never seen that so i was worried like i didn't know what that was and then when i seen ge George Floyd, I was sick to my stomach and I, but I wasn't like confused, unfortunately, because again, just like in SEMA said, it's like, shit, like another one, like, why does this keep happening? So I was definitely frustrated, but just that nasty pit in your stomach where you just, uh, you just want to turn your phone off and just not deal with it.

And then now it's everywhere you turn. And I am happy that we are talking about it on this podcast. But no, it was two different fears for sure. One was fear of the unknown. The other one, of course, fear of something I did understand. But yeah, the one that affected me the most was definitely the George Floyd thing because I understood it and it just, you know,

we, uh, the loss of a life is just, is it was, it was terrible. It sucked. Yeah. When I saw it,

um, I turned the video off initially and then I, I finished it and I just sat there for a while. I called my, I called my boy, uh, Brian. We've been friends sat there for a while. I called my, I called my boy, uh, Brian. We've been friends since we were like six. Um, and then I asked him, you saw that, you saw the George Floyd video.

I was like, yep. It's like, you want to talk about it later? He's like, yep. And then we just hung up the phone. We talked about it the next morning, but like, like, like I said, like I was asking CT cause I was really curious since he's someone who's 60 something he's, I mean, I've seen a lot of this stuff, but he's seen a lot. Right. And the, the difference is that we take this, we take it very personally because every

time we see something like this, you always kind of see yourself in that person. It's kind of hard not to like, you know, I don't want to see myself in him, but it's hard not to. So I was really curious because after I saw it, like I've over time, I've seen more and more of this. It's like, I've just become really jaded to it. Not that I don't feel anything. It really does hurt, but you in the back of your mind, okay.'t this isn't the rational me but in the back of my mind i'm i think it's normal and i'm not surprised at all the covet stuff that it like it didn't didn't make me cry or anything it didn't it didn't make me feel any crazy feelings i was like okay this is how things are going to be right now but this this made you cry the george floyd situation they did a little bit after i thought about it for a while

it did and it's it's just it's it's again it's just that kind of shit that at this point i think a lot of and it's it's not just me a lot of black people we we kind of have this defense mechanism to this where we're just like okay it's it's another day. It really is. We're, we're used to it. And it's not like we're used to it in a good way. We're used to it because we kind of have to be. Did it make either one of you guys feel like you did something bad personally? Did it, did it have a similar feeling like you, you lied to somebody or you physically hurt somebody?

Did it make either one of you feel that way? I mean, I always think back of like we've all laughed at some kind of racial joke you know and we're always having good fun with it or whatever but it's like all right we should probably knock that shit off like that's not good fun anymore you know and none of us are racist but it's like but we still laugh at some stupid shit like that us are racist, but it's like, but we still laugh at some stupid shit like that. So I instantly, like, I just was like, I gotta, I gotta be a better person now. It made me feel sick for being used to it, man. It all comes back to that. It made me feel really sick for, for not reacting more. Cause I realized that I would have, what I was watching, I'm like, shit,

as I'm watching this, I'm just like, right now I'm just, I'm feeling like this is normal. And that in itself made me just feel disgusted with myself. Well, it's a, it's a scary movie that you've seen too many times to really have the same reaction. Yeah. It doesn't mean anything other than that. Like it doesn't mean you didn't care. It doesn't mean that you didn't like, you know, you didn't cry meaningful tears, you know, like that you've just, you felt it, but you're

right. It's like, you've seen it too many times to stop everything, you know, like it just, you've unfortunately learned how to deal with it and that's what you're doing now. Yeah. Yeah. The way I was thinking about it was I had a feeling that I did something wrong, you know, like that I lied to somebody or like it gave me that uneasy feeling like in my, you know, in my in my gut, you know, and it was just and then I and then I think what a lot of times what upset what's upsetting is you start to think about other people. You start to think about other people you care about or you start to think about, you know, envisioning like that could be one of my friends. Like that could be, you know, I don't know George Floyd, but he's a human. And that could be like one of my buddies, you know, down there on the ground, you know, not, you know, totally undeserving of of of what's of what's going on. you know, totally undeserving of, of, of what's, of what's going on, you know, and it's there's no other way to really describe it other than it just being disgusting. You know, it really, it's, it's it's a senseless act. It, I don't know. I don't think it will ever make sense to us.

Even though we have seen it many times, But this particular case, being filmed the way it was filmed, and there just being so much social media around it, and I think the real driver of the emotion, I think, is the length of it. You know, like I think I think it would make more sense if like what would happen with like, well, Rodney King is crazy extreme, too, because there's multiple cops beating on him, you know, in that way. But at least but at least in the case of Rodney King, there was, there was some struggle, you know, that went on previously. Right. And then you're just like, Oh my God, these guys took it way, way too far. In this case, it was just like, it was just slow drawn out thing. He wasn't even getting, they keep saying he's getting like choked out, but he't in a choke hold he was he was just his his airway was compressed in a really slow way you know and anyone who's done like jujitsu or any that kind

of stuff you know that there's like choke holds and then there's chokes a choke can eventually get you but it's not a real choke hold and those are like worse you know and to see this guy doing this and to have i guess my point is that he had so much time to react and he didn't he didn't make any adjustments and he could have just like i said earlier even if he was wrong to have his knee on his neck he could have just slid down after three minutes five minutes six minutes probably and george floyd would probably still be alive. Just, I think that's really the, one of the worst parts about it is, is just, it's this long drawn out thing. Hey, I can't breathe. Hey, I can't breathe. The other people filming, he can't breathe. Oh, he said he can't breathe. Hey, did you hear him? He said he can't breathe.

And then him like crying for help and talking about his mom and stuff. It's like, how do you not get emotional over something like that? You know, I think to, to not have emotion to that is, is just maybe being numb to it. Cause we've seen it so many times, um, or just being an inhumane person who, who doesn't value, you know, another person's life. So brutal, but, um, you know, hopefully we'll get some opportunities to talk to a couple other people, uh, about this and hopefully we can assist, uh, other people. All I'm trying to look to do is just to ask some questions and poke around and maybe there's some sort of way that, uh, this little podcast of ours can help people to

make sense of, you know, this senseless act. And, you know, the main thing that we're always trying to do, we're trying to like brighten up your day. We're not trying to bring the house down. But sometimes I think that there's things to talk about that are just serious adult shit that needs to get talked about. And so that's why we've leaned into the COVID situation. That's how I now leaned into this. And hopefully we'll be back to talking about getting jacked and tan soon enough. Andrew, where can people find you? You guys can hit me up on Instagram at IamAndrewZ.

And if you guys find any value or appreciate this conversation, please let us know at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on Twitter. And Seema, I want to talk to you about TikTok after this. But that's where you guys can contact us. And Seema, where are you at? And Seema Yinyang on Instagram and YouTube. And Seema Yinyang on TikTok and Twitter.

Mark? I'm at Mark Smelly Bell. Thank you guys so much for listening. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is neverelly Bell. Thank you guys so much for listening. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch you all later. Power Project crew, thank you for checking out today's episode

with the one and only C.T. Fletcher. Thank you, everybody, that's been rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes. It helps us out just immensely. So thank you, everybody, that's been taking the time out of your day to do that. Right now, we want to give a huge shout out and thank you to Nurse Mal.

Nurse Mal says, hands down, my fave. Quote, I love listening to Mark, Andrew, and Encima just as much as I love listening to the badass people they have on the show. Whether I'm driving to work or running or lifting, this show keeps me entertained. Thanks for making me laugh, always dropping the knowledge bombs, and inspire me to always do better. Nurse Mel, thank you so much for that. You really did just help us out so much.

So, I mean, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can't stress this enough. Thank you. If you're listening right now, if you'd like to hear your name read on air, please head over to iTunes right now. Drop us a rating and a review, and you could hear your name on air just like our friend Nurse Mel. We'll catch you guys on the next one.

Peace.