The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Deon Cole, Derrick Johnson & Louis Carr Talk NAACP Awards, Accountability, Community + More

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Today on The Breakfast Club, Deon Cole, Derrick Johnson & Louis Carr Talk NAACP Awards, Accountability, Community. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hold on. Every day I wake up. The breakfast club. You're all finished or y'all's done? Morning, everybody. It's DJ NV.

Jess hilarious. Charlemagne de Guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Lawn LaRose is here with us as well. We got some special guests in the building. Yes, indeed. We got the good brother, Dianco. Welcome back.

Yes, sir. Thank you. We have Derek Johnson, president of the NWACP. Welcome back, brother. Good morning. And we have the president of B.E. The new president of BET. Lewis Carl. Welcome, brother.

Thank you. How are y'all feeling this morning, man? Great. Good, good, good, good. Y'all running around for the 57th N.O.A.C. Image Awards. Or VET. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

How does that feel? It's going to be great, man. It's going to be good. We're going to be doing our thing, you know. Another year. Another blessing, right? Yeah, like, I'm just here so I don't get fine. decided to use Dion again.

What was so good about Dion? You said we got to bring up back. I mean, he's funny. He's good. It was a lively show. And it's important to have some continuity. I mean, we had Anthony Anderson, what, six, seven years? We had the Queen. Unfortunately, we didn't get her the next year. And Dion just stepped in. It's been a great show.

And congratulations to you, Lewis Car, man. You know, he can't ignore the elephant in the room. So we're a guy, Scott Mills, but, you know, he's no longer the president of BET. You are now. How does that feel? It's amazing. It's been a hell of a journey And it's a privilege

It's a big job And we're just trying to take BET To the next era We call it the new era And it's exciting But it's a privilege What does modernizing BET actually Mean to you?

Is it about platform? Is it about programming? Is it about mindset? It's about all of that And it's about community and culture I don't think any brand That is serving black people right now They have to lean into the community

especially what's going on in our country right now, whether it's political, whether it's economic. So we're really going to lean into community, and we were built on culture at the end of the day. So we're going to be one of the drivers of culture and holding it up and continue. And that's why we are in partnership with NWACP. And my home boy, Dionne Cole, this is my homeboy, so it's a real privilege to me. What's your first initiative besides this, of course, what's the first initiative that BET wants to do with you being the new president? My first initiative is reestablishing BET is the brand that people are proud of. So the first thing I've done is we have an internal slogan that may go public since I'm going to say it right now.

BET is something you can believe in. We really want people to sort of gravitate and understand that they do have some ownership in this. They do have some responsibility in this because we serve the culture and we serve our community. What do you think that was lost if you do? I remember as a kid, you know, I think everybody would come on from school, you're turning on BET. And not just for 106 and Park in those shows, but there's so many shows around the realm that people would love about BET. And I think we lost that a little bit. It didn't become ours anymore. So what do you think the reason is that we got away from that? I think technology. I think there was a disruption in technology. You know, we were primarily a cable brand at that particular time.

And, you know, whether it is the internet or whether it's streaming, it's sort of interoperable. corrupted everything that we were doing. So now we've got to sort of change our ways and really become more focused on the consumer and where the consumer is, not just a cable brand. And Lewis, you come from a background and advertise. Yes. Right?

And brand relationships. How do you plan to leverage advertisers, basically to get that money, right? And how do you plan to leverage advertisers and brand partners without, I guess, compromising the authenticity for black storytellers? Well, one of the things that I think we have to understand is what advertisers are looking for

and then understand where our audience is and how we sort of partner to make it work for both places. So that's something I've done constantly. The NAACP Image Awards is a great example. You'll see integrations in that show in a very, very special and unique way. So I think I got that down. How are y'all still paying for the NWCP Awards? Because they're not at all the award shows is what I'm asking,

but NWACP Awards are still here. I think NWACCP, 57 years, we do have a four. We have been on air. We will continue to be on air. In fact, we've expanded to an NACP Image Awards week. We start off for the golf tournament. We have a fashion show. We do all the things that really highlight black excellence.

We can no longer sit back and react to what other platforms do against us and not include us. We got to invest in our own. And as an organization, we have invested and we continue to have the show year after year. This year's theme is, we see you. Break that down a little bit. This current political climate is one in which they're trying to erase who we are as a culture, as a people. And so we have to see ourselves. What frustrates me more than anything else is we're caring about what the Oscars say about us,

and who the Grammy included, they include. We got invested our own. We have to see ourselves and speak from a surplus mindset and get away from caring about what white folks who don't care about us anyway, but they're saying what they're doing when we have our own. Does it bother you when you see a lot of these celebrities go to those other award shows but don't come to the home shows? Does that bother you any? Well, you know, it bothers me, but they don't because then they get in trouble, then they come back and say, hey, we want to be back to the part of this year, right?

I'm an HPCU graduate. There's nothing better than our black colleges. What school? Tugalu College. It's only with five-olds. We all know each other, right? We're not like Hampton. We all know each other, right?

In Mississippi. But if we invest in our own, our schools become better, I'm in the middle of a book now by Nekrumah. He went to Lincoln. And his experience at Lincoln allowed him to become the first president of God. Why? Because Thurgood Marshall was there. He ran across Ralph Ellison. He had all of the integration of black intelligence, not only in the United States, but globally, we have to do the same thing for our platforms. Were you guys, when you announced that you're going to be stepping away from those other award shows? And I remember, like, the messaging got a little bit lost, where some things are going to go to digital, right?

So it's not fully out of it. But were you guys nervous about adding negatively to that conversation of BET's decline when you decided to make that decision? Absolutely. And I think. we said they're on pause. So it may be something different coming soon. So just stand past. So they're not gone. They just may be on pause. We've been in conversation about at least bringing one back over the last few weeks.

You can't tell us which one yet? No, not sure. I want to ask you there because you mentioned it like Trump, the Trump administration has been open about attacking DEI, black history, civil rights languages. The NAACP fighting to preserve those games from the past? Or is this moment forcing the NAACP to completely rethink the paper? Well, absolutely, fight.

We are in, I can't name the number of court cases, many of which we've already won, whether it's a redistricting case in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, whether or not we put boosts on the ground in California for the referendum, whether or not we're strategizing in Maryland and Virginia around that redistricting. Absolutely, we're fighting, but the election have consequences and platforms like this. We cannot send this messages. We've got to be clear that this November, we got to turn out and vote. We know who the enemy are.

how they look. It is not black men is doing this or not doing that. It's about all black folks need to get out and vote because if we don't. Our citizenship, our human essence in this country is at risk. Is there any way to rethink, rethink the playbook? Always. I mean, you know, add into the conversation in a way in which we can reconsider things. The medium age of our community is 32 years old. Things have already been rethought and rethought again. We are constantly evolving. That's why next month we're 117-year-old organization. We're solvent, we're strong, and we're continuing to fight. We have to get out of black folks saying what this group isn't doing this one or this group

should do that one. Hell, pick up a shovel and get a scoop and help all of us get to where we need to be because if we're stronger as an organization, we're stronger as a community. Now you posted something on your social media page that was very powerful, right? It was a half face of KKK plan member and half face of an ICE member. break that down what I think you mean If you understand the history of this country, the Klan reemerge in

the 20s. They were able to reemerge through law enforcement, starting in Indiana and they spread across the country. What we're seeing with the ICE operation now is they're recruiting white supremacists to come into the agency and go in and terrorize communities. Now let's not be fooled and think it's all about

the Latino community. No, it's us too. When they're in Minneapolis and they're pulling over brothers and sisters from Sudanese, from Sudan, they look like us. They look like all of us around this table. So it's one group today. It's another one tomorrow. It is us

after that. We have to stand up. So what we're looking at is clan activity masquerading as ICE agents. Dionne, what makes you want to host another LGBT war? As a black comic, the community as a

same thing. You need more comedy that you're not working. I don't know. Jim surface, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I shouldn't be here. I don't have no turtleneck. I don't have a jacket.

I don't know why I'm here. I don't know. We're just going to have a good time at the show. I don't know what I would do. It's just going to be off-clough. Whatever, man. Hey, you know what I love about you, Don't Dion, man.

Some comedian, They just get louder as they get older. You got sharper. Man, well, I thank you, man. Was that intentional? Or just like life script away all the noise? Yeah, I just don't have an energy to be hollering and doing a whole bunch of stuff. I think less is more, you know, being more in the pocket when it comes to comedy is, you know, my forte on how I get down.

You know, I want to be heard and not seen. You could be heard softly. You could be heard, you know, loudly or whatever. But I like to just, you know, stay in. in the pocket with what I do, you know, and it keeps me distant from what the norm. We had a conversation a couple of months ago about you, Dion, when you were talking about Kai, and we were talking about the younger generation and the older generation, and you were saying, you said something to the fact of, I don't want to misquote you, that you feel like the young

generation should do their homework on some of the legends. And we were saying that sometimes it's very difficult because if they don't know the individuals, it's very difficult, but you felt the way that he doesn't necessarily know who you are. Yeah, well, it wasn't, and I think everybody twisted and made it seem like I was trying to say he didn't know who I was. And I said over and over again, I was like, it wasn't even about me. It was just about him having that platform to showcase these icons and let his generation know who these people are. And I was like, you don't have to know everybody because I don't know everybody. And my whole thing was at least know the winners.

You know what I mean? Right, right. If you can know who won, that's good enough, you know what I mean? So do your homework and not just walk around like that. And I love that little brother. I think he dope. I think he is innovative and all of that. I just feel as though that with this generation nowadays, corrective criticism is considered hate.

And it's not hate. It's like, what am I going to do? Just let you keep doing what you're going to do and then let it keep getting worse and worse and worse. Like the situations that have happened now and certain things, whatever. So my job was to go, hey, little brother, check this out, do that. And everybody spent it or whatever. But hopefully he heard it, you know.

But then a little bit after that, I think he was actually going through stuff. You know what I mean? So what I was saying was maybe it was something on his mind or hard or whatever. But I felt like I did my job by saying what it is. And he went to go get help and all of that. You get what I mean? Because you never know what nobody's going through. So I have to say what I have to say.

and then go from there, you know what I mean? So, you know, much love to that brother. I love that little brother. You think it's a problem in our community? This is for all, y'all, that we don't necessarily do the research of where things started from. Like, if you go to a young rapper today, he might not know the first rap came from the Bronx that came from this sound or different comedians if you're in the comedy world, who this comedian is, how they started this, or even radio or the first hip-hop station and how it started.

Do you feel like that's the problem in our community? I think it's an opportunity. I don't think it's a problem. I mean, when you're trying to build on your craft, you're focused. You're zeroed in and you don't know when you're going to hit. But once you hit, it's an opportunity to begin to expand so you don't fall into the same potholes. One of the things we must do as a community is learn from past mistakes because we've got new ones to make. And the only way we do that is to understand.

I like that. I like that. That's TV jakes to me right that, right? I ain't ever thought about it like that. Right? You know, you learn from past mistakes because we got new ones. And in that moment, it gives an opportunity to not only perfect your craft, but to grow the craft. So that's an opportunity, not a deficit.

I think a part of the conversation with the Kai stuff, though, for people who are in, like, a learning space is, like, do y'all ever have a chance to have those conversations with him privately? Like, you said, you hope you heard what you said, so you guys haven't been able to talk in private. No, I haven't been able to talk to him in private. I would have loved to, but I didn't reach out because it was just going so banana. I just was like, yo, if you want to talk, he'll reach out. but I didn't want to go, hey, this is what it meant, you know, but I would love to talk to that brother. I remember I did something with Marlon, or Wains,

and Marlon said that he had talked to him, and he said, he was like, man, man, called the little brother and tell him, and tell him, like, you know, you cool or whatever, and I never got his number, whatever. But Marlon did talk to him, and, you know, I don't really know what the outcome was, but Marlon was like, you know, just call him, and I never did. So I don't have information to even read.

not on IG or whatever I just didn't but I will I reach out to him to be like hey hit me up you know let's talk about I love like how you always Dion just like for me knowing you always like wrap your arms around people or just always speak about people in a positive light even when those people are you know under public scrutiny or whatever like you had I just seen like a few weeks ago you had Kanye at your show yeah and how you bought them up on stage and just like the room just love seeing them there and you're loving y'all from the same city so it's like you know I love that. Did you know he was going to be there?

Yeah, yeah. Shout out to my man, John Monop. John was like, man, we had me and John and no ID. We had dinner the night before with some friends. And Yee hit up John and John was telling him, man, we had a good conversation. He was talking about some stuff. And Yay was like, man, when the next time you're all meeting, I want to go out? They was like, I got to show tomorrow you want to go.

And he was like, all my family in time for the holidays. And he was like, if I can bring me. They hit me. I was like, yeah, tell him to come through. You know, how many you got? He was like 25. Jesus, man. He said family.

You go? Not even, no. Mind you, my room is only 40 seats. We did a show, but talk to your friends. So we had to bring in. Couches and crates and all the kind of stuff. But, yeah, he came in and he brought in all 25 his people, his wife, and everybody came in. He had a great time because he needed.

that you know what I mean it was a you know it's a lot of weight on him you know and when it when it comes to these situations I feel like like when we're dealing with one of our own whatever I feel like personally we shouldn't let everybody get on them like like we can get on them but when everybody else start getting on them we go all right well y'all relax yeah we'll take care of him you know and so it was for me to be like come on out I'm come have a good time relax your mind you know and I'll just go from that, whatever. I wasn't even supposed to bring him on, you know.

I brought, bring him on the stage, but I was like, forget that. Do you have pressure? I was like, I agree with that to a certain extent. But what you mean? What are you saying? Take care of our own. But Yee, Yee, Yee pokes at his own community, too. I get it.

You know? I get it. I get he does. But, I mean, what are you going to do? I just, I don't want to see nobody get kicked while they down. You know what I mean? And so once they keep kicking while he down, it's like, all right, That's what I mean.

And they keep kicking him right down. It's like, he got the message. Yeah. Quit kicking him. Manor-fucker. I have been interested to see what his mindset is because we haven't heard from him. He's been quiet for about a year.

He's been so bad. His man, I'm tell you where he had. He's just like, man, I'm going to put some music out. I'm going to do what I do. I'm going to go back to the essence. I'm about to make it soulful. I'm about to make it fun. You know, I'm about to get it in.

And that's where he at with it. He's like, man, I'm just going to keep doing me. And, you know, whatever. whatever, but he's just chilling right now. I was going to ask you, do you have any pressure when you have, like, a Kanye at your show based than a regular show with no celebrities in it? Any pressure with you or no? No, not really, not at all.

Like, I know why they're there, you know. Everybody come to just ease their mind and, you know, the pressure, you know, the pressure of this business or whatever. They just come to get away. Like, we had Paul McCartney at the show, you know. He just wanted to come, just come hang out and kick it. You know, everybody comes in my room at the improv, have a residency there, right?

It's like maybe 50 people only tops. Everybody phone locked up. You can come in there, have a good time, and nobody going to record you. Ain't nobody going to be looking at you, whatever. You can have a good time so people know that. And so they come and they're not filmed

unless I'm filming them, and then that's it, you know. But, yeah, it's a good time. We have a lot of celebrities that come through there just to get away. But, yeah, I'm not going to waver the way that I am. Even with Paul McCartney, I was putting them in the headlock and punching them, you know. Damn. This got me high, and I ain't want to get high.

So it's just us having, I mean, making them feel normal, right? You know what I mean? Like, most people walk around there, Sir Paul, Sir Paul, you know, I'm in there, like, calling them P. P. Love and all kinds of stuff, just anything, just to make them feel normal. Yeah. You started to say, did he? A little bit. I said, yeah.

I was going to I was like, no, no. No. No. I was to ask you, you know,

with the success of the new edition documentary, why doesn't BET do more of those documentaries highlight, you now, our heroes? We're looking at that. We are looking at that.

The new edition doc speaks for itself. It was very expensive. We're trying to figure. Did you make the money back for that? Because I figured I did or no. Okay. It was very expensive.

You mean the movie, right? The documentary, it's the four part. The four part documentary. That's a movie, though. That was a movie. It was all the above. Go ahead. Because it was a movie when it was in part of it.

Series. Yeah. The documentary or a movie. So we're looking at it, figure out, can we do it in a more efficient way? But there are many stories out there, as you know, that need to be told. How do you,

involve a tent pole event like the NAACP award, so they feel less nostalgic and more like a reflection of where black culture is now. I'm going next. I think Dion is the start of that. And I think the type of people that we celebrate and we honor have to be current and part of the culture right now.

So I think always culture has to be current. So that's the evolution. And we also have to expand the distribution. So you'll see a lot of. stuff online this year that you never saw before. So we'll be using all of the platforms to sort of highlight. And recognizing that we have over 60 categories only between 8 and 10 are aired live for the two hours. We have a dinner where we recognize, you know, social media content and the whole deal. The reason why Deion is important because joint laughter is also advocacy.

You know, art is advocacy. And so what most of people see is a two hour live broadcast, but a week of activities, the golf tournament kicks off, but then the real night where we get the most celebrities is the dinner. And that's when we honor all the categories from literary to, you name it.

And it's a part of how we have evolved as an organization, how we've evolved in terms of this highlighting black excellence and entertainment industry. Our next thing is visual arts. We have black artists in black galleries.

We have to honor them because folks are taking up our art, elevating the prices, and we don't even own it. And so we got to get to that space where we own more of the content that we create. I have a question. You don't have to raise your hand, Dior. Yes. Excuse me.

I have a question. I want to ask you. I want to put nobody on frustration, but I do have a question. So I remember when Kanye got in trouble and Nick Cannon got in trouble and they when they talked to leaders of other races. Jewish community. Rabbis. Rabbis, yep.

So when people talk bad about us, why isn't, and there's nobody to answer to, why is that? Well, it all depends on the situation and the scenario. So when Nick Cannon got into his score for Marvell, who was at Paramount, we and I love Marvel. Right? We admittedly start talking put together this strategy.

He's back on air now, right? When Kyrie Irvin got into the issues with the Brooklyn team here, Isaiah Thomas and I, we got on the phone, we came over the strategy. We got his agent, we got Carillon, and we began to talk about what is the pivot to save his career. So it all depends on the scenario and whether or not the individual is open enough to reach out. But that wasn't the question Dion asked. What Dion said was when other races do stuff to offend black people, who do they answer to?

Who do they have to? Who do other races answer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because when we do something wrong, we have to go talk to the leaders of that race. But why do you have to do that? You don't have to do that. I'm just, I'm only asking to learn.

See, I'm about to have a job. No, it goes to the individual scenario. We shouldn't be answering to anybody. I understand that. So I'm going to the Carrie Irvin piece, right? So the blowback came, so we want you to go

to this museum and that museum. It was like, but have you been to the African-American Museum? How are we going to look at our own stuff? How do we begin to react based on our narrative response and not somebody else's? far too often, we're reacting because the team around us don't look like us.

That's been the problem. There are far too many of these same individuals. The agent ain't one of us. The manager is not us. The lawyer's not us. So what happens? Their advice are coming from their professionals who are moving them to communities. That's not us.

But if you have people surrounding you that look like us, understand who we are, then the advice you're getting becomes even more crucial. So then you ask yourself, when you look at individual by individual, who's representing them? Who's in their ear? Because far too many of our high A-caliber celebrities, they leave us. So would you not have it? I do like that question, Dionne asked, though, because I think people for so long have looked to the NAACP, I guess, to be black people's version of the ADL. But by the way, the ADL is supposed to be black people's version of the ADL.

It's supposed to be anti-defamation for, you know, black people, Jewish people and all. But I guess that's what people want the NAACP to be. We can only be what people, when you get to a certain status, allow it be. Like when you talk about all these folks, who's their lawyer? Is it black a white? Who's the agent? Who's representing them? That becomes the key because you all know this game much better than I.

I do in the isolation of the controversy, only those who have the ear are able to inform on how the move. I'm not going to mention one particular former professional football player. We reached out. His team knew, didn't even know who we were. And so we're trying to help, but the team don't even know who we are. So he can't come to us because he's all of 23 years old. Colin Kaepernick.

And then his whole team, it doesn't look like us, don't understand the nature of what we do. And we still, I have yet to see this brother at a black event. But I think that it should be publicized And I just said that you did No, I think it should be publicized Because it gives people It makes people think like

There is a consequence with what you say And because it's never publicized that People, it's not like somebody can Go on blackface or say something bad And then they come over and they go And they see them sitting down with you talking And you talking to them and going, you know, this is what you need to do.

This is the forgiving them and all the rest of that. We never see that. Didn't that happen with Jimmy Fallon? But we see our races. That has happened a couple times. I remember Jimmy Fallon had to come sit down on. That's several. Yeah, he had the blackface situation.

I got to say that. I met with Jimmy Fallon after that. We had a lot of people. It was comments he made on the air, if I'm not mistaken. It was a blackface situation. That's what it was. Yeah, there was like an old photo at that surface. Yeah.

So there's a whole list of people that have had to come to you guys and apologize and have conversations, but... But it goes to the Kayet example. Are we informing our young entertainers? Hey, our peers about their representation. We're giving our money away. I just heard a narrative about prints. Someone wanted to do his cover his son.

He says, I'm not going to let you do that because you don't own the rights of your son. I refuse to pay for these folks' grandkids to go to college off of my material. The real question for the celebrity community, are we allowing ourselves to be pimped as we masquerade in blackface? Because oftentimes that's what's happening. BET is a much stronger entity if more of our folks invest in it.

NACP is a stronger advocate if more of our folks invest in it. My membership roster, those who support me, are everyday working people. That's a beautiful thing. That's who we represent. But we have to be honest about this conversation at 360 degrees. are we investing in our young people who've gone to law school who are at ad agencies who can actually do the thing and making sure we're rep by them?

I have a question. So, and it's going back to what you said about with Nick Cannon and Colin, not Colin Kaepernick, Carrie Irvin, you said, why do you think that we have to go and apologize, right? So when people come to you guys to have those conversations, to apologize, to do the whole dance and the tour, why do you guys entertain the conversation

if there are leaders like you in the NWACP who feel that way because I know Morgan Wolland did the same thing as well too. Well, first of all, we have to understand the historical nature so we don't offend people, whether you're black, white, male, female, whatever the case may be. And there are certain scenarios where we make mistakes. People make mistakes. And how do you get under that when you are actually relying on the public for your support? So sometimes you do apologize because if I made an offensive comment

towards black women, y'all'll be upside my head. I do need to pivot and apologize because if I made that mistake. But in doing so, you need to do it in a way in which you're not demeaning yourself, that you're not portraying the essence of who you are. And you can be honest that I made this mistake, you know, error, learn from it and move forward. So sometimes you do have, we do need to apologize. But if you got a team that surround you that is not from our community, what happens there is you don't know who to apologize to properly and you don't know what the apology look like and then you have people say you got to apologize plus you got to donate to this thing over here give money to that thing over there just some people

that ain't going to like you for the rest of life anyway and Hampton need that check you don't sit at this museum when Hampton need that check or Howard needs that check that's interesting you know there's always criticism that BET isn't black owned so how do you balance BET being part of a large corporate structure while still serving as a platform for Black Voices? Well, one of the, I think, Dirty Little Secret, it's not Black-owned, but it is Black-run.

Just about 90-some percent of the people who run BET look like us. They come from our communities that have done extremely well. One of the things that I want to do, and I said this sort of the first week on the job, is really highlight the people who run BET. We have some very strong, intelligent people

who run BET. And you usually only know that one face or two-faces, they're at the company. There's a team of leadership there that I think really our community needs to know and our community needs to engage with. Hey, with the new shows and stuff when they come out, can you make sure everybody hairline ain't super crispy on the show? I thought that's what people want.

It don't look real. Don't be looking real. They need getting out of the war. You know, maybe. Sites falling off into 80s, you know, crispy hairlines. You've been caged for three weeks. A beard with crispy hairlines.

Make sure the hairlines are normal. I want to give you the opportunity to teach too, Derek, because people like to say the NAACP was started by white folks. So in 1909, people who we think are who we see as white today, they were not considered white in 1909. Jewish people were not considered white in 1909, nor was Italian Catholics. The NACP was created by a set of individuals who were othered.

They were not a part of the mainstream. It wasn't until the late 20s, 30s, and then after World War II, that people we see now as white are considered white. And so this concept in ACP will start about white folks. No, we will start by a group of people who were other. Now, be very clear, black folks created NACP with the Niagara Movement, with WB. Du Bois, IDIB. Wells, I.D.B. Wells, William Moore-R. Trotter, they came to a meeting that next year

as a result of a racial incident that happened in Springfield, Illinois, and they agreed collectively to start an organization that was national scope that represent color people across the spectrum, whether you was Irish Catholic or Jewish or Black, whatever,

because democracy was not being applied to all of those communities. And so this fallacy that it was started by white people in 1909, those folks won't consider white. They only became white when it was politically expedited. If you was Italian, you was not considered white. When LaGuardia

got elected in this city, he was not considered white. And as a result, over time, the Italian community became a part of the social construct of whiteness. We never will because this ain't going nowhere. So we have to be black to the bone and be clear

and proud about it through and through. But no one did us a favor in creating an organization. They was creating an organization to advocate for their own security as well. Let's look at some of these nominees, Lauren. Pull them up. I know we all over the place in this interview.

It's all good. Outstanding motion picture, highest, lowest, one of them days, Sarah's Oil, Cenders, Wicked, Outstanding Documentary, Bing Eddie on Netflix. What are the categories? Outstanding podcast, news and information. Outstanding podcast, life and self-help, lifestyle and self-help. Outstanding podcast, society and culture, I think I was supposed to be in that one. Outstanding podcast, arts, sports and entertainment.

Outstanding podcast scripted limited series short form You have the Outstanding Gospel Christian album Outstanding album Outstanding songs solo R&B Hip Hop and Rap Song Outstanding Variety Series are special Outstanding Children's Program Outstanding New Artists

Outstanding male artists Female Artist Entertainer of the Year Tiana Taylor is also in that category too Cynthia Arrivo and Dochi Kendrick Lamar and Michael B. Jordan Outstanding comedy series Outstanding Drama Series

Outstanding news information Series are special outstanding talk series, outstanding reality program, reality competition series, services and game shows. So, Deion, you didn't demand that the funny knowing you podcast get nominated at party of your whole set?

Listen, I should have demanded. Funny knowing you podcast is blowing up, man. Why don't know your thing, man? Next year, next year is going to be on that, man. But I do love your podcast. Thank you so much, man. I just watched you sit down with Bill Burr. That's also one of my favorite comments.

We got another one coming out this Wednesday. we got Brian from 90 to 101 yeah wow he's gonna be talking about what Tashina was saying about go ahead of it what the hell we know about that

what he needs your time talking with that so how they dated so get the fuck out of yeah yeah so Wednesday

Green and Tishina Arnold so Wednesday while they was while they was on Martin and she said that she had let him go because she didn't want because he was sleeping

so many black women she didn't want to keep sleeping with him and then he'd go be with a white girl and share his riches with a white girl so she let him go and he was like no she's she's lying

wow I'm not about a tease he said she's a little why that part ain't go by her right damn

yeah a little bit a little bit it went around but no she she she said that she was like, no, I let him go. And he was like, no, this is what happened. And he hit me up and he came through.

Did he post a video to his TikTok? Did he post a video somewhere on social? Or no? I don't know if he posted it, but no. That might have been a fake when I saw because I thought I saw like a response somewhere from him. I think he said something like,

or I love you girl. But buddy, but he still love her. Okay, getting into the tea. But yeah, Envy, go ahead. That was a good question you're asking. You know what you say? Because I was asking. How would a win this pick?

So how do people decide who's winning these categories? So there is a, first of all, you have to submit your content. There is a committee of people in the industry and lay purses over 300 plus people to nominate. And then once you are nominated, you are voted on. Depending on a category, it could be a committee that votes on you of experts or the literary committee. You have individuals who read a lot of books, right? some of the categories is, you know, anyone

can vote, know, the mask vote. In other categories, there is another voting committee. And so it's broken up so no one has the thumb on the scale for any particular product. You know, I was going to produce a daytime soap called Beyond the Gates. I couldn't have my thumb on

the scale, but they got nominated. And I'm glad it is nominated. It is an opportunity for us to really appreciate our content and then vote on what we think is best represent our image and who we are as a people. Let me tell what we need. We need Uncommon Favor by Don Staley to win outstanding literary work.

That's Black Privilege Publishing. We need a native land pod to win outstanding podcast. That's our media reason choice. We need money and wealth with John Holbein. That's a lot of time. That's Black Effect. That's Black Effect. Oh, just here with Dr. Jay.

That's Black Effect. We need that to win as well. What else we need to win? Oh, and we need Kingsland to win. an outstanding podcast scripted limited series that's our sbh productions and audible anything else sir no that's we that's covered so the show is February 28th on BET make sure you go out and watch it we appreciate you brothers for joining us this morning and on CBS and on CBS that's right y'all show about that CBS then had some changes

are really? You're sure about that? And in fact, why don't the breakfast club come out and air from there? We kick off on Tuesday with a golf tournament. We're doing something every day. Come out in the air. Why not? What day is it? February 28th.

That's Saturday. We're doing something from Tuesday through Saturday. Okay. Okay. You know what? I do have one last question when you talk about CBS. A lot of black people are politically exhausted. You heard Diance about how, you know, his comedy shows are escape. Like how does the NAACP re-energize people who feel like, you know, their vote, protesting, donating? Like, they feel like, oh, again. Yeah, it's like,

you know, I'm exhausted from eating. Therefore I'm not going to eat anymore and I'm going to die because I don't eat. Deion is a good example. I said early. Joy and laughter is a part of advocacy and we recognize that so many of our people are consuming their information from sports and comedy. So we're trying to get more into that space. So you can be entertained, but also be informed. We cannot promote this concept that we're exhausted. We have to just drive in the notion that if we don't participate, you think things are bad.

Now, it's only going to get worse. A year ago, we didn't think it was going to be this bad. And as a result of some of us not participate, it was more people not voting that voted in our community. Therefore, we have to drive the notion that voting is like breathing and eating. You must do it regardless of your fatigue, because if you don't, you won't be able to breathe or eat. So you have moments like, I think last year y'all had Vice President Kamala Harris.

You know, she won in the war and she gave her speech. Are you going to have moments like that? We're going to have moments like that. Absolutely. In between Deon tell us some great jokes. But I think, Charlemagne, to that point of exhaustion, I think it's on all of us to make sure that that community doesn't get exhausted. I mean, because people are going to get tired of different moments of time,

depending on what happens in the community. So I think it's important, especially those of us in the media, that we continue to push and motivate and inspire people. And we just launched NAACP Plus as a platform for podcast, short form media, for that very reason. We just launched a venture capital fund so we can reinvest in our communities a $200 million raise. We're in an organization that we realize that the sum total of the black experience

goes beyond entertainment, goes beyond what goes on the D.C. is everything that we do. We're trying to be in all of those spaces. All right. Well, the 57th NAACP Image Awards goes down on BETN-CBS, February 20th, Dianne, Cole. Derry Johnson, Lewis, Carl.

Thank you guys for joining us. Thank you. And they can vote online. Some of the categories, you can vote online. That's correct. All right. It's the Breakfast Club.

Good morning. Oh, no. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. You're on finish or y'all's done? This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.