The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Mysonne Details His Role On Zohran's Transition Team, Influencing Policy, Justice + More

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club, Mysonne Details His Role On Zohran's Transition Team, Influencing Policy, Justice. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Gentleman'scuturban.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened? My sister was y'all 22 times. A police officer, right? But what do you do when the monster is the man in blue? This dude is the devil. He'll hurt you.

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I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me. In season two of RipCurrent, we asked who tried to kill Judy Berry and why. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing.

I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Short on time, but big on true crime. On a recent episode of the podcast hunting for answers, I highlighted the story of 19-year-old Lechay Dungey. But she never knocked on that door. she never made it inside and that text message

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program your alarm to Power 105.1 on IHeart Radio yep it's the world's most dangerous morning show The Breakfast Club Shalameen Nagar, D.J. Envy, Jess, hilarious. Envi and Jess on here, but L.L. Kulbe, Lauren Larosa is. And we got a special guest, man. He was recently appointed the Zoran Mondani's transition team.

Definitely a friend to the room. The good brother, Mice, on is on his head. What's up, Mice? Thank you for having what's going on with you. Can you autograph this for me, man? Can you autograph this for me? Let me see. Let me see. Let me see this the first time I actually see. I don't even have one of these papers.

Why? You ain't see it? No, I didn't even see it like in person. I've just seen it online. Wow. Well, before, before we get into that. What does your role on Zoran Mondani's transition team entail? It entails being an advisor, being able to talk about policies that we think should be implemented from criminal justice, from public safety, also appointments, people that we think should be a part of his staff, that in that area that we feel best fit what it is that he wants to accomplish and what represents us in the community. So what power do you have to actually influence policy? Because, you know, people would be like, oh, this is just optics.

He gets somebody like my son who's well respected in the city. Like, what power do you have to actually influence? Well, it's 20 of us. It's 20 of us in that committee, right? So we sit down and we talk about policy. We have different meetings. And we send, okay, this is the policy. We think we shouldn't act.

And he gets to look at that based off, you know, what we come together. And he makes his own decision. We don't just tell him what to do. All we can do is advise and give recommendations. Hate or love mom, Donnie, right? People have been yelling that they want this. They want people in the community, from the community, helping to make decisions.

Why are people so upset that is happening? Because, you know, people don't like change, especially the people that don't want to see change. They want to make it seem like it's a bad thing. It doesn't make sense that you mad that somebody who was experienced the criminal justice system on both ends who was wrongfully convicted, inside prison for seven years,

came home and started working with youth inside prison, started, you know, dealing with reform organizations who has influenced policy within prisons, who knows, you know, the mind state of the young kids that's going in and out of these prisons that's actually working with him. That doesn't make sense that somebody would be mad. So I love what Mayor Mondami is Manlek right now

is doing right now because he's really trying to encompass what New York looks like. The people inside New York, the voices of New York, I'm about to start doing, roundtable meetings and convenings with formerly incarcerated individuals in which we sit down and we talk about what it is, what it looks like to actually be productive members of society.

What do we want to see? What do we realize is wrong with the system so he can actually get a real understanding of what's happening inside the system? I try not to take too many things personal, man. But when I saw this on the front page of the New York Post, you labeled as a crime boss. Mondania points rapper who served seven years

for armed robbery as justice advisor it actually offended me as a person with a criminal record because it's like damn my son went to prison in what 1999? I owe you 20? Yep 21 21 you're a 40 7 48 year old grown man now

you've done nothing since you came home but giving back to your community but tried to teach others not to follow this same path and you still can't escape that well you know I say all the time with the The devil means for bad, God are used for good. They got a good picture, so I'll actually like this picture.

You're wearing your boycott black nurse shirt and hat. When you look, it's boycott black murder on the shirt and the hat, and we actually sold out. So you can go buy some more on the website if you want to at Until Freedom.com. But it actually shows what it is that I represent. So what happened was for me, when I received so many congratulations, it's like people didn't even realize that they were actually trying to, you know, discredit and defame me.

people were just like, wow, you're doing something with the mayor. You're actually, you know, a part of the justice advisory system with the mayor. So it didn't even get the effect that they wanted to get. So it was, for me, it was like, you know what, I'm not going to utilize, I'm not going to allow them to utilize that to discourage me from the work that I've been doing for the last over a decade, you know, with Until Freedom. We've been doing this anti-violence work. We've been doing criminal justice work for the last over a decade. So for me, it's like, I'm going to continue and I'm going to. utilize this this notoriety in which i'm mean for bad i'm going to utilize it i'm going to make sure

that you know the world gets out i'm going to make sure that i represent formerly incarcerated and justice impacted people properly so when they say oh we can't do i want i want to be a representative to say that my son showed you that it's definitely possible then you can be successful did that because i mean you've been doing this for a long time like you know what i mean but did this moment in how like a new york post or you know wherever else mentioned you did it turn something new or like make you think of like okay we need to make sure we're doing this over here too like was there like a blind spot that like you saw through all this i don't know if it was a blind spot but it definitely was a level of urgency it made me feel more you know motivated to do the work

that we've been doing to motivate it to bring certain voices because you know i say this all a time there's so many formerly incarcerated people who are doing so many positive and you know just really good things that nobody talks about you know and that's the thing i want to highlight I don't want, because a lot of people formerly incarcerated don't believe that they can do certain things. They don't believe that they can be successful. And most, the public perception is that, too, as well. So I want to be able to highlight people that come home that have been doing this work for years, who've been doing positive things for years, who've been productive members of society.

You know, they always, people act like they don't know, Alan Avison was formally incarcerated. You know, like there's so many people that we talk about that was formerly incarcerated. Malcolm X. Malcolm X was formerly incarcerated and it's like we just we look down on the stigma and when we talk about formerly incarcerated a lot of people don't act like they know that black people are the highest falsely accused and exonerated people in the world so so a lot of us like I said I was falsely accused of a crime I spent seven years in jail for a crime I didn't commit I went to trial for my case so it's like a lot of us just because there's the stigma of us being arrested and incarcerated they make it seem like we're a threat to society and we just criminals and some people have committed crimes, but some people, like, when you go to the justice, when you go to the prison, right, it's supposed to be rehabilitation. So if a person does his time and he comes on, he's productive. Why do we act like he can't be productive? And they're focusing on your past, but that is the very thing that qualifies you for the role. How do you feel about that?

I think that is so ironic. Or it's just disingenuous to say that when we got a president that got 34 felonies and his whole cabinet is full of criminals, right? So we don't, we look at especially black people, we act like we can't do certain things. And I say all the time, this is, those closest to the problem are closest to solution.

You know, sitting in the cell for seven years, you know, seeing how the injustice system works, seeing how inmates are treated and how people are sitting there, a brother just was killed. You know, he was executed. And they found out it's four

or five years later that his DNA didn't match and he was actually innocent. So these are things that happen every day in the justice system and people like myself who've actually experienced it, who understand that and see the blind spots because somebody who just went to school and studied law never understood those realities. A lot

of times, I've watched a lot of elective issues. I've watched people who studied the law and then they actually got incarcerated and they came home and had conversation with me like, I didn't realize what was going on. And they become the biggest advocates for prison reform. for, you know, those type of things.

So I just think that I've been blessed with an opportunity, you know, and God created for me for such a time as now, you know, I never understood when I was incarcerated. When you're sitting in jail for seven years for a crime you didn't do, you don't understand what you're in there for it, especially you've got a million-dollar record deal. You're sitting in the jail cell and you're like, why the hell am I sitting in jail? And it was days that that was my conversation. And, you know, but I always said that I'm not going to allow this system to break me because every day that I don't grow and I don't learn and I don't do things positive.

system one. So when I came home and I started realizing, oh, why I was in there, I started realizing that our people are overly incarcerated, especially young black and brown mills. They're overly incarcerated. Some of them are just lost. They don't even identify with things. So I came home with a different perspective is to say, you know what, I'm going to pour into my community different. I'm in power these young boys. I'm not going to make them think that prison is some way to be, but I'm also not going to make you believe that because you was in prison that you can't be successful. And I wanted to come home and model that behavior and I think for the last 20 years that I've been out of jail you know my crime happened

in 99 it's 26 years later and y'all still talking about the crime that happened 26 years later but you're not looking at the track record for the last 20 years that I've been home and I've been on this ground putting boots on the ground of doing this work are you going to take any legal action against some of the headlines and stuff that came out I mean I don't know I'll you know I'll discuss it with some lawyers and see what happens but really right now I'm really just want to focus on just doing this work. You know, shout out to me and my domi and this team. You know, my team

Unsa Freedom, we've been doing this work. And, you know, like I tell people, this is, this is a volunteer. I'm not getting no check for this. This is a volunteer, and that because I really believe and we're supposed to be going on in our communities. You know, we're going to start forums where we talk about civic engagement with formerly incarcerated. We talk about

you know, how hard it is for them to be employed, you know, the collateral damages and causes that happen. So you come on from jail and you can't be a barbara, you can't be a door, all these things that happen. We want to talk about those things. And then we want to talk about what's the next step forward. You know, women that's being incarcerated. We're going to start these conveners and we're going to have them all at the table. Like, that is one of the biggest voting blocks in the world

that nobody is really tapped into. Formally incarcerated people, a lot of them don't even realize they can vote. You know, how strong they are. It's millions of people who are formally incarcerated that have really just lost belief in the system. So I, I, I, I, I, I, Me being on the inside understanding how it can make change, how somebody like, when you get somebody like Mandami in, in Mondani in office right now, and you get behind them and you push the agenda of what it is, you know, because we're going to push the agenda.

People think, oh, you and you with the government, nah, if they do something wrong, I'm going to be outside protesting Mondami too, because that's what we do. Like, we've been, just like when de Blasio was in there. We helped de Blasio get an office. When he didn't do what we did, we was at the, when he was at the presidential,

we stood up inside the D. see and scream that what happened to Eric Gardner, arrest Daniel Pantaleo when Eric Garland, just like when Mayor Adams got elected. I was with him too. When he started doing things and letting the police do things to community members, we're outside protesters. So it's no

different. As long as he's, you know, doing what he's supposed to do for the community and agenda for the community, we're going to stand with him and we're going to give our input and we're going to stand beside him. But the minute he stops, then we're going to be outside with the people. I'm glad you touched on that because, you know, a lot of activists often fear being absorbed by politics. So how you're protecting your voice and

integrity while working with this transition team? I mean, you have to work with people that actually are in positions to put policy, to make the real changes you want. And I've seen it done. Shout out to my brother Jamani Williams. Like we worked with Jamani Williams, you know, we worked with numerous different, you know, my brother, Yusuf Salam from the Central Park, the exonerated, the exonerated five. Exactly. So it's people that I know in positions that have actually done things in our community. So I know that you have to have those levels of relationships,

but those people, they also know that when you do something wrong, we're going to be outside your office saying that you got to get it right. We understand that you have our best interest, but the minute that you don't, then we're always going to hold you accountable. So I understand people's, you know, fear that because activists get aligned, or stand next to certain politicians and people in office that they're going to lose their autonomy

but we're just not those type of people we've been fighting against anything that's not for our people we're going to fight against every time. Mayor Young, well, I said Mayor Young, Andrew Young was up here and Andrew Young said the same people who supported them

and helped him get elected. He said, as soon as he won, they were outside protesting in front of his office and he was like, what are y'all doing? He goes, they said, you're the man now. So we got to push you to make sure you do what you said you was going to do. And that's what it is, man.

It's about accountability. It's about understanding that I work for the people. I do not work for the government. When I'm inside these rooms, when I'm having conversations, when I'm at these tables, my objective is always to get what's necessary for the people. You know, so it never changes, no matter how much status. That's just not how I'm built. You know, I've done too much time.

I've been in the streets. I know the ills and the spills inside our communities. And I know I want the community to know that every time that I'm at a table, our voice is there. It's not just for me. Like I said, this is a volunteer. I don't get a dime to do this work. It's not for me.

It's for me to make sure that the work and the people are represented properly. You talked about until freedom, like you guys standing next to Mayor Adams and now what you're doing with Mom Donnie, right? I think when hip hop gets involved or anybody from the culture gets involved in politics, people pay attention a bit more.

But then, like, now people are easily flipped, right? Like you're on the front of the New York Post. And the support isn't the same. what do you think politics or the system owes hip-hop or people from the culture like you that you don't get? I think like it owes proper representation, right? What happens with a lot of politicians is shout out to Mandami again. He didn't run from when I got, when this happened and he talked about it.

He talked about the necessity to have somebody who's been through the system, you know, at the table with other. we like you said is a whole transition team of 400 people it's 20 in our in our criminal justice and community support but it's over 400 people and everybody at that table has a voice and everybody represents somebody different or a different genre or a different demographic inside in New York City and those voices need to be at the table what I think that politicians need to do is elevate certain people that especially hip-hop don't don't leave us out because what happens is when something goes wrong and or they don't and you stand in

up there. I've had this conversation with Pat Poo's. Pat was like, I was on the front line and I was standing and these politicians left me out the drive. You know what I'm saying? When you start getting political to political for hip hop, they move away from you and the politicians move away from you too because they don't know I'm going to have the value in you no more because you lose your value in your community. But for me, I've always stand on what I stand on. So I don't care about what politics thing. If I stand by a politician, that means that that politician represents what I feel at that moment. The minute that that politician doesn't represent what's the needs of my community

or what I stand on, then I don't stand on them. So I don't deal with no blanket. Like you always say, I'm not with no party. I don't care about the Democrats, Republicans. I care about people and especially black people in our communities because that's what I am. And I know that we are highly impacted by anything that goes on the government. So when people are talking about, well, I'm not political.

Listen, if you ain't at the table, then you're on the menu. Because that's the reality of the situation. These people are making laws. They are going to be laws passed that are going to affect you. If you're looking at this, if you're looking at this administration right now and you don't see how how people are being infected, how people can't afford groceries, how they're taking away everything that says black anywhere. A black woman are getting unemployed at the highest rates ever.

Like we're getting locked up. Everything that I told you how they was going to do is what they're doing now. So if you still want to play this that you're not political and you're not going to be involved in the game, then cool. You're just going to be a victim of circumstance. I'm not going to sit around and be a victim of circumstance. What's one compromise you're not willing to make, even if it creates political tension between you and Mondani? I'm not willing to make compromises where you take away things in our communities that are necessary. I'm not willing to make compromises where we know that violence interruption and C.S.

M.S work has been doing phenomenal work over the last decade in our communities, and you don't support that. I'm not willing to compromise where you don't put certain things inside schools because this is one of the things I want to implement is where we have emotional intelligence class. We have alternative to suspension class. We know that once you start putting kids and suspending them in junior high school, they're not coming back to school. So if you're not willing to, if you're not willing to get the root causes or what crime. is in our community, if you're not willing to educate and put the resources in our communities, if I see that those things are you not doing, that's a line in the sand for me. If you, if you're willing to stand by and allow police to abuse people like Mayor Adams, a police

over the punch of the woman in the face and he told me she shouldn't have been screaming. Once you start doing that right there, at that point, then me and you, we're on, we're on different sides of the spectrum. So I don't, that's where I draw the line. When you, when you're willing to allow the police to abuse our community or you're willing not to make sure that resources that need to come into our community to prevent violence and prevent crime, if you're not willing

do that, then that's where I draw the line. What convinced you that Zoran Mundani was serious about transformational change and not just using like progressive language? That's a good question, right? Because I watched Zoran for a while. And you know, I think I had,

after this last election, I had just fairly much just been kind of done with politics and just you know politicians in general but just listen just I listened to him for a while right and I just kept paying it I'm investigative journalist Melissa Jeltson my new podcast

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you loved in the most horrific way. I said through your 22 times. The police, right? But what if the person you're supposed to go to for help? is the one you're the most afraid of. This dude is the devil. He's a snake.

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using his police badge to scare them into silence. This is the story of a detective who seemed above the law until we came together to take him down. I told Roger Galoopsky, I said, you're going to see my face

till the day that you die. Listen to the girlfriends, Untouchable, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Stefan Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut. I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful feminist.

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wherever you get your podcasts. And then when he won the Democratic nomination, I said to myself, well, he's going to be our mayor, right? So I want to have a conversation with him. And through the resources that I have and people that I know, I say, you know what? I want to set up conversations. Shout out to Tamika. I want to set up conversations with black men and people from our community because they don't even hear him. And he sounds good.

But I want to be able to look him in his eyes and have real conversations with him. And he came into those conversations. We had about two or three of them. And he was very attentive, right? And he was on, he was on board with the things that we were saying. And it didn't sound like it was political jiverjazz, like the average person does. I've been around a lot of politics, and he seemed really authentic. And he stayed true to that.

And I watched him be attacked for it all the time. And he kept saying, we need violence interruptors. We need to make sure that we have mental health inside our communities. We need to make sure that police is not the first line of defense in every situation. Like, those are things. He said, we need to make sure that a school program is that black boys are grad... All these things they were talking about. And when he sat down with us, everybody felt that same authenticity.

And then when he built this transition team and I walked into auditorium with 400 people, a lot of them grassroots organizers that I've seen throughout the years for the last over a decade, and everybody was in that room. And he sat there, he said, we're going to get criticism. And we're not going to all agree. And I know that. And that's why I'm putting this team together. because I don't want everybody that agrees with me.

I want different walks of life. I want different ideologies. I want different ideas. And I want us to come up what New York actually looks like. And that for me was the first time that I've ever seen somebody. I watch three or four men coming off as they get their regular. They get their homeboys in the transition team. They get their homeboys in it.

But he really put together an apparatus that really is going to represent New York City. So I'm hopeful. I believe that he's really going to try. I don't think that he's beholding to a political system. I don't think he needs money or anything. I think he really wants to see change. You know, so if I'm right, if my gut feeling is right, then we're going to be good for at least the next four years.

But if not, then I'm going to be outside protest. I heard he'd be getting really challenged behind closed doors. Oh, he's always. I keep hearing about this one call with Ms. Erica Ford. Oh, Erica. She don't play. She don't play on her head. Listen, she came into the transition meeting.

right and she called them out she's like well i see certain people here that's been a part of the status quo that you got in your system already and and they ain't been doing nothing you know all they're doing is these people is they investigating these kids at 13 and 14 for four and five years instead of coming to us and say yo this was going on so we can redirect they just want to put cases on our babies like we're trying to save these babies and they put cases on these kids and he stood up and he said what you're saying is really i understand what you're saying and that's what we need we need your voice because those are the things that

need to be heard because a lot of us don't have that perspective and she's going to always do that and even her she was like okay well maybe we got something but you know Erica ain't going to she ain't going to. She's not going to submit to nothing but you know I think at this point it's a lot of us who are skeptical there's a lot of people at that

table who not here they don't want status quo they don't even agree with government or nothing but they believe that this situation is possible you know but Once again, if it ain't possible, then we're going to be outside to hand you up. What about when he, like when Mom Donnie does things, like when he goes and meets with Trump, I know he got a lot of like pushback from some people because they were like really smiley, smiley in the meeting or whatever.

And until freedom, y'all are very much like, if we don't rock with you, we don't rock with you, what we say is what we stand on in your face or behind your back, whatever, right? How do y'all deal with conversations with him about stuff like that? Because now people are like, but you guys are sending next to him and that we know up for until freedom, y'all, we wouldn't see you guys he he ha ha in a meeting with President Trump. Well, that's why I'm not the mayor, right? That's why when people tell you know what I'm saying?

That's why when they say run for political orders, I don't want to do that because I don't want to do politics. But I understand that being the mayor, understanding that this is the president and federal aid that's needed for New York City has to go through the president. I'm going to have a conversation with you. I'm going to sit down. As the mayor, I understood it.

Would I have done it? No, that's why I wouldn't be the mayor. But I understand it. But I believe when I watched that, it looked like Trump was happy to be. being his president. It didn't look like he was just happy to be in Trump president. And he called him a fascist in his face. And to me, that's what he didn't waver from what he said he was doing. He said he sat down. He told him, this is what we need inside of New York City. And now we've had

the conversation, right? It's just like two warriors going to war. You see two generals go to war. I don't mean that we're not at war no more, but we discuss in terms of war. I'm explaining to you, look, if you stop this right now, then we don't got to go to war. And you're saying, well, I'm not going to stop that. And you say, okay, so you're sure you're not going to stop that. All right, we've met, we shook hands. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, they respect. They might have had a level of respect, and they shook hands, but it didn't stop, you know, Al Pacino from shooting him down at the end of the move.

So that's what happens in these type of situations. He met with the president. Now, if he stops his agenda, if he stops trying to push his agenda because now he's trying to be, you know, cool with Trump, then once again, you're just one of those that fell by the wayside because we watch Eric Adams do that, right? So if you follow them for that, I would be disappointed. I just don't really see it.

I think the meeting was, you know, part for the course. It was saying, hey, I met with the president, right? I told him what I wanted, and I'm still going along my agenda. Now, don't say that I didn't try. And ain't nobody going to be able to say, oh, look, you're not even savvy enough to sit down with the president. No, I sat down with him. And he said he agreed, right? But my agenda has always been my agenda.

Now, if he changes his agenda, then we got an issue with him. But if he doesn't, that meeting with Trump is just supposed to be what it's supposed to be as just being the leader. That's why I don't like when politicians adopt the language of activists. You know what I'm saying? If you're going to use language like fascism, it does look confusing to people when you say you can work with a fascist because that's never worked in the history of mankind. And vice versa.

You called him a communist. That's why you saw Trump's people so up in arms like, you told us this dude was a communist, but now y'all just buddy, buddy inside the Oval Office. But that is politics. But I think I'm just a person that think words matter, man. I think words do matter. I think it matters more.

And that's why we have an inside, outside game, right? It's just like what Malcolm said, you know, if you don't respect Dr. King's peace, then you're going to get what we got over here. It was the, we're the alternative, right? Like when they show this, Tamika talks about it a lot, they show Stokely Carmocker walking alongside Dr. King. And they're both talking about what's going on. And Dr. King and say, you know, we're going to rally and we're trying to unify. And Stokely Carmack was like, burn it's everything there.

No, and they walk in the same path. So the reality is everybody's words may be different, but we still got the same agenda. And as long as his agenda is to stop fascism, I don't care if you stand in and have a conversation with him. If you're saying, yo, because you know what I've studied, right? And I didn't understand it. And shout out to, I forgot, I went with the organization and we went to study the principles of nonviolence, Dr. King's, Kenya nonviolence. And I never was on board with it. But when I really got down to how strong and how strong.

mentally strong it was, what the principles are, and how you go about it, how you identify what the issue is, you don't attack the person with it, you attack the issue. And then there's a level of reconciliation. After I attack and we go to war, and even when I win, it's not me winning over you, it's me winning over the situation. And then after I went over a situation, there's supposed to be a level of reconciliation. Because a lot of times people don't even identify their wrongs. And sometimes after they lose, then they, they, they, they, they, they, They may be able to have reconciliation. And when you really sit there and think about it,

it takes real strong minds and leadership to have that type of foresight. So when I'm thinking about this right now, of course, Trump to us is the antichrist. We're looking at him. Everything he's doing is just wrong to us. But, man, Mondami seems to have a level of understanding and vision that most leaders don't. You know, he's able to sit there and call you the truth and still smile

and still go about what he's doing. And then make you like it. I've never seen somebody get called a call to Fashis and said, well, just call, yeah, yeah, that's right. I'm a fashion. This guy's great. You understand what I'm saying? Who else has that level of charisma?

The only person I've seen do that was when they told Martin Luther King, he said, we need this to happen. And he said, make me. We also got to remember Trump is a con artist. Exactly. So Trump might be playing, playing too. And I think everybody's playing. You understand what I'm saying?

But the thing is, at the end is who's going to win. I think what happened is Mondami has became the star. And Trump loves the star. He cozes up to anybody that. That's the star. That's what he is. He's a groupie. So he's, you know what I'm saying? He coges up to anybody that says, this is the fact. It's just a fact. You know, but at this time, I think my dummy has a real agenda, and he has the people behind him. Like, he's literally going outside in the streets and just putting a mic outside and talking to random people just trying to figure out, what do you want inside New York City?

You know what I'm saying? Like, I've never seen the mayor that that's that interested in really galvanizing the people. You know, so, you know, we'll see. Like, once again, I could be wrong. but you know I'm really usually a good judge of character you know sometimes I get people to doubt the benefit of doubt and they never really benefit but I'm giving her the benefit of that hopefully you know he will but Lex again if he's not we're going to be out there protests

how do you want young organizers watching this moment watching you watching Tamika watching the Erica watching the Erica Ford on this transition team how do you want them to understand the relationship between protest and policy shout out to Angelo too he's actually he's on the criminal justice but

I want young protesters to organize us, right? Because I don't want you to just be protesters. I want you to be savvy. I want you to be intelligent. I want you to be strategic. I want you to look at this moment as progress, right? Because we all got to do different things.

There's an inside, outside game. You know, for years we stood outside and we was the protesters. And people said, yeah, y'all can go out there and they made jokes. You got your picket sign. And it was cool. But we watched incremental change happen, right? We got incremental change, and we protested. enough people to where they said okay what do y'all want right and then they sat down with us and then

we start saying okay we want this and they saw and we start watching capitulate when we look talk about the um CMS Tamika and Erica Ford and AT those they sat out there and protested the mayor until they got millions of dollars put into that um CMS system to when there was nothing you know when um they was told that there was no data and they would never get a dime and now it's up to over a hundred million that's given to CMS inside a new city because people did that work so i want you to be understanding i want you to be relentless i want you to be fearless but i want you to understand that there's the process and that there's an ultimate goal and if you just protest and you don't see things going anywhere if you don't get yourself if you're not in positions to actually make

change if you don't have the ears and the the the the wherewithal to touch the people who can actually to actually do things for the communities you're fighting for, then you're just fighting a fight for nothing. So it's cool. I told people, I'm tired of having, you know, victories, you know, just being the leader that die. We celebrate our leaders dying at 30 and they ain't got nothing, but they kept on, I want to win.

You know, I don't want moral, I'm tired of moral victories. When do we actually get the victories where we see some change for our people? I'm tired of the story of we watching our people run out in glory, and they say, yeah, y'all are going to be the, first ones. We know all y'all are going to die, but it's going to be brave. You brave because you went out there. I don't want that no more. Like, when are we going to be strategic and we go through the back door and we actually take over the castle and we put our people in position? When are we going to start doing that? Like, I think our strategy has to change and it has to evolve

what we deal with. It's just like when we look at Trump and we look at Jasmine Crockers and we look at the people that are meeting fire with fire. We can't keep having the conversations about, oh, this is not how we're supposed to know. This is how it is. You can't fight a fight with one hand behind your back where people got four and five hands and they jump in you and you're saying but I fought with honor and I did it to right. No, actually you fought and they killed you.

Like I'm tired of just dying. Like I really want us to win the war. So I want black people and our young activists to be strategic and figure out how do we actually get the things that we're fighting for. I agree. I got one more question because you made me think about something just now. What's the biggest lie people believe

about how change actually happens and what's the hard truth they need to accept about it? The biggest lie is that people act like if they do nothing, things are going to change, right? They say, yo, I'm not voting. You don't even need to be involved in that system. I'm not going to be there. No, when you take yourself out and you don't have a strategy,

like people have been not voting for years. Right? There's a million. I know a bunch of people that say, I ain't never vote. So what have you ever got for not voting? What have you never got for not fighting? And I think, you know, when people think that, If you don't go out there and you're not out there.

If you're protesting, it doesn't know. I've literally watched protests turn into policy. I've literally watched people turn into processes get into power. I watch literal front-line activists get into office. Jamani William was an activist outside with us. You know what I'm saying? Yusuf Salon was, they were activists on the front line with us at times. So I watched those people get in positions to where they can actually do things.

So telling people to not be involved in this system and if you, take yourself out you more valuable then they got to come to you no if you take yourself out then they don't even they don't even account you right because when they start doing votes they only account for the people that's voting so if you one of the other million a hundred million that ain't voting they don't care right so how do you make yourself valuable right if you don't add value to something then you don't have any worth so i think that that's the biggest lies that we act like if we're not involved with the system that the system is going to somehow change and it's going to benefit us or we can or another thing is that we can money ourselves out of our

problem money has never changed black people situation not individual we think individual i know people i've had conversations oh we over here doing this and we over here okay but still 90% of black people don't have nothing and you got that right you and you and 20 people got that right and y'all invested in that so how where is the the strategy for 10 and 20 and 30% of black people to be in power to be in positions to where they can create generational wealth to where the majority of us are not struggling right to where we see power to where we're more than one two percent of the wealth in america we've been two percent of the wealth in america since we've been here when are we going to grow what is the strategy for that right so that's what i i don't want us to

individually think our individualism and our individual success and our individual money and worth is going to help black people it does not is how do we collectively come together and create a to where we're building something and we're creating something in structures and organizations and schools and all these things that are really going to change our people. So if we're not doing that and we just, because I can, I don't have to do nothing.

This I'm good. You know what I'm saying? But I understand that if I don't do this and I don't utilize my voice and I don't utilize every platform that I have, then generations of our people are going to be suffering. Word. Well, it's my son.

Man, what can they find you, my brother? You can find me on Instagram at MySahn, NY General. You can find me on YouTube, same thing. Facebook, same thing. Yo, keep holding them accountable. And make sure you go to TMI podcast that we're going to get LL on real soon. So make sure you follow us on TMI podcast on IHeart. Yes, the Black Effect IHard Radio Podcast Network.

My man, MISON, it's the Breakfast Club. Yes, sir. Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Do y'all finish or y'all done? I'm Stefan Curry, and this is Gentleman's Cut.

I think what makes Gentleman's Cut different is me being a part of developing the profile of this beautiful finished product. With every sip, you get a little something different. Visit gentlemen's cut bourbon.com or your nearest total wines or Bevmo. This message is intended for audiences 21 and older. Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, Boone County, Kentucky. For more on Gentleman's Cut Bourbon, please visit Gentleman's Cut Bourbon.com. Please enjoy responsibly. Who would you call if the unthinkable happened?

My sister was y'all 22 times. A police officer, right? But what do you do when the monster is the man in blue? This dude is the devil. He hurt you. This is the story of a detective who thought he was above the law until we came together to take him down. I said, you're going to see my face till the day that you die. Listen to the girlfriends.

Untouchable on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History, about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, How Southwest Airlines Used Chewerexie. cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me. In season two of Rip Current, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Berry and why? They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now.

Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Short on time, but big on true crime. On a recent episode of the podcast, hunting for answers, I highlighted the story of 19-year-old Lechey Dungey. But she never knocked on that door. She never made it inside. and that text message would be the last time anyone would ever hear from her. Listen to hunting for answers from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.