The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Pastor Jamal Bryant On 40-Day Fast Against Target, Black America's Success, Politics + More

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Pastor Jamal Bryant To Discuss 40-Day Fast Against Target, Black America's Success, Politics. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, what's up y'all? This is Eric Andre. Well, I made a podcast called Bombing about absolutely tanking on stage. I tell gnarly stories and I talk to friends about their worst moments of bombing in all sorts of ways. Bombing on stage, bombing in public, bombing in life. I want to know what's the worst way they ever bombed or have they ever performed way too drunk or high or was there ever a time where they thought they were going to crush and they stunk it up. Listen to Bombing with Eric Andre on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. With Eric Andre. Hey, it's Amartines. The news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you can't just ignore las noticias when important world changing events are happening. That is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen up first from NPR on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How goes lower?

From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all-new fictional comedy podcast series. Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Listen to the hookup on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

What would you do if mysterious drones appeared over your hometown? I started asking questions. What do you remember happening on that night of December 16? It actually rotated around our house, looking as if it was peering in each window of our home. I'm Gabe Lenners from Imagine, I Heart Podcasts and Lenners Entertainment.

Listen to Obscureum, Invasion of the Drones, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. favorite podcast Wake that ass up in the morning the breakfast club Morning everybody is DJ envy just hilarious Charlamagne the guy we are the breakfast club la la Rosa is here We got a special guest in the building. Yes indeed. You have passage and more Brian. Welcome brother. Thank you, sir Good to be with y'all. How you feeling this morning feel great feeling good. You flew in this I flew in last night Oh, wow. Okay, right after service?

Right after service, yeah. I was too scared I was gonna be delayed. Delta got a whole lot going on right now, so I came in last night better safe than sorry. You know, you one of the people who, you actually use social media to spread the word and spread what you're doing in a great way. When did you realize that you had to start doing it?

I think culture made it. The culture changes every four years. Church culture changes every 20. So the average church is 15 years behind schedule. So to reach a younger demographic, I knew I had to hit it. Most churches, Charlemagne broadcasts on Facebook. Most young people are on TikTok.

So it's a great disconnect. So social media really is that bridge to make the church relevant to a generation that's disconnected. And church, you said church called the Chains every 20 years? What's that look like? Well, by virtue of the fact that we're always

running behind. So the average black church wouldn't even know what AI is. You have to average black church wouldn't even know what AI is. You have to think, most churches didn't even stream till the pandemic. 3,045 churches closed in the pandemic simply because they didn't have online giving. They still passing the plate and writing checks

and don't know how to download. So a lot of our churches have got to really run up to speed. Wow. And how is that with the old congregation, the older congregation and the younger congregation with the TikTok and Facebook mesh? Right. It is really a changing of the guard.

Right. That church is what was our grandmother's church with funeral home fans and fried chicken downstairs has shifted. And the newer generation may not come to a physical building. church with funeral home fans and fried chicken downstairs, they shifted and the newer generation may not come to a physical building. They may just stream. So those who are in the old church that are you ain't really doing it if you ain't in the building when we do everything online. So to say that you're not really connected to God because you streaming and not sitting on the pew is

a disconnect of what the culture is and where we're going. What's your, I mean I know you get the, you always get people that love you or don't love you. Yeah. So you're probably used to this, but what's your motto every day when you're like, okay, I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna say something that people probably won't touch. What's that motivating factor? Because sometimes I think pastors stay away from stuff because they don't want controversy

because they think controversy means that God is not within the house anymore. Yeah, there's an incredible book called The Carriage to Be Disliked. There's a whole lot of people always live for other people's affirmation. John Maxwell said, if you want to be like, sell ice cream. That's right. But if you add sprinkles, somebody's

going to be allergic to it. And so I think that the call to be great and the call to make a difference is realizing that you're gonna go outside of the culture. When Dr. King was killed, his popularity was at its lowest. But now everybody got street signs and T-shirts. And a lot of times, people don't recognize your greatness until after you make the impact.

Mahatma Gandhi said, first they laugh at you, then they try to kill you, then they try to kill you, then they try to copy what you did. And so once you find out how to be a frontiersman and to make that difference, it'll really free you from other people's opinion. I wanted to ask one more back to the church question. Is a physical church necessarily needed, right?

And the reason I ask that is, you talk about the amount of people at Doostream, right? It's difficult to get out if you have a bunch of kids and everything that's going on in this world, people are scared. Is a physical church needed now? Absolutely. It is the power of unity. There was an article a couple of weeks ago

how social media has made this the loneliest age. So people are connected online, but disconnected from people. So a lot of people are depressed, a lot of people have anxiety, a lot of people have sleep disorder, a lot of people are confronting mental illness. But online, everything is up and we stuck.

But I think that that sense of community, that sense of connectedness is still necessary. Before we get into the Target fast, I wanna talk about Jesse Waters from Fox News. Jesse Waters said you was racist because you criticized black people who went to the White House for the Black History Month program.

Right. What do you say to that? That he clearly doesn't know what racism is because I wasn't talking about white people. I was talking about black people who were having an identity crisis, who were in their cheering for Black History Month under an administration that wants to make it illegal. No federal agency could honor Black History Month, so for them to have a program was absolutely

crazy. And all the more, they raised up my picture, Charlemagne, after announcing who was the new FBI director. So for your own people to do that to you, I was calling them out. I don't know why he would call that racism as much as it was exposure. Black people don't have the capacity to be racist. I wonder why they didn't hold your picture up

in the White House. Three of them. Charlemagne, you've been to the White House. Yeah, you've been to the White House. Never I haven't. Yeah, you've been to the White House. No I haven't. Never in your life. He said he not going there. Never, under nobody.

No. Oh, wow. I've been to the vice president's house. Huh? I've been to the vice president's house. Yeah, well, let's take the vice president's house. You not going into the vice president's house with a picture or a sign.

No. Holding up no stick. You barely can get a backpack in there. So for them to have three pictures of me in the East Wing is absolutely crazy. Yeah, and I don't know Jasmine Crockett is up there. How came Jeffries is up there Cliburn is up there. Why put my picture up? So I think it was a targeted attack And so for them to assume I wasn't gonna say anything was outlandish. You did call him the spooks who sat by the door Yes, but that's a good thing. Yeah

Yeah in the context of the book Was funny in Charlemagne none of them Nick Rose read it They didn't even know what I was talking about in to I also caught him as a runaway slave I was talking about in two years. I also caught him as a runaway slave Which is a good thing and they didn't even understand the context of it because they're lost in their own misery of delusion You are you also say you've reminded them that you ain't never scared You reminded them you from the west side of Baltimore Yes, and you told them they got a problem pull up on you has anybody reached out to you to have that conversation or whatever That pull up you thought was no they made videos

They don't have none of that in them. This was the society, this was the fraternity of Carlton Banks. None of them got that kind of DNA in them. So they all went on and did social media posts. I don't even know if they knew what that meant. They needed a hood interpreter, a hood whisperer to tell them what it is that that meant. But they are so lost that they have that access to the president and didn't champion any of the needs of their own community. So while they're there celebrating Black History Month, they should have said to them, hey, if we're going to celebrate it, we can't ban the books that record it.

If we're going to celebrate it, then we can't penalize the public schools that wanna teach it or fire the instructors who are really ambassadors for it. For them to have that access and that opportunity and not, in the words of Bishop Jackson, maximize the moment was just a waste. You from Baltimore, how come you don't say church pew? Did you?

Listen. Tell everybody from Baltimore I don't have that slang. No problem, they do, they be always saying that. Oh yeah, no, I'm local and global. Okay. So I got out. Okay. You got out, but it's like period.

Oh yeah, it's a half and half with wings. Period. No, I got it. All day long. I'm Baltimore through and through, but I spent time in Atlanta. I went to Morehouse. Then I went to Duke for grad school, and then I went back to Baltimore. Got you.

And what's your relationship like with the black pastors who were also working with President Trump? Because I know you called them out before too. Yeah. It was on their top. So is there a working relationship? Because I think you do make points that people should listen to when they're there. Yes. No? It's Nikki Giovanni's ego tripping. A

lot of people miss what the assignment is because they want the proximity of power without even really having the real access of it and so it's got to go beyond what is the photo op or a handshake to say oh I know the president but now that you know them what are you gonna do about it? So I think that there's a common ground for us to be able to meet, but you've gotta make sure that you don't sell your own people out in the process. To your point, that's why I never wanted

to go to the White House, because it's just like, for what? Like, I'm not going just for a photo op, if I'm not presenting anything, or going with somebody who's presenting something, what's the point? I'm with you on the 50 yard line, but you represent too much people of influence who won't have that access. So when it is that you go there, this is an era, Charlemagne,

where you would have more influence than any head of any civil rights organization. More people are listening to you. I don't want to call the names of organizations other than a lot of those organizations, let's go a step further. We step outside of this room, go downstairs, and ask people who is the head of this organization, head of that. They have no idea. So I think that you gotta realize

that the shaping of influence is different than the microphone that you would have, Entree, to get into those spaces. Would you meet with Trump? I would meet with Trump, but I wouldn't go by myself. Gotcha. I wouldn't go by myself. I'd have to take some credible people with me.

One, hold me accountable so we can all say what happened in that meeting. And two, to make sure y'all ain't going to play me like Zelensky. Ain't no way in the world y'all going to have all them cameras rolling and then say, you ought to be grateful to be here, and how come you ain't got a suit on? So you got, you got to have some level of accountability in it.

Would you pray before you go in there? So you, I pray before I pray in there. I'd have a bottle of my grandmother's oil in my pocket. Oh no, all of that. But there's no way I would just go in there. Hey, let's get you to handle that. I think he did it. What this administration has shown us is diplomacy is no longer honored. way I would just go in there. How you think Zelensky should have handled it? I think he did it, what this

administration has shown us is diplomacy is no longer honored. That was an argument in the barbershop. That was not world leaders talking about the devastation of hundreds of thousands of lives. So I give him high commendation that the argument should not be whether he had a suit on, is what are you gonna do about innocent children being bombed, about seniors who are living out in the street? And the question that he should have said, why do y'all have suits on?

When your people are fighting to get Medicaid, why y'all got suits on? When all of these students are getting ready to be robbed of scholarships from Pell Grants, why y'all got suits on? when the stock market is losing billions of dollars every day? Everybody should be in overalls. So he should have flipped it But I think he did it in as much decency intact as he could I want to ask you to as a pastor What makes you get involved in politics so much because I see people I see a lot of pastors like to steer clear

Stare stay clear from that. Why do you like to get involved? Well, one, a lot of staying clear now because they don't know what this administration is going to do. This administration has already said that they want to take away 501c3s. They want to look at anybody who stands with Palestine as a terrorist organization, but I think that it's gotta be, revolution comes with inconvenience, to know that it goes against the prick and you gotta stand on business.

And to be a real prophet is not you get a car, you get a house, you get money. A real prophet, biblically, was to confront the king and say, you out of order. You're not doing this right. And I think that you're gonna find a whole lot of people emerging, and there are people who are doing it. What has happened in the culture is we have

confused notoriety with strength. The most powerful preachers in every major city don't have mega churches. But they're in the community doing the hard work, but they don't have press conferences, they don't know the governor, they don't know mega churches, but they're in the community doing the hard work, but they don't have press conferences, they don't know the governor, they don't know the mayor, but the people in the community, they serve honor and respect.

Let's talk about this, the 40 day fast of Target. Yes. And this is something that you're trying to put into play, and why? I'm not trying, you are putting it into play, why? Yeah, so people are asking Why did we pick? Target when Walmart out of order McDonald's is out of order John Deere's out of order Bank of America's out of order Amazon Amazon is out of order is

We wanted to go the African proverb says if you want to eat an elephant do one piece at a time So we picked Target first for several reasons number one Target is headquartered in the same city George Floyd was killed. When George Floyd was killed, Target came out, made an announcement that they're gonna invest two billion dollars in the black business. Two billion, drum roll, and it starts December of 2025.

When Trump made the announcement January of 2025, they dishonored that commitment. So we wanted to hold them accountable because when they made the pledge, it had nothing to do with DEI. Secondly, I am embarrassed, Breakfast Club, to say to you, Negroes spend $12 million a day in Target. And I don't know any black

business that amasses that much money in any singular day. Is it 12 million a day? A day! Number three, Target is on 27 college campuses and not one HBCU. Number four, outside of the federal government, Target is the largest employer of black people. They have 400,000 black people on payroll and don't honor us. So we're given that kind of money, that much human capital, and to not honor us I think is dismally disrespected. And because they're publicly traded, we wanted to see what will happen in those 40 days that shows the data. This is the impact when black people walk away and to share with those share crops. So it will not

just be 40 days, but every movement has to have a benchmark, it's got to have a strategy, and you got to have some data. Why Why you calling it a fast and not a boycott? Yeah, I called it a fast because this was a call to the black church to become active. Something happened silently that scholars and historians are gonna have to pay attention to. The rise of Black Lives Matter, Charlemagne, was the very first movement of civil rights for black people that was not birthed out of the church.

The very first civil rights movement that happened that didn't have a religious leader at the front. And so the black church is going backwards. This is the largest demographic of black people since we've been in America who don't go to church at all, who don't go to church at all, who don't subscribe to organized religion. We're at 28%. The largest amount of black people

who self-identify as atheists, who say they don't believe in God, don't believe in nothing. So this was a call specifically for black Christians to show the younger generation, our head is not in the sand, we're a part of it, but we're aligning it with prayer. That those 40 days is the high holy season for the Christian community. We're praying because this is a spiritual warfare that we're under with JD Vance and Donald Trump. With all of the things that are happening with these executive orders Marching is good protesting is necessary petitions are important, but if we don't bring a spiritual grounding to it

I think that we're gonna miss it during the Montgomery bus boycott that lasts 381 days what nobody talks about is for 381 days Every night they went back to the church for prayer. So I think that in the movement you've gotta have a faith entity intertwined in it in order for you to move forward. What do you say to some of the people

that have black products in Target? That they say that because of this boycott, if a boycott happens and people are stoppin' to go to Target, that is gonna affect their products even more. I know we had the co-founders of Ruckaroots on the Breakfast Club. We had the founder of the Lit Bar.

And they were saying that if people don't come into the store, which Target is their hugest manufacturer, their hugest buyer, so what happens to those products? Number one, the Lit Bar and all of those entities understand a new thing out called dropship. You don't have to go in a physical store to help them. Because of that in Foresight we partner with the US Black Chamber of Commerce. So every person that goes to targetfast.org within an hour I send you a

digital directory of 300,000 black businesses across the country. So we don't want those businesses to be adversely impacted. We want people to support them, but do it online. I can support the lip bar and not go into Target to do it. I can go online to do it. And so I think that as innovative and creative people, as black people are, let's do it online. We do everything else online. So let's support them. And the 1000 black vendors who are placed in Target, we're going to prominently place on the website so that you'll be able to find them quickly without any pause. Hey, it's Amartinez. The news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you can't just ignore las noticias

when important world changing events are happening. That is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen up first from NPR on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you remember what you said the first night I came over here? How goes lower? From Blumhouse TV, iHeart Podcasts, and Ember 20 comes an all new fictional comedy podcast series.

Join the flighty Damien Hirst as he unravels the mystery of his vanished boyfriend. And Santi was gone. I've been spending all my time looking for answers about what happened to Santi. And what's the way to find a missing person? Sleep with everyone he knew, obviously. Hmm, pillow talk. The most unwelcome window into the human psyche. Follow our out of his element hero as he engages in a series of ill-conceived,

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might not even know. Keep yourself and others safe by knowing the real deal on fentanyl. Get the facts. Go to realdealon Fentanyl. Get the facts. Go to realdealonfentanyl.com. This message is brought to you by the ad council. So two things to what you're saying. So the first thing when they were up here, they talked about the inventory and just how much money they have to put ahead to be in these stores

that comes out of their own pocket that they will lose out on if people do not. If they're not supporting these companies or whatever. So even if you're buying it from their website because they're already in contract for this amount of inventory allotted to Target, they lose out, they don't profit on that now. Yeah, that money has already been spent. A movement comes with inconvenience.

It came, that same argument happened in the Montgomery bus boycott. The question was asked, what do we do for the bus mechanics who are all black? So what they did is they pulled all of those bus mechanics out of Montgomery and set up garages at the churches. What nobody is talking about is four mechanic shops came out of it.

So I understand that it's an inconvenience. I know we gotta go a different route, but I would then say, that's up the ante. As a business principle, let's buy more to cover what is that loss. Companies take losses all the time but a group of misguided preachers went into Target in Detroit and said let's just buy black inventory and come out. You're still supporting Target. So I think that we've got come away, even if we gotta raise the price in order to make the balance, let's do it.

One of the things that black people do wrong, whenever it is we're supporting black business, we always want a discount. Let's pay full price and support them. Let's not just do it with lip service, but let's do it through the investment. I saw you, oh, go ahead. My last thing, to your point, like just up it with lip service, but let's do it through the investment. I saw you. My last thing, to your point, up in the ante online, the women from Rocker Roots talked

about how majority- Ellen Sellers. Ellen, I'm sorry, I don't know her name in front of me. Ione Jameson. Ione Jameson and Ellen Sellers talked about how even in Walmarts, majority of their clients tell that they make a large amount of their money off of on those products. They don't have the access to the dot com. So being able to walk in, like it's just different in some of the lower area, rural areas.

So being able to walk into a Walmart or a Target helps them as far as inventory and creates access for those people. What about that? Yeah, I think that we've got to ask ourselves what is the principle and is the principle more important than the profit. You've got a whole lot of churches who have space that is underutilized and underused. The fact that in 2025 we don't have a minority-owned retail space to direct people on says that we got to reevaluate how we do business. So going in the target to buy whatever this product is,

to say, hey, forget that they don't honor us, forget that they've disrespected the George Floyd family, forget that they are only allowing black people on entry-level positions, let's do it for lipstick. I think that we're losing the larger conversation. I wanna see the sisters win, I wanna see them do overwhelmingly well, but I think that we got to get into a room and figure out how do we make it more accessible for those in rural areas. I don't think that

the answer is to keep shooting ourselves in the foot and then ask for a cast. Will we ever get there pastor? Like you know we want to get there right? Will we ever own our own Target slash Walmart? Will we ever own our own car manufacturer? Will we ever own our own so we can rely on it? It just seems like we're a far stretch from that. Yeah, so one of the things that we're asking for Target to do and for all of the demands that we're asking of Target, please go to Targetfast.org.

They're on 27 college campuses, but no HBCUs. I'm asking Target to partner with 10 HBCUs to show our businesses how to scale up and to go into the retail space. Reverend Sharpton is one of my mentors, but in the history of black people, we have never marched black people into a white business to say, spend money here.

So we gotta figure out how it is that we really reroute and redirect so that we can create an ecosystem for us to be able to do. I think that is possible, but there's a plan that has to be a foot in order to make it done. I don't have any problem with the boycott, but I don't have a problem with the boycott either.

I just feel like people should do something if they're moved to do something. But I saw you repost the preachers who let their flock into the store to buy all the black products. Why did you feel the need to speak out against that? Read the room. There's no way.

But which room though, pastors? Everybody room different. No, no, no, no. Read the living room. The living room. Yeah,, no, no, no. Read the living room. The Japanese proverb said the best room in the house is the room for improvement. You'll notice that it caught on nowhere. Nobody thought that that was a good idea

except for those pastors. No, I heard a lot of people talking about a black house. Yeah, in Target? Yeah, I heard a lot of people saying that. Oh, I missed that memo. I heard a lot of people saying going there and buying all the black products. Yeah, don't do that. Yeah, don't do that

I think that there's got to be a different way that we redirect I think to my sister's point How do we support these businesses to Envy's point that we don't have a major retailer? We're the most creative people y'all and brought everybody in here Master P Got on from selling from the trunk of his car. So I think that we gotta be innovative and put a think tank together, say, Magic Johnson, you brought all these movie theaters. In the concession stand, cannot now buy lipstick.

I don't know the answer to it, but I think that we've gotta figure out a way and figure out a path and figure out a tributary. I just don't want us to make the same mistakes that generations before us made. Meaning like, people would knock Martin Luther King Jr. for his methods. And you know, different organizations would knock each other

and say, no, we should be doing it this way, we should be doing it that way. It's just like, yo, as long as everybody's doing something, I feel like it all can be effective. In a sense, I'm gonna meet you on the 50 yard line. If you got beef with somebody, me and you were friends, and you find out who you got beef with, I'm at dinner with. You're like, oh man, I thought we was together. Oh, Charlemagne, don't worry about it. It was just cheesecake. We ain't even talk about you. You would look at me with a different kind of eye. Like, hey man, if we in it together,

how are you carousing with the person who is against me? And so I think that there's got to be a line in the sand of how it is that we stand without attacking each other. I think that's where the rubber hits the road. There can be many different paths. I spoke at a college last week in Michigan and I asked them, who is the head of the LGBTQ movement? And all of these college students, nobody could answer it. And I said, do you all believe that LGBTQ has a movement?

They said, yes. And I said, you don't know the head. Said, no. I said, that's the memo black people gotta take. Have a movement without making one singular spokesperson. That what it is that we're doing can be rested on the back of the shoulder of one person being the leader. So the movement doesn't have to be just Sharpton or Jasmine Crockett or Maxine Waters,

that all of us are moving towards that end, but it is not one entity against another. The reality is Malcolm X made Martin King a better leader because he questioned his philosophy and he had to defend it. And so I think one of the things that the Detroit Passers did made a sharp end conversation as to why it is that we're not going,

so it's not just a social media post or a rah rah moment, but there's something really tangible for us to argue. To that point, I feel like Malcolm was wrong for that. And the reason I say that is because Martin Luther King, Jr. was doing real work in an area we needed him to do real work, meaning that he was building with John R. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to get actual legislation passed.

But we need somebody like Malcolm, raising hell in the streets. So to me, there was no reason for Malcolm to be calling out Martin and vice versa. Yes. Yeah, I think it was calling out the philosophy. The students who are part of the civil rights movement, before they could protest, before they could demonstrate, they argued on the college campus with the professor and they

had to have practice. So if somebody spits on you, this is what you do. They try to pull you out from the lunch counter, this is what you do. The reality is we are no longer arguing philosophies. We're just arguing about people and personality or who I don't like, who I agree with. But I think that iron sharpens iron in that space of arguing and articulating what we stand on

and why there needs to be different tracks. My issue is not with people who argue against my methodology. My issue is with those who don't believe in nothing. Who are just internet gangsters, oh this ain't gonna work, we ain't ever gonna stick together, this thing ain't gonna have no traction. Okay, then what are you gonna do?

Have those people reached out to you? The people that don't agree with what you're doing, like those pastors that took their congregation in to buy, have you had those conversations so y'all can get on the same page and say some of the things that you're talking about? Yes, yes, yes. So as soon as I saw it, because I know them, three, four of them, I text them, hey man, y'all on the wrong side of history.

You say amen or you say niggas? It was a Sunday, so I said hey man. It was a Sunday. So I said, hey man. So I said, hey man. It was a Sunday. So I said, hey man. I said, hey man, you're on the wrong side of history. He texted me back and said, hey, this is what I thought process was. This is why it is that we did it.

I said, it would have gone a whole lot further and better if you had the conversation before you went in there. So I went on a college campus to go speak in Detroit, Wayne State. I come out of lecturing and the press is there and says what you think about these pastors going to Target? I said what pastors? What are you talking about? The reporter showed it to me on the phone and so that's when I got in it and I think that communication can solve a whole lot of issues on so many different levels whether you married or

whether you go on political agendas. Silence is the worst thing that you can ever do. But when we learn how to talk to each other and discuss it I understood where it is that they were coming from. Those pastors are now walking alongside us for the Target Fairs. But I think that communication is necessary. I also want to put on record that I think that is good for black people to be in the Republican Party.

I don't think all blacks should be Democrat. We need somebody else who is in there, but if you in there, you got to advocate for your people at the same time. I saw you say that Target has been trying to reach out to you. Yes. But you, I'm not talking to no diversity officer. No, you may not have a job next week.

Yeah. You reached out during Black History Month. I don't know if you're gonna make it to St. Patrick's Day. So I need somebody who got some job security and got some influence to make a decision. I think this generation don't want symbolic wins. They want substantive strides. And if you're just doing there to say we met, we talked, all the street credibility is gone.

I need somebody who can make a decision. And you got to ask, Envy, what's in the mind of a CEO that can lose 12 million dollars a day and say I'm not me so the person who reached out to you felt had no influence yeah not enough influence got you yeah so you're gonna send the black people out to talk to the black black guy go talk to black down I need to talk to the CEO or I need to talk to somebody who was on that board of target or who can really help me understand where you are and if you all are being punked by JD Vance and Trump, tell me that and let's figure out how we can walk alongside each

other. But we know that's what it is. Yeah, that's what it is. But tell me that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you, so I know that in talking about meeting, eventually y'all want to have a conversation or there is something scheduled, right? You guys will be meeting June 12th in Minneapolis. That's when their stockholders meeting is

Oh their shareholders meeting. Yes. Yeah, so we are planning on going there. I'm hoping that we have resolved by then. That's what I was getting at. Yes, we can't wait till June, but June 12th and there now is the underground murmur that they don't even want to do an in-person shareholder meeting. They want to do it by Zoom. Because they don't want you guys to show up. Yes. But that's why it's important for you to have the data to show how this has been impacted, how much money you've lost in the stock, and what is at stake.

So we wanted to take all of that to the shareholders meeting June 12th. You know there was a bunch of Target shareholders who filed a class action lawsuit against Target and they claimed that Target artificially inflated stock prices and failed to warn investors about how removing DEI and ESG, which is environmental, social, and governance policies, could cause stock prices to plummet.

And it also talks about how Target concealed the backlash and suffered from the Pride Month campaign. Yes. After they removed the LGBTQ merchandise and that's how they've been losing all of that money since November of 2024. America's worst nightmare is the marginalized unifying. If all of the different sectors came together that's when you have real power. Fingers separated don't mean anything. fingers together become a fist. The Poor People's Campaign is what Dr. King was putting together just before he was assassinated. He said the same poverty that's happening in Selma is the same

poverty that's in the Appalachian Mountains. What happened that really frightened J. Edgar Hoover against the Black Panther Party was they were unifying all marginalized people. So imagine if we're dealing with immigration, we don't allow the media to just make it a Mexican issue. Let's talk about the 500,000 Haitians who are unprotected. Let's talk about the Africans who are being deported. Here this family, who they're not even deporting back to Africa,

they in jail right now in Panama. And we not doing anything or raising the alarm. If all of these factions come together, a sister out of Harvard University says, for you to have a real revolution, you don't need 100% participation. You only need 3%. If 3% of the population

organize, you can shut any culture down, any government down, any society down. And what we're seeing in these town hall meetings with these Republicans, senators, and congresspeople is people are waking up saying, hey, this ain't what I signed up for. This can't be the last train to Paris. Let me get out of here and change direction. So I think that you're getting ready to see a percolating in America of those who are marginalized that it is not just a race issue, it is a class issue. My last question for you, where are you at now numbers wise, because I know you were looking

to get 100,000 people by this Wednesday the 5th when it starts and you were at 7th. We are at 110,000 people have come and we did it before we ever got to the Breakfast Club. So now y'all we got to get to 150. We got to get to 150 because numbers is power. It was important for me to have tangible evidence of how many people are standing behind us that is not just a post, it's not just likes and shares, but a hundred thousand people I can press a button and send an email to say, hey we outside in Target, hey we in Cincinnati, so that the people at Target know that we mean

business that is not just symbolism but there's substance behind it. How can people get behind you? Go to TargetFast.org is just one word. There you'll see what is our list of demands. When it is that you sign up for Target Fast, I'm going to send you a digital directory to those 300,000 businesses and even for those of you who don't go to church or watch online, I'm going to send you a daily prayer devotional so that you can stay focused, no pun intended, so you can stay on Target for what it is that we're trying to get done. All right, well we appreciate you

for joining us this morning. Again, that's targetfast.org. Thank you so much, brother. Man, thank you. And when y'all come to Atlanta, I'm coming through. I ain't even got a ticket, I'm coming. Oh, you know, Charlebee is soon. Well, yeah, he came, Pastor Jamal

has popped up to my Black Effect podcast festival. I'm coming this year. I wanna come to New Birth, man. You gotta come. I wanna come one Sunday and check it out. Yeah, you gotta come. Absolutely. It's room at the cross. Hey wanna come to New Birth, man. You gotta come. I wanna come one Sunday and check it out. Yeah, you gotta come. Absolutely. It's room at the cross.

Hey, let me say this to you. I'm from Baltimore. Do you know the first place I ever had crabs? Charleston, South Carolina. Monks Corner. Monks Corner, okay. Monks Corner AME Church right there. Pastor Jamison?

Blake, James Blake. This is back in the 80s. All right, okay. It was the first place I ever had crab. My family's from Georgetown, South Carolina. So we used to come down there every summer. But Baltimore, they still. That was the first place that I ever had crab. My fam was from Georgetown, South Carolina. Okay. So we used to come down there every summer. But Baltimore, they still- That was the first time you had crabs

and you from Baltimore? I know. Was they better than Baltimore? Did they cook them with the beer? No, never, never. That's not go too far. I'm just doing trauma bonding with you. No, no, Baltimore's the home of crab.

That ain't crab. Why crab ain't no trauma? It's trauma that I had to do it in South Carolina before I headed in Baltimore. Man, South Carolina's amazing for seafood. It's great. It's amazing. It's great.

It's just not as good as Baltimore, but it's good. Thank y'all. Pastor Jamal Bryan is The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. Early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Hey, what's up, y'all?

This is Eric Andre. Well, I made a podcast called Bombing about absolutely tanking on stage. I tell gnarly stories and I talk to friends about their worst moments of bombing in all sorts of ways. Bombing on stage, bombing in public, bombing in life. I want to know what's the worst way they ever bombed or have they ever performed way too drunk or high or was there ever a time where they thought they were going to crush and they stunk it up. Listen to Bombing with Eric Andre on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Bombing with Eric Andre. Hey, it's Amartines. The news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you can't just ignore las noticias when important world-changing events are happening. That is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen up first from NPR on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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