Would Dr King Be Proud of Where We Are Today?

Episode Transcript

Mumble rap, twerking, twerking. I mean, I’m not once again like I know he didn’t die for it, but I’m not telling the culture to stop. Uh, that’s not what I’m saying. E Like a lot of things he didn’t die for. But you don’t know. Hey, hey. We don’t need to get into his personal life. We don’t. But he was still he was still a young black man at the end of the okay. He was working for civil and economic. Can’t imagine. I can’t imagine him telling credit the bus it, but But I’m just gonna stop.

There are their EC. Is there an economic advantage to dancing a certain way? Like what I’m saying? If he’s about economic rights and you know things that we might not be whatever. But when you see a music video and you’re like, Oh, that person is doing things that he might not agree with. However, no bto hey, did not hey did not die for Magic City or tip drill King of Diamonds video on Bt late night or he did not die for black. A villain Oh does go down in history next to em.

Okay, but oh, man the road this’ll episode took a turn, Not die for what that thing smell like. Oh, man, oh man, where is the not record? But we’re back with another episode of black in the middle middle class, Middle of the map. A podcast by three friends who seem to always find themselves stuck in between black culture and white America. If you’re a believer that genuine conversations could be a first step to closing the divide and you’re in the right place, the middle with us. Let’s go. No!

What’s up, guys? This is your host, Tim Travis Herman. Happy New Year. Happy New Year and Happy Season two. We’re back, baby. Yeah, we made it. Produces up. This is what’s up, guys. I just want to start off by saying I’m super proud of all three of us for just sticking to it. We got 40 something episodes over, what, eight plus months, and we’ve been rocking and rolling. We got about, I don’t know, 1000 downloads per month. Quite a few subscriptions. We need some more reviews. I thought it was closer to a million way.

Have way more way more followers than Joe Rogan. That’s what I tell you guys to keep you motivated. I’ve been listening to Trump, so I’m sorry. Fabricate. My number s so true, Doc. I was I was listening to a song and d J. Cale. It and I I feel like he is the hip hop trump. He just keeps it so simple in positive. Uh, anyway, I guess, um yeah, but now thousands 1000. That’s cool. Yeah, man, it’s, you know, things are moving on. We got merch. What? That I’m excited about that merch.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I got my shirt in. Did you get yours yet? Um, apparently, it’s still in somebody’s hub. Memphis? Yeah, It’s still still down in Orange Mountain. It’s stuck in Herman’s mailbox, along with all the bills that I’m like. All the bills and target Amazon purchases. I only check the mailbox on payday on Hy Vee adds, Oh, my God e. Which they would stop that this paper man, that’s because you guys live in the summit e don’t get that up in north. So all right, I’m super excited about today’s episode.

T Bone. You came up with a great question. Fabulous question. Would Dr Martin Luther King Jr be proud of where we are today, and we’re gonna unpack this in several different ways. But just your first take, fellas, like, simple yes or no to find. We see, I know you couldn’t give a simple yes or no. And that’s why we have a podcast is going to be about 47 to 52 minutes, man. What, You think I need a definition of we we being we as America or we as in me or we as in black people or which we All right, let’s break it down.

Let’s start with the easiest answer with doctor Would would he be proud of where we, as a African American people are today and and keep in mind, his focus was on America, right? Like he had a global view, but his focus on you know, fire. Would you be proud of us as a people? Yes. Would you be proud of us as a nation? No. Would you be proud of me as a person? Absolutely. Who wouldn’t be? E I would say that Dr Martin Luther King be proud of African American people where we stand today.

Um, I’m gonna lean towards Yes, but that’s not in 100%. And would he be proud of America today? Absolutely not. Would it be proud of me? Absolutely. But But I get in trouble for way different, man. I’m pretty sure you and Dr King or different uh, how did he feel about free college? Keep going. Why are you bringing up? It’s not about free. College is about Dr King. Keep going. Uh, no. So all right, let’s xray kit down and unpack. Let’s start with you know, I want to start with us, but that’s not the fun stuff.

Let’s start with America, man, because it’s a shit show. There’s still going. If you listen the last episode America America is on fire. We’re trying to put the fire out. Actually, one of the things I find most revealing about Dr King’s message at the time versus the part of America that is not working today is when you look at a map of all that red lack of diversity and people not being toe identify like, Oh, look all the city’s air where it’s democratic. But it’s also the most diverse and all these rural communities where it’s completely red.

That’s where it’s least diverse. So when you look at, you know, the part of Dr King that’s talking about everyone coming together and then you look in America today and you find out that it’s not necessarily actively segregated, but I mean, where is the crossover, except for in your major cities? Okay, Okay, okay. You know, I think that when you look at America, there’s so many things that Dr King would say the needle has been moved. If there’s a lot of different things to be proud of for like America as a whole, I think he would be very discouraged looking at the fact that we’re still fighting for equality some 50 plus years after his untimely death.

Like, I think that he would want to know that it’s not a civil rights issue when it comes to the treatment of a blackmail get and treatment of black people, I should say, um, in getting a fair shake in a system and being looked at and being judged not based on the content of their skin, but more of the content of their character. Hey would be very, very discouraged by that still struggle. Has there been movement in that struggle? Absolutely, absolutely. And it the Jim Crow South is not the same Jim Crow south that it waas in 1968 when he passed April 4th, 1968.

It’s a different. It’s a different America than January 1 of 2021 I think that, um, so there’s there’s something to be said about that, but by any means by no means would he be happy about the things that we’ve seen in recent memory. Well, I think it’s interesting, and I don’t quote me on any timelines here. But the between the I have a dream speech and like the whole civil rights movement and the breaking down of some of those like the Jim Crow laws and like so we’re talking about mid sixties late sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties?

I think so. It’s like all the activity happened then, right? So it’s like, Alright, well, find no blacks, only water fountains. Fine. You can come to our schools even though you have to bring in the United You’re the National Guard to allow a single black person into a school to Okay, well, we’ll just make schools that are super non diverse right, like it’s like that outcome, like fast forward to today. And it’s like all of the like rules air gone. But the way people act, behave, don’t wanna be around one another, kind of still there and to me, like that’s the part of America that I’m like, Damn!

Like we moved the mark with breaking down laws. But we didn’t move the mark with, and not that It’s really our job to break down other people’s ideals of us. But that seems to seems like we’re taking two steps forward, and maybe some people are taking a step back. See, I would argue that there has been movement, like I would argue that Well, no, there’s been movement, you’re saying, though, and I I just It’s very what is discouraging is that you Still, we still have. We still have spaces to move on.

This chessboard like that is just that’s what’s discouraging. But, man, the struggles that we had our totally different than the struggles our parents had and totally different than the spirit, their struggles that their parents had and but all of our parents come into this world during the thick of the civil rights movement and, uh, come into this in a mature during the thick of the civil rights movement or at the tail end of it. And I know that they worked tirelessly to give us a different life.

And now we’re working tirelessly to give our kids even better life than what we had. And when I look at me coming into this game and how I’m viewed in America, like I know that I’m still looked at in a lot of spaces by the color of my skin. I am proud of the fact that the content of my character has been able to radiate and open so many more doors than my parents, and then what I had to be have to be able to do so.

That is a positive, that that is a positive also, a very little thing. That’s a very middle thing. Not every black person looks like you That’s not from the middle, has that same experience? I don’t think I got that because I’m from the middle. I would tell you that the middle definitely molded me, but I know people who weren’t from suburbia who have the same charisma or not that you have the same skills. Not that you have to be from suburbia to acquire those skill sets, but I’m just saying it’s a lot easier when you know how to navigate.

Yeah, you know, I’m bilingual in English, like definitely, but I mean, that’s one of the positives. What? But when it comes toe, when push comes to shove, though, we still are seen by our skin color when push comes to shove in critical situations and there still are these little subcultures that want to keep us segregated or keep things in place to protect themselves from things they don’t understand what your other cultures, that they haven’t taken the time to get familiar with and that I don’t know when that’s gonna end.

And I don’t know how it ends. And I think that that’s discouraging. See, that’s a great point. Um, so something very timely. I sat through the second integration of a racial equity and inclusion seminar just yesterday, actually, and you know, it was three hour session. The one I did last year was 22 days. Eso I’m not going to I’m not going to, you know, tell you everything what happened, but what I What I will say is, and we all know this systematic racial equality, right? Racial inequality. You know, this whole country was built.

It wasn’t built on, like the laws and everything else wasn’t built to oppress African Americans and Latinos and native American. It wasn’t built to oppress us. It was built to elevate the white Americans, the people who migrated from Europe and became American. It was it was built to make them richer and keep them rich. Right? So it is. It seems to be working its system wide. It’s, you know, it’s in. It’s in the groundwater. Right? So the whole premise of this is like, you know, you look at a you look it upon right, and you see a dead fish and its belly up.

You’re like, All right. What’s wrong with this fish? Is it is it? Is it sick? Did it get killed by something? Is it what happened? But if you see a pond full full of dead fish like Oh, shit, you’re not looking at one fish. You’re looking at a whole bunch, like all right? It must be the water. So what’s wrong with the water? This pond is contaminated, right? There’s something wrong. But when you compare this analogy to racial inequity, take Minnesota, for example, right, the land of 10,000 lakes.

If 9000 of these lakes have all their fish belly up, you’re not going to say what’s wrong with the fish or what’s wrong with the lake like what’s wrong with groundwater? Because 90% of the ground water on the earth 90% of fresh water on Earth Excuse me, is under the ground. So there’s something wrong with what’s going on deep down beneath, and this is an analogy for the systems of America that we that America was built on. So you take a pond like education, you got the health pond. You’ve got the, um you know, uh, what other pond?

Financial finance You’ve got housing. You’ve got wealth, you’ve got education. I might have already said that, but you’ve got all these different systems in America that they all have issues in the same issues, and they call them different things, right? You look at education and it’s called the achievement gap. You look at, um, housing and it’s called the or you look at. Well, it’s called the wealth gap and you look at other things. They all have different, different names, but it’s for the same problem. It’s racial inequity.

And I think Dr King knew this, like, this can’t be fixed overnight, right? So would he be proud of the progress that we’ve made as a people? I think so. But as America, No, especially after last weeks or the last two weeks, Uh, you know, festivities like it’s still systematically fucked up. Yeah, and we’re just We’re so far behind and I think that people don’t want to give us credit for what we have, where we are in this country. So it’s like we have. I mean, we came.

We were brought here with nothing in our hands and look what we have today like I mean, it hasn’t been well. I mean, it’s been a long time since the first person came over here empty handed, but I’m like we’ve created great companies, business leaders, you know, like I mean, we’ve changed the culture and nature of America. So, like our impact has been great. It’s just so unfortunate that when we asked to share in the wealth and sharing the opportunity. It makes people so upset. And I think that is the part s so hard.

And that’s what people don’t understand. Like, well, we could go to the same grocery store, but I’m like, Yeah, but because I’m black, maybe I’m paying Mawr on my card to put it. You know, like there’s so many different inequities that you just can’t see on the surface. Let me let me share this story with you. So the guy who put on this seminar, his name is Bai. This dude is dope, right? He lives and he lives in Maine, all right. He was from the consulting business and he switched to this, uh, you know, just digging into their research of racial inequities.

And, you know, just how do we how do we overcome? And he said, You know, I talked to my mom the other day and, you know, we caught up and she said her health is good, you know, ask her about her health. She said, Everything is good and you know, she’s doing well. So I hung up and he said to us like that was a racial interaction because he didn’t have to worry about her health about her having diabetes or high blood pressure, or her or anything, because she’s 50% less likely to have any of those issues, so that interaction was racial.

And that’s how he perceives his conversations, because he’s in this business so he could look at things like that way. But when you think about it like that, like, how do we ever become equal in this country when things like that when you know we have a 40% MAWR, you know, higher mortality rate, Uh, you know, in infant Death Syndrome or Mom’s Air dying more frequently than black moms or dying more frequently than white moms when giving birth or, you know, education or housing like all these, all the decks are stacked up against us.

It’s because of the systems put in place because, like Herman, you said time and time again, they think that black women and black men are stronger so they don’t need to give them medication. They don’t need to put them, you know, give them the time of day. Um, you know, So it’s it’s just very interesting to look at that from a white guy’s perspective who’s trying to teach that. You know, these unconscious biases exist in corporate America and everyday life, and we have to be conscious in order to make the right choices and to move forward and to change the system.

But when you think about all this like, it’s so groundwater and systematic that you kind of you kind of get depressed and overwhelmed. Yeah. So when does our ethnicity come into play From a financial standpoint. So, like, if I’m growing up and coming up through the journey, when does my blackness affect me? Financially? That is a great question before you were born. And I thank you, Tim. That’s exactly what I was going to say, because the first one of the first, uh, avenues toe wealth is hanging on to a life insurance policy which black people could not have early on.

So the first step without even doing anything is if you’re white and your parents had something, you could have a life insurance policy. And if it was $5000 in, uh, you know, 1913 Well, black people still don’t have anything but that that 5000 then compounds dude, like you’re talking, I mean, so much money. So like and I don’t remember the specific year that black people were allowed to get life insurance policies, but it was actually through a fraternal system. I do know that, um, but I’m like even that in itself puts us so far behind.

So I’m saying so funny. You mention that because I asked. I think it was both of you. Might have just been you worm, but I ask you, do you have like, uh, no, What do you I don’t remember it. I asked you, Uh oh, yeah. Ask you, Do you have life insurance? You said no. And, um, I thought that was interesting, but yeah, well, because you have life insurance and I plan on never mind. Keep eso. I do. And I have a great financial advisor that I will recommend anyone of you just shoot me in the d.

M. But, um, but the wife and I were looking to take out life insurance policies for my parents. Right? Expensive. It’s expensive is I haven’t gotten official quote, but I’ve gotten estimates. And honestly, I won’t be able to tow Hackett if those quotes are accurate. You know, pop smokes and again. We’re black. We’re predisposed, right? Predisposed is another term for racial inequity in health because we are black and so, you know, the costs are through the roof. But But you’re right. So the reason why I want to take out this policy, it’s going to cost me monthly, but it will create a nest egg for my kids, and they will be able to take some of that and do something with it.

If you can hang on to that policy, which is another I’m not going to say That’s a black issue, right? I’m not gonna keep a job, dog. But if you can’t and it doesn’t matter what you are, it doesn’t matter what race you are. S o a lot of those things. A lot of the healthcare life insurance. A lot of those were tied to work. Absolutely. You have to have a steady income. You can’t miss a payment. You gotta keep that shit for 20 to 40 years. Hold up though.

And then when you look at, uh, places where black people work, like specific to the middle class, like the second highest one is sales jobs. So them shits is flighty exactly. So I’m like you’re with company. 1235 Doesn’t matter assumes you are gone as soon as you don’t hit quota. Then your life insurance goes away so you can’t amass so well. That’s ifit’s provided by the company. However, we were doing this individually. So we’ve we’ve We’ve been with this financial advisor for many, many years, and this is we’ve talked about this before, but we’re now in a financial place where we can consider doing this for our parents and my parents.

They’re like, Dude, I wanna be cremated. I’ll just throw a party, gets, um, brown liquor, invite all my friends and we good. But even that misses the point of creating wealth and setting up a future for my kids and their kids. Kids I saw I saw him and the other today and he said, um, it said, poor people. It’s that rich people think. Think three generations ahead. Poor people think about next Saturday, and I’m thinking about that iPad You could afford to get me since you got other extra money coming through.

So eso that Zatz interesting. But if my parents are alive and I don’t have a life insurance policy to cash in. If I’m coming up through the ranks in America, when does that? When does the part hit? Where? Because I’m black. I am disadvantaged financially. If I’m a kid, young man, let’s say I’m blessed enough to go to college. When does that? When does the blackness takeover that is responsible from my disadvantaged financially. So that would come at the parent level s. So if Grand Parents parent s so like, if you’re s o what what we’re talking about is another.

Is people being ahead of where black people are when it comes to wealth? So the real question is, where is the first time that black people were able to acquire and hold the amount of wealth that could be passed down to the next generation? So that’s the point. Hypothetically, that point would be our grand parents might have been the first generation because they would have been working in your Ford Motor plant. That would have been a part of the great migration to Detroit to California that would have worked a job for 25 years or however long.

And that’s where that first generation wealth came, which would be my grandpa, who still didn’t have so much money to pass down, is when I look at some of my Caucasian counterparts like it’s just so much different when my mother’s father passed away like, I think I got $5000. But I’ve seen other people’s parents passed away. You’re talking about 200,000 2 53 100 like the numbers are crazy, which means that person might not have to pay for college. That person might not have to pay for their first car. That means they’re starting out life that free where I’m starting off, dude, like I’m still paying college loans today, but I’m paying off college loans.

My mom’s paying off college loans for me. So that’s that’s, however, much per month towards that that you can’t save to build your wealth. Which then is it’s. So that is the cycle that is the cyclical nature of how you keep people behind and that on top of the last job, and all of a sudden you realize you’re paying 22% on your credit cards, and then you realize like you have to use your credit cards for food so you’re paying interest on shit that you ate seven months ago.

Speaking from experience, baby, Really like, I mean, I’m not saying I know, yo, and and I’ll give it to the personal story just real quick. Um, about three weeks ago, I was in my mom’s picking up the kids, and we started chatting, and she was like, Yeah, you know, your grandma’s house over on six? Uh, was it, uh, 51st in Jackson? Um, you know it Z not in our name. Apparently, somebody did a quick deed, and I actually talked to tomorrow about it already. He gave me the game Plan B for the knock the shit out, but but essentially, my my grandma, my grandma passed right, And the house was that the D was up in limbo.

You know, family was still taking care of it or whatever, but some cat came in in 2000 and I don’t know, 12 or whatever and did a quick did and took the house, took the house, started reading it out. And he’s been making money ever since. Well, there was like an investigation on him or whatever, but hey was never convicted. They he’s still making money off this house. That is not in his name. He had a notary come in and a chick come in. Poses my grandma in 2000 and 13 to sign over the D To him.

That’s the legal part. My grandmother was already passed. And so this is all in, like, the investigative reporting. So anyway, we’re going after the crib. Right? So when I grew up, my grandma lived in the house. Her son, My uncle lived in the house next, right next door. Uh, cousin auntie lived across the street Catty corner. Other cousin lived catty corner from Forever E. But my point is I wanted I want to come into that house. E think it was worth like, 19 grand, right? This is in the hood.

It was worth 19 grand when she passed. I looked it up. I got that. That’s estimate. It’s There were 30. So I’m like, OK, we got a little equity. Let’s do this. But But the point is like that house, the house next door. My cousin lives across the street in the house that we that her dad used to own My uncle owns ah, lot across the other catty corner street. So, like, literally, I want to own this entire block and build this out for generations to come so that my you know, five family who’s down and out like, All right, there’s a crib for you.

We Airbnb ing we rent it out. Why don’t you sit in, like, that’s generational shit that we need to build for our people? So I’m just gonna add, But that’s another thing, because a lot of the vessel ah, lot of the tactics that were built into the system. We’re also ways to be able to take those things away from people. Um, yeah, like a quick deed. Oh, they didn’t pay any taxes. Cool. I’ll take that house. Don’t need to do nothing. Are you fucking kidding me? My grandmother lived there for 20 years.

I grew up in that crib. I used to eat white bread and it wasn’t a barbecue sauce After I come home from Camp it again. H uh But if it wasn’t a quick deed, it would be a bank. Continue. Well, I haven’t even we haven’t even done into that. We don’t even know what the what the bank has to say about the place, though, Like, it’s all that and more. Anyway, way have we ventured, but I think to pull it back, Thio. You know, Dr King, is that his civil rights struggle?

His civil rights fight, um, created a shift in mindset and a lot of people because he was actually accepted versus other leaders who were seen as, um, villains, right. Like he he had a little bit more acceptance. Let me say that violence approach. That was the one thing that was accepted because he still he was definitely more popular after his death. But when it comes to the civil rights movement, he was the face of it and at least was able to get more ears than anybody else doing it.

He was civil rights in the middle, right? Like he played the line between, you know, Malcolm X being on one extreme. Um, and you know, whoever is being on the other like he did that. Well, we’ve talked. We’ve talked about that. The use of black power versus, um I forget it. I forget his his quote, but but yeah, we We’ve talked about that, and he struggled with that. He fought that and even other people fought him for being too aggressive. Well, I think that people saw him as trying to be a vessel for the progression of black people.

And I think they saw other people as a threat. Toe white people like, Yeah, I think he was inclusive. That and so that mentality makes people certain people listen a little bit more intensively. So when I think about that, I’m like, Okay, he did all of that For us to be able to progressively grow and be less segregated, be less confined to certain parts. Um, and now you’ll see us more integrated into society, integrated into different neighborhoods. And that was very progressive. It started in the seventies.

It started with expansion on Bennett the eighties. Further out, further out nineties further out to thousands, 2000 tens. Now we out there right now are people come back to the city but priced out. But I think that what you all we’re talking about is it’s kind of some of the calories that we had to spend like we spent a lot of time in the civil rights area. Post civil rights area, seventies eighties. Our parents whatever spent a lot of calories trying to get themselves correct. Then they passed down better hands.

Tow us. And we naturally are in better shape because of the efforts of our parents following that movement. And that’s one of the beneficial the benefits of us. There’s a lot of people who are not to our level and are in that current state now where they’re trying to get to that point of financial betterment so they can pass it down to their kids. Yeah, except for I think that when you break out the percentages, we are no better off than we were then. If anything, we’re probably worse off.

Great point. No, you don’t have to. I literally just sat through a three. Our seminar. Pretty certain, Uh and you know what? I would love to share some screenshots from the presentation because the presentation was all about facts and research and studies done from multiple organizations and institutions across the country and the trend line. The gap has been growing. Yeah, uh, and this is before trump. Well, so this sentence is just Anyway, we already talked about unions, but that was one of the things that kept people financially solvent.

Uh, you talk about pensions? Who’s got one of those nowadays? Do you have a pension? I don’t even know if I should ask T Bone. You don’t have a pension. You work for huge company, right? Like you take away all these vessels. Pensions were dying Exactly, right. Like you’ve taken away all of these vessels that, like people from the middle or not even from the middle usedto have as incomes. The game is just changed. You know, corporate America is just now making you, um they’re willing to match what you’re willing to do.

You know, it’s it’s changing a mindset and making people take ownership and not depending on corporations. And from the corporate standpoint, which it’s not a defense, it’s just me stating what it is. And people don’t stay long enough anymore. Thio You build these pension plans, and then people are job hoppers. Right? So 41 K is much more attractive because I can always take that with me, and it could go, but mm like that. This is a doctor King conversation. We’re not gonna argue pension plans. Yeah, because that’s outdated, bro s o.

Unless you have anything else to add to the current line of I will say one thing when it comes to wealth gap, though there was a guy that I helped in one of my worst financial years. White guy from the from like Mexico. Missouri is buying a car. I kid you not. This dude had, like, he was retired with, like, four or five income streams. His retirement, two different pensions. Ah, military something and something. I just could not believe he had, like, 7500 month coming in through different things and hadn’t worked and like, a minute.

And I’m like, Damn, he said he was Mexican reason. He’s a white guy. He’s from Mexico, Missouri, which is like after the ST Louis America. Yeah, that’s a place America. Anyway. Great story, Herm. All right, moving on. Uh, let’s just get personal, like, you know, forget all the, you know, systematic oppression that we go through on a daily fucking basis that I don’t wanna talk about because I’ll get depressed. But what is What is what is Dr King mean to you? Just personally, individually, Like, how? How is he, you know, affected you?

What do you remember him by? Is he just, you know, a quintessential black character in history? Like personally, Um, to me, he means it means everything, right, Because beyond the simple, you know, Yes, we know we have a day that we celebrate and beyond the just, you know, we know him as a figure out a civil rights movement. I think what I what I was always very conscious of is that there is a courageous mindset behind that man’s will. Um and he is very much so a a driven individual who not who would not waver right for what he felt like was right.

And he walked into certain situations completely understanding the outcome and was still fearless enough to go ahead and do that. And not only do that, but it was kind of, in some cases, his body broken for us, right? Like he was going to go to jail in Birmingham. He was going to withstand water hoses and stuff like that. And he knew that dogs would be biting at his legs. And it wasn’t a deterrent. It was not a deterrent. How do you even prepare for that? You know, So when somebody you know, people go to church every Sunday and talk about somebody who died for them.

It’s no in no way, shape or form should I be comparing any man to Jesus Christ? But what I should be appreciative of is the fact that there was a man who cared so much about being able to pass down, um, benefits Thio future generations that he was willing to fight for it. And he didn’t know that I was gonna come in the in the early eighties. He had no idea. But he knew somebody like me would write. And he wanted somebody like me to be able to sit in a board room and look at men and women of different ethnicities and and feel comfortable expressing myself.

That’s so inspirational dog like it almost. It almost has me tearing up because I look at myself and I’m so immediate gratification. Like what? Like I have a bunch of faults, and one of them is if it’s not making me money. If it’s not about me or me, you know, me or my family or my my organization, like advancing like I don’t have time for it, But this dude comes in and he’s, you know, the rich think three generations ahead. He was rich in Seoul in, you know, in everything and maybe not money, but in everything else.

He was thinking three generations ahead. He sacrificed everything. And that’s something that I cannot fathom, like, and we talked about this. He was our fucking age doing all this. And, you know, I referred back to the book. Where do we go from now? I was literally sitting on my desk and then in this seminar that I was in yesterday and three times this question came up. Where do we go from here? It was 140 people in this seminar. All the business leaders and civic leaders in Kansas City, right?

They’re going through this racial equity inclusion seminar, and and the white people are feeling guiltiest. Fuck. All right. And the black people are, you know, we’re all fed up. We’re not. We’re tired of consoling them and giving them answers and questions. But this this this, uh, this training gave us new data and new information to spin it and give us a new life too. Like all right, I’m not going to explain to you what it’s like to be black. I don’t need to hear another seminar what it’s like to be black in America.

I get it. I live it every day. But when you put the fax and data behind it and again, I would love to share this with you guys. It gives you a new life toe. Go out there and put the, you know, fight the good fight. Dr. King did that every day, day in and day out, living three generations ahead, bro. That’s something that my mind can’t I just can’t do. I couldn’t conceive, but it hits me in my heart, man. It’s human nature for us toe to take on the crusades of our own.

It’s human nature for us to take on the Crusades. For your family. It may be some humans nature to take on the crusade of their friends. It is, ah, whole another level when you take on a crusade of a group of people of, ah, ethnicity of people or principle than you’re fighting, a principle that is keeping not Onley black people down, but women down or or keeping, uh, Hispanic people down or keeping Asian people down, and a lot of his message will refer to the Negro. And a lot of ways the Negro has always had to be the Trailblazer for America.

It’s like we have to be the first one to run through that door so different people can have the ability to do that and for him, When you look at it from that perspective, he’s the first person 26 Well, it’s not successfully but to try to run. He’s not the first person to try to run through that door, but he is a pioneer and running through that door. And I mean, I’ll tell you like that’s an admirable trait to be able to take on a crusade of the people, right?

Like and I mean, I’m not, you know, I like to think I’m the people’s champ, but I’m not gonna put aside my day job to go out here and do some of this. Exactly. Did you think about the boards we sit on like that is us being, you know, philanthropic and giving back. But there’s there’s some. There’s some come around right, like we’re networking. We’re making great connections. Um, I realize that we cannot contribute as great as some of the other board man, that’s financially sure, Absolutely.

That’s so humbling. Right to sit there and be on the board. And the board is talking about fundraising and people are like, Yeah, I can call these people. They might give us $20,000. Yeah, I can call these people. We might be able to go to Great for $75,000 and I’m looking at her. Can we put it on a group text? Maybe Maybe we can get 100. This is this has been that’s that’s been a flaw of mine. Just something on my mind for the last 12 years since I’ve been sitting on nonprofit boards.

Um, you know, I said on the Alvin Ailey Event Committee that one year, and and I thought, you know, they wanted me for my my young nous, my blackness, my creativity, blah, blah, blah. What they wanted me to do was to raise money, but what? I had to let them know it was like, I don’t have a network like that. What I can do is I can give my heart muscle in my time and my gifts, so I took over all the design, all the marketing, all the creative, and I helped promote the event and build up a nice brand for this event.

But I wasn’t writing any checks. My boys wasn’t they weren’t writing any checks. I wasn’t connecting you into millionaires. And but that’s just not That’s not your fault, man. That’s your that’s you using your superpower because I have a saying. It is my saying so I’m gonna go ahead, throw it out there like it’s great Thio. Give your time. It’s It’s good to give money, but it’s better to give your energy. And so when you do the stuff that you’re doing and you’re taking over the design and you’re making dope content like you do for us every week and you make your exercising these skills, you’re helping other people see that on a grand scale and feel good about it.

So you’re not you’re not writing that check because you might not have it too, right? But what you do have is the ability toe provide something to the atmosphere that helps other people write those checks, and that’s where I think that this doctor King, that’s where he lives in us, right? Because that’s energy. He didn’t have no money. The only thing he had was ah, collection plate that circulated, uh, at at a church in Georgia like he had energy, he had energy. And that is where the three of us, that’s where he lives in us, because we give that way.

But, Tim, um, you’re the leader, man. You have so many different philanthropic opportunities that you’re in like, and you’re giving your energy And you started doing that at a young age, right? I started doing that at a young age. Herman’s always been involved in it, and I can name you 20 people who do the same. The key thing is that it’s we can’t to me like we can’t have three million people out here trying to lead right like you only have so much. It’s you can’t boil the ocean, you have to get it.

But you have to give energy to something, and we can all probably give more. But I think where Dr King lives in us is our ability to give energy to the things that we get exposed to, and we gravitate towards, and we feel good about doing a man. There he is. Hey. So do your Children know about Dr King? That’s a great question. The answer is yes. But the depths Well, yeah, probably not. You have won a seven year old and a 13 13 year old. Yeah. So, you know, So, uh, they’re not growing into Dr King of the way that me and my sister going to Dr King with my dad’s best friend, who is a pastor and actively engaged in SCLC and all of the, you know, just the spirituals things around Kansas City, Juneteenth.

Like all those things that we were always that they’re not. I’m not my dad. You know, my struggles a little bit different, so I haven’t had the energy thio get them involved in that. But it’s weird because I have this relationship, I think with with diversity in a broad context that, you know, I just you have a mixed race. Households. Yeah, it all Yeah, but I’m like, you know, it’s so it’s really weird. So, like, when I think of Dr King and I think about the message of everybody kind of getting along, like, you know, races, living multi generations together in in harmony, right?

And to me, that’s the thing that stands out. So when I think about Dr King, it’s I just haven’t put specific messages in the history on my Children. Some of that stuff they learned in school, and thank goodness they go to a school that actually teaches that he went to jail and why he went to jail and what he was fighting for. So from uneducated standpoint, they know about him. But from a Hey, Daddy, let’s talk about Dr King. That does not happen enough. Yeah, so that’s just the truth. Yeah.

The good thing about Dr King is you at least have a pause to be ableto thio illustrate his, um, impact on America because you have this day you have Martin Luther King Day. It’s so many other people out there who we grew up hearing about that we will not tell people about because they don’t have these heartbreaks and pauses. And and that’s interesting. But to your question, is my son know about Dr King? He knows he’s existence. He does not know the depth, and that is a far because to him, he knows that there has been a struggle.

He knows that he died for that struggle. He doesn’t get he doesn’t get it. And of course, he’s their young right. So, um, if I were to play that I have a dream speech, you know, it’s not gonna be interesting. So But it is interesting, though, because I think that one of the things So one of the things I have with my kids when it comes to stuff is the ending. And so if I tell my kids about Dr King and then I tell them about the ending, that is the piece that that actually has had an impact in my life because what that said about America was if you raise your voice too loud, we’re gonna end that because we don’t want that and is fucked up is that it’s true, though, like that’s what makes him so powerful is like that he he knew that was coming.

Like I’m pretty sure from what I’ve read, Dr King new that there were threats on his life, I think they were. Yeah, absolutely. But he never stopped. But if you teach somebody seven or 13, that might have a completely different out impact on their voice. Right? So the amazing thing about where Dr King would be proud is Thean justice that we’ve seen with, like, the police killings, like black people like, you know what, shoot us in the streets. We’re marching, we’re done with it. So for that many people that have that kind of voice is something to be proud off.

And, yeah, that’s what’s up. My kids are too young. They don’t know. Well, I guess they’re not too young. I need I need to have this conversation with Denise because she’s fucking brilliant. Um, and you know, my first memory of Dr King Waas. So, growing up, I used to draw everything. I have these books. Um, you know that the draw 50 cars, books or draw 50 famous characters? Well, I had to draw 50 famous characters books and in that with Dr King’s Portrait. And I drew it so many times that I could draw from memory.

And I read his autobiography and I forget which grade and I drew the cover of the book. And like that, that is my first memory of him. And Denise is a little bit of an artist So maybe maybe that’s my introduction. E start z Portugal for Well, you know, I’m a teacher. I teach kids how to draw a portrait. You know, portraiture is and so So I’m gonna do that with her and see, See what happens. But but yeah, man, that Zatz pretty inspirational. And, you know, there’s nothing to feel bad about that.

You know, your son doesn’t know about him like he’s. How old is he? He’s 12 s. So you’re talking like these air? Just he knows he’s there. E I wasn’t a subject matter expert at 12 either, you know, But I did have some good awareness because I did have good, um, role models who talk about these things. And I did go to a church, um, the black church right where this was definitely stressed and his teachings were stressed. Eso those air exposure points that unfortunately, my son doesnt the black church.

Should we go down that pathway? Who still who still attends a black church who still attends church, say, to find wow shirt? No, it is not on TV. That’s that’s a note for me. Don’t. Yeah, I ain’t got in a minute. Yeah, All right. Well, that makes three conflicts with kickoff. How long has that been a problem in your your relationship with the Lord? The Lord is my shepherd. You know what I want? Every since I’m putting that first pad, that’s a whole other discussion because the church was so fundamental in black culture, black culture.

And now we’re We talked about it offline last week for like, 30 minutes. Got Tom. Church can’t play the game Or can you e think that’s a good conversation. That will be a topic in 21 for sure. E And really, because I need I need Thio. I need to develop in that area. I need to figure out what the what the hell My religious playing hold up, though, is gonna be for my family. Because that shit is all. Dude, it’s so one interesting thing that I will say, Is there some very drastically different dynamics between our upbringing and our acceptance of certain things in the middle versus some of the teachings in not just the black church but any church, right?

There’s certain things that I’m like, uh, there’s certain principles that keep me away from the church just that I don’t agree with today and that they won’t budge on. So it’s complex. That sounds like a good episode. I got baptizing. Ah, Methodist Church down. And Tele has your Florida so African Methodist, Episcopal, Episcopal here. E know what that means? It comes to the sex of church. Like I don’t have any idea with any of those men. Like it’s like he wears a dashiki once every 15 years and thinks he’s African Episcopal painting on any African Episcopalians.

I’m sorry. That’s gonna be a good episode for sure. That definitely will. But that was a huge rally in factor for the movement, like, Oh, yeah, that was the base. Using churches is a nice conduit. That base. That was where the communities that was over his little Facebook groups, right, that he could rally. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What? Nope. Nope. We’re gonna do a completely different episode on a few different things. All right, well, I got one last question for you guys. Um, how are we?

Extensions of his legacy. You We individually. What are you doing to extend Dr Martin Luther King Junior’s legacy? Intentionally or unintentionally, Intentionally? I can’t tell you that I’m doing anything. And I’m like, uh was like, I just exist, baby e. I wanna be clear, right? Like there’s not intentionally I’m doing this. And I’m like, Yes, Martin Luther King would be proud. Stand. Yeah, This one, this one’s for you. Um, what I would tell you that the unintentional things and I’m extension of the length of his legacy is, um I think really trying to utilize the blessings and the tools that I have.

You know, there’s definite blessings that I’ve been that have been bestowed upon me based on his hard fruits and love and, uh, the fruits of his labor. And so what I would tell you is I try my best to be a good man, a good citizen. I represent African Americans. Well, I try my best to be a good business partner. Um, eso other people will come behind me, and, uh, I try my best to be inclusive by going out and searching for diversity and mentor and diversity.

Um, so we can grow and have a better footprint. Um, it’s never been done because Martin Luther King never once, but it is part of my DNA based on the things that he’s done and is based on my DNA based on the things that he’s meant toe my idols, my parents, right? So when that trickles down, then it’s It’s me kind of taking advantage of these situations that I’ve had the blessing to be able to utilize. Andi, I think that, um, for myself, I’m, ah, super flawed individual.

But I’m still wonderfully blessed. And that’s in spite of everything I’ve done to sabotage myself. Um, like nobody else like everybody does. But I think that it’s critical for me to feel like I am not just impacting me. But I’m trying to figure out ways to impact we and, um, you know, inherently, you know, we’re all selfish at times and I’m no different. Um, I have my selfish struggles. I’ve been selfish and Cem Cem questionable ways. But at the same time, I also feel good about the people I’ve been able thio be around and learn from and grow with, and and in part something in their lives.

And so that’s kind of my extension there. So, Travis, I think that you should bring Dr King more into your life when it comes to tipping because I don’t feel like you’re holding that holding up the black people. I think I am. I think I am. I don’t think I don’t think you’re playing the paying the black tag. You know enough. I think that you got to give back, bro. I think push forward. 2020 to 25% maybe 30. Indication it s o k. Earn it. Eso, Malcolm. I’ve already I’ve already expressed my affinity for black black waiters and waitresses.

Like I’ve I understand is unlike other people at this table who just hand out, you know, just just free. Here’s my money. Yeah, Free 30. Sorry. It was part of Dr King’s message. Not, you know, just economics. You know, uplifting. Fake it till you make it or stuff like you got it where I’m your your response to the question. Sure. So I think that goals, right, So, like Dr King did have goals of civil and economic rights for minorities, that was the goal. And so that is a construct is way bigger than any of us can do on an individual basis.

And I think that the one thing that we all do is know that the system is flawed. And for me, a lot of it’s around voting because, like on my personal level, I’m going to do what’s right. I’m gonna treat people fair. I’m gonna be kind. I enjoy diversity, you know, like all those things they’re kind of baked in, because that’s the world that he prompted us towards. So for me, it comes down to to do the right things, means to vote the right way, the vote to vote in a way that will uplift the people that need the most help.

And when you think about us being in the middle, it is through nothing that we did. It’s through what our parents did, so we didn’t do anything. We’re just there, right, And if you think about if we weren’t there, it would be in shitty schools with just a harder path. And so I vote so that people that might have a harder path might have the the money to go into a school to maybe provide a better path. And I know that sounds kind of abstract, and it’s like it’s small, but I’m like to me, it’s that’s where you that’s how you impact the broader construct of what this is because I think that that’s where we’ve been held back.

So I think that it’s very interesting that you talk about voting and you talk about it being flawed, very Republican thing to save you. Uh, voting wasn’t flawed. Uh, but what definitely needs to be said from the three of us is that Dr King would be very proud of the fact that in the 50 years after he’s past that he that America has had a black president and that America has a black vice president coming into the building. And so those things would be very definite high points.

And I could tell you the potential of the system if we are active and engaged in what needs to happen in America. Well, yeah. So I’m like, you think about our neighbors growing up with my neighbors today. I’m like they love black people like us, but they don’t wanna send their tax dollars to the schools. That would help create more black people like us. Mhm. Interesting. True, but it’s Yeah, it’s very interesting. Um, very, very interesting. Um, there has to be more of a commitment with tax dollars into the city.

Um, it just has to be in order for us to, um, change the trajectory of the education system that we have to fight and, um, minorities having There’s been nothing that that exposed more. But the lack of resource is right now available to kids in the inner city. And if the inner city is, uh, predominantly, um, are proportionately, um black, Hispanic, etcetera. Then there’s some different. There’s some obstacles there. I mean, we’re going back to the systematic oppression and, you know, racial inequities. And I mean, you know, you look at you, look at, uh, all the schools my parents were they graduated from from southeast.

Um, you know, Ruskin, uh, central. All these schools historically majority white, right? At one point in time, um, and I guarantee there was getting all the money. And then when things shifted, you know, the great migration and etcetera, etcetera, things things change. Um, you know, and so it kind of leads me to the question, you know, would Well, you brought up Obama black president. Uh, what would what would Dr King say about his presidency? Because there’s this. Whatever about Well, what did he do for that? People, Which is stupid?

Because as a president, you can’t really do much for one specific independent group what you do for a country. But hold up, though, Like what you do for what you do for black people with that question is actually what did you do for people making below a certain amount of income? That’s the real question you’re asking. And if that answer is anything other than raise taxes, that’s all he could have done already. Yeah. Um, bad. No, you didn’t so bad. You did something. I think that when he he would be, I don’t think he would be.

Is critical as many a Some Americans have been about the presidency, and it’s very unreasonable to think that Obama supposed to go in there and just hook up every brother like everybody gets a basketball court doctor. Dr. King would be like, Yeah, I did that. Yeah. Yeah, that was me. E. Remember Dr King would have cried at the inauguration. He would have wept tears similar to the ones that I remember on the faces of Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson as they pan to them in the Chicago crowd.

His tears would have been It would have been a stream, and I can. I’m pretty sure he would have also been very much so, Um, defensive. He would have been a council, though at sometimes, because there were some things I think he would have probably urged Barack to be more aggressive. And I think that Brock came into the game and was filling his way out and took too long to to strap up his boots and go see, I think I think that was a doctor King way, though I think Dr King was very aware of his his his protagonists are antagonistic and, uh, you know, he he felt his way through like he knew when to push and when not to push so hard.

But I think he had a sense of urgency, and I think that he also had an actual sense of urgency, right? Like living in a time where it’s like, yeah, and that’s that’s exactly were living comfortable. That’s what a whites only bathroom You get knocked out what? Going to jail. But yeah, it’s a piggyback on your point. I think Barack got in there and It was kind of like Okay, I’m feeling my way out. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t want to screw up.

Let me fill my way through this. But as a person of color, as a minority, when you’re in a position of power, time is of the essence. You Onley have so much time to prove that you belong. And to prove that you are competent before people start to make decisions about your character for you, dude. And I’m not just that. So when you talk, what did you say? That he had to prove not just those things. We also had to prove that he was American. He had to prove that he wasn’t Muslim.

He had to prove that he wasn’t on Lee put there to do stuff for Black. All the crazy man. I’m not trying, toe. I am not trying to push this narrative that all white people are coming for us. But that’s not what I’m trying to say. But what I am saying is that you can look and a spectrum of different businesses and a spectrum of different environments and a spectrum of different things. And you can see that the leash is going to be short when on people who are minority in business or people who are minority and anything that’s popular opinion and anything that is popular, vote like it’s going to be.

And you have to come in with a bang and make your presence felt and you have to be impactful. And then you may be able to get the credibility to add, to be able to do your job or sit back. But this is not something that is going to is foreign to just black men like this is women. This is a lot of different things. But, um, you know, we see it in America today, and a lot of different companies and a lot of different sports is probably the biggest visibility and sports.

You’ll see that there’s a black head coach and I’ll take the NFL, for instance, and this black head coach will go seven and nine and not make the playoffs and lose their job. Meanwhile, go across the United States and you’ll see a black coach. You’ll see a white coach, go four and 12 and be renewed to come back another year or in college football. Whatever. Like I hate to go back, but that’s one of the more visible examples. And so Tom is of the essence. Brock didn’t feel that it took after two years to see the dramatic switches.

And I think it was the house for him to be like, Oh, okay. The American people are speaking. They’re not exactly happy with how this is going in the first two years. We better do some things. Yeah, but when you think about that and another sense in that episode, but, uh, health care, right? Like they wanted toe lunch, my man over giving people access to health care, which is a huge problem in minority communities. Hey, but he won now. He did, but it came with a whole lot of heat.

It came with so much heat that we got the complete antithesis of the type of person who should be president. Yeah, he didn’t change them. Who didn’t Exactly. It was still in place. Yeah, boy one. Even though the website he could have hired your boy to do the website and with, you know, maybe you’re not had so many bucks, but but, man, that was such a huge undertaking. It’s That’s huge. It is monumental, like that’s his legacy. And I’m proud of it for him, So All right, let’s Let’s bring this doctor King conversation.

Local Kansas City is one of I don’t know how many cities that doesn’t have any. Okay. Boulevard Oh, man. Yeah, it was coming. Danger. And, uh, I’m proud. Midwest Fashion Man. We goofed. It brought if they don’t name rename Ward Parkway, Martin Luther King Boulevard will be the the wealthiest MLK boulevard in the nation. I think s so long story short the City Council, whatever voted to change the Paseo too. M o k boulevard. Which again every city has that and you know, y’all know when y’all see the signs.

Oh, shit. I’m on him. Okay. I need to make it hard left looking for Get back. Let me get back on the highway looking for But the You know, I think when you know the the honor and the presence of having MLK Boulevard and in its city like ours, it’s pretty huge. It’s a huge step. Apparently it’s a huge monument. Monumental step for us, whether we can’t fucking Here’s the deal. So, like This is why Martin Luther King Boulevard. Dr Street doesn’t matter because those were some of the most economic, economically impoverished areas in any city.

Number one, number two. How about you don’t give me an MLK boulevard and you give my people some jobs? Have that be your MLK policy that z two totally different investments. But wait, like apples in that like, Oh, no, we’re not. We’re not gonna put, you know, 17 street signs up here the same. Okay, But instead was gonna give out. But I’m not saying about jobs. I’m saying, Why don’t you look at certain people for opportunities that they might not have otherwise? That’s great, Hermann. But I still want in Okay, Boulevard on some motherfucking street signs in my city, I dio because every other city has it.

And I think it’s disrespect. Not too not to identify and and, you know, just promote awareness to the fact that to this whole damn conversation, Yeah, the toughest part by this part about MLK Boulevard, I think in Kansas City was not the fact that there was MLK Boulevard. It was the fact that they took one of the most popular boulevards in all of the city and three name that you don’t take a boulevard that already has a name. That history and value. Yeah, it is a simple brand equity conversation, right?

You look at I do rebranding for a fucking living. You look at a brand, you see how much brand equity doesn’t have? Is that a lot cool, Then we probably shouldn’t change it. Or if we do change it, how can we leverage that brand equity to the new brand name? So what? So what? What street would have made sense because a number of street Number Street nobody gives a fuck? No, no, just popular. No justice popular there are saying unless it’s gonna have double name like some streets do.

J. J. C. Nichols Boulevard would have been a great one, right? But that would have been so damn controversial. It never would have passed or Ward Parkway. But we’re taking trying. We’re trying to change the name of the Country Club Plaza called J C. Nichols Plaza. That would have been a great change right there, and they’re saying that would’ve been a good start. I think that that’s successfully been done by my man, Chris. Good. The fountain, right? It was trying to change the name of the change, not the whole plaza.

I saw it online. It must be true. I saw it like, shared it. It’s all good. No, your boy, he’s on the parks and rec board. He’s trying to change because Parks owns the boulevards and parkways. And so and and honestly, that is a great first step into what needs to happen. But yeah, we went about it wrong. I mean, there’s this whole thing, you know? We’re not political. We don’t We’re not in the interactions that the in every city, there’s certain streets that just probably shouldn’t be touched.

In ST Louis, ST Louis is natural Bridge and Kings highway. You know where the white castle is? Um, in Kansas City, it’s gonna be prospect or Troost or Paseo. Like those air three Big Ward Parkway on the other side of the You gotta change word Parkway for May e. Mean, we’d have to change maybe the mall toe Martin Luther King Mall. But it also seems like negative because they’re dying. So but yeah, it is resurrected, though, is it? Yes. Yes, Yes, you bro. Get out the birds, bro.

Come to the city, man. Is that still going? Yes. Great city. Anyway, anyway, uh, yes. So? So that brings it kind of localized. We we just We we goofed it like we made national news. It was very embarrassing. My boys was like, sending me links. I’m like, I don’t need you to see me. This link already on its streets. Name it. I know. We named it and then we unnamed it It’s okay. We don’t know what to do. Yeah, way a pissy city we came. But I also would like to see the economic impact of once the street is named Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Like I just would like the home values or the businesses that All right, so we’re gonna name Ward Parkway, and it’s gonna be good. I’m just saying, Like, if its name that does the value things go up or down. All right. So yeah, well, let’s put that somewhere for y’all. They don’t know. World Parkway is like one of the richest roads in the city. Like, literally, you drive down and it’s just dogwood trees just hanging over. You know, if you ain’t got multiple person. You ain’t got shit, right?

So for that to be named MLK Oh, my God. Herm, I I would give my kidney. I would get one of my kidneys for that. So that would be dope. Do you think? Do you think it would be the next white exodus? I’m not standing. Goddamn. Do you think there $3 million mansions going sale E try to get that Because, because you know them that manages were probably owned by black people. Funny, because a lot of those houses actually underneath have underground railroad. Uh, there was a kid.

I went to school with the head like a rockers. Not only some of North. No, this is it. Science. So this is even younger, but also and yeah, exactly. But anyway, they had, like, a door and the thing that was like a part of the underground railroad or whatever. I’m like, That’s underground or the exhibition or they just had slave quarters. I don’t know or there was hiding liquor, but yeah, but that that would be that would be hilarious. That’s like a It could be a short there could be a movie.

They research. I’ll come back and be dope. I got time for that, I bet. Alright. Any closing words about Okay, the holidays coming up? Well, we There’s one thing we haven’t touched. There’s a lot of things going on that Martin Luther King did not die for. Okay, There’s a lot of things that we do that Martin Luther King did not like pass away for Twerking. I don’t do that. Maybe. Yeah, but you got a 12 year old daughter man on the cusp. Now, Tim, don’t get smacked, E bro.

I walked into my daughter’s classroom and she’s like, Hey, look at this. I’m looking at her at her and I’m looking at her teacher. I’m looking at her. I’m like e o e learning how to Twerk. She wasn’t doing the busting challenge, E I bet if I look at her teachers instagram e don’t Yeah, I mean that I think about it. I need to follow her teachers on social media. This is what kind of influences they’re given going to go through the fashion, the fashion of that era.

That’s what we go through on my Luther King Day with my daughter like look at how covered everybody would look at how long that dress could be. And you still look like a prince like a lady. There you go. You’re a princess, Princess. Jasmine just is covered up from head. I know you and your friends watch Goddamn Ticktock videos. But not today. Not today. Sometimes I listen to music, and I’m like, Man Martin Luther King denied. Oh, my God. Yeah, That’s a whole other people, you know.

So you got Oh, man, um, mumble rap working, working. I mean, I’m not once again like I know he didn’t die for it, but I’m not telling the culture to stop. Uh, I’m saying e like a lot of things he didn’t die for, but you don’t know. Hey. Hey. We don’t need to get into his personal life. We don’t. But he was still He was still a young black man at the end of the okay. He was working for civil and economic. Can’t imagine. I can’t imagine him telling credit the bus it, but But I’m just gonna stop.

There are their EC. Is there an economic advantage to dancing a certain way? Like what I’m saying? If he’s about economic rights and you know things that we might not be Whatever. But when you see a music video and you’re like, Oh, that person is doing things that he might not agree with However, no bto hey, did not hey did not die for Magic City or tip drill King of Diamonds video on Bt late night or he did not die for black villain Oh, does go down in history next to em.

Okay, but oh, man, the road this’ll episode took a turn, not die for what that thing smell like. Oh, man, Oh, man, where is the not record? But no way it is. It’s just interesting, you know, as we sit here 53 years after he’s passed almost. Um, it is very interesting to sit back and just think about you know, where we are today and where we still need to go. Um, but I think overall there’s a lot of blessings out there, and we owe that man a great deal.

Absolutely, man. Absolutely. And I think it czar duty to doom or to be more diligent and to, you know, push his legacy. You know, I’m gonna I’m gonna say it again. I’m reading one of his his last books. Where do we go from here? And it’s just what paid you on. Oh, you know that. You know, I’m inaudible, Subscriber. Oh, my bad dammit! You reading my listening. But e thought this was a safe space e. But But no, no real talk guys like we have we have to think about.

We have to be conscious. We have to be more conscious about how do we how do we extend his legacy? Because it’s getting lost. Like if you look at all this shit, the bullshit that’s going on on social media like it’s getting lost, There’s a lot of there’s a lot of crap going on out there that Z claiming the black name or that black African American man or the black woman like it is a lot of noise. It’s a lot of bullshit, and we do have to do our job, um, to declare, if I what we are about as a people, what we strive to achieve as faras equity and equality and inclusion in this in this country, Um and we just have to be more conscious about it.

But the the fellas around this table I could say that I’m very proud about what you guys, what we have accomplished and what who we are as people and the people that have raised us. You know, they did a good job, man. Yeah. Thank you. Man. I really appreciate that. I think that we have Ah, one thing about 1968 versus 2000 and 21 is that our voice was centralized. There were very few vessels for us. And now in 2021 everybody’s a vessel. And it’s just up to us to understand those principle of yesteryear, understand the struggle, understand the journey, and put things in the atmosphere that progresses forward and connect to the future that we need to create for for those after us, absolutely three generations.

That’s my message for this week. Let’s get it. Thanks for your Listen, don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast that just start with. Don’t forget to subscribe, Right? Ready? Are you ready for me to go? Go now. Don’t forget. Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast on apple podcast, Spotify, stitcher or whatever random app or website you’re listening on. Also be sure to follow us on. Instagram underscore Black in the middle. The

mumble rap, twerking, twerking. I mean, I’m not once again like I know he didn’t die for it, but I’m not telling the culture to stop. Uh, that’s not what I’m saying. E Like a lot of things he didn’t die for. But you don’t know. Hey, hey. We don’t need to get into his personal life. We don’t. But he was still he was still a young black man at the end of the okay. He was working for civil and economic. Can’t imagine. I can’t imagine him telling credit the bus it, but But I’m just gonna stop. There are their EC. Is there an economic advantage to dancing a certain way? Like what I’m saying? If he’s about economic rights and you know things that we might not be whatever. But when you see a music video and you’re like, Oh, that person is doing things that he might not agree with. However, no bto hey, did not hey did not die for Magic City or tip drill King of Diamonds video on Bt late night or he did not die for black. A villain Oh does go down in history next to em. Okay, but oh, man the road this’ll episode took a turn, Not die for what that thing smell like. Oh, man, oh man, where is the not record? But we’re back with another episode of black in the middle middle class, Middle of the map. A podcast by three friends who seem to always find themselves stuck in between black culture and white America. If you’re a believer that genuine conversations could be a first step to closing the divide and you’re in the right place, the middle with us. Let’s go. No! What’s up, guys? This is your host, Tim Travis Herman. Happy New Year. Happy New Year and Happy Season two. We’re back, baby. Yeah, we made it. Produces up. This is what’s up, guys. I just want to start off by saying I’m super proud of all three of us for just sticking to it. We got 40 something episodes over, what, eight plus months, and we’ve been rocking and rolling. We got about, I don’t know, 1000 downloads per month. Quite a few subscriptions. We need some more reviews. I thought it was closer to a million way. Have way more way more followers than Joe Rogan. That’s what I tell you guys to keep you motivated. I’ve been listening to Trump, so I’m sorry. Fabricate. My number s so true, Doc. I was I was listening to a song and d J. Cale. It and I I feel like he is the hip hop trump. He just keeps it so simple in positive. Uh, anyway, I guess, um yeah, but now thousands 1000. That’s cool. Yeah, man, it’s, you know, things are moving on. We got merch. What? That I’m excited about that merch. Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I got my shirt in. Did you get yours yet? Um, apparently, it’s still in somebody’s hub. Memphis? Yeah, It’s still still down in Orange Mountain. It’s stuck in Herman’s mailbox, along with all the bills that I’m like. All the bills and target Amazon purchases. I only check the mailbox on payday on Hy Vee adds, Oh, my God e. Which they would stop that this paper man, that’s because you guys live in the summit e don’t get that up in north. So all right, I’m super excited about today’s episode. T Bone. You came up with a great question. Fabulous question. Would Dr Martin Luther King Jr be proud of where we are today, and we’re gonna unpack this in several different ways. But just your first take, fellas, like, simple yes or no to find. We see, I know you couldn’t give a simple yes or no. And that’s why we have a podcast is going to be about 47 to 52 minutes, man. What, You think I need a definition of we we being we as America or we as in me or we as in black people or which we All right, let’s break it down. Let’s start with the easiest answer with doctor Would would he be proud of where we, as a African American people are today and and keep in mind, his focus was on America, right? Like he had a global view, but his focus on you know, fire. Would you be proud of us as a people? Yes. Would you be proud of us as a nation? No. Would you be proud of me as a person? Absolutely. Who wouldn’t be? E I would say that Dr Martin Luther King be proud of African American people where we stand today. Um, I’m gonna lean towards Yes, but that’s not in 100%. And would he be proud of America today? Absolutely not. Would it be proud of me? Absolutely. But But I get in trouble for way different, man. I’m pretty sure you and Dr King or different uh, how did he feel about free college? Keep going. Why are you bringing up? It’s not about free. College is about Dr King. Keep going. Uh, no. So all right, let’s xray kit down and unpack. Let’s start with you know, I want to start with us, but that’s not the fun stuff. Let’s start with America, man, because it’s a shit show. There’s still going. If you listen the last episode America America is on fire. We’re trying to put the fire out. Actually, one of the things I find most revealing about Dr King’s message at the time versus the part of America that is not working today is when you look at a map of all that red lack of diversity and people not being toe identify like, Oh, look all the city’s air where it’s democratic. But it’s also the most diverse and all these rural communities where it’s completely red. That’s where it’s least diverse. So when you look at, you know, the part of Dr King that’s talking about everyone coming together and then you look in America today and you find out that it’s not necessarily actively segregated, but I mean, where is the crossover, except for in your major cities? Okay, Okay, okay. You know, I think that when you look at America, there’s so many things that Dr King would say the needle has been moved. If there’s a lot of different things to be proud of for like America as a whole, I think he would be very discouraged looking at the fact that we’re still fighting for equality some 50 plus years after his untimely death. Like, I think that he would want to know that it’s not a civil rights issue when it comes to the treatment of a blackmail get and treatment of black people, I should say, um, in getting a fair shake in a system and being looked at and being judged not based on the content of their skin, but more of the content of their character. Hey would be very, very discouraged by that still struggle. Has there been movement in that struggle? Absolutely, absolutely. And it the Jim Crow South is not the same Jim Crow south that it waas in 1968 when he passed April 4th, 1968. It’s a different. It’s a different America than January 1 of 2021 I think that, um, so there’s there’s something to be said about that, but by any means by no means would he be happy about the things that we’ve seen in recent memory. Well, I think it’s interesting, and I don’t quote me on any timelines here. But the between the I have a dream speech and like the whole civil rights movement and the breaking down of some of those like the Jim Crow laws and like so we’re talking about mid sixties late sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties? I think so. It’s like all the activity happened then, right? So it’s like, Alright, well, find no blacks, only water fountains. Fine. You can come to our schools even though you have to bring in the United You’re the National Guard to allow a single black person into a school to Okay, well, we’ll just make schools that are super non diverse right, like it’s like that outcome, like fast forward to today. And it’s like all of the like rules air gone. But the way people act, behave, don’t wanna be around one another, kind of still there and to me, like that’s the part of America that I’m like, Damn! Like we moved the mark with breaking down laws. But we didn’t move the mark with, and not that It’s really our job to break down other people’s ideals of us. But that seems to seems like we’re taking two steps forward, and maybe some people are taking a step back. See, I would argue that there has been movement, like I would argue that Well, no, there’s been movement, you’re saying, though, and I I just It’s very what is discouraging is that you Still, we still have. We still have spaces to move on. This chessboard like that is just that’s what’s discouraging. But, man, the struggles that we had our totally different than the struggles our parents had and totally different than the spirit, their struggles that their parents had and but all of our parents come into this world during the thick of the civil rights movement and, uh, come into this in a mature during the thick of the civil rights movement or at the tail end of it. And I know that they worked tirelessly to give us a different life. And now we’re working tirelessly to give our kids even better life than what we had. And when I look at me coming into this game and how I’m viewed in America, like I know that I’m still looked at in a lot of spaces by the color of my skin. I am proud of the fact that the content of my character has been able to radiate and open so many more doors than my parents, and then what I had to be have to be able to do so. That is a positive, that that is a positive also, a very little thing. That’s a very middle thing. Not every black person looks like you That’s not from the middle, has that same experience? I don’t think I got that because I’m from the middle. I would tell you that the middle definitely molded me, but I know people who weren’t from suburbia who have the same charisma or not that you have the same skills. Not that you have to be from suburbia to acquire those skill sets, but I’m just saying it’s a lot easier when you know how to navigate. Yeah, you know, I’m bilingual in English, like definitely, but I mean, that’s one of the positives. What? But when it comes toe, when push comes to shove, though, we still are seen by our skin color when push comes to shove in critical situations and there still are these little subcultures that want to keep us segregated or keep things in place to protect themselves from things they don’t understand what your other cultures, that they haven’t taken the time to get familiar with and that I don’t know when that’s gonna end. And I don’t know how it ends. And I think that that’s discouraging. See, that’s a great point. Um, so something very timely. I sat through the second integration of a racial equity and inclusion seminar just yesterday, actually, and you know, it was three hour session. The one I did last year was 22 days. Eso I’m not going to I’m not going to, you know, tell you everything what happened, but what I What I will say is, and we all know this systematic racial equality, right? Racial inequality. You know, this whole country was built. It wasn’t built on, like the laws and everything else wasn’t built to oppress African Americans and Latinos and native American. It wasn’t built to oppress us. It was built to elevate the white Americans, the people who migrated from Europe and became American. It was it was built to make them richer and keep them rich. Right? So it is. It seems to be working its system wide. It’s, you know, it’s in. It’s in the groundwater. Right? So the whole premise of this is like, you know, you look at a you look it upon right, and you see a dead fish and its belly up. You’re like, All right. What’s wrong with this fish? Is it is it? Is it sick? Did it get killed by something? Is it what happened? But if you see a pond full full of dead fish like Oh, shit, you’re not looking at one fish. You’re looking at a whole bunch, like all right? It must be the water. So what’s wrong with the water? This pond is contaminated, right? There’s something wrong. But when you compare this analogy to racial inequity, take Minnesota, for example, right, the land of 10,000 lakes. If 9000 of these lakes have all their fish belly up, you’re not going to say what’s wrong with the fish or what’s wrong with the lake like what’s wrong with groundwater? Because 90% of the ground water on the earth 90% of fresh water on Earth Excuse me, is under the ground. So there’s something wrong with what’s going on deep down beneath, and this is an analogy for the systems of America that we that America was built on. So you take a pond like education, you got the health pond. You’ve got the, um you know, uh, what other pond? Financial finance You’ve got housing. You’ve got wealth, you’ve got education. I might have already said that, but you’ve got all these different systems in America that they all have issues in the same issues, and they call them different things, right? You look at education and it’s called the achievement gap. You look at, um, housing and it’s called the or you look at. Well, it’s called the wealth gap and you look at other things. They all have different, different names, but it’s for the same problem. It’s racial inequity. And I think Dr King knew this, like, this can’t be fixed overnight, right? So would he be proud of the progress that we’ve made as a people? I think so. But as America, No, especially after last weeks or the last two weeks, Uh, you know, festivities like it’s still systematically fucked up. Yeah, and we’re just We’re so far behind and I think that people don’t want to give us credit for what we have, where we are in this country. So it’s like we have. I mean, we came. We were brought here with nothing in our hands and look what we have today like I mean, it hasn’t been well. I mean, it’s been a long time since the first person came over here empty handed, but I’m like we’ve created great companies, business leaders, you know, like I mean, we’ve changed the culture and nature of America. So, like our impact has been great. It’s just so unfortunate that when we asked to share in the wealth and sharing the opportunity. It makes people so upset. And I think that is the part s so hard. And that’s what people don’t understand. Like, well, we could go to the same grocery store, but I’m like, Yeah, but because I’m black, maybe I’m paying Mawr on my card to put it. You know, like there’s so many different inequities that you just can’t see on the surface. Let me let me share this story with you. So the guy who put on this seminar, his name is Bai. This dude is dope, right? He lives and he lives in Maine, all right. He was from the consulting business and he switched to this, uh, you know, just digging into their research of racial inequities. And, you know, just how do we how do we overcome? And he said, You know, I talked to my mom the other day and, you know, we caught up and she said her health is good, you know, ask her about her health. She said, Everything is good and you know, she’s doing well. So I hung up and he said to us like that was a racial interaction because he didn’t have to worry about her health about her having diabetes or high blood pressure, or her or anything, because she’s 50% less likely to have any of those issues, so that interaction was racial. And that’s how he perceives his conversations, because he’s in this business so he could look at things like that way. But when you think about it like that, like, how do we ever become equal in this country when things like that when you know we have a 40% MAWR, you know, higher mortality rate, Uh, you know, in infant Death Syndrome or Mom’s Air dying more frequently than black moms or dying more frequently than white moms when giving birth or, you know, education or housing like all these, all the decks are stacked up against us. It’s because of the systems put in place because, like Herman, you said time and time again, they think that black women and black men are stronger so they don’t need to give them medication. They don’t need to put them, you know, give them the time of day. Um, you know, So it’s it’s just very interesting to look at that from a white guy’s perspective who’s trying to teach that. You know, these unconscious biases exist in corporate America and everyday life, and we have to be conscious in order to make the right choices and to move forward and to change the system. But when you think about all this like, it’s so groundwater and systematic that you kind of you kind of get depressed and overwhelmed. Yeah. So when does our ethnicity come into play From a financial standpoint. So, like, if I’m growing up and coming up through the journey, when does my blackness affect me? Financially? That is a great question before you were born. And I thank you, Tim. That’s exactly what I was going to say, because the first one of the first, uh, avenues toe wealth is hanging on to a life insurance policy which black people could not have early on. So the first step without even doing anything is if you’re white and your parents had something, you could have a life insurance policy. And if it was $5000 in, uh, you know, 1913 Well, black people still don’t have anything but that that 5000 then compounds dude, like you’re talking, I mean, so much money. So like and I don’t remember the specific year that black people were allowed to get life insurance policies, but it was actually through a fraternal system. I do know that, um, but I’m like even that in itself puts us so far behind. So I’m saying so funny. You mention that because I asked. I think it was both of you. Might have just been you worm, but I ask you, do you have like, uh, no, What do you I don’t remember it. I asked you, Uh oh, yeah. Ask you, Do you have life insurance? You said no. And, um, I thought that was interesting, but yeah, well, because you have life insurance and I plan on never mind. Keep eso. I do. And I have a great financial advisor that I will recommend anyone of you just shoot me in the d. M. But, um, but the wife and I were looking to take out life insurance policies for my parents. Right? Expensive. It’s expensive is I haven’t gotten official quote, but I’ve gotten estimates. And honestly, I won’t be able to tow Hackett if those quotes are accurate. You know, pop smokes and again. We’re black. We’re predisposed, right? Predisposed is another term for racial inequity in health because we are black and so, you know, the costs are through the roof. But But you’re right. So the reason why I want to take out this policy, it’s going to cost me monthly, but it will create a nest egg for my kids, and they will be able to take some of that and do something with it. If you can hang on to that policy, which is another I’m not going to say That’s a black issue, right? I’m not gonna keep a job, dog. But if you can’t and it doesn’t matter what you are, it doesn’t matter what race you are. S o a lot of those things. A lot of the healthcare life insurance. A lot of those were tied to work. Absolutely. You have to have a steady income. You can’t miss a payment. You gotta keep that shit for 20 to 40 years. Hold up though. And then when you look at, uh, places where black people work, like specific to the middle class, like the second highest one is sales jobs. So them shits is flighty exactly. So I’m like you’re with company. 1235 Doesn’t matter assumes you are gone as soon as you don’t hit quota. Then your life insurance goes away so you can’t amass so well. That’s ifit’s provided by the company. However, we were doing this individually. So we’ve we’ve We’ve been with this financial advisor for many, many years, and this is we’ve talked about this before, but we’re now in a financial place where we can consider doing this for our parents and my parents. They’re like, Dude, I wanna be cremated. I’ll just throw a party, gets, um, brown liquor, invite all my friends and we good. But even that misses the point of creating wealth and setting up a future for my kids and their kids. Kids I saw I saw him and the other today and he said, um, it said, poor people. It’s that rich people think. Think three generations ahead. Poor people think about next Saturday, and I’m thinking about that iPad You could afford to get me since you got other extra money coming through. So eso that Zatz interesting. But if my parents are alive and I don’t have a life insurance policy to cash in. If I’m coming up through the ranks in America, when does that? When does the part hit? Where? Because I’m black. I am disadvantaged financially. If I’m a kid, young man, let’s say I’m blessed enough to go to college. When does that? When does the blackness takeover that is responsible from my disadvantaged financially. So that would come at the parent level s. So if Grand Parents parent s so like, if you’re s o what what we’re talking about is another. Is people being ahead of where black people are when it comes to wealth? So the real question is, where is the first time that black people were able to acquire and hold the amount of wealth that could be passed down to the next generation? So that’s the point. Hypothetically, that point would be our grand parents might have been the first generation because they would have been working in your Ford Motor plant. That would have been a part of the great migration to Detroit to California that would have worked a job for 25 years or however long. And that’s where that first generation wealth came, which would be my grandpa, who still didn’t have so much money to pass down, is when I look at some of my Caucasian counterparts like it’s just so much different when my mother’s father passed away like, I think I got $5000. But I’ve seen other people’s parents passed away. You’re talking about 200,000 2 53 100 like the numbers are crazy, which means that person might not have to pay for college. That person might not have to pay for their first car. That means they’re starting out life that free where I’m starting off, dude, like I’m still paying college loans today, but I’m paying off college loans. My mom’s paying off college loans for me. So that’s that’s, however, much per month towards that that you can’t save to build your wealth. Which then is it’s. So that is the cycle that is the cyclical nature of how you keep people behind and that on top of the last job, and all of a sudden you realize you’re paying 22% on your credit cards, and then you realize like you have to use your credit cards for food so you’re paying interest on shit that you ate seven months ago. Speaking from experience, baby, Really like, I mean, I’m not saying I know, yo, and and I’ll give it to the personal story just real quick. Um, about three weeks ago, I was in my mom’s picking up the kids, and we started chatting, and she was like, Yeah, you know, your grandma’s house over on six? Uh, was it, uh, 51st in Jackson? Um, you know it Z not in our name. Apparently, somebody did a quick deed, and I actually talked to tomorrow about it already. He gave me the game Plan B for the knock the shit out, but but essentially, my my grandma, my grandma passed right, And the house was that the D was up in limbo. You know, family was still taking care of it or whatever, but some cat came in in 2000 and I don’t know, 12 or whatever and did a quick did and took the house, took the house, started reading it out. And he’s been making money ever since. Well, there was like an investigation on him or whatever, but hey was never convicted. They he’s still making money off this house. That is not in his name. He had a notary come in and a chick come in. Poses my grandma in 2000 and 13 to sign over the D To him. That’s the legal part. My grandmother was already passed. And so this is all in, like, the investigative reporting. So anyway, we’re going after the crib. Right? So when I grew up, my grandma lived in the house. Her son, My uncle lived in the house next, right next door. Uh, cousin auntie lived across the street Catty corner. Other cousin lived catty corner from Forever E. But my point is I wanted I want to come into that house. E think it was worth like, 19 grand, right? This is in the hood. It was worth 19 grand when she passed. I looked it up. I got that. That’s estimate. It’s There were 30. So I’m like, OK, we got a little equity. Let’s do this. But But the point is like that house, the house next door. My cousin lives across the street in the house that we that her dad used to own My uncle owns ah, lot across the other catty corner street. So, like, literally, I want to own this entire block and build this out for generations to come so that my you know, five family who’s down and out like, All right, there’s a crib for you. We Airbnb ing we rent it out. Why don’t you sit in, like, that’s generational shit that we need to build for our people? So I’m just gonna add, But that’s another thing, because a lot of the vessel ah, lot of the tactics that were built into the system. We’re also ways to be able to take those things away from people. Um, yeah, like a quick deed. Oh, they didn’t pay any taxes. Cool. I’ll take that house. Don’t need to do nothing. Are you fucking kidding me? My grandmother lived there for 20 years. I grew up in that crib. I used to eat white bread and it wasn’t a barbecue sauce After I come home from Camp it again. H uh But if it wasn’t a quick deed, it would be a bank. Continue. Well, I haven’t even we haven’t even done into that. We don’t even know what the what the bank has to say about the place, though, Like, it’s all that and more. Anyway, way have we ventured, but I think to pull it back, Thio. You know, Dr King, is that his civil rights struggle? His civil rights fight, um, created a shift in mindset and a lot of people because he was actually accepted versus other leaders who were seen as, um, villains, right. Like he he had a little bit more acceptance. Let me say that violence approach. That was the one thing that was accepted because he still he was definitely more popular after his death. But when it comes to the civil rights movement, he was the face of it and at least was able to get more ears than anybody else doing it. He was civil rights in the middle, right? Like he played the line between, you know, Malcolm X being on one extreme. Um, and you know, whoever is being on the other like he did that. Well, we’ve talked. We’ve talked about that. The use of black power versus, um I forget it. I forget his his quote, but but yeah, we We’ve talked about that, and he struggled with that. He fought that and even other people fought him for being too aggressive. Well, I think that people saw him as trying to be a vessel for the progression of black people. And I think they saw other people as a threat. Toe white people like, Yeah, I think he was inclusive. That and so that mentality makes people certain people listen a little bit more intensively. So when I think about that, I’m like, Okay, he did all of that For us to be able to progressively grow and be less segregated, be less confined to certain parts. Um, and now you’ll see us more integrated into society, integrated into different neighborhoods. And that was very progressive. It started in the seventies. It started with expansion on Bennett the eighties. Further out, further out nineties further out to thousands, 2000 tens. Now we out there right now are people come back to the city but priced out. But I think that what you all we’re talking about is it’s kind of some of the calories that we had to spend like we spent a lot of time in the civil rights area. Post civil rights area, seventies eighties. Our parents whatever spent a lot of calories trying to get themselves correct. Then they passed down better hands. Tow us. And we naturally are in better shape because of the efforts of our parents following that movement. And that’s one of the beneficial the benefits of us. There’s a lot of people who are not to our level and are in that current state now where they’re trying to get to that point of financial betterment so they can pass it down to their kids. Yeah, except for I think that when you break out the percentages, we are no better off than we were then. If anything, we’re probably worse off. Great point. No, you don’t have to. I literally just sat through a three. Our seminar. Pretty certain, Uh and you know what? I would love to share some screenshots from the presentation because the presentation was all about facts and research and studies done from multiple organizations and institutions across the country and the trend line. The gap has been growing. Yeah, uh, and this is before trump. Well, so this sentence is just Anyway, we already talked about unions, but that was one of the things that kept people financially solvent. Uh, you talk about pensions? Who’s got one of those nowadays? Do you have a pension? I don’t even know if I should ask T Bone. You don’t have a pension. You work for huge company, right? Like you take away all these vessels. Pensions were dying Exactly, right. Like you’ve taken away all of these vessels that, like people from the middle or not even from the middle usedto have as incomes. The game is just changed. You know, corporate America is just now making you, um they’re willing to match what you’re willing to do. You know, it’s it’s changing a mindset and making people take ownership and not depending on corporations. And from the corporate standpoint, which it’s not a defense, it’s just me stating what it is. And people don’t stay long enough anymore. Thio You build these pension plans, and then people are job hoppers. Right? So 41 K is much more attractive because I can always take that with me, and it could go, but mm like that. This is a doctor King conversation. We’re not gonna argue pension plans. Yeah, because that’s outdated, bro s o. Unless you have anything else to add to the current line of I will say one thing when it comes to wealth gap, though there was a guy that I helped in one of my worst financial years. White guy from the from like Mexico. Missouri is buying a car. I kid you not. This dude had, like, he was retired with, like, four or five income streams. His retirement, two different pensions. Ah, military something and something. I just could not believe he had, like, 7500 month coming in through different things and hadn’t worked and like, a minute. And I’m like, Damn, he said he was Mexican reason. He’s a white guy. He’s from Mexico, Missouri, which is like after the ST Louis America. Yeah, that’s a place America. Anyway. Great story, Herm. All right, moving on. Uh, let’s just get personal, like, you know, forget all the, you know, systematic oppression that we go through on a daily fucking basis that I don’t wanna talk about because I’ll get depressed. But what is What is what is Dr King mean to you? Just personally, individually, Like, how? How is he, you know, affected you? What do you remember him by? Is he just, you know, a quintessential black character in history? Like personally, Um, to me, he means it means everything, right, Because beyond the simple, you know, Yes, we know we have a day that we celebrate and beyond the just, you know, we know him as a figure out a civil rights movement. I think what I what I was always very conscious of is that there is a courageous mindset behind that man’s will. Um and he is very much so a a driven individual who not who would not waver right for what he felt like was right. And he walked into certain situations completely understanding the outcome and was still fearless enough to go ahead and do that. And not only do that, but it was kind of, in some cases, his body broken for us, right? Like he was going to go to jail in Birmingham. He was going to withstand water hoses and stuff like that. And he knew that dogs would be biting at his legs. And it wasn’t a deterrent. It was not a deterrent. How do you even prepare for that? You know, So when somebody you know, people go to church every Sunday and talk about somebody who died for them. It’s no in no way, shape or form should I be comparing any man to Jesus Christ? But what I should be appreciative of is the fact that there was a man who cared so much about being able to pass down, um, benefits Thio future generations that he was willing to fight for it. And he didn’t know that I was gonna come in the in the early eighties. He had no idea. But he knew somebody like me would write. And he wanted somebody like me to be able to sit in a board room and look at men and women of different ethnicities and and feel comfortable expressing myself. That’s so inspirational dog like it almost. It almost has me tearing up because I look at myself and I’m so immediate gratification. Like what? Like I have a bunch of faults, and one of them is if it’s not making me money. If it’s not about me or me, you know, me or my family or my my organization, like advancing like I don’t have time for it, But this dude comes in and he’s, you know, the rich think three generations ahead. He was rich in Seoul in, you know, in everything and maybe not money, but in everything else. He was thinking three generations ahead. He sacrificed everything. And that’s something that I cannot fathom, like, and we talked about this. He was our fucking age doing all this. And, you know, I referred back to the book. Where do we go from now? I was literally sitting on my desk and then in this seminar that I was in yesterday and three times this question came up. Where do we go from here? It was 140 people in this seminar. All the business leaders and civic leaders in Kansas City, right? They’re going through this racial equity inclusion seminar, and and the white people are feeling guiltiest. Fuck. All right. And the black people are, you know, we’re all fed up. We’re not. We’re tired of consoling them and giving them answers and questions. But this this this, uh, this training gave us new data and new information to spin it and give us a new life too. Like all right, I’m not going to explain to you what it’s like to be black. I don’t need to hear another seminar what it’s like to be black in America. I get it. I live it every day. But when you put the fax and data behind it and again, I would love to share this with you guys. It gives you a new life toe. Go out there and put the, you know, fight the good fight. Dr. King did that every day, day in and day out, living three generations ahead, bro. That’s something that my mind can’t I just can’t do. I couldn’t conceive, but it hits me in my heart, man. It’s human nature for us toe to take on the crusades of our own. It’s human nature for us to take on the Crusades. For your family. It may be some humans nature to take on the crusade of their friends. It is, ah, whole another level when you take on a crusade of a group of people of, ah, ethnicity of people or principle than you’re fighting, a principle that is keeping not Onley black people down, but women down or or keeping, uh, Hispanic people down or keeping Asian people down, and a lot of his message will refer to the Negro. And a lot of ways the Negro has always had to be the Trailblazer for America. It’s like we have to be the first one to run through that door so different people can have the ability to do that and for him, When you look at it from that perspective, he’s the first person 26 Well, it’s not successfully but to try to run. He’s not the first person to try to run through that door, but he is a pioneer and running through that door. And I mean, I’ll tell you like that’s an admirable trait to be able to take on a crusade of the people, right? Like and I mean, I’m not, you know, I like to think I’m the people’s champ, but I’m not gonna put aside my day job to go out here and do some of this. Exactly. Did you think about the boards we sit on like that is us being, you know, philanthropic and giving back. But there’s there’s some. There’s some come around right, like we’re networking. We’re making great connections. Um, I realize that we cannot contribute as great as some of the other board man, that’s financially sure, Absolutely. That’s so humbling. Right to sit there and be on the board. And the board is talking about fundraising and people are like, Yeah, I can call these people. They might give us $20,000. Yeah, I can call these people. We might be able to go to Great for $75,000 and I’m looking at her. Can we put it on a group text? Maybe Maybe we can get 100. This is this has been that’s that’s been a flaw of mine. Just something on my mind for the last 12 years since I’ve been sitting on nonprofit boards. Um, you know, I said on the Alvin Ailey Event Committee that one year, and and I thought, you know, they wanted me for my my young nous, my blackness, my creativity, blah, blah, blah. What they wanted me to do was to raise money, but what? I had to let them know it was like, I don’t have a network like that. What I can do is I can give my heart muscle in my time and my gifts, so I took over all the design, all the marketing, all the creative, and I helped promote the event and build up a nice brand for this event. But I wasn’t writing any checks. My boys wasn’t they weren’t writing any checks. I wasn’t connecting you into millionaires. And but that’s just not That’s not your fault, man. That’s your that’s you using your superpower because I have a saying. It is my saying so I’m gonna go ahead, throw it out there like it’s great Thio. Give your time. It’s It’s good to give money, but it’s better to give your energy. And so when you do the stuff that you’re doing and you’re taking over the design and you’re making dope content like you do for us every week and you make your exercising these skills, you’re helping other people see that on a grand scale and feel good about it. So you’re not you’re not writing that check because you might not have it too, right? But what you do have is the ability toe provide something to the atmosphere that helps other people write those checks, and that’s where I think that this doctor King, that’s where he lives in us, right? Because that’s energy. He didn’t have no money. The only thing he had was ah, collection plate that circulated, uh, at at a church in Georgia like he had energy, he had energy. And that is where the three of us, that’s where he lives in us, because we give that way. But, Tim, um, you’re the leader, man. You have so many different philanthropic opportunities that you’re in like, and you’re giving your energy And you started doing that at a young age, right? I started doing that at a young age. Herman’s always been involved in it, and I can name you 20 people who do the same. The key thing is that it’s we can’t to me like we can’t have three million people out here trying to lead right like you only have so much. It’s you can’t boil the ocean, you have to get it. But you have to give energy to something, and we can all probably give more. But I think where Dr King lives in us is our ability to give energy to the things that we get exposed to, and we gravitate towards, and we feel good about doing a man. There he is. Hey. So do your Children know about Dr King? That’s a great question. The answer is yes. But the depths Well, yeah, probably not. You have won a seven year old and a 13 13 year old. Yeah. So, you know, So, uh, they’re not growing into Dr King of the way that me and my sister going to Dr King with my dad’s best friend, who is a pastor and actively engaged in SCLC and all of the, you know, just the spirituals things around Kansas City, Juneteenth. Like all those things that we were always that they’re not. I’m not my dad. You know, my struggles a little bit different, so I haven’t had the energy thio get them involved in that. But it’s weird because I have this relationship, I think with with diversity in a broad context that, you know, I just you have a mixed race. Households. Yeah, it all Yeah, but I’m like, you know, it’s so it’s really weird. So, like, when I think of Dr King and I think about the message of everybody kind of getting along, like, you know, races, living multi generations together in in harmony, right? And to me, that’s the thing that stands out. So when I think about Dr King, it’s I just haven’t put specific messages in the history on my Children. Some of that stuff they learned in school, and thank goodness they go to a school that actually teaches that he went to jail and why he went to jail and what he was fighting for. So from uneducated standpoint, they know about him. But from a Hey, Daddy, let’s talk about Dr King. That does not happen enough. Yeah, so that’s just the truth. Yeah. The good thing about Dr King is you at least have a pause to be ableto thio illustrate his, um, impact on America because you have this day you have Martin Luther King Day. It’s so many other people out there who we grew up hearing about that we will not tell people about because they don’t have these heartbreaks and pauses. And and that’s interesting. But to your question, is my son know about Dr King? He knows he’s existence. He does not know the depth, and that is a far because to him, he knows that there has been a struggle. He knows that he died for that struggle. He doesn’t get he doesn’t get it. And of course, he’s their young right. So, um, if I were to play that I have a dream speech, you know, it’s not gonna be interesting. So But it is interesting, though, because I think that one of the things So one of the things I have with my kids when it comes to stuff is the ending. And so if I tell my kids about Dr King and then I tell them about the ending, that is the piece that that actually has had an impact in my life because what that said about America was if you raise your voice too loud, we’re gonna end that because we don’t want that and is fucked up is that it’s true, though, like that’s what makes him so powerful is like that he he knew that was coming. Like I’m pretty sure from what I’ve read, Dr King new that there were threats on his life, I think they were. Yeah, absolutely. But he never stopped. But if you teach somebody seven or 13, that might have a completely different out impact on their voice. Right? So the amazing thing about where Dr King would be proud is Thean justice that we’ve seen with, like, the police killings, like black people like, you know what, shoot us in the streets. We’re marching, we’re done with it. So for that many people that have that kind of voice is something to be proud off. And, yeah, that’s what’s up. My kids are too young. They don’t know. Well, I guess they’re not too young. I need I need to have this conversation with Denise because she’s fucking brilliant. Um, and you know, my first memory of Dr King Waas. So, growing up, I used to draw everything. I have these books. Um, you know that the draw 50 cars, books or draw 50 famous characters? Well, I had to draw 50 famous characters books and in that with Dr King’s Portrait. And I drew it so many times that I could draw from memory. And I read his autobiography and I forget which grade and I drew the cover of the book. And like that, that is my first memory of him. And Denise is a little bit of an artist So maybe maybe that’s my introduction. E start z Portugal for Well, you know, I’m a teacher. I teach kids how to draw a portrait. You know, portraiture is and so So I’m gonna do that with her and see, See what happens. But but yeah, man, that Zatz pretty inspirational. And, you know, there’s nothing to feel bad about that. You know, your son doesn’t know about him like he’s. How old is he? He’s 12 s. So you’re talking like these air? Just he knows he’s there. E I wasn’t a subject matter expert at 12 either, you know, But I did have some good awareness because I did have good, um, role models who talk about these things. And I did go to a church, um, the black church right where this was definitely stressed and his teachings were stressed. Eso those air exposure points that unfortunately, my son doesnt the black church. Should we go down that pathway? Who still who still attends a black church who still attends church, say, to find wow shirt? No, it is not on TV. That’s that’s a note for me. Don’t. Yeah, I ain’t got in a minute. Yeah, All right. Well, that makes three conflicts with kickoff. How long has that been a problem in your your relationship with the Lord? The Lord is my shepherd. You know what I want? Every since I’m putting that first pad, that’s a whole other discussion because the church was so fundamental in black culture, black culture. And now we’re We talked about it offline last week for like, 30 minutes. Got Tom. Church can’t play the game Or can you e think that’s a good conversation. That will be a topic in 21 for sure. E And really, because I need I need Thio. I need to develop in that area. I need to figure out what the what the hell My religious playing hold up, though, is gonna be for my family. Because that shit is all. Dude, it’s so one interesting thing that I will say, Is there some very drastically different dynamics between our upbringing and our acceptance of certain things in the middle versus some of the teachings in not just the black church but any church, right? There’s certain things that I’m like, uh, there’s certain principles that keep me away from the church just that I don’t agree with today and that they won’t budge on. So it’s complex. That sounds like a good episode. I got baptizing. Ah, Methodist Church down. And Tele has your Florida so African Methodist, Episcopal, Episcopal here. E know what that means? It comes to the sex of church. Like I don’t have any idea with any of those men. Like it’s like he wears a dashiki once every 15 years and thinks he’s African Episcopal painting on any African Episcopalians. I’m sorry. That’s gonna be a good episode for sure. That definitely will. But that was a huge rally in factor for the movement, like, Oh, yeah, that was the base. Using churches is a nice conduit. That base. That was where the communities that was over his little Facebook groups, right, that he could rally. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What? Nope. Nope. We’re gonna do a completely different episode on a few different things. All right, well, I got one last question for you guys. Um, how are we? Extensions of his legacy. You We individually. What are you doing to extend Dr Martin Luther King Junior’s legacy? Intentionally or unintentionally, Intentionally? I can’t tell you that I’m doing anything. And I’m like, uh was like, I just exist, baby e. I wanna be clear, right? Like there’s not intentionally I’m doing this. And I’m like, Yes, Martin Luther King would be proud. Stand. Yeah, This one, this one’s for you. Um, what I would tell you that the unintentional things and I’m extension of the length of his legacy is, um I think really trying to utilize the blessings and the tools that I have. You know, there’s definite blessings that I’ve been that have been bestowed upon me based on his hard fruits and love and, uh, the fruits of his labor. And so what I would tell you is I try my best to be a good man, a good citizen. I represent African Americans. Well, I try my best to be a good business partner. Um, eso other people will come behind me, and, uh, I try my best to be inclusive by going out and searching for diversity and mentor and diversity. Um, so we can grow and have a better footprint. Um, it’s never been done because Martin Luther King never once, but it is part of my DNA based on the things that he’s done and is based on my DNA based on the things that he’s meant toe my idols, my parents, right? So when that trickles down, then it’s It’s me kind of taking advantage of these situations that I’ve had the blessing to be able to utilize. Andi, I think that, um, for myself, I’m, ah, super flawed individual. But I’m still wonderfully blessed. And that’s in spite of everything I’ve done to sabotage myself. Um, like nobody else like everybody does. But I think that it’s critical for me to feel like I am not just impacting me. But I’m trying to figure out ways to impact we and, um, you know, inherently, you know, we’re all selfish at times and I’m no different. Um, I have my selfish struggles. I’ve been selfish and Cem Cem questionable ways. But at the same time, I also feel good about the people I’ve been able thio be around and learn from and grow with, and and in part something in their lives. And so that’s kind of my extension there. So, Travis, I think that you should bring Dr King more into your life when it comes to tipping because I don’t feel like you’re holding that holding up the black people. I think I am. I think I am. I don’t think I don’t think you’re playing the paying the black tag. You know enough. I think that you got to give back, bro. I think push forward. 2020 to 25% maybe 30. Indication it s o k. Earn it. Eso, Malcolm. I’ve already I’ve already expressed my affinity for black black waiters and waitresses. Like I’ve I understand is unlike other people at this table who just hand out, you know, just just free. Here’s my money. Yeah, Free 30. Sorry. It was part of Dr King’s message. Not, you know, just economics. You know, uplifting. Fake it till you make it or stuff like you got it where I’m your your response to the question. Sure. So I think that goals, right, So, like Dr King did have goals of civil and economic rights for minorities, that was the goal. And so that is a construct is way bigger than any of us can do on an individual basis. And I think that the one thing that we all do is know that the system is flawed. And for me, a lot of it’s around voting because, like on my personal level, I’m going to do what’s right. I’m gonna treat people fair. I’m gonna be kind. I enjoy diversity, you know, like all those things they’re kind of baked in, because that’s the world that he prompted us towards. So for me, it comes down to to do the right things, means to vote the right way, the vote to vote in a way that will uplift the people that need the most help. And when you think about us being in the middle, it is through nothing that we did. It’s through what our parents did, so we didn’t do anything. We’re just there, right, And if you think about if we weren’t there, it would be in shitty schools with just a harder path. And so I vote so that people that might have a harder path might have the the money to go into a school to maybe provide a better path. And I know that sounds kind of abstract, and it’s like it’s small, but I’m like to me, it’s that’s where you that’s how you impact the broader construct of what this is because I think that that’s where we’ve been held back. So I think that it’s very interesting that you talk about voting and you talk about it being flawed, very Republican thing to save you. Uh, voting wasn’t flawed. Uh, but what definitely needs to be said from the three of us is that Dr King would be very proud of the fact that in the 50 years after he’s past that he that America has had a black president and that America has a black vice president coming into the building. And so those things would be very definite high points. And I could tell you the potential of the system if we are active and engaged in what needs to happen in America. Well, yeah. So I’m like, you think about our neighbors growing up with my neighbors today. I’m like they love black people like us, but they don’t wanna send their tax dollars to the schools. That would help create more black people like us. Mhm. Interesting. True, but it’s Yeah, it’s very interesting. Um, very, very interesting. Um, there has to be more of a commitment with tax dollars into the city. Um, it just has to be in order for us to, um, change the trajectory of the education system that we have to fight and, um, minorities having There’s been nothing that that exposed more. But the lack of resource is right now available to kids in the inner city. And if the inner city is, uh, predominantly, um, are proportionately, um black, Hispanic, etcetera. Then there’s some different. There’s some obstacles there. I mean, we’re going back to the systematic oppression and, you know, racial inequities. And I mean, you know, you look at you, look at, uh, all the schools my parents were they graduated from from southeast. Um, you know, Ruskin, uh, central. All these schools historically majority white, right? At one point in time, um, and I guarantee there was getting all the money. And then when things shifted, you know, the great migration and etcetera, etcetera, things things change. Um, you know, and so it kind of leads me to the question, you know, would Well, you brought up Obama black president. Uh, what would what would Dr King say about his presidency? Because there’s this. Whatever about Well, what did he do for that? People, Which is stupid? Because as a president, you can’t really do much for one specific independent group what you do for a country. But hold up, though, Like what you do for what you do for black people with that question is actually what did you do for people making below a certain amount of income? That’s the real question you’re asking. And if that answer is anything other than raise taxes, that’s all he could have done already. Yeah. Um, bad. No, you didn’t so bad. You did something. I think that when he he would be, I don’t think he would be. Is critical as many a Some Americans have been about the presidency, and it’s very unreasonable to think that Obama supposed to go in there and just hook up every brother like everybody gets a basketball court doctor. Dr. King would be like, Yeah, I did that. Yeah. Yeah, that was me. E. Remember Dr King would have cried at the inauguration. He would have wept tears similar to the ones that I remember on the faces of Oprah Winfrey and Jesse Jackson as they pan to them in the Chicago crowd. His tears would have been It would have been a stream, and I can. I’m pretty sure he would have also been very much so, Um, defensive. He would have been a council, though at sometimes, because there were some things I think he would have probably urged Barack to be more aggressive. And I think that Brock came into the game and was filling his way out and took too long to to strap up his boots and go see, I think I think that was a doctor King way, though I think Dr King was very aware of his his his protagonists are antagonistic and, uh, you know, he he felt his way through like he knew when to push and when not to push so hard. But I think he had a sense of urgency, and I think that he also had an actual sense of urgency, right? Like living in a time where it’s like, yeah, and that’s that’s exactly were living comfortable. That’s what a whites only bathroom You get knocked out what? Going to jail. But yeah, it’s a piggyback on your point. I think Barack got in there and It was kind of like Okay, I’m feeling my way out. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t want to screw up. Let me fill my way through this. But as a person of color, as a minority, when you’re in a position of power, time is of the essence. You Onley have so much time to prove that you belong. And to prove that you are competent before people start to make decisions about your character for you, dude. And I’m not just that. So when you talk, what did you say? That he had to prove not just those things. We also had to prove that he was American. He had to prove that he wasn’t Muslim. He had to prove that he wasn’t on Lee put there to do stuff for Black. All the crazy man. I’m not trying, toe. I am not trying to push this narrative that all white people are coming for us. But that’s not what I’m trying to say. But what I am saying is that you can look and a spectrum of different businesses and a spectrum of different environments and a spectrum of different things. And you can see that the leash is going to be short when on people who are minority in business or people who are minority and anything that’s popular opinion and anything that is popular, vote like it’s going to be. And you have to come in with a bang and make your presence felt and you have to be impactful. And then you may be able to get the credibility to add, to be able to do your job or sit back. But this is not something that is going to is foreign to just black men like this is women. This is a lot of different things. But, um, you know, we see it in America today, and a lot of different companies and a lot of different sports is probably the biggest visibility and sports. You’ll see that there’s a black head coach and I’ll take the NFL, for instance, and this black head coach will go seven and nine and not make the playoffs and lose their job. Meanwhile, go across the United States and you’ll see a black coach. You’ll see a white coach, go four and 12 and be renewed to come back another year or in college football. Whatever. Like I hate to go back, but that’s one of the more visible examples. And so Tom is of the essence. Brock didn’t feel that it took after two years to see the dramatic switches. And I think it was the house for him to be like, Oh, okay. The American people are speaking. They’re not exactly happy with how this is going in the first two years. We better do some things. Yeah, but when you think about that and another sense in that episode, but, uh, health care, right? Like they wanted toe lunch, my man over giving people access to health care, which is a huge problem in minority communities. Hey, but he won now. He did, but it came with a whole lot of heat. It came with so much heat that we got the complete antithesis of the type of person who should be president. Yeah, he didn’t change them. Who didn’t Exactly. It was still in place. Yeah, boy one. Even though the website he could have hired your boy to do the website and with, you know, maybe you’re not had so many bucks, but but, man, that was such a huge undertaking. It’s That’s huge. It is monumental, like that’s his legacy. And I’m proud of it for him, So All right, let’s Let’s bring this doctor King conversation. Local Kansas City is one of I don’t know how many cities that doesn’t have any. Okay. Boulevard Oh, man. Yeah, it was coming. Danger. And, uh, I’m proud. Midwest Fashion Man. We goofed. It brought if they don’t name rename Ward Parkway, Martin Luther King Boulevard will be the the wealthiest MLK boulevard in the nation. I think s so long story short the City Council, whatever voted to change the Paseo too. M o k boulevard. Which again every city has that and you know, y’all know when y’all see the signs. Oh, shit. I’m on him. Okay. I need to make it hard left looking for Get back. Let me get back on the highway looking for But the You know, I think when you know the the honor and the presence of having MLK Boulevard and in its city like ours, it’s pretty huge. It’s a huge step. Apparently it’s a huge monument. Monumental step for us, whether we can’t fucking Here’s the deal. So, like This is why Martin Luther King Boulevard. Dr Street doesn’t matter because those were some of the most economic, economically impoverished areas in any city. Number one, number two. How about you don’t give me an MLK boulevard and you give my people some jobs? Have that be your MLK policy that z two totally different investments. But wait, like apples in that like, Oh, no, we’re not. We’re not gonna put, you know, 17 street signs up here the same. Okay, But instead was gonna give out. But I’m not saying about jobs. I’m saying, Why don’t you look at certain people for opportunities that they might not have otherwise? That’s great, Hermann. But I still want in Okay, Boulevard on some motherfucking street signs in my city, I dio because every other city has it. And I think it’s disrespect. Not too not to identify and and, you know, just promote awareness to the fact that to this whole damn conversation, Yeah, the toughest part by this part about MLK Boulevard, I think in Kansas City was not the fact that there was MLK Boulevard. It was the fact that they took one of the most popular boulevards in all of the city and three name that you don’t take a boulevard that already has a name. That history and value. Yeah, it is a simple brand equity conversation, right? You look at I do rebranding for a fucking living. You look at a brand, you see how much brand equity doesn’t have? Is that a lot cool, Then we probably shouldn’t change it. Or if we do change it, how can we leverage that brand equity to the new brand name? So what? So what? What street would have made sense because a number of street Number Street nobody gives a fuck? No, no, just popular. No justice popular there are saying unless it’s gonna have double name like some streets do. J. J. C. Nichols Boulevard would have been a great one, right? But that would have been so damn controversial. It never would have passed or Ward Parkway. But we’re taking trying. We’re trying to change the name of the Country Club Plaza called J C. Nichols Plaza. That would have been a great change right there, and they’re saying that would’ve been a good start. I think that that’s successfully been done by my man, Chris. Good. The fountain, right? It was trying to change the name of the change, not the whole plaza. I saw it online. It must be true. I saw it like, shared it. It’s all good. No, your boy, he’s on the parks and rec board. He’s trying to change because Parks owns the boulevards and parkways. And so and and honestly, that is a great first step into what needs to happen. But yeah, we went about it wrong. I mean, there’s this whole thing, you know? We’re not political. We don’t We’re not in the interactions that the in every city, there’s certain streets that just probably shouldn’t be touched. In ST Louis, ST Louis is natural Bridge and Kings highway. You know where the white castle is? Um, in Kansas City, it’s gonna be prospect or Troost or Paseo. Like those air three Big Ward Parkway on the other side of the You gotta change word Parkway for May e. Mean, we’d have to change maybe the mall toe Martin Luther King Mall. But it also seems like negative because they’re dying. So but yeah, it is resurrected, though, is it? Yes. Yes, Yes, you bro. Get out the birds, bro. Come to the city, man. Is that still going? Yes. Great city. Anyway, anyway, uh, yes. So? So that brings it kind of localized. We we just We we goofed it like we made national news. It was very embarrassing. My boys was like, sending me links. I’m like, I don’t need you to see me. This link already on its streets. Name it. I know. We named it and then we unnamed it It’s okay. We don’t know what to do. Yeah, way a pissy city we came. But I also would like to see the economic impact of once the street is named Martin Luther King Boulevard. Like I just would like the home values or the businesses that All right, so we’re gonna name Ward Parkway, and it’s gonna be good. I’m just saying, Like, if its name that does the value things go up or down. All right. So yeah, well, let’s put that somewhere for y’all. They don’t know. World Parkway is like one of the richest roads in the city. Like, literally, you drive down and it’s just dogwood trees just hanging over. You know, if you ain’t got multiple person. You ain’t got shit, right? So for that to be named MLK Oh, my God. Herm, I I would give my kidney. I would get one of my kidneys for that. So that would be dope. Do you think? Do you think it would be the next white exodus? I’m not standing. Goddamn. Do you think there $3 million mansions going sale E try to get that Because, because you know them that manages were probably owned by black people. Funny, because a lot of those houses actually underneath have underground railroad. Uh, there was a kid. I went to school with the head like a rockers. Not only some of North. No, this is it. Science. So this is even younger, but also and yeah, exactly. But anyway, they had, like, a door and the thing that was like a part of the underground railroad or whatever. I’m like, That’s underground or the exhibition or they just had slave quarters. I don’t know or there was hiding liquor, but yeah, but that that would be that would be hilarious. That’s like a It could be a short there could be a movie. They research. I’ll come back and be dope. I got time for that, I bet. Alright. Any closing words about Okay, the holidays coming up? Well, we There’s one thing we haven’t touched. There’s a lot of things going on that Martin Luther King did not die for. Okay, There’s a lot of things that we do that Martin Luther King did not like pass away for Twerking. I don’t do that. Maybe. Yeah, but you got a 12 year old daughter man on the cusp. Now, Tim, don’t get smacked, E bro. I walked into my daughter’s classroom and she’s like, Hey, look at this. I’m looking at her at her and I’m looking at her teacher. I’m looking at her. I’m like e o e learning how to Twerk. She wasn’t doing the busting challenge, E I bet if I look at her teachers instagram e don’t Yeah, I mean that I think about it. I need to follow her teachers on social media. This is what kind of influences they’re given going to go through the fashion, the fashion of that era. That’s what we go through on my Luther King Day with my daughter like look at how covered everybody would look at how long that dress could be. And you still look like a prince like a lady. There you go. You’re a princess, Princess. Jasmine just is covered up from head. I know you and your friends watch Goddamn Ticktock videos. But not today. Not today. Sometimes I listen to music, and I’m like, Man Martin Luther King denied. Oh, my God. Yeah, That’s a whole other people, you know. So you got Oh, man, um, mumble rap working, working. I mean, I’m not once again like I know he didn’t die for it, but I’m not telling the culture to stop. Uh, I’m saying e like a lot of things he didn’t die for, but you don’t know. Hey. Hey. We don’t need to get into his personal life. We don’t. But he was still He was still a young black man at the end of the okay. He was working for civil and economic. Can’t imagine. I can’t imagine him telling credit the bus it, but But I’m just gonna stop. There are their EC. Is there an economic advantage to dancing a certain way? Like what I’m saying? If he’s about economic rights and you know things that we might not be Whatever. But when you see a music video and you’re like, Oh, that person is doing things that he might not agree with However, no bto hey, did not hey did not die for Magic City or tip drill King of Diamonds video on Bt late night or he did not die for black villain Oh, does go down in history next to em. Okay, but oh, man, the road this’ll episode took a turn, not die for what that thing smell like. Oh, man, Oh, man, where is the not record? But no way it is. It’s just interesting, you know, as we sit here 53 years after he’s passed almost. Um, it is very interesting to sit back and just think about you know, where we are today and where we still need to go. Um, but I think overall there’s a lot of blessings out there, and we owe that man a great deal. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. And I think it czar duty to doom or to be more diligent and to, you know, push his legacy. You know, I’m gonna I’m gonna say it again. I’m reading one of his his last books. Where do we go from here? And it’s just what paid you on. Oh, you know that. You know, I’m inaudible, Subscriber. Oh, my bad dammit! You reading my listening. But e thought this was a safe space e. But But no, no real talk guys like we have we have to think about. We have to be conscious. We have to be more conscious about how do we how do we extend his legacy? Because it’s getting lost. Like if you look at all this shit, the bullshit that’s going on on social media like it’s getting lost, There’s a lot of there’s a lot of crap going on out there that Z claiming the black name or that black African American man or the black woman like it is a lot of noise. It’s a lot of bullshit, and we do have to do our job, um, to declare, if I what we are about as a people, what we strive to achieve as faras equity and equality and inclusion in this in this country, Um and we just have to be more conscious about it. But the the fellas around this table I could say that I’m very proud about what you guys, what we have accomplished and what who we are as people and the people that have raised us. You know, they did a good job, man. Yeah. Thank you. Man. I really appreciate that. I think that we have Ah, one thing about 1968 versus 2000 and 21 is that our voice was centralized. There were very few vessels for us. And now in 2021 everybody’s a vessel. And it’s just up to us to understand those principle of yesteryear, understand the struggle, understand the journey, and put things in the atmosphere that progresses forward and connect to the future that we need to create for for those after us, absolutely three generations. That’s my message for this week. Let’s get it.