Episode 81 - All Eyes On D.C.

Summary

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Grits and Eggs Podcast - Episode 81: "All Eyes On D.C."

Host: Deante’ Kyle
Date: August 19, 2025

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Overview

Episode 81 of the Grits and Eggs Podcast turns a laser focus on the escalating police and federal crackdown in Washington D.C., unraveling the lived experience of marginalized communities under new vagrancy laws and an intensifying police state. Host Deante’ Kyle, joined by his co-host and various guests, dives deep into the intersection of policy, policing, systemic racism, youth criminalization, and grassroots resistance through firsthand testimonies from people on the ground in D.C.

The episode’s tone is raw, urgent, and unfiltered, blending humor and insight as Deante’ balances his signature "Dirty South" perspective with real-time reporting and guest expertise. He forgoes speculation from afar, opting instead to dial up organizers and residents who relay what's really happening on D.C.'s streets.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Recent Developments in D.C. (Martial Law, National Guard, Police Presence)

• Timestamps: [21:14], [31:22], [32:33], [51:53], [75:03]
• Trump administration enacts "vagrancy laws" reminiscent of the late 1800s—deploying the National Guard and federal agents in D.C. despite record-low crime rates in Black-majority cities.
• Heavy-handed police and federal presence is felt primarily in Black and immigrant/Latino neighborhoods.
• Aggressive removal of homeless encampments, with personal belongings bulldozed and thrown out.
• Transitional police/federal authorities are shipped in from outside D.C., lacking familiarity with local Black communities and increasing profiling.

Quote:

“Trump is basically enacting vagrancy laws like it’s 1890...with evidence that crime statistically is plummeting...especially in these major Black cities...the prison industrial complex is suffering. And as crime plummets nationally, they’re going to criminalize Black skin.”
— Deante’ Kyle [21:14]

2. Community Voices: Live Calls from D.C.

• Timestamps: [31:22] – [50:26], [50:51] – [73:47], [74:20] – [89:43], [89:54] – [124:54]
• Nina Rivera, longtime D.C. activist, details the surge of law enforcement in “militarized gear” and intimidation tactics, especially among agencies like CSOSA not normally engaged in such capacity.
• Stress on how “stoop culture” and Black communal practices are now criminalized under the guise of public safety.
• Afeni (Facts and Fire), organizer recently brutalized and arrested by Metro Transit police, describes excessive force, cop-watching, and the growing criminalization of youth for minor infractions like fare evasion.
• Both guests highlight solidarity across D.C.’s Black and immigrant residents and the necessity of organizing against militarized state repression.
• Neighborhood Alki (Block) and Imani B., residents and local activists, reinforce that preexisting conditions, lack of resources for youth, and government neglect primed D.C. for such federal intervention.

Quote:

“I've seen the DEA stroll through the nearest park...15 of them...it’s very show timing because they're just there to be intimidating and then dip. They're not called, there's nothing really to look for.”
— Nina Rivera [38:00]

Quote:

“Cop watching is not usually something you get arrested for...But because of the over-militarization of the police force...this situation escalated a lot quicker...I called them a couple bitches and hoes because they are bitches and hoes...it’s your First Amendment right!”
— Afeni [53:41]

Quote:

“They're going down the tents, taking them down, bulldozing, dump[ing] people's belongings...friends, educators, showing videos of their students in the neighborhoods, getting harassed...”
— Neighborhood Alki (Block) [75:03]

3. Roots and Impact of Policing and Surveillance

• Timestamps: [21:14], [99:01], [101:08]
• Crime drops due to increased youth resources, not increased policing.
• Surveillance state creates an illusion of more crime due to viral social media videos, when in reality, violence and crime are at historic lows.
• State and federal agencies rely on dehumanizing narratives about Black and Brown communities to justify increased militarization.

Quote:

“The reason why there are pages dedicated to showing Black people committing crimes...is to reinforce the negative stereotype about us being inherently violent. But the numbers say different.”
— Deante’ Kyle [22:47]

4. Prison Industrial Complex & Fascist Policy Agenda

• Timestamps: [21:14], [46:17], [61:55], [63:46]
• The motive behind ramped-up law enforcement is seen as a twofold attack: keep private prisons full and serve as a distraction from political scandals.
• Out-of-work Black women (the most educated group by race/gender) face systemic job discrimination as AI ramps up, painting a bleak future under Project 2025 and Heritage Foundation influence.

Quote:

“The Heritage Foundation is at the helm of Project 2025...the roots are in the KKK...what we’re witnessing is the Confederacy rising again.”
— Nina Rivera [46:17]

Quote:

“They’re trying to make an example out of every single one of these kids that they take a picture of and put on the Internet...crime is lower than it has been in 30 years in D.C.”
— Afeni [59:55]

5. Targeting Black Youth, Immigrants, and The Poor

• Timestamps: [40:41], [42:36], [75:03], [94:44], [103:49]
• Crackdown on fare evasion and curfews targets children who rely on public transit for school, with transit police using excessive violence against Black youth.
• Immigrant workers, especially delivery riders, are profiled, detained, and harassed.
• Homeless individuals are robbed of property and dignity in sweeps.

Quote:

“Our kids don’t have a school bus system...they ride Metro buses and Metro trains...If ICE comes to the school, we got parents pulling up. This is real.”
— Imani B. [94:44]

Quote:

“Vagrancy laws...just being outside makes you subject to being guilty of something...Criminalization of Black people has always been prevalent.”
— Deante’ Kyle [101:08]

6. Grassroots Resistance and Survival Advice

• Timestamps: [44:02], [68:03], [70:34], [116:12], [123:39]
• Organizers stress the importance of direct action, real-life engagement, knowing your rights, and building mutual aid.
• Digital activism is not enough; door-to-door, real-world connections are vital.
• Stockpiling essentials, learning basic survival and medical skills recommended given the escalation.
• Emphasis on Pan-African solidarity, cross-racial organizing, and breaking away from binary politics.

Quote:

“Find out how you’re going to get outside and get on those doors. Because a lot of people don’t do not understand what is coming...Digital is NOT enough.”
— Afeni [70:34]

Quote:

“The time to start doing those things is now. We’re gonna have to protect ourselves and each other collectively and put all these differences to the side.”
— Deante’ Kyle [127:20]

7. Intersectional Politics, Black Radical Tradition, and Intra-Community Critique

• Timestamps: [109:03], [110:17], [116:26], [119:48]
• Guests and host sharply critique both Democrats and Republicans, and stress the need to organize beyond the ballot box.
• Internal debates on “respectability politics," calling out horizontal violence, and the dangers of divisive online rhetoric.
• Alliances with other marginalized communities are necessary, but must not ignore foundational anti-Black oppression.

Quote:

“These people have got you splitting ties with your family members, but they’re all sitting at the same table together at Jeff Bezos’ wedding!”
— Deante’ Kyle [117:40]

Quote:

“If you fuck with what Black people got going on...you gonna free your folks, too. There’s no way around it.”
— Imani B. [118:00]

8. Practical Advice: Survival, Organizing, and Self-Care

• Prioritize real-world action in the community.
• Protect yourself, remain vigilant, speak to your neighbors, and support grassroots organizations.
• For personal struggles, recognize when to focus on self-healing versus trying to save others.
• Ongoing calls to avoid gambling apps/vice—especially those aggressively marketed to vulnerable Black communities. Support mental health, seek help for addiction, and avoid predatory platforms.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “If you are a police officer, if you are a part of the National Guard, if you are an ICE agent, you are a fucking Nazi. Period, point blank.”
  — Deante’ Kyle [27:58]

• “They just want everything to be quiet and unseen…the only people that want everything to be quiet and unseen are liars and people doing dirty shit when can’t nobody see it.”
  — Deante’ Kyle [36:07]

• "Anybody can do this work. We should all start seeing ourselves as organizers in training."
  — Afeni [68:07]

• “Wherever you find poverty, you find crime. And if we don’t start tackling from the top with the people hoarding the resources, we’re always going to continue to point the finger at each other.”
  — Imani B. [97:44]

• "Our ancestors have been through things like this during Jim Crow...all those things that make us different won’t matter when you go outside...they’re gonna see your skin and that’s gonna be the verdict."
  — Deante’ Kyle [127:20]

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Memorable Moments

• Deante’s extended monologues on the historical context linking the War on Drugs, mass incarceration, and today’s policing ([21:14], [22:47]).
• Live call-in from Afeni, moments after a high-profile arrest; her fiery retelling mixes humor (“I called them a couple bitches and hoes...it’s your First Amendment right!” [55:13]) with chilling details of police brutality.
• The ongoing inside jokes and rapport—e.g., repeated warnings not to “lick the boot” or “take the gambling app bag,” and recurring “Kumbay coffee shop” bits for comic relief.
• Raw expressions of intra-Black Diaspora tensions, contrasted with calls for Pan-African unity.
• Real-time practical organizing advice—stock up on staples, know your rights, direct action over digital posturing, and connect with neighbors.

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Action Items & Calls to Action

• DC residents: Stay safe, know your rights, talk to your neighbors, look out for each other, and connect with local grassroots organizations mentioned by Afeni and others.
• All listeners:
  • Be skeptical of crime narrative hype—look at the data, not the dog whistles.
  • Resist divides along political, ethnic, or class lines—build solidarity and coalition.
  • Delete gambling apps, seek help for addiction, prioritize self-care, and avoid predatory platforms.
  • Grassroots donations and support: Consider Patreon and other forms of mutual aid.

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Final Takeaway

Episode 81 is a vital, honest chronicle of how quickly familiar American patterns—militarized policing, racialized law enforcement, and capitalism’s desire for bodies and order—return to the surface in moments of crisis. Most importantly, the episode is a call for community, resilience, and grounding in both history and present-day struggle.

“You fighting a losing game with these [feds]...the only way we’re gonna be able to enact any change or protect ourselves is if we protect each other collectively and put all this bullshit to the side.”
— Deante’ Kyle [127:20]

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[For more perspectives on D.C., organizing contacts, and to support the podcast community, see links and resources referenced throughout the episode.]

Transcript

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah Woke up in the morning and to God be the glory Thankful for another day to tell my story Put my opinions in the universe and let them orbit I'm from the dirty south with a dirty mouth my knee orbit miss things things on me like a Norbit had to refuse them cause my bitch no rest fusion she gorgeous as I dab my sons up and kiss my daughter forehead Tell them we gonna get this money to my pockets Mor remember living in apartments now we playing mortgage you ain't gotta like a regardless baby I'm blessed and I keep that blick with me we like grits and eggs as you sip your coffee Flick your cigarette and let a vent yeah, we back. Oh, we back. Chris and eggs podcast, episode 81. I'm your host, Deontay Cobba, who's behind the camera, the coolest co host in the world. Big ice cub cat. Yes, sir. Ski now. This says 81. All right? The episode with Mecca and Jamila unhinged in tomorrow is going to drop Saturday. It's gonna. I'm gonna say 81, but it was supposed to be 81. But of course, we had the illustrious Chance the Rapper. Ow. You know what I'm saying? Amazing podcast with Chance the Rapper. The best podcast he's ever done. So admittedly, that's what he said out of his mouth. He said it several times. His favorite podcast, the best podcast he's ever done. First time he sat down with an actual journalist. That's what he said. Starlining streaming now, but go on chancestuff.com and buy that CD. You know, you could tap it and it'll download the digital version right to your phone. So if you haven't seen the interview, you know, y' all the Wednesday folks, y' all the. Y', all. Y' all the. Y' all, the real grits and eggers, you know what I'm saying? These are these the real. These the real cousins for real on the Wednesday show, you know what I'm saying? So go check out that Chance to Rapper interview. Let's run those numbers up because it was an excellent interview. I was really in my journalistic bag. I was really feeling it, you know what I'm saying? I was feeling like you. I mean, like Stuart Scott. No, you. You did a great job. Amazing. Thank you. Amazing job. Thank you, thank you. All right, all right. Business as usual. Yellow Percocet, white Percocet look like grits and eggs. Come on, dog. Hey. Hey, man, Look, I'mma tell you, even if he wasn't talking about Us. He was talking about us. There's no way he wasn't talking about us. Come on, man.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

There's.

[Deontay Kyle]

There's no way in the studio probably, like. It's probably watching Grits and Eggs. They probably had it on in the studio. Now. Let's keep it a bean. That's a. That's a real possibility. Shout out to Wheezy man. You know what I'm saying? The goat. Yes, Sir. Yeah, deontay kyle.com. get you some merch. You see that thermos? Keeps the hot or cold. We. What you got in there? Coffee black.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

You got to know.

[Deontay Kyle]

Come on, man, who you talking to? Yeah, if I'm sipping on some coffee, it's coffee black. It's coffee black. It came from Ethiopia. The motherland. Yeah, son. Mother of civilization. Cradle of civilization. Don't drop that shit. Don't drop that shit again. Pray to God you don't drop that. 657-2348. That's 657-234-3447. For your voicemails. We got some voicemails today. Deontayeontaycow.com for all the music submissions and for the advice submission. We got some advice today. Oh, is it Missy? I don't know. I know what. It ain't traumatic. Please not. Jesus Christ. I issued an apology in the last video. Okay, that's real. Okay, I can see the point where we took it too far. No, it went on for the. It went on too long. It just went on too long when we first said, like, all right, let's get up out here. We should have got up out here. Yeah, yeah. It went on too long. And that'll get to the point where it get past humor and then it start triggering people who have that experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, the apology still stands. You know what I'm saying? But it wasn't personal. Hey, I said this plenty of times before. I grew up in a household where I witnessed this shit. So sometimes the only way I know how to deal with shit is to laugh. Okay? Whether you agree with that being the position I take or not, that. That ain't here or there, I am who I am, okay? I'm not a licensed therapist. I'm just another human being. So if you want to. If you want to remove the entire context of how we reacted to the actual video, telling Shorty to leave alone before he kill her. Telling Shorty to tell her something, the truth. If you want to remove that context and make it about the latter, that's fine. If You. If you. If you. If you unsubscribed and you don't want to listen to the Grist and Ass podcast no more. Godspeed. We wish you the best. Hopefully you'll spin back once you realize we are people. But the apology still stands. I do apologize if you was triggered, but we're going to start screaming. I try not to screen this stuff so we can have like a natural reaction to it. Yeah. But I'm going to have to start screening and making sure it's not something that could be triggering to the audience and like that. Or triggering to myself, to be honest. So. Deontayantayky.com for all music submissions and advice submissions. Also any inquiries, any bookings, we're going to do [e-mail] I don't really check the grits and eggs pod email no more because we done phase that one out. But every now and then I do just know if you send it there, it's going to get lost. If you sending messages to Suki through the website, it's gonna get lost. Just [e-mail] BIA the voting is still open. Oh, but more importantly, because that. That was taking place in. In Atlanta. You know what else is taking place in Atlanta? What else, son? An election. Ah. District 11. Stephen Dinkle. Oh, man. Oh, my boy Steve. Yeah. Vote Stephen dingle, Atlanta, District 11. If you don't live in District 11, buy a house in District 11. Rent an apartment. Rent an apartment. Buy a storefront, set up a tent, get a storage unit so you can use it as your zip code. And you can vote for Stephen Dingle. Steven Dingle, man of the people. One of them ones. All right. How we feeling today, big cat? I feel good. You said something about Sookie. Stop asking Sookie to get you on the podcast. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. Listen, you can DM me. It's not gonna happen. You can know my mama rest in peace. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. I'm gonna tell you what it is. You cannot pay to be on here. Okay? Nobody you've seen on this podcast has paid to be here. Nine times out of ten, when you see me on other people's podcasts, they ain't pay to get me on there. We doing. It's a conversation. The exchange value is the exchange. I think the thing is, is like, this is how people do away with the integrity of their show. Just allowing people to pay to play. If I don't genuinely vibe with you, if I don't listen to your music, if I'm not familiar with who you are as a person, regardless of what your talent might be, you're not gonna be on here. Cause we ain't got nothing to talk about. Perfect example. Great, great episode with Kevin on stage. I'm familiar with Kevin. Yeah. I've been watching him since all death. We've exchanged information, we've chatted. You know, we've gotten a feeling and understanding, get to know each other. Right? And also, too, it doesn't have to be said, but I will say it just to show y' all what kind of man Bruh is. We had. You remember we had this purple spec on our shit, right? Kev seen that. We had the dead pixel on there. And he asked me, he was like, bro, you don't got no more cameras. I was like, we got two. He was like. I was like, but I'm finna get another one. He was like, how much that junk cost? I was like, it's like around a thousand. All I see is the Apple pay shit. Start dialing up Iraq. Hey, that's how we got a new camera. So thank Kevin on stage, bro. Thank Kevin on stage. Shout out to Kev on stage. Shout out to Churchy. Season two out now. Yes. Let's watch Churchy season two. Yes. Get it Renews for season three. So me and Big Cat can make a cameo. Exactly. The original man on Churchy. Original man in Churchy. Deontay and Charti as a reformed street nigga that teaches Bible study. Now you pastor. All I do is tell y' all about the streets. The original man on the corner. Yeah, yeah. Just screaming, yeah. The original man that put down the Hebrew Israelite. He full Christian, but he still yells at people. Still yelling at folks. He can't get it out of his system. But that just go to show, like, perfect example. Big fan of Absol, for sure. Been listening to Absolute since long term, too. That's why the interview is good. I'm familiar with his music. I know who he is. You know what I'm saying? We built a rapport with one another over the weeks leading up. Same thing. Chance the Rapper built a rapport. I'm not. All of these guests are people that are fans of the show. Like, I'm fans of them. That's the only way to me, it works. Yeah. And I think just doing it as like, oh, this person want to come on. It's been plenty of people wanting to come on here. And it's not going to happen because what am I doing that for? Yeah, it's not organic. Yeah, man. This is. We not. We not. We're not going to, like. We're not going to like, water down the integrity of the show just for names. It's not going to happen. You know what I'm saying? So Kendrick next episode. Nah, Speaking into existence. Speaking into existence next episode. Kendrick. Yeah, Yeah. I wanna. I would do an episode with Lil Wayne, but none of the reference points I'm gonna have. He gonna remember, so it's like he's not gonna remember nothing. He don't know nothing. You know what I'm saying? He don't even remember the gris and eggs bar at this point. He doesn't. That song ain't even been out long. Too many Percocets. Starline is an amazing album, for sure. I've been watching a lot of people rate it and they have these rating systems and they'll call certain songs Perfect. Certain songs A1, certain songs just good. Certain songs mid. When I go and see your rating and I see colored people problem, and no more Old men is not rated perfect. I know you're not black and therefore your rating is invalid. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Yeah. How'd you not rate those two? Because they're not black. It's perfect. They not black. They don't. So the cultural nuances, the More old men don't. Talking about the whole perspective of like, being in a black barbershop, that's something that you had to experience growing up. Yeah. You had to. Like you said, I learned how to. I learned how to fight and shoot the dozens in there. Yeah. Little man getting his. Little man getting his first cut. Quit all that fussing. Like this stuff you got to experience as a child. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, I, I, I honestly, we've said it a hundred times. We'll say it 100. Say it again. I don't want to hear white people's opinion on hip hop. Unless, of course, it's your boy. Yeah. Narwhal dude, Duluth. I do that just because I know it's gonna crack you up. So unless you've been living under a rock or you have a healthy relationship with your cell phone. Black people have met our cousins in Scotland. Hey. Yeah. Have you seen. Been seeing it. I've seen it. Yeah. Let's just say this. The Scottish are the most, like, closely related to us in the way that they carry themselves. They Got drip. For real. They stylish as fuck. They got rhythm. They got rhythm. There's a lot of rhythm, you know, for you to be able to rib dance, if you can river dance. Nah, pulling the kilt out, though. Like, making a kilt look good. That takes swag. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? But I think that there's, like, a misconception of, like. Oh, we discovered that, bro. Listen, we not ignorant, okay? Nobody. Nobody is more aware of black people than the black America. Yeah. We know this area well. Yeah, yeah. Come on. We watch it in colors. I'm telling you. Everywhere. Circumnavigated the planet. Yeah, we know. We know is everywhere. We waiting to see our black Irish cousins. I say that. To say this, though, like, the misconception. It's just that we. We don't normally see anything outside of ourselves on our for you page. Yeah. So for us to see y'. All. Hey, I got some heat out there. I gonna lie. They got some heat out, though. You know what I'm saying? Scottish. I might have to go to Scotland. You know what I'm saying? Passport ready, baby. Man, y' all know I ain't gonna hold. You know, I'm 30, 40. 40% Scottish. It's just a natural fact that you are. I don't know. But you can't trust Ancestry.com? nah, you gotta go to, like, a real. Yeah, they gotta draw blood. I'm just gonna go to Scotland, just see how I vibe, see how I feel. To Glasgow. But, yeah, so we meeting our Scottish cousins, and it's solidarity. The rapport between us and the Scots is love. Yeah. The black Scots and the black Americans is getting along. And who come hating the black British? The fucking Brits. The British are coming anytime. Listen, man, if you at peace right now and you getting along with your friends, the British are coming, nigga. Hey, man, that hating shit must be in they blood. Red coat motherfucker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They hate being eating a lot of beans. They put beans on toast. It's crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The. The smoke with the black bricks is forever with me, cuz. Yeah. Cause y' all don't be getting. Y' all don't got y' all mind right, bruh? You see how the black Scottish. They understand I'm black, but I'm in Scotland. Yeah. You dig? I know why. I know. I'm generations removed. We get that. Yeah. You see how they never said I'm. Oh, you're American. Yeah. You don't know. You don't know where you're from. Yeah. Nobody never said that. Nah. You don't know where you're from. They didn't bring up geography because they surreal. They know what's up, you know what I'm saying? They smart. They. They. They are smart. Yeah. Very demure. Yeah. They never say, oh, American. Yep. Yeah. What are your ancestors from? I know where I'm from. They never did that. That's a good little Scottish accent. Low key. We know where you from. Yes. I think, I think, I think, I think. I think I just legitimized myself as Scottish. Yes. I went outside today. I had on full kilt. What? Air Force One. Kill F was one. Yeah. Good socks. Real nigga. I felt like a real nigga. Kill F was one. It's crazy. I wonder what they. What they nigga is out there. They so hip to us, though. It might just be, nigga. It might just be them. Shout out to my Scottish cousin, man. We with y', all, man. Shout out to the. To the Irish cousins, too, man. Just the black ones. That's all I'm saying. Just the black ones. Nah, the white Irish be cool, too. White Irish be all right. White Irish be cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Know what I'm saying? Them boys be potatoed up. Potatoed up is crazy work to be potatoes.

[Nina Rivera]

Oh.

[Deontay Kyle]

Now that's funny as hell. I ain't gonna lie, man. My. My. One of my Karen F. Had went to Ireland. He was like shouting. He was like, bro, they got like six foot black women with red hair out there. Full iris. He was like the coldest bitches you ever seen in your life. He from Atlanta. He likes some of the coldest bitches I ever seen in my life. Six foot, red hair. Six foot red headed black Irish woman. Yeah. I think they'd be like that in Scotland too, though. Cause we seen the Scottish gingers. Yeah. And you know what I'm saying, that'd be natural ginger hair. Yeah. The black American know about that? My cousin got natural ginger. Yeah. I think that. I think that's a real thing. The British gotta stop being haters, bro. Like, is that a part of y' all program? Like, is that a part of the programming? They ain't got no flavors, huh? Yeah. They just be hating. I ain't gonna lie. Them niggas is malnourished. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They got no flavors. Yes. That's all it is. Chips. Yeah, yeah. Fish and chips. Yeah. They drink hot beer. It's crazy. They do. Yes. What you mean it's like warm. It'll be cold. Like, how you know, if you get a cold mug, it should be warm. Yeah, The Irish wouldn't go for that. No, no, no. They want that cold. The cold. Yeah. Cold pint. Yeah. They put that outside in the snow. Yeah, straight up. The American, the Irish and the Scotch. We ain't going for that one. You need to step your game up and stop hating, man. And I think because it's like Nova Scotia and you know, Nova Scotia, black people, hockey invented, first of all, the Scotians. Yeah. It's some real, man, you know what I'm saying? They American. Yeah, yeah. They ran away. Yeah. They were Harriet. That's Harriet lineage, you know what I'm saying? Do the knowledge. Do the knowledge on Nova Scotians. Black people invented hockey. Yeah. You ain't seen a. In hockey since. I mean. Yeah, yeah, you have. We have. You know, just cement. You know what I'm saying? I know, I know. I'm. I'm. I'm going. Keep it real. Before we start diving into some of these more serious events. Patreon giveaway. One of the cousins donated $1,000 to the Patreon Woo. That had. Will pay for the subscription for 125 new Patreon users for one month. So when this airs on the 20th, so Wednesday, the 20th, if you subscribe that day, I'm pretty sure those slots will fill up pretty fast. I'm pretty. I'm gonna post a link. There's 125 slots. Once you get your slot, you're good. If you are on the Patreon and you figuring. Trying to figure out how to get into the. To the Discord, you have to do it from the computer. So you can go to the. On when you go on the computer, go to Patreon, go to the My benefits tab and it'll have the link to the Discord server. Also after that month, we will hope that you will stick around because it ain't nothing but $8. $8. We let you in the club for free. Buy a drink. Yeah, we let you in the club for free, buy a drink. Also, new music Monday. Bless music club. We'll discuss it on Monday. All right, so I was gonna get into something else. Hold on one second. But yeah, so the Patreon giveaway will be. The link will be active. It is in the description. Okay. We gotta go to Norfolk soon. We do. Virginia. Why are we going to Norfolk? Hey, let them know that Atlantic Comic Con, one of six black comic cons in the entire country But I ain't got to tell you that here. I'll just tell you it here. Mama. Papa. All right, man. Where we at, man?

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Hold on.

[Deontay Kyle]

How we do this? This lagging br. It's pissed me off. We back. Yeah.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Huh?

[Deontay Kyle]

What rhymes will we back YouTube play. Hey, drop bars on them, baby. You know I had the bar. Yeah.

[Imani B]

You know?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. Bomb. If you work for YouTube right now, huh? Go in the office, send me a gold plaque for no reason. Your plaque is my plaque. All right, man, let's get serious, man. There's a lot of serious stuff going on in the world right now, basically. So Trump is basically enacting vagrancy laws like it's in 1890. It's reconstruction. With evidence that crime statistically is plummeting all across the country, especially in these major black cities, crime is down. Cities like Baltimore, cities like Chicago, cities like Birmingham, crime is down now. Multitude of reasons, right? For me and my personal opinion, specifically in Baltimore, he focused on creating resources for children to have shit to do besides staying outside all day. Resource centers and resources just for the children, like activities, things that they can do, places they can be also, too. You have to realize that all of the talking points about crime statistics in the black community to make black people, to criminalize black people come directly from the war on Drugs. Well, I'm gonna tell you something that moved me. I was moved. It could have been weed, or it could have just been the energy in the room. We went to the Clips concert. We was at Eclipse concert. The things that was appearing on the screen, the. This is. We're gonna circle Back to the 40 years, bro. We gotta always remind ourselves we are living in the remnants of the war on drugs. Mentally. When you go outside and you see your elders out there and they homeless and they strung out on drugs, or they. They don't, you know, they struggling with mental health issues. You got to understand that this is a remnant. It's the. It's the things that they left over and left behind. The things that we step over every day, they just left it behind. But these people are victims of the war on drugs. And then you think about it, like, why? I got to get some money. I got to get some money. I got to get some money, right? Why does that look totally different? And depending on what community you in, when you live in a suburban community, you know you got to make money. There's no. There's no thought for them to sell crack. Correct. It's because it's not being flooded through their neighborhood, and it's because resources aren't constantly, weren't constantly being pulled out of their neighborhood. They set the game up so that they would be at the point of so much desperation that they would sell that for money. And when they realized what kind of market it was and how much money there was to be made, there's no turning back. It's a cat and mouse game. The same time you flooded my neighborhood with drugs, you flooded it with police. Who would want to live like that? The answer is nobody. But they set the game up the right way. And now that crimes are, the crime is plummeting across the country. The crime statistics, especially in the sense of like we're also living in a surveillance state. So the streets is dead, you know what I'm saying? 1985, police gotta come by and really do surveillance. There ain't a camera on every corner. There ain't a cell phone in everybody hand. The streets is dead. This is reason why you can get on Twitter and see so much crime. Because cell phones. So now you think that crime is happening a lot more than it, than it, than it, than it is. Because if we had cell phones in 85, if we had cell phones in 95 from 1985 to 1995, you would think that we actively lived in a war zone. And in some cases people did. Like in a real way, whatever a microcosm of war is, they war in between blocks over this fucking $5 rock. You did what I'm saying. So crime is down. I think the reason why there are pages dedicated to showing black people committing crimes, black people fighting, black people engaging in shootouts, is to reinforce the negative stereotype about us inherently being violent. But the numbers say different. I don't want to hear that 13 commit 13% of the kind permit. That shit has been debunked several times. If that's your talking point, you just racist. Are you self hating a white person say, well 13 of the population commit this much, you're racist. If a Black person say 13, we're 13%. You just hate yourself. Go lick a boot somewhere else. This ain't the place for bootlicking. But this is the first dot that I connected. Why deploy the National Guard? Why enact martial law and deploy an arm of fascism in a city that's been relatively safe compared we had a 30 year low in crime. It's because the prison industrial complex is suffering. And as crime, as crime plummets nationally, they're going to criminalize black skin. This is what this attack is on. We know Ice we know ICE is an attack on brown people. You know, we. We notice an attack on all people of color, but especially brown people who have assumed the face of the immigrant, the alien. We know he's talking about Hispanic people when he says that. When he talks about reining in crime, he's talking about black people. We know that this country have done has strategically made crime synonymous with black. If you're a maga, you're a coward. You're a coward. You're a pussy. You're submissive. You're a submissive man. You know what I'm saying? You like that power. You like Trump is your daddy. Because not only is it a tool of distraction, the more people start talking about him being in the Epstein files. And it's been confirmed that he's in the Epstein files telling the stuff we already know. Now he wants to deploy and distract and telling the police they can do whatever they want. Well, police, nine out of ten, pussy power hungry, God complex. And know that it's noted it's fair game to brutalize black people. They know it's fair game. I know, I know, but it's just. This is. The prison industrial complex has to be suffering. So this is a twofer, you know what I'm saying? It distracts them from him, which we not distracted by my. We know that you on them list. We know that your cronies is on them lists. But the more it all seems to be happening all at the same time. Correct? This is Project 2025. 300,000 black women out of jobs. The most educated by race and gender in the country. The most qualified for the jobs are out of jobs. AI being used as a tool of racism to dismiss or disqualify black applicants. Okay? So as our unemployment rate goes up now, but the crime rates are going down, the prison industrial complex is suffering. It's not probably not as much people being. Being sent off the prison. People are finding different ways because the streets are dead. It's a surveillance state. We live in a surveillance state. Everything you do is seen and recorded by somebody. So if you are a police officer, if you are a part of NASA guard, if you are an ICE agent, you are a fucking Nazi. Period, point blank. The notion of us being civilians, civilians, you know, that's how they refer to us people in the military. Civilians. The notion of us being civilians keeps the soldier out of revolution. Keeps the soldier from resisting outside of that contract, that contractual obligation they have to Uncle Sam you. What can you do for your country? You can resist, you can Say, no, you can't tell me. You can't tell me that you here to protect the rights of the citizens. Right. That's why you enlisted. You wanted to protect the rights of Americans. And then turn around and pull. Turn the gun on Americans. I'm gonna do something different. Instead of me giving my spiel, that's my spiel on it. Right. I'm not in D.C. so I want to call people. There's actually boots on the ground. I'm. I want to make some phone calls to people. I'm gonna call some people that's actually out there. We're gonna cut out some of this audio. Yo, yo, yo, yo. What's happening? What's happening?

[Nina Rivera]

Hey, hey.

[Deontay Kyle]

All right, so we are live on the show, so introduce yourself, let the people know who you are, where you from, and what you do.

[Nina Rivera]

Hey. So I go by Nina Rivera. I live in D.C. i'm an east coast baby. I've lived in Baltimore, New York, Florida, but I've resided in D.C. for, like, a decade at this point. Yeah. So I do community work with, like, gardening and food autonomy. Big on that at this chapter of my activism. But I have a long history of being involved with activism. Per Dream Defenders in Florida, like, when George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, like, that was a huge call to action for my community in Tallahassee at the time. I was present at the formation of Dream Defenders and have a long history of, you know, being associated with them, being in proximity to them. But, yeah, we here in D.C. now.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. The point. The reason why I wanted to call you is because I can speculate on what my opinion is from it being on the outside looking in, but I won't know what that looked like from actually living there. So this has been going on for the better part of a week now. Yeah.

[Nina Rivera]

So if today is Sunday, it's been happening since. Yeah, about a week and two days. There has been an increase in police and all kinds of uniforms. Police, federalized agents that are donning, like, bulletproof vests. You know what I'm saying? Complete militarized gear. Even for agencies that, like, I've never seen before. Boarding militarized gear. There was a day last week where there were multiple cars staked out of a neighbor's house on the street. I live. And I referred to them as secret police because they had a. Like a. They had a acronym on their chest that I'd never seen before. And I saw them again, and I got to Google it, and it was the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency. Which basically delivered paperwork, but they were completely dawning, like, military fatigue. Like, completely dawning, like, dressed to the nines and, like, bulletproof vests, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's. It's been excessive.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. So he's basically giving, like, any government official, like, they could just act however the they want. They could, like, because that wouldn't even make sense for them to have tactical gear unless they are aware that they're in a war zone type.

[Nina Rivera]

Exactly. Yeah. And that's the part that's been. It feels like is, you know, very specifically, like, a tool of intimidation for our communities because, like, court services and offender supervisions are there to deliver paperwork. Like, you know what I mean? Allegedly. That. That's a program that is supposed to be reducing recidivism.

[Deontay Kyle]

Right.

[Nina Rivera]

But it's like they're delivering paperwork, getting signatures. Why do they need tactical gear? Furthermore, like, last Saturday, you know, the boys on the block. I feel very safe with the boys on the block. Like, personally, the boys on my block, like, I don't feel unsafe by the houseless man, you know, the homeless man on the end of my block who tells me my cute little thrift store outfits are cute, you know what I'm saying? I asked him if he has water. That's like, where mutual aid starts. The people who are homeless who I see frequently on my block, it's like, they look out. We look out for each other, right? Like, we're. It's eyes. It's extra eyes. And I think that people underestimate or they don't really understand the context for niggas being on the stoop for men, you know what I'm saying? For people being on the block to have their drink and have their smoke, it is honestly a form of neighborhood watch to ensure that police brutality isn't happening to us. Like, people don't understand why, you know what I'm saying? So you have people trivializing, well, can't they smoke and drink inside? Or, you know what I'm saying? Like, well, they shouldn't be out there when it's not illegal in D.C. to be on your stoop also, too.

[Deontay Kyle]

Like, people can go and do whatever the fuck they want to do. I think that there's this idea of, like, white people specifically, is like, they want everything to be quiet and unseen.

[Nina Rivera]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

And the only people that like shit like that. The only people that want everything to be quiet and unseen are liars and people who are doing dirty shit when can't nobody see it.

[Nina Rivera]

Right. People who have Something to hide. And that's like, that's. It's anti to our culture, you know what I'm saying? Where we're on the porch and, you know, our folks might be on the porch or on the block having a drink, having a smoke. And it honestly strengthens community to see the same people every day and to be like, hey, how are you? Hey, what's going on with you? For us to be able to verbally check in with each other and build, like, familiarity. But the first night that I saw, like, the excessive, like, it was last Saturday, not yesterday, but the Saturday prior, that this, like, cop, this brown guy came on the block and was basically trying to be like, y' all can't have these containers. And everybody was just kind of looking at him like, what?

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

You know what I mean?

[Nina Rivera]

And he looked real confused. And, you know, it was just him. And so he looked overwhelmed. And it was, it was. It was funny because as much as he came there trying to assert his authority, like, he quickly left because he had no reasonable cause to be doing that. And like, folks know their rights.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. But it's also like this impunity and this arrogance that they've been allowed to walk around with, like these God complex, like, what I say goes. And a lot of times all it takes is for somebody to challenge that authority, is for them to escalate the situation. Because oftentimes people aren't operating outside of the law. Like, freedom of speech is a real thing. I can say anything I want to you, so long as it's not a threat. But because a threat of violence. But because they have this assumed authority in God complex, if it's not complete compliance, then it's seen as illegal to them.

[Nina Rivera]

Right. And that's. That's a. That's a huge factor. And that was last Saturday. And then this past week, I've seen the DEA stroll through the nearest park. That's at the end of my block. So I live in Ward 8. I live literally nearby the intersection of, like, you know, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. Like, I live in the black, like a very black part of town. And I'm extremely comfortable here. I feel extremely safe. And, you know, I'm seeing 15 of people DEA stroll through the park, and it's like, what are they even looking for? You know what I mean? It's been very, very show timing because it's like they'll come walk through a place to, like, be intimidating and then dip because they're, you know, they've not been called. There's there's nothing really to look for, like, you know what I'm saying? And the other day when there was an announcement that Trump planned to clean up all of the homeless encampments by 6pm Like I went around and I was trying to notify everybody that be in that park to like be careful and make sure they're gone because some of those people are evidently houseless and some of them just being apart, some of them are addicts. And you know what I'm saying, that's kind of like a condition within our community of being a traumatized people that I'm not like, I don't look at those people and I'm not like, oh, oh no. I don't get the heebie jeebies by, you know what I'm saying, like acknowledging that some of these people, their situations might be unfortunate. But yeah, like it's been a lot. Fair enforcement has been a, has become more heavy handed in the city, specifically when it comes to our black youth and specifically when it comes to areas that have been sorely gentrified, like Navy Yard where we saw Athena being tackled by Metropolitan pd. Or was it wmata? I think it was the, the.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, it was, it was the, it was like the, the transit police.

[Nina Rivera]

It was the train. It was the train Transit police.

[Imani B]

Right.

[Nina Rivera]

And the transit police specifically have God complexes. Because it wasn't maybe three weeks ago that I filmed an interaction at Anacostia Metro. If anyone's at Navy Yard Metro, Anacostia Metro are. They're one stop away. Navy Yard is on, on the other side of the river. Right? Anacostia is right. That's when you cross the river and there's a lot of, you know, war around how, oh, east of the river is dangerous at east of the river. It's where we've been segregated to. Okay, so like Anacostia Metro can sometimes be hot. Right?

[Imani B]

Whatever.

[Nina Rivera]

This young man evaded the fair, according to them, and he was forced inside of a car. He was put on his back and because he was flailing, you know what I'm saying, he ended up kicking an officer and this officer started pummeling him. And it's like I just saw a video circulating where like that same officer was tackling another young black kid cracking down on Fairbation at a different Metro location. And it's like there has been a crackdown on fair enforcement, but it really, it bothersome because it's like we're not addressing why people are evading fair. The fare has increased like insanely, like over the Years, you know, for no real. I can't. I mean, I can't qualify the reason. On top of the fact that wages are the same and people's rent is going up. Right? The cost of food is going up. So it's like we're cracking down on young men, women for evading fair when it's like nobody's addressing why that's happening. And the same thing is the case for, like, why the youth even come into Navy Yard. Like, these kids want to be grown because being grown in their mind means freedom. And so they trying to hang out where the adults hang out in Navy Yard. And it's like, that's also a condition of being a marginalized group. People don't regard children as a marginalized group. And especially when it comes to black kids, they're adultified super young. But it's like these kids want to feel grown because they want to feel independent or separate from the situations, you know what I'm saying? The unfortunate situations that they're dealing with at home. And it's like there's no sympathy for them. Like, they're just. They're extremely criminalized by a bunch of white DC transplants, you know what I'm saying? And even our own community criminalizes, you know, these young black kids, referring to them as Y or this or that. But it's like all of that is born from trauma. It's a survival response.

[Deontay Kyle]

So, yeah, I agree with you on all points too. And especially if I'm. If I have to deal with adult consequences, I might as well be in adult spaces. And I think to the other point is just like, it's always. There's always like, you know, this is my sentiment. When the ICE raids kind of started in LA is like, don't tell, like, telling black people like, you're next. Like, we always know that this gonna trickle down to us. This is something we've been saying from the beginning, because there's never not been a time in this country where we weren't there right now. And I think when you got situations like public transit being unaffordable, like public transportation, the thing that is literally like, to service underprivileged people or just make the commutes and things easier for people who can't afford cars, I think to price those people out of those situations and then wonder why, like, well, my whole neighborhood has public transportation, but I can't afford it. So it's like, yeah, I mean, and I still gotta get around and I still gotta do all these things. So I would say, you know, just to, you know, reflect on like, some of your feelings and some of the conversations that's being had in your neighborhood and, and any advice you would have for people if this escalates to other cities.

[Nina Rivera]

You know, I think that, I think that it's going to escalate, per your comments about how, you know, it'll always come back to us. It started with us, like we've been screaming about Trayvon, Sandra Bland, Mike Brown. Like, this use of excessive force that we're seeing is simply spirit spreading into other sectors of law enforcement. Now, you know, per ICE Rage, ICE itself is, has been birthed from the prison industrial complex that was targeted to the black community first per Reaganomics. Right. So I think that like, aside from knowing your rights, like talking to your neighbors is extremely important right now because, you know, living in D.C. what I can say about how this, this specific government is being weaponized to primarily democratic cities, you know, extremely multicultural cities, like, it's, it's very much like these are war tactics. And I think that people are underestimating that we might actually be at war like that this administration is declaring war on the people. Because here in D.C. alone last week, the rhetoric was at first, we need to clean up crime. And it moved very quickly to we need to bulldoze entire neighborhoods in D.C. and cleanse D.C. and that rhetoric is very dangerous. That rhetoric is very loaded. Right?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, That's Nazi shit. So before you made the phone call to you, I was saying that the National Guard, ICE agents and basically anybody that operates in this federal, in any of these federal agencies that are being weaponized against the citizens are essentially Nazis. And yes, because there's been talks of like, well, not even talks, but like records show crime is down. And the same cities that they, they want to police, crime is down, but are also largely democratic cities as well. They want to, they're using this as a way like we're going to criminalize black skin so we can funnel people back into the prison industrial complex.

[Nina Rivera]

Yes, exactly. Because it's for profit. And we've seen that this administration is buddy, buddy with all the people who own the for profit prisons. Like I have been saying on my platform that we are in a civil war. What people don't understand is that the KKK around 1973, rebranded itself to the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage foundation has multiple locations in D.C. alone. The Heritage foundation is at the helm of Project 2025. And if Trump is the head of this country, the Heritage foundation is the next that turns him which way they want. Okay. And they, again, their roots are being the kkk. They are the Neo Confederation. Like, what we're witnessing, as I've been saying, is the Confederacy rising again. Right. Who are specifically targeting Latino demographics because they were projected to surpass the white demographics around 2035. Right. So Latinos are reproducing at a rate that white people are trying to extinguish and slow down. Right. And then simultaneously, they are paging and terrorizing black people who they believe should have never been free.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Right.

[Nina Rivera]

And it's why we're seeing all this rhetoric about bringing slavery back and how slavery wasn't that bad, per Prager University, and how, you know, Jillian Michaels, who has no authority to speak on this, you know what I'm saying, talking about slavery, they are trying to basically curb the rate of reproduction of Latinos by caging, detaining, and disappearing us, as well as caging and disappearing black people who they believe, again, should have never even been free. And I think that if we take into account that what we're experiencing is war tactics and we might need to accept that we're in a civil war if we combine that with the fact that, like, we're at a time now in humanity where the richest people are trying to replace human labor with artificial intelligence, we're also teetering on the edge of a second revolutionary war. And I think that talking to your neighbors, stockpiling canned goods, dry goods, like learning how to filter your own water, like, there's a lot of back to basics that we need to be learning right now and embracing right now just as much as getting armed is important. So is learning how to make a tourniquet and stop a bullet wound. So is learning cpr. Right. Like, these are extremely important things right now for us to be thinking about.

[Deontay Kyle]

I agree. And I appreciate you taking a call and just kind of like, giving us an honest representation of what's going on out there. And it got me to thinking that, like, when they show these maps of, like, where they're Republicans and where there are Democrats and you see all these, like, you either see, like, a sea of blue and a couple of red dots or see a red and a couple of blue dots, and then you look at the country and it's. Look, there's. There's some very, like, concentrated areas of Democratic voters. I look at that now as a war map, and they look at these as locations to target.

[Nina Rivera]

Yep.

[Deontay Kyle]

But when you playing a video game, all the territories that are red are enemy territories. So. Thank you. For taking the call.

[Nina Rivera]

That's a word.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. You feel me? So thank you for taking the call. We'll be in contact. I want to know more. Just keep me updated and we'll talk to you soon. Tell the people where they can find you, though.

[Nina Rivera]

Yeah, it's a pleasure. I appreciate you giving me a call. Y' all can find me online. Instagram, TikTok threads is at. Its Nina Rivera. Right, so it's Nina Rivera.

[Deontay Kyle]

We'll put it on. We'll put it on the screen.

[Nina Rivera]

Appreciate you.

[Deontay Kyle]

All right, no doubt. We'll talk soon.

[Nina Rivera]

All right. Yep.

[Deontay Kyle]

Peace.

[Nina Rivera]

Peace.

[Deontay Kyle]

Check, check. Yo, welcome to the hello Podcast. We are live.

[Nina Rivera]

Can you actually hear me?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, I can hear you.

[Nina Rivera]

Oh, thank God.

[Deontay Kyle]

All right. All right. So let the people know who you are.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Hi, my name is Atheni. I'm an organizer in D.C.

[Deontay Kyle]

They done freed you out the bean.

[Nina Rivera]

Lexi.

[Imani B]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

So the. The premise of today's call is this. We want to talk to people that are actually on the streets and are experiencing the terrorism that's going on in D.C. and, you know, you went viral recently for being brutalized by the Metro pd, the transit police, and locked up and, you know, motherfuckers wasn't leaving from outside that station until they let you free. And they did let you free. But I kind of want to just, you know, want you to walk us through that if it's not too much to ask, and then, you know, kind of like what that experience was for you personally and then what your organization is doing and experiencing out there in D.C. right now. So the floor is yours.

[Nina Rivera]

Yeah. Well, first of all, like, in order.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

To understand what happened last night, like, you have to understand what kind of environment we're living in in D.C. especially like such a hyper surveilled, very much like police, high police presence, like federal police, a lot of federal property, a lot of federal laws. And there's also a local police department that the president is fighting for control of that has $600 million.

[Nina Rivera]

In it.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Funding it, because the city of D.C. has always prioritized criminalizing people more than have actually prioritized fixing the issues that are at hand. What happened last night was because we were outside cop watching. We were watching the very large federal police presence in Navy Yard. And we were also letting the youth know, like, that these federal police are out here to snatch them, to stop them, to harass them. And we were walking kids to the Metro. We were helping kids get home. And it wasn't just myself out there. There were 13 other people out there. My comrade Frankie was also out there, you know, and Harriet's wildest dreams does a lot of really great work in D.C. as well as far as like police accountability, court support and jail support. So this is something that we've done regularly, that we've been doing for years. But because of the over militarization of the police force, because of the addition of federal police forces and the authoritarian takeover of D.C. this situation escalated a lot quicker than other cop. Which other cop watch situations.

[Nina Rivera]

Who.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Honestly, cop watching is not usually something you get arrested for, even if you are heckling them, even if you are cussing them out. And I did and I'll do it again. That's just not usually something that happens. But when we were getting ready to leave, we were going down the escalator and they were. There were three young boys that were.

[Nina Rivera]

Going up the escalator.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

The way Navy Yard is set up is there's the. The trains are downstairs and there's a very long escalator and then the platform and the turnstiles are like upstairs right before you get out the exit. So we were telling them when they were downstairs and also when they were on the escalator, like a. Y', all, like, there is a very high federal police presence, like this youth curfew. They're here to enforce it. I don't know if you know about it, but you should probably go home. Like, we're not trying to police the youth. We want them to be able to have fun. But at this time, it's just generally not safe for them to be outside. So they didn't even get past the turnstiles. Like they got stopped by Metro pd. They said that they were doing fair evasion. Kids ride free usually in D.C. so, you know, that's a conversation in of itself or whether they even should have been stopped to begin with. But myself and the rest of the people that were doing cop watching, we stayed and we recorded and you know, I called them a couple bitches and hoes because they are bitches and hoes. So, yeah, like agreed as.

[Deontay Kyle]

Which is perfect.

[Nina Rivera]

Absolutely.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Like it's. Let's be very clear, it's your First Amendment right to cuss these out, period. White people do it all the time. They wave guns at the. All different types of. So it is your first member right to cuss the out. You absolutely have the right to say whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want to them, as long as you don't. As long as you do not directly threaten them. You know, can't endorse that right now. But what I'm saying is just like the way that they stopped them, the way that they were so aggressive with them, like there were other adults, like, other people, like other people who weren't a part of the cop watch that also were like, y', all, like, y' all are doing too much. The station manager was like, I saw them tap their card. So we were basically like demanding, like, leave them alone. Like, we're there, here they're with adults. Like, we can make sure that they get home. But y' all pressing them and doing all this extra. Like that doesn't. That's not necessary. And they tried to clear the station, like, because first it was just Metro Transit and then FBI, Homeland Security and another federal agency that I can't remember right now, they all like, came as well. So the situation was starting to escalate, like in police presence. And also. And just like you could feel like the, the tension was getting higher as well. And so I used a Metro card to tap through the turnstile and to stand on the other side because if they're turn, they're clearing people to the exit. Well, I'm on the other side of the turnstile and I'm not obstructing your investigation, but I am going to continue to record you as you talk to these children without legal representation, their parents or anything else. And yeah, like, the sergeant, Sergeant Deal, he wants to be very famous. So we got to make sure that Sergeant Deal is nice and famous. He decided to tap his fucked up haircut through the, through the turnstile. And he said that I did fair evasion. I tapped the car. The station manager said I tapped the card. Everybody else witnessed me tap the card. So it wasn't even two minutes. Like, it wasn't even two minutes. And he had his hands on me and like they pepper sprayed me, but my eyes were closed. So for a while it was just on the outside of my, like, it was. I could feel my face burning and like, they like put me on the ground and I'm not really sure, like, which direction they walked me in, but yeah, like, I couldn't see my. They put the handcuffs was tight as. Like there's a whole bunch of going on. They poured water down the front of me, so the pepper spray went down my. The whole front of my body. Like everything, everything was burning at that point. And yeah, like, the video that everybody has seen was taken while I was walking, being walked to the car. When I could finally, like, actually see, I realized it Was like, around, like 10:30. So usually how the process in DC works is you. You get put, like, in a car, you get driven to a precinct, like a local precinct, if you're not getting arrested by local, and they prosecute you and send you to central. I sat in one car for about 45 minutes to an hour. They drove me around the block somewhere. They transferred me to another car. I sat in that.

[Imani B]

They.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

They searched me and they took all of my. Out of my pockets in public like they were pat. Like, all type, like, doing groin searches, all of that outside on K Street. And if anybody knows D.C. knows that is busy as on a Friday night. So people were recording me. And. And.

[Nina Rivera]

Do you feel like after that.

[Deontay Kyle]

Do you feel like they was trying to make an example out of you?

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Absolutely. And they're not just trying to make.

[Nina Rivera]

An example of me.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

They're trying to make an example out of every single one of these kids that they take a picture of and they put on the Internet, on the White House Twitter, every single. Every single White House propaganda video that you see of people being walked up and down by ice. Those migrants, they're trying to make an.

[Imani B]

Example out of them too. This is what they're doing.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

This is what they're trying to do. Like, I remember even before I got this, before they took me on this. This little trip to spin around the block, that there was a DHS person with their face covered that took a picture of me with his phone. So if I end up on the White House Twitter as a. One of those arrested photos with a little black and white lettering, just know that it's a part of the propaganda, and that is that there is not a whole bunch of violent crime happening in D.C. crime is lower than it has been in 30 years in D.C. actually.

[Deontay Kyle]

So, yeah, like, so we had spoke to that earlier. Before I made these phone calls, I spoke to, like, what my perspective is. And with crime being down not only in D.C. but Baltimore, Birmingham, and literally all across the country. Crime is down significantly as we get further and further away from the war on drugs and the kind of behaviors that it enacted in our neighborhoods that would push us into the prison industrial complex. I'm looking at this vagrancy laws, like it's like 1890 because the prison industrial complex is suffering because the streets is dead due to, like, over surveillance. And just us realizing, like, how we was funneled into that industrial complex due to the war on drugs. It's almost like, well, now they want to recriminalize black skin all over Again, to kind of push us and funnel us back into the prisons because the numbers are down nationally. Do you kind of echo those sentiments?

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Absolutely. Like, here's the thing, they had me in a cruiser for eight hours after they took me to the hospital and they did nothing for me. Did not wipe my eyelids off, nothing. I was pepper sprayed over and over and over again. Every single time I sweat, every single time I cry. Anything, anything I did, my hair was covered in that shit. It was. They are trying to humanize people. Every single time you see Donald Trump or any of these people on the Internet or even other black people that you see talking about the black on black crime problem, talking about the violence in our neighborhood, talking about all this, and they're not actually talking about the root causes of that. They're not talking about the fact that that is losing their housing, losing their health care. They're not talking about the fact that people are being trapped out of the traditional economy and job opportunities and places.

[Nina Rivera]

Like that.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Or hospitality or else you want to work for somebody else. Drive us. Drive Uber. Like, let's be so for real on why, like, if there is crime is a socioeconomic problem. So if you, when you see these people on the Internet talking about the crime, talking about all these issues, make sure, make sure you ask them what they're actually doing about it. Make sure you ask Muriel Bowser what he's actually doing about it other than criminalizing our children, period. Because what this whole rhetoric of pretending like we are nothing more than just violent people that just do drugs and all this other shit that they have spreading, it is just to dehumanize us. And we cannot continue to dehumanize ourselves and dehumanize each other by supporting this system and supporting the police or joining the police force. Because mpd, the Metropolitan Police Force, the local police force that they're fighting for.

[Imani B]

Control of right now is 60% black, but 87% of the people that they arrest in D.C. are black. Every single person that I was in that cell with was black. I did not see a single white, white, Hispanic, nothing. There was nothing but us in there. But this is a city that is 46% black. So, like, let's be very.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Let's be very clear about what is happening here.

[Imani B]

This is a fascist uprising.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

And the police state is here to intentionally protect property and the people that own that property, the people that own that capital. If you are not them, then they are trying to suck you into with benefits and with health care and with bonuses as they snatch Your job opportunities.

[Imani B]

Away from you, to give the AI.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

All of this. All of this is to dehumanize us for you to dehumanize yourself for us to dehumanize our community. And like, honestly, like, I'm so mad. I'm so mad because this didn't have to happen. It was a $50 citation. This is a civil violation. None of this shit had to happen. But Alhamdulillah, I'm still alive to tell this shit because there are many people that don't fucking make it out. And there are people who would not have gotten out over a weekend. They would have been held there. They would have gotten charged with whatever because there are so many people in.

[Imani B]

D.C. right now that they're just trying.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

To charge with whatever so they can continue to throw them in that new shiny jail they just built.

[Imani B]

Like, we have to be very clear.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

About what's happening right now and who is going to be deeply affected in Baltimore, in Oakland, in Chicago, Places with black mayors. Places with black mayors. We just have to be very clear about who we are and who they are, because they're clear.

[Nina Rivera]

They're very clear.

[Deontay Kyle]

I agree with you 100%. I think that the more we see cities being led by black people and then subsequently black people start doing better, the behavior of black people increases, the opportunities for black people increases. That's the only thing that I see this as, is like, let's kind of put these niggas back in they place type shit. And I think also, too, by like, kind of setting the ground for, like, Trump to, you know, embolden racism, embolden racist themselves, where they feel like, oh, yeah, it's 1940, 40 again, I can do and say and go and come as I please, and I'm white and I'm first and get these aliens out of here, get these immigrants out of here, get these out of here. And by them accepting and drinking that Kool Aid, it. It enables him to do like this. And the police are. And the police and ICE agents and National Guard and anybody alike are Nazis, and they operate like Nazis. And it just so happens that we're closing in on a hundred years since that action was a reality, and it's now become a reality for black people and people of color all across this nation. And I think it will increase. We're glad that you're safe. We're glad that you free, and we thank you for calling in. But also, before you leave, there's been a lot of talk about, like, you know, people trying to. People Trying to, like, pedestal you. And I don't want to see you as a martyr. I know that you are a part of a bigger organization, and I know that it's not just about you, but it's about the organization at large and the organizing that you've been doing in D.C. and all over the country, but also about the people that are in that city that's going to be affected, that look like us. And if you have any advice for the people who are going to be affected by this or the organizers that are going to have to, you know, hit the streets when it unfortunately hits their city, if you got any words of, like, wisdom, advice, or like, what people should expect, you can go ahead and take that away before we end the call.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Absolutely.

[Nina Rivera]

So what I'll say is this.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

I am a very imperfect person, human being. I've had to do, like, there's a lot of shit that I've had to do to show up the way that I do. And, you know, like. Like be very clear and be very firm in that. And I say that to say that anybody, literally anybody, can do this work. And we should all start seeing ourselves as organizers in training. What is happening right now is going to require all of us to be very clear about how we are moving forward as a collective, because they are moving in lockstep over there on that side, and they are bringing more and more of our people in. Partly because the leftist movement is mean as hell and partly because the language that they're speaking in the ways that they are speaking to people's issues is still through an avenue of populism. And in order for us to understand our enemy, we have to understand what is working about their campaign. What is working about their campaign is the fact that, that they are reaching regular people, they're reaching everyday people. And the left is failing to do that. If you are on the ground, if you are an organizer in a city that is going to be directly impacted by this, the best thing that you can do, like organizations that I work with is Harriet's father's dream. I work with Fair Budget Coalition. I also work with Mass Liberation Network. Nationally. We are all strategically planning on how we're going to do outreach to our communities. Door to door canvassing, not that digital shit. There's research that has shown that from 2016 to now, the Democratic Party and all across the left, our direct contact with people has dropped over 60%. We are not having stations in real life. We are not meeting people where they are at. We are only focusing on the digital figure out how you're going to get outside and get on those doors. Because a lot of people don't. Do not understand what is coming. A lot of people do not see it. They do not see it as a fascist uprising because they are being fed so much propaganda. They are being fed so much propaganda about how somehow, some way, there will be prosperity if we just kick all the immigrants out. Somehow, some way, there will be prosperity and they will get their piece of the pie. If we can just shrink the number of people that are getting benefits, they think that that is going to help.

[Imani B]

Them because that is what they are.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Being fed by the algorithm every single day. So we must get outside and talk to people in real life and let them know that that is not the case and that we are going to be prepared to do what is necessary for these next couple of steps. If we're going to do what is necessary to actually make meet the threat that is coming at us, we must. We must have our people on our side. And they cannot just look at us as martyrs or as people that are separate from the community. I am deep in my community. I organize and I organize fucking hard. And anybody can do it. I was a bottle girl and a party promoter five years ago. Anybody can do it, truly. So, like, this whole experience, like, has showed me how human I am. Also, like, it was very painful. I sat in pepper spray for almost 18 hours. That was terrible. There. There are some sacrifices are going to have to be made, but the violence is coming to your doorstep, no matter what. They are stopping on their stoops while they're smoking and drinking. During the summertime, people live in apartments with five, six, seven, eight people. I used to live in a house with an intergenerational household. I would stay out till 1032 because it was hot in there. Lots of niggas. So just understand that they are coming for you for just existing, period.

[Deontay Kyle]

Man. Thank you for sharing your experience. Thank you. First of all, you know, we sorry that that shit happened to you. And, you know, it's unfortunate that it's happening to anybody, but we're glad you're safe. We're glad you're outside. Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for your presence, not only online, but outside and continue to do the work. And, you know, to your sentiment that anybody can do this work, I think it's very real. I think that there's a complexity that goes on with people where they think that this is a extremely difficult task to take on. But it's literally just being outside and meeting people where they are with your messaging. And also, like you said, it's the uncomfortable thing. You're going to be up against a lot of rejection from people that don't understand your politics or refuse to believe what's coming down the line. And also, too, there's this idea that if I just make a post about it online, then I did enough. And, you know, if I, if I send out a tweet and make people aware that I've done enough. But the thing is, is like the motherfuckers that's brutalizing people aren't tweeting, they're outside. So if they outside, we gotta be outside, too. All right, we'll talk soon. Thank you for calling in and, you know, again, follow Afenix facts and fire on all socials. But again, we glad you free. We glad that you safe. And it was unfortunate that you had to go through that. But thank you for sharing your experience here on the Grayson X podcast.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Of course. Thank you so much.

[Nina Rivera]

Love you.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Love you guys. Bye, friends.

[Deontay Kyle]

All right, bye. Talk to you later, man. This is real, bro. D.C. yeah, too real. And if they'll do it there, they'll do it anyway. Well, it's easy for them to do it there because, you know, D.C. is a federal. Yeah, like she was saying, it's federal.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

It's federal.

[Deontay Kyle]

Even if you like the smallest crimes, you get set to federal prison in dc. That's up. Yeah.

[Nina Rivera]

Call from.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yo, what's good, brother?

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Yo, what's good, bro?

[Deontay Kyle]

Cooling. Cooling. I'm. I was. We can. We can chop it up on some personal later. But I was still trying to just get some more phone calls from people that's out there that's kind of being affected by it, but can see it from the ground, too, instead of just kind of like putting my name out there and putting my piece out there. So I've already talked to Afeni and I've talked to Nina Rivera, but I just wanted as many perspectives as possible to provide, like, detailed information or just like real time information on what's going on.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Okay, cool.

[Deontay Kyle]

So if you. I've been out there. Good. Yeah, we recording now. So you're good to go.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Okay. Yeah, I mean, I've been out there pretty much every day over the weekend. And I mean, I'm teleworking right now, so I haven't really been in there today. But basically I. I'm seeing a lot of, like, tents. Like, they. They're going down the tents, they taking them down. They bulldozing tents, they put them in the back of trash cars, dump trust people's belongings, personal belongings. And I think that was the most heartbreaking moment for most people to see and realize that. Other than that, I've seen like friends, they down there, like I know a lot of educators, so they're showing videos of their students in the neighborhoods. They're going down to the hoods and just basically harassing people, like searching people, chasing people in their building. They, they actually like people, you know, normal people on the block just drinking, maybe smoking some weed or something like that. They're not really doing anything like that. So they, they, you know, taking stuff, point out bottles. They don't really have anything on them for real. So they harassing them, kind of like putting them in cuffs, throwing them around. They detaining some people. It's a lot of immigrants being detained. Like you'll see on a day to day basis in D.C. you see a lot of immigrants just on mopeds because they, they deliver food. That's how they make a living. And you just seen a lot of them being stopped, like for no reason. I seen one of them be stopped. They said your tax was messed up. And then they, they ran his tags and said, well now your tax is good. They told them on camera, you know, your tax are good, your license is good, everything is good, but we still got to detain you. And the guy barely speak English. So we trying to figure out why they're detaining people, especially immigrants, brown immigrants, Hispanics, you know, Arabic, Middle Eastern people. They're just stopping them for no reason and kind of detaining them. They stopping people just to check and see if their home is just for sitting outside or sitting on benches. They're canceling a lot of events. And this is not just people that's in the neighborhoods. These are corporations. So I'm talking to people who like have events set up here and they're saying that their corporations are canceling the events just because of, you know, what Trump is doing. And I seen today that, you know, D.C. government is suing the federal government. The DA doesn't agree with it. It's just a mess because he just want to live. And I just, I was telling people that, you know, people don't understand that black, black people in the D.C. area is, we get profiled a lot because if you Metro Police Department, you grow up in this community, you, you would know that a lot of these people just going home from work, they work for the water factory, they work For DC Metro. These are regular black dudes that look like me and you. Some of them got dressed, some of them got, you know, nappy headed, just coming home from work in a tank top where they got on a durag or you know, just normal guys. Whereas these federal agents aren't Metro Police department, they're not D.C. police. So they can't really recognize normal guys from, you know, criminals or our children. Like, you know, the teachers are saying that they, their, their kids are being profiled because they going around with certain attire on and they not really understanding because these guys, you know, they dea, ATF agents that come from middle of Arkansas or something, they not from a black community like this where people could be a lawyer and just after work, you coming home in the tank top. So a lot of people are getting profiled left and right. And especially the kids, they already set a curfew. So that was done before Trump even, you know, came around because U Street and Navy Yard was getting a little bit violent. So they set a curfew for the kids. They already have. Attempts and efforts to slow down the violence. I mean violence has been down in the city from times where I was growing up. It was, it was like Gotham City when I was younger. But now I'm seeing is everything is slowing down. And all of the violence that is in the city, to be honest, is pretty isolated, except for like the carjackings and stuff. But most violence that usually happen in the city, it's a city, it happens everywhere, but it's pretty isolated to that's.

[Deontay Kyle]

Crimes of poverty more than anything. It don't really have anything to do with a black or white thing or immigrant thing. I think poverty is a precursor to crime. People just trying to eat. But I think the focal point, the focal point that you touching on about it being especially with the homeless encampments and then the profiling of the youth or just the profiling of black skin is the part that we wanted to really touch on where we kind of knew that this is the direction that it was gonna head in where we just kinda like getting to this point where they're kind of enacting vagrancy laws. Like just being outside makes you suspect or makes you subject to some type of profiling or accusation. And you know, I just wanted to thank you for providing. You can hear that? Can you hear that dude outside my house cutting the grass? Nah. Oh, okay. All right. Bet. I'll just make sure. Hold on one second. That sound like brass was on my front door with that shit. But yeah, so I, you know, we just wanted to get to a point where we was, you know, I'm. People value the platform that I built for my opinions and my viewpoint and perspective on things. But like, in a situation like this, I don't want to speak as somebody that's like there and like, I'm some authority on it. I want to talk to the people that's actually there so people can get a real time and a realistic perspective of like, how people are being affected and who's being affected and who's being targeted. And not just like, you know, theorize about it, but like actually reporting live type shit. So I appreciate you calling in. If there's anything else you want to share, I'm down. You know, we got time. I ain't on a time limit. But also before you do that, I want you to introduce yourself and tell people who you are and where you from.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

I'm the neighborhood Aoki. Everybody call me Block if you're from the dmv. Everybody know me as Block. I'm from all over the DC and PG county and DMV area. So I've been here all my life. But I can say a lot of the people who lived here their whole life and they seen the violence. Some of the people speaking up saying that, oh, we didn't, we did need to do something, I can say that is valid. But at the same time, a lot of these people don't know how the government works. And I don't really want to be the person that just be calling people ignorant because, you know, I don't really want to call people out on their intelligence. But at the same time, the way that the government works, we have things that's on different levels and the federal government coming into, coming into our town and militarizing us without ever funding anything else that happened in our city. They're not here to help us. They're not here to like, we have non profits already set up. They out there on the streets. I was down southeast yesterday in the heart of, you know, on MLK and Marionberry Avenue and they're giving out Narcan. We have plenty of programs set up for children, for after school programs to get them from being out there acting crazy. We have summer job programs. We have all types of things they could have poured into. And even if they wanted to pour Into Metro Police, MPD, D.C. police Department. My personal ideas on should we defund the police? I think we should pour more funding into the police from our federal agencies. And I think it should be more so them getting more education on how to deal with juveniles. Go take a continual education course down at the local college at udc. Take a continual education course as necessary for dealing with juveniles, for educating you for little things to keep them using their critical thinking skills instead of using reactor reacting skills. You know, just reactor, you know, just reacting to sit on the street.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, I think the more education you.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Got also like the better you're able to deal with these.

[Deontay Kyle]

Also like I think I, I can agree with you on that point. If it was to go towards education, I think before a cop hits the street, they, they should be educated in all aspects of like the human beings that they're going to be interacting with, whether that be the youth and understanding the youth and understanding like that aggression. It's not even like to challenge your authority. That aggression is just teenage angst. And also like sometimes, especially if you put them in a position where they, in front of their friends, they trying to show off and show out. And the adult, there needs to be the adult and not escalate the situation. So I also feel like there needs to be training in de escalation and things like that, especially when there's no visible threat present and the only threat that is really present is their fucking ego nine times out of ten. So I think you kind of hit the nail on the head. I think we're not in a position communally where we have enough trust or structure built up within ourselves to govern ourselves. And if we're going to be governed by the police, given the history of how they even became an establishment in the first place, there has to be like a whole, like a rework of that entire structure because like you said, they're important officers from these, from these states in these cities and counties that probably have never really interacted with black people. So when they say we coming to crack down on crime, in their mind it just mean black people. And it don't matter where they coming from or where they going to or what their profession is or what they look like. The skin is the charge, you know what I'm saying? Like it, they've criminalized, they're recriminalizing black skin, which in some aspects it's always been criminalized. But in a situation like that, that escalates the situation where people that haven't done anything wrong aren't going to do anything wrong are being treated just like criminals and even more like they're already guilty.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Right. And I think a lot of Metro Police Department, D.C. police have been in These communities long enough where they realize a lot of these things. And we have Violence Interrupters. I don't know if y' all had these in other cities, but we have Violence Interrupters. We have nonprofit organizations that's down there trying to de. Escalate hood beasts and everything. So instead of pouring into them and maybe getting some funding behind them and making them feel like they. They are making an impact and helping them get into the schools where you got a hood beefing with another hood for 30 years and they go to the same school. So instead of pouring into these Violence Interrupters and these non profits and these black men that came home from prison and trying to put some, some wisdom into the youth, y' all not pouring into these guys that's trying to help out the youth. Y' all trying to push, push the youth away from them just so they can be more violent.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, I agree with you. I don't. They're. We aren't getting to a point where, like, I think this administration and the actions that is taken is going to cause the average American to want this entire establishment just reworked and redone. I think that he's doing in some aspects, irreversible damage to the psyche of people, especially to those who he empowers. I think that there's no turning back for them. And the only thing they want to do is move forward and push forward. And I think that the people that are going to be affected by this have historically always been pushing up against this establishment in fear that it would come to this again. So I appreciate you calling in. I remember, I know that you suggested that I reached out to somebody else. I'm actually in DM talking to her now. I'm trying to get her on the call. And then I'm. I'm gonna attempt to get in touch with El Cousto again because, you know, Cousteau is tapping into like the streets. So he gonna be a little bit more in depth about like the. The kids that are being profiled in real time. Because he, like, when we was talking the other day, he was like, they calling me, trying to figure out what they should do. And he was like, you know, I just got a little visibility and money, but I don't really know what to tell people to do, you know what I'm saying, besides be safe. But I've been seeing a lot of different opinions on this, and I think some of them are fairly ignorant and I don't want to take an ignorant stance on it. So I'd rather talk to y'. All, you know, that's my whole dig on this is like, let me talk to the people that's in D.C. and being affected. So, like, people in Chicago, people in Oakland, people in Atlanta, where, you know, we got that huge cop city just outside of the metro. And which is what I see. Like, to me, it's like, when I see this happening in D.C. then that is the. The means to the end for the cop city, in my perspective. Like, okay, that's why y' all built that.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Yeah, yeah, I understand what they're doing. They got. They got tech companies trying to invest in the DC and trying to kind of take over the whole city and federalized, bro. When it comes down to that, that woman I sent you, Imani, I appreciate a lot of the black women in our community, as always, probably the same in your community, but these are the women, especially the women at a certain age. These are the women that's already been down to the council meetings. They've been dealing with the government. A lot of the Black women in D.C. have always been political. They know how the government works. They're very informed about how everything should be happening. And they've been pushing for statehood for a long time because we don't have our own Congress member. We have taxation without representation, and we can't fight back. Like a state like Maryland, where Westmore just came out and said, yeah, you're not deploying our troops. So the reason that we, you know, it's harder for DC to fight back is because it's not a state. And I think Imani and a lot of the women that are very informed and educated on politics and been in the city their whole life, they. They got a good perspective and viewpoint on that.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, man, and I appreciate your perspective, too, because you there, and that's what matter the most, so. Well, I'm. I'm a. I got your number. I'm gonna chop it up with you on the side from my personal phone. I'm gonna text you from that in a minute. But I appreciate you just taking the time and, you know, like, just making sure that the people that listen are informed and aware of what's going on. They there. So thank you again, bro.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Yeah, appreciate you, man. Yeah, you always doing the right thing and doing it the right way, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

Thank you, bro. I'm trying. I'm trying, bro.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

All right, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

All right, we'll talk soon. Hey, hey, hey. What's going on, Ms. Amani B.

[Nina Rivera]

Nothing. How are you?

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm doing good. So the premise of the call I am recording right now. We could probably talk on the side some other time. But the premise of the call is, you know, given my platform, people are curious about my opinions on what's going on in D.C. i don't really feel like that's completely my space place to speak on it. So I wanted to talk to people that's actually out there that are active and that are experiencing it from your perspective. So, again, introduce yourself, let people know who you are, what you do, and, you know, just kind of give us a little synopsis of your. Your vantage point of what's going on out there. I'm gonna give you the floor.

[Imani B]

Absolutely. Hey, family. This is Imani B. Known on social media as she is Imani B. I am a Washington, D.C. resident. I'm originally from PB county, which is on the other side of the border of D.C. yeah, there's what it is that you all are seeing is what it really is. The videos that you're seeing with ice, the video that you're seeing with the National Guard, the video that you're seeing with all Metropolitan Police Department and our own police department doing the things that they're doing to the people of the city, These are all real things that are happening in real time. The unfortunate part of what it is that you all are seeing are also a symptom of things that have been happening prior to Trump. Now, a lot of people, you know, they get antsy and they get, you know, upset when people mention that because we have a black mayor. And if you didn't know, DC doesn't have a governor because DC Is not a state. So the mayor is our chief executive. The mayor is the one that is responsible for city council, her budget. She's responsible for the police department, the fire department, and things of that nature. But money was given to the Metropolitan Police Department, you know what I'm saying? To do some of the things that they're doing more to our kids, to our people, you know what I'm saying? With the over policing and things of that nature, and unfortunately, some of the things that have already been happening to D.C. prior to Trump being in office, again, were things that kind of created an open door for him to come in and do the things that he's been doing to our communities. The encampments that you guys are seeing being taken away, people's things being thrown away in real time. That stuff has been happening prior to Trump coming in. And like I said, that does not absolve this fascist regime of a presidency. These Republicans, these white Supremacists, they don't get no pass. But I'm just giving people just a little bit more context to understand that these things that we, the folks in D.C. that don't live in certain zip codes, and if you didn't know, D.C. is broken down by wars. So when you look at a Ward 7 or Ward 8, which is predominantly black communities, predominantly poor communities, predominantly folks who are, you know, paycheck to paycheck, potentially, or folks that need additional services from, you know, the city, you know what I'm saying? These are communities that have always been ostracized and thrown to the side. So the activists and the people that you see outside that are fighting, they've been fighting, they've been watching, they've been standing outside of courtrooms, inside of courtrooms, trying to find people's relatives because people get picked up off the street and there's no information as to where. Where these people are going. So, yeah, is really real out here.

[Nina Rivera]

It's really real out here, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

So we've had a couple of different calls. I've talked to young lady named Nina Rivera. I've talked to neighborhood alky, of course. I've talked to Afini, Facts and Fire. And, like, one of the things that seemed to be a pretty consistent sentiment is the attack on black youth and the profile of black youth. And one thing that, that Bobby had pointed out was that these are federal agents. So these aren't Metro Police. Like, of course, the Metro Police Department is. Has a significant black population and officers, but these federal agents that are being shipped in, they're not from these neighborhoods. They're not even from that city. And so they're policing black skin, period. And I make it comparable to, like, vagrancy laws. Do you have an opinion about that? And also, like, how it's affecting immigrants and the homeless?

[Imani B]

Oh, yeah, I have big opinions because I'm a parent and son, you know what I mean? My son is 8 years old. And, you know, I don't know if anybody else mentioned on the call, but if you. If you all don't know about D.C. our kids don't have, like, a school bus system, so we don't have, like, the yellow buses and stuff. Our kids ride the Metro bus and they ride the Metro train. That's how they get to and from school. Right. Unless they have the privilege of a parent that has a vehicle that could get them to and from school. Right. The majority of our kids get a Metro card to go, you know, to where it is that they need to Go. And school is about to start. One of the things that has been stripped from our children are resources, and that's a very real thing. I can consider myself a parent of privilege. I have a vehicle, I have live in a certain ward, you know what I'm saying? My son goes to a pretty decent school, but it's a mixture of kids, thankfully, because a lot of these schools allow kids from every neighborhood to be able to come. But because my son goes to a school where a lot of immigrant kids go, we literally have a parent chat for. If ICE comes to the school, parents have pulled up last year to sit in front of the school because it was like, on the radar on our parent chat that ICE was on the way, you know what I'm saying? And we got. These are our kids, friends. I had to sit down with my son to not only talk to him about school shootings, but to talk to him about the potential of somebody coming in, ICE coming in. What to do if you talk to police. Now, obviously, that's. That's something that black parents. We're used to having to do at a younger age for our children is to say, hey, if ever you're confronted by the police, this is what you need to do, this is what you don't do, et cetera, et cetera. But it's just the fact that there's a multitude of layers, like you said with you got the FBI, you got federal agencies that are also policing people. I don't know if y' all seen, but people that are delivering, like, Uber eats, and they're usually, like, on a scooter or a bicycle, they're taking these people off of their mopeds as they're trying to deliver food. So when we're talking about this, we're talking about it from the lens of our children are not safe. And one thing that I want to dispel, because I see so many people that are not even in this area, not from this area or nothing. Talk about the crime, talk about these kids. Wherever it is that you find poverty, you find crime. And this is coming from somebody. I've lived in five countries, countries outside of the United States of America. And no matter where I've been, wherever you found poverty, you have found crime. You have found people that are trying to fight for resources. You are trying to find people that are trying to fight to divide a crumb when there are people at the top that have more than enough resources to spread around, and they don't. When I had to apply for my son, this Summer to go to summer camp. Applied for him in February of this year. He was waitlisted 25 and 32. And like I said, because I'm a parent of privilege, I was able to take him to a different place. But what about the parents that can't? Where do those children go? What about the parents that have two, three, four, five jobs that work overnight? What do they do with their kids? The cost of going to camp is about 3, 4, $500 a week. How many parents have that accessibility to be able to allow their kids to go to somewhere like a camp? And yes, D.C. has a lot of resources for children, outlets and things of that nature, but it's not nearly, nearly enough, especially for our teenagers. They get thrown by the wayside, and then all of a sudden they're pinned as Y N. Oh, they're not doing nothing. They have nothing to do. And I'm not using that as an excuse, but I'm just telling people that where it is that you find poverty, you will find crime. And if we don't start tackling from the top with the people that are hoarding the resources, we're always going to continue to point the finger at each other. When all of us are trying to fight for this crumb. There's so much more at the top when we're talking about our government and when we're talking about the resources that can be disseminated across the bottom that aren't. And then our children get claimed, our parents get blamed when people are simply trying to survive.

[Deontay Kyle]

I agree with you 100%. I actually was just talking about that with Alki, that poverty is a precursor to crime. It is a symptom of crime. There's a symptom to this thing. Like, this is why they make the distinguishment between white collar crime and all of this is because this is crime that's being done by people with money and power and privilege. And normally it falls into a federal situation. But crimes of poverty and crimes of just sheer desperation, especially when you start getting into the thing of criminalizing people who are literally not doing anything wrong. Like, they're on their mopeds, they're trying to, you know, they're, they're doing these, they're, they're a part of this gig economy and that's how they're making their living and they're being profiled. And then also like what you said with the kids, and I was like, staunchly against that whole, like, YN narrative because I don't like that. Because to me, that Just sound like super predator. But I think a bigger thing is, is, like, if we look to Baltimore and how the mayor there has enacted resources and programs for the youth and for teenagers to be involved in, they've seen a significant drop in crime. Because the bigger part of the issue is, and especially for people that are familiar with the church and things like that, they say the idle mind is the devil's playground. And if kids don't have anything to do or anywhere to be, but we also are kind of living in some desperate situations, then the best place for me to be is outside. And everybody outside is involved in something. And if they ain't involved in Anything positive, then nine times out of 10, they involved in something that's going to be criminal and something that's going to get them thrown in jail or put in situations where there will be gun violence.

[Nina Rivera]

Yeah.

[Imani B]

So I think people forget that, like, you know, when you're talking about, like, systemically, that's what the system is built to do. A lot of people act like these things aren't built around our communities for this stuff to happen.

[Deontay Kyle]

Correct. And also, too, so here's the thing, right? There has to be some understanding of, like, media literacy from our community, where when Trump says we need to crack down on crime, he's literally making a dog whistle that we're gonna go and bust black people's heads. We're gonna go and profile black people. So, like, my thing is this. And also, too, I think it just is intellectually dishonest for people to point the finger at these young people who did not create the circumstances or the conditions that they live in. They have probably little to no idea about the systems that are in play and that they are up against. And we'll point the finger at them like they created the circumstances, like they created a situation without doing any research or enacting any historical context into the situations that play into their behavior. So these behaviors existed long before them for the same reasons. And it was a little bit more overt when you got the war on drugs going on outside, about the role that the government played and the systemic role that it played, where a $5 crack rock could get you more time than a $50 bag of cocaine or. And vice versa, you know what I'm saying? So the criminalization of black people has always been prevalent. It's always been a part of the history. Vagrancy laws is a part of that history. And something that we starting to see reenacted now, like, just being outside makes you subject to being guilty of something in these people's eyes. So I really do appreciate you calling in and like sharing your perspective, especially the perspective of a mother of a young boy, especially the perspective of somebody who's politically active and is actually in the city of D.C. or the district of D.C. because I think that also the other perspective that I was not aware of is that the transit police. The. Hold on one second. But the, the one thing that I wasn't aware of is that y' all don't have the. A busing system. So that, that makes kids even more vulnerable when you start talking about them having to take public transportation to get to school and then you have a heavy police presence in these public transit areas.

[Imani B]

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And to that end, what people also don't understand, because I saw somebody make a comment when we were, you know, you know, advocating for Afini's release. And we were posting and we were sharing like, hey, please come to the courthouse, we need to show support, et cetera, but not just for her, for, for all of the people that have been unlawfully picked up. People were talking about ferry evasion. And I want people to understand that ferry vision in the District of Columbia is a $50 ticket.

[Nina Rivera]

That's it.

[Imani B]

$50 ticket. So. And I'm not saying that's it, that that's what it needs to be. It shouldn't even be all that fair can be free in dc. Let's start there. But the fact of the matter is these kids being harassed for fair evasion, being beat upside the head for bear evasion, for Afini to have been and assaulted in the way that she was, because whatever, you know, or whatever, and, and, you know, whatever it is that he chose to do, especially as a black man, for trying to enact, you know, some kind of like, you know, test his, his, you know, flex his power over her or whatever, none of that was necessary for fair evasion. So when people are talking about all these kids are trying to make a two dollar bear, are we serious?

[Deontay Kyle]

Well, also, are we serious about that? We have to stop like criminalizing ourselves and we also have to stop licking the boots of these goddamn people because they'll make it real easy for you to lick their boot once they got their fucking foot in your face. Because I think the thing is that people have this idea that if they comply that they'll be able to evade the consequences of this. And there is no complaint compliance with like fascists. There is no compliance with like, people that have ego trips and God Complexes that the only thing they seek to do is control and, and enforce their authority on you. And we, we need to be looking at the people that are resisting and people that are rebellious towards this as a little bit more heroic than as like agitators. The, the real agitator is the state, the real agitator is this administration. And if we like, how do we get to a point where we talking about a two dollar fair being an excuse for somebody being brutalized? Another thing that I'm seeing right now is of course like, you know, I celebrated her release and I, and I made aware about her arrest and everything that happened on Instagram and now people are tagging me like, well she was, she was against Kamala being in office and woody, woo woo. Like, I mean she's been very vocal about being a part of the Green Party and things like that. When are we going to start, like, when are we going to stop putting our political ideologies to the side and understand that this is about our plight? Everybody is fighting for the liberation of black people. Everybody's going to, everybody's going to show up and do that their own way. Because the foundation of the liberation for black people was co opted by the criminal CIA and it's constantly co opted by the CIA. So when you don't agree with. And now we see into this point where we see people where if I don't agree with you politically, then you have to be sent by the CIA like, like they, they do all this weird shit to make people to seem like they're operatives just because you don't agree with them. When the reality is the CIA is the reason why you don't have a foundation. The CIA is the reason why you're the people that fought for your liberations. That is Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton I.e New Jersey. Making 77 year old Assad Shakur their public enemy number one. They're the reason for this shit. Like that's real CIA, not a motherfucker. That's saying, stating an opinion that you don't agree with. And it kills me with black people when we like use these terms to like discredit one another. And, and all of us are essentially fighting for the same thing. We just are taking different avenues to go about it because this is all affecting us in different ways. And it's all based on how you was raised, where you was raised. You know, it's the nature versus nurture thing, but it's all the same reality that we're being faced with, with is systemic oppression and it's going to affect us all in different ways. So, like, I think I appreciate you even speaking to that point too, because we're talking about a $50 fair with her ideology is fuck with her political affiliation is. Can you agree that that's unjust and overly fucking brutal and also shouldn't even be a topic. We, we got people that's in D.C. that are multi billionaires. We got, we got, you know, diplomatic like figures coming in from all over the country and all over the world worth billions and billions of dollars where the fucking public transportation in D.C. alone could be free, like you said, and still be maintained and updated if they wanted to. But because like you said, they live in these wars and the people that stay in certain wars have the same access as other people in more privileged wars. They just try to cut people off at their knees.

[Imani B]

I am consider myself like a leftist, but I'm very much more on the left. I've never been a Democrat, never been a Republican, and always believed to break the duopoly. And especially as someone who's lived around the world to see how internationally politics works and how even third party systems in other places has really liberated people. So when I see people like, oh, Atheni, she said, don't vote for Kamala. I've had people say that to me. I'm very criminal. I'm very critical of black leadership if black leadership capitulates to whiteness. So I don't care who it is and I don't care what position it is. And the reason why I feel that we need to be critical of people that we are considering, quote, unquote leaders is because we have to understand that a lot of those people, I'm not saying Kamala specifically, but I'm saying a lot of those people capitulated towards whiteness. They lean into whiteness, they lean into white ideologies. They lead into the, the caricatures of, you know, how it is that we can step and fetch how we can. You know what I mean? And so for me also too, when I.

[Deontay Kyle]

Let's talk less about them being elected and more about them being appointed. And I'm, I'm critical of it as well.

[Imani B]

Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, we talk about systems. I'm like, do you think that these systems. Systems don't have people at the helm that are actually pulling the strings? You have people right now that are like, Trump stole the election. So if we can say that Trump stole the election, did your vote actually matter? Right. If we're just thinking of that ideology right there. If Trump sold the election comma, then did your vote matter? And at the same time, right. Ifene. If we can't respect Afini, right, and her fight to liberation in the way that she is fighting for liberation. Right. Can we then respect the National Guard people that are standing in front of union station in D.C. that did vote for Kamala? Can we respect the people of the Metropolitan Police department in Washington, D.C. that are beating our kids over the head? But they did vote for Kamala. Can we respect the people that are working for the federal agencies that are literally kidnapping people, disappearing people with institutions like ice? But they did vote for Kamala. Right.

[Deontay Kyle]

So if we're thinking that the vote.

[Imani B]

In and of itself was okay, then we can't discredit this sister and what it is that she feels like she needs to do for our people when it comes to liberation. She was protecting our kids.

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly. And she was out there protecting these kids and. And cop watching to make sure these kids were protected and that they were going to the right spaces and. And they were operating and moving around the city safely. And also, let's talk about two different aspects of it, too. Let's talk about the fact that she's really outside, she's really a part of these organizations, and she's on the front lines every time that there is something going on, whether that's a movement going on with immigrants, whether that's a movement going on with Palestinians, whether that's a movement going on with black Americans, she's at the forefront of a lot of those places, speaking, putting herself on the line, making herself extremely visible and vulnerable to a state reaction. So let's make that clear. For one is that a lot of people that discredit her ain't doing shit, but in their house on their phone talking, hello. And then let's do. And then let's make another point that this is a black woman that we're talking about, and 92% of black women voted for Kamala Harris, and it didn't change the outcome at all. So what was it? So do you think that she made up for the 8% that didn't come on? And if 100% of black women voted for Kamala Harris, it still wouldn't have made a difference. So, like, what are we really talking about? What are we really talking about?

[Imani B]

But this was the conversation. And I think, you know, deonpa, you active online, but this was the conversation that we were having during the election that said it's going to take more than showing up to a ballot box every four years. It's going to take more than you having a candidate that you like and okay, that's gonna be it. That's not what's gonna save us. It's no shame. I don't necessarily believe in the voting process. I'm very much in the tradition of the ballot of the bullet. I don't believe you throwing your vote away to a candidate. I believe that you pressure and you push your public servants, the people that you pay, you are paying these people to do a fucking job. And if they are not doing the job in the way that is necessary for you, I have. We believe that you withhold your vote or you find the candidate who's going to do that thing. But I also will vote. I will vote in my local election. I will vote in these presidential elections. Right, because that is one way to exercise your political quote, unquote. And I'm saying quote unquote, power, because again, these are all systems. So these are all run by multimillionaires, billionaires, heritage funds, white supremacies, etc. But if you're going to say that you're going to participate in this one thing, but you're not outside at these bus stops with these kids making sure that they get to school, but you're not outside making sure that these mothers have the resources that they need, but you're not knowing your neighbors and seeing how it is that you can come together and seeing what community members in your own community need mutual aid because you're so focused on your vacation and Martha's Vineyard, you ain't got nothing to say to me.

[Deontay Kyle]

Oh, God. And also too, it's like the other thing too is like, and this is a part of me being responsible with my platform is talking to the people that's on the ground, but also like connecting with people like, you know, the children in Inglewood, California experience like food insecurity and they. There's a extreme wealth gap out there. And we use our platform to raise 12, $12,500 for them to have a black to school event with an organizer that's grassroots out there. Connected him with a man that feeds the homeless and got those children fed. Connected him with somebody else and through his efforts, he secured 500 backpacks for them to go back to school. So it's like, also, we're finna start a hygiene drive in Nashville. And I connected with some people that's grassroots here in Atlanta that we got some things in the works that haven't materialized yet, so I'm not gonna speak about. But I think the thing is, is, like, there's a lot of fucking chatter and opinions online, but there ain't no action. And, and for us to speak out against the people that are actually being actionable and for us to speak out against the people and try to discredit the people that actually had a boots on the ground, it's just, it's, it's. It's ignorant and it's dishonest and it, and it's regressive and it's like everybody, the, the. The main thing that I see is like, I want to do the bare minimum, and I want. And, and. And if you don't align with my opinion and my ideology, then I won't step up for you. If you don't align with my opinion and my ideology, then I'm not going to be outside fighting for you. And it's an excuse not to be outside. Yeah, yeah.

[Imani B]

So, yeah, all that rhetoric about, oh, if, you know, Kamala was here, we'd be at brunch, that's problematic in and of itself because it's like, it says that you don't think that there's further changes that need to be made.

[Deontay Kyle]

Well, the thing is everybody wants to see themselves in the seat of the empire. And that's really what it boils down to. It's cool. I don't have to put it. If my face is in that throne, if my face is sitting on that throne of the empire, I'm good, I'm safe. And I could take four years off. And I think, like, much respect to anybody and whatever their opinion is and whatever their ideology is, as long as they're like their baseline is fight for liberation of black people and a fight for liberation of poor people more than anything. You dig what I'm saying? But I think more than anything, it's like I've kind of gotten caught up into these binary talking points because a lot of people can't see it outside side of the binary. And I've spoken on that time and time again where it's like, you know, you, you. You are at odds with people who are like, if you're a Republican, you in odds with Democrats. If you are part of the Green Party, you are with people that's Democratic or Republican. If you are, you know, so on and so forth. Right. But the thing is, is like, these people that got you splitting ties with your family members are all sitting at the same table together.

[Imani B]

Hello. Hello. Say that again for the people in the back, Beyonce. Because these are the people that's at Jeff Bezos wedding.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, Come on. They're Republicans and they're Democrats, and they all at the table together. They're Bernie Sanders and their aoc. And they telling you that Israel has a right to defend itself. Man, get the out of here with that shit, man.

[Imani B]

Every single time. Every single time. And I tell people this all the time. I look at politics the same way that I look at religion. I ain't Christian. So for anybody that tell me I can't find any other form of salvation because I'm not Christian, you done already lost me. Because there are other avenues that I feel like I can find salvation. Right? It's the same thing with politics. I've never been a Democrat. Never. So for people to act like people don't have other political ideologies. I am for black folks always. I am for the liberation of black people across the world and across the globe. Because I come from a black radical tradition. I come from Kwame Ture. I come from Assata Shakur. I come from Malcolm X. I come from Black Panthers, who also understood the globalization of black power. And that's where it starts. And I tell everybody I've said it online, is that until black folks are liberated, no one can be liberated. And because everybody comes into these isolated movements like, okay, is this us over here? Is this us over there? It's like, no. If you fuck with what black people got going on, if you understand how we've been denigrated across the world and come together with us, and come together with us, understand what it is that we have up against us, you gonna free your folks, too? There's no way around it. It'll be a domino effect. But people get so lost in this ideology that they somehow, in their own little enclave, in their own little silo, they can. They can do it for themselves. I had arguments with the FBA people. Ados people. People have questioned my identity as a black American because I am. I consider myself a Pan Africanist in terms of the deliberation of black people all over the world, including in my communities and starting with my community.

[Deontay Kyle]

Amen.

[Imani B]

But people have questioned my identity. And I'm like, bro, like, if we've gotten this far beyond understanding that we are not going to get liberated, because solely in the United States of America, black Americans in and of ourselves, we don't have the numbers.

[Deontay Kyle]

And that's the reality. And that's the reality that I've. And the thing is, I've gotten dispats with people throughout the Diaspora, but I've also always maintained, like, I'm trying to be in coalition with you, but I'm not going to be in. I like. But you're not going to sit here and disrespect me and, and invalidate my experience or my culture as a black American. You're not going to do that. So, like, if we can't start there with you seeing the value or, and also, like, I don't, I don't need, I don't need the exterior validation, but it does matter. When I'm trying to coalesce with you, you're not going to be disrespectful to me and I'm not going to disrespect you because I'm trying to coalesce with you so that black people globally have an understanding of our interconnectedness. Because colonialism is a playbook. If it affected me, it affected you. I know it did. I know it did. Come on. But you trying to argue with me over who mastered better, I don't got time for that. So the thing is, is like, you know, I've been staunchly against, like, especially with this platform crossing over, quote, quote, unquote, like making this a platform for everybody. This platform is for black people, by black people, owned by black people, and speaking directly to black people at all times. And when we get caught up in these things of like, like, I'm, I'm, I've been at odds with the FBA people, I've been at odds with the Ados people. Because at the same time, and, and more, you know, more recently, the Hebrew Israelites and all this stuff like that, because like, I've been telling people until they address the sins that they've committed against black people in this country, nobody will be free. And nobody's truly gonna have the things that are affecting them addressed. Because if you wanna hop and skip over to people who paved the way for you to be here in the first place with their blood, then you losing me. You losing me. And I don't wanna hear it.

[Nina Rivera]

That's it.

[Imani B]

And you ain't never lied. Listen, these are things that I've talked about openly online. Cause I've been. People criticize when I've been like, hey, you know, let's show up for, you know, I Latino brothers and sisters, let's show up for these people. But also forget that, you know what I'm saying? If you've been online for years, you have other talking points. So it's like, just because you come across one video doesn't mean that's the whole somebody's ideologies or what it is that they believe. But I've also come to the forefront to tell people from international communities, hey, listen, the blueprint of policing, the blueprint of enslavement, the blueprint of subjugation comes with black people in the United States of America. So if you are going to come here, you need to understand the history. You need to understand how it is that you got here for us to get here. You need to understand how even your presence has been relegated to also continuously denigrate black American people. And that's no shade to your fight and how it is that you, you know, you and your people and your folks and your family came to America looking for greener pastures. But we ain't got no greener pastures. As black Americans, we have to continuously fight. There's nothing else for us to do but continuously move towards liberation. If you don't know about Tulsa, Oklahoma, if you don't know about the MOVE bombing in Philadelphia, if you don't know about Lake Lanier, if you don't know about Central park, that's where you got it up, you are always going to be on that bottom rung. You are never going to see liberation if you continue to align yourself with whiteness and think black people are your problem. We are not.

[Deontay Kyle]

Hey, me and you, we see each other, period. I'm with you 100%. You know, I would hope that one day maybe we could do a collaboration on this podcast, because I'm pretty sure that me and you will have, because we done started the podcast all in our. On our own right here. So, yeah, I will. Just for time's sake, I'm gonna. I'm gonna end it there. And I appreciate you calling in, but I do have your number and I'm gonna text you for my personal number on the side. So maybe we can organize and create a space where me and you can have a collaborative podcast. Because I think we would touch on a lot of the same subjects. It seemed like we are. Are very aligned ideologically.

[Imani B]

Listen, hell yeah. I've been with you since the. The truck days, since you. Since you going after folks in the truck like you, my people, you my fam. Whatever you need, I'm a call away. I'm a text away. I'm in it. I want to be a part of whatever initiatives you got going on to help our folks. I saw what you were doing in Inglewood, shared that, donated my Family, because we gotta, we gotta save our children. Nobody else gonna do it but us. So whatever you need, like, I'm here.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm with you 100%. 100%. 100%. I'm, I'm gonna have. I appreciate you too, and thank you for your transparency and your anecdotes. And we'll talk on the side. We're gonna, we're gonna look to wrap, wrap this podcast up, but thank you again for your contribution. And we'll be talking soon, right? All right, Peace. You know, I just want to speak to the fact that like, yeah, we made them phone calls because this shit is real and it is happening. And I don't think I benefit anybody by just going on and on about my feelings about it or what my perspective is, I think, to have those people out there. But I think this episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first [e-mail] podcast terms apply. It's real, bruh. It's happening. You know what I'm saying? Our ancestors have been through things like this during Jim Crow, you know, just being criminalized for being outside and being in spaces right where just being black, you know, and I think, you know, a lot of people will echo these sentiments. And I already know what's coming. Like, oh, you said, you said you wasn't helping. You didn't care about ice and everything like that. And it's like, I never said that. I'm, I'm again. And I'm not going to call on anybody. I'm, I'm, I'm going to speak directly to the people who listen and the people that follow me. And black people, once again, black people, you have to protect yourselves and we have to protect each other. All those shits that make us different is not going to matter when you go outside, they're not going to ask if you let Afro Latino, they're not going to ask if you from Jamaica, they not going to ask if you from Haiti, they're not going to ask if you a first generation African or a second generation African, they're not going to ask about that. They're going to see your skin and that's going to be the verdict, you're going to be found guilty as soon as they look at you. And this is the, that we've been talking about. This is why we talk about diaspora words being so stupid. Because they, they've already set the ground online. And in your mind that we have so much division and so much separation. This is why people was trying to stop Cop City. Because where do you think those people are going to be coming from when it, when it hits Atlanta, when it hits Baltimore, when it hits Oakland, when it hits Chicago? Where do you think that these people are going to be coming from? They're going to be coming from these fucking industrial complexes of militarized police that they're going to deploy on the city. And they're not going to ask you where you from. They're going to not, they're not going to ask you where your parents was born. They're not going to ask you if you know where you from. They're not going, they're not going to care about your fucking culture. They're not going to care about none of that. They're going to see your skin and they're going to criminalize that. And you can be light skinned, you can be dark skinned, light eyes, brown eyes, coarse hair, curly hair, it ain't going to matter. They're going to see you and they're going to see a nigga and they going to try to round your ass up or they're going to try to control your spaces, control. And they're going to try to intimidate you and also like antagonize you so that you can have a reaction so they have a reason to lock your ass up on some trumped up charges, no pun intended. So be mindful, be aware, keep your head on a swivel, don't be afraid to fight back, don't be afraid to protect each other because you can go around and you can protect yourself all you want. The thing is you can stay safe. But this is gonna have to be a communal effort. The only way that we're gonna be able to enact any change or protect ourselves is if we protect each other collectively and put all these bullshit ass differences to the side. And honestly, we know all communities of color will be affected by this. But, but these things specifically are to target black and Latino people. So it's going to be important that we have some solidarity with one another in these times like this. And for those that don't want to be in solidarity with other groups, good luck to you. Because these motherfuckers Some of them ICE agents are Latinos, which is the biggest stab in the fucking back to your people. A lot of those police that are going to be enforcing these laws against other black people are black. So it's really a us versus them thing and that's, and that's how they want it to be. So I'm not going to be stupid and I think it's extremely ignorant for people to come out and talk about have your pew pews and be ready to do this and do that. Like you are setting people up for the okie doke and you're setting people up to be harmed greatly. The, the best thing you can do is be mindful of your surroundings to protect your, protect each other, protect these kids. I hate to, I hate to tell my to stay from outside because you should have a life and you should have an experience. But you fighting a losing game with these because they are militarized and they have been given impunity to do whatever the they want. I don't have the answers for this, to be honest. Like I'm not trying to spread fear. You heard the people, they on the ground with it. That's the reality. I'm not, I'm also like a non conforming motherfucker. But until people are on board as a collective, as an individual, you need to protect yourself and protect who you can that's around you and motherfuckers. I hate for it to have to be at your front door for you to start talking to your neighbors. I hate for it to have to be at your front door for you to start organizing. The time to start doing those things is now. We're gonna get to these voicemails, some of these emails. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. Yo girl, deontay, you guys cook. They fast now. But we're good with y' all calling.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

From Buffalo, New York.

[Stingy]

And Brad, I was calling because whatever.

[Deontay Kyle]

That take that you had about ATL.

[Stingy]

And Esquire, I do agree. I think Esquire was, you know, sand.

[Deontay Kyle]

You know, the most intelligent and ambitious one out of the, out of the.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Group with the most potential.

[Stingy]

But T.I.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

You can't just sit up here and call T.I.

[Deontay Kyle]

A lame because he's a janitor.

[Stingy]

Like he's a janitor.

[Deontay Kyle]

He, he got to some money.

[Stingy]

Yeah, he had him a fly little whip.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

You call it a dope boy with.

[Stingy]

But it's a fly little whip. I'm saying who wouldn't want a nice.

[Afeni (Facts and Fire)]

Car at that age?

[Stingy]

And he, he acted and Talked like a.

[Deontay Kyle]

Like a dope boy, cuz he's. That's what he's surrounded by. This is from a video I made two years ago, bro. This is from a video I made two years ago, bro. It was just satire, bro. It was just playing dead ass. He dead serious about that. He not playing with that. He struck a nerd with it. He ain't like that. He ain't like that. I was like, what are saying? You made that take, bro? That was like two years ago, bro. He been the duff. He been this duff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He been scrolling. Yeah, like I don't like this. N Not even talking about TI Nah. Took TI two years to save three bands. That's a reality for a working class person. But damn, rent was due. Rent was due, baby. Uncle George want getting some credit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody getting no Caddy in my house. All right, man, let's go somewhere else with this. All right?

[Stingy]

What's good, Deontay? What's good, Big Ice Cup Cat? I've been watching y' all for a good minute, Deontay. I've been locked in with you before even the pod. But anyways, cousin to cousin, I just need some help. So I'm 22 years old. I live in like around the Ohio Dayton area and I've been on Ohio for three years. Originally I. Originally I used to live in Indiana. I'm just asking for the cousins out there. All the cousins who listening, please? I don't have any friends, know how. And honestly it's like it does a little bit something to my mental. For real when it comes down to it. And it's like I can see my family and stuff like that when I got time. But at the end of the day it's. Sometimes I just want some friends where I'm at. You feel me? I've been in Ohio for three years and ain't really gathered any friends. And all the friends I had, one of them was just weird as and then the other ones I think never really kept that deep connection with them. And plus they were kind of like white and like heavy Trump supporters and like that. And I'm not. I wouldn't even call them friends. But anyways, just. My name is Ben. I go by Stingy.

[Deontay Kyle]

My.

[Stingy]

My Instagram and stuff is forever stingy. But it's built F, V R S, T, E, N G Y. So any cousins out there? Anybody? I just need some type of. For real. I just want some type of friends because I'm not even gonna lie, it's Doing something to my mental. I just want some friends I can go out with, hang out with, even play the game and like that. So if y' all could do anything for me, bro, Y' all keep up. Y' all keep it going. Do what y' all do. I'm loving what y' all doing. I'm loving what y' all doing. Y' all keep getting going up and up and up. Anyways, love y', all, cuz. Y' all do what y' all keep doing.

[Nina Rivera]

Peace.

[Deontay Kyle]

Love you, too, family. I, I, I, I, I hate to do this. I hate to be this guy. What if you join that Patreon. If you join that Patreon, you have all the cousins. All the cousins is right there on the Patreon, bro. Like, and it's some cousins from Ohio. I ain't gonna lie. They be real, real time kicking it with each other, bro. They really with each other. So if you are on the Patreon and you active in the chat or you act, if you, especially if you active in that discord, you're going to find you some friends. But this is the thing that I want to tell you. I am a big proprietor of a local fame. I've talked about this before. I'm going to talk about it again. Frequent the same spots. Go places that align with your interest, whether that be the library, whether it be a favorite coffee shop, whether it be the gym. If you are consistently going and frequenting places, you're going to see the same people. You already have something in common because y' all both there. Yeah. And the more you go there, the more familiar people would get. Familiarity breeds curiosity. People going to know more about you the more they see you. So outside of joining Patreon and, you know, linking up with the cousins and shit like that, that's an easy way. Instead of you just having to plug your IG or anything like that. If you go join the Patreon, it ain't number $8, and it's gonna have. You're gonna have people that are, for one, already have a common interest as you. Given that this Grizz Next podcast likely have a lot of overlaps in mindset and morals, but that'll be digital. But you also find probably people that's local to you. But I'm telling you, go to the same places all the time. Frequent, find local fame. That local fame will change your life. I'm. I'm low. I'm locally famous. You know what I'm saying? They know me in the Publix. They Know me. They know me at the Kumbaya coffee shop. My it's not called Kumbaya. Coffee shop is crazy. It's called something. It's not Kumbaya. It's definitely not Kumbaya. Kumbaya coffee Shop. All harmony, all the time. Come on down to the Kumbay coffee shop. Everything is soft spoken Coffee shop. The up. Come get your spoken word on us. Open mic night every Wednesday at the. It's called Kumba though. It's Kumba. The Kumbay coffee shop. Yeah, they know me at the Kumba though, man. I be in there and they got like a little cool co working space. I'd be in that vibing. I all the little like if it's a black coffee shop within 20 miles of here, them know me because I be frequenting joints like, you know what I'm saying? Go in there and send me some coffee. I let them know about coffee black. You know what I'm saying? I'm spreading the good word. I'm spreading the gospel. You want to open M night on Wednesdays? I'm going to go to open mic night and just freestyle Kumbay. Shut up. Enough. That's enough of that. That's enough of that sound.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

Smoking word.

[Deontay Kyle]

Kumbaye, baby. Every Wednesday. All right, bro, I'm done. Enough. I'm done. Stop talking like that is wrong with you. My. All right, man. All right. All right. Let's go. Let's get right. Let's get right side.

[Stingy]

Yo, Deontay, what's up, man?

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

I'm a big fan of the show Love from Houston.

[Stingy]

My name is Chris. I just want to get right into it. Look, I feel like I agree with you guys on like 99% of things.

[Deontay Kyle]

That you guys say.

[Stingy]

So of course I'm gonna be a stickler and call in about that 1% that we're different on.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

That 1% is Drake.

[Stingy]

Listen, I'm a journalist, and I think it's so important that media, publications and people with platforms accurately report and speak on issues. Let me be clear. I'm a Drake fan.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

All right?

[Stingy]

I'm team Drake. I think Drake out bar Kendrick during the battle. I think he made the better diss tracks. I think we let a lot of Kendrick L's in the beat going checked, such as fabricating the daughter and the fact that it literally was like an 8v1 beef, right? And Drake bodied Autumn. All right? But even regardless of the fact that.

[Deontay Kyle]

I think Drake won, I think it's.

[Stingy]

So clear that this Drake UMG lawsuit has not been reported on accurately. And people just claim it in a way that makes Drake look bad and build on the rap beef because they want to get click, clickbait.

[Deontay Kyle]

Cat got your tongue? Yeah. Cat got your tongue? Too much lies. All right, brother, Look. Call herself a journalist. Yeah, so he could try to legitimize that he was. You're not a journalist. You're not a journalist. You're a stand, brother. You're a stand, brother. 666. Take that out, man. Listen, dog. Did he just call here to run about Drake? Just to drive me?

[Nina Rivera]

Just a.

[Deontay Kyle]

Really, Bro? Just called in for a minute and 27 seconds to ride me. Hey, get that out of here, brother. Get that shit. Hey, yo. Hey. Get that shit out of here, brother. It's not. We're not going. Nah. What publication do you work for? Yeah, who you work for in Houston? Yeah, the. The Owl. The Owl Times. The Al Gazette. Listen, bruh, he lost, okay? Get over it. Damn. That's. You and Drake's problems. Y' all can't get over it. Now you talking about the older umg Y' all trying to make this seem like he's benevolent. That. That nigga's a police ass. I can tell you one thing. Go down to the Kumbaye coffee shop and get you sipping at the coffee. Put them on the island. All right, man, let's get to some of these emails. This wilding. This wilding is wilding. Yeah. They mind. He called about Drake? Yeah, man, this is the wrong platform for that. I think it's. I think we have to report on this sleeve, man. Stop glazing, nigga. He lost. Fabricated his daughter and he lost. He lost. We also have no proof that Kendrick beats on Whitney. Exactly. He lost. His diss track sucked. Okay? Get over it. And then he went and ran to the court, and Lucian came to the court and said, look, nigga, we own you, all right? So why the fuck would I tank one of my investments, right? We own you. Okay. Don't bite the hand that feed. You never dissed Daddy hi from Chicago. Hey, shout out to shy Summertime shy Shout out to the shy we going back to the chi we ain't gonna tell them more. Calm down. Hey, look so far ahead and niggas behind hey, behind. We're going to the shy we're going to the shy Hi from Chicago. First off, as a new listener, I want to say I love your shit. You don't play around with the bullshit, pull any punches, get straight to the point with your takes, which is What I really love about your podcast, you're a very smart matter of fact person. That's why I think I could be. You could be of some help. I grew up in an abuse abusive household and I'm worried about my younger brother. I'm 19, he's 16 and we used to be very close, but over the years he's best. We've vastly grown apart due to my narcissistic parents and their bad influence which I think led to be abusive towards. Led me to be abusive towards him as well. I want to get closer to him and try to pull him out of their influence, but the stress of having to be mature older brother, positive male role model while also dealing with my parents and my own mental health issues, it's really getting to me. I completely spiraled my first year at college and have to attend community college to get my academic standing up. So forging my own way while also trying to help him and my parents who are children emotionally become better people is most definitely taking a toll. He's adopted many of the traits of their traits and I'm beginning to realize that there's a possibility I might have to leave him behind and let things be be. He needs guidance and he's not getting it. One of my aspirations is to work hard, saving enough money, get a place of my own. Error. I hope he'll join me. That will also set a positive example for him. But honestly, my family is in no way strapped for cash and he kind of hasn't made it there. Food on the table, shelter, parents give him money. I just want him to be a good person. What do you think? P.S. ignore the iCloud email. I made it when I was 11. I had not even looked at that. Goober chickens. Goober chickens is crazy. This is the thing, man. You are the only person that sees it as a problem. Okay? So if they see what they do as a non issue, then you'll be. You'll be cast out and ostracized for calling. Calling into issue with their issues are you're. You're shedding light on something that they don't see as a problem. You are at the point where you have to protect yourself. You cannot, as much as you love your younger brother, as much as you probably love your parents, you're away and you're away for a reason and you're failing at being away due to the things that you've been, the things that you went through with them. Now being free and having to undo those things did cause you to spiral. But if you don't get yourself together, you can't be a positive male role model. How you gon. And this is not to throw shade at you. This is just to address the true hard facts. You can't be a positive role model if you spiraled your first year of college and now you got to get your academics back up. The way that you become a positive male role model and the way that you become a positive role model, period, is to lock the fuck in on what you got going on. He's going to be fine, okay? The same way that you came out of that situation, he's going to come out that situation and see the world for itself, for himself one day. It's not your responsibility because what you're trying to do is take on the role of a parent. I get it. You want to protect them. You see them adopting ways. That's what happens. A lot of people adopt the ways of their parents, and until they get away from them, they won't realize what ways they've adopted and they won't realize, like, the inequities in that household. But if you don't focus on yourself and lock in, you're not going to be able to provide an outlet for him to see anything different. Ultimately, and this is being real, ultimately, if you fail, you reinforce what the parents are putting out there. You actually make their messaging and their behaviors stronger and strengthened within him by not separating and doing better. So go out there, stand on your own two feet. Love your brother from a distance, love your family from a distance, Forge your own path and do all the things that you want to do to the point where maybe, you know, and he's 16. You know, he's 16, he's spoiled, he's getting his way. But there's gonna come a time where they're gonna flip the script on him. That's what narcissists do, okay? Once they feel like they got him in their full control, they're gonna switch the flip on him. Flip the switch. They're gonna flip the switch on him. You know that. And you can't save him from that, okay? You can't save him from your parents. Your parents are who they are. And if he's fallen into it, it's going to be devastating for him. But that's not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to set yourself up to get right so that when he does need somewhere to go, you'll be available. We wish you the best over here at the Grizzly Next podcast. And sometimes you got to fight your dad, bro. Yeah, but are they really. Are they really that or he just don't like some shit they did. That's the thing. We never know. That's the. That's the. That's the salty part about the emails. It's like, we're only getting one pov, and people do like to throw that narcissist out there, but we're gonna take his word for it, and we're just gonna make sure. Like, get yourself together, bro. Get yourself together. All right, last email, and then we're gonna get up out of here. We're closing in on two hours. We're gonna get about it. Yeah. Podcast been getting a little long. We like that, though. I like it. I'm having a good time. I'm having a good time. All right. And if you're still sticking around when you leave here after this email, go check out that chance at interview. Yeah, Muy. Excellent. All right. Protect your neck. What's good, y'? All Love the podcast. What I just seen. I. My. Yeah, yeah. Division 360, son. Yeah, son. See, I see you, son. I see you down at the Kumbay coffee shop. Division is360. We can see you the room. All chill, bro. Original, man. Love that. Kay. I just took it and ran with. That's very original, man. You know what I'm saying? That's where the original man was. The original man to be in the. He be in there. Yeah, for sure, son. For sure, for sure. Like, without a doubt, he gonna be in there. Oh. All right. What's good, y'? All? Love the podcast. Big ice cup. You guys made such a big impact on the community. And I listen to you guys at work on all the time. Keep going and keep up with the consistency. Consistency. I just wanted some advice on what I was going through. Basically, I fell into gambling addiction, where I betrayed my friends trust to help out my family. So to try and keep things short, my family's been going through some hard times. My mom was in the hospital for high blood pressure. My dad was also in the hospital for his kidney disease and diabetes, which caused him to have a w amputation below the knees. Man, sorry to hear that, bro. Plus, my granddad was bedridden because of his leukemia. This was all happening at the same time. Hospital bills were stacking up. So when my friends gave me their money to pay the rent, I used to gamble on the sports betting app. Lost big time in desperation. Tried to get money back by selling things at the pawn shop, working overtime. My job, anything I do to make the money back, but nothing work. Long story short, pay back my friends and I'm actively paying back what I owed to the apartment. I've been going to gambling Anonymous meetings over here in Miami. My friends no longer talk to me, which is understandable. I betray their trust and I don't deserve them. I learned my lesson and take full accountability for from that experience. But basically my question is twofold. What do you think of the effects of gam. What do you think of the effects of gambling apps on the black community and how it's marketed towards us nowadays? Also, what do you think I should do moving forward? Because I never thought I would fall this hard placing a couple best on the app, something that seemed real light, just a couple dollars here and there turned into an actual addiction, cost me my friendship and an eviction. So yeah, basically I'm just looking for guidance in this situation. Also warn people who are listening how dangerous the effects of gambling can be. Hey man, we've spoken on this. This is why we take our stance that we take about not ever promoting gambling apps or dick pills because it is very harmful. And a gamified version of something that is so real and so addictive have cost people their lives, have cost people relationships and marriages, have cost people their homes, have cost people everything to be gamified. And when you got your influencers like Joe Budden, like Drew Ski, like Kaisernet and like everybody else that has a platform that have taken that bag from these gambling acts like prize picks and you know, fanduel, whatever have you have you. Especially when you see it with other influencers in the white communities, with people that like Pat McAfee or whatever, Dave Portnoy, that are constantly promoting gambling, Drake constantly promoting gambling, you, red pill and you that are out here looking for community are constantly being, talking about women being gold diggers. But gambling away your money on a app, it's a full circle thing. All they ever wanted was your attention so that they could sell to you. And that's not to say this is about you. I'm just saying it's easy to fall into these spaces and times of desperation. And I think that gambling, I think gambling on your phone should be illegal, to be honest, because it's too addictive and you can fall into a dark space like this brother has. And we are sorry that you fell into that space. We're grateful that you're taking accountability for your actions. Maybe one day your friends will come back around. Hopefully your friends can see you as reformed and changed and understand that you was dealing with an addiction. But I don't like that. I don't support that. I will never take any money from that. I will take. Oh no, I'll take some money from them. They gotta give me $1 billion. Like 1 billion. A billion. And once I get that billion, I'm gonna hire a to do the podcast for me. It won't be deontay Kyle. No, I promise you that that will be on a hundred thousand dollar salary to do the podcast once a week. I'm just hiring somebody random off the street, just a light skinned with locks, you know what I'm saying? And the, the. The. The stock of this podcast will plummet to the. I mean it will be. But I'll have a. I'll have a billion dollars and I'm gonna start buying up motels and making affordable housing for people. But yeah, it's unfortunate. We saw you went through that. You had a lot of things hit you back to back and, and naturally and times of desperation, desperate times, desperate measures and you fell victim to that circumstance. And we're glad that you kind of getting yourself back on pace. We're glad that you addressed the issue. But the issue is widespread. Gambling is not a game. Gambling is not something to play with. Gambling is not something that should be gamified or seen as something light. It can turn into a real addiction and it's one of the most visceral addictions because it affects everything. It creates superstition. It literally will have you looking for anything to also too. Gamblers are something that's not talked about. Gamblers become addicted to losing. So fuck fanduel, fuck prize picks and fuck everybody that promote that shit. I'm going tell you what is what else is addictive too. The coffee doesn't need to kumbay coffee. Come on son. I ain't know where you was. All right, so let's get up out of here. So if you in D.C. please be safe for sure. If you have gambling app on your phone phone, delete it now. If you have narcissistic parents, fight one of them. Damn. Yeah, real unless they not narcissistic. And they just have like rules, rules, structure. Yeah. Discipline in the house. Yeah. And it's like little brother seem to be doing fine. We not gonna do that.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

All right, all right.

[Deontay Kyle]

Okay.

[Neighborhood Alki (Block)]

You're right, you're right, you're right, you're.

[Deontay Kyle]

Right, you're right, you're right. I'm sorry. They going to say we. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry. Little brother seem like he's little brother playing the games, brother. He got money. He got money. Nah, I ain't going to lie. You know, we, we just going to have to take y' all word for it at this point. It is what it is, cuz. I, I get it. But there's a time and a place to save and there's a time and a place to focus on yourself. And right now a lot of y' all seem to be and places where you need to focus on yourself. And I think that the trying to save somebody else is a distraction from focusing on yourself. That nigga don't need no saving. He's an autonomous human. He's 16. No, the mindset of a 16 year old is especially a 16 year old being spoiled. Come on, man. Ain't no saving that. Take care of yourself. Take care of your grades, my brother. Delete them gambling apps off your phone. Facts. Be honest with your people about what you're dealing with. Atone for your sins the best way you know how. And continue to go to these meetings and everybody else, delete the fucking gambling apps off your phone. You don't need to gamble. You don't need a dick pill. Okay? Work out. Eat some nutritional. Eat some nutritious meals. Drink some beet juice and water. Stay hydrated. Your dick gonna be fine. You be all right. You're gonna be all right. This was episode 81. I am Deontay Kyle. But who's behind the camera? The coolest co host, Big ice Cub Cat. If you out there signing them streets in dc, please be safe, be vigilant. Look out for your neighbors, look out for your community. Buck on the fucking police without threatening them with violence. But protect yourself and be safe. Organize. Get down with some of them organizations that Afeni shouted out. And shout out to the rest of y' all folks out there in the street. Shout out, my DC Niggas. Yeah, Mo. Yeah. Real live shit, Mo. Shout out, my boy alchemy. No neighborhood alchemy. And shout out to all my other folks that I fuck with out there in D.C. y' all be cool. Y' all be safe. Take care of yourself, take care of each other. Until next time, we out.