INTERVIEW: Al Sharpton Talks National Action Network, Trump, Eric Adams, Operation Breadbasket, Eulogies +More

Summary

Podcast Summary: "INTERVIEW: Al Sharpton Talks National Action Network, Trump, Eric Adams, Operation Breadbasket, Eulogies +More"

Released on April 2, 2025, "The Breakfast Club" features Reverend Al Sharpton in a comprehensive interview hosted by DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, and Charlamagne Tha God. This episode delves deep into contemporary political issues, civil rights strategies, and Sharpton's ongoing efforts through the National Action Network.

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1. Introduction to the Conversation ([02:20] - [04:35])

The episode opens with DJ Envy welcoming Reverend Al Sharpton to "The Breakfast Club." The hosts engage in light-hearted banter before delving into serious topics.

Notable Quote:

"The only surprise I have is that everybody's surprised. He said he was gonna do everything he's doing."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([03:10])

2. Critique of President Trump's Policies and Impact on Black Communities ([04:35] - [07:00])

Sharpton articulates his disappointment with President Trump's administration, highlighting actions that he perceives as detrimental to Black communities. He emphasizes Trump's direct affronts, such as the removal of Black servicemen's profiles from the Department of Defense's website.

Notable Quote:

"When you take down black servicemen's pictures on the Department of Defense's website... you can't get more intentionally offensive than that."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([04:35])

3. Emotional Toll on Disenfranchised Communities ([07:00] - [10:14])

The discussion shifts to the emotional and economic struggles faced by disenfranchised individuals. Sharpton underscores the exacerbation of these issues under Trump's policies, including threats to Social Security and Medicare funds.

Notable Quote:

"Trump is now saying, 'I'm gonna make it worse. I'm going to use Social Security money, Medicare money.' So when we tell ourselves it can't get worse, it can get worse."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([04:44])

4. The Need for Sustained Civil Rights Movements ([10:14] - [12:05])

Sharpton contrasts fleeting activism with the necessity for enduring movements. He critiques the lack of sustained efforts following major civil rights milestones, leading to setbacks like the rise of Trump.

Notable Quote:

"You need groups that are going to sustain themselves, whether it be outside of civil rights or within. Without that, progress falters."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([07:00])

5. Economic Strategies: Boycotts and Corporate Accountability ([12:05] - [26:10])

A significant portion of the interview focuses on economic tactics to fight systemic racism. Sharpton discusses the strategic use of boycotts to pressure corporations into embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He explains how targeted consumer actions can financially strain companies, forcing them to change their policies.

Notable Quote:

"We're going to do a boycott till we break them or make them do what we want to do."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([24:16])

6. Reflections on the Democratic Party's Role ([26:10] - [37:43])

Sharpton critiques the Democratic Party's effectiveness in leading the civil rights movement. He argues that while Democrats have made legislative gains, they have not sufficiently built economic institutions to sustain these achievements. He emphasizes the importance of economic empowerment alongside political representation.

Notable Quote:

"The Democratic Party didn't lead the civil rights movement. It was up to us. Without building economic institutions, progress isn't sustained."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([37:00])

7. Personal Experiences and Activism ([37:43] - [39:45])

Sharpton shares personal anecdotes about his involvement in activism, including his role in Operation Breadbasket and his efforts to support families affected by systemic injustices. He highlights the importance of building and maintaining economic bases within the Black community.

Notable Quote:

"I became the youth director of Operation Breadbasket when I was 13. We focused on economic empowerment as a cornerstone of our movement."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([37:12])

8. Future Initiatives and Call to Action ([39:45] - [41:20])

Concluding the interview, Sharpton outlines upcoming initiatives aimed at continuing the fight for economic and social justice. He calls for sustained economic strategies and urges listeners to engage in planned events and boycotts to enforce corporate accountability.

Notable Quote:

"We are announcing a large-scale economic battle against corporations supporting anti-DEI positions. It's time to bring back economic empowerment."
— Reverend Al Sharpton ([25:36])

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Key Insights and Conclusions

• Sustained Activism: Sharpton emphasizes that short-lived movements fail to create lasting change. Institutionalizing economic strategies is crucial for sustaining civil rights advancements.

• Economic Empowerment: Utilizing boycotts and economic pressure on corporations is presented as an effective method to enforce policy changes and support DEI initiatives.

• Critique of Political Parties: There is a clear critique of both Republican and Democratic parties, with a call for internal reform and stronger leadership within the Democratic Party to better serve Black communities.

• Historical Lessons: Sharpton draws parallels between past civil rights strategies, like Operation Breadbasket, and current initiatives, advocating for a return to economic-focused activism.

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Additional Notable Quotes

• "A lot of brothers and sisters saying that to me, 'Well, we were doing bad anyway.' That's trying to rationalize that you were not trying to do better."
  — Reverend Al Sharpton ([04:44])

• "If you're drowning in the water, if a guy is going to bring me up 2 inches rather than bring me all the way out... I'm going to go with the 2 inches."
  — Reverend Al Sharpton ([11:20])

• "You can't afford to be political if you don't have money."
  — Reverend Al Sharpton ([39:13])

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Conclusion

In this poignant episode, Reverend Al Sharpton provides a critical analysis of the current political landscape, the impact of President Trump's policies on Black communities, and the necessity for sustained economic activism. He underscores the importance of building robust economic institutions and leveraging strategic boycotts to enforce corporate responsibility. Sharpton's insights bridge historical civil rights movements with contemporary strategies, offering a roadmap for continued progress and empowerment within the Black community.

Transcript

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

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[Charlamagne Tha God]

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[Vanessa Marshall]

Welcome to Pod of Rebellion, our new Star Wars Rebels Rewatch podcast. I'm Vanessa Marshall, voice of Harrison Duella, Spectre 2. I'm Tia Sirkar. Sabine Wren, Spectre 5.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I'm Taylor Gray.

[Tia Sircar]

Ezra Bridger, Specter 6.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And I'm Jon Lee Brody, the Ghost Crew Stowaway moderator.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Each week we're gonna rewatch and discuss an episode from the series and share some fun behind the scenes stories.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Sometimes we'll be visited by special guests like Steve blume voices Zaborielio's Spectre 4 or Dante Bosco voices Jai Kell and many others.

[Vanessa Marshall]

So hang on because it's gonna ride.

[Tia Sircar]

Cue the music.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Listen to Potter Rebellion on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cheekies]

Hey, y'all, it's your girl, Cheekies. And I'm back with a brand new season of your favorite podcast, Cheekies and Chill. I'll be sharing even more personal stories with you guys, and as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Cheekies. It's going to be an exciting year and I hope that you can join me. Listen to Cheekies and chill season four on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

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[Tia Sircar]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Marshall]

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[Tia Sircar]

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[Vanessa Marshall]

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[Tia Sircar]

Very extra way of saying a podcast. Listen to Locatora Radio Season 10 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.

[DJ Envy]

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy Jess. Hilarious Charlamagne, the guy we are the breakfast club. Lauren LaRosa filling in for Jess. And we got a special guest in the building.

[Angela Yee]

Yes, indeed we have.

[DJ Envy]

Reverend Al Sharpton. Welcome, Raph.

[Tia Sircar]

Thank you. Glad to be here.

[DJ Envy]

How you feeling?

[Tia Sircar]

I'm good. I'm real good.

[Angela Yee]

You got to work out in this morning.

[Tia Sircar]

You know, every morning, seven days a week, I got to get up and do it.

[Angela Yee]

Have you. When the last time you missed one?

[Tia Sircar]

About maybe seven years ago.

[Angela Yee]

Really?

[Tia Sircar]

I don't care where I am in the world. I. You and I was in South Africa together and I got up every day and did my workout.

[Angela Yee]

Absolutely.

[DJ Envy]

Now, the last time I seen you, wherever. Now we were coming back from D.C. we on a plane together. This is right after Kamala Harris lost. Very sad, very upsetting. What do you think about the new presidency and what he's doing and all the things that that is affecting our communities? What's your thoughts?

[Tia Sircar]

I mean, I think that first of all, the only surprise I have is that everybody's surprised. He said he was gonna do everything he's doing. Tariffs, that he was coming after a dei, diversity, equity and inclusion. He said that he was going to go after his enemies or those that he felt were opposed to him. So I don't know what the shock is and I don't understand where all of the people that were saying that they didn't see the difference between Trump and the Democrats, how they have gotten longitudes now and have not come back out and said, because none of what he's doing. What are Democrats doing now? Nobody's been more challenging to the Democrats than I have all my life. But you can't act like that was the same thing. He has done a direct affront on black people and working people and no apologies. I mean, when you take down black servicemen's pitches on the Department of Defense's website, including Jackie Robinson and Meg Evers, you can't it be more intentionally offensive than that? So I think that the bad side is what he's doing. The good side is, I think it's gonna. I think it's gonna wake a lot of us up. Sometimes we need something to happen for us to understand what is really happening.

[Angela Yee]

But when you're dealing with porn disenfranchised porn disenfranchised people, how do you tell them that, you know, if they're already living in hell, how do you tell them things are going to get hotter?

[Tia Sircar]

Because they get hotter?

[Angela Yee]

I mean, but you already in hell.

[Tia Sircar]

Well, you in hell, but the heat is up in hell. And the fact is we in hell economically. Trump is now saying, I'm gonna make it worse. I'm going to use Social Security money, Medicare money. You had that in hell. I'm going to use that to balance the budget and pay for my billionaires to get a tax cut. So when we tell ourselves it can't get worse, it can get worse. When Trump say, I'm going to bring back stop and frisk, which we all Nash action that was part of helping get down, that means you're going to get thrown up against the wall again. When Trump says that I'm going to deal with getting rid of all of these sentencing rules that can help you get out of jail. So there's a big difference in doing two years and doing 20. So, yeah, you in hell. And you are now the fires in hell is being turned up. And to tell yourself to try to rationalize your inactivity does not make you smart. Because a lot of brothers and sisters saying that to me, well, we were doing bad anyway. That's trying to rationalize that you were not trying to do better. To say that A man with 34 felony convictions found guilty of sexual harassment is better than a woman who did everything right. Lawyer, attorney general, senator, went to Howard. And to give that example to your kids that nope, I'll go with the felon. Cause he got swagger. Is to make us appear like we're not serious.

[Angela Yee]

I don't think that's a fair comparison, though. And the reason I say that is because I don't think the vice president, of course, she didn't run a perfect campaign. Who does? But I think that she suffered from being a part of the Democratic brand. As opposed to her. It wasn't the fact that they chose a Donald Trump over her. They chose Donald Trump over Democrats because I feel like it was the same thing. In 2020, you had to fight to convince people to vote for Joe Biden. It was definitely the same thing. In 2016, you had to fight people to convince for Hillary Clinton. The only the last time Democrats have been cool in the eyes of the people have been 08 and 00:12.

[Tia Sircar]

Well, then why did Biden win? The reason I don't accept that Biden.

[Angela Yee]

Won a series of extraordinary circumstances. Meaning George Floyd, Covid.

[Tia Sircar]

You don't think it was extraordinary? No, no, no. George Floyd and Covid happened.

[Angela Yee]

Yeah.

[Tia Sircar]

And so did 34 felony. We saw this the only time we seen American history of man stand up in court, having to defend himself and attacking black prosecutors. He went after Alvin Bragg. He went after Tish James and the fact is that that Donald Trump was the president when George Floyd happened. I did. George Floyd's funerals led to big marches. We could not get a peep out of the White House. So that don't wash with me when you're standing there saying this man was president during COVID and told y'all to drink bleach. Was president when George Floyd and never opened his mouth other than one time walked across the street from the White House to the church and held the Bible upside down and reprimanded the protesters. We all got amnesia in two years.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

That's what happened, though.

[Tia Sircar]

Yeah.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

For a lot of people. And you've been doing this work for a really long time. I'm interested because it does feel like that's what happened. But how do you get people as emotionally charged as you are about it? Because people were emotionally charged when George Floyd was killed and when those different things were happening, which I think led to Biden, but they didn't care about the 34 charges. So how do you change that?

[Tia Sircar]

I think the way you change it is you got to be able to get people to understand the only way you going to be able to make changes, you have to sustain a movement. You know, I talk all the time about there are those of us that have tried to build organizations to sustain and then you get those that are like flash and you need them both because you need the flash to get the fire. But then that doesn't sustain it. I can tell you every you7 had a long time. I just go back the last 12 years. We saw groups after Trayvon, then they die out. And we saw groups after Michael Brown is Ferguson die out. Then we see groups on and on and all the way to George Floyd. That's why you need groups that's going to sustain itself, whether it be on outside of civil rights or whether it be the nation that's going to be there that when the smoke clear because the right wing has that. Don't forget they went from Tea Party to birtherism to Donald Trump. So they have their flash guys, but they build institution. And it led to Trump. And it's not even generational. That's the other cop out. I was talking to a guy the other night. We're getting ready for our National Action Network convention. And he was coming and he said, I used to not understand y'all, but I'm, you know, I'm next generation. I want to do this that other. But I'm work with y'all. I said, let Me ask him, how old are you? He said, I'm 43. I said, well, you ain't that young. I said, you do realize Vice President JD Vance is younger than you. He said, word. I said, stephen Miller, the architect of the project 2025 is 37 years old. This ain't about a generation, is about an agenda. Those young guys on the right were smart enough to take a 78 year old man and eat Big Macs in the middle of the night and sit on the toilet tweeting and make him president to get their agenda through. They divide us on whether you Christian, Muslim, young or we got to stop all that and look at what made them victorious. There was no separation between them. They the they are Christian church, they are radicals, they're young, they oh, that's what put Donald Trump back in.

[Angela Yee]

So where the Democrats Project 2025?

[Tia Sircar]

That's a good question.

[Angela Yee]

Why they don't have a Project 2028?

[Tia Sircar]

Why didn't have a project, they have a Project 2020? We did, we did. George Floyd, they didn't. I keep reminding people the Democratic Party didn't lead the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement challenged the Democratic Party. Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy did what King and Farmer and Fannie Lou Hamer made them do. And when we are dependent on others to do for us what we ought to be leading the charge for ourselves, we always fooling ourselves. Yeah.

[Angela Yee]

You know, listen, there's a lot of reasons I don't believe in the Democratic Party anymore. But you know, 2020, they won the election. They were in the White House for four years and that still didn't stop what we're seeing now. So how can we have faith in them to do anything? And I know you're saying, you know, you know, we can't depend on them, but you tell us to vote for them so they can go in there and stop these things from happening. But they didn't, they didn't stop the fascists from rising.

[Tia Sircar]

I think that we vote for them as the alternative to those that are openly going to do what Trump is doing now. Nobody going to say that they're the perfection. But if I'm drowning in the water, if a guy going to bring me up 2 inches rather than bring me all the way out and other guys holding my leg, bringing me down, I'm going to go with the 2 inches.

[Angela Yee]

But we did that in 2020 and.

[Tia Sircar]

It didn't stop nothing in 2020. We know we made some advancements in those four years. We were able to stop and first, we was able to deal with saving some health care. We were able to deal with infrastructure development where blacks got some contracts, we got some things done. But then it reverts back. If you look at history, it is always one step forward and one back. After slavery, we had 12 years of reconstruction, then 50 years of Jim Crow. So if we don't understand that, they going to fight back, I think the problem is a lot of us relax and say, we won now. We there now. No, the fight is just as much important when you end as when you're trying to get in.

[DJ Envy]

So where do we go from now? You know, we look at all the things that Trump is doing. Right. He said he's going to possibly run a third or fourth term. You never have to vote again.

[Tia Sircar]

Yeah, well, that's talk. Is she. Well, first of all, to get a third term, you have to change the Constitution. You've got to get two thirds of the Senate to vote for 2/3 of the House and then 2/3 of the states to ratify. That. That ain't going to happen. So. But he, what he's doing is his boys got caught on that signal, sending the text out. Yep. On that single app. And he's trying to change the conversation. He's a master at that. He knows how we all talk about is he gonna run again? Rather than talk about how the vice president, secretary of Defense, secretary of state, and all of them were on an app talking about classified stuff of attacking a building in Yemen and Trump sitting up there. How do I change the conversation? I'm going to throw out the. He's only been in three months. Why would he even be talking about what he going to do in four years? And Biden was too old. We said, right. Trump will be 82 years old in four years. I mean, as crazy as he is now, can you imagine what he going to be like at 82 years old trying to convince 2/3 of the state to bring him back in? It's all in his mind. It's a decoy to try to get away from the issues right now because they can't rationally. This is the first time you see in red states, they have an election in Wisconsin, two in Florida, where they are fighting to win those elections because even whites are now going to their town hall meetings saying, wait a minute, you mess with my Social Security, Wait a minute, you messing with my Medicare. Republican congressmen can't hold town hall meetings. So he's got to try to change the conversation, make it something else. And he's good at that.

[Angela Yee]

There's no doubt in my mind that Republicans are going to fumble the ball. You already see it happening now, right? You know, based off what you just said about what's happening at the town halls, you know, on a larger level, you see what's going on at the stock market, all of that type of stuff. But even when they fumble, I don't think Democrats have the team to recover the ball.

[Tia Sircar]

Now there you and I agree. I think the problem is that you got the wrong team players. You cannot. You cannot play a game if you're not going to play the game. And if you. They're afraid of. Trump's going to tweet, Trump's going to do this. Don't get in the ring if you're afraid to get hit.

[Angela Yee]

I agree.

[Tia Sircar]

You got to throw a blow and expect the blow to come back. And that's what I've dealt with all my. I assume they gonna come and throw blows at me because I'm throwing blows at them. People say to me all the time, remy, how do you take it? Cause I expect it. I mean, do I think I'm gonna swing at them and call them bigots and talk about what they're doing to us and they're not gonna swing back? I think a lot of us act like the folks that we're talking about are wicked. Ain't really wicked. They are really wicked, and they gonna try to do wicked stuff.

[Angela Yee]

What do we do? I feel like you should primary everybody in the Democratic Party who's not willing to fight and the leadership, like the Chuck Schumer, the Hakeem Jeffries. If y'all not willing to fight, we should be calling for them to step down, too.

[Tia Sircar]

But the only way you can run in the primary is you gotta be in the party. If you're not registered in the party, you can't primary. So I think that I agree with primary, and I agree that a lot of these people need to be challenged, but you've got to build up a base to challenge them. And that's why I talked about the temporary folks. You need them for flash, but you need your people that are going to be there, in and out, so they can build some permanent structures.

[DJ Envy]

Do you think it's crazy that you look at Trump, right, like him, love him, hate him, whatever. The fact that he gets in office and he actually shows the power that we thought other presidents should have had, especially Democrats, Like, I mean, the first day he gets on stage, he gets a pen and he's signing executive Orders left and right. I mean, his guys that's getting, that has 20 years and just in prison, 10 years in prison, pardons them immediately. And then you look at some of our Democratic presidents and you'd be like, man, they could have helped so many people for good and just never did. Just was cowardly and didn't. So how does that give the people confidence?

[Tia Sircar]

It doesn't. And that's why guys like me that would come to the Democrats and ask them to pardon people and didn't can be disappointed and say, I went to Biden and asked for certain pardons that we couldn't get.

[DJ Envy]

He pardoned the son, but I couldn't.

[Tia Sircar]

Get him to pardon Jesse Jackson's son. And, and, and who should have been pardoned and others. We went there.

[DJ Envy]

So how does that make you feel?

[Tia Sircar]

As much as you feel like I'm not getting everything I want, but I'm certainly not going to go on the other side. So we need to then put the right kind of leadership there. You don't, you don't. If you're on a team, if the quarterback or the, or the tacklers can't work, you get better team players. You don't join the other team. So that's why I'm saying there's a difference in the frustration some of us are showing and some of you express and in those that went and joined the other team, they went and supported Trump like that was an alternative. The alternative to having a head cold is not suicide.

[DJ Envy]

So how do you look at Mayor Eric Adams?

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I was about to say you decided whether you backing away from Eric Adams.

[DJ Envy]

How do you look at Mayor Eric Adams?

[Tia Sircar]

Yeah, how do I do what?

[DJ Envy]

Look at Mayor Eric Adams.

[Tia Sircar]

Look, Eric and I go way. When I started National Action Network, he was one of the founders, where he is now. I think that he has made some positions that I disagree with and I've told him that whether he made a deal with Trump or not, I don't know. But I know that there's some things in policing and all we disagree, some things that we agree with. But I think that he's in a very peculiar political position. I don't know how he can get reelected.

[Angela Yee]

So you don't think that. I'm sorry, go ahead.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I was gonna say so because Sonoro and iHeart's Mike Kultura podcast Network present the Setup, a new romantic comedy podcast starring Harvey Guillen and Christian Navarro. The Setup follows a lonely museum curator searching for love. But when the perfect man walks into his life.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Well, I Guess I'm saying I like.

[Tia Sircar]

You, you like me.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

He actually is too good to be true.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

This is a con.

[Tia Sircar]

I'm conning you to get the Delato painting.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

We could do this together.

[Tia Sircar]

To pull off this heist, they'll have to get close and jump into the deep end together. That's a huge leap, Fernando, don't you think? After you, Chulito.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

But love is the biggest risk they'll ever take.

[Tia Sircar]

Fernando's never going to love you as much as he loves this job. Chulito. That painting is ours.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Listen to the setup as part of the Mike Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Welcome to Pod of Rebellion, our new Star Wars Rebels Rewatch podcast. I'm Vanessa Marshall. Hi, I'm Tia Sircar.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I'm Taylor Gray. And I'm John Lee Brody.

[Vanessa Marshall]

But you may also know us as Harrison Spectre 2, Sabine Wren, Spectre 5.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And Ezra Bridger, Spectre 6 from Star Wars Rebels. Wait, I wasn't on Star Wars Rebels. Am I in the right place?

[Vanessa Marshall]

Absolutely. Each week we're going to rewatch and discuss an episode from the series and.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Share some fun behind the scenes stories. Sometimes we'll be visited by special guests like Steve bloom voices Zaborelio's Spectre 4, or Dante Bosco voices Jaquel and many others.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Sometimes we'll even have a lively debate.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And we'll have plenty of other fun surprises and trivia, too. Oh, and me. Well, I'm the lucky ghost crew Stowaway who gets to help moderate and guide the discussion each week. Kinda like how Kanan guided Ezra in the ways of the Force. You see what I did there?

[Vanessa Marshall]

Nicely done, John.

[Tia Sircar]

Thank.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Thanks, Tia.

[Vanessa Marshall]

So hang on, cuz. It's going to be a fun ride.

[Tia Sircar]

Cue the music.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Listen to Potter Rebellion on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cheekies]

Hey, y'all, it's your girl, Cheekies. And I'm back with a brand new season of your favorite podcast, Cheekies and Chill. I'll be sharing even more personal stories with you guys. And I know a lot of people are gonna attack me. Why are you gonna go visit your dad? Your mom wouldn't be okay with it. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, I know my mother and I know my mom had a very forgiving heart. That is my story on plastic surgery. This is my truth. I think the last time I cried like that was when I lost my mom like that. Like Yelling. I was like, no. I was like, oh. And I thought, what did I do wrong? And as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties, and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Cheekies.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

So my fiance and I have been together for 10 years. In the first two years of being together, I find out he is cheating on me, not only with women, but also with men. What should I do?

[Cheekies]

Okay, where do I start? That's not love. He doesn't love you enough. Because if he loved you, he'd be faithful. It's going to be an exciting year, and I hope that you can join me, listen to Cheekies and Chill Season four as part of the My Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tia Sircar]

Something about Mary Poppins.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Something about Mary Poppins? Exactly.

[Tia Sircar]

Oh, man, this is fun.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I'm A.J. jacobs, and I am an author and a journalist, and. And I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, the Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing.

[Tia Sircar]

French dressing.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Exactly.

[Tia Sircar]

Oh, that's good.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears.

[Vanessa Marshall]

I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is.

[Cheekies]

And now I definitely know what this is.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

This is so weird.

[Tia Sircar]

This is fun.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and lots more. Listen to the Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tia Sircar]

That's awful.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And I should have seen it coming.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Before. The conversation is that you are having a conversation about whether you're gonna back him as mayor or not again. So you have made a decision not to.

[Tia Sircar]

I don't know that he's running yet. Has he said he's running?

[DJ Envy]

He hasn't said he has the Thursday to say if he's running again.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

But if he does say right now, do you know what you would do?

[Tia Sircar]

Call me Thursday night.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I really call you. I'll really call you for that because I think for me, you will. I'm looking at it because I definitely will. I'm looking at it because you've been so vocal about him and now you're vocally like, I don't know what I'm to do. What do you want him to do? Like, what do you expect?

[Tia Sircar]

I want him to continue to fight for the things that I supported him on, like the right kind of policing in our community, like being fair to people that are getting cut out of jobs in the city of New York, like standing up to Trump on a lot of this stuff that he is agreeing with Trump on. I do not agree that we should put Haitians and people of color in a category that they can be picked up by ICE just because of what they look like. That is racial profiling. I want them to do those things.

[Angela Yee]

As a civil rights leader, do you feel like you should work with this.

[Tia Sircar]

Administration on anything with the President Trump administration? Yeah, this administration, I don't think that I have that option. Trump has made it clear he's not going to work with civil rights leaders. He tweets at least once a month against me by name because I fought him when he was here, Central Park 5. We fought him when everybody thought they were guilty. Them boys went to jail. And two of them at my rallies every week now. Cause we supported them. So I don't think that there are areas that he and I could ever work together. But even though he tried to play Democrat, he used to come to National Action Network convention. Twice he came. But there are some that can work with him. I guess they need to do that, but they need to show us the result of the work. You remember, both of you, you remember when I had access to Obama, I could come out and say, well, I got Obama to do this on that. I've not seen any black come out and say, I got Trump to do anything. In fact, the last black I saw come out of there was Omarosa, who said he's a racist. We don't even have an Omarosa in the White House now.

[Angela Yee]

Do you feel like there's enough resistance on the street?

[Tia Sircar]

No, I do not. I think that the resistance on the street, when you see one of the things we're talking about is doing a boycott against a single company and not talking about, we're going to do it 10 days, 30 day, you boycott. I grew up in Operation Breadbag. You boycott till you break them or you make them do what you want to do. You don't put a timeline because they'll just wait on you. Then it's, oh, we got 40 days. Oh, we got. You need to break things down economically. None of these companies that we're studying coming out with nan can survive a long boycott because you find out who has a margin of profit, 4 or 5%, and their consumer dollars, 30%. Come from the black community. Which means all you got to do is stop 7, 8 out of those 30 to not buy the product longer than they can operate in the red. That's how you do a boycott. That's what we're getting ready to do. So you don't want DEI diversity, equity and inclusion. Fine. Then you shouldn't have a diversified consumer base. You can't have diversity in your selling, in your sales. But you don't want diversity in the C suite. Then why are we buying from you? I can buy my stuff from somebody else. And that's what we're coming out this week on. The companies that we're going after and we're going to stay on them until we get them to turn around on this DI thing, you know, companies.

[DJ Envy]

I was gonna ask you.

[Tia Sircar]

I'm gonna announce it at the end of the convention.

[DJ Envy]

Okay.

[Angela Yee]

That's one thing.

[Tia Sircar]

That, and we're going to announce. We, you know, we march every year. Big march, a couple hundred thousand in Washington. We're going to do it somewhere else this year. I'm announcing that on, on Saturday.

[DJ Envy]

Is that due to the boycott?

[Tia Sircar]

It's going to be connected to economics. It's just economic battle. We do not have the Senate. We do not have the House. But Trump and the Senate and the House can't tell us where to spend our dollars. We ought to focus on corporate businesses. And forced them to tell their man Donald Trump what they got to back up on.

[Angela Yee]

That's the mistake that was made after George Floyd when all those corporations was, you know, proposed all that money that we never saw. I remember Reverend Jesse Jackson pressuring corporations back in the day.

[Tia Sircar]

That's right.

[Angela Yee]

To keep their promises.

[Tia Sircar]

I was his youth director. That's why I know I, I've been there. I'm not experimenting. I was there. I, I became youth director of Operation Bread Baskets, which told me when I was 13. So I grew up in this. And you don't have a timeline on boycotts and you don't stop the pressure until, first of all you have. These are the six things we want. Contracts, money in black banks. That's what we were doing. Advertising on black media. You don't even have black media no more. We would categorize it now. We don't do that anymore. And that's why we gotta bring that back. Because that worked.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

What do you mean by we don't have black media anymore?

[Tia Sircar]

We don't have enough black owned media.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Oh, gotcha.

[Tia Sircar]

We had more black owned media in 20 years ago that we have now got you.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

What did you.

[DJ Envy]

How did you feel? You know, I seen the press go at you and go out a lot of the people that Kamala Harris's campaign gave money to during the campaign. So what. What was your thoughts on that?

[Tia Sircar]

That I expected that I thought they was late. Kamala Harris gave some civil rights groups money to help get the vote out. Nonpartisan. Signed a contract with us that we could not in any way endorse candidates so that they were protected. We protect. Nobody ever asked does did you have a contract? I think she gave several groups couple million dollars. She gave National Action Network 500,000. And the tour we took, I took Central park five, two of them all over the country. Cost us more than that. We had to raise more money. So I expected them to do that. And my thing is fine, we could bring the contract. Let's go to court. Because then I'm going to ask you about all the monies Republicans was giving some of these Christian conservative churches and these groups. It would. They're going to take a shot. They are not going to mess with you unless you messing with them. Isn't it interesting you got some of the people that you referred to that got some of that money doing the George Floyd. They ain't talking about them. They ain't prosecuting them. They're going after other people. I'm talking about people that did crazy stuff with that money. None of them have you heard, got a problem, but they still beating up on us.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I had a question for you.

[Angela Yee]

You mentioned true people that got hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody say.

[Tia Sircar]

Nothing, not a dime. But I get a half million dollars on a seven hundred thousand dollar tour and all of a sudden.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

But you know what that's about though? It's because you're. You're like a figure or face that people want to move and target.

[Tia Sircar]

And I accept that. That's why I don't get mad. I don't be crying. I expect. In fact I get a little upset if they don't hit me at least once. Everybody, couple of weeks must mean I'm. I ain't got my fastball. Then Charlamagne. God be saying I done got old. So I gotta stay.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

You gotta stay ready so you don't.

[Tia Sircar]

Gotta get ready in the middle of the heat.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I had a question you mentioned like having black people standing next to Trump. We don't have anybody right now doing that. You talking about Omarosa? People compare Candace Owens to Omarosa and we're saying that she was trying to position herself that way. I know she's not the biggest fan of you, but, like, you do you think something like that would have been a help or a hurt for us if she was able to position herself the way she was trying to?

[Tia Sircar]

Who?

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Candace Owens.

[Tia Sircar]

You put Candace Owens in that category. She's not been in the White House.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

No, she hasn't. She was.

[Tia Sircar]

Sherosa was in the White House.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

People felt like she was trying to position herself that way to get there.

[Tia Sircar]

I have no idea. If she walked in right now, I wouldn't know. So I don't know this shoe.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I know that's right.

[Angela Yee]

I love what y'all do with Operation Breadbasket. I have done with Operation Breadbasket. That's something that I think that this generation needs to study a lot more.

[Tia Sircar]

When you look at, I remember with Breadbasket, we would go at McDonald's or Burger King or whatever and say, you got to have black franchises. That's how black franchise. And I can name those that had them, and those were spelled out results so you could gauge it. And that's what we got to go back to. We want our own businesses. Yes. Okay. Give us some franchise. Put money in black banks where we can loan money. When you look at the fact right here in New York City, let's use New York, for example, you have two thirds of the city of New York black and brown. Ask who is managing the funds for the taxpayers. I met with had all the mayoral candidates come to our convention. And that's one of the things I raised with Eric going, but to your thing. How do you have all of this money and none of the blacks in financial services, whether they, an asset manager, whatever, are handling a large sum of the money is our taxpayers. So let me tell you what happens. I meet with a union. A union says that 70% of my union members are black and Latino. I said, who invests their pension funds? Oh, the pension board takes care of that. Let me meet with the pension board. Pension board is all white. They lend money to developers. Those developers take that money and gentrify our community. So grandma's pension funds is the ones that are financing her own removal. We need to start thinking economic again.

[Angela Yee]

And I want to ask you, too. I know that, you know, y'all have driven a lot more traffic to Costco because Costco is somebody who stood by their DEI initiatives. What is Costco doing for the movement?

[Tia Sircar]

We want. They don't. I don't want to do nothing. For me personally, they've never donated to nothing, but I want them to Open up some Costco stores where we can own some of those stores. We can franchise some of those stores we want to see. We went and said we're going to do a buy cut to go in there and buy because they stood up for us, but now do business with us. I don't want again, for us to always be the receivers of what is considered charity. Give us parody.

[Angela Yee]

And you got the National Action Network, what is coming up this week, right.

[Tia Sircar]

Starts Wednesday.

[Angela Yee]

I know you're honoring Ms. Patti LaBelle being honored.

[Tia Sircar]

We're going to have everybody from the governor of Maryland, West Moore, who's the only black governor, to the chair of the Democratic Party. We're going to ask some hard questions. We're going to have Ben Crump is coming with a lot of the cases that we have fought. Everybody's going to be the Doctor, Michael Eric Dyson, and it's four days a week. Our convention will always have thousands because it's free. And we even had Charlemagne, the goddamn one.

[Angela Yee]

That's right. Absolutely. I'm gonna be there Wednesday. I'll be with Ms. Maddie LaBelle.

[Tia Sircar]

You know you're gonna be there. Cause of her. Not.

[Angela Yee]

He's no. Wow.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

You don't know about that.

[Tia Sircar]

Let me be real clear. He's not coming. Out of respect to me.

[Angela Yee]

That is not.

[Tia Sircar]

He's coming out with Patti LaBelle. Patty LaBelle made it clear. Charlemagne, the God is sitting with me. I'm not sitting with you, Revan. I said, okay, period.

[Angela Yee]

But they told me what it was. I'm like, oh, absolutely, I'll be there.

[Tia Sircar]

Yeah. No, he's been there for our youth Day and all that. He's done that.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

How did you. When. When asap. Rocky was going through all of the stuff that he was going through in court and you tweeted out about the black jurors that. The lack thereof. How do you decide when things like that come across your desk, what you put, like, put your. Your name on.

[Tia Sircar]

Well, first, the first law I use is that I don't ever get involved in something unless somebody involved. Ask me when he was in jail, his mother came to me and that's why I stood up for him. Then Trump helped get him back. I give Trump credit for that.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Oh, when he was over in.

[Tia Sircar]

Over there. So I knew him. So when he's on trial this time and somebody in his legal team called me and said that you notice an all white pool that they're choosing from? I said, that's wrong. He said, would you come out of here? I Said, I don't have to come out. I can tweet. And I tweeted. I wouldn't have done that without the legal team because I wouldn't have known what their legal strategy was. Anytime you see me out there, it's. Cause some of the family members of the legal team have called us. I don't chase ambulance people. You know, people. Oh, they ambulance chasers? No, we ain't ambulance chasers. We responding to calls.

[DJ Envy]

So you don't dive into cases to make sure that people are doing right by those individuals. Like you didn't. You wasn't diving into asap. You wasn't diving into Diddy unless somebody actually calls you.

[Tia Sircar]

Somebody actually called. And then we research it. For example, when George Floyd happened, we were in the middle of a pandemic. Ben Crump, who's going to be leading out, speaking.

[DJ Envy]

Yeah.

[Tia Sircar]

Criminal justice forum at the convention. He called me very mal. Did you hear about this guy in Minneapolis? I said, I saw some on the news because everybody's locked in watching this, right? He said, the family like to speak to you. I said, okay. They connected me. Would you go to Minneapolis? Would you leave some marches? Would you do the funerals? I said, have we seen the whole tape?

[Angela Yee]

Yeah.

[Tia Sircar]

And it's exactly we saw. Yeah. I said, all right, I'm down. No problem. I called Eric Garner's mother because George Floyd reminded me of Eric Garner, you know, the whole chokehold, of course. And I asked her, I said, would you go with me to Minneapolis? I'm gonna do the funeral. We're gonna do a march and we're gonna build up to go to Washington. She said, I'm down. And I said, we got one promise. Pandemic. We could not get a flight. Cause a lot of the flights was down. I called Robert Smith, the billionaire, and said, can I use your plane? He said, let me see if my pilots are working the pandemic. That's how we got to Minneapolis.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Wow.

[Tia Sircar]

And then when we got ready for the last funeral in Houston, we had to fly. A lot of the family inside was too shy to call Robert again. I called Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry sent his plane to bring their family in. But all that was based on a phone call. And right now from Trayvon Martin all the way to now from Howard Beach, 30 something years ago. All those families are at our convention. We just had Yusuf Hawkins mother at our Saturday rally. Because I stay with the families. I call them on holidays. Their kids grew up with my kids. If they get in a jam, I try to help Them out. Cause I know it'll be in the newspaper. We become family.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Does it ever get like heavy on you or like, what do you do to kind of like decompress? Because it's a lot of like death and trauma, like you're speaking at the eulogies, it breaks.

[Tia Sircar]

Bothers me a lot that I try not to think about it. I have spoke at every victim's funeral you can think of. And a lot of them we had to help pay for. Cuz you got to remember, nobody family plans on a tragedy. And we never even ask for the money back. Some of them settle for millions of dollars. Say, you don't owe me nothing. That's what we do.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Wow.

[Tia Sircar]

So, I mean, from back in the day, Sean Bell, all the way to now, I've done the funeral and artists. I was thinking, I just did Roberta Flack's eulogy two weeks ago. I did James Brown's, I did Michael Jackson's, I spoke of Aretha Franklin's, I did Etta Jane. I mean, you could do a book on a celebrity that would make me crazy if I just sat around at night thinking about it. So what I do is I get up in the morning, work out, and I listen to the Breakfast Club and I feel better.

[Angela Yee]

You just did Ms. Hazel Dukes too, right?

[Tia Sircar]

Ms. Hazel Dukes. I spoke at that funeral, but I did the eulogy for Bert. I knew Roberta since I was 13 years old. She was in Operation Breadbasket.

[Angela Yee]

Wow. Operation Breadbasket was started by Dr. Martin Luther King.

[Tia Sircar]

Right. King founded it as his economic arm of Southern Christian Leadership Conference. And Jesse became the Chicago director and then the national director. And when he became national Director, I was 13 years old, I became the youth director in New York. So he and Reverend William Jones mentored me.

[Angela Yee]

I like to study movements that were successful and you know, those movements were successful on so many different levels. What should this generation be learning from that civil rights movement in the 60s and what wasn't done in that movement that should be done now.

[Tia Sircar]

What they should learn is if the objective, you should judge people by the objective. You cannot in any way gauge people by your objective, Gauge them by theirs. And the objective was they wanted to break down apartheid, segregation and change the laws on voting. They did that. 64 voting rights act. 65 voting rights act. 64 civil rights act. They did that. So what King and then were, after they did that, then they wanted to build economic bases, Jesse. And they did that. They were able to break in the first blacks to get on boards and the first blacks that would Own a lot of franchises and Reggie Lewis and all of them, they did that. What we did not do is institutionalize those things. So from generation to generation, that continued. And then we build our own businesses. We could say what we want. I've been a different school of thought than the Nation Islam. But Elijah Muhammad built business.

[Angela Yee]

That's right.

[Tia Sircar]

Any community, you win and that's not there no more. So what we've got to now perfect is how do you pass it on in your lane? And you know, people come to me, I'd like to be the next guy in national accident. But you got to be about what we about. If something happened to the pope, you don't get a Baptist to be the new pope, you get a Catholic. So if you're not in what we believe in, you cannot be in that. But if you end that, we need to continue that. And that's what we've not done. We've seen too many just go all political and get out of the economic. You can't afford to be political if you don't have money.

[Angela Yee]

So even with what this administration is doing, rolling back a lot of things that have helped black people move forward, we can still build those institutions because we were doing it then.

[Tia Sircar]

He can't make us spend money they want. He cannot do that. And if you put the right pressure on them corporations, they can make him turn around. Why is he talking about tariffs and all that now is all economic. He is a businessman. Donald Trump has never held office in life. He went in there from business. And that's why I say we've got to have an economic strategy.

[DJ Envy]

That's right. And join them this Wednesday at nationalactionnetwork.net sign up, register. So many people are speaking. I'm looking at right now, attorney Benjamin Crump, Stacey Adams, Michael Eric Dyson, of course, Patti LaBelle is going to be honored. Charlamagne is going to be at her table. Congressman Al Green will be joining us. Dr. Jamal Bryant.

[Angela Yee]

So you having a conversation with DA Alvin Bragg?

[Tia Sircar]

Yeah, we'll have DA Alvin Bragg there. We're going to talk about a lot of the criminal justice stuff from the inside. And then Ben Crump is going to talk about it externally. It's all free. All they have to go go to nationalactionnetwork.net and they can register online. We already have several thousand, but we can handle it. But it's all free if they go in and register now.

[DJ Envy]

And that's the Sheraton New York Times Square. So definitely go register. And you gotta Come up here more often. Reverend Al.

[Tia Sircar]

All you gotta do is invite me.

[DJ Envy]

All right, say no more.

[Tia Sircar]

I had to comp Charlemagne the garden Man.

[Angela Yee]

Stop here this time. I spoke to you on the plane.

[Tia Sircar]

I said come on up. Patti LaBelle Bell had to get him to come to thinking he felt bad. He knew he's gonna see me Wednesday night. Oh, that's what he said. I better put him on.

[DJ Envy]

Can you.

[Tia Sircar]

Can you.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Can you call in? Not to cut you off. I'm sorry. But Friday morning, once you make your decision Thursday night, can you call in?

[Tia Sircar]

All right.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Yes, cuz we need to talk about that.

[Tia Sircar]

I'll call in. Okay, I'll call in. But you, I. I noticed you covered for me. I was getting ready to tell a whole sham strip.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

You can tell it, cuz I don't like him like that. So go ahead.

[Tia Sircar]

Oh, you don't?

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

Oh, no, you must. Yeah. You know what I'm saying right there?

[DJ Envy]

It's Reverend Al Sharpton. It's the Breakfast Club.

[Tia Sircar]

Good morning. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Are your ears bored?

[Tia Sircar]

Yeah.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Are you looking for a new podcast that will make you laugh, learn and say que?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah.

[Tia Sircar]

Then tune in to locatora radio season 10 today. Okay.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Now that's what I call a podcast. I'm Diosa. I'm Mala, the host of Locatora Radio, a radiophonic novella, which is just a.

[Tia Sircar]

Very extra way of saying a podcast. Listen to Locatora Radio Season 10 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Welcome to Pod of Rebellion, our new Star Wars Rebels Rewatch podcast. I'm Vanessa Marshall, voice of Harrison Duella. Spectre 2. I'm Tia Sirkar. Sabine Wren. Spectre 5.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

I'm Taylor Gray.

[Tia Sircar]

Ezra Bridger. Spec.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

And I'm Jon Librody, the Ghost Crew Stowaway moderator.

[Vanessa Marshall]

Each week we're gonna rewatch and discuss an episode from the series and share some fun behind the scenes stories.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Sometimes we'll be visited by special guests like Steve blum voices Zabarellio Spectre 4, or Dante Bosco voices Jaquell and many others.

[Vanessa Marshall]

So hang on because it's gonna be a fun ride.

[Tia Sircar]

C.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Listen to Potter Rebellion on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cheekies]

Hey, y'all, it's your girl, Cheekies. And I'm back with a brand new season of your favorite podcast, Cheekies and Chill. I'll be sharing even more personal stories with you guys, and as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties, and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Cheeky. It's going to be an exciting year, and I hope that you can join me. Listen to Cheekies and chill season four on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

45 years ago, a Virginia soul band called the Edge of Daybreak recorded their debut album Behind Bars. Record collectors consider it a masterpiece. The band's surviving members are long out of prison, but they say they have some unfinished business.

[Tia Sircar]

The Ed of Day Ra supposed to been following up by another album.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Listen to Soul incarcerated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.