EP #20 Fraternities and Teaching Black History with Mark Slade

You are about to participate in a great adventure you are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind with the emergence of global internet a human population of several billions an electronic new sphere that we are now within the shadow of this

Transcendental object at the end of time i find it a little difficult to say what the subject matter is going to be because good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome again to another episode of the midnight variety hour i’m your host as always tom joined by my main man mr adam

And we’re here today with a good friend of the show who’s making his first appearance mark how are you doing today i’m doing awesome thank you for having me thank you for coming this is uh i know bring the mic a little closer all right there we go these episodes

You’re listening to this hopefully on a friday night hopefully you stay up and listen to it right when it comes out but we’re recording this in the morning which is the first time we’ve ever done it and it feels cool i like this morning vibe for a podcast

Yeah and your voice is still a little raspy from waking up welcome to another episode um yeah you said you’d do christopher waltz this time oh christoph waltz i hope you’ve been practicing i haven’t at all but i’ll try this is oh god it’s gonna sound trash

Okay i can only do one version of christoph waltz and it’s kristoff walls from django i understand that he uses a different voice in other movies but in django he plays this german dentist from 1868 what a django takes place right after the civil war he’s a good actor

He’s an amazing actor for sure um but he he’s i have to slowly get into character he’s uh that very first scene he shows up and those slave traders they’re walking the slaves through the dark and he’s like i’m looking for a particular creature that goes by the name django

Which one of you poor devils is django it’s so good yeah and then and then the slave trader guys start getting frustrated then they’re like state your business fancy pants and he’s like i’m merely a businessman trying to acquire someone through a transaction yeah and then they’re like and then they

Like get mad and they’re like they draw on him and he goes oh very well and like he’s gonna um like scenes of any movie because they’re like well i forgot exactly what they said like who’s that stumbling around who’s that stumbling around in the dark business or prepared to get winged

That’s one of the best opening like no that’s the first line of that movie i love it it was a good movie too it’s one of my favorite tarantino tarantino speaking of is just on joe rogan i’ve watched about like 30 minutes of it so far and it’s just awesome that’s crazy that

He did rogan yeah he’s such an interesting guy and and just an iconic you know filmmaker so that’s for sure pretty amazing stuff he really is i feel like it’s cliche to say he’s my favorite director because i feel like every male between the ages of 18 and 29 says that

Quentin there but i’m sorry how could you not yeah yeah he’s just that incredible he really doesn’t miss like i don’t think he’s ever i didn’t like death proof i thought that was stupid but other than death he’s ever made yeah i mean it was just that’s its own kind

Of sub genre yeah and he likes to kind of like dive into like he he worked on those grind house movies and i thought those were stupid but i mean right everyone i guess kind of just wants to have their little fun project whatever yeah that’s definitely what it was

But it’s not the reason we’re here the reason we’re here is because we’re really excited to talk with mark mark why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself i know that adam said you went to tsu you’re currently a history teacher and uh you’ve apparently been to all 50

States which i really want to get into because that is something not a lot of people can say i hope one day i can say it for myself but why don’t you just give us like the one minute summary of just like who you are what you’re about okay well yeah

Uh mark slay you know born houston texas uh 90’s baby born february 4 1993. i met adam um humble middle school sixth grade really yeah um adam always gravitated towards black people in a good way i always knew that he was probably going to end up

With a black girl yeah i like to call adam white chocolate yeah exactly i think that was his middle name in uh middle school you know he played basketball or whatever you know where all the jays and the shoes and stuff like that so me and adam were always cool uh

Uh basically uh went to we both actually went to humble high school where your mom was the nurse my mom was a nurse i’m a middle school yeah everyone’s all in middle school together yeah yeah i mean uh renee slate that’s my mom she’d always take care of me

Then we we did two years at omaha high school together and then a school head opened up in 2010 in kingwood and uh one of our best friends had already gone there adrian he was already there and he had told us he was like hey come over here you know i’m saying this

You know k park so kate park had their first graduating class in 2010 so we were 2011. so we both went over there i didn’t know that because i knew you had switched and i didn’t know it was a brand new school yeah yeah brand new yeah it was only open a year

Before i went yeah wow that was a colby chandler and jordan quill in their class 2010. so yeah colby’s the one who’s the chef now yeah oh nice yeah he’s a celebrity chef yeah shout out to him for something putting out some people k park putting out some people for sure and uh

Me and adam just always just stayed close you know we had a certain click uh it was me adam adrian uh one of our homies named paul uh junior amadou sosa td you know people like that we always played xbox gears of war halo all this stuff yeah his original halo yeah

Really yeah back in the halo 2 days right he was that kid whenever you were playing with him you knew just don’t poke your head out like you just hide just hide and like because he’s coming for your head like the back of your hand he was like the sniper originally like

No scope and snipers like early halo 2 just like snipers yep destroying people like online like no one can hang like he’s probably one of the best halo players ever known do you still play no no and then once wasn’t your uh your cousin like yeah

What did he play he competed i don’t think he’s like a pro gamer early yeah before pro gaming was a thing yeah he wasn’t on halo his game was uh i can’t even remember what dominique used to play i know he was real good at

Some game but i think i mean he he definitely put me on the game that’s why i was a gamer today yeah dominique but gears is always fun too but you didn’t get to experience that if you didn’t have experts i grew up a playstation kid so i never

Played gears and i played halo at my friend’s house obviously but i never like got into halo games gears was a different game yeah gears was one of those games gears of war was one of those games that like kind of shattered what because it was like almost like doom but

Like it was like one of the first like pc games like third person and doom yeah mixed together obviously with the blood and the gore heads exploding and stuff like that was just like crazy and you’re just like yeah and people’s bodies are literally exploding apart whenever you shoot them

With the shotgun it was just like one gun had like a chainsaw on it yeah right this is extremely bloody game but it was like really fun it was small party so it was only like 4v4 right max so it was like small party small maps so

You had to do a lot of communicating so it’s really fun to play with friends online right so we ended up getting into like clan clan wars and stuff like that it was some fun to take that man we just took that stuff seriously it was fun but uh

Anyways yeah so we and also another thing that connects us is our family like i would go to over his family’s house all the time that they’d be cooking hanging out or just going to a pool day or something and then he would come over and so

I i became good friends with his his parents he became good friends with my mom and so that that obviously helped bonnie so it kept us close for a long time yeah and uh and now you’re freaking about to graduate as uh get your master’s yeah well i just

Started the master’s program so you went to southern texas southern university undergraduate degree yeah yeah and bachelor’s of science and then you joined omega sci-fi yeah which is another big part of your life yeah um a fourth generation at that uh it’s funny about that uh i don’t know if adam told you

We were uh at a function and one of my fraternity brothers was there and adam saw his brand on an arm and adam knew to call me instantly and he called me and i knew who i knew who he was and adam was real intrigued um about how we we we

We instantly knew each other because previously we were sitting outside chilling and um adam stays right by a bar that is owned by some fraternity you know fraternity members of you know mine and they came up to me and you know i’m saying we instantly you know i’m saying

You know greeted each other and you know acting like we already knew each other and you know adam that alerted adam and you know he was like wow so yeah and this was okay to put it in context we’re literally just sitting on my patio right and there’s a sidewalk i’m on the

First floor and people can just walk by yeah we’re just hanging out and three people come up to him we’re just hanging out on my patio like it’s not like we’re you know what i mean trying to see people but just people walking by happenstance hey uh they see his hat they see

Omega whatever like oh what’s up brother and i just talked for a minute it’s crazy i know your dad or this or that and they’re just crazy and then you’re at your current apartment yeah wow three times within a matter of 20 minutes and i was just like what is happening

Right what is going on bruh so i’m like okay what’s happening and then the next day i run into somebody else who just happens to be mark’s friend who’s also an omega the next day separate event separate thing and not no that’s why i called mark and that’s what he’s talking about there

And it was just like wild seeing the connection they immediately knew each other when i called him i was like hey here’s somebody else and so yeah it’s just a fascinating thing yeah and uh adam uh this is a great you know uh chance for me to

Explain this i’m glad that you guys are willing to listen uh because you know that’s the problem with you know people today they just don’t want to listen or just you know if people would just sit back and just listen they would understand or have a you know better understanding of of uh

Of of history so adam um i’m actually glad this happened adam you know we’re friends best friend so we joke around so he reached for my hat and he he he asked if he could wear it and i was like no and sam was like and sam was like no you can’t believe

And adam didn’t understand why which is perfectly fine you know what i’m saying he’s not he’s nev he doesn’t know anything about it or whatever you know the only thing he knows is that i’m in it or he knows that my dad is in it so which is fine so

We explained to him um that it is or we ask them a question like would you wear uh a memorabilia of maybe like islam or something like that you know would you do that or would you wear some red shoes or something and going to compton or something like

That you know what i’m saying like no you wouldn’t you wouldn’t do that because an islamic man would come up to you and probably say something to you and you and if you’re not a muslim or something like that you’re not going to know what to say and

Then they’re going to be looking at you funny you know what i’m saying so if you if you wore some red shoes in compton you know what i’m saying and you already know the consequences what can come with that because you’re not a part of you know what i’m saying that that lifestyle

Or whatever so but we are a uh christian organization um that dates back to november 17 1911 we were founded at what you call an hbcu hbcu stands for historic black college university um the history behind that while we were founded man i gotta i gotta back up

A lot this is take your time man this is what we’re here for so okay seventeen hundreds white fraternities were you know starting to get organized and founded and stuff like that so of course black people were slaves eventually you know what i’m saying 1860s okay we’re free so-called you know

What i’m saying so 1890s stuff like that eventually as your fraternity and stuff grows other people of other ethnicities are going to want to join so let’s say a black person wants to try to join this white fraternity of course not right you know what i’m

Saying so we’re going to make our own so black fraternities were founded and created upon rejection into white ones and um my fraternity is what you it’s a part of something that’s called the divine nine there’s nine fraternities and sororities and it starts at 1906 and it ends at 1963.

1906 was a fraternity alpha phi alpha they were founded at cornell university i’m not sure what their standards are or you know what their principles are next one would be um alpha kappa alpha 1908 which is a sorority they were founded at howard university which is an hbcu uh the next one

Me uh cap alpha psi january 5th 1911. they were founded at indiana university omega sci-fi november 17 1911 of course that’s the best one ever phi beta sigma uh 1914 howard university um zeta phi beta 1920 at howard university uh sigma gamma rho 1922 uh

They were at man i should know this is the battling council i should know this i think i hope they don’t beat me up for this i think they were at howard oh man i don’t know we may have to cut that out but uh and then uh 1963 iota phi theta

They were founded at morgan state university so it was a big group of black people that just wanted to you know do their own thing and have you know basically in shorter terms um protection you know i don’t know how much in depth i can go in but you can kind of

Put your head around it being black in 1911. yeah that’s right that was i was going to bring up next was just like especially for the original ones the first few that i’ve started must have been the hardest yes right you know what i’m saying so just imagine being african-american in 1911.

You know i think about that all the time so just imagine the difficulties that you know the founders right had to go through you know with you know being sprayed with you know water hoses or you know i’m saying lynch you know had the dog sticked on you you know just

Crazy things like that yeah that’s another great point that adam had brought up was about our education system so a lot of things that are not talked about and there’s a lot of things that are that are talked about that shouldn’t be talked about you know and uh i’m currently getting my

Master’s in in education administration okay because i just at prairie university so it just bothers me that the truth is just always you know what i’m saying wiped up under the rug for some reason when it comes to african americans like i never got that and it’s it it’s great that adam

You know what i’m saying people like adam and you know of course you or whatever you know are willing to listen you know white people not all white people are bad of course you know what i’m saying of course you know what i’m saying i’m my best friend

And right now like if if people would just listen and just accept the truth like like i think the problem is i think some you know the racist white people think that uh if black people would ever get into power we would do to them what was done to us

I think that’s you know i’m saying i get that feeling and that’s not the case like i guarantee you if there was some head of black people or whatever and they gave all the power to him and said what do you want to do i guarantee he would not say make white

People slaves i guarantee you wouldn’t right because that’s never what the issue has been it’s always just wanting to just be equal right you know what i’m saying like what were we talking about adam education yeah so i want to go back also i love what you just said for sure

And i can definitely vibe with that and agree with that but um going back to like the history of you know being in 1911 and because you talked about uh you’re a fifth generation college student yes which is incredible right like yeah i think yeah incredible i thought it was amazing um

And then on top of that your Dad grandfather and grand grandfather were all in omega sci-fi and so you said i think your great-grandfather was 1937 when he joined so the history there must have been an incredible and i was curious if you wanted to share the story of like of like kind of those times whenever your your

Family was going through at that time stories great grandfather i met him when i was of course i don’t remember he had a heart attack he passed away and he fell back into a fire that’s how he passed i was two years old so i really didn’t you know get to talk

To him grandfather though tell me stories all the time how it would be growing up in the 50s or even pledging or even attending an hbcu in the 50s um back then 1954 so that’s civil rights you know what i’m saying would tell me you know

You’ll you can get a dog sick on you and where where was he at it was state this was in oklahoma he’s in oklahoma yeah okay so any little thing and and this is stuff that not only he’s seen but this is stuff that was going around the country it was

Common for you know so you could just go to the you’re trying to go vote you know what i’m saying and dogs stick on you water hoses you know what i’m saying like it’s just and and and it’s crazy because my my grandfather if i ask him you know what i’m saying to

To name me you know one positive white person at that time he just couldn’t because you know every time you open the door or trying to draw on tv is black man getting hung black man burns or something like that you know what i’m saying so

I could know i couldn’t imagine how how much grandparents had to hold their tongues and oh let me ask you this do you know the term uh hole in the wall okay do you know what it means i don’t know if i know the origin now

Okay black people had to go around back to get their food in the hole in the wall that’s where that comes from okay you know what i’m saying right granny used to have uh scars on her fingertips from the cotton you know what i’m saying so she rushed

The story’s all about that man and it’s just like drinking out of uh drinking out of the same water fountains that dogs drink out of do you know what i’m saying like so i mean yeah it it was it’s crazy and i think that you know i’m definitely a product of

That today you know what i’m saying uh to make sure i do go to school and to make sure i do finish because you know i’m saying back then it was so hard just to enroll in school or you know i’m saying anything can happen to you you know so

Or just the stigma behind it like i mean you’re it’s probably rare for others to be going to school at that time yeah exactly there’s so much going on man you don’t know you don’t you don’t know what could happen i couldn’t imagine being a black man 22 years old just

Just you know walking down the streets in the 50s or 60s just anything right you know saying you know what happened to emmett till of course he wasn’t that old but you know something so similar right yeah you know i’m saying if he if he whispered if he didn’t whistle

Whatever you know what i’m saying yeah they had to do what they had to do yeah and also on the topic of history um we were talking a little bit about uh we can go into further depth about it but like the cities that were turned into lakes or destroyed or just

Mass murders of of black uh cities and the most famous one probably the black wall street and tulsa yeah and then um but also uh i want to stay on top of your family because you said your was your grandmother your great grandmother who uh pledged with oh okay yeah

I had to ask adam a question on the topic about education and i said um you’ve heard the name uh robert e lee everybody’s had yeah school named after him and you know whatever but he used to do some of the most horrific yeah horrific stuff to the slaves actually whip him or

Whatever throw you know hot coal on him and stuff like that so but kids will look up and say oh there’s a street name after this man or there’s a school name you know oh here’s the statue of him right here in the middle of the park

So a child is going to be like oh that’s a great person he you know i’m saying there’s a statue of him so he must be special so everybody knows robert lee but i asked adam i was like tell me about well i won’t even use the

Same example i mean i asked him about i said tell me about uh wilma rudolph mm-hmm you know i’m saying he was just like you know i i don’t know you know what i’m saying she was an olympic sprinter who had polio who attended tennessee state which is an hbcu you know or

Or i can ask i can ask not even i don’t have to have adam i can ask a black uh a black person tell me about uh they could tell me all about uh any rapper you know what i’m saying but i’ll be like name uh

Tell me malcolm x’s last name right or you could say oh tell me about michael jordan you know everybody knows black and white black yeah everybody can say that you know what i’m saying oh yeah you know what i’m saying tar heel north carolina you know what i’m saying it’s uh

National championship 18 with 19 i think he wanted 84 is that what he wanted when he hit that shot at georgetown i think that’s one yeah everybody can everybody got drafted yeah everybody knows that but as soon as i say oh well you know what was malcolm x’s last name you know it’s

You know do you know do i know yeah uh i don’t think so you know what i’m saying little malcolm x’s last name was little and that’s crazy because uh that’s just something so simple that’s you know what i’m saying that’s you’ll never probably see in a textbook

Right you know what i’m saying yeah i mean i probably watched documentaries and malcolm x still don’t know what i’m saying yeah yeah so i mean it’s just basically you know little facts that i think people should know or maybe not even that they should

Know so i don’t want i don’t want to come off as you know what i’m saying like like an idiot or something but like i feel like that’s stuff that should at least be in the textbooks or or like what we were talking about i mean

More in particular was was like yeah the black wall streets of the world like um because you said there’s like hundreds of those cities that’s not the home that we’re destroyed i mean those are those are like major events that happen in the black communities throughout our history that aren’t in our textbooks

If it wasn’t for the internet and people you know spreading that sort of information on the internet a fraction of the people that know about the black wall street now would not know that’s how i learned about i watched youtube videos yeah yeah and i was like

Think about that the fact that our school system is just completely neglected yeah any of that and that’s just the tip of the iceberg man in it yeah nobody know it like you know what i’m saying but you i’m surprised you when i said 1920 you said tulsa i was like wow

My dad is black okay okay so yeah so so i know i don’t look like it yeah i’m like klay thompson [ __ ] but i am okay so that’s that’s crazy how a whole town could be wiped out and nothing is said yeah so if people don’t know about that um

At least from what i remember i remember that it was like a thriving city like from what i remember hearing about it was like this thriving city where people would come from all around and like do trading business black people had their own economy right black people were economically

Prospering right they had their own i mean like literally the way wall street functions with stocks and you know just like a bustling like black people had that they were completely self-sufficient yeah and they were even ascending past the level of economy of some white folks so that’s the

Great point so yeah blacks were this is 1920. blacks were freed in in 1865 right so white people had been free they had gotten here 1607. so you had all that time 1607 let’s just say 1607 to 1920 right you had all that economic growth you see the black people they’re free

You know i’m saying you started in 1607 we started in not not even 1865 because we said like jim crow to go through right you know what i’m saying so essentially over 300 years you have that much of a head start and you see just you see black people just go this

Just this much no you know what i’m saying no we don’t we don’t like that we’re going to tear it all down yeah i never understood that yeah and then and we can even see that all the way until as recent as the black panther party and

These kind of things were like it’s just been yeah the the norm for any type of black organization to reach any kind of power to getting shut down or it’s in public enemy number one not even a um you could do it you could say with with black icon figures

Anytime they get too powerful what happens yeah yeah i’m saying mlk boom uh malcolm x boom you know what i’m saying like anytime they get too powerful or even today uh bill yeah i know he was doing all that that rape stuff you know we are weirdos

But like uh he was about to take over something i think nbc or something like that then boom you know what i’m saying but i mean i don’t know anytime anytime that’s a crazy story with accusations that were 30 years old yeah you know what i’m

Saying not saying that he didn’t do it you know what i’m saying but still like yeah this is always right when black people about to do something good or something right just take it away so yeah so i think now like um being from houston and and being able to

Live downtown houston like to see now like uh black businesses and um these small like entrepreneurs like starting doing these startups and yeah and doing some really creative and cool things i know like two vegan black restaurants that i go to fairly often i love them and i just want

To support because like i know the history and i’m like okay like this is more important than you know what i mean i feel like houston is a pretty good city as far as like stimulating black business yeah for sure so so yeah just thinking of the history of

All that and what what it means to know your history that way you can make informed decisions in your future in in the present moment right right i think it’s really important yeah yeah but um the what i was going to say i just i think greg abbott or somebody some

Stupid bill that i keep hearing about they want to get rid of i think it’s uh nine nine men of color and six women of color i think they’re trying to remove remove uh any you know context of them in the history books what do you mean he’s trying to i mean

If you google it right now you know i’m saying greg abbott you know what i’m saying science yeah it’s on some type of bill that sounds sketchy you know what i’m saying i can even actually you know what i put it on i need to know about this so i can try

And take action to fight it with the foot yeah where is this let me see yeah uh yeah mark was telling me about these uh these other towns uh there’s one in was it northern utah that is like just now lakes like where there’s just like lakes throughout the

United states yeah that were just once black towns you just would never know you’re just walking over them or swimming across and you just never know it used to be a black town okay there you go i’m guessing this is something about critical race theory yeah let’s see governor greg abbott has

Signed the controversial bill that prescribes how texan teachers can talk about current events and america’s history of racism in the classroom according to texas legislature online his signature makes texas one of a handful of states across the country that have passed such legislation which aims to ban the teaching of

Critical race theory in k-12 public schools oh god yeah let’s see president donald trump had banned federal employees from training that discusses critical race theory or white privilege yes so now not only are they not teaching black history but now they are refusing to teach anything that insinuates white people had privilege

You are not allowed to insinuate in a classroom that at one point one race tried to be greater than another race like you were not allowed to teach anything that states that races were not treated equally like anything that and i don’t know like fact check this if

You’re listening to this because i might not be wording it properly but yeah just look it up look up definition of critical okay that way we can know the exact definition and we can like talk from it because i mean yeah if that’s the case it’s absolutely ridiculous and it’s just

Flat out line and it’s not just texas man it’s other states critical race theory is an academic movement of civil rights schoolers and activists in the united states who seek to critically examine the united states law as it intersects with issues of race in the u.s and to challenge mainstream american

Liberal approaches to racial justice uh critical race theory examines social cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism in the united states and more recently the united kingdom canada and others they’re still not telling us what they’re trying to teach right that’s just telling you see that’s just

There’s bs man yeah like that’s and that’s like the garbage definition they put on the front yeah yeah like tell me what banning critical rights still doesn’t even tell me what they’re trying to do in the schools systematic racism yeah yeah and that’s that’s that’s another huge problem when we’re talking about history

And what we’re learning in our schools is that they’re government-funded they’re government textbooks and they’re obviously created by mainly white people throughout the history i mean we have textbooks that are still old like being used wasn’t that long ago uh i was in a i think one of my governmental classes

They referred to slaves as migrant workers oh my god you know so it’s that that’s how that’s that’s how that’s how stuff is to be a migrant worker you have to [ __ ] come here willingly exactly yeah that’s exactly what it is and yeah yeah what i was going to say my students uh

You know i was at a uh middle school and uh and uh you’re a middle school teacher we’ve probably glossed over yeah yeah no i mean i’m currently trying to get my teacher certification yeah you know what i’m saying so i have my own classroom it’s right now you’re currently teaching what

Special education okay so yeah but i want to do social studies but you know we do do social studies we have social studies times and that that time you know my teacher just lets me do what i want you know saying teach how i want to teach because when i want to

What i want them to know is the real truth because we can open up a textbook and talk about christopher columbus yes you know what i’m saying but he came over here and raped and built you know what i’m saying like did all this type of stuff to all these you know

All the natives and stuff like that and that’s what i talked about yes that’s not talked about you know all the other black people are just glossed over and i never i never understood that they don’t want to talk about frederick douglass or booker t washington you know what i’m saying fred hampton

Uap newton you know what i’m saying bethune cookman none of those people are mentioned you know what i’m saying at all they’ll tell you they’ll tell you that uh malcolm x was killed by black people though right they’ll say that yeah they’ll tell you that oh yeah he was he was killed by

Black people yeah they you know i’m saying that you’ll hear that you know what i’m saying but you won’t hear about his journey to mecca or you won’t hear how he changed once he converted to islam yeah and there’s uh i think something really important in this too is is

Understanding that majority of people who went to school obviously there’s select few who private or homeschooled but majority of people went to public schooling in the u.s were not taught the true history because here’s something that’s really important about history the person who’s telling the history is everything yeah whoever is telling the

Story is going to shape your perception of what happened right because they can still be telling you the same story but you can see it from a different perspective depending on who’s telling it yeah and that’s the biggest problem exactly with our textbooks today and what’s what’s being taught and the teachers and

So yeah you got to be enthused you know what i’m saying got to be enthused when it comes to history and i’ve had people tell me oh kids don’t need to know you know what i’m saying the brutality of of slavery i was like yes they do

Because i could pull up a picture i could pull up a picture right now of a black man hanging and there’s going to be some little white kids pointing and laughing i can pull that picture up and so you know what i’m saying i’ve been told oh no they don’t need to know

I was like yeah i’m going to tell them that that child that’s your age you know i’m saying at that time he thought that stuff like this was funny you know what i’m saying they have a black man hanging from a tree and yeah a little kid going like this

Yeah you look at lynching photos it’s just people smiling smiling all the time you know what i’m saying like they look like postcards yeah that’s what they look like so people are like no they put you don’t say you don’t need to tell them you know what i’m saying yeah i’ma i

I’ll tell them the the real part of how actually actually happened bro they would they would make they would make you let’s say if you were slave they would make you sleep with your mom to reproduce you know i’m saying put a bag over your head so you don’t see it make you

Have sex with your mom to reproduce you know what i’m saying like like that type of brutal stuff bro how they thought that black women couldn’t feel pain so they would operate on them without anesthetics and still to this day some black doctors feel as if black women are stronger you know what

I’m saying that’s not i think black women i think they die at a higher rate or something like that where they give birth or so there’s a statistic that you know what i’m saying i’m just like what makes you think that black women are their skin is tougher right well there’s

So many brutal stories man like i think something uh oh oh it’s a story that i’ve heard um i mean yeah just the brutality man like i just never understood you know what i’m saying okay emmett hill that’s what i was gonna talk about like i imagine like because my student

That’s what it was my students are his age you know i’m saying and they didn’t they didn’t know they didn’t know anything about it right we started talking about and i had gotten their attention when i had said um brought up the word castrate so i have all boys

And they didn’t know what they meant they didn’t know they didn’t know they weren’t paying around now we don’t know what that means mr slate we don’t know what that means i was like okay so i was like i asked some i asked one of my students like how old are you

I’m 13. i think how old was him it was him at 14. i think he was 14. i think he was 14 okay so i think he said he was 13 14 with my students so i was like okay you ever been to the store to go get

Some candy or whatever you know with you and your homie he was like yeah he was like why you know i was like okay you ever uh maybe see like a pretty woman or something like that while you’re at the store or whatever he was like yeah

He was like okay well i was like imagine you know what i’m saying you not even let’s just let’s say you you did my bad let’s say you did whistle at her you know what i’m saying so he was like okay i was like okay so imagine somebody coming in abducting you from

Your home you know what i’m saying they throw you in a truck or whatever you’re riding you’re riding around with these white men or whatever they take you to a barn and i was like so imagine they they shoot you in the head this is exactly what happens i’ve been to the

African-american museum in d.c and they have his casket in the uh in the museum so they tell the full story throw you in a barn beat you you know beat the hell out of you shoot you in the head a child a child castrated i was like so i was like y’all

Somebody tell me what castrate means and they’re like i don’t know i was like that’s when they cut your nuts off you know what i’m saying everybody in the classroom you know what what’s going on was that i was like yeah that’s exactly what happens just because of the color you’re

Scanning this happened in 1955. you know what i’m saying so in mississippi so i was like this was this was after way after slaves were free fit you know what i’m saying we were supposedly free in 1865 so we’re supposed everybody’s supposed to be equal after that

They just went and killed killed a kid just because he’s so called was you know saying whistle that a white woman or whatever beat him up castrate him tied a tied a fan to his neck and dumped his body in the river and then i even remember remember the

Killer’s name i’ll never forget dude’s name is j.w milam and i forgot the other dude’s name they’re both i mean he j.w miller had cancer it’s crazy how [ __ ] plays out plays out right karma and then imagine imagine uh them going to court and saying that they did it

Not having for any remorse that they did it and they’re saying all that in front of your mom and then they just go home yep quitted you know what i’m saying like oh man that i i wouldn’t even know how to uh function if something like that

Happened to my child and then they don’t do anything just because he’s black and then his mom wanted him to have an open casket so the world can see and he’d look do you you know the yeah yeah you know what i’m saying yeah man like what

Yeah yeah it’s crazy man and i think the the woman that you know was in question here i think has since come out and said yeah she lied about the [ __ ] yeah now how she has not had criminal actions brought against her is she [ __ ]

Yes but i mean she lived into the 2000s and so she said this on record in modern day time i mean she said this [ __ ] in like the 90s or something she admitted to that you know and the fact that nothing ever happened her you know she lied and what she lied

About was so like arbitrary and [ __ ] like it should never have resulted in what happened to emmett till but still the fact that she was willing to sit there and [ __ ] lie about it nothing happened to jw milam nothing happened to her just oh okay well thanks for telling us

Right that’s it that’s how it goes yeah and uh i mean i cannot i mean the only thing you can hope is that she was living with that thought and it probably tortured her at least you can hope i don’t know but you’re not in your head but i mean

That’s the only thing you can hope is like hopefully that like haunted her into her and maybe that’s gonna affect her in her past life but anyway like you were talking about like the stories when i read just this just knowing the actual events like knowing very specific details like

How you just described i think is crucial because we can know like the name oh emma yeah but if you don’t know like the details exactly it’s gonna be different for you than someone who does and this is when i read the people’s history of the united states by howard zinn

Okay we’ll definitely always shout out that book cause it changed my life but there’s like detailed accounts of people’s diaries writing actual events and stories of like what was happening yeah very specific detailed events and when you start to see event after event you know and the stories

After stories there’s when you know how many there are in the and you can just see the the the record the history of just saying yeah it blows your mind because they’re all dramatic they’re all insane and you’re just like these stories are incredible and they

Need to be told and people need to be hearing them but they’re not being taught and it’s just like man but that’s why i mean you got to be self-educated because the the guy we know for sure we have talked about it so many times in the show how how

Messed up our education system is so like that’s why i think it’s so important educate yourself do your history if you have a question about something google it look it up watch a youtube video on it that’s what i do and uh but it’s like

It’s just like at least you can be aware of this yeah you can be you could be self-taught but it’s just like imagine if you had let’s just say you have a thousand kids and every day they come to school and the teacher is telling them christopher columbus discover america okay so they

Let’s just say they hear that every single day okay how many of those kids out of that a thousand are going to be like let me go and research let me go you know what i’m saying exactly so you could say self-teach you know what i’m saying but

As a child that’s not your job to do that you know that’s not your child like i wasn’t doing that as a as a child you know understanding like because it’s not my it’s not my job to go yeah let me go make sure my teacher’s telling me the truth no

Fourth or fifth grader is going to do that yeah but that’s why it’s important that you’re doing it like we were talking about that you’re a fifth generation college student yeah and i was thinking i was thinking about that i was okay what could have made that happen and

You’re always talking about your your parents or your grandparents met other college students and married and had kids like that was probably really reinforced in the family so even though those kids aren’t being taught what they should be at least your parents both both of your parents are educated and can like tell

You yeah okay here’s the real story exactly because i’m sure that’s what happened with you and your parents told you hey here’s the real story yeah here’s what you should be knowing what you should be learning and be focusing on and that’s why i was like okay

I was grateful enough to have parents like that but not everybody does exactly you know what i’m saying and it’s that’s perfectly fine you know what i’m saying don’t make you better no or no worse you know what i’m saying i was just one of the blessed ones you

Know that for sure i have dad and mom you know i’m saying since day one so i feel like now what i need to do is go help the people who didn’t have that you know i’m saying who aren’t informed because i hate i i i i hate

Having you know i’m saying like not even just a black child but a child that just thinks that uh you know something simple you know in middle school christopher columbus discovered america or i’m saying like he he did this you know i’m saying he he did that but

Everything else you know i’m saying it’s just washed under the table you know and washed under the rug so that’s what i think i’m gonna come in you know what i’m saying i’m trying to get the phd in educational administration you know i’m saying so i could work

In the administration to see what is being spreaded out when it comes to history and you kind of understand yeah yeah i’m definitely gonna have a say you know what i’m saying like it’s gonna take me some time but that’s just what it is you know saying

I’m thankful enough to have my parents where my mom’s rn dad was hpd for 30 years you know so i i came you know i was saying i was always comfortable i didn’t have to worry about where my next meal was going to come from you know i’m saying i didn’t have the

The statistic black dad where he don’t show up whatever my dad’s been there since february 4 1993. you know so i had all the tools to do what i need to do you know what i’m saying so i’m going to utilize them and help you know spread the truth like

That’s why i have all these tattoos like before i was young i i i didn’t think i would ever get a tattoo but now i start when i when i started getting them my students started asking about them you know what i’m saying so so now i got

All these i got i got some portraits and i got you know i’m saying uh i got i got rosa parks i got desmond tutu quotes i got a sign that says waiting room for colored only free huey p newton africa uh malcolm x you know what i’m saying so

And they start seeing all these things and who’s desmond tutu desmond tutu all right so he was uh let me see how can i put in a similar time i would call him a author [ __ ] editor philosopher whenever he was born in south africa and he this is this is why i like

Desmond tutu because he made this analogy um if you’re i don’t even have to look down at the tattoo because i know i’ve been saying that someone i’ve been preaching it if you’re neutral in situations such as injustice then you have chosen the side of the oppressor

So just like if there was a whole bunch of hood people in here me and him the only black people in here and some dude came up here and saying oh if white people and i don’t like this and i just stay quiet and adam’s my best friend

Right that means that i agree with what they’re saying i don’t have a problem with it so you know what i’m saying so and then he made another analogy if an elephant has its if an elephant has its foot on a on the tail of a mouse and you’re

Neutral in that situation you know what i’m saying like you’re it’s not bothering me the mouse is going to think that you’re with the elephant that means that you you’re neutral in situations such as injustice so if you see black people getting slaughtered on the street you don’t say nothing about it

So what are black people going to think right you with the people who slaughter and so again if you if if you’re neutral if you’re neutral like if you’re in between if you’re neutral in situations such as injustice then you have chosen the side of the oppressor

Yeah and you know what like you can see that very clearly is like like for example when someone’s like fighting like your typical like high school fight or something and everyone just gathers gathers around to like record it or just watch it like that that’s like prime nobody doing

[ __ ] but just holding the phone out yeah and that i remember that would bugged me when i was a kid yeah there’s no reason for that i wouldn’t even want to like go and watch because like i would feel i just something to me just felt it felt like wrong like that you

Know what i mean there’s obviously something exciting about it like there’s obviously something the excitement factor but i think there’s also like the the the tribal factor like everyone wants to be grouped like in a group and like do something together like if everyone’s doing it everyone’s gonna join in

But uh that’s a perfect example too of just like seeing and it’s so prevalent today like with everyone who just has a phone and a camera and like that’s the first thing you want to do is just run up and record something like some when something bad is happening

Instead of starting that’s anything right like there’s ton of videos all over the internet of people recording something bad happening they’re recording it yeah it may be good to like get it out to the po but not doing anything mm-hmm yeah you know what i’m saying so it’s like

You got to do yeah you don’t step up or say anything like there’s been so many times i had to check people for talking bad about muslims my other best friend is a muslim junior yeah never done anything most peaceful people i’ve ever met and i get

I get radical islam i get it you know what i’m saying that’s radical though when people talk down like i had to check this one dude he was like yeah uh all the muslims do is all the muslims do is just blow stuff up

I was like uh you know what i’m saying i was like what are you talking about i was like you know explain to me i was like tell me what you know about islam see that’s another thing people open their mouths about stuff and they don’t know anything about it they

Just say [ __ ] to say it now yeah i was like so tell me i was like so tell me tell me five pillars you know what i’m saying since you know since you know what it you know what i’m saying so where where does islam come from like

What what’s the truth couldn’t say anything so i’m just like that’s that’s one thing about people they just talk and they just don’t know what they’re what this is what they’re saying so that’s one thing about me like i love checking and i’m good with confrontation on racism

I love confrontation on racism like i’ll ask you in front of whoever like if you said an ignorant statement or something like that like say it again right like louder you know so that’s why i was saying i got this tattoo because i’m definitely not neutral in situations of injustice like if if

Somebody like i said it’s a whole bunch of black people came in here and they started calling you you know i’m saying derogatory terms for white people you know hunky dish or crack or whatever you know what i’m saying i’ll check no you know what i’m saying because because that means that it’s

Okay with me and it’s not yeah yeah man i’m like no it’s not it’s not yeah it’s not how it should be yeah and that’s that’s what i love is like kind of self-policing yeah you know what i mean it’s like Because you think about like oh yeah we need police we need a military we need all these things um but you know that’s coming from an outside source for help but like if i feel like for a lot of situations i feel like they can be handled

With your family and your friends and like through your you know what i mean if it’s handled properly right and if we know how to handle it like you’re saying like if you know what to say and you know how to handle if you’re taught you’re educated on that

Then i feel like a lot of things can be resolved purely through man listen that’s something they’re talking you know in police yeah nowadays man that and see that’s crazy we used to have a police flag flying out in front of my house my dad was embarrassed and took it down um

Yeah he was like you know who served 30 years third 30 years he even made a post about it about when that derek chavin stuff happened he was like that man tore down everything that i did in 30 years in eight minutes wow embarrassed to be a police officer yeah

But and that’s not it comes down to training you know my dad i always say if you don’t want it if if you can’t walk up to a car at night by yourself on a stop like if you’re too scared to do that there’s a possibility that you may get

Shot there’s a possibility that then don’t do the job right yeah it’s not for you it’s not it’s not free if somebody is somebody out there to do it you have to be a certain type of person to be a cop you you have to have a

Certain level of resolve you have to have a certain level of you know uh you know remaining calm under pressure and if you are resolving issues by like you know you come up to someone’s window and it’s a regular traffic stop but you already have your hand on your firearm

You’re not ready that’s gonna and that’s gonna make somebody like that’s gonna yeah frighten them like you know you see all these videos of traffic stops all the time where an officer has a gun in someone’s face and they’re like stay calm it’s like how am i supposed to stay calm

When i’m looking down the barrel of a loaded gun and a person that’s screaming at me on the other end of the gun so yeah it’s the training is a huge problem there’s one thing i wanted to touch on before we jump i want to get into the policing topic

But i wanted to go back to what you were saying about you know standing up in situations where you hear you know racial ideas being shared are you here or anything negative right yeah one of the most i wanted to talk about this one of the most

Interesting and i mean it’s not unique to just me because there’s a lot of people like me but a lot of people that are biracial like myself especially people like me that are biracial but reflect more white i mean like yeah i you know i don’t really have the skin

Tone of a typical white person but my facial features are mainly you know anglo one thing that’s really unique that i’ve experienced my entire life whether it’s elementary school all the way through working as an adult is people will say [ __ ] about black people right in front of me and they don’t i’ve

Heard white people i can see their faces that i’ve worked with say [ __ ] right in front of me and then i look at them and i say something you know you know i’m i’m [ __ ] black you’re gonna just and they’re like oh yeah dude i didn’t mean it like that i don’t

I don’t even say that all the time man i’m tripping or like i’ve heard people say like like okay i worked at domino’s you know that i used to deliver pizzas while i was in college all the [ __ ] time man i would be working in the dominoes and people would come back

Like man i [ __ ] hate delivering to black people they never [ __ ] tip man [ __ ] black people are so and they would say this [ __ ] right in front of me like expecting me to like laugh along and like play along with their jokes and [ __ ] i’ve left companies i’ve moved places because of like

[ __ ] attitudes i’ve felt being shared in the the company i used to lifeguard for one of my managers used to say [ __ ] about black people at the pool while i was working there that’s why i left but like [ __ ] like that man i’ve seen this [ __ ] happen right in front of me and

People just think oh this dude doesn’t look like you know your typical black person so he must not be black i can say whatever the [ __ ] i want in front of him so if it’s like imagine the [ __ ] that you know that hasn’t even been set in front of

You just because you were in the room so that that is one of the craziest experience it’s one of the most difficult experiences of my life but i’m also the most thankful for it because i get to see like how people really are and that’s what i was going to say it’s

Like it’s almost like this cloak it’s like i have x-ray vision right it’s like i can see the way that people really are when they’re by themselves right you know it’s like a super power almost well i’ve been in the car with you know people and like we’ll be listening to

[ __ ] miscellaneous hip-hop whatever pick a song and they’ll just like you know i’ll be in the car with two other white people and someone in the song will say the n word and they just let that [ __ ] fly full force like say it with their [ __ ] chest

Max volume just shouting the n-word out the [ __ ] window you know and i’m sitting in the backseat like you know and so then i say something and then it’s like oh man you know i sometimes i just get lost in the song i don’t even realize i’m saying it dude

You know and it’s like dude i mean imagine the [ __ ] that’s not happening when i’m there yeah yeah yeah or the [ __ ] that’s happening when i’m not there i should say so i just had to touch on that while we were talking about that because that is

One of the most unique experiences that i’ve experienced over the course of my life and i feel like it’s important to talk about because not a lot of people have experience people openly disparaging against your race in front of you for sure as if you’re not there for sure so

It’s it’s a wild thing but we can get back on the police and i just had to talk about that no we can go anywhere you want to you don’t have to i mean the police thing i mean it’s just uh yeah i mean there’s training i guess man

Like there’s no reason a lot of these shootings that have happened they’re not justified there’s no reason to shoot somebody you know what i’m saying in the back or there’s no reason like my dad’s my dad told me stories all the time and he’s had to fight

He said it’s part of the job you use your hands you you know i’m saying you you will get punched you know what i’m saying like there’s been one time where he had to use his gun he said he didn’t go for the gun first he goes for his taser first you

Know what i’m saying i think it was a dude coming at him with a knife goes for the taser you know i’m saying that that doesn’t work then you go for lethal force right you know i’m saying you never want to take anybody’s life and you see people going for their gun

At a traffic traffic stop like if you’re scared to go up to a window man then you need to find another profession yeah it’s part of the job yeah yeah you know i mean black people have been killed trying to enter their own home into their own car uh laying on their

Back with their hands up like literally you know i mean like there is no situation where you are 100 safe as a black person yeah and so yeah training is a huge issue i mean relatively uh compared to other you know advanced jobs the police academy you know it’s not a

Very extensive extensive level of training you can become a cop fairly easy you don’t even need a lot of requirements either yeah and the training does not scratch the surface it’s definitely not long enough and the training is not refreshed often enough you know you go through the police

Academy but how often are you actually brushing up on your conflict resolution tactics and things like that and so yeah it’s crazy and you know people go well you know not all cops are bad and the majority of cops are good and it’s like well it’s the good cops jobs

Yeah to you know self-police those bad cops and it’s just like we we have a huge problem on our hands in this country we have a huge problem on our hands and i’m sure it was hard for your dad as a cop because i’m sure he has a lot of

Friends that are cops and i’m sure some of those cops were very like back the blue you know so i’m sure it was hard for him to maybe lose a friend or two over saying their response to all this yeah i’m sure man yeah he did his 30 years thank god he

Retired you tell me all the time how he would have to patrol by himself and he’s told me uh one dude they went to court or whatever he testified and the dude was uh stood up on the stand and actually told my dad that he was gonna kill him

If he didn’t you know what i’m saying if he if he didn’t knock me out he was like i was going i was going to kill you officer slade that’s what he told him but of course you know my dad rocked his ass [Laughter] so that i’m still here so of course that

Didn’t happen yeah man i mean another thing i think about with all of this like because when we go back to the history and then even today with police brutality uh is like the the trauma that comes with that yeah and like how that affects and we’re just talking about black culture and

Just black people in general like like i can’t imagine like the amount of trauma and i’ll there’s also a lot of research going on in this field right now and the reason why i first heard about it was uh was like passing trauma through your through your genes and through your

Dna like because what we’re seeing now is like trauma can be passed yeah and so um when you look back and you know obviously just american history everything we were talking about just like how does that affect people today man that that’s a perfect example yeah yeah it does

My dad okay have you ever i’ll just ask you this have you ever had a full run through with a with your dad or mom on what to do at a traffic stop no yeah i have i have you know what i’m saying at 16 the

Second i got my license my dad sat me down he was like this is what you do yeah this is what you absolutely do not do and that is an experience i mean like i’ve asked people that question before and they’re like no why would i have to

Yeah my dad not even because of course my dad’s a cop but yeah your dad could have been an accountant yeah and he still would everything that’s happening you know what i’m saying like he was like this is what i need you to do you’re my only son that’s what i need

You to do because apparently you know what i’m saying they out here just killing anybody so yeah i’ve had to have a my dad and mom you know what i’m saying they’ve had to my dad had to give me like a he refer he even refreshes that with me just to make

Sure that i know you know what i’m saying if you wanted he was like when you when you pull over just take your keys out and throw them on top of the car just just throw them on top of a car and put put both hands out the window and

Just let them sit right here just let it just let just just do that and whatever he wants to do after that but he was like keep your hands just right here and and i don’t i don’t think a lot of my white friends have had that conversation

You know what i’m saying like with what me and my dad yeah you know what i’m saying yeah and it’s crazy some of my other white friends their stories with the law i’m like how do y’all get let go like because i know if a black person

Did that they would like i’m talking about riding with beer totaling cars you know what i’m saying with alcohol uh getting called weeds and stuff like that i’m just like well they took they took one of my my friends in jail first and we hit a point two

Yeah i have i have a couple uh like what i had a couple of experiences where i was in a car and and um and obviously i have a lot of black friends and i was me the driver and three of my black friends one in the front two in the back right

And we would always go downtown and hang out a lot and uh i was always a driver because i had a car and i was just like more than willing to drive yeah i’ll drive whatever and uh multiple times there’s been cops pull us over and take us all out of the car

And not really ask me any questions or mind me too much but they’re all questioning and searching all my friends you know what i mean and i’m just like the [ __ ] is this and then uh and another time where we got pulled over and they didn’t this one cop followed me

This was in kingwood and one cop followed me all the way until i pulled out pulled up in front of the house i don’t know why yeah but like he was following me for a while like he was just he didn’t turn his lights on until like right before he pulled up in

Front of the house and i was like what’s going on and then um and then like i got out of the car and i i know he saw obviously there was a car full of people or you could see with your life so i know he knew that

There was people in the car and i’m pretty sure he knew they were black but um he just pulled me out of the car and talked to me to the side and just pulled me aside and he was just like you got any i think he seemed like a fairly like reasonable cop

But um he was just like i just questioned like what’s in there do you have anything in there i just told him no sir no no just kind of straight up with him he’s like all right go have a nice day he didn’t like ask for anything he’s

Just like all right have a nice night but like i think it was because like i was white obviously like he just pulled me to the side to talk to me talk to you and i was just like okay i was like well thank god they didn’t

Pull us up i’m sure we had weed in the car or something else cause like we always smoked but yeah um yeah just just experiences like that were really fascinating that were my i had one one i was uh my power had went out at

The house so i went to my friend’s house to use his wi-fi so i’m sitting in the driveway i’m sitting in the driveway doing a paper i turn behind turn my turn around there’s five cops walking up to my car with their guns drawn

They open up the door they ask me to get out of the car or whatever it turns out long story short i fit the description of somebody who violated parolees that’s what they always say oh you fit the description in the description so i got a gun drawn on me with a laptop

I’m sitting in the car i’m like writing a [ __ ] paper but i’m typing my paper and i’m like like get out of the car i’m like i’m like okay you know what i’m saying they put me in handcuffs and pat me down and i was with my my other homie too he was

Sitting there whatever we’re just sitting outside he was vaping or whatever so like they don’t they don’t uh they don’t they don’t pat him down he’s black though right i’m like so why am i the only one getting handcuffed they’re like oh yeah you’re the biggest one here

They told me that they’re like you’re the biggest one here and you admit you fit the description of somebody who violated parole right i’m like bro i’ve never even been to jail prison you know what i’m saying nothing like that but i have i’m six foot four and i had tattoos you

Know what i’m saying and you’re a black man yeah and that description has been description 63 60 black male tattoos that was the description i’m sitting there writing the paper and then they just uncover me and let me go right don’t ask me any questions don’t

Ask me you know what i’m saying like that’s let me know i didn’t even tell my dad about that crazy like gunshot like the dude was ready to go like he really thought like you should have seen how empty was oh yeah like he was he was called first of all for violating

Parole it’s not like you fit the description of a man that just killed four people violating parole and they were ready to blast you know yeah yeah they were ready to execute a death penalty because someone violated parole yeah you know yeah i’ll call you back jr yeah

I’ll hit you back but yeah like that instances like that man like that that’s happened that’s happened i don’t i can’t even i don’t i don’t even understand saying that one i was literally just doing my paper in a cop like he literally got like had his gun drawn and he’s uh

He’s uh like ready to go like finger on the trigger and everything because i’m looking at that you know i was raised by cops so i’m looking i’m like okay as soon as i see a cop open the door i’m looking first thing my eyes went to was his finger

Fingers in the trigger you know i’m saying something like i don’t have nothing in my car you know i don’t ride around with a gun or anything like that so why does he have a gun drawn on me they went in the house next door and come out with the right guy

And then drive off i was like man if i would have if i would have just flinched you know what i’m saying or if i would have been like oh no i wonder where shot me yeah probably like me of all people like you know me i don’t even

I don’t even do stuff like that like well i don’t i’m not involved in anything like that so like imagine if he would have shot me yeah in my dad’s 30 years on the force right poof oh yeah they would all lost their jobs yeah just like man

Would they have i mean like i’m sure your dad would have some some pool all right but if his dad wasn’t a cop administratively yeah you know yeah and they would have been back working you know yeah but that is good because i have other friends that i have two other friends

That had dad as dads as cops and um they would always get out of something like i know both of them got out of multiple trouble oh yeah but uh um but it was just interesting like i feel like if you’re if you’re the son of a cop like you’re going to be

Different like i don’t know there’s something to it almost like just how you’re raised but yeah i it definitely helps though i’ve gotten tickets like that one time i got in trouble for uh i think i was at uh pv undergrad days or whatever and there was a party or

Whatever and there was some weed there so the cops came and took everybody everybody everybody they put us on a holding cell right i didn’t know yeah i didn’t have uh stupid i went to court or whatever you know what i’m saying after that it just disappeared nice

Never heard about it you know so yeah you know so i was like my dad was like you know you’ll thank me later yeah yeah yeah all right so we’re we’re about an hour in i want to switch topics a little bit oh yeah good

Not to like you know no really but i wanted to definitely talk about this topic i know you did too tom cause we love travel oh yeah um uh and we love just like experiencing just different parts of the world and so you’ve got to see a good

Chunk of the world which is yeah most of northern united states so yeah you’ve been to at least 50 states right now i’ve been south 50 so that’s really fascinating yeah i think uh that also helps with education too because the more you see mm-hmm the more you know what i’m saying

You can you can i’ve been to alaska twice and there’s a whole bunch of uh you know asian people over there and they live differently and they talk differently or whatever but they’re still part of you know america you know so i think it’s if you go over there and actually

Talk to the people and understand you know what i’m saying how they live and all this type of stuff and then you won’t be you know i’m saying you shouldn’t be racist because you should just be under you should understand okay well this is the type of

Food they eat this is what they sound like because this is where they originate from right and when you start to see when you start to see how diverse and different so many people can be depending on where they live and where they come from all these things

There’s not one person who’s saying you can’t generalize anybody exactly but uh like yeah like going to a la is is is a real is a good place to that i tell people to go uh i’ve been to juneau twice get you can twice um

I just got back from hawaii no that was my third time going to hawaii is another one that people should uh experience it’s real spiritual uh they even they even have something called brown privilege over there it’s not white pill which is brown privilege and they treat i was wondering why i

Don’t know if it’s just island vibes or whatever but they treat colored people like royalty you know what i’m saying i don’t i don’t know what that is or whatever mlk had uh made a statement about how all black people need to go to hawaii for some

Reason but i forgot but travel is travel is uh it’s something that’s real important because that i believe that could stop a lot of racism too it really shouldn’t be yeah i’ve just knocked out all the the states i used to work for united airlines for six years so

I just was like well i might as well you know this could help me go on with my teaching what do you do for the airline uh ramp handling okay you know stack the bags on the planes and stuff like that so yeah i was able to just go you got a

Bunch of travel credits from the airline yeah nice yeah and i uh just wanted to see you know i was just like oh i want to go see how it is over here you know people are always talking miss you know you know people talking mess about uh

New york or whatever i’ll be like well let me go see if it’s really dirty or if it’s if it really you know has all this stereotypes that’s like the best reason to go traveling just go see go see exactly yeah so i was like let me

Go see dc let me go see the white house let me go see you know california let me go see the hippies in oregon let me go see the mormons in utah you know what i’m saying like just to get a better you know better understanding you know

Of stuff and so i can actually see it hands-on so when i teach it like it’ll i don’t it’s not like i’m gonna be reading it from a book yeah exactly the experience is the greatest teacher exactly and uh so what originally i mean obviously you said you worked at the

Airlines but what made you want to just go see everything i just wanted to go see it all like all of the us my granny took me to hawaii when i was a child and i it was just maybe just us we were in maui when we flew to honolulu then we cruised

To maui it was just me and her and my granddad just sitting on the beach over there and i was young or whatever so i didn’t really know what i was looking at but she had told me she was just like um you know make sure

You you know say when you grow up or whatever you know make sure you you you stay you stay like stick to traveling because traveling she was like it brings peace you know what i’m saying it brings you know better peace of mind or whatever you know i’m saying relaxation you know

What i’m saying and it’s just it builds connections that’s another thing and that’s now when i start traveling or whatever i’ll meet people like cool like like if if whether if i’m going out to eat or whether you know i’m saying this if it’s from xbox or

Whatever that just it just took off from right there like if i had a friend from xbox that i had that i had played with never met him before day in my life my granny always told me she was like yeah make you know build connections you

Know i’m saying that’s what travel is all about flew to boston one day the coolest dude i’ve ever met in my life or whatever and and you know one of the coolest dudes so she had always just always told me to just you know just take a chance

Really just take a chance and just take a chance and just go see you know what everything is about and just don’t believe what everybody says just go see it for yourself so that’s just how it just took off and then after that just created advice one state after another one and then

Before i knew it i hit all 50 and been to some states you know a few times over but the best one i would say would be i mean hawaii really yeah yeah is it really expensive out there yeah it’s very expensive you gotta plant it way ahead man like

Um the ticket is expensive you know which is everything when you get out there is expensive too yeah and you gotta have a car and stuff and it’s but it’s definitely worth it though that’s my i would definitely i think that’s like my my california people go

To california all the time back and forth i like to go to hawaii because i don’t like a lot of people i like to be by myself right you know and hawaii is not you know heavily populated the state’s only 60 miles long so everybody’s nice so i like it it’s

Probably the prettiest state too that in alaska in maine i was telling adam about maine too yeah go get some lobster in maine yeah yeah i definitely want to do more traveling man and uh that just inspires me like hearing his stories and other people like it um

Especially at a young age man you’re what like 26 27 how do you you say oh i’m sorry i might say it again how old are you i’m 28. okay 28 so you’re my age so yeah just seeing that you know at a young age you know you’re

Already seeing 50 states yeah i mean you still have a whole life ahead of you so it’s like um it’s just inspiration man so it’s really awesome have you ever been out of the country much oh yeah um what’s your favorite country man i’ve been to canada three times yeah

I’ve been what part of canada i’ve been to british columbia and i’ve been in toronto okay i’ve been to british columbia i like canada yeah bc is cool man bc is nice um uh what’s your name bc toronto yeah toronto is that’s the most diverse city i’ve ever seen

Really yeah more than new york yeah it’s every you could walk up to any you know colored person they could speak english french or whatever you know i’m saying you never know so i mean but yeah that uh richmond doodle uh toronto canada is my favorite i think

Yeah canada is my favorite place wow for sure i’ve never been to toronto but i i do like canada yeah bc is cool i like it yeah wow yeah i definitely want to travel more mm-hmm definitely especially now that things are getting back to normal you know it’s

Open and back you can travel a lot easier you know i think i think uh next week you’re no longer gonna have to wear a mask on an airplane i think which is great man cause i’ve i’ve flown during the pandemic and it really is not

Fun sitting there for like three and a half hours just yeah you know with your mask you can’t [ __ ] move you’re just in this little tight space and you have a mask on your face it’s not fun uh so luckily that’s that’s gonna get lifted and flying will be you know a bit

More comfortable i love flying so uh yeah i’m i’m excited to try and travel more i’m trying to go to europe next year or next summer so it’s fine yeah i want to go to europe amsterdam and take the train paris belgium yeah so that’s on my list when are you going

To africa um i got to wait i want to go with junior you know so i’m going to go with somebody that’s from there yeah so yeah junior says give him some time or whatever you know he has to save up some money or whatever so

He’s from ghana okay yeah so i’m gonna go and i have a friend oh she’s from nigeria something just go when they go because that’s a big that’s a big leap yeah knowing somebody who’s from there and being able to go with them is huge especially to another continent yes oh man

That’s far you know and i don’t do long flights my flight from hawaii was 10 hours i i bought a straight ticket there but i changed it when i got there because i didn’t want to do 10 hours is just too much so you went one it was just

I did no stops yeah i did one stop i mean no stops going there on the way back yeah i stopped in san francisco san fran yeah and i was just like man this is way better i could do five and five and five yeah but not 10 man 10 is rough

Yeah yeah imagine going to asia or somewhere you know even longer i definitely would stop in europe and then i would go yeah no straight flights [ __ ] man came and flew from here straight to taiwan and who’s like i forgot how long he said the flight was it was crazy it was like

18 hours or some wild [ __ ] like that but he said you know the way the the time change works yes when so like the way time jumps forward as he was flying back to or trying to think which time would be going which way well it goes backwards until

You get to a certain point but then you wind up yeah okay anything east is is forward so new york i don’t remember if it was when he was going to taiwan or when he was coming from taiwan back to houston but it was 18 hours in the air straight okay

And the way the time change worked so like let’s say he left on the 27th he came back on the 29th and that day of the 28th he technically spent zero part of the 28th on the ground like the way that he so he left at night

Time arrived in the morning and like that entire block of the 28th he spent so that date june 28th whatever it was he spent none of that date on the ground think about that yeah it’s [ __ ] nuts yeah i don’t know if i could do that

[ __ ] i mean i could do it maybe if i was in first class yeah but i couldn’t sit coach for 18 hours unless i had like some xanax or something you know just pass the [ __ ] out and back to that i mean like the but those flights aren’t our bigger

Jumbo jets right where like you have something more space than yours on a 747 or a triple seven and it’s it’s bigger but i mean they also put a lot of seats in there so instead of just having like three seats on one side of the plane

Three seats on the other there’s a row in the middle that has four seats and they do take care of you he said i think they served like three different actual like meals on there was like a breakfast a dinner and then another breakfast and they actually bring you a

Tray with multiple courses and [ __ ] so i mean and you know now these airplanes man they have tvs that are loaded with like a hundred movies and you can always like download the [ __ ] you want on it so it’s like really comfortable to fly now but still

Man 18 hours in a little airplane chair you know you know couldn’t do it couldn’t do it rough but he said taiwan was amazing so it’s like it’s probably worth it at the end of the day to wind up wherever you’re going yeah you know for sure

So well i was going to say one of the uh cool landmarks that that i visited nobody thinks to go the cooler places to go to are the ones that nobody goes to i think i flew into kansas city uh missouri and malcolm x was born in

Omaha nebraska and it’s crazy it made me think about this because i went to where his where his house was before it was burned down and they have a radio station that was something just like this and i think it was like the huey p newton radio or something like the ep

Newton’s bike was black panther or whatever okay um what was i saying yeah and it they had the history i actually have a picture of a picture of me standing by the location hold on i gotta show you this let me see here hold on

Here it is so you know he’s a he’s a muslim or whatever so that’s right someone showed that camera yeah that’s in that’s in nebraska or whatever somebody who’s uh watching youtube you can see mark’s picture here and uh if they want to follow you with sky man underscore slade

Yeah sky man underscore slade for you want to follow him you can see all of his pictures yeah like it’s it’s um i think that’s a cool landmark man there’s so many hidden landmarks i mean everybody loves the new yorks and the las and the miami’s like you know i get that but

There’s a lot of you know hidden gems around america you know like um fred you could take a it was a a dollar i paid a dollar for the tour of frederick douglass house that’s one dollar yeah just one dollar like there’s so much especially in dc there’s so many museums

And stuff so like it’s cool i love that’s what i’m saying i love travel and eat that’s my thing yeah yeah i love eating food from different places Yeah and if you don’t know about maine or exactly new hampshire vermont see those states vermont new hampshire man i’ll go up there in a heartbeat anytime i guarantee you no especially black people they will not go nobody ever thinks to go to new hampshire what was your experience

Of uh obviously growing up here in houston in the south and then seeing what culture like is like especially in particular black culture in in the northern states was it any different um yeah um i mean the colton that was the culture different but because like um i guess what i’m

Asking is like because what i’ve heard is from from other friends told me like when you go up north they had never met as many like black educated people that they have before oh yeah well the south is definitely not as educated yeah that’s true yeah

So they were like they were telling me like these stories of like you know yeah like pretty much any everyone i ran into the one guy was a lawyer one guy was a doctor i was this and you know just like that was just normal yeah like it just wasn’t

It’s always curious if you had any similar experiences like that i mean maybe not simulation but now that i think about it all my friends that are from up north have degrees right and they have good jobs now i think about it you know i have a friend in new hampshire

Um he went to dartmouth college i have a friend who’s you know mike williamson yeah he moved to vermont okay he’s going he’s in grad school now for the university of vermont uh yeah the north is definitely more educated you know that i think about it um

The south is yeah definitely not on the same level because like i feel like cause i also also ask a question because i feel like being in the south or like certain parts of the united states can be so much different from other parts yeah right like like obviously washington

State is going to be a completely different atmosphere than houston texas you know i mean but like but you also have like these these like spans of like obviously you have all the southern states going from like florida to texas and maybe a little bit north but then you have all the northern

States it’s like almost like this whole different it’s almost like a different country in some ways right yeah so it’s really interesting that’s crazy yes something like a different country hawaii seems that way it doesn’t even seem like it’s part of the u.s yeah i mean that’s a

Freaking island in the middle of the ocean it doesn’t it doesn’t even even though you know i’m saying the money same everything you know what i’m saying it still costs 35 cents to get four stamps all that type of stuff so yeah it doesn’t some places are legitimately different like

You know the mains and stuff like yeah new hampshire and now that i think about in vermont and connecticut you know stuff like that it’s different up there and i encourage people to go see it for sure especially a man got to go to maine yeah good seafood lobster Yeah uh i haven’t been that far up the north i mean i’ve been in new york obviously but the most like new england place i’ve probably been to is i’ve been to boston and i really loved rhode island oh providence man oh rhode island is so nice uh

Newport newport okay newport is i went there for work and i was there for two weeks and [ __ ] man i ate some of the craziest food like some of the best food but then also that’s another place where every there’s not a lot of black people in rhode island

But every black person i saw was either in a bins or like every every black person i saw up there was well to do like they were all thriving up there they were doing well they all had a nice car dress sharp as [ __ ] you know i mean i

Think you almost have to be well to do to live in newport because i mean that’s a really expensive city uh and luckily i was up there and work was paying for everything because it’s [ __ ] expensive out there yeah but i mean [ __ ] newport is gorgeous rhode island is

You think of it as just being this like tiny little state and it’s like oh it’s a small estate it’s actually a really nice place man it’s beautiful it’s that whole part of the country is just gorgeous yeah that whole the 13th that old eastern seaboard is cool to me

I’ll go back there any time yeah and it’s obviously the oldest part of the united states which has obviously the the most history there so you can see the old buildings at the oldest tavern in america i think it’s called the white horse tavern and it was open in like 1760

Something me and keegan went and had a drink in there at the oldest tavern in america so i mean yeah the level of history in that part of the country is crazy they have the oldest jewish synagogue in america is in newport rhode island i saw that too yeah

Yeah they have an old jewish cemetery there too and it’s like one of the oldest in the country it’s really amazing to see that type of [ __ ] yeah for sure really crazy the church where john f kennedy and jackie o got married is in newport i’ve seen that it’s it’s really an

Interesting place man and i wasn’t here rhode island school yeah it really is and i would have never known about any of this [ __ ] if i didn’t just go you know like the music festival i was working at was held in this old navy fort you know that was used during

Like the civil war so i’m in this old civil war navy fort and you just like everywhere you look it’s just history all those bricks have been there since the 1800s you know all those so it’s amazing it’s amazing going to older parts of the country is definitely nice and cool

Yeah and then we look at i mean it’s all relative because then when you look at like places in europe or other places the world this has been here for 500 years and you’re like oh man what’s history if you know what i mean like because we’re not the

Countries our country’s not even that old and just like whoa but yeah that’s why it’s so important my girlfriend and i we went to panama and you know we were like they have this part of uh panama and it’s like they call it uh costco viejo which is like you know the old

City of panama panama city and you’re just walking around and you see like oh you know there’s a cathedral this cathedral was built in 1398 and it’s like you can’t even just like america as we think of it today wasn’t even close to being established you know like

All that [ __ ] that happened in the 1700s 400 years before that they had all this stuff down here so awesome panama was an amazing country to visit too so anyway yeah i just love that i love like the idea of countries just being like so much older than we are like we are

Such a young nation you know it’s amazing it really is amazing i love history history is i think everyone should care more about history than they do for sure yeah so yeah running a little i gotta run here in a minute but um now i just

Wanted to say my great show yeah i really appreciate you coming on and sharing this is cool man sharing what you know man and sharing your experiences i like this a lot and you’re i mean legitimately welcome anytime you want to come back if there’s

Like if a topic pops up that you want to come on the show and discuss the good thing about this is we can record them in advance and release them whenever so it’s like we can cut an episode whatever that’s cool so heck yeah i mean i [ __ ] with this for

Sure yeah yeah it’s pretty great to be able to do this yeah appreciate it man we really appreciate it yeah anytime and uh all right so then that’s another great episode of the midnight variety hour uh until next time travel uh read up on some history and why don’t you just go [ __ ]

Download gears of war and see how you do it until next time stay safe out there in the cosmos folks peace

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