WEBVTT 00:07.442 --> 00:21.553 [SPEAKER_00]: Before I happen to this, I want to know why are we still discussing who can say the end word to people who are not black, question mark, and 2026? 00:23.694 --> 00:32.001 [SPEAKER_00]: Because blackness is a lot of things, but if you have no African American or African 00:37.446 --> 00:38.106 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start there. 00:38.126 --> 00:41.268 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking about hundreds of years ago. 00:41.288 --> 00:42.969 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking about 50 years ago. 00:42.989 --> 00:44.750 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about in your parents. 00:46.011 --> 00:56.897 [SPEAKER_00]: If one of them are not black or from my African descendant, you may not say the N word. 00:57.458 --> 01:06.083 [SPEAKER_00]: If we got pulled over in an officer, it tells all of us to get out the vehicle without knowing our background just by looking at us. 01:07.906 --> 01:23.597 [SPEAKER_00]: If you visually will not be classified as a black male or black female, more than likely, not all the time, more than likely, you are not black, okay? 01:25.038 --> 01:32.323 [SPEAKER_00]: It has to be within your DNA, be the a daddy or your mama, okay? 01:34.244 --> 01:38.307 [SPEAKER_00]: Having things that were made by black people does not make you black. 01:39.388 --> 01:42.611 [SPEAKER_00]: Eating black foods does not make you black. 01:42.931 --> 01:46.273 [SPEAKER_00]: Living in a predominantly black neighborhood does not make you black. 01:47.054 --> 01:49.596 [SPEAKER_00]: Listening to black music does not make you black. 01:51.017 --> 01:53.679 [SPEAKER_00]: Only wearing black designer does not make you black. 01:55.281 --> 01:59.384 [SPEAKER_00]: OK, growing up in the projects does not make you black. 02:01.011 --> 02:07.016 [SPEAKER_00]: because your mom was a hustler or your dad was a hustler and they had to get it how they live, does not make you black. 02:09.478 --> 02:15.423 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, because you get your haircut at the same place, most black people get their haircut, does not make you black. 02:16.103 --> 02:19.446 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you have locks in your hair, does not make you black. 02:21.788 --> 02:26.152 [SPEAKER_00]: You are not black because of who you grew up around or what you eat or how you dress. 02:28.560 --> 02:30.181 [SPEAKER_00]: I know we are beautiful people. 02:30.721 --> 02:38.125 [SPEAKER_00]: I know we have a bomb culture, but you are not black because you are merricious of it. 02:39.866 --> 02:43.548 [SPEAKER_00]: You are just... Well, round it. 02:44.188 --> 02:44.569 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay? 02:45.929 --> 02:47.150 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's get into this episode. 02:58.078 --> 03:14.994 [SPEAKER_00]: I've had so many discussions that bring this up with friends, family, um, episode beauty and black that I did in 2023 with Drake coming up black that I also did with Drake on our small series that we did. 03:15.694 --> 03:17.216 [SPEAKER_00]: We can run that back to Drake. 03:18.032 --> 03:19.954 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, talks they don't want to have. 03:20.074 --> 03:22.236 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we talked about this a little bit. 03:22.976 --> 03:30.283 [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to highlight the love of our complexions because those discussions can get complex. 03:32.064 --> 03:44.696 [SPEAKER_00]: So many other countries deal with a caste system based upon the color of your skin, India, Mexico, and even a state here, Louisiana. 03:45.740 --> 03:52.528 [SPEAKER_00]: We're allowed the prison practices are very much mirroring slavery times of black people. 03:53.149 --> 03:54.531 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not what we hear to talk about. 03:54.551 --> 04:01.620 [SPEAKER_00]: But I wanted to talk about our complexion as black people, the variety of our complexion. 04:04.295 --> 04:08.258 [SPEAKER_00]: how we can start to embrace it in a positive light. 04:08.338 --> 04:12.181 [SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of people have embraced it in the positive light. 04:12.742 --> 04:16.484 [SPEAKER_00]: I think we are all beautiful in our different complexions. 04:17.485 --> 04:25.031 [SPEAKER_00]: People have preferences, but we also have to be aware of the companies and the products who are. 04:26.256 --> 04:28.518 [SPEAKER_00]: against our complexions. 04:29.239 --> 04:37.006 [SPEAKER_00]: We have to be mindful of the media that pushes an agenda that is against our complexions. 04:37.086 --> 04:38.567 [SPEAKER_00]: And we have to teach our kids that. 04:39.128 --> 04:49.577 [SPEAKER_00]: And we have to let the older boomer people be aware of the way that they think sometimes is detrimental 04:52.242 --> 05:01.926 [SPEAKER_00]: The young people, when you speak about that, don't stay in the sun too long, you might get dark, or you should be using this cream because you don't want your skin to be dark. 05:02.586 --> 05:05.148 [SPEAKER_00]: Or do you use this soap, so your skin is not dark. 05:05.988 --> 05:08.929 [SPEAKER_00]: Why are you so against what your skin is? 05:09.710 --> 05:13.931 [SPEAKER_00]: Why are you so against your skin being a darker shade? 05:15.152 --> 05:16.953 [SPEAKER_00]: Where is that mindset coming from? 05:23.548 --> 05:28.670 [SPEAKER_00]: When you look at my sisters, my grandmother had 11 kids. 05:29.270 --> 05:32.491 [SPEAKER_00]: When you look at my sisters, they are not all the same complexion. 05:33.552 --> 05:35.172 [SPEAKER_00]: Some are lighter, some are darker. 05:36.293 --> 05:43.135 [SPEAKER_00]: Some have a like reddish, brownish skin tone, some have a very light, light skin tone. 05:43.195 --> 05:45.156 [SPEAKER_00]: Some have long hair, some don't. 05:46.237 --> 05:48.157 [SPEAKER_00]: Some have a bigger nose, some don't. 05:48.798 --> 05:49.798 [SPEAKER_00]: It's called genetics. 05:54.382 --> 05:59.286 [SPEAKER_00]: Even if you have two kids, one kid is a look more like the other parent than the other. 06:00.406 --> 06:01.988 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean the parents were different. 06:03.028 --> 06:08.052 [SPEAKER_00]: Genetically you don't get to say in what features your child is going to have more. 06:10.554 --> 06:16.218 [SPEAKER_00]: But you have to learn to love yourself regardless of how you look when you come out your mother. 06:18.435 --> 06:22.797 [SPEAKER_00]: and brace your hair and brace your skin and brace your nose and brace your lips. 06:23.157 --> 06:27.899 [SPEAKER_00]: There's so many people going under the knife because they don't like who they are. 06:28.639 --> 06:32.881 [SPEAKER_00]: Ethically, they don't like the nose that they got. 06:34.322 --> 06:35.822 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't like the lips that they got. 06:36.923 --> 06:38.824 [SPEAKER_00]: Some don't like the privates that they have. 06:40.584 --> 06:41.945 [SPEAKER_00]: Some hate their hair. 06:43.125 --> 06:44.406 [SPEAKER_00]: Some love their hair. 06:45.074 --> 06:50.478 [SPEAKER_00]: Some people hate the fact that people of a black background love their hair. 06:51.599 --> 06:57.624 [SPEAKER_00]: We have so many corporations who are against the way your hair naturally grows out your head because you are black. 07:00.506 --> 07:04.209 [SPEAKER_00]: They will never tell another ethnicity at a job. 07:05.090 --> 07:06.791 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't have your hair distraint. 07:08.172 --> 07:09.693 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't like your hair wavy. 07:17.542 --> 07:18.824 [SPEAKER_00]: So that's what I'm talking about today. 07:20.107 --> 07:22.972 [SPEAKER_00]: And if you've got a field trigger, you might want to skip this. 07:23.152 --> 07:24.454 [SPEAKER_00]: But that's what I'm talking about today. 07:25.837 --> 07:26.839 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome as she gets a pod. 07:29.908 --> 07:52.925 [SPEAKER_00]: People who are black have a complexion that might be darker brown to a light light like caramel color okay sometimes a light beige color and both of their parents are very much black is called genetics okay but we are beautiful because there is so many shades of us we create more beautiful people when we procreate 07:54.188 --> 07:58.230 [SPEAKER_00]: We have an array of backgrounds when it comes to our people. 07:58.850 --> 08:05.652 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people try to shame people who are black or darker than most as if it's a bad thing. 08:05.672 --> 08:11.674 [SPEAKER_00]: I think someone with a super, super dark skin tone, they're beautiful. 08:11.815 --> 08:16.576 [SPEAKER_00]: I think a person with a light skin tone and freckles are beautiful. 08:16.596 --> 08:20.998 [SPEAKER_00]: You know how many people are trying to put fake freckles on their face with makeup? 08:22.072 --> 08:30.079 [SPEAKER_00]: or go to a cosmetologist's office and get fake freckles put on their skin, tattooed on their skin. 08:30.099 --> 08:34.042 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why it's so important for you to love you. 08:35.003 --> 08:42.410 [SPEAKER_00]: Love your complexion, you're not too dark, you're not too light, you're not too brown, you're not brown enough, you're good. 08:44.231 --> 08:48.255 [SPEAKER_00]: Learn how to take care of your skin, learn how to love your skin. 08:50.340 --> 08:52.381 [SPEAKER_00]: Stop using these bleaching creams. 08:52.461 --> 08:54.281 [SPEAKER_00]: Stop using these bleaching soaks. 08:54.801 --> 08:56.722 [SPEAKER_00]: Look at the ingredients and things. 08:58.263 --> 09:05.865 [SPEAKER_00]: Just because you want a lighter skin tone doesn't mean you put in makeup that is five shades lighter than your skin tone is gonna look good because that's what you want. 09:05.925 --> 09:06.245 [SPEAKER_00]: No. 09:09.846 --> 09:11.567 [SPEAKER_00]: Be okay with your blackness. 09:11.607 --> 09:12.887 [SPEAKER_00]: Be okay with your skin. 09:13.387 --> 09:14.948 [SPEAKER_00]: Be okay with your complexion. 09:16.450 --> 09:20.412 [SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't feel no way, don't let nobody make you feel bad about your complexion. 09:23.233 --> 09:34.017 [SPEAKER_00]: We are all visually beautiful, we are all talented and our skin tells a story. 09:36.278 --> 09:42.661 [SPEAKER_00]: So when you disturb your skin or hate your skin that you're in, you're interrupting 09:47.080 --> 09:52.404 [SPEAKER_00]: Even in other cultures and other countries, they have caste systems. 09:53.365 --> 10:13.639 [SPEAKER_00]: And India, they have a caste system that defines your job, that you can have where you can live, you know, who can marry you what your social position is gonna be in society, what you can eat, where you can go, and it's not decent. 10:15.698 --> 10:22.220 [SPEAKER_00]: If people don't treat you nice, people don't talk to you a nice, and that never changes. 10:22.260 --> 10:26.361 [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing that you can do to get out that cast system based upon your skin tone. 10:27.601 --> 10:35.683 [SPEAKER_00]: There's even tears to the cast system, and if you want to know what that is, a little bit more, go do your Google, go look it up, go research it. 10:41.652 --> 10:45.994 [SPEAKER_00]: This mindset of lighter being better, you can define in different cultures. 10:48.255 --> 10:55.297 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, when it comes to us, the question of where you're from might come up. 10:56.198 --> 11:03.180 [SPEAKER_00]: And I've had this back and forth with a lot of people about when somebody actually were you from. 11:05.901 --> 11:07.222 [SPEAKER_00]: Some people get really upset. 11:08.051 --> 11:11.676 [SPEAKER_00]: and some people honestly tell them their background if they know it. 11:12.638 --> 11:22.032 [SPEAKER_00]: To me, it's always like yikes, like how is this gonna be taken because foreigners love to ex people where people are from, right? 11:23.345 --> 11:32.492 [SPEAKER_00]: It's about how you do it, because some people will ask you where you from or where your people are from in a condescending way. 11:32.932 --> 11:47.943 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think, while I run off, I think that's the part that people get irritated with is how dare you come from another country, standing here in front of my face trying to check me on where I'm from or if I know where my people are from. 11:48.424 --> 11:51.306 [SPEAKER_00]: And the reality is a lot of black Americans 11:53.597 --> 11:56.479 [SPEAKER_00]: historical background on where there are people are from. 11:57.280 --> 12:05.726 [SPEAKER_00]: Some black Americans know decades back where their family is from. 12:06.486 --> 12:10.089 [SPEAKER_00]: Some just know like, I've always been in Detroit. 12:10.469 --> 12:12.151 [SPEAKER_00]: All my family has been in Detroit. 12:12.171 --> 12:13.452 [SPEAKER_00]: My great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. 12:13.712 --> 12:19.356 [SPEAKER_00]: Detroit, you know, my great-great parents have always been in California. 12:19.516 --> 12:20.697 [SPEAKER_00]: All I know is California. 12:22.818 --> 12:29.459 [SPEAKER_00]: And as a foreigner, you can't take that as a knock to them, not knowing there are people from another country. 12:29.479 --> 12:31.180 [SPEAKER_00]: This is where their people are from. 12:32.100 --> 12:35.201 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's out of respect that you have to be able to check yourself. 12:36.401 --> 12:45.923 [SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of people ask you where you from, as if you don't belong here, and that being the intention to make you feel other than. 12:46.827 --> 12:57.473 [SPEAKER_00]: Versus when I ask people where they from or do you have any family from x, y, and z, that softens the question, right? 12:58.793 --> 13:01.355 [SPEAKER_00]: You'd look like a mixture of this ethnicity. 13:01.395 --> 13:03.496 [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any people in your family from here? 13:04.575 --> 13:12.685 [SPEAKER_00]: something feature-wise or something in their accent may tell them that they might not be 100% American and I'll ask that. 13:13.165 --> 13:22.216 [SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of foreigners will ask Americans where they are from in a condescending way and that's what these like a stale taste in people's mouths. 13:22.276 --> 13:23.458 [SPEAKER_00]: So be mindful with that. 13:27.107 --> 13:50.468 [SPEAKER_00]: And I can't have this conversation and not talk about the separation that black people feel and often discuss among other black people who may come from the countries who may come from other sides of this country. 13:51.496 --> 14:00.966 [SPEAKER_00]: The reality is, when it comes to treatment and decency and racism, we're all seeing the same. 14:02.467 --> 14:09.295 [SPEAKER_00]: When someone looks at me, they don't see a Jamaican woman versus they see my kids who are American. 14:09.315 --> 14:11.377 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't see any difference. 14:11.997 --> 14:12.658 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't see 14:15.923 --> 14:23.008 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's say, I'm in a grocery store, who's a black, and they're like, there's a New Yorker in the grocery store. 14:23.048 --> 14:25.269 [SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're all seeing the same way. 14:25.990 --> 14:31.213 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't care if you came off a plane from Africa yesterday. 14:31.354 --> 14:40.640 [SPEAKER_00]: We're all seeing and treated with the same disrespect and lesser than added to compare to other ethnicities here, okay? 14:41.104 --> 14:46.005 [SPEAKER_00]: And some of us have less trust in people due to our own experiences with people. 14:47.465 --> 14:49.086 [SPEAKER_00]: We shouldn't have trusted. 14:50.246 --> 15:00.948 [SPEAKER_00]: So when people say, you know, like, people don't trust each other, don't say it like we didn't never had a reason to not do it. 15:01.708 --> 15:04.409 [SPEAKER_00]: But there are a lot of people who do trust each other. 15:12.452 --> 15:26.921 [SPEAKER_00]: And we face oftentimes in different states in different cities, higher economic barriers that limit us on how we can show up for other people, socially, we all have different opinions. 15:28.001 --> 15:29.723 [SPEAKER_00]: And we all want to be heard the same. 15:30.763 --> 15:33.325 [SPEAKER_00]: And the reality is we can build. 15:33.845 --> 15:35.666 [SPEAKER_00]: Reality is we have build. 15:37.427 --> 15:39.609 [SPEAKER_00]: We had the Black Wall Street. 15:42.465 --> 15:45.106 [SPEAKER_00]: Georgia at one time, and that was flooded. 15:46.066 --> 15:50.027 [SPEAKER_00]: Black Wall Street was lit on fire by haters. 15:50.707 --> 16:03.331 [SPEAKER_00]: The eviction of Black people out of Santa揯 Village, which now became central park that everybody in New York wants to visit all this time, that was where our people were. 16:04.931 --> 16:05.812 [SPEAKER_00]: And then we had like 16:12.459 --> 16:24.571 [SPEAKER_00]: But we have now, and we have now time in space to build community with different podcasts who are bringing like-minded people together in different cities. 16:25.151 --> 16:34.701 [SPEAKER_00]: We have book clubs, we have community places where we can become members of that and use each other's resources. 16:34.721 --> 16:35.922 [SPEAKER_00]: So there are so many, 16:36.715 --> 16:42.858 [SPEAKER_00]: pockets and places where we can build as black people is not limited, like people like to make it seem. 16:42.878 --> 16:45.400 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really about your intentions. 16:46.120 --> 16:47.481 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really about speaking up. 16:47.561 --> 16:50.202 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really about having conversations with the right people. 16:50.723 --> 16:55.745 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really about letting yourself in your resources be known to the public. 16:56.166 --> 16:57.246 [SPEAKER_00]: We have social media. 16:58.727 --> 17:03.850 [SPEAKER_00]: We have different type of marketing that we can push. 17:05.663 --> 17:11.305 [SPEAKER_00]: We have merch that we create, we have YouTube, okay? 17:12.145 --> 17:14.806 [SPEAKER_00]: As all about your intentions of what you want to do with it. 17:15.206 --> 17:20.448 [SPEAKER_00]: So build your community, but don't get caught up in the complexion wars. 17:20.488 --> 17:21.368 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's dumb. 17:21.388 --> 17:27.650 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that's very dumb and redundant and old and corny and crusty. 17:30.271 --> 17:34.312 [SPEAKER_00]: Got to elevate that mindset for us and the babies. 17:37.148 --> 17:37.437 [SPEAKER_00]: Bye.