Jay-Z, Target, Protests & Partnerships

[00:00:00]Hey, hey, hey.

[00:00:40]>> [music] >> Hey, hey, hey.

[00:02:12]What is going on family? How is everybody doing? I hope you all are having a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful day. Absolutely wonderful. I hope you're having a wonderful, wonderful day. Listen, we just got a little stuff. We just got a little stuff that we got to talk about and hopefully hopefully hopefully hopefully it don't take no whole lot of time, right? Hopefully we can get through it.

[00:02:40]Now listen, anybody who comes in later, if you are not one of the regulars here, if you are not one of the regulars, I need you to please get some kind of libation. Get your emotions together because I know sometimes what happens with celebrities is people get very emotional. You can have your celebrity. You can enjoy your celebrity.

[00:03:07]You can absolutely jiggle who? Jiggle what? Whatever you want to do, you can do it. I'm not telling you that you can't watch Jay-Z on the thing that you can. I'm not telling you that. You can do whatever you want to do.

[00:03:24]You can absolutely do whatever you want to do. If you want to go watch it, you can separate the celebrity from the person. You can do that. But please, please avoid getting emotional and please remember that even if you grew up listening to somebody's music that you don't know these people. You don't know this man, right? So, I want you to keep that in mind as we have this conversation that you don't know him. You would know him from a can of paint. He don't know you from a can of paint.

[00:03:53]Now, for those of you all who don't know, Jay-Z had some a couple of concerts, I believe, and at one of them he mentioned Target and he started talking something about boycots and I almost missed it because my timeline is all politics. So, I almost missed it.

[00:04:18]I almost missed it. But then I didn't miss it. Then I saw it on Instagram and I said, "What is he talking about?"

[00:04:25]And let me tell you something before we even get started. I'm gonna start off with the end of the show at the beginning because it's annoying me and I'm going to be mad if I forget it cuz sometimes I turn this thing off and I'm mad because dog I forgot something. God doo.

[00:04:38]The problem I have with my community right now is that we truly seem to hate people who sacrifice for us and on our behalf, but we love people who get rich off of us. It seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, it seems to me that you can criticize Martin Luther King and you can say that I I think segregation, I think integration was the worst thing ever happened to us. You can have that barbershop talk all day, but you say something about Jay-Z and oh Lord, we got to have a fight. Why? You have to ask yourself why. And why is it so much easier for you to criticize a man who got shot, assassinated on your behalf, but you won't criticize a man or you have problem with criticism of a man who is just getting enriched by you.

[00:05:31]And I don't even care about if he's getting enriched by his product that he's selling. I'm talking about how he's negotiating and he's moving. He always seems to try to move protest to partnership.

[00:05:44]Well, why is that a problem? Well, I'll tell you why it's a problem. I'm going tell you why. Just sit still. Ain't no need to get all antsy yet. We ain't got there yet. But let me just show you something.

[00:05:55]Don't get ahead of yourselves.

[00:05:58]I just want you to remember when there was no money involved in 2017, Jay-Z was in a Kaepernick shirt, right?

[00:06:07]Just understand the evolution because somewhere in this thing, Jay-Z says, "I'm the free one." In his little freestyle, he says, "I'm the free one.

[00:06:14]I'm the one that can't do nothing with.

[00:06:16]No, you're the one who can be bought.

[00:06:18]That's the way I see it. You're the one who can be bought because when money comes into play, all of a sudden things change and everything changes and all of a sudden we got to we got to we got to move past kneeling and we got to do all that kind of stuff. When money comes into play, I don't view you as you viewed yourself in that freestyle. And we're going to get to the lyrics in a minute, right?

[00:06:39]But it seems to me that Jay-Z is always the person who listen Dog will always holler.

[00:06:46]He will always holler. You seem to me to be the one who can be bought and the easiest thing in the world. You don't seem to be a free man. I don't see a free man when I see you. I don't see a free man when you come in. And she said, "Well, people say what's wrong with stopping kneeling?" Because you never negotiate. That's why that's why people don't understand. You never negotiate.

[00:07:06]You never take the pressure off of somebody while you're negotiating. That is part of it. So you don't stop kneeling to negotiate. That's the first thing. That's not how this works. Unless unless you are in this thing to make a dollar. If you are in this thing to make a dollar, you want to take the pressure off. That is part of the exchange that you're making to make money off the NFL.

[00:07:27]So when I go and listen to this stuff, this little stupid jiba jabber from whatever it was, when was it this week? I don't even know when it happened. I just know when I saw it. I was doing other things.

[00:07:41]Right.

[00:07:44]I was doing other things. I don't know.

[00:07:45]Hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't already done so. [laughter] He told us we move past kneeling.

[00:07:54]Remember that.

[00:07:58]It's interesting.

[00:08:00]It's interesting. So many things about Jay-Z are interesting. Y'all be loving the man who wanted to build a casino.

[00:08:06]You love the man who wanted to to bring crypto to Marcy projects as if that was going to do something. You love these people.

[00:08:15]You don't love the target activists. And listen, this is what I said. Y'all know I got involved I got involved in a fight with an idiot the other day. Yesterday, I think because I said, "Why? Why? Why is he even mentioning this?" See, some things don't even need to be mentioned. What nobody even talking about that no more?

[00:08:32]Wasn't nobody even talking about your target and whether or not it was a partnership. Angela Rice started talking about she shouldn't even have talking about it. Y'all don't even know how that y'all don't even understand media.

[00:08:40]Imagine being in media so long and not even understanding media. Y'all didn't even have to talk about this. This had become a non story. But you decided to make it a story. Both Angela Ry and Jay-Z and Angela Ry, you were wrong when you said, "Well, I don't." It wasn't He wasn't trying to do nothing. No, he's he he he pooped all over partnerships. I mean, boy, he pooped all over um boycots when he tried to do that little thing.

[00:09:00]when he tried to do that little slick stuff where you you with Microsoft and you were he pooped all over any kind of boycott. He basically said, "Hey, boycott don't matter." And the reason that I have not said anything negative about this boycott of Target is because listen, I can't stand DEI. Y'all know what how I feel about it. I believe it replaced affirmative action and the main beneficiaries of a lot of this stuff be white women. Y'all know I don't like it.

[00:09:23]But in this political climate where everything is being torn apart, right? In this political climate that is so hostile to us, to [ __ ] right now, in this climate, I am not going to do harm to people who are trying to salvage what they can if they have decided on a strategy and a tactic. That's not me.

[00:09:45]I have had people ask me, "Hey, Eva, I know how you feel about some a boycott sometimes, but can you just leave this one alone?" Sure, because I put the collective ahead of the individual. If you're trying to salvage something in this moment and bring pressure to bear to target, I'mma leave it alone because I know this is an extremely hostile moment.

[00:10:08]Right? That's what I'm going to do.

[00:10:09]That's not what Jay-Z did. He could have left us alone. Nobody talking about this. Oh, but don't you know? Don't you know, ladies and gentlemen, pride will get you to talking faster than anything.

[00:10:19]Remember what way back when? Remember, let's go back to him talking about uh uh we time to stop kneeling. Well, he didn't. He didn't. You didn't start kneeling. You can't stop something you didn't start, can you?

[00:10:31]But people bought into it. Even though Kaepernick during that time was still telling people, "Hey, I'm proud of the people who are still kneeling." Even though Kaepernick didn't have a job no more, people were still Jay-Z was still negotiating for himself on behalf of himself to enrich himself. Now, now nobody said, "Hey, you double cross."

[00:11:03]No, no, no, no, no. There's nothing to be said bad about Jay-Z. Go say bad some something bad about King. Don't say nothing bad about about uh uh Jay-Z. You can't do that, Evette.

[00:11:12]You can't do that to the man who tried to build a casino. You can't do that to the man who who partly owned a part of the Nets and said it was going to bring jobs that it didn't bring. You can't do that to the man who tried to bring crypto.

[00:11:23]I'm perfectly fine if Jay-Z would just do his thing because it becomes apparent to us that you're always involved in things. When you get involved in politics, you're always involved in politics to move politics to partnerships to partnerships that involve you and enrich you. And I see you. The problem I have is that I see you.

[00:11:46]He there's no exclusive.

[00:11:48]Y'all shopping. Y'all shopping at Amazon. Y'all shopping at Walmart. You What did he say? You picking and choosing.

[00:12:01][sighs] You you you you would have done better just to put out a statement. But y'all, let me let me just put a little bit of this up. They say I sold out. Yeah. Sold out three nights. I sold out Yankee Stadium. I am a target. Aim. Don't miss that target. No exclusive. The only thing what Apple and Walmart did. You could just put out a statement said this is not an exclusive. If that's what it was, that's what it was or what it wasn't. Who knows? You shopping at Amazon or you boycotting. You posted on Instagram. That's meta. Y'all know Google owns YouTube. Oh, no. No [ __ ] Sherlock.

[00:12:37]I'm shocked. You picking and choosing the politician. I don't listen to Twitter activist. They running out of characters. They had to bring Cap back up. No, they're bringing Cap back up because it's a pattern. People are bringing Kaepernick back up because it's a pattern because what you did in that little freestyle which wasn't which wasn't very good. What you did in that little freestyle was basically say understand he could have just left it if people say it was a exclusive. It wasn't exclusive just be done. He could have been done right there. I want you to understand that he could have left it right there and everything would have been fine.

[00:13:14]But he had to take it and basically say, "Hey, and I want to make sure y'all understand this.

[00:13:22]While people are boycotting, I have my criticisms of whether boycots can work."

[00:13:27]Now, you all can go back and watch the old videos, but while people are boycotting, first we had Jamal Bryant come out and he said what he said, and now we have Jay-Z. Let me tell you something. White Capital has a bag full of negro tools that it pulls out and it's going to find one that work. But what he really said in that moment is you can't these things don't work.

[00:13:47]You're going to end up in business with somebody. You're a hypocrite because you're on Instagram or you're on Google or you're on YouTube. So y'all are all hypocrites anyway. So he's basically saying, "Hey, you're talking about boycotting. You doing this with this one, but this one over here and this white person over here and this white company over here. So you just a hypocrite. So basically you're a hypocrite. So what are you doing? You're not boycotting Walmart. You're not boycotting Meta. You on YouTube don't know YouTube is owned by uh uh Google.

[00:14:11]you know, so there's nothing you can do.

[00:14:18]Please stay there for a moment. I don't want you to rush past that point.

[00:14:23]He says, "You're picking and choosing.

[00:14:26]You're being hypocritical because all of these companies are white companies and they've done things and and they're not doing DEI or whatever and you are picking and choosing. So those of you all who are critical with me of of of whatever relationship I had with Walmart are picking and choosing." Understand?

[00:14:41]He didn't have to say that. He could have just said, "Listen, this was not a partnership. This is the same deal I have with everybody. This is not a partnership. The thing that people have accused me on of is wrong." And he could have been done with it. He did not have to take it further and say that you all are hypocritical and you're picking and choosing because now people people who are slower than us will say, "Well, maybe is picking and choosing.

[00:15:04]Maybe you know, I don't know. Maybe you know, we need to uh uh back away from this. We need to back away from this."

[00:15:09]And this is a part of a pattern. I'm going to show you first of all that this is stupid because every kind of boycott has been picking and choosing. Jay-Z, pick up a book or just don't talk about politics.

[00:15:21]I would rather not hear your voice talk about boycotting. Just say you didn't do it. Just say this is not what happened and walk away. But you're arrogant and people have made you be arrogant. People have helped you into your arrogance. You believe you know what you're talking about and people walked away like, "Hey, okay, that's kind of deep what he did.

[00:15:35]He did all right right there.

[00:15:39]No, he didn't. This is a part of a pattern. Jay-Z always puts himself in a place to enrich himself, right? Even when he talked about Kaepernick in there, Kaepernick got a non-disparagement. His people say that's not true. And why would you bring that man up again? That man don't have a job.

[00:15:57]He didn't I mean, he didn't he didn't he they did a deal, but he did not get to play football again. He got he stayed black ball and you did not care. And if you have some information, Angela R.

[00:16:05]Like I know I know some people and I know he put it out. I don't want to hear nobody tell me what Jay-Z did behind the scenes. Shut up. Either put it out, put out the paperwork and the receipts or you can shut up about it. Nobody really cares. Nobody wants to hear you lie.

[00:16:18]Like I know I just can't talk about it.

[00:16:20]I know I just can't say.

[00:16:23]But this is a part of a pattern. I want to point out the pattern where he comes into these things, right? and he says whatever he says and at the end of the day the only person who is enriched by this thing at all is Jay-Z Kaepernick has not played football since 2016 season he became a national figure after kneeling Jay-Z came in and said it was over with he hadn't done nothing the man risk Kaepernick risked his whole career over this right started something off kicked it off had people doing And Jay-Z said, "We're past it." And I want to ask, what did you get out of that?

[00:17:06]Now, I'm talking about patterns. When we talk about patterns, I have to ask you, what did you get? What did you receive from Jay-Z's activism? He said, "We move when you when you when you're doing something in protest." When you want to move past protest, you have to decide what moving past protest means. And the people who are supposed to get to decide that are the people who were protesting and the people who started the protest, not the rapper from Marcy Projects. He don't get to decide nothing.

[00:17:36]He's not supposed to. But y'all let him come in there and use this moment to create a Super Bowl partnership.

[00:17:46]Not me, y'all. Cuz you love this negro.

[00:17:48]You love this little funny looking man.

[00:17:50]You love him. He was Fraggle Rock. You loved him. You love him when he could have. You love him all the time. And you can love somebody's music. It's nostalgic. We were young. Big pimp spending G. To me that's kid music now.

[00:18:01]A lot of it. But we were young. Hey, you can you can do that. But you got to separate the music from the man. Now during the NFL, let make this a little bit bigger so everybody can see.

[00:18:17]During the NFL's owners meeting in Atlanta on Tuesday, this remember this is a while back. Uh, Commissioner Roger Goodell said it's been mutually positive relationship. I'm sure either one of us really I'm not sure either one of us really spend much time talking about contracts. Jay is happy. Desiree Perez is happy. I'm happy. So, we're all good.

[00:18:35]According to ESPN, the previous deal was valued at 25 million over five years, which included Rock Nation's input on Super Bowl halftime show and helping out with the league so social justice initiative, Inspire Change, which has given 375 million in grants. It's probably like more than that now. Like half a billion, right? That's what he was talking about. I did I got did the half a billion to the community and you going to talk about me and you Oh, that's clearing your throat coughing. Listen, let me tell you something.

[00:19:09]Y'all gonna ask me, "Well, Evette, if he got all that money to inspire change and enter the community, what's wrong with that, Evette? What's wrong with that?"

[00:19:19]Hey, I'm happy of whatever money is going to to the community. But we'll get to that money in a second because that money and the way that money is distributed is a problem as well. But the first problem is that man came in and told y'all to stop kneeling and got $25 million and nobody said nothing. Nobody said, "Where is the justice in that? Where is the justice in you coming in here and enriching yourself, right?"

[00:19:45]That's number one.

[00:19:49]He's getting contracts. Angela Ros said, "You know, all those Super Bowl shows y'all got that was because of JC. Those Super Bowl shows y'all love. I don't think I love but one of them. That was Kendrick Lamar. That's because that whole red, white, and blue comes out of [ __ ] and what we're doing to be Americ.

[00:20:07]And I don't think we should be listening to people who seem to feel that way."

[00:20:10]Now, he walked he went into that room and said, "We got to move past justice."

[00:20:14]And walked out with $25 million. And they renewed the contract. Y'all don't see a problem. Houston, we don't see a problem. We don't see somebody who goes in and intentionally diverts movements into into into partnerships to enrich himself.

[00:20:29]Do we not see that?

[00:20:32]Is that something that's kind of hard to fathom?

[00:20:36]Because I will tell you the truth, it's not hard to fathom for me.

[00:20:40]I don't have any problem understanding what just happened here. I don't have any problem to understand the what happened here. And what you want to happen is you would want Kaepernick who started the kneeling, you really want him and those other activists who were involved at the time, you want them to dictate what happens next, not Jay-Z.

[00:21:06]You don't want somebody to be able to come in and neutralize this and just say, "Hey, we going to move past it and and then pick up a check." But then you say, "I'mma get to it." But event, a bunch of money did go to organizations, right?

[00:21:19]That's what we about to say.

[00:21:22]So the NFL and its teams committed 250 million to social justice over the next 10 10 year period, and they've already more than doubled that goal. That work, however, is only just the beginning. So again, Evette, what's the problem?

[00:21:35]If some money went to social justice, right? If some money went to social justice, what's the problem, Evette?

[00:21:42]What's the problem with it? You just a hater. You always been a hater.

[00:21:45][laughter] You always been a hater. Here's the problem.

[00:21:52]And I want you to listen to this. I just want you I'm not going to try to be here no long time today, but I want you to hear me on this, please.

[00:22:00]It is very important, right?

[00:22:04]to understand who sets the terms of how a thing is resolved. If you are applying pressure, I don't care whether it's to a company.

[00:22:14]I don't care whether it's to the government.

[00:22:18]When that is resolved, it is not it should not be resolved by a third party who comes in and talks to management on your behalf.

[00:22:27]The only people if you're if you're in a workers's dispute, the only entity that can speak on your behalf is the union.

[00:22:33]And that's because the union represents the people. No third party rapper is supposed to be able to come in and say, "I think we've moved past kneeling." He was never involved.

[00:22:42]He was never involved. He was never a party to this. So, the problem is that who has the agency to decide where these grants go? Because what happens is, and I'm sure some of these organizations were great. I saw the Boys and Girls Club. I saw all kind of stuff on there, right?

[00:22:57]But what happens is they're not really going to where where Kaepernick may have wanted them, where some of the other activists who were involved. There were a lot of activists who were involved who got replaced by Jay-Z. And I'm not saying some of these uh uh things are not good things, right? These are some of the ones that came up in my search.

[00:23:18]What I'm telling you is that who determines what justice actually look like that matters.

[00:23:27]Do you know that this um Inspire Change group is not an independent group?

[00:23:34]People like, "Oh my god, Inspire Change got all this money." No. Inspire Change is NFL group and it is managed by players.

[00:23:46]It's got like six players and six owners.

[00:23:50]So, you went from a movement that had begun with Kaepernick that was applying pressure to an inside the NFL group that's that's that's to an inside the NFL group with six owners and six players.

[00:24:02]There is no more pressure from the outside.

[00:24:06]So, the NFL took control of the process because Jay-Z walked in the room and said, "We're pass kneeling." And so, you're going to ask me, "Oh, well, that's part of the pattern I'm talking about in terms of target." That is the pattern. He comes in and neutralizes things on behalf of companies, on behalf of capital through a player owner partnership that enriches him got him an initial 25 million. I don't know how much the renewal was for, right? I don't know.

[00:24:38]I have no idea how much the renewal was for, but I bet you it wasn't for no for no chunk. And all he does is help pick people to go to the Super Bowl.

[00:24:46]What else? I'm trying to find out.

[00:24:47]Trying to see what else he said on his little his little stupid thing.

[00:24:55]He said, "I'm the one they can't control." No, you're the one they use to control other people.

[00:25:03]Like, you are the tool. Like, I It's amazing to me that y'all can't see when a negro ain't free.

[00:25:10]Like it's amazing to me when you when people can't see how this person moves where the money goes.

[00:25:16]I'm the one they can't control.

[00:25:20]No, you're the one they use to control the Negroes.

[00:25:26]And you can enjoy the concert.

[00:25:29]You can absolutely enjoy the concert.

[00:25:31]You can have a grand old time, right?

[00:25:34]You can absolutely enjoy everybody he brought out on stage and have a great time. and understand that his target, his lyrics about target were problematic. You could absolutely do that.

[00:25:46]The line that comes after that is the one I talked about earlier. He says, "Buddy took a check. Along with that check, got to sign a non-disparagement."

[00:25:52]Why did you bring Kaepernick in this?

[00:25:55]Kaepernick has been out of football. He ain't played. He ain't going to play again. Why bring him in there and throw dirt on his name?

[00:26:02]And now they say what you said that's not true. Why do that?

[00:26:06]Because that's who you are. You're just not a good person. You're not a good person. You are a tool of the people who use you to do a certain thing and to get a certain outcome on their behalf. And they know you will do it willingly.

[00:26:17]Jay-Z ain't no expert on nothing. He ain't no expert on movements. He ain't no expert on on on on on boycots. He ain't no expert on nothing.

[00:26:27]But we allow him to come in here and we like, well, he got a point.

[00:26:32]We he might he might he I mean I mean you know he he all this barbershop battle. I'm so tired of barbershop battle. I don't know what to do.

[00:26:41]Just a whole bunch of barbershop battle all the time. Well, he don't he don't he shouldn't know this man would do anything. How y'all don't see that? How do y'all go around glorifying and and can't separate? You can do this little music or whatever you want to do, but you can't be Jay-Z. You can't. You should. This is not something that we should be happy with.

[00:27:03]We should never have to have have stopped applying pressure without getting what we wanted. And as as the people who protest and start protest, they get to decide. The people who are the people who start the protest against police brutality and and all that stuff, they get to decide what the outcomes looks like. Not Jay-Z. That y'all let that man walk in there, tell everybody sit down, tell everybody we pass kneeling, get a check, walk away, and we don't have good outcomes. And now the NFL, the players and the and the owners decide where the money goes. We don't have any kind of agency in that.

[00:27:36]You pull all the pressure off while in negotiations.

[00:27:41]It's so easy, man. It's just so easy.

[00:27:44]It's just so easy to make us into these kinds of little tools of people.

[00:27:52]Just just just just everything shifted because a rapper came in the room. Do you know we're a joke? Like everything shifted. We have a whole thing going on.

[00:28:00]Everything shifted because a because a rapper came in the room. A rapper, not a not an organizer, not somebody who works in social justice, not even a professor or somebody. A rapper came in and everything changed.

[00:28:16]We got a we we look up we look a we look a mut.

[00:28:21]We just look crazy. But the thing I want to point on point to before I go and I really want to kind of level on level kind of hone in on is you know this this line really bothered me. It really really bothered me. [laughter] It really bothered me. And let me tell you why.

[00:28:48]Because it says you're shopping in Amazon. Google owns YouTube. Meta owns and he's basically saying he's basically saying you can't really boycott, right? And if you're talking about Target and you're doing these other things, you are kind of a hypocrite.

[00:29:13]And what he's doing is diluting the push to boycott target. He is he is reducing what leverage they might have by kind of throwing confusion into the mix and he doesn't understand what he's talking about.

[00:29:32]And I just wonder kind of what happened cuz I said I brought up earlier Jay-Z wore a Kaepernick t-shirt and all the things and I want to show you just how he has transitioned from one thing to the other.

[00:29:46]So this earlier kind of Jay-Z that we had, it was a it was kind of a protest solidarity, but that became a partnership. The Kaepernick jersey went from from from protesting with Kaepernick to becoming an NFL partner and telling people to stop kneeling without any idea of what stopping kneeling was supposed to look like.

[00:30:07]The Super Bowl boycott when he said, "I'm not going to perform at the Super Bowl because of Kaepernick." and next thing you know, he's a Super Bowl producer.

[00:30:15]We went from external pressure that was being applied to internal negotiation.

[00:30:23]We went from public protest to corporate collaboration, movement rhetoric to business and legislative outcomes. Listen, I don't think y'all understand. I don't think everybody understands that when money comes into play, that's the direction that he moves in. What that means is that he should never be allowed to talk about movements, to be about movements. This is the man who told us years ago that just having him there, he his presence was charity. He believes that about himself. He believes he's some kind of a god.

[00:30:55]You know based on this history in this chart, what you know is that when Jay-Z comes into the room, he's looking for money.

[00:31:06]Yeah. He'll protest. He'll be a part of that. He'll be a part of whatever the culture is a part of until there's time for a check.

[00:31:14]People who sell out for the check are not people that I need in the room. And like I said, I'm sure all of that stuff that they give money to, I'm sure that's some of that stuff is great, but that stuff should not be determined by the NFL.

[00:31:27]And I'm talking about it should be determined by the people who were initially applying pressure. See, what happens is the people who were initially applying pressure were boxed out and the NFL was brought in and whoever they chose to to to decide where that money goes and Jay-Z was brought in. It's a it's a smooth little shift. It's a smooth little shift where Jay-Z becomes an elite broker, right? Rather than rather than the Jay-Z from Marcy Projects. Now, I'm not sure the Jay-Z from Marcy Projects was a good person in my personal opinion.

[00:32:01]>> [laughter] >> I'm just saying you don't see this shift. You don't see this shift about how everything became in became internal.

[00:32:12]You don't see how this how this shifted from people who were who who should have been deciding what the outcome looks like.

[00:32:20]See, your protest ain't no good. If you protest something and then somebody else comes in and say, "Hey, we finished."

[00:32:24]And they decide what the outcome looks like. That's not no good. And with the target thing now people if you go and say hey well you're being hypocritical.

[00:32:33]Well well what do you what about ma or what about Google? You're causing confusion. Why would you do that?

[00:32:38]Because let me tell you something Jay-Z I know you don't know a lot and that's fine. That's fine. I know people think you're brilliant. I don't. I don't. But let me tell you a little bit about boycott. Whether you're talking about the United Farmers, whether you're talking about uh South African boycotts aparttheid, whether you're talking about the civil rights movement. Guess what happens Jay-Z?

[00:32:59]I want to give you a guess about what happens with boycots and I want to tell you how boycotts actually work.

[00:33:07]You always pick and choose. So when you say you know this, you know this. Y'all picking and choosing. You always pick and choose. Guess what happened? If we want to just talk about the the civil rights movement, guess what, Jay-Z?

[00:33:17]Guess what? There were a lot of restaurants. There were a lot of bus lines. There was a lot of there were a lot of uh stores that were discriminatory. There were there was red red lining. That was housing discrimination. That was a lot of discrimination, Jay-Z. Did you know that? They picked one bus line to boycott. They was picking and choosing, Jay-Z, because that's how strategy works and that's how tactics works in movements.

[00:33:41]You have to pick and choose. You cannot scatter yourself. You cannot scatter your resources everywhere, Jay-Z. You have to pick and choose. So, when you say they picking and choosing, you know Meta, you know Instagram, you know Google, on YouTube, y'all picking and choosing. That's how strategy works.

[00:33:56]That's how movements work. You cannot boycott everything. You find a place where you have leverage.

[00:34:04]And if you feel that, hey, we have enough people that shop at Target. We have enough whatever over here, and that's how we're going to do it, then that's how you can do it. But you pick something where you have leverage, where you feel that you can leverage and and and and get an outcome. Nobody in the world, Jay-Z, has ever said, "Hey, we're going to boycott every place that has ever caused us harm." No, you pick your target.

[00:34:30]You pick your target. Oh, well, y'all picking and choosing. Don't you know Meta own this? And don't you know this own this? And don't you know who own uh uh YouTube? And don't you know Jay-Z?

[00:34:44]Listen to me. Listen to me close.

[00:34:47]In protests, we are always picking and choosing.

[00:34:52]In movements, we are always picking and choosing. We we there is there are not enough people to boycott everything. You cannot get everybody to you can get you listen. If we have all the stores and all the bus lines and all the restaurants and all and and all the house, you cannot boycott everything.

[00:35:09]You'll starve to death. You sound like a fool. You are a fool. for you to get there up on that stage and say that like we have people with no political education who are allowed to talk about politics. Listen, I would never talk about making a beat. I would never say to somebody, "Hey, somebody let me put a verse on because that's not my lane."

[00:35:25]Why can't you just stay over there? It would have been perfectly fine for you to release a statement that said, "I am not in partnership with Target. I I have my my product is released everywhere and just be done with it." But you're so arrogant. You think you know and you think you had some kind of deep thing to say. I told y'all years ago Jay-Z was not deep. I put that video out years ago. Stop thinking about that.

[00:35:48]Stop believing that he's deep. No, he's not.

[00:35:52]Cuz if you would, if you actually access people that wrote about this kind of thing, it would be apparent that Jay-Z is an elite broker. He is not with you.

[00:36:03]He is not with me.

[00:36:08]It would just be apparent. And it's it's so crazy how he frames crit the criticism of him, right? So he frames the criticism as they trying to control me. No, nobody's trying to control you.

[00:36:20]People trying to figure out what you doing [laughter] and who you're in partnership with.

[00:36:28]So he says, so he says, let me just put up this chart too. He says, you know, you you're at Amazon, too. Well, strategy requires choosing specific companies and specific messages. Yeah, Jay-Z, a lot of people are. What are you talking about? You can't boycott everybody. That's what he's basically saying. No movement ever has boycotted everybody. You're picking and choosing. Exactly. That's what strategy looks like. Strategy looks like me picking and choosing.

[00:36:57]That's what it looks like.

[00:37:00]Jesus, why do I have to have these conversations? Why? And why has nobody else had this? It's been a minute.

[00:37:11]You should not want to undermine these people who are doing this.

[00:37:16]And you could have just said, "Hey, that's not what I'm doing." I keep saying that because that's the that's the big part.

[00:37:24]Gosh, just say anything. And because they said on a big stage, everybody's just so enthralled.

[00:37:35]Jesus said, you know, he got a point.

[00:37:38]What? Y'all y'all be at Amazon. Y'all be on YouTube watching videos and that they don't have diversity. They don't have That's what strategy looks like.

[00:37:49]You can't be everywhere.

[00:37:54]Sorry. [laughter] You cannot be everywhere.

[00:38:00]My gosh.

[00:38:05]Let me see if I can find this other thing because there's somebody else who talks about this and I want to bring it up. I I like to bring up the experts who talk about this because I know we have people who seem to just want to talk about, you know, who just want to talk about stuff in ways that don't make sense.

[00:38:23]Well, I just I was just I was just I was just I was just dy and a yaba da da da [laughter] and a and well see the thing about it is I you know I let me tell you my point of view.

[00:38:37]Let me tell you what I think. People will tell you like you're not I've said this before but you're not entitled to an uninformed opinion. You're just not you're just not entitled to that. I know people feel that way that I should be entitled to have whatever I want no matter how uninformed I should be entitled to have it. But what I'm telling you is that you are not right and this is basically this is kind of and this comes from Jean Sharp's right argument like he was in terms of his there are thinkers who are in movement kind of this movement work and that was part of his thing the book I put up early I'm sorry I was rushing too fast through it but that was Jean Sharp's strategic framework we can go through other movement writers there are writers who write about movements and how to best use your resources There are writers who write about that, but we don't access those people. We just what Jay-Z said, it kind of makes sense. Kind of had a point.

[00:39:32]I mean, when you think about it, [laughter] I mean, I'm just saying.

[00:39:41]So, we can get into some other theories theories of social change. Like, if we're going to talk about movement work and we're going to talk about social change and we're going to talk about how to make companies and politicians do things, we have to talk about movement work. And we cannot get those ideas from Jay-Z. He don't know him. He don't know.

[00:40:00]He don't. So if you can you can you can also uh Marshall Gans you can look up you can look up that kind of uh organizing model. There are theories to organizing uh his his model kind of build power from the bottom up. Uh build influences from the top down. That's kind of a that's kind of a Jay-Z model.

[00:40:18]You he comes in there as the broker.

[00:40:21]Like understand we already with the with the kneeling you already had an elite thing with the target thing he's just throwing confusion on people who are already half confused and ain't really half boycotting right so you you organize ordinary people into collective action that's the right way to do it in according to Gans you uh in Jay-Z you build well in and everybody you build relationships with powerful institutions that don't lead to nothing power comes from people acting together through the Jay-Z model change comes through access to decisionmaker makers access to his pocketbook, too.

[00:40:53]Movements create leverage. That's the right way to do it. Jay-Z model, partnerships create individual opportunities. I say leaders develop new grassroots leaders.

[00:41:07]Established leaders negotiate with existing elites. See, this is what they used to call um back in the day, and they might still call it the the managerial class, right? Where they they manage and they make money, right? That's that's that's that's right.

[00:41:32]That's what it is.

[00:41:35]And we should un we should know enough about this stuff to understand leaders develop new grassroots leaders with the Jay-Z model establish people negotiate with existing elites.

[00:41:49]Let me ask you since then, since the kneeling, has anything changed?

[00:41:54]And the biggest thing I kind of want to get through and I want to get through to everybody is that who gets to decide when it's time to stop whether it's kneeling or when it's time to start the Target boycott, that actually matters.

[00:42:09]The decision makers actually matter. So, if you let Jay-Z or Jamal Bryant tell you even though they didn't start something that it's time to finish it, that's a problem. That should be a red flag for you.

[00:42:23]If the if if somebody with with some prominence and some money comes in and says, "Hey, we finished. We going to figure out what we're going to do." And that person wasn't one of the people to start it. They weren't one of the founders of it. That should be a red flag to you. If a group comes in even into the reparations space, reparations movement and says, "Hey, I know what we're gonna do. Here's what we gonna do and you don't know them from Adam and they don't have any grassroots support, right? They're not the [ __ ] movement.

[00:42:52]They're somebody else and they came in and they just got here and they don't have any buy in from the community. They say, "Hey, well, listen. I'm going to tell you what we going to do." Y'all remember when Liberation Ventures came in and said, "We're not going to do lineage and we're not funding anybody who would do lineage. We're the new reparations movement and we're not funding lineage reparations at all. And if you if you are if we if we believe that you're xenophobic based on whatever definition we have, we're not funding you at all. Red flag.

[00:43:20]Because all of this movement work is supposed to be from the bottom up. It's all supposed to be from the ground up.

[00:43:25]If it's being managed by elites, you are being bamboozled. You are being hoodwinkedked and all of that kind of stuff.

[00:43:34]You are supposed to decide as a community where you have the most leverage. You are supposed to pick and choose. It's supposed to be grassroots.

[00:43:42]It's supposed to develop leaders and new leaders to pass it down. It is supposed to be organized and have accountability.

[00:43:47]There was no accountability when Jay-Z walked in that room. There was no accountability. Him coming on that stage talking to Target. That is not accountability. That is not how movements work. And we are going to continue to fail until we understand that we are getting co-opted by a number of groups and a number of people.

[00:44:06]There's a lot of money, a lot of money in being a tool. There's a lot of money in being a tool that white folk can pull out whatever they want to and use you to stop whatever they need to stop. There is money in that and they will squash out whatever we have going on. If anybody can come in the room and say, "Well, we're not doing a referation like this. We gonna do this. We gonna give you this. We gonna give you that. I got some hot water and I got some sliced potato wedges and I got some money for groups." If everybody just runs say, "Well, they said they got some money. I want some money. I like some money." And we're not organizing this and we're not doing this together and with each other, we're going to fail. If we allow Jay-Z to just come in and say, "Well, I think we finished." And don't look at him and say, "Niggra, who are you? Who are you?

[00:44:49]Who who told you that like you matter in the organizing space? If we don't do that, we're going to fail if we allow people cuz they always got somebody to send in the room. You can always find somebody in the room. You can always find somebody who don't understand politics. Did y'all see a a booy badass talking about he paid $600,000 for a pardon? He was talking about they talking about they got they they talking like they got or or or Trump on on on speed dial.

[00:45:15]Booy, you are stupid.

[00:45:19]I could have told you that first of all $600,000 ain't enough for a pardon. Not in the Trump administration. Them pardons go for much higher.

[00:45:26][laughter] That I'm saying that just to say we cannot listen to anything a rapper and entertainers and any of these other people, outsiders in general, non-political people, what they have to say about politics. That's all of us saying. You thought, "No, now you done gave people and you trying to get 300 back or some stuff."

[00:45:48]Let me tell you, I told y'all most of MAGA, most of black MAGA is just trying to get a check and a pardon right now.

[00:45:52]They either trying to pay their water bill or they trying to get a part.

[00:45:59][cough] That's all it is. All these little rappers, y'all had 50 Cent over there and all these little rappers apparently was performing for Donald Trump Jr., whichever one of them. Listen, you got to stop have these people is don't care about you. They done changed their tax bracket. Stop listening to them. You can. Hey, if you like if you like uh if you like many men, wish death upon me. Lord, I don't knock yourself out. I don't. But knock yourself out.

[00:46:25]But you cannot like the person. They don't they don't they they don't love you. They don't represent you. You have to we have to be in this organizing space. We have to do this thing together. This has to be about collective uplifting, not somebody getting a a a halftime show and not somebody getting a whatever they going to get, whatever $25 million or whatever they going to come into a room. We have to get past this. These people don't know nothing. They was cutting school to sell crack rock and stuff. [laughter] Like, hey, if that's what you did, I don't glorify it. I think you should mourn it and grieve it and be regretful about it. I understand we have limited choices and stuff like that. I don't glorify that stuff. I don't watch TV shows where somebody going to break down a brick and go sell it. I don't value none of that stuff. That's not that that's I don't value none of it. I understand that. I understand what America was doing. And I know that America when they decided to to to to have this mass incarceration, what they were doing was just trying to find a way to make slavery legal again. So I don't glorify nobody who's trying to move a brick, y'all. So y'all don't want to watch slavery movies. I love to watch history. I love to watch a movie about slavery and how we overcome and what we did. I don't want to watch a movie about nobody trying to move no crack, though.

[00:47:31]I don't want to watch a movie about you trying to do no cocaine and move no cocaine. That don't appeal to me. I don't appeal when he trying to move it.

[00:47:36]And see, he I didn't even watch that.

[00:47:38]What was that movie with the little um the little man? snowfall or whatever. I didn't watch it, but I was gleeful when I found out he failed at the end [laughter] because that's how it's always worked. Ain't nobody Well, I'm You don't. Anyway, my point is we cannot listen to these people. Trust these people who I if you sold a crack rock and then you made music. Good for you.

[00:47:57]But I don't want to hear from you. I don't want to see nothing you doing. I'm never going to watch a 50-in production.

[00:48:02]I'm never going to watch nothing like I heard it's real bad writing, too.

[00:48:04]Apparently, we like that. if if it's somebody's enough and to break down a brick and I'm going to try to move it and get it to the streets.

[00:48:11][laughter] And listen, I'm so tired people saying, "Well, what about the Italians?" I don't take I don't take my ethics from them. I don't take my ethics and my from whatever. And and and Italians were never reinsslaved. They came here and created the Bank of America. So, if you was an Italian in the mob, that was a choice. You was white. You came in here and became white. That was a choice.

[00:48:28]That's not our That's not our life. I don't want to hear nothing about what about the tell what about I don't care why you always got to measure yourself by somebody that's a whole another thing I'm just pointing out that I don't want to hear from these people I don't want when it comes to politics they should not be talking about it and people should have been booing people if activist started a boycott because they're trying to leverage our buying power at Target whatever that is and this negro came out and said target Nick he disparage me I like boo throw the tomatoes throw the tomato like I don't want to hear from And we should stop. And I think the thing that we have to learn, join ados.com, is that this whole period of our lives, if we're going to get anything, it has to be collectively watching Jay-Z go in and make money off of this protest. Cuz that's what he did.

[00:49:16]He saw the protest happen. He said, "How can I make money off of it?" And they said, "Well, we can do something with you. If you can stop this, if you can end this, you can go if you can be bold enough to go into a room and tell these negroes it's over with. We got you some money." And that's what he did. That's it. He don't get no cookie for that. In a real community, he might get outcast for that, but we not there yet. But anyway, fam, I I'm not going to keep y'all here all day, but I just wanted to I just had to say that little bit. I didn't even really want to do a whole show about it, but I felt like some people were talking about it or missing it, right? Some people were we have why y'all picking and choosing? You have limited organizing power. You have limited capacity. You have limited people piece of people power. You have to pick and choose.

[00:50:00]Make this negro go somewhere and sit down. I'm tired of him. I'm tired of him intervening, thinking he's smart. I'm tired of that. It's getting on my nerves. Like, I don't pay attention to an activist. We know. We know you don't pay attention. We know you don't read.

[00:50:12]We know a lot of stuff that you don't do. Like, the stuff that you don't do is apparent to everybody who's watching.

[00:50:18]But anyway, fam, I'm not going to take up too much of your time. So, I'll let y'all get out of here. Um, again, you want to join the movement, join ados.com. If you want to find out what we're about, adosfoundation.org.

[00:50:29]Um, like I said, we just launched a chapter in Texas. We got chapters everywhere. [laughter] Y and we don't want to bust down no crack rocks. We don't want we don't want to do none of that. So, keep all that wherever you do it. And we don't want to do none of that. We don't want to hear no drug I don't listen too. Let me tell everybody something. I don't want to hear no drug stories either. Don't come to me telling me about your glory days or whatever. I will walk away and leave you standing right there while you talking. It's a lot of stuff I just can't The older I get, I just can't take stuff no more either. I can't be like, I don't even want to have a conversation.

[00:50:55]I don't want to hear this. I I'm not what I want to talk about. I Please, I'm Please, you should have hit me with that at 25 or 35. I I don't want to be bothered. But anyway, fam, [laughter] I'mma let y'all I'mma let y'all I'mma let y'all get out of here. Um, like I said, adosfoundation.org if you want to find out what we're about and what we're doing. Um, all that good stuff. But a lot of y'all, most of y'all know, but I just want to leave it there. And listen, tell me what you think. Tell me what you think about Jay-Z. I saw a lot of y'all's comments [laughter] about him. So, uh, if Oh, if you want to subscribe to Patreon, patreon.com/wycarnell.

[00:51:32]I'm there Monday and Friday. Monday, the show is at 900 p.m. Same time as tonight. Um, and Friday, we do a lunch show. We do two o'clock. So, if and and people on Patreon, we interact. So, it's not just me talking to you. We interact.

[00:51:46]I used to take calls on this show and then I they graded my nerves a little bit. Maybe at some point I think I'll come back. Um, but it'll come, the cause will come to patre Patreon first, just so you know. So anyway, fam, let me get out of here. I will talk to you all later. Please keep it easy breezy. Don't bother nobody and don't let nobody bother you. It is, I promise you, not that serious.

[00:52:19]Bound.

[00:52:50]Black.

[00:53:02]Hey. Hey.

[00:53:23]Hey.