Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Ashley Allison On Acquiring 'The Root', Cultural Impact, The Root 100 List + More

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INTERVIEW: Ashley Allison On Acquiring 'The Root', Cultural Impact, The Root 100 List + More · The Breakfast Club

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  Speaker 1: Hold every day. The Breakfast Club finish for y'all.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Done morning.
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  Speaker 3: Everybody is DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We
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  Speaker 3: are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
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  Speaker 3: the building. Yes, indeed you have Ashley Allison.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome. How are you feeling this morning?
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  Speaker 4: I feel really good. I'm excited to be back, happy.
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  Speaker 1: To have you back. That's congratulations on acquiring the route.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, and I have something I want to congratulate you
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  Speaker 5: all on as well. Okay, so today we are announcing
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  Speaker 5: the Route one hundred the first time I'm announcing this
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  Speaker 5: list as the publisher, and the Breakfast Club is on
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  Speaker 5: our list. Wow, thank you so much, Thank you for
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  Speaker 5: all you all do.
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  Speaker 4: Have the ear of the people.
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  Speaker 5: We have some gifts for the guys from Ourtel, our
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  Speaker 5: sponsors and yeah, you know the blue swift.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, thank you very We have one for you.
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  Speaker 2: Envy.
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  Speaker 4: We have your beautiful flowers over there.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, I thought you were going to be here, but
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  Speaker 5: we have some flowers waiting for you for when you
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  Speaker 5: come back to the office.
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  Speaker 4: Everyone go to the route dot com and see.
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  Speaker 5: Who else is on the one hundred comes out the
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  Speaker 5: date today, People to know why we're breaking news here, dope.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what made you reacquire the roots?
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  Speaker 1: What was so not reacquired?
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  Speaker 3: Well to acquire the reots because it reacquire from you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was it was black owned and then other and
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  Speaker 3: now it's back black owned.
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  Speaker 2: What made you say this is something that we need
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  Speaker 2: back in our culture.
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  Speaker 5: Well, I started my company, watering Hole Media, back in
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  Speaker 5: two thousand and nine and the Route started in two
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  Speaker 5: thousand and eight, and Watering Hole really was aspirational to what.
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  Speaker 4: The Route was doing. And so when we relaunched two
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  Speaker 4: years ago.
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  Speaker 5: Watering Hole, I knew I wanted to acquire some digital
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  Speaker 5: properties and divine timing. Honestly, the route was on the
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  Speaker 5: short list and it came available this summer and you
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  Speaker 5: know how like you see something, you're like, that's mine.
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  Speaker 4: Yep, it's mine.
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  Speaker 5: That's my assignment. That's what happened with the roote, and
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  Speaker 5: so my team hustled. We got it done on the face,
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  Speaker 5: but there's a lot of people behind that got it done.
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  Speaker 5: And it all so is in a time when we
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  Speaker 5: need to have places to tell our stories and tell
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  Speaker 5: them our way and through our lens unapologetically black, and
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  Speaker 5: I always say Black stories are American stories, and American
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  Speaker 5: stories are global stories, and we deserve to have ownership
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  Speaker 5: over them.
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  Speaker 6: I'm glad you acquired Rout because the other time I
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  Speaker 6: hated the Root and I hated the Route because.
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  Speaker 2: I was I was gonna sayunt you were ahead.
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  Speaker 6: They used to poll so much negative stories about us
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  Speaker 6: and just you know, even people that that I actually
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  Speaker 6: love and appreciate.
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  Speaker 1: And I remember somebody from the Route reached.
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  Speaker 6: Out to me and literally told me that they tried
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  Speaker 6: to run a very positive story about I think it
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  Speaker 6: was me and Nick Cannon actually, and they were They
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  Speaker 6: were told that whoever it was was like, absolutely not.
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  Speaker 7: It's the work you guys do behind the scenes.
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  Speaker 1: Yes it was.
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  Speaker 6: It was a story about the work me and Nick
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  Speaker 6: Cannon do behind the scenes. This was like four or
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  Speaker 6: five years ago. And somebody after it was like, absolutely not.
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  Speaker 4: It's a new day. It's a new don And I'm
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  Speaker 4: feeling good, right.
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  Speaker 7: How do you feel right now?
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  Speaker 8: Because I saw Vibe merge with Rolling Stone, people were
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  Speaker 8: really pissed about that a lot of black people lost
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  Speaker 8: their jobs because of that. Team Vote just announced that
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  Speaker 8: they're going onto Vogue dot Com. A lot of people
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  Speaker 8: of color lost their jobs right now. It feels like
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  Speaker 8: there is a like a not targeted attack, but like
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  Speaker 8: just we're losing a lot.
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  Speaker 7: Of our places to tell stories.
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  Speaker 8: So there's a lot of focus on the places that
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  Speaker 8: are still running, like the route in all these other places. Right,
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  Speaker 8: do you feel like there's a pressure to make this
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  Speaker 8: work because we're getting taken out everywhere else?
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  Speaker 5: I feel a pressure and a responsibility because of what
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  Speaker 5: the route is in our community and can be.
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  Speaker 4: And I think telling.
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  Speaker 5: Black stories requires due diligence and responsibility.
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  Speaker 4: Also that people are losing their jobs.
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  Speaker 5: I mean three hundred thousand black women are out of
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  Speaker 5: work right now. So there's a global store a national
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  Speaker 5: story right now about unemployment and people struggling. So journalism
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  Speaker 5: is just one piece of that big part.
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  Speaker 4: And yes, like I want now, what happened in the
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  Speaker 4: past is in the past.
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  Speaker 5: And the second day after we announced the acquisition, I
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  Speaker 5: told folks we will not be perfect, because no human is,
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  Speaker 5: and so, but we will have a standard of excellence
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  Speaker 5: and in telling stories you all know, you all get
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  Speaker 5: you know, backlash some times for some of the covers
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  Speaker 5: this struggle, but ownership.
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  Speaker 1: If I didn't, I'm like, did they hear me?
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  Speaker 4: But I think we.
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  Speaker 5: Always sit here. I come from politics, right, and we
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  Speaker 5: always say black people are not a monolith. So I
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  Speaker 5: need to make sure I'm telling multiple.
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  Speaker 4: Stories through multiple lenses. And so you might not.
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  Speaker 5: Always agree with what we cover on the route and
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  Speaker 5: our position on the route, but you will think about
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  Speaker 5: what we cover and it that is. I just think
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  Speaker 5: iron sharpens iron, and black people deserve to have multitudes
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  Speaker 5: of opinions.
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  Speaker 1: What does success look like for you?
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  Speaker 4: I want to grow our audience.
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  Speaker 5: We have about ten million people that come to our
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  Speaker 5: website monthly, which is massive, so I want to double
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  Speaker 5: that within a year. We're going to be moving the
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  Speaker 5: video while still respecting the written word.
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  Speaker 4: So we'll do all writing.
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  Speaker 5: We'll to you to do writing, but for most written pieces,
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  Speaker 5: we'll also have a video component. Our audience is predominantly black,
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  Speaker 5: but it's not all black, and so I want the
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  Speaker 5: root again. It is a black publication, but black stories
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  Speaker 5: are American stories.
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  Speaker 4: And so when you.
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  Speaker 5: Want to know what's going on in the culture, when
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  Speaker 5: you want to know what's going on in politics, when
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  Speaker 5: you want to know what's going on in sports, and entertainment.
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  Speaker 5: You can go to the Root as a trusted source,
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  Speaker 5: just like you may go to a more typical mainstream
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  Speaker 5: media applan.
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  Speaker 2: I was going to ask that.
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  Speaker 3: I was going to say, you know, one time the
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  Speaker 3: Route was I feel like at the forefront of everything, Yes,
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  Speaker 3: and it slowed down a lot and became behind the scenes.
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  Speaker 2: How do you get it back to the forefront?
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  Speaker 3: And with the world of fake news and nobody knowing
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  Speaker 3: who to trust, and people are trusting people that are
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  Speaker 3: putting out random stories, how do people can come to
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  Speaker 3: the Route and say, I know this is my trusted source,
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  Speaker 3: I know that these stories are real. I know that
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  Speaker 3: this is a place where I can actually trust and
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  Speaker 3: loves my community.
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  Speaker 5: Well, I think you have to be true to yourself too, right,
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  Speaker 5: You can't be all things to everybody. So I have
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  Speaker 5: to know who I want to be as a publisher,
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  Speaker 5: and that is telling unapologetic black stories.
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  Speaker 4: That's the first thing.
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  Speaker 5: The second thing is that we think there's a place
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  Speaker 5: for journalism and fact checking, but at.
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  Speaker 4: A speed that allows people.
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  Speaker 5: The reason why I think folks are so susceptible to
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  Speaker 5: missing disinformation is the speed at which it comes in.
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  Speaker 4: So we're gonna have to scale our team.
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  Speaker 5: We have a great set of journalists right now, but
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  Speaker 5: it's still a very small team, So looking at growing
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  Speaker 5: our footprint just even in a new a digital newsroom.
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  Speaker 4: And then we also want to have commentary, right so.
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  Speaker 5: We're in a world where everybody's opinion appears to be
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  Speaker 5: fact and that's just not the case. And so we
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  Speaker 5: have a do no harm approach. So again, I don't
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  Speaker 5: have to agree with everything you say, but you cannot
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  Speaker 5: cause harm to black people and have a home at
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  Speaker 5: the route.
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  Speaker 6: I also say, you know, you don't really me personally.
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  Speaker 6: I don't really care about something to tell who's attached
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  Speaker 6: to it.
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  Speaker 1: So that's right now.
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  Speaker 6: I found out that you was the owner, I was like, oh,
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  Speaker 6: so I looked under the hood. I had no idea
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  Speaker 6: Root was found out by doctor Henry Lewis Gate.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, And I called him a couple days
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  Speaker 5: before the announcement and he was just over the top elated.
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  Speaker 5: He's like, oh my gosh, it's like you have my child,
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  Speaker 5: and I'm like, and I will take great care of it.
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  Speaker 5: And it's like they're in college now, and so we're
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  Speaker 5: like college roommates almost, and so I hope to grow
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  Speaker 5: with it. It's been around for seventeen years. The responsibility
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  Speaker 5: I feel is that if in seventeen years it's not
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  Speaker 5: stronger and more dominant, then I have not met my all.
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  Speaker 6: I would love to know what was his original vision
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  Speaker 6: for the Root.
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  Speaker 1: Henry Lewis Cage is a very serious person.
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  Speaker 5: Maybe you could go to the Root dot com pretty
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  Speaker 5: soon and find that story. I definitely, because I think
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  Speaker 5: the other thing is I'm not a student of history,
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  Speaker 5: but I like to study history, and it's really.
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  Speaker 4: Important to understand why was it founded?
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  Speaker 5: Think about when that was two thousand and eight, Barack
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  Speaker 5: Obama is just reelected. It's what people could say was
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  Speaker 5: like a watershed moment in our political history. Will someonet
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  Speaker 5: argue right now, that's where we're at in this moment,
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  Speaker 5: and what is the intervention we need to start to
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  Speaker 5: set the course and turn the course. And so it
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  Speaker 5: was founded in an important time, it was reclaimed back
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  Speaker 5: to black ownership in an important time, and so I
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  Speaker 5: want to study what he did. I want to understand
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  Speaker 5: what he did while also thinking about what's tomorrow.
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  Speaker 4: What tomorrow it needs to deliver for.
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  Speaker 2: People who on this list. And you mentioned the breakfast level.
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  Speaker 4: To go to the Army on the list, so it's
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  Speaker 4: one hundred people.
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  Speaker 5: So one of the things I actually decided to do
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  Speaker 5: was remove the rankings.
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  Speaker 7: I always look at the list.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, well I just want to say I was never
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  Speaker 5: on the list.
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  Speaker 7: I just got.
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  Speaker 4: So I would look and the route.
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  Speaker 5: Actually the list has been very aspirational for me because
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  Speaker 5: I learned about a job that I eventually had at
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  Speaker 5: the White House from the roote one hundred. You know,
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  Speaker 5: they don't like post those jobs on the website. So
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  Speaker 5: I've really built my career from interventions from that publication.
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  Speaker 5: So it really does have a special part in my story.
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  Speaker 5: But we decided as a team to remove the rankings
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  Speaker 5: because in a moment that we are in right now,
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  Speaker 5: everybody on the list is exceptional in what they do
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  Speaker 5: and it doesn't matter if you're one or one hundred,
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  Speaker 5: you're doing it. And so so why be like, well,
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  Speaker 5: where was I on the list and where why wasn't
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  Speaker 5: I higher than this person? It's a collective and the
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  Speaker 5: only way we get out of this moment is if
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  Speaker 5: we do it together. So you're a part of a
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  Speaker 5: community of one hundred people in journalism, people in the courtroom,
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  Speaker 5: people with microphones themselves, people making films, scientists, CEOs. I'm
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  Speaker 5: really proud of the list. I think it really reflects
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  Speaker 5: the diversity of it.
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  Speaker 4: And you know what, you might see some people on
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  Speaker 4: the list and.
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  Speaker 5: Be like, I don't really like them, and I don't
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  Speaker 5: care because guess what, they're still doing great work that
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  Speaker 5: they're doing, and we need.
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  Speaker 4: To acknowledge them as well. As you said black people,
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  Speaker 4: that's right, Yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 8: And then on the other side of the business side
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  Speaker 8: of it, right, the funding, like I heard Oprah talk
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  Speaker 8: about her own was like the hardest thing she's ever done.
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  Speaker 8: The same thing with Revolt, because it's just hard to
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  Speaker 8: get advertised to give money to black media spaces.
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  Speaker 7: What's going to be your plan in the fight for that?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's definitely something that I wake up
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  Speaker 5: thinking about and go to bed thinking about.
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  Speaker 4: But I think the product has to speak for itself.
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  Speaker 5: Ten million visits unique visits every month is nothing to sneeze.
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  Speaker 5: That is, that is that is one of the most
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  Speaker 5: trafficed news sites, but particularly black news sites in our country.
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  Speaker 5: So it is a profitable business and I see a
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  Speaker 5: vision on how we could grow. But again, it's also
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  Speaker 5: on the product and the content. So you said, what
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  Speaker 5: am I going to do next with it? Video is
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  Speaker 5: one thing, but we have some offline activations that we
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  Speaker 5: want to do because like it's one thing that you know,
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  Speaker 5: I heard you all covering the AI piece, right, It's
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  Speaker 5: like it's one thing to see something, but to actually
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  Speaker 5: be in relationship proximate to the person is important. So
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  Speaker 5: we think our products, the things that we're going to
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  Speaker 5: be rolling out soon, the voices that we're going to
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  Speaker 5: be having at the root, will sell itself.
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  Speaker 2: Well. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
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  Speaker 4: Congratulations, thank you, thank you.
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  Speaker 2: It's Ashley Allison. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, every day.
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  Speaker 1: Up the Breakfast Club. You don't finish for y'all done,