Latest / Color Commentary / Ep 52 | Why Black America Is Moving, With the Receipts
Transcript
- CC Ep52 V2: Welcome to Color Commentary, your podcast where the story shaping our world are told in black and white first, and then we dig into their deeper meaning than full color. Each week I'll be bringing you the news like this. First, we'll start with what I like to call the black and white section: a clear, straight shooting rundown of the facts and the tradition of greats like Ed Bradley, Walter Cronkite, and the classic voices of journalism. Then we'll shift into the color commentary section, where I add my own personal opinions and insights. Now, sometimes it'll just be me. Sometimes we'll have guests. Now, listen, I tell y'all this all the time. And if you're this your first time, you need to know this. I'm a scholar, I'm a hip hop junkie, I'm a movie and culture nerd and an avid book reader and writer. Okay. So in these shows, you're gonna get glimpses of all of that. Sometimes it's just really random, okay? So you gotta, if you're gonna love me, damn it, you gotta love all of me. With that said, let's get into it. Okay, listen, today I'm recording this on election day. So you'll probably get this the day after, maybe two days, right? and also our my producer will be traveling, so some of the editing might look a little different for the next few episodes, but I'm gonna we we gonna we're gonna make it, we're gonna manage. All right. But you see the sticker, where is it? Right here. It's peeling off. So I voted. I voted this morning. And we're gonna close this show on what to do the day after you vote. All right. but first, I gotta go back and finish something that I started. So a few weeks ago, I posted a chart on where black people were moving in this country. I didn't put a caption, I didn't add any explanation, I did this on purpose. I I really just wanted to see what people would do with a plain set of facts. And the comment section showed me exactly. what people do. and it's not all negative, but it's it's it was a lot happening in that comment section. So here's the plan. First, I'm gonna pull up those comments and we we're gonna go through them. We're gonna go through the good, the curious, and just the flat out racist, because there was a a lot of that there. Then I'm going to put the actual facts on the table. All right, I'm gonna do the rest, I'm gonna I'm gonna loop out the rest of the research on what the data is saying. Is actually happening. and and maybe not end the debate, but at least ground you in some some something a little bit more meaty. and then because you've already voted, I'm I'm gonna talk about what we need to start doing right now. Okay? We got this? Y'all with me? All right. Well, let me fumble through and share this screen as we get going. This is color commentary. So here are the top 10 metros that's losing the most residents. And the way that I started doing this and why it mattered to me so much is because I am from two of the top three places, right? I was born just outside of Chicago and Maywood, and I grew up in Oakland. And those two places are some of the places that's losing the most black people. And so what I did is I put this first with no comment, and then Few hours later, I put the places where they were going. And here are just some of the comments that we're getting, right? So let's make this part a little bigger. I'm not being a smart ass when I ask this, but does this number include black people who are no longer alive or in prison? to answer that question, I think this person's being just curious. no, these are people that have moved away. All right. And then, and listen, and some people try to have good dialogue and conversation, right? The other part, so this person, the scary part is where they fleeing to. I fleeing is a strong word. I don't know if it's necessary fleeing, but you know, people are talking. And then here's the thing, it got so bad, I didn't I didn't hide any comments, but apparently Facebook did. So Facebook hit a lot Let's go to those. let's see where they go. So the places are becoming safer and property value is increasing. This is where the racist people came. It was a lot of racist people. So you're saying the crime rate is going down. I don't know if this person was being facetious or not, but they said, is it because they were killed? this person, Seth, I'm gonna give you the attention that you wanted because I just think that, you know, definitely was being a little racist here. Not a little racist, but Chicago's a war zone and SF is a shithole, so I'm not surprised. And people, you know, I I actually comment on that one. I had to stop myself because I didn't want to, the whole social experiment was to kind of put it out there and see where people landed. And everybody didn't have this. There is a lot of people that were actually really positive. But, I just want you all to see this is your America. This this this this is where we are. and I'm always interested by the people that don't use their real face, like this Jacob Paul. and that's the only way that they can kind of speak their truth or or or be a little spicy. 'cause I don't think these people would actually say this in in in in front of other black people, in front of black people. But it's interesting. they are being r replaced by illegals. It's crazy. The black community doesn't release when they vote blue for Democrats, they throw away their rights for the plantation masters who have laughed at their existence since the beginning of the Democrat Party. It's really some amazing stuff they got these people to do to themselves. Low IQ and handouts win the day for the Democratic Party every day. Listen, man. Look, bruh. the level of racism, man, is just it's astounding to me. it's astounding. but this is where we are, and this is where some of those people are, right? So again, this got seen by 10,000 people. it got shared and discussed a lot. I always find it interesting when people share my stuff on Facebook, but it don't let me see who shared it. Like, I get that they might be private or whatever, but Should it's mine. I should still be able to know who shared it, right? Eventually, I did go and put where people were going, and then that led to more conversation. So let's let's let's let's head back. So I just want to put a button in that though, because I thought it was a very interesting take. I thought it was an interesting set of facts. And as somebody who has moved a lot, I went to like I said, I went to a double digit number of schools when I was younger. We moved a lot because we had to move or homeless or, you know, where the opportunities were. and we end ended up settling in Oakland, which I'm proud of, I'm thankful for. If you made me choose, like I love being from Maywood, I love living in Dalton, I love being living in Paducah, Kentucky with my grandmother until she passed. But if you made me choose one place to call home and will raise me, it would have to be Oakland. It just would have to be. So, that's that's that's where we are. So there were just some wild statements that were there, and I just it's just a good reminder. Like I never forget, you know what I'm saying? I deal with this all the time. Every time I put out research, I get these people, and it's always interesting and weird. Okay, so welcome back. I wasted my drink all on my hoodie, so wardrobe change. It didn't get on my shirt, so I just took my hoodie off. And but yeah, I had to show you guys the comments. I know I've walked through this data, and you know, it's just interesting, like I said, to to to see how people are taking in all this stuff. Other thing I will say, is we still gotta get to a place where we can look at data and research. And take in facts, man. Take in facts without letting that inner stuff that could be negative or harmful or or just wild just take over. you know, if if if your first thoughts go to disparaging people, you gotta you gotta think about that. You gotta think about that. Anyway, with no further ado, here are the facts, black and white. Okay. Now, I posted that map with no caption on purpose. So here's the caption. Because this migration is not a mystery and is not an opinion. It has reasons, and the reasons have receipts. So start with history, because you cannot read that map without it. Between nineteen ten and nineteen seventy, about six million black Americans left the South. The National Archives caused it the Great Migration, with roughly 1.6 million in the first wave through 1940, and about 5 million more through 1970. They were running from Jim Crow and reaching out for work, and they landed in a specific set of cities: Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Oakland, amongst other places, right? So hold that list because it will definitely come back around. Now, the movement has reversed. According to the Census Bureau's 2025 estimates, the metros losing the most black residents between 2020 and 2025 are Chicago, down about 54,000, Los Angeles down about 50,000. Then San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, Detroit, and Cleveland. The 10 biggest losers of black people. Gave up more than 210,000 black residents in five years. So put that list next to the great migration list. The cities that were the finish line 100 years ago are the starting line now. The grandchildren are running the route in reverse. And they're going to the south. Over the same window, Dallas Fort Worth added more than 180,000 Black residents. Houston more than 170,000. Atlanta more than 150,000, with Charlotte, Orlando, and Phoenix picking up tens of thousands more. The Pew Research Center counts the national black population growing from about 36 million in 2000 to roughly 49 million in 2024. And the fastest growth is in states that for most of American history have had almost no black residents at all. So why? Right. I know the kids love to say vibes. It's not just vibes, okay? It's reasons. So let me give you them. Let's just go through these reasons one by one. Reason one: a house in 2024 across the 50 largest metros, the black home ownership rate was 43.6%. While the right rate, the take that again, while the white rate was 70.3%. That gap is almost 27 points. But look at where black families actually own. At the top is Atlanta at about 55%, DC at 53%, and Miami at 52. At the bottom, San Jose is at 29% of black home ownership. Los Angeles at 32%, New York at 33%, and San Francisco is at 36. Now go back to the leaving list. Every city, black folks are leaving in the biggest numbers, sitting near the bottom of the ownership list. It's not a coincidence, okay? There's a mortgage that people couldn't get approved for. And just as I know we're in the black and white section, so I'm staying with facts. Large part of the reason that I left Oakland, my office is still there, my heart is still there, my work is still there, my friends are still there. But it was so much cheaper to me for me to buy my house in a south suburb of Chicago compared to Oakland. So much. I bought my home for under $200,000. In it, I have a theater. Okay. I have a full bar and a full basement. If I would have tried to buy a home that had those types of amenities in Oakland, first off, there ain't no basements in Oakland. But the other stuff, it's over a million dollars. Okay. Reason two: the price behind that mortgage. Okay. So this year the National Association of Realtors put the median single-family home in San Francisco at about one and a half million dollars. Los Angeles at $880,000. New York is at about $800,000. Now the South, Atlanta, $387,000. It's a big difference. Dallas, $380,000. Houston, $345,000. The national median is about $428,000. So a family sells a typical home in the Bay and then they buy a typical home in Houston and they still get to keep more than a million dollars. Okay. People love to call this fleeing. It is not fleeing. That's just that's this is arithmetic, okay? It is I see a deal. I want my money to stretch. I want to not be house poor. So reason three, and this makes this a little more complicated. It's not that black people make less in those coastal cities on paper, they actually make more. The highest median household income in the country are in San Jose, and it's at about eighty-six thousand, and in DC, it's at about eighty-two thousand dollars. But a six-figure household in San Jose still cannot buy a house. And that's the point, right? People are not running from a paycheck. They're chasing the thing that a paycheck was supposed to buy you and they never could get, they just couldn't get it. They couldn't get to ownership. And we know that wealth in this country, for a vast majority of those that are wealthy, has come through owning property. It's still one of the the the the listen. Being able to own a home, pass that home down to your children, that is still an early starting point for wealth. Okay. Let's go to reason four. Okay. Reason four is the work has moved. All right. Manufacturing economy that pulled black workers to the north a century ago has been gone for decades. All right. Detroit does not look the same. It's not flush with factories in the way that it was. The jobs that are growing now are in healthcare, logistics, technology, and finance, and they're now starting to move south. Washington, D.C. ranks number one in the country for where black Americans are doing the best economically, and it has one of the highest shares of black owned businesses anywhere, around 7%. Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, the DC suburbs, these are the engines of black middle class now, not the old industrial north. the politics have shifted, the economy, the the economics have shifted. So then reason five, the cost of living and a tax bill. Texas and Florida have no state income tax. California and New York are among the highest tax, highest cost states in the country. They are some of the most expensive places to live in the world, on the whole globe. Now put the housing gap And the tax gap next to each other, and a working family's dollar simply stretches further as soon as they cross into the Sunbelt. And then there are reasons that just don't show up on a spreadsheet. So one family, family and the pool of going home where your people are from. Climate, retirement. And the truth is that South people fled under Jim Crow. It it ain't the South of today. It's changing. A region black people were once forced to escape has become for a lot of families the best shot at ownership and keeping it. Atlanta did not get the nickname of being the black Mecca by accident. So one more fact. One more fact, because today of all days it matters. When people move, political power moves with them. The South now holds the largest and fastest growing black communities in the country, which reshapes the maps in Georgia, in Texas, and in North Carolina. We we have already watched what that can do in a close election, right? Like, so that is the caption that I left off for the first time when I posted these numbers. Onto social media, notice what's not on that list is not crime, it's not chaos, it's not whatever that comment section wanted to be. It's about housing, jobs, taxes, family, and the freedom to own. So the map wasn't the story that that that people wanted to make it. It wasn't the boogeyman that people wanted to make it in their heads. These reasons are, these economic reasons are. And these should have been things that were front and center when we're talking about these elections. And I think in two years, I think they will be. I'm gonna keep taking up this mantle. I'm gonna keep talking about this because I fall into all of those categories. I was born out here in the Chicago area. A lot of my family lives here in the Chicago area. My money moves and it and it it stretches more here. The political power and heft that I have of now living in a community that is 90 plus percent black, those are reasons. Those are reasons. So that's the news. Now let's talk about it. You are listening. To color commentary with Dr. Cole, and we are now back in color, Tommy. Okay. So for this color commentary section, again, I wanted to really get these facts and dig into it for people because I was just floored by a lot of those comments. I'm never surprised about racism or things like that, but just the the amount of it and the and the ways in which it came and the boldness of it was wild. half of those people had avatars instead of their pictures. Some of had their pictures. I went and checked. I went and checked. I went and checked out their lives. a lot of those people seem miserable, by the way. I'm just I don't know none of those people personally. Just a lot of them seem miserable. So there are some questions that I just want to riff on because I know there are some nuances that people want to get to around this stuff with me. So the first question that I put together, it goes the cities we are leaving are the exact cities that the great migration built. When you line those two lists up, what does that do to you? Listen, history is very important to me. It's very important. And I love reading about the Great Migration. If you read the book. the warmth of other suns. I think they do a really good job of laying those things out. And people should feel pride in those places and helping build those things up. but again, San Francisco without a black Fillmore is just really different. Oakland, without the black base that it once had, is just really different. And it's crazy because so many people are moving there and you're moving there. In large part because of the sauce that was there. And a lot of that sauce was black people. Now there's other people too. I ain't I ain't got our Latino brothers and sisters, our Filipino brothers and sisters, the Bay is is is a is it really is a melting pot of a lot of people. But in Oakland, in the town, black was prominent. The Black Panthers, Kirajama. so much stuff. And I say this all the time. I grew up in North Oakland. The neighborhood I grew up in looks so vastly different today. The house that I grew up in in North Oakland, I lived in two houses in North Oakland that were next door to each other. And the value of those houses, I grew up in abject poverty. Okay. The first little house that I lived in off of 53rd, just a a a block up from San Paolo, little little starter house. We rented from the church. We had moved into that house after coming out of a shelter. we were broke, broke. And then we moved into the bigger house next door, right? The house didn't have I my room was upstairs. So it's a it's a multi-level home. my my my parents had the master bedroom, which was downstairs, and my brother and sister, who were closer in age, shared a room. And then there were like these two half rooms upstairs. It was really like an attic that they kind of turned into. Some rooms, I don't even think they could list them as actual rooms, but they were they were big enough for rooms. There was no insulation. So in the summer, it was unbearable to be up there because there was no insulation. It would just get hot. It would be like a a greenhouse. I love that house. You just learn how to deal with it, right? Like, That house just sold for over a million dollars. That's crazy. It's crazy. And it ain't that the house is just super different. I had dreams, I still do, of going back and buying that home because it's my childhood home. I had to be a fucking millionaire to buy a house that our broke asses used to just live in. So I got a little emotional on that. That that yeah. That's wild. The next question was Oakland and Chicago are both home for you and both are on the leaving list. What is it like to watch that happen to your own places? I understand it and I get it. I'm not mad at it. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm not, people gotta go and do what works for them. People have to have a plan. I completely understand. Listen, the way that the Great Migration happened, it happened out of necessity. It happened out of opportunity. There were opportunities north and west and and northeast, and people went and took them. Now those opportunities are in the south. Those opportunities are in places where black people have not normally rocked. So you got a lot of black people in Phoenix and in Arizona now. people are gonna go where they can get good jobs, their money can stretch, and hopefully they can get good schools. If they get two of the three. It's worth the move. There was a study that came out before I moved away from the Bay Area that if you lived in s in San Francisco and made $110,000 with a family of four, you were considered at the poverty level. That's crazy. You lose your humanity when you become numb to craziness. So keep calling out craziness. So the other question that I got was: is this a loss or a correction? Are we losing the communities our grandparents built or finally getting the ownership that they were denied? Well, in my case, I think I'm getting the ownership that they were denied. So when I moved, I never wanted to move to Chicago proper. I was born in Maywood. which at the time I was born was one of the blackest suburbs in the country for its size. when I was moving back, I wanted to move back into Maywood, but the demographics had changed. It's no longer majority black. It's now, I mean, you just drive around, it's majority Latino, which is fine. These neighborhoods shift all the time. Before Maywood was mostly black, it was Italian. So still one of my favorite Italian restaurants is is is over there, like just in the next town. I I would drive all the way to the west side to go. and have my and and have great authentic Italian food. So things shift. My parents, i it ownership was a tough thing. It was a sh she she she was an illustrious she she was a Let's say if they were courting her, she kept running. They was Pepe Le Pew and ownership was the the the cat that was just running for dear life away from them. And then you know what happened? In the early 2000s, my parents had saved up. they were praying, they were obedient Christians, and then one day a young man looks who favors me now, young black dude, came and told them that they could afford a house. And then they started to run numbers, but my parents weren't mathematicians. My parents at that point had not going to college. My mother was a high school dropout. My dad went to the military and and and just worked regular jobs. They were not realtors. And so when they're looking at these numbers, of like, we can afford this rent, we can afford this mortgage. We can do all this stuff and get this down payment. So they do that and they get into this home, but there's this other thing. An adjustable rate mortgage. So they asked the young man, the young black man, hey, what does this mean? Hey man, you ain't gotta worry about that. By the time that comes around, you will have it, you will be saved up, and you'll be good. This is this is this is how people buy homes. The numbers are always scary. My parents bought a beautiful, modest home, but it was theirs. So in my eyes, it was one of the most beautiful homes I had ever seen. It was in between Stockton and Sacramento. It was you know, my brother and sister were now growing up out in that area. It's a beautiful neighborhood, beautiful school. And then that damn arm kicked in. And millions of other Americans across this country, they lost their home. They got scammed into getting that. And when I pushed them, because I was young, I was just fresh out of college. I didn't know, right? I pushed, I asked the questions that a eldest son asked. And my mother and father, who were so proud. Of like, man, they have worked so hard, they changed their lives around. Yo, these are pe these are two convicts. These are two people that have been in and out of jail. A lot who kicked drug addiction together and stayed together. Got their first boy, first kid out the door and in the college. Deacon and deaconess at their church, in the choir, obedient. It didn't have to make sense. They got their faith, a faith that I still believe in to this day. I am nothing without the Lord. I'm not the best Christian. I'm not the best Baptist, but I believe. I believe with my with all my might. They moved on faith. And it was somebody that looked like them, that they trusted, that put their arm around them. Nah, I'm gonna walk you through this process. I'm gonna make sure you're good. I done sold a bunch of these. Come on, we need our people owning. We need to be here. That's what happened in the early two thousands. So now when you go through stuff like that and you get jaded cause you've been burned and now your credit is messed up, even after you did all this repairing. I know they had to do a lot of repairing because I had to do repairing because I share a name with my father. I remember becoming an adult and having to get shit off my credit. Sorry, sir. How do I have bad credit? that thing on that report, I was eleven. So the question of is this a loss or a correction? For me, it's a new path forward. It's the beginning of a new story. Because I can if if if if I lost everything, I can handle my mortgage. I bought a modest house. My house is not, I didn't want to be house poor. So I bought a house below my means. I pour into it. I have I have nice pretty lights. I like the lights. And if anything were to happen, there's a place for my family to go. And I want to buy another one. Another one that's modest. Maybe Airbnb it, maybe rent it out, but start to accumulate some wealth so my aunts or or accumulate like in and or use that second house as like a family office and figure out a way that my family can also benefit from it. What business can we garner from that? How can I teach the people coming up under me that share my name and my blood how we pull wealth out of this? How we do it in a responsible way, how we invest. So, no, I don't, I don't know. I wouldn't say it's a loss or a correction. I would say it's a new path. I would say that my grandmother and my parents and my aunts and cousins and all those cousins and aunts and uncles that I lived with. Throughout the years, I would say as a progression in that story, and I get to reap some of those benefits. I didn't do it by myself. These questions turned out to be a little better than I thought they would. All right, let's go to the next one. A family selling in the bay and keeping a million dollars in Houston, is that a black wealth story, a black displacement story, or both at once? Listen, there's a lot of stuff right now. Be you know, if you look at this F D signifier, and Jared Ball and Killer Mike thing, where I know that they're on on on Killer Mike's head around black ownership, black wealth, you know, there's conversations around capitalism and And and and what is communism or socialism or whatever the case is. I I I've been following it. Maybe I'll do an episode on it. I really like all three of those guys. I really do. I think that they're all necessary. But I love Killer Mike. And I understand what Killer Mike is trying to do. I'm not as I understand people being upset with him on certain things. But to treat that man like he is an enemy to black people, I just I I I I can't I can't I can't jack that. I can't ride with that. I don't think he is. I've met the man. and not that I've met him, that just means that he can't do no wrong. I'm not saying that at all, but I've seen when I could do nothing for him, I saw what he was trying to do in his community. I I've I've I've been to the I've been welcome to the barbershop. I've I've I've watched the I've seen the businesses, I've seen him give game. to other people that's trying to get out of the dope game and to try to get into a legal, legit game. I I so this concept of wealth, black wealth, what is that? I know we're at the bottom of a lot of these statistical categories, right? Like of of income to debt ratio and how much, you know, net worth and things like that. I know, I know. I still think that financial literacy is important. And I'm not saying that those guys don't think that it is. What I am saying is that there can be different types of black people. That have different ways to get to solutions and they all can still love black people. I think all three of those guys love black people. Now, if you want me to go deeper into this and actually cover it and do a show, look, FD Signifier is on fire right now. He is growing, he is huge. Shout out to him. I know he's from the Chicago suburbs, and he is also moved from this area and and and going into Atlanta because there's a lot of opportunity there. And as he should. I wanna I want to see all three of those people be very successful. So this is no hate or no shade. I know the internet don't like when you do that. You gotta be yelling and screaming. Somebody gotta die and somebody gotta win every single time in the internet stuff. I'm just that's I'm not the show for you if that's what you want. I'm not gonna do that. So I ain't trying to get smoked with Cuz. I would love to have a conversation with him. but We have to be talking to our people about displacement and about wealth and the role that wealth plays into that. And I'm not mad at the people that don't like capitalism. I for some r I I do see that for whatever reason, Jay-Z and Killer Mike has become Persona non grata. Not for me. I I grew up in shit, bro. I grew up in nothing. Which is hope. So watching them on those journeys. accomplish what they accomplished and and and and do what they did and it's it's it's inspiring to me. Do they make mistakes along the way? Absolutely. May they may may are they misquoting some of these things or some of these leaders that they admire yeah, sure, probably. And you can correct them on that. But I'm not throwing those people away. Especially with the type of poverty that I grew up in. I know from a logical standpoint that money does not solve everything. I know it. But you can't tell somebody that's currently living in a trap or living in the shelter or standing on a auntie's couch or living with your cousins and pushing them out of their room and they really resent you and they don't want you there. You can't tell somebody where money would have fixed all of those issues. That money and financial freedom aren't important. And that's something that I think is getting lost in the conversation because the two people that are going at killer Mike are doing pretty well financially. I'm not counting their pockets. I'm not saying that there's something wrong with that. I don't know why, when it comes to black people, we gotta be broke to be real in the struggle. I don't believe that at all. I I I don't play those games. So I think that you can actually have some wealth if you've been saving in the Bay Area and then you can go. Hell, if you okay with not living in Houston and just living a few a few miles outside of Houston, you can get something really nice for 300 bands or less. And have some money. Do what you gotta do. As somebody who lived in four shelters, went to a double-digit number of schools, had to live with people, all that shit, home is where you lay your hat down. So don't be afraid to go and venture in a new frontier. Okay. Let me move us along. I posted the map with no caption and I let the comments tell on everybody. when is it smart to let a comment section expose itself and when do you step in? Hey man, hey. Look, people that watched this show that went and checked it out, y'all wasn't on that. My fans, the people that rock with me, y'all was asking great questions. Y'all were asking thoughtful questions. I love that interaction. The biggest are gonna find a way. And sometimes you gotta let people expose themselves. I I I I did jump in once or twice and I had to pull myself back. You know, I I I had to definitely do that. But I'm trying. Not to feel like I gotta insert myself in everything all the time. And it's hard. It's very difficult. So there's that answer. but you step in when people that you care about are about to get hurt or are stepping out of character, or you got the power to shut it down. But you get to choose that line. So, and if black political power is now laying in Georgia, Texas, and the Carolinas, what do we need to be building there before the next election and not after? I I I think that is as you're growing and building out more political power, there does need to be a plan. And I think that that plan needs to be, again, I'm gonna be very cliche. I think you should think globally and act locally. And when I say that is because different places have different needs and requirements. Like the Carolinas should have a plan that works for black people in the Carolinas. Black people in New York or black people in California might have different needs. I think we should be aware of each other's needs and what we got going on. But That's what I'm on. Build your platforms. build a tent that does have room for both your black experts but also the black people that are just living in these politics every day. I I think that we are in a new time where the gatekeepers are not are no longer the ones with the loudest microphones. I think that they're these people on these social media sites. Maybe I'm counted in that, maybe I'm not. I try to stay respectful, but I'm gonna speak my mind. Because a lot of those pundits that were on MSNBC and CNN and Fox. A lot of stuff that they were saying would didn't wouldn't have helped me and my black family in some cases. Not all. They got it right a lot of time. A lot of the time they did. And then there are times when it was stuff that they was getting, where it's like, this, you're not talking about black, you you building stuff for black elite people. You talking about the black million, you this is for black millionaires. Got it. And you just need to know the difference. You need to know. When people are engaging in a black conversation or the rich Negro conversation. Those conversations can be similar at times, but they look a little different. And that's gonna lead us into why I constructed the show the way that I did today. Here's why I'm doing this today and not last week. So at the time of taping, this is on Tuesday. Tommy will probably get this edited and up and out maybe Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. So the election is now over. We're we're we're starting to see who won. what the repercussions are gonna be, all that good stuff. And then people are gonna start gearing up for two years from now when the big election, the big one is happening. They're gonna start doing strategy. And the reason why I'm posting this today and not last week is because when a black man has stood up during voting season and says that our community needs something specific in return for our vote, he gets called divisive. Or distraction or tool. I've watched it happen with Ice Cube when he put out the contract with Black America in 2020. And I know people have their feelings about that, but I remember I heard him say, I will take this plan. I want to talk to the to the lead to the lead people in the Democratic Party and the lead people in the Republican Party. I'm watching these things happen with Killer Mike. And again, you can have your criticisms. I am not here to cape for him. He don't need me to cape for him. He's very capable. But Mike and Q, I appreciate you brothers for what you were trying to do. I don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You gotta start somewhere. You gotta start somewhere. So the second that you make the ask before the ballot, somebody is accusing you of suppression or selling out. Well, damn it, I'm asking you after now. And for the record, my votes in Illinois were definitely Democrat. Okay? All right. I'm still a Democrat. I've worked in the party. I get it. But I'm not mad at people asking, what am I getting from my vote? I think more should do it. So I waited on purpose. As you're watching this, the boats are in. And nobody can tell me that I'm keeping anybody away from the polls now. I went bright and early. And if people need a rise, I was here to take them. I talked to people that asked me about stuff. Talk to them about the things that I was voting on. One of the biggest things in our area is that the millionaires in our Chicagoland area, that there be a slight raise in their taxes to give some relief to our skyrocketing property taxes here. And that more of that will also go into our schools. And then there was another initiative that would raise everybody's taxes here just a little bit to preserve our forest parks. And for my friends that live in California and and that live that don't live here, we have beautiful forest parks here. Our parks, I mean, it's just I mean, basically, Dalton was like a swamp before, like a big old forest. And we just mowed down trees and built the town here. So you get some interesting weather, you get some flood in here and there. you get to see some interesting creatures. when I moved here, I didn't see a lot of hares and rabbits when I was in California, not in the bay. Here, you see them, and they cute for about the first six months until you start growing shit. Then they are pest. And then they are pest. But the point is that I waited because I think there are some things that we need to do, right? The main point is that a vote isn't is not a gift that you just hand over and walk away from. It's a down payment. And today is when that real work starts. And it is how we get what we need and what we deserve. So you voted. So now what? I built a checklist. Because I like checklists. So here we go. Your vote is the beginning, it's not the end. Casting the ballot was step one, but holding Power accountable is actually what you are called upon to do. So when they showed up in your community or your church or your school or knocked up at your door, don't let them fade back out after that. Next week, you know, well, once you know, people get sworn in next year or whatnot, right? Show it where they are and then ask those hard questions about what they promise. So this is what I want you to do. And this is what I've told people in my community. So I'm telling you all. And I put this on social media before I even built this episode. I want you to write, I want you to get your notebook, right? Get your notebook. And on one side, I want you to write down the politicians that you put your horse behind or that one and write down the things that they said. All that, all that mailer stuff, don't throw it away yet. Go to the mailers and see what they said, right? And then on the other side of the page. Write down the status quo. Write down where things are now. Write down the prices of groceries. Maybe the groceries that you get the most. Write down the price of gas right now. All that stuff. Write down how your schools are doing. And look, people are using AI for a whole bunch of stuff to do terrible looking flyers. And I've done, listen, you can you can just add in a few more prompts. The flyers don't all have to look that bad, y'all. It's really not that hard. It's just Okay. Just let's just calm that down a little bit. But if you can use it for that shit, you can use it to fill this out, right? And then I want you to pick three issues from all that stuff. And then I want you to go deep. So start reading that stuff. And again, there's no shame here, okay? I don't nobody knows what you ask an AI. So if you want to use that tool, find user guys or hey, say I I One of the best prompts, explain it to me like a fifth grader. Find your three issues. I want you to understand this complicated policy because now I'm applying our framework: awareness, navigation, and duty. Right. Now you're aware. Learning these policies, now you learn how to navigate. Okay, this is the reality right now. But now your sense of duty is now that you know those things, you have to have a voice, you have to be a player, you have to be a check and balance, you have to, even if you don't show up, you gotta know what they're talking about. You gotta talk to your neighbors about this stuff, the things that you want. And then look, when these things come back around, hey, if the person tried and did what they could do and you saw them working, hey. Have your pom-poms ready. Be ready to support their campaign or the new and the new initiative. Or if some people was just lying out their teeth, then now it's like, hey man, that ain't okay. I'm on your head. I'm on your neck. And maybe commit, not maybe, commit to three to five. If you've never done these, commit to three things that you can show up to, whether it's a council meeting, school board meeting. Whatever local government is doing in your area, show up. Check out your local library that is probably struggling with funding and has all these things and resources for you. And people aren't taking advantage of it. I've been to a ton of libraries and they've been like, no, no, no. No. People are not taking advantage of this. We have these programs. We have this. We got free tickets to the museum. We got free tickets here. Nobody's using it. Libraries can close down, y'all. So you got your you now now you're more aware. You got some tools to help you navigate. And now you got some duty. You got a role to play in this democracy. Everybody don't have to agree with you. Everybody don't have to like you. But especially if you got a family and you see how trends are moving, you see a new great migration happening, it's a lot of things happening. Are you gonna be you're in this car and it's driving through history? Are you gonna be a driver of your life? Or are you gonna be a passenger? I'm not judging you on either one, but passengers can't touch the radio. And they can't really complain on the final destination either. They just kick you out the car. This has been another episode of Color Commentary. I want to thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you. So drop us an email at colorcommentarypod at gmail.com. Once again, that's colorcommentarypod at gmail.com. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show and leave us a five-star review. Share it on social media and join us every Thursday for more color commentary with Dr. Cole. Peace.