Latest / 4DAFAM / Ep. 18 - Cost of Education (Gatekeeping & Legacy Admissions)

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Ep. 18 - Cost of Education (Gatekeeping & Legacy Admissions) · 4DAFAM

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Let me hear you. I got something you need to hear.
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During the volume, it was loud and clear. A podcast talked about politics and culture.
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No limits. Like a 504 soldier. We're not pretenders. Ain't no agendas.
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Our only plan is to keep it 100 and do it for the fam. Yeah.
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What up, what up, what up? What's going on? Same old same. I'm Six Mill,
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keeping it trim. It's your boy, KG.
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Welcome to episode 18 of For The Fam Podcast. Yes, sir.
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Almost at the 20. Almost there. How you been, brother? How you feeling?
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Pretty good, man. Pretty good. Can't complain.
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Couldn't sleep last night, but, you know, slept. I think I slept till about
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noon today, man. Really? Yeah.
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I mean, I may have woke up, you know, once or twice, but actually getting out
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of the bed I think it was like $11.50.
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Yeah, that's good, bro. I'm happy for you. I say you already about what?
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About three, four hours in the work.
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Man, for real, though. Yeah, let me see. Around that time, I'm like maybe at the halfway point.
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Yeah, that's wild, bro. I long for days like that.
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I cannot do it. I was tripping, though, when I woke up. I was like, oh, man, come on.
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Slept half the day away. Then I spent the next two hours cleaning out the oven, man.
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You don't got self-clean on that joint? Oh, no, man. You don't use self-clean. Why?
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That's a whole different conversation to have. I always use self-clean,
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bro. I would stop if I was.
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All right. Well, yeah, that's definitely a conversation for another day.
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Yeah. So anyway, what are we going to get into today?
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We want to talk about the cost of education, kind of like, as you were mentioning
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last week, a continuance of that conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure.
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And I think if we do this properly, it'll be somewhat enlightening because I
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think this is an aspect of education that is often overlooked.
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And what i was alluding to last week when i was saying
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that you know education isn't
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equally applied i guess that's some
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of the uh myths or whatever you
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want to call it some of the things that we want to debunk today with this conversation
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so so yeah with that being said bro let's let's go ahead jump into it especially
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for us in the midwest oh well i and see naturally i always look get things from
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a racial aspect first. Well, in the Midwest, you have to.
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And yes, there is a racial component, but just like the fraud and the white-collar
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crime conversation we had, I think it's more of a socioeconomic than it is a racial component.
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Problem you know what i'm saying i i think it's more
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of just a class issue more than
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don't get me wrong there is always going to be a racial component
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this is america but i think
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it affects poor people in general yeah more than more well i won't say more
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than but almost equally so the only pushback i'll give you because i agree with
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you about 80 is the you know what not because then I'm going to give away what
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we're going to talk about.
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I'll bring it up later. All right, cool. Let me forget. Cool,
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cool. All right, let's go ahead and jump into it then.
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Oh, okay. Well, like I was saying, I just want to touch on how education can be used as a gateway.
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Not a gateway. Well, sort of a gateway. But also use like a gatekeeping mechanism
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for lower class people, impoverished people.
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I don't know if any of those terms are offensive nowadays, but y'all know what I'm trying to say.
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Poor people. Basically, if you have wealth, it's easier for you to ascend regardless
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of your education, as opposed to if you don't have wealth. it's still really hard for you to ascend.
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And on top of that, just getting the education itself is also tied to your bank account,
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to whether or not you're affluent enough to even get the proper education, to get the degrees,
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to get the certificates, to network with the proper people so you can get the
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job that you are chasing.
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So there's a statistic.
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So a black family headed by a college graduate has less median wealth than a
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white family headed by a high school dropout. Think about that.
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So if you're in a home, you have two college graduates in a black household.
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There's a good chance there's a white household with a college dropout who's
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doing better than you are.
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Does it mean he's smarter than you? Absolutely not. Oh, definitely not.
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I'll I'll I'll never, ever say that it's it goes back to what you were just talking.
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It's the funding, the socioeconomic, the different policies of the past.
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Jim Crow laws in the South, vastly underfunded black schools during that time.
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You know, you you integrated the students, you took that student and allowed
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them to go and go to that school.
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But that didn't change that black family's bank account just because they're
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sitting in the sand. So they might not have access to some of the same tutoring.
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Sure. And so on and so forth. Sure. Absolutely. The other family had. Absolutely.
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So so let's let's hit on a couple of other things. Spending disparities,
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which is kind of what you were just going over.
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Schools in high poverty districts. They don't receive the same amount of funding as wealthy districts.
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We talked about that briefly on the last podcast. buying
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power where and we
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talked about this on the mad podcast also we were talking
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about ai a wealthier school has
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better equipment better computers more access
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better textbooks extracurricular activities
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tutoring so all of those things that you were just saying
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teacher quality lower income schools
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in the um go ahead i lost my i lost okay okay okay okay no it's cool it's cool
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it's cool lower income schools get gosh i don't because there's such a general
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statement that i almost feel like it's wrong to say but.
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Because a school can hire can can offer a higher salary, the better teachers
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are going to those schools as opposed to poor districts getting.
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And I don't want to say lesser quality of teachers, but kind of a lesser quality
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of a teacher or maybe a teacher that's not willing. I know what you mean. Yeah.
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To go the extra mile because they're just like it's just a job and I don't want to be here anyway.
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It makes me think of lean on me, to be honest. So I got two statistics.
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And I'll just use where we stay now.
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IPS is roughly 85% student, roughly 85% of the students are black or Latin,
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but only about 26% of the teachers across the entire state of Indiana are black.
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Across Indiana, the teacher workforce is 92% white.
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Also, research shows that if a black student has just one black teacher by the
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third grade, their likelihood of going to college jumps significantly.
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Just from a black student having one black teacher. And I'm going to use this
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as an example. When the twins were in school.
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Of course, the teacher they had called it acting up, and I'm using air quotes.
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They switched classes and had a black teacher. We never got another phone call
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that entire year of their first grade year. Not a single phone call. Interesting.
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Not one. However, we received three to four a week with the other teacher.
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Same behavior, two different ways to deal with it.
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Now, why are we bringing that up? because that causes a rift and a problem as the kids get older.
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If they go to school and they're constantly being sent to the principal's office
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and what they feel like being treated badly by a white teacher,
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I don't know what the statistics are, but I'm pretty sure there's a pretty good
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chance that these kids are going to be like, man, the hell with school. I'm done.
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Well, yeah. Yeah, I can see that. and
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and i mean isn't that
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sort of just like a cultural issue you
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know what i'm saying not not saying that is is right or wrong but you know you
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can relate yeah that teacher can relate and you can relate to that teacher you
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know what i'm saying as opposed to someone who don't know don't know don't understand
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maybe don't even care and they're just and they're just looking at it as a paychecks.
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I don't think people understand that, man.
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Seeing somebody that looks like your mother representation or your father. Sure.
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And it doesn't. And this goes for white, white folk, black folk. Sure.
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Seeing someone who looks like the person who's raising you may help a lot. For sure.
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For sure. For sure. Yeah.
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No. Yeah. I agree. People underestimate the importance of representation,
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not just in school. I think in many aspects of life, just seeing someone like
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you, especially if you're trying to achieve something.
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Feeling like that person is
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going to understand the struggles of that job that you're at or whatnot.
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And most likely they can. I mean, because, you know, a lot of times when we
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are seeing it and you know this as well as I were the only one,
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quote unquote, in a particular environment.
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So yeah it does make you feel good to see someone else that looks like you that
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you can relate to like you'll understand my concerns and it it does give you
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a little bit of boost a little confidence boost because you're like okay somebody yes a familiar,
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which i went to my previous job yes when they brought him in i was like oh my
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god correct And what happened?
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Within three months, I was a regional operations manager. Before he got there,
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I was I felt like I was stuck in purgatory. You were.
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He got there and was like, well, hey, why is this guy not running these two areas?
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And he got there and boom, it was done.
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Interesting. Interesting. So we already know that college tuition is way too high.
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We already know because of capitalism that'll probably never change.
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No, because of Reagan that'll never change.
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And he been dead a long time. Yeah, yeah. And it...
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When when when politicians say American students are falling behind globally,
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there's a reason there's a reason for it.
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Most advanced countries, they offer college for free and look out for their their fellow citizens.
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Exactly. So it's like, how do you expect American kids to stay up with the competition
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when we have to pay for everything?
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Success comes with a price. And it's like, you know, if we want this conversation
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to change, perhaps we need to start looking at some of these social programs.
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Stop trying to demonize them and actually start to implement and apply them
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because like we were talking about the networking. Right. If.
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Let's just let's just let's just put it out there.
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Nepotism. You got to know somebody. Those things factor greatly into your success.
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Especially when it comes to
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getting a job. It doesn't matter how educated you are in a lot of cases.
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It doesn't matter how intelligent you are.
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If you don't know somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody,
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you're not getting in the door.
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You're not even going to get looked at. Nope.
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So in order to get in those social circles, if you will, it takes money because
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you got to be able to hang out with,
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the social club type people, if that makes sense. And half of these students you know.
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Or C-students. Yeah. Just because their parents are billionaires.
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For sure. Donated money.
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Not even billionaires. Just a fluent period, right?
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And it becomes the homeboy hookup. Hey, you know my son just graduated from
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such and such. Oh, yeah, send him through.
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Be dumb as a box of rocks. Now he's your boss, though.
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And he's starting out with six figures at 25.
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And then looking at you going, what's wrong with you? Right.
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What's wrong with you? Yeah. It's like, man, get the hell out of here. Yeah.
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Yeah. And the problem, too, with with tuition, even states that offer some level
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of free tuition for students.
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I'll just use Indiana because the twins were part of 21st century scholarship.
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If you don't sign up by the time you're done with eighth grade,
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you're locked out forever.
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Right. So there's always a catch.
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You know, there's New York where they have the free tuition at some of those
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schools if you're making under $125,000.
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What the hell is $125,000 going to do nowadays?
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So if I make $125,000, that means that I can afford to send my child to college? Right.
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There's always a catch. Correct. Oh, you just missed it.
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Correct. Why not just offer me the ability to get a free education,
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even if it's just an associate's degree?
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Because if you can give me the opportunity to get an associate's degree,
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I'll handle the rest. I got something to build on.
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I work on scholarships for the remaining two years to get myself,
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you know, my four-year degree.
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Correct. But there's always a catch.
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I agree. I agree wholeheartedly.
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A few other points, I guess, I want to hit on real quick.
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And this is this is about earnings, right? And you sort of touched on this.
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Households headed by someone with a bachelor's degree earn roughly two point
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three times more than those only with a high school diploma.
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Because education is considered a way for social mobility, a way to move up,
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low-income students often are hit with something called intergenerational persistence of poverty.
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Basically meaning if you're born in poverty,
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chances are you're going to stay in poverty and it goes back to the networking
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and not being able to have those social connections so you can get the good job.
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And listen, people, let's just get this out of the way. We're not saying education isn't important.
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Actually, we're saying the opposite. We encourage you to get an education.
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We're not saying that it's all doom and gloom and none of it matters.
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What we are saying what we're trying
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to show you is when you hear people
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talk about how the system is rigged the system really is rigged now i think
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that and and if you go back and listen to some of our previous podcasts i think
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there's a recurring theme that we're trying to show you that the system is rigged.
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Not saying it's impossible to beat.
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What we're trying to give you guys are the rules. You can't play the game unless you know the rules.
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That's what we're trying to accomplish here.
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I mentioned in the beginning about the gap here in the Midwest.
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So Wisconsin, for example, they have the widest achievement gap between black
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and white students in the entire country. Mm hmm.
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So graduation rates for black students in Wisconsin have trailed white students
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by nearly 30% in recent years.
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Now, that's not over the last 20 or 30 years, but just in the last five to 10 years.
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Think about that. A 30% decrease in a population.
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Is it because you're smarter? Nah.
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One to 2%, we might be having a different conversation, but 30% shows that there's a problem. Correct.
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There has to be. So when people say, well, that's just because they didn't want
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to do it or they had, no, they have issues at home.
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There's different things going on at home where you've got a mother or a father
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working three or four jobs trying to make sure that their kids are doing well. Correct.
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But if you have that child that's they've lost that time with their parents,
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we can even take it a step further, especially like here in Indiana.
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Not far from from here. You go three, four miles west of here.
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You got students with no Internet in the house. Correct.
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They're in parking lots at the at the library or McDonald's doing their homework.
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That shit matters for sure. I can do my homework in my room in 30 minutes or
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I can be at the library until nine thirty, 10 o'clock at night.
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Eating at 10 o'clock, take a shower, that shit matters.
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No, you're absolutely correct. To go back to what you were saying about the
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parents, if you come from a two-parent household and you're affluent,
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yeah, your parents may be there in the evening to help you with your homework. Absolutely.
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Or they may be able to pay for you to go see a tutor and you get some extra
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help if needed, when needed, where needed, as opposed to a single-parent household,
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If the parent is working multiple jobs, they're either too tired to help you
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with the homework or they're not there to help you with the homework.
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So, yeah, all of that matters.
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To move this to a college level.
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If you got to work and go to school, how stressful that is, how hard that is.
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I worked my way through college. It's hard.
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You're exhausted. I'm not saying that. And a lot of people do it.
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So my story isn't unique, but it's rough.
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As opposed to when you can just school is the only thing on your plate.
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Yeah, you probably should get better grades because you don't have the same
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stress factors that I have. You don't have the distractions that I have,
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so to speak, to pull me away from my study.
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So I can't focus on just school. I got to go to work.
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I got to deal with whatever nonsense I got to do at work. You know what I'm saying? I got bills due.
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It's a whole lot that goes into the success that's tied to where you come from
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and not just what you know.
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So that takes it all the way back to what I was saying about the Jim Crow,
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how we can incorporate that back.
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We talk about redlining in previous podcasts.
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Veterans that came home from World War II, most black GIs were not allowed to
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take advantage of the things that most white GIs were given.
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Kudos to those white GIs who came home, got themselves a home, and built equity.
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So here's where the difference lies. Those black families were not allowed to
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get those mortgages. And I'm not just speaking out my ass, people.
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Do some research. They were not allowed to get these loans because the insurance
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companies would not insure the mortgages.
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So the mortgage companies, even if they wanted to give these black GIs these
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these mortgages, they couldn't because they couldn't get them insured.
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What did that do that pushed them into places like Karini Green,
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Robert Taylor, Turnapart, Meadows, Columbia Center?
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You know places that some of y'all like what the hell are those places we know
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places just trust me they're places you don't want to grow up correct so when
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it's time for the granddaughter,
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to go to Yale, Harvard, or hell, I-U-P-U-I. Correct.
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Granddad, grandma can write a check from built equity in that home,
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pay for that college so that child doesn't have to worry about anything.
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On the flip side of it, black or white, or Hispanic, Chinese, it doesn't matter.
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When the family doesn't have a home that built that equity, they have to do
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exactly what you just said, work their way through college.
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Correct. It took my, and I'll use her as an example, because we had kids early.
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It took my ex-wife, what, 10 years? 11?
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Hell no, it might be longer than that. To finally finish school.
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Now, I know life got in the way. Because you got real life shit to deal with,
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though. We got real life shit to do.
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Yeah. And like I said, I know what life got in the way. We had kids, all of that stuff.
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But there was a reason why she was taking classes part-time.
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Because she had to work. i had to work if
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i could have i would have told her no you're not working you're gonna go to
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school full time that's not my that wasn't my reality it's not most of our reality
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right bro and that and that's the problem is most of us we're we're we're stuck so to speak,
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because of what you just described because life gets in the way it a lot of
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people don't finish school, not because it's too difficult as far as curriculum wise.
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They don't finish because they can't afford to. Right.
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And that's just the bottom line. It has nothing to do with the curriculum.
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It has nothing to do with the level of intelligence. It has everything to do
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simply with affordability.
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Bro, I'm 50. I have 90 credits.
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I never finished because I couldn't afford that fourth year. I have 90 credits.
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I hear you, bro. I have $22,000 in student debt.
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And I don't have a degree. Make that shit make sense. It don't make sense.
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And you know what else don't make sense?
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Student loan forgiveness is unconstitutional. That's also some shit that don't
23:37
make sense. Unless you want to be an ICE agent.
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Then, goddammit.
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Sorry, y'all. We had to throw that in.
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Anything else you want to add to this, bro? I do. So for everybody listening
23:53
that thinks that we're just two
23:55
guys sitting here talking about racial disparities over and over again.
23:59
These are the things that we live. These are the things that that we talk about.
24:03
Wow. Like throughout the week, we try to discuss and figure out what we're going
24:07
to do for the next podcast. We're trying to get people to understand it's not
24:11
about just black and white.
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It is about rich and poor. Correct.
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Because the poor people I'm referring to.
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I'm talking about white folks, too. For sure. Which is why I was saying in the
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beginning that, yeah, I think it's more of a socioeconomic issue. Absolutely.
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As opposed to a race issue. Here's the biggest difference.
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Most black, and I'm not saying all white people are like this.
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Most black folks recognize it, realize that there's something that needs to be done.
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Correct. And then they vote accordingly or move a certain way.
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Whereas a lot of poor white people don't understand or realize that they're
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blaming the wrong people. Correct.
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For their concern. Correct. If you start holding the politicians locally to
25:03
you accountable, maybe you will get that two years of community.
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Well, no, maybe we all get that two years of community college for free.
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Like a lot of states are. There's a lot of states in the Southwest that offer
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two-year community college free as long as you're a resident with no catches.
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No catch. You just go to school. I couldn't agree with you more,
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bro. I'm with you 100% on that.
25:26
All right, cool. I think we've basically hit everything we wanted to hit on
25:31
on this topic as it relates to the cost of education.
25:36
So we're going to slide right into some current events. What you got, my brother?
25:44
So I want to talk about something that happened today.
25:49
The tariffs that have been.
25:54
Sorry, y'all, we got the game on in the background and two crazy plays just
25:57
happened like within 40 seconds of each other.
26:01
The tariffs that Trump proposed that proposed today on truth social.
26:07
So he's going to be hitting eight countries with tariffs. Basically,
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if they don't just roll over and allow him to steal a country.
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Correct. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland.
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So 10 percent tariffs will start on February 1st.
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It escalates to 25 percent if no deal is reached by June 1st, 2026.
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So this is for tariffs, for all goods exported to the U.S. from these nations.
26:38
So his rationale is that the U.S.
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Must own Greenland to build his so-called Golden Dome missile defense system,
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claiming it's vital for global safety.
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No, it's vital for minerals, but I digress.
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So he's framed this as something to stop Russia and China from getting a foothold
27:00
in the Arctic. And again, as I mentioned last week, this has been going on for
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160 plus years. Hold on, bro.
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China and Russia ain't thinking about it the damn group. No,
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they are. They ain't trying to take that, though.
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But anyway, go ahead, bro. Right. Not in this way. Yeah.
27:19
So, I mean, are they in the area? Absolutely.
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Do they want to have boats and all this shit offshore? Absolutely.
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But you're right. This dude is just like, nah, we the U.S. Everybody else can kick rocks. Yeah.
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When I was a kid, I used to puff my chest out with that.
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Like, man, we the U.S. We big and bad. But when you get older and you realize,
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yo, we are alienating the hell out of ourselves.
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And that's going to do nothing but harm us in the long run. Correct.
27:51
I know I said last week that NATO probably would do nothing.
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I was wrong. Yeah. because about an hour
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after i said it i was like they sent troops i said
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they're ready to they're ready to get down they're like
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hey we're gonna send some people here and it wasn't a lot
28:06
of people but we're gonna send some people here for some training exercises to
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show you that we're there yeah you're not going to do this i don't personally
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think that it's going to be fought with weapons and i'll tell you why in my
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heart all right cool i is is interesting that you brought that up as your current event,
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because I was actually going to talk about the same thing.
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And since you've already touched on the major talking points,
28:34
I'll just piggyback off of that and say, like we've said plenty of times in the past,
28:41
a tariff is a tax on the U.S. Yes.
28:47
Putting tariffs on those countries does not do anything to curb their enthusiasm.
28:56
It just doesn't. They don't pay it. It's not a punishment. It's not a negotiating tactic.
29:03
We are going to pay those tariffs.
29:06
The other thing about that is we think the economy is bad now.
29:12
Most of the tariffs haven't even kicked in yet.
29:16
So when those tariffs do start to kick in, that's when we're really you think
29:21
groceries are going up just this year.
29:24
Wait until this time next year.
29:28
You'll really be like, wow, we're getting screwed by tariffs. But I digress.
29:33
What I what I what I really want to talk about in terms of these new tariffs and Greenland.
29:40
At what point do we say or Republicans say it's time to invoke the 25th Amendment?
29:50
This guy is clearly off his rocker. He's not well. Clearly. You could see it on TV.
29:57
Clearly he's off his rocker. You're talking about taking Greenland by force.
30:02
What? They're an ally. We have military bases there already.
30:08
They've already said If you
30:11
want more bases Put them up We don't
30:15
care Just leave us the hell alone The whole thing
30:20
makes No sense It makes no sense logistically It makes no security Sense The
30:29
only thing it is about Are the minerals that's there Which again Is going to
30:35
be hard to extract Because it's an iceberg.
30:40
So even if you got those minerals, it'll be years before any of it benefits the U.S.
30:46
So what are you doing?
30:50
What's your real goal? And how does this make America great?
30:56
It doesn't, other than the fact that you can point to another place that you've
31:01
colonized and say, look at us, we're tough guys.
31:05
Invoke the 25th Amendment, please. Tonight.
31:10
Please invoke the 25th Amendment. That's all I got, bro, because I was going
31:14
to talk about the same thing as far as the current event. Okay.
31:17
So go ahead with your rant, bro. You want me to go.
31:20
Oh, I thought you were going to introduce it. Oh, my, my, my, uh.
31:24
No, no, no, no, no, no. We not on, we not on 5 on the Blackhand side yet.
31:27
No, what? Oh, I'm tripping. Gosh, man.
31:33
Lord have mercy. Jesus. My bad, y'all.
31:38
My brain is foggy today. That's that cold, that cold sneaking up.
31:42
It is, man. All right, y'all.
31:43
It's time for everyone's favorite segment.
31:48
All right. or rant about a random topic.
31:54
My bad, brother. Go ahead, man. Jump in.
31:57
So I want to talk about, we talked about the tariffs. We talked about Greenland.
32:01
But I want to talk about a nightmare scenario.
32:05
I mentioned last week Donald Trump is playing a game of Monopoly.
32:10
He sees property. He bullies the other people. He tries to buy it.
32:14
But here's the problem. You know who he's bullying? the people who hold our God-blessed mortgage.
32:21
UK, France, Germany, and pretty much the rest of Europe wanted to cripple us,
32:27
like really put us in financial strain.
32:30
They wouldn't need to send troops to Greenland. They wouldn't issue a letter,
32:34
you know, a sternly worded letter. They would just sell off our damn debt.
32:39
So here's some things I looked up. So the Euro banking hubs and our Nordic allies,
32:47
they hold somewhere between two and a half to three trillion dollars in U.S.
32:51
Treasury bonds. They are funding our debt.
32:54
So the nuclear option, if they decided to go this route tomorrow morning,
33:00
if they dumped half a trillion, the price of bonds would crash.
33:04
Yields would explode 10-year treasury spikes And U.S.
33:09
Mortgage rates hit 12% overnight Our housing market freezes immediately.
33:16
Credit cards, max out. Small business loans, gone.
33:20
Overnight. Interesting. So it wouldn't just be a recession.
33:26
Like, we'd literally be... A depression. Like, it'd be like cardiac arrest for the economy.
33:33
So he's trying to acquire real estate by any means necessary when Europe has
33:41
the power to burn the whole neighborhood down. That's interesting, man.
33:46
Now, would they do it?
33:49
Probably not because it's basically mutually assured destruction.
33:53
That's what I say. It would probably affect them negatively also.
33:57
Yeah, it would crash the dollar.
33:58
And they would depend on the U.S.
34:02
Men to print trillions and trillions of dollars to rescue it and then save them as well.
34:08
But the problem is, too, is where do you put all that money?
34:11
Well, also, the problem with just printing money is. Yeah, that. It becomes meaning.
34:17
Well, I won't say meaningless.
34:19
It devalues it. Right. Basically. So we it becomes a peso. Yeah.
34:25
Basically. Yeah. So that's the problem with just printing money.
34:29
Our dollar is only which is not the strongest currency, but it's only as strong
34:36
as it is because other countries accept it as being strong.
34:41
Right. But if other countries, like you were saying, decided to not mess with
34:48
us, then the dollar becomes meaningless, valueless, pointless.
34:54
And there you go. So real quick, I just want to add this one small part where
35:00
the nuclear option wouldn't really work.
35:02
I mean, there is no alternative really for them to crash us and be OK.
35:09
Because, I mean, if you sell like France, for example, 500 million dollars in U.S.
35:14
Debt, if they try to put the cash in China, there's no gold.
35:18
I mean, it's too risky. Gold market is too small. and the US dollar is the only
35:22
thing that they is the only game in town basically.
35:25
So if you crash it purposely and that's the thing Trump is banking on,
35:31
Yeah, they're not that stupid. Yeah. You think so? To finish dealing with you,
35:36
I'd probably crash and go into a depression. I'd say to hell with it.
35:40
And I know that sounds silly as hell, but we're the ones living through this stupid.
35:47
Oh, man. You see what? I have to talk about that dude too. I know. I know. I know.
35:52
See what the Nobel Prize committee came out and said, bro. We don't care if
35:57
she gave you that award, bro.
35:59
She's still the winner. Like, like we're going to write in history that she
36:03
won the Nobel Prize and you did not.
36:06
So her giving you that is purely symbolic.
36:08
So there's two people in history that have been gifted Nobel Prizes that didn't
36:13
win it. Would you like to know who the other person is?
36:17
Yes. Yosef Gervles.
36:20
Let that shit sink in.
36:25
Hitler's right hand man. Correct. Correct. Correct. The architect.
36:30
Correct. Of the concentration camps. Who, wait, who gave? I can't remember.
36:36
When I saw that, I didn't even bother to look. And again, people,
36:39
I'm not saying Donald Trump's going to build concentration camps.
36:42
That's not what I'm saying. What people need to understand. Well,
36:45
hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Let me finish.
36:49
What people need to understand, what we like to point out on this podcast and
36:54
when we speak in general, this is how it starts.
36:59
We don't even have to use Germany We can use Italy We can use,
37:04
hell, any place that has colonized other places throughout history.
37:09
And guess what we're doing? We're doing the same thing a lot of other people
37:12
did, screaming from the rooftops. Correct.
37:15
And no one is listening. Correct.
37:18
Correct. And I'm not making a one to one comparison, but I'm just saying one
37:25
could kind of consider Alligator Alcatraz a concentration camp.
37:31
That's that's all I wanted to point out.
37:34
All right, y'all. Cool. You finished with that, bro? Yeah.
37:37
All right. Cool. Cool. Cool. I want to talk about, with this being MLK weekend,
37:43
I want to talk about MLK Day and how when we were kids growing up where we're
37:50
from, how they had the march from City Hall to Civic Center. Yeah.
37:57
Used to be cold as hell out there. Absolutely. But they had the march.
38:02
We're out there with the candles and singing We Shall Overcome to commemorate MLK Day.
38:11
And I kind of disappointed that this city doesn't have something like that,
38:18
but kind of feel like as the years go on,
38:23
it's sort of losing its importance.
38:27
I mean, like when we were young, there would always be like the MLK movies that came on on MLK Day.
38:35
And now it's just like what you want to have NBA games and they wear MLK shirts
38:41
like, OK, that's cool and all.
38:43
But don't let people forget what this man stood for, his accomplishments and
38:51
his message and what he sacrificed and what he sacrificed.
38:55
And I think that that's all relevant and important.
39:01
And I just want to say, if you if you have time this weekend,
39:07
actually like sit down and just do a little bit of studying on MLK.
39:15
Don't just look up. I have a dream. Yes, that's a great speech.
39:19
It's not the only speech.
39:21
Look up some of his social speeches. and how he wasn't,
39:30
What's the word I want to I want to use here? He was he was he was he was more about demanding.
39:38
Like a wealth equity than people realize, you know, I'm not going to say he
39:44
was out here demanding reparations, but he was definitely about closing that wealth gap.
39:50
And I think that's the part of MLK that people don't realize and they don't
39:56
see a lot because that's not what the media wants to portray.
40:00
They always want to portray the just Gandhi-like, can't we all just get along?
40:05
Man should be judged by the content of his skin. I mean, not by the color of
40:10
his skin, but the content of his character.
40:12
They always want to throw that out. And they don't talk about how this man really
40:16
was like America, you owe black people.
40:19
And at some point, you don't have to pay up. He was probably also the most hated
40:23
person in this country when he died.
40:25
And most people don't realize that he was. Like he was one of the most hated
40:29
people in this country when he was killed.
40:34
Hated. Labeled as a communist. These people today running around praising him on MLK Day.
40:42
Would have, their ancestors, you know, their grandparents hated him too. Correct.
40:48
And nine times out of ten would have been out there marching against him.
40:53
100%. Would have been out there on that bridge in Alabama cracking heads like them other people.
40:59
And all this man wanted was equality and peace.
41:03
And I think what gets lost a lot is segregation, like wanting things not to be segregated.
41:12
I think there were a lot of people at that time that thought that black people
41:16
wanted to move into your neighborhood to be you.
41:19
No, no, no. What we're saying is that if I want to eat at that restaurant, I should have the right.
41:24
Who the hell are you to tell me that I can't eat there?
41:28
That's what it was about. It wasn't trying to be you. No.
41:32
If I want to come out of my neighborhood and get a piece of pie at that at that
41:36
diner around the corner, that's always packed with people.
41:39
You shouldn't be able to tell me that I can't get a piece of pie Just because I'm black.
41:45
Yeah, yeah, yeah And also
41:49
the affirmative action part of it Don't discriminate against me because I'm
41:56
black As to where I can't get a job I should be allowed to get an education
42:01
The Ruby Bridges case Just like anybody else It wasn't about,
42:07
Why are y'all black kids trying to come to this white school?
42:10
It's about I should get the same education that y'all get, not a less education because I'm black.
42:17
The racial disparities, yeah, it was forcing me to come over here to try to
42:20
go to this school because you've already implemented laws that make home value. Right.
42:28
Those laws were implemented because to increase funding at white schools.
42:35
Right. These are facts. And I know you wanted to bring this up,
42:40
so I'm going to lead you to it.
42:42
Where did he graduate from? What college?
42:45
Who? K.O.K. Morehouse. Correct. Yeah. Does that mean his education was less
42:50
than? I mean, according to some people, it does.
42:54
To me, it just means he was able to be himself and develop into who he ended up being.
43:00
So I don't know what his degree is in. I don't know his field of study,
43:04
but whatever his field of study was, is is is less than the same field of study from Harvard. No.
43:16
I mean, it's the same textbooks, right? He also went to it. That's that's right.
43:20
He went to Boston University as well.
43:22
But but it's the same textbook, same, same information. Yeah.
43:27
So he got his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Morehouse, and then he got his
43:32
theological degree from Boston University.
43:36
So he studied theology at Boston University.
43:44
Yeah. No, no, no. Cool. Cool. It's just basically in saying that,
43:48
we're just trying to say that.
43:50
And he was a 15-year-old college student. Correct.
43:53
Correct. Which shows his level of intelligence.
43:56
That to get back to the gatekeeping, right?
44:01
Why does that degree from Harvard
44:03
or Yale weigh more than a degree from Morehouse or Spellman or Gremlin?
44:12
You know what I'm saying? If we're getting the same information,
44:15
why are you considered more of an intellect than these people?
44:19
The largest group of people to benefit from affirmative action.
44:25
Ivy League schools, and I'm going to throw USC in there.
44:32
Hell, I'll even throw Notre Dame in there, as much of a Notre Dame fan as I am.
44:36
If my father went there, oh, yeah, bro, send him on. He'll get pushed to the front.
44:45
Now, some of these kids of these people that have graduated are coming in there
44:52
with 4.0s, and I get that.
44:55
Sure sure but but some of them are coming in just based
44:58
on legacy right but they may not have gotten a
45:00
look from that school because no
45:04
like notre dame usc michigan like we talked on the phone the other day places
45:07
like michigan those are prestigious universities to get into and there are a
45:12
lot of students with 4.0 gpas that get turned away from those schools every
45:15
single day but if your father or your mother graduated from schools they're
45:20
going to give you an opportunity The legacy admissions, without a doubt.
45:24
Which is what affirmative action is.
45:28
It gives you the opportunity where you normally wouldn't be able to.
45:35
No. You and I talk about Joy Reid a lot.
45:39
Joy Reid, prime example, 4.1 or 4.2 GPA in high school.
45:44
No. The only way she was able to go to Harvard is because of affirmative action.
45:49
Now, here's why I'm saying that. What I mean by that, you guys listening might
45:53
say, oh, well, see, yeah, you know, affirmative action.
45:56
That's the only reason she would know. It allowed her.
46:00
To be seen by Harvard. Where she wouldn't have otherwise been seen.
46:03
Where she otherwise wouldn't have been seen because her spot may have gone to a celebrity's child.
46:10
Correct. So affirmative action, she belonged at Harvard. Correct.
46:15
She deserved to be there. Correct.
46:17
But. But legacy would have.
46:20
They would, they would, they would flip that and say that's reverse racism because
46:24
I should be there just because.
46:27
Just because. just because and there is
46:30
no way that this black
46:33
person deserves to be deserves to be
46:36
there and i don't just because she's from a
46:39
small town in color yeah but what if they got better grades than
46:42
you what if they tested better than you which she
46:45
did but that doesn't matter i'm supposed
46:48
to be there yeah yeah yeah
46:52
it it it makes no sense bro on his face it makes no sense and i gotta say it
46:59
shout out to the asian community y'all played yourselves man because the admissions
47:05
and ivy league schools for asian students i forget the percentage but it has
47:09
dropped played yourselves,
47:11
played yourselves y'all got used and then tried to sue.
47:17
To get into I forget the guy's name trying to get back into Harvard it was like wait a minute,
47:22
You said that it was beneficial for black folk. Right. But as soon as affirmative
47:26
action was lifted, that school was like, okay, cool. We're not going to accept you now. Right.
47:30
It was affirmative action. Right. Right. No one could exist. Right.
47:34
Right. So take your ass to NYU somewhere. Right. Play yourself.
47:38
Straight play yourself. All right, bro. That's all I got from my work, man. You good?
47:43
Yeah, man. I feel a lot better. All right, man. Cool, cool, cool.
47:47
You definitely got some things off your chest, man.
47:51
I can see it in your face. I'm like, man, he needed to say that.
47:56
It's all good. All right, y'all. Now we're going to move to five on the black
48:01
hand side, our black movie review.
48:05
And this week we chose Spike Lee's second film, School Days.
48:13
Yes, sir. Take it away, my brother.
48:16
All right. So School Days. And first, I want to say something.
48:19
I have re-listened to a lot of my responses during these five on the black hand side.
48:26
I sound like an angry person. I'm not giving these movies a fair chance,
48:31
nor am I being professional and giving a, I don't know how to fuck all that.
48:37
Thank you. All right. Thank you.
48:41
So.
48:45
Yeah. Nail it, bro. Nail it. Nail it. So there's no excuse.
48:51
So School Days came out in February of 1988. So my brother mentioned it was
48:57
Spike Lee's second full length of film.
49:00
It was the studio was Columbia. And then, of course, you know,
49:04
40 Acres and the Mule Filmworks. The budget was six and a half million.
49:08
They had 14 and a half million domestically. I don't have numbers in the national cast and crew.
49:15
Great cast. Yeah. Spike Lee, writer, director, producer, actor.
49:20
Ernest Dickerson. That's his name. Okay. The guy I was talking about that did
49:24
Above the Rim. Yes. I was trying to remember his name yesterday.
49:27
He created the visual palette of the film itself. Ruth Carter.
49:34
Also legendary. Currently known as an Oscar winner for Black Panther.
49:38
For sure. And, of course, Spike Lee's father was the composer.
49:42
I didn't know that. Neither did I.
49:45
That's cool. That's real cool, actually.
49:48
Yeah. So the movie, the plot of the movie, it's satire.
49:54
It's a musical drama. It's at Mission College.
49:57
That's what I couldn't think, which is a play on Morehouse. Yeah. Yeah.
50:01
Which is where Spike Lee went. Yes. It's a fictional HBCU in Atlanta.
50:06
It focuses on internal conflict within the black community rather than conflict
50:12
with the white establishment which I guess.
50:17
Get it when I read it. For sure. But before I read it, I was thinking, oh, damn. That's right.
50:25
It was a lot of internal conflict between, you know, the wannabes and the Jigaboos.
50:31
Sure, sure, sure. Without a doubt.
50:33
Yeah, yeah, that's crazy to call them the Jigaboos, bro. That's wild.
50:38
So, the student body famously is divided by class and colorism. Mm-hmm.
50:44
You know, Tisha Campbell gets a lot of that That flack when black folks talk
50:48
about that movie, it was like, well, you know, just like on Martin.
50:52
She was always the attractive, the smart, whereas Pam was dark-skinned and wasn't valued as much.
51:00
And, of course, this generation, the current generation recently, tried to cancel Martin.
51:07
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I digress.
51:10
Some of the songs in this movie from the butt, the fight the power. Sure, sure, sure.
51:20
Basically put EU on the map. Yeah, until that map fell off. Oh,
51:25
no, they only had like two or three more songs after that.
51:28
Because it was that time, it was the DC go-go sound. It was big at that time.
51:33
Spike Lee, kind of like in the Bay Area, the hyphy movement 10 to 15 years ago. Yeah.
51:39
So it's kind of like the same thing. What you got?
51:45
I I'm just. Yes, we sound angry, but maybe we just need to pick some different movies.
51:52
But yes, we slam a lot of these movies because they're just not good.
51:57
So my apologies. Let me add something else. I completely. OK, go ahead.
52:02
So the cast I started with and I didn't finish.
52:06
You had the fellas and you had the gaffes. yeah so Lawrence Fishburne back in
52:11
those days went by Larry don't call him Larry today if you run into him it'll be a problem,
52:17
Giancarlo Esposito was the leader of the Gammas. Right. Played Julian.
52:21
Oh, I forgot. Lawrence Fishburne's name was Dap Dunlap. Mm-hmm.
52:26
Giancarlo Esposito was Dean Big Brother Almighty. Almighty.
52:32
Spike Lee played Half Pint. Yep. Which was Dak's cousin. Right.
52:38
That he didn't want him to pledge. Right.
52:41
Tisha Campbell played Julian's girlfriend. So Giancarlo Esposito's girlfriend.
52:46
And he was, of course, the leader of the Gamma Rays.
52:49
Kim played Rachel Meadows, Dap's girlfriend, also an activist.
52:55
Asked who got their starts around this time. Samuel L. Jackson.
52:59
Correct. Bill Nunn. Even though you'll miss Samuel L. Jackson. Yeah.
53:04
Bill Nunn. Greatest. Yeah. Jasmine Guy. Kadeem Hardison. Branford Marcellus. Yes.
53:13
Well, Ozzie Davis is Ozzie Davis. Joe Seneca was President McPherson.
53:18
And then Daryl Bell, Big Brother X-Ray Vision. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
53:23
Yes, sir. gosh man the the light-skinned brother that's in all of the spike
53:29
lee movies that's his face is like burn yeah and i can't i can't call his name
53:34
for some reason i know it's like roger something.
53:38
But yeah he he's in this but yeah
53:41
i mean it's a it's a it's a great cast y'all and and when you look back at it
53:46
it has a couple of laugh out loud moments yeah and and yes the main plot is
53:54
the conflict between the Black Greeks versus the conscious community.
54:01
And, you know, it was like, why y'all pushing this Black message? Don't nobody care.
54:06
We trying to, you know, be on this level. And they like, no,
54:10
y'all sellouts. Y'all trying to, y'all ain't real.
54:14
And it is, I mean, I guess It's a relevant argument, push and pull today.
54:22
You know, you had a lot of the sorority chicks. They got the long weaves and,
54:26
you know, trying to be all pretty.
54:28
And then the other girls are the natural girls. And they like,
54:31
we beautiful just the way we are.
54:34
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a lot of arguments that resonates to this day.
54:43
But the execution of the movie is just, like you said, it's just a song, a dance skit.
54:51
They at the dance. They about to fight. They not about to fight.
54:55
And it's just like, I'm just like.
55:00
What's the real freaking point of this movie? And I think this is somewhat autobiographical
55:09
of Spike Lee's college career, college life, whatever.
55:15
But it is...
55:18
A lot of the movie is about him trying to get laid. Yeah. And it's just like, yeah.
55:25
It really was. Yeah. It really was. It's just like, no diss to Spike.
55:33
No diss to Spike at all. And this was his second movie, so of course you get
55:38
better the more movies you do. I just don't quite,
55:43
get what he's trying to say with this movie and, you know, the screaming at the end, wake up!
55:52
I wake up and wait. I don't get what you're trying to say here, bro.
55:56
I think it was kind of similar to, and of course this was more comedic,
56:02
don't be a menace to South Central I drink your juice in the hood where every
56:05
single time Marlon Wayans says something, message!
56:09
Here comes King Harvey Wayans as the mailman talking about message.
56:13
You know, I think that a lot of the being a light-skinned man,
56:19
well, a teenager, during these times, I experienced a lot of that bullshit.
56:24
And me being the exact opposite. Yeah. I experienced a lot of shit I kept to myself.
56:31
But, because if I had made a stink about it, some of my cousins would have been
56:35
fighting whoever said this and said that.
56:37
But it's, I think that some of the social commentary was necessary,
56:41
but I think The wake up, the constant, like, why is everything always a problem every God blessed day?
56:53
That's it right there. But these are the things I used to tell the kids when
56:56
they would come home. Dad, let me tell you what happened in school today.
56:59
And they'll tell you now.
57:01
Yeah, dad would ask us, do y'all ever have a good day in school? Right.
57:05
Is there always an issue on the campus at your school? Right.
57:11
Right. Because at this point, just drop out and stay home. I mean,
57:15
even when they got into the confrontation with Samuel Jackson and them at the
57:19
restaurant, and it's just like, no, perhaps y'all just need to chill.
57:25
Like, everybody ain't a sellout because they ain't know what y'all know.
57:29
Like, just chill, man. Yeah, I could see that. I could see that completely.
57:34
Yeah, it's like, cool out, man. It's like, y'all kind of being...
57:39
They were they were trying to
57:40
they were trying to force their idea of what being black is on everyone.
57:50
And again, we did the podcast Blacks are the monolith.
57:54
And it's like, man, why don't y'all just and I'm not taking sides in this. Right.
58:00
But I mean, I mean, personally, I could never pledge to a fraternity. It's not my thing.
58:07
If you do. Great. To me, I'm not going to degrade myself so I can be cool with you.
58:13
Not my bag. But if somebody else want to do it, cool.
58:16
Like we were saying about networking. People say it's great for networking.
58:20
Cool. Whatever. If that's you, do you. On the flip side, if you super King Kong
58:27
consciousness, like your boy would say.
58:34
If you King Kong consciousness, that's cool, too.
58:38
But I don't want to hear that shit all the time. Every day, all day.
58:43
Sharif. Yeah, stay over there with it.
58:46
Sometimes I might be in the mood to listen to you. Most of the times I'm probably not.
58:51
Can't we all just be? You know what I'm saying?
58:54
Look, I'm cool over here. You cool over there. If I see you, what's up?
58:59
Keep it pushing. We ain't got to hang out. And I'm not going to let nobody from
59:03
the outside come in and mess with you. Right. I'm going to be with you. Right. Side by side.
59:07
Right. But don't tell me that I'm not, you know, that I'm less than.
59:13
Correct. I'm not doing what you wanted. Correct.
59:15
And that's it right there. Because I'm not doing what you want me to do or what
59:20
you think I ought to be doing. It's an issue.
59:24
I'm just, I'm just, I'm not, I'm not with that. I'm not with that ideology.
59:29
I'm not with that type of mindset.
59:32
Let people be them, man. And, and, and, you know.
59:37
The only time I feel like it's an issue is when it's time to get down,
59:42
where are you going to stand?
59:43
Yeah. Can I count on you or not? Yeah.
59:47
That's the only time it becomes an issue. Other than that, if you want to go
59:50
be that type of dude, go be that type of dude. I'm going to be this type of dude over here.
59:55
Or maybe I'm going to be the dude in the middle.
59:58
It doesn't matter. And I feel like it was just sort of a divisive movie.
1:00:07
On top of that they're just i i just think the
1:00:10
plot wasn't all that good i'm just like gosh can you
1:00:13
please do something else besides we go dance we
1:00:15
go fight we go dance we go fight or almost fight because nobody
1:00:18
actually ever fought right but we're gonna go dance and then we're gonna get
1:00:23
into it we're gonna go dance we're gonna go get into it it's like y'all going
1:00:28
to parties just to get into it with them you know what i'm saying it's like
1:00:32
so that that that was your main
1:00:34
reason for going to the party was to start drama with the other group.
1:00:37
Y'all ain't going to have a good time no more. Y'all just going to start shit
1:00:42
and make sure nobody else have a good time.
1:00:44
Man, later for all of that. In the 90s we called that hate.
1:00:48
And 2026 is still hate.
1:00:53
So I wanted to do something different this week. Now I want to talk about the
1:00:59
things that this movie, what shifted the day to day lives of black people with
1:01:06
this movie. I got four points.
1:01:08
So before school days, most college movies were what? Ivy League or state schools. Sure.
1:01:16
Animal House. Sure. For example. So, this film made HBCUs look vibrant, complex, and cool.
1:01:26
It's basically credited with helping bring a different world to life. Correct.
1:01:32
Many of the cast members from school days- Went straight to a different world.
1:01:36
Went straight to a different world. Yeah.
1:01:38
I know that during that time, a lot of Black people were pissed off at Spike
1:01:44
Lee because they looked at it like he was airing Dirty Laundry.
1:01:47
So putting showing the
1:01:51
classism and colorism black community to
1:01:54
a white audience was something that
1:01:57
he got a lot of flack for of course we were young so we don't remember that
1:02:01
but he got a lot of flack for that because then it's one of those see see we've
1:02:06
been saying see look how black people fight amongst each other the aesthetic
1:02:11
of it all all of us walked around with those hbcu hoodies For sure.
1:02:16
We love those. And they were thick. For sure. Which, by the way,
1:02:19
they're back in style now. They're just like 90 damn dollars. Not good. No.
1:02:27
So that was the third. The fourth thing was the launch pad, which you mentioned in the beginning.
1:02:34
Most of the people in this movie at one point or another have either been A-list
1:02:39
Hollywood actors or the person that you hire for a TV show before you look at somebody else.
1:02:48
It definitely launched a lot of careers. Giancarlo Esposito alone is one of
1:02:53
the greatest actors of our generation. Correct.
1:02:56
And that dude, him and Jeffrey Wright don't get enough credit.
1:03:01
They don't. For the range that they display.
1:03:03
They don't. in there you know but i think this was definitely a spike lee i'm
1:03:10
gonna make this movie because this is what i went through or this is what i
1:03:14
see and or saw at hbcu so i think for people who,
1:03:20
were at an hbcu or graduate of an hbcu i think that this movie resonated a lot
1:03:25
more with them i think it resonated with us a lot more in the early 90s when
1:03:29
we watched it as 88 actually Well, I'm saying like... Oh, okay. I got you.
1:03:34
You know, when we actually got a chance to really, really sit down and watch it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:03:40
But... No, I feel like not to just diss all the Black movies that came out around
1:03:49
that time frame, but I kind of feel like, again, with The Last Dragon,
1:03:53
it was sort of like we were just so excited to have representation.
1:03:59
Yeah, yeah. So we're just like, yeah!
1:04:02
Looking back at it now, it's just like, look, I give him.
1:04:07
I know it sounds like we bashing movies every week and y'all probably cussing
1:04:11
at us right now, but we're bringing we're talking about these movies.
1:04:16
Enjoyed them as kids correct these movies were
1:04:19
if you ask me what my top five black movies
1:04:22
were in 1993 this would probably be in the top two
1:04:25
because then spike lee had he was on tv with right right mars blackman right
1:04:33
i mean he was on every jordan commercial correct spike lee was it correct those
1:04:37
commercials were great they were they were awesome and and listen y'all listen i I like He Got Game.
1:04:45
I like Do The Right Thing. Malcolm X. I love Malcolm X.
1:04:50
I like Inside Man. So this is not me just hating on Spike Lee.
1:04:56
I just, looking back at it, I just kind of didn't like this movie.
1:05:03
I think that you're in the same category as some of the civil rights activists
1:05:09
at the time, when they were pissed at him for Aaron Dirty Lock. Well, I'm not.
1:05:12
It wasn't it wasn't the airing the dirty laundry part, because if I'm going
1:05:18
to be honest, the the the movie that I'm probably most angry about was Chirac.
1:05:25
That's the one where I felt like, like, like, bro, what you doing?
1:05:29
So were a lot of people in the city, too.
1:05:30
Yeah, that that's the movie where I was like, you so didn't need to air this laundry.
1:05:35
But with school days I guess I just feel like,
1:05:41
there wasn't a cohesive story being told you know what I'm saying I don't know
1:05:48
like I said I just feel like more needed to happen with the plot you know at,
1:05:55
Yeah, I just kind of feel like it's a plotless movie.
1:05:58
And I guess that's why I don't really like it.
1:06:01
Because I guess nothing really happened that was just like coincidental or not coincidental.
1:06:10
Consequential, that's the word
1:06:11
I was looking for. Nothing in the movie was consequential. What changed?
1:06:17
What did y'all accomplish?
1:06:19
Did y'all move the needle forward? Like, I just don't know what you were trying
1:06:25
to accomplish other than getting paid and making your movie.
1:06:28
And, hey, with that, kudos, because I ain't got a movie out there.
1:06:34
And the thing is, too, is like with the questions you're asking,
1:06:37
I would love to hear his response to him, because I guarantee you,
1:06:41
he probably have answers that might make both of us say, truly,
1:06:45
you know what? True. I'll see you on that. That's true.
1:06:48
Six and a half million dollars is all he got for that movie.
1:06:50
And like I said, success, success that you got it made and a success that you
1:06:58
actually got a profit from it.
1:07:01
But here's where we agree. In 2026, it's a hard watch.
1:07:06
It is. It was it was very, very difficult to get through the first 35 minutes. Yeah.
1:07:11
Because I told you the other day, I ain't seen that movie in 20 years.
1:07:14
Mm hmm. At least. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
1:07:18
I remember i remember one day i came home and my daughter was watching it i was just like.
1:07:28
Turn this shit off no no no i'm like i'm like i'm like i'm like i'm like no
1:07:33
go ahead and watch it she's like is it good and i'm like oh just go ahead and
1:07:37
watch it it was you know ladies yeah i'm like i'm like i'm like no just just
1:07:41
go ahead and watch it i'm not gonna i'm not gonna taint your opinion of it. Go ahead and watch it.
1:07:45
I don't know, bro. So, with that being said, I'm not going to completely dump on it.
1:07:52
Give it one high five on the black hand side.
1:07:55
I'm going to give it two and a half. Just because of the cast and the cultural,
1:08:04
shift that this movie helped pave the way for.
1:08:08
Alright, I'll give it one and a half there. Alright, cool.
1:08:14
Alright, y'all. Now it's time for our closing monologue. My brother, the floor is yours.
1:08:22
Appreciate it. So today I want to talk about masculinity.
1:08:29
So in today's society, it still makes no sense for us to live by the same rigid
1:08:35
blueprints our parents and grandparents follow.
1:08:38
We're still obsessed with the performance of manliness, a constant ironic race
1:08:44
where, in all honesty, men are just trying to prove their worth to other men.
1:08:49
Look at Caleb Williams, for example, quarterback of the Bears.
1:08:53
He's been on the football field since he was five years old.
1:08:55
If leading a franchise in the
1:08:57
toughest sport on earth doesn't define manliness, then what the hell does?
1:09:01
It's hypocritical to judge a man for painted fingernails when we've seen culture
1:09:06
shifters, such as Lil Wayne, who had something to say recently,
1:09:10
challenge those same norms for decades by wearing pink furry Ugg boots during a concert once.
1:09:17
We keep bringing up gender norms as if they are the law, but they are not.
1:09:22
They don't reflect the real world.
1:09:24
I've lived that real world. Even as a married man, I changed as many diapers,
1:09:30
cooked as many meals, washed as many loads of clothes as my wife at the time.
1:09:35
We weren't following a man's role or a woman's role.
1:09:38
We were a unit. We were a couple doing what was best for one another and for our family.
1:09:44
It wasn't about gender norms. It was about partnership.
1:09:47
And after that marriage dissolved and the children were with me,
1:09:51
I had 12 year olds. I had a six year old and a five year old.
1:09:55
I already knew how to do it all because I wasn't in a gender role.
1:10:00
I was in the role of being a father.
1:10:03
So I picked up the slack because I knew that's what I had to do on the things that matter.
1:10:10
So to the parents listening, we have to stop teaching our young men that they
1:10:14
need to behave a certain way or play a specific or rigid role in order for a relationship to work.
1:10:20
A marriage doesn't progress because you follow the 1950s script.
1:10:24
It works because you are a capable partner who views your family as a team.
1:10:30
At what point do we finally realize that the things we were taught aren't facts?
1:10:35
They're just old habits. We have to stop policing how men express themselves.
1:10:40
Start realizing that being a man is about the responsibility you take in a partnership you build.
1:10:45
Not whether you fit in a box that someone else built 50 years ago.
1:10:50
Excellent. I like unit. I like that.
1:10:56
All right, y'all. That concludes this episode of For The Fan Podcast, episode 18.
1:11:04
We hope you guys enjoyed this conversation like we have enjoyed this conversation.
1:11:11
Look, like I always say at the end of every podcast, we are everywhere on every platform.
1:11:19
Give us a like. Give us a share. Subscribe.
1:11:24
Leave a comment. all the things that y'all already know how to do.
1:11:30
We say it every week. We're going to continue to say it.
1:11:33
All right. And with that being said, I'm Six Mill, keeping it true. It's your boy, KG.
1:11:39
And we'll holler at y'all next time. Peace.