Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: The Cast of A Different World on Black Identity, Culture & Bringing Back a TV Classic

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INTERVIEW: The Cast of A Different World on Black Identity, Culture & Bringing Back a TV Classic · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up.
• 0:03
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: y'all done?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: We are The Breakfast Club. Lawn LaRose is here as well.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: We got some special guests in the building.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Some icons.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: That's right. We have Jasmine Guy. She's back. Welcome.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: We have Daryl Bell and we have Cree Summer. Welcome.
• 0:24
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: A different world is back. It returns.
• 0:26
  Speaker 5: Hallelujah.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh. And we've got a couple episodes that
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: we've seen so far. And I was nervous because this
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: was my show, right? This was the show that made
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: me want to go to Hampton University, wanted me to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: go to HBCU. So when people do a reboot or return,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you're always nervous of how are they going to put
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: it together. And when I say after watching two episodes,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I wanted to go back to college one more time.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Let's go! Like, I did.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Like, the way that they mixed. And I'm not saying
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that because you're there. Because Lauren went to Dell State,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: which is an HBCU. I went to Hampton. And we
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: sat out there and we spoke about it for about 30,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: 40 minutes of how it made us feel.
• 1:01
  Speaker 6: We were late for the segment because they were like,
• 1:02
  Speaker 6: what y'all doing? I'm like, oh, we reminiscing. I was like, man,
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: I wish I could get that freshman year feeling again.
• 1:07
  Speaker 6: That first party and, like, you seeing all the Greeks and, like,
• 1:10
  Speaker 6: it's literally a whole.
• 1:13
  Speaker 7: different world.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Walking on campus, having a tour, convocation, the dress code.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: You had a curfew. I had a curfew. We had
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: a curfew.
• 1:21
  Speaker 7: We had a curfew. I didn't know about it.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: We had a curfew. And I love the way that
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: they mix the old cast with the new cast members.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So it's something that my kids could watch, but then
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I can enjoy. So I would say I really enjoy
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: doing the show. Were y'all nervous at all to get
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: that connection to make sure it connected like the original?
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Well, it was shot with one camera, more like a movie.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: And we did the original on a soundstage with four cameras.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: You know, like Sanford and Son, like all the sitcoms
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: that we.
• 1:55
  Speaker 8: Grew up with. And we had a live audience.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: So I was worried that I wouldn't know if I
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: was landing or not. Because with a live audience... They
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: laugh or they don't laugh, you know. But it still
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: held its humor. I like the dimensions of the relationships
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: that we've created. I also like that we are organically
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: woven into the fabric of Hillman. You know, Whitley's on
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: the board and Dwayne is a provost and Freddie Brooks
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: is a professor of law and popcorn.
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: You talk.
• 2:34
  Speaker 8: No, he's dying to. He's dying to.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: We call him Pontificus. He's dying. Whip it out, Daryl.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: You know you want to.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: That's why I let y'all get.
• 2:44
  Speaker 8: The first shot. I appreciate it.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: You asked the one question I plan to talk for
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the next 45 minutes.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: So you're right.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I wasn't worried.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And I wasn't worried because of a question we were
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: asked from a student radio show at NHBC. And they said,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: The black community has already claimed a different world as
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: its own.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: They asked the new kids, what do you think you
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: can add to the diaspora? So even if this new
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: show was a complete flop, it was never going to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: tarnish the work we had already done. So we could
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: step into this with the comfort of saying, for me,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: it was like putting on your favorite pair of shoes
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: or your favorite pair of jeans and saying, I'm going
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to put this character back on. Let's see what we
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: want to do with him. And coming back to the character...
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: after 39 years, as artists, we've all lived a lot
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of life. And these characters have lived a lot of life.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So it helped inform the performance. So Ron went off
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and got married, had a son, lost his wife to cancer,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and now he's a single father raising his son on
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: his own. And that's a lot to really deal with.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: And you're going to see that play out over the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: 10 episodes. And it was a lot of fun. And
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: then to see all these beautiful young artists that have
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: come to the table. When I sit next to Jasmine,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I say, you know, we met for school days in 1987. Wow.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Here we are 40 years later, and this is my
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: sister right here. So with me and Kadeem and Jazz,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I said to all the kids, here you are in
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Atlanta where we started at 20-something years old. Hold on
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to each other because 40 years from now, y'all going
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: to be family too. And so to see.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: What I told them on day one, they all said,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you know, I was the first new cast member they met.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I took them all to dinner on the very first
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: night I met them. And I said, your only obligation
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is to do the best work you can and have
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: a good time. My only obligation is to be to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: all of you what Glenn Turman, Mary Alice, Lou Myers,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Debbie Allen, Diane Carroll, Patti LaBelle, Lena Horne, and all
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the other legends were to us. They wrapped their arms
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: around us, and notwithstanding all of their success, They made
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: us feel at home, and I think we all did that.
• 5:05
  Speaker 9: What exactly did this new show have to get right
• 5:08
  Speaker 9: for each of y'all to agree to want to do
• 5:10
  Speaker 9: it again?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: A contract and a check.
• 5:13
  Speaker 8: I had that emotion.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: Because we had been hearing this for decades. That's all
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: it took. We're doing a reboot. We're doing that. They
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: had been dangling it in front of us for so long.
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: Everyone kept saying, we're going to bring it back, we're
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: going to bring it back. And then you get to
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: Mark 39. And someone says you're going to bring it back,
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: and you say, that's bullshit. There's no way. It's been
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: 39 years. We'll believe you. Yeah, we'll believe it when
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: we sign the contract. And also, as an actor, I
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: think I was 19 when I started A Different World.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Now I'm in my mid-50s with two babies. You never
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: get to go back and play a character 39 years later.
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: That's right. Right? It's crazy. But we all hang out
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: on purpose.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: We do.
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: It's a real love affair, so it was very easy
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: to fall back into these characters.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: It was just like, okay, I saw you Monday. I'll
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: see you on Friday.
• 6:03
  Speaker 9: When y'all heard they were bringing it back, what was
• 6:05
  Speaker 9: y'all first reaction to those?
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: We didn't believe it.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, because like I said, everyone's been saying, you should
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: bring it back. And God bless Debbie Allen had been
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: trying to bring it back.
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: For decades.
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: For decades, she was trying to bring it back. And
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: then Daryl was trying to bring it back. And everyone
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: just kept saying no. So finally, when they said they
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: were bringing it back, we all kind of said, we'll
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: believe it when we... But on the dotted line, yeah.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Look, if I'm going to be real transparent, one of
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the things that I was concerned about when they brought
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: it back is they were bringing it back without Susan Fales-Hill.
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: And, you know, Deb was there, but I didn't know
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Felicia Pride. And I didn't know what it would be like.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: And she's done a fantastic job. You know, she was
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: very open to all of us. We had a lot
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: of input, you know, as much input as we could
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: over the characters and some of the arcs. I wish
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: there was a way that we could have done everything
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: we wanted, but part of what this show, if there's
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: anything this show is confined by, they only have 10 episodes.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: We had 25 episodes and six seasons. So that gives
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: you a lot more runway to do more things and
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: take your time to develop more. And some of the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: reactions have been, it's just over too fast. So that's
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: why we need a season two.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: Okay, would you extend it to an hour episode, or
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: would you extend it to a 12 or 15 episode?
• 7:41
  Speaker 8: 30-minute arc.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: An hour. I would do 10 episodes for an hour.
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: Do the episode longer. You can keep 10. Just give
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: us an hour. I was like, it's over already?
• 7:51
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Can you do that with that style of show, though?
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: With the live audience?
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: No, we don't have a live audience.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: The only problem I would say with that is, and
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: I agree, because I love watching it, that a lot
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: of these young kids now, they watch things fast, right?
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: Like my daughter watches YouTube on times two speed, right?
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: I know. I have two daughters and they have the
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: attention spans of a tsetse fly because of this shit
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: they're doing all day. And then I was even told
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: by someone it was so disparaging that they were encouraging
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: writers to consider when you're creating that the audience is
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: going to look at the screen and then back down
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: to their phone. So keep that in mind.
• 8:29
  Speaker 8: While they're watching TV.
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: So this is, Even songs. We've become. Even music. You know,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: back in the day, you would hear a five-minute song.
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: Yes, baby.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And you would rock out. You listen to old Michael Jackson.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: They got seven-minute songs.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: Prince has a five-minute outro.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: And you know that.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Every last minute to the outro.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: But now songs are a minute and 45.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: But then people sit around and watch the podcast for
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: too long. A minute and 45 is a long time.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: So you just don't know where you're at.
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: You're right. I think you got a good point.
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think if it's good, it can work. And
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: that was the first thing I thought when I watched
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: that first episode. And the credits came up. I thought I, like,
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: skipped it on accident.
• 9:00
  Speaker 7: So I went back.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, no.
• 9:02
  Speaker 7: It didn't even feel like the 30 minutes.
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: Like, no.
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: So fast.
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: But that's so good.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: You know what's even wilder? The original show on broadcast television.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Like 18 minutes, right?
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Exactly right. It was only about 17 minutes. Because the
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: commercials were filling the rest of the time. Exactly right. Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: But then, look at Stranger Things. That's a huge YA hit,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and that's an out. You know?
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: And there are a lot of storylines in the smooth version.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: You have a lot of characters.
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: There are.
• 9:29
  Speaker 8: There are 10 of us.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so the four OGs and then the six newbies,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and then all of the characters that fill in the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: university around them, and then our extended family with Glenn Turman.
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: Oh, the OGs came back.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: AJ Sanders. Jada.
• 9:43
  Speaker 8: Jada came back.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Charlie.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Everybody's back.
• 9:47
  Speaker 9: When you look at what a different world became culturally,
• 9:49
  Speaker 9: did y'all know y'all were making something so important back then?
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: I don't think so. I mean, I was just a kid,
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: and I had just come from Toronto, Canada. I didn't
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: even know what an HBCU was. And we were also
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: kind of doing everything in a vacuum, right? And we
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: also weren't a very critically acclaimed show, which I know
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: sounds insane, because we were number two in the world forever.
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: Different World has never gone off the air since we've
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: aired in the first time, right? and you would think
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: that we would be critical darlings, but we really weren't.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: We kind of got put in this place because we
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: followed Cosby that we were just, you know, backpacking or
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: piggybacking on that. A time slot hit. A time slot hit.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: Which sounded like a nice name.
• 10:34
  Speaker 8: So we weren't feeling the love.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: We didn't feel the love, so we didn't know we
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: were impacted by that.
• 10:38
  Speaker 8: We didn't get invited to anything.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: No, we have no awards. We didn't get any awards.
• 10:42
  Speaker 8: Like, why didn't Jasmine get.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: An Oscar for playing Whitley Gilbert? An Oscar? Sorry, an Emmy. Sorry,
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: I'll put my bong down. An Emmy for playing Whitley Gilbert.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: But what we always did have was extreme fear. Fan love.
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: So maybe the critics didn't love us, but the people
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: embraced us.
• 11:00
  Speaker 8: And so filming this in Atlanta.
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: Is totally different. Oh, it's mad.
• 11:04
  Speaker 8: The whole city is loving on us.
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: Do they come and watch y'all film and all that stuff?
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: Yes, they do.
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: Our extras are 80% from the AU Center for Film
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: and Warhouse. They love it. They're showing up. My Walgreens ladies,
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: my Publix ladies. They're like, what happened today? I did
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: not tell them about filming. I gave them a little rundown.
• 11:27
  Speaker 7: My Walgreens ladies.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: But Charlamagne, if I go back to your point, I
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: was the only oddball. Because I came in from... My
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: dad was the first African-American member of New York Stock Exchange.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So I always had a prism that was open to
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: what history looked like. And I remember, because... Then we
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: didn't have cell phones and the internet. The day we aired,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Friday morning, we come to work. The stagehand went and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: grabbed the telephone off the wall because it was a landline,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: answered it, hung up the phone and said, we had
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a 48 share. We're a hit. Damn. 48% of every
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: television in America was watching us on day one. Damn. Yeah.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: And that's when I was like, we're doing something different here. And,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you know, it was significant that in that first season,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: while the storylines may not have been what culturally the
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: show has become, everyone loved the characters. And that said
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: they were willing to wait to see season two to
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: see what could happen. And what could happen is Debbie Allen.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: And when Debbie Allen came in, you know, she took
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the Ferrari and put, you know, high octane gas in
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: it instead of that slop.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: They put some hot sauce on the table and the pit.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And that's what transformed everything.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I just love it. The impact that, you know, there's
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: not too many shows that have impact on our lives
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: like that, right? You know, Cosby show, everybody wanted a
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: family like the Cosby show, right? Where the siblings are
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: together and your dad could talk to you a certain way.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: People wanted that, right? in a different world was like,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: for myself coming from Queens, it was like, that was
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: my first view of college, right? And when I seen
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: the college and the dance and in a step, and
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I'm like, that's where I want to go to.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: That's why they stopped making shows like that. It was like,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: they're inspiring too many black people to be great.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Yes. Okay. Yes.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Take those off the air and give us some reality TV. Yes.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: And we haven't seen anything like that again. So I'm
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: so excited and so happy that it's back that a
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: new generation will see what, an HBCU looks like and
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: what experience.
• 13:31
  Speaker 7: And y'all are on the campuses too.
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: I saw the tour that y'all did as well, which
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: is amazing as well because they get to see you
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: in real life after watching it and talk to y'all
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: and y'all get to see them. I think that that is,
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: people coming through campus literally can change students' lives.
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 13:45
  Speaker 7: The people that show up.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: What I loved about our cast is that we were
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: all different. All black and all from different backgrounds, different ideologies,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: and you rarely have the creative space as a black person,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: say on a white show to have that kind of
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: freedom that I had with Whitley to say, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: the politically incorrect thing, because I knew there were other
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: characters that would balance that or challenge that.
• 14:16
  Speaker 8: I didn't have to worry about that.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: And it, it was comforting to know that because I
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: said some pretty awful things.
• 14:23
  Speaker 8: Um, But as long as it's funny.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Because I could, you know.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: What's unique about, if you think about all of your
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: favorite shows that are entertaining, you put them on because
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you say, I want to laugh or I want to
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: get entertainment, action movies, something like that. This is one
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: of the few shows ever that had a call to action.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Go to school. So that's why every day somebody comes
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: up to us and says, I went to college or
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I went to an HBCU because I watched A Different World.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I'm a doctor.
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: I'm a lawyer.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I'm an engineer because I watched a different world. I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: found my Whitley or my Dwayne from watching a different world.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: And that's real talk. And the fact that, to your point,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the folks that watched it in primetime say, now my
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: kids watch. Now my grandchildren watch. And now they're going
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: to have a new generation to say, we don't have
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to watch the older version. We have kids that are
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: doing things. Because the biggest difference from our show to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: this one is we didn't have social media and we
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: didn't have A.I. That is transformative in the educational environment.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: And these characters will have to deal with all of that.
• 15:31
  Speaker 9: That's funny you say that because it made me think about,
• 15:33
  Speaker 9: especially with Freddie, because Freddie was like the woke activist
• 15:36
  Speaker 9: way back then. What would Freddie think about activism in
• 15:39
  Speaker 9: the social media era?
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: Oh, I think she would be so torn up because
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: one of her greatest pursuits is the truth. And I
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: think to be a compassionate, human-loving person It's very hard
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: with social media. It's making us so apathetic. I mean,
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: you can watch so many atrocities and just dead inside, right?
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: You could swipe atrocities all day. And I think that's... There.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Are channels dedicated to it.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and people can't get enough of it. And I
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: think it's stopping us from connecting. The irony is it's
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: supposed to connect us, but I think it's really disassociating us.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: So I think Freddie would probably be protesting against it.
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: She'd probably say, brothers and sisters, put your phones down
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: and look each other in the eye.
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: But in your, like, y'all characters on the show, the
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: new one, you kind of give that in, like, the
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: way that you work with the students in the class.
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: It's very much like they're They're having to connect beyond
• 16:37
  Speaker 6: how they're used to connecting. You challenged them in your
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: role as a professor on the new one.
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: Can you believe she's a professor?
• 16:43
  Speaker 7: But I can at HBCU.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: Because at HBCU, one of the things that was the
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: best was that you had these professors who had real
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: life takes and they were unconventional about how they reached you.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: So like the way that your class is set up
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: in this, you know, new series, I'm like, that is so,
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: I had teachers like that at my school and I
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: remember them because it challenged you to do something different.
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: And it's like a call to action for the older
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: people who are watching it as well.
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: Alumni, come back, help out, get involved, teach.
• 17:13
  Speaker 8: And you do it so beautifully.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: Thank you, baby. You're so smart. Oh, stop it.
• 17:17
  Speaker 8: You are.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: We love each other. But I wanted to say something
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: to you because you said that you were watching and
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: you both wanted to go back to school.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 17:26
  Speaker 5: I have two daughters. Brave is 15 and Hero is 13.
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: Thank you. They're a mess, but they're beautiful. I call
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: them Shuck and Jive.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: That's a contrast from Brave and Hero.
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 17:43
  Speaker 5: Well, everyone's got the other side. That's the flip side.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: But we were on episode four and Hero turns to
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: me and says, I want to go to an HBCU.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: And I thought, mission accomplished.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: That's what it is. Because even with my kids, right, so...
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: they didn't see what an HBCU looked like, right? They
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: grew up in New Jersey. So for them, all they're
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: seeing is what's on television, right? And at the time
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: on television, they're watching the big schools, UCLA. They're watching
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: University of Miami. They see NYU. They didn't get an
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: opportunity to see what an HBCU was, you know? So
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: for me, they didn't understand it. My younger kids, I
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: have six. So my two older ones, they're gone.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: You're busy.
• 18:18
  Speaker 8: Yes, you are.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: I'm just giving this man a nap.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: They see it more. They experience it more. They see
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: what it is. So they're seeing a different world back
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: on TV. They'll watch that with dad and mom. And
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: so they'll get to experience a lot more, which is
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: the most exciting thing ever. I was trying to show
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: y'all a picture I pulled up last time where this
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: and come from Queens, we didn't fly much, right? Because
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: we couldn't afford it. We drove to Virginia. We drove
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: to Florida. So I remember the first time we flew, right?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: On the plane with me was Kadeem Hardison, right? And
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: the first quote unquote celebrity flight besides Run DMC, who
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: lived in my neighborhood, was Kadeem Hardison I took a
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: picture with.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I'm going to find a picture. But
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: he had the round glasses on. He had the Jordans on.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: We were in the airport. And it was big for
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: me because it was like, this is the guy that
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: I see on TV. And we always said Hillman was Hampton.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: That's why I went to Hampton. And I still think it.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Is to this day.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: As you should. As I should.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: But that was the reason why the impact was so amazing.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I think it is.
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: Hillman can represent any HBCU.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: And that's the reason.
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: That was the point.
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: But Howard and Hampton have a.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: It's always an argument because Hampton said it was in Virginia,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: so it was Hampton.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Even at the show, it says he goes to 212
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: to 804. 804 is Virginia. It's not 757, but it's
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: still Virginia. I caught that.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But Howard says, because it's Debbie Allen who's a bison,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: that it's Howard. And then Spellman and Morehouse will say
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: it's ours because the exteriors were shot at the AUC.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But the point was, every HBCU was supposed to be
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: able to find themselves somewhere.
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And when you talked about the kids, one of the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: amazing things. So while we shot, everyone always had their
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: family around. So Debbie had her kids come and they
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: didn't have kids now. Jasmine's daughter is in it.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, Imani.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Debbie's daughter is in it.
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: Kadeem's daughter is in it.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: So, you know, it's so cool to see our next generation.
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: Debbie's son is in it.
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: Debbie's son is in it.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Okay, so Thumpity was the ring bearer in Dwayne and
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Whitley's wedding.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: And now he's a grown ass man.
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: I used to carry him around on my hip. Now
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: he plays my boyfriend. Very twisted.
• 20:29
  Speaker 9: Yes.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: Don't unpack it.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Jim Higgins' daughter. Gavin. She was the episode where Ron
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: tries to date Teresa Randall. Right.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: With the baby.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: That's her. Stop.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: That's crazy. She was the baby.
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: She was the baby.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: It's Jim Higgins' daughter, yeah.
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: Oh, I didn't realize that.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: This is a question for all of y'all.
• 20:50
  Speaker 9: When y'all came back to these characters, right, did you
• 20:53
  Speaker 9: recognize them immediately?
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Or did y'all have to figure out who they became?
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: No, I think I recognized it immediately. But what we
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: all had to do, because I know we keep reiterating,
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: is that it's a sequel. So we're not rebooting anything.
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: And that it's filmed differently, right? When you've got four
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: cameras and it's a sitcom, everything is so big and
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: over the top. And you get to single cam, it's
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: so intimate. So I think everyone kind of had to
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: center and drop down into a more realistic version of
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: our characters, which as an actor is just, fun. It's challenging.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: And like I said, we evolved, like you said, we've
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: lived enough life. We evolved with them. But, I mean,
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: I don't think those characters ever left us. Not for
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: a second.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: What about you, Jasmine?
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: I know her very well, and I said, okay, so
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: who will Whitley be in her 50s? And how would
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: she react to what's happening to her? So, when The
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: show ended, Whitley was pregnant, so Dwayne and I had
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: two older kids in their 30s. And then we had
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: an oops baby with Devorah. And she's now a freshman
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: at Hillman. And I think Whitley is feeling, who am I?
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: I've been with Dwayne for most of my life, 40 years.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: And now my kids are gone. I don't have my,
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: I'm not in charge of my, I'm in beauty department.
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: Empire or whatever.
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: Glitter by Gilbert.
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: Glitter by Gilbert. Thank you.
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: I'm like, what's the name of my empire? She asks
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: me every time. It's hard to say. It's okay, baby.
• 22:33
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: And I think she's going through a little loss. And
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: when Whitley is afraid or insecure, she slashes before she
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: can be slashed. And I already knew that about her.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: And she is going at it with her daughter, who
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: is not representing the way she wants.
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: And she's bougie.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: You know, so there's a lot of that same wiggly.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Not the daughter bougie, the mama bougie.
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: Mama bougie. So she wants her looking right, acting right.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: She starts twerking in the middle of the homecoming march.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: Horrifying, you know, and.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: She has legacy.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: That's the Whitley we would know. That's who she is.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: When the girl said, and I want to give away,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: when the roommate said, I'm from Compton, and you was like,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: watch it, I'm like, oh, that's Whitley Whitley.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: And I grill her. I grill that girl. Rashida. That's
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: a colorful name.
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: She's from Connecticut.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Connecticut.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Well, see, that's one of the things that they've been emphasizing,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that it's not a reboot, it's a dramedy. And so
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: in tone, a lot of people have said, oh, you
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: mean like Bel-Air. And there's some truth to that, particularly
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: since our showrunner from The Surprise wrote on Bel-Air, right?
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And the only, well, the major distinction is Bel-Air didn't
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: have any of the original performers come back and reprise
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: their roles where we do. So at the same time,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and I've already seen reviews that have said, even though
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: they call it a dramedy, they still found a lot
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of humor in it, which we like, because we thought
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: it might have gone... too far dramatic, and I'm glad
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that it was infused with comedy. So in that sense,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: it was easier to find because the storylines warranted a
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: different tone. Ron is talking to his son, Shaquille, and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: neither of them have dealt with the grief of losing
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: their wife and mother. And part of what I love
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: about that relationship, it is very much like Deion Sanders,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: and Shador Sanders, where it's manager and star athlete, but
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: you got to be father and son at the same time.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: So there are a lot of layers to that, and
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: that helps you get into the real of what's going on.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: I think Method Man played an amazing part. And I
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: got to show y'all the picture.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Come on, let me see. Oh, man. See, I'm going
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: to take a picture of that.
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: Oh, that's my Kadi. Oh, wow. Look how cute you are.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: You see my little round glasses?
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: I had the round the way I wear glasses. That's
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: me on the side.
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: Boy, look how little you are. Wow. Your arms are
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: this big.
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: They still are.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Oh my. Thanks. That is awesome. They used to call
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: them shrimp.
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: So cute. You probably should do it without flash. That
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: is the cutest thing. You got to get that frame.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: That's how old it was. That's when you had to
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: take a picture and take it to the pharmacy store.
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: You got to get it developed.
• 25:41
  Speaker 9: You know another thing I love, Daryl, and you think
• 25:43
  Speaker 9: about it as you get older, right? The relationship that you,
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: that Ron and Dwayne had on the show. Like we
• 25:49
  Speaker 9: don't see like many complicated, layered black male friendships on
• 25:54
  Speaker 9: TV now.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: Why do you think that is?
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Well, one, I talk about this a lot. I forget
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: there was a watchdog organization. They did a study and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: they said white males represent 34% of the population. but
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: they represent 84% of all the images on film and television.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: That's because content reflects leadership. So if you look at
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: all the CEOs at the studios, they're mostly white men.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: So when you say our stories don't see there from
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: black men, because who's thinking about us? Exactly right. So
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: there's that part. And fortunately, and it's interesting, because with
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Ron and Dwayne, I always say A Different World is
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a love letter to black women. Directed and produced by
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: black women. Head writer, black women. Starring black women. Diane
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Carroll talked about in her entire career, it was the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: first time she had ever been on a show written, produced,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and starring black women. And Kadeem and I always talked
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: about women were writing for us, and there were times
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: when Ron would say to Dwayne, I don't even know
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: who you are.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: I was like, hey!
• 27:04
  Speaker 10: That's a little too late, Aubrey.
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: Too many layers. But you played it so well.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right?
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: But then Reggie Rock was there. So Reggie Rock Blythewood
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: came on. Reggie Rock Blythewood and Gina Blythewood are executive
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: producers on the show as well and consultants. And Reggie's
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Going through the same thing. They have a son who's
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a D1 caliber athlete who's at NHBCU. And he said,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I want to get this right, this relationship. I want
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Ron and Dwayne to be right. I want Shaquille and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Ron to be right. And sadly, there was an entire
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: storyline with Ron and Dwayne that didn't make it. Because again,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: there's so many other storylines with all the other characters.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: We don't have enough time for this answer.
• 28:03
  Speaker 8: I got a plane to catch.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: Jesus Christ.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I can't help it if I have vision.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: Very interesting and articulate about what we're talking about.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: I was asking about the relationship between.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: And so... I know that they're going to try to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: explore more of that in the second season.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: I also like the relationship with, can I say the
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: guest stars now?
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: Yes, you can.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Okay, so Joe Martin comes on as Byron Parks, and
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: we haven't seen him since the wedding.
• 28:37
  Speaker 8: And he was totally.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: Disrespected and just disappeared.
• 28:42
  Speaker 8: So I was happy he was coming back. He is
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: a senator now.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: And Whitley goes to him because she's on the board
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: for help with funding for the school behind Dwayne's back.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: I know he's still traumatized.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: Well, he was like, why would you do that? Not
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: tell me, you know. And so there's some male shade on.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: on the show and it is good between Joe and
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: between Byron Parks and Dwayne Wayne and I love the
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: relationship with Glenn Turman so there are male relationships that
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: are really explored on the show and it's interesting to
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: me because we always see it with women they're either
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: fighting or they're all booed up or they're commiserating But
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: it layers the show in a way that I think
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: is more interesting.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: And the young cast, too, with our first openly queer character,
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: and he's with us. the boys, and it ain't a thing. Right?
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: Everybody is just together, having a beautiful time.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: He can say, I don't even know you.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: So, Chalmaine, I'm going to tell you that, and bringing
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Kadeem back into it, to your point about these male relationships,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: if you go back to the first season, there was
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: a show about date rape. And Walter Oates sits down
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: with Dwayne Wayne to have this conversation with him about
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: how a man should interact with a woman. That conversation,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: not only was that important for young men to hear
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: that and for young black men to hear that, but
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Kadeem Harrison said no one had ever had that conversation
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: with him. In real life. The first time he had
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: that conversation was with Walter Oates.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: First time I ever heard that conversation.
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: Also, date rape hadn't even been acknowledged or identified, really,
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: as something you would take legal action towards at that time.
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: So we were cutting edge when you think about all
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: the young women who had been going through this traumatic
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: thing and didn't even have a name yet. And then
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: you put it on national television.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: That's what the show used to do. It used to
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: educate people, but it never felt like homework.
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 30:46
  Speaker 9: And it feels like now, for whatever reason, that.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: Balance is so hard. For some TV and even some
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: movies to get right.
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: It's a fine line. It's a real finesse that Different
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: World just nailed, I think.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: Well, they go overboard to me with the explicit sex scenes.
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: I get tired.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: I'm watching a show and I get pornography right now.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: I was into oranges and new black.
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: I'm like, yo, if I want to see that, you know,
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: I know what channel to go to, but now it's
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: in everything, like, oranges and new black. I'm doing my laundry,
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: I come back, she going down on somebody. I go,
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: I say, We get it. Why does it have to
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: be so explicit?
• 31:37
  Speaker 8: We know. That's what I'm talking about.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: There was no need for a dick to be in
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: that scene.
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: Right, right.
• 31:42
  Speaker 7: Or a booty.
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: We get it.
• 31:45
  Speaker 8: And now you can't watch it with your kids.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: You know, our show you can watch, and they gave
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: a platform for parents to say, remember what happened to Freddie?
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: Because date rape isn't something you just bring up with
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: a seven-year-old.
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: That's right.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: But this allowed that transition. Remember when Freddie had trouble
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: praying to God? And it gives a parent a vehicle.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Because many a serious word can be said in a joke.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: Most serious words are said in a joke. Especially in
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: our culture.
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: We talk through colloquialism and playing and jokes.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: I was wondering if with the new cast, did you,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: first of all, did they ask questions of how the
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: characters were? And did you make sure they watched the
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: old episodes, that they weren't coming in blank-headed?
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: We didn't make sure.
• 32:36
  Speaker 8: Their parents had already made sure.
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: Their parents watched the old episodes, yeah, yeah.
• 32:41
  Speaker 8: Or their grandma.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: And did they come for advice as far as characters
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: and character development, especially because you guys are such huge
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: parts of it?
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: Not advice for characters.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: And in many ways, I want to say we didn't
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: ask the others, but if there was something, if we
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: were in a moment where they could share something, they would.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: And I know Certainly, Jasmine can talk about how she
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and Kadeem worked with Malia.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: I can tell because the way she lift up her glasses,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: the way she looked, I'm like, damn, that's Kadeem.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: That was Kadeem. And it was the same with me
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and Cornell. Myself, Cornell, and specifically Chiv and Kadeem, we
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: spent so much time together off camera. You know, we
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: watched the Nixon Five that should have been four episodes.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: We watched all that together.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: We'll take the five.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: We'll take the five. Should have been four.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: It's been 53 years.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Let me take the five. I'm not putting that on
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the next.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: What y'all talking about? I know, but what does five.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: And four mean? Games.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: It's the best four out of seven.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying they didn't need no bad juju in there.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: You're saying Trump messed it up for everybody.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: It's okay.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: We're going to that game, yeah. So.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: We were able to spend time to build our relationship together.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: Sorry.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: I told y'all when you put them together.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Didn't I tell you?
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I said y'all gonna regret it.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: I got a good question. It felt like in the 90s, right?
• 34:06
  Speaker 9: Like black TV wasn't expected to explain black people to
• 34:10
  Speaker 9: everybody else. So with this new show, were y'all conscious
• 34:14
  Speaker 9: of what white people may think?
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: No.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, good.
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: I don't think we ever were.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked that question because I had never
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: thought of it before right now.
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: But I love that you asked the question and immediately, Knee-jerkers, no.
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: We didn't think about it then, and we don't think
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: about it now. It's for us.
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: I'm just thinking with the Netflix execs, they try to
• 34:30
  Speaker 9: want to make it palatable to everybody.
• 34:32
  Speaker 8: Well, we haven't met them.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: And now they know. Some people that deal with us
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: are not on, I don't know.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Andy Well was there every day.
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Bella did come to see us as well.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: Maybe I just didn't know what they did. I was
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: trying to remember my lines.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: And also let me give credit to Tom Warner.
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Who has been a force behind the scenes of Carsey
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Warner that owns the show.
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: I really see.
• 35:01
  Speaker 8: It more cross-generational than racial.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: I see it as American culture with grandmothers, mothers, and parents.
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: And I'm like, how many white people love the show?
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: White people love a different world.
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: I mean, they go crazy. I got white people coming
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: to me all the time going, I want to go
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: to Hillman. Well, you can't.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: You don't know how many white people are going to
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: HBCUs now.
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: That was a big conversation at my school. Once they
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: got certain federal funding, people felt like it was more
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: white people there. And people were upset about it.
• 35:32
  Speaker 7: I'm sure.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: At first, you would see a couple on a road team.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: You would see a couple on a golf team back then.
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: A question team.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: A question team. You know what I mean? But now it's...
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: You see students.
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: I didn't even know black HBCUs had a question.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: What's so wild about that is in first season, everyone
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: questioned Marissa Tomei's presence.
• 35:47
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, y'all never been to an HBCU because
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: they got white girls there. I pledged in 1981. I'm
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: an alpha. We had a white brother in our chapter.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: And this brother earned it. Earned it. You know what
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: I mean?
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: I wrote an episode about that. That was a storyline.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: And it was a black boy at a party, and
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: Marissa goes up to him at a party saying, do
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: you want to dance? And he was like, I ain't
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: dancing with no white girl at this party. And she
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: was so hurt and crushed. And there was this whole
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: discussion about, you know, why are you here? And she said,
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: they had the best journalism program. It didn't occur to her,
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: you know. And they didn't. do it because they told
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: me that they didn't want to, I don't know who,
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: whether it was the network or Cosby, didn't want to
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: address the fact, I said, that there's white girls in
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: this black school.
• 36:52
  Speaker 8: What's wrong with addressing it? It serves so many.
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: The white elephant. What's going on?
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: But the plethora of issues that you can use when
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: you're telling the truth, and I think that's another thing
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: that Debby allowed.
• 37:11
  Speaker 8: Not, can't say this, can't do that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: But, you know, it was kind of image conscious that
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: first year. We had basically writing that was, because we
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: were black, it was known as a black show. But
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: one table read and I was on, I mean, probation.
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: Because when I got the job, Kadeem and I only
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: had six episodes. So at any given time we could
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: be fired.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: Damn.
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: Same with me.
• 37:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: And people were dropping like flies that first season, too.
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: It was a very tense place to work. And they
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: had a table read, and the kids in the classroom
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: were calling their teachers by the first name. And I said,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: I know I'm not in this scene, but my father
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: teaches at Morehouse, and there's no way in hell black
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: people call their professors by their first name that is
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: very white and very California. Because I didn't like it
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: when they were telling my kid to call. Everybody wanted
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: to be young in L.A.
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: I'm like, no, she don't. She's five. She could call you,
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: you know, she call.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: You Miss Karen, but she's not rolling in there like, hey, Karen,
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: You put so much meat in that bone. So I'm
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: going to go back to a couple things. I'll start
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: with the last thing first.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: I want to ask you a question about the fraternities
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: and sororities and white students in them, right? Because the
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: fraternities and sororities, the Vine Nine, right, they're organizations built
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: by black men and black women to support other black
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: people and black leaders in those areas, right? What are
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: your thoughts on that? white students joining a black organization
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: built by black people for black people, but infiltrated by
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: white people. What are your thoughts on it, especially since
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: you're an alpha?
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, so infiltrated carries with it context that may not
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: always be true.
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: They colonized.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: That's even worse.
• 39:09
  Speaker 10: And one of the things I can tell you, if
• 39:12
  Speaker 10: you look at all the Divine Nine with all the
• 39:15
  Speaker 10: white members on both sides, one of the things you
• 39:17
  Speaker 10: can say is, If their goal was infiltration, they have
• 39:20
  Speaker 10: failed miserably, right?
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: So for those folks, everybody knows for all of the
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: interracial relationships... for those who are not of color that
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: fit in our community, you know when it's authentic and
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: when it's not. I mean, you can't pass the black
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: card smell test if you ain't for real. And if
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: you go back, and this is where I was headed,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: When Dr. King was jailed and he was talking to
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the police, he said, y'all's interests are more aligned with us.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: Because they were talking about the fact that, look, we're
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: out here for equality and jobs. It's black, brown, and
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: poor people. Where do you think y'all fit? Right? And
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: so most of the white folks that go to black schools,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: they go where they get the most money locally. And oftentimes,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: that's an HBCU. It's an economic decision. And if you
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: looked at that as a political coalition, there are so
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: many more benefits if black, brown, and poor people, which
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: is more white folks than they like to think, voted
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: along their own self-interest. And that's something you just don't see.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: So I have found every white sorority sister in a
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: D9 organization and every white brother, they've been for real. Now,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: if you really want to know where All of these
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: organizations have been challenged, which is a whole nother conversation.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: It's when a trans man wants to pledge or a
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: trans woman wants to pledge. That's what I brought.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: I told you.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: But if that was the case, where did they pledge?
• 41:04
  Speaker 10: Those are real-world conversations that all these organizations are dealing
• 41:09
  Speaker 10: with today.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 41:10
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: I've never heard that one, but maybe.
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: I'm telling you.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: That's real talk.
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: Can I interrupt you?
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: Do you remember there are other people on the panel?
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Your microphone right there.
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 41:25
  Speaker 8: Oh, the nerve. The unmitigated goal.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: The inverse of not allowing white people to join a
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: frat or a sorority is, to me, perpetrating what was
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: already done to us. And is that the same for
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: the Lynx or Jack and Jill? If somebody is white,
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: maybe that white person grew up with black people and
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: wanted to be in Jack and Jill. And I've heard
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: this argument often. Well, this was created for black people
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: because we weren't allowed. So is the inverse of that okay?
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: We weren't allowed, so now y'all aren't allowed. And where
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: is that? Why are we still talking in slave language?
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: I'm a mulatto. My kid's an octoroon. But I'm not
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: a slave anymore, and neither are we. And I don't
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: like the adaptation of a.
• 42:26
  Speaker 8: Colonization.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: When that system is wrong, how we have been deprived
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: and raised is wrong. So why are we perpetuating that
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: very system?
• 42:45
  Speaker 9: And it does feel like for black people, there's more
• 42:49
  Speaker 9: of a barrier of entry to get into their.
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: organizations you.
• 42:52
  Speaker 9: Know what i mean to break into their societies like
• 42:56
  Speaker 9: it's a tougher barrier of entry for us if at
• 42:58
  Speaker 9: all i also.
• 42:59
  Speaker 6: Think it's a fear too of if we allow one
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: then we allow more then things are taken over and
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: the feeling is different a lot of people for for
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: them their sorority fraternity their hbcu campus is the place
• 43:12
  Speaker 6: where like you know you can be without having to
• 43:15
  Speaker 6: worry about microaggressions and constraints and all these things that
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: you deal with in the world it feels free right
• 43:20
  Speaker 6: and you think that if other people that are not
• 43:22
  Speaker 6: like you come in those things start to change like
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: that was a big pushback at my school people were
• 43:27
  Speaker 6: like yeah we got all this funding but like now
• 43:30
  Speaker 6: y'all are talking about the school differently instead of being
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: historically black college university it's a place for everyone and
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: it's like no keep us at the forefront so i
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: think In doing what you're saying, it's like still honoring
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: the safe space of it because you need those.
• 43:44
  Speaker 7: It changes you when you get to feel that safe space.
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 43:47
  Speaker 8: I understand.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: And all that's real, but I don't think if you
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: look at time, of all the things white folks want
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: about black culture, it's not to live in black neighborhoods
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: and black spaces. Full stop. I grew up in all boys.
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: Not with us in them.
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: No, they come and they gentrify it.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: They come and they gentrify it.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: People are scared that they're going to come and gentrify
• 44:11
  Speaker 6: the HBCU campuses.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: And no, I think there's a greater fear of our
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: institutions not being supported by us than white folks pushing
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: us out.
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: Okay, there was a paper bag test to get into
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: a black school.
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah.
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: Yes, and school days was about that.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: There's colorism that exists.
• 44:34
  Speaker 8: And where does the colorism come from?
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Our folks, we are aggressively agreeing. No, we're not.
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: It comes from the slave plantation. And why are we
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: perpetuating ideas that were wrong then and wrong now?
• 44:55
  Speaker 8: Who was in the big house? We were the house niggas.
• 44:59
  Speaker 7: The light skin.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: The high yellow.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: And why are we perpetuating that? When I did school days,
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: I was shocked. I was like, this light skin, dark
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: skin thing is a dated, I thought it was a
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: dated thing.
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: I wish it was a dated thing.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: So we took on their caste system is what you said.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 45:17
  Speaker 8: And continue to.
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: Well, that's how they kept us there.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: That's why we're celebrating the new, different world.
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: This conversation y'all go through in episodes and different things.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: I tell Charlamagne all the time, my dad is 84
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: years old, right? And he looks at white people differently
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: than we look at white people.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: He does not trust white people, right?
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: And the reason he doesn't trust white people.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: You don't even call them white people.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: There he does it, but.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: You know what he calls it.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: I thought of three things.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: But the reason he doesn't is because my dad served
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: in the military with other white people. And he remembers
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: them coming out the barracks and then going to a
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: restaurant and they saying, no, you can't eat here, nigga.
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: You got to lay outside. And he watched the people
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: that he served with go in there and eat. Same
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: thing when they went to a water fountain. There was
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: a water fountain where he couldn't drink it back then.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: So he looks at white people differently. So for him...
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: When he sees white people going into an HBCU or
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: going into the Lynx or Jack and Jill or the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: Divine Nine, he looks at it as, you got your own.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: This is ours. Let us have this. This is ours.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Let us build this. And he's seen them come into
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: neighborhoods where we lived at that nobody wanted to live,
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: where we were forced to live, and then come in
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: that neighborhood and kind of raise the rent and push
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: us out.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: So he's seen all that.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: So he looks at white people a lot differently than
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: other people do.
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: Well, I understand that, and that's why we have Martha's Vineyard,
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: because our professional black people in the 20s and 30s
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: had nowhere to go. They weren't allowed in summer camps
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: or kids, you know, and they were educated and affluent
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: and created their own resort, their own place to go.
• 46:55
  Speaker 8: I understand that. I was just trying.
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: To talk about the— lack of awareness of what we
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: are doing to ourselves when we start acting like that,
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: acting like them.
• 47:09
  Speaker 8: That was my main point.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Not at all. To your point, not only are there
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: black folks that feel that way, but there are white
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: folks that feel the inverse, right? And that's why folks
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: have said it's going to take those generations to pass
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: before the new generations who won't be impacted by it.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: that baggage we all carry. Which generation?
• 47:30
  Speaker 5: I was just going.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: To say, I don't know.
• 47:32
  Speaker 5: My daughter's still going through it. My daughter's in, you.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: Know, going through colorism.
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: Well, my daughter is dyslexic and she had to go
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: to a special school for that and it's a white school.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 47:45
  Speaker 5: And she was dying there. I had to take her
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: out of it. It was too much for her.
• 47:49
  Speaker 6: I was reading that op-ed in the New York Times.
• 47:50
  Speaker 6: You guys see that about, I forget her name, but
• 47:53
  Speaker 6: she did the 1619 project.
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: Nicole Hannah-Jones. Nicole Hannah-Jones.
• 47:55
  Speaker 6: And she was talking about how And the headline of
• 47:58
  Speaker 6: it was, did she fail her child because she sent
• 48:00
  Speaker 6: her to a public school in Brooklyn versus sending her
• 48:03
  Speaker 6: to like a white school? And kind of like the
• 48:05
  Speaker 6: decisions you have to make as a parent, you know,
• 48:08
  Speaker 6: like and how your kids have to deal with that.
• 48:10
  Speaker 5: Well, I had to send her there because it was
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: a specialized thing. And then I got there and it
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: was to our detriment. She couldn't get the specialized education
• 48:17
  Speaker 5: because she was being traumatized. So we had to get
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: out of there. I just say that because where are
• 48:26
  Speaker 5: specialized schools? Why does she have to go there? Why
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: is this the only option?
• 48:31
  Speaker 8: Why is she the only black kid at the school?
• 48:34
  Speaker 8: Why aren't they reaching out?
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: Why aren't there grants? Why aren't there opportunities? You know,
• 48:39
  Speaker 5: it's like 1% you can get your kid there, and
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: then you got to snatch her out.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: This is why different worlds should be back, man.
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: This is exactly why I need different worlds.
• 48:48
  Speaker 6: Y'all should do a talk-through of things, too. Like, y'all
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: know how they're doing all those talk-throughs? maybe a podcast
• 48:55
  Speaker 6: or whatever, but these conversations is what people, like, this
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: is why.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: We love y'all.
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: It's in the show, but then also, they're only going
• 49:01
  Speaker 6: to give us 10 episodes.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Not yet.
• 49:03
  Speaker 5: Okay. You know, that's the first time I've said that
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: to him and he said.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Not yet.
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: Not yet.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: Not yet.
• 49:10
  Speaker 5: I can't believe it.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Not yet.
• 49:12
  Speaker 5: I'm about to go into cardiac arrest.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: The distinction that I would make about the conversation about
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: the generation that's passed, I'm saying that those who lived it, right,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: lived the segregated fountains. I mean, public pools weren't desegregated
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: until like 1975, right? So there are generations. You've got
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: to think of kids that were born around 2005. you
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: can look at them and they're like, what's the big
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: deal about a black president? Like that's their perspective. So
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: when folks try to talk about how much better racism
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: has got, It's one of the things that I can't
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: stand when I hear Bill Maher talk about, yeah, but
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: we're so much better. I'm like, okay, so we're not
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: 100 feet underwater. We're 80 feet underwater. We still can't
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: fucking breathe. That's the point.
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: It's like when he acts like he knows more about
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: black people than we know. Because he was very rude
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: to Bakari on there. And he kind of shut him down.
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: And I was like, Why aren't you listening to somebody
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: who lives it, who is very articulate, doesn't need your help,
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: you know?
• 50:22
  Speaker 8: He can be very snobby.
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: About his view of the world. I do listen to him,
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: but sometimes I'm like.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to say that those who think progress
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: is mission accomplished, and it's not.
• 50:38
  Speaker 8: And I'm saying, why don't you listen to the people
• 50:40
  Speaker 8: who are in it?
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: As opposed to being an outsider. But you have jobs now.
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: You have Michael Jackson.
• 50:46
  Speaker 8: Michael Johnson.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's always the entertainer. You got Beyonce.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: That's correct. And you're using the exception, not the rule. Yeah.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: And most folks, if you go to black, brown, and
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: poor neighborhoods, are not living like that. And, you know,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: whenever you hear... Language is important. When I hear Bernie
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: Sanders talk about income disparities. There's not income disparities. There
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: are earnings disparities. The American dream was supposed to be
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: if you worked 40 hours a week, you worked Monday
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: to Friday, 9 to 5, weekends off, you could afford
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: to get married, buy a house, and have a two-car
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: garage with two kids.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: With.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: minimum wage at like $ 7. 20 nationwide, something like that, if
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: you work 40 hours a week, you're going to earn
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: around $ 13, 000- something a year. You are building a permanent underclass.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: And also dying at 60 years old.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: But I'm saying there's no way you can earn enough
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: money working 40 hours a week at minimum wage. It
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: does not exist anymore.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: So that is a problem where there's no way. And
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: now if you look at A.I., jobs that are going
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: away and the notion that young black kids shouldn't go
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: to college now that makes me nuts the greatest differentiator
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: in positive life outcomes is a college education full stop
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: so this idea that black kids shouldn't go to college
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: is predicated on this nonsense that because you can go
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: on youtube and unpackage a disney box and make a
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: million dollars that that's what everybody should do right it
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean that there isn't value in a in a
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: trade uh uh school and that there aren't jobs that
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: don't require a college education. Mike Rowe is out there
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: promoting Ford has these jobs that only require a high
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: school education. They're paying $ 130, 000 a year and they can't
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: fill them. Wow.
• 52:39
  Speaker 5: But even beyond jobs, like when we're talking about Hillman
• 52:43
  Speaker 5: and talking about a different world, beyond jobs, what a
• 52:45
  Speaker 5: black college and what an education gives you is self-esteem
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: and the ability to express yourself. I mean, there's nothing
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: more valuable than knowledge.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Right? Yeah.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: But these are the conversations that's needed. And this is
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: why we're.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Glad A Different World is back.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Right now. It's out right now.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: So you can definitely check your first episode.
• 53:03
  Speaker 9: But I want to tell y'all too, make sure y'all
• 53:05
  Speaker 9: pre-order Jasmine Guy's memoir, A Different Girl.
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: It comes out February 9th, written by her daughter, Imani.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: What's up, Imani?
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: Make sure y'all go pre-order that as well.
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: She'll be back before then, hopefully, right?
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, because Charlamagne got me my book deal.
• 53:22
  Speaker 8: He's my mentor.
• 53:24
  Speaker 5: Oh, I love it.
• 53:25
  Speaker 7: I love the title of the book, too.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: Well, there you have it. Jasmine Guy, Daryl Bell, Cree Summer,
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: thank you for joining us. Thank y'all so much.
• 53:32
  Speaker 5: Nice to meet you guys. I love The Breakfast Club.
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning.
• 53:37
  Speaker 5: Hold up. Every day I wake up.
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: y'all done?