Transcription
Of the Best Economic Summit out in Denver, uh, which I'm, I'm actually going to speak at. Uh, it's in, in the next couple weeks. And, uh, he is the host of the Black Friday Show podcast. So, he's all black, be 100%. Uh, and he, and he also is a venture partner in a fund called the Rocky Seed Fund. And the Rocky Seed Fund is looking to raise $5 million for black-owned businesses. Can y'all just like, kind of clap for that? Like, just kind of acknowledge that right now, 'cause we, we, we got to raise that money and, uh, build our own independent power. Ain't no begging for money from Mr. Charlie. We, we trying to go make it happen.
So, anyway, I want to, without further ado, I want to welcome my brother. How you doing today, man?
>> Hey, I'm doing great, boys. Thanks for having me on today.
>> Yeah, man. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. Now, uh, okay. So, BJ Joyce, um, it's funny, uh, you know, you and I have a mutual friend, uh, Sherry Mitchell. And Sherry says that she, she told me she said, "BJ reminds me of you."
>> That's right. And, and, and she said, "His name even sounds a little bit like yours." So, you know, your name starts with a B and your last name rhymes with Boyce. So, I said, "Okay, let me meet the, let me meet this guy. Let me see what he's all about." And I, and I met you and, and she was right. You know, she, um, was accurate. You know, you, you have a lot of good ideas, man, and you're doing a lot of good stuff. So, uh, I, I guess where do I begin? Um, first of all, are you born and raised in Denver? Are you like a Denverite to the core?
>> Yeah, born and raised in Denver. So, in the historical black neighborhood, uh, that we know and that a lot of people, uh, might know of outside called the Five Points, which was at one point, um, defined as the Harlem of the West. So, born and raised in that neighborhood, that area. Went to a high school with a lot of famous, uh, people in general, but a lot of famous black folks like Pam Grier, um, Don Cheadle and his brother, Colin, uh, Robert F. Smith, billionaire Robert Smith. So, uh, and three members of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Shout out Philip Bailey and all them.
>> So,
>> Hey, I'll write, I'll write that. Okay. So, you said Pam Grier.
>> Yep. Pam Grier.
>> Robert Smith, Don Cheadle.
>> Yep.
>> All right. Who now, give Earth, Wind, and Fire three of members of Earth, Wind, and Fire, most prominently, uh, Philip Bailey, and the first, uh, uh, black person to win an Academy Award, for Best Actress, uh, in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel.
>> Hattie McDaniel. Okay. So, I assume you didn't go to high school with Hattie.
>> No. No. Didn't go to high school with Hattie. Didn't go there. But we're also rocking with, also rocking with my man, JB Bickerstaff, coach of the Pistons. So, I'm riding with him. Hopefully, they can win a championship this year. He won a, a state title with us, uh, back in the day, too.
>> Oh, wow. That's, that's amazing, man. So, okay. So, did you go to high school with any of the people on that list?
>> No. No. They're, they're a little bit older than me. I was, I was close with JB. I mean, we're within, you know, about, uh, five to eight years or something like that. Um, I, I just missed them. Um, but I did actually get to see that championship run. I went to the basketball arena when they were playing and won that championship. So, I was in the house for that. Just wasn't actually at school with him.
>> Oh, wow. Wow. JB Bickerstaff. Okay. That's very cool, man. That, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you mentioned Robert Smith and, and, you know, he's, he's doing some good stuff. Yeah. Robert Smith. Um, what, what I remember, well, there's a lot of great things about him, but, uh, I know in particular, now that I think about it, I don't know if we, I don't know if we'll ever cross paths, but I know he came to Morehouse and paid off student loans, which I thought was great.
>> Yeah. And, and, um, and I decided I wanted to torture myself and, uh, and teach a year at Morehouse, uh, starting next fall. And, and I say torture myself is because I, I haven't had a job where I had to get up and go to work a long time. But, but I just love Morehouse. I just have so much respect for the school and, um, my, you know, one of my friends, Dr. Venicia Dutra, who's the associate dean there, reached out. She said, you know, "We, we need some black male faculty members." And, and I, we've known each other 25 years. And, and she said, "Would you do this for me?" I said, "Heck yeah." I, you know, the more, I mean, to me, there's no, and this is something I think you probably, you and I probably have in common, I imagine.
>> I don't think there's anything more important on this earth than, you know, educating young black people about the truth about economics and economic strength. Uh, and I, I'm talking, given you and I are both black men, uh, tell me if y'all agree. Give me a yes in the chat if you agree with me that there is, uh, there's a severe need for us to really make sure black men are just ready, you know, for what's in front of them. Like, like there, that there's a lie in my opinion, BJ, where, uh, I think men are just told that, um, you know, the world's going to welcome you, uh, if you go get the degrees and the credentials, you're going to get the same jobs and opportunities, uh, that the world's going to be fair. And I think that's all a big old lie.
>> Um, uh, tell me what your thoughts are on this. I, I think that this is essential because this is one of the reasons our community is failing is because we're not building outstanding men and boys. We're not building the types of men and boys that can go out and fight and conquer and prepare and strategically win. Uh, give me your thoughts on some of that.
>> Yeah. No, I mean, coincidentally, I've had that conversation with a lot of people, um, specifically about how the system is set up currently to not only emasculate just men in general, um, but especially, um, black men. And that, as y'all see it within the, um, white supremacist corporate plantations, they are quick to elevate, um, black women, which is great. Happy that black women are getting those opportunities, but they also do that in a way that keeps black men out of positions of either, um, just securing a job, but especially of, uh, management and leadership. And I, I look at it at this way is that I, I hate to be so carnal or primitive, but this, it just, just is what it is, right? Is that who, who could check a white woman? A black woman, right? Who could check a white man? A black man. But a black woman is not about to check a white man in the power structure, right? So, they're happy with having black women in those spaces and keeping black men out because they can still control them, right? In, in that way of, "I'm above you, you're going," I mean, the, you know, go back to the whole Willie Lynch letter, whether it exists, where it doesn't, whatever. The, the principles that were, um, talked about within that is that you take the strongest, biggest, you know, negro out there on your plantation who's the most rebellious, beat him, tar and feather him, uh, you know, set him on fire and rip him apart in front of everybody. And you then do, uh, you know, beat the next one who's close to him in front of everybody. And then the woman is going to teach her son to be submissive, subservient, be quiet, don't rise up. She's going to then teach her daughter then, "Hey, the only way that you're going to be able to move forward and to survive is to take from this white man, the master, and cater to him." And so that's playing back out on the corporate plantation. And they'll hire black women, elevate them, keep black men down, right? And then, then you also see it in the entrepreneurial space. The black women more often than not today have businesses where black-owned or black men are not starting these businesses. And then these black women are being successful. And I applaud that. There's nothing wrong with that. I think it's great. But you'll see that black women are getting the opportunities in education, in entrepreneurship, in employment, and black men are continuing to get pushed down further and further. You're aggressive, you're this, you're that. They're not getting put in positions to succeed academically, um, or, uh, from a professional standpoint in the marketplace. And so it just, yeah, I mean, going back to your point is we do need to elevate the man. We need to elevate the black man. That's the black woman's natural protector. That's the black family's natural protector and, uh, provider source. And if we don't have that, we're going to continue to see the fallout that we've been seeing over the past 30, 40 years within the black family structure of where black men are either going to prison, they're, um, just sitting on mom's, uh, couch making babies left, right, um, you know, and sideways. And you have these broken homes where women are struggling. They're trying to go out here and make something of themselves. And I applaud them for when they are doing that. But we're not gaining any ground economically. We're not gaining any ground from a power structure. And what was it? I just, um, I just reshared a clip of, uh, Dr. Claude Anderson actually yesterday in our Facebook group, uh, here locally, uh, called, uh, Cabob, Colorado Black Owned Businesses. And it was about, um, Claude Anderson talking about that part in Powernomics where the Chinese will not sell or or buy from anybody else but Chinese, but they'll sell to everybody. And even when they were offered like, "Well, we'll give you to you 25% less than, uh, you know, than what you're paying right now." And they said, "Look, you guys don't understand. We don't do that. We buy from each other. We support each other." And so I, I'm like, "Yes, that's exactly what we need to be doing. We need to buy from each other. We need to support one another. But if we're going to continue to give our dollars, if we're going to continue to give our power to every outside ethnic group, we're going to continue to see these same things play out for black men, black women, black families, and we're just going to be wandering as a subservient subclass here in America."
>> Well, you know, and, and I like what you said, BJ, because it, it's one thing I think it should be made clear, and I want everybody to let me know that you understand this so that it doesn't get misinterpreted. Uh, as BJ mentioned, you know, we completely applaud everything black women accomplish. You know, there, there's no like, none of this, you know, competition or intimidation because you hear it all the time. You know, "Men are intimidated by my success," and it's like, "No, no, let's not even get in that." There might be guys out there that think this way, but that's not it. Because one of the things, this is one of the reasons why black economic freedom is so essential. When you don't have freedom, you are constrained by a systematic bottleneck. And what that systematic bottleneck does is it creates a space of scarcity. You understand? Scarcity means that if, if he's winning, I can't win. If she's winning, I can't win. Right? And that creates the crabs in the barrel/Willy Lynch self-destructive behavior that you see so often. Tell me if you guys see that. Tell me if y'all see that. Where you might go into a company and, and, and there's two black people out of 200 workers or 200 managers. There's two of them that are black and instead of collaborating and, and figuring out how to develop power together, you might see some jealousy and competition because maybe they feel like, "Well, there's only room for one of us, right? I want to be the one negro. I'm, I want to be the only." And you can't win like that. You can't win like that. You cannot, the community will never grow like that when all y'all trying to suck from the same straw, right? It ain't going to work. So, what you do is you expand. This is why systematic thinking is so important for young people. When young people are trained to develop economic systems, systems elevate entire communities. Systems can elevate a whole family. Systems can elevate the man and the woman. You can have companies. Think about this. And I want you to process this. You got a whole bunch of negroes out here got fancy jobs, fancy credentials, all this [ __ ] y'all bragging about. But show me the one who goes out and says, "I created 10,000 jobs for my people." Right? Instead of having one HNIC, one black person getting one job out of a 100 people, I got 10,000 people that got hired. So, ain't nobody jealous because there's abundance. Do you understand what I'm saying? Type the word abundance in the chat if you get what I'm saying. When you think systematically and you create economic freedom, you can create spaces of abundance where I ain't got to compete with BJ because he's doing well and I'm doing well, right? But, but if they say, "Well, well, you know, Boyce, if, if we hire BJ, we might have to get rid of you." Then I'm, then me and him going to be fighting. And that divide and conquer, that's how colonialism works, right?
>> So, BJ, so, let's, let's go, let's go deeper into this. This is a fun conversation. So, um, I think part of the problem is in the educational process. I, I think that I, I'm going to be quite frank. I think that the black male is being raised to be, uh, weak and scared and unfocused. And I think that there are cultural problems in there. Uh, in Chicago, for example, the majority, majority of the black students cannot read at grade level. So, they're not ready to compete. They, I, I think they're, you know, you're fed a Disney fairy tale about how the world works and when they get out in the world and the world kicks them in their ass.
>> Yep.
>> They're, they're distressed, you know, traumatized. It's really hard. I think it's up to us to step in and, and, and just replace that, you know, what are your thoughts on some of that?
>> Yeah. Well, it, it, it's funny, man. There's, there's a great movie. I'm a big movie buff. I always use these, these analogies. Um, great movie that I saw. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. And, uh, it, it's on, I think it's still on Netflix. Uh, um, but it's based off of, I believe it was like early '90s Malawi, and there was a drought going on. And, and the reason I like this and I bring this up is that, uh, they depict in the movie and in, in this story where the parents knew that education was a way out, right? A way for them to improve their lives, uh, at their family's life. So, uh, they struggled to try and save money to pay for their son to go get an education, right? And this, we're, we're not talking college, we're talking junior high, high school, they're paying for school because they have to pay for school over there. Um, they don't have a public education system. So, if you want to get educated, you have to find money in order to pay for it. Well, long story short, you know, famine, all this stuff, hard times, money. Um, he has to get out of school because he can't pay for it. Well, he's sneaking into the library to read books, engineering books, so that he could learn how to build, um, a wind-powered water pump that would then, and, you know, the crux of the story is that he then helped save his village by being able to pump water out of the, out of a well from this wind-powered water pump. And they don't have to try and, you know, throw down buckets, get water and water their crops in order to survive. We don't have that in America anymore. Black people used to, we used to strive for education. We used to strive and look, you know, you go back to, and I'm just going to bring this up because it's the, the most prominent one as of right now, but like the Hidden Figures characters, right? That story where those late, you know, they were going after education, they were smart. I mean, the, they became, they, or they were computers right before Windows and Apple, they were the computers, right? And that's the type of level of black excellence, black education that we used to pursue. Somewhere along the line, I'm going to say maybe 1965, and, uh, uh, or somewhere around there, um, we then felt that we arrived and we made it and we don't pursue education like that anymore, not as individuals, not as a collective ethnic group. And I think that's where the breakdown has happened. Is that we have, I'm going to bring it up. This is in politics, but we have immigrants that come over here. They don't speak the language, whether they're coming from Africa, Arab nations, Latino nations, whatever. They come over, they don't speak the language, they learn our language, they then go to school. They, they are, I mean, I went to a, a gala recently for Denver Public Schools. They had a little girl up here, um, was when she was little, she came over. She was like five years old, couldn't speak the language. She said, "Every day we're at the kitchen table with my parents trying to learn. All of us, me, my brothers and sisters, and my parents trying to learn. It was school after school at the kitchen table." And then she's like this valedictorian or whatever at her school now that she's graduating, right? We're not doing that as black people, as black Americans in mass like we used to. And that needs to change. That whole frame of reference needs to change because other people are coming to get the things that are set aside for us or that we are born into, and we're just, you know, "I'll be a rapper. I'll be a ball player." That's our only goals and ambitions, or I'll be the drug dealer on the corner instead of pursuing higher education or education, period, and moving towards a successful, I, I will say physically safe, um, professional environment for us and our families.
>> Well, everybody, I'm speaking with BJ Joyce. BJ is, uh, he's a board member of the Best Economic Summit. It's happening in Denver. Uh, what's, what's the date of the Best Summit again, BJ?
>> Yeah, coming up. So, it's going to be June 10th. We're having our Drive and Thrive charity golf tournament. Um, hopefully, we're getting you to play in that. If not, you know, a couple of pictures on the sideline are okay. Um, and then the actual summit is, is going to be on, on June 11th. Um, and then we have, um, uh, a historical tour that we're doing on June 12th, and then a day party, back in the day, day party on June 13th. But the crux of it is all around the economic summit where we're going to have a reparations conversation. We're having Dr. Boyce there. He's going to be our featured keynote and, and, uh, and guest. He's going to be, uh, talking to us and, and, you know, bringing, bringing the good word, right, of the economics landscape for black folks there. And, uh, it's going to be awesome. Vendor fair, the whole shebang. And it is literally our key, um, economic summit for black people in this area, in this region. So, I encourage anybody and everybody to, you know, constantly either come out this year, come out next year. It's going to be going on for, you know, as many years as we can possibly have it. It's been 25 years thus far. So, uh, this is our 26th year. So, get ready. We're going for another 26.
>> What, what's the URL? Uh, Mia James would like to know where, where she can go to. Uh,
>> Yeah. So, I can drop it in the chat, too. But it's bestsuccesssummit.org. So, .org. Bestsuccesssummit.org. There's a lot of S's in there. I know.
>> No, no, that, that's good. So, best success. Somebody just, somebody type in the chat as well. Just, okay, there we go. And, um, and there we go. Thank you, Kendall. And, and, uh, I see you put in there as well, BJ. Can't put in there too many times because I want to make sure everybody gets a chance to get it. Bestsuccesssummit.org, not .com.org. Don't forget that. Um, and I want to, I want to mention that just because, um, you know, I think every city in America should, and many of them do have things like this every year. And I think it's really important to talk about these things because these are opportunities to get together with people that you, uh, align with, people that kind of get it. Um, you know, there, there's power in, in coming together. There's wealth in coming together. There's all kinds of things. And, um, and, and also it's a cultural thing. Uh, BJ, I mean, if you, if, if I'm sitting here and I'm trying to build with people that don't want to build and don't see the value in building, or if I'm trying to solve a problem and everyone else is like, "Well, what do you mean there is no problem?" Then it's going to be much harder for me than if I'm surrounded by people who know have the capacity to solve the problem, the willingness to solve the problem, and the insight to even know that there is a problem. Right? There, there are so many, there are a lot of people who really don't, you know, like they might hear what you and I are talking about and they would say, "What are you, what are you talking about? Everything's great. You know, you know, we just got to get Trump out of office and then everything will be great again." Or, or we got to go, you know, just whatever people say, right? And I'm not judging. I'm just saying that, um, I think when you're really talking about like, what's really going to fix things, uh, you have to be really precise, man, because, because these are serious issues. Um, in fact, I would be willing to bet. Give me a yes in the chat if you feel like you've been hit by one of the generational curses that comes with being black. Maybe you got a drug addict in your family. Maybe your father wasn't there. Maybe, uh, your baby daddy won't do what he's supposed to do. Or, you know, and I'm not putting all this on men, right? Because it's, it's a community issue, right? We're all connected to it on some level. Uh, but, uh, I think about my own life, BJ. And I, and I, and I, I want you to take the, the, the, the mic here, but
>> Yeah.
>> in my life, I think about number one, my father and my biological father and my stepfather both, uh, were addicted to heroin. Uh, one went to Vietnam and got addicted. The other one, I don't know how, where he found it. Uh, and that affected my life. Um, to my best friend, Greg Wilkins, in Louisville, Kentucky, got shot in the head in front of his daughter when I was 25 years old, right before Tupac died, or around, right around the same time. Um, uh, let's see. I have, uh, mentored lots of kids who don't have a father figure in their house, so they're unprotected. Some of them ended up getting molested or, or ended up in prison or ended up in bad situations because the, the, the male leadership was not present. Um, you know, I know women who feel like they're carrying the whole load, uh, because they just think that's just what black women do. I saw a black woman had a t-shirt on that said, literally the shirt said, "Fuck it. I'll do it myself."
>> Right?
>> And that was, that was like her mantra, like, "I'll just do it myself because I can't depend on anybody to do it, you know, definitely not a man." And, and I think that that mindset of, of, "You can't depend on a man, therefore you must be super independent." Um, I think that that then also affects, it kind of taints the dating pool a little bit because, um, there, literally, in fact, I'm, I'm gonna pass the ball to you on this. Did anybody see where the white girl, uh, wrote the text message to the other white girl about how to get a black athlete to date her? Did anybody see that? It's on my Instagram. My Instagram is Dr. Boyce Finance. One of the things that the lady said to her was she basically said, she basically was talking about black women and saying that they're so super independent that they always want to let the man know they don't need him. And she said, "Literally, don't do that." She said, "She said, don't be out here being super independent." Right? And it was like, "Oh my God, that's insane." Uh, what did you see? I was, I was looking at it. I was, you know, it, it's funny because they're not only seeing the value of these potential athletes, right? The, the bag. They're, they're, they're going after the bag, but they're also, in, in those statements, which was, which was really interesting, that in those text messages is that she's laying out stuff that actually men just want in general from a woman, you know, like all the things that she was saying is like, "Hey, yeah, be, be wild for him in bed." Well, yeah, we would like that. You know what I mean? Like, we would appreciate that. That would be great. Love that, you know? Saying, "Hey, make sure that he, uh, you, you know, he, he can't go anywhere without you or, or that he, he has to depend on you. You're, you're over your helping him with his homework, his laundry."
>> I think she, she specifically said something that was actually in my book, The Ten Commandments of Black Economic Power, or like a variant of it. She said, "Be an asset to him."
>> Yeah. Be an asset.
>> Be an asset to. Right. And, and, and one of the commandments in the book is, "Be an asset to the people you love." Right. And I got that from, I, I, my first inclination of that came from my mother when I was 11. And she said, "You're such an asset." And I felt really good. I said, "Wow, I'm valuable to you, right?"
>> And therefore, I spent my whole life serving my mother up until the day she died.
>> Because I, I took pride in her looking at her son and saying, "My son is an asset. He will protect me. He will get me what I need." Right? And, and so, so in my view, it's sort of like the, the advice was interesting because I know a lot of black women who can do all those things, right? Yeah. Um, but, but then sometimes, uh, the trauma, when the trauma creates a hyperindependence, hypervigilance. My, my wife, who's, you know, an expert on trauma, literally said, "One, one sign that you're traumatized is when you're hypervigilant about always being independent and you don't need nobody."
>> And if you constantly go through life telling everybody you don't need anybody, then people are going to say, "Oh, well, you don't need me." Well, okay. Well, good luck to you. You right. You know, so, so, so please go ahead. I know you have more to say.
>> Oh, yeah. No, no. I mean, but like all the things that she was going through, I'm like, well, any man just kind of wants that, like these things out of, out of any woman, right? And if that is the case, and that's how these white women, um, are able to go and get with these athletes that are in college or in high school, even, and, and kind of ride their coattails and hopes to get pregnant or, and/or marry them, um, so that they can secure the bag, so to speak, um, why isn't other women doing that? Just, not necessarily for athletes, but just in general for men who are out there who are moving towards something, who are, who are moving towards the goals? And then here's, here's the flip side, right? Because I know how this can easily turn into like, "Oh, this is very misogynistic." And like, "No, ladies, ladies, let me speak to you out here, um, as well. Men also need to reciprocate, right? And respect and honor when you're doing those things and not take advantage of that situation of like, "Oh yeah, I'm just going to use her for this." Is that like, "No, honor that." Oh man, she cooked me breakfast. Oh, she did this. Oh yeah, I'm getting up. I'm taking care of her. I'm doing these things. I'm doing that thing. So, it's reciprocal, right? It's a reciprocal nature. But all in all, the fact that these white women are out here like, "Hey, this is how we can get them." That's kind of crazy. I mean, I wouldn't say that it's, uh, uh, not abnormal or something we haven't seen before, uh, but that it's now out there. I guess if, if those are real text messages, that this is kind of a formula that they're playing. Okay. Um, what are we going to do about that as black people? Are we, are we, as, you know, black men who have these sons in this situation, going to talk to them about that? Are we going to work with them on that? "Hey, look out. This is what they could be doing with you." So, on and so forth. Are black women then going to look at it like, "Oh, well, Becky's trying to do this with, you know, uh, uh, what was it like, 'Save the Last Dance' going after all the good ones, right?" Um, like, is she going after all the good ones? Well, I mean, like, one cap, one little thing, uh, that, that was also in there said, you know, "Mess with the black woman 'cause he's naturally going to be attracted to her. Mess with her a little bit and bring that shenanigan out in her, and, uh, you know, he'll, he'll see it and he'll immediately leave her." What does that speak to how our culture, our society within black people is? Like,
>> do men like, do black men want to deal with that, that ratchetness, that hoodness, that that attitude that can come with black women in certain ways? Do we want to deal with that? And that, that attitude naturally gets us like, "Eh, we're going to be done with you and we're going to go over here where we don't have to deal with that."
>> Well, well, let me, and let me, let me jump in on that, too, though, because I think it's, it's really important to just know that most black women are not looking for an inner chain, right? And, and, and I think it's, like, but, but here's the thing. Here's the problem you have. And this, this all, in case you're wondering, this, this is, this is a heavily economic conversation because you're really talking about the black family. You're talking about things like inheritance and legacy, things like that, right? Like, who, who you marry determines where your wealth goes when you die, right? Um, um, you know, this, this is one of the reasons why, and people don't always understand this when I make these points, but this is one of the reasons why I have raged against the mass promotion of certain kinds of imagery of black women in the music in the media. You know, uh, people would say, "Well, what do you have against Megan the Stallion and Lizzo?" I said, "I have nothing against them. I actually think that they're very talented, but I don't think the black woman is always trying to be, you know, America's favorite hoe." I don't think she's always trying to be the loudest and the most obnoxious and the most, you know, twerking in the street and all this other stuff. And when you, when we support those images and we say, "Go black girl, go," and that's black excellence. Well, then there's a consequence for that, right? Number one, you're sending a message to little girls. And I like, you know, I asked, I asked a really, I asked a really annoying question. I said, um, I said, "If you had a choice, would you want your daughter to grow up and be just like Megan the Stallion?" That's it. That was my, that was my simple question I asked people. And people got mad at me. And I said, "The fact that you're getting mad at me shows that you don't have an answer to that question. That, that I, what I did was I created cognitive dissonance for you. You're cheering on this behavior, but you don't want your kids engaging in that behavior because you know what comes with that. You know that the Cardi B culture comes with strip club culture and all this other stuff where strippers have a very high level of PTSD. They're more likely to be on drugs. They're more likely to be assaulted or raped. They're more likely to sell their bodies. Why would you celebrate any of that and then have people thinking that this is who you are?"
>> Yeah.
>> Right? There, there's a whole, there's a whole body of research on the major stereotypes of the black woman that have been true throughout history. The Jezebel, the, the Mammy. And I forgot, my wife did a whole deep dive analysis on all of that. And so ultimately, what, what I think could be offensive in that woman's statement about how to bag a black man is she's kind of leaning on the stereotype. She's like, "Well, if, if you trigger her because she's probably, she could be traumatized, as a lot of black people are traumatized. If you trigger her, then the inner chain will come out and then he's not going to choose her." Because the reality, the fact is, most men who are worth millions of dollars, we walk away from that. And I, and I can't sit here and pretend like I like that. My wife does not. My wife has, you know, her unique characteristics, right? She, she was, she, she went through some, she grew up in Gary, for God's sake. But there's ways that she carries herself with dignity and class that made me say, you know, "Yeah, I think that could be my wife." But if she had showed up and started twerking on the first date and doing all kinds of stuff that you see in the media, I'd have been like, "I still think you're cute, but you're never going to be my wife because if I take you home to my mama, she's going to cuss both of us out, right?" And, and, and people don't want to accept that. They don't want to acknowledge that. And, and this links back to the breakdown of the black family. You know, it's, uh, so I, I kind of like the, the message, right? It was kind of interesting to just get intelligence in terms of how they, they think there. I think that, um, one thing about it is also, I think dating, dating could and should be done strategically. Uh, families that build lots of wealth, they don't date randomly. They date strategically. They tell their daughter, "This is the kind of man you want. This is how you get him." They tell their sons, "This is the kind of woman you want. This is how you get her." What's wrong with being strategic?
>> Right? Tell me, uh, please, BJ.
>> No, I mean, you're, you're exactly right. It's, uh, I mean, royalty, right, would do this and, and they still do this in, in some cases where it's, "I'm going to marry another royal because I know how they act, how they, how they value life, how they value wealth." Um, we want to build alliances that way strategically. And so, we, you know, I was, I'm going to say this, common broke Americans look at, at like politics and how like the wealthy elites intermarry and do all these different things in order to maintain and keep their wealth. And they say, "Why would, why would they do that? This, this, that, and the other." And it's like, well, from a strategic business and social, um, uh, aspect, they're trying to protect this, in, you know, this long-term built-up investment in their family. They don't, you know, you don't want, uh, Bill Gates's kids marrying somebody with a bus pass. Bill's like, "That's not going to be good for us, right? That, you know, that's not going to be good for our family legacy." Is, is there, you know, love can be found in all places. I get that. But from a strategic standpoint, they're looking at, you know, "Our family name is a business. It's an enterprise." Give you a quick example. Right? So, uh, Stan Kroenke, the owner of the, uh, Nuggets and Avalanche and the Rapids, uh, here in Colorado, right? Um, he also owns the LA Rams. Okay. Stan Kroenke is married into the Walton family, the Walmart Waltons. Okay. He went to school at the University of Missouri where all the other Walton members went to the University of Missouri, except for one. His wife actually went to my university, Lincoln University, and got a nursing degree in H.B.C.U. Really weird and interesting. I need to meet her one day. Right now,
>> Is she white or black?
>> She's white.
>> Wow. Yeah.
>> That's a weird fact. But please,
>> Weird fact. I know. Crazy. See, she, she kind of departed. She doesn't talk about it much and I'm, you know, I'm pretty sure I understand why. But he's married into the Walton family. The way that Stan Kroenke is a real estate mogul. Okay. He made all his billions from, uh, when Walmart builds a building, guess who builds that building? Stan Kroenke does and his firm. Okay. The Waltons also now own, um, the Walton-Penner family, they own the Denver Broncos. They're getting ready to move this stadium here in the city to another part of the city. Guess who's gonna build that stadium? Stan Kroenke's probably gonna build that stadium, right? They're keeping money within the family. He, they're billionaires. He's a billionaire. So, like that's how th those things work. And so, you see like this, this woman, right?
>> She's talking about this is how you get the bag. Well, she's extracting resources now. Her and other other white girls, you know, that they're talking about this. They're extracting resources from these black millionaires or potential black millionaires that are going to be ball players and athletes, right? So, they're looking at it as, "Hey, this is a play for my family. Here's how I need to act, right? For wealth accumulation for me to get this." Us as, I, I'm going to say, common broke Americans, black folks out here, I'm a common American broke black folk. We need to be thinking in those same strategic ways of, and, and it doesn't necessarily just have to be going after an athlete. But if you want nice things, if you want to have nice things, there's certain ways that you have to act. There's certain ways that you have to carry yourself. There's certain situations that you have to put yourself in and keep yourself from. And if we want those things, then we have to do what it takes to get those things. She's just laying out this is how, how what it takes to do it. That's all.
>> Wow. Well, you know, and, and I, yeah. And I think, I think just the idea of dating strategically,
>> um, it, it ends up, some people feel like it has a negative connotation and it doesn't have to be, you know, it doesn't have to be, um, uh, you know, exploitative. It doesn't have to involve selling your soul. It just, it really has to do with protecting, uh, what you have. And I'm not talking about money. I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about your wealth. And you all know, everybody in here, BJ knows that most wealth is not money, um, you know, the wealth is, it might be your, um, your peace of mind, protecting your health, uh, physical and mental. It might be protecting your family.
>> Right. Drag you, drag you. You know, if you just bring anybody into your family that creates chaos, then you're hurting your relatives by not thinking strategically about the decision you make. And one of the reasons why I want everybody to know the reason that I'm a big advocate for things like therapy and, and consciousness is that they're kind of connected. A person that, that is healed has an easier ability to see the bigger picture because they can calm themselves down and they're not going to do everything emotionally, hyper emotionally to the point where, uh, because you are, uh, you know, engaged in some sort of dysfunctional behavior. Perhaps it's hypersexuality, alcohol, drugs, or whatever. And then you're making bad decisions because you're not thinking properly, right? And you're doing these things because you've got this unhealed, undiagnosed, untreated trauma that you're numbing. Then your life becomes a reflection of all those choices. It becomes a culmination of, of every choice that you've ever made. And then you look around and your whole life is a mess, including your finances. Your finances is probably the least messy thing of your life. And, and, and your finances are in the garbage, right? So, ultimately, all of this is connected. And, and so, uh, so we're not out here on, on any level. I want to make it clear. We brought this, this conversation up. I am not, y'all know I'm not out here talking about, "Let's go get us a white woman." Um, you know, I, I got, I married a light-skinned black woman. That's as close as I'mma get. And I, and I was very intentional, DJ. I, BJ, I, I said, um, you know, years before I got married, I said, "I don't know if I'm ever get married, but if I get married, she gonna be black. Period." Why? Well, because I know, I know about the dysfunction. I know about all the stuff that's out here, right? Yeah. But you can't tell me that there's nothing that, there's anything a white woman can do that, that there's not a black woman that can do the same thing. Right.
>> Right.
>> So, if you like a woman that goes to church, well, there's black women that'll go to church. You want a woman that's going to be nice to you and iron your socks, there's black women that'll iron your socks. Right. You want a woman, you want a white woman 'cause you say, "I like white women 'cause they're educated." Well, come on now. Black women have more education than anybody else. And, uh, and, and I, because I knew that in this journey, in this life as a black man, I needed to have a teammate who's a black woman because that's what creates a black family and creates a black legacy. And that, that was just, that just happened to be important for me. So, um, so what I want to do, BJ, if you don't mind, is I want to make sure everybody knows your name,
>> and knows about your podcast. Can y'all do me a favor? BJ has a podcast called the Black Friday Show Podcast. Is it on, uh, YouTube or where can people find you?
>> Yeah,
>> it's on Facebook. So, look up, look up the Black Friday Show podcast. If you got a link, BJ, feel free to drop it in the chat.
>> Um, and he also is raising money for black businesses. Um, there's something called the Rocky Seed Fund, like Rocky Mountain's Rocky Seed Fund, and he's a venture partner. They're raising $5 million for black-owned businesses. And so, you guys, you know, they're into this kind of thing, you can look it up, participate. Let me just tell you, uh, I'll tell you, BJ, I, I've been out to, to Denver a few, a few times to speak, and I would, I've always been super impressed with Black Denver. Like, as quiet, as quiet as it's kept, like because a lot of people that are not out there, it's almost like when I'm from the South, everybody from the North thinks people from the South are stupid because they talk slow or they're all, they're all, they're all a bunch of shotgun-toting racists who just want to kill black people. And I'm like, "No, people in the South are some of the nicest people I've ever met. They got some really intelligent black people in the South and they maybe they talk slower and they're friendlier, but believe me, the, the neurons are still firing." Same thing is true with Denver, right? Like a lot of people visualize Denver. I, I think they visualize like snow-capped mountains with nothing but white people around who are like hiking and skiing, but there's like this amazing black culture in Denver. Is, is would you agree or tell me about that?
>> I mean, I would say that first part that you said, that there's no lies.
It's it is snowcap mountains and a bunch of white people. So, like we we've we've joked either amongst us and then some other people outside have always said they're they're like, "Yeah, Denver is uh Atlanta for white people."
Um, and I'm like the more that I hear that and and I think about it, I'm like, "Yeah, that's probably true. It is kind of Atlanta for white people." Um, but that said, we do have a lot of great black things here. I mean, you know, just from my high school alone, I gave you all the different black folks that have come out of there and come through there, including myself, yours truly.
Um, and so there there is a great black culture here. Um, one of the things that I think is paramount to continuing to build our black culture and especially our black economic success is the black economic success trust summit, the best summit that we do every year and bringing black people together to have these conversations that you and I are having today to work through different economic structures to um get people employed.
I mean, there's there's uh one of our sponsors is uh coming uh and going to have a booth there, Panoramic Pro Painting. They're one of the only blackowned painting companies here in the entire state and they're pretty they're pretty good at what they do. And they're going to be hiring for a sales director there. Like that's one key function that they need right now as a sales director. And they're advertising right now and saying come to the summit um apply now. We'll hire on site if if we feel that you know you're a good fit.
So, I mean, those types of things where we're we're trying to get black people jobs. We're trying to get black people jobs in black businesses. We're trying to create that economic power because I'll say this, boys. Like what I truly believe, this is what I this is what I think and this is what I talk about on the Black Friday show, what I talk about here in the community is that if black people can aggregate our economic power, we can go and buy all the changes that we cry about that is is happening to us, right?
You want to you want to talk about incarceration rates, guess what? We'll go ahead and we'll pay for the things that are needed to reduce that. You want to talk about uh fathers not being in the home, we'll pay for those uh things that will help reduce that. Education, so on. All these different things that affect the black community in a negative way that we go out here and we try to get politicians to help us. They don't care about us. Let's just say that.
But um we from a policy perspective, we can buy politicians if we aggregate our money to get the things that we want. But today as it stands, we're unable to do that because we're not aggregating like other ethnic groups are. You know, as an example, you remember the Asian hate crime bill that came through during COVID, right? Cuz these Asians were getting hurt. What's Did we ever get a black hate crime bill? Has that ever happened? All all of black history here in in America, have we got a black hate crime bill yet?
Yet we've been out here, you know, marching in the streets, putting politicians in office, this this that and the other. Asians, I didn't see them marching, not one time, and they got a hate crime bill. Well, how' they do that? How'd they do that? Well, they have economic power that they can leverage, and they did so behind the scenes with the powers that be because guess what? A lot of those Asians got a lot of family members that work in factories over uh in China and Taiwan and Korea and Japan. And I guarantee they were like, "Listen, we can make it hurt a whole lot over here in America if you don't protect us." I guarantee they were like, "Oh crap. I guess we better do something. Asian hate crime bill, we got you."
That's the type of stuff that we need to be doing instead of using our physical let's go march in the streets power. We need to aggregate our financial power because this is this is capitalism. This is it. This is the way of the world. Money makes the world go around here. And if you can buy people, if you can buy change, that's what's going to happen. And if we have to employ black people, we have to sell to black people. We have to buy from black people. We have to aggregate all of our economic power amongst ourselves, just like the Jews, just like the Asians, just like the Arabs, just like the Africans, and and build just like white people. And build for ourselves. Keep that money instead of six minutes in the black community. Let's try six days, right? And let let's get there and then so that it circulates and then we're off into the sunset doing the things that we want, building the way that we need to, having the family structures that we want. Talk about kings and queens. Well, let's be about that action and build so that we can be kings and queens.
>> Well, you know that that that's true. It's hard to, you know, it's hard to really control your own life if you don't have at least enough economic freedom to to buy your own freedom, right? If you, >> you know, and and I think that um us raising our kids, you know, and preparing them for slavery is is probably not the best model out there. And and even even when you talk about the politics, uh politics does move America, but the money moves the politics. uh the voters unfortunately voting um it ends up you're you're kind of a pawn that's being manipulated more so than the actual dis uh you're not the chess player you're the chess piece >> right so uh I'm not saying that the voting is not important obviously it is but it's um you know the way the game works is you pump the money into the politician they use the money to run ads to get the voters to go this way or go that way and then they do it and then the politician doesn't turn to the voter and say how do I serve you? he turns to the person who gave them the money to control the voter the voter right so so you're not going to the puppet you go to the puppet master and uh and that's the problem that we have I think in terms of understanding how politics works in a capitalist society um but literally just just even modest aggregations you know and I want I will say I I don't think that we need to have we don't necessarily have to have something where everyone's on the same page and we all aggregate our money and pull together 10 billion dollars Right.
>> Really, it's just I think basic things like um if I'm in my household and I train my family members on the tools to become economically independent on some level, uh maybe through purchasing stock and real estate, whatever. And then when we quit our jobs and we're all sort of free to then collaborate with other people who are free, then you have the freedom to really build what you want to build. Like a lot of stuff doesn't get built because everybody got to go to work that day.
>> Yeah. >> Right. I got to go to my job at the factory. You got your white men you got to work for. We got our little masters we got to go serve. And all of our energy and all of our attention is spent serving others instead of really sitting down and serving ourselves. I'm going want you to think about I want everybody to really I'm going sort of leave you all with this thought. I want you to think about the pandemic and think about how your life and your perspective changed when you didn't have to go to work and you got a chance to just sit at home all day and think about your life.
>> Yeah. >> You know, and you got to work on yourself. You got to spend time with your kids. You a lot of y'all got to know your spouse a whole lot better. You got to know your kids a lot better. You got to know yourself a lot better. You got to go to the gym for the first time. You quit. Maybe some of you quit your job so you can start that business. you had time to pour into that little side hustle that you've been neglecting, right? And so, so attention is wealth. Time, free time is wealth. So, don't just don't don't just talk about the money we're giving away,
>> right? >> You're giving away a trillion dollars worth of attention. You're giving away every year you're giving away a trillion dollars worth of free time, uh, a trillion dollars worth of energy. A lot of times when you come home from work, you got a couple of hours for yourself and you're tired during those two hours. So you're resting just to get ready to go back to the P plantation again. So So I want everybody to just kind of process that.
So what I'm going to do, BJ, man, if and I'm going to let you get the last word is I'm going to read really quickly so everybody can know about the summit. Uh the best success summit or the the the Black Economic Success Trust Summit is happening in Denver June 10th. Uh June 10th and 11th and 12th or just June 10th and 11th?
>> It's June 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th.
>> Okay. Okay. Excuse me. Sorry.
>> The 10th is the golf tournament. The 11th is the actual summit. The uh 12th is a historical tour. Um which we're trying to, you know, arrange do some stuff with Lincoln Hills that Robert F. Smith knows is a historical black resort here in Colorado when during segregation times. Try and get you up there uh voice and for a little bit of that action. And then um the day party is on the uh the back in the day cafe uh day party is on the 13th.
>> That's very cool. And uh as BJ mentioned, I will be there. I'm going to be speaking and I'm also going to be learning and I'll be around. So if you guys want to come and join us, you can come hang out. The website, let me give you the website. It's bestsuccesssummit.org. Bestsuccesssummit.org not.com.org. So uh share that and if you want to fly in or you live in the area, you know, it's not doesn't cost much to fly to Denver or if you live in the area you can go there.
Uh and uh and this is BJ Joyce. Uh he is a board member of Best. He also is the host of the Black Friday Show podcast. So, write that down. Go look that up and we got to support each other. And uh he also is part he's a venture partner in the Rocky Seed Fund and they're raising $5 million for blackowned businesses. So, I want to say thank you BJ man. It was it was it was a pleasure speaking with you. Um
>> likewise.
>> I appreciate you coming by today.
>> No, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. I think we need to have more of these conversations, but not just the talk, right? That we've been talking for a long time. A lot of black people have. I think it's really comes down to action. And I'm not saying that it has to be a mass effort. We all have to gather and sing kumbaya and march out there. All it is, I mean, just like Michael Jackson said, shout out Michael Jackson biopic right now. Uh, but it's, you know, you got to start with the man in the mirror, right? Or the woman in the mirror. You make that change and then be the change you really want to see in the world, in the world of black Americans. You make that choice. Hey, I want to go and do this. I want to make this happen. and I want to continue to do this and then share that with other people along the way with your journey and hopefully you inspire others to do the same and then you know by just everybody aggregating at that point we'll make some changes here for us and you we'll be a better ethnic group for it.
>> All right. All right. Right on everybody. Well uh thank you BJ. It was great to see you man and thank you all for hanging out with us. Uh just so you know uh Monday in the morning I'm gonna have to I'm flying to South Africa today. Uh and so I'm gonna actually meet some people down at the University of Johannesburg while I'm there. Some people some of y'all reached out. So I'm going to try to see about um I'm going see about a man about a boat or whatever they say, whatever that term is. And uh yeah and and I'll be there for a few days. And uh so for two days in a row actually I don't know if I can do money in the morning but you will hear from me. Uh, and if you aren't on the text list for this class, uh, text the word morning to the number 87948. So text morning to 87948. I'll send you a text. But like I said, I think for, uh, today's Tuesday, so I think for Wednesday and Thursday, I might have to cuz literally the flight over there is there's a lot of layovers and all that. So I will see you all soon. God bless you. Have a great day. Thank you so much. Take care. All right. Silo.