First of all, I wanna thank Will and Mark. I, you guys, the way that you just spoke about autism and Neurodivergence gives a mom of an autistic child tremendous. I'm so sorry, I'm so emotional. Um, tremendous, tremendous hope because what has gone on since RFK Jr made these statements in my household and households all over this country, and quite frankly, the world has been, um, very, very difficult. My son is autistic. He's, he just turned five yesterday. Um, I, before I had an autistic son, I did not know much about autism or even neurodivergence,

the award-winning A Black Executive Perspective Podcast presents Pull Up, Speak Up More meaningful conversations drive progress, and every voice makes a difference. So what's on the table for discussion today?

It's time to show up, speak up and get real. Welcome to Pull Up, Speak Up a new series from a black executive perspective podcast, your safe space for raw, unfiltered, and honest discussions on the tough issues many shy away from. I'm your host Tony Tidbit,

and I'm your co-host Chris P. Reed. We always like to start out by giving a shout out to our partners at Code M Magazine, code M Magazine, where the mission is saving the black family by first saving the black man. Check them out at Code M magazines. That's two m.com code M magazine. Check 'em out.

Definitely check them out. And today, check out our round table as they'll dive into three explosive fronts. The nationwide protests that are going on. Are today's marches genuine, genuinely grassroot movements, or are there strategic political theater RSK, junior and autism? Is this a fight for scientific truth or a dangerous play in the culture wars and the all female space mission? Are they breaking barriers or is this just a well packaged marketing stunt?

Before we get too deep into it, let me, uh, introduce you guys to our posthumous round table. I'd first like to start with Mr. Mark Jameson, founder of KickUp, Mark Jamison. Welcome to Pull Up, Speak Up

Thanks Chris. Uh, and it's founder of KitUp Training. Thank you,

kid up, kiddo. I'm sorry, KitUp. Yeah, let's keep that right. Keep it tight. All you're good. And, and then uh, next is Alyssa Maglione, longtime Media executive. Alyssa, welcome to Pull Up. Speak up.

Thank you.

Alright. And then rounding out our panel is Mr. Will Fulwood, assistant Professor at Wake Technical Community College will welcome to pull up SpeakUp.

Thank you so much Chris. Happy to be here. Also the creator of the Contraband Wagon where I'm changing the conversation on race.

That's right. That's right. All right, cool. Go ahead.

Well

guys,

you know, number one, thanks for coming. You know, obviously Melissa, you are old pro. You've been on pull up speaker for a couple times, but Will and Mark, this is your first time. So Will the contraband wagon is pulled up here and made a pit stop. So why did you wanna come on, Pull Up, Speak Up

Yeah, I definitely wanted to come on, Pull Up, Speak Up, just to give a little bit of my perspective on anti-racism, activism and how important it is, especially in this day and age that we're dealing with, uh, encroaching fascism in the United States. So I appreciate you giving me a platform to do that.

All right, cool. And then Mark, welcome my brother. First time on Pullup SpeakUp. Why did you wanna attend?

Yeah, thanks Tony. I wanted to join because I wanted to be part of the conversation, right? Things are happening in spaces all over, you know, the country all over the world. You know, events are turning. So I want to be part of the conversation and bring perspective that I can.

Sounds like a plan, my brother. Welcome both of you. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Before we get too deep into this, I wanna make sure that I set the, the ground rules, not only for our audience, but for our panelists as well. So we have seen 10 simple ground rules that we employ here to, uh, establish, uh, clean and and concise dialogue. And so let me just start by saying, uh, number one, rule respect all voices. Number two, listen actively. Number three, no personal attacks. Obviously, it's a lot of passion from you guys. It might get a little heated, but no personal attacks. Keep it real professional. Number four, avoid interrupting. Let let everybody here get a chance to speak their mind. And then number five, stay open-minded. Number six, speak to your own experiences. Know story from a story from a story that gets watered down. And then, uh, we're not factually correct. Number seven, let's stay on topic. We have a small amount of time to talk about a lot of things. Let's make sure we stay poignant. Number eight, follow those time limits. All right, number nine, challenge ideas and not people. We wanna make sure we keep it spirited and high energy, but we are respectful to each other. And then we round it out with number 10, no buts anytime somebody interjects a, but it tends to dis dismiss the things that have been said for the person prior to that. So those are our 10 simple rules.

Alright, thanks Chris. And so everyone, I need to get a thumbs up saying that you guys agreed to the ground rules. All right. This is a safe space. Pull Up, Speak Up Let's go.

In cities all across America. Saturday was a day of people making their voices heard From coast to coast, thousands took to the streets, driven by frustration, fear, and a demand for change. Here in Baltimore, WMAR two News' line Hoover brings us the voices behind the march and the movement. We have seen Kmar, Armando Abrego Garcia, illegally kidnapped in his home with no criminal charges and sent to a mega prison in El Salvador. Shame a day of protest. And recent estimates from the Department of Homeland Security say that they have deported over a hundred thousand people. Since Inauguration Day, shame with a message for protestors on behalf of people like her who don't always know how to get involved safely. I love you and thank you for having a voice and thank you for using your voice. For those of us who either can't, don't know how to or are scared to thank you for not. Be Thank you for being fearless.

So guys, wow. So right now you have protests called Hands Off 5 0 5 0 1, all across the country. They're sprouting up in every major state, big cities, um, you know, really pushing back on what's been happening in the Trump administration. So my first question, and I'll go to Alyssa on this, you know, a lot of times people, I think these are coordinated stunts, right? Because obviously, uh, Trump got the re uh, majority vote, a popular vote, uh, in the last election. So do you think this is a real Alyssa, or do you think this is a political strategy disguised as activism?

Um, I don't think it's, it's. I think it's real. I, I think that the people who organize, or at least started these movements are very much wanting to create or create a place for people to speak up and have a voice because so many people feel voiceless right now. Um, yeah, Trump may have gotten the majority of the popular vote, but the reality is, is where however many days in, are we even a hundred days in yet to this, this craziness? Yeah. Yeah. We are, we're, we're barely,

barely, barely.

Yeah. Um, and it's just that it's crazy and I think, um. These movements started. I mean, I think 5 0 5 0 1 started on Reddit. I think someone like started bringing things up on Reddit and it just kind of took from there. And then of course, social media, it all built it, it all just got so big. I don't think that these are just like, I, I, I dunno, fake or, or just for like optics. I do think that they're very real movements. I think that, um, though the problem is, is we can get, go out and protest and have our voices heard, and clearly people are doing that. But then what, like, what's happening next? I mean, there were some of these, some of these marches and some of these actual like, you know, um, groups of people, like we had people coming out from. From the cap, the, the Capitol building. We had people coming out all over, not just in DC but all over the country. We had actual, like political leaders coming out and speaking at these events. But then what, what's happening from there? And I think that we don't, I, I think you can make your voice heard, but then it needs to go from there. We can't just have a protest on a day all across the country, very impactful. But what can we do from there? And I think that's where we're kind of losing it. I don't think that they're just like, for, you know, or, or publicity stunts or something. At least I don't see it that way.

Got it. Got it. Mark, what's your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, Alyssa, I think you've said, said it right? I don't think it's a publicity stunt, but I do think that it's not as focused as it should be. There needs to be a what's next? Um, when we think about the 50 51, if people aren't familiar, 50 states, right? 50 states, 50. Uh, what is it? It's 50 states, 50 um, states, 50 protests, one movement. That's it. 50, yeah. 50

states, 50 protests, one movement. You got it. One movement.

Um, so when we're thinking about this one day, I mean, these protests take years. They take years sometimes to turn over and really enact the change. I mean, we cannot look at this and say, uh, that it's. It's gonna be successful or not because it's too early to tell how successful they're going to be.

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Uh, people want to focus. I think people want to be engaged. And while 50 51 is a great start, the question is what's next? Right? Um, I also think the conversation about it is calling out people who may not be joining the protests, right? And with that, we're looking at, well, what is the real focus here? If we're looking at Donald Trump, we're looking at Doge. I mean, there's just so many different things. That come up all the time. You see all the signs are just all over the place when you look at the protest. However, the movement itself, the work itself, the people who are actually getting in the streets, I give them kudos, do the thing. Because optics matter. People seeing someone in the street protesting does matter. And I think our conversation, like you said, Alyssa, should be what is next?

Well, I think that's one of the issues why people think this is a poli political stunt, okay? Because there is no action, alright? There is people just walking around, we shall overcome and then overcome. What, what are you gonna do? So will, what's your thoughts on that? Right. Because you know, to be fair, if there is no action and you just have people out, um, you know, just screaming and hollering and, and they may be talking about rightful issues, so don't get me wrong, but if they don't do nothing, can you blame anybody saying, this is just a, a, a show.

Well, first of all, I don't blame anybody for their perspectives, right? Every, we all have our own individual lives and experiences and we gotta respect everybody's experience. But, um, ultimately, um, I think we need to differentiate the protests that are happening now from protests that were happening in the past because, um, in the past, a lot of the protests that were happening, they were effective a lot because they showed brutality, they showed brutality against protesters. And that visual of seeing that really helped the public get a, gain, a greater understanding of the world around them, you know, what was actually happening, um, what the issues were. I don't think we have that element in these protests that we're having right now, even in the Black Lives Matter protests, right? We could see that there was this, um, force rising up to meet the protest to try to. Kind of maintain the illusory, you know, piece that we've developed here in the United States. Um, but here when we're protesting against, you know, these funded fundamental, um, unconstitutional acts by the Trump regime as I call them, um, know, I think that that brutality is not rising up. You know, law enforcement isn't come coming out there and brutalizing people. These things are not occurring. And we see that even senators who are traveling to El Salvador trying to advocate for these unjustly imprisoned, um, you know, um, Americans or, uh, residents of America, and, um, even they are being stonewalled right by the prison. They're not being allowed in. They're not being allowed to verify people's safety and security. So, um, I get that it's frustrating for people, right? That. You can feel powerless when you're just out there walking around. But I do not agree that, um, just getting out there, walking around is meaningless because we need a critical mass of the citizenry to understand the pivotal nature of what's going on right now. We don't have that right now. People do not understand how important this time in, in American history and in human history, I would argue is. And so just gaining, um, having those conversations and helping people gain an understanding of how important this moment is, that is what leads them to understand what their place in this moment is. So I think that the conversations themselves that arise from gathering people together through those protests are valuable in and of themselves. And it's the same way that I say that conversations among the subject of race are an act of anti-racism themselves.

Let me, let me ask this though, will, let me stick with you for a moment. In the idea of how you just depicted it, awareness is enough. Um, do you believe that historical protests were hostage negotiations where these are our demands and if they're not met, we're not gonna go home and we're gonna chain ourselves to these things and, and just cause you all kind of anxiety and therefore people just the knee because of, you know, those things? Or do you think that it's just really publicity that allows for the protest to actually have effectiveness?

I think it's a combination of things, right? The publicity definitely is a big part of it. We've seen even in criminal cases. Where perhaps people who committed an act of violence were not gonna be charged. And then there was public outcry and then suddenly charges come down. So we know that a public outcry can have an impact on government officials 'cause we've seen that over and over. So that's definitely an important part of it. But I also think that, um, again. It is not just about what happens to the people in power, right? And like what influence that these things have on them. It's also about what influence these protests and these, uh, these aspects have on people's individual lives, like regular citizens, individual lives, right? Mm-hmm. So for instance, if we talk about the Montgomery bus boycott, right? Not only did that have a critical impact on the economic situation in Montgomery, Alabama, right? But it also transformed the way people were living their lives. Correct? People were no longer using, you know, the public transit system. And so there was a lot of walking, there was a lot of talking. There was, people changed the way that they interacted with each other and their community. And I think that that is really what has the greater impact because it gets people to see, hey. We can make changes ourselves. We can change our own lives and create the kind of world that we want instead of waiting for some kind of official to do X, Y, and Z. And we're in a similar situation here, although it's a little bit more difficult because it's not as directly involved with our individual situations. But ultimately, we see from the target, um, boycott, right, that if we start using more collective economic action in order to try to make change, that that is gonna have an impact. We see a target reaching out to, uh, to black leaders in the black community being like, okay, all right, we get, we see, we get your message. Let's talk, let's figure out what we can do. And that's the kind of pressure we need to really, uh, bring to bear.

So, so Alyssa, in, in, in what will just stated, why does he not see the erosion of belief in the system or belief in, in, in the, the, the American way and things of that nature? Because I think in previous instances of protesting, there was a system in place. People were infringing upon that system and we were highlighting that infringement and therefore, you know, justice needed to prevail. And it's my opinion that. Unlike in the past as a historian, nobody believes that the system cares anymore and everything is capitalistic in nature. And therefore, if there's no boycott or money involved, then these protests are just, you know, staged, uh, theater

or if nobody gets shot or killed. Right. Go ahead and listen. Yeah,

yeah. Um, actually while Will was just saying it, as soon as he said economic, my, I was kind of like, yeah, like, and it made me think about, I don't know if you guys had heard about, I think it, I actually remember it was February 28th that someone started this campaign to see if people would join. Um, not buying anything on Amazon Target. It was like a bunch of big retailers and they were trying to say, if we can get enough people to not per make big purchases, only go to small businesses, don't use your credit cards, just in that one day. What kind of impact will that have, that kind loss of money on government and government officials. And I, I guess a lot of people actually did join the movement and a lot of people didn't make those purchases because I saw some number, like there was like $12.5 billion lost in the day to, that they would normally have made in that, you know, at that time of the year. Um, and I just kept thinking while Will was speaking about how, to your point Chris, like everything is like kind of a capitalistic economic situation now. It's like we can't care about it unless it affects our wallets or, and the government certainly, I mean, the government certainly thinks that right now as, and I agree with Will, the Trump regime does. This is right. Everything is money, money, money. But so yes, I'm sorry not, but, but yes, it does look like these are just theatrics. Like get out there, hold your signs, yell and scream, and then if no one's hurt and no one's shot at. No one pays attention. But if you really, like in this country, technically speaking, if we're gonna look at our constitution, which I know no one does anymore, but, um, it's supposed to be that, you know, what's, what's legal and allowed in this country is peaceful protesting. So mm-hmm. Those protest years and years ago that were happening, um, all the civil rights protesting, those were all peaceful. Certainly none of the people protesting were, were not peaceful. It was what the reaction was to it. So now we have a situation where law enforcement is not reacting that way. Why aren't they reacting that way? It's not because the people are being, the protestors are being peaceful. Like what? Like why? Like why is there such a difference? Now? Of course we can talk about it's different time. It's this, it's that, but. Why is, why does it even take that? I don't know. I don't know the answers to these things. I don't know why. Everything does seem like it's just, okay, one day of don't buy stuff, one day of, uh, get out there and hold your signs up. I, I don't know. I don't know the answer. I, I, I, I, I do think, though, it, I agree with you, Chris, it's like an economic, like, oh, does it affect our wallet? Like, no.

So the challenge is, so the challenge is, is that, and, um, will, I'm gonna go, mark, I'm gonna come to you on this question, but I'm gonna back up to what Will was saying, and, and, and Alyssa said it a little bit too as well, is that, let's use the Montgomery boycott. Okay. It was one issue. Mm-hmm. Okay. It was, we wanna ride the bus. Right? So people could galvanize around the one issue. Right? That's true. Trump has created chaos where he has thrown so many things out there, right? So even the protestors, when they up there protesting, they can't even be succinct now on the things, because there's so many of them. And when you have so many of them, it dilutes the protest. That's just a fact. Okay? And that's why people saying they're staged because there's not a clear message. And that's on purpose. The, the, his strategy was, we'll overwhelm them with a ton of stuff and they can't fight back because it's too many things, right? So when you don't have a clear message and a clear action plan, okay, to fight. That, I mean, to, to go with that message when you, it's like a smorgasbord, right? You got salami, bologna, ham, you know, Hey, I, uh, which one you wanna fight back on? Is it a ham? Mm-hmm. Or is it salami? Or is it the bologna? Right? And some people say, well, the bologna's okay, but it's the ham. And they help people. No, I can't stand. So when you, when it's thinned out like that, it dilutes the process. So Mark, what's your thoughts on that?

I mean, you nailed it. I, I I think it's, it's, there's too many things happening and that's intentional. We knew this was gonna happen. Exactly. Right. It wasn't like we didn't have all of 20, 24 to know. It's not like they didn't put it out in project 2025 that they had a hundred days that they were going to try to ram through as much as possible. We knew it was coming. The fact though, is that how did it take this long to build the response? We knew it was coming, right? We knew that there was time to focus on what are going to be the core issues. I love the fact that people are out there and protesting, and we still have to talk about a unified message if there are 50 different messages. It's not saying that you don't care about 50 different things. It's that you need to leverage what you know and what you believe is going to bring the best outcome. Right. And I think with the protests, this is just a start. You can have 50 protests, but if they all have a different message, you can't highlight all of them. You can only highlight what the media is then going to point out and they're not going to point out. Things like the real serious economic issues all the time. No, they're going to nitpick about little things because we know they're going to try to avoid the core message, right? They're going to. And when we have too many different topics, too many ideas being thrown out there, all these signs are saying something different. People are screaming different things. It doesn't mean that those messages aren't important, but what we're looking for is, is this effective? Is this really going to move the needle on forcing politicians to change their tune, to speak up louder? Uh, making sure everyday people recognize that the work, that their whole lives are wrapped up in politics. Whether you accept it, reject it or not. Right. Your whole life is in politics. You're upset about eggs. Well, eggs, prices are set. Right? Those things raise with economic issues, bird flu. So we have all these things that people are upset about. Doge literally threw crap at the wall and was like, we're going to see what sticks and rip the pain off as we go, because we know it's going to cause issues. People are protesting. We don't have focus, and I think more and more we'll get there. Right? It takes time to build these things. Civil rights wasn't done in three years, right? The Montgomery bus boycott was actually planned. It was coordinated, right? Rosa Parks was planned. It was coordinated. She knew she was going to sit down on that bus. She knew she was going to refuse to stand up and move. So it does take this energy, this time, some intentional coordination, but we need a unified message.

But what you stated was very poignant in the fact that I don't think we have the luxury of dedicating, or we're not taking the luxury of dedicating time to this. Like you said, one day, one this, one that where these folks were in for the long haul, these folks were willing to go to jail and sit and, you know what I mean? It wasn't just gonna go away quietly. If we just hold off, then this too shall pass from the, from the administrative perspective, right. They just, now we feel like, Hey, these guys can't take two, they only got a week vacation. Right? They only got so much time. We could just wait 'em out and, and we have, we have so many controversies. I mean, we're gonna go into another controversy now and it's just, it is what they call muzzle fire, right.

Today, the nation's top health official Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Doubling down on his claim that there is an autism epidemic year by year. There is a steady, relentless increase. The Health and Human services secretary pointed to the C'S own data showing autism prevalence increased from one in 158 year olds in 2000 to one, in 31 in 2022. Then he offered his own theory for the rise without proof.

This is a preventable disease. We know it's an environmental exposure. It has to be. Genes do not cause epidemics.

Kennedy painted a bleak picture for those with autism,

and these are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never hold a job, they'll never play baseball. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date.

Sam Branson has a PhD in physics and is an autism researcher. Both Sam and his 7-year-old son have autism. We have, I think, vibrant features and yeah, to hear someone who's a government official, you know, calling us an epidemic and, uh, yeah, essentially labeling us as negative outcomes is, is quite harmful.

So, so let me go to you will, because I've seen the vitriol of the, the inquisitive, you know, eyebrow raise that you had there, and I wanna get that while it's still warm, um, in the idea that, that RFK Jr is pushing for these studies on environmental links to autism, while also downplaying the science of the diagnostics and just making this what I consider to be global theater, um, how dismissive is it to say that an epidemic, I think he's mixing so many different words to kind of confuse you. And what is your take on what you just heard?

I mean, my take on it is that was pure dehumanization, that he was spouting right there, and it was disgusting. I was, I was shocked, uh, to hear that from, from a public official, um,

not the public official talking about the, the, the head of the, the human health services. Right. So not, not just a underling or a junior or somebody got a college, this dude running the whole department. Yeah.

Someone with the power to actually effectuate action based on that, uh, perception of dehumanization of autistic people. And that is, that's wild. I've, I'm a mathematics instructor. I've been teaching math for 20 years, and I've taught many students who are autistic. And one thing that I always encounter with them is. They have an experience with me as their teacher, where I actually have expectations of them and belief in their ability to do things. And they haven't experienced that a lot from people in their lives. And the transformation that they go through by having someone like me in their life is radical and just so amazing, guys and beautiful. So for me to hear, um, him say that about autistic people, that they won't go on dates, that they can't play baseball, that they won't graduate, like all these things that is, um, that's devastating and um, it fits right into the tyrannical posture that the Trump regime has put themselves in. Um, and actually I think that I. It's stuff like this that can really galvanize the populace to start taking more action against the regime. Um, because autistic people exist in Republican household, in democratic households and independent households, they are all around us. You know, it's similar to how, um, gay marriage ended up, uh, working out in this country, right? Because gay people exist all around it. We all know someone who, uh, identifies as homosexual, you know, regardless of anything else. And so I think that allowed us to move, um, into a place where we could universally recognize it as a right. That people should have. And I think similarly, if you're gonna call all autistic people, um, you know, basically a waste of space and like take away their humanity, um, well, the people who have autistic people in their lives, who they love and who they work with and who they socialize with, they're gonna be like, that's not right. Right? And when reality interferes with these narratives that these politicians try to create in a way that really, um. It touches the hearts and it kind of inflames the spirit and the emotions of people. That's when you start to see action being taken. That leads to real change.

Mark, how do you feel about RFK trying to cast, uh, people on the spec? People with autism as modern day lepers.

Yeah, it's disgusting, right? I mean, at the end of the day it's dehumanizing. Uh, and it's max of the eugenics that RFK has been known for over the last 20 years, if not longer. Right? Um, I think that it's political incompetence. I think it's scientific incompetence and it puts all of us in danger. Not because specifically, uh, folks with autism and those who've been diagnosed with autism are any, uh, are, are not accepted. But it's that when you start the slow decline, the slow descent of dehumanizing somebody to find a solution to a problem that you think is a problem that goes against all the research. That then becomes malpractice, right? Because you are the head of Health and Human services, you are the lead of that. And even if you are trying to mask it at getting to the cause of the issue, but you're ignoring, you're ignoring over 90, 95% of all the research that have been put here. You want to return to mental asylums that were done by force because we didn't understand that neurodivergence existed. Right. Um, or what do you talk about with your, your buddy Elon Musk, who self proclaims that he's neurodivergent by using a term that is no longer used because it was specific to a specific group of folks with autism. Right, right, right. So we think about. The historical aspect of it. When we think about who he is and who this regime love it represent. It's not the new. It's not new. And I do think it's going to be a unifying cry, and I hope that it's going to speak more and more about the mental health crisis, the real mental health crises happening versus us understanding, uh, that neurodivergence doesn't mean an ability, it means we recognize that you may not process the same information, right, in the same way as other people, right? Technically, all of us are neurodivergent. There's no question.

There's no question. There's no question. Alyssa, let me hear your thoughts

and, and just let me say this before, Alyssa, before you go. I knew that saving you for last would inject the humanity in what they've talking about with the dehumanization. Because of your passion and I know and your child, this is a perfect, this is a perfect opportunity for you to speak to, um, this. In a way only you can,

um, I'm getting emotional. I'm sorry. Um, first of all, I wanna thank Will and Mark, I, you guys, the way that you just spoke about autism and Neurodivergence gives a mom of an autistic child tremendous. I'm so sorry, I'm so emotional. Um, tremendous, tremendous hope because what has gone on since RFK Junior made these statements in my household and households all over this country, and quite frankly, the world has been, um, very, very difficult. My son is autistic. He's, he just turned five yesterday. Um. I, before I had an autistic son, I did not know much about autism or even Neurodivergence, just I knew it was a, you know, something that a lot of people experienced, but I had never experienced it myself. Um, I did experience, I guess, neurodivergence in that I also had a daughter who, um, battled brain cancer for 10 years and she's since passed away and she had a lot of different things that we dealt with in the neurodivergent kind of family, but all caused by her cancer. So I wasn't unfamiliar with different kind of things neurologically that would go on, but when I found out my son who was autistic, it shook my world as it does pretty much every parent who gets that diagnosis. But autism isn't a disease. It is most certainly not an epidemic. The fact that it is being positioned that way by someone with the power that RFK Junior has, as Tony just stated, is horrifying. Scary. Um, and dangerous. So the reason that the numbers that just came out, the CDC just released one in 31 kids are being diagnosed with autism that is not like this inflated number that they're trying to be like, whoa, this is way bigger. Okay, in 2020 it was like one in 44. So it's not really that different. Um, but the reason that it is one in 31 is because we have more access to more information. We have more access to evaluations. We are able to identify different things that we're seeing in kids, and pediatricians are more aware. Developmental pediatricians are more aware, teachers are more aware and parents are more aware. So it's being diagnosed and, and the criteria is different than it was 20 years ago. To, you know, to be diagnosed with autism. So that's the real reason. The number is what you see it is. Um, and also adults are being diagnosed more now than ever before because we didn't know before that all of these things that we may experience in life could have, could be, because we're autistic now we know, and we get evaluated as adults and we get the diagnosis. So there's the number. It's not an epidemic. It's not something to be cured, it's a neurotype. It's the way our brain is built. If you wanna cure autism, then you would literally have to, I guess. Remove the human being from society because the, their brains are built differently than neurotypical brains. So there's thousands of neural pathways that create an autistic brain that are different from a neurotypical brain. I could talk about this for a year. Literally. So, so

in other words, in other words, it's not the water, it's not somebody drinking the water Exactly. Or eating a, a, a peach or, or something of that nature that causes it.

Food dies. Food dies, don't cause autism. Me taking Tylenol while I was pregnant did not cause my child to be autistic. Listen, this comes with so much more stigma than we already have, and we have so much. Do you know how hard we advocate for our kids? The world is not built for them. The world is not kind to them. I, my son can't go to public school because it is not safe for him to go there because he is an unreliable speaker. I can't send him somewhere that people won't understand him. It, it's not built for him. So this is just creating further stigmatization. This is creating further safety issues. Um, it, it's, it's the implication that autistic people have absolutely nothing to give to the world. You know what their mere existence means? They belong here. They don't need to pay taxes. Do, let me, don't even get me start. Does Trump pay taxes? Get, stop the taxes. Can't write a poem my kid could spell when he was two. Can't write a poem. Two, he, they can't play baseball. My child goes outside every day and hits a ball with a bat. I'm, so, I don't What do you want him to do? I, I don't understand like. The, the nonsense that is being spewed. It's dangerous and it's dehumanizing as both will and Mark said. And you know what? If you wanna do something about autism, please stop trying to blame the parents. It is genetic. Autism is a genetic disability. It is just a bunch of genes that got all weird in there. And that's how you end up autistic. And it's not food dies, but you can pretend that you're banning food dies, even though there's nothing to ban. And you can tell me that I took something while I was pregnant, or I guess the air isn't clean enough, which you're making not clean enough again. And that's why my kid's autistic. I don't know. You could do whatever you want, but the reality is, is the only way to make it so that everyone can exist in this world, in this country, the way that we are supposed to, the way that we are granted those things when we are born into this society, into this country. Is we need to start making accommodations for people who are neurodivergent.

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We need to start making things accessible to people who are neurodivergent. There need to be protections and disability rights in place. We should. The fact that those are at risk now is terrifying. I health, affordable healthcare, affordable childcare, these are things that like. We should be teaching kids everywhere about Neurodivergence so that they are more accepting so that the world is a safer place for them. And then there's an entire piece about this. We have autistic kids. My son is an autistic white boy. Mm-hmm. We aren't even talking about the, the racism that goes on in the autistic community. I mean, look at what just happened to the boy who just got shot and killed, shot and then died in the, in the hospital because he couldn't speak. Right. He couldn't speak because he's, he has, he was autistic and mm-hmm. I don't know that that would've happened to a white kid. But the fact is that we can't discuss that. 'cause he was black. And there is the, the, the way that autism presents in black and brown children is different than it is in white children. And the healthcare industry is very racist. So now you have a whole other sector, and we're just gonna, we're not gonna talk about any of it. We're just gonna talk about how it's an epidemic. By September. By September we're gonna figure out what it is. And now we're gonna start what detoxing the kids? What, what do, what's your freaking plan? I don't, so that's, I'm horrified. But to say, but that's my

No, no, no, no. So you make a good point because that's my next question. I, I'll go to Will on this is, so what was the reason for him? Was this just a ooah or is this a strategy? Um, for him to, to put this out here. Go ahead, will. It

is definitely a strategy, um, because this whole narrative came about along with the Q Anon stuff and mm-hmm. It was part of maga like this, it, it all goes hand in hand with all the conspiracy theories that are out there that kind of roped in a lot of Trump voters. So it's definitely a strategy. Um, I don't think that man has any, uh, true fundamental beliefs. You know, these people, they're, they, they only believe in power, right? So it's a power play. Um, unfortunately it's the citizenry that suffers as a result of that power play, like Alyssa was saying, um, are autistic, uh, Americans. And that is, like I said, it's just so devastating, you know? Um, as a teacher, man, I've seen so much potential. People have tried to suppress Yeah. And destroy. And I've been very lucky and privileged to be able to be in a position to reinvigorate that potential and to get people to see for themselves what their own selves are capable of, you know? And to just know that a public official, like, um, like Kennedy here, who is promoting this idea that people's lives are meaningless, people's lives are not worth, uh, living people. He's never met people he doesn't know in a country that's supposed to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone who lives here. It just goes to show you that we truly are in a constitutional crisis and we're gonna have to fight for these, uh, ideals that this country is, was meant to be founded on, that we've never lived up to. But like here, it's rubber meets road time. We have to protect these ideals and we have to live by them. We protect them by living them. And so we have to make sure that we don't allow people like RFK Junior to just spout this stuff without any pushback. We can't allow people to take people and kidnap them from our neighborhoods and ship them off to El Salvador. We must do whatever we can to stop these things from occurring. And yes, it's gonna be a risky endeavor, um, because this is a risky game that they are playing, and we're playing it because we're here and we live here. So we have no choice. And so ultimately, um, I want to encourage everyone to not think of themselves as being kind of controlled or disempowered by this situation. But once you make a choice to fight back against fascism, to fight back against anti-racism, to fight back against the dehumanization of autistic people, once you make those choices and you start living that way, you're gonna find yourself more empowered than you ever were before. So give it a try.

But, but will, let me ask you this, and I know your platform on a country bandwagon is about civility and about diversity, and I took this as an attack, a further attack on diversity because this is a subset of, of, of our population that just so happens to not think like these guys in power or, or, you know, the other thing look like we're not, we use diversity as black and brown too fluidly, and that's silly. Diversity means thought economics, all these other things. And in the idea of this being an attack on a subset, you talked about fascism, you talked about trying to exclude or, or create a situation of division amongst ourselves within our own families and households and things of that nature. What do you think the fear is there? Because to me, this is another DEI type of a sub attack.

It is, you know, and ableism and racism go hand in hand, right? I mean, like, they, they are parallel. And so, yes. I mean, I think that that is the goal, but ultimately, um, it's a double-edged sword for them. Right. It goes back to what I was saying before and then, and Tony, I wanna go back to what you said, which is how we have all these different things that we care about, right? And like, how do they coalesce into one movement? How do we actually bring people together? Well, I think the answer actually ironically, lies in the Constitution and the, you know, in those founding documents, it's annoying. Does anybody know

that? Did they read it? You know, did they see Schoolhouse Rock when I was a kid? You know, I don't think they show that

everybody knows life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Everybody knows that. Okay? Mm-hmm. Like, we don't really need to go beyond that, because ultimately, if you're talking about. You know, euthanizing autistic people, which you're basically saying without saying it. Yes. You know, um, like then you are making statements and implying things that go directly against what this country is supposed to be about. If you wanna create a new kind of country that's fascists, that is authoritarian whereby, you know, you're eliminating undesirables or like, you know, separating the population, imprisoning people for nothing, you know, criminalizing speech, all the things that this regime is trying to, to now do, then um, then you're gonna get pushback from people who still believe in, um, American democracy, who still believe in free speech, who still believe in allowing for a place that allows you to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. And I think that more and more people are starting to feel that pursuit being curtailed. People who weren't feeling it before, you know, I think having an autistic child. Helps you see injustices that exist in the world where sometimes you didn't, you know, I have a, I have one of my best friends, he has an autistic child as well, and I've just seen her grow up over time, over the years and the struggles that she's been through and the struggles that he's been through, trying to reconcile his experience before he had that child with America and his experience after, it was impossible for him not to recognize the injustices that were popping up everywhere in relationship to his daughter, who he loves dearly, right? And so, um, we need to replicate that situation for people who don't necessarily have a family member or a child or someone like that in their life to have that same experience. But that is an experience that can be created artificially,

right?

And that is something that now I'm trying to do, um, with the contraband wagon in the race context. But we need to jump on these situations where these officials do this kind of tyrannical, uh, narrative making and we need to. Basically jump on that and say, no, this is wrong. This is why it's wrong. Because it's in conflict with the values that this country is supposed to be upholding. And you need to now make a choice whether you wanna uphold those values or not. And putting people to that choice is the key. I. Right, because you can't let people just sit back and, and, you know, um, watch this like it's theater. It's not theater, it's our lives. No,

right. Well, you know, when you talk about theater, you know, there was something that happened that we thought, well, most people thought was gonna be uplifting. It was going to, you know, make people feel a lot better. But unfortunately it kind of didn't.

Blue origin's, all female space flight has coped a bit high profile criticism since landing on Earth yesterday. Here's to tender to launch into the controversy. Yeah, to some, this was a historic moment. A bunch of successful women showing the skies may limit, but that's not how everyone sort. I feel super connected to money. Since the mission landed, the controversy has blasted up with lots of people saying this was nothing more than an expensive publicity stunt. Get the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space for what? As some pointed out space, tourists often pay tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars for a ticket, a luxury that's only available to a lucky few. Others say there are women doing real work in space exploration that should be supported and celebrated. There's no other female astronauts that wanted to be a part of this that are not billionaires and millionaires. When I think of like feminism and moving the needle for women, I don't think about dressing up like Space Barbie, but the crew hit back on the criticism saying the mission had actually helped to inspire young women and draw attention to the work being done behind the scenes to make the journey happen. I've had so many women and young girls reach out to me, and men too, by the way, men too, that say, wow, I never thought I could do that, but I see you doing it at this stage of my life. Who would've thunk it? Not me.

So Mark. Buddy, you know, you would think this would be something that people would be excited about or there was a symbolism in terms of an all women's crew that went to space, you know, something in inspiring about it, but it didn't turn out that way. So why do you think there was a lot of pushback? I mean, we heard some of it in the clip, but what's your thoughts? My brother? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Uh, I'm also an educator will, and something I teach my students is context, shapes, content. Right? It wasn't the fact that women went to space, that's the problem. Right. The fact is that you actively chose wealthy people who already right now are not in the best light for people in the country. And like while yes, individuals can be inspired about folks going to space, that's awesome. I love space. I'm surrounded by people who love space, but we can't get there. Right. Um, this doesn't look at the 33% of women who work at na, nasa. What about them? You couldn't pick six of them. 4, 5, 6 of them to go to space that they can do the research. What research was done? How did you further the work of access to space? Because all you did was say, I have a few hundred thousand dollars. Let me see if I can get on this plane, on this ship.

I think that was, I think it was a little more than that.

Right? Right. Exactly. So, you know, it, you know, commercialization of space is inevitable. We know this is going to come. Access is what we're talking about. And right now it's, it's tone deaf. Not to consider the fact that celebrating wealthy people going to space and masking it as feminism and masking it as pro-women, versus thinking about it as this is just pro capitalism. This is just pro, this is pro, uh, blue origin. Right. Mm-hmm. I, I, there's just no other way to say it because you don't, it's not diminishing their credentials, but their credentials literally was just being in space for 10 minutes. Right. You didn't do research. You didn't, you didn't put in the work. Let's talk about all the women who were the computers for nasa. Don't you think that, you know, may, may, JA di, she went to space, right? We can sell, we have landmarks of women going to space. What we need is how do we elevate women who do the work, who do the things No man would be in space without a woman.

Right? Right,

right. You could take that wherever, wherever you wanna take that. But no man will be in space without a woman. Right. And I think we have to bring back that it's tone deaf right now. Yeah. That you're going to celebrate, that people can aspire to. People are, can't aspire to having millions of dollars. We can barely aspire to buy a home right now. And to say that this is a breakthrough when it was a paid ticket and not a, not something that they're saying, Hey, we want to bring people up to space to show that it's accessible. You didn't show accessibility, right. You show denial of accessibility.

Well, let me, let me, let me throw this, let me, let me push back a little bit. So I definitely hear that, right? And, and, and everything you said makes total sense, but Alyssa, they, they were, they were all women, okay? They could have threw six billionaires, billionaire men, and they could have been all white, right? Mm-hmm. To be fair, right? Mm-hmm. So they did pick, and, and, and to be fair, I think the majority of 'em were women of color. Okay? So, you know. At the end of the day, Mark's a hundred percent, right? They could have took six women outta nasa. They could have did all that, but would they got the publicity in doing that? Probably not. All right, so don't, do you see this as being it? Maybe people are going a little bit over the top because they're rich versus that they were women and it, it, it was a significant thing. What's your thoughts on that?

I think people are annoyed. Um, one, because of what Mark said, it's just so, it's so tone deaf, like, like with everything going on in this country right now, but here, here's why. I really think women specifically are annoyed by this. I'm gonna speak for women right now if I can. It became this strange thing in interviews prior to the, um, let's call it, um, an expedition. It was, it became this strange thing that all they wanted to talk about, these six women, specifically Katie Perry, which was let's, she was, the face of this, was that she was gonna take her full glam team with her, and she's, I'm quoting her. If I could take my glam team up into space with me, I would. And they had special space suits designed for this mission because Ka Perry said she didn't wanna be in anything frumpy. So now we're addressing, she wanted it to be sexy. I'm quoting these are quotes. Mm-hmm. So, of course, paraphrase, which isn't a quote, but whatever. So she, she made these statements in multiple interviews and it became this like, uh, spectacle. We're gonna be full glam, we're gonna wear these. Cool. As the clips said, Barbie spacesuits, it became a joke. Like, that's a joke. Like it does. It completely, it, it, it, it downplays majorly ever all the work of all the women who fought like hell to be able to work for nasa, nevermind, go into space. Like, I can't even touch that. So they go up for what? The whole thing was like, what, seven or eight minutes, up and down. And she's singing Katy Perry's singing up there. What a wonderful world. They get off of the, the, the fricking spacecraft thing. And then there's this whole other publicity stunt with Jeff Bezos. He's whose fiance is on the flight. It's so ridiculous. What does she do?

What does she, what is she famous for? What is she famous for?

Did he pay for her seat? Did she pay for it? Like right there? Like all of a sudden we went from six women to Jeff Bezos fiances on the flight. Okay. They get off. This is absurd. And listen, and, and her defense, she did have some type of journalism career, I think, or whatever, but either way, not a good look. So then they try to, then they're doing weird things after they land that Jeff Bezos is like opening the door to let the women out as if they can't open the door themselves. And that became a whole thing. And then they're kissing the ground. When they get off the thing, like, what are you doing? Klo Kardashian and Chris Jenner were there. Being commentators, it's a, it be like, I, I, the to tone deaf is an understatement. I, if I could say what I really wanted to say about this, I would. Um, but I can't because it's disrespectful. So tone deaf for sure, because of everything going on and all the issues. Here's where I think we could have done better. I'm, I love the idea of getting women into space. I don't think it needed to be these six women. They wanna pay for their, I I heard figures of $50 million were spent was spent, I don't know if that was per seat or total. You wanna spend your own money that you earned. I mean, with the exception of Lauren Sanchez, I don't know the situation there. So you spend that money, why did you not then match that? Donate that. Say it, say, say Ka Perry spent $50 million to go up and down eight minutes and sing a song and then glam and all this stuff. Mm-hmm. Why didn't you take $50 million and match it and donate to, I don't you, let me, let me throw them All the things that at you that you could possibly donate to like maybe 50 million of your dollars should have gone to the legal aid for all of these people who are being illegally, illegally imprisoned, all these immigrants who are being illegally imprisoned and, and detained and sent back to countries. How about you donate some, some of that, match that then, then maybe you wouldn't look so tone deaf and maybe people wouldn't be attacking the crap outta you right now. How they haven't like, and then Gail King's up on, on CBS every day defending herself. Like, I don't know how you sit. I. And, and and defend the, the spectacle that you just made of, of yourself, of women. It turned very, if this were four years ago, three years ago, whatever, I don't think we'd be having this conversation. But the reality is, is it's not three years ago. It's, it's now. And right now we have a lot of problems. Like a lot of problems. And you should not be talking about how you designed, you used money, I don't even know whose money they used to design the sexy spacesuits and to go up and down and sing a song and kiss the ground and you're like, I did it 'cause my daughter can see anything as possible. Stop it. Stop it. You sound ridiculous. People already kind of thought some of those women were kind of a joke. Now we really have gone off the deep end and I just think it could have, it could have been the it tone maybe shouldn't have happened, but if. They should have thought about, wow, this isn't the greatest time in American history. What can we do? Not because we're women and it looks like we have to do extra, but because it doesn't, like right now, sending celebrities into space doesn't look so great. So what can we do to say we're gonna make this mission about the American people and show little girls everywhere that you can go up to space and you can affect change, and by, in their case, by donating their tons of money they have. So I just, right. Let, let me,

let, let's

wild.

Let me ask you this. Will, what if, let's just expand our, our perspective here. What if this was the, the most effective commercial for elitism? That we've seen or been have had access to, and that this is actually ENT economics being played out to where red bottoms and urban bands, $20,000 purses and things like me, I don't live in that world. So all of that stuff seems gaudy and audacious and unnecessary, and I can always talk about what. Wealthier people than I could do with their money. Just like people way poorer than you and I Correct. Can talk about why do you have a room that nobody sleeps in, right? Like let's just be, let's be candid here, right? So in the idea of rich people doing rich things, we just happened to have a look behind the curtain of the elitist playground, and this was just a, a commercial for Jeff Bezos to cater to wealthy people who have earned, earned their money and can do whatever the hell, based on the constitution you spoke of, that they want to with. It

ain't the first time, won't be the last time rich people throw money out and do the thing and flaunt it in front of people. I mean, you seeing that sitting seen, we seen that

with our president and his little pony.

I mean, we've place seen, but we've seen it since the world's been turning. Absolutely. Okay. I that why you think Maria Antoinette got their head cut off? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Bastille Day in France because they were flaunting all right, where people were starving. So there's nothing new. Go ahead Will.

That's true. Yeah. I mean, I, I think you're exactly right about the elitism. Like that was an exercise in entitlement and arrogance. That's exactly what that was a flick. And, um, you know, it's, it's just people get to a certain level of wealth, it seems to me, and they seem to think that people should then emulate them because they achieved a certain level of wealth. I don't know where that comes from, where, how the logic works, but I guess people just believe that if they made a lot of money, it must mean that everyone should do what they did somehow. That is, uh, a, a thing out there. But,

but here, here's the thing though, will, not to just, just jump in real quick and I'll let you finish, buddy, but we live in a capitalist society. When you live in a capitalist society and it's about making money, and especially, let's be fair, the majority of those people came from nothing. Okay? Let's be fair. All right. Gail King didn't grow up with a, with a silver spoon in her mouth. You know, I, I, Katie Perry, I don't know her background outside of Sanchez. You know, most of them came from nothing. Right. So it is part, you know, it is part of what we do. And I'm not saying everybody, but some people do say, I made it right. I'm able to, you know, I was sitting on the front porch, drinking out of a mustard jar, all right. When I was a kid or getting water from the waterholes. Now I built something and I'm going to space with a bunch of other rich people. I made it right. And so I, I, I, I'm just thinking that sometimes we push, but we over rotate on some stuff. Could that money gone somewhere else to help autism or Absolutely. Could it help some people in Africa? Absolutely. Could it help people here in the United States? Absolutely. But that ain't gonna be, that ain't the first time. Will it be the last time that we'll see people who make money. All right. Especially people who grew up with nothing. Okay. I remember I was in the army, we said that was one of our sayings. We could always tell when somebody didn't have nothing because when they first got a new couch, they didn't want you to sit on it plastic on the sofa. Right. That's true. Because they never had nothing before. Right. So you could tell So, so again, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I'm just, that's my point of view on it. To be fair, I get the, it's tone deaf or whatever, so, and that's fair too. But this shit ain't nothing. New thoughts.

Listen Tony, I don't care what people do with their money at all. Like it, I'm. Happy that they went up into space. That's great for them. You know, like for instance, I spent $2,000 on a three Michelin star dinner. Okay. I've never spent, I've thought, yeah, I've never spent that much money on dinner before. I did that because it was a special occasion. I wanted that experience. I could afford it, and it was a special occasion. So I splurged on it. Right? But then. Did I, after the fact go on a press tour. Here we are to tell people that I did this meant to because I wanted to show other black boys and then thank them one day. That's point. That's fair.

That's fair. That's fair. That's the

problem. That's that's they should live their rich lives and that's perfectly fine for them. But once they start believing that they know what's best for the rest of us. Mm-hmm. That's a good point. That is the problem. The issue, that's right.

It public, the way that it was publicized, the way that they were pushing it in everyone's face. This is a big deal. This is a big deal. 'cause it's all women. Women. Girl power girl P like stop it, go off, spend your money. It's a deal for

dad.

Not right. Not for the country. That's right.

That's right. So that's a good point. Okay. See that's why we have these different perspectives. Absolutely. That's an T point. Excellent point. Absolutely. And I'm show you took your

leftovers to the soup kitchen. And so other people took,

they gave us breakfast the next day, brother they sent us away with for tomorrow, right? So, hey, hey. So,

so final thoughts, guys. Final thoughts. This is a lot of fun. Mark, what do you wanna leave the audience? My brother? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Context shaped content. All of this is about optics. Optics matter, whether you're protesting, whether you're Gayle King, or whether you know you're going to be seen by people, right? So use that platform for the best thing to make progress. So that's, that's what I wanna leave folks with. Awesome. Alyssa?

Um, yeah, I love that. I love, I love the, what you're saying. It it, I think for me. Um, it's, it's just a, a lot right now. And yes, this is the, they designed it to be this way, right? Like create chaos, overwhelm everyone. We can't focus on anything now. We're all anxious and now we're kind of stuck in that anxious place of our heads that we can't take action. That's the point it's been done. Tony, like you said, like with the, the, the space thing. This is not new. This is not a new thing. Like we, I mean, some of the discussion today, I am thinking, is it 1930s Germany? Like that's what we're talking here. And if people don't see it, then I don't know how to make them see it. Because through the chaos and through the overwhelm, the reality is is that we have to do something because we can't allow history to repeat itself. And if you are starting to talk about trying to eliminate. Disabled people because they can't contribute to a society, I guess monetarily that's very similar to what was done in the Holocaust. It was like, it wasn't just Jewish people who were, um, annihilated. It was also disabled people and basically anyone who wasn't white, for lack of a better word. Area and race. Area. And race. Yeah. Area and race. And, um, we cannot allow history, repeat ourselves. It's very difficult though, to figure out how to take action. I think that's what we basically have all been saying, but little tiny things matter. So like for me, with the this autism stuff that's really, I've been like, this is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. But when, when now when I feel like, oh wow, I can't keep quiet anymore despite how overwhelmed I am now I'm taking action. So. Everyone should do that because every single thing that's going on is affecting every single one of us. So little tiny things that you do, whether it be a post on social media or a call to your representative, there's scripts. You don't have to make efforts like you can write, read a script. Um, just saying something to someone next to you, like any little thing moves the needle. And you don't have to make huge steps. You don't have to get out and pick it. Just little things mo, because just by posting on social media, which I never do about my son, opened up people's eyes who were like, first of all, I didn't know you had an autistic kid. Secondly, oh wow, I didn't realize like how much this is affecting you personally, and I care about you. So now I wanna learn more because I don't want you to feel this way. So these are little things, right? So little steps of action lead to big movements, and we need to fight back. We have to do something. This is chaos. We can somehow reel in, I think.

Awesome. Will close this out. My brother.

Yeah. I just wanna say thank you to everyone for your insightful comments and your perspectives. And I wanna say that everyone needs to do what they can to hold onto hope. Okay. There is a lot of reason to be hopeful despite the chaos that's going on around us. Um, while a lot of this stuff may not be new, kind of the context surrounding it is new, like is novel in fact, not just new, but like this is like once the, the first time in humanity that we've been connected in this way while something like this is going on. So it gives us an opportunity to fight back in a way that we've never had before. And I want people to hold onto that as hope like the five of us being here, having this conversation. That is novel, that is brand spanking new. And that is way more powerful than people I think understand yet. And we're going to figure out how powerful it is in the future. But that is where hope lies. Okay. Is in collaboration, in connection, in communication. And I'm just grateful to be a part of it with y'all. Thank you.

Well, thank you. My brother will full Mark Alyssa, thanks for joining. Pull Up, Speak Up So I think it's now time for Tony's

tidbit

and the tidbit. Today it's easy to launch a mission or lead a march, but the real courage lies in questioning the motives behind them. When politics turns to theater, we all face a choice to be entertained or stay informed and provide action. And you heard a lot of that from our roundtable today.

Absolutely powerful, powerful message from the round table. Absolutely. Learned a lot and enjoyed it. We also wanna remind you we have other segments that, uh, the Black Executive Perspective Podcast, uh, produces. And one of them is need to know with Nsenga. Make sure you tune in each week to need to know with Nsenga, where Dr. Nsenga Burton, um, talks about and dives into critical and timely topics that shape our community and our world. It is very unique, very, um, energetic and very informative, so you don't wanna miss it every week. Need to know with Nsenga

Absolutely. And you don't wanna miss Next Week show of Black Executive Perspective Podcast, where we continue to bring those hardcore conversations and powerful insights of the issues that matter most. It's not a discussion, it's a movement. So don't miss your chance to tune in, be inspired, and join the conversation.

Before we get outta here, we always wanna make sure that we remind everyone to incorporate less LESS. Our goal is to eliminate all forms of discrimination. And to achieve this, we ask you to embrace less. The L stands for learn. You wanna learn and educate yourself on racial, cultural, societal nuances. And today I learned that the fact is there's a subset of our society that believes that the 1930s Germany or the the ancient Roman civilization was a great time and they're trying to make it great again and we have to make sure we continue to combat that.

Absolutely. And then after you learn, you have the lead, the E, which stands for empa Empathy. So now you should be open to understanding diverse views because you now can put yourself in somebody else's shoes like our sister Alyssa. I. Having a son that's autistic, right? So people should have empathy to understand what she and her family is going through, which provides a greater perspective.

The first S is for Cher, and I think that it really resonates when you tune into pull-up, speak up, Tony's vision of allowing you guys to share your perspectives. And we all grow collectively in a short amount of time because we're able to calibrate and collaborate with each other. And I think that's a wonderful, powerful thing to enlighten each other and share. And we wanna make sure we share this with whomever we have that we care about. As well.

Absolutely. And the final S stands for Stop, like my brother will fullwood call the contraband wagon. We wanna stop discrimination as it walks in our path. So if Aunt Jenny or Uncle Joe says something at the Sunday dinner table that's inappropriate, you say, aunt Jenny, uncle Joe, we don't believe that. We don't say that. And you stop it right there. So if everyone can incorporate less. LESS will build a more fair, a more understanding world, and we'll all see the change that we want to see because less will become more.

I can't wait for the next pull up. Speak up. I can't wait for the next, uh, black Executive perspective podcast and need to know. Tune into our episodes, check out our previous episodes. We had some powerful ones in the past that Alyssa was on before, and she's a powerhouse. She's a firecracker, so we'll keep bringing her back. But make sure you go to our website, sign up for the newsletter, please review rate, give us ideas that you would like for us to pontificate on and subscribe and listen to us wherever you can. Tony, where can they find us,

my friend? You can find a Black executive perspective podcast on YouTube, apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast, and you can follow us on our social channels of x, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook at a black exec for our fabulous round table, Alyssa Magone. Will Fullwood the contraband wagon and Mark Jamison for the co-host with the most. My boy down in Dallas, Chris P. Reed. I'm Tony Tidbit. We talked about it. We learned about it. We laughed about it, we cried about it. We are gonna keep striving about it and we're gonna thrive about it, and we love you. And now we're out.

A Black Executive Perspective.