On this episode, we chat about our weariness of the ways of the world (cue Solange's Weary). We share what's been the most challenging parts within the fight for Black justice while also highlighting the need to support the Black women and trans community who are also in this fight. Then, we share some of our feel goods of the moment, which include lots of television binging and the albums that'll really get you in your feelings (or out of them). Finally, we put you on to some solid Black voices that can help steer you through all that's going on and also some organizations that you can show up for, financially or otherwise. Amplifying Black Voices: @MsPackyetti, @IamGMJohnson, @wesleylowery, @emarvelous, @theccync, @mark.c, @jennydeluxe, @darian, @speakpatrice, @reagangomez, @nifmuhammad, @jnthnwll Organizations To Support: Black Lives Matter Minnesota Freedom Fund Black Visions Collective Campaign Zero Reclaim The Block Healing Minneapolis Disability Justice Mutual Aid Fund Mutual Aid Fund by the Anti-Police Terror Project
[00:00:00] [Music In].
[00:00:03] Scottie Beam: You're listening to Okay, Now Listen, a biweekly show while we chat about what's on our minds, what we're bingeing and what's blowing up our timeline.
[00:00:09] Sylvia Obell: I'm Sylvia Obell. I'm a culture writer, host, producer and lover of Beyoncé.
[00:00:14] Scottie: And I'm Scottie Beam, a media personality, content creator and music enthusiast. Sometimes I like to dabble in, you know, little wing connoisseur shit, you know what I'm saying. Cus that's how I do.
[00:00:26] Sylvia: A boner, too. [laughs] Wait. I can't believe it's taken us up to Episode 4 for me to ask this, but flats or drumsticks?
[00:00:35] Scottie: Flats for the rest of my life, sweetheart. Sweetheart, do understand it's always gonna be flat. What?
[00:00:42] Sylvia: I just felt like it had to be -- you had to put your allegiance out there and let the people know what side you're on. You're on team flats.
[00:00:48] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh no, no. I will always fight for a flat.
[00:00:49] Sylvia: [crosstalk] I prefer -- I prefer a flat, but I don't pay extra for all flats. [laughs] Like I'ma have my mix and I'ma deal with it. Like I don't hate drumsticks, but that's different.
[00:00:57] Scottie: I'ma pay extra for the flats.
[00:00:59] Sylvia: I get, you know, hey.
[00:01:00] Scottie: Always. But I won't discriminate. Like I will eat a drumstick if I have to. I will eat a drum. But I'm saying if I had my choice every time flats.
[00:01:09] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Got you.
[00:01:10] Scottie: [crosstalk] Every freakin time.
[00:01:10] Sylvia: I understand it.
[00:01:11] Scottie: Shout out to American Belly. Alright.
[00:01:13] Sylvia: Well this is the part in the show where we usually check in on how we're feeling. But you know, to quote one of my favorite Bravo housewives, I'll tell you how I'm doing. Nowt well, bitch. Not well. Every day it's an emotional rollercoaster because we are facing not one but two pandemics, as most of our listeners are personally aware of. It's basically impossible to list all the reasons why this past couple weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for Black people everywhere. But we want to highlight a few issues that are top of mind. So, Scottie, what -- what's got -- what's what's on your heart? What's on your heart and mind?
[00:01:49] Scottie: It's a heavy heart. My spirit is very heavy. There's been times where I have said no to speaking about things because I think I am so angry that I am not able to organize my thoughts correctly. It may slip up and say, come and see me. I live right here. I want to fight every five seconds because there's just so many thoughts in my mind. But I think one that I'm struggling with. I'm struggling with everyone. But this one is just top of my mind would be, you know, Black people feeling like they need -- they're responsible for educating white people on American history.
[00:02:35] Sylvia: Yes.
[00:02:36] Scottie: Which is Black history. But y'all labeled it Black history, it is American history. The fact that they have ignored an entire racist existence in history does not have to fall on you. You have done the work to educate yourself after those bullshit history classes in high school. Why couldn't they do the same?
[00:02:55] Sylvia: Right.
[00:02:55] Scottie: They knew about the work before they felt the pressure to learn. They knew about the work before George Floyd. They knew about it before Breonna Taylor. They knew about it before Tamir Rice. They knew about it before Mike Brown. They knew about it before Sandra Bland. They knew about before Trayvon Martin. They knew about it before Sean Bell. They knew about it before Amadou Diallo. They know about it. They knew about that -- the learning and unlearning that they would have to do. They ignored it.
[00:03:22] Sylvia: Yeah. And Google is also right there. I think there's never been a time for white people to be ignorant less than right now, when everybody has a freakin smartphone in their hand.
[00:03:33] Scottie: Because they don't want to fucking do the work.
[00:03:35] Sylvia: Right.
[00:03:35] Scottie: Like, they don't want to do the work --.
[00:03:36] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's not because of a lack of access to information at all --.
[00:03:36] Scottie: [crosstalk] So they think -- Right. You do. You have all the access. You always had all the access. Why would you not try to educate yourself on what's going on in the America that you love so much?
[00:03:48] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:03:49] Scottie: In the past. You know what I'm saying? That's because they think Black people are their -- are their mule.
[00:03:54] Sylvia: Or that it's optional. You can opt in or out. And that's the part about -- that's the privilege part of it. Right. Like there's racism manifests in a lot of ways. The way that most people attribute to it is hate. Like, oh I don't hate Black people so I'm not racist. But hate is just one manifestation of systematic racism in this country. Privilege is another. Ignorance is another. Which is what you're talking about. Their -- your ability to stay ignorant -- or your choice to stay ignorant --.
[00:04:22] Scottie: [crosstalk] It's a choice. It's not the ability --
[00:04:23] Sylvia: Is a form of -- that's racist.
[00:04:26] Scottie: Right. And think that you're being there. You're being there for your Black friend or Black person by doing the education or doing the learning. No bitch, that's for you. Because like you said, Sylvia, and like Toni Morrison said, racism is a white people thing.
[00:04:43] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's your problem.
[00:04:43] Scottie: [crosstalk] This is for fucking you.
[00:04:45] Sylvia: It's your problem.
[00:04:45] Scottie: It's your fucking problem.
[00:04:47] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Now fix it. Go. Go amongst your people and fix it.
[00:04:49] Scottie: [crosstalk] Leave me -- and like Toni Morrison said, leave me the fuck out of it. [laughter] She didn't say the fuck. But I know she wanted to say leave me the fuck out of it. Leave me out of it. This is your problem.
[00:04:58] Sylvia: I believe that the fuck was on her heart as well.
[00:05:00] Scottie: Right. [laughter] That it was there.
[00:05:02] Sylvia: It's frustrating. And the one thing I want to add there, because I wanted -- like I need us to touch on this is like we like the well-intentioned white people who really think that they're just like being an ally by trying to get informed. Like being an ally does not include making Black people do more invisible labor. Making -- hitting up your Black friends right now and asking them all these questions.
[00:05:26] Scottie: Right. And then they feel like after they do those things that they will feel better. No, no. That's not how that works either. I don't have white friends so --
[00:05:36] Sylvia: [crosstalk] [laughs] So you can't relate.
[00:05:36] Scottie: [crosstalk] I don't what that's like. I cannot relate. I shan't relate.
[00:05:40] Sylvia: You don't have white friends? [laughs].
[00:05:43] Scottie: Right. Surprise! It's me, bitch. Yes of course. I don't have -- I don't have white friends. I have -- okay, maybe I have --.
[00:05:50] Sylvia: One or two.
[00:05:52] Scottie: Hmm. I pry have -- Maybe I'll say one just in case I do and I forgot, you know what I'm saying?
[00:05:56] Sylvia: Sorry to that one white friend. [laughs].
[00:06:00] Scottie: But yeah, I don't -- white people have turned a blind eye, you know, to Black people's suffering and the outcries of Black people for eons and eons. Like, so I'm very frustrated with them feeling like, oh no, teach me. You know, tell me every -- I've been seeing, like, posts, like influencers saying. I love for y'all to educate me on what I'm missing. I don't -- no. That is your job.
[00:06:27] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Pick up a book.
[00:06:28] Scottie: [crosstalk] Like it was our job. It was our job to pick up a motherfucking book after we left high school. Because if it -- we were going straight from the shit that we learned from high school, we were just some slaves.
[00:06:39] Sylvia: [crosstalk] That's it. It was about a chapter.
[00:06:39] Scottie: [crosstalk] And then we -- then we magically -- right. And then we magically appeared again for the Civil Rights Movement. [laughter] Then we disappeared again. And then Barack Obama came. Don't piss me the fuck off -- like, I just. Do you know what I'm saying?
[00:06:52] Sylvia: The last ditch version of Black history.
[00:06:55] Scottie: [crosstalk] Right.
[00:06:55] Sylvia: Were we there during the Great Depression? [laughs]
[00:07:01] Scottie: [crosstalk] [laughs] That's what I'm saying. We were never, ever think -- we just came in those three big moments in American history, which pisses me off.
[00:07:09] Sylvia: And it's such a shame. And that's why it's -- why we say it's systematic. It's not like -- it's bigger than just racism. It's in every system and facet of our lives in this country.
[00:07:20] Scottie: Right.
[00:07:20] Sylvia: And these are the ways in which I think it's wild to me but white people are just realizing that, oh, these all their issues. It's not just, oh I don't shoot a Black person. I want them to have all their rights. I'm good. Check it off. Like, no. That's not what real allyship looks like. Allyship looks like also taking the weight off of us, taking the time off of us and dealing with it amongst yourselves. Go gather your racist relatives up and down the family tree.
[00:07:45] Scottie: Go on, grab your aunt. What do they call them? Not aunt, aunt. Go and grab aunt--.
[00:07:49] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Not auntie but aunt.
[00:07:49] Scottie: Not auntie. Aunt and uncles and grandma and grandpa and figure out where the fuck out y'all went wrong.
[00:07:56] Sylvia: I have to say, this is my first time dealing with a moment like this where it becomes 24/7. Everybody is talking about it where I didn't have to report to white people with -- you know, like how I used to like when my -- at BuzzFeed. So it's like really --.
[00:08:11] Scottie: [crosstalk] What does that look like right now?
[00:08:12] Sylvia: I didn't realize how much of a weight is -- was lifted when I didn't have to -- like you, sometimes you don't realize how much it impacts you to have to deal with that during all of this. Like we talk about it but to be able to experience it without that, I need every Black person to be able to feel this way. Because for me, when, you know, when George Floyd was killed, the video was circulating, the fact that I didn't have to go into a meeting, the fact that I didn't have to talk to nobody, the fact that I didn't have to sit around white employees trying to figure out what was said, what was wrong. What's the best way to cover it? What's an appropriate headline? Like also, the guilds. Especially when you're like in a newsroom that's like aware. Like the BuzzFeed newsroom is pretty aware. But the thing is that, I think that as a company, sometimes people don't think about, but the fact that Black people have to work through this when it's personal for us. That's the layer that often gets ignored. So, like I -- Because they're like, what's the solution? You don't work? It's like, well, yeah, maybe give some people some free personal days for this.
[00:09:13] Sylvia: Like yes, maybe that is something you should be able to do. Because it's just -- it's like we've said before on this very show, it's very traumatic to watch all of us being killed this way and knowing that there's nothing that was stopping or protecting that from being you or one of your loved ones. So give us time to process that. But I have to say, like, I didn't have to talk to -- I haven't had to talk to a white person all week -- in two weeks. And that -- only by choice. Only by choice. And that's been -- that's been something cus I haven't had to explain anything. I can't even imagine what some -- like a lot of people are going through it. Like it's just, I understand. And even the guilt of like, is it rude to not respond for the white people who I know care about me and are in my inbox and my DMs to like, you know, offer support or this or that. Like even that guilt sometimes is you have -- like, that's the part that we have to work through and be like we're just all really too nice. Because like --.
[00:10:08] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh shit.
[00:10:09] Sylvia: We just all too nice. The fact that we even just -- the fact that we only are asking for justice and not revenge in itself is a gift. Take it and just do with it what you will. We have to wake up Monday to some more well-intentioned white Democrats kneeling for 8 minutes.
[00:10:27] Scottie: [crosstalk] With a Kente clothe.
[00:10:28] Sylvia: [crosstalk] With a Kente cloth that I'm sure it wasn't even truly from Ghana [laughs]. And like, or anywhere else in West Africa. And it's like we asked Nancy, Nancy, sis, Pelosi. We asked for a lot of things.
[00:10:42] Scottie: [crosstalk] We didn't ask her -- [laughs].
[00:10:42] Sylvia: You kneeling in Kente cloth was not one of them. It was not -- nobody -- it was literally like the manifestation of that meme, where it's like literally no one, Democrats. Like [laughs].
[00:10:54] Scottie: Right. That's what's crazy is like, I'm a visionary. So I -- I'm watching in my head how it looked like them passing out the Kente cloth. [laughter] And they're like, here, Nancy. Here, all right. Everybody got their Kentes? All right. And I like the fact that at the end they got to take it off and give it back. You know what I'm saying? Like these aren't for you to take home.
[00:11:16] Sylvia: And the CBC was involved, which is the Congressional Black Caucus. Right. And so those are like Black congresspeople and stuff and that -- and senators. And I'm just conf -- [snoring] I have questions for them in the sense where part of me is like, okay, these are older Black people. And maybe they're thinking, like, I think about the Baptist Church Black History Month programs that I've attended growing up and how they were just really out of touch. And trying to figure out like is it really and out of touch moment. But the narrative I would prefer is that if there was a Darryl from The Office, there was a couple Darryls from The Office who were just like, we goin embarrass these white people today.
[00:11:46] Sylvia: You know and then like -- [laughter] -- No what, I think we should do? I think we should just where some Kente cloth. And they're pry -- I feel like in my heart, I'm thinking about Black people on Capitol Hill who are just like, you know what? That's what you think you should do, then you should do it. Go ahead.
[00:12:00] Scottie: You should do it. Absolutely.
[00:12:01] Sylvia: Showed the people how dumb you actually are.
[00:12:04] Scottie: Right -- you actually are.
[00:12:04] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Like. I really hope that -- I get my mind, that's got to be it. I can't figure out what else. But that's the point. Well intentioned white people, quote unquote, cus all we can hope because we have to take you at your word on that. But you're not doing any of the things we're asking you to do. We're not -- you're not doing any of the things we've asked you to do.
[00:12:22] Scottie: You just want to do again -- this is your privilege. This is your privilege to be like, okay. This is what I think will make sense instead of just listening to the people who suffer from what we're talking about. You sit there and you're saying, okay. No, no, no. I heard -- I heard you shit, Sylvia but listen to this. Listen. Hear me out.
[00:12:40] [crosstalk] I have a better idea.
[00:12:41] Scottie: [crosstalk] We're gonna get the Kente cloths. [laughter]. We're gonna just wrap it around our necks. We're going -- we're going to kneel for eight minutes.
[00:12:46] Sylvia: Eight minutes. Because we want to mimic the cops, the murderer in this scenario. Please stop reinacting how this man was killed. It's not peaceful. Cops of the streets.
[00:12:56] Scottie: [crosstalk] That is what I am saying.
[00:12:57] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Stop kneeling. [laughs] Like any -- literally, we just want you to stop killing us. We ain't ask you the Macarena. We ain't ask you to wabble. We ain't you to cha cha slide --.
[00:13:05] Scottie: Right. [laughs].
[00:13:07] Sylvia: [crosstalk] We did not ask you to do none of that shit.
[00:13:08] Scottie: [crosstalk] Electric slide.
[00:13:09] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Electric Slide.
[00:13:10] Scottie: [crosstalk] None of it.
[00:13:10] Sylvia: Tootsie Slide. Like we ain't ask for none of that.
[00:13:12] Scottie: [crosstalk] None of it. None.
[00:13:12] Sylvia: I just ask you to stop killing us. If you could. [laughs]
[00:13:19] Scottie: God. Jesus. Yeah, that's the truth. But it's. -- it's nuts to me. It's -- it's beyond. It's, you know, I don't know. Because -- I don't know. I feel like, well, this is many people in my tribe. And also in my family and my friends and how much I love them. I can't see -- and the random Black people that I see on the street and how much [sighs]. I can't even find the words because I, I just have the hardest time understanding why it's so hard --.
[00:14:01] Sylvia: To care about us?
[00:14:02] Scottie: To care about us. And even the fact that people have to say, take the skin out of it. No, leave the skin in it. Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to care about, like somebody like my grandmother? Why is it so hard to care about Sylvia? Why is it so hard to care about these people who mean something and have a purpose on this earth. You know what I'm saying?
[00:14:27] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:14:28] Scottie: And I just hate having to explain it over and over again or even think about it. And I think it's just so important right now as Black people for us to pour into each other. Right. And having positive and joyful moments because there is so much. There's a war within ourselves and also outside. So, you know, I -- it tears me up. It tears me up to have to fight again, to give them reasons why a Black person should breathe. To breathe.
[00:15:07] Sylvia: Period.
[00:15:08] Scottie: Take the next breath. Right.
[00:15:10] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:15:10] Scottie: It angers me very much. And also, this goes for people of color, too, too. So you're not off. You're not exempt.
[00:15:18] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:15:18] Scottie: Please do understand that. It is you too whom I have to explain why Black people matter.
[00:15:26] Sylvia: Which is -- Yeah, which is even wilder. Because it's like you guys, like people of color face prejudice and it's like but yet we can't still see that in each other. Like, yet you can't understand that it's -- to me, it's always people of color when it's something that's beneficial to us. But when it's like down as being killed or whatever now it's just Black folks. When it's negative it's just Black people --.
[00:15:45] Scottie: [crosstalk] Yes. Yes
[00:15:46] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's like, no.
[00:15:47] Scottie: [crosstalk] It's them. Oh no, now it's them.
[00:15:49] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Now it's them. I don't know anything about that.
[00:15:51] Scottie: [crosstalk] That's them. Right.
[00:15:51] Sylvia: It's like no. It's like be about that action, capitalize the B in my Black and pull up. The same way we're looking for the whites to pull up, you need to pull up too. Because --.
[00:16:01] Scottie: And the fact that we'd be on the front lines for every other issue.
[00:16:04] Sylvia: Every other issue.
[00:16:06] Scottie: Every other issue, fighting for somebody else's rights every single time, especially Black women.
[00:16:12] Sylvia: Yes.
[00:16:12] Scottie: You can't do the same for us?
[00:16:14] Sylvia: It's not lost on me that the three cases that we have touted up Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. Ahmaud's killers have been arrested. George's killers are all in jail. Breonna's? Not any -- not one. Not one arrest has been made for this Black woman. And --.
[00:16:36] Scottie: Yep.
[00:16:36] Sylvia: The fact that even in her case, she didn't even leave her home. She literally did nothing wrong. She was literally asleep. She was asleep. They shot this Black girl in her bed while she was asleep. When they broke -- they broke into her home on some B.S. warrant. And they're talking about, oh our bad. We had the wrong house. So, like does that mean whoever's house you had, you were gonna do the same thing you did to the wrong person? Either way, it's messed up. Those are the things that get me because it's like there is nowhere we can hide. There is nothing we can do to be safe, because I could literally be sleeping in my bed where it should be my peaceful place --.
[00:17:16] Scottie: [crosstalk] In my bed. Yes. Yes.
[00:17:19] Sylvia: And you guys can still come and kill me?
[00:17:20] Scottie: Yes.
[00:17:20] Sylvia: And not one person can get arrested for it? How has no cop -- there's no defense for that. There's literally no excuse. You can't say you thought she was a threat. You can't say none of noth -- like any of that. She was a sleep bruh. And you were in her house.
[00:17:37] Scottie: Yeah. Yep.
[00:17:37] Sylvia: Why are you still walking free? Why are those three men still walking free? I don't give a fuck if they're-- what badge they got.
[00:17:44] Scottie: Right.
[00:17:44] Sylvia: They should be in jail. And the fact that, like, we're over here begging, clawing, whatever to have to even just get arrests when that's just a crumble of it, it's not even a conviction.
[00:17:56] Scottie: We still have to see about -- you know we're over here debating charges. We got metal -- medical examiners lying about causes of death like we saw when George Floyd's family got their own independent person to prove that none -- George didn't have any preexisting condition that made him die. That man's knee on his neck made him die. Like, why do we have to fight so -- like, it doesn't even -- it doesn't have to be all this, is all I kept thinking in my head. Like, Black people are lit -- we are literally people are in the streets marching, getting beaten, getting arrested, getting the corona virus, to be honest, to just -- so you guys can arrest police officers when they kill us? We shouldn't -- it don't have to be all is. Like that's -- that's the part that's so frustrating. Like and I think that's like also what you were eluding to Scottie, like the lack of humanity in it, the apathy, the privilege of apathy, where you could just choose to not care. I don't have that privilege. My sister and Breonna Taylor were born on the same day. They both have similar baby faces. And I just couldn't help but think that whole day, I know how much this day has mattered to me and my family since my sister was born. These are both women who are in their 20s. Now, this is a dark day for her family. I couldn't help but think about her sister and her mother that whole day as me, my mom, my sister spent that day together because the sad truth is we don't know if we'll get another one. The way people are going. It's -- there's nothing, it haunts me in my sleep that there is nothing separating my sister and Breonna Taylor's fate. Nothing.
[00:19:33] Scottie: [crosstalk] Nothing.
[00:19:33] Sylvia: And we're supposed to just keep living with that knowledge? We're supposed to just keep tap dancing for you, and entertaining you, and giving you ways to make money while that's our reality? It's like I said, they're just lucky that all we're looking for is justice and not revenge. It's literally the least you could do. And I think that the rug that they are trying to sweep, Breonna Taylor under has so many Black women underneath it already. And I just want us to, even as a people internally, as an -- when we speak about our narratives for this, I want us to not act like police care whether it's a Black man or it's a Black woman. I want us to make sure that, like, you know, I constantly hear people say I have a Black son. I have no choice but to be here. If you have a Black daughter, you have no choice but to be there either.
[00:20:27] Scottie: [crosstalk] Right. If you birthed a Black being.
[00:20:29] Sylvia: Period.
[00:20:30] Scottie: You should be -- like you should still be there. You know what I'm saying?
[00:20:34] Sylvia: Yeah. And I think it's just inherent for us because honestly, the Black women who have been killed don't get the -- like the publicity isn't always the same. So I think that's a lot of the reason why a lot of people maybe don't even realize that is happening to us at the same rate as it's happening to men. But I just want us to love on each other. All of us. Like the way we love on Black men during these times. I want to see Black men love on Black women. The way we as cis Black men and women love on each other during this time, we need to show that love to the LGBT community too. To queer Black people -- to queer Black people, like to trans Black people. We need -- all of our lives matter in that sense. And we can't be out here trying to prove that to white people if we can't even understand that amongst ourselves. Because it's like, we're here marching for, you know, George Floyd, who is this Black man. And it's like at the same time trans women are being beat up, like at the same time. Same headlines. In the midst of all of this by Black men. And it's just like bruh. This is ridiculous. But you can't be asking for something. Like I'm always more disappointed when it's Black people because nobody should understand what it's like to be treated this way more than us. So it always frustrates me so much when I see cis Black people treat queer Black people this way because I'm just like bruh, who knows more than us what it's like to be told that your existence is a lie or not true or that you don't have the rights to do these things. Like we should know better than that. There's such a spectrum of what like that -- what we're dealing with right now. It's just, I don't even know. It's such an emotional rollercoaster.
[00:22:17] Scottie: Yeah. Langston Hughes said, “Negroes, sweet and docile, meek, humble and kind. Beware the day they changed their minds.”
[00:22:30] Sylvia: Huh.
[00:22:30] Scottie: And let me tell you something --.
[00:22:32] Sylvia: It looks real close to that day. Truth is I'm tired.
[00:22:36] Scottie: I'm tired, Lord. I am tired. I'm heartbroken. It's just so much --.
[00:22:43] Sylvia: Frustrated. Mad as hell. Sad as hell.
[00:22:47] Scottie: I'm so angry. I'm so angry.
[00:22:50] Sylvia: But like always, we all we got in the sense that the only thing that keeps me uplifted right now is Black people and seeing this come together like this and showing how powerful we can be when that happens. When we come together like this, the white people are shook. Like their shook. I don't know how much we don't actually, you know, whatever but like, people are making decisions and moves and questioning themselves in a way I've never seen in my adult life. I've never seen so many white people outside chanting Black Lives Matter -- if I'm being at 100 percent honest with you, from a New York perspective, what -- Brooklyn, where they pass my street. And I just -- I to them -- I say keep, keep, keep the energy up.
[00:23:28] Scottie: Right. I'm with the same. I want that same energy. I want that same energy when the protests stop happening, when the world opens back up and you are back in your office and you have, you know, you finally find your voice to speak for others. You know what I'm saying. I hope that you are doing the same thing you do.
[00:23:45] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Never stop.
[00:23:45] Scottie: The screaming of Black Lives Matter outside should be the same inside. It should be reflected inside too.
[00:23:50] Sylvia: Pick the energy and keep it.
[00:23:51] Scottie: And keep -- and fucking keep it.
[00:23:54] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Pick it and keep it.
[00:23:54] Scottie: All right. And with all this, that is even more important to take care of ourselves and each other. Like Audre Lorde said, caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation. And that is an act of political warfare. [Music In] So we wanted to spend the rest of this episode talking about what's been helping us feel good or even like helping us release them tears we've been holding back.
[00:24:18] Sylvia: Yeah. And it also happens to be Black Music Appreciation Month. So Scottie, I know you're gonna have some good albums to share with people, right?
[00:24:26] Scottie: You already know! You know I've waiting for this all week.
[00:24:30] Sylvia: [laughs] We -- we can use a music talk. This is our therapy. Black girl therapy. Let's talk about it.
[00:24:35] Scottie: Child.
[00:24:35] Sylvia: Alright, let's do it.
[00:24:35] Scottie: Yes.
[00:24:39] Sylvia: OK. Time for the feel goods. My heart and my soul is ready. [Music Out] Scottie Beam, my music queen.
[00:24:46] Scottie: [crosstalk] Yes.
[00:24:46] Sylvia: Tell me about what albums and songs and artists have been getting you through this hellhole of a year. [laughs]
[00:24:54] Scottie: I found myself -- right. I found myself only listening to things that speak to my spirit, who speaks kindly to my spirit. So because I got some songs that'll make me want a bust a head open. But that's not what I'm listening to.
[00:25:09] Sylvia: [laughs] You've got to be careful about the choices.
[00:25:12] Scottie: [crosstalk] Right now. Okay? Hello. Because I'll play some crunk music real fast by Lil Jon and it'll be a rap in here.
[00:25:18] Sylvia: Throw some, some Luda, throw some Bowles. Right place. Wrong time. I'ma be in jail. [laughs]
[00:25:25] Scottie: Wrong-- I fuck up my own house. So, yeah, I am -- I've been listening to things that are kinder on my spirit. So like Black Moses by Isaac Hayes or The Roots How I Got Over. Also The Roots -- I listened to The Roots a lot because they are the walking and breathing versions of revolution to me. They're poetic. It speaks to my heart. Black Thought does not play when it comes to the rhymes. You hear me? Comes to them words? Oh my God. He'll break you down and build you back up. It is insane. But so I've been listening to that. I've been listening to -- I make these small playlists for myself, although like a lot of people know that I make playlists for others. But I think this -- I made the playlist for myself because it doesn't make sense. [laughter] So there's a bunch of random disco songs and random like, you know, soul, old soul, stuff like that. Experimental songs too on there that I really love and cherish that remind me of places and remind me of of certain spots in my house or remind me of me hanging out with my mom or me singing --.
[00:26:39] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Yes.
[00:26:39] Scottie: Having sing offs with my mom and stuff like that. So those are the songs that I like to put together and just have like a good ol' run, you know, down memory lane. You know, it reminds me to smile, it reminds me that joy does come in the morning. You know what I'm saying? A lot of the music that I listen to right now is really reflective of what I hope to see in the future.
[00:27:02] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:27:02] Scottie: You know?
[00:27:03] Sylvia: I love that.
[00:27:03] Scottie: So, yeah, I would have to say that that. And then, you know, I listen to the BeeGees, you know, I have a good time with the Bee Gees. I know they're white. I get it.
[00:27:12] Scottie: [crosstalk] Ohh.
[00:27:12] Scottie: But I have a great time with the Bee Gees.
[00:27:17] Sylvia: [crosstalk] The bellbottomed, long haired, white men -- [inaudible] is that the Stayin' Alive? That's them, right?
[00:27:23] Scottie: Yes it is. [laughs] I love --
[00:27:26] Sylvia: [crosstalk] [laughs] This is one of the rare -- I'm excited for a rare opportunity for Scottie to be explaining a white person to me. [laughs]
[00:27:30] Scottie: You know, no, listen. I kind of just ignore the fact that -- I just I don't listen to, you know, the whiteness. I just listen to the sound.
[00:27:39] Sylvia: You know, a white song really -- that really crept it's way into my heart recently was -- and I love this song, but I really have been skewing Black with shit lately. But like Elton John's “Tiny Dancer?” That song always --
[00:27:50] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh, yes. [singing] Tiny dancer.
[00:27:52] Sylvia: [crosstalk] [singing] Tiny dancer. I love that song!
[00:27:57] Scottie: Yeah.
[00:27:58] Sylvia: But no, I get it. Every now and then the old white man will sneak his way up in your shit. [laughs].
[00:28:02] Scottie: Right, right. Hello? So yeah. But other than that, shit, I'm going to sing the O'Jays, The Gap Band.
[00:28:08] Sylvia: Hey.
[00:28:08] Scottie: You know, Willie Hutch.
[00:28:10] Sylvia: Soul.
[00:28:11] Scottie: Foxy, which is sometimes white. That's what I listen to. But Sylvia what -- what do you listen to? Cause you gonna hit me with the young -- you know, the young music. The ones that the young ones listen too.
[00:28:19] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Well no. I wanna -- I will pick up on the, just touch on the nostalgia factor, which is why I think you're speaking though. I think a lot of us are finding nostalgia, especially comforting as things get crazier and crazier, songs that take us back to a time where we felt safe or like loved or just like a lot of the emotions that we need to be feeling right now. And I think that's why for me, Stevie Wonder from the start of the Corona virus pandemic hitting has song -- especially Songs In the Key of Life, or really all things Stevie Wonder has been a -- I've been playing that way more than I normally do because something about Stevie's voice just feels like I'm surrounded by family and love and understanding. And just like -- it just soothes my soul. You know what I mean? That's what soul music is supposed to do. Like peak soul music. Like it it soothes my--
[00:29:06] Scottie: [crosstalk] Swallow you up whole.
[00:29:07] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Just like a hug.
[00:29:09] Scottie: [crosstalk] Completely.
[00:29:08] Sylvia: It's like a hug.
[00:29:09] Scottie: [crosstalk] A whole hug. Yes. It's incredible. That's incredible music.
[00:29:12] Sylvia: So I've been listening to a lot of Stevie Wonder. Songs In the Key of Life specifically. But like, you know, “As,” you know, was my like it don't get no better than “As” to me.
[00:29:20] Scottie: [crosstalk] Like I still don't understand how someone can write like that. Like.
[00:29:24] Sylvia: How you love somebody that much? That times that, four plus four -- four times four times four is eight? Like or what? They don't even -- until the --.
[00:29:30] Scottie: [crosstalk] It don't even make sense.
[00:29:32] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It don't make sense. Like it's not cus I --
[00:29:33] Scottie: [crosstalk] That's cus I love you, bitch.
[00:29:33] Sylvia: Until the day that you are me and I am you. Till the day that you are me and I am you. Nigga what?
[00:29:39] Scottie: [crosstalk] That'll never happen. That's what I'm saying.
[00:29:41] Sylvia: Til the earth goes from right to left. Like it's like -- ain't that loving you.
[00:29:46] Scottie: [crosstalk] That will never happen.
[00:29:46] Sylvia: Yes, it is, Stevie. And I feel like --.
[00:29:48] Scottie: [crosstalk] Yeah.
[00:29:48] Sylvia: Stevie be loving on us as a community and as a race and as a people. So I just need that love. Right. So that's why it's been a lot of Stevie. And that also goes hand-in-hand with Kirk Franklin and the gospel that's been hitting my soul. I was really happy for that gospel verses because it gave us a really good playlist. If nothing else of Kirk and Fred, because I listen to them separately. But I liked that they had kind of sequenced something for me in that sense. But let me tell you something about “More Than I Can Bear” by Kirk Franklin, during this time? That song starts with a Black woman wailing. So like you already know like it's been -- I understand, it's almost like, it's no wonder that Negro spirituals came from slave fields because like what you're going through and you just gotta figure out how to get through it. Like all you could do -- and you just got to call on God. But like also just like, how do I even sustain myself during? God -- and then, like, for me also be growing up in church most of middle school and high school, I was like a church kid. Like I was choir, bible study, praise dance. So a lot of these songs were the soundtrack of my life at that point as just as much as, you know, the secular stuff I was listening to as well. I really felt Kirk when he called himself Secular Saint. I'm changing my Twitter name cus I was like, I relate. I can relate to that. So gospel has been keeping my -- those are the ones that have been touching my soul, right. So then. So those are those are usually like the morning, the morning albums. But then like Solange's A Seat at the Table was made for a time like this. Sis, must have seen the future. She must've seen the future because when she's over here telling me about how I have the right to be mad. I was like, you damn right I do. I -- you're damn right I do. Or weary! When Solange get on that thing and say, I'm weary of the ways of the world.
[00:31:38] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh child. And then you can't not talk about “Cranes In the Sky,” because --.
[00:31:43] Sylvia: Uh huh! I tried to -- everything, I've been -- I've been trying to do all the things to get it away. The trauma is it really. The trauma of being Black in America, it's like I've tried to dance it away, there's people out here trying to smoke the way, drink it away, sex it away --.
[00:31:57] Scottie: [crosstalk] Sex it away.
[00:32:00] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Like pray it away --.
[00:32:00] Scottie: [crosstalk] Try to read it away. Like I've done it all. And it still won't get off my back.
[00:32:06] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It won't get off my back.
[00:32:06] Scottie: It's still heavy.
[00:32:09] Sylvia: Ooh! Solange knew. It's like --
[00:32:12] Scottie: [crosstalk] That album is going to be, and will be, one of the top ten albums of the century. Y'all can say what y'all want, it's the century.
[00:32:23] Sylvia: I'm here for it.
[00:32:23] Scottie: I said the century.
[00:32:24] Sylvia: Not the decade, ho. The century.
[00:32:28] Scottie: [crosstalk] Not the decade. The century.
[00:32:28] Sylvia: [crosstalk] The century
[00:32:29] Scottie: You know how many generations that album's going to touch?
[00:32:32] Sylvia: It's timeless. It's timeless.
[00:32:34] Scottie: [crosstalk] It's --Oh my God. Jesus.
[00:32:35] Sylvia: And that's the thing about timeless album because it def -- like an album that can both define a particular moment and be timeless at the same time. The power that that has, the international implications. So thank you Solange, because that album, I'm sure I'm not alone. Go through it if you haven't heard in a while Black people, my Black sisters especially.
[00:32:57] Scottie: Yes.
[00:32:57] Sylvia: Press play on A Seat at the Table when this episode is over, if you haven't in a while and I promise --.
[00:33:02] Scottie: [crosstalk] And cry it out. Cry it out! Don't even fight it.
[00:33:04] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Just cathartically get through it. You will be -- you will be hap -- You will feel seen. Heard.
[00:33:10] Scottie: Yes.
[00:33:11] Sylvia: Sad.
[00:33:12] Scottie: Yes.
[00:33:13] Sylvia: Happy. Joyful. Revolutionary. Rebellious. All at the same damn time.
[00:33:17] Scottie: All of it.
[00:33:18] Sylvia: Go through it.
[00:33:19] Scottie: [crosstalk] You'll feel all those things.
[00:33:19] Sylvia: And you'll get some really great business tips from Master P. So like I was just saying, like just go through it. And speaking of cathartic albums, the last -- the last one I'm going to name, even though I've been listening to mad -- But the -- I've been listening to mad music. But when you want to talk about how when I -- I promise you, I talk to this guy the other day, I'm saying, I just laid in bed in the dark, and hit play on --.
[00:33:42] Scottie: [crosstalk] In the dark.
[00:33:42] Sylvia: Frank Ocean's Blond and cried and cried. Just cried my heart out. Because if you need an album to cry to? Let me tell you about -- let me tell you about Blond. Let me tell you about the bad bitch known as Blond. She's your girl.
[00:33:59] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh my god.
[00:34:00] Sylvia: [crosstalk] She's the one you lean to.
[00:34:00] Scottie: [crosstalk] She is that bitch. That girl. You hear me?
[00:34:03] Sylvia: [crosstalk] [laughs] That girl. That girl.
[00:34:05] Scottie: It really reminds me of what a breeze feels like.
[00:34:09] Sylvia: Ooh! Like his music like, it just -- it just penetrates your body in a way that just is like, I just needed to feel. And sometimes you have to feel something to be able to get whatever feelings you have buried out. So even if, like he -- I'm -- he's -- I'm sick, I'm crying to a song about lost love or like whatever. It's not that. I just needed to -- I just needed it. I felt so good after like, after listening to Blond and just crying, that I was like, I need -- I need to share this with the people because it might be the thing.
[00:34:39] Scottie: It really -- Blond is really, it's a perfect album.
[00:34:47] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It's just beautiful. It's beautiful.
[00:34:47] Scottie: [crosstalk] There is nothing wrong with that album. It is a beautiful album.
[00:34:51] Sylvia: Oh! So yeah, that's music. Let's talk about TV. Let's talk about shows. Because you know, I love a good binge.
[00:34:58] Scottie: You start with the shows. You start with the shows.
[00:35:01] Sylvia: [crosstalk] I'm gonna start with the shows.
[00:35:01] Scottie: [crosstalk] What have you been bingeing?
[00:35:03] Sylvia: Okay, y'all. I tweeted about this. So, yeah. Some of y'all may know this already but sweet, Sweet Magnolias on Netflix.
[00:35:08] Scottie: Okay.
[00:35:09] Sylvia: I have to just -- just give me a second because this is going to be --.
[00:35:12] Scottie: Okay.
[00:35:12] Sylvia: This is a this is a long pitch. Right. Because -- it's not a long pitch but it's like a -- this is not a show I would necessarily suggest for everybody prior to this moment. I have just found that for me, especially -- it's a show I would have always loved because I be in my life white, small town bag sometimes, whatever. I blame mainstream. [laughter] But it's like I -- I blame the lack of content growing up. But I -- I love -- I've been looking for escapism. I've been looking for light, fluffy, easy, digestible things. Things that they're just like, oh wasn't that lovely. Or oh is this cute. Or if there's drama, it's minimal. It's very soapy, if you will, where doesn't feel like heavy. And to me, Sweet Magnolias, the title is a perfect of what it feels like. Like -- or what it smells like. It's just like it is such an easy show to watch. Like 30 minute episodes about, you know, these three best friends in a small town. Just going through life and love. And it's like, it gives me Gilmore Girl vibes. If you were wondering. Like if you watch, like, Heart of Dixie or Gilmore Girls, shows like that, very white shows like that, that I feel like I felt that same easiness to it. And that what makes it better than Gilmore Girls to me in my heart, is that even -- that it actually has a Black woman in a lead role in it. Shout out to Heather Headley.
[00:36:37] Scottie: Shout out to Heather He -- I wish I were.
[00:36:41] Sylvia: [crosstalk] I'm so excited!
[00:36:41] Scottie: [crosstalk] Come on Healther.
[00:36:43] Sylvia: That they gave you this role because when I tell you, Heather Hedley's voice sounds like honey molasses. The entire start --.
[00:36:51] Scottie: [crosstalk] Have you seen her in Broadway?
[00:36:52] Sylvia: I've never seen her in person in Broadway. I've seen like online clips but I've never, like, gotten to experience it on stage.
[00:36:59] Scottie: She was great in Aida.
[00:36:59] Sylvia: But like -- and I knew Heather would get into her acting bag. Like we -- she was introduced to us music but I know like she was one of those people who were trying to crossover. Like she was Broadway, then she was trying to do music. And then like I've seen her on shows like, um, she's Got to Have It, and like stuff like that where she played the counselor. But I really was so excited to see her in this leading role. And it's -- it's kind of sci fi in a way, where it's like she's the one Black woman in town and she seems like she's running these white people left and right. Like she's a lawyer. Her law firm is it. She be telling white people what to do left and right. They be listening. Bossing them around. I was like, wow, you love to see it. A fantasy, if you will. So shows like this are when, like if I don't know, like -- we all have a friend like Scottie. Right. And so when I be talking to Scottie, I'd be like, so here's the thing. I love it. I like it because it's easy and sweet and simple. It might be too white for you. I know you have a hard time caring about white characters. [laughs]
[00:37:56] Scottie: You know. Okay, so I just tried to watch the first, like, 10 minutes of it because --.
[00:38:00] Sylvia: [crosstalk] You gotta give it more time than that.
[00:38:00] Scottie: I thought it was gonna be something like, what's the movie with the white people? Magnolias.
[00:38:08] Sylvia: Oh. Steel Magnolia.
[00:38:09] Scottie: Steel Magnolias.
[00:38:10] Sylvia: [crosstalk] It still has that small town vibe.
[00:38:10] Scottie: I thought it was gonna be like Steel Magnolias. So I was like, okay, I love me a magnolia. [laughter] And so I go --.
[00:38:18] Sylvia: Magnolia bakery got some bomb banana pudding. [laughs]
[00:38:21] Scottie: Oh, shout out to the -- yo Magnolia. I'll be right back. Don't ever forget about me.
[00:38:27] Sylvia: Please stay open. Do what you can.
[00:38:28] Scottie: I'll be right there. Y'all opening the city up? Magnolia better open the fuck up, you hear me? So yeah, but anyway.
[00:38:36] Sylvia: [crosstalk] But yes.
[00:38:36] Scottie: Yes, Sweet Magnolias -- now I can't get a banana putting outta my head cus I'm like they are not [laughter] Sweet Magnolias. But then I seen Heather Headley. And then I seen white kids and white people. And I was like, this is a lot of white people for me.
[00:38:53] Sylvia: It's a lot of white people. It is.
[00:38:54] Scottie: I was like, yeah, I have to try this a different day. I'm going to keep watching.
[00:38:59] Sylvia: Try. Yeah. I say give it two episodes, max -- I mean minimum and see how you feel. I watch that one the first night of the protests and I just needed something just to zone out to. And I promise you, I watched the whole series in one day. And I was like, oh God, it's over? Because I just was like -- cus I just need like, I just I didn't realize how like desperate I was for something just good and pure. I think pure is the word I'm looking for so Sweet Magnolias for sure. Sticking on the Netflix room, I'm going to work my way through -- shout out to the sponsor -- Friends From College is not a new show, but I've been revisiting --.
[00:39:35] Scottie: [crosstalk] I love that show.
[00:39:35] Sylvia: Shows that are funny as shit.
[00:39:36] Scottie: [crosstalk] I love that show.
[00:39:37] Sylvia: Because I need to laugh, I need to laugh. And when I tell you when I need to laugh, like to tears, I will just go to season one of Friends From College to episode five, the winery. The winery episode?
[00:39:53] Scottie: Yeah.
[00:39:54] Sylvia: My, my niggas, let me tell you something. Even if you don't watch the whole series, just go to episode five. I promise you not really missing much before episode five, to be completely honest. You can watch it from there, but that show will have you crying till your laughing. And I think for me, I'm looking for stuff that can do that sometimes, too. So Friends From College. Shout out to them. Normal People on Hulu is another one I'm going to name because I saw a lot of people telling me about this show. I mean, Tweeting and posting about how much they liked the show. But initially when I looked at it, I saw it was about two white teens in Ireland. And I said, well, that's a -- that's a lot for me figure out how to -- that's a lot for me to leap over, to relate to [laughs] to get to the story. Like I'ma have to make a lotta, you know, I'ma have to jump through a lot of hoops to get into this narrative.
[00:40:42] Scottie: Right.
[00:40:43] Sylvia: You know what I mean? But I had heard a lot of good reviews about the book. And then I started to see some Black people, like Ira Madison and like some other people saying like, oh, like if you're looking for something to just, like, lose yourself in, Normal People is one of those shows. I was like okay. Yes. I'm looking for something to lose myself in. I'm looking for romance. I wasn't looking for these white kids from Ireland, but if I gotta go through them to get it, if they have to be the catalyst. I'll take it. I watched the whole series in like two days. I really was really into it. Now we'll say it's a slow start. I don't even know how many people gonna work their way through it. But -- because you have to get to really -- Like, you have to figure out how to care about people who look and know nothing about your existence or your life. Like I don't think I saw a Black person the entire time. Like, I don't know. I don't know if they're Black people in Ireland based on the show or not. But I got caught up in the romance between the two main characters. And I, I really, I have -- I think most twenty something millennials in general can relate to a story about being on and off. Like this person who you love so much, coming in and out of your life through high school, through college, through adulthood, and like just how you deal or make that bond work. Like, it's like this couple that they -- they just love each other so much. But like, because of being teens and like coming from different social statuses and other stuff like and going through college, they just keep missing each other via communication or whatever else. But like the connection is there. Their connection is what kept me connected to the move, because I can relate to that. I can relate to that connection. So like the kind that transcends times and scenarios. And it's all of the shit. The one that you know, Scottie, we all got that man, the one that your friends ask you like, why are you still giving this nigga another shot? You know what I mean? That's Marianne and old boy. And like I -- I was into it. I was into it for what it was. But it is quite, quite white. It's quite white. [laughs] And my final throw out is going to be -- I want to transition with this one because I know for sure it's one that we all watch. We've talked about on the show many times. The Insecure on Sunday --.
[00:43:00] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh man.
[00:43:00] Sylvia: Has been the second church service that I need to get by. The “Low Key Happy” episode, which was the low -- the episode where Lawrence and Issa finally have a date. And I realized that we've never seen them have a date before in our lives. And just finally be romantic, grown, well-dressed, able to afford a black car version of Lyft ass, mature, have conversations and just get what's yours energy, like big ex energy. [laughs] Like all of it was just I needed it. I loved it. I've watched it every day in the past week, like I just loved that episode. I know how much I needed it, but like I said, it fits into that whole thing of like, I just want something that makes me feel good. I think in the most uncertain of times, we lean towards the familiar spaces, and this definitely speaks to that. But it was beautiful to just watch a Black couple go out on a date and just and then just love on each other. Like they made love. That was the first Insecure sex scene where these fools were making love, honey.
[00:44:07] Scottie: Love.
[00:44:07] Sylvia: They were -- love. Okay?. L o v e e e e [laughs]. Love, like, it was that.
[00:44:16] Scottie: It was good.
[00:44:16] Sylvia: So that episode was self -- and it was -- and it was at the height of everything, like when it came out that weekend was like the weekend where we were really, it was like we were at the start of the protest, the peak of like them asking like they won't go and arrest the other cops in George Floyd's shit. Like we just needed something. And thank you, Natasha Rothwell, for writing the fuck out of that episode. You did that shit.
[00:44:39] Scottie: [crosstalk] Wrote your fingers off.
[00:44:40] Sylvia: You did that shit.You hear me?
[00:44:42] Scottie: Your fingers was fucking on fire. I don't understand how you still have fingers after that. That was a great episode. Boy, that was great.
[00:44:51] Sylvia: [crosstalk] That was a gift.
[00:44:51] Scottie: That was amazing. But yeah --
[00:44:52] Sylvia: [crosstalk] That might be my favorite episode of the whole series. So.
[00:44:54] Scottie: Yeah. Yes. Yes.
[00:44:56] Sylvia: That's - That's where I met. That's -- those are, those are the feel goods that has been on my bingeing screens. How about you?
[00:45:04] Scottie: Well, everybody knows that I love The Office. So that's first. I have to get that out the way. Everybody knows The Office on Netflix is what I watch every night in order to go to sleep. And sometimes I just let it run throughout the day. [laughter] Like just like if I'm playing a song, like I'll let the show run because I know -- I'm so familiar with the show. And also I know every line almost of the show and certain parts make me laugh. Season six is my favorite. So I watch that the most. But yet everything about that show brings me laughter and joy now.
[00:45:44] Sylvia: I'm laughing just thinking about it. Can you imagine Michael -- [laughs] sorry I'm laughing just thinking about Steve Carell's -- can imagine what their office would do, like when -- in time period? Like where they had to decide --.
[00:46:00] Scottie: [crosstalk] Oh my god. First of all.
[00:46:00] Sylvia: If they were going to post a black box or how they were going to support diversity and inclusion training. [laughs]
[00:46:04] Scottie: Do you know how funny that shit would be having like Dwight try to understand what the fuck is going on at first? [laughter] Like, I love that show. I love that show with my whole heart.
[00:46:16] Sylvia: I could just see Darryl. Darryl and what's the other guy? Stanley. Just struggling to be like --
[00:46:21] Scottie: Well even in this fucking show they have, they struggle. Like to try and explain what Blackness is and their Blackness. You know, it's just it's -- I love that damn show.
[00:46:31] Sylvia: I love it. It's hilarious.
[00:46:32] Scottie: So that's the -- that's my number one. And we'll always be number one. Then I started re watching Dexter again.
[00:46:40] Sylvia: Oh? [laughs]
[00:46:40] Scottie: I know it's not a feel good show.
[00:46:42] Sylvia: The one about the serial killer?
[00:46:44] Scottie: But to me, it's a feel good show. I like the show. I like this show because --.
[00:46:48] Sylvia: It was cathartic.
[00:46:50] Scottie: You know, homeboy, homeboy is a little crazy, you know, and he's a little off, but he comes up with colorful ways how to like get these people, these bad people, you know, how to kill these bad people? So I think that's really colorful and cool to watch. Another show that I've been watching is The Newsroom.
[00:47:11] Sylvia: Yes! I've been trying to get Scottie to watch this show.
[00:47:13] Scottie: [crosstalk] Sylvia got me into because I am a morning show stand.
[00:47:18] Sylvia: [crosstalk] She is.
[00:47:18] Scottie: And I found out about The Newsroom and I just can't stop watching this shit. Like it's so smart. And it reminds me everything, like it reminds me of 2011. It reminds me of 2012. Because they actually talk about some shit in there.
[00:47:31] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:47:31] Scottie: And it reminds me of the radio station where I used to work. So I think it's a lot of that in there where it's just very familiar with me. You know, I have a good time -- and it's pretty funny. It's a pretty funny show. And the romance in there is not bad either.
[00:47:47] Sylvia: Yeah.
[00:47:47] Scottie: So I like that show. Then there's a show on Hulu called What We Do in the Shadows.
[00:47:58] Sylvia: Hmm.
[00:47:58] Scottie: It's a vampire show.
[00:48:00] Sylvia: Ah hell. [laughs] Every time I think I met get a recommendation.
[00:48:05] Scottie: It's a look into the daily lives of --.
[00:48:10] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Vampires?
[00:48:10] Scottie: [crosstalk] Three vampire empires who's lived together for about a hundred years on Staten Island. It is funny as fuck -- Sylvia. Don't do wow. Don't do the passive -- don't do the passive wow.
[00:48:19] Scottie: No I'm really. I'm genuinely trying to like --.
[00:48:22] Scottie: You hear me out.
[00:48:23] Sylvia: You hit me with every word that you said at -- was not what I was expecting to be next. It was like a series of like daily life vampires live together. [laughter] So vampire roommates. And then you said Staten Island --.
[00:48:35] Scottie: Yes!
[00:48:35] Sylvia: And that just really threw me. [laughs].
[00:48:37] Scottie: For a hundred years. It's fucking hilarious. It's very dry. I enjoy it. So, yeah, that's -- those are the shows that I'm watching that bring me joy, make me laugh.
[00:48:53] Sylvia: [laughs] We truly hope some of these shows and albums can bring you a moment of peace and release through all this madness. And if you got gems that you also want to put us onto? Please, please. We need -- I"m running out of things to watch. So really, please. Let us know using the #okaynowlisten.
[00:49:10] [Music In]
[00:49:17] Scottie: And in case we didn't put y'all on enoughthis episode, it's now time for putting you on. Well, we recommend things that we enjoy and hopes that you can also enjoy it. Sylvia, what do you puttin the people on to today?
[00:49:29] Sylvia: I love the Amplify Melanated voices hashtag that has been making its way around social media. So I just want to use this time to highlight a few of the voices, the Black voices, that I found to be especially helpful these past few weeks. All right. MsPackyetti, Brittany Packnett for the activism, all of that. @IamGMJohnson, George Johnson. He is always about, you know, all of the same things, but also bringing, like, a queer lens to it in the way that's very useful.
[00:49:55] Scottie: I love him and her.
[00:49:57] Sylvia: Wesley Lowery is a Black journalists who've been on the ground since Ferguson. Former Washington Post reporter. He's a great person to follow if you want to know what's happening on the ground at these protests. EMarvelous Errin Haynes, another reporter who's sticking to these cases and letting you know the information there. The CCNYC is a great resource for creatives just looking for ways to process what's going on. @mark.c is an amazing photographer capturing the movement right now. Check him out. @JennyDeluxe is another journalist at The New York Times. She's great on the wellness tip. @Darian, beauty news, but also like how these beauty brands are reacting to us, Black women especially. We put our money there the most. So we know who's speaking up for us. @Darian is a great person to follow a track that. @SpeakPatrice is great for -- she's been covering what it's like to be a Black journalist during this time right now. And I think her threads on Twitter have been especially helpful during that. @ReaganGomez always is a great person if you just -- looking for somebody who is collecting the timeline as is and like, what's poppin. She's really good about being diligent, about trending topics and what tweets are hitting. So sometimes if you can't keep up, her timeline's a good one to check it out. @NifMuhammed. Is also great about policy and like just talking as he's an amazing writer who just really breaks down well how we're feeling right now. And then finally @JonathanWall, who is a lawyer.
[00:51:19] Sylvia: Oh Jon!
[00:51:19] Scottie: And he -- his Instagram stories especially about breaking down what it really means to defund the police and abolition and all these other big terms that we're talking about. I've found a lot of great breakdowns on his Instagram stories, so follow him too. Woo!
[00:51:33] Scottie: That is amazing.
[00:51:35] Sylvia: [crosstalk] What about you Scottie?
[00:51:35] Scottie: [crosstalk] That was great. I'm going to @ the people whose voices I want to amplify once this episode comes out, so, you know, check it out. I'll be retweeting it on @ScottieBeam while the people that I follow and amplify and lift up.
[00:51:49] Sylvia: Yes.
[00:51:50] Scottie: But right now I want to talk about opening your motherfucking purses.
[00:51:54] Sylvia: Pockets!
[00:51:54] Scottie: Getting -- yes. Please open the pockets, purses, change coins, whatever you -- whatever you call it, change purses. Because now I'm gonna talk about funding and donating. So BlackLivesMatter.com You can donate there. Minnesota Freedom Fund. You can donate there. Black Vision's Collective, Campaign Zero, Reclaim the Block, Healing Minneapolis, Disability Justice Mutual Aid Fund, Mutual Aid Fund by the Anti- Police Terror Project. So there are going to be a few other lists, too, that are gon -- I'm gonna put out, I guess, about donating, where to donate, who to donate to. And also, if you have more money or money like that, donate to those who need it. You know, we're also going through a pandemic with COVID 19, people don't have jobs. So if you find it in your heart to, like, give it to somebody that you know will need it, don't hesitate to hit that cash app.
[00:52:57] Sylvia: Listen.
[00:52:57] Scottie: Don't hesitate to hit that -- hello.
[00:53:00] Sylvia: [crosstalk] Hello.
[00:53:00] Scottie: That Pay pal, or whatever it is. Just give. Especially if you know that you will be getting it back. You know what I'm saying. So give as much as you possibly can.
[00:53:11] Sylvia: Yes.
[00:53:12] Scottie: Yeah. And that's all I'm about open and let that money talk, sweetheart.
[00:53:14] Sylvia: Let that money talk.
[00:53:15] Scottie: [crosstalk] Let that money talk.
[00:53:15] Scottie: Keep it -- keep it to Virgil's with them. Keep it to Virgil's with.
[00:53:18] Sylvia: Oh keep it completely to Virgils. You know. I mean don't -- we don't want people, especially if you're white, don't donate nothing less than the Virgil to any of these organizations.
[00:53:27] Scottie: Don't piss me off. First of all.
[00:53:29] Sylvia: [crosstalk] A Virgil means 50 dollars for the whites who don't know. [laughs]
[00:53:30] Scottie: Don't you even think about Virgil. You better think about a few Virgils.
[00:53:34] Sylvia: [crosstalk] A few --.
[00:53:35] Scottie: A few -- a few Virgils. Several Virgils, if you got it like that.
[00:53:38] Sylvia: Just don't be Virgil.
[00:53:40] Scottie: Don't be Virgil.
[00:53:41] Sylvia: That's the moral of the story. [laughs] Because you will get called out and turned into a cultural meme.
[00:53:47] Scottie: Quickly, quickly. With your cheep ass.
[00:53:51] Sylvia: Cheap ass.
[00:53:51] Scottie: Go ahead.
[00:53:51] Sylvia: Anyway. All right. That's our show. [laughs].
[00:53:54] [Music In]
[00:53:55] Scottie: Fucking giving 50 dollars, when you're fucking clothes cost three hundred and more. Are you sick?
[00:54:01] Sylvia: Ridiculous. It's cheap.
[00:54:02] Scottie: Go ahead. I'm sorry.
[00:54:04] Sylvia: It's cheap.
[00:54:04] Scottie: Go ahead.
[00:54:04] Sylvia: All right. Now. All right. That's our show. Thank you all for tuning in. You know, we do our best to keep it two Virgils with y'all at all times. So we appreciate y'all checking in.
[00:54:15] Scottie: Our show is a production of Pineapple Street Studios in partnership with Netflix and Strong Black Lead. Shout out to our team. Executive producers are Agarenesh Ashagre and Jasmyn Lawson. Our Lead producer is Jess Jupiter, and our music is by Amanda Jones. Special thanks to Max Linsky and Jenna Weiss-Berman.
[00:54:33] Sylvia: Make sure you share your thoughts with us on this episode using the #okaynowlisten. We love hearing y'alls feedback. Follow Strong Black Lead on the socials @StrongBlackLead and follow us, too. I'm @SyviaObell.
[00:54:46] Scottie: And I'm @ScottieBeam.
[00:54:48] Sylvia: Until next time, folks, stay safe as you can, stay blessed.
[00:54:54] Scottie: And give yourself some grace.
[00:54:55] Sylvia: Give yourself some grace.
[00:54:57] [Music Out]