SPI 433: Black Entrepreneurs Speak Out, Volume 2

SPI 433: Black Entrepreneurs Speak Out Episode 2

Pat Flynn:
Hey Team Flynn, it’s Pat here. Thank you so much for joining us today on SPI. This is the second of a series of episodes that are coming out across several months here where we’re handing the microphone to Black entrepreneurs in the SPI audience. This started back in June of 2020 with volume one in episode 426, and in fact when we made a callout to have Black entrepreneurs in the SPI community speak out, to have the microphone to share anything that they’d like to share about their experience as a Black entrepreneur and the way that we can all learn from that, we had, gosh, several dozens submissions. Some very emotional, some very inspiring. All of them that we can learn from. And we wanted to continue to hand that mic over today here in episode 433. And again, this is not about us. This is about the voices that have always been needed to be heard, the voices that need to be amplified, and we want to continue that conversation today.

Pat:
So, in this episode you’re going to hear about some particulars that we at team SPI have been needing to hear, and specifically there are some things that we have been doing, and we’re trying to do better, and we’re always learning, and we’re trying to lead by example here. And again, this is not about us, but this episode actually has some people who have been featured here who are essentially pointing us in the right direction, for lack of a better term.

Pat:
We are also going to come across themes where we need to essentially face our own unconscious biases. There are also some very heavy themes in this particular episode. Many people who have submitted in this episode are sharing their experiences with threats of violence, and prejudice, and other topics that may be difficult for some people and also some young children to listen to as well.

Pat:
I hope that makes sense, but really again I’m just thankful that we have this platform here to be able to amplify messages that need to be heard, and I hope that you see these episodes as learning experiences for all of us. And we at team SPI, we’re just so thankful for the open dialogue and the open conversation as we continue to move forward and as we all continue to do better and fight racism. Here we go.

Shena Tubbs:
My name is Shena Tubbs. I think the assumption that people make when it comes to getting Black influencers, Black brand marketers, Black professionals, especially right now, is there’s an assumption that it’s a gimme. There’s an assumption that because we’re crying, or complaining, or saying, “Poor me,” or playing victim that now you have to put us in there like an affirmative action versus there are so, so many, so many Black business marketers, professionals, online experts out there. There’s no deficit. It’s that we’re overlooked and we’re not seen, and people who either have less experience or as much experience are the ones who are getting scaffolded and risen up, and asked and invited to come onto podcasts.

Shena:
And I don’t think that’s intentional. I think there are a lot of really good people who try to be inclusive and think that they’re inclusive, but it’s not until right now when actually all these people are trying to find people to spotlight in their area and it seems like a lot of people are scrambling. It seems like a lot of people are like, “Well, I don’t really know anyone,” and then they ask their community and they’re like, “I had no idea these people existed.”

Shena:
So, I would encourage y’all, anyone who has that unconscious bias, that just because you see a Black person in front of you now or you hear a Black person being interviewed on what used to be a mostly white or at least non-Black platform, that they are someone to be pitied versus this is a person who has worked as hard if not harder than you. They have earned it; and they should not be listened to as a pet to just give space to but as someone who can actually help you grow your business because she or he has done it themselves. So that’s my share.

Shena:
As far as who I am, if this is where you want to cut it off. My name is Shena Tubbs. I’m on a brand called Black Girls Heal. You can find me on Instagram @shenatubbs and you can find me on Instagram as well @Blackgirlsheal_. Thank you so much.

James Shannon:
Hey Pat and team SPI. To be honest, I wasn’t even going to do this but I wanted to tell you thank you. I’ve always wanted to tell you thank you and I thought this would be the perfect time. My entrepreneurial journey started when I was homeless in my car and I still commuted to work. On my commute I would listen to your podcast and it taught me to just be me, to take action, to just do, and stop letting things hold me back such as the way I talk or even the way I look, the color of my skin.

James:
At first I didn’t even know that you were even Filipino, and once I found that out it made me feel even better, and you’re a father, and you got laid off from your job. It’s just like we had so much in common that it just made me tune in to listen more and more on my one hour and fifteen commute to work and then the long commute back home. I listened to every single episode, and it just helped me to become better and to start my business. I don’t even want to mention the podcast or talk about starting the business because that’s not what this is about.

James:
I don’t know what I’m saying, but I also wanted to, for anybody listening, just know that racism is real. I’ve been told so many times that, “That’s not what it was about, he didn’t mean that.” Sometimes I would believe it. I would think, “Maybe I’m just…” I don’t know. But I remember as a kid we had these skinheads throw these eggs at us. My brother got chased by the police and they beat him until his eye was shut, and they told him that n-words were supposed to be fast. I remember I was dating this white girl, but she told me that I could never come inside her house because her parents don’t know that I’m Black.

James:
I remember working at this store as a bagger, and to become a cashier you had to take a test and learn the produce codes. My test had 300 codes that I had to learn and memorize. My coworker that was also taking the test, hers had 150 codes that she had to memorize. I remember I was working at this call center at this bank and we were not allowed to wear hoodies, but when it got really cold in December people started wearing hoodies including me, but I was told that I couldn’t wear mine because I looked like a thug.

James:
That’s just a few. I can go on all day with different stories from me or people that I know. Just for instance, the other day, my cousin, she asked a question on Facebook, “How old were you when you first had a gun put on you by a cop?” My response was 15, but I’ve seen people say as low as 7 and it just went up from there, and what was crazy to me was I thought that this was normal. I thought this happens to everybody, but it doesn’t, and I think that’s what the problem is.

James:
So anyways, I just wanted to say thank you for listening and just for having this platform. I don’t know what all responses you’re getting, but I’m just one person in the Black community that you have helped, and again, I just want to say thank you for that. I appreciate it.

Darryll Stinson:
Hey Pat. My name is Darryl Stinson. I’m a pastor, a TEDx speaker, and a suicide survivor. One of the reasons why I attempted suicide multiple times was because of the lack of identity that I had in college because of being torn between the racial divide that was in my community. I was a Black kid who got put in accelerated learning classes, and I tell this story in depth on my TEDx talk, Overcoming Rejection, When People Hurt You & Life Isn’t Fair—I think it’s helpful for people during this time—and talk about how I was torn between speaking proper and being accepted by white people but not being wealthy enough for them to come visit my house.

Darryll:
And then my family and my Black friends said I was too white to be invited to some of their parties, and so I started to become a really good athlete, and sports became the vehicle that freed me from having to choose between races because people didn’t care if I talked white or if I listened to rap music. All they cared about was how many points I scored and if we won the game that week. And so sports became my identity and we got a division one scholarship to play football at Central Michigan University.

Darryll:
Ultimately my career ended from an abrupt back injury. And that’s one of the reasons why I attempted suicide, was because I just didn’t know who I was. I had spent my whole life masking my identity behind sports and then that got ripped away from me, and so now through my organization, Second Chance Athletes, we help athletes transition from sports to career, and then from career to reach the top 10% of their industry and build a lasting legacy.

Darryll:
Let me also just say that I pastor one of the most racially diverse churches in America, and I’m in an interracial marriage. My wife is white, and she’s not ghetto white, super white, and we have three beautiful daughters, and we’re raising them in Georgia where slavery was prominent not too long ago. This is a tough time for leaders and this is a tough time for our families, but I say all that to say, I’ve been asked to make my remarks on multiple media outlets, Fox News, ABC News, here locally in Gwinnett County which is a very diverse county, and here are some things that I’ve been saying.

Darryll:
I am thankful that we’re having this conversation. I want us to focus on relationship as the higher goal versus race. So race is the conversation, but relationship is the goal. In our marriage we have a lot of issues, but we are able to endure those issues because we have a higher goal of being in relational unity with one another. The same applies to the social change that needs to happen in our nation, is that we may this issue of racial divide, discrimination, systematic oppression, but when relationship, unity, justice, peace, love is our higher goal, it helps us to endure the difficult conversations.

Darryll:
The other thing I’ve been saying is let’s say bridge building statements and not bridge burning statements, and let’s please, please, please stop putting periods where we should be putting commas. Here’s what I mean by — per the Drew Brees situation. Drew Brees, I believe, is part of the solution, not part of the problem. Just because somebody says something that is insensitive, we have to stop martyring them and we have to give them grace to say the wrong thing because we’re all learning, and the only way we’re going to move forward is if we can endure some hurtful remarks and if we can become aware of our shortcomings and our lack of knowledge and exposure to these issues, and move forward without feeling guilty. We cannot shame people into change. I believe that we can love people into change, and so that’s what I would say. It starts with things like this.

Darryll:
Thank you for using your platform to give a voice to entrepreneurs. Thank you for being racially diverse. I would encourage everyone, if you’re not racially diverse, please be racially diverse. Literally have friends that are different ethnicities than you because when you do that it makes this more about people and less about policy. Our church has a conversation on YouTube, Life Church International, you just search racism and reconciliation. We sat down with a group of diverse leaders and we just heard them, and listened to their stories and experiences, and they personalized it, and there were some strong opinions from both ends of the spectrum.

Darryll:
And then at the same time we turned around and we listened to our youth. We didn’t tell our youth, “This is what you should think or say,” we just listened to their hurt and their pain. I really encourage people to go watch it because one of the things we can do as leaders is model relational diversity. Not just post on social media but literally be in relationship with one another because that’s how we are going to move forward together.

Darryll:
So again, thank you for being a listening voice, and I’m honored that you’re hearing us out there in this time. If there’s anything that I can do to be of service, you guys just let me know. I’m here, darylstinson.com, secondchanceathletes.com. I’d love to connect and thank you again. Appreciate you.

Yolanda Mogatusi:
Hi Pat and team. First of all, thank you so much for this platform. Thank you so much for your message and also just the willingness to listen and to engage which I think is really, really important at this time. I am Yolanda Mogatusi. I am a filmmaker from South Africa and I wanted to share some of the similarities in our experiences here and also what we are seeing and observing in the US. Before I do that I just want to mention something so that I don’t forget at the end of my little speech.

Yolanda:
First thing, I started getting some of your emails earlier this year, and I too had started my podcast maybe about two years ago, and I just left it because of so many questions, and fear, and all sorts of things, and randomly I started getting some of your newsletters into my inbox which was very strange because I don’t remember signing up for anything. But it came at just the right time because this was the year to launch and this was the year to get off my backside and get it going.

Yolanda:
And then another thing I wanted to encourage you with, was I’ve just finished an entrepreneurship online course that’s supported or backed by a really big bank here in South Africa, and some of your content was included in the course just as additional reading and things like that. So that was really great to be introduced to the SPI community in that way as well.

Yolanda:
With just being South African and some of the race issues we have here, a lot of them stem from just the legacy that Apartheid has left, and a lot of the systematic issues that are in the US are very much here. I think the two big difference with the US and us is that here we are the majority. Black people and people of color are the majority. However, the systematic problems are still very much systematic and very much in place and entrenched everywhere. I’ll give an example.

Yolanda:
As a filmmaker here, we pitch often to the national broadcaster, and I remember bumping into a friend. We were both on our way to the airport and I was practicing, I was getting ready to pitch, practicing my little speech there. And he’s asking me, “Okay, so what are you doing? What’s happening?” And I’m like, “Oh, I’m getting ready for a pitch.” And he starts engaging with me and asking me what this pitch is about. Long story short, I start telling him, “Okay, the pitch is like this. It’s set here, it’s got these characters and whatnot.” And it turns out, that they’re working on pretty much exactly the same show, literally. It’s a drama, it’s set in a certain environment, they’ve got two brothers as the lead characters. The only difference was that their two brothers were white because they’re white, and our two brothers were Black. And it was the strangest thing.

Yolanda:
Long story short, they got the job; they got the gig. However, it was just really strange how it all evolved and how it all came out into the open as to what on earth could happen, because it sounds like we pitched exactly the same show with exactly the same storylines which was very very odd, because even if you have similar stories you wouldn’t necessarily have exactly the same thing going on. And then it just happened, friends asked me about race and, “Are they white? Are they this?” And realizing, “Oh wow, I wonder if that indeed had a part to play in them getting the gig and us not quite getting the gig even though we were literally pitching the exact same show.

Yolanda:
Another thing, though, that I’ve noticed is even again, as I mentioned before, we are the majority and because the system is so biased and it’s been there also for such a long time, I’ve found that even other people of color who are part of the system now and who are part of this leadership, the discrimination almost is handed down to them and I don’t know if they realize it or not but they perpetuate it. We have had shows before where we’ve had such great resistance from the editorial team for no good reason at all.

Yolanda:
The question always comes up, if our team was white or led by a white male instead of a Black female, would they give us just as much trouble? And so sometimes it’s also Black people who perpetuate this racist behavior or this discrimination and these biases. At least for me as a person of color, it’s got me thinking, “In what ways do I perpetuate this?” Thank you so much again for your show, and looking forward to engaging with more of your content.

Anderson Willis:
Hey Pat, this is Anderson. You and I started around the same time and I’ve been following your career for quite some time. We were both trained by Sterling, aka Jeremy [Franson 00:18:22] and you largely followed his advice and I didn’t. I went a different path, and I appreciate your post. I really do appreciate your post. There was one small distinction that really stood out to me and I started not to send this message, but I thought that I probably should, and if we’re having the tough conversations then now is the time to address the small distinction.

Anderson:
So George Floyd and others who were taken too soon were not taken because of the color of their skin, because there’s nothing inherently wrong with the color of their skin. But they were taken by something much more nuanced and something that has tended to be invisible. Racism is not an invisible force. Racism is something that is exhibited by people and it’s not as polite to say these things but I think the distinction, especially in this context, is pretty important. And so what has to be addressed is the tolerance towards violence towards people who look like George Floyd, who look like Breonna Taylor, who look like so many others in a long line of people.

Anderson:
And also, this goes deeper and I’m glad to have a conversation about it, but the, the dehumanization, the demonization, the devaluing of Black lives over the course of centuries, that contributes to a culture that would then allow for this type of violence to be enacted upon folks. And so it’s not the color of their skin that caused them to die, it is the allowance of this violence to continue in this culture. I think the only to really say it or the only way that I know how to address it at this particular moment, and I’m open to critique for using this phrase, but the sickness in our culture that allows us to continue that has killed these people.

Anderson:
So again, I thought I should address that small distinction. It is not really nitpicky but as a Black person myself there is nothing that happens to me because of the color of my skin. There’s nothing wrong with the color of my skin. It is the response of the culture and how we all have been trained in this culture to treat people who have skin that looks like mine. I have twin sons, and this of course is something that I think about often. This is something that I’ve lived with my entire life. This is something that I have largely learned to deal with and cope with, and thrive in the culture even with the obstacles. I’ll teach my sons to do the same. I’m hopeful, but I’m cautiously optimistic about the time and the moment that we’re in right now.

Anderson:
By the way, I did link—I reached out to you on LinkedIn with a story that I was going to tell about you and I starting at the same time. I’m putting that story on pause, obviously, because of the same reason that you guys are pausing. So again, I’m Anderson Willis, [email protected]. Feel free to reach out and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

Butch Gibson:
All right. Hey. Hey. I should probably have been more prepared but I missed it. I missed it. Look. Pat Flynn, I’m one of your biggest fans to a certain extent, and I missed this original email, and I just noticed that what stuck out to me, I guess, was weeks later… No, not weeks later. This original email came out on the fifth and then you had something that came out on the twelfth that piqued my interest because in the subject it was Black entrepreneurs speak out, smart digest, but the other one was just a message from our team which didn’t stick out for me.

Butch:
Look man, again, I’m a fan. Your journey is inspiring. That whole elephant book that you wrote and just a whole journey of starting with the blog and how you open it up. I’m a fan, man, and I really dig how you’ve been able to do things, although I will have to tell you, man, there’s times that you have, in my humble opinion, missed the mark. I don’t know if it is a thing that sometimes folks don’t even recognize. If I didn’t say before, my name is Butch Gibson. Whoever happens to be listening to this or screening this is patting themself.

Butch:
I’m glad, I have no ill will against you, I have nothing but encouragement for you, but I can say that it is typical. As a Black man, it is typical at times that as I just wander through this world like I do, that there are people that just have a certain, and this sounds maybe derogatory, certain set of blinders on where it’s like they just don’t see past whatever particular box they’re in. I’m not necessarily suggesting that you are unable to see past the box but you have actually motivated me for years and it is a specific incident, not just your history and all that you’ve done in your life, but I will tell you specifically and explicitly that there was a time when I got an email from you and it was late in the year. It might have been November or December.

Butch:
I got an email from you and it… I’m paraphrasing it but it had the hint of, “Hey, let’s start the new year off right by offering you some motivational content for the entire year.” I’d probably have to look back and read over that email if it’s not gone by now, but I remember that there… Like I said, I could be wrong, but it was either twelve or eighteen months calendar that you were offering. You had to click and receive the calendar, and I was like, “Yeah, cool, I could do that.”

Butch:
I was working at a job where I could hang some stuff up and I thought, “Hey, I’ll get this and I’ll hang up this calendar and be motivated while I’m here at work.” And when I got the calendar and I looked at it, not one of those people looked like me. I know that there are some people that motivate me, and I remember thinking about this email or that I wanted to send this voicemail to you, and I wanted to be able to just rattle off some people who motivated me and I wanted to be ready with it, but I know not only are there people that I know but they’re people that you know like Leslie, Leslie Samuel. I’m like, “Don’t y’all kick it together?” Why wasn’t he on the calendar?

Butch:
There’s Leslie Samuel, there’s Frederick Van Johnson from This Week in Photo, and then Snap Judgment’s Glynn Washington. Those are the kind of people that motivate me… And wait, my man Shannon Cason from Homemade Stories. So there are some podcasters out there, and it doesn’t have to be limited to the podcast community, but I was a little taken aback. It was just a reminder of the world in which we live that sometimes people of color don’t seem to be a part of it, don’t seem to just automatically be a part of it.

Butch:
I’m not bashing you, man, I’m just pointing that out, but from that, I would probably encourage you if you’ve got time to just look up the hashtag #myhiddenfigures. And I’ve probably said this, I’ve probably sent you an email about it because it’s been festering but I don’t want it to be a negative. I want it to be a positive, that when you sent me all of those motivational people that motivated you and, I guess, supposed to motivate me and no one looked like me, I took it upon myself to come up with people that motivated me.

Butch:
And I do this every year, so during the month of February, it took me some time to work it out, every day I bring up a different person, a person of color, a Black person during Black History Month that has motivated me and I celebrate them on all social media platforms, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. So if you just search that hashtag #myhiddenfigures, I want you to know that your original calendar, your motivational calendar was the motivation for me to come up with that whole concept and that whole idea, and this year was one of the best because I work at an elementary school and they put this challenge out to the students and staff and they all put up actual physical…

Butch:
They made this little document and they put up physical posters in the main hallway of who their hidden figures were, and who meant something to them, and who was an important person of color in their life that made a difference. And look man, I just wanted to share that with you. I don’t know if this is something that’s shareable or if this is something that I’m just too late to even bring that up, if it’s just way beyond the mark. But if nothing else, if it’s just for you, Pat, I want you to know that.

Butch:
I want you to know that I was hurt by it, but no more hurt than I’m hurt on a regular basis, when you sent me that calendar with nobody that looks like me. But I turned my frown upside down and I tried to make something positive out of it. So keep up the good work, man, and if you ever hear this, no need to reply. If you want to, my name’s Butch Gibson, man. I’m on all platforms @ButchGibson, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, butchgibson.com. Yeah. I feel like you’re an ally and these are challenging times and we need some allies, and I just wanted to share that with you, man. So keep up the good work. Peace and blessings.

Amanda Kemp:
Hi, my name is Dr. Amanda Kemp and I have been following you, Pat Flynn, for a while now. My business is dramandakemp.com and we are a racial justice and mindfulness company. We help leaders put racial justice and self compassion in the same lane and I think what would be most helpful for me as a Black entrepreneur right now is for more people in the entrepreneurial community to be interested in finding out about their implicit racial bias, that automatic unstated but powerful motivator that’s happening, and about structural bias, so what makes it harder for us as Black entrepreneurs. So that’s what would be helpful to me. I’m comfortable with you sharing my voice publicly and I encourage you all to check out what I do at dramandakemp.com. That’s dramandakemp. Thank you.

Charles Rayborn:
Hi, I’m Charles Rayborn III aka The American Prince Charles III, and I have a show on YouTube by the name of My Castle Life. I would like to first thank you Pat for setting up a section for the African American creators to speak, and yes, you have my permission to share this along your platform. I have wanted to share my experience as a Black man in America. First, let me say as well I have been truly blessed as a 20 year Navy veteran and a film graduate of The Los Angeles Film School of Hollywood.

Charles:
Being in the military, I’ve experienced amazing feelings one can only get being a part of something much larger than himself, and that’s the military fraternity of brothers and sisters. I’ve made friends from all races and walks of life. I’ve worked with amazing police officers and had to perform the national anthem even for the San Diego Police Department. But I too have been racially profiled and discriminated against in and out of the military.

Charles:
Too often people judge by what they first see. Unfortunately for racist people that’s your skin tone. One quick encounter I had with a police officer, in 1998 I was driving with a Filipino friend of mine who was also in the military in a brand new 5.0 Mustang I had just gotten. We’d left the Navy base, gone to Sears, to the mall to shop. We’d made it to Sears’ parking lot when blue lights started flashing behind us. I pulled over, although I was getting ready to park anyway. I pulled over in the parking lot.

Charles:
A female white officer walked up to me and she asked me where were we going. I told her, “To the mall.” She asked to see my paperwork. I gave it to her along with my military ID card and drivers license. She quickly looked shocked and was surprised we were military. She looked at my ID and stated I had been in the military longer than she has been on the force. I was in six years at that time. She quickly gave me my papers and said we’d looked lost but she wanted to make sure we found where we needed to go. I told her we were right where we needed to be, Sears.

Charles:
You see, racial profiling has been a tactic for many years as well. As a matter of fact, my white friends actually called me on the day of George Floyd’s murder, crying, asking me if I knew what had happened. I was traveling at the time and didn’t. They filled me in, and all I can say is that God can turn what was meant for evil into works for his glory. I pray that with George Floyd’s death we can look racism in the eye and call it what it is, and that in itself can be a catalyst for change.

Charles:
I started My Castle Life to help those who wanted to go to film school, but weren’t able to afford or were not able to go for whatever reason. The military paid for my school and so I always say, “I went to film school so you don’t have to.” My platform was created to teach aspiring writers how to structure a story therefore helping them along their journey.

Charles:
When we come to the conclusion that we are all God’s children and treat each other with mutual respect and how we would want to be treated, then I feel true change and equality would be the new beginning for us Americans. God blessings to all and please be safe out there.

Malikah Alif:
Hi. My name is Malikah Alif and I’m a lifelong entrepreneur and a longtime follower of Pat’s work in the entrepreneurial space online. I want to thank Pat and the team for opening a door and giving us an opportunity to share some thoughts. As a Black entrepreneur I honestly feel like there is so little support in our community for this as a path of financial stability for a variety of reasons. I’ve seen many, many examples of other communities, most notably immigrants, who get it.

Malikah:
Entrepreneurship is a path to not just success for yourself and your family but communities as a whole to uplift them and prevent some of the pervasive poverty and lack of upward mobility that disproportionately affects the Black community. In my humble opinion, I think this lack of representation in the business community is part of the reason there is a history of rioting and looting after high profile acts of injustice in Black communities—because there’s an us versus them mentality.

Malikah:
When people haven’t seen and experienced the hard work that goes into establishing a business, they are more likely to target them when anger boils over. As for how we as Black entrepreneurs can address this, I think we can take more initiative to take a higher profile stance to be part of the solution by doing more grassroots outreach and collaboration with others in our communities.

Malikah:
I know that I personally have a business that is pretty much hidden to the outside world, and I am in the process of changing that. I believe that we have a responsibility to not be satisfied by just making money in our little corner of the world, but to also share our lifestyle as a means of community empowerment.

Malikah:
Thanks again for providing the opportunity to share and I give permission to share this publicly.

William Hemphill:
Hello Pat Flynn and hello Smart Passive Income audience. This is William Hemphill, I am a licensed professional counselor in the state of Georgia. I am the owner of Faith and Family Empowerment and I also have a podcast, the Faith and Family Matters Podcast. I would like to just leave us with a thought when it comes to race relations in our country, and the acronym I would like to use is LEARN.

William:
The L stands for listen. Listen to the voices of African Americans and our experiences in this country. One of the biggest problems that I have run into, and many others I know have run into, is that our experiences of racism have often been dismissed by people. So in beginning to try to help the situation I would say the L in LEARN stands for listen.

William:
The E stands for empathize. Empathize. Try to place yourself in the situations or in the experience of an African American. For example, in the tragic situation of George Floyd, imagine yourself or one of your loved ones lying down on the ground, handcuffed, held down by police officers while someone is stepping on your neck and choking the life out of you. Maybe even imagine yourself in the state of Ahmaud Arbery. You are jogging down the street, you take a look at a house, then all of a sudden you’re chased down by men in a truck, have been hit, and a shotgun is pulled out on you, your son, or your daughter. In other words, empathize. What would that feel like for you?

William:
The A in LEARN is for act. Find some course of action that you can take. It might be joining an organization, it might be talking in a mixed group or interracial group of people, or it might just be simply using your sphere of influence. Every one of us has a sphere of people that we influence and we can use that sphere of influence to begin to advocate for those who have been marginalized in society.

William:
The R in LEARN is for resist. Resist the urge to step away. Resist the urge to give up when criticism comes because criticism will come. I have heard this in multiracial discussions. I have heard white people or people of Anglo descent say they have agreed in situations, but when they’ve gone back to their families they have been threatened with being ostracized, or ridiculed, or criticized. Know that when you try to do something different, that resistance is going to come and so when that does come, resist the urge to step away or back off.

William:
That leads me to the N in LEARN. Never quit. Never quit fighting for justice. Never quit advocating for others. Never quit working and helping those who are marginalized. Never quit. And the N for never quit would also, I would say, is do the first four steps over and over again. Listen, empathize, act, resist. So again, the acronym LEARN. Listen, empathize, act, resist, and never quit.

William:
Thank you so much for giving me this time to speak, and I hope that it blesses each and every one of you. Thank you for your listening and thank you for your concern. This is William Hemphill, licensed professional counselor, pastoral counselor with Faith and Family Matters, the host of the Faith and Family Matters Podcast. Take care.

Pat:
All right. Thank you so much to every single person who has submitted and who was featured here on the show. We will be having another episode where we’re going to be featuring voices that need to be amplified, messages and stories that need to be heard, especially in light of these themes here today. And most of all, just remember that we at Team SPI, we are learning, I hope you are learning as well, and it’s through these honest conversations and these authentic stories as well as our open minds that allow us to all grow together and create a better world for everybody.

Pat:
And by the way, if you’d like to see the links to these amazing people who were featured in this episode today you can go to smartpathsofincome.com/session433. I highly recommend you go, you check them out, you follow them, you learn about them, you learn from them, and this is what we do. So smartpathsofincome.com/session433. Team Flynn, you are amazing. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. We at Team SPI, we appreciate you and I look forward to serving you in the next and upcoming episodes. Cheers. Take care, and as always, #TeamFlynn for the win.