December 6, 2023 • 49 mins
We speak to the folks over at the Heist podcast who are doing incredible work in Black agriculture. Yes, that is a thing.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Alson media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
So wat's this, y'all listen. I was waving a white
flag today. I was like, Monday, y'all got it, you
got it, it's yours. I'm tapping out. I usually recorded
politics on Mondays, so the first Monday of the month
is always after Club real Ones, which is what we
(00:27):
do every first Sunday Day.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Party is funnest thing ever.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
If you live in California, you live in Long Beach,
not even in Long Beach, anywhere near Long Beach. I
don't care if you're driving up from San Diego. We
had to do it from Berlin and yesterday. Come to
the party. It's a super fun party, and then there's
an after party Rose Mellows next door. Anyway, you could
hear the rasp of my voice. I don't know if
you can, but I could feel it from hosting Club
real Ones. You know, last night, I was so tired.
(00:56):
Today kind of wasn't on my game as far as
making sure everything technically was there.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Now, I had an opportunity to.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Interview two amazing people, the sister name April and this
brother named Nate.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It was like the dopest.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Nate's is in black AG, which is black agriculture. The
thought never crossed my mind. So stupid because of course
it is that black people work farms too. I mean,
I'm such a city boy, and it's so stupid because
our families come from there. You know, it's so dumb.
But I was super excited to bring this to hood politics.
(01:40):
Get all the mic set up, ask them, ask them
to record on their end, and forgive my ignorance. I
was like, Okay, this brother that pulls calves out of cows,
I was like, I don't know if he gonna have
the internet service to be technically savvy, like, so I
want to make sure just in case, because listen, listen,
(02:01):
here my prejudice, because I'm like, it's all kind of
shit he can do that. I can't that. I'm like,
don't get me wrong. I'm like, I don't play in
his field. Nah, fam I mean it's words he knows
I ain't never heard of.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's survival.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Listen, when the coming of apocalypse happens, when the world
blows up, I'm gonna have no transferable skills. They gonna
have all the skills. They gonna keep us all alive.
So don't get me wrong, But in the world we
in now. I'm like, wow, you know, I know the Internet,
and I'm coming in here trying to make a case
for city folks to not treat rule people that way,
(02:38):
to be like, nah, they one of us.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That's our family, that's our future.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
But anyway, we get to this whole interview and I
realized I wasn't recording. I was like, oh my god,
we're y'all recording on y'all's in April professional reporter. She
was like, yeah, yeah, I got mine.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I was like.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Nate was like, I mean I think so, you know,
and then he hits the button and it goes recording
in progress. Oh my god, somehow or another. I don't
know how I did it. I don't know what happened.
But if you know how zoom works, if you're not
the person that started the meeting, you can't record it.
So I'm assuming the whole time, I'm assuming is recording.
(03:23):
Somehow or another. He became the runner of the meeting
and was able to record, but it felt like he
was only recording the last ten seconds of us.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Trying to figure out who was recording. I was like,
and then he was.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Like, I think I got it, but look I'm just
a country boy.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
What do I know?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Now?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I know enough to know about country boys. When they
say I'm just a country boy. That's just them saying like,
all right, you got a chief. That's the country way
of saying you got a chief. Because guess what. While
I was ready to give up and ask them to
record on Wednesday, that boy Nate sent the link. My
(03:58):
man had the whole show record it. Don't you ever
count them country boys out? So I now proudly present
to y'all the actual conversation we had.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, the audio is.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Not gonna be what it usually is because we don't
have separated tracks. We just got the one main audio
and Matt's gonna do his best for it.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But we did it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Joe, this is my interview of people from the podcast
called The Heights, and we're gonna talk about how the
Hoods and the Woods is really one thing politics.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Y'all cool?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So, like I said, like, I'll do all the intros
and stuff like that later, but as far as like
what we're doing and all this good stuff, but right now,
I would much rather just let y'all intro show itself.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
April, you want to go first and then without over
the night.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I'm April Simpson. I'm a senior reporter covering racial equity
at the Center for Public Integrity, and I'm happy to
be here.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Nice and clean, you know what I'm said, all right?
Speaker 5 (05:15):
They Yeah, I'm Nate Bradford, local rancher here in the
state of Oklahoma, kind of born and raised in the
state of Oklahoma. Calcaef Operation been in the ranching business
for over twenty years. Uh, you know, we're dealing with
some racing, I want to say, stuff dealing with the
USDA and.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
The agriculture for black producers.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
So there's been several things happening in the USDA that
black farms and ranchers hadn't had a chance to obtain
those things and to to you know, USDA being just
you know, us being discriminated or just say we was
for the terms maybe like they.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Don't you know, don't understand the culture.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
Right, So if we don't look like dam, talk like dam,
maybe we lacked those opportunities just because it's like something
we had to prove in who we are.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
And I'm just you know, it's just kind of time
out for stuff like that being stereotyped.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Right, I'm like you know, like diabolically just blown away,
fascinated and always flabberbackasted by just how invasive anti blackness
could be.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Because in my.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Mind, I'm like, of all the places that you would
think you would find some sort of camaraderie and unity,
you know what I'm saying, Like you know, there's only
so many ranchers, you know, I would imagine y'all's life
experience among y'alls, Like I I can't fathom how like
(06:50):
why would anyone find a way to discriminate it within
this such a tight knit and small community. Like I
think about like in you know, uh my listeners know,
like you know, from south central LA, from the east Side,
which is predominantly like Latino Filipino. That's kind of the area.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I grew up in. But I feel like in any
hood us say there's like.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
There's the there's the white family that just happened to
live in your hood, you know what I'm saying, And
like he just he with us, you know what I'm saying,
Like you know, nobody thinks anything about it.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It's just like I feel like I always say that
like black.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
People are good and taking in straights like we we
take in strays we love you, you one of us.
Nah he with me, you know, with me, Like it's fine,
you know what I'm saying, And it's just so weird
to me how it's just like what we share is
this like experience of property, this experience of the hood,
like you running from the same bullets I'm running from.
Like why would I why would I treat you any different?
(07:52):
It's so I aught that to say to hear you
say that, as you said, cal and caf.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Right, Yeah, yl carell calf.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm gonna get all that. I'm gonna get all the
burbige wrong. I apologize.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
No, that's no big deal. That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Man, Okay, good good good.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Is like you would think as somebody who got to
go out there and like do what y'all gotta do,
there would be some sort of like.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Unity and experience.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You know what I'm saying, Like is that so that's
not even what you experienced or is that something that
like maybe I would y'all put the put the powers
that be.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
So when we say unity, when we look at black
agriculture in this business, right, so my neighbors, I got
predominant white neighbors where I'm at, and you know, they're
they're real people.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I don't have.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
The issue becomes when you started asking them for money
and funding. Right in the United States Department of Agriculture
pretty much it's like the Worldfare for all forming and
ranch in the United States of America. So their goal
is to make sure that we have food on the table,
and we don't rely on other countries to get our
(09:02):
food source. Right, so if we get in situations where
like when the pandemic came rolled in, we was dealing
with lack of food on the shelf. So the government
was scrounging and making sure that the producers were staying
in business right. And so at that point when all
this money was getting handed out to to agriculture, they
(09:23):
realized that the black farmers was about to go out
of business. And we already knew, you know, we was
already the end of the our deal. We already knew
the streets knew what was happening on are for as
black producers.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
But they finally got to Washington, d c. And they
was going to try to do some stuff what they
called debt relief.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
So I had obtained early on in my beginning the
stage of ranching some government loan to get started. And
that's that's a whole nother kind of a story.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
We can get in that as well.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
It was hard, hard for me to get it, but
once I got in there, I was in the system, right,
So they denied us to receive debt relief during the pandemic,
you know at that time when the stock market literally
went down.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
To nothing or process went negative.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I mean in that April was like Doomsday of twenty
twenty four, you know for everybody, and so our calves,
we was not getting nothing for our casts was running
and I was still having to feed these laps out right,
I'm feeding all these hundreds of animals with nowhere to
go with him.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
And then we we.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Was trying to we was in the process of just
talk about a little bit about some more the difficult
we face. We was in the process of trying to
sell our beef. So here was America wanting beef. We
had beef on hand, thousands of pounds of beef, and
we could not find.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Processors to process our animals.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Right, So here I am been feeding these animals hundreds
of dollars a day, right and going through tons of
fee When I say ton of two thousand pounds of feet,
it's a lot of money that I put out there
and then literally had nowhere to go with my animal
because I couldn't get nobody to process my animal. But
the white producers that had the infrastructure, they was able
(11:14):
to take advantage and roll with their operations and keep
going and g line wrench which drenched that we have
here in Bola, Oklahoma just had to call it losses. So,
I mean, just so USD was there for them, wasn't
there in the You look at the background the USDA,
it's a predominantly white industry, right, I.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Mean what it is, yeah, is what it is. So
they wasn't. They weren't even thinking about us.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
And at the same time, so when they tried to
get that relief to the black forms and wrenchers too
so they can hang on. You know, there were some
white producers I just started out believe in Texas. Uh,
in another state maybe Florida went in and said hey, no,
we're not gonna allow.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
That to happen. So anyway they did.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, now everybody yelling you having handouts. Meanwhile they've been
living on handouts.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
For a decades.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, nah, that's that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, you you you taught me a lot, April canna
come to you, come to you in a second. But yeah,
like you really taught me a lot here in the
sense that like it's crazy how like just like racism
that just it just works against us, like not.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Even just us, but the whole system.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
You just like, damn like we need I don't understand,
like we need the product. Like yeah, you just you
just said that this one thing was the problem. Well
here go a solution that you're just like, nah, not
that solution. It just don't make no, it just don't
make no sense, you know. And then something you said
right there too that like goes to the systemic aspect
(12:50):
of it is kind of the same thing that you know,
you know, I've always found where it's like, well they
got the like you said, this other farm or ranch,
they got the infrastructure in place. So you know, I
remember like when I first started doing music my twenties,
you know, you offered this you know, big label deal,
(13:12):
and they was just like have your lawyer look over it.
And I was like, I'm sorry, my what now you know,
like you know, and and umies were like I'll just
ask my uncle, And I was like, oh word, you
got an uncle that's a lawyer, Like, okay, you know
what I'm saying, So you don't have to find four
five thousand dollars for this one?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Read like you don't have to find that.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Oh you got to you know, and if you didn't,
and if your uncle couldn't do it, here loan you
the five k for one of his friends from college.
You know what I'm saying. So like you you feel me?
So like they already had a system set up. So
it's like, so I'm coming in here, I'm about to
you know, I'm about to lose my masters in ten
years because I didn't know how to. I didn't know,
(13:52):
you know what I'm saying, Like, and they do, you
know what I mean? So that's when So that that
that that generational build up, I think it's super is
you just set it right there to be like, well,
they already had the infrastructure to set it up. I
was like, man, we was too busy trying to survive,
trying to figure out how to keep this thing running,
to be able to establish some sort of like relationship
and training and being able to go to the USDA,
(14:12):
whether I whether I knew somebody or not, whether they
ever even clicked on my profile and no I was
black or not. You know what I'm saying, it's to
be like you already already got these things in place.
Well that's generational, you know what I'm saying for you
to have that in place. The other thing you said.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Too, is like I'm a I'm a history nerd.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So even just knowing like how the Homestead Act worked,
being like, well, i mean the government they gave y'all
that land, and then they gave y'all the ability to
They loaned you the money for your tools and your tractors,
the you know what I'm saying, they gave you training
on how to do that.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
That just it just happened decades ago.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So when you look at that, look at black ranchers,
being like, why you guys surviving on handouts? It's like, fam,
that's that's how you got the rants. You got it
on a handout. Like, I don't understand what you don't
understand about that anyway? Yeah, man, Yeah, I'm super interested.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
So that makes it very difficult for us.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
So it's it's not a level playing field, right, So
I gotta keep rolling. I'm working a full time job.
My boys is in college while it's working. Everybody is
on full tilt. But what's happening is we running out
of time? You know what I mean in a sense
that all these experience and knowledge, we have the black
(15:31):
forms of ranchers about to be extinct, and you know,
the world don't see any give a damn be honest
about it. It's like, how do we How does the
culture not want to you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I just nah, I feel you, man, and I'm in
some ways I'm frustrated.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, I'm guilty of this.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And this is where I wanted to go to April
on this one because you know, listeners, I was telling
them to off Mike that like because of the great
migration you know, of American slaves after the thirteenth Amendment,
Like a lot of us went different directions. So if
you're from Cali, if you're from Cali like La San Diego,
(16:10):
chances are your family is from Texas and Oklahoma, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
And I fit into that.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
My daddy from Dallas, you know, and my granniece she's
sult for Spring, Texas and they was country as hell,
you know what I'm saying. And for some reason as
a city boy. You know that I you know, for
whatever family reasons why, Like my grandma didn't get along
(16:37):
with my grandfather. My grandfather stayed, my grandmama left, you
know what I'm saying, So for whatever ratchetness that they
didn't get along with, I didn't grow up going back
to Texas.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
You know what I'm saying to like to know any
of those roots.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But like it's so stupid as a city boy, You're like,
of course there's black people in agriculture, Like, like, of
course there is, you know what I'm saying, Like I
understand how the thought never crossed my mind until but
then you but then you you just never connected the dots,
you like, But Granny Country like she you know, she
(17:14):
had us, she had us in South Central snapping peas
and growing greens. You know what I'm saying, Like, yeah,
but but we was in l A. I just thought
that's what Grandma's do. It's like, well, no, she's she
grew up in the woods.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
That's why you do that, you know, saying it out.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So April, I would love to hear how you came
across the story and what made you feel like, man,
we really got to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah. So I had done some reporting on role issues
at my previous job and then tried to continue doing
that in my current job because I feel like, at
least with racial equity reporting, it is often focused more
on like urban spaces and we don't really think about
like black rural communities. But I had learned a bit
(18:29):
about USDA discrimination just with talking with like older black farmers,
and then also learning about some of the things that
happened during the Trump administration. I think Nate kind of
pointed to it. There was a program, the Market Facilitation
Program that was during the trade war with China, and
basically black farmers were pretty much left out of those
(18:52):
payments that were supposed to help level the playing field.
So yeah, so I learned about that, and I learned
about Pickford, which was a big class action lawsuits and
settlement that was successful for black farmers against the USDA.
And that's a whole other, whole other history. But it
(19:12):
was all of that that made me want to do
this story. And also knowing what the Biden administration is
trying to do for or has tried to do for
farmers of color, but black farmers in particular, and how
you know Nate mentioned that too, how it hasn't quite
worked out. It seemed like, you know, it's a timely,
it's a good time to tell this story.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, what were some of the like as you went
out into the field. What was some of the like
surprises if you can think of, like, I don't know
two of them, two things where you were just like, oh,
this is news to me, not.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
News, but maybe just different for me, you know. I
I mean I grew up in mostly grew up in
like a rural place but not connected to agriculture, and
you know, mates from Bowley and Bowlie is one of
the historic black towns in Oklahoma. So I had read
about Bowley, but I'd never been to a town like that.
(20:12):
And I got to go during rodeo weekend, which was
which was cool.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Right, I've never been to a rodeo.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I've never been to a black rodeo, And I mean
it just felt like the whole weekend was like a
big black family reunion. You know, everybody's everybody's out, everybody's
like having a good time, you know, reconnecting, cooking like
it was. It was really cool and just learning Like
Oklahoma to me feels like where the West meets the South.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
In a way that's exactly it.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yes, And I mean the rodeo was definitely that, like
it felt very country but also very western too.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
That's a that's amazing. I I mean, I can't stress
this enough to where the like.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
The obviousness of like, of course, this is a growing,
thriving community that honestly all of us came from, you
know what I mean, Like, and that's that's the part
that like it's just such a such a light bulb
for me because I remember one time, like out here,
I think I was a high school whatever and a
(21:18):
friend of mine had his cousin come visit, you know,
so who's summertime whatever hanging out right? And he was like, hey,
my summer is my cousin's like a junior rodeo champion.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
And I was like, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
What it was like, Yeah, he's like he won the
like you know, juniors like rodeo. And I was like, wait,
like you got to start over, Like I was like,
what are you what are you talking about? And then
he tried to explain, like, yeah, nah, there's there's black
rodeos like I do the roping, like I'm I was
like and and and again it was again a moment
(21:50):
of like duh, of course there is you know, and
just but the fact that I never thought about it.
I feel like it's something that like the city really
can appreciate. Have a I have a lot of friends
in ok See who really involved in like just business,
gang intervention stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
They work really like the East side.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Of Oklahoma City, like doing a lot of like really
cool projects out there.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
And yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
That that that east or now that that South meets
the West motif, Like really it really resonates with my
with my experience too, you know. And and even even
like even in the urban centers, that's like you know,
you you know, you we were outside. It's it's a
(22:37):
horse riding next to like, you know, Impala on twenty
two's you know, you know what I'm saying, and you know,
and it's just like look we just this what we do?
You know what I'm saying, and like that sort of
like thing. And even even in Compton like that they're
you know, we got Compton cowboys because Compton used to
be a farm in town, you know what I mean.
So like a lot of black people who were out
(22:59):
there had had small farms, you know what I'm saying,
and like and they you know, they wear cowboy boots
and stuff like that. But just just realizing that, like God,
this is actually our roots. And I feel like me
never being in like like.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I was never in it.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I never I never lived in a gym Crow State.
I never you know what I'm saying, I've never So
because of that, I don't I don't have like the
same type of long sort of history of monuments of
experiences that are specifically about our black resilience because I didn't.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I didn't have to go through that, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So like when I went to go I say all
that to say, when I went to go visit my
friend at Okay See, he was like, yeah, this We're
at the cigar Lounge and He's like, yeah, this was
one of the places where you know, we used to
meet when we were organizing for this. You know, this
was the first black home. You know this, you know
when doctor King came, He's right here, blah blah blah.
Like we just we just don't have a lot of
(24:02):
that in California because it's just wasn't a Jim Crow State.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
So I feel like hearing your story and and like
you said, like what you experienced, I feel like I
wish all city folks would have a chance to come
experience that, because it's like it's a it's a piece
of your history that you may not even know you
miss it, you know what I mean. And uh, and
so that's that's Beaudle. I feel like I would have
(24:27):
had the same kind of like, oh my gosh, this
is way more familiar than I expected it to be,
you know.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Yeah, And that's why I think it's so important that
we try to continue. You know, we fights hard as
we can to continue to stay in this business. I mean,
we got to look at when you look at agriculture business,
ranching business, how it's now become uh, every like everything
(24:55):
else corporately ran Right.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So it's if you ain't big, you going home right now. Right.
It's hard to be a small guy in this because
you've got to have buying power. You got to have.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Equity you don't have, you know, I sit on all
this equity and buying power that you know, Ranch has
been just been getting the handouts for decades.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
So uh, this this time and we in right now it's.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Really critical, uh a phase that we try to you know,
trying to page and trying to get you know, find innovative,
creative ways stay in business.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Man.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
When we get one thing, I do like, you know,
I'm part of a deal where we we actually reach
out to some.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Of my backgro a little bit more about my background.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
We took in some students mentored them from hbc you
here in the state of Oklahoma Lands University. A lot
of our HBCU universities are has agriculture heavily agricultural background, right,
but that's probably the most starving area, and all of them.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
The HPC used because there are.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
A lack of knowledge teachers from our culture in there. Right,
So we've seen that. We started bringing teaching students you know,
what's a booll, what's a head for? You know, cal
just in dealing with the injection of medications and stuff
like that to the animals to try to you know,
(26:23):
educate them because we wereize, hey, they need to be
in the workforce, they need to know stuff. Ain't but
a few of us I heard, right, less than half
a percent of us in agriculture out of you know,
out the whole world. That's that's pretty bad, right, And
and all of them ain't making no money. This industry
(26:43):
is no more than if you're doing really good, if
you're doing fifteen percent returns.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
On your investment in this business.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I'm not.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
I mean, I'm still working a job and I'm trying
to get to or I can at least get to
that part. And right now, when inflation come in, they
you know a lot of my stuff, I deal with
thirty percent and more inflation. So we experienced another setback,
and we had an opportunity to maybe to get ahead
(27:11):
or ain't gonna get ahead, but to be in the game.
We lost out due the USDA government not wanting us
to assist US black forms and ranchers.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So it sounds like even in just the verbiage you
was using that like like you are despite the business,
you're a businessman like and the things that you've had
to just talk about inflation, you know, your rois, you
know what I'm saying and all those things. So it's
like it's it's interesting to me to hear that, Like, look, man,
I don't care what the field is. Business is business,
(27:44):
and you have to know what you're talking about you know,
and I'm curious about two things. The first one is
a little more a little more in depth, and then
the second ones just would be kind of fun. I
think the first thing would be, like, can you think
of any sort of moments where you were in a
situation where maybe the type of interactions that you were
(28:07):
having led you to believe that the people or persons
or the institution you were sitting across the table from
thought you didn't know what you were talking about, right,
and uh, but you knew you knew what you was
talking about. You know what I'm saying, And maybe you
know obviously I'm leading into us towards what we do,
which is like using what you already know to help
(28:28):
you understand what you think you don't know you know
what I'm saying. So, which is like you know, like
you said, you grew up agriculture. You know you're doing this,
but it's like, fam, I got I have another job.
Both my both my kids, both my sons are in college.
Like I know what I'm talking about, you know what
I'm saying, So like can you can you can you
can you recall any of those moments? You know, even
(28:50):
if they're paying if they're paying points, don't worry about it.
But like if it's like you know what I mean,
if you could grow up, we'll call moments where you
had to use the knowledge that you've acquired here, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, So, and I'm just really back ten ten years
maybe fifteen years ago.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
In my in the beginning, I went just and were
talking about getting money here. So my wife.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
They had some land that we wanted to inquire. It's
forty acres, and I went to the bank and she
shared that properly with us, with us, with the siblings.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
So I go to the bank and say, hey, I
want to buy this forty acres and mine is for
the extras for twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Man, all right, well yeah yeah, real talk, real talk.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh my god. Okay, all right, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
So I'm here trying to convince a banker that's been
been loaning me money to buy cutlass.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Is right.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
I'm walking at the dealership, I'm buying trade ins, I'm
flipping cars, but I'm buying them for you know, five
eight hundred.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Dollars, twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah, but I'm still wrenching, right, I'm still trying to dig,
trying to get into that field.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
But he denies me and.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Tells me that he felt like I had too much,
you know, on my plate pretty much. He didn't have
the confidence in me. Man, Yeah, you know what I mean.
But look at me now. I'm still in the game.
But it's it's that's that's what.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
You're dealing with, you when you get stereotyped. I heard
people think that you don't know, you know what you're doing,
what you're talking about, But it's just.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
It is so far from the truth, man. And you
know what we like in is opportunity. Give me, give
me the ball, you to give what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Yes, I'll show you what to do with it.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
And that's one in agriculture, we hadn't had the opportunity.
We don't got so far down the road now, you
know that. It's it's just sometimes it feels like it's impossible,
you know.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
But I'm not gonna give up. I'm gonna keep doing
what I do.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
And I got a family of loves and supports me
on all measures, and God's with me, So who's gonna
be against me?
Speaker 4 (31:20):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Bruh.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I mean when I tell you, like when I had to,
I've lived a few lives. When I used to teach
high school. Before I could teach high school in California,
you had to like pass this the credentially, you know whatever.
I taught social science and one of the one of
the one of the state tests was on economics and
(31:44):
I failed that much three times.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
And it wasn't because I didn't know what I was
talking about.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I just didn't know how to tell you that, you
know what I'm saying, like, because to me, I was like,
it's pretty simple. You know, you don't spend money you
ain't got Like that's that's easy. You know what I'm saying,
Like you know, like you know or like, well, if
I'm gonna borrow this, I know it costs, it costs,
it costs money. You have to you're selling me alone,
(32:10):
so I know, well, how much does your loan cost?
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
This?
Speaker 3 (32:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And I'm thinking, if I'm walking in in.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
My head, its logical to me the same thing you said.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I'm walking into this bank and I'm like, bro, you
see everything I got going against me, and I'm still okay, like,
don't you think I got the hustle to I done
figured it out already, you know what I'm saying, Like
to get to that point. You know what I'm saying,
Like despite like I ain't got no help. You know,
everybody else come here, got help. I'm still okay, you
know what I'm saying, Like I still got to hoop
over my head. Don't you think that I I'm gonna
(32:40):
figure out how to pay you back? Like come on, fab,
you know that's whatd have made sense to me, you know,
but like you said, it's just like like if you
just give me the ball, like if we like clearly
we've been surviving this loan, so like don't you think
you think what else do I need to prove to you?
Speaker 4 (32:57):
You know? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:59):
It was you deal though, because my wife had a
part of it, so he only needed to lend me
eighty percent of the money, right, so he should have
been covered with equity. And it's like, dang, the worst
thing happened, you donna have to use don't take it,
but I know that wasn't gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, and you it's and it's crazy to me because
it's like it sounded like to me, like you would
have to tell him that where You're like, well, bro,
I mean she already owned part of the land. Like
why do I need to tell you this? Like you're
the you're the bank. Why do I got to tell you?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah? So then okay, So then my last question, well,
my last question to you, Nate, and then I got
one more questions for April.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
My last question for you, Nat is like, okay, city boy,
you know we land out at HBC. You know land
at HBCU see the Agriculture Department, And I'm probably like skip,
you know what I'm saying, Like, make a case for me,
(33:54):
make a case for city boys, black city boys to
be like, yo, this is part of the culture. This
is part of the revolution. May I interest you in
a life of ranching? Like make a case for us.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
You know, agriculture is one when you look at the
base of it, you're gonna you're gonna better provide food
and water and resources.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
Everything you're dealing with and walking around and you look
in the city is dealing with ad.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
So we didn't you know you can buy property out
here and get royalties for water or damn. It's just
and it's been a basis for in my opinion, for
people who want to have money or got money to
own the kind of real estate that's out here. Nobody's
(34:44):
making no more land. It ain't no more it's on
so much of it. And you know, I encourage you
to invest and buy you some land.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Apartments and stuff and homes.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Are good, but typically in about twenty five years they'd
depreciate and they go the other way. But when you
talk about you buy good land, it don't do nothing
but go up. People have been hiding money in land
for decades. That's that's that's what they do. I least
land out here from people in California that they been
(35:20):
having in their family. And if and if oil gets
struck on that deal, they just don't get a check.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
But that's kind of money that can be out here
if you're able to buy land.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Unfortunately, what's happening on our ends, you know, is that
we can't afford to purchase this land anymore because it's
not got that expensive. But if you're living in the city,
and especially for the young men out that want to
become men, you know, I put I put.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
My boys up against a lot of you city boys.
I'm just gonna be just.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Straight up you right now.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
I'm just telling how it is. I used to.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
I'm from the country people that we went to the
city and when we threw them things, let me tell you,
when they.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Was connecting, they felt that pressure. I'm just telling you,
so when you want a man up, this is a
good way to make them.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Men come in and then women. A good woman can
appreciate a good man. I'm just telling you.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Hey, they out here, listen. I tell you what, y'all
are different kind of strong.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
That's real.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
That's a different kind of strong because, like I mean it,
don't get me wrong, Like you know, my daddy and them,
my family, like they had a Like I said, I
grew up in a Latino community. So like you don't
even think about the Mexican men like you work. I'm
saying they had me working, you feel me. But when
it comes to that like that endurance, I'm like, oh, nah, bro,
like I need to hit the porch. He like, brus Bro,
(36:46):
it's a coffee break, bro, Like what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Man, we're not even done yet. And I'm like, maam,
I'm done.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
You know. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
The community is good, man, I mean, the lifestyle is
just I mean, it's just actually, you know, everybody take
care of one another. You know, in this business, we
lost our attractor, piece of equipment, and man, you know,
some brothers came together, we hooked up and they helped
(37:13):
me out and stuff. So yeah, and that's you know,
that's one thing I just think about being out here,
just being able to have those resources and you know,
good people and you know what I'm saying, take care
of one another.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Definitely like something happened to me recently, you know, in
just stage of life whatever it is, where it was
just like I mean, I my whole life. Man, I
hate camping. I don't like I don't like outside. I
don't like cold, I don't like hot.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yo said, like like none of it.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
But like recently, like you know, you get a little older,
you know what I'm saying, and like and you know,
friends who kind of figured it out, you know what
I'm saying that like they got a little you know,
little cabins out in Wyoming and this and this, like Yo,
come out you know now we fishing with them and
I'm like, hey, this.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Is it's a lot of funner than I thought it
would be.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
You know what I'm saying, and just being like, hey,
so tell them about that horse, you know what I'm saying, Like, hey,
so what do you gotta do? You know what I mean,
and just like getting a little more curious about it
and the idea of like, yeah, like that's kind of nice.
It's kind of nice, like you no knowing your neighbors
and being like no, not about like no, no guns
(38:25):
pointed at you.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You know what I'm saying, Like, you.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Know, that's kind of nice, you know, so, so yeah, man,
I think that's man. I appreciate that. Man, thank you
so much. And in April, like so, I'm not sure
(39:16):
if the season will be out by the time this drops,
but like, if you were to give me like three
takeaways that you would hope inner city kids like myself
and it's sort of the people we talked to that
they will received from from from this season. What would
(39:37):
those three things be?
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Three takeaways for city folks. That's a good question. I
think I hadn't thought about it in that in that
kind of context. Maybe I guess if the opportunity presents
itself to try to get out in the country, right,
like if you have relatives, if you just have some
kind of connection, you can get out on the land
(40:00):
with folks, like do some work. Try to just try
to do that because it'll it'll open up your eyes.
It's opened up my eyes every time I've had the
opportunity to do that. And I feel like we're always
a little we can be a little disconnected right from
that life from folks who are living that life, and
(40:22):
it's always important to build build stronger connections and just
to try to learn more about it.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
If you can't make if you can't physically go there,
then you know, if you can on your own time,
just try to learn more.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
What are ways that we can help, like lobby advocate,
you know, for just a particular cause that we're talking now,
as far as like the USDA and things like that.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
What are ways we can help?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
I think education. I think education is one just learning
more about the history of black farmers in the US.
There's a book by Daniel called This Possession that focuses
more on like civil rights history and black farmers and USDA.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
But that's really good.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
The Environmental Working Group has a page that has like
documents that are important to understanding the history around black
farmers and USDA. So I mean those are like, you know,
primary source documents, but they're still it's nice to just
go in there and see. Yeah, those would be some
places I would start. Do you mind if I just
(41:32):
add some context to something they said earlier?
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Yeah, go for it, not go ahead? Okay?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
With the debt relief program that we were talking about,
it it was a four billion dollar program. It was
in the American Rescue Plan Act, which was like a
big COVID relief bill, right, yeah, And it was an
attempt to try to do something for farmers of color,
and a lot of that organizing came from initially came
(41:58):
from black farmers. You could eat and say, like the
origins of that are in the Justice for Black Farmers Bill, Okay,
But then lawsuits started popping up across the country from
white farmers who said it was discriminating against them, and
a federal jug Jim Florida, blocked implementation of that, so
(42:20):
USDA could not do anything about that, right, Their hands
were tied. They couldn't move forward on that. And then
it was because of that they ended up sort of
changing things and in another big bill called the Inflation
Reduction Act, there was a new color blind program that
is essentially a form of deck relief. So I just
(42:43):
think that's important to understand it.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, that helps, like to just really understand what was happening,
you know what I'm saying, and not thank you for
that's that's good.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
And then another like really foolish question to end on
is like.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Is there ways if I walk into a store or
to know that this beef came from a black farm
so I can buy that one certain ways to know that.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
I would think I might have to defer to on this.
I would think just look, you look at the label
and if you know who those folks are, that might
be the only way to know.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Yeah, there's there's no.
Speaker 5 (43:24):
When I say that, that requires what we talked about
early infrastructure. So we have no you know, we ain't
got no cotton gen right, we picked ahead of Cotton Jean's.
We ain't got no meat packing processing. We we we
just in this business right now currently whatever the market
(43:44):
is doing that day, that's what we're doing, right and
that's what all me and my family been trying to
get away from. We've been selling our own beef off
the ranch g Lin Ranch dot com.
Speaker 4 (43:55):
Check it out and we you know it's but we
haven't been able to take off. I mean we have to.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
We wanted to do our own processing, and unfortunately we
had had you know, didn't have the money and resources
to do that. Uh They've been millions or billions dollars
in grants in the USDA had but unfortunately, I have
not heard of one black producer had you know, got
any new infrastructure. So that's what we're behind on, is infrastructure.
(44:29):
Infrastructure takes a lot of times. You already got to
be in business to to get the next McDonald's, right,
so you know, you just don't a lot of times
to just come out of nowhere unless somebody.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Hit the lottery.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
So everything I got is from the ground up, and
we're just able to do that and just not going
to currently you know, be able to do it and
compete with free people who getting free money.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
So you like the you're like the indie artists of agriculture.
Got it. It's probably better product, but you ain't got
no distro. Okay, So we gotta we gotta we gotta
go go get it, get go, get it out of
your trunk.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I mean I understand now yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta
go to band camp, not Spotify, got it?
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Yeah, straight up?
Speaker 5 (45:18):
I mean you know, it's just because there's a lot
of stipulations to get to.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
That form, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Nah. As you was talking, it was kind of like
all kind of making sense to me, like just even
the I mean again, because it's it's the same like
when you know, you tell people you do music, it's like,
oh have I have I heard you on the radio,
and you're like, well, uh well probably not. You know, yeah,
you know, so you really do music. It's like, well, okay,
(45:45):
so this is this thing called the strip distribution, and
then you know, say, you gotta walk through this whole
thing to be like, man, maybe at twelve o'clock on
Saturday night, you know, on Sunday morning at one in
the morning, and you know, toad Suck Arkansas, this DJ
decided to play this song.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
You say, like, yeah, you know, that's.
Speaker 5 (46:04):
Exactly how it is for us, and you know, you
just everybody looking at you.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
You the new guy. Right.
Speaker 5 (46:10):
So I'm black. I walk into and today business it's like,
well who is you?
Speaker 4 (46:15):
You know?
Speaker 5 (46:15):
You know, well, you know I've got cattle her for
sale today. Yeah, I'm heard of. You know, I'm heard of.
You know, I'm just saying that just how it is.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I'm gonna show you the work, like you know what
I'm saying, Like look at the work, like the work
is right, Like I would understand what else you need?
Speaker 3 (46:32):
The work is right.
Speaker 4 (46:34):
Yeah, you know, we just got a long way to go. Man.
Speaker 5 (46:37):
We just need you know, my opinion needs people to
try to find ways to support and and then you.
Speaker 4 (46:43):
Know, try to.
Speaker 5 (46:46):
Try to make a word into everybody and the situation
that we're facing that her you know, we don't you know,
we're looking at being in extinct in this bitch. We
don't have to be that way. It's three hundred and
fifty million people in the United States right were less
than a half a percent of all foods being That's
a lot of eating.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
Going on every day. And how can we just be
you know, not making nothing.
Speaker 5 (47:08):
And I know our people, so my my, my next
phase is to try to connect with you know, our
people and try to raise up products, good beef and
trade with people that want to trade and do business
for me and help me get off the ground.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (47:27):
I'm working for a good cause and you know, just
suppose to support man, somebody just want to support us. Yeah,
but you know, if we want at a little bit
more about us, go on TikTok.
Speaker 4 (47:43):
G Lion Ranch, Yeah, g Lion Ranch. Check that out.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, send me all that. We've put all that in
the show notes, all that. Blast this thing out. Well,
thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you so much
for your time for being a part of this.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
Uh, you're gonna told us the g Line Ranch And
what's the name of the pot again, so we could
let everybody know.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
It's called the Heist and it's by the Center for
Public Integrity, Center for Public Integrity.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
You you like working there? Yeah, of course. Well I
don't know the little racist just no, that's dope. Well,
thank you again, y'all. Man, I super appreciate y'all time.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Manciating, yeah, man, we're gonna we're gonna blast this out.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
We're gonna get you, right, y'all, y'all need to eat
black people meat.
Speaker 4 (48:32):
Listen, come see me Cali all right.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
We will go see you man, all right.
Speaker 5 (48:40):
M yo yo.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
This thing right here was recorded by ME Propaganda and
East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This thing was mixed, edited, mastered,
and school by the one and the only Matt Awsowski.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
Y'all check out this fool's music. I mean it's incredible.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman for Cool Zone Media. Man,
and thank you for everybody who continue to tap in
with us. Make sure you leaving reviews and five star
ratings and sharing it with the hommies so we could
get this thing pushed up in the algorithm and listen.
I just want to remind you these people is not
smarter than you. If you understand city living, you understand politics,
(49:28):
We'll see you next week.
Alson media.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
So wat's this, y'all listen. I was waving a white
flag today. I was like, Monday, y'all got it, you
got it, it's yours. I'm tapping out. I usually recorded
politics on Mondays, so the first Monday of the month
is always after Club real Ones, which is what we
(00:27):
do every first Sunday Day.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Party is funnest thing ever.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
If you live in California, you live in Long Beach,
not even in Long Beach, anywhere near Long Beach. I
don't care if you're driving up from San Diego. We
had to do it from Berlin and yesterday. Come to
the party. It's a super fun party, and then there's
an after party Rose Mellows next door. Anyway, you could
hear the rasp of my voice. I don't know if
you can, but I could feel it from hosting Club
real Ones. You know, last night, I was so tired.
(00:56):
Today kind of wasn't on my game as far as
making sure everything technically was there.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Now, I had an opportunity to.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Interview two amazing people, the sister name April and this
brother named Nate.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It was like the dopest.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Nate's is in black AG, which is black agriculture. The
thought never crossed my mind. So stupid because of course
it is that black people work farms too. I mean,
I'm such a city boy, and it's so stupid because
our families come from there. You know, it's so dumb.
But I was super excited to bring this to hood politics.
(01:40):
Get all the mic set up, ask them, ask them
to record on their end, and forgive my ignorance. I
was like, Okay, this brother that pulls calves out of cows,
I was like, I don't know if he gonna have
the internet service to be technically savvy, like, so I
want to make sure just in case, because listen, listen,
(02:01):
here my prejudice, because I'm like, it's all kind of
shit he can do that. I can't that. I'm like,
don't get me wrong. I'm like, I don't play in
his field. Nah, fam I mean it's words he knows
I ain't never heard of.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's survival.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Listen, when the coming of apocalypse happens, when the world
blows up, I'm gonna have no transferable skills. They gonna
have all the skills. They gonna keep us all alive.
So don't get me wrong, But in the world we
in now. I'm like, wow, you know, I know the Internet,
and I'm coming in here trying to make a case
for city folks to not treat rule people that way,
(02:38):
to be like, nah, they one of us.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
That's our family, that's our future.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
But anyway, we get to this whole interview and I
realized I wasn't recording. I was like, oh my god,
we're y'all recording on y'all's in April professional reporter. She
was like, yeah, yeah, I got mine.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
I was like.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Nate was like, I mean I think so, you know,
and then he hits the button and it goes recording
in progress. Oh my god, somehow or another. I don't
know how I did it. I don't know what happened.
But if you know how zoom works, if you're not
the person that started the meeting, you can't record it.
So I'm assuming the whole time, I'm assuming is recording.
(03:23):
Somehow or another. He became the runner of the meeting
and was able to record, but it felt like he
was only recording the last ten seconds of us.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Trying to figure out who was recording. I was like,
and then he was.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Like, I think I got it, but look I'm just
a country boy.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
What do I know?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Now?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I know enough to know about country boys. When they
say I'm just a country boy. That's just them saying like,
all right, you got a chief. That's the country way
of saying you got a chief. Because guess what. While
I was ready to give up and ask them to
record on Wednesday, that boy Nate sent the link. My
(03:58):
man had the whole show record it. Don't you ever
count them country boys out? So I now proudly present
to y'all the actual conversation we had.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, the audio is.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Not gonna be what it usually is because we don't
have separated tracks. We just got the one main audio
and Matt's gonna do his best for it.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
But we did it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Joe, this is my interview of people from the podcast
called The Heights, and we're gonna talk about how the
Hoods and the Woods is really one thing politics.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Y'all cool?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So, like I said, like, I'll do all the intros
and stuff like that later, but as far as like
what we're doing and all this good stuff, but right now,
I would much rather just let y'all intro show itself.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
April, you want to go first and then without over
the night.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I'm April Simpson. I'm a senior reporter covering racial equity
at the Center for Public Integrity, and I'm happy to
be here.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Nice and clean, you know what I'm said, all right?
Speaker 5 (05:15):
They Yeah, I'm Nate Bradford, local rancher here in the
state of Oklahoma, kind of born and raised in the
state of Oklahoma. Calcaef Operation been in the ranching business
for over twenty years. Uh, you know, we're dealing with
some racing, I want to say, stuff dealing with the
USDA and.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
The agriculture for black producers.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
So there's been several things happening in the USDA that
black farms and ranchers hadn't had a chance to obtain
those things and to to you know, USDA being just
you know, us being discriminated or just say we was
for the terms maybe like they.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Don't you know, don't understand the culture.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
Right, So if we don't look like dam, talk like dam,
maybe we lacked those opportunities just because it's like something
we had to prove in who we are.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
And I'm just you know, it's just kind of time
out for stuff like that being stereotyped.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Right, I'm like you know, like diabolically just blown away,
fascinated and always flabberbackasted by just how invasive anti blackness
could be.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Because in my.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Mind, I'm like, of all the places that you would
think you would find some sort of camaraderie and unity,
you know what I'm saying, Like you know, there's only
so many ranchers, you know, I would imagine y'all's life
experience among y'alls, Like I I can't fathom how like
(06:50):
why would anyone find a way to discriminate it within
this such a tight knit and small community. Like I
think about like in you know, uh my listeners know,
like you know, from south central LA, from the east Side,
which is predominantly like Latino Filipino. That's kind of the area.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I grew up in. But I feel like in any
hood us say there's like.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
There's the there's the white family that just happened to
live in your hood, you know what I'm saying, And
like he just he with us, you know what I'm saying,
Like you know, nobody thinks anything about it.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
It's just like I feel like I always say that
like black.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
People are good and taking in straights like we we
take in strays we love you, you one of us.
Nah he with me, you know, with me, Like it's fine,
you know what I'm saying, And it's just so weird
to me how it's just like what we share is
this like experience of property, this experience of the hood,
like you running from the same bullets I'm running from.
Like why would I why would I treat you any different?
(07:52):
It's so I aught that to say to hear you
say that, as you said, cal and caf.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Right, Yeah, yl carell calf.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm gonna get all that. I'm gonna get all the
burbige wrong. I apologize.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
No, that's no big deal. That's what I'm here for.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Man, Okay, good good good.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Is like you would think as somebody who got to
go out there and like do what y'all gotta do,
there would be some sort of like.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Unity and experience.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
You know what I'm saying, Like is that so that's
not even what you experienced or is that something that
like maybe I would y'all put the put the powers
that be.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
So when we say unity, when we look at black
agriculture in this business, right, so my neighbors, I got
predominant white neighbors where I'm at, and you know, they're
they're real people.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I don't have.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
The issue becomes when you started asking them for money
and funding. Right in the United States Department of Agriculture
pretty much it's like the Worldfare for all forming and
ranch in the United States of America. So their goal
is to make sure that we have food on the table,
and we don't rely on other countries to get our
(09:02):
food source. Right, so if we get in situations where
like when the pandemic came rolled in, we was dealing
with lack of food on the shelf. So the government
was scrounging and making sure that the producers were staying
in business right. And so at that point when all
this money was getting handed out to to agriculture, they
(09:23):
realized that the black farmers was about to go out
of business. And we already knew, you know, we was
already the end of the our deal. We already knew
the streets knew what was happening on are for as
black producers.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
But they finally got to Washington, d c. And they
was going to try to do some stuff what they
called debt relief.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
So I had obtained early on in my beginning the
stage of ranching some government loan to get started. And
that's that's a whole nother kind of a story.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
We can get in that as well.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
It was hard, hard for me to get it, but
once I got in there, I was in the system, right,
So they denied us to receive debt relief during the pandemic,
you know at that time when the stock market literally
went down.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
To nothing or process went negative.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I mean in that April was like Doomsday of twenty
twenty four, you know for everybody, and so our calves,
we was not getting nothing for our casts was running
and I was still having to feed these laps out right,
I'm feeding all these hundreds of animals with nowhere to
go with him.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
And then we we.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
Was trying to we was in the process of just
talk about a little bit about some more the difficult
we face. We was in the process of trying to
sell our beef. So here was America wanting beef. We
had beef on hand, thousands of pounds of beef, and
we could not find.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Processors to process our animals.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Right, So here I am been feeding these animals hundreds
of dollars a day, right and going through tons of
fee When I say ton of two thousand pounds of feet,
it's a lot of money that I put out there
and then literally had nowhere to go with my animal
because I couldn't get nobody to process my animal. But
the white producers that had the infrastructure, they was able
(11:14):
to take advantage and roll with their operations and keep
going and g line wrench which drenched that we have
here in Bola, Oklahoma just had to call it losses. So,
I mean, just so USD was there for them, wasn't
there in the You look at the background the USDA,
it's a predominantly white industry, right, I.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Mean what it is, yeah, is what it is. So
they wasn't. They weren't even thinking about us.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
And at the same time, so when they tried to
get that relief to the black forms and wrenchers too
so they can hang on. You know, there were some
white producers I just started out believe in Texas. Uh,
in another state maybe Florida went in and said hey, no,
we're not gonna allow.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
That to happen. So anyway they did.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, now everybody yelling you having handouts. Meanwhile they've been
living on handouts.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
For a decades.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, nah, that's that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, you you you taught me a lot, April canna
come to you, come to you in a second. But yeah,
like you really taught me a lot here in the
sense that like it's crazy how like just like racism
that just it just works against us, like not.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Even just us, but the whole system.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
You just like, damn like we need I don't understand,
like we need the product. Like yeah, you just you
just said that this one thing was the problem. Well
here go a solution that you're just like, nah, not
that solution. It just don't make no, it just don't
make no sense, you know. And then something you said
right there too that like goes to the systemic aspect
(12:50):
of it is kind of the same thing that you know,
you know, I've always found where it's like, well they
got the like you said, this other farm or ranch,
they got the infrastructure in place. So you know, I
remember like when I first started doing music my twenties,
you know, you offered this you know, big label deal,
(13:12):
and they was just like have your lawyer look over it.
And I was like, I'm sorry, my what now you know,
like you know, and and umies were like I'll just
ask my uncle, And I was like, oh word, you
got an uncle that's a lawyer, Like, okay, you know
what I'm saying, So you don't have to find four
five thousand dollars for this one?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Read like you don't have to find that.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Oh you got to you know, and if you didn't,
and if your uncle couldn't do it, here loan you
the five k for one of his friends from college.
You know what I'm saying. So like you you feel me?
So like they already had a system set up. So
it's like, so I'm coming in here, I'm about to
you know, I'm about to lose my masters in ten
years because I didn't know how to. I didn't know,
(13:52):
you know what I'm saying, Like, and they do, you
know what I mean? So that's when So that that
that that generational build up, I think it's super is
you just set it right there to be like, well,
they already had the infrastructure to set it up. I
was like, man, we was too busy trying to survive,
trying to figure out how to keep this thing running,
to be able to establish some sort of like relationship
and training and being able to go to the USDA,
(14:12):
whether I whether I knew somebody or not, whether they
ever even clicked on my profile and no I was
black or not. You know what I'm saying, it's to
be like you already already got these things in place.
Well that's generational, you know what I'm saying for you
to have that in place. The other thing you said.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Too, is like I'm a I'm a history nerd.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So even just knowing like how the Homestead Act worked,
being like, well, i mean the government they gave y'all
that land, and then they gave y'all the ability to
They loaned you the money for your tools and your tractors,
the you know what I'm saying, they gave you training
on how to do that.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
That just it just happened decades ago.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So when you look at that, look at black ranchers,
being like, why you guys surviving on handouts? It's like, fam,
that's that's how you got the rants. You got it
on a handout. Like, I don't understand what you don't
understand about that anyway? Yeah, man, Yeah, I'm super interested.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
So that makes it very difficult for us.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
So it's it's not a level playing field, right, So
I gotta keep rolling. I'm working a full time job.
My boys is in college while it's working. Everybody is
on full tilt. But what's happening is we running out
of time? You know what I mean in a sense
that all these experience and knowledge, we have the black
(15:31):
forms of ranchers about to be extinct, and you know,
the world don't see any give a damn be honest
about it. It's like, how do we How does the
culture not want to you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I just nah, I feel you, man, and I'm in
some ways I'm frustrated.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yeah, I'm guilty of this.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And this is where I wanted to go to April
on this one because you know, listeners, I was telling
them to off Mike that like because of the great
migration you know, of American slaves after the thirteenth Amendment,
Like a lot of us went different directions. So if
you're from Cali, if you're from Cali like La San Diego,
(16:10):
chances are your family is from Texas and Oklahoma, you know.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
And I fit into that.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
My daddy from Dallas, you know, and my granniece she's
sult for Spring, Texas and they was country as hell,
you know what I'm saying. And for some reason as
a city boy. You know that I you know, for
whatever family reasons why, Like my grandma didn't get along
(16:37):
with my grandfather. My grandfather stayed, my grandmama left, you
know what I'm saying, So for whatever ratchetness that they
didn't get along with, I didn't grow up going back
to Texas.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
You know what I'm saying to like to know any
of those roots.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But like it's so stupid as a city boy, You're like,
of course there's black people in agriculture, Like, like, of
course there is, you know what I'm saying, Like I
understand how the thought never crossed my mind until but
then you but then you you just never connected the dots,
you like, But Granny Country like she you know, she
(17:14):
had us, she had us in South Central snapping peas
and growing greens. You know what I'm saying, Like, yeah,
but but we was in l A. I just thought
that's what Grandma's do. It's like, well, no, she's she
grew up in the woods.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
That's why you do that, you know, saying it out.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So April, I would love to hear how you came
across the story and what made you feel like, man,
we really got to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah. So I had done some reporting on role issues
at my previous job and then tried to continue doing
that in my current job because I feel like, at
least with racial equity reporting, it is often focused more
on like urban spaces and we don't really think about
like black rural communities. But I had learned a bit
(18:29):
about USDA discrimination just with talking with like older black farmers,
and then also learning about some of the things that
happened during the Trump administration. I think Nate kind of
pointed to it. There was a program, the Market Facilitation
Program that was during the trade war with China, and
basically black farmers were pretty much left out of those
(18:52):
payments that were supposed to help level the playing field.
So yeah, so I learned about that, and I learned
about Pickford, which was a big class action lawsuits and
settlement that was successful for black farmers against the USDA.
And that's a whole other, whole other history. But it
(19:12):
was all of that that made me want to do
this story. And also knowing what the Biden administration is
trying to do for or has tried to do for
farmers of color, but black farmers in particular, and how
you know Nate mentioned that too, how it hasn't quite
worked out. It seemed like, you know, it's a timely,
it's a good time to tell this story.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, what were some of the like as you went
out into the field. What was some of the like
surprises if you can think of, like, I don't know
two of them, two things where you were just like, oh,
this is news to me, not.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
News, but maybe just different for me, you know. I
I mean I grew up in mostly grew up in
like a rural place but not connected to agriculture, and
you know, mates from Bowley and Bowlie is one of
the historic black towns in Oklahoma. So I had read
about Bowley, but I'd never been to a town like that.
(20:12):
And I got to go during rodeo weekend, which was
which was cool.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Right, I've never been to a rodeo.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I've never been to a black rodeo, And I mean
it just felt like the whole weekend was like a
big black family reunion. You know, everybody's everybody's out, everybody's
like having a good time, you know, reconnecting, cooking like
it was. It was really cool and just learning Like
Oklahoma to me feels like where the West meets the South.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
In a way that's exactly it.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yes, And I mean the rodeo was definitely that, like
it felt very country but also very western too.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
That's a that's amazing. I I mean, I can't stress
this enough to where the like.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
The obviousness of like, of course, this is a growing,
thriving community that honestly all of us came from, you
know what I mean, Like, and that's that's the part
that like it's just such a such a light bulb
for me because I remember one time, like out here,
I think I was a high school whatever and a
(21:18):
friend of mine had his cousin come visit, you know,
so who's summertime whatever hanging out right? And he was like, hey,
my summer is my cousin's like a junior rodeo champion.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
And I was like, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
What it was like, Yeah, he's like he won the
like you know, juniors like rodeo. And I was like, wait,
like you got to start over, Like I was like,
what are you what are you talking about? And then
he tried to explain, like, yeah, nah, there's there's black
rodeos like I do the roping, like I'm I was
like and and and again it was again a moment
(21:50):
of like duh, of course there is you know, and
just but the fact that I never thought about it.
I feel like it's something that like the city really
can appreciate. Have a I have a lot of friends
in ok See who really involved in like just business,
gang intervention stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
They work really like the East side.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Of Oklahoma City, like doing a lot of like really
cool projects out there.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
And yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
That that that east or now that that South meets
the West motif, Like really it really resonates with my
with my experience too, you know. And and even even
like even in the urban centers, that's like you know,
you you know, you we were outside. It's it's a
(22:37):
horse riding next to like, you know, Impala on twenty
two's you know, you know what I'm saying, and you know,
and it's just like look we just this what we do?
You know what I'm saying, and like that sort of
like thing. And even even in Compton like that they're
you know, we got Compton cowboys because Compton used to
be a farm in town, you know what I mean.
So like a lot of black people who were out
(22:59):
there had had small farms, you know what I'm saying,
and like and they you know, they wear cowboy boots
and stuff like that. But just just realizing that, like God,
this is actually our roots. And I feel like me
never being in like like.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I was never in it.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I never I never lived in a gym Crow State.
I never you know what I'm saying, I've never So
because of that, I don't I don't have like the
same type of long sort of history of monuments of
experiences that are specifically about our black resilience because I didn't.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
I didn't have to go through that, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
So like when I went to go I say all
that to say, when I went to go visit my
friend at Okay See, he was like, yeah, this We're
at the cigar Lounge and He's like, yeah, this was
one of the places where you know, we used to
meet when we were organizing for this. You know, this
was the first black home. You know this, you know
when doctor King came, He's right here, blah blah blah.
Like we just we just don't have a lot of
(24:02):
that in California because it's just wasn't a Jim Crow State.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
So I feel like hearing your story and and like
you said, like what you experienced, I feel like I
wish all city folks would have a chance to come
experience that, because it's like it's a it's a piece
of your history that you may not even know you
miss it, you know what I mean. And uh, and
so that's that's Beaudle. I feel like I would have
(24:27):
had the same kind of like, oh my gosh, this
is way more familiar than I expected it to be,
you know.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Yeah, And that's why I think it's so important that
we try to continue. You know, we fights hard as
we can to continue to stay in this business. I mean,
we got to look at when you look at agriculture business,
ranching business, how it's now become uh, every like everything
(24:55):
else corporately ran Right.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
So it's if you ain't big, you going home right now. Right.
It's hard to be a small guy in this because
you've got to have buying power. You got to have.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Equity you don't have, you know, I sit on all
this equity and buying power that you know, Ranch has
been just been getting the handouts for decades.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
So uh, this this time and we in right now it's.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Really critical, uh a phase that we try to you know,
trying to page and trying to get you know, find innovative,
creative ways stay in business.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Man.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
When we get one thing, I do like, you know,
I'm part of a deal where we we actually reach
out to some.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Of my backgro a little bit more about my background.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
We took in some students mentored them from hbc you
here in the state of Oklahoma Lands University. A lot
of our HBCU universities are has agriculture heavily agricultural background, right,
but that's probably the most starving area, and all of them.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
The HPC used because there are.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
A lack of knowledge teachers from our culture in there. Right,
So we've seen that. We started bringing teaching students you know,
what's a booll, what's a head for? You know, cal
just in dealing with the injection of medications and stuff
like that to the animals to try to you know,
(26:23):
educate them because we wereize, hey, they need to be
in the workforce, they need to know stuff. Ain't but
a few of us I heard, right, less than half
a percent of us in agriculture out of you know,
out the whole world. That's that's pretty bad, right, And
and all of them ain't making no money. This industry
(26:43):
is no more than if you're doing really good, if
you're doing fifteen percent returns.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
On your investment in this business.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I'm not.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
I mean, I'm still working a job and I'm trying
to get to or I can at least get to
that part. And right now, when inflation come in, they
you know a lot of my stuff, I deal with
thirty percent and more inflation. So we experienced another setback,
and we had an opportunity to maybe to get ahead
(27:11):
or ain't gonna get ahead, but to be in the game.
We lost out due the USDA government not wanting us
to assist US black forms and ranchers.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So it sounds like even in just the verbiage you
was using that like like you are despite the business,
you're a businessman like and the things that you've had
to just talk about inflation, you know, your rois, you
know what I'm saying and all those things. So it's
like it's it's interesting to me to hear that, Like, look, man,
I don't care what the field is. Business is business,
(27:44):
and you have to know what you're talking about you know,
and I'm curious about two things. The first one is
a little more a little more in depth, and then
the second ones just would be kind of fun. I
think the first thing would be, like, can you think
of any sort of moments where you were in a
situation where maybe the type of interactions that you were
(28:07):
having led you to believe that the people or persons
or the institution you were sitting across the table from
thought you didn't know what you were talking about, right,
and uh, but you knew you knew what you was
talking about. You know what I'm saying, And maybe you
know obviously I'm leading into us towards what we do,
which is like using what you already know to help
(28:28):
you understand what you think you don't know you know
what I'm saying. So, which is like you know, like
you said, you grew up agriculture. You know you're doing this,
but it's like, fam, I got I have another job.
Both my both my kids, both my sons are in college.
Like I know what I'm talking about, you know what
I'm saying, So like can you can you can you
can you recall any of those moments? You know, even
(28:50):
if they're paying if they're paying points, don't worry about it.
But like if it's like you know what I mean,
if you could grow up, we'll call moments where you
had to use the knowledge that you've acquired here, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Yeah, So, and I'm just really back ten ten years
maybe fifteen years ago.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
In my in the beginning, I went just and were
talking about getting money here. So my wife.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
They had some land that we wanted to inquire. It's
forty acres, and I went to the bank and she
shared that properly with us, with us, with the siblings.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
So I go to the bank and say, hey, I
want to buy this forty acres and mine is for
the extras for twelve thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Man, all right, well yeah yeah, real talk, real talk.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Oh my god. Okay, all right, okay, go ahead.
Speaker 5 (29:52):
So I'm here trying to convince a banker that's been
been loaning me money to buy cutlass.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Is right.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
I'm walking at the dealership, I'm buying trade ins, I'm
flipping cars, but I'm buying them for you know, five
eight hundred.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Dollars, twelve hundred dollars.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Yeah, but I'm still wrenching, right, I'm still trying to dig,
trying to get into that field.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
But he denies me and.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Tells me that he felt like I had too much,
you know, on my plate pretty much. He didn't have
the confidence in me. Man, Yeah, you know what I mean.
But look at me now. I'm still in the game.
But it's it's that's that's what.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
You're dealing with, you when you get stereotyped. I heard
people think that you don't know, you know what you're doing,
what you're talking about, But it's just.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
It is so far from the truth, man. And you
know what we like in is opportunity. Give me, give
me the ball, you to give what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Yes, I'll show you what to do with it.
Speaker 5 (30:54):
And that's one in agriculture, we hadn't had the opportunity.
We don't got so far down the road now, you
know that. It's it's just sometimes it feels like it's impossible,
you know.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
But I'm not gonna give up. I'm gonna keep doing
what I do.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
And I got a family of loves and supports me
on all measures, and God's with me, So who's gonna
be against me?
Speaker 4 (31:20):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Bruh.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I mean when I tell you, like when I had to,
I've lived a few lives. When I used to teach
high school. Before I could teach high school in California,
you had to like pass this the credentially, you know whatever.
I taught social science and one of the one of
the one of the state tests was on economics and
(31:44):
I failed that much three times.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
And it wasn't because I didn't know what I was
talking about.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I just didn't know how to tell you that, you
know what I'm saying, like, because to me, I was like,
it's pretty simple. You know, you don't spend money you
ain't got Like that's that's easy. You know what I'm saying,
Like you know, like you know or like, well, if
I'm gonna borrow this, I know it costs, it costs,
it costs money. You have to you're selling me alone,
(32:10):
so I know, well, how much does your loan cost?
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
This?
Speaker 3 (32:12):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And I'm thinking, if I'm walking in in.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
My head, its logical to me the same thing you said.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I'm walking into this bank and I'm like, bro, you
see everything I got going against me, and I'm still okay, like,
don't you think I got the hustle to I done
figured it out already, you know what I'm saying, Like
to get to that point. You know what I'm saying,
Like despite like I ain't got no help. You know,
everybody else come here, got help. I'm still okay, you
know what I'm saying, Like I still got to hoop
over my head. Don't you think that I I'm gonna
(32:40):
figure out how to pay you back? Like come on, fab,
you know that's whatd have made sense to me, you know,
but like you said, it's just like like if you
just give me the ball, like if we like clearly
we've been surviving this loan, so like don't you think
you think what else do I need to prove to you?
Speaker 4 (32:57):
You know? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (32:59):
It was you deal though, because my wife had a
part of it, so he only needed to lend me
eighty percent of the money, right, so he should have
been covered with equity. And it's like, dang, the worst
thing happened, you donna have to use don't take it,
but I know that wasn't gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, and you it's and it's crazy to me because
it's like it sounded like to me, like you would
have to tell him that where You're like, well, bro,
I mean she already owned part of the land. Like
why do I need to tell you this? Like you're
the you're the bank. Why do I got to tell you?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah? So then okay, So then my last question, well,
my last question to you, Nate, and then I got
one more questions for April.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
My last question for you, Nat is like, okay, city boy,
you know we land out at HBC. You know land
at HBCU see the Agriculture Department, And I'm probably like skip,
you know what I'm saying, Like, make a case for me,
(33:54):
make a case for city boys, black city boys to
be like, yo, this is part of the culture. This
is part of the revolution. May I interest you in
a life of ranching? Like make a case for us.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
You know, agriculture is one when you look at the
base of it, you're gonna you're gonna better provide food
and water and resources.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
Everything you're dealing with and walking around and you look
in the city is dealing with ad.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
So we didn't you know you can buy property out
here and get royalties for water or damn. It's just
and it's been a basis for in my opinion, for
people who want to have money or got money to
own the kind of real estate that's out here. Nobody's
(34:44):
making no more land. It ain't no more it's on
so much of it. And you know, I encourage you
to invest and buy you some land.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Apartments and stuff and homes.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Are good, but typically in about twenty five years they'd
depreciate and they go the other way. But when you
talk about you buy good land, it don't do nothing
but go up. People have been hiding money in land
for decades. That's that's that's what they do. I least
land out here from people in California that they been
(35:20):
having in their family. And if and if oil gets
struck on that deal, they just don't get a check.
Speaker 4 (35:26):
But that's kind of money that can be out here
if you're able to buy land.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Unfortunately, what's happening on our ends, you know, is that
we can't afford to purchase this land anymore because it's
not got that expensive. But if you're living in the city,
and especially for the young men out that want to
become men, you know, I put I put.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
My boys up against a lot of you city boys.
I'm just gonna be just.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Straight up you right now.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
I'm just telling how it is. I used to.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
I'm from the country people that we went to the
city and when we threw them things, let me tell you,
when they.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Was connecting, they felt that pressure. I'm just telling you,
so when you want a man up, this is a
good way to make them.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
Men come in and then women. A good woman can
appreciate a good man. I'm just telling you.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Hey, they out here, listen. I tell you what, y'all
are different kind of strong.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
That's real.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
That's a different kind of strong because, like I mean it,
don't get me wrong, Like you know, my daddy and them,
my family, like they had a Like I said, I
grew up in a Latino community. So like you don't
even think about the Mexican men like you work. I'm
saying they had me working, you feel me. But when
it comes to that like that endurance, I'm like, oh, nah, bro,
like I need to hit the porch. He like, brus Bro,
(36:46):
it's a coffee break, bro, Like what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Man, we're not even done yet. And I'm like, maam,
I'm done.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
You know. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:53):
The community is good, man, I mean, the lifestyle is
just I mean, it's just actually, you know, everybody take
care of one another. You know, in this business, we
lost our attractor, piece of equipment, and man, you know,
some brothers came together, we hooked up and they helped
(37:13):
me out and stuff. So yeah, and that's you know,
that's one thing I just think about being out here,
just being able to have those resources and you know,
good people and you know what I'm saying, take care
of one another.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Definitely like something happened to me recently, you know, in
just stage of life whatever it is, where it was
just like I mean, I my whole life. Man, I
hate camping. I don't like I don't like outside. I
don't like cold, I don't like hot.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yo said, like like none of it.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
But like recently, like you know, you get a little older,
you know what I'm saying, and like and you know,
friends who kind of figured it out, you know what
I'm saying that like they got a little you know,
little cabins out in Wyoming and this and this, like Yo,
come out you know now we fishing with them and
I'm like, hey, this.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Is it's a lot of funner than I thought it
would be.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
You know what I'm saying, and just being like, hey,
so tell them about that horse, you know what I'm saying, Like, hey,
so what do you gotta do? You know what I mean,
and just like getting a little more curious about it
and the idea of like, yeah, like that's kind of nice.
It's kind of nice, like you no knowing your neighbors
and being like no, not about like no, no guns
(38:25):
pointed at you.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You know what I'm saying, Like, you.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Know, that's kind of nice, you know, so, so yeah, man,
I think that's man. I appreciate that. Man, thank you
so much. And in April, like so, I'm not sure
(39:16):
if the season will be out by the time this drops,
but like, if you were to give me like three
takeaways that you would hope inner city kids like myself
and it's sort of the people we talked to that
they will received from from from this season. What would
(39:37):
those three things be?
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Three takeaways for city folks. That's a good question. I
think I hadn't thought about it in that in that
kind of context. Maybe I guess if the opportunity presents
itself to try to get out in the country, right,
like if you have relatives, if you just have some
kind of connection, you can get out on the land
(40:00):
with folks, like do some work. Try to just try
to do that because it'll it'll open up your eyes.
It's opened up my eyes every time I've had the
opportunity to do that. And I feel like we're always
a little we can be a little disconnected right from
that life from folks who are living that life, and
(40:22):
it's always important to build build stronger connections and just
to try to learn more about it.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
That's all.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
If you can't make if you can't physically go there,
then you know, if you can on your own time,
just try to learn more.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
What are ways that we can help, like lobby advocate,
you know, for just a particular cause that we're talking now,
as far as like the USDA and things like that.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
What are ways we can help?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
I think education. I think education is one just learning
more about the history of black farmers in the US.
There's a book by Daniel called This Possession that focuses
more on like civil rights history and black farmers and USDA.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
But that's really good.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
The Environmental Working Group has a page that has like
documents that are important to understanding the history around black
farmers and USDA. So I mean those are like, you know,
primary source documents, but they're still it's nice to just
go in there and see. Yeah, those would be some
places I would start. Do you mind if I just
(41:32):
add some context to something they said earlier?
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Yeah, go for it, not go ahead? Okay?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
With the debt relief program that we were talking about,
it it was a four billion dollar program. It was
in the American Rescue Plan Act, which was like a
big COVID relief bill, right, yeah, And it was an
attempt to try to do something for farmers of color,
and a lot of that organizing came from initially came
(41:58):
from black farmers. You could eat and say, like the
origins of that are in the Justice for Black Farmers Bill, Okay,
But then lawsuits started popping up across the country from
white farmers who said it was discriminating against them, and
a federal jug Jim Florida, blocked implementation of that, so
(42:20):
USDA could not do anything about that, right, Their hands
were tied. They couldn't move forward on that. And then
it was because of that they ended up sort of
changing things and in another big bill called the Inflation
Reduction Act, there was a new color blind program that
is essentially a form of deck relief. So I just
(42:43):
think that's important to understand it.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, that helps, like to just really understand what was happening,
you know what I'm saying, and not thank you for
that's that's good.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
And then another like really foolish question to end on
is like.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Is there ways if I walk into a store or
to know that this beef came from a black farm
so I can buy that one certain ways to know that.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
I would think I might have to defer to on this.
I would think just look, you look at the label
and if you know who those folks are, that might
be the only way to know.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Yeah, there's there's no.
Speaker 5 (43:24):
When I say that, that requires what we talked about
early infrastructure. So we have no you know, we ain't
got no cotton gen right, we picked ahead of Cotton Jean's.
We ain't got no meat packing processing. We we we
just in this business right now currently whatever the market
(43:44):
is doing that day, that's what we're doing, right and
that's what all me and my family been trying to
get away from. We've been selling our own beef off
the ranch g Lin Ranch dot com.
Speaker 4 (43:55):
Check it out and we you know it's but we
haven't been able to take off. I mean we have to.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
We wanted to do our own processing, and unfortunately we
had had you know, didn't have the money and resources
to do that. Uh They've been millions or billions dollars
in grants in the USDA had but unfortunately, I have
not heard of one black producer had you know, got
any new infrastructure. So that's what we're behind on, is infrastructure.
(44:29):
Infrastructure takes a lot of times. You already got to
be in business to to get the next McDonald's, right,
so you know, you just don't a lot of times
to just come out of nowhere unless somebody.
Speaker 4 (44:40):
Hit the lottery.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
So everything I got is from the ground up, and
we're just able to do that and just not going
to currently you know, be able to do it and
compete with free people who getting free money.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
So you like the you're like the indie artists of agriculture.
Got it. It's probably better product, but you ain't got
no distro. Okay, So we gotta we gotta we gotta
go go get it, get go, get it out of
your trunk.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I mean I understand now yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta
go to band camp, not Spotify, got it?
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Yeah, straight up?
Speaker 5 (45:18):
I mean you know, it's just because there's a lot
of stipulations to get to.
Speaker 3 (45:22):
That form, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Nah. As you was talking, it was kind of like
all kind of making sense to me, like just even
the I mean again, because it's it's the same like
when you know, you tell people you do music, it's like,
oh have I have I heard you on the radio,
and you're like, well, uh well probably not. You know, yeah,
you know, so you really do music. It's like, well, okay,
(45:45):
so this is this thing called the strip distribution, and
then you know, say, you gotta walk through this whole
thing to be like, man, maybe at twelve o'clock on
Saturday night, you know, on Sunday morning at one in
the morning, and you know, toad Suck Arkansas, this DJ
decided to play this song.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
You say, like, yeah, you know, that's.
Speaker 5 (46:04):
Exactly how it is for us, and you know, you
just everybody looking at you.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
You the new guy. Right.
Speaker 5 (46:10):
So I'm black. I walk into and today business it's like,
well who is you?
Speaker 4 (46:15):
You know?
Speaker 5 (46:15):
You know, well, you know I've got cattle her for
sale today. Yeah, I'm heard of. You know, I'm heard of.
You know, I'm just saying that just how it is.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I'm gonna show you the work, like you know what
I'm saying, Like look at the work, like the work
is right, Like I would understand what else you need?
Speaker 3 (46:32):
The work is right.
Speaker 4 (46:34):
Yeah, you know, we just got a long way to go. Man.
Speaker 5 (46:37):
We just need you know, my opinion needs people to
try to find ways to support and and then you.
Speaker 4 (46:43):
Know, try to.
Speaker 5 (46:46):
Try to make a word into everybody and the situation
that we're facing that her you know, we don't you know,
we're looking at being in extinct in this bitch. We
don't have to be that way. It's three hundred and
fifty million people in the United States right were less
than a half a percent of all foods being That's
a lot of eating.
Speaker 4 (47:03):
Going on every day. And how can we just be
you know, not making nothing.
Speaker 5 (47:08):
And I know our people, so my my, my next
phase is to try to connect with you know, our
people and try to raise up products, good beef and
trade with people that want to trade and do business
for me and help me get off the ground.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (47:27):
I'm working for a good cause and you know, just
suppose to support man, somebody just want to support us. Yeah,
but you know, if we want at a little bit
more about us, go on TikTok.
Speaker 4 (47:43):
G Lion Ranch, Yeah, g Lion Ranch. Check that out.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, send me all that. We've put all that in
the show notes, all that. Blast this thing out. Well,
thank you, thank you, thank you, Thank you so much
for your time for being a part of this.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
Uh, you're gonna told us the g Line Ranch And
what's the name of the pot again, so we could
let everybody know.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
It's called the Heist and it's by the Center for
Public Integrity, Center for Public Integrity.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
You you like working there? Yeah, of course. Well I
don't know the little racist just no, that's dope. Well,
thank you again, y'all. Man, I super appreciate y'all time.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Manciating, yeah, man, we're gonna we're gonna blast this out.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
We're gonna get you, right, y'all, y'all need to eat
black people meat.
Speaker 4 (48:32):
Listen, come see me Cali all right.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
We will go see you man, all right.
Speaker 5 (48:40):
M yo yo.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
This thing right here was recorded by ME Propaganda and
East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This thing was mixed, edited, mastered,
and school by the one and the only Matt Awsowski.
Speaker 3 (49:02):
Y'all check out this fool's music. I mean it's incredible.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman for Cool Zone Media. Man,
and thank you for everybody who continue to tap in
with us. Make sure you leaving reviews and five star
ratings and sharing it with the hommies so we could
get this thing pushed up in the algorithm and listen.
I just want to remind you these people is not
smarter than you. If you understand city living, you understand politics,
(49:28):
We'll see you next week.
Host
Prop
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