GoodFellas
We help our listeners discover what it means to be a modern man. We focus on how to heal and grow past mental, physical, and emotional traumas. The goal at GoodFellas is to provide men with the tools for us to thrive, not just survive.
Episodes release weekly on Thursday at 2am PST/5 am EST.
Throughout the show we invite the audience to meet some interesting and impressive humans who have navigated some of the deepest valleys as they journey to some of the highest peaks. Join me, Hosea Chanchez, as we seek to discover the GOOD in humanity and uncover some of the secrets to living a purpose-filled life.
About the Host:
Hosea Chanchez is a prominent actor, producer, and director, from Montgomery, Alabama. Soon after graduating high school, he relocated to Los Angeles, California to pursue acting. He immediately began booking commercial roles which kickstarted his career, where he has found long-lasting success.
He has appeared on shows like Girlfriends, Black Lightning, and All American, but is best known for his starring role as the quarterback football player, Malik Wright, on the CW/BET sitcom, The Game, and its 2021 revival.
Hosea has built an impressive career over the years and a large fanbase as a result. He started his company, A Very Good Company, in 2022 to provide black men and women with luxury products, reliable services, and quality content.
GoodFellas
Ep 105: Voting as a Political Responsibility with Dr. Isadore Hall
What if your greatest challenges were the keys to unlocking your potential? Join us Dr. Isadore Hall, takes us on an inspiring journey through his humble beginnings in Compton to powerful political leadership. Raised by a single mother, Dr. Hall shares the profound resilience and support that shaped his life, with faith, family, and the influence of strong women guiding his path to success.
In this episode, Dr. Hall reveals his unexpected entrance into politics, sparked by a nomination during a church service, and reflects on his rise through various political roles. He discusses his mission to empower African-American men to vote and candidly addresses the lessons learned from political defeat. This conversation is a moving tribute to mentorship, the importance of civic engagement, and the determination to pursue a cause greater than oneself—one that uplifts both individuals and communities.
I remember my mom making food and not having enough on the table for her to eat. But she'll tell us I'll eat later. Oh man, you know, and yeah, I'm thinking about it, you know and it was kind of tough.
Speaker 2:Goodfellas is a simple mental space to heal and grow by a black man. For everyone who's listening, I'm Hosea Chanchez, and this is Goodfellas. I'm your host, hosea Chanchez, and today's guest is one of the most incredible men that I've ever met in my life, and I know that he will impact yours. Today we're going to talk about faith, family politics and what it means to be a black man who overcomes adversity, and also the women that make us who we are. This is Goodfellas. Ladies and gentlemen, my dear friend, dr Isidore Hall.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I'm happy to be here, goodfellas, you are hilarious.
Speaker 2:This isore.
Speaker 1:Hall. Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Good fellas this is awesome, and thank you for that great introduction. You are very welcome. So, isidore, you prevail through some of life's toughest challenges.
Speaker 1:You are the baby of eight siblings. Is that right? That's right? That's about right. Yeah, that's about right. I mean, yeah, my mom had six and then my father had two, before he met my mom.
Speaker 2:You have defied some of the odds that most of the world says are impossible for a black man to do. Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why I really think everybody should know you, especially here on this show, is because you represent what it means to be a good fella on this show is because you represent what it means to be a good fella.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been different. I would say I beat the odds. You know, being raised in Compton, Mom raised six kids by herself. A two-bedroom house, that's right. I know what food stamps look like the brown ones, the green ones, the orange ones. I know what the five-pound government cheese is. I know that's right I know what the powdered milk, government cheese is. I know that's right. I know what the powder milk is.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, we're going to dig into all of that, because you fascinate me and I am very fortunate that I get to speak to you every day. I get to see you every day, or any time I choose to, and what you've downloaded into me as a man is something that I think all men should recognize their North stars in their life. You are one of my North stars in my life and I owe a great deal of the man that I am today to you.
Speaker 1:I'm honored.
Speaker 2:Thank you Very welcome sir, I know you as Izzy but to be a hundred percent clear, you are Dr Isidore Hall III. Absolutely Can I say from Compton California.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, and I received my doctorate later on in life only so that I could have this is even when I was in the legislature only to be able to have a voice at the table with other academicians with the title.
Speaker 2:Listen, we're going. I want I don't try to cram it in in the beginning because, no, no, I want the details, I want the long format version of your life let's do it um, okay. So I always start this show off by asking my guests what's good? Is the door what's good?
Speaker 1:what's good? All this, all this good. Uh, in my life things are great. Um, even though we are in an area of despair in our communities, we are still good here. Yeah, uh, we have challenges, yes, but in the greater, in the broader scheme of life, the world politic and the world of living, we're good. Right here all right?
Speaker 2:well, a lot of us. The way we get from our pitfalls and our valleys is by hearing other people's perspective of life. Other people can help you dig yourself out of a hole as a man, particularly as a black man. So if we find someone who is good and, I'm sorry who said they're great, um, what I want to do is expose the roadmap to being not just good but great, because a lot of us need that. So listen, in 50 short years, you have accomplished a lifetime of dreams and I really want to unpack your beginnings where it started what your life was like, being raised by a, by a single mother, might I add, a single black woman. A small little single black woman raised six children in her house alone. So tell me about where you're from and then how you, um, how you, what was the first thing that transitioned you out of poverty?
Speaker 1:yeah, you know I was. So my mom raised six kids by herself in Compton and you know I wasn't raised thinking I was free. She worked three part time jobs. I didn't know that I was poor or financially disadvantaged, if you will, because she never created that kind of environment for us. We had to do everything together. We played together, we did games together, everything we did was together, and my mom never allowed us to go outside and down the street and around the corner because there's nothing but trouble there.
Speaker 1:Didn't understand it then. But as I got a little bit older, I started to understand the nuances of why she did what she did. Because she was trying to protect us from the environment, but she didn't want us to be tainted by the essence of the environment that we were in. And so I remember us one day not having electricity in our home and my mom used an extension cord to plug it into our neighbor's house so that we can have electricity. Wow, I remember my mom uh, making food and not having enough on the table for her to eat.
Speaker 1:But she'll tell us I'll eat later oh man, you know, and yeah I'm thinking about it, you know and it was kind of tough, and so it was called making do, and I said to myself I would never, ever make do again. And it was that moment that changed my life and somehow, some way, I became an overachiever in everything, and it almost was to a point of exhaustion, because everything I did, I wanted to do it better and I wanted to make sure that I'll never have to make do again in life but I'll have the greatest and the best of necessities that life has to offer me. And so I was able to challenge myself, was able to go to school, was able to get a bachelor's degree, was able to get two master's degree, was able to get a doctorate degree, anything that someone put in front of me. I said I was going to do and I was going to be the best at it. Be the first at this, be the first, be the first, be the first.
Speaker 1:Because I became an overachiever, almost to the point of exhaustion. And it was that thing that kicked that door open to make me believe that I can do anything I want to do in life. And I think my mom was the foundation of that for me, because she always told me and my siblings that we can achieve and we can do whatever the hell we want to do. I remember. If I can elaborate just a little, bit more, Of course, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember I was attending elementary school and I had a teacher named Miss Tiff Miss Elizabeth Tiff and she was a coffee-clutch type of teacher.
Speaker 2:What does that mean?
Speaker 1:That means you just walk. You sit at the front of your desk and you just hold a cup of coffee. You never move around the class. You just sit there and just talk crap. You see, that coffee clutched in her hand and she's just talking crap, and so she told me that I would never be anything in life. I remember that Elizabeth, if she lived in Diamond Bar. She's not with us any longer. I'm sure God has a special place somewhere for her.
Speaker 2:I don't know where she's not here.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I mean, who tells a child that they can never be anything in life and think that that's sexy and good? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Maybe people who don't know as a teacher, yeah.
Speaker 1:As a teacher sure.
Speaker 2:God rest her soul.
Speaker 1:God bless her little soul, god bless her soul, but making light of a serious situation, and that's my way of dealing with that, that is, that I had an opportunity at that moment, the fact that I'm 50 years old and I can remember it like it was yesterday, the trauma and the impact that it had on my life.
Speaker 2:So that was, in a way, I call that your inciting incident. The thing that happened, well, the second thing that happened that catapulted you to the next phase and next level in your determination to not be a victim of your society or circumstances.
Speaker 1:Boom, absolutely, and I attribute everything I did after that. I attribute it to Miss Tift. I've given speeches and said it had not been for Miss Tift I wouldn't be here today, because I had an opportunity to either allow that circumstance to work for me or allow that circumstance to work against me. That's right. I had a home environment where my mom was strong enough to push me in the right direction. However, there are many people who do not have that home environment or that mentee or mentor to push you in the right direction and would use that situation to work against them.
Speaker 2:So your mother is your. I said there were two. Your mom, ms Dorothy Vann shout out to mom is your first inciting incident. She is the one who instilled in you guys all of you that you can do anything, anything, and that was what allowed you to go through Miss Tiff's negativity.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And meet her words with the challenge Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And accept it in defeat. That, I think, is phenomenal. I'm always intrigued with what happens. What are the clues? Because we all have them. They're all again inciting incidents, but we all have things that happen along the way that have shaped us in a way that makes us who we are. Your father at this time, shout out to your father God rest his soul. Tell us a little bit about the scenario. I know there was a situation with you as a young boy in a courtroom that you shared with me and a lot of people over the years.
Speaker 2:I'd like to just know more about your dad and where he was at that time and that inciting incident.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me pivot for a second before I go there, with your permission, of course. I don't mind speaking about it, because it's important to know that this is the reality of who and what my life was like, and it's therapeutic to be able to talk about some of the most traumatic times to help shape and form who you are as a person. Not speaking about it is dying about it. Speaking about it is living about it.
Speaker 2:Okay so.
Speaker 1:I want to live.
Speaker 2:I don't want to die Right, so I got to talk about it to live about it.
Speaker 1:You know, and, as they say, when you harbor and you internalize and you hold things in, it helps kill you, it depletes who you are as a person. And so I remember when my mom spoke, by the way, I spoke to my dad about this and and there was nothing that my dad and I had got over to talk about. So we've cured all of this. But I remember my mom took me to court for child support. I mean, took my dad to court for child support and I remember I hadn't seen my dad. I had to be seven or eight years old and I hadn't seen him, probably since I was two, which I didn't even remember. And I remember running up to my dad for the first time at seven and I remember running up to him. I was excited. I didn't know what the hell they were in court for, I just knew I was going to see my dad Right right.
Speaker 2:I didn't know she was taking him to court for child support. I was going to see my dad.
Speaker 1:Right, right, I didn't know she was taking him to court for child support. Oh, my dad's going to be there. And I ran up to my dad with great excitement and jubilee, if you will, and he turned his back on me and walked out. I'll never forget that. I never forgot that. And as I got older, my dad and I had a very deep conversation and he says listen, he says I didn't know how to accept what was going on at the time and even men have to grow and I had to grow in that moment. And that was so deep for me because I was able to hear my dad say I know, acknowledged, I hurt you and I'm sorry for it. How many people have an opportunity to have a father to say I hurt you and I'm sorry for it? Most fathers and my dad, he's a man's man. You want to talk about a handsome, heartfelt man. That's my dad. Everybody that knows him says that. So for him to say I know I hurt you, I remember that incident, I remember when that happened and I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:That's a very courageous act that a lot of people don't have yeah, to hear, for are unable to hear from their father a lot of us that's as young boys that's really all we want, right from our parents not to think that they're superheroes and that they have no fault. They're just like us. They're just humans who are trying to figure it out. But with a baby right and a lot of us just want our parents to admit their faults so we can heal and move on from it. And you were blessed to have that. I was blessed to have it.
Speaker 1:And you know healing is important, right, and that's what Goodfellas is about. And that again I admire you for this platform, what you've done, the space that you have created here to give people an opportunity to talk and to heal is important, particularly as black men, because you know there's two different stages of healing when it comes to black men. We have to first we have to first deal with it ourself. Yeah, and and, and, and, and, and pretty much you know convince ourself that we need some help. That's right. And then we have to act upon it Right and go get the help. That's right. Right, it's kind of a taboo in black families when we were growing up, particularly in black families, that you know you don't talk about your issues to people. That's right. Yeah, you handle that stuff in your house.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:So we didn't have access to go in and get a therapist and all these things to work our issues out. You know, we just dealt with it in our home and never spoke about it and it tore up the black home. That's right, you know. And now we have Goodfellas, where you're giving people an opportunity to be very verbose about their situations and talk about them as a form of healing. So I want to appreciate you for that. Well, thank you, you know. Yeah, so it was tough for me, it was tough for my siblings, you know, but we were able to acquiesce, we were able to push it forward. We were able to not to push it forward, we were able to not only push it forward, but then reach down and help others out that perhaps had some, some similar situations.
Speaker 2:Now that's a that's a really good point of of your story, because all of your siblings I'm just very fascinated by the entire family structure that you guys have, the entire family structure that you guys have, and all of your siblings are of service. Every single one of the children your mother raised are humans of service. You are all successful in your own rights and maybe I need to have your mom on the show, ask her what the sauce is is.
Speaker 2:But what you guys have managed to do as a family unit is really remarkable. A lot of families who are already broken, no fathers around we find in times, especially back in the day, we find people either galvanizing and come together to uplift and support each other, which you guys did, or the family unit is torn apart.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And there's distance and separation between siblings. I really want to know, like what was the thing I know you spoke about how your mother instilled such a positive energy into her children, about how important it is for you guys to know that you can do anything outside of this world, outside of this home in Compton, outside of poverty that you didn't even know you were in? But is there a thing that you can identify, a through line that your mother presented to you guys that made you know that? Because I think there's a difference in thinking it, but you guys knew that from a young age. How?
Speaker 2:you know that woman is strange don't make me cut this out now, is it no?
Speaker 1:that woman, that woman, she's a strange, she's a very strange woman and I don't understand her myself. She has the heart of of an angel. She believes in giving back, she believes in community advocacy, she believes in service. She'll give you the damn jacket off of her back. She's a strange woman. She's so damn strange Because I know so many other people wouldn't do half the stuff that she's doing for people and she doesn't have the resources that most of them have and she makes it happen. Very strange woman.
Speaker 1:I don't think they make them like that anymore no you know and so she, she, she, she, she, she fed us that type of energy that you have a responsibility to pick yourself up and do something to make this road a better place. You leave it better than the way you found it you know, and so that's the.
Speaker 1:That's one of the hallmarks of the family structure that my mom embedded in us. Until still to this day, we do that and still to this day, my mother does that. My mother is 80 years old she'll be 81, uh, september, in a few days actually and we gave her an 80th birthday party and she had 450 people there and all of them and they were young folk and people were fighting because they couldn't even speak to say stuff.
Speaker 1:That's right Stories of her taking food to people, taking clothes, the neighbors down the street, all of different hues API, latino, african-american, anglo-saxons, all of them at the birthday party and I'm like woman where'd you get all this stuff from.
Speaker 2:I remember I was there and I know your mom and you guys often talk about a lot of your friendships. In all of her children's relationships she ends up stealing y'all friends, all of them. Mama Dorothy don't play. She is one of the kindest, uh, most amazing women that I've encountered on my journey and I'm so grateful, I'm so grateful for you through her and I'm grateful, so grateful to her because she created you so thank you I always like to benchmark and hallmark how important it is, because it is good, fellas, and it's a show about black men and men of color being their best selves.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that just keeps coming back up, no matter who sits in these chairs, is the fact that the foundation of what it means to be good really does come from the black woman, from women in our households, and it's the through line for most anybody that I speak to in my friendships and people who come here, and I always like to benchmark and and hallmark how the consistent a woman no one can give you what you need like a woman can can give you what you need like a woman can. And I think that women are the center of our world and our planet and through them they birth the rest of the world. So through whatever the intentions of that woman is, or whatever her credence or her beliefs are, she single-handedly can change the world by the way she raises her children.
Speaker 1:I agree with that. Let's just go back a little bit. Let's have a real conversation. I mean, have a seed, you have soil. You plant a seed in bad soil.
Speaker 2:What you're gonna get bad crops, okay or none? Yeah or none?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 2:Men provide the seed, the women provide the soil ah, that's a great way to put it okay, so you.
Speaker 1:So you plant a seed in bad soil, you get a bad crop.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a word, brother.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, yes, no, you are absolutely correct in your statement and in your analogy, and so that's why the woman has to be protected, because she is indeed the foundation. I hate to say this yes, men have to do the work. I hate to say this yes, men have to do the work, but the way the woman thinketh in her mind as she's carrying that seed impacts that baby. What she says to that child as she's carrying that baby. Impacts that baby what?
Speaker 1:she eats impacts that baby, what she consumes. So she is the foundation, the bedrockrock, the substratum, the base of what that child will be and who he is. And she has the biggest influence of the life of that child growing up. And that's why, even as men, we always lean towards when mom is around. Our mom, we love our fathers, right.
Speaker 2:But that mom, when that mother, nothing like your mom. Oh my God, right, right. One one thing that, uh, the audience, as you're listening to this and watching this, they will know that this is you are a mighty man of God.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:And I mean, that's just is what it is. You know, nobody can, can, can, teach and preach the word of God, like this guy right here.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, hey, I thank you for my mentor in the ministry, dr Joseph L Holmes.
Speaker 2:All right, god bless you, dr Holmes. And so that's your start, which is just absolutely wonderful to know that you can credit who you are solely based off of how you got here and the roadmap that your mom presented for all of you guys. That's how you started is as a child. Now I want to know, with all of that belief that she gave you, what was the very first step that you made as a young man to leave behind your old environment and grow into the man that you are today. What's your other inciting incident? Because there's usually about five or six of them for us, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:Well, it's a couple of things that happen. First of all, I felt cheated in life because I felt like I had to be held to a higher standard. I felt like you know hell, my friends out there cutting up and I got to be at church or I got to go and study, or I have to go do this Right. I wrote my mom a letter, pivoting quick second. I'll go back to that.
Speaker 2:No, no, I said mean moms.
Speaker 1:I wrote my mom a letter. I said you know, you're a mean mom, you know. And I say you're a mean mom because I couldn't do this, you're a mean mom because I couldn't do this, and you're a mean mom because of this, and you're a mean mom because of that. And then I said and now here I am, my friends that you were keeping me from, one is dead, one is in prison, one is this. One is that I said thank you for being a mean mom, because at that moment I couldn't understand what she was doing. But then later on I was like God damn it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being that mean mom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, protecting you from the things you couldn't see as a child.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. So to your question I didn't I. I remember my mom telling me, or I remember walking to one day and I saw this guy named Robert Henning. And I think I was walking from elementary school, junior high, elementary school, and I saw this guy named Robert Henning and he was putting these signs up in a yard and I didn't know anything about what the hell these signs were. And he was just putting signs up in the yards and I said, oh my God, that's the guy that's on all these billboards and signs around town. And I stopped him. I said hey, sir, are you that star that's on all these billboards? He said I'm not a star. He says I'm just running for city council. What the hell is city council? I don't know what the hell city council is.
Speaker 1:So he took me in, he he told me what city council was. I said do you need any help? I was in the sixth grade. And he says well, where do you live? I said I live over here, down the street and around the corner. He says well, sure. I said let's go talk to your mom and if your mom wants you to volunteer, I'd be happy to have you volunteer.
Speaker 1:He went over to the house and next thing you volunteered. I went, he went over to the house and next thing you know I'm volunteering for Robert Henning, who is became the first black mayor in the city of of Linwood and now he's adopted me as his God child, became a father that I never really had in the house and he mentored me and he gave me structure not just me, but my brother as well and he opened the door of politics for me and that's how I began to engage in politics. I didn't want to be no politician, I didn't want to ever be elected, I just wanted to be the worker bee behind to push the person out front. Wow, and that was the first time of engagement of me working for an elected official. But my mom and my grandmother, they've always been people of community service and working in campaigns, but that was my first time being introduced into the space of politics.
Speaker 2:Wow. So that's another benchmark in your life that you can see. Now you're one of the people that I know who have. I mean it's phenomenal how you can turn like you can turn anything into something great. And the whole time I've known you, which is over 20 something years, people have always said that, oh, he has favor, or Isidore's lucky. And the truth is you are one of the hardest working men that I know.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:You are more committed than any man, I know, to anything that you believe in To your family, to your friendships, to your relationships, to your jobs. You never seem to tire. You never seem to tire you. You never seem to tire. And if you do, you don't let the rest of us know. What is it in you, you know that drives you you know it's it's getting it done.
Speaker 1:There's a world out here that screwed up up right there's a world out here that's screwed up, man, and it's getting it done. You know, at the end of the day, if not you, who? If not now, when you know, um, it's a commitment to to to getting it done and and not being afraid of opposition. I don't, I don't um, I don't fear, I'm not afraid of walking up a road that I've never been uh down before. I'm not afraid of saying you know, I'm going to do something, just because you said I can't do it. You know, because I want to be the person on the other end and say I told you that this shit could be done you know um in terms of don't, of not tiring.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of not tiring, I get tired of people not getting tired.
Speaker 2:Okay, wait, tired of people not getting tired, okay, yeah, because you got to push it.
Speaker 1:I think it was Waltz that I said. He's talking like me, right there Speaking like me, because Waltz said when he was talking to his campaigners and people in an audience running with Harris for president he says we've got 75 days to go. We've got 75 days in this. You can rest when you die.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what you'll be doing, Unless you go to hell.
Speaker 1:then you're going to be up all night and all day, baby, he'll be around me, baby no, not you, I mean people um, yeah, so well, what?
Speaker 2:what was the your very first city council race? What was that experience like? Because you went on to do some phenomenal things, but I want to know about your start in politics. What was that like for you? Were you afraid, and what were your thoughts around that time?
Speaker 1:so I'm gonna tell you again I had worked on um so many campaigns, helping to co-manage campaigns or whatnot, um in Linwood and in Compton, and I was at church um in Compton, double Rock Baptist Church in Compton, a mega church at that season in life, and the city of Compton was under state receivership, the school board was under state receivership, so some of the electeds at the time had driven the district down so bad that the state had taken over. Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And the school district was getting ready to come out of state receivership and so there was an election. The state says, hey, these board members got to go In order for us to return local control. They got to go. And so I'm at church and I'm sitting in the audience and this guy named Basil Kimbreu, who was the president of the school board at the time, he comes to the church and you know how politicians come to church and they speak in the pulpit and whatnot. So he stands up in the pulpit and says and Pastor Holmes, you know we've got to elect more people to the school board and I'm so honored that we're going to get Isidore Hall elected to the school board. I'm sitting in the audience and the whole church, oh praise the Lord, the organ. Dun dun, dun dun.
Speaker 2:And I turn to my mom and say what the hell is he talking about? Shut up boy. Did you know then, or?
Speaker 1:did he just throw you in the ring. He threw me in the race. I had no clue because had he done it, had I known, I wouldn't have done it. Wow. And so the whole church goes up organs and people excited like in the movies and all that crap. And then my pastor says we're going to have a volunteer table in the community room at the end of service. Literally, you had 200 people in that church volunteer that day, on that Sunday. So fast forward. We run the campaign. We walked every knocked on every door in that city. There was 27 people running for four seats.
Speaker 1:I'm the youngest, I was the number one vote getter out of 27 people running for four seats in the city of Compton for the school board. I became the president the youngest elected president of the school board the day. I was sworn in and I remained the president of the school board until I left to go to city council. Wow, I was able to build a school, the William Jefferson Clinton Elementary School, the first school built in over 40 years in Compton. Had Bill Clinton come out open, that school up for me Was able to restore our teachers unions and give them the equity and the pensions and the money they needed, the raises they needed.
Speaker 1:I was able to bring in after-school programs back into the schools that had been taken out, did all that in three and a half four years while I was on the school board. It was one of the most remarkable times and I'll just say this as I moved on to city council and I'm sure you'll get there and moved on I would tell you that the best office that I've ever had was being on the school board, because you're able to see the magic in the eyes of those students as they're trying to stretch for a better life for themselves through education. Wow.
Speaker 2:So you just accepted the calling over your life, because I do believe that in every area that we've and will continue to unpack of your life, that the through line is a calling, a calling, and not fighting that call but embracing the call. Somebody like me I probably would have been in that church. I'm like nope, I'm not doing that. I don't know where he getting that from what, but there's a through line for you accepting the flow and the calling and what's ordained over your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I agree with you, because who in the hell would want to be in a board meeting? Having parents come up to a board meeting every week cursing you out about something that they don't like that's happening with their kids, it's abusive. It's like I am taking abuse and it's a calling to be able to be abused, because clearly that's what happens. Even when you go to city council every week. There are parents, there's constituents, there are residents. They're not happy about the trees not being trimmed, they're not happy about the schools not being cleaned, they're not happy about potholes, and you are their leader and, yes, if I got to lean on you, I, if I gotta lean on you, I'm gonna lean on. You were called to do it. You answer the call.
Speaker 2:You're responsible get it done. Yeah well, amen to that. And that's the way, with the same passion, that you live your life, exactly that way. Now the next phase of your, of your career, is I. I mean, I'm so in awe of how, not only you've handled adversity, how you've handled loss, and how you've handled the things in your life that may not have gone the way. You thought they would Tell us about you leaving the school board city council into. Was it the assembly next?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I left the school I went to. I was elected to the City Council and and I it was at a time that was pretty tough in Compton when I went to the City Council. I left the school board, went to the City Council. It's pretty tough times in Compton you know, I have my, my, my, my, my, my car spray-painted on.
Speaker 1:I had my slashed, all kind of stuff when I was running because I was running and it was just opposition. But I prevailed. And then I stayed in Compton for six years on the city council there and I was able to build a community center. I was able to build a shopping center. I was able to develop homes there and I was able to do great work, created a financial infrastructure for the city of Compton. Before I left, I was able to work with some great people, and not just me but, all my colleagues as well.
Speaker 1:We worked cohesively to get things done. I was honored by the city of Compton once I left to go to the assembly. They brought me back and named a street after me in the city of Compton for the great work that was done there. But then I went to the assembly and in the assembly I became the assistant speaker of the house. Karen Batts, our mayor, was the speaker at the time and I was able to be the assistant speaker, serve as a leader. There was the speaker at the time and I was able to be the assistant speaker, serve as a leader there and great work there. Then from there went to the Senate and you know, and did some great work there as well.
Speaker 2:You I have said many a times, but I want to unpack what I'm about to say a little bit more. You are it's almost like when people say Michael or Beyonce is the celebrity's celebrity. You are it's almost like when people say Michael or Beyonce is the celebrity's celebrity. You are the political core of California. You are the politician's politician.
Speaker 2:I have witnessed firsthand some of the most powerful people in the state of California not just in the state of California in the United States of America, not just in the state of California in the United States of America call you for advice, call you to get other people elected. You, in a way, have amassed this energy of getting it done, of kindness, of commitment and those qualities as a black man I think should always be celebrated. But you are the politician's politician. You are the quintessential politician. How is it that you have managed to you're not correct me if I'm wrong you're not technically in the legislature right now. Is that that's correct? I'm part of the administration, part of the administration. How have you maintained your value in some of the most difficult political times? You have and I, since Barack, before Barack Obama came in office up till now, I've literally witnessed how you have helped shapeshift the political landscape for Democrats. How have you been able to maintain your value the way you do?
Speaker 1:Any man can stand adversity, but the testament's character given power, it's not what you overcome that makes you great. Any man can stand adversity. Because I came out of Compton and was able to get out of Compton unscathed, that ain't nothing. Because I was able to go to school and get a bachelor's, two master's and a PhD that ain't nothing. The question to school and get a bachelor's, two masters and psc? That ain't nothing. The question is what the hell you do with it. With it, okay, any man can stand adversity. You're gonna have to be go to adversity every day of your life. Yes, but it test a man's character. You really want to find out who he is, give him power and see what he does with it. Does he take that power, use it against you or for the people? Does he breathe life into someone or he takes life out of someone you know? Does he say you can do this or he has miss tip? You can't do nothing. That's what makes a great person, and when you, it's infectious absolutely it's infectious.
Speaker 1:And so if you, if you, if you're, if you're operating from that principle, that noble cause, that noble cause, I don't care who you are, you could be the president united states. You want somebody like that working for you.
Speaker 1:Amen to that you want somebody working like that for you, absolutely, because that's authentic service, that's authentic and genuine love for not just people but for your community, and that'll make someone say I want that person on my team. I'm lucky, I am blessed that I could be in a room standing with kings, nor losing the common touch of a president, of a governor and many governors of Congress, members of speakers of houses and things of that sort. I'm blessed to be able to be called upon by them to say I need you to do this for me and I consider it an honor to be able to do it. You know, because I'm putting everything I got into it, because, again, I've got to make it better, we've got to man. This is we're only here for a short period of time. That's right, and it's a matter of what you do with the time that you have to make change and to infect the community for the better and not for the worse.
Speaker 2:Amen to that. I got goosebumps hearing that, yes, amen to that I got goosebumps hearing that, yes, I used to say in layman's term of what you said it's not what you do that makes you who. It's not what you do, it's what you do with what you do that makes you who you are.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:That's right, and you're a living example of that, and this isn't just about the work. So to speak, you're friends, like you are. I know your mom has said many times it's a rain, never met a stranger because, I mean, man, you really are a friend to everybody you meet. There is absolutely nothing you will not do for the people you love and care for, and I've witnessed you do it. So what drives you, in that space too, to be the friend, the type of friend and brother that you are to so many?
Speaker 1:people, my mom. My mom, She'd give her. If somebody's hungry, she's feeding them. You know, if somebody needs a shirt, she's going to find a shirt for them. You know, if they're hungry, then you're hungry. You know that's the way it goes you know.
Speaker 1:So if a friend needs a hug, then damn it, I'm gonna give you a hug, you know. If you need a ride I'm, then hey, let's go. You know I have a truck. I have a, uh, a truck that I drive and I ain't getting rid of it. It's old, but I love it you know, everybody wants me to get rid of my truck. You know, until they need it to move some furniture uh, I don't know who you're talking about everybody. That truck is 15 years old, you should get rid of it.
Speaker 2:I think it's older, but yeah, 15 is generous.
Speaker 1:I've had several cars, but I'm not getting rid of that truck. I had several cars, but I'm not getting rid of that truck in the. My point is is that it's a helpmate yeah, it's reliable.
Speaker 2:It's dependable, much like its owner.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's a helpmate. You know to whom much is given, much is required, right and you have to have you have to be an outlier in that regard.
Speaker 1:You have to be an outlier in that regard. You have to be an outlier. You have to be exceptional in what you do, or at least try to be exceptional in what you do. You're going to fail, you're going to fall. Get yourself back up and try again, you know. But in all things, try to be exceptional, try to be an outlier. Have a noble cause, have something you're fighting for. Leave the world a better place, the better, at least better than you found it speaking of, as you said, you know you're gonna fail sometimes.
Speaker 2:You are probably the most in spirit and in essence winning man, I know, but some years ago you went through a really big loss. Yeah, and I want you to talk about that big loss because, for me, witnessing how you handled yourself and I would dare to say you're far more successful now than had you not suffered. Whatever the loss is, you're about to share with us far more successful, far more rich, far like there's, you know it. It really, uh, ended up being a great play for your entire life. But tell us about the time that you didn't win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I had never experienced it before in my life. Um, I ran for Congress and I was the presumptive nominee, the winner, and I had the Democratic Party endorsement. I had every corner of the district supporting me. I had. It was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1:And then I had an individual jump in the race and from a known other community, didn't even live in the district, didn't live in the district, never lived in the district, lived in a whole other community she came in and she ran and she ran a very I went in to run in the primary and then she came in and ran a very anti-community, very negative, very dogmatic campaign, one of which I didn't want to run because my name is in this community, this is my brand. My community has watched me grow and they have never seen me do negative campaigns and just do some of the most vicious and foul things that you could ever do. But if you want it bad enough, you do that to get what you want, but you still got to live with the consequences. That's right. I have integrity, and so you brought a question up earlier like how is it that you still maintain your relationships? Because you have to have some integrity with what you do and if you diminish your integrity right, no one's going to want to be around you.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, you can get what you want, but there's sometimes you get it in a bad way. Then you get what you want in a good way. I'd rather do it the right way. So I lost and I'll never forget. On that evening of that general election I get a call from Governor Brown and I'm in San Pedro and Governor Brown calls my cell phone Isidore. I said yes, this is Governor, this is Jerry.
Speaker 2:I said Jerry, this is. Governor Brown, this is.
Speaker 1:Jerry I said yes, governor, I told you your ass shouldn't have ran for that seat, no way, why?
Speaker 2:the hell would you want to run?
Speaker 1:for Congress. He said but listen, I'm giving you an appointment right after December. So then I got another call from the president of the university, cal State, dominguez-hills. Senator, yes, I know you just got off a campaign trail, but I want to offer you a position as a director here at the university to run a campus, a school on the campus. Then I got another call from someone else Senator, yes, I'd be honored if you come work for our corporation as an executive vice president, this, that and the other. I didn't want to go work for corporate because, I'm a service-oriented person.
Speaker 1:I went and worked for the college for a month and a half, uh, as a director there, and then the governor called me and said you're quitting that job. I need you back over here in the state. I said well, you know, I've already started at the university. So the governor called the president of the university you know, because these universities are funded by the state and said is there is coming to the Capitol to work in the administration? And so the president of the university called me. His office says listen, senator, you know I'm not.
Speaker 2:I don't fight with I'm not fighting with the governor. Out of all people you know we love. Not, I don't fight with the governor. I'm not fighting with the governor. Out of all people you know we love you, but deuces.
Speaker 1:And so therein lies what happened. And then one thing led to the other, one begat the other, and then the governor left and Gavin Newsom, who is a personal friend of mine, very, very close friend of mine, reappointed me as a director with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which is so huge in the state of California. California has one of the largest, is the largest agricultural producers in the nation, if not the world, no-transcript.
Speaker 2:And things got really, really bad. In Congress, donald Trump was elected.
Speaker 1:Donald Trump was elected and turned that Congress into chaos and it has yet to recover ever since. That's right. Democrats weren't able to get anything through, weren't able to get anything done because of the chaos that had been created there. And I would have been frustrated because I'm a person who likes to get things done and me going back and forth from California to Washington DC twice a week, once a week. I would have been frustrated and I felt like I would have felt like my time was being wasted because I was not going to be able to get anything done.
Speaker 1:I like to see progress and things get done. So it was God's way and I think I told you and a few other of my friends. I said you know, I don't want to do anything outside of the will of God. Yes, that's right If it's not his will. I don't want it. I'd rather be standing in the will of God than staying outside of the will of God.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 2:You know that's actually, um, it's really profound to speak to people who have surrendered to the will of God, and it seems like, because my next question to you was going to be you know, did, and I still ask the question were you afraid, you know, after you lost because you hadn't experienced it? And every single person that you know surrounded you and and around you in any capacity, capacity. We all just knew that you were going to win that race right, and I think the thing that makes you such a phenomenal man is your ability to overcome adversity. You almost make adversity seem like it's not adversity and I know you've heard that a lot in your life, but you, you make, um losses, or you make things that tank most people or set most people back for years or decades. You take that challenge with what appears to be ease, but now I know that there's got to be some times.
Speaker 2:You know where you are doubtful or fearful. What did you feel at that time? Um, of loss, like when you actually set, when it settled in and hit you. What were some of the thoughts that you had?
Speaker 1:thank you for that and, by the way, this is the first time and thank you for have allowing me to to to speak about it because this is this is literally the first time that I had engaged in an interview and if I had many after that, but this is the first time that I've engaged in this type of interview Cause most people they don't want to bring that shit up.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm not bringing that up.
Speaker 1:Right, right I want him going off on me, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I knew I could trap you Um.
Speaker 1:it was a it was a gut punch.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was a gut punch. Yeah, it was a gut punch, you know. I mean because from all indicators, all polling, all indicators said I'd win. And it wasn't until the last five days where there was some very nasty negative hits and they did some very, very bad thing. They put me on a mailer with, uh, donald trump with fingers up and melded to the latino community. And I had the. I had the latino community support.
Speaker 1:Right, my opponent was latina and she didn't have a latino community that's right and and she put a mailer out with me and donald trump with our thumbs up, like we're buddy buddies, and mail it to the Latino community as if I'm working with Donald Trump to put some of our immigrants out of the country.
Speaker 2:Fear tactics. Yeah, fear tactics.
Speaker 1:And she did that because she's not from the community. If she was from the community, she would not have done that, because she knows that that is some of the things that the community has frowned on for years and that's why in my community community I never did a campaign like that, because I know it's a turnoff to our community. But she did it to people who she thought was vulnerable and she took advantage of that. You know and and I can say it to this day you know that was a bad tactic, but again, it was a gut punch, but it was a. It was a moment of reality that you had to reckon with. That's right, you know, either you get yourself up, you acknowledge what happened, you reconcile with what happened and you get your butt up and you start your day over. That's right. You start the next chapter of your life and if you harbor on it, you get lost in it. You'll be woe is me. We ain't got time for woe is me. That's right, you know.
Speaker 1:You get your butt up and you start it in, and that's what happens with a lot of us, particularly as African American men. We get knocked down, but we have to get ourselves back up, dust ourselves off and get back in the race. It's not over, that's right. This is a. This is a world of second chances. A world of second chances. We have fathers who have been incarcerated, wrongfully incarcerated. We have people who have been locked up for three strikes. Laws and things like that Destroyed black families.
Speaker 1:And our black men come out of prison don't know where to go, scared of what to do. Don't understand that this we have grace. This is a country of grace, that's right. A country of second chances and opportunities. Just because you made one mistake doesn't mean that your life is over. You dust yourself off, you pick yourself up and you get back in the race.
Speaker 2:That's right. So I really would like to know from you, Doctor, why is this the most important election for black and brown people?
Speaker 1:This is the most consequential election in history, and you hear this all the time. Yes, but honestly, this is the most important election that you will ever see in life, because literally everything is on the line. When you talk about how books are being taken out of schools in states, right, now.
Speaker 1:We're talking about how voter suppression is happening in some of the southern states right now to keep African Americans and people of color black and brown from voting. When you talk about individuals deciding on what women can do with their bodies and who they can and cannot love. When you talk about individuals taking away the Department of Education, that would directly impact the way lower socioeconomic communities are educated Wow. And when you have an uneducated community constituency, crime spikes. When crime spikes, you go to jail. When you go to jail, broken homes happen, right. And when broken homes happen, the father stays in jail or whoever commits the crime. They come home and he's destitute and then the family is broken. You have a spiral of socioeconomic things that happen that would devastate a community. This is exactly what we're getting right now.
Speaker 1:You have an administration or a group of individuals right now that's trying so hard to take away the Affordable Care Act. As we know of Obamacare, affordable Care Act gave individuals an opportunity to go get a checkup. Black and brown folks, we have a high propensity of diabetes, cancers, all type of things right. But for the Affordable Care Act act, we would never go see a doctor because we don't have the money to be able to go see a doctor and we couldn't get insurance. Why? Because you had a pre-existing condition. The affordable care act said you cannot deny a person health care because of a pre-existing condition. They're trying to take that away.
Speaker 1:So we're basically saying make america great again. And the america that basically saying make America great again. And the America that they're trying to make great again is the America that Brother John Lewis was beat to death almost at the Pettus Bridge. Okay, it is the same make America great again that Emmett Till was beat down for the. Make America great again don't mean people was beat down for the. Make America great again don't mean people of color. That's right, okay, let's be very clear. That's right, okay. The lack of your vote you not voting it directly impacts your family.
Speaker 2:If you have kids.
Speaker 1:If you have daughters, it impacts them. It's not about you. You're voting for your family and your bloodline. That's right. You're voting so that they can have an equitable place to live and grow and thrive in this community. If black men believe that women should have a right to choose, if black men believe that their children should be able to have a decent education, if black men believe that you have a right to health care, regardless whether or not you can pay for it or not, the black men believe that you know over incarceration is a bad thing for African-American and people of color, black and brown, Then you should be able to go out. You should go out and vote, because Project 2025 eliminates all of that.
Speaker 1:Right because Project 2025 eliminates all of that, and so we cannot sit here on the sideline and pretend like we're exempt from all of this stuff. No, my friend, we're not.
Speaker 2:Because it's not happening to them, it's happening to us, it's happening to us.
Speaker 1:You look at what Roe v Wade has done to us Now. That law was on the books for years. Guess what it did. Reversed it. You look at affirmative action Guess what that did. Reversed it. Now, all these universities no longer have affirmative action programs.
Speaker 2:Unbelievable.
Speaker 1:To allow African-American and people of color, black and brown folks to go to school, just so that they can have a balance there. That's all gone. Guess what they're doing for housing right now? They're basically saying guess what? No, you now have to qualify for a house at a certain level now, making it much more difficult for people of color to afford a house right now.
Speaker 1:Ownership. They're trying to take away Affordable Care Act that allow people of color, black and brown to be able to go see a doctor because we have higher rates of high blood pressure and diabetes. That's right, right. And guess what? They're trying to take that away Now. Yes, that has a direct impact on African-American men leaders in their home and black and brown men leaders in their home and their families, because if you have a sick wife, you have a sick daughter, you have a sick son, that black man, that brown man, will have a sick house and he himself will be devastated because he can't do nothing about it, because he can't afford it. So this is what's on the line right now. Democracy and freedom is on the line right now and we better vote like. Our lives depend on it because they do, they do, that's right.
Speaker 2:I feel like there is a not imposter syndrome, but a lot of people feel that the issues that we're facing aren't connected to them in their households. Issues that we're facing aren't connected to them in their households, and a lot of people are not educated or informed enough to make the best decisions for themselves. But I would even go as far to saying is that you don't have a choice.
Speaker 1:You have a choice.
Speaker 2:I would go as far to saying, in this particular election, if some of the things that you just said, like Roe v Wade and affirmative action, if things that historically have been in place to protect humans from achieving whatever it is they choose to achieve in their life choices at the basis of, of that it's not confined to a woman's choice, this is the crack in the door for everybody to a woman's choice. This is the crack in the door for everybody. Oh, if you can take away a woman's right to choose, you're taking away choice period. So, eventually, this one law and we've seen how things work, um, in the political landscape this one law just cracks the door open for us to turn back the hands of time of so many things. Oh, come on, so on. So how do we get our men out of this? That's them, not me, fog that I believe a lot of us are just living in this uh la la land. Like, what advice can you give to jolt brothers, specifically brothers out of this haze?
Speaker 1:well, first, of all, you can't allow the failures of the past to dictate your future. Okay, because african-american men had, they have and for and rightfully so have felt violated by the institution, the government. Quote, quote, unquote. Why? Because they have been overly incarcerated, they have been undereducated, underfunded, broken homes, and so they have a burden on their shoulders.
Speaker 2:Targeted, all around targeted.
Speaker 1:You have police brutality, you have all that, and so they feel as if they've heard this story before, Like we have to vote, like our lives depend on well, hell, our lives have been depending on all this time and nothing has happened. Right, you know, in our favor. But this time this is real, Because they were already saying you heard the orange man talk about you know he's going to empower law enforcement and give them immunity to do whatever they want to do. He said it, and if he said it, you better believe it. He said that he's going to take away the Board of Education, the Department of Education, to have a direct impact on how your black kids are going to be raised, your black and brown kids. He said he's going to take women's rights away, and he did.
Speaker 1:He appointed the Supreme Court justices. That did exactly what he said he was going to do. He said he was going to make sure affirmative action is there's no affirmative action to help folks get into schools and DEI jobs, as you call it, and he did that. That's right. So this stuff is real and he means exactly what he says. And here's what's crazy they said what they should say in private. They said it out loud.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:With a project 2025. They gave you the blueprint of how they're going to reverse and flip the script in America blueprint of how they're going to reverse and flip the script in America.
Speaker 1:And so, yes, if black people are concerned black and brown are concerned about health care and it been taken away they need to go vote.
Speaker 1:If they're concerned about their child being able to read black history books and Latino history books and API history books and Latino history books and API history books they need to go vote because in states right now they're banning books in public schools right now. Okay. If they're concerned about, potentially, their daughter, god, we pray it doesn't happen that a man's daughter will be raped and impregnated because they were raped. We pray that that doesn't happen, but the reality is it happens and that child would not be able to get an abortion in these states because they're passing laws that says a woman doesn't have the right to choose, even through a rape. So that black man who has a daughter who potentially could be raped and God help us if it happens he's got that daughter is going to have to sit with a baby that she may or may, may or may not even know who the father is because she cannot abort or God be it, albeit she goes and try to do some type of abortion, end up taking her life.
Speaker 2:OK, door back door.
Speaker 1:So these are the. These are the issues that we're dealing with right now. Um, there's no, there's no other way to say it. This is a crisis that we're in. It's a crisis. This is the. This is a very, very scary time for our nation, and it'd be a a place of no return for us if we elect someone else in office other than Kamala Harris in this cycle.
Speaker 2:In this cycle it'll be a place of no return. It's not even about making history or politics.
Speaker 1:Right no.
Speaker 2:It really, at its core, is about freedom, oh yeah, and about also maintaining whatever equity or whatever social economic status you and your family has achieved, because, as a black person, as a black and brown person, any a person of color, wherever you've made it to in society, you've made it off the backs of a lot of people yeah sure a lot of people have helped us.
Speaker 2:Even when we get to, you know, just having a good job with a 401k plan and being able to buy your first home or even your first apartment All of these things we've done off the backs of a lot of brown, black and brown people who have suffered immensely for us to be free as we are today. These freedoms must not be taken for granted, and I would suggest that the way, without instilling fear in anybody, because I'm not about the fear politics, but you must be informed, and I think having conversations like this with people like you who are educated and informed, can give young men a perspective that they may not have seen absolutely.
Speaker 2:I just think that's right yeah so this is a very important conversation. I think it's a conversation that most of us need to have more often, with open arms and open minds and open hearts and no judgment involved and we're not going back to the days of old on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Speaker 1:No, we're not going back. Oh, we're not going back to that. No, no, okay, no, no, nobody of color wants to go back. We're not going there because we're not included there. We're not included in that going back. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, no, no.
Speaker 2:We cannot go back, and that's the reason why I've made a decision in my life to actually speak about it. Every chance I get, every opportunity that I can is to open up dialogue and again, not judge people who for who they vote for, but just have a pure education. Because there's a lot of rhetoric that exists, as you know, in our societies. We have to funnel through so much, so many lies and BS before we actually get to the truth. But this race is the most important race of our lives, of our lives, and we must do the work that it takes to decipher through all of the rhetoric and all of the lies in order for us to be educated enough to know what is really at stake for us.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you something and I know you got to go and I'm sorry. First, I am a politician, I'm a public speaker and I'm a preacher.
Speaker 2:So that's dangerous.
Speaker 1:But let me just say as I close Okay, okay, let me just say this yes, you know it's bad.
Speaker 1:You know we're in bad times when you can have a presidential candidate call a woman of color ugly and dumb and stupid. You know you're at bad times when you have a person say that you're the most deranged person in life, person in life, pull her hair back and saying just gross, just the most gross things you can ever say of a woman, a black woman, an API woman. In Kamala Harris they are so disrespectful in rule with racist things, just the most, the most heinous things that you can possibly say about a candidate. They're saying this about Kamala Harris I don't care if Kamala Harris was an African-American male, I don't care if she was a white male, I don't care what you are, who you run it, what you run. I mean you know the hue of your skin. The fact that you're a presidential candidate and you can say things like that and spew hate and discord across the nation. That's bad time. These are bad times. And you're supposed to be the leader of the free world, with kids looking at you as an example.
Speaker 2:Well, don't you think those people to represent? Look at how much support that that has represent. Look at how much support that that has. The fact that there's that much support for an individual that way says a lot about the world we live in yeah, we're nation divided one nation divided we're a nation divided yeah and that's why this election is going to be so close, because it's it's it's literally divided.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable that it can be this close. It's literally divided.
Speaker 2:It's unbelievable that it can be this close.
Speaker 1:It's this close and people are able, with permission, to take their hoods off and show us who they really are.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, on that note, Dr. Isidore.
Speaker 1:Hall III. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you for coming through and blessing this space.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:As only you can do. Thank you and please let the audience know how they can reach you, cause I'm going to tell you, if you don't follow anybody, you need to follow this guy.
Speaker 1:Isidore Hall Instagram. Isidore Hall Twitter.
Speaker 2:Isidore Hall no third, no third, just Isidore Hall.
Speaker 1:God bless you Well thank God, bless you Well. Thank you Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:I am so honored to have you and we are very fortunate as a people to have leaders like you in our communities and that we have access to. I think all black men need an ally like yourself, and I believe that God gives us all what we need. So, therefore, I know that the brothers watching this you do have access to an ally and to somebody who is uplifting their community. I want us to galvanize around these individuals to learn more from them, use less judgment in our lives and have more of an open heart as a people and as a brother, and that's what Goodfellas is all about. So, before we go, dr Hall, you told me what was good for you, what you thought good is. Let our audience know how they can get to good, what it takes. Give us a little bit of advice as you close, pastor.
Speaker 1:Well, let's just say this so you move from good to great, so you move from good to great, but your good is your noble cause. Your noble cause is that very thing that guides you from the principles of being a deliverer of good to a community.
Speaker 1:What makes you feel worthy, what makes you smile when you get up in the morning, what makes you decide that you want to make this world a better place, what makes you decide that you want to leave this world a better place? That's the noble cause. The noble cause is the very thing that makes you get up and feel like you're going to bust this world wide open and you're going to be the best that you can possibly be. And I will say this I said earlier as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. You have the decision each and every day, to make this world the way you want to make it, to make yourself who you want to be, only if you want to make it. To make yourself who you want to be, only if you want to do it. So I say, you get out there, you find that noble cause and in the moment of that noble cause, you help somebody else pick them up and lift as you climb.
Speaker 2:Amen to that Lift as you climb. I actually learned that from you. So, thank you for all that you've instilled in my life and for everything that you will permeate, everything of you that will permeate through the rest of the world because of this interview.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you're very welcome. Get out and vote.
Speaker 2:Get out and vote. I'd like to thank you guys personally for watching today's episode, and I'd also like to ask you to spread the word about our community. We're small and we're mighty, but we're healing and growing as men, and thank you in advance for helping share that. So if you want to help us keep the conversation going or if you need to have a chat yourself, you can always reach out to us on our Facebook, our Instagram or our TikTok. Fellas, let's grow.
