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(Shakyra) Hey y'all, it's ya girl Shakyra Mabone (Jada vasser) Jada Vasser (Anthony) and Anthony Brinson and this is All Shades of Chocolate where we bring (Shakyra) the sweetest (Jada) the hottest (All three hosts) black culture to MSU (Anthony) have to three weeks. A lot of mess. A lot of random occurrences. We have the wonderful, the talented, the very great human being known as Demonte Thomas. Thank you. How you feeling man? (Demonte) Great to actually be on here, you know, three weeks? (Anthony) yeah, it was crazy. His first debut. We were we thought we was gonna get his debut, but Alex Walters, he pulled it off before us. So shout out but no, it was great to have you get the jitters out and get your first experience being on camera stuff if you wouldn't mind being a little closer to the mic. Well, you're talking but other than that, yeah, that should be good. Again, give me is Mr. But he was doing that right before the Hey. Anyway, um, yeah, just one of the first things that we were discussing even before we started recording is how we met. So do you want to do your perspective first or by Oh, how we met you can do yours first. So I love telling this story because and it'll perfectly segue into just how talented this young man is. But I was in the Communication Arts and Science building if you guys aren't familiar with is right next to the education building. And I was I think I was coming from class and if you guys are familiar with the Commerce building and if you aren't there's a big lecture hall that most journalism students when they take the first German class is really where it's the room you're in what's the name? What's the guy's name again start with a P shadow Professor parks but it was that class and I had when that room I was walking past that room and I heard little tune on the piano and I might wait a minute if I'm not gonna it was where you was. All of me by John Legend was nowhere to plan at that time. So I hear that I'm like, that's one of my favorite songs. I like period like who's playing and it sounded incredible. So I go into the room and see somebody on the piano and typical Anthony fashion don't know who this person is. I just walk all the way down to him and be like, You are incredible. Like I just have to tell you like you sound I've heard you all the way from which I did from the door where like the 33 bus stop is at the door by the game and symptoms if you go out and then hit hit a left on the Commerce room. I'm like I heard you all the way from near as I was about to leave out like you literally stopped me in my tracks as I was walking I'm like, go back real quick. So yeah, and then I ended up find like the one of the other times I saw him in there. He's wearing some anime merch, some Dragonball merch, something Oh, yeah. Did we getting through we could talk. But yeah, so from your perspective, how that day go and then with how we met and stuff? (Demonte) Yeah, um, basically, like you said it was. I want to say the end of journalists in one way. With period parks. Shout out Professor parks. But um, yeah, I was playing the piano like usual. And like yourselves playing John Legend. Just practicing. And then I see you come in. And Anthony B. Anthony. i Hi. How are you? You play so well. I was like, thank you. Nice to meet you, Bob. We just like have like a great conversation about me playing that song. My passion for playing piano. And I want to say I've heard that day. There will like be like different instances where you will see me I'll see you will say well both say hi. But I will like to say that. Now it's like the first day, like our friendship was created. Just like basically through like shopping, if you want to be honest. So we've just been playing piano. Yeah. (Anthony) And I've always told people not even just you what impresses me most about people is when they can do something I can do. And like I've have a bit of experience with piano because I was in varsity choir and I can play you like middle C and all that. But the fact that and you can talk about this once I say it, but like you've taught yourself how to play like you play from ear. Like when you start playing all of me who's like, Yeah, but working on some other songs that I'm like, I'm sitting there like he just played like, just out of the blue from his head. So that is such an incredible time. I was telling you, the only person I'm familiar with in my life who can do that, as my cousin Shana Renee, she can play it. She taught us how to play the piano, she plays by ear. So to meet someone else other than outside my family do that. I'm like, this is a talent. That's just very rare. So if you want to talk about how do you, I guess, to just perfectly transition into the instruments you play, because instruments are the AES I find out Don't you you play more than just the piano. So just to start at the piano, how did you or why did you learn how to play the piano? And then could you talk about the process of learning? (Demonte) Yeah, so I basically piano was like one of the many instruments I learned how to play over the last couple of years. But I want to say was ninth grade marching band Um, shout out mister. You're also in marching band. Yeah. Shout out to my band teacher, Mr. Maliki. But it was just like a regular day. Before we started class I said, I want to, like start playing piano. So I just like started playing heart and soul with like, just one finger each lifetime. Like you get. I'm not sure. I was like, done did you get? Um, so after I did that, I said, Okay, I'm gonna learn some source I playing. I can't remember his name. While I was like practicing his song. Like, if you speak to any of my other friends back home, they'll say okay, yeah, he was practicing that song for like, weeks. But I just learned the piano like, just like that. Now if I'm being honest, I watched like a couple of YouTube piano tutorials. But not but not. I never took like any kind of piano lesson classes. Instructor never taught me or anything like that is kind of like, okay, I'll listen to the song a couple of times, pick up the melody. Find a chord for that song and just put it together. (Anthony) That's so incredible. Because how do you know what core matches what note like, just to think about how singing works, especially a shout out al she's also in here and she also sings have been acquired to understand how to sing a certain note a certain way. It's hard enough to to hear it and play its emulate. It's such a fun outlay. How do you do it? (Demonte) Um, I haven't already read Sure. Honestly, like, if I'm being honest, I've been playing piano since ninth grade. I'm a sophomore for context. And I still to this day, do not know what the actual names of each key like the wider black keys. I just memorize them. Yes, I have perfect pitch. Yes. And you see, that's the thing. It's not like something everyone can have. It's just like, Okay, you just have it. But um, yeah, like, basically, it's like, okay, I'll listen to a song a couple of times, depending on the melody, or depending on how fast it's going, or how slow it's going. Listen to a couple of times, find like the, I'm not sure if the camera can see, well, I planned like the chords whatnot. And they just put it together to rehearse a couple of times. And then that's the song. So that (Anthony) that is incredible. And it's just like, I don't know if you're religious or not, but it's like you're genuinely like, just really blessed and talented. And it's so incredible. And I'm filming it over to Jada and Shakyra. Because I can imagine they have just as many questions as I do. But I want to ask, like I mentioned, you do play most of multiple instruments. So what else do you play other than the piano? (Demonte) So I want to say the first instrument that I excuse me, that I first played was I'm gonna say the baritone. Yeah, it's like a tuba. Okay. No. It's similar to tuba. I wouldn't say like sixth grade. But beginning ninth grade all the way up to like, my senior year, I played trumpet. I want to say I was a tenor. I'm not sure. I'm not sure I forgot. But trumpet and then around the same time piano. Yeah, I think that's it. (Anthony) That's awesome. And JD Shakyra. If y'all want to y'all want to ask something? (Shakyra) Why are you here today? What is your purpose? I'm sorry. Yeah. (Demonte) I'm basically here to show you, you can cut this off if you need to, but basically show everyone who I am. Because if most folks are not familiar, I am the new Student Affairs reporter, state news. Otter would like to congratulate you on the great work you have been doing. So thank you. Yeah, but I'm just like, folks know that. I'm here. And if you have any questions or news tips, whatnot, just let me know. It may look like I'm like, busy or like, on a phone or whatever, but I promise you, I have to time so (Shakyra) I was gonna ask so how do you like, you know, the students of every quarter like, talk about your work, your recent work or whatever? (Deomte) Yeah so I love it. Just talking to a bunch of people or students I should say, hearing their stories and hearing basically their experiences on the campus. And unfortunately, it's been mostly negative. I feel as though as a reporter, my top priority is telling someone else's story. Mainly, if that story may never be told at all. That's kind of what really gotten me into journalism by so far being Student Affairs reporter I love it. I love each and every second. And yeah, I just hope to continue the great work that I'm doing. So I hope that question. (Anthony) Yeah. And so give a real quick shout out to Shakyra because I know I'm pretty sure Jada had a question as well. You have a very good you and Jada and always shut up somebody as well. You have a good vision for talent, because like same way you Student Affairs reporter like she was the former podcast coordinator now the position being called podcast editor, she knew I had a podcast and believed in me and she believed in you that same way so just think thank you to Shakyra for that. And again, not even just a Kira I was telling him earlier that all sides of chocolate wasn't my creation. My idea had really nothing to do with me it was more so Shakyra and Jada and so my it's my understanding. So just for them to take that and then bring it to where it is now. Dope for both of y'all and Mr. Meyers want to do that and different tomatoes were like objectively not even just because he my friend but a pretty good student affairs reporter. He as soon as he got here he is getting stories out like that. I knew he's gonna be on it. So that's why I was like, Yeah, coffee. The students are prepared, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Like your work ethic is very impressive, man. I don't say that's a lot of people so not even just as your friend your work ethic is great, man. (Demonte) Thank you appreciate hearing no problem (Jada) I don't have a question but shout out trumpets because clarinet and trumpet played the same part in marching band to play a trumpet. So shout out to the trumpets and the clarinets. They, yeah, shout out to them. Thank you. (Anthony) We talked about this on our episode about just y'all being are used specifically being in marching band stuff. And you are in marching band too, right? Yeah. Just the dynamic of the marching band, how everything comes together. It's a that's also something very impressive. Like y'all play what we sang choir wise, and then sometimes just keep it real. Yeah, do it better. So you're live in Washington? Yeah. That was, again, one of the main things as well. Was data was telling me how it's a sport and once you break it down, it's like, I can't take that away from him. But an interesting very interesting dynamic between you and Jada. DeMonte. Being on his podcast is your both are twins. Yeah, both come from a set of twins both to for terlalu. Fraternal. Yeah, super paternal twins. So just how is it from your perspective, especially a set of guys? How's it being a twin? And just how do you feel about it? (Demonte) Um, well. I love it. I love it. I really do. appreciate my 20k loves to death. But yeah, just being a twin. It's like, it's been a great experience. Now growing up as like a little kid, like, I have my but um, yeah, it's been a great experience just telling people like, yes, yes. (Anthony) So to give you a context, Al is holding up certain questions back from her perspective as well. If what do you ask? (Guest in the room) Well, one question I asked earlier if you had perfect pitch, but what I just said, if you want to talk about it, (Demonte) um, yeah, I have 100 set of brothers that are actually twins too. (Anthony) Because that's a very dope, how does that dynamic work of you being a set of twins? And then you have a set of other brothers who are also twit that is the science behind that? Crazy, so yeah, why it's gonna go crazy. (Demonte) But, ya know, it's pretty much just like a regular experience, like, siblings experience whatnot, by being a twin, I would say, obviously, has ups and downs. Like, you have my twin like, he's taller than me scholar and me here. But at the end of the day, I love saying this for both smart are both excellent. And we are both going to do great things, and bring some great, positive joy into this world. (Anthony) that is incredible. As um, does your does. Um, so do you? Understand you have a brother that isn't a twin? Correct? Does he ever feel left out at all? Or is that ever a thing? Or? (Demonte) Um, I don't want to say he feels left out. He's the oldest of course. Okay. Yeah. So I'll just say like, well, it is what it is like, we're all just like, just chilling. You know, if that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. (Anthony) So I have a very interesting question. I've talked to Jada about a few times as well. But with you being a twin, how do you carve out your own identity? How do you even how do you separate from being the twin brother and just being Demonte? (Demonte) Um, that's a great question. I would say that growing up being a twin, of course, just being like fraternal like, we're not like identical. The shiny you know, the movie The Shining, like the two twins and Hollywood whatnot, movie reference, but I would say I just kind of build like my own personality. My 20k like we both have, like different personalities. It's a great thing actually. It's not like negative thing I would say for my personality, I just kind of like carved that out by myself at a young age. Figure it out. Okay, there are some things I like same at Sam, there's some things I don't like. I just kind of like, took that and just kept on going with it. But that makes sense. It does. It does. (Anthony) And from my understanding from what you told me, you two, obviously y'all both don't go to the same school. So how did that process go of like, separate from your brother? Like, was it hard? Was it easy? How did you make the decision to go to Michigan State versus where your brother was gone? (Demonte) Yep. So I will say for certain one, we both laugh on why I went to Michigan State when he went to Morehouse, (Anthony) Morehouse. HBCU, right. Yes. Shout out. (Demonte) Shout out to Morehouse. But I will say for certain, even though like, Oh, I get to rebuild myself. But jokes aside. I cried. Like when we laugh, when he he was the first to leave. And I will say I cried my eyes out like a baby. Because it's kind of like I grew up with him. He's He's like my first best friend. So you know, just like the whole concept of, oh, I'm going to Michigan State which PWI. And he's going to Morehouse with his historically, black college university. I didn't really look at it that way. I'm thinking, well, even though we're going our separate ways. We're both still connected, not only like, fallen or whatever. But like emotionally, spiritually. We're both still connected. And going back to I said, like we're both while we are doing great things are going to continue to do great. (Anthony) Yeah, yeah, man. And I have another interesting question. Probably the most interesting question of the mall between twins. Who's the (Demonte) He was on TK was born first. Okay. Okay. That's so that's what's up. Yeah, I'm the baby. (Anthony) Do you know how your names was decided? Because usually twins that names kind of pair up together. So how do you know how the process of like Dimatteo TK Was there ever? (Demonte) Umhonestly, it's a story by Oh, yeah. Like if I'm being honest, like, TK and DeMonte kind of sound. (Anthony) yeah. Go ride that did that second syllable ideas (Demonte) Well, most people don't understand like, the name TKS. It's like an actual name. It's not like, oh, like abbreviation of self like 12 Kennedy. Is the inside joke. Family inside joke. Yeah, no, I don't really know. Like that whole process, if that makes sense. Yeah. If I'm being honest myself, like, how did ya know? My name is Tom don't monta same as TK. So I'm taking it all back to English class... like you can. Yeah. But ya know, I hope that answers it. (Anthony) It definitely did. And I'm with you being a part of such a unique family. I'm gonna say shout out to your family as well. And with the career paths y'all have chosen, I'm not familiar with your brother's career path. You want to inform me during your answer you can but just in general, we'll take a more serious approach of Shakyra Asking Why are you here? Why did you become a journalist? What about the field of journalism intrigued you (Demonte) So if most people which I imagined don't know, I am from Flint, Michigan, born and raised to Flint but we experienced the Flint water crisis and as an elementary schooler being told that one day oh well, you're no longer going to be able to drink like the water through water and fountains or just seeing our city was portrayed in different media organizations some positive some negative that just kind of already wakened something inside of me that said okay, this is what I want to do. I want to become a journalist tell stories are not being told. Because fortunately, find story was told. But there are like many other stories that are or not to, like Benton Harbor, Michigan Jackson, Mississippi. list can go on and on that don't even get like coverage one like nightly news, whatnot. But with flint, like the water crisis being like the push, I kind of always want it to be reporter. I remember telling my grandma while I was like a child. I'm still child. Almost like a little baby. Getting ready to freeze. School each and every morning. Gotta watch news. Especially with snow days. (Anthony and Shakyra) We all have snow day, it like it was on NFL draft or whatever. I just want to say my school never got canceled. So I'm talking about like LM Reggie bus. Oh, keep going, that's my stop. It'd be like, No, we're not gonna be started. (Demonte) But yeah, I told my grandma, I used to always tell her every once in a while, Granny, I want to be the man with the microphone, I want to be the man with the microphone that is so adorable. So in a way, like now I'm literally the man with the microphone. I think like the word microphone itself, it could be me. And like any other thing like the man with the pen, the man with whatever. And owning just have to be like the man with the microphone can be number one with the microphone, whatnot. But I think that just kind of pushed me to journalism. And basically where I'm at right now, I hope that I'm setting a great example, to those that want to pursue journalism. Because if those that are familiar with journalism, it's not always sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately. But we have a responsibility not only to ourselves, but to the people that we work for, to people that we write these stories on behalf of, or just serve their communities. Yeah. (Anthony) With your career in journalism so far, and it doesn't even have to be just the state news. But what's been your favorite thing you've produced, whether it be a story, a video, a photo, because he's very great with the camera as well. Now the thing but just what's been the best piece of journalistic work you've produced, (Demonte) I would say for sure, just talking to many student organizations, mainly student organizations of color, BSA Black Student Alliance, or MSU. NAACP, I'm just writing stories on the ongoing racial and harassment incidents has been happening on campus for God knows how long just writing stories like that making sure people are aware of what happened, what is happening, what is continuing to happen. I feel it still does. And my pain and my greatest accomplishment. Because I was always taught education matters. So education through reading an article on black students facing racism or reading an article and Asian students or whoever, just urging the university to do more, and addressing racism and harassment and whatnot on campus. I feel it's still education. And it's, why should people use that education? But I would say for sure, just writing stories like that is my greatest compliment so far. (Anthony) I want to ask with you right in those type of stories. And you mentioned while being Student Affairs Reporter So far, the coverage has kind of been more negative than positive. does that weigh on you at all? In terms of having to take that on your shoulders and being in the position of working for the state news and being a student affairs reporter? Is there? Is it hard on you at all? Or do you just, it doesn't come with? Does it go? Naturally, (Demonte) I would be lying. If I said at some point, it didn't feel like okay, this is getting out of hand and just writing the stories because I fortunately, I will tell the stories if they are happening. I don't want to tell these kinds of stories because it should not ever happen. Especially as a black student going into a PWI. That itself is kind of like okay, well, leaving out the Black Journalists so that at the end of the day, I'm still a black student who may or may not go through the same experiences that I'm writing about. So yeah, at some point, it kind of just weighs in, I always have to remind myself, the stories they need to be told. Like basically, I don't tell the stories or if state news so untold stories or whatnot, they may never get told, which is kind of like my, my philosophy when it comes to journalism, if that makes sense. (Anthony) It definitely does make sense. And I want to ask, and at first I was going through my head, like, should we talk about this? Should I ask this and if you're not comfortable answering it, then you don't have to, but it was randomly brought up to me the other days and you relate to it heavily with you being impacted by it. But it's no secret, at least to on this newsroom. And I've been outside of this newsroom. Some of the unfortunate events that have happened recently more so to just say And more specifically, the monkey day situation that happened. And obviously we we haven't addressed it on this podcast. Yeah, but I'm feel comfortable asking you more specifically. With that happening right around a time if I'm not mistaken. You were just becoming Student Affairs reporter. How did that make you feel one? And then how did you make the decision to still work for the state news and represent the state news after that? (Demonte) Um, so thank you for asking me a question. Honestly. The whole incident, when I first found out about it, it was an embarrassment, if I'm being honest, because like you mentioned, just had an interview on the previous week for Student Affairs reporter and got to position and then the monkey day I said it happened. I'm thinking, wow, this happens. I want to say, well, it's a mixture of embarrassment, confusion, and a little bit of anger. If I'm being honest. My anger. I don't want to say anger bite, trying to find a word. I don't just disappointed. Disappointment. Yes. (Anthony) I don't know. Yeah. And I don't ask that to shy away from I want you to explain why you felt that way. (Demonte) Yeah, and it's basically when I happened, it was like, Whoa, keep dying. I'm working for a news organization, which unfortunately, has the history of controversial things, especially with the coverage of the 1989. PSA sit in. If you don't know, you don't worry, just any kind of coverage. So I'm thinking, wow, this is really happening before I start my position. So my decision to stay with state news, I was with a 100%. Because my mentality is, if I leave now, what kind of example am I setting to to young black boy, but to actually back in flat, who wants to become a journalist, or to anyone who are still in school, who wants to become a journalist? What kind of example mind setting, if I just let... What kind of example am I setting? If I let this one incident that should have never happened? Get me worried, and journalism. And unfortunately, come next Tuesday, we will be covering more unfortunate things. So it's kind of like, well, I can't let this get to me. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, I have a job, I have a responsibility. State News reporter and I'm still a journalist. So that's my personal responsibility to make sure that our voices are getting heard the voices from any student on campus is getting the coverage that it deserve. And make sure that they know for a fact that your feelings are valid, everything that they think they see they feel it is 100% valid, so (Anthony) yeah, man, I really appreciate your answer. And to give our audience more context of what the situation we're referring to, just in case you guys don't know. So and I'll try to explain the best way as possible. So the state news produced a newsletter, I think every day, every week, every day is every, every weekly show. And there was a day that from my understanding that they need there was a lack of ideas available for the newsletter to stay and with how I was also informed the newsletter works is that we make money off this newsletter. So it needs to get produced on the days that it needed to get produced. And the person who was writing the newsletter, I'm not sure and I'm not too comfortable exposing the person quote unquote, but most likely, if you know about situation, you know who it is. But they wrote the newsletter, and they decided to do it on monkey day. And it was also included a video of a monkey peeling a banana. And while I talk about situation all the time, and it's like, I can't believe I'm actually saying this. The reason why this is so impactful one, if I just left it there, most people who are especially most black people can understand the issue here. But the issue, the main issue was that this was right after we did coverage on a black student suffering racism on this campus. And we even got as extreme as people apparently calling into the state news and saying that we view that young men or we view black people as monkeys due to that monkey the internet, which is freaking absurd. But there's impacted the black community of the state news and just the black media MSU immensely because, one, it's a PWI it's not a lot of black students here as well. But like the monetary also referenced in it, and I sit in the BSA, we almost had a 2024 version of that as well. And we've to get also give our audience anybody else will be wondering context. We're doing our we have done our part of the black students are part of this newsroom to make sure that this story or this situation doesn't get buried, and to even talk about it on this platform that we have now. At the end of the day what the unfortunate truth was for the people outside of this newsroom was Then we are the black students that worked for the racist organization. And the reason why I've won, I put quotation marks over there for a reason. Because based on what actually goes on in this newsroom in this podcast, even existing, I don't feel that the organization that we work for is racist. But I do understand the perspective of somebody else outside this newsroom who does not know the situation or does not know us, or does not listen to this podcast or doesn't know what goes on in this newsroom. And another reason why I ask why bring it up specifically for you is because during this situation, you acknowledged and expressed that being specifically the Student Affairs reporter, while this is going on, is just it wasn't the best look at the time. So with having that, how did you maneuver that? Well, and when it was fresh, because even now, even within not being fresh, quote, unquote, like I mentioned, somebody randomly walked up to me at my other job that was like, Hey, hi, Johanna, and I'm looking at situations going on and my heart sunk, because I'm like, wow, like, I genuinely had did not realize that this, like people know about this. So how did you handle it, especially being the Student Affairs report out of all positions? (Demonte) So when I first started, officially started working at state news, I just got to work honestly. Now, personally, in back of my mind, I was thinking, wow, this is an answer that should never have happened. And this has happened and what I wasn't even employed at the state news. But as not only a student aid affairs reporter, but as a black journalist, we historically talked to black student groups like BSA or MSU. NAACP. So my thoughts was, okay, instead of just approaching it as like the corporate way, approach as like, any kind of way that as a black students, I would, which is just... this whole part can get edited outside, or I get edited together one time, but I'm, basically just take my job one day at a time, because I knew, I still know that with the monkey day incident, that still to this day, do not sit well with a bunch of student organizations. Black, white, whatever. Personally, still, don't sit well with me, since it happened. But my mentality is just take it one day at a time. Work on what I have to, and just keep moving forward. Because that's all we can do. At the end of the day, just keep moving forward. Now, I'm not saying forget what happened, because we should never forget what happened in that newsletter. But we need to take what we learned from that experience, in use it to make sure that it doesn't happen again. (Anthony) And it's also give our audience more context in terms of just how we've done or what we've done moving forward. I'm gonna first acknowledge that the situation was okay, no matter how it happened, no matter when it happened, especially when it happened. With it happening in general, it was not okay. And the people in this newsroom know that the person who made the error knows that and we know that as well. And whether you guys may unfortunately not see what goes on in here, since you don't work here. All four of us, really all the people in this room included, have done the best we can to represent the people of color in this newsroom and on this campus. And to talk about that not okay. Because even I think it was specifically mentioned that a lot of times it was it like it or the situation even I started off by saying the situation instead of saying what actually happened. And that, unfortunately, is what happens to our culture and our people pretty much daily. But if you want if you don't want to overdo it to OD and I say daily very frequently. And even though I'm pretty sure I'll for you guys know, personally, that I've been experienced with the issue that to give you a context, what ends up happening, nothing happened. There was a situation that happened with me and a white individual, I won't get into context here because it's not to take the spotlight away from this, but nothing happened. I was physically assaulted by a white person and nothing happened. And if the roles were reversed, if the monkey the situation was reversed, we are very aware of what would happen if it was a black person or black student. So for us we would have been kicked out Yeah, we would have been fired. In my situation, it feels reversed, I'd probably be dead. So that's just the truth of these situations. And to have that in the back of our mind like dang, we just got to deal with it. Like that's sometimes the expectation and it's always on almost always the reality. It's just we have to deal with it. Now luckily, and I see l comment on it as well. Hopefully, you've spoken really loud last time so it may not hear you Yeah (Elle and Anthony) I was just gonna say you being physically assaulted by a white person did not happen at work. It did not happen at this job. Yes, yes. It did not happen at the state news. It happened at the President's center. Also earlier when he was talking about the articles for monkey day in the black student. They were physically fact back on the same page. Yeah, it was like it was. (Demonte) So to give context, for the viewers and listeners, thank you for Thank you. With each newsletter that is produced, basically, we would have the top story of the morning or a top story of the day. Now, on this day, it just happened to be okay, not only the monkey day caption and a video of the rat annotating the banana. But unfortunately, it was in the top story of that morning was the story that one of our reporters have died. Talking about interviewing one of the students talking about their experiences as a black male student here at Michigan State University. The racism the have endured harassment, whatnot, and it's not just him, it's countless other students. So when you put two and two together it's it's uh, I'm biting my tongue because I don't want to curse on podcasts. But (Anthony and Demonte) it was just gonna say, yeah, no, Yes. No, you can keep going my bed. But um, yeah, it basically, it just just juxtaposed I'm not sure if there's juxtaposition. Yeah. I think I see what you say. Yeah. But that just made it even worse, honestly. So (Anthony) yeah, I mean, just a usual where I hopefully I use it, right? Just the juxtaposition between having a story of a black student experiencing racism, and then right next to it a story about a monkey and making it seem, at least to really everybody, but so people outside this newsroom died. It was combined. And when it wasn't supposed to be is, it was just that. (Demonte) Yeah. And historically speaking, For those that don't know, term monkey being used in terms of black person it is and has for for decades has been considered a slur. Say masked and word or any other term that I'm not going to repeat on this podcast. But to have monkey day. And a top story, talking about a black student talking about their experiences of racism on MSU campus. I don't know. It's a wild situation. I say wild because it's, it sounds crazy just talking about or just saying, Yeah, sounds like something that is made up but it's real. (Anthony) And I do want Jada to end this segment on her end or her thoughts. Because if you guys aren't aware, we are me and Jada are the diversity representatives of this newsroom. And before I give it to Jada to just give her thoughts in general and her speaking about it, I'd want to just acknowledge that. And it's just unacceptable. And I want to say to the black students here at MSU, that you matter. The young man, I'm hopefully I don't want to pronounce it to her on my keys, I end up reaching out to him personally, we met up we talked about it. And really actually, he's a great guy. And most of the conversation wasn't even about the monkey the situation. But the parts that were I told him that just from black students, a black student, it was just unacceptable, and it hurt me to see him hurt and to hear his hurt. And for him to even be seen as the face of even just the face of black students was an error for it to seem like that. And then for it to be combined with the monkey day situation, it was just very disappointing, especially working for this newsroom, knowing the standard that we try to show it, we didn't meet that as a newsroom. And it was very unacceptable. And it's all the black students that are here. Not only do you matter, you deserve to be here, you did the work to get here at the predominantly white institution. And it'd be in a PWI doesn't make it any good or bad. But we know how certain things go in the world in terms of black people having opportunities, and we have to fight for them very much tooth and nail almost every day, and especially black women specifically go through things that no person especially no man to understand. So just to have these situations happen to our community hearts, and just like we've always had to put our hands up and be like, well, that's just another situation to happen. But I've spoken enough and I would really appreciate if Jada were to just to take the mic here as the other diversity representative here. (Jada) I don't mean alive when we think about this situation. I mean, it's not really much to shave and it's just a shame, you know, I mean, it's it's just kind of what I said like um Like Anthony was saying, We've had countless meetings about this issue. We're trying not to let this issue die, because it's something that I want to keep fighting for in my own career. Social justice issues and the black community are things that I always want to talk about. And I'll never start talking about it till I leave this earth, that revolves around black, mental health, black family, trauma, black bonding, and all of that ties into the things that I want to fight for with my journalism career, but to have it be put in the place that I considered my work and the place that I did my work for it, it just kind of flipped the perspective for me for a lot of things. And you know, it just took a lot of conversation and a lot of breaking down that as a black person, you automatically have to do when talking to somebody and getting them to understand your side. But to do it here, it just kind of flipped my perspective of where I am and how I always have to, you know, I'm saying just keep that guard of, they're never really going to understand you, you know what I mean? Like they can say that they understand they can say that they want to do this for you, they can say that they want to be there for you. But they're not going to really understand and even in the conversation we've had, we've made very good progress. And I'm very proud of the work that we're going to do here and the work that you guys are going to be able to see being viewers and you know, hearing God, all the things we're going to continue to talk about on this podcast. But it's the hurdles that you have to jump through to get to that ending. And it's the hurdles that it kind of makes, like the people who are affected relive, and it's kind of those situations to where, if you're not black, you're never really going to understand, like, we can paint this beautiful picture up here about how it felt and how do we find out and what were our first initial reactions. But the reaction like the words that we can't even say, or like the reaction, we can't even put into words, you'll never feel that unless you're black. But I know some black people out there that felt that way, which is why I want you know, me Anthony have had conversations and want to make sure that we hear you guys, we know what you're saying, we understand why you feel the way that you do, and we're gonna fix it. Let me I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't know how, but we don't fix it, we can try our best to, if we can't put it back to where it was, we're going to keep going. Because that's all we can do. Now, like you were saying to my team, you can only keep going forward. But we're going forward. I also feel like it puts me at me and Anthony, specifically being diversity reps and kind of everybody here at this table. And the perspective to we got to put the fear aside the fear that comes with speaking out and the fear that comes with knowing that I could talk for 20 minutes, but you're only gonna hear five minutes of what I have to say. But you got to put that aside, because you'll never get to the root or get to what you want to fix unless you combat that fear. Now, I'm not saying that's not gonna come to consequences, because I'm sure we've dealt with all of our experiences of trying to combat that fear and talking about our issues and just being shut down and not hurt. And you know, I'm saying just not getting the result that we wanted. But it's that that you have to keep doing. Because once people see that you're going to keep doing that. They're going to hear you eventually, because nobody's going to be yapping in your ear, you're just not going to hear him at least one point or another. You know what I'm saying. But it's just that part that if you see us do it like oh, like kind of the mindset of saying, I want us to be the example for the freshmen, black kids, or even the eighth graders or the you know, the seniors in high school who are thinking about colleges and thinking about what they want to do with their lives and how they really want to uplift themselves and uplift the communities they come from. We are those examples. We all in our dreams and aspirations want to do that we want to be bigger than where we've came from. But to do that, it comes with a word I can't see on the mic the BS, it comes with the BS that we have to go through and you know, the stuff that sometimes we got to rub off our shoulders, like Anthony said, he goes to he went to a situation where nothing happened. But sometimes you got to rub that off your shoulder and keep going. Because nobody's gonna let you dwell and wander in that situation. It sucks. But it's something we have to do. But we want to shoulder that for you guys. We want to you know, take that burden on and show you guys that this institution this organization truly means what they say when they mean they care about the black students here, they care about the coverage and trust me you're gonna see it you want to know why you see it because we're in those budgets telling you to put it in there in those meetings telling them that no, this story needs to be on the front page this story needs to be right here. The first thing people are going to read is going to be that story and when you're reading it man we got some stuff our black history my print issue yeah yeah they eaten with that lookout for stories from me Devonte Oh, yeah. them for but it's that drive that all of us are doing them being the reporter side. And then us being the more like organization or you know, editor stance, we're all it's a collaboration, whether you see us talking or not. It's all a teamwork effort for you. We're doing the work to show you that yes, we are here and yes, this is there telling the truth. I know it's hard to listen, I didn't want to listen to that. And I'm here but listen, because we're here and you can listen to them listen to us because we tell them the truth. But yes, the shame that they almost Are you serious? Are you really serious? Like why don't you say uh you know you can be a journalist you you know you can do different things your career, but you're always gonna be black first. So that black side of me I was are you serious? You know, I'm saying like, like you say, oh, so other racist white. institution, you know, doing the racist thing, but I'm like, wait, I work here. So it's not the white racist institution. But how do I tell that to y'all? Because you're not gonna believe me and Yars sure not gonna believe them. So that's kind of the position we have right now. But trust us to stay what stick with us, if you stick with us, you gonna stick with it? Stick with us. (Anthony) Yeah. And you mentioned something important. And that's just the unfortunate truth of having to keep moving forward. Because what's unfortunately true is that these issues are not going to stop in the world have got a quote from my dad that he said racism is never gonna go away by period. And, unfortunately, with how time has showed us that that's unfortunately true. People are always going to have hate in their heart, there's always going to be negativity and you're in people's hearts. And if we let that stop us, then we won't tell our story. And we won't be able to tell your story and elevate everyone to get to where you want to be on the mountaintop. (Shakyra) We will not be silenced. (Anthony) We won't be silenced. This is literally a podcast, so do our job, we get paid to talk. And before we transition into the less serious things, I want to say a big thank you to organizations like the NAACP, and the BSA, because BS needs to be caught up. And if nobody ever said nothing about it, we probably wouldn't even know about it, I wouldn't have known about it, nobody would have brought it up to my attention. So thank organizations like you're thanking the people who come to us even upset like, hey, this isn't gonna be as why you're not talking about this. And I luckily realized during this recording, like we didn't even discuss it on the podcast either. Because unfortunately, sometimes where I forget the word I was, I think doctrine eight is the word I want to use to not talk about these things to not to brush it pat or brush it off our shoulders to just let it go or get through it. Or as well one person said if you notice reference to shut up and dribble pretty much so that's what's been the demeanor people hold towards the black community for almost since the beginning of time. So thank you to the people who caught it out. And we wouldn't even be here talking about this without job. So thank all of you are listening and thank you all for mentioning this. With that being said with transitioning more to other topics on the web DeMonte being on this episode. Well first of all, I just want to give you another thank you for being here. (Demonte) Because you for letting me come on here. Yeah, two three weeks to (Anthony) Yeah, even though we we totally said talked about it like things go on in our lives a lot almost every day. So for you to sit to sit and to have the time to still be here and to still answer these questions. Talk about yourself. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Like I mentioned when we first met you were wearing enemy merch and specifically Dragonball Z merch so I want to tell the people why Dragonball Z is the greatest enemy all the time but also just talk about how your love for anime and what does it mean to you and again do put emphasis that Dragon Ball is the greatest enemy of all time but yeah, (Demonte) Like Anthony said, Dragon Ball is the greatest anime of all time Yeah. I said I would a lot of bias because I want to say Dragonball Z chi. Specifically Dragon Ball Z guide I Dragon Ball Z. Okay, Dragon Ball Z chi was the first well not the first anime I watch but the first one I actually actually sat down to watch I want to say had to be like the guinea Forsythe or like the freezer state it can be back yeah man like that's just kind of gotten me into anime really? I am currently watching I still have yet to see chainsaw man. (Anthony) I've watched a few episodes and then read a bit of manga (Demonte) Tokyo vengers first season man it's great Yeah, I haven't watched the on the second one came out Jesse moved to Hulu everything you know but yeah, I just love like the culture itself especially like the culture has what then on the black community. Now if most of you don't know, making the stallion while people she