Tramonica Brown Interview, November 20, 2020

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  • Jamie Sanders
    And were recording. Okay, so I'm going to
  • Jamie Sanders
    just dive in.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Hi, I'm
  • Jamie Sanders
    Jamie Sanders and today I'll be talking to you Tramonica Brown,
  • Jamie Sanders
    the founder of not my son Dallas Today is November 20 2020. And
  • Jamie Sanders
    we're conducting this interview online via their story. And
  • Jamie Sanders
    today we'll be discussing Miss Browns organization and her
  • Jamie Sanders
    involvement in the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the
  • Jamie Sanders
    Dallas Fort Worth area, mostly focusing on the series of
  • Jamie Sanders
    protests that erupted earlier this year after the death of
  • Jamie Sanders
    George Floyd. And the ones that keep you into the present day.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Do I have your permission to record this interview.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yes.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Awesome. So
  • Jamie Sanders
    Oh, no. Where'd you go?
  • Jamie Sanders
    Oh, Miss Brown.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Oh, okay.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Am I here?
  • Jamie Sanders
    Yeah, you're back. You're back. Um, so,
  • Jamie Sanders
    first, let's start off with a little background. So where are
  • Jamie Sanders
    you from?
  • Tramonica Brown
    I am from Dallas, Texas.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Mhm
  • Tramonica Brown
    Born and raised.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Do
  • Jamie Sanders
    you want to say what neighborhood or like little mini
  • Jamie Sanders
    city?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yes. Pleasant Grove.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Oh, grove side walking.
  • Jamie Sanders
    And can you tell me a little bit about that area.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, plevin Grove, in my opinion has always been like
  • Tramonica Brown
    an underserved as an underserved community. We're always either
  • Tramonica Brown
    grouped with south Dallas, or Mesquite. So (where) that
  • Tramonica Brown
    beautiful nectar in between that always gets like swept up under
  • Tramonica Brown
    the rug. So it is very near and dear to me. Um, I just I'm very
  • Tramonica Brown
    attracted to like pouring back into the wealth of my community
  • Tramonica Brown
    because I understand how underserved it has been. So
  • Tramonica Brown
    that's (undiscernable) pleasant grove.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Um, so how did you feel growing up there has
  • Jamie Sanders
    shaped you as a person?
  • Tramonica Brown
    I feel like I would not be who I am today. Had it
  • Tramonica Brown
    not have been for those of DISD teachers of mine. Um, they have
  • Tramonica Brown
    literally, (cut off) grow. No, mommy. I'm doing an interview.
  • Tramonica Brown
    It's my daughter go tell daddy. Um, I feel like that area has
  • Tramonica Brown
    literally shaped the way I am and the person that I have truly
  • Tramonica Brown
    become. So if you need my hug, she wants a hug
  • Jamie Sanders
    Okay.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Go in No, no, go in the house. Um where was I
  • Jamie Sanders
    talking about
  • Tramonica Brown
    go out.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And I'm a mom. Oh, yeah, we're
  • Jamie Sanders
    talking about
  • Tramonica Brown
    I am. I'm thankful for my neighborhood. I love my
  • Tramonica Brown
    neighborhood, I would not have replaced it for Highland Park
  • Tramonica Brown
    replacement whatsoever. It shaped the culture within me to
  • Tramonica Brown
    make me want to go and strive to do better. That's great.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Um, so can we talk about your family? Yeah,
  • Jamie Sanders
    okay. So I know, I'm going to ask right now I know you have
  • Jamie Sanders
    kids. So if you want to talk about your children?
  • Tramonica Brown
    you're a one just made a debue.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So you can Can you tell me a little bit about
  • Jamie Sanders
    them?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yes, so I have a five year old, which Izarya Rose.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And, and I have a nine year old that is Cameron. And yes, they
  • Tramonica Brown
    are amazing.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Do you think that you're you being a mama affect
  • Jamie Sanders
    your activism?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Absolutely. Not My Son was birthed off of the fact
  • Tramonica Brown
    of Trayvon Martin's verdict. And at that time, my son was about
  • Tramonica Brown
    two. And I literally took a picture of him and I'll send it
  • Tramonica Brown
    to you just remind me, it's a picture of him with a gray
  • Tramonica Brown
    hoodie on. And I held up a pack of Skittles, and he was sitting
  • Tramonica Brown
    on the floor. And like that picture to this day speaks so
  • Tramonica Brown
    many volumes to me, like in a blink of an eye, it could easily
  • Tramonica Brown
    have been my son and because our system is so broken, and we're
  • Tramonica Brown
    already under so much oppression, that it's nothing
  • Tramonica Brown
    that I can do about Yeah.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So you did something about it.
  • Tramonica Brown
    I feel I did something about I got in the
  • Tramonica Brown
    stream.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Um, so like talking a little bit more about
  • Jamie Sanders
    your family. Can you tell me about your other members, your
  • Jamie Sanders
    family where you're close to?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Oh, sure. Um, my father is he's also a lot of the
  • Tramonica Brown
    reason why I'm so strong. My mother died when I was 11. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    that's why I say it's so important to have real teachers
  • Tramonica Brown
    who really care about these students because you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    they're a very strong glue to the person who I am. That's why
  • Tramonica Brown
    I say I love Pleasant Grove, I would not have taken another
  • Tramonica Brown
    place because those teachers wrap their arms around me and
  • Tramonica Brown
    pushed me to become who I am like, they didn't just let me
  • Tramonica Brown
    move on. And you know, say "she'll be okay." Like it was a
  • Tramonica Brown
    constant checks and balance, like they've been to protest,
  • Tramonica Brown
    they've been to all the things that I've accomplished in my
  • Tramonica Brown
    adulthood. So it just goes to show that you can't write off
  • Tramonica Brown
    every teacher and it strong connection to these students in
  • Tramonica Brown
    the community. So my father is, um, he hardly ever really worked
  • Tramonica Brown
    for anybody else. He's been an entrepreneur since the day I can
  • Tramonica Brown
    really remember. Um, it's been remarkable to see a strong black
  • Tramonica Brown
    Dad, you know, really influential and really showing
  • Tramonica Brown
    up for their children. So my foundation was set at a very
  • Tramonica Brown
    early age. You know, my father is truly my hero (laughs.) I
  • Tramonica Brown
    also seen him give jobs like before I was even into the
  • Tramonica Brown
    movement as a child, I seen him give jobs to homeless people.
  • Tramonica Brown
    That's something that kind of sparked up something that I just
  • Tramonica Brown
    grown in me as a child is that my dad is not not getting
  • Tramonica Brown
    somebody who already knows the trade, but picking up homeless
  • Tramonica Brown
    people and teaching them a trade and giving them a (job.) So I
  • Tramonica Brown
    felt like that it's kind of rolled up into how I've gotten
  • Tramonica Brown
    to this point, because I'm so connected to the homeless
  • Tramonica Brown
    already. So I understand that it's ways that in the community,
  • Tramonica Brown
    we can actually provide substance and texture and jobs
  • Tramonica Brown
    like we can provide jobs. So it's just given me that boosts
  • Tramonica Brown
    to keep going.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Do you have any siblings?
  • Tramonica Brown
    I do I have an older brother. And I have a younger
  • brother. I'm the middle child, but I'm a girl.
  • So
  • Jamie Sanders
    are you really close to your brothers?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yes, I am close to my brothers.
  • Jamie Sanders
    How do your brothers and your father feel
  • Jamie Sanders
    about your activism?
  • Tramonica Brown
    You know, the very first time I think I scared
  • everybody half to death with the phone call when I was on the
  • bridge.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Oh, yeah.
  • Tramonica Brown
    So I was like, hey, so I'm about to go to jail, they
  • Tramonica Brown
    where like "what!" who do I need to call?
  • Tramonica Brown
    And I've never been to jail. Oh, so it's like "uh No, no, my baby
  • Tramonica Brown
    gotta come off." So that was pretty funny to scare them, but
  • Tramonica Brown
    also make them you know, consciously socially aware of
  • Tramonica Brown
    like, Look, it means so much to where my baby, you know, my
  • Tramonica Brown
    sister's out on this bridge. Okay, let me dive in to find out
  • Tramonica Brown
    why. And it just kind of grew from there. And they've been
  • Tramonica Brown
    extremely supportive. My dad comes to all of the South Dallas
  • Tramonica Brown
    projects. My brother, he joined a brother organization that we
  • Tramonica Brown
    have called "the watchmen." So he's heavily involved, you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    with protecting the culture, protecting the people and
  • Tramonica Brown
    protecting mindset. So we're banding together and we're
  • Tramonica Brown
    really making all this work.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So your family is deeply involved with you in this
  • Jamie Sanders
    activism?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yeah, I guess. I mean, they play the roles. They
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't walk at it, you know, wheels fall off like I do, but
  • Tramonica Brown
    they definitely come in and play there part.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Oh, do you have a partner as well?
  • Tramonica Brown
    I do.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Which is- would you like to talk about it?
  • Tramonica Brown
    we've been together since 2011
  • Jamie Sanders
    Aw thats nice
  • Jamie Sanders
    And are they involved as well?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Oh, absolutely. He is the founder of "the watchmen."
  • Jamie Sanders
    Oh, that's really cool.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Think about the watchmen that is my love.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So how does activism affect your
  • Jamie Sanders
    relationship with him?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, it brings us together, you know, as a strong
  • Tramonica Brown
    sounding board for each other because in activism, it takes so
  • Tramonica Brown
    much of your time. And if you don't have a partner that's
  • Tramonica Brown
    really understanding, and really just invested in some sort,
  • Tramonica Brown
    you're not going to get the understanding of communication
  • Tramonica Brown
    that you would want to see. So I feel like it sometimes it is
  • Tramonica Brown
    wind is going everywhere. Um, so we have good communication
  • Tramonica Brown
    because we're both on the frontlines. We're both fighting
  • Tramonica Brown
    for our children to progress and actually be better and for our
  • Tramonica Brown
    city, because I'm a I'm a person who says you have to fix your
  • Tramonica Brown
    own porch first. I can't do anything until I fix cars and
  • Tramonica Brown
    girls like that's just in my heart. I can't do anything until
  • Tramonica Brown
    I fix South Dallas because that's just in my heart. So
  • Tramonica Brown
    being that he came from the same place, he holds that same time
  • Tramonica Brown
    to change as I do.
  • Jamie Sanders
    That's really Nice. So your teachers before?
  • Jamie Sanders
    So shifting gears a little bit, and you mentioned your childhood
  • Jamie Sanders
    a little bit, can you tell me about (your childhood?)
  • Tramonica Brown
    my childhood was amazing to be in the hood, we
  • Tramonica Brown
    are at a place where everybody has horror stories growing up in
  • Tramonica Brown
    the hood. And even though my story was a bittersweet because
  • Tramonica Brown
    I lost my mom, but my community really upheld me. And they just
  • Tramonica Brown
    wouldn't allow me to fail. Have you ever had that were like one
  • Tramonica Brown
    of your parents or something just like you're not allowed to
  • Tramonica Brown
    fail, not on my watch. I felt like this with the community.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And that's what my family did. And that's why I'm so tied to
  • Tramonica Brown
    that, because I want to be the advocate for that little girl
  • Tramonica Brown
    that I was at that point. So it's so important to, like, jus
  • Tramonica Brown
    cherish those moments and really create a bridge because it's
  • Tramonica Brown
    going to come a point where it's another little girl that needs
  • Tramonica Brown
    to cross that bridge. Yeah. So that my community is everything,
  • Tramonica Brown
    like everything, to me,
  • Jamie Sanders
    it really does sound like you know, it takes a
  • Jamie Sanders
    village to raise a child, it sounds like you had a really
  • Jamie Sanders
    strong village.
  • Tramonica Brown
    I had a very strong village and they didn't live in
  • Tramonica Brown
    my household. My dad was definitely the head, but he
  • Tramonica Brown
    definitely had strong black women that were not allowing his
  • Tramonica Brown
    children to fail. My brother, we were laughing the other day, cuz
  • Tramonica Brown
    we were talking about him, he had won a salsa competition and
  • Tramonica Brown
    a chess competition. And these are the teachers who just and
  • Tramonica Brown
    principals to who just said, "we're not going to allow this
  • Tramonica Brown
    family to fail," and you know, back then you can, you know, we
  • Tramonica Brown
    didn't have all these restrictions. So they were also
  • Tramonica Brown
    helping, you know, discipline, and they gave us that
  • Tramonica Brown
    discipline, they gave us that love, and they gave us the
  • Tramonica Brown
    courage to be more than a statistic and the environment
  • Tramonica Brown
    were set for us to fail.
  • Jamie Sanders
    You mentioned your teachers, so can you tell
  • Jamie Sanders
    me like when you started school, which teachers was it who first
  • Jamie Sanders
    started getting involved like this?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, I would say if I had to go all the way back,
  • Tramonica Brown
    geez, the first teacher that I saw, um, when my mom died, was
  • Tramonica Brown
    my (5th?) grade English teacher, ELR. And she brought a bucket of
  • Tramonica Brown
    chicken. And it shocked me cuz I'm like, "What my teacher doing
  • Tramonica Brown
    here?" Like, I was already so hurt, but I didn't understand
  • Tramonica Brown
    then. But like now, it means the world to me. Um, Miss Lewis is
  • Tramonica Brown
    her name. Um, my counselor that I had Mary Frost, Miss Darden,
  • Tramonica Brown
    that was a vice principal, my cheerleading coach, Miss Fuller,
  • Tramonica Brown
    Miss Sanders, Miss Jamison. Like I wasn't able, because I took
  • Tramonica Brown
    the fashion route. But I always wanted to be a part of a
  • Tramonica Brown
    sorority. I went to her house one time, and I remember she had
  • Tramonica Brown
    these beautiful elephants. And like, the way they were just
  • structured, it was just so motivating. And I was like, is
  • Tramonica Brown
    this a Delta what is this? And even miss Johnson, my my high
  • Tramonica Brown
    school cheerleading coach, she carried me on when I felt like
  • Tramonica Brown
    God placed strong black women in front of me to show me that this
  • Tramonica Brown
    is what it's supposed to look like. Like, it's okay, but
  • Tramonica Brown
    you're not allowed to fail. Like, you're not allowed to dip
  • Tramonica Brown
    back into what people would love to say she just turned into
  • Tramonica Brown
    like, a hood chick or she turned into a do nothing. And, you
  • Tramonica Brown
    know, we knew she was never gonna be nothing she had, you
  • Tramonica Brown
    know, they just, I was blessed to have people around me who had
  • Tramonica Brown
    high standards of what I am supposed to become, regardless
  • Tramonica Brown
    of my (unknown word). So I feel like it's so important all the
  • Tramonica Brown
    time that I mention those ladies because, and I say it all the
  • Tramonica Brown
    time, if they have not, you know, changed a life. You know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    as a teacher, you want to change a life. I just think it's so
  • Tramonica Brown
    important for them to know that if they've never changed a
  • Tramonica Brown
    child's life that they definitely change your mine. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    most of them are still teaching. I know Miss Darden, she's
  • Tramonica Brown
    retired vice principle, but a lot of them still teach. Um, my
  • Tramonica Brown
    Miss Lewis, my ELAR fifth grade teacher, she's now a counselor
  • Tramonica Brown
    because of my story. So and she's been able to, you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    penetrate hearts and affect kids and you know, get in there
  • Tramonica Brown
    butts, because we need it at that time I needed it for them
  • Tramonica Brown
    for us to sit until you know, students that "Oh, you can't do
  • Tramonica Brown
    this and you can't do That," that saved my life. So, yes, um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I love my teachers, I still call them my teachers because I still
  • Tramonica Brown
    learn and I still gained so much from them. I remember one of
  • Tramonica Brown
    them she used to throw shoes at us not in- well actually she did
  • Tramonica Brown
    in class. And I said this lady is crazy I had her in fourth
  • Tramonica Brown
    grade, I said this lady is (unknown,) you know, I love that
  • Tramonica Brown
    lady to death. And you know what, when I had one of my first
  • Tramonica Brown
    big ventures when I dived into fashion, she was front row. So,
  • Tramonica Brown
    it just goes to show that, you know, teachers makeup, a lot of
  • Tramonica Brown
    the culture of what your child could potentially be by showing
  • Tramonica Brown
    how much they actually can.
  • Jamie Sanders
    And, um, did you go to college? And what college
  • Jamie Sanders
    did you to go to if you did?
  • Tramonica Brown
    I did. I went to Wade(?) college I graduated with
  • Tramonica Brown
    my bachelor's I attended there the whole wide. And you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    even they were great. Mr. Conten was amazing. And I remember the
  • Tramonica Brown
    first day of school, he said, You pay seven the $7 per hour,
  • Tramonica Brown
    something like that a five day, he was like, if you don't come
  • Tramonica Brown
    that's on you because I'm getting my check anyway now lets
  • Tramonica Brown
    begin, I said oh I'm grown now.
  • Tramonica Brown
    But he taught me so much. And I'm gonna I'm gonna say game
  • Tramonica Brown
    because he did. He taught me so much game on how to talk to
  • Tramonica Brown
    these people network and not be afraid. So waking it up like
  • Tramonica Brown
    these teachers, they really hold true narrative to me, my keys or
  • Tramonica Brown
    my teachers.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So other than your organization, do like have
  • Jamie Sanders
    a second job? Or I'm sorry, that was really weirdly worded.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yes. Um, I was a teacher. I did not go back to
  • Tramonica Brown
    teach this year. Um I also did let me see what else did I do in
  • Tramonica Brown
    a school I worked at a charter school so they had us doing
  • Tramonica Brown
    1000s of jobs. I chose not to go back to charter for one, I don't
  • Tramonica Brown
    feel like charter systems are always the best. I feel like we
  • Tramonica Brown
    need to pour more into ISD because they host the most of
  • Tramonica Brown
    the village. And I feel like with charter schools, sometimes
  • Tramonica Brown
    it makes you feel like it's a privilege. But when you get
  • Tramonica Brown
    there, when you work there, you learn that it's not privileged
  • Tramonica Brown
    whatsoever to those people, we just is a sale. So um, but the
  • Tramonica Brown
    whole situation with George Floyd happened and I was like,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I'm not gonna be able to do it because I need to be on the
  • Tramonica Brown
    forefront of making positive change in my community. So that
  • Tramonica Brown
    was that but I still do events. Um, I have a company called I Am
  • Tramonica Brown
    Fashion Group that we have been you know, cranking back up as
  • Tramonica Brown
    far as like mentorship aspect of it. But you know, hosting
  • Tramonica Brown
    events, Christmas parties wedding, so I've been getting
  • Tramonica Brown
    back into the Mojo of an event planning.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Okay, cool. Um, so shifting gears a little bit
  • Jamie Sanders
    key Tell me what's your first memory of race
  • Tramonica Brown
    in general. My first memory of race, like being
  • Tramonica Brown
    discriminated against? Or just understanding that I was a
  • Tramonica Brown
    different color?
  • Jamie Sanders
    either one is fine.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, so my family is of lots of different races. Um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    we're black, black. Well, we have a lot of mixed fruit
  • Tramonica Brown
    berries. So we were very cultured, to a certain extent.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, we never really had the whole, you know, racist moment
  • Tramonica Brown
    because my, my aunt, when she's on my Facebook page, if you
  • Tramonica Brown
    actually go to my Facebook page, she's literally my profile
  • Tramonica Brown
    picture. Um, she subcummbed to cancer A few years ago, that was
  • Tramonica Brown
    my heart, absolute heart. And I remember when I first came out
  • Tramonica Brown
    into the, the era that we're in of like really diving into
  • Tramonica Brown
    racism, people really wanted to know who this white lady was,
  • Tramonica Brown
    that was holding my baby. And I had really let people know that
  • Tramonica Brown
    that's probably not the right way to approach that situation.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, I think maybe it was jobs. I worked in fashion a lot. But I
  • Tramonica Brown
    also, I had a good pitch. So but even with that, I think it's,
  • Tramonica Brown
    it's with jobs. You know, my name is Tramonica. So it's not
  • Tramonica Brown
    really it's not an Elizabeth. It's something that has a little
  • Tramonica Brown
    texture to it. It's um, you have like, oh, okay, well, thats
  • Tramonica Brown
    unique thats different like it's not just Monica. It's a prefix
  • Tramonica Brown
    in front that thing. So I think my name helps me understand
  • Tramonica Brown
    racism a lot, or just race in general, like, you're not gonna
  • Tramonica Brown
    find a ton of white girls named Tramonica Brown unless theres some
  • Tramonica Brown
    black somewhere. Some black somewhere, somebodies auntie
  • Tramonica Brown
    said girl Tramonica Brown thats cute, but I think my name helped me a
  • Tramonica Brown
    lot. I feel like, you know, just residency. So I lived in
  • Tramonica Brown
    Rollette for a couple of years. And I noticed that, you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    we, it wasn't a lot of black people in my neighborhood,
  • Tramonica Brown
    particularly, I've seen growth of black people, you know, good
  • Tramonica Brown
    jobs and a good part of Rollette, you know, nice big
  • Tramonica Brown
    homes. But you know, people look at you different, and that also
  • Tramonica Brown
    gave me that worry, fear of, and I have to go back to Trayvon
  • Tramonica Brown
    Martin, you know, we live in this local neighborhood. And if
  • Tramonica Brown
    my son goes to the store and doesn't come home, I'm not going
  • Tramonica Brown
    to have the strength of Sabrina Fulton to just let the courts
  • Tramonica Brown
    take care of it. Because we're past that. So I that's why I
  • Tramonica Brown
    said, it's important for me to dive in and see what I can do
  • Tramonica Brown
    now to prevent my son become a hashtag. I'll be a hashtag right
  • Tramonica Brown
    behind my son saying, free Tramonica. Because I know that,
  • Tramonica Brown
    you know, God is still working with me, I'm humble enough. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    I'm not afraid to go out for my son. So I need to do something
  • Tramonica Brown
    proactively, and try to save other people's son at the same
  • Tramonica Brown
    time. And my daughter, Not my son is not just the concept of
  • Tramonica Brown
    it, is our black men are so under depreciated. Like to other
  • Tramonica Brown
    people, they carry a brand, almost depreciation. And it's
  • Tramonica Brown
    important for us to uplift and understand that our black men is
  • Tramonica Brown
    under tremendous stress, and that they're under attack, like
  • Tramonica Brown
    black people as a whole are under attack. But racist, people
  • Tramonica Brown
    are smart, you chop off the head, and the body will follow
  • Tramonica Brown
    the man is the lead. So if you take away our men, and you
  • Tramonica Brown
    replace it with housing, or hood, or foodstamps, or whatever
  • Tramonica Brown
    it is where you're not supposed to when you're separating a
  • Tramonica Brown
    family. That's how you create this, this illusion of you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    black people, you know, too many single mothers and everybody's
  • Tramonica Brown
    on welfare. And I'm talking about post, I mean before, pre
  • Tramonica Brown
    COVID because now everybody who needs it needs to get on. But
  • Tramonica Brown
    you know, say that's the way you separate families by cutting
  • Tramonica Brown
    them off and saying, Hey, this is what's happening. This is
  • Tramonica Brown
    what we're living in. So what are you gonna do?
  • Jamie Sanders
    So you kind of you talk to a lot about Trayvon
  • Jamie Sanders
    Martin that's like a turning point for you personally, but
  • Jamie Sanders
    like, when did you get officially into activism?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, I always say that the straw that broke the camel's
  • Tramonica Brown
    back was the knee to the neck. This country almost burned to
  • Tramonica Brown
    the ground because people got extremely done with racism. Um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    and not even country like this. This world became done with
  • Tramonica Brown
    racism. They were burning up cities in Italy people are tired
  • Tramonica Brown
    of you saying like, I'm tired of using the hashtag Black Lives
  • Tramonica Brown
    Matter I'm tired today. Like I don't want that to become my
  • Tramonica Brown
    life story. So I don't want to spend my whole life on fighting
  • Tramonica Brown
    for it. I want to get them now
  • Jamie Sanders
    so so does he feel a sense of urgency now?
  • Tramonica Brown
    It is an urgency and I say it all the time. We will
  • Tramonica Brown
    never be at a at a sweet spot to change the narrative so
  • Tramonica Brown
    drastically and so strong as right now and the millennials
  • Tramonica Brown
    are carrying the torch and we cannot afford to drop the torch
  • Tramonica Brown
    because if we drop it that set everybody else behind on
  • Tramonica Brown
    progress also I want change I want it now. Like the commercial
  • Tramonica Brown
    say I want it I want to right now. I don't want to wait. I
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't want to stand in line. People still talking about 40
  • Tramonica Brown
    acres in a mule? Well, we supposed have that too obviously
  • Tramonica Brown
    we have that too, but it's at the very least, I need you to
  • Tramonica Brown
    stop killing my brothers and sisters that look like there's
  • Tramonica Brown
    nothing wrong with being Brown. It's my last name. It's my
  • Tramonica Brown
    favorite color.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So let's talk about I'm not my son. So when
  • Jamie Sanders
    did you first start like setting up not my son in Dallas.
  • Tramonica Brown
    The day after the bridge. Literally the day after
  • Tramonica Brown
    the bridge, I sent out some text messages. I posted it on, you
  • Tramonica Brown
    know, all the different social media platforms that protesters
  • Tramonica Brown
    had. And I'm like, Look, I'm having it, I think was like it
  • Tramonica Brown
    two or three o'clock in the afternoon, pull up. And I'm
  • Tramonica Brown
    thinking was like 800 folk. It was crazy. And then after that,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I said, Well, I wanted to turn it into a series. Because I
  • Tramonica Brown
    think that when was the conversation rally, where
  • Tramonica Brown
    everybody gathered around and people just talked about, we're
  • Tramonica Brown
    angry. And I was trying to find a way to prevent us further
  • Tramonica Brown
    harm. Because at that point, people was tearing stuff up I
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't know if I can cuss on here so I'll say stuff
  • Jamie Sanders
    You can say what you want
  • Tramonica Brown
    People where tearing shit up period And I wanted to
  • Tramonica Brown
    become a buffer. Because that seven o'clock curfew, I would
  • Tramonica Brown
    literally leave my house and be driving into the curfew zone. I
  • Tramonica Brown
    seen what was going on on social media, I seen how they were
  • Tramonica Brown
    throwing people's kids and just on people in general. And I was
  • Tramonica Brown
    like, if I can stand in the way and like navigate some type of
  • Tramonica Brown
    structure, I'm gonna do it. So I did it, I dealt hold on I got em
  • Tramonica Brown
    wait a second. Before y'all get to acting crazy. Out here with
  • Tramonica Brown
    these rubber bullets and all this other stuff tossing folk
  • Tramonica Brown
    like they rag dolls give me a second. So it was I was able to
  • Tramonica Brown
    also create a, you know, a conversation with some of those
  • Tramonica Brown
    local police officers, who, you know, they attended my rally.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And of course, at that time, they didn't want to come forward
  • Tramonica Brown
    in their uniforms. But it was a March that they had, which was
  • Tramonica Brown
    pointless to me very, very disrespectful to what we have
  • Tramonica Brown
    going on. Um, the blue Lives Matter March.
  • Tramonica Brown
    You black and you do in a blue Lives Matter March, I'm just
  • Tramonica Brown
    trying to make sure I understand this clearly. Okay, so a lot of
  • Tramonica Brown
    DPD officers were not in agreeance with that, and we had
  • Tramonica Brown
    a rally the same day. And they came, they came, and that spoke
  • Tramonica Brown
    volumes to every police officer isn't bad. And a lot of them
  • Tramonica Brown
    understand that they work for a broken system that oppresses
  • Tramonica Brown
    black people. It works for them and damages us. So that woke me
  • Tramonica Brown
    up, let me know that every police officer isn't bad because
  • Tramonica Brown
    they're showing me everybody has to learn. So I don't, I don't
  • Tramonica Brown
    push that on everybody. You have to get in a situation to where
  • Tramonica Brown
    they should approve at this point. If you wear a badge, you
  • Tramonica Brown
    have to show and prove. Are you stepping into that community? Do
  • Tramonica Brown
    you know that community? Or do you live in the high side of
  • Tramonica Brown
    society society, and you come over here to earn your paycheck
  • Tramonica Brown
    and your pension? People don't want to have those
  • Tramonica Brown
    conversations. But I was fortunate enough to where people
  • Tramonica Brown
    wanted to have that dialogue because they like, Look, I'm not
  • Tramonica Brown
    here to protect y'all. I came from here. We thought having
  • Tramonica Brown
    those conversations you like,Oh Okay, I know it's not you and
  • Tramonica Brown
    you actually telling me in your uniform that you understand that
  • Tramonica Brown
    this is a messed up system. That meant something to me, because
  • Tramonica Brown
    that meant I'm not trippin, I knew I wasn't trippin. But it's
  • Tramonica Brown
    good to know that you know, that we're not in a situation to
  • Tramonica Brown
    where it's actually bringing change of real substance and
  • Tramonica Brown
    like it's real law and order.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Yeah.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So like, as you've mentioned, and I looked on your website, it
  • Jamie Sanders
    says that you're trying to create a dialogue between the
  • Jamie Sanders
    police departments and like the people and the thing is, is you
  • Jamie Sanders
    mentioned people are angry, is there some pushback from either
  • Jamie Sanders
    the police, like some police officers and some protesters or
  • Jamie Sanders
    either one or the community itself from these conversations?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, I will say this last year. I can't remember the
  • Tramonica Brown
    timeframe but I know that um, community leaders and community
  • Tramonica Brown
    activists was was granted a police oversight board. That
  • Tramonica Brown
    police Oversight Board receives no respect, no funding, no way
  • Tramonica Brown
    to actually be a police oversight board. That is a slap
  • Tramonica Brown
    to the face of the people who pay taxes that is a slap to the
  • Tramonica Brown
    people who you know, are in this community who who care not look
  • Tramonica Brown
    at the point that people care. People want to know what's going
  • Tramonica Brown
    on in their communities. You're not allowing us to even know
  • Tramonica Brown
    you're just saying oh here stuff and we're gonna give y'all
  • Tramonica Brown
    something to shut y'all up titles, don't change anything.
  • Tramonica Brown
    badges don't change anything. I'm black. My Color of My Skin
  • Tramonica Brown
    is black is not gonna change. I won't be dying it any lighter
  • Tramonica Brown
    than what it is no. So it's, it's pushed back because people
  • Tramonica Brown
    in the community are like, off with them. Because we've tried
  • Tramonica Brown
    to have the dialogue, we tried to create a structure that both
  • Tramonica Brown
    parties agreed on. And they still stepped on.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Yeah.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And now we still out, we got her marching again, and
  • Tramonica Brown
    we are her fighting again. And now you know, we're at the point
  • Tramonica Brown
    to where it Yes, defund DPD people don't like the word
  • Tramonica Brown
    defund. But you need to understand. If you need a
  • Tramonica Brown
    vocabulary lesson, I am your girl. Yes, I'm not changing my
  • Tramonica Brown
    word Yes its harsh yes its mean. yes it sounds like we want to
  • Tramonica Brown
    take away because we do we want to subtract the money that you
  • Tramonica Brown
    guys want to subtract the amount of officers that are out here
  • Tramonica Brown
    doing jobs that they are not certified to do. You don't need
  • Tramonica Brown
    to come out? When, it's a mental health patient. You don't hold
  • Tramonica Brown
    any type of degree to handle that. You didn't go to any type
  • Tramonica Brown
    of school, a few hours of training does not make you
  • Tramonica Brown
    equivalent or privileged because it's a privilege to work with
  • Tramonica Brown
    those people because I worked in the special education
  • Tramonica Brown
    department, you have to know how to work with those people. You
  • Tramonica Brown
    coming out and when you get scared, you pull your badge, I
  • Tramonica Brown
    think in Dallas. And I'm going to say this because I really
  • Tramonica Brown
    mean it. We have been able to shake up a lot. But police
  • Tramonica Brown
    officers are so scary. The scariest thing to know is that
  • Tramonica Brown
    you know, you got to run into somebody who's scared of you.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Because it it's if I'm 250 pushing, and I'm going up
  • Tramonica Brown
    against a lady officer and she's what 120 soaking wet. What she's
  • Tramonica Brown
    gonna do, you think she's gonna tussle with me or is she gonna
  • Tramonica Brown
    run for that gun if I'm trying to get away and they can't
  • Tramonica Brown
    control the situation, they gonna shoot me in the back.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Because at this point, we bypassing tasers that's what we
  • Tramonica Brown
    gotta realize. They were tasing protesters who were getting in
  • Tramonica Brown
    their car, that's what they were doing. They won't shoot you if
  • Tramonica Brown
    you get in your car to leave at seven, but they will take you
  • Tramonica Brown
    out of your car. And it's foolish to back that up. We in a
  • Tramonica Brown
    society, we are in a society where police officers are scary.
  • Tramonica Brown
    They're fearful. I don't want anybody protecting me, thats
  • Tramonica Brown
    scared a scared person will kill you quick. Because they don't
  • Tramonica Brown
    want to lose. So I want to lay it out and paint it out. We
  • Tramonica Brown
    working with a system where you have men who have joined police
  • Tramonica Brown
    force and women and people who identify as another pronoun, who
  • Tramonica Brown
    are scary. I don't want anybody standing in front of me to
  • Tramonica Brown
    protect me from "Billie badass". And you scared of Billie Badass
  • Tramonica Brown
    too. I don't want you to kill me that is I want you to help me
  • Tramonica Brown
    get away from Billie Badass why we gotta kill somebody to be
  • Tramonica Brown
    safe. That's basically saying if you make a mistake, I'll kill
  • Tramonica Brown
    you. Whoa, every life is valuable. My black life is damn
  • Tramonica Brown
    sure valuable. I can have it. My man's is valuable. Because you
  • Tramonica Brown
    shootin him I'm subject to come off the hip. I don't need that I
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't want that's not what I want theres ways to de escalate
  • Tramonica Brown
    situations. And as much as they say they have all this de
  • Tramonica Brown
    escalation training. Have you seen deescalation?
  • Jamie Sanders
    Well, not. not for- not for black people. I
  • Jamie Sanders
    don't see that.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Not for black people never go to Lake Highlands and
  • Tramonica Brown
    he got a gun he bout to kill his mama. We can talk about it. I'm
  • Tramonica Brown
    sorry What now? We can talk about it. He about to kill your
  • Tramonica Brown
    mama yo kids yo dog we can talk. Let me get what is what else? He
  • Tramonica Brown
    was not a negotiator is a common negotiator?
  • Jamie Sanders
    I think so. Like when there's hostages
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yeah, they wouldn't bring in somebody who's who's
  • Tramonica Brown
    over a hostage situation. But if we in the hood, we are gonna get
  • Tramonica Brown
    you up out of here. You are a threat to society. Oh, no. Not
  • Tramonica Brown
    if somebody's running. You shooting people in the back
  • Tramonica Brown
    because they're a threat to society. But you want to use de
  • Tramonica Brown
    escalation for man who was about to kill his whole family because
  • Tramonica Brown
    he cannot have his way. You got to think about this. This is a
  • Tramonica Brown
    problem because his skin is whitter then mine? No, I'm not
  • Tramonica Brown
    not on my way.
  • Jamie Sanders
    What is the world with a defunded Police
  • Jamie Sanders
    Department look like
  • Tramonica Brown
    so if we're defending the police, then that means we
  • Tramonica Brown
    can pour more into homeless solutions. We don't need call
  • Tramonica Brown
    police officers for homeless solution. It should be a
  • Tramonica Brown
    department that's built into the budget, that those specific
  • Tramonica Brown
    people go and handle homeless. Because guess what if we take
  • Tramonica Brown
    some of that money from the police budget, and forward it to
  • Tramonica Brown
    homeless solutions, we won't have that many homeless people.
  • Tramonica Brown
    If we take money away from police officer who are, I don't
  • Tramonica Brown
    know who sit there all day on a phone. I almost want to be
  • Tramonica Brown
    tight. I almost want to take pictures of police officers just
  • Tramonica Brown
    doing nothing on there phone. We can't drive on our phone, but
  • Tramonica Brown
    you can. You don't have your lights on you ain't going
  • Tramonica Brown
    nowhere fast. We goin to the same place and you talking on
  • Tramonica Brown
    the phone, but if you catch me talking its a problem, hold on a
  • Tramonica Brown
    sec no. It doesn't work. Like you can turn on your lights, you
  • Tramonica Brown
    can run red lights, it's like they have it's a mockery. 2020
  • Tramonica Brown
    is the year of showing the mockery of the land in general.
  • Tramonica Brown
    We got a president that lost that will not concede will not
  • Tramonica Brown
    see we have police officers who do whatever they want to do. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    then we have a system that supports them when they do
  • Tramonica Brown
    something wrong. Take for instance, the Shawn Lucas
  • Tramonica Brown
    situation. I don't know if you know who Shawn Lucas. He was the
  • Tramonica Brown
    you don't know?
  • Jamie Sanders
    Yeah.
  • Tramonica Brown
    He is the guy who shot Jonathan Price. Um, he
  • Tramonica Brown
    asked for a bail reduction of his mom was a million dollars.
  • Tramonica Brown
    He asked for bear reduction yesterday, they denied him. It
  • Tramonica Brown
    took two days. Two days for them to actually issue an arrest
  • Tramonica Brown
    warrant for an officer who shot a black man in the community.
  • Tramonica Brown
    When the community is predominantly white, stood up
  • Tramonica Brown
    and said take his ass to jail he needs to go. He is not one of
  • Tramonica Brown
    us. This is not what we stand for two days, with the community
  • Tramonica Brown
    backing them. So it goes a step further, like yes, we have
  • Tramonica Brown
    systematic oppression, but we also have a very broken system
  • Tramonica Brown
    that has not had true change within it. In 100 years. We
  • Tramonica Brown
    gotta remember police officers came from slaves. They were they
  • Tramonica Brown
    were bounty hunters of to catch slaves. Those people turned into
  • Tramonica Brown
    the Tea Party. The Tea Party turned into the people who
  • Tramonica Brown
    protect it I mean, there's so many levels to it. It's such a
  • Tramonica Brown
    rich,ugly, dark history that we come from. So yeah, it's always
  • Tramonica Brown
    gonna be issue between a regular civilian and a police officer
  • Tramonica Brown
    because it's always that dark undertone that they have. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    that safe haven of this broken down law thats built on lies,
  • Tramonica Brown
    deceit, and financial gain.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Yeah, that was really I want to shift towards
  • Jamie Sanders
    specific like, questions about like Dallas in the DFW area. So
  • Jamie Sanders
    like,
  • Tramonica Brown
    Okay,
  • Jamie Sanders
    um, I like I read in an article you've mentioned
  • Jamie Sanders
    that you were on the Margaret Hunts Hill bridge, keep telling
  • Jamie Sanders
    me like, how you got to the bridge, what it was like to be
  • Jamie Sanders
    on there and everything like that.
  • Tramonica Brown
    That day, it was June 1. Um, we were hot. We were hot.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Hot as fish grease. What I do want to make clear, and I always
  • Tramonica Brown
    try to make it clear in every interview that I do is that we
  • Tramonica Brown
    were stopped at the bridge. But and there was two police
  • Tramonica Brown
    officers on both sides. They let us through. We did not run
  • Tramonica Brown
    through. We did not speed walk through we did not Bogart
  • Tramonica Brown
    through. I wasn't at the very front. But I can tell you I
  • Tramonica Brown
    didn't run up on nothing me personally in the people that
  • Tramonica Brown
    was behind me. We didn't run up on nothing. And when nobody in
  • Tramonica Brown
    front of me running. First of all, that a hill okay? And we
  • Tramonica Brown
    had on masks. No, um, they granted us permission. So to me,
  • Tramonica Brown
    and I say this and I mean this it was a trap. They wanted to
  • Tramonica Brown
    make an example out of what happens when you protest in
  • Tramonica Brown
    Dallas. And I feel like because chief Renee Hall came out the
  • Tramonica Brown
    next day and said I don't care about your feelings is the
  • Tramonica Brown
    reason why she is no longer our chief. And trust me, I love
  • Tramonica Brown
    black women. I stand for black women but I'm not afraid to say
  • Tramonica Brown
    when a black woman made a mistake. She made a mistake that
  • Tramonica Brown
    she still has not apologized for. She keeps you cannot It was
  • Tramonica Brown
    800 people, I think it was no, it was 694 people almost to the
  • Tramonica Brown
    tee, I'm almost certain that's the number. And you telling me
  • Tramonica Brown
    because you had a conversation with one man. And you can hear
  • Tramonica Brown
    That's the difference. He got on the mic. I don't know if you can
  • Tramonica Brown
    go back and watch it. It was told to the public several times
  • Tramonica Brown
    that we have permission that we were going we were not going to
  • Tramonica Brown
    be apprehended for protest. And we were outside of the zone. So
  • Tramonica Brown
    now that we're outside of the zone, and we are marching as a
  • Tramonica Brown
    protester, because I was not an organizer at the time, I was a
  • Tramonica Brown
    protester who just came because I had enough my life for you to
  • Tramonica Brown
    handcuff me. And think that you don't have me laying down on a
  • Tramonica Brown
    bridge was a problem for me. It was a whole problem. And when I
  • Tramonica Brown
    realized that we were to a point to where they was working
  • Tramonica Brown
    tomorrow, I started stepping over people that we can't let me
  • Tramonica Brown
    talk to somebody. And I did. I went to one of the police
  • Tramonica Brown
    officers and I was like, I need to talk to you. He was like,
  • Tramonica Brown
    okay, he put those little zip ties on me. And I said, thats
  • Tramonica Brown
    not the conversation I was talking about I said somebody
  • Tramonica Brown
    go down and have a conversation with her. When I say her, I mean
  • Tramonica Brown
    it's babies on this bridge
  • Jamie Sanders
    II and you did talk to Chief Renee Hall, (what
  • Jamie Sanders
    was that conversation like?)
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    it was a you know, she had her views on it. And her whole stake
  • Tramonica Brown
    was, you need to be careful of the company you keep. And like,
  • Tramonica Brown
    you know, you're just coming out here protesting and you don't
  • Tramonica Brown
    know who's organizing what. And I said, Listen, it doesn't to
  • Tramonica Brown
    me. And I was just a protester at the time. I don't care who's
  • Tramonica Brown
    organizing this. I'm not coming out to support an organizer. I'm
  • Tramonica Brown
    coming out because you police officers are covering for each
  • Tramonica Brown
    other. I'm coming out because you suffocated a man. Over 8
  • Tramonica Brown
    minutes. That's the problem. That is a problem yellow
  • Tramonica Brown
    shooting in people's house. No, knock warrant wrong address
  • Tramonica Brown
    think its a (unknown word). Wait a second. That's my I'm out
  • Tramonica Brown
    here. So it was behoving to me and we had a conversation moving
  • Tramonica Brown
    back and forth. And I'm like looking babies on the bridge at
  • Tramonica Brown
    the end of the day. Like I will pull my car up transport
  • Tramonica Brown
    children if need be. And I stayed there and she did she
  • Tramonica Brown
    lets adolescence go. But I found other people by the time I got
  • Tramonica Brown
    home people
  • Jamie Sanders
    yeah,
  • Tramonica Brown
    Where still laying on the bridge. It was like three
  • Tramonica Brown
    or four hours. I would have been pissed. I was already pissed I
  • Tramonica Brown
    was hot. I went down there and she could easily say look arrest
  • Tramonica Brown
    her too. Because I went down there talking cash money. Shit.
  • Tramonica Brown
    I was like, Look, I'm trying to be as respectful as I can. But
  • Tramonica Brown
    I'm mad. This is what's going on. Y'all throwing tear gas at
  • Tramonica Brown
    us y'all throwing rubber bullets at us. And nobody she's like,
  • Tramonica Brown
    No, we didn't. Yes, the hell you did. I'm not confused. I know
  • Tramonica Brown
    what that shit tastes like by now. So, you know as the story
  • Tramonica Brown
    unfolds, they start now little by little Oh, well, yes, there
  • Tramonica Brown
    was this or you know, yes. We had a few instances of that,
  • Tramonica Brown
    like go out there shoot the rubber bullets and doctors and
  • Tramonica Brown
    didn't know it. Uh oh your picture went away
  • Jamie Sanders
    can you hear me?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Okay. Oh,
  • Tramonica Brown
    yeah I can hear you
  • Jamie Sanders
    I remember those times when DPD was like denying
  • Jamie Sanders
    the rubber bullets thing? I think they were saying that
  • Jamie Sanders
    because they were actually foam bullets, which was crazy. (So
  • Jamie Sanders
    tell me did you see any) violence between the police and
  • Jamie Sanders
    protesters?
  • Tramonica Brown
    No. So what happened was on the bridge, you can see
  • Tramonica Brown
    the police officers coming to the other side. So once you seen
  • Tramonica Brown
    the police officers coming to the other side, we knew that
  • Tramonica Brown
    they were probably going to be gonna deny us and make us turn
  • Tramonica Brown
    around. We had no clue that it was a set up like an ambush. So
  • Tramonica Brown
    we're at the height of the bridge, like here. And then once
  • Tramonica Brown
    we can, you know, it goes up and down. So once we're coming down
  • Tramonica Brown
    this way, we're seeing Oh, it's police officers marching in full
  • Tramonica Brown
    on riot gear. And we where like were going to keep marching. You
  • Tramonica Brown
    know, it's a peaceful protest. And so, we got to maybe I say
  • Tramonica Brown
    about (maybe about as big as a street) we was a distance. You
  • Tramonica Brown
    can't see my hand we where at a distance and they started
  • Tramonica Brown
    throwing (unknow.) So you kind of And we're running, and we run
  • Tramonica Brown
    back to see and then we said no, we gonna hold the line, like
  • Tramonica Brown
    this is peaceful. So we turned around and we took a knee after
  • Tramonica Brown
    the knee more than a they started shooting bullets. But it
  • Tramonica Brown
    was time to go like, we haven't done nothing. We're not throwing
  • Tramonica Brown
    nothing at you, its time to go. So we turn around, and then it's
  • Tramonica Brown
    a whole nother set of riot gear people. Right behind us. So now
  • Tramonica Brown
    we're in the middle of the bridge, and they're working
  • Tramonica Brown
    their way forward, and the other ones are closing in. So now
  • Tramonica Brown
    we're just here. This is all we had. So you had almost 700
  • Tramonica Brown
    people stuck on a bridge after trying to retreat after doing
  • Tramonica Brown
    nothing wrong, after causing no ill-will or violence other than
  • Tramonica Brown
    lifting our voices to let people know that we are tired of police
  • Tramonica Brown
    officers thinking they can kill us and then go home and kiss
  • Tramonica Brown
    their kids good night. So hell yeah, I'm still angry about the
  • Tramonica Brown
    bridge, and I ddn't even lay there for four hours. But you
  • Tramonica Brown
    know, what I would have respected an apology to say I
  • Tramonica Brown
    messed up. I made the wrong call. Because at the end of the
  • Tramonica Brown
    day, that's no, no. No, no, go in the house. Thank you. But I'm
  • Tramonica Brown
    so angry about it. I would have loved for (Chief Renee Hall)
  • Tramonica Brown
    they have to say, you know what, even if she says she didn't make
  • Tramonica Brown
    the call, and she had another council member there. And he
  • Tramonica Brown
    backtracked and said, She didn't make the call. I don't give a
  • Tramonica Brown
    damn. Because at the end of the day, you're the head. You're the
  • Tramonica Brown
    head, you are black, you're a woman stand up and say, You know
  • Tramonica Brown
    what, as a department, we made a mistake. I made a mistake. Its
  • Tramonica Brown
    your department if something happens in Not My Son, I'm
  • Tramonica Brown
    responsible for it. I'm supposed to say I made the mistake. You
  • Tramonica Brown
    know, I apologize on behalf of my team, and whatever harm you
  • Tramonica Brown
    may have caused. Now what people say after you offer that apology
  • Tramonica Brown
    is up to them. Because you've done your job, the best thing
  • Tramonica Brown
    you can do is own your shit. She didn't own it, she came by and
  • Tramonica Brown
    said, Look, I'll give him my job is keep everybody say, Okay,
  • Tramonica Brown
    now.
  • Tramonica Brown
    So no,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I feel like her resignation is is gonna damage another black
  • Tramonica Brown
    woman's opportunity. I acknowledge that. And do I like
  • Tramonica Brown
    that? Of course not. Because that's gonna be another thing to
  • Tramonica Brown
    say "women are weak. You know, women, we can't have a woman in
  • Tramonica Brown
    this type of power because you see what they do? And then if
  • Tramonica Brown
    anything else, she quit. Even if you found better employment, and
  • Tramonica Brown
    she's ready to go. You didn't stay to fight the fight. So you
  • Tramonica Brown
    just understand it's two sides to every story. So it's probably
  • Tramonica Brown
    so much I want to speak on her departure as to you know, her
  • Tramonica Brown
    real reasons for leaving. But what I will say as a just a
  • Tramonica Brown
    regular, you know, Mojo, I would have appreciated an apology. I
  • Tramonica Brown
    know if nothing else I told you. I didn't come with ill intention
  • Tramonica Brown
    on the bridge. I know. That's a fact. I know that if nothing
  • Tramonica Brown
    else. I don't want to see a black woman walk away and it
  • Tramonica Brown
    hurts black women in Dallas. Because that's what that's what
  • Tramonica Brown
    happens at the end of the day. I think about the whole picture.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Am I fond of her? I don't know her enough. But what I will say
  • Tramonica Brown
    is that her departure is going to make it harder for the next
  • Tramonica Brown
    black woman to get in her position that's what I know the
  • Tramonica Brown
    next woman you set us back in Dallas with your shenanigans. Do
  • Tramonica Brown
    you think we're gonna have another black police chief
  • Tramonica Brown
    that's a woman?
  • Jamie Sanders
    Not anytime soon becuase
  • Tramonica Brown
    I don't think so. I think because the movement is so
  • Tramonica Brown
    high we might get somebody black, but it's certainly not on
  • Tramonica Brown
    the one Yeah, I don't
  • Jamie Sanders
    even before all of this. She was still pretty
  • Jamie Sanders
    controversial because of all the violence that happened last year
  • Jamie Sanders
    within our within the DFW area. And really people were
  • Jamie Sanders
    disappointed.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And if nothing else, I always want to say black woman
  • Tramonica Brown
    win but not at the stake of hurting the very being of a
  • Tramonica Brown
    black person.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Um,
  • Jamie Sanders
    so we got a phone 11 minutes I want to ask specifically about
  • Jamie Sanders
    like George Floyd's death and like what do you Why do you
  • Jamie Sanders
    think that this was kind of the straw that broke the camel's
  • Jamie Sanders
    back?
  • Tramonica Brown
    when when it came to a point to where police officers
  • Tramonica Brown
    they didn't even shoot him. They just slap suffocated him. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    they were standing around talking the world seen that I
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't know a person, whether you got up and did it or not, I
  • Tramonica Brown
    didn't want to just go and burn and tear some shit up it made
  • Tramonica Brown
    you mad. We didn't have a meeting about a protest. People
  • Tramonica Brown
    just showed up from everywhere. It wasn't I didn't get a text
  • Tramonica Brown
    message, you get a text message. I'm gonna text message, dad. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    I wouldn't know social media saying this is what we don't
  • Tramonica Brown
    want. I just got mad, I got mad, I'm tired if if you are not
  • Tramonica Brown
    going to respect black people, and if you are going to show
  • Tramonica Brown
    that you get zero, Chuck's about us about the country that we
  • Tramonica Brown
    built, we can just burn it down. We can just burn this bitch to
  • Tramonica Brown
    the ground. And then y'all remake it. And then you can have
  • Tramonica Brown
    a say so. Because regardless of the fact. Slaves built these
  • Tramonica Brown
    paths to even know where we're going. Remember your history. I
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't care who started who made these beautiful buildings. God
  • Tramonica Brown
    damn it, you wouldn't know what a plot is. If a slave didn't dig
  • Tramonica Brown
    it out. No, we built this. So if you are not going to give us the
  • Tramonica Brown
    respect, and you think that you can just step on us and suffocat
  • Tramonica Brown
    us and you still are hanging us in these hick towns? We will
  • Tramonica Brown
    burn this bitch to the ground first. And that's that's what I
  • Tramonica Brown
    felt like the humans that went out and did what they did. They
  • Tramonica Brown
    had that same instinct that I had before and even Caucasian.
  • Tramonica Brown
    If before I let another person die on my watch because at that
  • Tramonica Brown
    point, I felt like everybody who went on and rage was it was a
  • Tramonica Brown
    Not on my watch. We will burn this bitch down first. And then
  • Tramonica Brown
    you the system that is so oppressed and so broken can come
  • Tramonica Brown
    back and build it back up. I think that's how the world felt.
  • Tramonica Brown
    We'll just burn all this shit down. Just burn it the fuck. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    that's what happened. It was flames in Dallas. It shit on
  • Tramonica Brown
    fire everywhere. Yeah, they want to use the looting. But see,
  • Tramonica Brown
    they forgot to like capture those pictures of that rage that
  • Tramonica Brown
    fire represented rage. They tried to clear the message of
  • Tramonica Brown
    Oh, people are stealing and and all this now that we as a people
  • Tramonica Brown
    were tired. And when those people went out there, and they
  • Tramonica Brown
    were seting those flames they were trying to send a clear
  • Tramonica Brown
    message of were trying to burn this shit down. Do you not
  • Tramonica Brown
    understand? We're tired. We'd rather start from nothing.
  • Tramonica Brown
    before we let you guys infiltrate and continue to
  • Tramonica Brown
    control the narrative of suppression. So that's what the
  • Tramonica Brown
    George Floyd did. For me, it was the straw that really broke the
  • Tramonica Brown
    world's back. Not even just America, but it just broke the
  • Tramonica Brown
    world. And we're tired. And we don't want to get to that point
  • Tramonica Brown
    anymore. I would love nothing more for us to heal and truly
  • Tramonica Brown
    succeed as a country as a race as a people. But don't get
  • Tramonica Brown
    mistaken, we understand that it has come to a by any means
  • Tramonica Brown
    necessary. So that is where we are. We are open to talk. We are
  • Tramonica Brown
    open to listening, we are open for dialogue. But we are not
  • Tramonica Brown
    open to you continuing on the path that you're on. And we will
  • Tramonica Brown
    take drastic measures to ensure that you know that we as a
  • Tramonica Brown
    people of this what they would like to call Great American
  • Tramonica Brown
    United States of America. It's not great. And until we can get
  • Tramonica Brown
    it to a decent place because we just work it but decency at this
  • Tramonica Brown
    point. Ain't nothing great about the US of a there's nothing free
  • Tramonica Brown
    about the United States of America because black people
  • Tramonica Brown
    still aren't free. We're still enslaved to the color of our
  • Tramonica Brown
    skin. So until we see change, I know you heard that chant or if
  • Tramonica Brown
    you protest but we always say till we see change. We are on
  • Tramonica Brown
    high alert. So that's where I am with that I am in that same
  • Tramonica Brown
    situation. I'm in that same mentality today until we see
  • Tramonica Brown
    change.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Um,
  • Jamie Sanders
    so the Brianna Taylor plave decision happened not too long
  • Jamie Sanders
    ago, a couple months ago. How do you feel about that?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    we were in a very dark place that day. Um, I cried. I cried
  • Tramonica Brown
    because it was again, for me it was Trayvon Martin again. Like
  • Tramonica Brown
    you people. The nerve of you Quicken people You will, you
  • Tramonica Brown
    will charge a man who hit a wall who hit nothing. Before you
  • Tramonica Brown
    actually charge people who actually took a real life, a
  • Tramonica Brown
    innocent life, I don't care what somebody past is. In that
  • Tramonica Brown
    moment, God dammit, she was sleep. It made me mad. Like,
  • Tramonica Brown
    even if she had woke up after the intrusion, you woke this
  • Tramonica Brown
    woman up out of her sleep, you took her (fucking life), like
  • Tramonica Brown
    you took her life, her mother does not have her (unknown).
  • Tramonica Brown
    Nobody has these people anymore. And you, for lack of a better
  • Tramonica Brown
    term you shitted on people who are fighting for rights who give
  • Tramonica Brown
    a damn. By saying before we charge those police officers,
  • Tramonica Brown
    we're going to protect them with that same broken system that
  • Tramonica Brown
    you've been marching for over 100 days. And we're going to
  • Tramonica Brown
    prosecute the person who hit some drywall, drywall got more
  • Tramonica Brown
    justice than the killers who killed an innocent woman because
  • Tramonica Brown
    of some bullshit that they put in, in place to protect police
  • Tramonica Brown
    officers. And that day was a very dark and ugly day. It was a
  • Tramonica Brown
    very, very dark and ugly day. And it took great restraint for
  • Tramonica Brown
    myself to try to be of, of excellence, and to be steady.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Because at that point, people were looking at me and people
  • Tramonica Brown
    were following me. And I felt like I was at a dangerous place.
  • Tramonica Brown
    I can either help create havoc. And we can have repeat. Or I can
  • Tramonica Brown
    just say our words, and try to get everybody back as best I
  • Tramonica Brown
    can. But it was just it was an ugly day. I mean, we had a city
  • Tramonica Brown
    council meeting that day, it was it was just an ugly day for
  • Tramonica Brown
    Dallas. We lost that day. And so many ways. It's just
  • Tramonica Brown
    unmeasurable, like we want to see defund the police, we want
  • Tramonica Brown
    to invest in our communities. So that day was a lot. It was a
  • Tramonica Brown
    dark day,
  • Jamie Sanders
    I want to ask you this question. I hope they won't
  • Jamie Sanders
    like it will bother you. If we- If we went a little bit over,
  • Jamie Sanders
    we're getting close to time. But, um, do you see a difference
  • Jamie Sanders
    in response when, when it comes to black women, when they're
  • Jamie Sanders
    victims of police violence from when it was black men?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why I
  • Tramonica Brown
    what I was just saying was really, you know, teetering on
  • Tramonica Brown
    that. Um, we that just shows that America does not protect
  • Tramonica Brown
    the same women who create change, who said we would not
  • Tramonica Brown
    have another president had it not been for black women. Let's
  • Tramonica Brown
    be very clear. We we hit the ground running, we encourage
  • Tramonica Brown
    people to vote, we motivated people to vote, we took people
  • Tramonica Brown
    to the polls, we are the forefront. And we are constantly
  • Tramonica Brown
    we're the most disrespected women of any race by all races,
  • Tramonica Brown
    and to even see that, you know, it just kind of got swept under
  • Tramonica Brown
    the rug. Everybody came out, you know, and I think they're the
  • Tramonica Brown
    district attorney. I forgot his name. But Mr. Coon, I'll just
  • Tramonica Brown
    stick with Mr. Coon. He was disgusting to watch as a man who
  • Tramonica Brown
    just we only share the same hue because it's certainly not the
  • Tramonica Brown
    same views. That is something that was very disturbing and it
  • Tramonica Brown
    woke me up and I think that's really what just incited the
  • Tramonica Brown
    tears. It's like a black man who's delivering this message.
  • Tramonica Brown
    And he just don't give like you don't care Would you care if it
  • Tramonica Brown
    was your sister? So if they go kill your sister You good?
  • Tramonica Brown
    You're going to get up there and have that same spirit right? Oh,
  • Tramonica Brown
    you're not and i don't care about it man a job. And that's
  • Tramonica Brown
    why I say we need new people in office. We need black women on
  • Tramonica Brown
    our city council's and in our senate in Congress we need that.
  • Tramonica Brown
    As our representatives we need that because we have to now
  • Tramonica Brown
    protect ourselves to show people how to protect us. Black women
  • Tramonica Brown
    are in a very delicate place. We are creating narrative and still
  • Tramonica Brown
    accepting disrespect because that's all people have to give
  • Tramonica Brown
    us. That was disrespect at its prime. So I'm for for supporting
  • Tramonica Brown
    black women, black women are carrying our nation. period. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    I say that with pride. I say that with so much strength and
  • Tramonica Brown
    urgency, because we are demanding true change in our
  • Tramonica Brown
    communities and we're demanding respect above all else. So, yes
  • Tramonica Brown
    to answer your question. Men are superior and they don't have the
  • Tramonica Brown
    same gumption or the same grief when it comes to a woman and it
  • Tramonica Brown
    showed us.
  • Jamie Sanders
    I have
  • Jamie Sanders
    about two or three more questions, if that's okay with
  • Jamie Sanders
    you. Thank you for doing such a good conversation. I don't want
  • Jamie Sanders
    to like not ask these questions. Um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I'm sorry, I'm long winded. I'm messing up the time.
  • Jamie Sanders
    I've loved it. Honestly. I love it.
  • Jamie Sanders
    This is so great. Um, so the election is over now. Um, and to
  • Jamie Sanders
    some extent, this was a slight victory. Um, what do you think
  • Jamie Sanders
    the results are going how is that like going to affect the
  • Jamie Sanders
    movement?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um,
  • Tramonica Brown
    so I have a, what's a good way to put it? When it comes to the
  • Tramonica Brown
    election, I hold no qualms about who is going to create real
  • Tramonica Brown
    change, I don't believe anybody is going to create real change.
  • Tramonica Brown
    I feel like we have to hold them accountable. At the very
  • Tramonica Brown
    beginning, everybody was just like, you have to just choose a
  • Tramonica Brown
    lesser evil. Well, what the hell I'm sorry, what now you want me
  • Tramonica Brown
    to go vote, it was hard to encourage people to vote. And I
  • Tramonica Brown
    was one of those people. And I think because I was so candidly
  • Tramonica Brown
    honest with people, we were able to have like, I'm gonna go vote,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I tell people to vote simply on the strength of our ancestors
  • Tramonica Brown
    couldn't they hung bled and died for us to have a voice. If you
  • Tramonica Brown
    go in and just pick people who you want to pick and don't pick
  • Tramonica Brown
    a president, I don't get but you go in there and you vote,
  • Tramonica Brown
    because we did not have that option. As women, they felt like
  • Tramonica Brown
    we were invaluable. They're showing us in real time today
  • Tramonica Brown
    that they still feel like we're invaluable. We have to show that
  • Tramonica Brown
    we have the voice and that we have the power. And we did that.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Now, our elect, our president and vice president elect, if
  • Tramonica Brown
    they don't do what they're supposed to do, nobody's coming
  • Tramonica Brown
    in boot shining in here. I have no problem with speaking my mind
  • Tramonica Brown
    if they get in there and do because they had ugly pasts.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Yes, their PR people came in and they swept it under the rug. So
  • Tramonica Brown
    that way, the common folk wouldn't understand what's going
  • Tramonica Brown
    on. But both of them hold darts. And I am going to expect them to
  • Tramonica Brown
    deliver on the black vote. Because we put you in office,
  • Tramonica Brown
    this black woman, we put you in office, not the other way
  • Tramonica Brown
    around. Deliver or you got to go too because we're not just oh,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I'm gonna I'm so glad that you're here. You are not our
  • Tramonica Brown
    white Savior, you hold the real privilege to us. And to that
  • Tramonica Brown
    woman, the same thing. I just told you the same way that I
  • Tramonica Brown
    that I feel about our soon to be former chief, she is in the same
  • Tramonica Brown
    boat, you need to deliver because you came from a rudy
  • Tramonica Brown
    past where all you did was incarcerate black people, if I'm
  • Tramonica Brown
    not mistaken. Do I want that? I would love nothing more to see
  • Tramonica Brown
    her succeed. I want to see Joe Biden succeed. I want to see
  • Tramonica Brown
    them cash some of these checks that they was talking about cash
  • Tramonica Brown
    them. That's what we want to see. I know that somebody else
  • Tramonica Brown
    and it's unfortunate, because we already know when somebody else
  • Tramonica Brown
    dies, while your president, what are you going to do different?
  • Tramonica Brown
    Because I don't want to hear it. I don't want you to tell me you
  • Tramonica Brown
    don't have to tell me shit. I don't want to know. I want you
  • Tramonica Brown
    to show me with your actions, which you don't allow when the
  • Tramonica Brown
    ball is in your court when were in your wheelhouse is it going
  • Tramonica Brown
    to be the same. Are you going to come out and tell people to stop
  • Tramonica Brown
    doing what they're doing? Now, now we get to have those
  • Tramonica Brown
    conversations. Now you get to really hold those people
  • Tramonica Brown
    accountable. Everybody talks a great game. But I'm into showing
  • Tramonica Brown
    like with Not my son. I tell people all the time I try to
  • Tramonica Brown
    cash everything so far I have. You can see us out in the
  • Tramonica Brown
    community. You can see what I'm doing. You can see me on the
  • Tramonica Brown
    front lines. You can see me getting in people's face when
  • Tramonica Brown
    I'm like I'm not having that shit. You see me. I want to see
  • Tramonica Brown
    them do the same thing. Do it in legislation, do it passing these
  • Tramonica Brown
    bills, do it to sitting in those rooms when nobody can see you
  • Tramonica Brown
    and come out with a solution that is for the betterment of
  • Tramonica Brown
    black people. That's what I want to see for our country, because
  • Tramonica Brown
    in order to get our country on a correct path, we have to fix the
  • Tramonica Brown
    race problem first. So let's see. Are you going to really
  • Tramonica Brown
    create more jobs that people can actually sustain and attain to,
  • Tramonica Brown
    or you really want to create a safe school environment. What do
  • Tramonica Brown
    you have in place? I cannot wait to see what the first hundred
  • Tramonica Brown
    days are going to look like. because let me tell you
  • Tramonica Brown
    something, those first hundred days that the narrative of the
  • Tramonica Brown
    four what are you really going to be out to conquer? Or was it
  • Tramonica Brown
    just the money game? So I'm excited to see, I'ma show me.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Texas is the Lone Star State. But I need to see, show me.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So what do you want people to know about this
  • Jamie Sanders
    movement today and in the future?
  • Tramonica Brown
    I want people to know that it is a narrative. And that
  • Tramonica Brown
    is also a checks and balances behind that narrative. So if you
  • Tramonica Brown
    are in your community, and you are screaming Black Lives
  • Tramonica Brown
    Matter, what are you doing to be productive in the progression of
  • Tramonica Brown
    a black life? What are you doing? What are you advocating
  • Tramonica Brown
    for? What are you you know, what bills are you on? Like? What are
  • Tramonica Brown
    you pushing? Are you in a council meetings? Are you on the
  • Tramonica Brown
    ground in the city? are you creating, you know, chances for
  • Tramonica Brown
    people to get off welfare? Or you do have a hookup with
  • Tramonica Brown
    housing? Like what are you doing to pour into black people? What
  • Tramonica Brown
    are you doing to pour into systematic racism, so that way,
  • Tramonica Brown
    we can retract that from my vocabulary and not have to use
  • Tramonica Brown
    that. I want people to know that this is a marathon. And people
  • Tramonica Brown
    say that and they say it like it's just something gimmicky.
  • Tramonica Brown
    It's not this is a marathon, this is not a moment in time,
  • Tramonica Brown
    you have to really put your boots to the ground. Everybody
  • Tramonica Brown
    is responsible for that four by force space. How are you gonna
  • Tramonica Brown
    handle yours? So my message to everybody is to show up, honor
  • Tramonica Brown
    up and handle up, do your part. And it doesn't have to be the
  • Tramonica Brown
    same way I do mine, everybody is different. But you have to do
  • Tramonica Brown
    your part. So do it. Be of a real change, provide a real
  • Tramonica Brown
    assistance, give your time to volunteer to something and
  • Tramonica Brown
    learn. It's never been a time since I've been out here that I
  • Tramonica Brown
    went to something I didn't walk away with something that was
  • Tramonica Brown
    either nourishment or something that I did not know, a
  • Tramonica Brown
    conversation that I probably needed to have. Get involved.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Give a little of your time to your culture. Give a little bit
  • Tramonica Brown
    of time to learn about a different culture. If this is
  • Tramonica Brown
    not your culture.
  • Jamie Sanders
    So are there any questions I should have asked
  • Jamie Sanders
    you.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, you didn't ask me about our pillars. Of Not My
  • Tramonica Brown
    Son.
  • Tramonica Brown
    Um, ugh our pillars our first pillar of course, is social
  • Tramonica Brown
    activism. That is being on the street boots to the ground,
  • Tramonica Brown
    letting our voices be heard getting into those city council
  • Tramonica Brown
    meetings getting into the neck of the oppressor. Um, we
  • Tramonica Brown
    counteract that with what we just had our civic engagement,
  • Tramonica Brown
    voter engagement, we have to get people there. We have to educate
  • Tramonica Brown
    people on the fact because we're nonpartisan. I am myself just
  • Tramonica Brown
    nonpartisan. I'm a show me type of person. And I want to I want
  • Tramonica Brown
    people to understand that it's nasty on both sides. We cannot
  • Tramonica Brown
    just think, Oh, I'm over here because it's me, oh, I'm over
  • Tramonica Brown
    here. You need to understand the person outside of the party,
  • Tramonica Brown
    that person makes the decision as well. And sometimes behind
  • Tramonica Brown
    closed doors, they don't agree with that party. So you need to
  • Tramonica Brown
    understand who you voting for and the character that you're
  • Tramonica Brown
    giving. Cause this is supposed to be what we hold beautiful. My
  • Tramonica Brown
    people built this country. I want to see it flourish. So, and
  • Tramonica Brown
    our third one is you know how we show and improve our community
  • Tramonica Brown
    outreach. We have a back to school drives. Tomorrow we have
  • Tramonica Brown
    a turkey drive. Um well doing to Turkey giveaway. We're doing a
  • Tramonica Brown
    turkey drive all week. So if you want to, you know if I didn't
  • Tramonica Brown
    want to give some canned goods or stuffing or some turkey, let
  • Tramonica Brown
    me know. Um we do after school programs, we do tutoring. We do
  • Tramonica Brown
    a community cleanup. We feed the homeless, we feed people we help
  • Tramonica Brown
    find resources. In order to claim that you want to see
  • Tramonica Brown
    change. You have to be a part of the change and create change
  • Tramonica Brown
    where you can so you know those are our three pillars I feel
  • Tramonica Brown
    like that boom boom boom checks and balances. And we're right
  • (unknown).
  • Jamie Sanders
    I did say three but there's one question is kind
  • Jamie Sanders
    of a small like really breezy questions. I want to ask that
  • Jamie Sanders
    and then we can were done a lot of activists have an activist in
  • Jamie Sanders
    history that that inspires them. Is there one activist for you
  • Jamie Sanders
    that you find inspiring
  • Tramonica Brown
    Tamika Tamika Mallory, definitely, um, I love
  • Tramonica Brown
    her. I love her her moments where she captures, you know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    her audience with true compassion and truth. Like, I
  • Tramonica Brown
    want to look up to somebody who I feel like speaks truth. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    Malcolm X, especially in this moment in time, because I'm at a
  • Tramonica Brown
    point to where I am. I am for the betterment of my people. And
  • Tramonica Brown
    sometimes to other people. It doesn't sound good. But I feel
  • Tramonica Brown
    like when you live in this space, you're like, I see why he
  • Tramonica Brown
    was moving the way he was moving. Cuz I'm in it, I see it,
  • Tramonica Brown
    I fill it out. I see why, like, when you watch it, when you hear
  • Tramonica Brown
    you listen, they're like, oh, he was, you know, he didn't like
  • Tramonica Brown
    white people. He didn't like this, you get to see why his his
  • Tramonica Brown
    thought process was like that. Because you also have allies,
  • Tramonica Brown
    who pretend to be allies, who want to dictate and want to be a
  • Tramonica Brown
    white Savior and not an ally. They want to get in the
  • Tramonica Brown
    forefront and project message over a black person. You're
  • Tramonica Brown
    still trying to control our narrative, it's no longer your
  • Tramonica Brown
    time. So I feel like it's you know those two people. You know,
  • Tramonica Brown
    she's in real time holding people accountable. And he was
  • Tramonica Brown
    in our past, holding people accountable, and not being
  • Tramonica Brown
    afraid to lose his life. Behind truly, this is what I believe
  • Tramonica Brown
    in. This is what I stand for. This is who I am. Whether you
  • Tramonica Brown
    like it or not, you have to respect it. And you know, those
  • Tramonica Brown
    two people are just. I love both of them. They've helped craft me
  • Tramonica Brown
    and I've listened to their speeches, and I've read some of
  • Tramonica Brown
    their work. And it's remarkable and I hope to one day to achieve
  • Tramonica Brown
    to be on that level. But in the meantime, I'm sipping my porch
  • Tramonica Brown
    right here.
  • Jamie Sanders
    Okay, well, thank you so much. I'll stop the
  • Jamie Sanders
    recording now.
  • SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: [The preceding transcript is automated and may not provide an accurate transcription of the interview. There may be typos or inconsistent line breaks. Please refer to the attached document for a more accurate transcript.] SUBJECTS: [Black Lives Matter in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; activism]; (Virtual Interview)
Description: This interview focuses on Tramonica’s experience as protestor during the year 2020 in DFW. Tramonica is proud former resident of Pleasant Grove a neighborhood in DFW. She and her organization work on relief projects in the area, host rallies, and conduct other community service projects in the DFW area. In this interview Tramonica discusses her hometown, the results of George Floyd’s death, and her activist organization Not My Son Dallas.
Details
Title
Tramonica Brown Interview, November 20, 2020
Creator(s)
Jamie Sanders ; Tramonica Brown
Interviewer
Jamie Sanders ; Tramonica Brown
Created
November 20, 2020
Topical Subject(s)
Black Lives Matter ; Black (African American) ; Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas ; Education ; Police officers ; Black women ; motherhood ; activism ; police ; race ; protest ; community
Continent
North and Central America
Country
United States
Rights Statement
Copyright for this object is held by American University and does not preclude any use the co-interviewee(s) may want to make of the information in the recordings themselves. This object is made available through the American University Digital Research Archive for research and educational purposes. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the object beyond the bounds of Fair Use must be obtained from the American University Library -- Archives and Special Collections.
URI / Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/humanitiestruck:2602

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