“From Superstar Management to Social Change: A Conversation with JD Mass on The CJ Moneyway Show”

Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you sell everywhere, from their all-in-one e-commerce platform to their in-person POS system. Shopify's got you covered. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms, and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. What I love about Shopify is how no matter how big you want to grow, Shopify gives you everything you need to take control and take your business to the next level. Shopify powers of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Plus, Shopify's award-winning help is there to support your success every step of the way, because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/westwood1, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com/westwood1 now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. shopify.com/westwood1.

Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show podcast, the podcast show where we unlock potential one dream at a time. Today we have another guest whose journey is truly worth hearing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Moneyway experience.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show in association with Believe Entertainment, the podcast that brings you stories behind the success. Today we have on the show activist, podcast host, author, and entrepreneur DJ Mass. How you doing, DJ?

JD, yeah, it's all good. That's all right, we got the letters right.

I think that's my DJ. Hey, so, uh, so JD, man, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background, man.

So I grew up in a suburb of St. Louis right outside the city limits called University City. In the '80s, it was the only diverse kind of area. My parents purposely wanted to raise me in and around Black community. For those just listening, I am a white man, and I grew up with them purposely also really enforcing not to be racist. They were very welcoming to my friends, which was great, and I got welcomed by my friends' family into their home. And that level of welcoming is something that I wish more people really got a grasp of and understood, especially more of my less melanated folks when it came to people of color, is the amount of welcoming that I received. I would love for everybody else to share in that. What I also got the chance to see was how my friends were treated differently than me in public, how I was treated differently in public when I was with them versus when I wasn't. And you know, that made me really want to understand the why behind racism and discrimination, bigotry, and the rest of it.

That's pretty interesting, you know, that you say that your parents actually raised you in the neighborhood so that you can experience these type of things and just see a different culture and see how things are just different on the other side. You know, I was thinking about this question earlier and me personally, like where I grew up, like you say, you've been to Gary, I didn't grow up around a lot of white people, you know what I'm saying? So it was a different experience when I went to college and then now it's a mixed race and everything. But yeah, man, like right now, like something like you saying now, I think about my son, like he plays sports, he plays basketball and he don't know what that is as far as racism or whatever. He know that he's a Black male, but he don't see color like that. Right, because he plays with a lot of kids, uh, different nationalities. So that's something like you say, man, that we wish that more people can experience, because, you know, once you get to get into that vibe, man, and know people for who they are, man, things would be totally different in society. You know, I agree with that.

And these younger generations, just like we had a newer chance before, you know, our parents' and grandparents' generations did, the younger generations are starting to have greater opportunities to see things differently than we did. And so I look forward to how they start to shape things as we grow older and observe it.

Yeah, hopefully it can get better, man, because at this time point in time right now, man, it's kind of rough out there. You know what I'm talking about. But, uh, so tell us, JD, man, tell us a little bit about your doctorate degree and what inspired you to, uh, pursue it.

So I earned a doctorate in organizational psychology. I was looking to get into something from a sociological standpoint to go back to school. I have a degree in business already. And I've worked with entrepreneurs in the past. And I saw this description of this degree, and it kind of fit my background of, you know, working with entrepreneurs, helping develop culture. And it's something in it really just inspired me to want to join and be a part of it and learn from it. And what happened was it really helped me answer that question I was saying as I was growing up, that why we created the culture the way we did. That was all the organizational psychology is about— how the culture get developed from a leadership perspective, from how does it get developed from interactions and things of that nature, what goes into developing the psychology of a group and their approach. And so that made me really feel comfortable with writing the book the way I did, and it really helped me kind of open up for that.

So, so speaking about the book, so what inspired you to actually write this book, man?

So because of my journey, I have had so many great experiences. I grew up with Nelly. I became his business manager. I met through his family the Hebrew Israelite community in Dimona, Israel, that had a village of peace there named by the Israeli people, the Village of Peace. I saw what an intentional community of peace and health looks like and how much work goes into and the intentions behind building such a culture. And I got to really compare that with the American culture and things of that nature. And so in that process, when I met my son's mother, who was very much into community building in her own way in the Black community. And she kind of told me— well, she ain't kind of, she was very blunt with it— it's great that you love us the way you do. It's great that you know what you know. But if you don't go over there and work with your people, you're not doing us any good. And I kicked and screamed. I didn't want to any more than she did, so to speak. But she was right. And so when I started to work with anti-racism groups, and found those, and I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and I found these groups, and Trump had just become president, and there was like a big uproar and more of a, a desire to fight racism. I recognized they still didn't have any clue of what Black culture was, right? Like, they still were segregated. A bunch of them just figured out it was still racism. And so just in that process, while they had great intentions, they didn't understand what they brought to the table, how they were bringing it to the table, and how Black culture and the people that we said, you know, we were out to help really felt about us and how they positioned us. And so I was trying to have these discussions, and often I found myself acting like, you know, like a doctorate talking to a third grader. And I don't mean to say that in putting them down. I'm just saying, like, my experience was so different that it was very hard to connect. I never went through that aha moment. I was raised to believe racism was a systematic thing that existed and it still existed until we healed it. And so that process really made me take a step back and say, how can I have some tool to use that can really get out what I need to get out and then have greater conversation with it? And that was the book.

Oh man, that's pretty cool, man. What's the name of the book?

The name of the book is Race for What? The COVID is a picture of my high school prom with me and my best friends, and I'm definitely the most identifiable from a distance for sure.

So you stick out like a sore thumb. Hey, that's pretty cool, man. That's pretty cool. But you know, like something that you were saying, I was just thinking about it as you was talking about it. 2016, and you say people say that they didn't even know that racism even still exists. And I just think that at that point, until even where we are now, man, it was just suppressed for a long time, man. It's just been more and more exposed to how things really are, man. And that's a great thing that you out there doing, going on both sides of the fence, trying to mend these bridges, man, because we need more people like you out there trying to, you know, do things of this nature, man, because the world and, and our society really does need healing, man. And so, yeah, I appreciate the work you out there doing. I wish your book— I hope that you have much success with your book. So, so tell me, JD, man, why are you so passionate about equality?

So we live in a competitive society, right? And that's the term race is competitive. Dr. Claude Anderson defined it as, and it made most sense to me, as this race of Europeans to conquer the world. This colonization race became what we find as race today, because when they found out, okay, well, we can look a certain way and identify another people as looking a certain way, and there's a difference in these cultures, now we can create this sort of race, racism construct. And in that we come from a very competitive culture because we have a scarcity of resources in the northern region, in that European region. So that means we have to go elsewhere to get the resources from the planet that our bodies need. And in doing so, we— when you have a scarcity of something, right? Like, I'ma hold up this bottle of water for those that are just listening. If you and I thought this bottle of water was all the water we had, every sip I take of it. CJ, you probably gonna be like, damn, that's a sip I could have had. Maybe as a matter of fact, I might need to do something to JD to get the rest of that water because that's all the water we got. Not knowing behind both of our walls is a ton of, you know, water flowing. So we don't know that. We're in this northern region, we come down, we're very competitive. So instead of seeing people that were willing to share these resources because they come from an abundance, this village to raise a child mentality. Our approach was, they got it, we don't. Let's grab it. Let's get it. Let's do whatever we can. And when you start to compete, you can either want to just, you know, be honorable, be the best version of yourself, or you can want to do whatever you got to do to win. And that could mean harming somebody else and focusing our time on all of this other stuff. Well, if we're going to say that we're in a competitive place and we have all of these processes in place, if you get injured, on an accident, we got a way to make you whole. And, you know, we call it making you whole in our legal system. But we pay you for your injury. We pay you for the harm that was done to you. The same thing needs to happen for Black community. We need to repair the harm because if you're going to compete, then let's compete from an equal standpoint. Let's see what merit— since we say this is a meritocracy, let's see what it's really about. And there's so much of this false fear, I call it, where we talk about, you know, white folks are scared that Black people are going to just do to them what they've done to— what we've done to others. Well, if that's the case, you're doing two things. You're acknowledging that we've been pretty jacked up, right? And two, you're saying that you don't want to be treated the way we've been treating others.

Yeah.

And then You're just saying, so for that reason, I'm not going to repair the situation. I'm going to try and stay out in front of you in this race. And I just think that we would all benefit, even as white folks, from learning our own humanity of actually repairing that harm and being a part of that process of reparations. And so that we can see what, what is it like when we just focus on being the best version of ourselves? What is it like when we share the resources of the planet, when we have to redesign how our approach to life is? And that's what I'm all about.

Yeah, man, that's pretty cool. I'm sitting here thinking about what you're saying as far as playing on equal playing fields, and we've been at a disadvantage for a long time.

For a long time.

Like, you from the inner city, and so you'll know what I'm talking about. A lot of people that's not from the inner city, may not know this, but we see gas stations popping up everywhere on every corner. So they're giving them the resources to build multiple gas stations in the same areas and they owned by the same brothers and cousins and nephews and things of that nature. And so those same resources are not being given to us where they come in, they ain't gotta pay taxes for 10 years or whatever. Then they, pass it on down from generation to generation. And so I'm listening, you know, so I'm just thinking about what you said. We don't get those same opportunities to build generational wealth. And here we are right here in America. And that's why a lot of people, like you say, we competitive. And so we gonna play to win. And so a lot of people gonna do whatever they gotta do just to get on top. You know what I'm saying? Because they feel like we've been at a disadvantage so long. And a lot of time it's a hurting feeling when you see that other people not even from this country come in and get the opportunities that we've been denied for so long. Right.

So for sure. And right, so on that, there's two things on that. One, if we— if you ever look at throughout history, even with the Jews in, in, um, Europe when they, uh, had the Holocaust going on, part of the Holocaust was to create a scarcity mentality amongst the Jews, to put them in ghettos, to to create this scarcity. So whenever we want to really attack something, we want to go to Africa, steal the resources, or go to South America, steal the resources. We create this scarcity image as if this money, which is a man-made construct, is, is something that we have so much of. But the natural resources that come from the earth that we really want, there's a scarcity of money, so we should get those natural resources. And we create scarcity in all the inner cities. When Black folks move in, white folks move out. And we have— we're in positions of control— politics, banking, all of these economic structures. And we take our resources and we take— and we try and create a scarcity mentality. And then we turn around and go, and look, because we get to control the narrative, look at how these guys are hurting themselves. Look at how they harm themselves. Look at— How rappers try and compete so much. Look at how everybody— well, we created that. That's not a natural, uh, Aboriginal and Indigenous cultural thing. That's a white folks thing. That's our culture. Matter of fact, you know, I, I made a joke, a video one time about Black folks appropriating our culture of violence and all of that, because that is much more based on this competitive nature thing to try and control and harm others in order to win the race, so to speak. But we use those techniques to create that scarcity. And then on the other side of it, and I saw this, and this was one of the things I really struggled with in Los Angeles especially, is bragging about the diversity but not wanting to heal the harm of Black culture. It's so much easier to say, look, I'm not racist, look at how I help these other brown-skinned people, and look at where, you know, I help people India, and even these Africans that came over, or even these people from South America or whatever, look at what we're doing for them. We're not racist, we want to— right? But we don't want to go and look a Black person in the eye and say, okay, what really do you think of me, and what has the harm that we've done, and how can we really repair that? That takes a different type of psychological, you know, effort.

Yeah, that, that's heavy right there, and that's exactly how it is, man. I'm listening to everything you said. Like you say, you said something, and I remember talking to this one lady, she wrote a book, and I can't remember exactly how she said it, but you made me think of it when you said it, like, didn't it make it seem like it's our fault? You know what I'm saying? Like, it's our fault. You put us in this situation and then you blame us for what's going on with all the chaos that may be going on and this and that. And then you blame us forward, but this is the situation that you have presented us with. And I know, man, we can go on and on about that, about, you know, times past, taking the man out the house and, you know, for welfare purposes, the COINTELPRO efforts, the gang violence that happens now was not how it was going when Black folks were creating those gangs in the beginning.

Matter of fact, they weren't even called gangs. Right? Those were community organizations and other things. And then all of a sudden, through efforts of COINTELPRO, police, FBI, and everybody else, and taking those resources away, you start to see that, that type of stuff happen.

Yeah, taking the man out the house. And when you take the man— and that's even today, but that was something that has been generational. So, so sometimes when you have things generational, like they say, generational curses, and things just trickle down. And so if I didn't have my father there to actually raise me and teach me on how to be a man, and so now I go to the same process because that's my mindset. So now I may teach my son the same thing or I may be absent from the family. But like you say, there's something that y'all created and put on us a long time ago that we still dealing with. So I like that, man. I like what you doing. So, so, JD, man, tell me, tell me this. On your journey to figure out the root cause of racism, what have you found in this area?

So going back to that scarcity mentality, right, when you start to want to win something, if you look at them at racism, it's really a massive form of bullying, right? And so now we have this competition thing. And if you look at our economic system, I don't know if you ever took an economics class, But day one in economics, they talk about the scarcity of resources. We're all competing to control those resources. So, right, not knowing the Earth actually has much more than enough for all of us to share in to meet our needs and comforts and be able to enjoy our lives. So when we start to look at that scarcity mentality and that approach of, of how do we win, and we recognize Somebody has to recognize along the way, hundreds of years ago, that this less melanated skin doesn't allow me to be on the planet, like feet down on the grass in the sun, as long as you. You get to absorb, you know, the sun. You get to be out connected to the planet. That's why people with more melanin in their skin are in areas of greater resources than those of us that don't have it. These are just real facts that we don't want to talk about. So I don't like the lesson, the word whiteness, because it's not white. I'm missing something that's very important to me to be out in the sun, right? I can only be outside less hours than you and my friends can. And that's a reality. And that's not an advantage. That's not a superior thing. That's not a supremacy thing. But if I'm a bully and you look at bullying when you go to school, something happened to that kid that's bullying others, trying to make them feel less than him because he feels less than them. Well, in this, the same thing happens in mass bullying of white folks. Something goes on inside of us that makes us feel less than, that we have to attack when we feel, oh my goodness, somebody else is shining instead of me. And if I can't feel like I can compete at the same level, then I got to do some other things. And so there's a term, press, or the word prestige. And the word prestige is we hold this in such high regards. But if you look at the definition of the word prestige, and you go to the origin of that word, that means trickery, conjuring tricks and illusion. Right? So now what we hold in high regards, what we think is valuable, this education system. This is the most prestigious university, Harvard and Yale. And okay, what if they're tricking us and creating an illusion? What if in these wealthy neighborhoods, these ideas that these cars are so much more valuable, this house is so much more valuable because of the people that live here, they're so much better than us because of this prestige, this illusion? And if you think of conjuring tricks, it's not what You can see.

At Capella University, learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the classroom to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.

It tricks you. It's what you can't see. So in our education system, it's not what we're learning. We're not learning the truth about ourselves, and we're keeping Black folks from learning the truth about themselves. That's the trickery, right? Not knowing and understanding that doesn't allow me to be the greatest human that I can be and recognize, okay, can't be out in the sun as long. Here's the things that I can do naturally to help me, you know, still enjoy my time. You know, people with disabilities have to do things differently. They need assistance and help. Instead, we're trying to create this illusion that we're better by having less melanin in our skin, and that has never been the case.

Man, I'm listening to what you're saying, and I hope, uh, people taking heed to what you're saying too, because that ain't nothing— there's nothing but education out there. It's like you say, like, they don't want us to know ourselves, and they don't want you to know yourself. Even now, where they taking these type of teachings out of the schools, you know, right? Because like you say, it's the trickery because they don't really want you to know the truth. They want you to sit there and, and just believe anything anybody say. Like, like how somebody would say, uh, oh man, you can't read the news or look at the news or read the paper because it'd be false information. Well, where you get your information from? I would get it from a book where the person that wrote the book got the same info. They had to get the information from somewhere. So, so everybody got their own concept of how they get information and what's more valuable So like, you know, not to get off the subject, but I just say this, that's just like saying how we got the wars over there in the Middle East now with Ukraine and Russia and things of that nature. Then you have people that's on the ground that's from CNN or wherever these news stations, and they're actually going to these war zone places, giving us information from where they're at. But somebody tell me, oh, well you can't believe, Well, where you getting your information from? Because these people are in the battleground field. They out there in the midst of it. And you telling me about Joe Blow that's just writing an article about how he feel about it, ain't went nowhere near this place. So, you know, like you say, it's the trickery and things of that nature, man. They don't want you to know who you are or where you came from or what has been done. So they just want to sweep it under the rug, man. And I'm glad that, uh, people like yourself, and I know that there's more like you, man, that's trying to bring this thing to the forefront, and, and because we got to address it, right?

So when you have this idea that we should be trying to control some outcomes and control people, that's a death-based culture. If I want you to be the healthiest, best version of what CJ wants to be and is and what your talents are and all of that, then I would just be supporting that. That's a life-based culture. I'd be serving you as best I can to be the best version. I'd be sharing with you whatever I have that you need so that you can be the best version. And then other people would be doing that for me too, right? And you might be doing that for me. And there's no death. That's a life-giving thing. When I start to say, yeah, CJ, I want you to be the best version of yourself. However, this is how I want you to do it. Once I start to bring that control over you, then I'm suppressing what your abilities are, and I'm creating this death-based culture. And when you start to tell lies to support, and you have to build a whole system that makes white folks look like they're the most competent people, and white, and the only thing we really created was the Patent Office and the Trademark Office. The things that we have to go through is such a system of lies that lies just become an easy part of our society. Society. We're gonna sell you Fruity Pebbles and tell you it's really good for you. That's a daggone lie. Don't miss out on CJ Moneyway Johnson's book, Both Eyes Open and Both Eyes Shut, and get ready to preorder his upcoming release, The Issues of Life, coming soon. Moneyway Johnson, aiming to inspire.

Yeah, man, what you said, I like that. The illusion. Like one thing you said and that resonated to me, I just went on this podcast platform, right? And like you say, most of 'em that you may go on, from what I hear and from what I learned, they'll bring you on, but they wanna take control of what you're doing. And I like what I did 'cause they just, they, hey, just do you, CJ. Just come on, do you the way that you do. We don't want, No control over what you doing. We just want you to do you. And so, you know, so some people do that. And some people, like you say, they wanna bring you into the fold, but they wanna tell you what to do. And so we've seen it in sports. I know from being from where you from and hanging around Nelly, who played baseball and things of that nature, being an athlete itself. So I know you know about sports. Although your Cardinals got whooped on today, but that's another story. You know, it's like when you take a stance for something like what Kaepernick did, you know, Kaepernick did, or some of these brothers that was out here taking a stance on how they feel. But like you say, if I'm paying you or if I'm in control and I'm flexing my muscle, you gonna do what I tell you to do, right? And not what you feel, right? And so, son, that, that what Cap did, man, a lot of people got it. And Muhammad Ali back in his day, So some of the, another St. Louis guy, huh? I didn't even put that together. But yeah, when people like that do what they did, man, you know, you gotta have great respect for them because they was at a point where they could've lost it all that they did. But they took a point for something that they felt was real and it was going and it was trying to fight this racism that you're speaking about now, man.

Right.

So Jaydee, how was it for you growing up in a Black neighborhood?

So like I said, I mean, I mean, it was obviously things my parents didn't really know I would be— have access to and get into that probably wouldn't have been the same in other areas. They didn't realize how much the police were targeting, you know, young Black men. So we were constantly harassed from as kids running through areas coming from the mall back to home to as we got older. Things started happening. Friends didn't feel like they had the same opportunities. They had to go with the opportunities that presented themselves. And often those opportunities came from what we call the streets. And so, you know, I drove around and, and used my whiteness so that I wouldn't get pulled over to help my friends sell drugs at the time, not knowing, thinking I'm just really helping them, not really seeing the social impact in everything I'm doing. But I know I can get away with stuff, right? I know that I would go to the mall, I could return anything for anybody, any size, no problem. Ring around the collar, doesn't matter. Don't have a receipt, don't have this, got no pushback. And my friends would take back things that were legitimately too small, couldn't be worn, still had all the tags in place, all the stickers, every receipt. And you know, they would get an attitude from them. And I would often take something back for somebody that just had been denied, and I would go right back to the same person within minutes and get the same thing returned. And so I saw a lot of that difference. But one of the things I saw was while, of course, you know, what we call making fun of in the white community, but joning or capping or whatever, that was a part of it. I had to develop my thick skin and learn about that. But I was always welcome to be me. I didn't have to try to be something else. Of course, naturally, I spoke slang better than I spoke English and whatnot. But I didn't try to ever, you know, be something different. And I was, I was comfortable in situations where I've been at dice games, and people took razor blades and crack out of their mouth, put it down next to their gun, and shot dice and we all talked trash and went, you know, so there was that aspect of experiencing them. But these were kids. I mean, these were people that I grew up with knowing as children, right? We all grew up together. So I didn't see this big bad person that would be perceived on the, on the news, right? I saw a human being that was taking care of his family. And this was how we shared time together and we hung out and we talked trash. On that. So I had these other experiences, but that welcoming— there's no nothing like being welcomed into just being yourself into a situation. Whereas when I would go to my family, sometimes I would feel like I have to present myself a certain way. I got to stand a certain way. I got to talk a certain way, or I'm gonna be judged and not be heard for who I am and my level of intelligence.

So yeah, you kind of like had the Eminem experience.

Yeah.

Growing up on 8 Mile, you know, that I'm listening to you. And that's true. And I tell people that all the time, like something that you just said, when you go around certain people, you got to change. A lot of people got to change the way that they talk and change the way they— I'm me. I'mma talk the way that I talk. I'mma do what I do. And if I can't be myself around you or be myself around, then I don't need to be around you. Then I don't, I don't need to talk to you, you know. I mean, because I think the Black culture, as we talking, the Black culture, I think we changed the way that if we get around white people, we changed the way that we try to talk around them as opposed to if we talking to each other, opposed to them changing the way that they talk around us. So we're the ones trying to adapt to, you know, to be in they circle, than them adapting to be in our circle. And I'm sorry, man, I'm just me. I can't.

Yeah, right. And you know, like when I talk to white folks and they talk about their Black friends, you know, I got Black friends, I'm not racist and all of that. I asked them, so where do you meet your Black friends? Is it around your work? Is it around your Starbucks and your Whole Foods in your community? Or do you go into their homes? Do you go into their neighborhoods? Do you drive down their blocks and see how you get looked at? Do you experienced that? Have you sat somewhere and had a bunch of eyeballs looking at you like, what, what you doing over here, right? Have you experienced any of that? Or do your Black friends come to you? And how much do you know about these Black friends and really what their family life is like, what their home life is like, and how they speak about people that look like us? You don't know. And so it's so much being hidden from us because of this Segregation is a natural thing. We gonna talk about sports when we go into a party, right? I might want to go also talk about, you know, vegan food, and you might want to go talk about something else with somebody else. So we might move in and out, but we've segregated ourselves into pockets even when you go into a party. It doesn't have to be weaponized though. We could just enjoy each other and move into each other's space and have these conversations. But when we weaponize it, when we start to create fear about those other people over there, And oh, look at them, you don't want to go over there, look at how they living, and look at this. Now you've created something that's really hurting you and you don't even know it, man.

I, I like how you put that, you know, because what I heard was, have you been in the trenches? Have you been in the trenches with, with, with this culture, with the Black culture, right? You say that you got Black friends, but have you been in the trenches? And if you ain't been in the trenches, you really can't, you really can't talk to me about it Because see, I've been in the trenches. I've been, yeah, I've been down today like you say. I've been there with cats sitting out there pulling out their pistols and putting switchblades and razors on the floor, uh, shooting dice. And we know how a street dice game can get tense.

Yes, right.

We know how they can get— let me get you to talk about the culture, man. I think I skipped over this question. I only got a couple more for you, DJ Mike. I appreciate you coming on. So tell us about the 7 steps to healing the harms of our culture.

So step 1, we've been talking about a lot, is really don't take a step. Seek some understanding first. And that's a thing white folks, we love to come in our heart, mean, you know, we got our heart in the right place, we think, and we go, okay, got this figured out. I know exactly what you need. Imma come in and help you. Well, if you see somebody injured lying on the ground, if you start to move them because you want to help, you could actually cause more harm to that injured person, right? So let's stop. Let's seek some understanding first. Let's find out what somebody wants for help. So that's number one. Number two is acknowledging the harm. Step two is really taking a good look at the harm of our culture and There's anti-Black racism and the level of, of how that goes. And we've talked about that, whether it's bringing in foreigners that, you know, we start to give better resources to than Black folks. Anti-Black racism is deep. It's, it's, it's, you know, judging somebody with lighter skin as being more beautiful than someone with darker skin. It's all the things that we've created. In that. It's also a harm that we try and play God, I call it, in our society. Rather than just use the natural resources, rather than use strawberries for strawberry flavoring, we'd have made artificial strawberry flavoring and it causes harm. And we said, okay, well, you know what, rather than stop doing that because we found that it causes harm, we can make some money off of it by making drugs that are going to you know, make you feel better from the harm. And so now we created this whole system where indigenous cultures, they just want to live off the earth and, you know what I mean, Aboriginal cultures just want to be left alone. Let's enjoy the way that it goes. When you go to other countries, man, the fruit tastes like fruit. And it's amazing how much it already works. Life already works. We don't have to play God. We came up with the atom bomb by tearing apart the essence of life. That's a white cultural thing. That is playing God, thinking that we are chosen or we are the ones that are governing the world. No, it's— we're supposed to be one with the world. And so acknowledging those harms is important as well. Step 3 is to learn to let go, let go of our control, let go of our competition, let go of our power and privilege. And start to create space to learn something different. We have been so— we have— they have not taught us so much about ourselves that they've created an ignorance. We have learned so little about any other culture that we are naturally ignorant. But we do learn that America is so great that we now become arrogant and ignorant. That is a horrible thing to try and change. And so letting go of that So that step 4, we can appreciate the value of others. And really, you know, I use the terms appreciate and value because those are economic terms as well as just life-giving terms. Appreciating this conversation and the relationship that we can have, appreciating what you bring to the table and your wisdom, appreciating what— that Black folks throughout history have not massively attacked us the way we've massively attacked them. Whether it was churches or Rosewood and Black Wall Street or all the things that we've done. So let's appreciate that. And step 5, if you can appreciate the value, then we can find the reparations for that because that comes with a value to it, right? It's not just this cost that how much is it going to cost us? No, there's a value to that. So step 5 is repairing the harm and the case for reparations. Step 6. Now, if we repair things, how do we make sure we don't go back and do the same stuff over again? We need a new mind to teach us. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. So we have to go to these cultures that are more peaceful, more focused on health and, and having a good time. Let's go to the barbecue properly and just learn how to be a part of it., right, and show up differently. So step 6 is learn from a new mind. Step 7 would be manifesting humanity.

That's manifest— manifestation. I, I like that. So JD, man, before I— I got one more question for you, and before we go any further, where can we find your book at, man? You got a website?

Raceforwhat.com. It is on Amazon, but raceforwhat.com will take you to all the links my social media, my blogs, to get me as a speaker. And it also has all the links to everywhere that it's sold. There's an audiobook version, there's an ebook, and a paperback.

Raceforwhat.com. Go check out my man JD Mas. Hey, he got something in store for you. Hey, if you want to book him as a public speaker, He says on his site too. So JD, man, I just gotta ask you one more question. You talked about it earlier that you was Nelly's business manager, man. So I just gotta know, how was it? What was the experience like, man, working with one of the hip-hop legends of our times, man?

Right. So we met Nelly in the 7th grade. He moved from the city of St. Louis to U-City. And by the end of the 8th grade, going into 9th grade, started to come over with my best friend Shondo, and we started hanging out very regularly. And then, you know, we grew a crew that we called the FOTI, the Freaks of the Industry, right? The song had just come out. And so that was our crew, and that was the crew that took the picture on the front cover of the book. And Nelly was always super talented. Football, he was a receiver, the cornerback, and the punt— I mean, the kickoff returner. Right, on— or punt return, or one of those two. On basketball, he was lethally fast and had a great jump shot, but he was shorter. And in baseball, we thought he would be the next Ozzie Smith, but he was a dancer. He was, you know, if you wanted to be good at a talent and be the best in the school, you had to be better than Nelly when it came to it. And he had this funniness to him, so we thought he'd be the next Will Smith anyway. We kind of saw him as that great talent. And I remember his mom and my mom would always be like, yeah, that's great. But both of y'all need jobs. Forget what you're talking about. But when his career took off, I was already very entrepreneurial. And he had some entrepreneurial ideas. And he was like, JD, let's do it. And so I was working at a bank, I was just starting to move my way up or really learn the banking system. And that was going to be the way I wanted to change the world was get inside the banking world. And, you know, he came, he was like, I'll pay you what they're paying you, but come help me develop these businesses. And so I became his business manager that way, his management team, because his career took off, we didn't have the luxury of a 500,000 sold album and then a million sold album. And then now we came out the gates with a 10 million sold album. So a lot happened super fast. And all of a sudden, we went from unknown to really being accessible to the top of the world. I could call anybody and say, this is Nelly's business manager, and I could get anybody on the phone at that time. So that was amazing time. But because it happened so fast, and because we did have some people in the crowd that were not looking out for everybody, but more so looking out for themselves, there were instances where— and it became true that Nelly and I let people come between us in ways that I think we both regret. I certainly do. And so in 2004, we went our separate ways, but there's the genuine love and respect for one another still exists. I see his children. His son, matter of fact, recorded my audiobook, so there's still love there.

Oh man, that's pretty cool, man. Just to, you know, just had that experience with somebody that you grew up with and y'all met you know, made it together. You seen it from the rocks, you know, from the start, man. So let me ask you, JD, man, before we get outta here. So you say Nelly was, you know, a dancer, he was a great shortstop, basketball player, football player. Did you play sports?

I did. I played baseball and I learned from basketball real quick. I was only good at setting screens 'cause no one could see me coming. I'm 5'9", I'm 5'3½" and I like to round up to 5'4" whenever I get the chance. So I played second base up until high school, and I played tennis, and I actually made St. Louis U's tennis team before I needed back surgery. And then I knew I wasn't going to go pro, so I just stayed. I actually formed a tennis teaching company in college for inner-city youth and other municipalities with my tennis coach at the time. But I'll tell you one quick baseball story, right? Our last year of playing, you know, not for the school but in the school district, we formed this kind of all-star team and I actually made the team. Our first game was in East St. Louis, right? So I know you've heard stories of East St. Louis, right? And it gets compared to like the Gary, Indiana, because it's right near and on the other side of the border and all of that. And on our way over there, we had just heard stories of an umpire getting shot at the week before or whatnot. So we're going over there and we get there and I get the first hit of the game from our team and I make it down to first base. And the first baseman's like, yo, try to get to second and watch what happens to you. And then the second baseman, like the shortstop, like, yeah, come on down here, watch what we do to you. And so I'm like, whatever, I don't care. Just talking stuff, this, that, and the other. Man, my coach was so scared after we got out, he was like, yo, you're not gonna play the rest of this game. I'm not looking your parents in the eye and saying something happened to them. You're gonna sit down here on the bench. But I got taken out.

Oh man, that's crazy, man. Yeah, you hear stories about, uh, East St. Louis. Like you say, you know, uh, Gary, you put me in the mind of When we used to go to the projects and you used to go out and play football and basketball. You take your team and go to the projects or whatever and y'all play. We was just talking about that yesterday. You knew whether win, lose, or draw that it was gonna be a possibility that you was gonna have to fight your way up outta there. I mean, it don't matter. So yeah, so that's crazy. But yeah, I think that would've put a lot of fear in some people's heart when you talk about the referee. Yeah, the umpire getting shot, right? Oh man, that ain't, that ain't nothing to play with. And so, uh, hey, uh, JD, man, I appreciate you coming on, man. Is it anything else that you would like to share with us, man, before we get up out of here?

Man, I just want people to take the time when people aren't looking to still do right. Let's start thinking about how we can improve the quality of life for those around us, and those around us will start doing the same. And that's really what this system is most afraid of, that we don't need it anymore. They're not afraid of us fighting it. They're afraid of us building something where we don't need how this works and we can share, support, care, and love one another very differently.

Aye, you heard it from my man JD Mads. Love, support, man, so we can do things different. We all in this together, man. Aye, this your boy CJ Moneyway. You've been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. We outta here.

Peace. Thank you for listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. Don't forget to share this episode with your friends, leave a comment, and drop a review. Be sure to tune in every Tuesday and Friday for more inspiring journeys. Who knows, your story might be next.

At Capella University, learning the right skills could make a difference. That's why our business programs teach you relevant skills you can take from the classroom to the workplace. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.