WHO do you choose to focus on? That is today's "The DAILY ASK"

What we choose right now matters. Where we choose to focus matters. And so I'm inviting everybody out there to choose where you focus, to choose where you speak your words, to choose. And choice here is everything because the reality is there are many people who have felt they have not had a choice. They have not had power. They have not had freedom. When you have loss of choice, that is the worst situation, is the greatest example of lack of freedom, is lack of choice. So, I want to be very aware of the choices I make right now. And those choices include where I choose to focus my energy, where I choose to focus my words. And why I'm saying this is because the last few days I've been seeing a lot of people who look like me, who are white, Telling Black people how they should react, talking about whether they should loot or they should not loot. And that's a choice we make, where we choose to put our energy and our time. And I can see a few people right now going, whoa, whoa, whoa, Mike, are you saying I don't have the right to tell somebody because I'm white, I don't have the right to tell somebody Black that they're doing something wrong or they're not doing something wrong? I'm not talking about whether you have the right to or not. I'm talking about whether you choose to or not. And by the way, if you are sitting there going, how dare you tell me I don't have the right to tell somebody else what to do? Let's pause for a moment and think about the history of for how long white individuals, white people, white forms of government, white forms of power have told Black people what they could or could not do. And why would we repeat that? Why do we choose to repeat that at a time when we could choose To focus on individuals who are in power and why I could choose to look around and go, wow, there's a lot, lot, lot, lot more people who look like me who are in positions of power who have not done anything before now, who aren't doing anything right now. And I could choose to focus on them. I could choose to focus on them. I could choose to look myself in the mirror and go, before I tell another person how they should act when I don't know what it's like to live in their world. Or, and by the way, it is different. We have different ways we see the world based on how the world treats us. And that can be race, that can be gender, but I'm going to be careful of saying, telling this individual what they should do if I have no clue what they've been through, where they've come through, or what that feels like. I I want to be cautious. What I can do is go, well, I know what I can do is I can choose to reach out to the people who are in power and try to make a difference. I also could look in the mirror and go, I'm acting outraged with what people are doing right now. What have I done before my outrage right now at them? What have I done? It's easy to act outraged while you see other people acting out. But what have I done to help solve this problem before now? And if I haven't, then I need to look in the mirror and own that I haven't. I haven't done enough. That includes me looking in the mirror going, what have I done? What more could I have done? You know what I wanna do right now? I wanna listen. I wanna listen to people who've experienced a version of the world that I have not experienced. My version is different. I want to listen so I can understand. I also want to make sure that I'm going to look at the people who are in power and focus on them because they actually have the ability to impact on a systematic level. They have the ability to do that. They can act like, well, there's nothing I can do, but there are things they can do. And so I want to focus on them. And by the way, while we're talking about who we focus on, I'm talking to— hearing a lot of people saying, well, Well, the looters are looters, but what they're not talking about in the looters, a lot of people are not, some are, is how many white individuals are looting. And they're doing it in a very particular way. So I want to show you this, right? Because this is incredibly powerful. And if you haven't seen this footage, this is actual footage from somebody on the ground in the riots where this happened. I'm going to share my screen here. And I appreciate all of you are joining this conversation. Kathy Ann. Elevated Colorado. Yes, where we choose to put our energy matters. All right, so I'm going to share my screen now so I can show you what I'm actually referring to in this case. Let's see if it's going to show it to us there. All right, there it is. So I'm going to show you the screen and I'm going to play this video for you.

I can't believe it. Now they circling. Hey, hey, hey, don't do this. Stay there, look. Please don't do this. I want you to know this is not— this is not— Don't put these people's way out. Let me tell you this. This is not a Black woman who's putting Black Lives Matter. I just want you to know that when— You put this in front of my life. Right, but y'all, y'all doing that for us and we didn't ask you to do that. Listen. Don't, don't, don't spray stuff on here where they gonna blame Black people for this and Black people didn't do it.

Look at that. I want to point out how this happened, by the way. There's not one incident, there are a multitude of instances of this. And what I want to point out is where we are focusing our energy. Now I can see a few of you going, okay, somebody's been sent in there to instigate. And by the way, we know that's true in Minnesota because almost all the arrests on the first night Almost nobody was from Minnesota. Almost nobody. But let's also look closer at what the instigators who are white are doing. Noticing where I'm choosing my energy here right now. Look what they're doing. They are dressing in all black clothing. Some of them are wearing hoodies to emphasize it. They're also wearing black masks. They're wearing all black. Why? Because they're very conscious and aware. They know what they're doing. That if when the films are rolling and they're filming, shooting down on those buildings, they're shooting from behind them, it will look— people will see black clothing and associate black people as doing this. This is incredibly intentional. These are white individuals doing this, right? Playing off the fact they know how people will visually see them as black people because of wearing black clothes. Right, and having a black outfit on, they will assume that as a black person. They know what they're doing here. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to focus on where are you focusing your energy right now? If you're saying, "Well, I don't have time for this. I don't have time for that." There are individuals who don't have that choice. Who this is the life that our world is treating them with. They don't have that choice. We have the choice to speak up and continue to speak up. Where are you choosing to put your words right now? Who are you talking about in your social media right now? Who are you listening to? I shared a video this morning from Trevor Noah. It is an amazing video to watch. And what I say amazing because it's brilliant, right? It is a— he is— I have always appreciated Trevor Noah's approach And his insights and how it allows me to help see the world. And the video that he put today, and you can find it on on my Facebook page, you can look it up just Trevor Noah. Go to his Instagram is where I found it. It it is very insightful, very powerful. What I'm inviting you to do is to choose to listen and then to choose to put your energy. Notice I'm not telling you; I'm inviting you. I'm encouraging you. My friend Jessica Pettit always says, not always, but I've heard her saying, I love this word. I'm employing imploring you to instead of focusing on people who've been told what to do and what not to do forever, focus on what you can do. Focus on who you could reach out to and make a difference. Focus on who you could reach out to and tell them you see them, you love them, you're here for them. Ask them, "What can I do for you?" Focus on listening. Focus on love. Focus on respect for all people, and that means me looking in the mirror and asking myself, what more could I do to value others in the way that I could take efforts so they have a safer world to live in, a more equal world to live in? What can I do? I ask you, where do you choose to spend your energy? Where do you choose to ask questions? And where do you choose to put your love? Thanks for joining me.

Thank you.