 Hi everyone, welcome to the Nicole's Review with a CMI. After a long pause dealing with family issues and health issues, we are back here in the studio. For those of you who are new to my show, my name is Nicole Samarko. I'm your host. This show brings together leaders from all around our community and the wider world in conversation about visions and existing affairs that impact our world, our family, our cultures, generation and generation, the next. Today, we will be talking to two guests. Today, I have two guests. I'm blessed to have two beautiful ladies' guests today. Let's introduce you first. Her name is Sterling Smith, and she will introduce herself, and thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Hello everyone. Welcome. My name is Sterling Smith. I'm an Arlington resident. I just retired after 30 years of being a physical education teacher in Winchester and Cambridge. As well as Arlington. I have been a chef for the last 25 to 30 years. I cooked my way through school as well as a competitive bodybuilder and fitness personal trainer. Let's see what else do I do. I also do stand-up comedy, improv, storytelling. I just started being involved in local Arlington politics after the last couple of years. I felt it was my need to be more active in my community, and I've met these lovely ladies because of that. Very good. Thank you so much, Sterling. Welcome. And Farah Lee Carrier. Hi, my name is Farah Lee Carrier. I live in Wuburn, which is just a few miles away from here in Arlington. I'm finishing up my law degree here in Massachusetts, and I've been involved with politics since I moved to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, although I am from Texas. I've been a member of the Republican Party since 2001, and I'm really glad to be here. Thank you. Very good. Thank you, ladies. Now, ladies, my first question is that, can you share with me what your thought is on society these days, with cultures? Well, I think as a country, we have a lot of issues that we need to talk about, and as far as us all being on the panel here as Black women, we need to use our voice and talk about how policy agendas and certain politicians can better help us in our communities, not only as Black women, but more importantly, as American women. So I would say one of the biggest issues would be, in my opinion, this current narrative of equity versus equality. I very much disagree with the way that equity is being talked about and enforced, not only in the private sector, but in the public sector. Equity is not fair, in my opinion, because it brings people up to places where they may not should be, and it brings people down to places, whether it be in a career or whatever they're doing, goal-wise, to where they shouldn't be. Equality, on the other hand, puts everybody at the same position in the race, and there's arguments back and forth about how disadvantaged the Black community has been in the history of this country, but I would like to say proudly that my ancestors and my mother and my grandmother and people that have come before me, that have worked the road of trying to bridge the gap between racial relations in this country, I have not experienced racism in my life, and I'm in my mid-40s, so I'm not very young, but I'm also a very objective person, and I feel that I was raised in the South, and in the South, we're taught that if you don't work for it, you're not gonna, it's not gonna be given to you. So when I came here and found a very different culture that my people, Black people here, seem very dependent on public services, so I just wanna help, let's just talk about that, let's just talk about why we, as Black Americans, can be more self-sufficient, and that we can do more for ourselves individually and for our communities. We don't need government handouts, we don't need people telling us what to do with our bodies, what to do with our money, what to do with whatever we work for, because this is America, you know, I love this country, everything good that's happening in my life has happened because I had the luxury of being born here. So I would like to lean into the opportunity of America, I would like to lean into what's great about America, and that's one of the reasons why I support Donald Trump, because he doesn't like to virtue signal, he doesn't like to focus on special interest groups per se, although he is a politician, so he does have to campaign, and sometimes mention those things. However, I think we, as Americans, we're not taking our responsibility as strongly as we should, and this wonderful opportunity that we have to bridge gaps and close, break ceilings or whatever however you wanna say it, we are so competent and capable as Black people, and there's a lot of forces out there that are trying to keep us in a box and keep us lower than our potential. Okay, now do you think we are at risk? I don't think we're at risk in this country. I know there's a narrative out there that a lot of Black people feel, I feel like that it's a false narrative that we should be afraid of police, that we should be afraid of putting ourselves out there and being leaders. Now, there is a lot of historical facts that support a valid fear. However, I think staying stuck in a certain time in our country is not healthy. I think we need to move forward, and that's just my opinion. Do you have confidence in Joe Biden, current president? Do I have confidence in Joe Biden? Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not. I tell people that I work with out here on the street and my work in the political context. If you don't want to vote for Donald Trump, that's fine. But just break out your tax returns, the four years that we had Donald Trump as a president. And then you've got almost four years of tax returns now under Biden. Just compare the numbers. Is your life better economically under Biden or under Trump? Because now we have data for both individuals and how both individuals want to run the country. So look at how they've run the country in comparison to your success, your financial status. Did you have to go into your kids' college fund under the Biden years? And now your kids have to get a job and go to community college. Whereas before, under Trump, you had a trust fund for your kids to go to college and they didn't have to get a job. These are some examples. I try to bring people back to the bottom line, which is fiscal responsibility. Dollars and cents. Dollars and cents. Yep, exactly. Now, do you, what mistake have you learned from your component? No, my position here, if you were asking for a title, I was recently appointed as the chairperson for the Massachusetts Coalition of Black Voices for Trump. We are a subcommittee of the Trump campaign here in Massachusetts. And then you? I don't think we're at risk. And I don't know, you have to define what risk means. I do believe, no, I don't trust the president. I don't think anyone over 70 should be allowed to administer anything. And look at the people that are running our country. What's the guy that had the stroke on TV? Oh, Mitch McConnell. Yeah, McConnell. At least he was smart to step down. Exactly, but it took him, they had to knock him over. Okay. After they whacked him on the head to get him to reboot. No, I think that, I don't think we're at risk. I think, I love the 80s. I'm a child of the 80s. We got rid of racism, sexism, and pretty much everything in the 80s. If I could go to a Bugs and Drag cartoon animation special in Harvard Square in Massachusetts in 1992, and I could walk, I worked on Lansdowne Street. I know you guys don't know where that is, but ask your dad where Lansdowne Street. I'm sure he was there. But I worked at a bar where you could see a man walk down Lansdowne Street, six foot two man with a leather outfit on, go to P-town and see assless chaps and all this other stuff. And everybody was fine. Fast forward to 20 years later, and all of a sudden everybody's picking up all this stuff. And I'm a great believer and reader of Thomas Sowell. If you haven't read Thomas Sowell, read Thomas Sowell. He's one of the greatest black thinkers of the 20th century, now the 21st. And we're not at risk. And we're not at risk either from all these professional, where's the, I love all these professional athletes that say that I feel afraid to go out of my door or I've been accosted by a cop or whatever. When you're accosted by a cop as 12 running around the street, I can understand that. You're a gazillionaire. Put your money where your mouth is and support black lives matter in a way that resonates with the community, not with something else. None of these people are at risk. Now do you think America or United States is doing enough to help families these days? Absolutely not. I think that the public opinion surrounding what our family values are as Americans has really become very skewed, especially in the black community. Blacks do not give themselves enough credit for how conservative they truly are. In our communities, we are very much about family. For example, we don't like to put our parents in nursing homes. We live together. And unfortunately, because of mass incarceration, because of a lot of Democrat policies, our families have been fractured. When President Johnson, right after he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he deployed hundreds and hundreds of social workers into the black community. And over the years, if you're a black female on welfare, you get more money in food stamps if you stay single. Now if you report, dear federal government, I'm gonna get married and I'm gonna marry this man and I'm gonna try to be self-sufficient, then your food stamps go down. So again, dollars and cents. You can tell what a country values based on what they spend their money on. So how do you value the black community if it's more profitable for us as black Americans to be on welfare than as opposed to be free? Marrying the state. Exactly. So family values, at least in our community is under attack, in my opinion. And I'm so grateful that the Supreme Court had the wisdom to overturn Roe versus Wade because abortion was a weapon in our community. How do you grow communities through childbirth? If you don't have children, your community shrinks. And then if half of your men are incarcerated, you leave a lot of women out here that are single mothers that have to depend on public aid. And who do you think for that? And who do you think for that? Joe Biden 1994 condo. Well, with that said. Yep, Pripyat. With that said, though, what is your vision statement and your communities? My vision for America would be that we go back to the progress that we made after the 80s and into the 90s, where we weren't so hung up on, being so sensitive about hurting people's feelings. You could be a comedian and people could laugh at something and it wasn't a cancel culture. Or if a woman was assaulted, you believe the woman. And it's not like now we have all these victims who may or may not be victims because it's so easy now to just believe the woman. What about all these men who are losing their professions? They're losing their careers over allegations. We've got a problem in America when it comes to media and not telling the truth. And I like to be a voice of truth. Amen. What is the primary purpose of the human constitution to you, both ladies? What's the primary purpose of the constitution? Well, considering they stop teaching children script, it's for them not to be able to read it. If you can't read it, although I do believe when they try to take over, because we know how to write script, we'll win. You guys know how to write script? Anybody, script, script, script? Probably not, right? I like to read the constitution for the articles. Yeah, that's right. It has really good articles in the constitution. You should try reading that. But it's getting chipped away at. It's getting the 1A, 2A, the 14th. I mean, it's all getting chipped away. Why? And I'm the guys of, I love this, the guys of protecting citizens from harmful content. And because of freedom of speech is being attacked, because it has to save democracy, they're gonna try and figure out a way. And this is worldwide. This is not just country-wide, this is worldwide. France just had a bill with, we can't talk about the shots prescribed. Have you read about this? The president of France last week, they passed a bill where it says that any citizen cannot question or criticize any medical treatment that the state dictates to them. Oh yeah. Either with a fine of $40,000 or three years in jail. That's a perfect example of socialism. Yeah. Right, exactly. You know, you want free healthcare in America. You want the government to pay all these bills for you. But then when it comes with conditions, when it comes with, oh well, if you're on disability and you wanna now get student aid because you wanna go to college, well if you're on disability, you have to pick one. Go to school or be disabled. Because that's how the federal government, I've seen, be unfair to people who are on social security. You know, like if you're on social security and you're disabled and you wanna just go to school and better yourself, and then the federal government denies your FAFSA application because you're on social security, that's a problem. And who experiences that? A lot of poor black and brown Americans. From due to lack of resources and due to lack of motivation, due to lack of creativity, due to lack of care and concern for their own selves because that's where we're at in this country. Like if you are a black person, it's really a fight for self-esteem, in my opinion. It's a fight for self-esteem. Like do I love myself enough to wanna go out here and get the opportunities? But you've also been, they've been culturally beaten down. I remember going to school, talking like I do and reading books. What do they say? You talk like a white person. Right, you're acting like, even though both of my parents had advanced degrees, but that didn't seem to make any difference in the black community. My sister was attacked for being articulate and dressing up to go to work as a first job in Boston. I think it's much easier down South to be a, I don't even know what the word is and we're gonna talk about, but in New England they say, oh, in the South they tell you what they, I love the Southern. Well, I would say that I've experienced exactly what you just described me personally growing up because I was fortunate to have an educated mother and I went to private schools. So I talked with an educated tone. So even people in my own community, they would make fun of me when I was a child. Like you talk like a white girl, like you listen to Metallica, you like Guns N' Roses. I'm like, I'm going to Metallica as soon as they get to the Commonwealth again this year. But these are the things that I had to deal with in my own community, but I've been able to rise above those because I continued my education, I learned some objectivity and most importantly, I learned how not to make decisions based on my emotions. I make decisions in my life based on facts and data. And you don't have to be a scientist to do that. You can look up what is the fact and find out what you need to know. Or step back for a minute because most people, you get it, you attack and then you retract, you know what I mean? And even in our own communities with our families, I've done that to, I think brothers and sisters, they're always trying to like. Right, so you have to step back. I was on John McCain's campaign in 08 and I refused to vote for Obama because he was the first black president. I said, wait, I'm American and I don't like these policies. I don't like the policies that Obama is saying that's his vision for America. So I'm not going to vote for him. I'm like, oh, you're just in the black community, you're not, this is a historical legend. I don't care how historical the election was. Okay, guys, let's get going. No, my voting for someone who's not qualified. So is there the strut? Oh, yeah. Now, do you think it's a growing destruct and leadership in our country? Did you say distrut? Is there, what do you mean by the leadership on one side of the party, the other side of the party? Yeah. Distrust. Oh, I thought you meant distrut. Distrut, like, oh, I do disagree on this. That's my accent. Distrut, oh yeah, who trusts the government now? I don't know, anybody in this room who trusts anybody, anything that anyone says, anywhere, ever. Right, okay, you? Yeah, 80s. Yeah, absolutely not. Trust no one, the truth is out there. Don't trust anyone under 30, coexist. I love that one. Those are all things that we grew up with. Never, don't trust anyone, question everything. That should be the, and somewhere along the line, that disappears. Somewhere along the line, we lost our ability to have our own way of thinking and take our own common sense. With that said, though, what are we teaching our young children? Nothing, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Reading, writing, writing, and arithmetic. Nothing other than that. And if you want to break down the type of children, white children now are being taught that they're the bad guy. Black children now are being taught that they're the victim. And that comes from the narrative of equity versus equality. Yep. So yeah, these are problems and we as Black Americans need to stand up. Okay, how do you stand up and when different policy that would help? If you're a parent, you are involved with your children's education. Like when they bring home stuff to you that sounds a little sideways, you as a parent, you have a right to go make a conference with the teacher saying, this is not what I was taught in school. Maybe you can educate me. Like why is my child now being taught that they are somewhat inept or enabled? What are their pronouns? Yeah, you know. Kindergarten. Why did my children get kicked out of school because she misgendered someone but she's like very good in math, very good in science. Like parents need to be more advocates for their children because it's brainwashing now. These schools and colleges and universities are not any better. You know, the brainwashing kids into a mindset that's like controlling. Like they just want these puppets that they can narrate around. As they're all victims. As they, from childhood to be able to control them into adulthood. And it's a mental brainwashing. I have another question. How would you guys handle the crisis, the border crisis? What do you think about that? Shipping containers, trucker convoy, put them down, stack them up, load and lock. Let's just say I absolutely supported my governor, Governor Abbott in Texas on his decision to ship migrants all over the country, including up here to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, New York, Chicago, because it's hard to understand a problem unless it's in your face. And it's really easy to be in certain wealthier parts of the Commonwealth and talk about what Texans are doing wrong with the border. But now, you know, you've run out of cute little sandwiches and cute little juice boxes for the migrants. And now it's uncomfortable for you. And you want to do something about it. So I think the governor Abbott strategy was very good because sometimes people don't understand the pain until they fill it themselves. And up here in the Commonwealth, the resources are very thin. With all the taxes that are paid up here, you would think that just Massachusetts alone could absorb half of the migrants that are coming into the country. You would think with all the money that people pay in taxes here. They can. That you could do that. In Wesley. But I mean, no, I mean, they're being absorbed into a state where we don't have state taxes. You know, it's a burden on our system because we have to educate these children. We don't know what language they're speaking. We don't know that if they tell us a name, we have no way of verifying it. That's who they really are. I mean, as opposed to, you know, immigration, you know, before World War II here where there was a screening process, there was people who were checked out for who they were. They had to take tests. They had to take medical. They had a sponsor. Right. They had sponsors. You know, so that was, we're still a country of immigrants, but we are also a country of laws. So the government needs to do their job. It is the jurisdiction of the federal government to secure the national border. It is not the responsibility of any one state to secure the national border. Period. Yes. Very good. That's how I feel about the border crisis. That's a little more. The government needs to step up and do its job, you know, because regardless of where you live, whether you pay state taxes or not, we all pay our federal taxes. We all should be free to know that our services, our resources locally will not be dried up because of people that have come here and there's no structural organization for how they're going to migrate into our country. Now, explain to me what your organization caucus do for Trump, Black for Trump. What is the mission? So the mission for the Massachusetts Coalition of Black Voices for Trump is to organize and get black Americans here in the Commonwealth to come out of the closet. Because it's true. I have met so many blacks here that are very, that will get into the privacy of the voting box and vote Republican. But you don't see them at any events. You don't see them, you know, say that they're going to vote Republican. You don't see them saying that they're going to vote for Donald Trump. And what I'm saying is that we have a huge narrative now that's against us as black Americans. And I say, we challenge that narrative. We say, you know what, let's go back to our founding fathers, the first freed slaves who read this document called the Constitution. And their interpretation of it was, you know what, I probably should be a Republican because what they're talking about is more about freedom as opposed to what these Democrats are talking about, which is not really good for me as a freed slave. And I would even submit that, you know, that the mental brainwashing of ethnic communities in our country is another form of enslavement. So we've got to, you know, get out of the plantation. We've got to come out of the closet and we've got to tell the country that we're Americans and we can vote however we want to vote. And if we want to vote Republican, we should not be attacked because we're voting Republican. Right, that's the go-to. That's the go-to. Yeah, and there's not a counter narrative for it. Exactly. So, you know, it's people like myself and Sterling and yourself, you know, that are not afraid to say what we believe in because sometimes you need to hear somebody else say it and that's fine too. Sometimes you need to hear someone that looks like you and says, okay, well, she kind of looks like me. I might, she's the one I might have a coffee with. I might, you know, run into her and want to have a coffee with her. So let me maybe listen to what she's talking about. Now what's your next plan for the caucus? Well, that is really our only plan. We have a long, we have a long few months ahead of us. And even if we can just turn out black Republicans at college campuses and universities throughout the community here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, just enough to where they feel comfortable with their vote. And it's not so much of bashing Democrats or bashing Biden, it's just about freedom. You know, like through my education and through my experience being in the Republican party since 2001, I've had more freedom and more access to the American dream by buying into the policies and the laws and the order of our country as opposed to fighting against it. You know, so that, why go against the grain when you don't have to? You know, we already have leaders that did the hard walk for us, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, people that came before them. Our parents are a lot of black heroes in America that have already done the hard walk and the hard sacrifice. That you only hear about in black history months. Right, that you only hear about in black history months. So now people in my generation, generation X and younger, we need to like step into that freedom. You know, we need to step into these opportunities and quit sitting on the couch and waiting for the opportunity itself to get easier. Because the opportunity itself is hard. You know, I mean, if you want something it's gonna, you're gonna have to work for it. So I don't feel that we're at risk. As a black community for, you know, being further oppressed by our government because we have laws in place that protects us from that now. So again, it's about stepping into our opportunities. Now as we facing the nation. Hello nation. As you're facing the nation and critical issues arise. I know we mentioned that. How would you embrace solution in your own word? No solutions only compromise. That's right. You don't, you never solve any problem. Look at the black, look at, I think that in my family alone, which I've seen both sides, had two family, two parent families and I've had single parent families. And the problem is that they haven't, I could walk into my, one of my relatives houses right now and it looks like something from the 70s. They have not, and that's, it's a mindset but it's also, it's too easy. It's like, I, another family member, I work 12 to 15 hours a day. Couple of years ago, I was coming back from a job and my niece, I'm bumping into my niece. She's wearing, it's right when the matrix thing came out, matrix. She's wearing a floor length black leather thing. She's got her nail done. She's got her hair done. She's morbidly obese. She has four kids with four different guys and I had to step back from the stairs because I was going over that, the untouchables thing where the baby carriage goes down. I wanted to push her down the stairs because basically what I was doing was supporting her lifestyle with my tax dollars. And that mindset is permeated. It's not all of my family members but I don't understand, they have not advanced. They're still, they're stuck in a framework that doesn't seem to work for them. They can't seem to figure out a way to get out of it. You know, and that's, and the vision for the future, I'm optimistic, you know. I wanna see how the movie ends. So I'm gonna be here at least another 50 years. So we can, I call it the 50 year war. Well ladies, thank you very much both for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. As we wrap up, I'd like to welcome you guys again next time. Sterling Smith and Farah. Farah Lee Kerri. Farah Lee Kerri. Thank you so much ladies for coming to the new calls with you with ACMI. ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help.