Timothy Coleman (00:00.966)
WDON1204.com, community focused, globally connected. Find us online at Coleman Global. WDON is proud to present our latest podcast, The Colors of Sound. Our mission is to create a safe space for community members from around the world to share their personal stories. Listen on all streaming platforms or on our podcast station, WDON1204.com. The Colors of Sound podcast, discover how much we have in common.

Timothy Coleman (00:31.41)
Over the summer of 2023, Coleman Global partnered with Sage USA to bring the Colors of Sound podcasting workshop to LGBT plus older adults in New York City. The intergenerational sessions focused on finding your point of view and the art of storytelling. Each week, participants crafted their own topics for discussion, developed their own questions to help move the conversations along, spoke about podcasting equipment and had brief discussions on how to market podcasts online.

Throughout the workshop series, the participants shared their personal stories of both struggle and of triumph. We laughed about the things that are common in society and debated those things that divide our global community. Welcome to the Colors of Sound podcast. You are now a part of the conversation.

Timothy Coleman (01:20.03)
SAGE leads in addressing issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning, and other self-identifying members of the community aging. In partnership with its constituents and allies, SAGE works to achieve a high quality of life for LGBTQ plus older people, supports and advocates for their rights, fosters a greater understanding of aging in all communities, and promotes positive images of LGBTQ plus life in later years.

Welcome everybody, this is Timothy Stone Dancer Coleman. This is the Colors of Sound podcast. We are back with our amazing participants at Sage USA. Today our conversation is going to begin with the increase in fentanyl in the United States. What do you think? That's ridiculous. Do you know of anyone who is, do you know of anyone personally who has been affected by that? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and what does it look like? What? Oh, I don't know what it looks like.

Oh, they died from it? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like, what does the situation look like? Horrible. And is this something that they took knowing that it was fentanyl, or was it something else and fentanyl was in it?

Timothy Coleman (02:39.102)
and it was mixed in. Yeah. And, and so tell me a little bit about it. Like have these people? I knew it was addicts.

Timothy Coleman (02:51.134)
And so what would you say? I mean, like, you know, does it feel like a helpless situation for us, you know, when you're dealing with this kind of thing? I mean, like, it harkens back to when the government was allowing all the crack cocaine into all the minority neighborhoods in the 80s, right? To purposefully keep people down and keep people addicted, it feels a similar way. So what do you feel about the government's role in an alleged crackdown or a...

being behind the scenes and do you feel like the government is doing enough? No. And what would you tell them to do? What is, what, how do you feel like you would figure that out? They have to go with the top because they're the ones who are allowing it to come in. And once you get there, then you can work your way down. With the little man. Do you think though, in the bigger scheme of things, do you think it's something that can even be controlled? Yeah? Yeah.

So there might be somebody in the background profiting from the whole situation. You're nodding your head yes. What are your thoughts about it? Well, drugs are always gonna be with us. Illegal drugs are always gonna be with us. Even with changing the laws and now, marijuana is now legal, but it's always going to be illegal drugs in this country.

government is always going to be playing a role in that. To keep us down, to control the population, it's always going to be happening. And so you say, what can we do?

I mean, we'd have to fight our government to change things. So many topics feel like we don't have enough power to beat the quote unquote man. So what do we do in our local neighborhoods? What do we do for our kids to help them be guided in the right direction? Where do we start with it? Well, that's what we do.

Timothy Coleman (05:03.114)
I'm sorry. No, you can go. Well, that's one of the reasons why substance abuse outreach is really important in the neighborhoods. I know that they're now giving out fentanyl testing kits. So as she was saying, drugs are going to be here, regardless. They're here. So let's do something preventative. Mm-hmm.

in the neighborhoods. We have the Narcan. They're giving out Narcan, which is good. And again, they have the fentanyl testing kits. And households in the neighborhoods, we need to have those things. We have, especially in the senior center, the elders have grandkids. They have nieces and nephews. These are things that they need to be able to get their hands on and need to have someone teach them

things. How many times do you have a grandmother sitting in her rocking chair or her recliner at home and her son, her grandson is in the bathroom and she goes in and he's O.D. and she's standing there like, oh my God, what do I do? Well, if she knew how to use Narcan.

Maybe she could administer that and possibly save that child's life. It's so true. I love what you just said, but you reminded me of a fear that came over me. I was watching the news, and this had to be like maybe even just last month. And I'm looking at the news, and they're talking about how they're giving out all the free Narcan. And all of a sudden, I was like, wait a minute. Have they ever had a public campaign like this before? And maybe it's true.

we can talk about it, but I didn't remember it. And all that settled upon me was, oh my God, this is so widespread. They want this in every household, right? Like that's like they want everybody to have a flu shot. Like it's that widespread that everybody needs to go and get. Yes, well, I believe that it's widespread now because it has hit the burbs. Okay, when it was just us in the hood, you know.

Timothy Coleman (07:22.32)
ODing and falling by the wayside. Nobody really cared. But when you have senators' kids, politicians' kids, presidents, vice presidents, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews being swept away by this epidemic, then they say, OK, so what can we do to prevent this? So.

The Berbs have it. It's out there. So now we need to make sure that people in the hood, in the neighborhood, that we have it also. And we know how to administer it and what to do even prior to those things. And that brings that whole substance abuse piece where there's dependence and there's abuse. Some people just use because they just like to use. But other people use because they have a physiological and psychological dependence

Substance, you know and nobody talks about this in the house and the homes. That's true. We don't talk about it Yeah, absolutely. Just like us talking about our mental health and going to get you know We had chatted about this before in a previous episode that Anytime you admit that you're gonna go get help all the sudden It's like the family spot, you know, the community spotlight is on your family. Oh, they got crazy people with their family Like that's crazy that's insane and it prevents you from getting

the help that you need that would cause, that would prevent further trauma. Absolutely. Right? You know, one of the other things that you're bringing up for me is it being now in the burbs, right? The South Bronx, the Bronx in general, but I've worked for 23 years in the South Bronx. And a lack of food, fear of losing housing.

Like all these things are like an everyday, you know, the asthma, the profound amount of cancer, like all those things that sit in the South Bronx. So when COVID hit and I saw...

Timothy Coleman (09:22.742)
BMWs driving up and popping their trunk because they needed food, you know, all those lines that were in New Jersey and like folks were in Mercedes and like I'm just looking at the string of cars and I'm like, you know, if you sold that, you probably could go to the supermarket. I'm not, you know, and so it wasn't a problem. Food insecurity and housing insecurity are two phrases in the last like three or four years that are everywhere. You hear it in every conversation. Now it's in every nonprofit's mission to like prevent this.

But that's been going on forever in the black and brown neighborhoods. It's not a problem until it reaches out into the other neighborhoods. The same thing with the immigrants coming in. As long as they can stick them in our neighborhoods, it's fine. But when they said they were going to Riverdale and to those places, those people were up in arms. They were like, oh, no, no. Yeah, they want to live on Park Avenue. They went to Hamptons with them.

And drop them off. So how do you feel about the governor saying the right to shelter is only in New York City, that nobody else has a responsibility to help with the influx of migrants or whatever? How does that make you feel? Well, that makes me feel angry. I get really upset about it because, like she said, they're always dropping them off in the Bronx or in our communities. They say how we don't respect that.

communities but they're always putting people in our communities that you know a part of not that's not gonna be a part of building a community that's I'm saying right and the other thing with that what you're saying is look in the in our neighborhoods we're suffering you know we have homelessness that's beyond belief

And now we're bringing in other people.

Timothy Coleman (11:23.922)
They're homeless, they don't have medical, they have children, they don't have food, they don't have, you know, like, we're not even helping our own. And now you want to drag in other people? Like that is insane to me. And put them at the top of the list. And put them ahead of us. We were waiting. Exactly. And how long we've been waiting. Exactly. You know, all the Ukrainian people are getting first choice housing. What is that? Exactly. Right.

And now they're cutting off food stamps, they're cutting off social security. But they're not even gonna wait. And they bringing them up here, they don't wanna give it to them. And it's not fair. It's not fair to us. It really isn't fair. I've worked all of my life, I've worked since I was like 15 years old, packing bags in the supermarket until I could work on the register. And I feel like I'm entitled to some things. I helped.

bring this country along, at least my part in my country. And I'm not a selfish person. I don't wanna deny anyone the right to live and to get housing. However, we were here first. So take care of us first, and then whatever's left over, then let's bring these people in. This is a bit of a step up for them, you feel me?

Like, it's kind of unfair to just say that we don't have enough to give them because there is low-key enough room for everybody if we can, you know, we can make it work. Because there's jobs here for everybody. Let's think about, you know, there's jobs in Florida, like there's orange picking. There's people like me, we're not going to want to do that job. You know what I'm saying? You are right. So we need those type of people who are looking for a little better life in America.

to do those type of jobs because yeah, those jobs need to be fulfilled. I'm not gonna have three jobs, because I'm not gonna do that. I wanna be a fashion designer. I'm not gonna go pick oranges. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not paying. Yeah, that's right. So here's Devil's Advocate. Are all of the things that are taking place right now allowing America to have a new generation of indentured servitude?

Timothy Coleman (13:52.802)
Are these situations building themselves up to where we...

Certain people that will take advantage of the folks that are coming in who are willing to do anything Like I've experienced that myself Like well not myself, but I've seen it happen in a restaurant where they're paying, you know They can't really work here because they don't have visas stuff like that trying to get their papers and they'll underpay them like they Worked them crazy. I'm like I feel so bad

Only way you can make money. So yeah, they definitely do take advantage of those people who are looking for work Yeah that under the table under the table pay system is also created another problem Where that's why you have three and four families in one bedroom apartments Because they're not being paid enough to actually sustain their livelihood. Yeah and it's not I don't I get it, but it's I don't know if it's exclusively people who are

Illegal sit at the Illegal aliens. I don't like that phrase illegal alien Yeah, illegal immigrants, right?

Timothy Coleman (15:12.718)
We're on groups. Everybody except the indigenous. Yeah. Every single group. Just wake it up. Yep. Yes. Just wake it up. But you're right about that kind of slavery type mentality that we're going into. Because as you said, and I agree with you, listen, even if I was.

20, 30 years younger. I don't want to be picking oranges. That's not what I wanted to do. However.

The flip side of that is if that's what I had to do, then I would gladly do it. Yeah. And if that's the only way that I could survive, then I would do that. Yeah, for sure. OK? Yeah. And I agree with what you're saying. Absolutely. I think there are a lot of things that I definitely would put on my list of, mm-mm. I'm not trying to be a part of that. However, having moved to New York

When I was 19, there were a lot of jobs that I did that I absolutely didn't want to have, but had to have in order to eat, in order to pay my bills, in order to have some sort of a life. I definitely had to do the same thing.

a person who was delivering food to people in the morning in the car. Right. Because I made money. Money make you do crazy things. Right, right. No, it's true. It's absolutely true. And then you have all the outsourcing, right? Because you have so many Americans that are like, well, I'll do the job, but you've got to pay me better. And you keep the little folks fighting with each other. Exactly. You keep us, you know. The small businesses. Yeah. Like London Bane Johnson says, you know, you take the poorest white man and you give him somebody to hate.

Timothy Coleman (17:01.28)
you can rob him. I'm not quote unquote, but that's what he's actually saying. Keep us fighting with each other and the upper 1% can live, like you said, in a place where their kitchen is bigger than our building. That's right. That's right. So how do we dig ourselves out? Because it's a lot and it all seems to be connected in some thread of a way, right? Like how this has all been put together.

We were just having a conversation like this in the office earlier where you know back to people going to jail for having to hustle for some money that they need to make for their family. It really bothers me that now that marijuana is legal and we have so many black men who couldn't raise their children because of this issue, because they were trying to sell to keep their child alive, keep the family alive. When are we releasing those men who didn't really do anything but was selling weed?

We still going back to that Rockefeller law. So, you know, who knows when they'll let them out. But they really should. Yeah. But I thought that's what they were doing. They were starting to let them out. They let them out. It was a certain amount. Then they could get out. But over a certain amount. And this whole thing, if you were affected or affected with marijuana, you can...

now open up a dispensary. Okay, that's not really happening. The people with the money are opening up these businesses. Right, to make more money. They claim, exactly, should be benefiting from this now. It's not happening. You'll see one person and they'll highlight them, oh, look at him. And the other people are not.

being considered. Exactly. Okay, you go and you apply and they give you the run around and say, well, you know what, my son did 20 years for selling weed. Right. Where is the opportunity? I just want to go back to where we started with this and because it's been playing here, what can we do? We have to do what we're doing right now. Yes. Talk about it. Yes.

Timothy Coleman (19:27.454)
We have to bring in the younger generations, do the intergenerational piece, talk about it. Teach them what we know, what we've learned.

and give them the opportunity because every revolution is fought by the young people. So this is what we have to do. We have to give them the knowledge and they have their own passions. We don't have to give them passion but we have to give them the knowledge and so that the little toddlers...

I mean, because Whitney Houston said, I believe the children are the future. But what future are we giving them? Exactly. What are they going to impair? We have to turn it around.

We have to start from the cradle. From the cradle to the grave. We have to educate. And take action. We just can't just be all about words. You have to make a stand at some point. At some point, yes. You have to be ready for that. So from a young person's perspective, how do you respond to that? What part of that do you feel like you own as a citizen,

young person looking at how not just America, the world, right, but let's keep it where we can talk about it, right? What part of that do you feel like you can own or what part of that torch do you feel like you can carry based on the issues that are important to you? I would say like what I could, what we could do as a generation like the younger people is like take a stand. Like you said, it's always the young people who are doing the fight.

Timothy Coleman (21:15.786)
through you know so you guys I feel like I've learned a lot from the older generation because you guys have fought so like you know a strenuous fight for us and you know it's our job to just keep it going I feel like saying because it's like the fight is never over for some reason I guess never going to be there's always gonna be something that we have to fight for and I just feel like it's our duty

continue pushing out that word. And we're doing a good job with that because we're a whole completely new generation. Are you a Gen Z? Yeah, right? More than 2000, so Gen Z, yeah. Now you're a millennial. Is that the same thing? I don't know, look, I don't. I'm asking him because I don't know. I don't know, yeah. I think that falls in the millennial category. Yeah, I'm a millennial.

Timothy Coleman (22:12.388)
See, we're teaching each other. That's right. So yeah, like I want to say, I do learn a lot.

Timothy Coleman (22:22.766)
the center and just having conversations. This is like, especially y'all being queer. It's like I've never had a queer older people. So it feels so comforting. It's like I'm gonna become like, y'all when I'm older, and I love that cause y'all are fab to me. Like, you know, like you guys know the struggle. Y'all know how to move, you know? And it's like, I'm learning. I'm learning how to pick up from what I can pick up.

do what I can. That's good. Thank you for calling us back. Thank you. That's comforting. Now I know you're gonna go forward because see one day you're gonna be sitting in the house. That's right. For sure. Yeah. And I already see like the youth who are even young. I know I'm young but I already see the youth coming in and I already see my influence on them. Like our generation's influence is already influencing them. They're coming in, they're dressing up. I'm like oh my god what you know about that? What you know about putting your

I'm sorry, in all of fashion. They're watching y'all. They're watching us. So it's like, how we thinking and what we're saying is how they're going to come up 10 times worse or harder. Because we influencing them. Exactly. And that's what you guys did to us. Always keep that in the front of your mind when you're dealing with young people. That you have to set a policy to it. Because it's like they're going to mimic you or look up to you, either if you like it or not.

like there's someone's gonna admire you. Someone is looking at you and wanna be just like you. Exactly. Little do you know. And you have to say to yourself, what will that look like? Yeah. If someone is modeling me, what do I want them to take from me? Yeah, for sure.

That is super beautiful. I don't think a lot of people think about their actions truly as a piece of their legacy on a future generation.

Timothy Coleman (24:23.15)
All right, any final thoughts? Even though I feel like she just dropped the mic, but any... Yeah, she dropped the mic. She dropped the mic. Definitely. She just dropped it, definitely. Everybody's looking at her like, wow. Wow. Because you're on the right track with that. I know I used to get annoyed when...

older, my mother's friends, they was like, oh, I remember I used to change your diaper. I'm like, no, please. And the things that they would say to me. I'm saying those things to y'all. And then I catch myself, I'm like, damn, shut up. You sound like some old lady. They don't wanna hear this. But when I'm talking to you, when you and I have conversations, you're like all in. You're all in. Yeah. Yeah, boy does listen.

But I've seen the change. I've seen the change from the beginning. More.

Yes, I've seen a change. So tell me if you guys are listening. Yeah, definitely. Yes, that's a good change. Especially with Mr. Donovan. Yes. That is good. Oh my goodness. That is good. Yes. Yes, I've seen a drastic change. I've seen the changes, and this is why I have to speak to my generation and say, look, you've got a lot of bad habits. We have this intergenerational program that some of us have been fighting for years.

you with your bad negative habits influencing this group that we're supposed to be setting the example, hugging them, loving them, and giving them the tools to keep this going. I want to pull you aside and say, listen, you got to stop your nonsense. Do that at home, do that somewhere else. Don't influence these people with this. This is our future.

Timothy Coleman (26:19.28)
and then up like sponges and they're soaking it up. Because we did. Yes. We did. Yes. And mind you, for you guys, for us, like.

are kind of like examples, you feel me? So some of us, like you know, I know Donovan, you know, we have a little harder lives, you feel me? Like our parents, we don't have super close relationships with them, because you know, our queerness, that always becomes an issue with the family. No matter how close you were or whatever, it just ends up bringing a separation and you have to find yourself and you know, queer stuff, whatever. But you know what I'm saying, for you guys, you guys are like those adults for us

who we came and we can come talk to or you know you guys give us tools in a different way, different manner that was not presented to us before because it's like you guys understand we have like a similar brain chemistry you feel me? So that's how, why we process it and we, you've seen such a change because we don't want to hear from someone who's not giving it to us or who we don't care to process or understand how we move as humans

Timothy Coleman (27:33.025)
Very well said. And it takes us back to the quote, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And this is a very caring group of people. So you are really in a great space to be cared for with a, you know, with like a village love. You know what I'm saying? Like a village love. Yes, get that queer village love. Queer village love, baby. That's right. All right, folks.

this episode of the Colors of Sound podcast. We thank you for your patronage. We thank you for your support. Please like and subscribe and share this out with all of your friends. It's an intergenerational program that came together because it was requested, it was sought after, it was fought for, and now it's here. It's here. Yes, yes, thank you.

Share your story on the Colors of Sound podcast. Our mission is to create a safe space for community members from around the world to share their unique stories. Do you have an interesting story to share? Or perhaps a journey of triumph from a challenge that you faced? Do you want the world to know about your talent? Visit our website and complete our guest intake form at wdon1204.com. The Colors of Sound podcast. Discover how much we have in common.