5 Lessons From Malcolm X On The Power Of Media, Racial Injustice & Uniting Together For Humanity

What questions would you ask if you could sit down with one of your heroes? As part of his “Interviews With The Dearly Departed,” Shetty interviews Malcom X and gives us his insight on the burning questions of today based on his media interviews, written works, and speeches. Malcolm X was assassinated for his commitment to humanity. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington Turned ‘Malcolm X’ into a film based on the 1965 autobiography co-written by Malcolm X & Alex Haley. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet,

• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them. Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe. Listing items is a quick and simple process, and once something sells,

• 1:30Jay Shetty?

  Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you. And the best part, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn. It's a simple way to clear out your closet, be less wasteful, and maybe make some extra money along the way. And if you've been thinking about a wardrobe refresh, this can make it feel a little more worthwhile. You're not just letting go of clothes, you're getting more value from what you already have. Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating.

• 2:16Jay Shetty?

  And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet, AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and is clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1

• 2:59Jay Shetty?

  Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. It's not about calling others out and saying, "Look, you're racist. Look, you're a bad person. Look, you don't understand." It's actually about empathetically helping people understand, helping people create love, helping people find patience in their life, because it's unhealed wounds that make us hurt others. What unhealed wound do you have? What racism, or prejudice, or discrimination exists in your life that stops you from loving someone else?

• 3:39Jay Shetty?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. I love seeing your Instagram posts. I love reading your reviews. It means the world to me that you take out time to do that. And if you haven't yet subscribed, please subscribe. And if you haven't left a review, please do. It makes a huge difference to the podcast. And actually, I'm going to read a couple right now because they are so awesome and I really, really appreciate them. Here we go. This was the June 15th podcast and someone goes, Nadine Adriana says, "That was one of the most powerful podcasts I've listened to all year long. Such amazing information. I've been listening to Jay for about almost a year now. Every single podcast that I've listened to is so insightful."

• 4:24Jay Shetty?

  Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate that. This is one from Alejandra Vanessa. Says, I've been listening to Jay's podcast for almost one year. Thank you so much, by the way. And let me tell you, you can feel Jay's energy just gleaming out of the podcast. The amount of knowledge and knowledgeable people on this podcast is amazing. Yes, we're lucky to have amazing guests. I learn something every morning from listening to this podcast and it helps me implement what I've learned in my daily life. Thank you, Jay, for sharing so much and helping us. Well, thank you to each and every single one of you. It means the world to me that you're listening. It means the world to me that you're sharing. And I can't wait to hopefully one day meet all of you.

• 5:05Jay Shetty?

  At the end of this episode, I'm going to share a spoken word that I wrote that I really can't wait for you to hear. So make sure you listen all the way through. I can't wait to share it with you. Now, we started this series earlier this year and we called it Interviews with the Daily Departed. I had this vision of introducing you to people that I was so fortunate to read their books, study their works, learn and try and understand their thoughts and philosophies. And I started researching them in my teens and I would have loved to have them on the podcast if they were alive. But I realized this, that I could speak to incredible people that were alive, but I couldn't speak to the incredible people that had passed away.

• 5:46Jay Shetty?

  So we started this new segment called Interviews with the Daily Departed, where I select specific figures from history that I believed were so powerful and intriguing. And I'm just so curious about the way they thought and what they believed and how they lived life. And I love bringing them to life for all of you in these episodes. And I'm trying to pick ones that I feel are relevant to the time that we live in, because I do feel it's so important to think about, like, if this person was alive right now, what would they say? Right? If this person was here right now, how would they react? And maybe you do that with family members. You think like, if my father or my mother, if you've lost them unfortunately,

• 6:30Jay Shetty?

  and you're thinking, well, what would they feel about this? Or you may do it with your spirituality, or you may do it with anyone that you've lost. And you may think, well, if they were around right now. What would they think about this? What would they feel about this? And I think it's a really, really powerful question to actually ask because you see things through the lens of someone that you believed had a very important outlook on life around that theme and subject matter. Today's guest, as you already know, is none other than Malcolm X. Now, for those of you who don't know Malcolm X, here's a bit of an intro. If you do know Malcolm X, then you're already excited about this podcast.

• 7:10Jay Shetty?

  So Malcolm X was born on May 19th, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the fourth of eight children born to Louise, a homemaker, and Earl Little, a preacher who is also an active member of the local chapter of their organization. Now Malcolm X was a minister, human rights activist, and prominent black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm X encouraged blacks to break out from the shackles of racism by any means necessary. At the start of the 1950s, he was under FBI surveillance, and this continued to his death.

• 7:55Jay Shetty?

  He was assassinated in 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Now, what I find fascinating about this, just before we even get into it, before we get started, is about the number of people that stood for something that ended up being assassinated, whether you look at JFK, or of course, we're talking about Malcolm X, or you talk about Martin Luther King, you look at Gandhi, right? All of these incredible figures were assassinated for their work, for standing up for something, for believing in something. Just think about for a moment, whatever viewpoint you have, or whatever belief system you come from,

• 8:38Jay Shetty?

  the reason why I'm doing these episodes is for us to understand these people that were willing to risk their lives, that were willing to go to that extent to stand up for something. It truly takes something really powerful to be able to do that. And I just think that it's something that we should really, really not take lightly. It's something that we can draw a lot of insight from. I want this podcast to be educational and hopefully enlightening too. And I want it for us all to be a learning process. I know that in the research of this podcast, I'm looking at the writings, the speeches of Malcolm X. And so what I do in these episodes is that I ask Malcolm X a question as if he was sitting in front of me right now.

• 9:23Jay Shetty?

  And I read an answer that he actually gave in an interview or a speech. So I am not creating the words of Malcolm X. I'm not adapting them. I'm sharing them as they are, but in relevance to what I would ask him if we were sitting in front of each other today. And I believe it leads to a really, really interesting conversation. So obviously Malcolm X was someone who was fully committed to his pursuit of racial justice. And today we welcome his words to help guide us through the current times we're facing. Please come into the interview with an open mind and an open heart. And I thank you so much for that openness, because I believe we're living at a time

• 10:03Jay Shetty?

  right now where we've really put a spotlight onto racial injustice. And no matter what background you're from, I'm sure that so many of us have experienced and endured racism. I know I have in my own life as well. I have experienced racism, whether it was racist remarks, whether it was racist behavior, sometimes from people in authority, whether it was teachers or potential employers. But what we're seeing today, especially with the Black Lives Matter and the Black community, is to recognize how systemic the racism is and to what extent it is with people actually worrying for their lives.

• 10:46Jay Shetty?

  The first question I would ask Malcolm X is, where does racism begin? And how does it really perpetuate and spread? And what's been the media's role in that? Now Malcolm X gave this incredible answer. He said that the media is the most powerful entity on earth.

• 11:06Jay Shetty?

  They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent. Now, I don't know how many of you have read the book or watched the movie Just Mercy with Jamie Fox, with Michael B. Jordan and Brie Larson. And if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. And I'm reading this from the INDB page. It says, "After graduating from Harvard, Brian Stevenson, who's played by Michael B. Jordan, heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or those not afforded proper representation. One of his first cases is that of Walter McMillan, who's Jamie Fox, who is sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder

• 11:46Jay Shetty?

  of an 18-year-old girl despite evidence proving his innocence." Right? And this is a really interesting thing about how when we see something on the news and we see something in the newspapers or online and you just believe that it's real. Now, he goes on to say this, "There was police brutality and there was atrocity and the press was just as atrocious as the police because they helped the police to cover it up by propagating a false image across the country." And this is what he went on to say, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing

• 12:27Jay Shetty?

  the oppressing." Now, you've heard my views on the news in general as well when I did a podcast about negativity and, you know, there's this famous statement in news that if it bleeds, it leads and if it bleeds, it reads. And so they know that if something is negative, we hold on longer. I've talked before about how TV shows are actually the ones that are stressful are the ones that create cliffhangers, the ones that we binge-watch because we're like, what's gonna happen next? Because we're so anxious. So, a lot of media is trained in a way to keep us glued through anxiety and stress. And therefore, you won't see as much good news. You won't see as much positive news out there because it doesn't keep us glued in the same way because we don't feel that we're being...

• 13:13Jay Shetty?

  You know, secured or where we feel stable. And when you feel insecure, you stay tuned. So one of the things that I'd really encourage all of you to do when we're looking at this answer about the power of the media, and we can see that, is that when the media shifts, the conversation shifts through. And we've all experienced that this year. So we saw the media shift to talk about COVID. And naturally, everyone was talking about COVID. And then as soon as the tragic, you know, the death of George Floyd, the media obviously shifted to that. And almost all of a sudden, not many people talk about COVID anymore. So you see how the, and I'm not saying any of that's right or wrong. What I'm saying is we can see very clearly how the media shifts our conversation.

• 13:56Jay Shetty?

  And therefore, I would ask you to really reflect on finding facts, to really reflect on finding statistics, and to make your own mind up with the right information and allow yourself to be exposed to multiple viewpoints as well. Right? It'd be really, really important to do that. Now, at this point, I would go on to ask Malcolm X the question about what are his thoughts? And he alluded to it already. What are his thoughts on how we can end the police brutality? And what law would you put into place to help expedite this? Now, this was really fascinating, obviously, in current events and an amazing win as well, which I believe was very deserved and important.

• 14:41Jay Shetty?

  So I'm reading this from something that Alicia Keys, I believe, helped put together called Brianna's Law, which is unanimously passed. And this belief that, you know, people's actions do matter. And this is what Alicia Keys had said in a text message. She said, Brianna's Law passed, no knock warrants are banned in Louisville, right? And then the Louisville Metro Council goes on to say what Brianna's Law is specifically, and you can find that on her page. And it's incredible to see. What's possible when we do stick together and when we do align with these messages?

• 15:25Jay Shetty?

  So I would ask Malcolm X about what law would you put into place to help expedite this? This is what I think is an interesting answer from him, which was an interview at Berkeley that he did in 1963. This is what he said. "There will come a time when black people wake up and become intellectually independent enough to think for themselves, as other humans are intellectually independent enough to think for themselves. Then the black man will think like a black man and he will feel for other black people. This new thinking and feeling will cause black people to stick together. Then at that point, you'll have a situation where when you attack one black man, you're attacking all black men, and this type of black will cause all black people to stick together.

• 16:10Jay Shetty?

  This type of thinking also will bring an end to the brutality inflicted upon black people. It is the only thing that will bring an end to it. No federal court, state court, or city court will bring into it. It's something that the black man has to bring to an end to himself." Now, that's a really powerful position, and it's incredible that what he said in 1963 is almost what we're seeing in the world right now, that when we all saw the death of George Floyd, it was something that made everyone come together, the black community and also everyone else as well. We see so many people standing up for it.

• 16:50Jay Shetty?

  And what I've found to be fascinating at this time is this very interesting perspective is that when we're standing up against racism, why is that controversial, right? So a lot of people will say, "Well, why are we giving this the, you know, the highlight?" And the truth is, yes, everyone is going through their own challenges. And yes, there are other challenges in the world that need to be highlighted as well. But at the same time, if people have been going through something for 400 years and it's getting worse and worse, or we're seeing it more, or it's been hidden away, it's important for us all to unite. And my hope for humanity is that we will unite over all the biggest issues in the world together.

• 17:31Jay Shetty?

  How amazing is it if we're able to fight with the black community, for the black community? How incredible will it be if we're able to fight with each other, for each other, right? Rather than saying, "You fight for yourself, I'll fight for myself," and then where are we gonna get? That's what is so interesting to me is that how we don't understand that all of this needs to be won together. All of this needs to be multiple communities coming together to make something happen. And when we unite together for one community, guess what? We'll unite together for another community. And that's how we make a difference. That's how we bring change into the world. Not by saying, well, look at me, I need help. It's by saying, okay, I get it that you need help right now. I see that there's a challenge in your world and in your community.

• 18:16Jay Shetty?

  I'm going to rush to solve that and serve that and help that. And I know that we're going to create a world where that's what we do for each other. That's the change that we bring for each other.

• 18:30Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. If you're talking about quality food, you can't forget Whole Foods Market, who've been holding themselves to the highest standards since they opened in 1980. That means you'll see thousands of organic products across their stores, from the produce department to the aisles. It also means you'll never see certain ingredients. They've banned artificial sweeteners and colors, high fructose corn syrup and more, so you can shop with peace of mind. Shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. We talk a lot about intentional decision-making, and that extends to the practical stuff too, like making sure your coverage actually works for your life.

• 19:14Jay Shetty?

  State Farm is there to meet you where you are, and they know how sweet it is to feel good about your decisions. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

• 19:38Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Home should be a place that feels like a sanctuary, a space that truly reflects who you are. But it can be challenging to balance style, budget, and endless options. I was looking to create a dedicated, calm space for my morning meditation and reading, but I was struggling to find pieces that felt grounding but could also stand up to daily use. I went on Wayfair and found a beautiful, solid wood accent chair and a bookshelf. Now that corner is my favorite place to anchor my day. The quality is incredible, it's built to last, and it completely shifted the energy of the room. Plus, you can shop with Wayfair Verified, where product specialists carefully vet items for quality and functionality, so you can shop with more confidence. And if putting it all together sounds like a headache,

• 20:23Jay Shetty?

  Wayfair can handle delivery, installation, and assembly. Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home. My third question for Malcolm X would be this. And I want to ask this because Malcolm X, his approach was often seen as aggressive or assertive or quite powerful and strong. And I really wanted to share this answer because it shows the love, the empathy, and the compassion that exists there at the same time.

• 21:06Jay Shetty?

  And I think we often feel that if someone is assertive, that they can't be affectionate. But I believe that we can hold both those emotions at the same time. And I think we need to learn that in our own lives. But I would ask Malcolm X, what is your purpose? This podcast is called On Purpose. What is your purpose? And this is an answer he gave that I believe he would give to this. "I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is. For or against, I'm a human being, first and foremost.

• 21:47Jay Shetty?

  And as such, I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole." Just listen to that last statement again. "I'm a human being, first and foremost. And as such, I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."

• 22:05Jay Shetty?

  How many of us believe that racism is good for humanity?

• 22:12Jay Shetty?

  How many of us believe that systemic injustice is good for humanity? How many of us believe that oppression is good for humanity?

• 22:26Jay Shetty?

  I'm sure all of us would say no. So when we're standing up for Black Lives Matter or the Black community right now, we're standing up for all of us. And there was this really beautiful post held up by this young black girl that I want to share with you because it really sums it up together. She said on her board, she wrote, "We said Black Lives Matter. We never said only Black Lives Matter. We know all lives matter. We just need your help with Black Lives Matter for Black lives are in danger." And I think that perspective is what's so needed today is recognizing

• 23:08Jay Shetty?

  that first and foremost, we're all human beings. And as such, we are for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole. And Malcolm X went on to say, "And I for one will join in with anyone. I don't care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth." Let me repeat that again, and I want you to feel it when you say it as well. "And I for one will join in with anyone. I don't care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth." It's so powerful.

• 23:52Jay Shetty?

  How amazing would it be if we were all able to see beyond color? There was this great graphic I saw that showed no matter what color of your skin you are, we all have the same heart, we have the same bones, we have the same skeleton. You know, the famous statement of we bleed the same blood and we breathe the same air. These are the important factors of recognizing that.

• 24:14Jay Shetty?

  But that doesn't stop us from making an impact when a particular part of our family is going through something. And it's really interesting because in June 1964, in an interview with Mike Wallace, Malcolm X actually talked about how travel and speaking to people of other races and white people and other colors actually broadened his scope. And this is what he said. So my question to him would be around how he feels we can all work together and we can all help. And this is what he said. He said, "Well, I broadened my scope. Travel broadens your scope." And I think this is such a powerful point that when we travel, when we live with other

• 24:58Jay Shetty?

  people from other backgrounds and other cultures and other communities that speak different languages, we learn so much more about people. And it's so easy for all of us in our small enclosed worlds to not really realize what people are like. If you've only ever seen some people by watching them on the TV, you don't know what they're truly like. Right? You've never experienced it. And I've been to places before where people have never met an Indian person before. And maybe the only time they've seen an Indian person is Apu on The Simpsons. And that's their view of all Indian people because that's their experience. And, you know, today, obviously, you're exposed to more.

• 25:41Jay Shetty?

  But it is fascinating how our limited view or limited viewpoints create a limited version of a whole person or a community. So Malcolm X is saying, "Well, I broadened my scope. Travel broadens your scope. It gives you a wider understanding." And I have, in my many lectures on college campuses, seen many whites, even as a black Muslim, whose reaction to much of what I had to say showed me that they were genuinely concerned. Some weren't genuinely, genuinely concerned, but many of them were, and this element is increasing. I'm speaking now from what I think, from what I've seen, from what I've analyzed and the conclusions that I have reached.

• 26:24Jay Shetty?

  Right? That is a much more positive version where he can start recognizing the power of how people are generally concerned because we are. We are compassionate. We're empathetic at our core. And he goes on to say this. I judge a man by his conscious behavior. I'm not a racist. I don't subscribe to any of the tenants of racism. It's not a case of being good or bad blacks and whites. It's the case of being good or bad human beings. And I think we can all agree with this. This is someone who's standing up for the black community. But this is his perspective, that it's not a case of being good or bad blacks and whites. It's the case of being a good or bad human being.

• 27:09Jay Shetty?

  That's something that I think is a question that's being asked of all of us. Is can we be good human beings by standing up for injustice that we see? And the challenges that we see in the world? And I think that that is a really, really powerful question that we can ask. My final question to Malcolm X would be around, you know, what do we need more of? These challenges that we're seeing in the world right now. He's talked about police brutality. He's talked about the media. He's talked to us about his perspective on humanity coming together.

• 27:53Jay Shetty?

  And I would ask him about, what do we need more of? And this is a beautiful statement he made. He said, "We need more light about each other." How many of you agree with that? This is me saying, how many of you agree that we need more light about each other? He said, "We need more light about each other." And this is what he says. "Light creates understanding. Understanding creates love. Love creates patience. Patience creates unity." What a beautiful way of thinking. "We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding. Understanding creates love.

• 28:37Jay Shetty?

  Love creates patience. And patience creates unity." And I always think that this is an important way to look at it because when we put more light onto the issues, and I believe this was a statement from Will Smith that was going viral. And it was saying that it's not that the world is getting worse. It's just that we have more cameras now. It's not that the world is more racist. It's just that we have more cameras, so we see more. And so if we can put light on to these issues, then maybe we'll stop seeing it. If it's happening in the darkness, if it's happening because it's hidden, when we all put a light on it, it exposes that. And we don't expose in a judgmental way. This isn't about calling anyone out.

• 29:22Jay Shetty?

  It's actually about calling ourselves out.

• 29:29Jay Shetty?

  This is the message that I want to end with, is that it's not about calling others out and saying, "Look, you're racist. Look, you're a bad person. Look, you don't understand." It's actually about empathetically helping people understand, helping people create love, helping people find patience in their life, because it's unhealed wounds that make us hurt others, right? It's unhealed wounds in ourselves that make us hurt others. What unhealed wound do you have? What racism or prejudice or discrimination exists in your life that stops you from loving someone else? That is the question that we all have to start on, is what is there? Because we'll all say, well, and I'm guessing my community and all of you who I love so much, will say, "Jay, we're not racist."

• 30:13Jay Shetty?

  And I'm like, "I agree with you guys, we're not racist, but how are we standing up for others? What prejudice or discrimination or what kind of, you know, what is there in our life that we know needs to be removed?" And I made this video that we launched yesterday that I want to share with you, that I think is really, really important to share with you the script, because these were my own thoughts about how there's a difference between being not racist and anti-racist. So if you're not racist, you don't say racist things and hopefully you don't think racist things. But being anti-racist means you stand up. And I think that's what's been missing. And so I want to share this with you from my heart. It's a spoken word that I wrote that I hope really connects with you.

• 30:57Jay Shetty?

  So listen to me carefully. "I've always been a bystander, a spectator, sometimes a commentator, but I never saw myself as a perpetrator. I remember once I watched on the news that black people are 40 times more likely to be stopped and accused, searched and abused. But I didn't think it affected me because I wasn't involved in my view. And I went through my fair share of racist slurs. But it is different when you feel your voice is never heard, your life is on the line. Every time you're pulled over, your fear is a million times more than mine. But commit a crime I did not. I just stood by and watched." I may not have seen a murder in person, but I have seen it on the screen. I've seen it on my phone and I've seen it on the TVs.

• 31:42Jay Shetty?

  When Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead, what did we do? When Breonna Taylor was killed in her own bed, what did we do? We didn't make a stand for the dead. Instead, we moved on. When the black community mourned and felt confused, we posted and prayed and then started another day. But when George Floyd lay on the floor with a knee on his neck, something deep inside of me got checked. I know it should not have taken me this long, but please forgive me, I know I was wrong. It breaks me to say this, but I have been a witness. As hard as it is for me, it's worse when you're next on the hit list. I realized that it wasn't good enough to think I wasn't racist. I needed to be anti-racist. I realized that being an accessory was as bad as committing a felony.

• 32:27Jay Shetty?

  I realized that just because I saw something on a screen and not in the streets, didn't make me free from being an accomplice. I was complicit. As Dedman Tutu said, "To remain neutral in situations of injustice is to be complicit with injustice." So in that regard, yes, I am involved. I am involved because I've simply watched as people have died. I've thought myself to not be involved as it wasn't my side. I've thought that things are progressing, so I became complacent. I was happy we had a black president, so I thought I was anti-racist. But I realized that being quiet isn't what's needed. Staying on the sidelines just to avoid it getting heated. What we need is people willing to give black people a voice, who don't mind dealing with the negativity and the noise.

• 33:11Jay Shetty?

  The officers got charged because they were on the scene, whilst we roam loose and free because we saw it on a screen and then go hide away in our American dream. We cannot stay silent as the black community, continually deals with violence. If I'm not a part of the solution, then I'm a part of the problem. I'm responsible for what happened because I didn't stop them. So that was a piece that I wrote last week and we released a video on it yesterday. And it was my thoughts around just how I've never been a racist person. You know, I've experienced racism myself, but what I'm seeing right now is far worse than everything I've ever experienced and I, I just wanted to empathize with it and learn about it.

• 33:54Jay Shetty?

  And so diving into the work of Martin Luther King, of diving into the work of Malcolm X, diving into the work of some incredible authors that I want to share with you that I think are making a huge difference right now. And we've got White Fragility by Robin D'Angelo. There's a book called How to Be an Anti-Racist with Ibram X. Kendi. Those are just two great books to get started on. There's another one called So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijomo Aluo, I hope I'm saying that name right. And those are just three great places to get started, to start moving forward because I think if we all get educated, if we all learn some more, our empathy increases.

• 34:36Jay Shetty?

  This is what happens when your education increases, your empathy increases, when your empathy increases, your action increases. And actions can be big or small, but all of us taking them together definitely creates a big action. Thank you so much for listening today. A huge thank you to Malcolm X for living such an incredible life that we can discuss it today and share it today. And I just want to end with that statement that I shared. We need more light about each other. This is his statement. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding. Understanding creates love. Love creates patience. Patience creates unity. Thank you for listening to On Purpose. I'm Jay Shetty and I'll see you next week.