In today’s Solidarity Fridays Episode, Kyle and Joe interview Kwasi Adusei, Nurse Practitioner, and board member of Psychedelics Today. In the show, they talk about the root of protesting, privilege, the country’s leadership, the importance of this conversation and ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Show Notes About Kwasi It's difficult for all groups of people to talk about, not everybody is coming from the same place on this topic Kwasi says it's wonderful to see so many people rising up to fight against injustice These things have been happening for a long time, and it speaks to the history in America Kwasi grew up in The Bronx, and it wasn't uncommon to hear about deaths, gun violence, etc Kwasi went to receive his Doctorate, but reflects on his time in middle school and barely graduating It wasn't because of him and his willingness to learn, it was because of his environment The high school he went to is now shut down because of the low graduation rates The Perfect Storm Kyle says he wonders why this time in particular, why this is impacting the nation and the world more than anything else going on Kwasi sees it as a two part thing, it's a snowball effect, the anger around these instances continue to grow The other part of it, has a lot to do with the Coronavirus, people are losing their jobs, having trouble paying rent, feeding their family, etc They are losing their outlets to grieve, and they go through it for weeks Then something like this happens and it results in rage  Making the Right Statement It's important to look to the family of George Floyd, they are angry at the violence coming out of the protests Some people believe that the anger that people are showing when damaging property, is causing the same anger when lives are lost But some people are capitalizing on chaos, burning buildings and bringing destruction, and it takes away from the message of changing the systemic issues, it perpetuates it It brings the spotlight to those who are inviting hate by graffiti-ing, lighting buildings on fire, ec The conversation needs to prove that protests are making a statement  Poor Leadership We have a President that is enforcing law and order to remove peaceful protesters in a violent way The leadership we have is very important, how crisis is approached is really important “How [as a leader] do you calm the nerves of people, while getting to the root of the problem?” - Kwasi We have a lot of people that support Trump, and he doesn't do the best job at leading and supporting the country in a respectful way, especially in these times Joe mentioned videos out there of undercover cops breaking windows that are ‘bait’ to bring in stronger forces to shut down the protests “We should all be asking ourselves, if I care about the messaging, how do I use my sphere of influence to change things?” - Kwasi There are so many roots to this problem How much are we using to fund the police force versus funding education, community services, public health?  How to Support  Joe says this platform (Psychedelics Today) is to create a space for people to give back, have an impact, share stories and support movements like this Kwasi says to look locally to give your time, money and support He says look to get involved in local elections, making a small difference in your local community, makes a difference on the larger scale when multiplied Stay informed for yourself and share that information with everyone else People are thinking heavily right now “where are my tax dollars being spent?” Instead of extra funding to the local police force, you can vote for that increase to go toward something else like education  Having the Conversation Our voice is our vote Many people who listen to the Psychedelics Today podcast are probably privileged The psychedelic movement is (and if not, should be) connected to so many other movements like BLM Psychedelics Today is mainly about social justice, chan