The Word privilege should never leave this man's lips unless he is saying "I am one of the most privileged people to ever live"
MIKEY ALFRED: Here's a perfect example of that. So I had a neighbor. Her name is Paula Madison. Paula's incredible woman. She is older, from Harlem, used to run Diversity In Journalism at NBC. So she's extremely wealthy, extremely connected. And when I was 16, I told her, "I love Ralph Lauren. That's my favorite brand."
She says, "Oh really? You love Ralph Lauren?" She says, "Do you know who Laura Manning is?" I said, "Yeah, of course. She's the vice president." She's like, "I'll call her right now." So she called her on the phone right in front of me. She said, "I have this kid. His name is Mikey Alfred. He loves Ralph Lauren. He wants to come to New York and meet you." She said, "Tell him to come out on Friday." It was Monday. So I was like, "OK." I bought a flight. I flew to New York.
I get to the Ralph Lauren building. You go up in the elevator. It opens. It's all wood panelling. There's this huge Ralph Lauren bronze statue in the middle of the floor.
FRANNIE: A statue of Ralph Lauren.
MIKEY ALFRED: No, no, no. Of the polo horse.
FRANNIE: OK. Just wanted to clarify.
MIKEY ALFRED: And you walk past it. You get to this little check-in desk. You tell them your name. They give you a sticker that I still have to this day, says your name with Ralph Lauren under it. Then you walk into this kind of palace. You're in New York. In the building though, they maybe have six or seven floors. You can see all six or seven floors from the first floor of that building. So I look up, and it's just huge oil paintings, huge bookshelves. There's people dusting mirrors, and you know, walking around serving water to people waiting in the lobby. So I'm sitting down. I'm waiting. I'm thinking, "Wow. I got here so quickly and so easily."
And I walk into the meeting. I sit with Laura Manning, and I start talking to her, and I'm telling her how big of a fan I am and all this stuff. And she said, "So what do you want to do with me? Why'd you want to meet?" And I was like, "I don't know. I just wanted to kind of learn stuff from you." And she was like, "Cool." And I walked out and I felt so stupid. And I was like, "Why didn't I walk in with a plan? Why didn't I have that thing to get out of it?" And I never talked to Laura Manning again, and we never worked on anything. And that was the time that taught me: don't be that person. Don't be that person who focuses on connection. Focus on what you're doing, and the right connection will come
Topic: Tyshawn shots fired at Mikey Alfred and Illegal Civ (Read 173236 times)