EXCLUSIVE: T.I. on what fuels his activism and why we should boycott bad businesses
T.I. thinks the best way to fight back is with our wallets.
T.I. is a busy man. Aside from his music career, he’s also a father, an activist, and an actor whose gearing up for the premiere of his new BET reality competition show, The Grand Hustle, and appearing in Marvel’s latest flick, Antman and TheWasp.Â
We sat down with T.I. to find out what fuels his activism and how he helps prepare his children for the harsh realities of the world we’re living in.
“I make sure they are aware of the fact that the mental illness of racism is ever-present in our society. Some people gain satisfaction from seeing us in bondage or being able to put us in bondage, even if it’s for a short while,” he told Cherise Nicole in our exclusive interview.Â
He also shared his thoughts on our country’s prison system and likened it to slave labor.
“I think the prison system is set up to provide free and cheap labor to major corporations from slave labor, similar to a sweat shop in other places,” he said. “America is no different. They just make it pretty.”
When it comes to standing up for others, the way he did when three black actresses were dragged out of an Atlanta Houston’s and arrested for using the restroom, he says his children are his inspiration.Â
“I would not be able to look my children in the face years from now if I had not done as much as possible to use my influence to affect some level of change.”
 He also explained that the biggest weapon we have in our ongoing fight for justice is our buying power and folks should consider where and how they spend their coins.
“I think it’s about money. If you interfere with the expected income of a corporation, if we have money that we spend with these corporations, whatever we have a problem with, we should address those corporations,” he said. “$1.3 trillion per year. That’s the power of the black dollar. If we stop spending places where we normally spend, they’r gonna say, ‘Hey, what’s the problem?’ …Then you just watch what happens.”
Check out the full interview above. Â
