Tony Robbins Podcast: A Historic Conversation for Healing and Unity

This is a critically important conversation that I believe every American, especially white Americans, should listen to. I found it profoundly moving, enlightening, heartbreaking, enraging, and yet inspirational in the end. Every minute of this three-hour podcast is worth the time, and I truly feel it can help lead to a more open, honest dialogue about our nation’s racist past and present, and move us toward a more inclusive, equal future.

As a caucasian male, I was floored by exactly how much I didn’t understand what it’s like to be Black in America, especially a Black male. Before I heard this discussion, I did not believe, or really want to believe, that racism in the United States was still so rampant and that our law enforcement had so many bad characters. And worst of all, Black Americans have been screaming about these widespread issues for decades, only to have their words fall on deaf ears. That is until the world got to see firsthand the gut-wrenching proof of just one of many instances that have been reported by Black communities over and over and over. The raw truth can be hard to hear, but only through awareness is real change possible.

This podcast was recorded in 2020, shortly after African American George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in broad daylight. Tony Robbins gathered a powerful group of individuals to speak firsthand about deep-seated racism and police violence toward Black people in America. This amazing panel includes Benjamin Crump (the attorney for George Floyd’s family), Lora Dean King (the daughter of Rodney King), Martin Luther King III (the son of Martin Luther King Jr), Sabrina Fulton (Trayvon Martin’s mother), NBA coach Doc Rivers, Bishop TD Jakes, spiritual leader Michael Beckwith, and Daryl Davis, a musician who has helped many KKK members leave the clan, including additional podcast guest Scott Shepherd.

Listen to or watch the entire conversation for full context, which can be found here.

To learn more about the fine folks who spoke on the podcast, see the list below:

My 11 favorite quotes from the conversation:

“This is an opportunity that goes beyond George Floyd and getting justice, it’s a chance for all of us to be able to achieve justice as a society.”

Benjamin Crump

“Everybody is upset about the looting. Everybody is upset about the violence. And again, I don’t agree with that, but I understand what it’s like to come from a hurting place and to be unheard, so it’s like what else do you do?”

Lora Dean King

“Fifty-two years ago black men had signs in Memphis shortly before dad was killed saying, “I am a man”. All they were asking was, treat us with dignity and respect, and like human beings. Fifty-two years later, black people and white people, Latino and Hispanic people, and others are standing with signs that say, “Black lives matter”. Again, requesting dignity and respect and treating people like human beings.”

Martin Luther King III

“He (George Floyd) wasn’t resisting arrest, why was he killed? Because of hatred, because of racism, because of racial profiling. And that’s just the ugly truth of this country. And now a lot of people in the United States are forced to address these issues because there was a video, because they saw it with their own two eyes, what they really didn’t want to believe.”

Sybrina Fulton

“Well, it’s a lesson, Tony, for all of us, especially in the athletic world. I tell our guys all the time, we live in a fake world, we live in an unreal world when we have our uniforms on. And then when we take them off, if we’re not dressed right or if they (cops) don’t recognize you, then we go back to being black.”

Doc Rivers

“We all share 99.9% of the same exact DNA. I mean it’s absurd. We all started with dark skin. And if you study history we migrated to these northern areas where you needed lighter skin to get the vitamin D.”

Tony Robbins

“Our last names are a derivative of whoever owned us… Well, I don’t even have a name, because Jakes is German and clearly I’m not German. So every time I call my own name I am reminded of the fact that slavery has forever marked me.”

Bishop T.D. Jakes

“The reality is that the police service that you get in your community is not the same police service that most blacks get in their community. It’s not the same experience. There is a reason that there is a fear when blue lights start flashing.”

Bishop T.D. Jakes

“The lesson taught is this. Ignorance breeds fear. We fear those things we don’t understand. If you do not keep that fear in check it, that fear will escalate and breed hatred, because we hate the things that frighten us. If you don’t keep that hatred in check, that hatred will escalate and breed destruction. We want to destroy the things we hate. Why? Because they frighten us.”

Daryl Davis

“They (KKK) met me and said ‘We’ll take care of you and you won’t have to worry about anything else.’ Things of that nature. And I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I spent mostly 21 years inside that moment and the main thing was as soon as I joined, I felt an immediate feeling of importance. I found what I was looking for, a home.”

Scott Shepherd

“You go back to 1619 when the first forced immigrants, who were forced into slavery, hit the United States…in order to rationalize the inhumane treatment, they had to create a narrative that black people, Africans, were not human…We weren’t human beings. So that particular narrative became insidiously within the culture. So even when slavery was abolished, the narrative wasn’t abolished.”

Michael Beckwith

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