Devale Ellis
speaker
540 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Apr 2025
Devale Ellis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
So here's the funny thing, right? You look at me. I'm from New York. You look at me, right? There's a bunch of Dominicans.
I walk into a bodega. I'm like, yo, papi, let me get a bacon, egg, and cheese. They're like, oh, you're Dominican. They start speaking Spanish. I'm like, no, I'm not Dominican. I'm black. And I'm like, we could be brothers. They literally say to me, I'm not black. I'm Dominican.
And they'll be darker than me. Nigga, please. Nigga, please. I just, if there's one thing I want y'all to think about. don't shame people for their ideals. Try to understand where they're coming from. And even as ignorant as it is, like, for example, a Dominican saying I'm not black.
As ignorant as it is, you got to understand, like, you know what, that person's trying to survive and exist in this world.
And if they got something negative to say to me because I said they're Dominican, that's where they are in that moment. I'm not going to waste no energy going back at something. You know what I'm saying?
Yes, that's how you learn to, like, love people and not be so upset when they disagree with you. You're like, okay, you disagree with me because you're going through something. You know, it's da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, okay? You will never understand because you know what? You may be right. I may never understand. But what I did was I put out some content and it made you feel a way.
So now you got to deal with how you feel.
You know what I'm saying? Like that's how I address everything. I had two years ago is when the slap happened. And I had people in the industry ask me, what's your thoughts about the slap?
And this has always been my answer. I said, well, I'll tell you like this. If you're a father and a dad and you've been in the public eye and your kids have been scrutinized and been called names and your wife has been picked on and stuff, you know who you side with? You side with Will.
If you're a comedian and you're just trying to do your art and you're trying to go out here and entertain people and you just got slapped on stage, you know who you side with? Chris Rock. If you're a content creator... And you, you know, you out here trying to make the best images possible and you're upset that Will Smith and Chris Rock destroyed the Oscars.
You side with Will Packer because Will Packer is the one who produced the Oscars. The first black producer in the Oscars happened in 2022. And this is what we got to deal with. If you're a woman and you feel like you've never been protected and finally someone stood up and slapped the shit out of somebody, you siding with Jada.
And when I say that, people will be like, I never thought about it like that. That's how we got to think about life, yo. Think about what you're going through in a moment. You're going to side with not who's right. You're going to side with who you relate to. You know what I'm saying? There's no black and white right or wrong. There's so many shades of gray.
And you got to start asking yourself, if I felt like this, what am I going through that made me relate to that? And then start thinking like that. Because that's what I did. The minute it happened, the first thing I said was, good for that motherfucker. He got slapped. Because I'm tired of them. And then I had to think about it. I was like, shit.
It was unnecessary. It was the wrong time. It wasn't his first time saying something to Jada.
Yeah, since 2000, and I think it was 2017, the first time he hosted the Oscars. But... The reason why I brought that point is I think, I hope people listen to this and realize, damn, when I disagree with someone, am I disagreeing with them because I really don't agree? Or am I disagreeing because what they're saying triggered something in me that I had to look at myself?
Can I tell you something funny that you said that my 13-year-old son brought up to me? That gave me perspective. And he wasn't 30 at the time. He said, Dad, I got a question. Why were so many more people upset about the slap than they were about George Floyd?
This is my, at the time, 12-year-old son.
And I had to explain to him, I said, you know, when people can't see themselves in a victim, they think it doesn't matter. So if you're not a black man, if you never dealt with substance abuse, if you're not a George Floyd, then you look at that situation and you think of every excuse as to why that had to happen.
But then if you're a rich, pampered, elitist white person and you see another person walk over and slap someone on stage or national TV, the first thing you think of is, This is appalling.
That's how I had to explain it to him. And he was just like, that doesn't make sense. I said, emotions don't make sense, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like, emotions, the fact that they feel a way, it don't... Ain't gotta make no sense to nobody. You see what I'm saying? No, I say that all the time. It don't gotta make sense.
Showing 301–320 of 540 · page 16 of 27
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