Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, This is Bowen and this is Matt. We
Speaker 1: are obviously going to do things a little differently this week. Um,
Speaker 1: just because you know, Matt and I had a quick
Speaker 1: discussion today. We didn't want to be a culture podcast
Speaker 1: without addressing very obvious circumstances there are coming on right
Speaker 1: now around the world. So that's it. So that's that's
Speaker 1: sort of the intention we're bringing to this episode. And
Speaker 1: I think that first and foremost, let's get one thing
Speaker 1: absolutely straight for anyone that's listening to this, which is
Speaker 1: black Lives matter. That needs to be said at the
Speaker 1: top of everyone's lungs. And I personally, like I want
Speaker 1: to apologize for not being as loud about this and
Speaker 1: not being as angry about this. I think I've always
Speaker 1: been angry. You know. This is an incredibly intense moment
Speaker 1: where I think the world is at a tipping point
Speaker 1: and we need to be just as angry. We need
Speaker 1: to be more angry. I think that this that what's
Speaker 1: happening out on the streets right now and what's happening
Speaker 1: in this country is a long time coming, because this
Speaker 1: is just we are. It's it's sick, what's going on.
Speaker 1: I have a protest at time a window. I just
Speaker 1: came from a vigil today. UM. It is you know, there, there, there, there,
Speaker 1: there's a ground swell happening. UM. And today we're recording
Speaker 1: this on June one. You know, there's little little little
Speaker 1: openings of something happening. UM. Keith Ellison being appointed UM
Speaker 1: to investigate what happened in Minneapolis is sort of a
Speaker 1: slightly positive development. UM, someone who has a really extensive
Speaker 1: background in civil rights cases. UM and the independent investigation
Speaker 1: on Joy George Floyd's murder coming through and saying this
Speaker 1: absolutely was a homicide. And just to speak to UM,
Speaker 1: to speak to the first result, which kind of blamed
Speaker 1: his death on pre existing conditions. I just want everyone
Speaker 1: to really try to understand how insane that is, because
Speaker 1: that that what that actually is saying is that had
Speaker 1: he been walking down the street, he could have died
Speaker 1: of those pretty distant conditions like the next like the
Speaker 1: knee on his neck actually didn't have as much to
Speaker 1: do with it. It's a really flagrant sort of display
Speaker 1: of like a specific kind of racism, which is biological racism,
Speaker 1: which is putting forward the notion that, UM, the reason
Speaker 1: for racial inequities are because are the cause or the
Speaker 1: that there are these physiological inequities among different racial groups,
Speaker 1: and that is um what causes rachel iniquities. Right. So
Speaker 1: basically what that sort of what that autopsy autopsy implied
Speaker 1: was that George Floyd died because he had these pre
Speaker 1: existing conditions that are coincidentally, um prevalent among black Americans.
Speaker 1: So it's saying that these this death was not at
Speaker 1: the hands of police, that it was sort of he
Speaker 1: was genetically predisposed. Even let's say, which is I mean,
Speaker 1: think about that, Think about how completely horrid that is
Speaker 1: the reason, like racial iniquities are causing these biological, um,
Speaker 1: these physiological inequities. I mean, I mean, I mean, I
Speaker 1: hope people understand that. I hope people understand that it's
Speaker 1: just it. It's a way to try to get these
Speaker 1: cops off the hook, you guys, like it's it's and
Speaker 1: it's crazy. And I really hope that we can just
Speaker 1: see black and white like to use it, just to
Speaker 1: use a phrase like this is this is wrong and
Speaker 1: then an independent investigation comes in and says, no, it
Speaker 1: was absolutely a homicide, which is what it was. And
Speaker 1: I also just want to speak very quickly because there
Speaker 1: is still a lot of hesitance amongst white people to
Speaker 1: say the words black lives matter. And I still feel
Speaker 1: like I'm still seeing responses on social media to the
Speaker 1: hashtag black lives matter, which is no, all lives matter.
Speaker 1: This is why it's important to say that black lives matter.
Speaker 1: Black lives litter, no no qualification. You don't qualify that
Speaker 1: statement ever, ever, ever, ever, it's just of course, every
Speaker 1: human life does matter. But when you when you fail
Speaker 1: to say that black lives matter, there is a base
Speaker 1: sort of experience in this country, which is that we
Speaker 1: are just so desensitized to these black lives just being
Speaker 1: lost and these black lives being taken. So that's we
Speaker 1: need to say black lives matter, because they have not
Speaker 1: mattered in the past. So but in saying black lives matter,
Speaker 1: we're not saying only black lives matter that which is
Speaker 1: it's crazy that you would think that's the case. We're
Speaker 1: saying that black lives matter just as much as any
Speaker 1: other life, and we need to change the way that
Speaker 1: this country has been behaving as if that they don't.
Speaker 1: That's what we're saying. We're saying now we have to
Speaker 1: really start shouting from the rooftops that this is unacceptable,
Speaker 1: This pattern of behavior is unacceptable. Police brutality is not acceptable.
Speaker 1: The system is broken. Yes, yes, of course Matt and
Speaker 1: I are very sort of Um, I would say upfront
Speaker 1: about the ways that we've been anti black on the
Speaker 1: show multiple times. I mean, but just the ways that
Speaker 1: our our biases have informed a lot of the ways
Speaker 1: that we talk sort of socially or even on a
Speaker 1: recorded podcast like this, where we sort of will appeal
Speaker 1: to like auditory black face in some terms, like in
Speaker 1: some ways, like the ways that you and I will
Speaker 1: like trade in sort of you know, casual racism. Racism.
Speaker 1: It's not even whi which which is not even a
Speaker 1: real thing. I mean, like the term microaggression isn't even
Speaker 1: like really applical but applicable anymore at microaggressions are sort
Speaker 1: of used as this term in quote unquote post racial
Speaker 1: America for us to talk about racing a more nuanced way.
Speaker 1: But I mean, there there isn't any nuance to racism.
Speaker 1: Is is kind of what we're all learning, right It's
Speaker 1: like and in a lot of anti racist reading that UM,
Speaker 1: I think everyone's doing right now. I think we're all
Speaker 1: seeing that, UM, the terms institutional racism, systemic racism, structural
Speaker 1: racism are redundant because all racism is inherently institutional, structural, systemic.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like and and it's and I hope
Speaker 1: everyone just takes this time to um examine the ways
Speaker 1: that they've been racist before, because and do not deny,
Speaker 1: because denial is built into racism itself. For you to
Speaker 1: say that you're not racist, is you telling on yourself
Speaker 1: that you are? Because we all are. We all are racist,
Speaker 1: and it's not I have been We're we are all racist.
Speaker 1: And um the way that Ibram X Kendy writes about
Speaker 1: in his book, racism and anti racism are identities that
Speaker 1: we can peel off and put on ourselves, like sort
Speaker 1: of hell are my name is name tags? It's like
Speaker 1: one moment we can behave racistly and another moment we
Speaker 1: can behave anti racistly. We have to redistribute the racist
Speaker 1: so that it is overwhelmingly overwhelmingly We're we're wearing the
Speaker 1: anti racism identity UM in our lives more often than
Speaker 1: we are the racist one. I hope, I hope people
Speaker 1: sort of try to use that as a guide. I
Speaker 1: don't know, UM, it's it's hard to make broad sort
Speaker 1: of suggestions and guidances as to non black people. Um,
Speaker 1: but that's sort of kind of what I'm taking away
Speaker 1: from a lot of my reading and my absorption right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people in this country are
Speaker 1: in shock right now because of how big this moment
Speaker 1: feels to them. And I think that we all, to
Speaker 1: a certain extent, really have forgotten or blocked out exactly
Speaker 1: how America came to be what it is, which is
Speaker 1: important to say, you know, America is there is no
Speaker 1: America without black people because America or the white people,
Speaker 1: white people stole African people from their lands and brought
Speaker 1: them here, enslaved them, forced them to build this country.
Speaker 1: And then I think, because there are serious gaps in education,
Speaker 1: we think that, oh, well, it ended when slavery ended,
Speaker 1: and then it was still bad for a hundred years
Speaker 1: or so until the Civil rights movement, and then it
Speaker 1: was fixed again. There are so many gaps, and there's
Speaker 1: there's there's so much to learn, and there's so much
Speaker 1: to examine about why we have arrived at this moment
Speaker 1: in time, and I think that people are very resistant
Speaker 1: to really examine that. And I think that we all
Speaker 1: because because if we really examined it, we would feel
Speaker 1: crazy amounts of pain. And understand that those crazy amounts
Speaker 1: of pain are felt every single day by people who
Speaker 1: are afraid to leave their homes because they might be
Speaker 1: murdered because of the color of their skin. It's gotten
Speaker 1: to the point where if you are watching the news
Speaker 1: and this amount of pain shocks you, the or this,
Speaker 1: this whatever however you wanna, if the protests surprise you
Speaker 1: or shock you, if the fact that sometimes they get violent,
Speaker 1: if that shocks you or surprises you. This has been
Speaker 1: existing for centuries. This is that we are at a
Speaker 1: breaking point because it cannot continue and a lot of
Speaker 1: people are sitting at their homes getting really upset about
Speaker 1: people who point this out. And I do think that
Speaker 1: this is why, for example, someone like Alexandria Costio Cortez,
Speaker 1: she earned so much hatred for trying to do this
Speaker 1: the quote unquote right way, or speak or speaking to
Speaker 1: these issues in public, and how dare she? But this
Speaker 1: is what this is what life is like. And so
Speaker 1: now when people have tried and tried and tried to
Speaker 1: do things the quote unquote right way, you cannot condemn
Speaker 1: what is happening in this out in America right now.
Speaker 1: You can't police or tone police the way that people
Speaker 1: are demanding that their lives be protected or not ripped
Speaker 1: away from them. And I'm very aware of the fact
Speaker 1: that this isn't coming out as eloquently. No, it doesn't
Speaker 1: it that's we're not That's not what anyone's asking of
Speaker 1: really anyone, right, I mean, what I'm noticing is everyone
Speaker 1: is having a similar emotional response to this. Hopefully I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I'm basically saying that we're all catching up to a
Speaker 1: certain baseline vocabulary. That is what's happening. That is the
Speaker 1: reckoning that that is part of the reckoning in terms
Speaker 1: of UH as a culture, the way that we talk
Speaker 1: about this. We're all being brought up to speed on
Speaker 1: what the what what what the vocabulary is. And white
Speaker 1: people need to be coddled there too much about like
Speaker 1: this owning up to the privilege of it all. And
Speaker 1: I think that we've made some progress in terms of
Speaker 1: understanding that privilege is not something that's that you're told
Speaker 1: you have um and it means that you're a bad person.
Speaker 1: It just means that we all have to own up
Speaker 1: to the amount of privilege that we have and understand
Speaker 1: that that protects us in a racist society, which we
Speaker 1: have a racist society, and we have a society that
Speaker 1: runs with certain systems in place that protect white people
Speaker 1: and do not protect black people. Yes, Um, if you
Speaker 1: or someone you know is struggling with a basic grasp
Speaker 1: of this, the way that you can explain this to someone,
Speaker 1: hopefully in terms that they can understand our um that
Speaker 1: racism are is just a set of personal biases, um,
Speaker 1: personal prejudices, and that gets scaled up to misuse and
Speaker 1: abusive power. And then I mean, this is this is
Speaker 1: the way. This is the way that I saw someone
Speaker 1: explain this to their parents is that, Um, someone was
Speaker 1: someone's parents were like very anti looting, um, and then uh,
Speaker 1: this person was like, well, mom, what would make you
Speaker 1: so angry that you would want to smash a window in?
Speaker 1: And she was like, well, if they hurt my family
Speaker 1: or my children, or if my livelihood was taken away,
Speaker 1: then that would drive me to such anger that I
Speaker 1: would do that. And I mean this is just assuming
Speaker 1: that um, a majority of these agitation like that a
Speaker 1: majority of these sort of agitating events of looting happening
Speaker 1: or whatever. I mean that that's just assuming that that
Speaker 1: it's all being sort of orchestrated by the protesters themselves,
Speaker 1: when I mean, we're seeing it's not the case, and
Speaker 1: it's people who are being opportunistic either um, either on
Speaker 1: the far right or people who are just like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just or just like some fucking idiot white dude
Speaker 1: who like goes into a surf shop that's been broken
Speaker 1: into and takes the fucking surfboard out, like like we like,
Speaker 1: there's just like a million different reasons for people to
Speaker 1: act horrendously right now, and none of that can be
Speaker 1: lumped together in a way that is uh neatly filed
Speaker 1: away into be certain people's mind. And um, another thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a conversation with someone close to
Speaker 1: me and this was the first thing they said. You know,
Speaker 1: we began the conversation, it was, well, this is not
Speaker 1: how you get the point across. And just if you
Speaker 1: have that conversation with someone in your life, try to
Speaker 1: redirect to that conversation to why this is happening. And
Speaker 1: this is happening because there is a violent, murderous pattern
Speaker 1: in this country that has to do with police killing
Speaker 1: black people. Innocent black people. That is what we should
Speaker 1: be as a nation most furious about and try to
Speaker 1: make the people in your life understand when someone is
Speaker 1: using their voice and that is and that voice is
Speaker 1: a minority person, you must listen to that voice. It's
Speaker 1: like this with That's why when people say believe women,
Speaker 1: women have everything to lose when they step forward and
Speaker 1: they say I was assaulted by this person, powerful or not,
Speaker 1: That's why you listen to that person, the weaker person
Speaker 1: in the argument, because logically they step forward with everything
Speaker 1: to lose, because we can see historically that the the
Speaker 1: accused in this situation, which you know, let's say whoever
Speaker 1: it is like white man man. However, these are people
Speaker 1: that historically get away with this, and we we there's
Speaker 1: there's a record of this there. It's just it's a
Speaker 1: tale as old as time. So when black people take
Speaker 1: to the streets and they say stop killing us, that
Speaker 1: person is taking a risk doing that, and every all
Speaker 1: they're risking their life. They don't do this lightly. Do
Speaker 1: you think that every protester in America woke up today
Speaker 1: and said, you know what I'd like to do, risk
Speaker 1: my life screaming in the streets. No, they don't want
Speaker 1: to do that. They want to be treated fairly. They
Speaker 1: want to live. They want to be able to go
Speaker 1: to work, live their life, raise their family, only live
Speaker 1: in their own apartment, do basic things that everyone else
Speaker 1: is able to do. But they're not because they have
Speaker 1: to see on the news all the time explicitly why
Speaker 1: they can't do that or why they should be afraid.
Speaker 1: They have to watch a video of Amy Cooper, who
Speaker 1: should be in jail, by the way, knowingly call attempting
Speaker 1: to call the police, then calling the police and saying,
Speaker 1: there is an African American male threatening my life because
Speaker 1: a birder said leash your dog. Because she was breaking,
Speaker 1: she was violating, She was breaking a lot, weaponizing police
Speaker 1: brutality in a way that was she was so aware
Speaker 1: of it and with malicious intent. She called the police
Speaker 1: on Christian Cooper. And we should point out that her
Speaker 1: apology quote unquote was also um forget how well. It
Speaker 1: also just had that trademark line of I'm not racist. Um.
Speaker 1: Denial is built into racism. You cannot deny. This applies
Speaker 1: for everyone, us included, just everyone. Everyone. Denial is built
Speaker 1: into racism. Anytime we have been racist, we have at
Speaker 1: one point or another. I'll speak for myself, have had
Speaker 1: the instinct to deny, but absolutely that's a that's an
Speaker 1: instinct you have to kill immediately because in the recent
Speaker 1: discourse of racism, like this is where you get your
Speaker 1: I mean, the reason why you're Richard Spencer's say ship
Speaker 1: like racism went from being um a descriptive word to
Speaker 1: a pejorative word. It's not you cannot frame it around
Speaker 1: it being this word that like is condemning. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's obviously a condemning word, but it's not a word
Speaker 1: that is um out to. You're not gonna go to
Speaker 1: jail for being called that. You're not going to die
Speaker 1: for being called that. Now, what what you're doing? What
Speaker 1: what's happening is you're being called out, and in that
Speaker 1: call out, truly like literally, what is the worst thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen? Like, you know what, you have to
Speaker 1: use that as an opportunity to grow. And I think
Speaker 1: that because there is so much reactionary people are people
Speaker 1: are afraid that they're gonna lose everything or look bad
Speaker 1: by being called out because of the things that they've
Speaker 1: done and said. That is unfortunately something you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to shoulder. And it is where no one is saying
Speaker 1: fuck you like you're done forever. We're just saying these
Speaker 1: are patterns of behavior that we as a human race
Speaker 1: have to change as as white people, as non black people,
Speaker 1: we have to understand these ways that we demean black
Speaker 1: people knowingly and unknowingly and even worse than de mean, degrade, dehumanized,
Speaker 1: murder kill. I want to because I know that we
Speaker 1: are also dealing with this in the middle of a pandemic.
Speaker 1: So many people are not comfortable taking to the streets,
Speaker 1: and that is understandable. And let's just say to everyone,
Speaker 1: not all forms of activism are for everyone, Not all
Speaker 1: forms of protests are for everyone. I would like to
Speaker 1: read some organizations right now, some good organizations that you
Speaker 1: can donate your money to, and I want to implore
Speaker 1: you to send money to these organizations. And I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna do the thing of if you can give,
Speaker 1: you can all give. You can some of you can
Speaker 1: give five dollars, some of you can give five dollars.
Speaker 1: And there are thousands of people that listen to this podcast.
Speaker 1: We're at a point now where, um, you, we have
Speaker 1: to ask ourselves if we're willing to be uncomfortable in
Speaker 1: every kind of way, and that includes financially. I mean
Speaker 1: you have to have to have to you have to
Speaker 1: by whatever degree you want to define it by. I
Speaker 1: sound like like I'm saying nothing, But what I mean
Speaker 1: is like you have to decide how uncomfortable you're willing
Speaker 1: to be in order to make things better or not
Speaker 1: even better, just do do right by people. This is
Speaker 1: not even this is not comfortable for Bowen and I
Speaker 1: to discuss flat out, like, I don't think either of
Speaker 1: us are in our element doing this, but that is
Speaker 1: part of that is part of the work. Part of
Speaker 1: this is we are stopped for this episode. We are
Speaker 1: stopping this the podcast as it exists, because we have
Speaker 1: to address what is going on. Bowen and I are comedians.
Speaker 1: We but we also have a platform here, and I
Speaker 1: am I was really sick of just being a tweet
Speaker 1: and an Instagram story with a swipe up you. I
Speaker 1: just would feel really sick if like we look back
Speaker 1: at this moment and didn't do everything that we could
Speaker 1: with this platform. And I know that because I I
Speaker 1: know it. I know there are people that listen to
Speaker 1: this podcast. Maybe there aren't thousands of people that listen
Speaker 1: to this podcast, but there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: that listen to this podcast who have expressed that they
Speaker 1: think politically differently than we do. I implore you to understand.
Speaker 1: I hope that maybe, like our change in tone just
Speaker 1: gets across to you how how strongly we are taking
Speaker 1: this and I I I want to read these organizations
Speaker 1: that I have donated to that I'm sure Bone has
Speaker 1: donated to, and I want you to consider sending money.
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter Global Network, Reclaim the Block, National Bailout,
Speaker 1: the Black Visions Collective, the n double a CP Legal
Speaker 1: Defense and Educational Fund, the National Police Accountability Project, Color
Speaker 1: of Change Education Fund, Unicorn Riot Campaign, Zero Advancement Project,
Speaker 1: the Martial Project, the George Floyd Memorial Funds, Color of Change,
Speaker 1: Equal Justice Initiative. And I also want to call attention
Speaker 1: to all of the bailout funds that you can go
Speaker 1: to act blue dot com and help out, because that
Speaker 1: is something that I'm really passionate about during this time,
Speaker 1: is making sure that these protesters who are often unfairly
Speaker 1: put in jail. And I want everyone I understand that
Speaker 1: we're all on different Twitter bubbles, but what I am
Speaker 1: seeing is too many instances of peaceful protesters being arrested
Speaker 1: by the police because the police feel quote unquote agitated
Speaker 1: by the nature of that protest. But they are peaceful,
Speaker 1: and they are non violent, and they're being put in
Speaker 1: prison during a pandemic. And so I would like everyone
Speaker 1: to really, if you're thinking all about all these about
Speaker 1: all these organizations, really consider the bail bailout funds because
Speaker 1: people are being put in jail, and those jails are
Speaker 1: cesspools for COVID nineteen and a disease that already, mind you,
Speaker 1: disproportionately affects communities of color already because of the systems
Speaker 1: in place that don't allow people of color to receive
Speaker 1: the same medical care, to receive the same attention in
Speaker 1: their communities. So that's something that I would like to
Speaker 1: call particular attention to those. Yeah, those are great, those
Speaker 1: are great organizations. UM. There is also I think maybe
Speaker 1: an important intersectional element to this, where a lot of
Speaker 1: trans advocacy groups, Black transadvocacy groups are um I'm sure
Speaker 1: are eager to get some funding. Translifeline, Translate Fline, tj
Speaker 1: I Justice Project, the Ocre Project, which is um New
Speaker 1: York based. Uh, it's combating food and security among black
Speaker 1: trans folks. UM doing really important work. There was representative
Speaker 1: today at Sheridan Square. They have sort of two different
Speaker 1: memorial funds for Nina Pop and Tony McDade for mental
Speaker 1: health resources for black trans folks and anything you can
Speaker 1: do to support the project and t G Destice projects
Speaker 1: are are very important. Um and understand too. This is
Speaker 1: redundant to say at this point. This is something that
Speaker 1: we as human beings in America, as Americans, as allies,
Speaker 1: are going to have to do ourselves because there is
Speaker 1: not leadership in this country. We have a president who
Speaker 1: is only focusing on his passionate base. At this point,
Speaker 1: the lights are off in the White House. Literally, he's
Speaker 1: a coward. He's a fucking joke. But unfortunately it's not
Speaker 1: a joke. He actually is the president of the United States.
Speaker 1: And it's redundant to say, but local leaders as well.
Speaker 1: And I live in Los Angeles and not for nothing,
Speaker 1: but Garcetti, you didn't care before either. I've lived here
Speaker 1: a little bit over a year and the homeless situation
Speaker 1: is out of fucking control and everyone knows it. And
Speaker 1: do Blasio do Blasio, I think it's so so upsetting
Speaker 1: for someone to run on a campaign of police reform
Speaker 1: and to use his son as a prompt essentially, I mean, Dante,
Speaker 1: I mean, I I don't mean to to speak on
Speaker 1: that relate that the relationship, but we there there there
Speaker 1: is a window of fairness to call that sort of
Speaker 1: um a proper performance, to use your son as a
Speaker 1: way to emotionally hit a nerve among New Yorkers, among
Speaker 1: people who whip. It's so manipulative, and the cops already
Speaker 1: fucking hate you, and MP already fucking turned your back
Speaker 1: up on you at a at some damn function. What's
Speaker 1: defunding them a little bit more? Gonna do? What's not
Speaker 1: setting a curfew that you very easily and stated within hours,
Speaker 1: even though I don't know during the peak of the
Speaker 1: cocon Nina break, you just very casually we're going to
Speaker 1: call for a lockdown, not really care. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: like it's so transparent, the ways that we are flat,
Speaker 1: the ways that our leaders are flexing their their their
Speaker 1: power for specific, specific, circumstantial things. I mean, the same
Speaker 1: goes for Quoma. I mean, to be honest, I hope
Speaker 1: everyone's boner for a Cuoma is shrinking slight in a
Speaker 1: major way. UM. It's just it's just so upsetting. Um. Everyone,
Speaker 1: If if you're listening to New York UM, look up
Speaker 1: UM ways to Appeal fifty A. That is the civil
Speaker 1: rights m measure that basically UM destroys all police transparency
Speaker 1: in New York State. Look at plays to call your
Speaker 1: assembly person, your state senator, any representative who can help
Speaker 1: bring this to the floor and repeal it. UM demand
Speaker 1: New York Budget Justice UM to reallocate funds. That's what UM,
Speaker 1: That's what we claimed the block and a lot of UM,
Speaker 1: these great organizations in Minnesota are doing. It's it's about
Speaker 1: budget reallocation. It's about changing and dismantling racist policy, because
Speaker 1: that's kind of what we're dealing with. That is the
Speaker 1: that is the source of the problem here. Racist policy
Speaker 1: and that includes police. Yes, modern policing is racist policy
Speaker 1: and is not It has never been about community empowerment.
Speaker 1: It has never been about ensuring the safety of their
Speaker 1: communities that they claim to protect. It is about it
Speaker 1: is a tool for social control i e. White supremacy.
Speaker 1: So everyone, please, UM, there's as people know now. End
Speaker 1: of Leasting is a free e book that people can
Speaker 1: download UM. I am looking forward to really getting into it,
Speaker 1: UM once I finish up some other reading, and to
Speaker 1: speak about Los Angeles. Right before I got on here,
Speaker 1: Garcetti addressed the city. I don't say this as a
Speaker 1: compliment to him at all. I think he's doing the
Speaker 1: best he can and it's not good enough because and
Speaker 1: he needs to go. He needs to go, and we
Speaker 1: really need to get our ships together when we vote, okay,
Speaker 1: because this is a this is beyond unacceptable notifications that
Speaker 1: we're getting on our phone that call for curfews at
Speaker 1: six pm. What they're sending out at five pm. Then
Speaker 1: people are confused, said whether it's a city mandate or
Speaker 1: a county mandate today they call, they say it's at
Speaker 1: six pm. Then we get one that says it's five pm.
Speaker 1: Then he has to issue a correction. What the funk
Speaker 1: is going on? Are you serious? And then he has
Speaker 1: the nerve to get up there in address and say,
Speaker 1: I know it's confusing. It shouldn't be confusing. It should
Speaker 1: be clear, because it's the job of a leader has
Speaker 1: to be clear. This it's brass tacks. This is what
Speaker 1: leadership is. A leader makes clear decisions. Your decisions are unclear,
Speaker 1: and they're messy, and they're confusing the populace and they
Speaker 1: panic people. And that's what you've done to this to
Speaker 1: this city. You've panicked everyone for what because you were
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with the nature of some of the protesting. I've
Speaker 1: seen the videos. I have first hand accounts of people
Speaker 1: who are at protests in l A. That's say, cops
Speaker 1: are shooting rubber bullets at peaceful protesters. While we're on
Speaker 1: the subject, let's talk about the rubber bullets of it all.
Speaker 1: If you think that a rubber bullet can't kill, you're
Speaker 1: sorely mistake. A can, because if a rubber bullet is
Speaker 1: taken to the head fatal, it can have serious it
Speaker 1: can do serious damage. People have lost their eyes their
Speaker 1: eyesight based on actions by the police. UM. We're already
Speaker 1: getting some stories of folks dying at protests. UM. James
Speaker 1: Skurlock in Omaha, Nebraska shot and killed by UM, racist,
Speaker 1: homophobic club owner UM while James is protesting UM and
Speaker 1: UH this business owner David McAfee UM in Louisville, UM
Speaker 1: an arm shot Dad by Louisville police. I mean, they're
Speaker 1: they're the blood sacrifice is still is still happening. I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe that's the way to frame it too. It's like, well, y'all,
Speaker 1: hands up, don't shoot. Isn't a meme. It's begging for mercy.
Speaker 1: And the fact that it's popular is because it happens
Speaker 1: all the time. These words aren't on signs because their memes.
Speaker 1: These words are on signs because they are begging the
Speaker 1: police to not shoot them. Whoever is using them as memes.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, I'm saying, well, I guess what I'm saying. No,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, no, no no. Yeah. It's they're not like slogans.
Speaker 1: They're not slogans. Yeah, this isn't like Also, think about
Speaker 1: if if it was, what the fuck? The fact that
Speaker 1: you see it so much should speak to the tragedy
Speaker 1: of the situation. We are in a tragic situation. We
Speaker 1: need huge, massive change, and we need to not just
Speaker 1: think about the presidential election. And I that's another thing
Speaker 1: I want to say, is you go, You've got a
Speaker 1: lot of people out there that are confused and sort
Speaker 1: of spell bound by the fact that this is happening
Speaker 1: because you really thought racism died with Obama. Racism did
Speaker 1: not die with Obama. You know, America was not made
Speaker 1: great again by Trump, and the soul of America will
Speaker 1: not be healed by Joe Biden. Okay, what's gonna need
Speaker 1: to happen is we're going to need to elect people
Speaker 1: who will protect and respect all Americans on every level
Speaker 1: of government, the d A, on the state level, on
Speaker 1: the local level. We have to really be putting as
Speaker 1: much energy into the big event into the small events
Speaker 1: that feel small. They're not small. What I'm saying is
Speaker 1: they felt small in the past. You think because it's
Speaker 1: not a big seat, because that person isn't gonna become famous,
Speaker 1: that that person is not very important. This is another
Speaker 1: opportunity for everyone to get really granular with who represents you. Um.
Speaker 1: The resources online for that obviously, UM. And look up
Speaker 1: who is running in your districts this election if your
Speaker 1: primary hasn't happened yet. Especially Also, I mean we're not
Speaker 1: we're not endorsing any any particular thing, but um people
Speaker 1: parate politics, I mean has always done me right, um
Speaker 1: or always goes well with my value system, so you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that maybe it might drive with yours too. You know. Also,
Speaker 1: look up your what your ballot is going to be
Speaker 1: before you get to the ballot box, you guys, because
Speaker 1: oftentimes I'll i will not be trying to say I'll
Speaker 1: arrive with the best intentions to the ballots, and then
Speaker 1: I'll get to some of the less publicized races and
Speaker 1: they'll be, you know, five six Democrats running on the ballot,
Speaker 1: but I won't know which one to choose because I
Speaker 1: did not do my due diligence in finding out which
Speaker 1: of those quote unquote Democrats actually have progressive policies. And
Speaker 1: I think that that's something that needs to be talked
Speaker 1: about a little bit more, is understanding every single race
Speaker 1: that you're going to be voting for and and the
Speaker 1: candidates that are running in those races, because let me
Speaker 1: tell you, the harsh truth is that D next to
Speaker 1: that candidate's name doesn't mean ship not anymore, and maybe
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean shit. Really, we need to start getting
Speaker 1: real about what it means to be truly progressive. I
Speaker 1: think hopefully the takeaway in recent days is that whoever
Speaker 1: you're electing into a d A or a prosecutor or
Speaker 1: a judge appointment into any of those offices, that those
Speaker 1: are basically the people who have all the power in
Speaker 1: terms of in terms of what's happening in Minneapolis, Like
Speaker 1: those are the people who have power in charging and
Speaker 1: prosecuting anybody who happens to have murdered a black person.
Speaker 1: I mean, if that shifts sort of your your enthusiasm
Speaker 1: over certain races, um, I hope that sort of yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope. I hope that might be a rejustment in
Speaker 1: your and your view of things. And these progressive candidates
Speaker 1: who are running for d A, that's you know, they've
Speaker 1: these are people who have tried cases in the system
Speaker 1: and they see firsthand. That's why they're running because they
Speaker 1: see firsthand the injustice and that is what it is.
Speaker 1: It's in us, this the lack of justice. So that's
Speaker 1: I guess we really need to be thinking about that
Speaker 1: because what I really hate is the sort of very
Speaker 1: white idea that will can't wait for November when this
Speaker 1: can be over. Guess what you didn't. We did not
Speaker 1: choose the candidate where this is going to be over
Speaker 1: in November. We chose a candidate that will have the
Speaker 1: ear of progressives. Hopefully that's what we have done, but
Speaker 1: that's not a guarantee either. It's that's what I'm saying. Hopefully,
Speaker 1: Hopefully the Democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden, who has
Speaker 1: been a part of this government that has failed us
Speaker 1: for decades. Let's just say that. And of course I
Speaker 1: will support him in this year. Of course I'll support
Speaker 1: him in November. But but it's gonna be work, and
Speaker 1: the work does continue, and I'm not disparaging him, but
Speaker 1: I am saying he has work to do. And if
Speaker 1: you think that it's this, it's this thing of don't
Speaker 1: talk to me about him until until after he's elected. No, no,
Speaker 1: he We we have to get this to a place
Speaker 1: where this is actually going to enact change. We need real, definite, concrete,
Speaker 1: quick change. So it's not about November three comes and
Speaker 1: we elect Biden hopefully and things all get Peach, I
Speaker 1: can't even invest anything in that outcome either. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: not now it'll be it'll be day one. That's when
Speaker 1: the work will start, is when he gets elected. This
Speaker 1: is not gonna be one day you wake up and
Speaker 1: your heeled of the wound. This is gonna be a
Speaker 1: long healing process. Hopefully everyone with a conscience around this,
Speaker 1: which I can't imagine. If you don't, you have to
Speaker 1: commit yourself to do doing this work every day it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what the scale is. I mean it matters, sure,
Speaker 1: but it's like as much as you can take on
Speaker 1: on a day to day level of just examining and
Speaker 1: self reflecting as much as you can and then transmuting
Speaker 1: that into action to dismantled racist policy, that is, that
Speaker 1: is what will get you out of this feeling. That's
Speaker 1: something that you should be prioritizing within yourself. You don't
Speaker 1: have to broadcast that out. I mean, like I am
Speaker 1: catching myself just like shutting myself up and like just
Speaker 1: just I mean, unless it's of use and of service
Speaker 1: to people and it's about donating, even on a baseline level,
Speaker 1: it's like there's there's no reason to really vocalize and
Speaker 1: like some sort of there's no need for your individual
Speaker 1: pathos in this you. Let's just all work towards a
Speaker 1: common goals. That's really I think what you just said
Speaker 1: right there, are sure this is not about a personal
Speaker 1: journey you. It's about us. It's it's about us altogether.
Speaker 1: Chaining the way we spoke about it a few episodes
Speaker 1: episodes ago, about the way we discussed women's bodies. We
Speaker 1: have to make an active decision to change going forward.
Speaker 1: And it is hard, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: and and it's hard because that's what conditioning is, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, this is just psychology. You're
Speaker 1: we were born into a racist world. Yeah, and we
Speaker 1: were born and a lot of people have internalized, you know,
Speaker 1: things that they don't realize that they've internalized. And it's
Speaker 1: it's it's time to accept that that's true and not
Speaker 1: just say that's a shame that that happened to that person.
Speaker 1: That's a shame that happened to that person, and what
Speaker 1: an evil person that did that. We it's it's because
Speaker 1: because in a macro sense, it's not a person that
Speaker 1: did that, it's a system that did that. It's a cult,
Speaker 1: sure that did that. And it's heartbreaking. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: want everyone that feels really tired every time they turn
Speaker 1: on the news that if you're tired of hearing about
Speaker 1: this stuff, you know you're you're exhausted by it. Black
Speaker 1: people have been tired and exhausted for a long time
Speaker 1: because this is the energy that to put in every
Speaker 1: single day. That is the psychic toll that all of
Speaker 1: this takes on a person on an individual level, on
Speaker 1: then on a communal level, where this is Okay, I
Speaker 1: I mean I I posted everyone's kind of seeing the
Speaker 1: Jane Elliott um blue eye brown eyes exercise. Maybe, but
Speaker 1: she she basically rounds up people um, and she tells
Speaker 1: people with blue eyes to put on this dumb little poncho.
Speaker 1: Go in a separate room. Then she explains to people
Speaker 1: with brown eyes, um, hey, um, in this room, these
Speaker 1: this is, these are the social rules that we are
Speaker 1: going to engage, and we're gonna belittle them. We're gonna
Speaker 1: tell that like there's posters all around around the room.
Speaker 1: Let's say, um, blue eyes are only good if they're
Speaker 1: like the brown eyes, or a blue eye should aspire
Speaker 1: to be like a brown eye. All these signals that
Speaker 1: are psychologically taxing on someone with blue eyes, who is
Speaker 1: you know, by virtue of the melanine levels, and their
Speaker 1: eyes and on their skin are white or white passing.
Speaker 1: So she gets all these people in. They are so
Speaker 1: thrown off by being mistreated, even in a closed system
Speaker 1: as as like a classroom somewhere, and inevitably she talks
Speaker 1: about how inevitably, like two people break down in tears,
Speaker 1: one person storms off, and but in this particular exercise
Speaker 1: that was recorded like back in the nineties. She starts
Speaker 1: berating this girl. She doesn't really brate her, but this
Speaker 1: girl sort of breaks down in tears at one point,
Speaker 1: and then Jane goes back to her and she goes,
Speaker 1: you're upset, aren't you? She goes yes. She goes, why
Speaker 1: are you upset? Because, um, I'm made to fealty valued.
Speaker 1: And why are you looking at me? Because I'm afraid
Speaker 1: I'll get even more upset. And as a take energy
Speaker 1: for you not look at me, yes, must be pretty bad. Huh.
Speaker 1: And And what if you have to spend spend that
Speaker 1: energy every single day to not look at me so
Speaker 1: you don't get angrier? Would your heart rate go up?
Speaker 1: She goes yes, yeah, right. And if you thought about
Speaker 1: this the way that your kids experienced the same thing
Speaker 1: every day, that your parents experienced the same thing every day.
Speaker 1: This is the This is the toll that it takes
Speaker 1: on a whole group of people. This is this is
Speaker 1: this is a pathos that is happening on a worldwide level.
Speaker 1: White supremacy is the great tragedy of the world because
Speaker 1: it has led to capitalism, which is then basically plundered
Speaker 1: our natural resources. It's destroying the world race is a
Speaker 1: construct invented by some Portuguese fucking prints in the fourteen
Speaker 1: hundreds and then later on categorized by Carlinaeus himself, the
Speaker 1: guy who fucking does the homo sapiens, you know, by
Speaker 1: binomial taxonomy whatever whatever the it's called. But just don't
Speaker 1: ever use that, don't don't ever, don't ever term animals
Speaker 1: that way anymore. Just once you realize that like the
Speaker 1: father of racial hierarchies also invented animal hierarchies, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Just don't buy into it anyway. I'm saying that this
Speaker 1: is this is this, this is a this is a
Speaker 1: communal pain we're expressing, we're experiencing, and and Matt has
Speaker 1: has touched on that in a very eloquent way too. Again,
Speaker 1: we're not the best people to talk about this. We
Speaker 1: are not black, but we are um taking this time
Speaker 1: to reiterate our solidarity, our action among our black siblings.
Speaker 1: You know that all being said, like black people have
Speaker 1: been saying this, yes, of course, and that's why I think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, mostly, I guess the message that I want
Speaker 1: to get out right now is to the white people
Speaker 1: that are listening to this podcast, And there are a
Speaker 1: ton of you. It's time to engage with two things.
Speaker 1: Yourself and everything that you might be cultured to believe. Think, really,
Speaker 1: start asking yourself questions about the way that you where
Speaker 1: you came from, the way you lived your life. Here's something.
Speaker 1: Have you never left your town? It's fine if you haven't,
Speaker 1: but understand that you have a very limited scope of
Speaker 1: the world. Try to try to think about who are
Speaker 1: the voices that you're hearing from that are screaming out
Speaker 1: that there's a problem. Have they what have they experienced
Speaker 1: more than just the small town you live in. Then
Speaker 1: they probably know something that you don't. And I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that, I'm not saying like this is not about
Speaker 1: educated people are better. This is not about you know,
Speaker 1: people who live in cities are better. It's about the
Speaker 1: fact that by nature of exposing yourself to more than
Speaker 1: just a small world, you do learn more, and you
Speaker 1: do gain that empathy, and you do gain that knowledge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's it's okay if you are the kind of
Speaker 1: person who has always lived where you've lived, but understand
Speaker 1: that that is not the world. That's not the world.
Speaker 1: And the second thing you need to engage with is
Speaker 1: not just yourself and not just ask yourself those hard questions.
Speaker 1: Engage with those relatives of yours. It's really difficult. But
Speaker 1: not not just the relatives, is engaged with what you
Speaker 1: see other people, external people that are in your life.
Speaker 1: That's say that funck up thing, that's say that racist thing,
Speaker 1: that do that racist thing that that indicate that racist behavior.
Speaker 1: Tell them you will lose me if you continue to
Speaker 1: behavior this way. I've had it, I personally me, Matt
Speaker 1: Rogers have had it. I am not dealing with that
Speaker 1: racist behavior anymore. It is dead to me. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're just I think in thinking that statements, I think
Speaker 1: we're I think hopefully people can understand that we're just
Speaker 1: asking um for our listeners to hold themselves accountable, hold
Speaker 1: their loved ones accountable, and we promise we will hold
Speaker 1: ourselves accountable to you and to this movement and to
Speaker 1: mutual aid and to the greater good of this moment.
Speaker 1: I mean, I hate to use the word greater good
Speaker 1: because the people who use that word often end up
Speaker 1: being m hedemonic white people who like to go back
Speaker 1: to the good old days or whatever. But it's like
Speaker 1: we promised to do better, to call each other in
Speaker 1: slash out when if and when and they will and
Speaker 1: if and when sort of these instances happen again. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm thinking about how quickly and comfortably and
Speaker 1: nimbly we've sort of like kind of bartered in like
Speaker 1: black female language. And you know, I this is just
Speaker 1: I know this is an uncomfortable thing for us to
Speaker 1: talk about, MAP, but it's like, this is just something
Speaker 1: that I've thought about between you and I, and it's
Speaker 1: just like, and I'm sorry to air this out publicly,
Speaker 1: but it's like that's something that you and I have
Speaker 1: to keep an awareness for. And I'm just I'm just
Speaker 1: sort of saying this to you now as a way
Speaker 1: to hold each other accountable to everybody, everybody. It's important. Yeah. Also,
Speaker 1: when you speak of the good old days, let's just
Speaker 1: say right now that that they were there were never
Speaker 1: good old days. There were good old days for for you,
Speaker 1: the white person, you know what I mean, Like there
Speaker 1: were good old days for you the ignorant non black person,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like this is this is
Speaker 1: not And that's another thing is a lot of people
Speaker 1: are they think that this has come out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: This is not going out of nowhere. This is just
Speaker 1: it's I mean, it's Will Smith said, it's like racism
Speaker 1: is not getting worse, it's getting filmed. It's getting filmed.
Speaker 1: I saw that. That's you know, that's that's where this
Speaker 1: comes from. In regard to the way that we behave,
Speaker 1: what I would say is I think that there is
Speaker 1: a lot. There's a lot to being queer and trying
Speaker 1: to find identity and trying to find the way that
Speaker 1: you want to express yourself. And sometimes the prism through
Speaker 1: which we refract that identity is an established vocabulary, one
Speaker 1: that seems one that seems very fun and very exciting,
Speaker 1: um and very like adaptive and cool and dynamic, and
Speaker 1: it always changes and there's always something new. But we
Speaker 1: have to I'm but I'm you know, we have to
Speaker 1: recognize that that is not something that is for us
Speaker 1: is for us, or I mean, except for except for
Speaker 1: the times when it's like, you know, a catchphrase that
Speaker 1: Matt himself will come up truly independently and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: But like you know, when whenever Matt need goes, let's go,
Speaker 1: I said, like that, it's like, I don't know, as
Speaker 1: opposed to like other times when it's like I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm thinking about digital black face, where people just
Speaker 1: use gifts of like nemi leaks and shed like a
Speaker 1: white person will use the gift of nemi leaks too,
Speaker 1: like eyebrow rais or something. I'm just like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Like that is a seemingly innocuous microaggression. Let's say to
Speaker 1: to like unearth a term that we just eulogized twenty
Speaker 1: minutes ago. But it's like but that, but but now
Speaker 1: we're just realizing that none of that is nuanced, none
Speaker 1: of that is actually innocuous or um harmless. It's all harmful.
Speaker 1: And I think that there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: people that listen to this right now, this conversation and think, Okay,
Speaker 1: they are overdoing it. That is actually part of the
Speaker 1: way you get better at this everyone is you have
Speaker 1: to over analyze this type of thing. You have to
Speaker 1: really analyze your behavior to to bring it to a
Speaker 1: place of acceptability. And maybe you don't, maybe you Matt
Speaker 1: Rodgers don't agree with me on this point that I'm raising,
Speaker 1: But it's like, but that's the thing that we're sort
Speaker 1: of negotiating to right It's like, I'm i be over
Speaker 1: correcting in a way, But it's it's it's better to
Speaker 1: overcorrect because you're at least at least then you're getting
Speaker 1: into a place where it's correct dead, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Better to err on the side of
Speaker 1: empathy and responsibility and accountability than allowing it to you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of the thing of like when someone tweets
Speaker 1: something and it gets liked, well, it must have been
Speaker 1: good or useful, not true. And when you say something
Speaker 1: and it gets laughs, then that must have been funny
Speaker 1: or useful or good, not true. And so that's why
Speaker 1: I do believe there is a lot of validity and
Speaker 1: what you're saying about, you know, doing that hard work
Speaker 1: of really deeply analyzing where you got something, why you're
Speaker 1: doing the thing that you're doing. There's a there's a
Speaker 1: lot to examine there, and what you're saying. For sure,
Speaker 1: the conversation between you and ice friends is like someone
Speaker 1: engaging in productive as far as building towards accountability. Right. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: what we really just need, I think, and what I've
Speaker 1: what I've really looked inward about and what I've been
Speaker 1: talking about is just the acknowledgement that there's something extremely
Speaker 1: wrong with the world, that the way it is, and
Speaker 1: that's why we stop everything, and that's why your protest
Speaker 1: and I just of course I want to live in
Speaker 1: a world where people are allowed to protest, get their
Speaker 1: get get their feelings out there, make people understand, make
Speaker 1: people heard. And I think that there's a force coming
Speaker 1: back at us right now, which is a lot of
Speaker 1: people in this country and the systems in this in
Speaker 1: this country that are in place that are stopping that
Speaker 1: from happening. And I think that on this podcast today,
Speaker 1: right here, right now, what's important for us to say,
Speaker 1: and I hope this is clear, is that we do
Speaker 1: hear you, and we are furious alongside you and black
Speaker 1: lives matter, and that we are going to be part
Speaker 1: of that change and we are going to be part
Speaker 1: of the work and it will change no matter what.
Speaker 1: And it's not lost on us as queer people as
Speaker 1: we are. This is the first episode we're gonna be
Speaker 1: doing in Pride Month that the reason why we even
Speaker 1: have rights to begin with is because if there was
Speaker 1: a brick throne. So let's not pretend like you know
Speaker 1: something that's you know, the Pride Month is celebrated in
Speaker 1: elementary school classrooms nowadays. Okay, so let's not pretend that
Speaker 1: like that didn't start in a quote unquote violent way
Speaker 1: or a physical way, because it did. It did not
Speaker 1: start as a parade. It started as a riot and
Speaker 1: started by people who ended up being marginalized again to
Speaker 1: this day by black trans women that just enter in
Speaker 1: the way that we've talked about we're issues after marriage equality.
Speaker 1: It's like somehow it recentered on sister under white men. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it became you know, gay rights was spoken about by
Speaker 1: white gaze. The face of gay rights were white gays
Speaker 1: or um, you know, gorgeous white lesbians, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like, and that I think has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with the fact that gay rights had to
Speaker 1: be marketed to white men, and who are white men
Speaker 1: gonna listen to white men? And I think that's why
Speaker 1: we have the sort of rollout of rights the way
Speaker 1: we've had, you know what I mean, like or the
Speaker 1: visibility has rolled out the way it has, Like it
Speaker 1: took years and years, Like when people started talking about
Speaker 1: gay rights, they were not talking about like I mean
Speaker 1: even in two thousand and seven, two eight, whenever. It
Speaker 1: was when we were at the end of high school
Speaker 1: and there started to be some kids in class that
Speaker 1: were like, actually, I think gay people should get married.
Speaker 1: I mean, so you could say that same kid who
Speaker 1: was in support of gay rights, what about trans and
Speaker 1: that that kid would be like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no no no no. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's work that we have to constantly be doing because
Speaker 1: it's it doesn't make sense that you would say that,
Speaker 1: but you do. You did say that, and we did
Speaker 1: say that because that's what we were conditioned to do.
Speaker 1: And it's about unlearning that, understanding the hypocrisy and that
Speaker 1: and there's still there's so much too and learn because
Speaker 1: so much is static. In this particular conversation today, is
Speaker 1: that we're having echoes of protests that happened fifty years ago,
Speaker 1: that happened twenty years ago. It's it's it's just tickets
Speaker 1: taken for granted, that it's thematically, that it's just repetitive,
Speaker 1: that it's just it's just amount to live at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I just I just want to emphasize that, um,
Speaker 1: we are not at all interested in any sort of
Speaker 1: optical version of ally ship. I mean, we realized that
Speaker 1: we're aware of this platform, and that's what we're sort
Speaker 1: of intended, and that that's what we're putting our intention
Speaker 1: behind right now with this episode. But this is this,
Speaker 1: this is earnest. We're we're we're we're talking about action here,
Speaker 1: so we're talking about accountability. We're talking about um holding
Speaker 1: ourselves accountable. So I hope, I hope everyone can join us,
Speaker 1: and by all means, if you turn this off an
Speaker 1: hour ago to go listen to a black voice speak
Speaker 1: on this issue, good please God. And I also want
Speaker 1: to really encourage everyone that is sharing things on social
Speaker 1: media share, share a black voice, amplify a black voice,
Speaker 1: don't retweet whoever, don't readtweet Ellen, don't retweet, you know,
Speaker 1: amplify black voices during this time. And I just it's let's,
Speaker 1: you know, let's really think about the things that work
Speaker 1: can assuming where they're coming from, because there's agendas all
Speaker 1: over the place. I mean, in the media is a mess,
Speaker 1: and that's a whole other issue. The media is a
Speaker 1: mess and has interests, has interest in other places than
Speaker 1: just your knowledge, and that is that is another system
Speaker 1: that is broken. And this is what I mean when
Speaker 1: I say it has to start with us, because you
Speaker 1: can't look to anyone in mainstream news really and really
Speaker 1: trust where that is coming from. You certainly can't look
Speaker 1: to our elected leaders, not all of them, and trust
Speaker 1: that they have that they don't have their hands tied
Speaker 1: up in something. We have to do this ourselves based
Speaker 1: on what is right and what is wrong. And that's
Speaker 1: really important, I think is don't wait to be told
Speaker 1: what to do. You know what's right and wrong. Go
Speaker 1: with yourself, but but receptive to other people, UM guiding
Speaker 1: you along that journey. So at at about this time
Speaker 1: in the podcast, um, we would do I don't think so, honey,
Speaker 1: And we're not going to do that. I think that instead,
Speaker 1: what I would encourage everyone to do is to take
Speaker 1: the next two minutes that Bowen and I wouldn't ordinarily
Speaker 1: take to do I don't think so, honey, and donate
Speaker 1: however much you can to one of those organizations that
Speaker 1: I listed before, those groups that I listed before. Take
Speaker 1: that time. When did we ever pretend to not be
Speaker 1: who we are? You know what I mean? Like? Everyone
Speaker 1: lose the ego? Lose the ego? Um? Okay, well that
Speaker 1: this is this is this is feeling in about two
Speaker 1: minutes of time anyway, So well here, how about this?
Speaker 1: What George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Ahmad are Very Tamir, Rice
Speaker 1: Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Fialando Castile, Samuel de Bos,
Speaker 1: Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Terrence Crutcher. Say their names, Um,
Speaker 1: it's I guarantee you it will sort of steal something
Speaker 1: in you, in your soul once you say those names.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you haven't, I'm sure a lot of
Speaker 1: people have, but um, you know, learned their stories and
Speaker 1: understand who they were. That front page of the New
Speaker 1: York Times a couple of weeks ago that was um
Speaker 1: had listed all the deaths from COVID. That was beyond
Speaker 1: moving to me because it didn't say just the name
Speaker 1: of the age. It said name age. It said had
Speaker 1: an easy laugh. Name age always said hello to everyone.
Speaker 1: These are human beings. These are human beings that deserve
Speaker 1: to be treated with the same respect and dignity, and
Speaker 1: deserve safety, and deserve to be able to live their
Speaker 1: life without worrying that they're going to have a police
Speaker 1: officer step on their neck for eight minutes and the
Speaker 1: last things they hear are the people around them screaming
Speaker 1: at that person to stop. It's crazy, and you've seen
Speaker 1: it with your eyes, and you saw it years ago
Speaker 1: with Eric Garner. Nobody deserves this. This is a tragedy.
Speaker 1: We are living in the middle of a death, a
Speaker 1: nationwide death, and we have to save ourselves. We are
Speaker 1: gasping for breath because that those people, they're us. We all,
Speaker 1: we all have to do this together. This is unacceptable
Speaker 1: and you have to start looking for reasons to let
Speaker 1: yourself up the hook. If you hear that person say, well,
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have been doing this, well they shouldn't have
Speaker 1: been doing that. Really, look that person in the eyes
Speaker 1: and say, but they deserve to die for it, for
Speaker 1: selling cigarettes on the street. Are you kidding? Are you crazy?
Speaker 1: These people have murder in their hearts, these cops. It's
Speaker 1: sick that we It's a very sick disease. The way
Speaker 1: we the way we address this is by fighting racist policy.
Speaker 1: And racist policy is abroad catch all for any process
Speaker 1: or law written or unwritten that's endangers lives, creates an
Speaker 1: equity based on race, and this is the thing police
Speaker 1: are tool too and force social control. And it's not
Speaker 1: just it's not just about not participating in these things.
Speaker 1: Loudly denounced loudly call out, shut it down, shut it down.
Speaker 1: You whatever your personal stay s are amount to absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing compared to what is being fought for on the
Speaker 1: streets right now. Absolutely think about that. Just just think
Speaker 1: in those terms. If you can, I hope, I hope
Speaker 1: you can absolutely and UM to everyone out there who
Speaker 1: needs to hear this, we have your back. And I
Speaker 1: apologize deeply and profoundly that it has taken me this
Speaker 1: long to get this upset and this angry. But know
Speaker 1: that I am and I am committed to the change,
Speaker 1: and you can know that. And i'd really, like I
Speaker 1: said before, I'm sure you felt the same way, Bowen.
Speaker 1: I just did not want to be a tweet anymore.
Speaker 1: But this is the thing. It's it's a cumulative thing
Speaker 1: because I I fucking lost it, lost it, lost it
Speaker 1: when Eric Garner died, marched marched in downtown Manhattan that night,
Speaker 1: um one of the nights, I should say, and just
Speaker 1: thinking I remember thinking like I just remember feeling helpless
Speaker 1: back then. But it's all cumulative because nothing has changed,
Speaker 1: nothing has changed. And this is my this is part
Speaker 1: of like what's calcified like mentally for me is like Okay,
Speaker 1: we need to like really really really focus on on
Speaker 1: the action on the problem, which is policy. So this
Speaker 1: is my thing. It's like the fact that de Blasio
Speaker 1: did not lift a fucking finger, I mean, and and
Speaker 1: then the officer who was fired, by the way, um
Speaker 1: I wasn't even fired by de Blasia. It was just
Speaker 1: the precinct sort of whoever led the precinct with just
Speaker 1: made the decision, like fucking what four years later last
Speaker 1: August to to to let him go after he wasn't
Speaker 1: connected of anything. It's like to Blasia, it's like, this
Speaker 1: is this is the thing. The people who enforce enact
Speaker 1: generate policy, racist policy are the ones that we should
Speaker 1: hold accountable, Like that is the problem. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: we're all sort of making sure we're on the same
Speaker 1: page behaviorally as like citizens and as people, as as
Speaker 1: as like accomplices and allies in the movement we direct
Speaker 1: our attention. It's like, I I am, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: already speaking for myself. I'm not really concerned with calling
Speaker 1: out someone's behavior on social media. They're not posting enough,
Speaker 1: they're not you know, doing this, they're not doing that.
Speaker 1: It's like that person is not responsible necessarily for racism
Speaker 1: on the same scale that someone like de Blasio. Let's
Speaker 1: just say, at least as a New York or like,
Speaker 1: let's say, like de Blasio is that we should be
Speaker 1: directing our energy at at people and things and institutions
Speaker 1: that are generating racist policy. I have constant flashbacks to
Speaker 1: to Eric, to Eric Garner. It's like nothing, nothing's changed.
Speaker 1: It's been watched it. We watched it, repeat, we watched
Speaker 1: it happened again. It just instead of instead of a
Speaker 1: hand around someone's neck, it was a foot. Me was
Speaker 1: in fucking knee something that you can completely control your
Speaker 1: center of gravity on whatever. I don't even want to
Speaker 1: talk about. It makes me sick. I was saying to
Speaker 1: Jared before. I was like the evil in someone's heart
Speaker 1: that you have to have to put your knee on
Speaker 1: the neck of another human being. It's it's it's the
Speaker 1: depths of evil. I cannot even understand. It's the depth,
Speaker 1: it's it's the darkest evil. And the people that would
Speaker 1: support and encourage a system and yes, I will say
Speaker 1: Amy Cooper again, white women like that who would clutch
Speaker 1: their pearls and allow a system like that. Some white
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton supporter who thinks they're better than that. That's
Speaker 1: the denial that's built into racism. That's the denial that's
Speaker 1: built into racism. How could it be me? But I
Speaker 1: do all these things, I I do this that the
Speaker 1: other thing it is you, it's us. Um. You want
Speaker 1: to know something fascinating. Um, at the start of COVID,
Speaker 1: when there was kind of a spike in Uh. This
Speaker 1: is not to this is not to center the conversation
Speaker 1: on another racial group, but this is just this is
Speaker 1: just a point. The point of making is this. Statistically,
Speaker 1: most of the perpetrators of Asian hate crimes during the
Speaker 1: beginnings of COVID and probably still um, were white women. Yeah,
Speaker 1: white women were the ones like spitting in people's faces,
Speaker 1: in Asian people's faces, and like god, there's so many
Speaker 1: clips out of Australian ship of like these insane, insane,
Speaker 1: satanic seventeen year old fucking girls screaming, spewing fucking invective
Speaker 1: at Asian people and it's okay, Yeah, you can actually completely,
Speaker 1: completely so cleanly draw a straight line um from that
Speaker 1: instance too. Just a general just a general white supremacy,
Speaker 1: just a general mentality of colonialism where um it's about
Speaker 1: it's it's about dominating UM and and subordinating another culture.
Speaker 1: That's it disgusting. So that's just disgusting. We're dealing with
Speaker 1: the same thing here, That's all I'm saying. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's obviously different scale, Like it's obviously a different scale.
Speaker 1: So I could not stop. I could not stop thinking
Speaker 1: about the Amy Cooper thing. I was like, she really
Speaker 1: it might as well have been charged with attempted murder.
Speaker 1: It was an attempted murder in my opinion, that is
Speaker 1: what that was. She had malicious attempt. She weaponized her privilege,
Speaker 1: she weaponized that the call, she knew what the call
Speaker 1: meant and knowingly vocalized it. Disgusting. The most disgusting person
Speaker 1: I've seen in quite some time now. In wrapping up, Yeah,
Speaker 1: hope now you've donated to something UM. I hope that
Speaker 1: you have. And again I just like to highlight act
Speaker 1: blue dot com. You know you can go there and
Speaker 1: if you forward slash donate UM you can find many
Speaker 1: different bail funds UM to support. And I do think
Speaker 1: that that is something we should be taking an extra
Speaker 1: look at because again we are in the middle of
Speaker 1: this pandemic and that is this could turn out to
Speaker 1: be an even bigger tragedy. Please, I I know that
Speaker 1: I'm giving. This isn't this is not a pat on
Speaker 1: my back either, But I am giving more than I
Speaker 1: have been comfortable giving, because that's that is what we
Speaker 1: must do. We we owe more than that, so much
Speaker 1: more than that. I absolutely agree, Act Blue is um
Speaker 1: a good a good sort of than you for that
Speaker 1: bail split If you look, if you google bail split
Speaker 1: one word, UM, I think you are able to make
Speaker 1: one donation and split that amount to various bail funds
Speaker 1: throughout the country. UM. If that's also of interest. Boone
Speaker 1: and I have a lot of love in our hearts
Speaker 1: and we want to We're sending all that love out
Speaker 1: with the message that we are working hard for what
Speaker 1: it's worth. We have loved, we have a lot of
Speaker 1: love in our hearts or whatever it's worth, for whatever
Speaker 1: it's worth. I'm not and I'm not saying that to
Speaker 1: minimize what you just said, Map, but I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's something that Um, it's an element of
Speaker 1: what we're It's the fuel for our motivation, it's the
Speaker 1: fuel for our intentions. Sorry, God, I'm like, I'm just
Speaker 1: like all my words are blending together at this No.
Speaker 1: I mean like, look, I don't like this wasn't a
Speaker 1: thing where we before this episode got together and we're like,
Speaker 1: here's the right thing to say. No, no, no, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like we got on here and
Speaker 1: we're speaking from our hearts and we're speaking from our
Speaker 1: position and our perspective, and what what what we're saying
Speaker 1: is we know that things have to change, and things
Speaker 1: have had to change, and we are arriving late to
Speaker 1: this moment where we were, and we are employing the
Speaker 1: people that may listen to us to really consider this
Speaker 1: and give this the thought and the consideration that it deserves,
Speaker 1: which is all of your thought and consideration and your resources.
Speaker 1: I've been sent a link to donation resources, pase have more,
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles UM chapter of Black Lives Matter. We said, look, well,
Speaker 1: even I think when we released this episode, obviously will
Speaker 1: be posting links to all of these organizations. So thank
Speaker 1: you to our epana for sending that linked to us
Speaker 1: UM and we will be sure to signal boost all
Speaker 1: of those. And this is not the new tone of
Speaker 1: the podcast, but understand that this is the This is
Speaker 1: in a way that we can protest in a way,
Speaker 1: absolutely and it's necessary. It's absolutely necessary because this needs
Speaker 1: to be shut down and changed and we will come
Speaker 1: back and we will be the lost cultural stass that
Speaker 1: you know and love. And we had a really fun
Speaker 1: episode plan today where we were going to talk a
Speaker 1: lot about drag Race, and you know what, shout out
Speaker 1: to Jada Estence Hall. Shout out to Jada, because you
Speaker 1: did that and you were the only winner of that
Speaker 1: show and it deserves and I'm so happy that you
Speaker 1: won it someone who brought their work ethic and lead
Speaker 1: without the entire time. And she said something beautiful about
Speaker 1: how you know her her portrayal on the show, it
Speaker 1: kind of would almost appear like she was just only
Speaker 1: a pageant queen, like she just wears beautiful dresses. But
Speaker 1: she said beautifully that where she comes from, those things
Speaker 1: are not are just something that she never would have
Speaker 1: had access to. She had to make nice things for herself.
Speaker 1: It's it's all about it's a beautiful story about sort
Speaker 1: of self starting. And then on the finale net where
Speaker 1: she talks abou out just her grandma and the movies
Speaker 1: that they would want in her grandma, introducing her to
Speaker 1: like Letz Taylor and Judy Garland and it's like and
Speaker 1: how they'll clothes that Jada wears now are an homage
Speaker 1: to those, to those experiences she shared with her grandma.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't beat that. You can't beat two
Speaker 1: narratives like that. And those narratives were left out of
Speaker 1: the show until the very end. Yes, and so we're
Speaker 1: very proud of Jada Essence tall and we so Luca
Speaker 1: rooted for her for day from day. She was the
Speaker 1: only winner. She was the only winner, the only winner.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about this more in depth, absolutely, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we'll be We'll be back, y'all. It's just this, this,
Speaker 1: this is a necessary moment in time. Please change the
Speaker 1: way that you have interacted with with this moment in time.
Speaker 1: I know it feels far away from you because Dawn Television,
Speaker 1: it's online, it's not it's inside you. And we have
Speaker 1: to do this sucks. We have to be the change. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we love you very much. We do, and feel free
Speaker 1: to reach out if you have thoughts, concerns. We will
Speaker 1: do our best to respond. I opened up d M
Speaker 1: s um at the beginning of the outbreak to talk
Speaker 1: about Asian specific stuff. East Asian Asian specific stuff. UM.
Speaker 1: I obviously don't have as much to contribute to this
Speaker 1: conversation in the way of personal experience, UM when it
Speaker 1: comes to black experiences. But I'm happy to talk about stuff.
Speaker 1: If you heard something on this episode and want to
Speaker 1: talk it out likewise to a to an extent, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna no, I get it, I get it.
Speaker 1: The d ms can get nuts. But of course, of
Speaker 1: course willing to engage and get better and grow from
Speaker 1: this because what we have said is guaranteed not perfect. No,
Speaker 1: of course not. But don't don't get what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is don't get m I d M s and say
Speaker 1: Hashtag Team Crystal get the sunk out. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we don't want any of that. I don't care. Like
Speaker 1: I tell you, I don't care. I don't care. Also,
Speaker 1: if if if what this is what I'll say, If
Speaker 1: I don't think so, honey, if the one thing you
Speaker 1: got from this conversation is no, never mind, if it's no, actually,
Speaker 1: Hashtag Team Crystal, go fund yourself. Oh yeah, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna come in, if you're gonna come at us with
Speaker 1: hashtag Team Crystal after all of this, now, you're done,
Speaker 1: you're done. We'll be back. Y'all. Just take this moment.
Speaker 1: Let's reflect, Let's examine that, examine that we love you.
Speaker 1: We love you, Bye bye,