WEBVTT - Our New American Nightmare

0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:15.040
<v Speaker 1>Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with

0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:20.480
<v Speaker 1>Meet your Girl Danielle Moody pre recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,

0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:25.720
<v Speaker 1>I hope that you have enjoyed this week on WOKF

0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:30.160
<v Speaker 1>our Cookout Week, where we have been in conversation with

0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:34.120
<v Speaker 1>some of my favorite past guests and friends to talk

0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:39.800
<v Speaker 1>about our complicated relationship with Independence Week in America with

0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.400
<v Speaker 1>the Fourth of July holiday, and the complicated relationship that

0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.720
<v Speaker 1>I think that all of us have either had from

0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:53.239
<v Speaker 1>birth or developed over time with a country that we

0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:58.400
<v Speaker 1>love that does not always or has ever, really truly

0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:03.000
<v Speaker 1>loved us back. If you've listened to my show over

0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.760
<v Speaker 1>the past several years, you know that during the Fourth

0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:11.480
<v Speaker 1>of July, I have adopted a tradition from one of

0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.240
<v Speaker 1>my friends who you listened to earlier in the week,

0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:19.279
<v Speaker 1>the Reverend Mark Thompson, who on his show Make It Plain,

0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:25.160
<v Speaker 1>has read in its entirety Frederick Douglas's speech What to

0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.880
<v Speaker 1>the Slave is the fourth of July and if you

0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.679
<v Speaker 1>remember back during the pandemic, if you were following me

0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.480
<v Speaker 1>there when we were in quarantine, I read it alongside

0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:40.720
<v Speaker 1>my sister on Instagram Live and have recorded it on

0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.200
<v Speaker 1>wok f before. I will not read it in its

0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.720
<v Speaker 1>entirety this year, just because of time constraints, but also

0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.360
<v Speaker 1>you know, there are pieces of it that I will

0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.880
<v Speaker 1>be lifting up today because I think it's an important

0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.160
<v Speaker 1>way to close out this week on WOK. I think

0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:06.800
<v Speaker 1>that we should use the holidays that we are given,

0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.040
<v Speaker 1>the ones that we are given with little context or

0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:16.400
<v Speaker 1>a little conversation outside of barbecuing and cocktails, to really

0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:22.840
<v Speaker 1>delve into who America is right now. Who do you

0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.520
<v Speaker 1>find America to be at this time? What is your

0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:33.679
<v Speaker 1>relationship with this country with the narrative that you have

0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.800
<v Speaker 1>been prescribed throughout your life, How does it measure up

0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.440
<v Speaker 1>to where you find your relationship with this nation at

0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:49.480
<v Speaker 1>this moment. Similarly, last month, when we were talking to

0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:56.200
<v Speaker 1>queer people about pride and how we understand pride during

0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:05.399
<v Speaker 1>a really unfortunate and horrible time for the LGBTQ community,

0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:09.760
<v Speaker 1>particularly for trans people, with an onslaught of over five

0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:14.959
<v Speaker 1>hundred pieces of anti LGBTQ legislation, I think that it's

0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:20.160
<v Speaker 1>important not to just consume what it is that people

0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.720
<v Speaker 1>are putting out, but really, in your own way, in

0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:29.520
<v Speaker 1>your own circles, be having these conversations and analyzing and

0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:37.520
<v Speaker 1>really understanding that this relationship with this country, much like

0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:45.320
<v Speaker 1>any relationship that you're in, changes over time, and if

0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:48.960
<v Speaker 1>you were not nurturing that relationship, if you are not

0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:55.480
<v Speaker 1>truly connected and present, much like let's say a marriage

0:03:55.560 --> 0:04:02.080
<v Speaker 1>or a friendship, it can end. The relationship with America

0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:06.240
<v Speaker 1>is one that is complicated in the same way that

0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:11.600
<v Speaker 1>your relationship with your family may be complicated. When we

0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:16.360
<v Speaker 1>are young, we rely on our parents and our caregivers

0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:20.320
<v Speaker 1>right to teach us how to walk, how to talk,

0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.720
<v Speaker 1>how to cross the street, how to tie shoes, how

0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:32.760
<v Speaker 1>to become you know, adult humans, thinkers, doers, how to

0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:40.360
<v Speaker 1>be kind, how to read. And as we adapt all

0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.400
<v Speaker 1>of these new skills, we develop in our thinking, we

0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.600
<v Speaker 1>formulate our own questions and our own ideas. And then

0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.680
<v Speaker 1>our relationship with our parents, usually around our teen years,

0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:59.440
<v Speaker 1>becomes fraught because as we are trying to calm into

0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:03.200
<v Speaker 1>the full name of who we are, they still see

0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:08.560
<v Speaker 1>us as the children that they have been rearing. And

0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.880
<v Speaker 1>then as we continue to age and they age in

0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:17.000
<v Speaker 1>some instances, those roles become reversed, and now you are

0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:24.839
<v Speaker 1>helping your parents walk, helping them in many ways as

0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:32.560
<v Speaker 1>they enter into their sunset years. The relationship that I

0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:37.720
<v Speaker 1>have personally with this country is one you know, that

0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:43.960
<v Speaker 1>kind of Toshi had lifted up in the earlier episode

0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.920
<v Speaker 1>this week where she talked about the relationship with an

0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:52.719
<v Speaker 1>abusive partner. You know, but the relationship wasn't always abusive,

0:05:54.480 --> 0:06:01.360
<v Speaker 1>right Like, I personally entered into a career in politics

0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:09.760
<v Speaker 1>because I really wanted to be of service, because this

0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:14.760
<v Speaker 1>country had given my family so much in terms of

0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:19.840
<v Speaker 1>opportunities when they left Jamaica and came to the United

0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:25.640
<v Speaker 1>States in the nineteen seventies, and because of their decision

0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.120
<v Speaker 1>to leave their own country, I was able to forge

0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.559
<v Speaker 1>in my cousins, and my sister and I were able

0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:39.160
<v Speaker 1>to forge our own paths, write and build lives and

0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:44.120
<v Speaker 1>careers in this country that we might not have been

0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:48.839
<v Speaker 1>able to do in Jamaica. And particularly as a black

0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.200
<v Speaker 1>queer woman, right that was growing up in a time

0:06:53.279 --> 0:07:00.960
<v Speaker 1>when we were actually creating laws to protect the humanity

0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:06.760
<v Speaker 1>and dignity of queer people. If I had lived and

0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:11.920
<v Speaker 1>was born in a country that did not have those protections,

0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.840
<v Speaker 1>I probably never would have came out because it would

0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:21.840
<v Speaker 1>have been too dangerous to do so. So I wanted

0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:27.920
<v Speaker 1>to live a life and build a career where I

0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:34.160
<v Speaker 1>felt like I was giving back. And over the years,

0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:39.880
<v Speaker 1>as I have been an educator, as I have worked

0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.040
<v Speaker 1>on Capitol Hill for members of Congress, as I have

0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:48.400
<v Speaker 1>worked for nonprofit organizations trying to better the environment and

0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:53.880
<v Speaker 1>better education for the nation, I felt like I was

0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:04.800
<v Speaker 1>able to become a part of America's story, right. And

0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:11.880
<v Speaker 1>then President Obama was elected and I thought, Oh my god,

0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:17.120
<v Speaker 1>We're just going up from here. We're just you know,

0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.840
<v Speaker 1>like this is going to be amazing. I'm going to

0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.480
<v Speaker 1>get to be a part of this next golden era

0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:38.480
<v Speaker 1>of creation and innovation and just acceptance and equity. And

0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:44.640
<v Speaker 1>then the bottom fell out and Donald Trump descended down

0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:51.440
<v Speaker 1>those escalator stairs and stood before microphones, disparaged Mexicans, disparaged

0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:58.200
<v Speaker 1>people of color. And our new American nightmare would begin then.

0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:07.319
<v Speaker 1>And that's what we've been locked into ever since. As

0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:14.920
<v Speaker 1>I've watched and you have watched black people become hashtags

0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:20.040
<v Speaker 1>week after week, month after month, whether it be at

0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:27.240
<v Speaker 1>the hands of police or white vigilantes. We've watched voting

0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:31.760
<v Speaker 1>rights be rolled back and gutted. We've watched Roe v

0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:36.319
<v Speaker 1>wade be overturned after fifty years of a woman having

0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:44.560
<v Speaker 1>the right to choose. We have watched our public education

0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:51.880
<v Speaker 1>system be gutted, the Environmental Protection Agency be gutted. What

0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:58.200
<v Speaker 1>climate scientists said would be thirty forty years down the

0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:04.600
<v Speaker 1>road has arrived. It has arrived in yellow skies from

0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:11.319
<v Speaker 1>wildfires and historic tornado seasons that take out full fucking neighborhoods,

0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:22.360
<v Speaker 1>costing billions of dollars, Hurricanes that linger over states and

0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:32.920
<v Speaker 1>islands longer, devastating them. We've seen earthquakes take out thousands

0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:37.480
<v Speaker 1>of people, Migrants sink to the bottom of the sea,

0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:45.200
<v Speaker 1>just trying to seek a better life. So much has happened,

0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:53.280
<v Speaker 1>and my relationship with this country has shifted in so

0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:58.600
<v Speaker 1>many ways. But you all know who listen to me

0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:03.000
<v Speaker 1>on a daily basis that if I did not love

0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:11.400
<v Speaker 1>America at its core, the idea of America, the idea

0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.720
<v Speaker 1>of democracy that we've never seen fully actualized for all

0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:21.440
<v Speaker 1>the people in this country, I wouldn't get up every

0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.760
<v Speaker 1>day and turn on a microphone. I wouldn't get up

0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.520
<v Speaker 1>every day and turn on my laptop and fire off

0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.640
<v Speaker 1>opinion pieces. I wouldn't go on television. I wouldn't bother

0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.240
<v Speaker 1>because there would be nobody to convince, because I would

0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:39.680
<v Speaker 1>have no faith and no hope that anyone would ever change.

0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.839
<v Speaker 1>But the story of America isn't just in its progress.

0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:49.479
<v Speaker 1>It is also in its pain. It is in its resilience,

0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:58.440
<v Speaker 1>But it's also in its toxicity and its abuse. What

0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:06.720
<v Speaker 1>happens when the wrong people are given power because we're

0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:11.280
<v Speaker 1>too tired, too busy, or have lost all hope to care.

0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:20.160
<v Speaker 1>When I look back, as I do every year around

0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:29.720
<v Speaker 1>this time, on Frederick Douglas's speech that he delivered on

0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:35.920
<v Speaker 1>July fifth, eighteen fifty two. He addressed the Rochester Lady's

0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:42.559
<v Speaker 1>Anti Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. And every time

0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:52.320
<v Speaker 1>that I read it or have recited it, it really

0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:57.200
<v Speaker 1>takes me abat to one the boldness and the confidence

0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:02.240
<v Speaker 1>of this free black man in the eighteen hundreds to

0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:07.480
<v Speaker 1>be providing a read upon read to the white people

0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:15.640
<v Speaker 1>in attendance. In his eloquence, which you can't say anything

0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:19.920
<v Speaker 1>about this speech other than its eloquence and it's brilliance.

0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:27.760
<v Speaker 1>He really has the audience captivated in the questions that

0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:36.120
<v Speaker 1>he is posing, and he talks about the founding fathers,

0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:41.680
<v Speaker 1>and why those in attendance should be proud right that

0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:52.200
<v Speaker 1>these men were heroes, and that they were great men

0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:59.480
<v Speaker 1>to come up with this idea. He says this about

0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:06.839
<v Speaker 1>the founding fellow citizens. I am not wanting in respect

0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.200
<v Speaker 1>for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the

0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.840
<v Speaker 1>Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men,

0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:19.320
<v Speaker 1>too great enough to give fame to a great age.

0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.720
<v Speaker 1>It does not often happen to a nation to raise

0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.800
<v Speaker 1>at one time such a number of truly great men.

0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.640
<v Speaker 1>The point from which I am compelled to view them

0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.640
<v Speaker 1>is not certainly the most favorable, And yet I cannot

0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:41.600
<v Speaker 1>contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots,

0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.560
<v Speaker 1>and heroes. And for the good they did and the

0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.000
<v Speaker 1>principles they contended for, I will unite with you to

0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.320
<v Speaker 1>honor their memory. They loved their country better than their

0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:58.200
<v Speaker 1>own private interests. And though this is not the highest

0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.040
<v Speaker 1>form of human excellence, all will concede that it is

0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.280
<v Speaker 1>a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it

0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:11.320
<v Speaker 1>ought to command respect. He who will intelligently laid down

0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:14.520
<v Speaker 1>his life for his country is a man whom it

0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:19.520
<v Speaker 1>is not in human nature to despise your fathers, stake

0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:24.040
<v Speaker 1>their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the

0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:29.880
<v Speaker 1>cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they

0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:38.240
<v Speaker 1>lost sight of all other interests. That to me is

0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:47.360
<v Speaker 1>the greatest praise and acknowledgment. These were not small minded men.

0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:54.880
<v Speaker 1>These were people who, out of sheer imagination, came up

0:15:55.840 --> 0:16:06.040
<v Speaker 1>right with this idea of forging a new nation that

0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.520
<v Speaker 1>would be governed for and by the people, that the

0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:16.880
<v Speaker 1>people would not be subjects of a king, that they

0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:27.560
<v Speaker 1>would have a voice. But they did so while in

0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:32.560
<v Speaker 1>the shadows of the formation of this grand idea and

0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:40.640
<v Speaker 1>experiment we call America, having this country be built by

0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:47.680
<v Speaker 1>those who would never know freedom, who were shackled, who

0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:53.880
<v Speaker 1>were raped, who were beaten, who were tortured, who were

0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:58.560
<v Speaker 1>referred to as chattel and treated as animals, whose families

0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:04.159
<v Speaker 1>were destroyed, whose life lives were never actualized except for

0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:10.119
<v Speaker 1>what they could produce. It's not lost on those that

0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:17.719
<v Speaker 1>are listening to Frederick Douglas now in these times, that

0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:23.320
<v Speaker 1>we have come so far and yet not far enough.

0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:35.040
<v Speaker 1>He goes on to say this, fellow citizens, pardon me,

0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:39.320
<v Speaker 1>allow me to ask why I am called upon to

0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.879
<v Speaker 1>speak here today? What have I or those I represent

0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:49.600
<v Speaker 1>to do with your national independence? Are the great principles

0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:53.240
<v Speaker 1>of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that

0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:59.240
<v Speaker 1>declaration of independence extended to us? And am I therefore

0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.679
<v Speaker 1>called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar,

0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.919
<v Speaker 1>and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for

0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:13.760
<v Speaker 1>the blessings resulting for your independence to us? Would to God,

0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.600
<v Speaker 1>both for your sakes and hours, that an affirmative answer

0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:23.000
<v Speaker 1>could be truthfully returned to these questions. Then would my

0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:27.480
<v Speaker 1>task be light and my burden be easy and delightful.

0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.960
<v Speaker 1>For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy

0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:39.119
<v Speaker 1>could not warm him, Who sob abdorran and dead to

0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:43.280
<v Speaker 1>the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such

0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:48.960
<v Speaker 1>priceless benefits. Who is so stollied and selfish that would

0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:52.080
<v Speaker 1>not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a

0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:56.560
<v Speaker 1>nation's jubilee when the chains of servitude had been torn

0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:02.359
<v Speaker 1>from his limbs. I am not that in a case

0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.679
<v Speaker 1>like that, the dumb might eloquently speak and the lame

0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:13.479
<v Speaker 1>man leap as in heart. But such is not the

0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.760
<v Speaker 1>state of the case. I say it with a sad

0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.879
<v Speaker 1>sense of the disparity between us. I am not included

0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:25.680
<v Speaker 1>within the pale of the glorious anniversary. Your high independence

0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:31.000
<v Speaker 1>only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in

0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:35.520
<v Speaker 1>which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common.

0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:41.840
<v Speaker 1>The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed

0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.639
<v Speaker 1>by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.

0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.320
<v Speaker 1>The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has

0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:56.200
<v Speaker 1>brought stripes and death to me. This fourth of July

0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:01.840
<v Speaker 1>is yours, not mine. You may rejol. I must mourn

0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:07.200
<v Speaker 1>to drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated

0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.359
<v Speaker 1>temple of liberty and call upon him to join you

0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:17.280
<v Speaker 1>in joyous anthems were inhumane mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do

0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.879
<v Speaker 1>you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to

0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:26.440
<v Speaker 1>speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct.

0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.000
<v Speaker 1>And let me warn you that it is dangerous to

0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:34.920
<v Speaker 1>copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up

0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.359
<v Speaker 1>to the heaven, were thrown down by the breath of

0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:44.120
<v Speaker 1>the Almighty, burying that nation and irrevocable ruin. I can

0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.760
<v Speaker 1>today take up the plaintive lament of appealed and woe

0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:58.080
<v Speaker 1>smitten people, fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy. I

0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.560
<v Speaker 1>hear the mournful wail of milk, whose chains, heavy and

0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:08.480
<v Speaker 1>grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilee

0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.359
<v Speaker 1>shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I

0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:16.840
<v Speaker 1>do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day,

0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.240
<v Speaker 1>may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my

0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.280
<v Speaker 1>tongue cleave to the rooth of my mouth. To forget them,

0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.640
<v Speaker 1>to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in

0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:32.840
<v Speaker 1>with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking,

0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.800
<v Speaker 1>and would make me a reproach before God and the world.

0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:44.200
<v Speaker 1>My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall

0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.680
<v Speaker 1>see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's

0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.840
<v Speaker 1>point of view, standing there, identified with their American bondmen

0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:58.120
<v Speaker 1>making his wrongs. Mind, I do not hesitate to declare

0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:01.840
<v Speaker 1>with all my soul that the character and conduct of

0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:06.240
<v Speaker 1>this nation never looked blacker to me than on this

0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:15.879
<v Speaker 1>fourth of July. Folks, For me and for so many

0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:23.800
<v Speaker 1>who are black, who are indigenous, who are people of

0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:32.320
<v Speaker 1>color in this country. Frederick Douglas's words from eighteen fifty

0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:41.120
<v Speaker 1>two still ring so damn true in the twenty first century.

0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:52.400
<v Speaker 1>While we may not be in physical bondage, the policies

0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:59.080
<v Speaker 1>that this country continues to turn out ensure that we

0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.840
<v Speaker 1>remain in slow to a system that has never seen

0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:10.439
<v Speaker 1>acknowledge or respected our full humanity and dignity. It is

0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:16.920
<v Speaker 1>absurd to hold deep comparisons between the Black community, whose

0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:23.240
<v Speaker 1>ancestors were stripped of their culture, their religion, their voice,

0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:28.440
<v Speaker 1>their freedom, and their language, to be compared to any

0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:34.520
<v Speaker 1>other racialized group in this country, and whatever success they

0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:42.120
<v Speaker 1>may have had, America will never truly be a democracy.

0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:47.800
<v Speaker 1>America will never truly live up to its creed until

0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:54.160
<v Speaker 1>not only it acknowledges its original sin, but it chooses

0:23:54.280 --> 0:24:00.520
<v Speaker 1>to do right by it. The conversation that I had

0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:08.200
<v Speaker 1>with Torrey was one that talked a bit about reparations,

0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:13.200
<v Speaker 1>and I struggle with the conversations around reparations, around asking

0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:18.679
<v Speaker 1>the oppressors of this country to provide charity to those

0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:28.159
<v Speaker 1>that they have extracted everything, including life from reparations is

0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:35.080
<v Speaker 1>not asking for philanthropy. It is asking for a return

0:24:35.200 --> 0:24:41.840
<v Speaker 1>with interest on what has been stolen, and until this

0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:51.480
<v Speaker 1>country does that, their Independence Day will always always ring hollow.

0:24:54.560 --> 0:24:58.159
<v Speaker 1>That is it for me today, dear friends, on this

0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:06.000
<v Speaker 1>wokf on this holiday week, this woke app hook out week,

0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:10.320
<v Speaker 1>I hope that you all enjoyed the conversations that I

0:25:10.400 --> 0:25:14.399
<v Speaker 1>brought to you by my friends, doctor Christina Greer, the

0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:19.600
<v Speaker 1>Reverend Mark Thompson, Torrey Toshi Reagan. I thank them so

0:25:19.800 --> 0:25:22.520
<v Speaker 1>much for their time, for their brilliance, for their boys,

0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:28.040
<v Speaker 1>for their activism, for their work. And we are not

0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:33.280
<v Speaker 1>free until we are all free as always, dear friends,

0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:37.280
<v Speaker 1>Power to the people and to all the people. Power,

0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:40.760
<v Speaker 1>get woke and stay woke as fuck.