Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody pre recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I hope that you have enjoyed this week on WOKF
Speaker 1: our Cookout Week, where we have been in conversation with
Speaker 1: some of my favorite past guests and friends to talk
Speaker 1: about our complicated relationship with Independence Week in America with
Speaker 1: the Fourth of July holiday, and the complicated relationship that
Speaker 1: I think that all of us have either had from
Speaker 1: birth or developed over time with a country that we
Speaker 1: love that does not always or has ever, really truly
Speaker 1: loved us back. If you've listened to my show over
Speaker 1: the past several years, you know that during the Fourth
Speaker 1: of July, I have adopted a tradition from one of
Speaker 1: my friends who you listened to earlier in the week,
Speaker 1: the Reverend Mark Thompson, who on his show Make It Plain,
Speaker 1: has read in its entirety Frederick Douglas's speech What to
Speaker 1: the Slave is the fourth of July and if you
Speaker 1: remember back during the pandemic, if you were following me
Speaker 1: there when we were in quarantine, I read it alongside
Speaker 1: my sister on Instagram Live and have recorded it on
Speaker 1: wok f before. I will not read it in its
Speaker 1: entirety this year, just because of time constraints, but also
Speaker 1: you know, there are pieces of it that I will
Speaker 1: be lifting up today because I think it's an important
Speaker 1: way to close out this week on WOK. I think
Speaker 1: that we should use the holidays that we are given,
Speaker 1: the ones that we are given with little context or
Speaker 1: a little conversation outside of barbecuing and cocktails, to really
Speaker 1: delve into who America is right now. Who do you
Speaker 1: find America to be at this time? What is your
Speaker 1: relationship with this country with the narrative that you have
Speaker 1: been prescribed throughout your life, How does it measure up
Speaker 1: to where you find your relationship with this nation at
Speaker 1: this moment. Similarly, last month, when we were talking to
Speaker 1: queer people about pride and how we understand pride during
Speaker 1: a really unfortunate and horrible time for the LGBTQ community,
Speaker 1: particularly for trans people, with an onslaught of over five
Speaker 1: hundred pieces of anti LGBTQ legislation, I think that it's
Speaker 1: important not to just consume what it is that people
Speaker 1: are putting out, but really, in your own way, in
Speaker 1: your own circles, be having these conversations and analyzing and
Speaker 1: really understanding that this relationship with this country, much like
Speaker 1: any relationship that you're in, changes over time, and if
Speaker 1: you were not nurturing that relationship, if you are not
Speaker 1: truly connected and present, much like let's say a marriage
Speaker 1: or a friendship, it can end. The relationship with America
Speaker 1: is one that is complicated in the same way that
Speaker 1: your relationship with your family may be complicated. When we
Speaker 1: are young, we rely on our parents and our caregivers
Speaker 1: right to teach us how to walk, how to talk,
Speaker 1: how to cross the street, how to tie shoes, how
Speaker 1: to become you know, adult humans, thinkers, doers, how to
Speaker 1: be kind, how to read. And as we adapt all
Speaker 1: of these new skills, we develop in our thinking, we
Speaker 1: formulate our own questions and our own ideas. And then
Speaker 1: our relationship with our parents, usually around our teen years,
Speaker 1: becomes fraught because as we are trying to calm into
Speaker 1: the full name of who we are, they still see
Speaker 1: us as the children that they have been rearing. And
Speaker 1: then as we continue to age and they age in
Speaker 1: some instances, those roles become reversed, and now you are
Speaker 1: helping your parents walk, helping them in many ways as
Speaker 1: they enter into their sunset years. The relationship that I
Speaker 1: have personally with this country is one you know, that
Speaker 1: kind of Toshi had lifted up in the earlier episode
Speaker 1: this week where she talked about the relationship with an
Speaker 1: abusive partner. You know, but the relationship wasn't always abusive,
Speaker 1: right Like, I personally entered into a career in politics
Speaker 1: because I really wanted to be of service, because this
Speaker 1: country had given my family so much in terms of
Speaker 1: opportunities when they left Jamaica and came to the United
Speaker 1: States in the nineteen seventies, and because of their decision
Speaker 1: to leave their own country, I was able to forge
Speaker 1: in my cousins, and my sister and I were able
Speaker 1: to forge our own paths, write and build lives and
Speaker 1: careers in this country that we might not have been
Speaker 1: able to do in Jamaica. And particularly as a black
Speaker 1: queer woman, right that was growing up in a time
Speaker 1: when we were actually creating laws to protect the humanity
Speaker 1: and dignity of queer people. If I had lived and
Speaker 1: was born in a country that did not have those protections,
Speaker 1: I probably never would have came out because it would
Speaker 1: have been too dangerous to do so. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to live a life and build a career where I
Speaker 1: felt like I was giving back. And over the years,
Speaker 1: as I have been an educator, as I have worked
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill for members of Congress, as I have
Speaker 1: worked for nonprofit organizations trying to better the environment and
Speaker 1: better education for the nation, I felt like I was
Speaker 1: able to become a part of America's story, right. And
Speaker 1: then President Obama was elected and I thought, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: We're just going up from here. We're just you know,
Speaker 1: like this is going to be amazing. I'm going to
Speaker 1: get to be a part of this next golden era
Speaker 1: of creation and innovation and just acceptance and equity. And
Speaker 1: then the bottom fell out and Donald Trump descended down
Speaker 1: those escalator stairs and stood before microphones, disparaged Mexicans, disparaged
Speaker 1: people of color. And our new American nightmare would begin then.
Speaker 1: And that's what we've been locked into ever since. As
Speaker 1: I've watched and you have watched black people become hashtags
Speaker 1: week after week, month after month, whether it be at
Speaker 1: the hands of police or white vigilantes. We've watched voting
Speaker 1: rights be rolled back and gutted. We've watched Roe v
Speaker 1: wade be overturned after fifty years of a woman having
Speaker 1: the right to choose. We have watched our public education
Speaker 1: system be gutted, the Environmental Protection Agency be gutted. What
Speaker 1: climate scientists said would be thirty forty years down the
Speaker 1: road has arrived. It has arrived in yellow skies from
Speaker 1: wildfires and historic tornado seasons that take out full fucking neighborhoods,
Speaker 1: costing billions of dollars, Hurricanes that linger over states and
Speaker 1: islands longer, devastating them. We've seen earthquakes take out thousands
Speaker 1: of people, Migrants sink to the bottom of the sea,
Speaker 1: just trying to seek a better life. So much has happened,
Speaker 1: and my relationship with this country has shifted in so
Speaker 1: many ways. But you all know who listen to me
Speaker 1: on a daily basis that if I did not love
Speaker 1: America at its core, the idea of America, the idea
Speaker 1: of democracy that we've never seen fully actualized for all
Speaker 1: the people in this country, I wouldn't get up every
Speaker 1: day and turn on a microphone. I wouldn't get up
Speaker 1: every day and turn on my laptop and fire off
Speaker 1: opinion pieces. I wouldn't go on television. I wouldn't bother
Speaker 1: because there would be nobody to convince, because I would
Speaker 1: have no faith and no hope that anyone would ever change.
Speaker 1: But the story of America isn't just in its progress.
Speaker 1: It is also in its pain. It is in its resilience,
Speaker 1: But it's also in its toxicity and its abuse. What
Speaker 1: happens when the wrong people are given power because we're
Speaker 1: too tired, too busy, or have lost all hope to care.
Speaker 1: When I look back, as I do every year around
Speaker 1: this time, on Frederick Douglas's speech that he delivered on
Speaker 1: July fifth, eighteen fifty two. He addressed the Rochester Lady's
Speaker 1: Anti Slavery Society in Rochester, New York. And every time
Speaker 1: that I read it or have recited it, it really
Speaker 1: takes me abat to one the boldness and the confidence
Speaker 1: of this free black man in the eighteen hundreds to
Speaker 1: be providing a read upon read to the white people
Speaker 1: in attendance. In his eloquence, which you can't say anything
Speaker 1: about this speech other than its eloquence and it's brilliance.
Speaker 1: He really has the audience captivated in the questions that
Speaker 1: he is posing, and he talks about the founding fathers,
Speaker 1: and why those in attendance should be proud right that
Speaker 1: these men were heroes, and that they were great men
Speaker 1: to come up with this idea. He says this about
Speaker 1: the founding fellow citizens. I am not wanting in respect
Speaker 1: for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the
Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men,
Speaker 1: too great enough to give fame to a great age.
Speaker 1: It does not often happen to a nation to raise
Speaker 1: at one time such a number of truly great men.
Speaker 1: The point from which I am compelled to view them
Speaker 1: is not certainly the most favorable, And yet I cannot
Speaker 1: contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots,
Speaker 1: and heroes. And for the good they did and the
Speaker 1: principles they contended for, I will unite with you to
Speaker 1: honor their memory. They loved their country better than their
Speaker 1: own private interests. And though this is not the highest
Speaker 1: form of human excellence, all will concede that it is
Speaker 1: a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it
Speaker 1: ought to command respect. He who will intelligently laid down
Speaker 1: his life for his country is a man whom it
Speaker 1: is not in human nature to despise your fathers, stake
Speaker 1: their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on the
Speaker 1: cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they
Speaker 1: lost sight of all other interests. That to me is
Speaker 1: the greatest praise and acknowledgment. These were not small minded men.
Speaker 1: These were people who, out of sheer imagination, came up
Speaker 1: right with this idea of forging a new nation that
Speaker 1: would be governed for and by the people, that the
Speaker 1: people would not be subjects of a king, that they
Speaker 1: would have a voice. But they did so while in
Speaker 1: the shadows of the formation of this grand idea and
Speaker 1: experiment we call America, having this country be built by
Speaker 1: those who would never know freedom, who were shackled, who
Speaker 1: were raped, who were beaten, who were tortured, who were
Speaker 1: referred to as chattel and treated as animals, whose families
Speaker 1: were destroyed, whose life lives were never actualized except for
Speaker 1: what they could produce. It's not lost on those that
Speaker 1: are listening to Frederick Douglas now in these times, that
Speaker 1: we have come so far and yet not far enough.
Speaker 1: He goes on to say this, fellow citizens, pardon me,
Speaker 1: allow me to ask why I am called upon to
Speaker 1: speak here today? What have I or those I represent
Speaker 1: to do with your national independence? Are the great principles
Speaker 1: of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that
Speaker 1: declaration of independence extended to us? And am I therefore
Speaker 1: called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar,
Speaker 1: and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for
Speaker 1: the blessings resulting for your independence to us? Would to God,
Speaker 1: both for your sakes and hours, that an affirmative answer
Speaker 1: could be truthfully returned to these questions. Then would my
Speaker 1: task be light and my burden be easy and delightful.
Speaker 1: For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy
Speaker 1: could not warm him, Who sob abdorran and dead to
Speaker 1: the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such
Speaker 1: priceless benefits. Who is so stollied and selfish that would
Speaker 1: not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a
Speaker 1: nation's jubilee when the chains of servitude had been torn
Speaker 1: from his limbs. I am not that in a case
Speaker 1: like that, the dumb might eloquently speak and the lame
Speaker 1: man leap as in heart. But such is not the
Speaker 1: state of the case. I say it with a sad
Speaker 1: sense of the disparity between us. I am not included
Speaker 1: within the pale of the glorious anniversary. Your high independence
Speaker 1: only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in
Speaker 1: which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common.
Speaker 1: The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed
Speaker 1: by your fathers is shared by you, not by me.
Speaker 1: The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has
Speaker 1: brought stripes and death to me. This fourth of July
Speaker 1: is yours, not mine. You may rejol. I must mourn
Speaker 1: to drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated
Speaker 1: temple of liberty and call upon him to join you
Speaker 1: in joyous anthems were inhumane mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do
Speaker 1: you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to
Speaker 1: speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct.
Speaker 1: And let me warn you that it is dangerous to
Speaker 1: copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up
Speaker 1: to the heaven, were thrown down by the breath of
Speaker 1: the Almighty, burying that nation and irrevocable ruin. I can
Speaker 1: today take up the plaintive lament of appealed and woe
Speaker 1: smitten people, fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy. I
Speaker 1: hear the mournful wail of milk, whose chains, heavy and
Speaker 1: grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilee
Speaker 1: shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I
Speaker 1: do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day,
Speaker 1: may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my
Speaker 1: tongue cleave to the rooth of my mouth. To forget them,
Speaker 1: to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in
Speaker 1: with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking,
Speaker 1: and would make me a reproach before God and the world.
Speaker 1: My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall
Speaker 1: see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's
Speaker 1: point of view, standing there, identified with their American bondmen
Speaker 1: making his wrongs. Mind, I do not hesitate to declare
Speaker 1: with all my soul that the character and conduct of
Speaker 1: this nation never looked blacker to me than on this
Speaker 1: fourth of July. Folks, For me and for so many
Speaker 1: who are black, who are indigenous, who are people of
Speaker 1: color in this country. Frederick Douglas's words from eighteen fifty
Speaker 1: two still ring so damn true in the twenty first century.
Speaker 1: While we may not be in physical bondage, the policies
Speaker 1: that this country continues to turn out ensure that we
Speaker 1: remain in slow to a system that has never seen
Speaker 1: acknowledge or respected our full humanity and dignity. It is
Speaker 1: absurd to hold deep comparisons between the Black community, whose
Speaker 1: ancestors were stripped of their culture, their religion, their voice,
Speaker 1: their freedom, and their language, to be compared to any
Speaker 1: other racialized group in this country, and whatever success they
Speaker 1: may have had, America will never truly be a democracy.
Speaker 1: America will never truly live up to its creed until
Speaker 1: not only it acknowledges its original sin, but it chooses
Speaker 1: to do right by it. The conversation that I had
Speaker 1: with Torrey was one that talked a bit about reparations,
Speaker 1: and I struggle with the conversations around reparations, around asking
Speaker 1: the oppressors of this country to provide charity to those
Speaker 1: that they have extracted everything, including life from reparations is
Speaker 1: not asking for philanthropy. It is asking for a return
Speaker 1: with interest on what has been stolen, and until this
Speaker 1: country does that, their Independence Day will always always ring hollow.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today, dear friends, on this
Speaker 1: wokf on this holiday week, this woke app hook out week,
Speaker 1: I hope that you all enjoyed the conversations that I
Speaker 1: brought to you by my friends, doctor Christina Greer, the
Speaker 1: Reverend Mark Thompson, Torrey Toshi Reagan. I thank them so
Speaker 1: much for their time, for their brilliance, for their boys,
Speaker 1: for their activism, for their work. And we are not
Speaker 1: free until we are all free as always, dear friends,
Speaker 1: Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.