Speaker 1: Ah, you're listening waiting on reparations production by her radio reparations. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's give us into the lock tap but but talk
Speaker 1: ways as chocol white as a death block at a
Speaker 1: cock fight on my life, getting told it I'm chocolate,
Speaker 1: that I'm scary spice. Doesn't even matter that I'm pot
Speaker 1: spice for the dark side. I'd be fairly bright, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Took a shot dead on the coplights
Speaker 1: like a bad dog. It's another case left this uppercase.
Speaker 1: Took a tap pole out of water, a bottom p
Speaker 1: parisite to baking the pavement the favorite height. But some
Speaker 1: a day, well, my mother weights with the pepper five.
Speaker 1: It's wondering whether I'm und late my buddy's traits and chocolates.
Speaker 1: What would I do with my verse not written well?
Speaker 1: I am a black man, no doubt. Shit as hell
Speaker 1: could be somebody's talking practice. When they lick a shell
Speaker 1: ship for health, heart, sickle cell or you pick a cell.
Speaker 1: I chose rap because I'm lazy and short fun playing
Speaker 1: a chords dog. I'm trying to stay out of court,
Speaker 1: still single, because I'm threatened by the pain of divorce.
Speaker 1: They're shooting niggas like they made it as board. It
Speaker 1: blazed in my fourth love staying indoors so for sure, hot,
Speaker 1: so cold, don't even want to go outside. Sucking pigs
Speaker 1: are patrolling with a chrome down nine. If I getten
Speaker 1: to a scuffle and I know whout that taste smag
Speaker 1: on my tongue when I breathe, I don't know what
Speaker 1: to believe. I'd protest, but I don't want a disease.
Speaker 1: So I'm dressing like a billboard, feeling like a product.
Speaker 1: Hope the scouts from thinking NIGG is selling narcotics. Dope
Speaker 1: dove a A what's happening? My name is dope Knife.
Speaker 1: I'm lingal franca. We are waiting on reparations. Give us
Speaker 1: a goddamn money. How are you doing? I'm doing all right.
Speaker 1: I just got out of a seven hour commission meeting
Speaker 1: in which public comment was given by you know, around
Speaker 1: a hundred hundred and fifty again, back up, back up,
Speaker 1: back up, seven hour commission meetings. So what time is
Speaker 1: it right now? It is sucking one and it's in
Speaker 1: the morning. I'm not gonna live how couple of glasses
Speaker 1: of wine and I've smoked a few blunts. Oh before
Speaker 1: I forget. The beats on this episode are provided by
Speaker 1: my homie Factor Chandelier. That's at Factor Chandelier on Instagram.
Speaker 1: He's a dope ass producer. You guys should check them out.
Speaker 1: You know. I actually this is my day of my
Speaker 1: corn and I was going to I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: it's my fourteenth day of quarantine. So you know, I
Speaker 1: haven't gotten sick. Yeah, you know, I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go get tested for COVID tomorrow. But I'm assuming that
Speaker 1: either didn't get it from you or if I did
Speaker 1: get it on a symptomatic so guidn't I got from
Speaker 1: the contact tracer I spoke to was that after ten days,
Speaker 1: have I had no symptoms, I could start going on
Speaker 1: public again, which I started to do today. We're in
Speaker 1: your mask, of course, we're in my mask, of course,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, I guess we're COVID free. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll find out tomorrow. I took a break on how
Speaker 1: much I was smoking the last two weeks. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: if I start getting symptoms and I was burning them down,
Speaker 1: And so today I woke up, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling kind of good. I mean, you know, knock
Speaker 1: on wood or whatever you gotta knock on. But I
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, I'm just gonna smoke all thettle dope today.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the commission meeting for a
Speaker 1: minute for a second. So many people came out in
Speaker 1: the support of my plan to defund the police in
Speaker 1: a win a word. You know, we've been calling it
Speaker 1: like reimagining public safety as a way to gain more
Speaker 1: public buy in, but I want to say that on
Speaker 1: the air one. I mean, yeah, whatever, like people find
Speaker 1: like I'd be using to defund the police fucking hashtag
Speaker 1: to like get likes and spread awareness even though like
Speaker 1: you know what's in the name, I'm saying, it's all
Speaker 1: like taking care of Like there's no more you don't
Speaker 1: need that political strategy in the bag anymore. You are
Speaker 1: listening to this show. You're not going to be fooled
Speaker 1: by me in public saying reimagine public safety. Like literally
Speaker 1: at the meeting, all the Republicans and most of the
Speaker 1: fucking like radical an ar kiss regular towny like young
Speaker 1: folks that came through were like either like you, I
Speaker 1: don't support defunding the police or fun, yeah, abolish the police.
Speaker 1: Defunding It isn't even enough and so it doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter what terminology we use. People know what we mean.
Speaker 1: So even if I do think reimagining public safety is
Speaker 1: an honest take of like what I'm trying to do,
Speaker 1: I really want us to take a creative and like
Speaker 1: bold approach to like thinking a new what it means
Speaker 1: to keep our community safe. It means giving the police
Speaker 1: less money if they're if they're going to be demilitarized. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so so that was exciting. But they did take maybe
Speaker 1: like four or five hours and then so it is
Speaker 1: it just like literally four four and five hours people
Speaker 1: just coming up and talking for three minutes? Yeah? Is it?
Speaker 1: Would you describe most of the discourses like grievance or so,
Speaker 1: about twenty and thirty people came out in opposition to
Speaker 1: defunding the police. The rest of the folks that came out,
Speaker 1: the other hundred or so eighty or so, um, weren't
Speaker 1: supported of funding the police. We've had mostly peaceful protests
Speaker 1: here in Athens so far, except for police violence where
Speaker 1: they tear gas and shot with bean backgrounds peaceful protesters
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. Um. But tonight we had
Speaker 1: a gathering of like blue Lives Matter Republicans waving American
Speaker 1: flags on the steps of city Hall, and then folks
Speaker 1: that are here to you know, end an unpaid prison
Speaker 1: labor and like defund the police that were like playing
Speaker 1: fun the police by in w a and dancing and
Speaker 1: like holding signs, and reports indicated that an older white
Speaker 1: man who was with the Blue Lives Matter crowd came
Speaker 1: up the steps of city Hall and attempted to rest
Speaker 1: away a megaphone from a black transactivist that was leading
Speaker 1: the Black Lives Matter protests, dragging him down the stairs, uh,
Speaker 1: in like an altercation. And so it's like we've had
Speaker 1: all this peaceful ship until the fucking right wing appears.
Speaker 1: We've been just chilling, singing Kumbaya and we each all overcome.
Speaker 1: And then it's I mean they're the I mean they're
Speaker 1: the ones who are like ripping down like people signs
Speaker 1: and ship costing little girls and stuff. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: guess I ever had to mention. The car caravan on
Speaker 1: Saturday went well. We had about a hundred car show
Speaker 1: out and we drove around decides to police violence and
Speaker 1: happens shut down downtown for about an hour of the
Speaker 1: radio show. I'm try getting ready to do do that again,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do it again the Saturday, and I'm
Speaker 1: actually bringing your ass now there's none of us protavirus. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go participate now. Yeah, it's gonna be cool.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be cool. But you had some exciting news
Speaker 1: this week also. Oh um, yeah, No, I I got
Speaker 1: to do uh fundraiser with the legendary Jerry Conway. He's
Speaker 1: the co creator of The Punisher and used to write
Speaker 1: Spider Man and a bunch of other cool comic book things.
Speaker 1: But he put out a call to get some you know,
Speaker 1: illustrators and artists who were of color to do a
Speaker 1: little reappropriation of the Punisher logo, the character that he created.
Speaker 1: It's you know, the logo has been appropriated by police,
Speaker 1: which is really ironic because the cops have started wearing
Speaker 1: the Punisher skull unlike the uniform stickers on their car
Speaker 1: and ship and any sort of passive following of the
Speaker 1: comic book. And it's quite explicit the Punisher doesn't funk
Speaker 1: with cops. He especially the Punisher especially doesn't funk with
Speaker 1: cops who funk with him. Yeah, but I know, I
Speaker 1: got to design like a you know, black Lives Matter
Speaker 1: skull and all the proceeds are going towards Black Lives Matter.
Speaker 1: So far, I think the whole thing is raised. Like
Speaker 1: I think like twenty three thou dollars. That was like
Speaker 1: two days ago when I checked. So that's ill man.
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you. Proud of you. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: also it put me on to you know, some of
Speaker 1: the fellow artists who participated in it. That's sick put
Speaker 1: onto some new black you know, illustrators and stuff. So
Speaker 1: there's a link to that in my Instagram Bio Dope,
Speaker 1: underscore knife, So just check that out. I feel like
Speaker 1: we should have done this in reverse. But like we've
Speaker 1: got lots of good news to me, we also got
Speaker 1: a lot of bad news this week. I've been getting
Speaker 1: death threats for one on the internet. One man uh
Speaker 1: suggested which platform on Facebook. One man said I should
Speaker 1: be hung from a tree. Another man suggested that brooks
Speaker 1: me thrown through the windows of our home. Didn't you
Speaker 1: didn't some cops get involved. Cops called me to let
Speaker 1: me know that they were investigating the situation. Asked if
Speaker 1: I wanted to press charges, and I decline because I
Speaker 1: mean there's two things they suggested that it might be
Speaker 1: unlikely that they could be brought up they could be
Speaker 1: effectively prosecuted for this since they didn't explicitly say I'm
Speaker 1: going to hang you from a tree it which just
Speaker 1: suggested that this is something that should happen. Someone should
Speaker 1: throw Brooks through our window. But in addition, I feel
Speaker 1: like I I like, I just don't believe that the
Speaker 1: criminal legal system reforms people like these motherfuckers get thrown
Speaker 1: in jail and then they're around a bunch of other
Speaker 1: white supremacist who have committed crimes, they get involved in
Speaker 1: like a white supremacist gang, They get their ideology re
Speaker 1: entrenched to that experience or just bitterness through having been
Speaker 1: uh incarcerated over threats to a black activist, and they
Speaker 1: just like double down on that mission in their lives. So,
Speaker 1: like what we need to do instead is to like
Speaker 1: take a really close look at the schools they went to,
Speaker 1: the churches they have attended, who their parents are, what
Speaker 1: affiliations they have in terms of organizations in the community,
Speaker 1: and like do kind of an autopsy on like how
Speaker 1: do these organizations, how do these institutions create such evil men?
Speaker 1: And how do we reform and remake those institutions so
Speaker 1: that we stopped making people like this because you know,
Speaker 1: Robbie Bailey or whatever, Chuck Jones like, it's too late
Speaker 1: for them, but it might not be too late for
Speaker 1: their sons that are going to Athens Christian right now
Speaker 1: if we figure out how to fix athletes Christian and so,
Speaker 1: I just want to redirect people's attention to like the
Speaker 1: structural level of like what makes racists, rather than punishing
Speaker 1: individual racists for the institutions that made them shitty. You
Speaker 1: know where else there's a lot of racists in our
Speaker 1: comments section podcast. Oh our comments section is a hot
Speaker 1: shit show. Yeah you checked that ship out, you know what.
Speaker 1: I glanced at it, But like I just in in
Speaker 1: general when whenever I do stuff, I'm like one of
Speaker 1: those kinds are. I tried my hardest to not count
Speaker 1: numbers and not read comments because I obsess section. I
Speaker 1: loved about what man, I just get. I didn't enough
Speaker 1: people have commented on it. You know, my my little brothers,
Speaker 1: you know in the military. He was like, yo, man, good, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm good. So I mean I guess all
Speaker 1: that to say, you know, leave us some five stars
Speaker 1: if you like the show. Yeah, it's about what you
Speaker 1: like about the show. It's also good feedback for us
Speaker 1: moving forward. Um. But this kind of leads into what
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about for today's episode, which is
Speaker 1: going to be part one in a reoccurring series that
Speaker 1: we're going to be doing where we spotlight different aspects
Speaker 1: of racism in a series that i'd like to call
Speaker 1: So I think it's really important to do this because
Speaker 1: I think we've been operating from some basic assumptions that
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that we share with our audience.
Speaker 1: We've been working out the premise throughout the show that
Speaker 1: folks you know, hold these same basic assumptiance about what
Speaker 1: racism is and how it operates. But I think it's
Speaker 1: important as well to take a step back and explore
Speaker 1: where we're coming from and what these things actually mean.
Speaker 1: Uh as like a practical matter for just like yo,
Speaker 1: we you know, love you for listening, and I want
Speaker 1: to make sure we're all on the same page, but
Speaker 1: also into in line with the theme of the show,
Speaker 1: thinking about the way that how we define racism also
Speaker 1: inflex our political reality. I see a lot of times
Speaker 1: in public policy. I saw earlier tonight in our commission meeting,
Speaker 1: how definitions matter so much for how resources get allocated,
Speaker 1: how the laws upheld. We were having a debate earlier
Speaker 1: about what the term resources mean. A bunch of funding
Speaker 1: was going out to all these indigence services providers and
Speaker 1: organizations that do work with the homeless, etcetera, who provide resources,
Speaker 1: and this one entity didn't get funding because it wasn't
Speaker 1: defined as like providing resources, like well, isn't education or resource?
Speaker 1: Isn't edgucy, like isn't you know, this training or resource
Speaker 1: for people? And so we have to be very clear
Speaker 1: and what different words mean in order for like governments
Speaker 1: to operate and for public policy to be effective. It's
Speaker 1: just like in the battle of debates and ideas, it's
Speaker 1: like the words or weapons, and it's like you have
Speaker 1: to know how to wield them. Right, We totally totally
Speaker 1: interpretation matters so much, And so we're gonna get a
Speaker 1: little bit into the definition of racism today both to
Speaker 1: like establish a common ground with y'all and to kind
Speaker 1: of think about the way that um that language influences
Speaker 1: our political reality, especially when you're having discussions with people
Speaker 1: who you are trying to prove that an action, something
Speaker 1: they did, or that an aspect of what you guys
Speaker 1: are discussing two people who are trying to prove that
Speaker 1: it isn't racist. They're always quick to jump to the
Speaker 1: dictionary definition of the word racism to prove what it means.
Speaker 1: So let's check out a couple of those, right, So
Speaker 1: we have in the Oxford languages, we have the belief
Speaker 1: that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially
Speaker 1: so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to
Speaker 1: one another. And then in the columns English Dictionary, have
Speaker 1: got the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined
Speaker 1: by hereditary factors, and that this endows some races with
Speaker 1: an intrinsic superiority over others Abusive or aggressive behavior towards
Speaker 1: members of another race on the basis of such a belief. Now,
Speaker 1: what all these definitions do is firmly set a con
Speaker 1: sept of racism is being a belief, a doctrine to
Speaker 1: that someone subscribes to. Uh. These are safe definitions because
Speaker 1: they frame racism is being strictly like a moral failing
Speaker 1: and something that only pertains to some of us and
Speaker 1: not all of us. You know, it's something that you
Speaker 1: can write off as being, oh, that person is bad
Speaker 1: because that person thinks X, and it doesn't necessarily address
Speaker 1: the broader aspects of racism and how it affects every
Speaker 1: aspects of our lives. This is kind of like applying
Speaker 1: the bad apples philosophy to the definition of racism. Well,
Speaker 1: the thing about the bad apples like metaphor is that
Speaker 1: the full saying is that a couple of bad apples
Speaker 1: spoil the whole bunch. I think that's very like, uh
Speaker 1: poignant for thinking about the way that systemic racism, institutional
Speaker 1: racism operates. Because when you have individual actors all or
Speaker 1: you know, even some of them doing this kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and you have other people who aren't checking their power
Speaker 1: when it comes to enforcing regulations or you know, and
Speaker 1: interacting with others in a racist way, but you don't
Speaker 1: have any sorts of accountability around that, the whole system
Speaker 1: becomes inflected with this this racist ideology. And so through
Speaker 1: every sort of interpersonal interaction with folks, every single middle
Speaker 1: level manager and that decides not to hire a black person.
Speaker 1: It might not be a companywide policy per se, but
Speaker 1: it becomes systemic when um, it is a trend historically
Speaker 1: and no one is checking that, and so it's kind
Speaker 1: of accepted as the status quo. Yeah, it's like, it
Speaker 1: doesn't require that somebody be actively racist in order for
Speaker 1: it to perpetuate. Like, all all that work was done
Speaker 1: hundreds of years ago. Literally, systems were put in place,
Speaker 1: So it's like, hey, let's have this be so ingrained
Speaker 1: into the fabric of society so that hundreds of years
Speaker 1: from now, even if public sentiment changes, those systems are
Speaker 1: still in place to perpetuate this system of racism. This
Speaker 1: very issue of defining the word racism came to the
Speaker 1: attention of Drake University graduate Kennedy Mitchum a few months ago.
Speaker 1: She sent an email to Marry and Webster the Dictionary
Speaker 1: bringing this up and urging that they update the definition
Speaker 1: for the word racism to represent the true meaning of
Speaker 1: what the word is. Making her case, she stated, racism
Speaker 1: is not only prejudice against a certain race due to
Speaker 1: color of a person's skin, as it states in your dictionary.
Speaker 1: It is both prejudice combined with social and institutional power.
Speaker 1: It is a system of advantage based on skin color.
Speaker 1: To her surprise, they hit her back up the next
Speaker 1: day and they actually agreed with there and they updated,
Speaker 1: they updated the definition, and she changed the definition of
Speaker 1: the word racism. And we actually have Kennedy here with
Speaker 1: us today to talk about the case he made to
Speaker 1: marry On Webster and the impact the definitions change. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we're here with Kennedy Mitchell, recent Drake University graduate,
Speaker 1: twenty two year old that effectively lobbied Mary A. Webster
Speaker 1: to get their definition of racism changed in the dictionary.
Speaker 1: How are you to David Kennedy, I'm doing good. How
Speaker 1: are you? I'm good. It's good to have you here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So talk to us a little bit of what about
Speaker 1: what informs your definition of racism my own experiences. I've
Speaker 1: definitely been a part of a lot of predominantly white
Speaker 1: institutions growing up um in St. Louis. A lot of
Speaker 1: that racism that I experienced. It was more blatant, a
Speaker 1: lot more overt, but going into college, a lot of that,
Speaker 1: you know, it was way. It was a lot more microaggressions,
Speaker 1: It was a lot more covert, It was a lot
Speaker 1: more undercover. They did, they didn't really want to acknowledge
Speaker 1: it as racism. So those binds, those different experiences definitely
Speaker 1: made me understand how racism is very multidimensional. It's more
Speaker 1: than just calling someone the in word or just derogatory turns.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of the way that systems work to
Speaker 1: continue to oppress people. It's it's a way that people
Speaker 1: continually there implicit by it still works to you know,
Speaker 1: show that oppression. So my life experience is definitely it
Speaker 1: formed the way that I see the word. Now, what
Speaker 1: was like the deciding factor that something happened that made
Speaker 1: you just open your web browser that day and send
Speaker 1: that email out? Was it like a particular incident or
Speaker 1: was it just a build up the frustration. It was
Speaker 1: really both. But I think the current climate definitely sparked
Speaker 1: that a lot more because I've gotten into, you know,
Speaker 1: arguments about where racism is and what is and what's
Speaker 1: not racists, like multiple times on social media. But a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago when I posted about you know,
Speaker 1: some things that I experienced at Drake and a person
Speaker 1: you know wanted to say, no, that's that's not racism,
Speaker 1: and that encopied and paste the marrying Webster definition, and
Speaker 1: I explained to them, I was like, oh, Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is the last straw I can more um, And that's
Speaker 1: what prompted me, especially right now, Like if you don't
Speaker 1: understand that it's more than that, then it's more than
Speaker 1: just the basic the surface level things is deeply ingrained
Speaker 1: and a lot of these systems we see then, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you, So I'm like,
Speaker 1: let me just hit up. I found that they were
Speaker 1: just the root of one problem. They were it was
Speaker 1: just one way that people would go is the definition way.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, let me reach out to Marry
Speaker 1: and Webster and asked them to change it since a
Speaker 1: lot of people want to use that definition as a
Speaker 1: way to kind of stay stagnant and not really grow
Speaker 1: and understanding. Yeah, for sure. Would you mind speaking on
Speaker 1: some of those early incidences of racism that you experienced,
Speaker 1: as well as how they differ from some specific examples
Speaker 1: of the covert kinds of racism you encountered at Drake
Speaker 1: in high school? Like I had one girl she came
Speaker 1: up to me, like my first day of high school
Speaker 1: and she wrote uh, like with the sharpie and she
Speaker 1: came up to me and she wrote on me, and
Speaker 1: she was like, wow, it still shows up and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, like girl was Yeah, definitely this this sense
Speaker 1: of entitlement to black bodies in this like sense of
Speaker 1: comfort with like touching us, coming too close to us,
Speaker 1: violating our personal space. Up until like riding on a person.
Speaker 1: Sure this person was like an adolescent, but like these
Speaker 1: people gotta learn at some point exactly exactly, and I
Speaker 1: mean earlier on, I was like, especially because I was
Speaker 1: in the environment that was predominantly white, but a lot
Speaker 1: of it was the climate was still like Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: still treated like normal, Like I was still able to
Speaker 1: be myself. So I was definitely in that same mindset
Speaker 1: like when I was younger, when I was like fifteen sixteen, like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe there's just a few rotten apples, you know, like
Speaker 1: that girl, maybe that's going to be an isolated incident.
Speaker 1: But up until like the Mike Brown thing, I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: like no, this is not this is not an isolated
Speaker 1: incident because you know, a lot of people's true colors
Speaker 1: came to show. Because I think that was my junior
Speaker 1: of high school and I was like the diversity club
Speaker 1: president and everything, and I was just able to understand
Speaker 1: like how much deeper it is in comparison to when
Speaker 1: I went off to college, and it was a lot
Speaker 1: of the you know, when I walked out, when I
Speaker 1: walked down the hallway, no one would make eye contact
Speaker 1: with me. When I went When I was in different
Speaker 1: group projects, a lot of people didn't value my opinion.
Speaker 1: I would say something and then five and they would
Speaker 1: be like, um, hey, ignored. And then five seconds later
Speaker 1: a white on her part was saying the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: They oh my god, yes, that is such a great idea,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh my god, I just said that.
Speaker 1: Like it honestly is like mental warfare sometimes because you
Speaker 1: think you're just it's like gaslighting. You think you're just
Speaker 1: being extra. You think it's just are you problem until
Speaker 1: you actually talk so you know people who look like
Speaker 1: you and who experience the same exact things, and they're
Speaker 1: like while you're they're like, yeah, those microaggishes, man, Like
Speaker 1: that's enough is enough, And especially even from your own
Speaker 1: professors who are paid, who are literally paid to you know,
Speaker 1: educate you. But here you are and they're calling you
Speaker 1: a different black girl's name every single every single chance,
Speaker 1: every twing. When my when I first got on the commission,
Speaker 1: here it happens the mayor would frequently mix me up
Speaker 1: with the black auditor who have very short hair. She
Speaker 1: is like kids like me, but like she's sitting in
Speaker 1: a completely different part of the chamber and always is.
Speaker 1: And she'd be like, oh, you know, Stefaniely made a
Speaker 1: good point when I just said it, and I'll be like,
Speaker 1: you know what the flush you're the mayor of a
Speaker 1: city or the mayor of a city. But yeah, So,
Speaker 1: like there's these these overtly aggressive forms of racism that's
Speaker 1: like antagonization through you know, getting like violation of the
Speaker 1: personal space stuff like that, and then there's these more
Speaker 1: subtle forms of marketilization through averted eye contact or just
Speaker 1: missing opinions that definitely build up over time to diminish
Speaker 1: a person's self esteem, you know, lisens of self worth,
Speaker 1: and like a lifetime of that is like really heavy
Speaker 1: to bear, no doubt, But talk to us a little
Speaker 1: bit about you know what, uh, what was wrong with
Speaker 1: the old definition of racism in the dictionary. Right, So
Speaker 1: the definition basically states, you know that racism is belief
Speaker 1: that you know, one's race determines their abilities and that
Speaker 1: racial differences, those racial differences make one race superior to
Speaker 1: the other. But the thing is, it's not just racism.
Speaker 1: Isn't just believing that you're better than someone because of
Speaker 1: the color of your skin, or just calling someone those
Speaker 1: avertly you know, derogatory terms. I mean, you have to
Speaker 1: when we're talking about racism, we have to really describe
Speaker 1: how it really infiltraits, like every every part of our lives,
Speaker 1: every aspect. You must include the word systemic when we're
Speaker 1: describing racism because a big part of racism is putting
Speaker 1: systems in place that are designed to keep one racist
Speaker 1: people behind. So that's not that originally wasn't included in
Speaker 1: the definition, but it's super important to add that in there. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it reminds me of that Sclear Carmichael quote. If a
Speaker 1: white man wants to lend me, that's his problem. If
Speaker 1: you've got the power to lend me, that's my problem.
Speaker 1: Racism has had a question of attitude, it's a question
Speaker 1: of power exactly. So now, like assuming so that they
Speaker 1: are going to change the definitory, okay, they changed it.
Speaker 1: So now that the definition has changed, at least in
Speaker 1: one dictionary, like, what what's the next step? What do
Speaker 1: you think or some we're really trying to get that
Speaker 1: change in every diction. Well right now I'm working with
Speaker 1: a lot of different scholars to get it changed in
Speaker 1: every dictionary because it's still like in the Oxford Dictionary,
Speaker 1: which is a very prominent one, and in dictionary dot
Speaker 1: com they still only have that basic you know, um
Speaker 1: basically what I described earlier. So that's that's the next
Speaker 1: step besides just trying to you know, inform people on
Speaker 1: the deeper aspects. I feel like a lot of people
Speaker 1: who want to be ignorant, they're still gonna be ignorant
Speaker 1: about it until it's like they're not going to experience it.
Speaker 1: But it's like you have to just boom. You have
Speaker 1: to really just be open to other people who might
Speaker 1: not have the same experiences as you, and just listen.
Speaker 1: I think this is a very important time to just
Speaker 1: sit back and at people's voices be heard, and actually
Speaker 1: listen to your counterparts and what they're saying instead of
Speaker 1: just trying to be ignorant about it, because that's not
Speaker 1: gonna get us anywhere. So it's really gonna just leave
Speaker 1: us in the same position we are now, where there's
Speaker 1: black men, black women being killed, being murdered, being abducted,
Speaker 1: and there's nobody being held accountable for because apparently black
Speaker 1: people want to act like black bodies, you know, they're
Speaker 1: not worth They're not worth anything, which is just not true.
Speaker 1: What do you think is the wider impact of the
Speaker 1: definitions change. I think that I hope that it allows
Speaker 1: for a lot more a lot more um conversations about
Speaker 1: racism that are actually accurate to what racism is. I
Speaker 1: think that it was definitely people were trying to take
Speaker 1: racism and you know, just make it whether they wanted
Speaker 1: it to be because of how loosely you know, worded
Speaker 1: that it was in the beginning. So I hope that
Speaker 1: allows for more productive conversation. I hope that allows for
Speaker 1: people to understand their biases and actually put forth some
Speaker 1: change to actually you know, correct them, because it's not
Speaker 1: always on people of color to come up with solutions.
Speaker 1: This is a time where you see, we need solidarity
Speaker 1: and we need people of all races to really come
Speaker 1: together to fix the problem because I mean, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we didn't create it, so it
Speaker 1: really needs to be addressed and solved altogether universally. Hey,
Speaker 1: I had one last question. Every everything that I've seen
Speaker 1: of people like covering you and what you've done. They
Speaker 1: only refer to you as a college graduate, So is
Speaker 1: there is is there something else that we can refer
Speaker 1: to you as I think that that has been bothering me,
Speaker 1: especially because my Drake experiences have hurt me so much,
Speaker 1: Like it's really been a mental warfare and like been
Speaker 1: such uh like, I don't it's really annoying how they're
Speaker 1: getting a lot of publicity and how they're really getting
Speaker 1: during all of this when at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: they didn't take care of me at all as a
Speaker 1: student there. They still aren't taking care of their people
Speaker 1: students of color, which you can basically ask anyone. So
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you brought that up because who that is?
Speaker 1: That is so that bothers me so much because they're
Speaker 1: just taking so much pr from this, but they're still
Speaker 1: not putting anything in place to actually protect and actually
Speaker 1: hold those professors accountable who say racist stuff, hold those
Speaker 1: students accountables who do racist stuff that might not be
Speaker 1: overtly racist, but it still hurts all the same. So
Speaker 1: you can just call me by my name, Kennedy Mitchum.
Speaker 1: I also don't the black because a lot of other
Speaker 1: people are just saying, you know, black women. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not just black woman. I'm like, yeah, exactly, I'm
Speaker 1: educated the world. We literally I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: but that's so funny you brought that up. Well this Mitchum,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming and talking with us on the
Speaker 1: Wait in the Reparations podcast. So thank you for your time,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. And so when you have these
Speaker 1: systems that we're constructed through these iterative interactions between people,
Speaker 1: this one person that you know treated someone in some way,
Speaker 1: and then like I get a bunch of people who
Speaker 1: are treating someone this way, and it creates the system
Speaker 1: that's been in place for hundreds of years, thousands of years. Um.
Speaker 1: What's interesting from a public policy perspective is the way
Speaker 1: that we are hindered in our policy from addressing the
Speaker 1: status quo of the system that which is racist and
Speaker 1: um dismantling parts of that system that that that are racist. So,
Speaker 1: for example, in the local government, we've been trying to
Speaker 1: work on getting more minority contractors with city contracts for
Speaker 1: paving roads, building buildings, doing roofing, doing solar panel installation
Speaker 1: because all of these white um firms have had advantage
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years, tens of decades, UH with regards
Speaker 1: to the way that they've been able to recruit capital
Speaker 1: and actually maintain a business, whereas black businesses were burned
Speaker 1: to the ground, et cetera. But law prevents us given
Speaker 1: like equal protections on the law, it's equally discriminatory for
Speaker 1: us to give UH contracts to exclusively white people as
Speaker 1: it is to give contracts exclusively to black people. There's
Speaker 1: no way that we can and act a law that
Speaker 1: says we are going to give of our city contracts
Speaker 1: to black owned firms, because that's discrimination as well. And
Speaker 1: so this kind of this this kind of policy helps
Speaker 1: uphold the system, but it operates under the guys of
Speaker 1: protecting everyone from discrimination. Like everyone's equal to begin with,
Speaker 1: everyone's already equal, So like you can't discriminate against white
Speaker 1: people by saying we're going to give contracts to black
Speaker 1: owned firms. And it really prevents us from actually addressing
Speaker 1: the historical roots of a lot of the disparities that
Speaker 1: we have in our community because of these things that
Speaker 1: have been so ongoing for such a long time historically.
Speaker 1: If are we good, I'm good, Yeah, especially since the
Speaker 1: intellectual part of the episode is over. Now I can
Speaker 1: just laugh at exactly so. So and you know, going
Speaker 1: with the episode for the music discussion, we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about some songs that are themed in racism,
Speaker 1: you know, about the topic of it, either dealing with
Speaker 1: you know, an aspect of it. I tried to be
Speaker 1: really specific with it and just look for songs that were,
Speaker 1: you know, systhetic racism, but there's just so many songs
Speaker 1: that are just about racism broadly that this is like,
Speaker 1: now we just gotta talk about it. So this first
Speaker 1: one is actually like a real classic. Um, this is
Speaker 1: Brad Paisley featuring l O. Cool J Accidental Racist. When
Speaker 1: I see that white cowboy hat, I'm thinking it's not
Speaker 1: all good. I guess we're both guilty and judge in
Speaker 1: the cup. I got the book, Yo, get all the
Speaker 1: way to the funk out of here with that. This
Speaker 1: is real? What are yours? This? That was two? Yeah? Yep, No,
Speaker 1: there's like a they even they did press for this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like a CNN clip of them talking about this
Speaker 1: that looks like a parody. It looks like a fucking
Speaker 1: state farm commercial. I'm gonna trying not to think about that.
Speaker 1: So that's just a little bit of l l's verse.
Speaker 1: But Brad Paisley, he's singing about going into like a
Speaker 1: coffee shop and getting served by I assume a black waiter,
Speaker 1: and he's got a Leonard Skinner shirt on. So he's
Speaker 1: got the rebel flag and he's feeling bad about it,
Speaker 1: and I think this shouldn't really happen. I think this
Speaker 1: is really went into some place where in the rebel
Speaker 1: flag is some some black people custom out and he
Speaker 1: went to the studio like I have to call l
Speaker 1: where's cool, James? I just any sort of rap country ship,
Speaker 1: miss me? You know, I want to say that. But
Speaker 1: like the Nelly tim McGrath joint, in a certain frame
Speaker 1: of mind, I can see how people fused with that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just that. I'm just saying I understand
Speaker 1: thought it was. Yeah, you know, how are you gonna
Speaker 1: make fun of it when you know reseillable? I think
Speaker 1: I think in the in the right hands, anybody can
Speaker 1: anybody who's capable can make anything dope. And obviously l
Speaker 1: J is one of the greatest rappers of all time.
Speaker 1: But that ship was trash um. So the next joint
Speaker 1: is a pretty interesting one. This is a journa lucas
Speaker 1: I'm not Racist from It's his conversational concept song check
Speaker 1: us out, talking about slavery like he was a round
Speaker 1: back then, like he was picking cotton off the round
Speaker 1: back then, like he was on the plantation getting down
Speaker 1: back then. I'm not racist. This is like the dialogue
Speaker 1: between like the maga hat wearing bearded white guy and
Speaker 1: then the black dude. Right yeah, the black kids like
Speaker 1: sitting at like a table together. It's framed as a conversation.
Speaker 1: A lot of it got flak when it came out
Speaker 1: because some people thought that the white dudes verseus was
Speaker 1: either longer or had had more thought put into it
Speaker 1: or something like that. I don't know, Like in in
Speaker 1: any event, it's like it's the song that he chose
Speaker 1: to make, you know what I mean, I don't really
Speaker 1: give it any sort of judgment on that. It's more
Speaker 1: the quality of it that I'm thinking about. Well, also
Speaker 1: the way it's positioned, I mean, like structurally in the song,
Speaker 1: Like when I first watched it, like watched the music
Speaker 1: video and I just the music video starts and this
Speaker 1: is white guy rapping about how black people are bad.
Speaker 1: I was just like, yea, what the fuck? From from
Speaker 1: like a Artie Farzi standpoint. I think that's like the
Speaker 1: intention is like it invokes, it invokes like every action.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, immediately are kind of a little bit
Speaker 1: pissed off. I mean the second you know again, it's
Speaker 1: it's another one of those songs where admittedly it's like
Speaker 1: the first few times I heard it a few years ago,
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I kind of felt the
Speaker 1: same way, But listening to it more these last few
Speaker 1: days leading up to this, it's like, all right, the
Speaker 1: argument that both of the verses are equally as long,
Speaker 1: and that you know, they both have equal time if
Speaker 1: you actually like look at it. So it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't I don't minded as much
Speaker 1: as I did when I first heard it, but maybe
Speaker 1: I'm getting soft or something. Definitely getting soft. I mean,
Speaker 1: it definitely gets hokey towards the end because they like
Speaker 1: make up and hug and it's like, oh, if only
Speaker 1: we could just put the races aside and hug it out.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you know, I mean, I hear all those criticisms,
Speaker 1: but it's wrapped really well, and I just digged the concept.
Speaker 1: It's not like a I I dig I dig it
Speaker 1: when people do songs that like maybe like damn, I
Speaker 1: wish I had thought about that first, you know, And
Speaker 1: this song definitely has some of that. So the next
Speaker 1: joint is Black America again by Common featuring Stevie Wonders.
Speaker 1: Black anytime anybody is like black on black crime needs
Speaker 1: to end and like doesn't actually bring into like bring
Speaker 1: into it the systemic to mention of like why we're
Speaker 1: killing each other And like my it's just rolled back
Speaker 1: in my skull and I fucking die a little bit that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there was he was that was
Speaker 1: just one bit of the song. I don't think that's
Speaker 1: a fair description of that song. But I don't know
Speaker 1: is that like is that your Is that your only feeling?
Speaker 1: You know? I mean, because that song to me is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it's like typical. I don't I'm not saying
Speaker 1: this in a bad way at all, but it's like
Speaker 1: it's like standard Common, fair, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like he's always like hitting on those sort of points,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I think it's I don't think that
Speaker 1: we should be so reactionary that Common can't say black
Speaker 1: men don't kill each other. I mean, it's one thing
Speaker 1: if Ben Shapiro's punk Asked is saying it, but Common
Speaker 1: should be able to say it. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: You disagree? I mean like you don't hear fucking Luke
Speaker 1: Bryant singing songs about how white people need to stop
Speaker 1: killing each other? What the fund is a luke when
Speaker 1: when most fucking homicides happen intra racially. I I understand that.
Speaker 1: I just don't think that Commons mentioned of this in
Speaker 1: the song is like coming from the same place that
Speaker 1: somebody concern trolling when you're trying to bring up systemic
Speaker 1: racism is coming from when they do it. This is
Speaker 1: an episode about systemic racism. If motherfucker's are addressing the
Speaker 1: systemic roots of the issues in our community, they're not
Speaker 1: serving us. And I'm sorry being like put the guns down?
Speaker 1: Who the fund? You thought, like, no, it's no, But
Speaker 1: listen and think about it for a second. How many
Speaker 1: people do you think Common got to put their guns
Speaker 1: down over this song? I don't know, yeah, because nobody
Speaker 1: fucking put their guns down over the song. However, if
Speaker 1: a song had been crafted around addressing the roots of
Speaker 1: black homicides in already in you know, housing, insecurity, in
Speaker 1: a lack of education. Why are they funding that ship again,
Speaker 1: just the sliver of a six minute long song to
Speaker 1: raise awareness for the for like policy change that could
Speaker 1: like actually impact the roots of of intra racial homicide.
Speaker 1: Fucking that would be when the guns down because of
Speaker 1: the ship. I honestly, I honestly think that's an unfair
Speaker 1: characterization of one line. Well fuck you no for real though, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a six minute song that's called
Speaker 1: Black America. Again, the nigga definitely hits on systemic racism
Speaker 1: at least a couple of times in the ship. I'm
Speaker 1: not even trying to hate on the rest, and I'm
Speaker 1: not even trying to detigrate any of commons. You is
Speaker 1: your argument that that should never be mentioned at all?
Speaker 1: I don't think it's useful to tell people put their
Speaker 1: guns down unless you're actually mediating like gang conflict in
Speaker 1: like an actual interpersonal way. But I mean that's that's
Speaker 1: where it stems from. Though, Man, next song, I didn't
Speaker 1: get into this. I mean, look, look, I mean just
Speaker 1: just keeping it real, Like I grew up on Gangster Rap.
Speaker 1: That was like the first rap that rap ship that
Speaker 1: I listened to, you know what I mean when I
Speaker 1: first started listening to rap, and it's like there was
Speaker 1: like the ethos of it wasn't really yeah, yo, like
Speaker 1: killing each other is dope. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: Like that that wasn't you know, like like as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, it was quite like vehemently like nah,
Speaker 1: like like put the gun down, black black man. Don't
Speaker 1: we need to stop shooting each other? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like we need to like aim like in
Speaker 1: some cases people are like we need to aim at them,
Speaker 1: which brings us to the next song. This. Okay, So
Speaker 1: when I say the name sir Mix a Lot, what
Speaker 1: do you think about du dun dun dun dun dun
Speaker 1: dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun du I
Speaker 1: like big butts and I cannot lie you did nah?
Speaker 1: But the girl walks in with the inmates and a
Speaker 1: round thing in your face. You get degree. So yeah,
Speaker 1: Sir Mix a lot, cervix. You know I was. I
Speaker 1: used to listen to Sir Mix a lot, like around
Speaker 1: when Baby Got Back first came out and It's like
Speaker 1: I actually had that album that that was on It's
Speaker 1: called mac Daddy. Actually, it's executive produced by Rick Rubin
Speaker 1: and Sir Mix a Lot did a lot of the
Speaker 1: beats on it. But I've been saying since I was
Speaker 1: a little kid that Sir Mix a Lot is one
Speaker 1: of the most underrated rappers of all time that just
Speaker 1: nobody gives credit to because of the strength of Baby
Speaker 1: Got Back. They forgot how nice he was on the mike.
Speaker 1: But this Ship has some crazy concept songs on it.
Speaker 1: I mean, and there's ship where he's rapping like he's
Speaker 1: a Ferrari. There's a song where he's rapping from the
Speaker 1: perspective of being heroin. So he's got this cut on
Speaker 1: that album that's called jack Back that is pretty much
Speaker 1: just like a Nazi murder fantasy about him beefing with
Speaker 1: the class with like a squad of skin heads and
Speaker 1: getting revenge killing because they burned across in his yard.
Speaker 1: It's really fucking awesome. Let's check a little out a
Speaker 1: little bit of that wild. I mean, it's and I
Speaker 1: really enjoy that, you know, because we were just talking
Speaker 1: about you know, black on black crime. But it's like
Speaker 1: this is essentially a nineties gangster rap song, but the
Speaker 1: antagonist of this gangster rap story isn't another black man,
Speaker 1: it's actual skinhead racist that he's like doing drive byes
Speaker 1: on and catching slip all right, And last We Got
Speaker 1: It is actually my favorite of the joints that I
Speaker 1: found and I was listening to. This is a Marlin
Speaker 1: a song by Marlon Craft called Gangshit. Let's check this out.
Speaker 1: We're gonna make America white again. Sound when of them people,
Speaker 1: people who work harder than me, because we all spighted
Speaker 1: them sitting there so fucking dopey. It's yeah, it's just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: when I first heard that ship, it was stuck in
Speaker 1: my head for days. But I like, I think, I
Speaker 1: think this is similar to the journal Lucas I'm not
Speaker 1: racist one in the sense of like the framing and
Speaker 1: how it's set up where the rappers taken on the
Speaker 1: character of these different personalities. That was just a snippet,
Speaker 1: But in the course of the song, he plays the
Speaker 1: role of a cop and he's like talking about how
Speaker 1: the cops of you black people. Then he plays the
Speaker 1: role of a landsman and he's talking about how the
Speaker 1: klansman and views black people, and then he plays the
Speaker 1: role of like a black guy who's actually in jail,
Speaker 1: who grew up in the hood, and he's like, my
Speaker 1: gang ship landed me in prison, and your gang ship
Speaker 1: got you on the street walking the beat, and you
Speaker 1: sitting at home, you know, with your family and ship
Speaker 1: having dinner, Yeah, sitting around the dinner table, and it's
Speaker 1: just it's just really, I think it's a I think
Speaker 1: it's more effective than the General Lucas song because it's
Speaker 1: a better song, you know what I mean. It's got
Speaker 1: like a catchy hooked I think the beat is better.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just the iller song. And kind of
Speaker 1: that's important when you're trying to make messages with your ship,
Speaker 1: is that it sounds good because I think your point
Speaker 1: can get across, right. It's important for like catching the
Speaker 1: attention of your audience to like layer them into paying
Speaker 1: attention to the broader message exactly. So that's gonna be
Speaker 1: it for our music discussion, and that's gonna be it
Speaker 1: for our episode. I for one, feel like rapping. I
Speaker 1: feel like rapping two. And I also want to wish
Speaker 1: everyone a very happy June Teo this Friday. Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: don't work general. Generally, don't buy ship, They're gonna work.
Speaker 1: Uh uh, you see, I ought to be I proud
Speaker 1: of you, just like my parents thought i'd be, instead
Speaker 1: of squandering my doctorate party and hardily lost in the
Speaker 1: Coxae looking like chocolate broccoli for not the locking people.
Speaker 1: I'm watching me constantly because I'm bread and straightened until
Speaker 1: the Great Tenth, when I decided I was kind of
Speaker 1: tired of her moodiness. They should they should change this.
Speaker 1: My looks like Andy Davis and the racist suppose the
Speaker 1: observation of white is a million. I don't God truly
Speaker 1: to spit, but when it comes to written verses, I
Speaker 1: am truly legit. I'm on another different curve. I in
Speaker 1: school with you, prick, because what I dropped and give
Speaker 1: the earth and KI could dude in this ship, I'm
Speaker 1: proving it this bit of scene words and then I did.
Speaker 1: I stacked the bread and that means work and not persist.
Speaker 1: I'm mixed the red head in the green herb and
Speaker 1: night Quick come off the head with a mean verse
Speaker 1: and let it rip, nigger ship. How do you got
Speaker 1: the kid, I'm the alchemist, I ansis and if you
Speaker 1: brought the pip let me like the stick. I'm the
Speaker 1: prince with the lion fist. I'm about the ships on
Speaker 1: the ship. What the fund is dripped without a risk.
Speaker 1: In the meanwhile, I'm gonna leave your host piste off
Speaker 1: a freestyle better than your whole dis guy the quick
Speaker 1: nod to my dope heads. You're gonna get robbed from
Speaker 1: now one. Not knife nigga, no, just god dope. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm dope night, and we are waiting on reparations. See
Speaker 1: you guys next week. Waiting on Reparations as a production
Speaker 1: of I Heeart Radio. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.