WEBVTT - When They Go Low... 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.640 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:19.799 Me your Girl Daniel Moody pre recording from the Home Bunker. Folks, 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:25.560 it is a federal holiday today and wok F is off. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:31.080 It's Juneteenth, and I have a lot of mixed feelings 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.199 about June teenth being made into a federal holiday at 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.680 a time when curriculum is being banned so that you 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:42.160 can actually learn about Juneteenth. So it's just another fucking 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:48.320 day off that didn't begin with significance for the greater 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:56.280 white mainstream American society, and because of Republican pushed for 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:02.760 white comfort ahead of white accountability, folks will never know. 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:09.600 I looked at a fucking tweet earlier that was later 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:13.720 taken down by the George Towner, I think, which is 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:20.040 some you know like magazine that said Happy Juneteenth, and 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.800 it had two white women, two white women sitting on 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.640 a blanket pouring like white girl Rose. And then they 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:32.320 had since pulled that down. But that's what I'm talking about, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.679 when we turned something into a federal holiday that has 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:42.280 great significance about our freedom, about justice in America, about 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:47.880 how outrageous it was that enslaved people would be forced 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:52.360 to continue to labor, die, be raped and brutalized in 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:57.200 the state of Texas for two years post emancipation. That 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.760 is what June teenth is. And so during this Pride month, 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.560 I am so excited an honored to welcome back to 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:12.160 for really gripping conversation my friend Robert Jones Junior, who 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.440 is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:20.240 The Prophets, which won the twenty twenty two Publishing Triangle 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.400 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and the twenty twenty 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:30.200 two NABA Book of the Year Award for Fiction. Robert 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:35.160 Jones Junior was formerly known on social media as Son 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:40.040 of Baldwin, and he is just extraordinary and we get 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:44.600 into really really great conversation. So I look forward to 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:52.720 you all getting a taste coming up next, folks. I 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.959 am so excited to welcome back to a daily after 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:04.360 so long, so long, brilliant, brilliant writer and author and 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.280 friend of mine, Robert Jones Junior. You may have known 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.760 him formerly the artist known as the Son of Baldwin, 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.520 who is a Brooklyn based award winning writer and is 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:22.160 the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Prophets, Robert. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.440 It is such a pleasure to have you back. I'm 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.480 so excited to see your face. So first I want 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.680 to ask, as we are in the midst of Pride month, 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:39.240 as this is Juneteenth, just how how have you been 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.960 feeling about Pride this year, this Pride twenty twenty three. 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.600 How is it? How is it landing with you? 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:48.320 For me? 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.240 And someone else actually asked me this question, and I said, 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.400 what I'm thinking about more than ever this Pride is 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:03.280 those who came before me, the ancestors who through the 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:08.560 brick and paved the path that I today can be 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:15.280 married to my husband and at least on paper, be 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.440 protected under the law that my sexuality is no longer 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:28.159 considered a mental health issue. So I'm paying so much 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:33.000 respect and homage to people like Marsha P. Johnson, whose 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.919 park in New York I visited for the very first 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:41.520 time yesterday, and it's it's really in a strange place 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.760 in New York. It's in Dumbo, and I'm not sure 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:49.919 why it's in Williamsburg Dumbo area and not in Manhattan someplace, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.200 but it's a really wonderful spot. And what I noticed 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:59.799 was how open and care free that space. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.600 It's how close it is to the water, how beautiful. 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.719 The sites are, And I was wondering what she would 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:09.640 think of having this park named after her and now 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.159 being giving the recognition that for so long she was 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:18.680 denied even by members of the LGBTQ I A plus community. 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:25.679 So this pride, I'm I'm really focused on thinking about 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:31.400 the strategies that our ancestors used to fight for their liberation. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.960 Yeah, you know, it's it's so interesting. I think that 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.919 usually in times of great strife, but you, as somebody 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:45.200 who is very studied, you know, looks to the past 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.120 as a as a guide to your writing, to our 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:54.839 future case for liberation. And I think too often that 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.640 that space is denied. Right people we're seeing you know, 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.680 book bands, we're seeing curriculum bands. We're seeing full erasure 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.280 right of the black experience, let alone the black queer 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:13.200 experience right and contributions to the furthering of our democracy. 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.360 And so I want to ask you, as a as 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.880 a writer, you know, how is the past? How should 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.760 the past be serving us in this moment right at 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:31.240 a time when so much is being banned and erased. 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:36.440 It's almost as if a curriculum needs to be created 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.279 for people to seek the tools that are being denied 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.919 to them in the presence. So, you know, what does 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:48.480 what does it look like for us to have the 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.440 past be our guide to not lose hope right in 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.360 the moment that we are currently in. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:03.880 You know, from my own personal experience, whats the tools 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:08.120 that schools didn't give me? My family gave me. So 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.720 my grandfather was a very learned and well read man, 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:16.680 and so he had shelves and shelves of books that 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.360 he would take out, and I'm like maybe five, six, 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.920 seven years old, and he would take out a book 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.400 that this thick and say, you try to read this, 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.840 And of course I couldn't read read it. I didn't 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:30.920 know every single word, but the words that I did 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.600 recognize pushed me to try to understand, to try to 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.880 put pieces together to please my grandfather, because I realized 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:45.360 that for him this was very important. The problem we 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.680 run into now is that in many cases it's the 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:55.120 parents who are in collusion these with these government officials 0:07:55.160 --> 0:08:00.000 and politicians and institutions who want to erase the past 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:08.880 to pretend, in some jingoistic nationalistic fashion that everything in 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.760 this country was hunky dory, that everyone is innocent, that 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.720 there's nothing to be held accountable for that just by 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:22.760 being alive, you are entitled to power and privilege and 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.760 all of these other sorts of things. And I wonder 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.640 if if it's not going to take some sort of 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:40.320 some courageous educators to buck the system, older siblings, aunts 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:45.840 and uncles, cousins, to interfere so such that these children 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.720 who are who are subject. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:48.000 To these. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:56.560 Draconian impulses from their their their caretakers and from the 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.640 educational institutions, that we could tear that down, that we 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.400 could subvert it in some way. I'm always looking for, 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:07.200 like I do that to be quite honest with my 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.920 own nieces and nephews, when I see that they are 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.600 ignorant of something, I feel like my job is my uncle, 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.880 as the uncle, whether or not their mother or father approves, 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.800 is to tell them the truth, and to not just 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.960 tell them the truth such that it's just my opinion, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.840 but to point to the evidence where I got the 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.640 truth from that it is my job. So we Basically 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.720 what I'm saying is we have to show up as family, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:42.240 as community, as as as soldiers as activists within our 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.640 own circles, not just on the larger global scale, but 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:51.040 also in the home such that we interfere so that 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.040 these these terrible things don't continue to happen because we 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:59.880 can't rely on government. We cannot the santis Abbot MTG, 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:05.920 all of these wild and luna lunatic people who are 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.720 dead sets on dragging us back to the dark ages 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.640 at any means, at any cost, by any means necessary, 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.400 And they don't listen to reason. That reason is beside 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:17.800 the point. 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:20.120 Power is the. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.120 Point, and they are willing to do anything they. 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.440 Have to do to get that power. 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.800 So we have to then, and I'm sorry to the 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.600 former First Lady Michelle Obama, when when they go low, 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.280 we do not go high. When they go low, we 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.280 go to Hell. Yes, and we drag them there with us. 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.960 You know, because for me, Robert, like I believe that 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:50.480 that sentiment that you just that you just said, I 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.079 believe that because I'm saying, you know, what you see 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.960 that this Republican white supremacist Party is doing is about 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:04.079 not only ushering in an authoritarian regime in these United States, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.920 not only breaking down our political norms in order to 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.720 make space and room for a strong man right, but 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:15.760 what they are also doing is very much about creating 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:21.559 a climate of ignorance and fear that has neighbor questioning neighbor. 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:23.800 So when you go back to saying what this is 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:29.040 about is really being of service to your community, I 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.240 want to go back to that point and unpack it, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.760 because the purpose of their hate is to shrink our 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.959 idea of community. They're just you know, we're hearing reports 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:45.199 of people being shot and killed by their neighbor next 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:50.440 door because that's the fear bubble that they are living 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.360 in where I don't even I don't even know what 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:58.480 community is because I don't even know the person down 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.680 the street because I've been told through Fox and other 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.079 entities to fear that person rather than speak to them. 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:11.760 So can we talk about, you know, how our liberation 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:17.559 is entwined with our ability to really understand and build community. 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.480 You ever hear that expression of people united can never 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:29.720 be defeated, The opposite is also true, a people divided 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:37.079 can always be defeated. And so they are intentionally driving 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:43.080 neighbor against neighbor, friend against friends, ally against ally. And 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.960 you know when I was, when I was still doing 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.160 Son of Balden on social media, I could actually see 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:55.560 when the disruption agents would enter a conversation and they 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:00.120 knew exactly what to say to trigger division, where I 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.720 would I would try to intervene and say, listen, people, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.760 this person is doing this on purpose because they're trying 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.839 to turn us against each other. But they have they 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.880 have learned, I guess, through training, just the right psychological 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.839 acts to commit to trigger people such that they now 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.360 cannot listen to reason and they fall into this tumble 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:28.120 of division, division, division, division. So one of the things 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:31.160 I wanna, I wanna that I hope that we learn 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:37.959 is when when we see ourselves turning against another human being, 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.280 when we when we're forgetting that the other person on 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.280 the other side of this argument is an actual, living, 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.920 breathing human being. They they already got us because they 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.320 made us forget. So now I can pull my gun 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.680 out on this man who who this young boy who's 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.880 coming to pick up his siblings and shoot them because 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:07.120 I'm scared, because I'm ignorant. Because the more ignorant you are, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.600 the easier you are to manipulate. And they are counting 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.320 on that. So this this is not happenstance. What what 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.600 de santis Abbott and others are doing in regard to 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:25.880 defunding education and pulling certain subjects out of school. This 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:30.400 is by design. They're hoping that they get us to 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.040 the point where we are so uneducated that we believe 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:39.400 anything that they tell us. So how do we fight that. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.160 We can only fight that with knowledge. That's the only 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:47.080 way we can do it. And I'm not sure how 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:49.720 that happens in the United States of America, a country 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:58.960 that despises knowledge. So I'm looking for visionaries who can 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.440 figure out ways which we can subvert this, this horrific 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.160 thing that's happening in this country. And I and any 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.520 student of history can see exactly where we're going. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.640 The path off the cliff is so clear, right that 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:19.520 it is not about for me. The education piece of 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.080 this isn't about even creating a sense of clarity. It's 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.960 about creating a sense of courage, right, because the people 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.840 know better. Right. They may not need to have known 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.000 what happened in the seventeen hundred, eighteen hundreds, nineteen hundred's 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.720 to today to get us to this place, but they know, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.160 good goddamn well, what in actual what freedom actually looks like, 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.840 and that this is not it. So you know, the 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.440 issue that I think too that we face, aside from 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:56.080 this behemoth of misinformation is the desire of some to 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:00.480 remain ignorant. Right. There are statistics that have come out 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:04.000 that have said, you know, most recently that only thirty 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.280 percent of people in this country know a trans person, right, 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.600 which is which is up, by the way, up from 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:16.800 eighteen percent some ten plus years ago when I actually 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.880 got involved in the LGBTQ movement, like in a real way, 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.440 eighteen percent to thirty percent. But that means, Robert, that 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:32.320 there are seventy percent of Americans who are susceptible to 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:37.240 the lies that are being spread about this piece of 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:42.000 the queer community because they don't know. And so in 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:47.840 that vein, in your opinion, what does disruption look like 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:51.760 for those of us inside the community to disrupt the 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.400 narratives that are being spread, but also for those outside 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.640 the thirty percent that actually do how can they influence 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:00.480 the seventy Well. 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.359 You know, Tony Morrison once said that the reason why 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.720 people engage in bigotry is because. 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:08.880 It feels good. 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:14.720 When you are, for example, some poor family living in 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:20.000 Arkansas below the poverty level, you can't figure out how 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:20.720 to clothe and. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:21.600 Feed your children. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:23.400 If somebody comes to. 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:28.840 You and says, if you believe in God. 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:35.159 And you speak out against those trans and queer people, 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:40.840 you will be rewarded, not only not only monetarily, not 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:42.360 only financially. 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:46.200 But psychologically rewarded because. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.359 Your whiteness then has currency. Your cis genderness now has currency. 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.840 And so we have to figure out a way the 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.919 thirty percent and those of us in the communities to 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:04.840 make transfer anti transness, anti queerness, racism, misogyny, all of 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:11.600 these things have a consequence that doesn't feel good. And 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.560 the only way you can strike in this country at 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.399 the heart of those things is through money. How do 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:24.080 we take these rich people's money away? Do we stop 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.000 riding the MTA and make New York come to a standstill? 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.640 Do we stop going to Amazon? Do we stop shopping 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.840 at Walmart? And do we find other means to survive 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.880 outside of that? Do we set up systems in which 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.840 we can have, you know, fail face because we have 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:43.920 to turn away from all of these companies that we've 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:48.320 come to use and love. How do we strike at 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:53.480 their pockets such that they recognize that spreading these things 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.720 and causing these divisions is no longer profitable. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:57.120 For them. 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.879 That's the only way a capitalist will understand it. They 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.760 don't care about them. They have no morals, so we 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.600 can't make a moral appeal to them. They throughout the laws, 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.080 so we can't make legal appeals to them. They don't care. 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.000 So the only thing they care about is their money, 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.000 and we got to take it away from. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.960 Them, you know. And we're seeing this right, like, we're 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.600 seeing what has happened, Like let's look at Target, the 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:27.760 Target fiasco and the Budweiser fiasco, and also Disney, Right, 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.399 we're seeing what it looks like when you have some 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.160 companies that actually take a public stand, and whether they're 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.720 pushed to it or not, like a Disney who is 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.040 just like, we're not going to have our content dictated 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.399 to us by a fascist right, like, we're going to 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.199 go toe to toe with you. But then you have 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.880 those that capitulate to the far right, like Target did 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.399 by saying that, oh, for the protection of our employees, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.480 and I use that in quotations, for the protection of 0:19:55.480 --> 0:20:00.000 our employees, we're going to pull our pride merch from 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.440 our stores and so and Budweiser, you know, who saw 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:11.680 sales fall because of their inclusivity right of queer people. 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:17.480 And so I wonder I believe in a national boycott. 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.960 I believe in grinding capitalism to a halt, because I do, 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:23.879 like you, believe that it is the only way to 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.040 get people to do the right thing is to force 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:28.960 them because shame does not work right. You cannot because 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.440 you can't shame the devil. So I'm like, what does 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.040 you know? Is it coordination by word of mouth? Is it? 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.600 Because we've seen it work in history with the civil 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.040 rights movement, but we have not seen it. I don't 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:48.639 think in great success in in the modern age. 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:49.639 That is true. 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:54.000 And here's the sad part. We cannot rely on social 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.359 media because social. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:57.680 Media is theirs. 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.840 It belongs to the one piece, and so they will 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:01.760 see it coming and they. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:02.520 Will disrupt it. 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:09.400 So it has to be on the ground, underground. It 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:12.480 has to be in that way, that way shape or form. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:18.520 And these young the young generation in particular, I think is. 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:22.879 Amenable to that. They are they are seeing. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.120 The injustices that are happening around them, and they are 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:30.400 they are looking for ways in which to battle those injustices. 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.480 And we have and that's why, you know, I guess 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.639 they're trying to keep the education to a minimum is 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:38.560 because they know that these kids are looking for ways 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:43.680 to do that. So our responsibility, as the generations before, 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:49.400 is to sit down with them and figure these things out, 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.880 like we have to like come up with ace the Republic. 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.240 What I envy about the Republicans is how strategized they are. 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.920 They have a message, and they make that message as 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.440 simple as possible, and they make it as appealing as possible, 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:05.640 even to the people to. 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:06.720 Whom it's going to hurt. 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:07.639 Yep. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.840 How can we on the. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:17.560 Left start doing that so that our messages are easy 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:22.000 to understand yep, and that they show a clear benefit 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:23.200 for participation. 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:25.120 That's what we. 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:29.399 Need to do, and we need the most charismatic people 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.760 we can find, the most intelligent people we can find, 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:33.960 like Danielle Moody for president. 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:36.200 To do this. 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:40.080 Yeah, you know, I think that you're right, And it's 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.840 so interesting. I had the good fortune of being able 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.400 to speak to a group of nine through twelfth graders 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.000 recently and just hear, you know, what are the issues 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:51.679 that they're most concerned about, What are the things that 0:22:51.680 --> 0:22:55.200 they are most interested in, And it is they are 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:59.200 very aware of the fact that older generations are afraid 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:03.000 of their generation because of how much they know right, 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:08.920 because they are not just waiting to be filled up 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:14.119 right with what a boomer or whomever, gen X or 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:18.280 whatever wants to tell them, Like they readily at their fingertips. 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:20.520 They have access to the whole world and they know 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:23.959 how to use it. And so I wonder, like, do 0:23:24.040 --> 0:23:27.560 you think you know we always look to the younger 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:30.359 generations to be the ones to solve the problems that 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.919 weren't created by them, And so what do you feel 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:39.560 about Generation Z and Generation Alpha that is coming behind them, 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:46.360 and how we should aid them? But how what they 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:49.240 are taking on and what they are taking to task 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:49.760 right now? 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:54.320 We have to tell them to first of all, if 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:58.120 when they hear band books, that we have to teach 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:01.280 them that that is the first through for them, that 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:04.560 that is a book they have to read, because if 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:06.359 they want to take it away from you, there's something 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.159 in there they don't want you to know, and you 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:10.919 have to know that information in particular, we have to 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:15.200 first guide them in that direction. But we cannot keep 0:24:15.240 --> 0:24:19.400 relying on the young people to fix the shit that 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:25.359 we fucked up. Yep, we have to participate and fix 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:28.719 it and I know we're tired, and we're overworked, and 0:24:28.760 --> 0:24:31.760 we have a thousand things on our plates, but we're 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:36.199 talking about existence here. We're talking about because you know, 0:24:36.720 --> 0:24:40.600 once democracy falls in America, that's the domino that's going 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:43.679 to make it fall everywhere else. And we are going 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:47.360 to be in some dark times. So it is up 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:51.680 to the older generations of Americans, who are some of 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:57.919 the most cynical and pessimistic people that I have ever encountered, two. 0:24:59.640 --> 0:25:02.760 Figure this ship out and stop. 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:07.960 And stop relying on this younger generation to fix. 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:09.760 What we broke. 0:25:10.280 --> 0:25:15.560 Yes, one of one of the things, one of the 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:22.640 problems that I have with Biden is this idea of 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:30.120 going across the aisle and not we We we were 0:25:30.160 --> 0:25:34.840 at a point where Democrats had power and we did 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:39.280 not exercise it. We just squandered it. And then now 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:42.119 the Republicans are in this position where they can, you know, 0:25:42.200 --> 0:25:47.080 sort of challenge us and present issues and obstacles when 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:51.639 we when we have the power. What is it about Democrats? 0:25:53.359 --> 0:25:56.960 Is it that they're complicit? I wonder if I'm asking 0:25:57.000 --> 0:26:00.200 myself that question, are democrats complicit? Do they ask we 0:26:00.280 --> 0:26:03.400 want the same things that Republicans wanted at least the 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:08.919 white elite Democrats do. They want in essence what the 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:12.639 Republicans want. And if that's true, then I have to 0:26:12.680 --> 0:26:18.320 say we, the people who do not align with either 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:24.520 of those parties, have to start taking back control. And 0:26:24.760 --> 0:26:28.119 we can do that on our own streets. There's a 0:26:28.160 --> 0:26:30.760 program here in New York City, in Brooklyn, in the 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:35.200 East New York section of Brooklyn, where the community has 0:26:35.320 --> 0:26:41.120 met with the police, the NYPD, and they said, stand back, 0:26:42.320 --> 0:26:44.879 we are going to try something. We are going to 0:26:44.920 --> 0:26:50.399 police our own neighborhood as an experiment. Y'all stand over there, 0:26:51.560 --> 0:26:55.280 two blocks away, three blocks away, and when something happens 0:26:55.359 --> 0:26:58.880 in this neighborhood, crime or what have you, we are 0:26:58.880 --> 0:27:02.359 going to intervene as citizens of this neighborhood. 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:03.960 And what they're. 0:27:03.840 --> 0:27:06.880 Finding is that works. 0:27:07.560 --> 0:27:11.119 Yeah, the fatalities drop. Ye. 0:27:12.600 --> 0:27:16.399 People begin to know their neighbors, understand that this is 0:27:16.400 --> 0:27:20.040 a community and that we're all in this together. So 0:27:20.520 --> 0:27:25.320 in that little microcosm, something is working. When the communities 0:27:25.440 --> 0:27:28.719 decides this is ours, we're going to care for it, 0:27:28.840 --> 0:27:31.040 We're going to take control of it. We're gonna love 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:34.520 our children, We're gonna love them past these these issues. 0:27:34.680 --> 0:27:37.160 We're going to provide them with the resources they need, 0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:41.400 like cause they have childcare services and they have uh 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:44.600 mental health therapy for these kids that they find in 0:27:44.640 --> 0:27:45.520 these situations. 0:27:46.000 --> 0:27:46.480 We need to. 0:27:46.480 --> 0:27:50.080