Speaker 1: You're listening waiting on reparations of production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: They heard the shot, but I never had the chance
Speaker 1: to see the smoking gun, T shirts. Soaking blood is
Speaker 1: leaking up over the linoleum, holding onto the bottle. Still.
Speaker 1: They could have called the hospital, but they learned the
Speaker 1: cops convinced of images of Nigga kids as hostile kids.
Speaker 1: This nation hates us and wants us to hate us too.
Speaker 1: It's advantageous when niggas hate Asians, and Asians a niggas.
Speaker 1: So when a shot keep it faving robbery is an
Speaker 1: innocent teenager dump. The system isn't broken, No, it's fully operational.
Speaker 1: We watched it work this way so well since way
Speaker 1: before that faithful day in April nine two, when we
Speaker 1: riot looted, when we raised help, we but finally through
Speaker 1: being escape goats for the neighborhoods, you can find us too,
Speaker 1: to the grinding lops you assigned us to, with your
Speaker 1: griming schools and your crack rocks and your bad cops
Speaker 1: and these white jerseys that blindly choose complicity. Who find
Speaker 1: shootings in this city so commonplace to sign faiths like
Speaker 1: eight balls so flippantly for centuries we stayed calm, but
Speaker 1: a new day is done and you best believe at
Speaker 1: reeks and napalm. I wrote that verse for Latasha Harlan's,
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old girl who was shot in the
Speaker 1: back of the head by a Korean grocery store owner
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. We talked a lot about Rodney King,
Speaker 1: but Latasha Harland's death too, was a catalyst for the
Speaker 1: l a riots that followed in the subsequent year. We
Speaker 1: haven't seen violence like that since until now. A uh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: my name's Dope Knife. What's up? I'm Lingua franca and
Speaker 1: waiting on RepA so um. When we started this podcast,
Speaker 1: the world and it's a regular state, was just fucked up,
Speaker 1: just regular fund up, just regular fucked up. And then
Speaker 1: fucking plague hit COVID and we went on lockdown. That
Speaker 1: we've been on lockdown for twelve weeks now, and the
Speaker 1: whole world has changed. The whole world has changed. Then
Speaker 1: last week George Floyd was murdered at the hands of
Speaker 1: for Minneapolis p D. And in the wake of it,
Speaker 1: we start seeing national protests, civil unrest the likes of
Speaker 1: which the country hasn't seen in the generations our whole
Speaker 1: plan to launch this show kind of had to go
Speaker 1: out the window, and we hadn't had to reassess what
Speaker 1: we're gonna do. Because as black folks that are politically
Speaker 1: committed to struggle and aware and following not only what's
Speaker 1: happening now, but following what has been going on in
Speaker 1: this country for decades and following it very closely in
Speaker 1: recent years. Uh, we feel it's important for us to
Speaker 1: speak out right now and to articulate what our experiences
Speaker 1: have been as well as what our vision is for
Speaker 1: what's coming next. So this isn't gonna be like our
Speaker 1: usual episode waiting on reparations that you guys are gonna hear.
Speaker 1: We're gonna kinda just talk from the heart about how
Speaker 1: we feel about what's going on. So welcome to it.
Speaker 1: My name's Dope Knife. I'm a rapper producer from Savannah,
Speaker 1: g A. Well, technically I'm not from anywhere, because I
Speaker 1: grew up overseas. My mother's Liberian, my father's American. He
Speaker 1: used to work for the State Department, and I grew
Speaker 1: up overseas. But um, I moved to the States to
Speaker 1: go to college and I've been here since and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm an independent musician. My name is Leewoa Franca a
Speaker 1: k a. Mariah Parker Um. In two thousand eighteen, I
Speaker 1: was elected to the Athens Clark County Commission, where I
Speaker 1: have now served for two years on an abolitionist agenda
Speaker 1: and a pro worker, pro black um leftist agenda. I'm
Speaker 1: also hip hop artist, and I'm a linguist. Actually, I
Speaker 1: have a master's in linguistics and I'm getting my PhD
Speaker 1: Language and Literacy education at the University of Georgia. So
Speaker 1: I look at this for the LNDIP hip up from
Speaker 1: the lens of local policy, from the lens of linguistics
Speaker 1: and the lens of education. And so we're gonna have
Speaker 1: another episode coming out soon kind of explaining more about
Speaker 1: who we are and what this podcast has about, as
Speaker 1: well as other episodes about the labor movement, about prison abolition,
Speaker 1: about sex work, about all sorts of topics that tie
Speaker 1: hip hop and politics together. But today we're gonna just
Speaker 1: talk from the heart about what's happening in this country,
Speaker 1: what our experiences have been, and where we see things
Speaker 1: going from here. Talk to me about your relationship with
Speaker 1: the police. Well, I guess it's a not unsimilar to
Speaker 1: that of a lot of other black males. It hasn't
Speaker 1: been too positive of relationship. It's at this point it's
Speaker 1: almost like cliche. You know, I've never had a cop
Speaker 1: personally smile at me, you know what I mean. When
Speaker 1: I was around twenty one, I was walking home from
Speaker 1: work and was like walking in the middle of the street,
Speaker 1: so not really on the sidewalk, and it was like
Speaker 1: maybe like eleven o'clock at night. I got stopped by
Speaker 1: two cops and they were asking me why I was
Speaker 1: walking so close to the cars that were on the road.
Speaker 1: So I was explaining to them, It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just walking home. I can get on
Speaker 1: the sidewalk if you want. They roughed me up and
Speaker 1: you know, I mean got me on the ground. They're
Speaker 1: like calling me, I'll sorts of names and ship and uh.
Speaker 1: It was it's like I told that story like mad times,
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason, they just like it feels a little,
Speaker 1: it feels different telling it now was hitting me too,
Speaker 1: but um, it's just like the main thing I took
Speaker 1: away from it is just like the feeling of like
Speaker 1: like powerlessness, you know, what can you do? And especially
Speaker 1: in that situation where it's just like me alone and
Speaker 1: it's like dark, and it's like literally anything could happen.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was way before tray Von and you know,
Speaker 1: things like that. But again, at the same time, it's
Speaker 1: not like situations weren't known. It wasn't like this wasn't happening.
Speaker 1: It was definitely before it was before the like proliferation
Speaker 1: of the cell phone camp you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So it was something I could definitely tell like my homies,
Speaker 1: tell my boys, tell my my mom, I pops, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like, and it was like, oh man, fun, sorry,
Speaker 1: you know, but it wasn't necessarily something that it was
Speaker 1: just like, Okay, well everybody knows that this is happening.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the bottom of the barrel, cops U J walking,
Speaker 1: put the glock to your apparel, lock you in the
Speaker 1: box for all the pot that's in your marrow, and
Speaker 1: even taking walks. Make you a talking for in there. Bro.
Speaker 1: I dare you to come let these crackers put you
Speaker 1: on a curfew. You could keep it real and let
Speaker 1: the silly niggas mrk you. I'll tell you what the deal.
Speaker 1: We really ain't got no virtue. Survival requires work, and
Speaker 1: nobody really deserves you. When life is throwing them courage
Speaker 1: you strike probably solve it all of all the world's
Speaker 1: unite people worth the sight. I ain't got ship and
Speaker 1: nigger my purses tight. Heard it right, post a picture
Speaker 1: made the frame of perfect life. Nothing's worse than hype.
Speaker 1: We can all conserve the worst of slights. Financial rigor
Speaker 1: mortis got your throwing fits. Now you're ships. The story
Speaker 1: that you was talking slick. Now you just sitping. Poor
Speaker 1: Ward's trying to penny pinch, of course, which can make
Speaker 1: you sick of poor ship, instead of sitting gorgeous creditors
Speaker 1: got picks and torches. This gap is massive and there's
Speaker 1: nothing to fill. Since that cop called me a fag
Speaker 1: and put a gun in my grill, I'm bugging for real.
Speaker 1: Prepped ourselves for forty five to touch down. Now we
Speaker 1: want to act mad. I don't give a funk now.
Speaker 1: I wrote that ship February two thousand and seventeen. You
Speaker 1: know when you always hear about when people talk about
Speaker 1: how oh will you only hear the bad things about
Speaker 1: cops and you never hear the good things about cops
Speaker 1: And stuff like that, and it's like, first of all,
Speaker 1: that's not true. But second so what like it's like
Speaker 1: the default is that everything is supposed to be fine,
Speaker 1: Like you're not supposed to get like a cookie. You
Speaker 1: do your job, so playing basketball or doing some fucking
Speaker 1: breakdance moves exactly, sharing ice cream cone, Great job, you
Speaker 1: did your job, so it'll do. I feel like if
Speaker 1: if cops want to be like first of all, if
Speaker 1: they want to have like an imprint in the community,
Speaker 1: then the impression should either be we don't notice you,
Speaker 1: or it's positive you know what I'm saying. But like
Speaker 1: the fact that it's in so many places to so
Speaker 1: many people, it's like a negative force or something that
Speaker 1: people think badly of. I mean, it's kind of an
Speaker 1: important fucking job, you know. So it's like yeah, straight up,
Speaker 1: like I mean the ones that I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just there should be a zero tolerance from within a
Speaker 1: good cop calling a bad cop out or good good
Speaker 1: police officers like actively like calling out like you know,
Speaker 1: the stuff that's wrong with their system goes a long
Speaker 1: way in like people's perception of like all cops. Because
Speaker 1: like right now, I can tell you this ship seems
Speaker 1: like it's a gang, Like people are good, like they're
Speaker 1: out for each other. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 1: you know, no oversight, like it's us versus them, and
Speaker 1: it just doesn't. It feels like a foreign occupying power.
Speaker 1: I mean, when they're using military forces against us, they're
Speaker 1: using tactics that aren't even allowed in warfare. They are
Speaker 1: an occupying force in our communities. And I, as an abolitionist,
Speaker 1: fully believed that our communities are capable of policing themselves.
Speaker 1: If you look at what the Black Panthers said in
Speaker 1: the Lowlands of Oakland back in their height of power,
Speaker 1: chasing the cops out of their community and patrolling them
Speaker 1: themselves and holding people accountable themselves for wrongdoing, but also
Speaker 1: resourcing folks, giving out food and doing education and making
Speaker 1: sure everyone has everything they need so they're not robbing
Speaker 1: a liquor store or breaking into a car, and they're
Speaker 1: not under so much to rest that they end up
Speaker 1: hitting their spouse or yelling at their kids, or having
Speaker 1: a mental breakdown and running into the street naked with
Speaker 1: a knife. You know, when our community is a resourced
Speaker 1: I truly believe that we don't need them at all,
Speaker 1: whether they're good people who have to do a bad job. Um,
Speaker 1: the whole system is inextricably linked to white supremacy, and
Speaker 1: we can build the world, I believe without it, and
Speaker 1: I have. I wasn't as open about these views when
Speaker 1: I first got elected around a platform of criminal justice reform,
Speaker 1: of strengthening their relationships between the community and our law enforcement. UM.
Speaker 1: And then I was sworn in on the autobiography of
Speaker 1: Malcolm X, which I did not believe was going to
Speaker 1: be a big deal, but apparently it was. But in
Speaker 1: the aftermath of that, I was getting a lot of
Speaker 1: death threats from white supremacists from across the country. UM.
Speaker 1: I was warned, you know, not to pick up unexpected
Speaker 1: packages off my porch in case they were bombs. UM.
Speaker 1: I was being threatened with rape and lynching. And I
Speaker 1: was at a really hard crossroads where though I then
Speaker 1: even held abolitionist views, you know that I sort of
Speaker 1: like dressed in language that was easier for people to
Speaker 1: understand regarding police reform. UM, I didn't know who I
Speaker 1: was going to have to who I was going to
Speaker 1: be able to call if ship went down, Well, the
Speaker 1: cops still come. If some if somebody shows up at
Speaker 1: my house with an a K forty seven. UM. And
Speaker 1: the fact that in this current day, we don't have
Speaker 1: the infrastructure socially in place to protect ourselves as a community,
Speaker 1: and right now the default is that you have to
Speaker 1: call the cops because we don't have a world yet
Speaker 1: where we're ready to defend ourselves. And so that's a
Speaker 1: little bit about what my recent experiences have been around
Speaker 1: the police. I used to always smile away at them
Speaker 1: when they drive by, because I knew they knew who
Speaker 1: I was, and I felt like, I gotta, you know,
Speaker 1: play nice so that they'll come to my house if
Speaker 1: somebody sets it on fire. But recently I realized that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a job like any other job. It's
Speaker 1: a dangerous job, but it's not one of the most
Speaker 1: dangerous professions of the country. UM. I believe sanitation workers
Speaker 1: get hurt or killed in the line of duty more
Speaker 1: often than police officers do. UM. And so this deference
Speaker 1: to them that we should honor them and UM have
Speaker 1: and like upholding, like uphold their you know, uphold them up,
Speaker 1: will lift them because of the work that they do.
Speaker 1: It is something that I've begun to re Jacks because um,
Speaker 1: you get posing for selfies with your ice cream cone,
Speaker 1: with the little black teenager shooting hoops with kids on
Speaker 1: the block, Like, that's just what your job is, and
Speaker 1: I'm not here to a plot it. The attitude that
Speaker 1: that I feel like a lot of them have with
Speaker 1: it is like it's just a job, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to like respect me and give me difference
Speaker 1: because I have this job, And it's like, but you
Speaker 1: don't even necessarily live up to it like that, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like how many how many YouTube
Speaker 1: videos can you go on and watch if cops like
Speaker 1: breaking the law? You know, they're like all over the place, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, just just given given the situation that we're
Speaker 1: in right now, we're in a situation where the country
Speaker 1: is in upheaval over police brutality. So what's what is
Speaker 1: the police solution for that police brutality like on a
Speaker 1: wide national scale. Yeah, so let's turn to start talking
Speaker 1: a little bit about what we're seeing in the media
Speaker 1: right now. For sure, we're recording this on a blackout Wednesday.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, babe, core teen quarantine. What our day is? Anyone?
Speaker 1: So I find it very interesting, Um, you know, both
Speaker 1: having watched what has been happening in the media regarding
Speaker 1: the upheaval across the country over the last week, and
Speaker 1: then having a direct experience with it as an organizer
Speaker 1: of a march here in our city over the weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: how the media narrative UH obscures blame for the types
Speaker 1: of violence that happened UH in these protests. So let's take,
Speaker 1: for example, you hear about protesters are arrested, protesters are injured,
Speaker 1: protesters are killed. As a linguist, when I read something
Speaker 1: like that, immediately identify the fact that it is composed
Speaker 1: in the passive voice. The person who is being acted
Speaker 1: upon comes first in the sentence, and the agent of
Speaker 1: the action is obscured. So who is arresting the protesters,
Speaker 1: who is entering the protesters? Who is doing the violence
Speaker 1: upon other people? When stories get broken into, when cars
Speaker 1: gets set on fire, Um, they want to blame us,
Speaker 1: But when we get hurt, it's not as clear in
Speaker 1: the way that these things are construed, what the where
Speaker 1: the blame should be assigned. And I think that you know,
Speaker 1: it comes from a long line of I mean journalistic
Speaker 1: practices in terms of just oh, something happened without identifying
Speaker 1: who did what to home. But you know, it also
Speaker 1: goes into these like these narratives we see of like um,
Speaker 1: this this this discourse of uh support the police, you know,
Speaker 1: uh smiling and you know, sharing photos of them doing
Speaker 1: good work in the community as a way to perpetuate
Speaker 1: that narrative. I think all these things work in tandem.
Speaker 1: Two help protect us system that is fundamentally broken. And
Speaker 1: I understand when I look at that, when I when
Speaker 1: I look at um images of indiscriminate violence, you know,
Speaker 1: against protesters are towards private property. Um, when I see
Speaker 1: headlines like that, I understand how folks can be confused
Speaker 1: about who is in the wrong here because the media
Speaker 1: is confusing people. I just feel like some of it
Speaker 1: kind of comes down to the state and what the
Speaker 1: purpose of the police is. Its purpose has always been
Speaker 1: like to protect property and rich people, and it's never
Speaker 1: really been to serve the community. To us, there's just
Speaker 1: never been a point where it's like the police are
Speaker 1: like for the people and not for those in power.
Speaker 1: And so you're saying that the same way that like
Speaker 1: what communism has never worked. People who say policing has
Speaker 1: never worked, have never seen policing operate the way that
Speaker 1: it is supposed to. I wouldn't even say the way
Speaker 1: that it's supposed to, because how is it supposed to work?
Speaker 1: Just the whole concept of it is just And that's
Speaker 1: my question too, And that's why I'm an abolitionist, because
Speaker 1: I'm like, how is it supposed to work? I'm understand
Speaker 1: how mental health like resources are supposed to work for
Speaker 1: people having crises, and understand how social work is supposed
Speaker 1: to work for people that need access to resources. I
Speaker 1: understand how some restorative justice works. It's very challenging even
Speaker 1: for my imagination when I'm post with questions about abolition
Speaker 1: or people like, well, what would you do in this situation,
Speaker 1: and it's like, I don't know, but all I know
Speaker 1: is what we're doing right now is not working, and
Speaker 1: I'm committed to finding solutions that are different. So I
Speaker 1: feel you, Yeah, I know, I tell you feel you.
Speaker 1: The way that police forces go after street crime, what
Speaker 1: if that was reversed to go after white collar crime,
Speaker 1: I might not feel too bad about that. I think
Speaker 1: it's really interesting to contrast people's reactions to seeing like
Speaker 1: an auto zone get burned down. Or um a cop
Speaker 1: pelted with the brick, um. And then uh, my actual
Speaker 1: experience of organizing and leading march here and Hapthens over
Speaker 1: the weekend. You tell us about that. Yeah, so, Um,
Speaker 1: over the weekend, I, you know, as an elected official called,
Speaker 1: in response to what I've been seeing across the country,
Speaker 1: called for a ten year plan to start being developed
Speaker 1: here locally that would transition of our police officer positions
Speaker 1: to social workers, mental health professional professionals, and restorative justice
Speaker 1: practitioners over the next ten years. And in response to
Speaker 1: that and some other things going on, UM, one of
Speaker 1: my fellow you know, black queer fem organizers in town
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, let's have a rally here in Athens,
Speaker 1: and let's like center it on those demands, something concrete
Speaker 1: to channel people's anger into in this moment. So they
Speaker 1: started organizing up a rally. UM. I was somewhat involved,
Speaker 1: you know, in the like the group thread, trying to
Speaker 1: keep tabs on the developments. And then you know, we
Speaker 1: let people know we're gonna have a march for a
Speaker 1: while without cops. Told to meet us on the courthouse
Speaker 1: steps at five pm. Um, So I show up and
Speaker 1: there's about maybe five people there and I'm merely start
Speaker 1: yelling in my megaphone, you know, Black lives matter, gaining
Speaker 1: them in chance. I take a moment to speaking to
Speaker 1: the megaphone, what my my plan is, what my idea is,
Speaker 1: and um, folks are you know, calling out with their support,
Speaker 1: and we begin to march. We begin to march to
Speaker 1: the streets, um, continuing to chant, we take over the street. Uh.
Speaker 1: We marched through prominent areas of downtown, meet up with
Speaker 1: other folks who were gathered, and they joined us. And
Speaker 1: what was beautiful was that I was filled with so
Speaker 1: much fear and terror and anxiety and um, almost a
Speaker 1: sense of hopelessness going into the scenario, having seen the
Speaker 1: scenes of violence on the on the news throughout the
Speaker 1: past week, and knowing that we were we were inviting
Speaker 1: that on ourselves. We couldn't control if people came to
Speaker 1: break into store windows. Business owners online were accusing me,
Speaker 1: if anything happens today, it's it's your fault. Um. I
Speaker 1: couldn't control if innocent people who would come there to
Speaker 1: stand in solidarity with black people across this country. Um,
Speaker 1: if they got tear gas that day, if they got
Speaker 1: hit with rubber bullets, that day, and so I was shaking,
Speaker 1: I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. Um, but I stood
Speaker 1: up because I felt like it was my duty for oh,
Speaker 1: you know, people of color, black people, particular of the
Speaker 1: black women and black queer folks, to take the lead
Speaker 1: in situations like this, you know, as the most marginalized people,
Speaker 1: to make the demands and be the face of change.
Speaker 1: So I'm out there at one point of standing up
Speaker 1: on a Confederate monument um, and the crowd is chanting,
Speaker 1: say his name, which one, Say her name? Which one?
Speaker 1: At which point I just started. I just broke down
Speaker 1: and started sobbing um with the feet, my feet planted
Speaker 1: on this relic of white supremacy, and thousands of people
Speaker 1: spread out all through the streets in front of me. Um.
Speaker 1: And but it was beautiful because we we didn't break
Speaker 1: into any stores. We weren't there to do damage or
Speaker 1: due violence. The white people there were here to hear
Speaker 1: the stories too, of you know, black people in Athens,
Speaker 1: the stories of oppression, of marginalization, of prejudice. There shoudn't
Speaker 1: for what a better world could be. And um, it
Speaker 1: was a truly beautiful thing. But as night fell and
Speaker 1: the crowd dispersed and several hundreds of people stayed behind,
Speaker 1: and the National Guard came into town Um. They and
Speaker 1: the and the folks remaining peacefully occupied the main plaza
Speaker 1: in downtown with tents, with their hands up, chanting UM,
Speaker 1: just building cambaraderie with one another, talking to one another.
Speaker 1: They were slowly boxed in by the National Guard. A
Speaker 1: drone flow overhead telling them to disperse. Kurfey was put
Speaker 1: in place retroactively UM telling them that they was illegal
Speaker 1: for them to be downtown UM, and no one knew
Speaker 1: until an hour after it was too late to leave,
Speaker 1: and they were slowly being cornered by tanks and with
Speaker 1: their hands up and with their arms locked in solidarity
Speaker 1: with one another. They were tear gassed and hit with
Speaker 1: rubber rubber bullets and arrested. And some of the black
Speaker 1: women who who organized the protests where when they got
Speaker 1: to the county jail, separated from the rest of the
Speaker 1: group in what we believe to be an active retaliation
Speaker 1: in targeting for their involvement in bringing those folks together.
Speaker 1: And so I saw firsthand how folks coming together to
Speaker 1: or to demonstrate as is their right, non violently are
Speaker 1: met with violence. I witnessed firsthand how the armed forces,
Speaker 1: the arms of the police state, are the agitators. And
Speaker 1: I worked this firsthand as well, how powerful it is
Speaker 1: when we come together, nonetheless, because we developed concrete demands
Speaker 1: for what needs to happen next, and we educated people
Speaker 1: about what the world could look like. And we brought
Speaker 1: the mayor up who stood beside me on the Confederate Monument,
Speaker 1: and we made our demands to him, and we made
Speaker 1: very clear that we are committed to the struggle. And
Speaker 1: so um, I just I think it's really important for
Speaker 1: folks that aren't in the struggle, who aren't out there
Speaker 1: in the streets, to be very cautious of what you're
Speaker 1: seeing and hearing in the media, the way the headlines
Speaker 1: are written, the accounts that they are foregrounding when they
Speaker 1: describe what's happening, Because when you're there yourself, you see
Speaker 1: for yourself who is doing the agitating, who is doing
Speaker 1: the damage, who was doing the harm, And it's not us.
Speaker 1: Even if it is us, ain't even there to fucking
Speaker 1: like lay blamed anyone that's burning ship down or breaking
Speaker 1: in the stores. Because black people built this land for free,
Speaker 1: and I think we have every right to express our
Speaker 1: outrage about the way we are treated and the way
Speaker 1: that our country has run by any means that are necessary.
Speaker 1: But UM, too often we get lost in UM media
Speaker 1: narratives that obscure who is truly to blame for what
Speaker 1: is happening here? And the armed forces are to blame
Speaker 1: and white supremacy is to blame. So whatever people do
Speaker 1: out in these streets, most of these folks are just
Speaker 1: out here expressing their grievances peacefully. But um, they are
Speaker 1: not the ones who started this battle. That's all I
Speaker 1: want to say. So where you see it going? UM,
Speaker 1: I can't you know? I got a crystal ball and
Speaker 1: nothing but UM. Here in Athens, we have mobilized around
Speaker 1: very specific demands for for our local legislators to to
Speaker 1: change the policing, to implement more community resources to prevent
Speaker 1: people from becoming criminals in the first place, and if
Speaker 1: they do commit crimes, to ensure that they never commit
Speaker 1: crimes again because they, you know, they have access to
Speaker 1: good jobs, good food, good places to live, good education,
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that studies have shown helped decrease
Speaker 1: the likelihood of recidivism or offending in the first place nationwide.
Speaker 1: It's hard to say. I know that you've been um
Speaker 1: keeping tabs on what some of the reactions by the
Speaker 1: federal government, So maybe you have a view of what
Speaker 1: you think might be coming next that you want to share. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, unfortunately, it all kind of comes down to
Speaker 1: with the people in charge or trying to do. And
Speaker 1: this is happening in a political year, and it seems
Speaker 1: like Trump has given all the signs that he's trying
Speaker 1: to go a Nixon route with it, which is on
Speaker 1: the law and order president YadA YadA, YadA, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: the thugs. So I don't I see I see the
Speaker 1: cops in the federal government in general ratcheting stuff up.
Speaker 1: And if Trump does, you know, if he does go
Speaker 1: ahead and try to like force the US military onto
Speaker 1: the streets, which according to a poll that just came
Speaker 1: out like today, percent of the country is in favor of,
Speaker 1: then you know what I'm saying, that's is gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be a matter of wills at
Speaker 1: that point. So just be safe out there. People. I
Speaker 1: think will achieve. I think we will. We will achieve
Speaker 1: policy change. What I've come to understand. And you know,
Speaker 1: like I roll with a lot of anarchists who are
Speaker 1: down with you know, armed revolution and ship like that.
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna lie, like I don't always agree,
Speaker 1: but like I think it's very important listen what they
Speaker 1: have to say. And I have become particularly critical of
Speaker 1: the that point, having watched the violent repression of the
Speaker 1: state go down in the media and then with my
Speaker 1: own eyes, um, you know, in Athens recently. I mean
Speaker 1: I watched footage of what was happening, you know here Sunday,
Speaker 1: but I'm hearing recounts from friends and comrades of what
Speaker 1: happened to them. And so I've come to believe that
Speaker 1: we cannot take their power away with our hands and
Speaker 1: with our sticks and our stones, but we can take
Speaker 1: our their power away with our laws and in in
Speaker 1: progressive places or even places that might be conservative, but
Speaker 1: people are waking up. Local governments and state legislatures can
Speaker 1: and I believe will take action to prevent their cities
Speaker 1: from burning to the ground. What do you think is
Speaker 1: hip hop's relationship to this. I've seen some video of
Speaker 1: I saw j Cole marching in North Carolina and wanted
Speaker 1: the protests but I haven't really heard too much. Tory
Speaker 1: Lanes put out a statement where he was encouraging. He
Speaker 1: actually was encouraging like UH rappers and black celebrities like
Speaker 1: if if what you have to say about the situation
Speaker 1: isn't in support of it, then just shut the fun
Speaker 1: shut the funk out, you know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: folk with that. That's a good statement, but I guess
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who feel the should shut
Speaker 1: the funk up then then, because it's been awfully quiet,
Speaker 1: which is like kind of weird and kind of ironic
Speaker 1: that this blackout thing is happening because it's like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it because I get it. I get it
Speaker 1: for the hashtag and stuff. It gives people further cover
Speaker 1: to say nothing. Yeah, it feels like special. I feel
Speaker 1: like this is the moment to say stuff. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, and and it's gonna be I mean,
Speaker 1: this is like obviously way less important, but just the
Speaker 1: nerd in me is kind of interested in seeing where
Speaker 1: culture goes after this point, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like what happens with hip hop after this point? What
Speaker 1: happens with like movies? You know what is like I
Speaker 1: don't know. Just it's a whole new world. It's complete,
Speaker 1: a completely different environment than it was three months ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like triple full. Really, Um, as a musician, how have
Speaker 1: you been affected by both the ongoing pandemic and it's intensification.
Speaker 1: I want to wrap in front of an audience so bad? Hey,
Speaker 1: you know I had about this live stream ship, like
Speaker 1: for real, it's bad. I mean the live streams that
Speaker 1: I've been doing a lot of. You know, if you
Speaker 1: have the live stream like concert things, it's been fun
Speaker 1: and it's always fun when you like, you know, get
Speaker 1: on zooms and streams and stuff and connect with people
Speaker 1: that yeah, don't get the thought too on the regular
Speaker 1: and ship. But um, yeah, like in the independent game,
Speaker 1: the live shows is usually like your number one source
Speaker 1: of income from the ship. So it's definitely pretty much
Speaker 1: put a kabash in that. That's the biggest that's the
Speaker 1: biggest issue. But if you have a chance to support
Speaker 1: musicians who are hurting as a you know, black musicians,
Speaker 1: particularly who are not only dealing with a loss of
Speaker 1: income under COVID, but are now dealing with the emotional
Speaker 1: trauma of seeing what's happening across our country. Please follow
Speaker 1: the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers. We are UMA.
Speaker 1: You m a w on Instagram to find out what
Speaker 1: some of their demands have been for musician relief. UM.
Speaker 1: During this time, UM actually read up on the Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter platform. If you're out there hashtag and black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter, find out what these people are calling for,
Speaker 1: because things like a whole platform, because things like prison abolition,
Speaker 1: things like you know, resourcing our communities. I might sound
Speaker 1: fucking wild out here saying this ship, but if you're
Speaker 1: out here saying Black lives matter, that's what that ship
Speaker 1: is about. So find out what the demands are that
Speaker 1: are being made by these organizations. Find out what the
Speaker 1: policy asks are and actually stand for that and don't
Speaker 1: just like feel sad when fucking black people get killed.
Speaker 1: Reparations doesn't have to be a federal project. It could
Speaker 1: be an individual endeavor that you can undertake every single
Speaker 1: day of your fucking life. So I got some flak
Speaker 1: for yes from Sunday at the march, some of my
Speaker 1: fellow black organizers started UM asking the people for money.
Speaker 1: They started saying, if you're white and you're this crowd
Speaker 1: right now, you need to come up here right now
Speaker 1: and give us fucking money. And people did. We raised
Speaker 1: probably over a thousand dollars. But um, and I understand
Speaker 1: the manner in which she was asked made people uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: And that's totally fine. You know, a diversity of tactics
Speaker 1: is necessary, but like, undertake reparations in your everyday life, Venmo,
Speaker 1: your black friends today, Uh, buy them a cup of coffee,
Speaker 1: send them some food on you know, grub hub, drop
Speaker 1: off some bottle of wine at their house. See what
Speaker 1: they need. Because, um, they're in a worse opposition than you,
Speaker 1: just because of centuries of white supremacist economic structures, social structures,
Speaker 1: educational structures. Um, and they're hurting right now on top
Speaker 1: of all of that. They're really hurting right now. And
Speaker 1: so another thing I'll ask, Like people are like, donate
Speaker 1: to a bail fund, donate to you know, legal defense fund,
Speaker 1: and that's great, and do that, but literally send black
Speaker 1: send money to your black people in your life, send
Speaker 1: money to them. So to close things off, it feels
Speaker 1: only appropriate. You know, normally when we get this show,
Speaker 1: go and we're probably gonna bust a freestyle or maybe
Speaker 1: like a dope verse for you guys as we close
Speaker 1: things out, but it only feels appropriate to put it
Speaker 1: a song that we did that just kind of feels
Speaker 1: like it's perfect for the moment right now, I think
Speaker 1: to close it out, we're gonna drop the song called
Speaker 1: f Trump America. This is with Western Ruler, Louis Larceny,
Speaker 1: Lingua Franca and myself produced by Western Ruler. So check
Speaker 1: this out, yo, Trump America. My team is Black Kings
Speaker 1: and Nigga mic checked one too, asking every racist in
Speaker 1: the town the police come through. I hope my dole
Speaker 1: finger when we suck your brow and fuck you too.
Speaker 1: There's no we seems for you to think like this
Speaker 1: that these presidents ms. Let me call my mind. But
Speaker 1: if you cross the lime black power fish brothers, here
Speaker 1: is a stick up they can not dismiss us. Just
Speaker 1: take in the scripture. I got two black kids and
Speaker 1: one black wife and justice touch this, You'll be one
Speaker 1: long night. Just when this I'll fright a left jab
Speaker 1: and or wright a young Kinney site with black middle
Speaker 1: in the mic, the type that they would indict a
Speaker 1: sentence of life. They're taking my rights thing on life
Speaker 1: because I'm a Malcolmax sub order, steady kicking down the
Speaker 1: walls to help my people across the border, black man.
Speaker 1: In your every year name something scary year Trump America,
Speaker 1: or your middle finger self Trauma America, or your middle
Speaker 1: finger stuff Trama Lara, or your middle fingers up from
Speaker 1: tramp America, or your middle fingers up from tramp America,
Speaker 1: or your middle fingers up frock Trampa America, or your
Speaker 1: middle fingers up from Trampa America, or your middle fingers
Speaker 1: up fro tramp America, or your middle fingers white America's Captain.
Speaker 1: Buster's with me fair, because you gotta crack a couple
Speaker 1: of lips to make an omelet. The drama and this comprision.
Speaker 1: Then they distributed it upon the darkest skin, and it
Speaker 1: ain't gonna get any better from what to nack? The
Speaker 1: feller vanished in the flash of fairy dust. The will
Speaker 1: the way by optimism, like you, Sagittarius, lift it up,
Speaker 1: a little springing coming forward, Kerry's cherry up to Cherity's
Speaker 1: just And when niggas thinking very very very much, it's
Speaker 1: walking down every street and knocking on every door and
Speaker 1: telling the neighborhood we ain't taking it anymore. Restoring the
Speaker 1: civil rights of every Bible that you know, get them
Speaker 1: runners to devoting telling it to the boats because if
Speaker 1: you're senator, won't say that black lives matter till that
Speaker 1: guy but bit and get the funk about my ballot.
Speaker 1: But they niggas is WoT more than they complained about it.
Speaker 1: It's what's the rule up for president in linguin in
Speaker 1: the cabinet Trump America or your middle fingers that's been
Speaker 1: the hot teas. And you know my little fingers that
Speaker 1: funded Trump America or your middle fingers that's happened the
Speaker 1: hot tease. You know, my little fingers I fulled Trump
Speaker 1: America or your middle fingers I have been the hot tease.
Speaker 1: You know my little fingers that fulled Trump America or
Speaker 1: your middle fingers are in the hot teas, And you
Speaker 1: know my little fingers out into the fixed show of
Speaker 1: small fan lazies. Send up stakes to hell, tell them
Speaker 1: all head to hades with to kill them. Keep calling
Speaker 1: me crazy to in the head chill they hold dead
Speaker 1: baby having take hate Manka terrible the averagage, not my president.
Speaker 1: Tell me who the terrorists terrible and terrible adjustment re America.
Speaker 1: Stop for bringing kids from their parents. It's gonna take amever,
Speaker 1: go to stop these animals. Not everybody across the border
Speaker 1: is a criminal. Cops, click to shoot the kid. It's pitiful.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take a city full of money. Is just
Speaker 1: to hold us back. We wear a subliminal I don't
Speaker 1: believe the height symbol of the center coole puller, drive
Speaker 1: by on the gold light. Don't be fist middle finger
Speaker 1: up like with Malcolm x l A swing upon the
Speaker 1: steps little fun shop America or your middle fingers up
Speaker 1: fun shop America told your middle fingers found chop Amanita,
Speaker 1: or your middle fingers up found chop America. Through your
Speaker 1: middle fingers found chop America. Through your better fingers up
Speaker 1: fun chomp America, or your middle fingers found tramp on America,
Speaker 1: or your better fingers up found chomp America, your middle fingers.
Speaker 1: You should all come together, which is all quite true.
Speaker 1: What can't resist slap the ship out of it? All right, dude,
Speaker 1: I don't like you funking ice, murderous pig, burning the
Speaker 1: pith with a white of servant chick. I think I
Speaker 1: kip a funk about a session. The only con way
Speaker 1: I funk with the squeeze and the weapon we didn't
Speaker 1: even forget it. Small talk starting to seem a reverence.
Speaker 1: If this was all frands, they say we needed but
Speaker 1: head and I say this ship because the way they
Speaker 1: is a switch play proud boys, y'all may day quick,
Speaker 1: I raised this fist since babased kids are meeting colar
Speaker 1: greens with a sign of pay paste legs to keep
Speaker 1: the dunk of sealed if they sing a song and
Speaker 1: we fucking kneel black cock plus your wife turned into
Speaker 1: a cup for real talk full more rap, hard radical
Speaker 1: people left more than Nascar from America. Throw your middle
Speaker 1: fingus up Trauma America. Throw your middle foods or throw
Speaker 1: your middle fumus up trapmeric Throw your middle fromous up,
Speaker 1: throw your middle fumous up Trauma, Throw your middle fumus
Speaker 1: up Trauma. Proll your middle fingus up, throw your middle
Speaker 1: fingus OFFA Waiting on Reparations a production of I Heeart Radio.
Speaker 1: Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.