WEBVTT - Who Are Your People? 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:04.720 This episode is sponsored by FX's Fleischman Is in Trouble, 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.399 starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzie Kaplan, and Adam Brodie. 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.639 The strama tells a story of recently divorced Toby Fleischmann, 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.320 who dies into the world of at bass dating with 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:17.360 the kind of success he never had in his youth. 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.280 Then his ex wife disappears, leaving him with their two 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.880 children and no hint of her return effectus. Fleischman Is 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:42.920 in Trouble, streaming November seventeenth only on Hulu. Good morning, peeps, 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.360 and welcome to wik f Daily with Meet Your Girl. 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:50.040 Danielle Moody recording from the Brooklyn Bunker, Folks. I've been 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:55.400 going through the news today and what I find really 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.360 interesting or a couple of things that have happened on 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.640 the Republican side. I think I mentioned this earlier in 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:07.200 the week, but we know that the RNC decided to 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:15.000 issue their censure to both of the House Republican members 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.920 who are sitting on the January six Commission. Censure is 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:26.160 usually used for people who have had criminal misconduct, who 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:30.840 have had an ethical conduct, let's say, such as OH, 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.160 I don't know being enthralled in a sex trafficking scandal, 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:42.440 like a Matt Gates threatening to, you know, kill one 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.959 of your colleagues, like Marjorie Taylor Green has done or 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.160 use anti Semitism, which she continues to do as her 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:57.600 favorite weapond entree. But instead the RNC decided to censure 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:05.280 both Adam Kinzinger and lizh Chaining. Now, these two are 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.560 basically the only two Republicans who have any goddamn sense. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.000 They're the only two that actually believe in facts and 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.320 law and recognize that by embracing the big lie and 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:22.320 by essentially saying that our elections are not fair or free, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:28.320 that regardless of what party wins, that we are altering 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:38.840 our democracy moving forward. That these types of fights that 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.000 we are seeing, that we saw waged from the former 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:47.959 twice impeached disgrace President Donald Trump, we've seen the same articulation, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:52.359 the same talking points used in lower level races where 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.480 Republicans just don't like the results, and so they are 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.920 saying that there was fraud and essentially what they are 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.080 setting up and what they are interested in. And as 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:06.440 Tucker Carlson, you know, loves to applaud the Hungarians and 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:11.560 the hungry democracy government is that they want representation on 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:16.440 its face, only they don't actually want legitimate government that 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.639 is governed for and by the people. That they want 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:21.760 to be able to choose their voters, and they want 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.720 to be able to have their entire party in lockstep 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:31.600 around a lie, around white supremacy, around homophobia and transphobia. 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.920 They want to be in the embodiment of the worst. 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.960 And you know, you had the likes of a Mitch McConnell, 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.119 and of course that, oh, I have such deep feelings 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:48.080 Susan Collins come out and publicly right show their disdain 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.480 for the decisions that the RNC made, particularly right not 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.040 only censuring those two House Republican members that sit on 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:02.360 the Commission, but to also right refer to the January 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:07.120 sixth insurrection and violent overthrow of the government as legitimate 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:14.360 political discourse. You had so much breakdown there that Donald 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.640 Trump of course found his way to weigh in to 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.200 the controversy that he created by saying that no one 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.080 listens to Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell is nobody's leader. And 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:31.000 Donald Trump continues to endorse very far right radical cult 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.280 members right that are part of the cult of personality 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:39.400 of Donald Trump and Trumpism. And he's endorsing people that 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.599 have either discounted elections that they have lost in the 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:47.719 past by huge fucking margins, or he's endorsing people to 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.880 run against Republican incumbents that he does not like, that 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:54.760 he does not think, as he has said, is a 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.240 part of the future of the Republican Party because to him, 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.400 the future for Donald Trump looks like authoritarianism, it looks 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.520 like fascism. It looks like a twice impeached, privileged white 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.880 man that has had multiple investigations into his criminal business 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.520 over the decades since Donald Trump became part of all 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.840 of our lexicon back in the eighties. And you know, 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.640 the reason, right that he's been investigated so many times 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:27.240 is because the man is basically operating like a mob boss. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.160 And what's really interesting right now is that the New 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:36.000 York Times is reporting that the one six Commission has 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.760 once again hit a roadblock. What is that roadblock? Oh, 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:44.440 the fact that they are blatant gaps in communication from 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:49.200 the White House on January six, meaning right, not that 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.960 there was no communication because they know from other records 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:55.760 of phone records that they have that Donald Trump was 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.760 in very much in communication. But what do criminals do. 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.120 They cover their tracks and so, so long as you 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:08.680 are making phone calls or using devices that are not monitored, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:13.960 right to ensure that everything that the president and his 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.520 cabinet and his team is doing it is on the 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:22.919 up and up, you use other devices. So right now, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.440 what was going through the White House switchboard? If you've 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:31.200 ever called let's say one of your members of Congress, 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.279 excuse me, you know that what happens is this, you 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.880 dial this generalized number you asked to be directed, it 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.200 directs you through right and only certain people obviously have 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.640 direct access to the White House and two different parts 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.480 of the White House. But what Donald Trump has done 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.359 and what he's done with his entire career, why the 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.880 man doesn't text, why he doesn't send email, why he 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.159 doesn't write anything, Because he's a criminal, and only criminals 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.760 operate in that way. There is no legitimate reason why 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.960 any man that is in business or in politics doesn't 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.680 put pen to paper or doesn't put his fingers on 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:18.440 a keyboard, except when you don't want to have any 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.239 of what you have said or what has been said 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.760 to you potentially used against you. In the court of law. 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:29.320 The only people that operate in that fashion are fucking criminals, 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.800 plain and simple. Just like Donald Trump had said that 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.119 no one pleads the fifth right unless they have something 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.360 to hide. Meanwhile, the last two middle management, middle level 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.520 people that have been involved in the one six insurrection 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.480 that we've talked about with Glenn Kirshner have played the 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:52.120 fifth over a hundred times right in their interviews. So 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.800 here we now have the New York Times reporting that 0:07:54.840 --> 0:08:00.000 there is quote unquote gaps in information in phone records. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:04.240 So now they find themselves subpoena ing the cell phone 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.280 records of those people that they know were in the 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:12.120 White House, and through other exchanges and interviews that they 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.760 have done, have known what Donald Trump was doing and 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:20.320 where exactly he was. So now we are continuing once 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:24.720 again to go through the rigamarou that Trump knows will 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.880 slow down the process and gum up the works to 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:31.080 get to what we already know to be true. Donald 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.679 Trump is solely responsible for the actions that took place 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:39.040 on January six. Donald Trump whipped a crowd into a frenzy, 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.040 directed them to the Capitol Building and told them to 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.720 go and take their country back and then when things 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.280 began to get out of control, when there was violent 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.240 when people were killed, when barricades were being broken open, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.119 when his own fucking Republican members were calling from underneath 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.440 deaths right and barricaded doors, asking him to call off 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.640 the dogs, he was too busy. He's sitting on a 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.679 couch somewhere in the White House popin bond Bonds with 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.000 excitement and glee as he watched the mayhem that was 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.439 unfolding in his name. That's what we know. And so 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.960 the question that I continue to ask, with all of 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.160 this information that is now out there for public consumption, 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.600 is where the fuck is Merritt Garland's Department of Justice? 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.440 Because remember that this commission can only gather information and 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:29.400 offer up recommendations, but it is the Department of Justice 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.800 that actually has the parameters to be able to issue 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:40.360 fucking indictments and subpoenas that bear criminal fucking charges. So 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:45.800 how many I just want to know how many exposays 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.800 are we looking at at this point, three hundred and 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:54.640 sixty five plus a month days removed from the insurrection. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.000 How many exposays have been done, how many interviews have 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.640 been done? How many files are there from the low 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.880 level people that storm the capital to the fucking donors 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.880 that gave them money to begin with. We have so 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:14.320 much information that is readily available in the public and 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:17.920 the question that I continue to wonder is are we 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.520 going to do anything with this? Are we going to 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:24.560 do what we always do with fucking white collar criminals, right, 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.920 which is just let them go free. Because if you 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.560 are white, if you are wealthy, if you are a headero, 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.640 if you are siss, you can do whatever the fuck 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.080 you want and there are no repercussions. You can be 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:42.400 a criminal, fucking disgusting landlord like Donald Trump has been 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.160 for his entire time right as somebody's real estate mogul 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.400 in New York and become fucking president of the United States. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:56.000 You know, folks like I personally, I have stopped really 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.880 delving into the day to day of where things la 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.760 and with the one six Commission, because frankly, you know 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.720 that commission is only going to be up and in 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:13.559 operations until November. Because when Republicans are able to take 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.440 back the House successfully without breaking a sweat, when they're 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.600 able to take back power in the Senate, they are 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.360 going to halt all of those up all of those investigations. 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:29.560 They're going to open up bullshit, bogus investigations into right, 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:36.480 the Eric Eric Saltswalwells, the Alexandro Costio Cortezes, you know, 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.880 the Nancy Pelosi's. They're going to try and impeach Biden 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:45.480 as a as retaliation against the impeachment of Donald Trump. 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.360 They are going to turn our government once again into 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.320 a fucking circuits that is being paid for by us. 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:56.920 That's what they're going to do. So you would think 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.200 that with this finite timeline that Democrats are working under 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.360 and that this administration is working under, you would see 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:08.480 some sense of urgency. You would see some alarms ringing, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:12.560 even when Mitch McConnell once again says the quiet part 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.840 out loud and says, I denounce what the Republican National 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.320 Committee has done in terms of censuring these two members 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:26.040 and making it once again about twenty twenty and January six, 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:28.720 because we are in a position to take back power. 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.480 Knowing that to be true, and that this Republican Party 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.400 is trying to wash their hands of the twenty twenty 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:40.600 election and trying to wash their hands of a insurrection, 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.360 why wouldn't Democrats then be doubling and tripling down so 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:50.480 that come November the American people do not forget who 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.920 was responsible for that day and all of the actions 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:59.080 taken therefrom. I mean, this is not rocket science, folks. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.920 You don't need a gree a degree in communications or 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.520 in media or in publicity in order to get this 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.600 fucking done. And it's the same questions that you know, 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:11.200 friend of the show Kurt Bardell would say, It's just like, 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.880 why not use right the good things that were coming 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.880 out of the Lincoln Project before it was you whipped 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.600 up into a frenzy of its own scandal. Why not 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.359 use the tactics right that they took from the Republican 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.440 playbook and use it to your advantage. Where are the 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.360 fucking barrage of TV ads right now and radio ads 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.959 lambasting the RNC reminding the American people exactly who was 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.440 responsible for the insurrection, exactly who is responsible for the 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.760 fact that we are never getting rid of COVID nineteen. 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.040 That instead of these blue state governors deciding to break 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:53.160 to the will of capitalism right and lift up mask 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.400 mandates against science, as I said yesterday, that why you 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.600 would not be painting the Republican halt as the death cult. 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:06.120 They told the American people who decided to vote against 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:10.040 their own healthcare in the early aughts under the Obama administration, 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:11.920 because they told them that they were going to have 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:17.079 death panels. Well, Republicans actually do have death panels right now, 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.840 because that's what happens when you decide not to have 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.680 public health mandates that would keep children safe in schools 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.040 in these red states. And so, you know, I sit 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:31.840 around folks as I go through the news on a 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.040 regular basis, and I just am at a loss because 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.400 it's really hard in this Dane age to carry with 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:45.120 you some type of hope that everyone who actually has 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.680 the power and the platform to shift the course and 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.480 the direction that our democracy is careening towards that then 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:57.880 decides not to. You know, I will say this somebody 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:03.560 a follower of mine on Instagram am yesterday, not yesterday, 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.760 but earlier in the week when I did woke Wednesday 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:10.080 and I posted the full video on my Instagram page, 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.640 a follower commented and said, you know, this week, have 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:19.200 you seen Michelle Obama's post this week? And if you 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.840 get any information regularly emailed to you from the Obama Foundation, 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.720 or from the former president, you would know that it 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:32.400 has been fifteen years since the Obama's since President Obama 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.280 announced his run for office, that would you know, change 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.600 the course of the Democratic Party for a finite amount 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.720 of time, because once again, there was no pipeline built, 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:48.000 there was no work that was done to reinforce and 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:52.920 expand the Obama coalition. That everything that was done by 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:58.400 the brilliant Obama apparatus just fell apart after Obama left office. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.560 One of the since why we find ourselves When we 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.160 saw Hillary Clinton running, We're like, where is the excitement? 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.960 Where are these people? Well, you put no money, no resources, 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.280 built up, no pipeline, and had no one waiting in 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.680 the wings. So Obama came and went and then Donald 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.640 Trump comes in right after, and his main goal was 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:25.040 what to erase his presence to begin with. So a 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.240 follower of mine said, what's the point of Michelle Obama 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.160 pointing back to two thousand and eight? Like hearkening back 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.840 to this long begotten time, as you know, because she 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:43.680 found the memory in and of itself painful. And what 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:45.680 I said is this, I said a couple of things. 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.920 She goes, you know, was it just performance for performance? Sake, 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.480 And I said, everything about politics is a performance and 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:57.800 everyone needs to just understand that it is. You don't 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.960 vote for people with the best policy, because if you did, 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.600 then Democrats would remain in power, right, and we wouldn't 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:06.960 even have a Republican Party because they don't offer shit 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:10.639 except for the word no and obstructionism. You vote for 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.080 people that you fucking like, that you want to sit 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:15.000 down and have a beer with, that you want to 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.199 share a meal with, a share brunch with. Right, It 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.359 is all about personality, and so a part, big part 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:25.720 of politics, unfortunately, is about performance. And Donald Trump knew that, 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:28.639 but he was tap dancing and doing a jig for 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:33.280 the deplorables. As Hillary Clinton had said, the Obama's wanted 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.160 to elevate the country and bring us into this place 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.000 where we could see just how good of a people 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.400 we were again a very finite amount of time, kind 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:47.800 of like reconstruction. Nonetheless, I said that it is important 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.520 to have these reminders because we are in such a 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.320 dark place where we feel like the Obama years at 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:58.119 least I do feels like they were forty fifty years 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:01.920 ago at this point. So has happened, right, So much 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.760 has gone wrong. But it is important for us to 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.399 remember that the same country and the same people that 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.800 were able to get that done right are still here, 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:15.520 and the question is what the fuck happened to them? 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:20.040 We knew that whitelash was always going to follow the 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.440 Obama administration, But if you had asked me right following 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.680 the end of the Obama years, if I thought that 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.919 the white lash was going to regress us all the 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.120 way back to Jim Crow, I would have said, Nah, 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.439 I don't think it's going to be that bad. I 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.040 think it's going to be bad, but I don't think 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.800 it's going to be like you can't vote, We're using 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.720 the N word. Joe Rogan as our hero. The twenty 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.840 twenty election was stolen, Like, I didn't think that we 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.680 were gonna go full fucking crazy. But once again, when 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:52.280 you uncheck right, when white rage and white fragility, which 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:56.680 is a deadly combination, goes unchecked right and all you 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:58.960 want to do is set up fucking town halls and 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:03.639 interviews understand the aggrieved racist, then of course we would 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.600 have ended up in this place. Right. So I think 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:12.520 that it's always important to have a reminder of better times, 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.159 but recognize that they wanted to hang Obama right, that 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.440 they called that man everything but a child of God, 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:24.000 that they made him show his long form birth certificate 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.879 because white Americans could not wrap their fucking minds around 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:32.680 the fact that a black man right had the rightful 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.320 place as president of the United States, because in their minds, 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.479 that power structure was off limits. But we didn't have 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:45.600 those real conversations because Obama wanted to tell us that, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.720 you know, we could be the change, that yes we can, 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.040 that we can embody this American dream, that all of 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.919 us can come to the table and be these better people. 0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:00.879 And when we saw these incredible crowds, you know, of 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:09.360 such a multicultural, right, multiracial demographic, we were blinded by 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:15.840 the truth right. And so because we never had those real, heartfelt, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.479 hard conversations, and because they weren't modeled for us, and 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.520 because we like to pretend that we were better than 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:27.439 we are, we arrive here shocked and outdone. Coming up 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.919 next is my conversation with activists and author Bacari Sellers 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:39.800 about his new book, Folks. I am very excited to 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:48.800 welcome back to Woke. F author, New York Times bestselling author, intellectual, academic, 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:53.359 Bacari Sellers, who is the author of the new children's 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.800 picture book Who Are Your People? And you may remember 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.960 that Bacari was on My God Have Been last year 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.840 to talk about his book, My Vanishing Country Book. Cary, 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.080 welcome back. I'm glad to be been too long. We 0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:13.199 got to do this in between, I know, in between 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:15.880 all of the all of the things you write, UM 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.960 and tending to your beautiful family. Um. But Cary, what 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:24.520 prompted this this book? What prompted this beautiful children's book, 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.639 which I have to say is um is illustrated also 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.600 by Reggie Brown. Um, what prompted this for you? Yeah? 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:33.960 Let me let me just kind of where you chimed 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:36.320 in a little bit. You know, Reggie Brown was just 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:40.600 brilliant and he gave a lot of life to this book. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.080 So shout out to Reggie. UM. You know, for me, 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:47.280 it was having twin toddlers who are three years old. UM, 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:52.160 it was trying to find different resources to educate them 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:54.600 and to get them to leave their mom and daddy 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.359 alone for a period of time. And you know, we 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.919 did not have many things where they could see themselves 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.720 in the images and the pictures and the animations, etc. 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:08.719 And that frustrated me, like it frustrates parents all around 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.000 the globe, and so I decided with my platform. And 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:15.680 it was tough. I mean, people probably will not understand 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.720 or believe that, you know, writing a children's book or 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:21.959 breaking into the industry of children's books, it's tougher than 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:26.960 a notebooks. Really, yeah, I joke, but it has a 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.359 great deal of honesty that I had to write a 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:31.919 New York Times bestseller just to get the opportunity to 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:36.000 write a children's book. And I just want to stay 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:37.919 and live in this space for a while because I 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:42.359 think giving having this level of representation at this time, 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.919 during this moment, a lot like in contact, it means 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:51.199 a great deal to the reader. You know, it's so 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.800 funny because I literally just watched just watch that Disney 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.639 movie for the for the very first time over the 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.119 weekend because I need it an escape from our impending 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:07.600 a democracy doom. Um. You know what's really what I 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.800 what I love about this is, you know, is a 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:13.439 title in in and of itself, Who are your people? 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:18.400 And you know, the innocence that comes from children asking 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.159 one another where are you from? You know, why do 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.600 you look the way that you do? And I think 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:29.480 that instead of my adult self, which the response to 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.080 another adult that was asking me that question would be 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.000 kind of would be quite brash. Actually, Um, you set 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:40.719 up a way to have this conversation that is about 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:44.879 curiosity as well as ancestry and the village that we 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.480 all come from. Can you speak more to that? Yeah, 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:49.879 I mean it's a colloquialism down south that kind of, 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:53.080 to your earlier point, is rooted in some level of judgment. 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:56.720 You know, when you when you meet somebody for the 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:58.480 first time down here, they're like, who are your people? 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:01.440 And that they want to know whether your daddy went 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:04.040 to church or like stole from folks. They just trying 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:07.320 to figure out, you know, what family structure you come from, 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:10.680 what stock you come from. And so that especially where 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:12.520 I'm from, I mean, who are your people? People refer 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.560 to me as little cleave, little cell and my daddy. 0:24:16.400 --> 0:24:19.040 That's just how they know my granddaddy. I mean, that's 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:22.040 just how it was growing up. And so I wanted 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:24.840 to set that table with that familiar colloquialism, but also 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:30.160 give some meat and flesh out who our people were 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:33.679 and for the reader, for the young person who's reading 0:24:33.680 --> 0:24:36.440 this of any race, color, or creed, but particularly black kids. 0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:39.159 Wanted them to be able to have some pride in 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:44.960 the images and have some pride in the in the 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:47.639 in the culture that's represented throughout the pages, and so 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:49.960 who are your people? Yeah? We set that tone. We 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:53.640 we we we set that tone for understanding that we 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:57.160 come from a people who had to overcome so much 0:24:57.200 --> 0:25:01.320 and we're still standing. Book. It's funny because when you 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:07.159 mentioned the movie in Kanto earlier, I was sitting and 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:09.200 I was watching, and I was saying to myself, my god, 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:12.080 kids these days are so lucky. They're so lucky to 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:18.320 get like beautiful representation that is so rich and so colorful. 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:22.239 That story showed so many different shades of brown and 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:25.200 black and hair texture and all of these things in 0:25:25.240 --> 0:25:28.520 the similar way that your book does. And you know, 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:32.399 when I was a elementary school teacher teaching first and 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:34.760 second grade, one of the things that I strive to 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:38.439 do was to go from library to library, bookstore to 0:25:38.440 --> 0:25:42.000 bookstore to try and get books that would prompt conversation 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:45.919 and critical thinking. But we're also representative of the population 0:25:46.000 --> 0:25:49.840 that I was teaching, which was black and brown children. 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:54.399 And you know, right now, we are at a time 0:25:54.640 --> 0:25:58.800 when all of these advancements have been made, and now 0:25:58.880 --> 0:26:02.439 there is a campaign of erasure and whitewashing that is 0:26:02.800 --> 0:26:05.840 now following all of the advancements that have been made 0:26:05.880 --> 0:26:08.119 since I was in the classroom as a teacher or 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:11.320 in the classroom as a student. What do you make 0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:16.440 of where we are? And how do you balance that 0:26:16.640 --> 0:26:19.480 with what you are trying to create? You're trying to 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:22.400 create these images at a time when they're being blocked. 0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:26.639 What do I make of where we are? I think 0:26:26.720 --> 0:26:31.480 that my intellectual critique sitting across from you, although I 0:26:31.520 --> 0:26:35.920 wish we were in person, would be that I am 0:26:36.200 --> 0:26:44.760