Speaker 1: This episode is sponsored by FX's Fleischman Is in Trouble,
Speaker 1: starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzie Kaplan, and Adam Brodie.
Speaker 1: The strama tells a story of recently divorced Toby Fleischmann,
Speaker 1: who dies into the world of at bass dating with
Speaker 1: the kind of success he never had in his youth.
Speaker 1: Then his ex wife disappears, leaving him with their two
Speaker 1: children and no hint of her return effectus. Fleischman Is
Speaker 1: in Trouble, streaming November seventeenth only on Hulu. Good morning, peeps,
Speaker 1: and welcome to wik f Daily with Meet Your Girl.
Speaker 1: Danielle Moody recording from the Brooklyn Bunker, Folks. I've been
Speaker 1: going through the news today and what I find really
Speaker 1: interesting or a couple of things that have happened on
Speaker 1: the Republican side. I think I mentioned this earlier in
Speaker 1: the week, but we know that the RNC decided to
Speaker 1: issue their censure to both of the House Republican members
Speaker 1: who are sitting on the January six Commission. Censure is
Speaker 1: usually used for people who have had criminal misconduct, who
Speaker 1: have had an ethical conduct, let's say, such as OH,
Speaker 1: I don't know being enthralled in a sex trafficking scandal,
Speaker 1: like a Matt Gates threatening to, you know, kill one
Speaker 1: of your colleagues, like Marjorie Taylor Green has done or
Speaker 1: use anti Semitism, which she continues to do as her
Speaker 1: favorite weapond entree. But instead the RNC decided to censure
Speaker 1: both Adam Kinzinger and lizh Chaining. Now, these two are
Speaker 1: basically the only two Republicans who have any goddamn sense.
Speaker 1: They're the only two that actually believe in facts and
Speaker 1: law and recognize that by embracing the big lie and
Speaker 1: by essentially saying that our elections are not fair or free,
Speaker 1: that regardless of what party wins, that we are altering
Speaker 1: our democracy moving forward. That these types of fights that
Speaker 1: we are seeing, that we saw waged from the former
Speaker 1: twice impeached disgrace President Donald Trump, we've seen the same articulation,
Speaker 1: the same talking points used in lower level races where
Speaker 1: Republicans just don't like the results, and so they are
Speaker 1: saying that there was fraud and essentially what they are
Speaker 1: setting up and what they are interested in. And as
Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson, you know, loves to applaud the Hungarians and
Speaker 1: the hungry democracy government is that they want representation on
Speaker 1: its face, only they don't actually want legitimate government that
Speaker 1: is governed for and by the people. That they want
Speaker 1: to be able to choose their voters, and they want
Speaker 1: to be able to have their entire party in lockstep
Speaker 1: around a lie, around white supremacy, around homophobia and transphobia.
Speaker 1: They want to be in the embodiment of the worst.
Speaker 1: And you know, you had the likes of a Mitch McConnell,
Speaker 1: and of course that, oh, I have such deep feelings
Speaker 1: Susan Collins come out and publicly right show their disdain
Speaker 1: for the decisions that the RNC made, particularly right not
Speaker 1: only censuring those two House Republican members that sit on
Speaker 1: the Commission, but to also right refer to the January
Speaker 1: sixth insurrection and violent overthrow of the government as legitimate
Speaker 1: political discourse. You had so much breakdown there that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump of course found his way to weigh in to
Speaker 1: the controversy that he created by saying that no one
Speaker 1: listens to Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell is nobody's leader. And
Speaker 1: Donald Trump continues to endorse very far right radical cult
Speaker 1: members right that are part of the cult of personality
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump and Trumpism. And he's endorsing people that
Speaker 1: have either discounted elections that they have lost in the
Speaker 1: past by huge fucking margins, or he's endorsing people to
Speaker 1: run against Republican incumbents that he does not like, that
Speaker 1: he does not think, as he has said, is a
Speaker 1: part of the future of the Republican Party because to him,
Speaker 1: the future for Donald Trump looks like authoritarianism, it looks
Speaker 1: like fascism. It looks like a twice impeached, privileged white
Speaker 1: man that has had multiple investigations into his criminal business
Speaker 1: over the decades since Donald Trump became part of all
Speaker 1: of our lexicon back in the eighties. And you know,
Speaker 1: the reason, right that he's been investigated so many times
Speaker 1: is because the man is basically operating like a mob boss.
Speaker 1: And what's really interesting right now is that the New
Speaker 1: York Times is reporting that the one six Commission has
Speaker 1: once again hit a roadblock. What is that roadblock? Oh,
Speaker 1: the fact that they are blatant gaps in communication from
Speaker 1: the White House on January six, meaning right, not that
Speaker 1: there was no communication because they know from other records
Speaker 1: of phone records that they have that Donald Trump was
Speaker 1: in very much in communication. But what do criminals do.
Speaker 1: They cover their tracks and so, so long as you
Speaker 1: are making phone calls or using devices that are not monitored,
Speaker 1: right to ensure that everything that the president and his
Speaker 1: cabinet and his team is doing it is on the
Speaker 1: up and up, you use other devices. So right now,
Speaker 1: what was going through the White House switchboard? If you've
Speaker 1: ever called let's say one of your members of Congress,
Speaker 1: excuse me, you know that what happens is this, you
Speaker 1: dial this generalized number you asked to be directed, it
Speaker 1: directs you through right and only certain people obviously have
Speaker 1: direct access to the White House and two different parts
Speaker 1: of the White House. But what Donald Trump has done
Speaker 1: and what he's done with his entire career, why the
Speaker 1: man doesn't text, why he doesn't send email, why he
Speaker 1: doesn't write anything, Because he's a criminal, and only criminals
Speaker 1: operate in that way. There is no legitimate reason why
Speaker 1: any man that is in business or in politics doesn't
Speaker 1: put pen to paper or doesn't put his fingers on
Speaker 1: a keyboard, except when you don't want to have any
Speaker 1: of what you have said or what has been said
Speaker 1: to you potentially used against you. In the court of law.
Speaker 1: The only people that operate in that fashion are fucking criminals,
Speaker 1: plain and simple. Just like Donald Trump had said that
Speaker 1: no one pleads the fifth right unless they have something
Speaker 1: to hide. Meanwhile, the last two middle management, middle level
Speaker 1: people that have been involved in the one six insurrection
Speaker 1: that we've talked about with Glenn Kirshner have played the
Speaker 1: fifth over a hundred times right in their interviews. So
Speaker 1: here we now have the New York Times reporting that
Speaker 1: there is quote unquote gaps in information in phone records.
Speaker 1: So now they find themselves subpoena ing the cell phone
Speaker 1: records of those people that they know were in the
Speaker 1: White House, and through other exchanges and interviews that they
Speaker 1: have done, have known what Donald Trump was doing and
Speaker 1: where exactly he was. So now we are continuing once
Speaker 1: again to go through the rigamarou that Trump knows will
Speaker 1: slow down the process and gum up the works to
Speaker 1: get to what we already know to be true. Donald
Speaker 1: Trump is solely responsible for the actions that took place
Speaker 1: on January six. Donald Trump whipped a crowd into a frenzy,
Speaker 1: directed them to the Capitol Building and told them to
Speaker 1: go and take their country back and then when things
Speaker 1: began to get out of control, when there was violent
Speaker 1: when people were killed, when barricades were being broken open,
Speaker 1: when his own fucking Republican members were calling from underneath
Speaker 1: deaths right and barricaded doors, asking him to call off
Speaker 1: the dogs, he was too busy. He's sitting on a
Speaker 1: couch somewhere in the White House popin bond Bonds with
Speaker 1: excitement and glee as he watched the mayhem that was
Speaker 1: unfolding in his name. That's what we know. And so
Speaker 1: the question that I continue to ask, with all of
Speaker 1: this information that is now out there for public consumption,
Speaker 1: is where the fuck is Merritt Garland's Department of Justice?
Speaker 1: Because remember that this commission can only gather information and
Speaker 1: offer up recommendations, but it is the Department of Justice
Speaker 1: that actually has the parameters to be able to issue
Speaker 1: fucking indictments and subpoenas that bear criminal fucking charges. So
Speaker 1: how many I just want to know how many exposays
Speaker 1: are we looking at at this point, three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty five plus a month days removed from the insurrection.
Speaker 1: How many exposays have been done, how many interviews have
Speaker 1: been done? How many files are there from the low
Speaker 1: level people that storm the capital to the fucking donors
Speaker 1: that gave them money to begin with. We have so
Speaker 1: much information that is readily available in the public and
Speaker 1: the question that I continue to wonder is are we
Speaker 1: going to do anything with this? Are we going to
Speaker 1: do what we always do with fucking white collar criminals, right,
Speaker 1: which is just let them go free. Because if you
Speaker 1: are white, if you are wealthy, if you are a headero,
Speaker 1: if you are siss, you can do whatever the fuck
Speaker 1: you want and there are no repercussions. You can be
Speaker 1: a criminal, fucking disgusting landlord like Donald Trump has been
Speaker 1: for his entire time right as somebody's real estate mogul
Speaker 1: in New York and become fucking president of the United States.
Speaker 1: You know, folks like I personally, I have stopped really
Speaker 1: delving into the day to day of where things la
Speaker 1: and with the one six Commission, because frankly, you know
Speaker 1: that commission is only going to be up and in
Speaker 1: operations until November. Because when Republicans are able to take
Speaker 1: back the House successfully without breaking a sweat, when they're
Speaker 1: able to take back power in the Senate, they are
Speaker 1: going to halt all of those up all of those investigations.
Speaker 1: They're going to open up bullshit, bogus investigations into right,
Speaker 1: the Eric Eric Saltswalwells, the Alexandro Costio Cortezes, you know,
Speaker 1: the Nancy Pelosi's. They're going to try and impeach Biden
Speaker 1: as a as retaliation against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: They are going to turn our government once again into
Speaker 1: a fucking circuits that is being paid for by us.
Speaker 1: That's what they're going to do. So you would think
Speaker 1: that with this finite timeline that Democrats are working under
Speaker 1: and that this administration is working under, you would see
Speaker 1: some sense of urgency. You would see some alarms ringing,
Speaker 1: even when Mitch McConnell once again says the quiet part
Speaker 1: out loud and says, I denounce what the Republican National
Speaker 1: Committee has done in terms of censuring these two members
Speaker 1: and making it once again about twenty twenty and January six,
Speaker 1: because we are in a position to take back power.
Speaker 1: Knowing that to be true, and that this Republican Party
Speaker 1: is trying to wash their hands of the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: election and trying to wash their hands of a insurrection,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't Democrats then be doubling and tripling down so
Speaker 1: that come November the American people do not forget who
Speaker 1: was responsible for that day and all of the actions
Speaker 1: taken therefrom. I mean, this is not rocket science, folks.
Speaker 1: You don't need a gree a degree in communications or
Speaker 1: in media or in publicity in order to get this
Speaker 1: fucking done. And it's the same questions that you know,
Speaker 1: friend of the show Kurt Bardell would say, It's just like,
Speaker 1: why not use right the good things that were coming
Speaker 1: out of the Lincoln Project before it was you whipped
Speaker 1: up into a frenzy of its own scandal. Why not
Speaker 1: use the tactics right that they took from the Republican
Speaker 1: playbook and use it to your advantage. Where are the
Speaker 1: fucking barrage of TV ads right now and radio ads
Speaker 1: lambasting the RNC reminding the American people exactly who was
Speaker 1: responsible for the insurrection, exactly who is responsible for the
Speaker 1: fact that we are never getting rid of COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: That instead of these blue state governors deciding to break
Speaker 1: to the will of capitalism right and lift up mask
Speaker 1: mandates against science, as I said yesterday, that why you
Speaker 1: would not be painting the Republican halt as the death cult.
Speaker 1: They told the American people who decided to vote against
Speaker 1: their own healthcare in the early aughts under the Obama administration,
Speaker 1: because they told them that they were going to have
Speaker 1: death panels. Well, Republicans actually do have death panels right now,
Speaker 1: because that's what happens when you decide not to have
Speaker 1: public health mandates that would keep children safe in schools
Speaker 1: in these red states. And so, you know, I sit
Speaker 1: around folks as I go through the news on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, and I just am at a loss because
Speaker 1: it's really hard in this Dane age to carry with
Speaker 1: you some type of hope that everyone who actually has
Speaker 1: the power and the platform to shift the course and
Speaker 1: the direction that our democracy is careening towards that then
Speaker 1: decides not to. You know, I will say this somebody
Speaker 1: a follower of mine on Instagram am yesterday, not yesterday,
Speaker 1: but earlier in the week when I did woke Wednesday
Speaker 1: and I posted the full video on my Instagram page,
Speaker 1: a follower commented and said, you know, this week, have
Speaker 1: you seen Michelle Obama's post this week? And if you
Speaker 1: get any information regularly emailed to you from the Obama Foundation,
Speaker 1: or from the former president, you would know that it
Speaker 1: has been fifteen years since the Obama's since President Obama
Speaker 1: announced his run for office, that would you know, change
Speaker 1: the course of the Democratic Party for a finite amount
Speaker 1: of time, because once again, there was no pipeline built,
Speaker 1: there was no work that was done to reinforce and
Speaker 1: expand the Obama coalition. That everything that was done by
Speaker 1: the brilliant Obama apparatus just fell apart after Obama left office.
Speaker 1: One of the since why we find ourselves When we
Speaker 1: saw Hillary Clinton running, We're like, where is the excitement?
Speaker 1: Where are these people? Well, you put no money, no resources,
Speaker 1: built up, no pipeline, and had no one waiting in
Speaker 1: the wings. So Obama came and went and then Donald
Speaker 1: Trump comes in right after, and his main goal was
Speaker 1: what to erase his presence to begin with. So a
Speaker 1: follower of mine said, what's the point of Michelle Obama
Speaker 1: pointing back to two thousand and eight? Like hearkening back
Speaker 1: to this long begotten time, as you know, because she
Speaker 1: found the memory in and of itself painful. And what
Speaker 1: I said is this, I said a couple of things.
Speaker 1: She goes, you know, was it just performance for performance? Sake,
Speaker 1: And I said, everything about politics is a performance and
Speaker 1: everyone needs to just understand that it is. You don't
Speaker 1: vote for people with the best policy, because if you did,
Speaker 1: then Democrats would remain in power, right, and we wouldn't
Speaker 1: even have a Republican Party because they don't offer shit
Speaker 1: except for the word no and obstructionism. You vote for
Speaker 1: people that you fucking like, that you want to sit
Speaker 1: down and have a beer with, that you want to
Speaker 1: share a meal with, a share brunch with. Right, It
Speaker 1: is all about personality, and so a part, big part
Speaker 1: of politics, unfortunately, is about performance. And Donald Trump knew that,
Speaker 1: but he was tap dancing and doing a jig for
Speaker 1: the deplorables. As Hillary Clinton had said, the Obama's wanted
Speaker 1: to elevate the country and bring us into this place
Speaker 1: where we could see just how good of a people
Speaker 1: we were again a very finite amount of time, kind
Speaker 1: of like reconstruction. Nonetheless, I said that it is important
Speaker 1: to have these reminders because we are in such a
Speaker 1: dark place where we feel like the Obama years at
Speaker 1: least I do feels like they were forty fifty years
Speaker 1: ago at this point. So has happened, right, So much
Speaker 1: has gone wrong. But it is important for us to
Speaker 1: remember that the same country and the same people that
Speaker 1: were able to get that done right are still here,
Speaker 1: and the question is what the fuck happened to them?
Speaker 1: We knew that whitelash was always going to follow the
Speaker 1: Obama administration, But if you had asked me right following
Speaker 1: the end of the Obama years, if I thought that
Speaker 1: the white lash was going to regress us all the
Speaker 1: way back to Jim Crow, I would have said, Nah,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to be that bad. I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be bad, but I don't think
Speaker 1: it's going to be like you can't vote, We're using
Speaker 1: the N word. Joe Rogan as our hero. The twenty
Speaker 1: twenty election was stolen, Like, I didn't think that we
Speaker 1: were gonna go full fucking crazy. But once again, when
Speaker 1: you uncheck right, when white rage and white fragility, which
Speaker 1: is a deadly combination, goes unchecked right and all you
Speaker 1: want to do is set up fucking town halls and
Speaker 1: interviews understand the aggrieved racist, then of course we would
Speaker 1: have ended up in this place. Right. So I think
Speaker 1: that it's always important to have a reminder of better times,
Speaker 1: but recognize that they wanted to hang Obama right, that
Speaker 1: they called that man everything but a child of God,
Speaker 1: that they made him show his long form birth certificate
Speaker 1: because white Americans could not wrap their fucking minds around
Speaker 1: the fact that a black man right had the rightful
Speaker 1: place as president of the United States, because in their minds,
Speaker 1: that power structure was off limits. But we didn't have
Speaker 1: those real conversations because Obama wanted to tell us that,
Speaker 1: you know, we could be the change, that yes we can,
Speaker 1: that we can embody this American dream, that all of
Speaker 1: us can come to the table and be these better people.
Speaker 1: And when we saw these incredible crowds, you know, of
Speaker 1: such a multicultural, right, multiracial demographic, we were blinded by
Speaker 1: the truth right. And so because we never had those real, heartfelt,
Speaker 1: hard conversations, and because they weren't modeled for us, and
Speaker 1: because we like to pretend that we were better than
Speaker 1: we are, we arrive here shocked and outdone. Coming up
Speaker 1: next is my conversation with activists and author Bacari Sellers
Speaker 1: about his new book, Folks. I am very excited to
Speaker 1: welcome back to Woke. F author, New York Times bestselling author, intellectual, academic,
Speaker 1: Bacari Sellers, who is the author of the new children's
Speaker 1: picture book Who Are Your People? And you may remember
Speaker 1: that Bacari was on My God Have Been last year
Speaker 1: to talk about his book, My Vanishing Country Book. Cary,
Speaker 1: welcome back. I'm glad to be been too long. We
Speaker 1: got to do this in between, I know, in between
Speaker 1: all of the all of the things you write, UM
Speaker 1: and tending to your beautiful family. Um. But Cary, what
Speaker 1: prompted this this book? What prompted this beautiful children's book,
Speaker 1: which I have to say is um is illustrated also
Speaker 1: by Reggie Brown. Um, what prompted this for you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Let me let me just kind of where you chimed
Speaker 1: in a little bit. You know, Reggie Brown was just
Speaker 1: brilliant and he gave a lot of life to this book.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Reggie. UM. You know, for me,
Speaker 1: it was having twin toddlers who are three years old. UM,
Speaker 1: it was trying to find different resources to educate them
Speaker 1: and to get them to leave their mom and daddy
Speaker 1: alone for a period of time. And you know, we
Speaker 1: did not have many things where they could see themselves
Speaker 1: in the images and the pictures and the animations, etc.
Speaker 1: And that frustrated me, like it frustrates parents all around
Speaker 1: the globe, and so I decided with my platform. And
Speaker 1: it was tough. I mean, people probably will not understand
Speaker 1: or believe that, you know, writing a children's book or
Speaker 1: breaking into the industry of children's books, it's tougher than
Speaker 1: a notebooks. Really, yeah, I joke, but it has a
Speaker 1: great deal of honesty that I had to write a
Speaker 1: New York Times bestseller just to get the opportunity to
Speaker 1: write a children's book. And I just want to stay
Speaker 1: and live in this space for a while because I
Speaker 1: think giving having this level of representation at this time,
Speaker 1: during this moment, a lot like in contact, it means
Speaker 1: a great deal to the reader. You know, it's so
Speaker 1: funny because I literally just watched just watch that Disney
Speaker 1: movie for the for the very first time over the
Speaker 1: weekend because I need it an escape from our impending
Speaker 1: a democracy doom. Um. You know what's really what I
Speaker 1: what I love about this is, you know, is a
Speaker 1: title in in and of itself, Who are your people?
Speaker 1: And you know, the innocence that comes from children asking
Speaker 1: one another where are you from? You know, why do
Speaker 1: you look the way that you do? And I think
Speaker 1: that instead of my adult self, which the response to
Speaker 1: another adult that was asking me that question would be
Speaker 1: kind of would be quite brash. Actually, Um, you set
Speaker 1: up a way to have this conversation that is about
Speaker 1: curiosity as well as ancestry and the village that we
Speaker 1: all come from. Can you speak more to that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a colloquialism down south that kind of,
Speaker 1: to your earlier point, is rooted in some level of judgment.
Speaker 1: You know, when you when you meet somebody for the
Speaker 1: first time down here, they're like, who are your people?
Speaker 1: And that they want to know whether your daddy went
Speaker 1: to church or like stole from folks. They just trying
Speaker 1: to figure out, you know, what family structure you come from,
Speaker 1: what stock you come from. And so that especially where
Speaker 1: I'm from, I mean, who are your people? People refer
Speaker 1: to me as little cleave, little cell and my daddy.
Speaker 1: That's just how they know my granddaddy. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: just how it was growing up. And so I wanted
Speaker 1: to set that table with that familiar colloquialism, but also
Speaker 1: give some meat and flesh out who our people were
Speaker 1: and for the reader, for the young person who's reading
Speaker 1: this of any race, color, or creed, but particularly black kids.
Speaker 1: Wanted them to be able to have some pride in
Speaker 1: the images and have some pride in the in the
Speaker 1: in the culture that's represented throughout the pages, and so
Speaker 1: who are your people? Yeah? We set that tone. We
Speaker 1: we we we set that tone for understanding that we
Speaker 1: come from a people who had to overcome so much
Speaker 1: and we're still standing. Book. It's funny because when you
Speaker 1: mentioned the movie in Kanto earlier, I was sitting and
Speaker 1: I was watching, and I was saying to myself, my god,
Speaker 1: kids these days are so lucky. They're so lucky to
Speaker 1: get like beautiful representation that is so rich and so colorful.
Speaker 1: That story showed so many different shades of brown and
Speaker 1: black and hair texture and all of these things in
Speaker 1: the similar way that your book does. And you know,
Speaker 1: when I was a elementary school teacher teaching first and
Speaker 1: second grade, one of the things that I strive to
Speaker 1: do was to go from library to library, bookstore to
Speaker 1: bookstore to try and get books that would prompt conversation
Speaker 1: and critical thinking. But we're also representative of the population
Speaker 1: that I was teaching, which was black and brown children.
Speaker 1: And you know, right now, we are at a time
Speaker 1: when all of these advancements have been made, and now
Speaker 1: there is a campaign of erasure and whitewashing that is
Speaker 1: now following all of the advancements that have been made
Speaker 1: since I was in the classroom as a teacher or
Speaker 1: in the classroom as a student. What do you make
Speaker 1: of where we are? And how do you balance that
Speaker 1: with what you are trying to create? You're trying to
Speaker 1: create these images at a time when they're being blocked.
Speaker 1: What do I make of where we are? I think
Speaker 1: that my intellectual critique sitting across from you, although I
Speaker 1: wish we were in person, would be that I am
Speaker 1: astounded by the lack of curiosity, the anti intellectualism, and
Speaker 1: the asinine attempts to remove culture through books that people
Speaker 1: are boldly taking. I mean the steps of removing books.
Speaker 1: Michelle Obama's book from Texas, for example. I mean they're
Speaker 1: trying to take it out at Michelle Obama saw hurt nobody.
Speaker 1: She tried to She tried to plan a garden for
Speaker 1: y'all and show her arms. Yeah, Michelle tried to get
Speaker 1: her family plan a garden and show her arms, and
Speaker 1: y'all try to take her book out of libraries. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just it's brash, you know. I think that this
Speaker 1: may be something that people always wanted to do, but
Speaker 1: I'm simply, like fundamentally astounded by the fact they're taking
Speaker 1: these steps. I think it contributes to kind of this
Speaker 1: moment that we're in, white hot moment surrounding these issues
Speaker 1: of race, the ignorance, and the infantile nature of the conversation.
Speaker 1: And it's going to take more books like who are
Speaker 1: Your People? And books that you are going to write
Speaker 1: than yeah, you know, to feel that boyd and catch
Speaker 1: individuals at a young age where we can teach them
Speaker 1: to dream again and have this curiosity and maybe come
Speaker 1: forth with this sensatiable desire to learn as much as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, your family's history is so extraordinarily rich, right,
Speaker 1: and deep and deep rooted and entwined with white supremacy
Speaker 1: in this country. And you know, I wonder, as now,
Speaker 1: the father of twin toddlers who are growing up at
Speaker 1: a time when it feels so regressive and yet hopeful,
Speaker 1: how do you manage what you are seeing, what you
Speaker 1: have seen learn and understood through your own family history,
Speaker 1: and then that mirroring America's history and violent racist nature,
Speaker 1: and trying to develop the hopefulness and the spirit of
Speaker 1: twin toddlers, twin black toddlers. Well, I mean that the
Speaker 1: innocence of their the innocence of their eyes, and the
Speaker 1: softness of their smile, their genuine curiosity is what keeps
Speaker 1: you going, combined with the fact that you know the
Speaker 1: price that was paid for the progress that we have today.
Speaker 1: You know, I think, and you know, a part of
Speaker 1: me says that people want to strip us of our
Speaker 1: history and the teaching of our history, not for their
Speaker 1: benefit or the way they feel or the guilt they feel,
Speaker 1: but so that we won't be empowered to keep going,
Speaker 1: so that we won't see the struggles and the sacrifices
Speaker 1: that were made and just keep pushing. When you take
Speaker 1: away one's history, you pretty much take away their spirit.
Speaker 1: And I refuse to let anybody do that to me.
Speaker 1: And I think that, you know, the challenge for us
Speaker 1: and particularly me, raising these children is to fill our
Speaker 1: house with love. You know, my kids will tell you
Speaker 1: how the Debtie loves them this much, and they love
Speaker 1: they you know, some of the first things they learn
Speaker 1: how to say in this house is I love you,
Speaker 1: because we know that when they go outside these doors,
Speaker 1: that this world will not love them the same because
Speaker 1: of the color of their skin, or who they may love,
Speaker 1: or who they may pray to, or those type of ideals.
Speaker 1: And so we just want to prepare them for a
Speaker 1: rough and tumble world while Daddy is out there trying
Speaker 1: to change it. And if I can do my part
Speaker 1: to you know, leave it better than the way I
Speaker 1: inherited it, and raise my kids to believe that, you know,
Speaker 1: only a life live for others is a life worthwhile
Speaker 1: to quote Einstein. Then I think that maybe some where
Speaker 1: somebody will be able to look at me and say
Speaker 1: job well done. I mean, folks already look at you
Speaker 1: and say and say job well done. And I'm certain
Speaker 1: that your children probably do on a regular basis. What
Speaker 1: do you what advice do you have for other for
Speaker 1: other parents, caregivers and frankly teachers right now who you
Speaker 1: know feel a sense of hopelessness in terms of wanting
Speaker 1: to educate, wanting to care for children in a way
Speaker 1: that provides them with stability in a world that is
Speaker 1: increasingly unstable and uncertain. What do you offer to those
Speaker 1: to those folks you know in different camps of caring
Speaker 1: for young minds right whether it be your own or
Speaker 1: other people um that feel pinned up against the wall
Speaker 1: right now, right where where we're where we're making it,
Speaker 1: you know, impossible to develop critical thinkers, to have thoughtful
Speaker 1: conversations where we are working against the tide of intellectualism
Speaker 1: and entering into a new dark age's I don't know
Speaker 1: a by entering, I think that might be the wrong participle.
Speaker 1: I think we're kind of there. We're there, so you know,
Speaker 1: one is like don't don't don't first of all, take
Speaker 1: care of yourself if you're feeling hopeless about where we are,
Speaker 1: or you feel some type of hollowness about where we are,
Speaker 1: and you know, talk to somebody to get thera. If
Speaker 1: you talk to us, understand that you're not by yourself
Speaker 1: in this fight. I would encourage you that the minds
Speaker 1: that you're moting right now, even with the obstacles that
Speaker 1: you're facing externally, many times you will be and are
Speaker 1: the only persons who believe in them, and you are
Speaker 1: the person who's pouring into them the most. And so
Speaker 1: without you pouring into them everything that you can, you
Speaker 1: this child would go forth into the world empty and
Speaker 1: so I don't I understand the sacrifices that you're making,
Speaker 1: and I understand the relationship that we have with our haters,
Speaker 1: but you know, understand it. It ain't about you, and
Speaker 1: it's not about the haters. It's about the minds and
Speaker 1: the people that you're pouring into. And I think if
Speaker 1: we keep that the center focused, that when we get
Speaker 1: down we will take some time away. It's okay, you know,
Speaker 1: you got to change everybody's life, take some time away, juvenated,
Speaker 1: and then plug back in and do the work necessary.
Speaker 1: What do you say also to those activists and people
Speaker 1: who are just like, why am I still protesting this?
Speaker 1: Why am I still out marching? Why do I still
Speaker 1: have to create these signs? Why is this fight that
Speaker 1: was being fought in the nineteen fifties and the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: you know, and before, Why are we still fighting these
Speaker 1: things now? I had an interesting conversation with another writer
Speaker 1: that I enjoy a lot, Michael Harriet, who said, you
Speaker 1: know that the goal is not eradication of white supremacy.
Speaker 1: He's like, if you set that up as your goal,
Speaker 1: you're going to fail, and you're going to be and
Speaker 1: you're going to feel like a failure. What do you
Speaker 1: think that our goal is or should be in the
Speaker 1: continuation of our protests and lifting voices and trying to
Speaker 1: inspire people, whether it be through children's books, adult books,
Speaker 1: you know, conversation and podcasts, like what should our goal
Speaker 1: be so that we feel like we're continuing to move
Speaker 1: forward and not constantly be pushed back. I think your
Speaker 1: goal should be simple, and I think your goal and
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm not trying to minimalize this or
Speaker 1: have some trindy kind of play on words, but I've
Speaker 1: always told folks that I'm tired of black people being
Speaker 1: in a position where we are trying to survive. I
Speaker 1: think that we need to move out of survival mode
Speaker 1: and ensure that we can thrive. I think the prosperity
Speaker 1: and wealth and health should be the goals that we
Speaker 1: look to ascertain. Now that does that mean the eradication
Speaker 1: of white supremacy. No, I think that you know this
Speaker 1: is where we are, but also fundamentally don't believe there's
Speaker 1: anything that's irredeemable about this country. I just think we
Speaker 1: have to reimagine what she looks like. And I think
Speaker 1: when you reimagine this country. You should reimagine yourself in it, healthy,
Speaker 1: wealthy and prosperous and building new generations thereof. So no
Speaker 1: longer do black folk in this country have to survive,
Speaker 1: but we can finally take that burden off and we
Speaker 1: can thrive. And what makes you see, you know, you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that breaking into children's books was harder than
Speaker 1: breaking into adult books. What may this particular audience or
Speaker 1: part of the publishing industry so difficult? But also your
Speaker 1: new focal point simply because I just find that we
Speaker 1: are in this moment of urgency and we need to
Speaker 1: make sure that we are encouraging and feeding and nourishing
Speaker 1: a new generation of leaderships. Not that I've given up
Speaker 1: on certain well I kind of have given up on
Speaker 1: certain generations, but I do. I mean, I have the
Speaker 1: generations to come are going to be our saviors, are
Speaker 1: going to be the ones who lead us out of
Speaker 1: that darkness, And so why not teach them about who
Speaker 1: they are now and begin to allow them to dream
Speaker 1: at this age? Yeah, I think that it. You know,
Speaker 1: that's what makes me very scared about the times that
Speaker 1: we are living in because I don't know how you
Speaker 1: teach people, how to dream, how you teach critical thought,
Speaker 1: how you teach innovation. If you're afraid to open books,
Speaker 1: or if the books are not there and they're being
Speaker 1: taken off of the shelves, you know, and you're just
Speaker 1: looking at the cover right as many people will on
Speaker 1: your book, and I look at it with a sign
Speaker 1: of delight. Oh my goodness, look at this. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel represented. And I'm an adult, right, I feel
Speaker 1: I feel seen. What I'm looking to buy stories that
Speaker 1: lift up the children in my life. So just leaving
Speaker 1: on this note with you, you know what continues to
Speaker 1: keep you inspired, Bakari in all of the work that
Speaker 1: you do and all of the conversations that you enter
Speaker 1: into in times that are just really trying, because people
Speaker 1: are desperate for inspiration right now, I think that they're
Speaker 1: desperate for hopefulness. So I mean, there are a couple
Speaker 1: of things, and I think a lot of it has
Speaker 1: to do with my anxiety. Right in my book My
Speaker 1: Vanishing Country, I thought about anxiety being a black man's superpower.
Speaker 1: But I do not try to eat an elephant whole.
Speaker 1: I take one bite at a time. I don't try
Speaker 1: to live for the next five years. Today I try
Speaker 1: to live and have a good I figure that if
Speaker 1: I win today, and then I win tomorrow, and then
Speaker 1: I win more days than I lose, then I will
Speaker 1: be a winner in life. And so what allowed me
Speaker 1: to streamline that is focusing on intently being a good
Speaker 1: father and a good husband. I think when you prioritize
Speaker 1: and when you look at life clear eye like that.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm not saying don't have vices. I
Speaker 1: think everybody needs their vices, and you know you just
Speaker 1: manage them and vices and moderation is my matta. So
Speaker 1: go out, have to be afraid to have a drink
Speaker 1: and talk to your friends, and you know, regroup, relax,
Speaker 1: recoup and get back to it. Bacari, always a pleasure
Speaker 1: having you on, folks. The book is Who Are Your People?
Speaker 1: By Bacari Sellers, author of My Vanishing Country. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for making the time to join woke f
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to see all the bevy of
Speaker 1: children's books that are being dreamt up in that mind
Speaker 1: of yours. I appreciate you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna make it another three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: five days. Yes, no, we're not We're going to see
Speaker 1: you before your next book comes out. You're going to
Speaker 1: come back to the show and give us inspiration and
Speaker 1: hope and joy and thriving. Yes, we appreciate you, thank you.
Speaker 1: So you know, folks, I will leave you with this
Speaker 1: point today for our woke moment of wellness, which is this.
Speaker 1: I think that the past is so very important, right
Speaker 1: because in many ways it does in fact dictate how
Speaker 1: we understand the present and how we imagine our future
Speaker 1: to be. So I don't want to wipe memories of
Speaker 1: the Obama years because it's so difficult to look at now, right,
Speaker 1: It's difficult the pain in the remembering of that short
Speaker 1: lived ease in time in America. And remember when the
Speaker 1: Obamas came into office, like the bottom was falling out.
Speaker 1: We had the tech bubble bursts, the housing bursts, we
Speaker 1: had healthcare issues up the wazoo, childhood obesity was through
Speaker 1: the roof. I mean, there were a lot of problems,
Speaker 1: but they didn't feel existential, right. It felt like with
Speaker 1: the right leadership and thoughtfulness and strategy, we would be
Speaker 1: able to make it through. So I think that it
Speaker 1: is important to look back at those pictures to remember
Speaker 1: the feelings that we had and figure out how we
Speaker 1: can conjure them back right, how we can use our
Speaker 1: past successes to help us guide our way out of
Speaker 1: this darkness and into a better future. Now, folks, I
Speaker 1: tell you, I don't think it's going to be immediate.
Speaker 1: I think that we're in for a long haul. But
Speaker 1: I don't want us to forget the good because in
Speaker 1: this current moment it just feels too painful. We need it.
Speaker 1: We need to remember who we were so that we
Speaker 1: can envision who we want to actually be. That is
Speaker 1: it for me today, Dear friends on woke a app
Speaker 1: as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: Get woke and stay woke as fuck.