WEBVTT - Part Two: The Black Panthers & Breakfast 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.160 Hello, and welcome to Cool People Did Cool Stuff. It's 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:09.480 the show that you listened to on as a podcast, 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.280 but no one has iPods anymore. Helloa, that you'll never 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:14.000 thought about that. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:19.560 Well. There was a unnamed celebrity that I who I 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:21.200 had to work with on a podcast at one point 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.720 in time, that kept calling her podcast her iPad and 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:26.560 I was okay with that. 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:28.400 I love it. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:34.360 I love it for me, it would be my phone cast. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:41.760 The voices you've heard include our guests this week, Juan Monique, hooray. 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:47.199 Hey, I'm still here and I'm really excited because we 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:48.560 can talk more about breakfast. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.520 I know. But Okay, before we started recording, you mentioned 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.920 that you say, Joel writes for a bunch of God, 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.120 You've written for everything. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:00:59.960 A lot of places. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.280 Yeah, but you used to write for home improvement shows. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.640 Okay, so I didn't write for home improvement shows. I 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:12.039 was a production assistant and an office assistant. Did I 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:13.880 start an NDA, I don't think so. 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:16.080 Yeah, that was what I was thinking as I'm about 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:16.600 to ask you this. 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:18.920 I was like, I'll just say it's one of the 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:24.080 major ones where everyone seems to have no job but 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.960 a budget of a million dollars. So if you know, 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.640 if you know the show, you know the show. But yeah, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.840 so I worked for them for years. It was not. 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.200 But what I'm saying, it's chaotic. People should ask Joelle 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.480 for home improvement and redecoration advice. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.840 I have many thoughts and if I don't know, I 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.600 know somebody who does know. I'll get you the hook up. 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.960 Hell yeah. I finally introduced house plants to my house recently. 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:54.240 Lovely, do you have a name? 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.040 Some So I always thought I had an opposite of 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:58.680 a green thumb because when I was an elementary school, 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:00.240 they were like, it's plant a Tree Day, and they 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.120 like just give you a pine tree and then you 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:03.800 like take home and you plant it and mine died 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.800 and so then I was like, I don't know how 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:07.640 to get that stuff for me. Yeah, and I like 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.040 never did it ever again. And then now I'm like 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:13.720 a prepper and live in the woods and I'm like, 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.360 I need to grow food. Yeah, so right now I 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.880 have some like beans growing and some I think spearmint 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.480 and some other stuff, but I have house plants. Finally, 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.600 I really random shit, I grew some potatoes last year 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.160 because I felt like i'd be a poser if I didn't, 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.160 because we used to like do this whole potato bit 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:32.119 on the show A lot. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:38.680 Potatoes are great. They're they're survivalists. Uh, they will not 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:43.079 die and they're delicious in many, many, many forms. An 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:44.840 excellent plant to cheese to grow. 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:50.720 Yeah, what are your house plants? I can't even remember 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:52.000 the name one spider plant? 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:53.480 You can't you can't. 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.640 Yeah, I got like, can't kill ones. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.880 Okay, industrial strength plants. Yeah. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.600 But I'm like because I was like, I have a 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:04.799 I have an anti green thumb, and I'm going to 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.280 kill them. And then I'm like, I actually don't. I'm 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.560 like a reasonably responsible person. I have like a pretty 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.600 set schedule. I don't have a problem watering my plants 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.640 once a week. Like, uh, what if I convinced myself, 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.240 I've convinced myself that I'm incapable of taking care anyway. 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.880 Your your spider plant will be fine. My spider plant 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.120 currently lives on top of my freezer, getting no light 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.520 and I barely water it and remember it's there and 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:30.240 it looks great. 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:34.480 Yeah, next time we talk, Margaret, I bet you have 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.280 like nine plants. That's what happened, Like mist missed I 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:41.520 don't know those miss disperser things are in special lights 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.960 and amazing. I can't wait. 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.720 The other voice that you're hearing is so fie me. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.200 Now, if you want to talk plants, you you can 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:55.880 talk to me on the internet about that. I would 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:57.440 love to talk to you about plants. 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.840 I think that people like because like people like randomly 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:01.960 tech podcasters to be like, I want to talk to 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:03.960 you about these very specific things, and they're always the 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.120 wrong specific things. Yeah, yes, especially when people get mad 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.080 at me about mispronouncing. I mispronounced the name of an 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.440 Irish town last week, and no one will let me 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:14.600 live my life. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:15.760 Leave Margaret all about that. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.640 But Irish love to do that across it. There's multiple 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.760 podcasts I've heard from where they're like trying to say 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:27.320 something from an Irish space, and inevitably here comes the 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.480 whole school of people be like, that's not it. Your 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:31.599 language is tricky and we're doing our best. 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:36.600 Okay, Yeah, I look up so many pronunciations before I 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:38.799 write these scripts. But I have one week to write 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:44.400 these scripts, and since I like give myself weekends because 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:49.440 my my heroes fought and died for those things. Yeah, like, anyway, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:52.919 I don't remember why we're talking about that. Oh, but 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.960 you can message us about plants, yes. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:59.320 Speaking people who have plants Ian, our editor. I remember 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.520 the first the first time when I interviewed him to 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.159 be like, please work for us. Mostly it was mostly 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.320 me being please pick me, uh and not and then 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.440 not actually interviewing him out he had a plant and 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.240 he knew how to take care of it, and I 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.920 was like, that's what we need. 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:20.320 Yeah, that was all I tend to convince you didn't 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:25.680 take much graduation. 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.400 Do you understand my basketball jokes? You do? That's the 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:35.119 life plant anyways are theme songs by un Woman. 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:40.080 Yeah, thanks Sophy. He's like, Margaret, you're fucking dropping the ball. 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.520 Also Hien hi Ian Oh yeah, everyone's say it has 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:46.760 to say hien before we. 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:49.359 So fun, so fun. 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.000 Okay, So this is part two on a two parter 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.360 about the Black Panther Party and particularly about their survival programs, 0:05:57.400 --> 0:05:59.400 although you can't talk about those without talking about the 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.240 larger movement that they came out of, right, and so 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.400 that's that's what we're talking about today. And if you 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.280 didn't hear part one, then part of part two will 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.880 make sense. But honestly, your life will be better served 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:12.760 if you go back and listen to part one. 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.839 We had some hot cereal takes, y'all, Like, I mean, 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:18.440 you really don't want to miss that conversation. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.839 It's Virus's true. I have I mostly eat oatmeal now, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.200 well just as fast because I use instant oatmeal because 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.960 I I am not picky. And then like cereal, you 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.360 can put like a banana in right, but oatmeal you 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:39.000 can put a banana or peanut, butter or nut. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.520 Your golden raisins in there. You can do extra cinemon 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.600 if that's your dive. Oatmeal is great, especially I think 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.839 when you live in wilderness. I used to live in 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.120 wilderness and you have a hot bowl oatmeal, you feel 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.640 very connected to the land of the people who lived here. 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.520 For this is a meal we've been eating for a 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:03.360 long time and it still hits. Add a little apple 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.240 in there in the fall stop it amazing good. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:12.040 So the survival programs of the Black Panther Party, these 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.400 are their most successful programs, and they started because their 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.720 connections to black religious communities. When I first started this podcast, 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:21.480 I kind of thought I'd be like, oh, I'm going 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.440 to like write back in all of the like women 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.680 and anarchists and other people who are written out of 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.120 all this history, right, Hell yeah, and I still do that, 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:29.440 and I'm going to do that here a little bit 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:32.160 because we're going to talk about both women and anarchists 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.160 and the Panthers. But but the thing that keeps coming up, 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.640 at least as much as anything else, is that religious 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.760 religiosity is also written out of a lot of these histories, 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:43.800 especially if you're reading it from like a radical point 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:45.440 of view. A lot of the radical points of view 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:50.120 are like more atheistic, right, and so like people are like, oh, well, 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.880 the Panthers had this survival program, and if they mentioned 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:54.480 it's out of church, it's just like ah, because that's 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:55.720 where there's a building. 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:57.400 That was the location that would do it. 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.640 Yeah, there were religious aspects of the Panthers. This is 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:02.400 not like a majority thing. I'm not claiming there's a 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.640 religious movement. There are religious people who are involved in it, 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.120 whether you have Protestants in Oakland, Black Catholics in Chicago, 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.800 or Yoruba in Islam and the New York Panthers, the 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:17.720 religious aspects are absolutely a part of it. And Reverend 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.200 Earl A. Neil is a Black episcopal pastor. He's still around. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.920 I think he lives in South Africa now. He moved 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.560 there in the nineties to help fight apartheid, and he 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.520 walked his first picket line when he was seven years old. 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.080 He was all over the civil rights movement. He went 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.400 to the South to register voters. I think I forgot 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:37.640 to writ where he's from. He's from the Upper Midwest somewhere, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:43.040 maybe Minneapolis, but I didn't write that down. And he 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:44.800 ends up going to Chicago for a while, and he 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.079 ends up organizing marches. He works to root out racism 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.520 in the episcopal hierarchy. And then he moves to Oakland 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.840 in the late sixties and pretty quickly starts throwing down 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.319 with the Panthers. He never joined formally, but he let 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.640 the panthers meet at his church and they would come 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:05.000 unarmed in deference to the church right. And one night 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.680 he sheltered some panthers. And I actually think, this is 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:12.400 my conjecture, I think he saved their lives because cops 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.920 came in force to arrest the Panthers at one of 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.559 their meetings. This is the day before Martin Luther King 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.600 Junior was assassinated, and it is three days before Bobby 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:27.720 Hutton was murdered, right, it is entirely possible that the 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.200 cops are there to murder the panthers. That does not 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.640 feel outside of the realm of possibility to me at all. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.959 Reverend Neil went outside and basically it's like you can't 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:43.720 come in, and they're like, ah, drat, and then they 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:44.320 leave again. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.160 They've they met the line of I have to respect 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.480 this figure. The head of a church. God would not 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.720 like that, no matter what the color. It's a bad 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.360 look for me. Wow, what a brave person, because you 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.840 never know some people may not adhere to that that ideal. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:01.560 It's crazy. 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.199 Yeah, he went out alone and he'd like talked them 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.800 down and like had them go away. You know, there's 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.800 like I read his take on the whole thing, and yeah, 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.480 it's just like first he gets first, he's like, you 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:14.200 don't need all these cops here if you're just here 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.360 because the cops were like, oh, we're here because we 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.640 heard there was a black man with a gun around, right, 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.439 and like this is just literally not true. 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.160 Right, of course they don't need to tell it. 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.439 They came on it invested. Yeah. A few days later, 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.720 his church held a joint memorial service from Martin Luther 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:37.120 King Junior and Bobby Hutton and Earl Neil has been 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.240 called the spiritual advisor to the Black Panthers, and he 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:41.640 wrote about religion for their newspaper. He wrote like four 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:46.160 different front page articles over the years for them. In 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.440 January nineteen sixty nine, his church, Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.240 in West Oakland started the first free breakfast for children 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.680 program that the Panthers ran. They feeding kids before they 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.120 went off to school, and he helped some write He 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:05.319 was like part of it. But a parishioner named Ruth 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.080 Beckford Smith gets the real credit is the woman who 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.320 started the most successful program that the Panthers did. I 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.120 actually don't know one way or the other whether she 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:16.200 was like a registered Panther. But one of the things 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:19.440 that's kind of interesting, right is the Panthers they peaked 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.920 at about five thousand members, but their newspaper's going, Yeah, 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.640 their newspaper is going to a quarter of a million people, 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:32.800 and there are like it is a larger thing than 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.760 just the core membership, you know. 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:42.400 Yeah, the wow yea. Their impact was literally everywhere. At 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.040 some point, I don't know how much longer after this 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:48.199 they like, spread to New York and really go house national. 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.800 But wow, to do that with just five thousand people 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:52.520 is very impressive. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.280 Yeah no. And that's with all of the different all 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.640 of the different chapters. Yeah no. And they changed the 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.760 world with five thousand people. Like m H and so 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:07.080 Ruth Beckford Smith and Reverend Neil they draw up a 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.240 meal plan. The thing I read didn't tell me what 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:12.439 was on it. I'm kind of sad for that. They 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.840 cleaned the place so it would pass health inspections, and 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.480 then they opened the doors and the first day they 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.000 had eleven kids. By the end of the week they 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.080 were feeding one hundred and thirty five kids. 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:24.000 Wow. 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.439 A couple months later, another church in San Francisco opened 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:29.760 its doors for another breakfast program on the other side 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.280 of the Bay. Before too long, there's thirty six free 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.079 breakfast programs across the country and they're feeding ten thousand 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:43.280 children a day. That's so beautiful, I know. And these 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:47.400 programs fucking ruled. They were generally in black neighborhoods, but 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:49.800 they were open to kids of all races. We're going 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.080 to talk more about their multiracial organizing a little bit. 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.960 When we talk about Chicago one thing that kind of 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.840 blew my mind. A lot of these kids had literally 0:12:57.840 --> 0:12:59.160 never eaten breakfast before. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:00.760 Wow. 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.120 That is like wow, it's like every now and then. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.480 It's like like poverty looks different in different times, in 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.200 different places with different people. Right, But like reading about 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.079 some of the Panther stuff where they're like, these kids 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:16.640 don't have shoes and have never eaten breakfast, you know, like. 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.680 Yeah, it's the line we're often sold this stuff happens 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.760 in other countries and how sad that is for them. Yeah, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:28.680 this is our backyard. It happens here as well. It 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.680 is an issue, it could be easily solved. It sounds like, 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.400 I mean, obviously maximum effort was put in, but it 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.280 was done quickly and efficiently and helped so many people 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:44.440 so quickly. The bar was not that high. Yeah, that's that. Wow, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.760 you're giving it their first breakfast. And also when you 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:53.040 start thinking about the way real community activism creates chain 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:57.000 reactions of success. You know, we in the last episode 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.920 we talked about the benefits of a breakfast and how 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.400 how much that can just change a kid's ability to 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.600 learn within a day. So you've not only done that, 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.080 but you've also removed a burden from a parental figure 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.200 who probably didn't have the money, who probably knows their 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.079 kid is hungary who you know for whatever, or you know, 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:16.480 now they don't have to cook it. They don't have 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.920 to like that's in maybe an hour. They get back 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.400 in their day, which you know is vital to caregivers. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:23.680 That's amazing. 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:29.280 Yeah, yeah, I'm really glad you point all that out, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.600 because there's just so many effects of this instead of 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.320 just being like, oh, it's like some free food, right, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.520 and people are like, oh, it's some freefes's cool, free 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.760 food's great, you know, and then being like, no, this 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:46.320 is a this matters, you know. Yeah, And most of 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.240 these free breakfast programs are run by women, both Panthers 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.880 and non party volunteers. At this point, membership of the 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.960 Panthers is about two thirds women. One thing that I 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.760 read was that basically like the Panthers started of mostly men, right, 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:08.280 and then they very quickly became majority women. And part 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.720 of that apparently is like different people have just different 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:12.880 takes on it. But one part is that early male 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.360 leadership was on the run in jail or killed, and 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:17.960 so women came in and got shit done. 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.880 This makes a lot of sense too. I told you 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:24.880 in the previous episode. I've been reading a lot about 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:30.240 slaver volts. We know from mostly contextual history, which Margaret, 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:33.720 I'm sure you're familiar with. But it's trying to read 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.280 between the lines of historical documents to figure out the truth. 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:39.040 But you know, most of them were led by women. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:44.040 And the theory is because, to be honest, they were 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:47.720 being used for sex and often not chained up, they 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:49.480 had access to tools, and because they were women, they 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.400 were not considered threats well banned. Now you're shot, what 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.800 you gonna do? You got a revolt on your head? Brilliant. 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:57.640 So this is not surprising to me at all. If 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.040 we think got the history of black women in this 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:04.160 country that you know, they took the lead when there 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:05.720 was an opportunity too, that's amazing. 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.840 Yeah, yeah, no it. And there's like and there's like 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.600 complicated conversations that women and the panthers were having around 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.160 like well, why are we in the fucking kitchen right, 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.120 but also like, well, we're going to get this shit 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:22.120 done because it needs to get done, you know, and 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.920 so like there's this complicated back and forth about like 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:27.840 I don't know. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.720 Yeah, I mean, listen, it's so interesting to hear if 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.640 you listen to a second wave feminists, particularly second with 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:41.440 black feminists struggling with black liberation and women liberation and 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.760 trying to educate the men in their lives while also 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.440 liberating themselves while also dealing with white supremacy. Like it's 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:53.160 it's such a complex space to exist in. And here 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.680 we have babies that need to be fed. They need food. 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.120 We have the resources to do so why are there 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.160 no men here? The babies have to get fed. We 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.960 don't have time. Totally, what a difficult situation to. 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.719 Be in, totally, And so the way that they spread 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.679 this across the country, they wrote up a manual of 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:12.360 how to run a kitchen with the stuff that they've 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.160 been learning, and each one of their kitchens at least, 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:17.679 I don't know if everyone was exactly the same, but 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.960 in the manual, at least it takes ten volunteers and 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.520 including crossing guards outside. Because they took this shit seriously. 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.520 It was like, how do we get kids safely? Like 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:30.960 there's like people on crowd control and stuff. There's two cooks, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.600 but it takes ten people to build up everything else 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.040 around that, and the crossing guards was the touch where 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.280 I was like, yeah, these people fucking thought it through. 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.800 Yeah yeah, food. 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.680 And or money for food was donated by various black 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.520 owned businesses. And this is a I think this part's 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:51.639 kind of funny. It's the part like there's a lot 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:53.240 of stuff that gets like left out of the histories 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.080 because people want to whitewash something. But like some of 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:56.639 the things that are a little bit like sketchier, I 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.879 think are just as yeah, you know, like yes, of course, 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:05.200 so many of the black owned businesses gave super voluntarily. 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:09.480 Other ones. The panthers were like, man, everyone else around 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:11.280 here is help and feed the kids who live here. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.520 Should would be a shame if no one came to 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.679 your store anymore because they knew that you weren't helping out. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.640 A reasonable and decent threat if I've ever heard one, 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:22.520 because all you're really saying is I'm going to tell 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.200 people you don't support your community. Yeah, let's find out 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.080 what happens then. That is I mean, that's just justice. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.320 Like either this is such a good program is actively working, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.560 and you can come off a few dollars to help 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.520 the kids who were going to come back here and 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.400 frequent your store. At some point get out of here. Amazing. 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.480 Yeah. I read this one like right wing account of 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:45.280 the survival programs and it was like talking about this 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:49.080 like boycott of Bob's liquor store. I don't remember what 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.639 city was in. And it was actually specifically that he 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.760 wouldn't donate to the like shoes for Kids program, so 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.919 they organized a boycott against him. And you know, it's like, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.840 see they're like a trying to suppress this good entrepreneur 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.760 or whatever. And I'm like no, I mean, like, it's 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.280 one thing if someone's like, hey, I need a new car, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.440 you better give us some money, and it's another guy, 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.640 the kids in this neighborhood don't have shoes. You make 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.320 a lot of money in this neighborhood, maybe you can 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.760 help out. And if you don't, that's fine. No one's 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:21.560 gonna shop here. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.120 Yeah, they're not bringing baseball bats to breaking knees, Like, yeah, 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:30.000 calm down. I'm also infinity perplexed by the idea that 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.320 somehow being a business owner makes you any kind of good. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.359 I know, it's such a weird bar for people to 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:38.680 be like, yeah, you know, he's got a business. 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.320 I can trust that guy. Yeh Neil Okay, yeah, upstanding 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.080 member of the community. Like, all right, whatever you mean. 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:46.479 He has a nicer house than some of the other 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.560 people in your neighborhood. And the carrot to match the 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.919 Boycott stick was that they gave advertising to their the 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.880 donators in the Panther newspaper. And one thing I got 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.359 really excited about. I really like Jimmy Hendrix when I 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.320 was younger kid. He regularly supported the Seattle program. Like 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:04.960 I don't think he just like gave them money once. 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.680 I think he was like, he gave regularly. The implication 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:14.040 is that he's supported the Seattle Free breakfast program. 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.160 That's oh, man, you love you love to hear your 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.159 heroes doing dope shit. Yes, Like when you talk to 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.359 women who hung around Jimmy, they're like, no, he was 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:27.919 a sweetheart. He just loved He just loved women, and 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.320 they just loved him. And he had survived a bunch 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.280 of horribly abusive men and so he just loved women. 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:35.680 And I was like, what an. 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:40.320 Ica, that makes me so happy. That's the like, whenever 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.080 there's like a man I look up to, I'm like, 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:43.800 do I want to know? Do I want to read 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:45.200 about what women think of him? 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:49.520 It's definitely closed eyes in mouse situation where you're just like, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:51.879 I don't want to look. If it's presented to me, 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.159 I will observe, but I would just can I I 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.520 just really want to believe you're a good person. But 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.000 also I'll just never support a man verbally. I'll never 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.639 be out here being like and this guy you can trust, 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.840