WEBVTT - Make It Make Sense (with Michael Harriot) 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:07.160 They used to these hardy boy missing books. Right, Yeah, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:09.760 I always thought the Hardy Boys like tuning this from Detroit, 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.040 like I like, I was surprised when I started going 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.040 to Rick School. Right, this is not that The Hardy 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:41.160 Boys is just James and Dreills solving mysteries, racist money stuff. 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:48.199 You can't tell me. Yep, there it is there, it 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.800 is there. It is. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.200 phenomenal episode of My Mama Told Me the podcast. But 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:00.600 we died deep, deep into the pockets of black inspiras theories, 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.880 and we worked to finally prove that Montell Williams is 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.880 planning to murder the second husband and restore his relationship 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.800 with Kamala Harris. That's right. He is gonna seek his vengeance. 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.400 He lost the good one, Ladies and gentlemen. He's gonna 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.760 stand outside of Kamala's house holding up a boom box 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:23.040 playing uh Mrs Officer by But Bobby Valentino will will 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.119 we will will we like a cock car. He's gonna 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.640 get her back. I'm your host, likes think Erman. I'm 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.480 happy to be here. As always, I have been reading 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.240 through some of the wonderful notes that people have been 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.959 sending us over about the podcast, and so many kind words, 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.160 a lot of people saying very sweet things, and a 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:47.039 few people correcting some of the stupid things that I say. 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.280 One of which I'd love to read to you all 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.800 today a message that came from a gentleman named Corey Stewart. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:54.400 I think it's a gentleman. It could be a lady. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.840 I don't know and don't matter, but Corey sent us 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.800 that basically, uh, in reference to me Paul is dead 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.120 theory that we discussed where Paul McCartney was said to 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.360 have died in a car crash and and uh no 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.840 longer was actually Paul McCartney, but was being played by 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.519 a different person. Uh. He said, you're correct about Paul 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.320 being interpreted as dead because he's shoeless. But there's more. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.880 This is good stuff. I didn't get to my dad. 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.280 A boomer Beatles fanatic explained the theory to me. This 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.000 first in line is John Lynne. He's in an all 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.960 white suit, has long hair and a long beard. He 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.120 represents Guy. Next comes R and Go Start a three 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.880 piece suit, sharp mutton chops and shiny black shoes. He's 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.560 the preacher. Next is Paul McCartney the corpse, shoeless in 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.280 the suit. Finally, George Harrison is dressed in all denim, 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.040 a durable working class outfit. He's an undertaker now. He 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.720 says he's interpretations very but he thinks that the Beatles 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.880 are basically putting us on. He personally doesn't believe that 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.760 Paul is dead, but he does believe the Beatles are 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.480 in or management are basically playing in to the rumors 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.800 to help people. Uh give a subtle nod to the 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.600 people at home, and I say to all that white 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.760 people have a freedom that nobody else says. Good for you, 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.160 white people for being able to have antics of murdered 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:21.040 people on your album covers and still be celebrating. It's 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.000 it's a fun game you guys get to play, and 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:27.440 I'm very jealous of it. Anyway, my guest today, I'm 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.720 super excited that he's here. We often talk to comedians, 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:32.919 but we don't often talk to bright people, and this 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.240 is an exciting turn of events for us. He's great, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.720 brilliant thinker. You know him as a writer or at 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.560 the Root dot com. Please give it up for my guests, 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:48.960 Mr Michael Harriet, and thank you for having, Yeah, I'm 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.560 excited you're here. Paul McCartney is supposed to be a lie. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.040 He's supposed to be dead because he's one of the 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.800 two Beatles that technically is quote unquote still alive. But 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:00.920 there was a theory that when he was in a 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.960 car crash in the sixties I think it's the sixties, 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.560 that he had died in that car crash, and they 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.320 replaced him with like a double and kept like living 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:13.680 the life out of Paul McCartney despite the fact that 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:15.440 he was a dead man. So you want to hear 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:21.760 an interesting story before we get started. So years ago, right, 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.280 and I can't remember with you, right, but there was 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.279 a preacher in the Detroit who wanted to raise money 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.920 for the civil rights movement. Bought Morton was the king 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.480 up right, and all the stars showed up and they 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.039 just want They didn't really I guess they gave money, 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.039 but they were really there because everybody was talking about 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:47.240 this preacher's daughter. So they kept asking, are you gonna 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.799 let the preachers daughter sing? But the king didn't want 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:53.440 them to let the girls seek because she was fourteen 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:59.000 years old and she was pregnant. Uh. But finally the 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.480 organ he says, look, I'm not going to play for 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.640 anyone unless you let this girl sing. She comes out, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:09.080 blows the audience away, gets a record contract. Her name 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:16.200 is Aretha Franklin. Damn. So okay, all right, and and 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:19.240 this this gets crazy right. One of the people there 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.000 at the concept was Little Richard. He asked the organ 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.480 player to go on tour with him, and the organ 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:30.320 player goes on tour with him, meets the Beatles in Germany, 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.720 and to this day, that organ player, Billy Preston, is 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.960 the only musician besides the Beatles that's ever been credited 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.719 on the Beatles album beat all because Martin Luther King 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:49.479 didn't want because all because Martin Luther King was being 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.680 a hater and trying to keep this young lady from 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:54.960 shining and doing the thing that she wanted to do. 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.039 And now that we get this, yeah, this organ player 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.640 says no, I won't and he becomes the man and 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.920 she becomes the lady. Ah, that's a great story. Yeah. See, 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.000 this is the kind of utility that comedians don't bring 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.760 to the podcast we just talked about. But stuff, and 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.400 that ain't helpful that I need. I need good stories 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:19.200 like this one. But stuff too though. Good thank god, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.760 because I'm not planning on changing who I am. Uh So, 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.039 as long as we're both at home, we'll we'll have 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.640 a great time together. I'm excited about your conspiracy theory 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.200 because I think that it it sort of is an 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.479 umbrella conspiracy theory, if that makes sense. It really hits 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.839 a lot of places all at once, in a way 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.880 that I think other conspiracy theories are not often able 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:49.840 to do. But you said, my mama told me white 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:57.000 people ain't got no sense. Yeah, man, Um, So the 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.159 back story is, and I was raising a small town 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.919 in South Carolina, and like the weird thing about the 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.160 town is that the black part of town, where the 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.560 black people live, is a perfect square. And I was home, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.960 and my mom she was, well, Mom, everybody in my family, 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.120 my my mom or sisters were black panthers, and so 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.920 she homeschooled us. And so I really never met or 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.920 was around white people until I was a teenager. I 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:28.480 started going to the public school. And whenever you would 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.160 ask anything about like something you'd see on TV, is 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:32.920 it true? And she's like, well, you know, white people 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.480 ain't got no sense. And and so when I went 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:42.000 to school, they skipped me two grades and put me 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.080 in this gifted and talented program, and I realized, like 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.040 all of these one I was the only black kid 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.200 in this program, and I was smaller than everybody else. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:54.680 But they weren't particularly smarter than all their black kids 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.200 in the neighborhood that I grew up in. And I 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.920 realized they're not that smart. My mom was right. Why 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.960 people ain't got no sense and they just know the 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:09.120 system and it manifest thing manifests itself in all kinds 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.560 of ways throughout my life. Man, you know what I 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.440 think about, Like, they think we are less intelligent because 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.800 they define what intelligence is, right, sure, so so think 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.760 about this, right, So what is intelligence? Right? So if 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.640 you do calculus in your head, is that intelligent? Right? 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.640 So think about this. Take stuff, Corey, what he's doing 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.960 when he's shooting a shot on one leg being pushed 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:40.600 and fouled, Is he's calculating a paraveler or the fly 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.760 right in his head? Like, that's gotta be a sort 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.760 of intelligence. Because he's not stronger than anybody else. He's 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.760 not bigger than anybody else. He's not bigger than anybody else. 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.360 He's just it's just his mind has a level of 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:00.640 accuracy in the ability to calculate that I don't have. 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.640 That's the sort of intelligence. I love what you're saying here, 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.280 because I do think that it's often overlooked and a 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.120 very difficult conversation to sometimes have with people. Is that, 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:14.360 to your point, intelligence became this standardized conversation. You're either 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.280 smart or you aren't, and the standard was set by 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:22.480 a very specific group of people. You all decided, Okay, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.839 it's going to require you to take this many Trigg 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:30.439 classes and learn these kinds of literature to qualify how 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.120 smart you are, when in fact, there's a bunch of 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.280 motherfucker's running around here who are real smart and real 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.680 good at stuff that the average person, even if they're 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:45.480 exceptional students, could never pull off. Right right, man, I was. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:47.840 I was listening to the one of the people who 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:53.480 started Rockefeller Records with Jay Z and Kareem Bigs, and 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.360 so Kareem Biggs was saying, there was another guy on 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.360 the podcast it was just like a a worker at Rockefeller, 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.960 and he said he was so sad when Rockefeller uh 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:10.600 sold itself right, And Karim says, well, we always knew, 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.360 like just being from the streets just being in the 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.400 game that there was going to be a point where 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:22.280 they offered someone offered us more money then this record 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.079 company was worth, right, And that's when we just had 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.600 to decide what that amount was. And our whole journey 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:32.000 was deciding what that amount was. And I was thinking 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.360 about that, like these three guys from the streets, man, 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:41.480 they that's a really a master's level economics class opportunity, cause, right, 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.440 but they just figured that shot out themselves, right, that 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.480 at some point, look, somebody's gonna try to buy out 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.520 this business, and we have to decide collectively what this 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.000 business is worth. And you know, you calculating the fact 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.280 that like they weren't even friends at the time, which 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:01.040 complicates like, okay, how do you split up this business 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:04.440 that otherwise we would have probably shared equally or whatever 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.000 the funk their plan was. But to your point, it's 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.440 like they didn't have to take an economy class to 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.760 figure that out. They just kind of they knew they 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.520 were able to to figure that out on their own. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.480 And that is a massive amount of intelligence that we 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.720 never celebrate through it's certainly through any traditional learning, right, 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:26.679 because they just I think what I learned, right, is 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.679 that by me learning outside of school and then going 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.880 to school because I'm really always tell people I've never 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.400 really never learned anything in a classroom. But I realized 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:41.320 that what school does is teach you how to absorb 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.200 the information and the way that they're giving it to you. 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.080 I remember one time, man, I was my mom used 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.080 to teach vacation Bible school, and we went to vacation 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.200 Bible school one day and they asked me, like I 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:55.839 was like six seven years old, and he asked me 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.160 my time tables, and I didn't know my time tables. Man, 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.920 My mom was sold Harris. She made me go home 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.120 and learn my time tables. But here's the thing, right, 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.000 I just got on the captin that I figured out 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.160 how multiplication works. But I know no one ever told me. 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.920 Just think about this, No one ever told you like, oh, 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.480 you don't have to learn past twelve, Like, why don't 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.080 we stop at twelve? Right? Like, nobody can answer that 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.280 question for me? Why don't we stop learning? God Like? 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.120 And so I went to school years later, and we 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.840 would take these time tests every Thursday, these time math 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.000 tests in the teacher and take off points for me 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:34.800 not showing my work. And I was like, what you 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.040 need showing your work? Like you don't know your sixteen timetables. 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.280 You don't know why am I needing to demonstrate math 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:44.920 to you When I did the math? You like, I 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.040 don't have to show seven times eight, But I don't. 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.280 I don't have to show sixteen times fourteen. It doesn't 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.080 make any sense. It's because you learn it to memorize 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.240 the things that they told you. Listen, one of my 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.679 biggest fears in the world is having And I used 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.000 to be a teacher, but I worked in I worked 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.400 in English, so I had nothing to do with the math. 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.720 But the very idea of somebody coming to me and saying, 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.640 why is one plus one two? Is like, I don't know, bro, 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.760 it just is. That's that's what they told me. That's 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.320 what I'm telling you. What the funk do you want 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.640 from me? Do you know what I mean? They don't 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:21.600 teach us that, They critically don't teach us to think. 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:25.079 They teach us to memorize the things that they tell us, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:26.839 which is I think, and I don't know if it 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.000 was like this might be. This sounds like a conspiracy theory, 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:34.800 but it fosters reality that you gotta follow directions for 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:37.400 the rest of your life. Right Like when people tell 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:41.839 me something, I automatically as a skeptic saying, well, let 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.440 me find out if this is true. I like what 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.040 you're saying here because I think that this sort of 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.640 circles us back into the conversation about white people and 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.800 their sense or lack thereof is is what we're saying 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:58.480 is or what you're saying is is that there are 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.240 more things side of lead that we should be skeptical of, 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.240 that we should take a second to at least find 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.480 our own answer for. And instead we are sort of 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.640 like following the rules that are placed in front of 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.520 us because that's how we're conditioned from a young age. 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.640 Like I'm not gonna push back on these things because 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.800 if I do, I'm at risk of whatever the funk 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.280 we think we're at risk of by not, you know, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:28.200 exploring further and back to the conspiracy. White people live 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:33.360 in a world that is built for them. It's built 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.320 off of the ways that they were taught, and then 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.960 it's it's like living in a padded room for your 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.880 entire life and thinking you're indestructible. M right. They think 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:52.040 that they're stronger, like I got strong the wall. Well, 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.600 you living in a world that is padded for you. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.400 Oh no, dog, I like walls against my shoulder. It 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:02.040 don't even affect me. It's like no, Actually, regular walls 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.480 hurt a lot. And if you just tried the regular wall, 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.880 I ensure you you'll feel differently about all of this. Also, 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.560 there's something I'm really curious about and what you're saying, 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:15.040 because you're talking about your mom homeschooling you and never 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.600 introducing you to like white information, right that Like she 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.960 she starts you off by just learning what she would 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:26.880 consider non white information up to this point. And I'm 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.440 wondering what that is, you know what I mean. I'm 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.240 a person who I didn't I wasn't homeschooled. I went 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.800 to white schools and white institutions, not my whole life, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:39.040 but most of my life. And I'm curious what what 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:44.000 qualified specifically as non white stuff up to that point, right, 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.080 And so I don't think it's like she wasn't teaching 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.880 to be like like playing and speeches in my sleep, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.480 but it was like it was like, you don't know, 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.560 she might have been playing that sleep and that's why 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.360 you're in here now. But people tell me a lot. 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:04.440 I don't know how to talk to white people because 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:08.080 I think when I look at people, we inherit a 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:13.360 subconscious deference to white people that like we don't even realize, 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.480 like even as unapologetic as we want to be, a 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.400 lot of people don't realize that they have it right. 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:23.720 Like I don't think white people are smarter when I 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:28.480 go into a classroom. When I was growing up, she 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.760 would change all of the names and the books that 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.640 you like if if she would buy us regular books, right, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.800 she would change them to like the names of our 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:42.840 cousins and the names of our and so right. And 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:48.080 so we live in a world where like subconsciously we 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.920 think we are like planets for involving around the white sun. 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.400 And I've never had that thing. I was like, you know, 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.840 I just assumed that there were and sometimes, like a teenager, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.600 there were more black people in America the white people, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.760 Like I just I mostly saw like that was a 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.399 shot to be right. And so so I talked to 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.240 white people still to this day, like I talked to 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.560 black people, and they a lot of times take it 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.199 as an insult, right, just because I talked to him 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:25.920 like black familiarity of a human that that is not 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:28.760 better than you, that does not require some sort of 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.440 like code switching, as it were, to to make them 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:37.200 feel comfortable. It's just hey, mother, this is welcome home. 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:39.879 Like just like one of the things that kind of 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.919 went viral last year was I saw this clip of 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.440 Pete Buddhaja is talking about black people need role bottles. 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.880 You know, that's how you prove the schools right. And 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.359 so you know, I could have written something that said, 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.200 you know this is wrong, but I talked to him 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.359 like people in the are neighborhood. The title of article 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.160 is Pete buddha Jar just a lying motherfucker, right, because 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:08.080 he relying. You can't go to Harvard and study as 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.480 much information and consume as much information as he has. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.439 And then your answer to improving the school system is 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.600 we need role models. But you know, the average white 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:25.200 school districts gets fifty dollars more per student then the 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.800 average black majority black school district. You know that black 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.400 schools don't have the kind of algebra and and high 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.200 mass classes that black school What you want to say 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.040 is about role models. Black women are the most educated 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.760 group of people in the country, gerally, the most educated, 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.080 and so how are you gonna be in a black 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:49.920 neighborhood adult see a role model as far as Rode right, Yeah, 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.159 y'all put us in these neighborhoods. So black people live 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.159 next to lawyers and doctors and engineers and garbagemen, and 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.720 people work at McDonald's. Every black person knows a black 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.560 somebody black successful. So I mean, it's a stupid argument 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:05.760 to make. And the only person who was making is 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:07.560 somebody who was just a rule full of white people 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.479 and decided a lot to make them feel right. And 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.119 I think, I think you're getting into something that I've 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.040 I've been feeling a lot lately, is that we we 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:20.880 constantly in this country, are finding ourselves in these negotiations 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.560 right where like Pete Buddha Jedges is put in front 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.920 of us and we're told that he's a good guy, 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.000 this is a nice man, and we should let the 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.440 nice man say things about a community that he supposedly 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.640 cares about. But the reality is he don't know nothing 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.400 about black people. He doesn't have any business talking about 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:41.520 black people, And the fact that he happens to come 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:45.840 from a minority community as a queer person doesn't make 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.080 him any more connected to us, So he doesn't get 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.320 to speak from a position of expertise, and we shouldn't 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.120 sit there and pretend like he could just because he's 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.880 quote unquote a nice man, right exactly when he got 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:03.439 you got to parents who were professors, You went to 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.000 one of the most elite private schools in America. And 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:09.840 you're gonna tell me, like you know about black schools, 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:13.200 how now you would you went to an elite private school, 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.480 didn you? With the Harvard what you know? And you're 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.400 the mayor of a city that mostly complains about how 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.359 indifferent you are to its black population. It's not like 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.480 we're sitting on like a dude who's demonstrated years of 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.200 care and carefulness in the way that each treated the community. 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.120 He's judging in front of a room full of white people, right. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:35.960 And the crazy thing is is when you think about 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.760 like all of that stuff that we've been saying, right 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.440 to have a system and a world in a country 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.280 like that and just go blindly along, you can't have 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:52.800 any sense to live the world. Right, Like lived an 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.840 apartment with thin walls and you heard the man next 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.119 door beat his wife every night. You just put in 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.760 ear plugs. You don't have any sense. Bro, Yeah, you 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:06.639 don't have the calm, not even comes in that you 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:11.480 don't have humanity in you. Yes, I love what you're 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:13.919 saying here because I think that that, at its essence 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.600 really will help clarify for our listeners exactly what not 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:21.240 having sense is. So it's not that the system in 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.879 and of itself means that white people don't have sense. 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.720 The system was built by you. Obviously you're gonna try to, 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.199 you know, thrive in the system that's built by you 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.800 white people. Good for you, I guess, I don't know. 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.600 But more importantly, this undying faith in a system that 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.280 is clearly flawed, that it's clearly broken and clearly not 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:45.080 assisting anyone else around it, and then being like, yes 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.800 for everybody, we're good. Well, I don't know, figure it 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.240 out is insane. And so yeah, y'all ain't got no sense. 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.320 As long as you keep selling the system to me, 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:57.400 you out of your damn mind right to know black 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.680 people go to a furious schools and to think that 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:04.160 less intelligence, you can't have any sense to think that 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:07.560 there is something innate about black people that makes them 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:10.680 keep getting shot to the by the police like we 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:15.320 we magnetic bullets, like all these delicious bullets, I can't 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.760 get another. The hell are you thinking? There is no 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:25.960 logical answer to all of these disparities except racism, or 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.840 the world doesn't make sense, like to think you live 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.280 in a logical world and to see these disparities and 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:38.040 to keep skating by like a figure skater in the Olympics. Bro, 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.840 you can't have the sense. White people ain't got no sense. 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:44.880 You ain't got no sense White people. You're skating by, 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:46.800 But we're tying your heart and then we're gonna sunk 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:49.520 up your knees. We're coming. We're coming for your knees. 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.919 White people were done with this ship, all right, We're 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.719 gonna take a break, moving back with more Michaelariat and more, 0:22:56.840 --> 0:23:26.520 my mama told me. And we are back. Yeah, we're 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:29.359 back here with more Michael Harriet more. My mama told 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.479 me it was fun watching your face through those drops. 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:36.119 You had no idea what was happening, and honestly me neither. 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:38.879 I'll just be pressing stuff and it's all a surprise 0:23:38.920 --> 0:23:45.000 every single time. You're you're obviously a journalist, You're a 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.600 man who knows a lot of stuff. I would love 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:52.760 to dig into some research about your subject specifically, because 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:56.600 it's such a broad conversation, I thought one of the 0:23:56.640 --> 0:23:59.400 most effective ways to enter this in terms of like 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:03.240 a tempting to add a little bit of uh qualifying 0:24:03.280 --> 0:24:05.760 to it, was to talk a little bit about whether 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:10.760 or not appealing to people's humanity actually works. Right, how 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:14.480 much of us actually attempting to get white people to 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:18.000 see us as human beings is an effective effort or 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.280 if it's just all in vain? Would you consider that 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:24.320 a fair entrance than not an easy one, but certainly 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:27.000 a fair one. Oh, yes, Yes, it's a subject I 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:31.280