Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl Danielle Moody doing a pre record as
Speaker 1: it is my birthday week and I have taken the
Speaker 1: rest of the week off, but dear ones, I always
Speaker 1: think of you before I head out on a mini
Speaker 1: relaxing vacation. So I have banked a bunch of really
Speaker 1: good interviews and today I'm really excited to bring back
Speaker 1: on to woke F my friend and MSNBC host Aimen
Speaker 1: Mohadeen m I have known Amen for a couple of
Speaker 1: years now, and I have to tell you that he
Speaker 1: is one of the host and reporters and journalists that
Speaker 1: I really appreciate and whose voice I value because, as
Speaker 1: I complain a lot les, let's let's be clear and
Speaker 1: rightfully so that our media, the mainstream media, is full
Speaker 1: of shit and they are the biggest instruments for white supremacy.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by that? You know, depending on
Speaker 1: where you are in your career and what time of
Speaker 1: day you come on, and I want to give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of like insight into TV and how
Speaker 1: TV works, regardless of whether or not you're in entertainment
Speaker 1: or you're in politics. It kind of works the same way,
Speaker 1: which is that ratings run everything. And if there are
Speaker 1: big stories to cover and that's what everybody's paying attention to,
Speaker 1: then the powers that be say, this is what you're
Speaker 1: paying attention to. But I often ask the question, particularly,
Speaker 1: let's use critical race theory as an example, which Aimon
Speaker 1: and I will talk about. Critical race theory is a
Speaker 1: bullshit topic that the right has decided is their motive
Speaker 1: entree these days. It's the thing, it's the boogeyman, it's
Speaker 1: the thing that they're going to get all riled up about.
Speaker 1: And the reality is what we all know to be
Speaker 1: true because we believe in facts, is that critical race
Speaker 1: theory is something that is taught in law school. It
Speaker 1: is something that is taught at the graduate level. It
Speaker 1: is not taught in K through twelve education. There is
Speaker 1: no curriculum for critical race theory. But what white folks
Speaker 1: have decided is that they don't want their children learning
Speaker 1: from black and brown authors. They don't want a critical
Speaker 1: analysis about this country, right, about our history, our founding,
Speaker 1: how certain policies are approved and work for the benefit
Speaker 1: of a small group of people. They don't want to.
Speaker 1: And as I talked about yesterday. They don't want to
Speaker 1: interrogate their emotions right around what it means to be white,
Speaker 1: to have white privilege, to have societies and structures that
Speaker 1: are made for your benefit at the expense of so
Speaker 1: many others. Instead, they want their kids to be as
Speaker 1: ignorant to reality as they have been, and they think
Speaker 1: that by doing so that means being race neutral. Well,
Speaker 1: what has every single icon of the Civil Rights era
Speaker 1: and beyond ever said is that you cannot be neutral
Speaker 1: in the face of injustice, right, And what I have
Speaker 1: said is this simply that if you are from a
Speaker 1: marginalized community, if you are black in America, and let
Speaker 1: me just speak from the black perspective, you'll learn from
Speaker 1: a very young age about racism. You learn when people
Speaker 1: will stop looking at you on the street and thinking
Speaker 1: that you're cute and instead see you as a threat,
Speaker 1: particularly if you were a boy. Right. That happens a
Speaker 1: lot younger. We knew it around the time that Tamir
Speaker 1: Rice was murdered by police officers because he was playing
Speaker 1: on a playground with a toy gun, as kids do,
Speaker 1: and he was killed. And I remember all the commentary
Speaker 1: around that, Well, why was he on the playground, Why
Speaker 1: was he playing with the toy gun? Meanwhile, these are
Speaker 1: the same motherfuckers that give their children aar fifteens to
Speaker 1: play with, right, that think that that is their right.
Speaker 1: You didn't hear any buddy coming out and defending the
Speaker 1: murder of Tamir Rice, right, No, you didn't hear cops
Speaker 1: coming out. You didn't hear the NRA. You heard nothing, crickets. So,
Speaker 1: if black people have to teach their children from basically
Speaker 1: the time that they start toddling around and talking about
Speaker 1: race and racism and loving their skin and loving their hair,
Speaker 1: also they can build up a shield, in an armor
Speaker 1: in a world that doesn't want to see them, and
Speaker 1: if they do see them, sees them and despises them,
Speaker 1: then you need to build up that inner strength and
Speaker 1: that comes from the moments that that child begins to
Speaker 1: take their first steps. That's our reality, that is not hyperbole.
Speaker 1: You can engage with any black person and ask them
Speaker 1: how young were you when you learned about racism? How
Speaker 1: long were how young were your children when you started
Speaker 1: to talk to them about racism and discrimination? You can
Speaker 1: ask them those questions and they every single one of
Speaker 1: us has an answer. The dates may vary, but you
Speaker 1: will be shocked at how early right it happens. Because
Speaker 1: while white people have the privilege to be able to
Speaker 1: want to protect and to lie to their children, we
Speaker 1: don't because it will cost our kids their lives if
Speaker 1: they don't know how to react, if they're pulled over,
Speaker 1: if they're stopped while they're walking on the street, engage
Speaker 1: with a racist teacher or principle, right, that could be
Speaker 1: it for them. And we know that because we know
Speaker 1: that in America, black and brown people don't get a
Speaker 1: second chance, We barely get a fucking first. One. My
Speaker 1: anger around critical race theory and the boogeyman that they
Speaker 1: have created is that if in fact, we all did
Speaker 1: think critically about race and racism and how it plays
Speaker 1: into every single facet of our lives, then maybe we
Speaker 1: would all be exhausted, and not just those that experience
Speaker 1: racism on a regular basis and what it is like
Speaker 1: to live in a country and live in a world
Speaker 1: that hates you, right, But instead we would find ways
Speaker 1: in common ground and the ability to change it. But
Speaker 1: you see, the powers that be, those that benefit from vitriol,
Speaker 1: those that profit from rage and anger and hate, they
Speaker 1: don't want there to be common ground. They don't want
Speaker 1: there to be a discussion and an interrogation into how
Speaker 1: this country was formed and whose back it was on.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that I'll say in
Speaker 1: another interview later this week or early next week, is,
Speaker 1: you know, with regard to how we have been lied
Speaker 1: to all of us and that it has cost us
Speaker 1: so much. Right, we're going through K through twelve learning
Speaker 1: so very little about the truth. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I hate the most is when people say, in
Speaker 1: response to something atrocious or cruel that is happening in America,
Speaker 1: this is not who we are. Well, if you actually
Speaker 1: knew about America's founding and about the things that have
Speaker 1: been done and justified in your name, you would never
Speaker 1: utter that sentence. This is not who we are. It's
Speaker 1: always who we are. It's always who we've been. We've
Speaker 1: been stealing people's children from them. We've been sterilizing women,
Speaker 1: We've been beaten black people in the street and hanging
Speaker 1: them from trees. We've been burning down their churches and
Speaker 1: torching their homes. Right like, we've been doing that. But
Speaker 1: you see, those truths have been kept from white people, right,
Speaker 1: and now they want to keep it from their children
Speaker 1: and their children's children. They want to continue the perpetuation
Speaker 1: of being a bunch of ostriches with their heads in
Speaker 1: the sand. And then turn around and say, why are
Speaker 1: those black people so angry? Why can't they just follow
Speaker 1: the rules, Why can't they just do X, Y and Z,
Speaker 1: Because you have no idea what the fuck you are
Speaker 1: asking us to do. To be frank, you've never met
Speaker 1: a people with more grace than black people. White people
Speaker 1: literally went stormed the Capitol building and ship in the
Speaker 1: halls of our democracy based on a fucking lie. Black
Speaker 1: people in this country have hung from trees bridges, have
Speaker 1: had crosses burned on their lawns, their homes, bombed, their churches, firebombed,
Speaker 1: their businesses, destroyed mass graves filled with black bodies right
Speaker 1: and our government sanctioning it all along the way. And somehow,
Speaker 1: somehow we manage still to get up to go to work,
Speaker 1: to smile, to dance, to provide food on the table
Speaker 1: for our families, to continue to pray and have hope
Speaker 1: and have smiles on our faces. And I wonder if
Speaker 1: white Americans had to deal experience a tenth of what
Speaker 1: we have experienced throughout generations, how they would feel, how
Speaker 1: soon it would take them to want to burn this
Speaker 1: fucking country to the ground, which, by the way, they
Speaker 1: did because Donald Trump wanted them to for him, Right,
Speaker 1: they wanted to hang the vice president of the United
Speaker 1: States because they didn't get the president that they wanted elected.
Speaker 1: Imagine not having the president that you wanted elected, every
Speaker 1: single president except one Obama. I say all that to
Speaker 1: say that the media plays a large part in creating
Speaker 1: these divides, in adding more fuel to the fire because
Speaker 1: it's good for ratings, in creating food fights, or uplifting
Speaker 1: one person's narrative of what it means to be an American,
Speaker 1: which Amen will talk about. You know, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: When we're talking about regular moms or American moms, you're
Speaker 1: talking about white women because they are all types of moms.
Speaker 1: There are all types of people that care about what
Speaker 1: their kids are right, and not just care to sit
Speaker 1: around and burn books because you're afraid of the fucking truth,
Speaker 1: but care that their children are learning to love themselves,
Speaker 1: to love the person next to them, to be stewards
Speaker 1: of our environment. You know, we talk about education, anxiety, right,
Speaker 1: or what the media is doing by talking about education anxiety,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, where was this kind of outrage over
Speaker 1: vaccines and over teaching people the truth when your kids
Speaker 1: are being gunned down in their fucking classrooms. I didn't
Speaker 1: see people flipping over tables and screaming at school board
Speaker 1: members around mass shootings that happen in schools on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, or not having clean air in the classrooms,
Speaker 1: or textbooks that tell the truth. No, none of that.
Speaker 1: They don't have education anxiety. They're just racist, plain and simple.
Speaker 1: But the media looks for euphemisms for excuses and looks
Speaker 1: for ways to find empathy for everyone, every white person,
Speaker 1: at the expense of every other community. So Amen and
Speaker 1: I will unpack that in our conversation coming up next.
Speaker 1: Do tell me in the comments section what you think
Speaker 1: that the media's responsibility is in whether or not you
Speaker 1: think that they are tool of white supremacy, and if
Speaker 1: you don't, I want to understand your perspective as well.
Speaker 1: Coming up next is my conversation with MSNBC host of
Speaker 1: the show Amen on Saturdays and Sundays on MSNBC. Folks,
Speaker 1: I am really excited to welcome back to Woke f
Speaker 1: my friend and the host of Amen on MSNBC Aimen
Speaker 1: Mohadeen so excited to have you back, wondering you know,
Speaker 1: the media, Aimen, is a tricky, tricky place. I think
Speaker 1: that mainstream media is responsible for more than it takes
Speaker 1: accountability for. I want to talk to you about one six.
Speaker 1: We want to start there, and you know the fact
Speaker 1: that we are, you know, waiting for subpoenas to actually
Speaker 1: be enforced. It's been almost three weeks since Steve Bennon
Speaker 1: was held in content contempt. Nothing has happened from our
Speaker 1: Justice department. But you know, what are your thoughts as
Speaker 1: somebody that is a part of media that is covering
Speaker 1: these stories, how do you think? How how would you
Speaker 1: critique your your colleagues, yourself in terms of how we
Speaker 1: are relating the fact that I believe that we're still
Speaker 1: in a slow moving coup. I don't think that what
Speaker 1: transpired on one six was one and done. I think that,
Speaker 1: as Bill Maher said many many weeks ago, this is
Speaker 1: a slow moving coup. It's still unfolding. We have members
Speaker 1: of Congress just today the post threatening images against Alexandrioccio Cortez,
Speaker 1: like death porn, like he's excited about the potential of
Speaker 1: getting to kill her, Right, How were you feeling about
Speaker 1: how this is being covered in the urgency of the
Speaker 1: moment that we're in with our democracy. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: think that the way I would approach it is, there's
Speaker 1: definitely a few different layers to this story. Right There
Speaker 1: is what I would call like the general consensus around
Speaker 1: January the six and then there's like the specifics of
Speaker 1: following the developments around the investigation of January the six
Speaker 1: And I would say the general consensus right now in
Speaker 1: this country around January the sixth has been I think
Speaker 1: pretty inadequate given the severity of the moment, which means
Speaker 1: you look at it, and I remember on January the
Speaker 1: six tweeting out that what we were seeing play out
Speaker 1: in the United States wasn't attempted coup. It was the
Speaker 1: executive branch of government inciting an insurrection against the legislative
Speaker 1: branch of government to serve or maintain power to disrupt
Speaker 1: the legislative branch of government's ability to carry out its
Speaker 1: duties of governance. And so as a result, any measure
Speaker 1: you want to look it may not have been the
Speaker 1: traditional sense of like, oh, we're carrying out a coup
Speaker 1: by using the military to oppress the opposition or to
Speaker 1: do whatever. But when you look at how in the
Speaker 1: past people have described the word, you know, overtaking of
Speaker 1: a government. You know, the president in some countries would
Speaker 1: suspend parliament or dissolve parliament, or stop the legislator from
Speaker 1: doing what it can and then use his base of
Speaker 1: power to expand his power. I think you can make
Speaker 1: an argument that's what we saw in January of the
Speaker 1: sixth there was an attempt to stop the legislative branch
Speaker 1: of government from governance, and as a result, the president,
Speaker 1: the executive would stay in power. So at the time,
Speaker 1: that's how I saw it, and I still believe that
Speaker 1: it was an attempted coup. Now when you look at
Speaker 1: what has happened since then, the attempt by members of
Speaker 1: the right wing media and some Republicans to whitewash that,
Speaker 1: to call the people that were there either tourists, to
Speaker 1: say that the people there were simply protesters who were aggrieved,
Speaker 1: to not acknowledge that it posed the threat and a
Speaker 1: risk to the members of Congress and more importantly, to
Speaker 1: our democracy, is just completely mind blowing. So the question
Speaker 1: that I go default back to is what is the
Speaker 1: general consensus or what is the attitude of the country
Speaker 1: towards January the sixth, And then when we talk about
Speaker 1: the specifics, as you were mentioning Steve Banning the investigation
Speaker 1: in January the sixth Commission, those things take time, and
Speaker 1: there has to be a constant spotlight on it, which
Speaker 1: I think parts of the media do particularly well. I
Speaker 1: think print news and certainly some aspects of broadcast news
Speaker 1: have the ability to stay on top of that story
Speaker 1: and keep that story on the forefront of Americans minds.
Speaker 1: But that is driven by the investigation, and you can't
Speaker 1: precede the investigation. But as the investigation unfolds, we have
Speaker 1: the responsibility to constantly come back to it and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this was an attempted coup. Here's what we're finding out
Speaker 1: about it, here's what we're learning about it. Here's who
Speaker 1: are the people who are defying government, defying Congress and
Speaker 1: not wanting to participate in the investigation. And that for
Speaker 1: me is absolutely mind boggling. So I wouldn't necessarily I
Speaker 1: wouldn't just you know, lumps of all the media together
Speaker 1: and say everyone's doing a bad job. But I would
Speaker 1: say some parts of the media, certainly right wing media,
Speaker 1: is trying to whitewash and cover up January six. Others
Speaker 1: are become a little bit more, you know, complacent about it,
Speaker 1: and there are some who are still determined to make
Speaker 1: sure that that day is not lost in American history
Speaker 1: and forgotten for what it is, no matter how many
Speaker 1: times people try to rewrite it. You know, what I
Speaker 1: found really troubling is that a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: Condoleeza Rice, who many would have thought is a fairly
Speaker 1: reasonable Republican. Remember those you know there there are very
Speaker 1: few of them, Like you know, they're they're pretty much dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: Very reasonable Republican was on the view and her comments
Speaker 1: blew me away. We need to just move on, We
Speaker 1: need to turn the page. And I'm like, is this
Speaker 1: the hymnal that was given out to all Republicans, regardless
Speaker 1: of whether or not they were in government in the
Speaker 1: eighties and the nineties, versus the new Trumpers, the new
Speaker 1: insurrectionists that are in How is it that they're all
Speaker 1: even the ones that we thought were normal, are saying
Speaker 1: turn the page, and keep in mind, this is a
Speaker 1: woman who advocated for the United States to invade other
Speaker 1: countries to promote democracy, and yet the very essence of
Speaker 1: our democracy was attacked on January the sixth, and she's
Speaker 1: now saying it's time to move on. It hasn't even
Speaker 1: been a year. This is the same woman who wanted,
Speaker 1: literally and advocated for the overthrowing of a sovereign government
Speaker 1: under the false pretense that it had weapons of mass
Speaker 1: destruction with the intent of promoting democracy, but will not
Speaker 1: stand up and defend democracy here in our own country
Speaker 1: to the degree that we have all of the answers.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying to you make up your mind one
Speaker 1: way or the other. I get it you want to
Speaker 1: be a Republican, But you can be a Republican and
Speaker 1: say I want to know what happened to the last second,
Speaker 1: to every single second of the decision making process that
Speaker 1: led up to January six. I want to know who
Speaker 1: the president was speaking to. I want to know who
Speaker 1: in his office and members of his team were coordinating,
Speaker 1: if at all, with those who participated in January six.
Speaker 1: How do people on January six show up with riot gear,
Speaker 1: bulletproof vests, kevlar helmets. How do these people just decide
Speaker 1: to do that That's not I've gone to protests before,
Speaker 1: I've covered protest. I dont'ta see people just rocking up
Speaker 1: to protests with that kind of gear without having someone
Speaker 1: telling them here's what we're anticipating doing, so come prepared
Speaker 1: for that. So all I'm saying is why are Republicans
Speaker 1: like Kondeliza Rice and others so afraid to get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of what happened that day? Once the investigation
Speaker 1: is over, If you say, you know what, it's not
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. I realized maybe it was
Speaker 1: just a bunch of people that were angry that day. Fine,
Speaker 1: But how do you make that kind of determination way
Speaker 1: before you get to the bottom of it. And again,
Speaker 1: I mean there's Tucker Carlson has in his like, you know,
Speaker 1: false flag operation reference there. That was something that was like,
Speaker 1: can you just imagine I made this point on the air.
Speaker 1: I was like, can you imagine if a Muslim anchor
Speaker 1: had gone on an American cable network channel and said
Speaker 1: a nine to eleven and imply that nine to eleven
Speaker 1: might have been a false flag operation or said something
Speaker 1: that remotely diminished the investigation into nine to eleven and
Speaker 1: getting to the bottom of it. Can you imagine after
Speaker 1: a couple of ten months, after nine to eleven, saying
Speaker 1: you know what I think, guys, let's move on from this.
Speaker 1: We figured out that it was a bunch of bad
Speaker 1: guys from Saudi Arabia. Let's not figure out who financed them,
Speaker 1: who funded them, who trained them, how did they get
Speaker 1: into this country? You know what I mean. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just like I said, it's absolutely mind boggling, you know,
Speaker 1: it really is. And when I think about it, and
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you brought up Tucker Carlston that
Speaker 1: I'm glad that Tucker Carlton exists, but I'm glad that
Speaker 1: you brought him up because I think about you often,
Speaker 1: and I think about the many anchors of color that
Speaker 1: I that I know and hosts of color that I know,
Speaker 1: and particularly you, because you know everything. I look through
Speaker 1: the lens and I say, well, if they were black,
Speaker 1: if they were Muslim, like this wouldn't even be a conversation.
Speaker 1: And I have a lot of anger and rage right
Speaker 1: like at injustices that I see in this country on
Speaker 1: a regular basis. Tucker Carlson is the embodiment of mediocrity
Speaker 1: in so many different ways. But he is the poster
Speaker 1: child for white male rage. Like, how do you feel
Speaker 1: as as a as a as an anchor, as a
Speaker 1: as a host of color, knowing that you see injustices
Speaker 1: against Muslim people, against people of color all the time,
Speaker 1: but you have to I mean, how do you hold in?
Speaker 1: How do you contain your level of frustration? And how
Speaker 1: do you feel at the fact that you have to
Speaker 1: contain it, because if you were to act in the
Speaker 1: same way that Tucker Carlson did, you would be out
Speaker 1: of a job. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think what
Speaker 1: you're hitting on is what every black and brown person
Speaker 1: in this country deals with day in and day out
Speaker 1: when they're going about their daily lives. There are so
Speaker 1: many examples, and we've seen the videos of you know,
Speaker 1: white people being pulled over by the police. They get
Speaker 1: to yell back at them, they get to talk back
Speaker 1: at them. The police go out of their way to
Speaker 1: accommodate them, to calm things down, to try to de
Speaker 1: escalate the situation, to assure them that they're okay. But
Speaker 1: when we see the reverse happened with whether it's somebody
Speaker 1: who is black or brown, we know how tragically those
Speaker 1: encounters end. So I think it's part of the sad
Speaker 1: to say it. It's part of the equation that's baked
Speaker 1: into the system that over the years, somebody like Tucker Carlson,
Speaker 1: who has this white privilege, who can go on there
Speaker 1: and say something as just bombastic and ludicrous as saying
Speaker 1: that January the six, even if he doesn't say just
Speaker 1: giving that idea a platform and letting others express it
Speaker 1: and imply it in a way that kind of is
Speaker 1: you know, hey, I'm not endorsing it, but it's it's
Speaker 1: an idea that's out there, so I'm just gonna go
Speaker 1: with it. It's it's the epitome of privilege. And you're right,
Speaker 1: you know, we hold ourselves not only just as individuals,
Speaker 1: but also as an organization. We hold ourselves to a
Speaker 1: higher standard. But also we have to always be mindful
Speaker 1: that what we're saying is double checked and triple checked,
Speaker 1: and we're making sure that what we want to say
Speaker 1: does not cross that line of offending somebody or is
Speaker 1: not hyperbolic. And it's it's the reality of where we
Speaker 1: are as a country that we're not on equal you know,
Speaker 1: we're not on an equal playing field yet, and it's
Speaker 1: something that we all strive. I guess we strive to
Speaker 1: achieve one day. I mean, I certainly do. I certainly
Speaker 1: hope that we're at a place where there is uniformity
Speaker 1: and how we discuss these issues. And it's not just
Speaker 1: about Tucker Carlson. It's about the argument of free speech
Speaker 1: right and what is offensive to others. And we see
Speaker 1: that not play out with the topic of critical race
Speaker 1: theory and education in a place like Virginia. Who gets
Speaker 1: to define what is the appropriate education in America to
Speaker 1: be taught? And I think a lot of people have
Speaker 1: been making this point out. We've been seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of angry white parents at school boards in Virginia. I
Speaker 1: don't see any black parents on these school boards being
Speaker 1: interviewed by major cable and printing made outlets. I'm not
Speaker 1: hearing their voices on the same level that I am
Speaker 1: hearing of the angry white parents. So I think that
Speaker 1: is also a valid criticism on the media, which is,
Speaker 1: are you capturing the discourse proportionately to what it really is?
Speaker 1: Are you hearing from parents on both sides of the divide,
Speaker 1: regardless of even talking about critical race there and how
Speaker 1: you're covering it, But all the are the voices that
Speaker 1: you're representing and taking out to the public, are they
Speaker 1: also being treated equally? And I would dare to say no.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, you know, for your own show.
Speaker 1: You know, how do you decide what is going to
Speaker 1: get covered and what is not right, like what you
Speaker 1: have time for versus what you don't and what perspect
Speaker 1: like what perspective you want to offer? Because I think too,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the reasons why I love having
Speaker 1: journalists like yourself on the show is because I want
Speaker 1: people to understand how stories become stories, right, like why
Speaker 1: you hear about one thing repeatedly or not at all.
Speaker 1: And I think that you do a very good job
Speaker 1: because of you know, your global perspective, because you were
Speaker 1: on the ground in so many different parts of the world,
Speaker 1: particularly you know, in the Middle East, like that you
Speaker 1: have a very perspective that we don't get right, don't
Speaker 1: cover you know, cover you cover stories that I feel
Speaker 1: like other people don't. So how do you go about
Speaker 1: determining what is what is important or what you feel
Speaker 1: that the audience needs to know? I mean, first of all,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for that. I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: noticing that and highlighting that. I mean, look, first of all,
Speaker 1: journalism and even a broadcast show like mine, it's a
Speaker 1: collaborative effort. It's a team sport. You require the team
Speaker 1: that you're working with to bring ideas and stories of
Speaker 1: things that are either not getting enough attention or that
Speaker 1: are sometimes getting a lot of attention but not getting
Speaker 1: a specific perspective. And so one of the things that
Speaker 1: I have in you know, in having this new platform,
Speaker 1: in this new show, which gives me more freedom to
Speaker 1: express that perspective, is that I've been trying to take
Speaker 1: a step back at sometimes and say how would this
Speaker 1: look for somebody outside of the United States? And is
Speaker 1: there a double standard in how we apply coverage on
Speaker 1: these stories, whether it's happening here or abroad? And more importantly,
Speaker 1: how do we apply the same standards to both parties,
Speaker 1: both the Democratic and Republican Party. Look, I made the
Speaker 1: point that last week, you know, some of the things
Speaker 1: that members of the Republican Party set, whether it's Josh
Speaker 1: Holly or Matt Gates saying that he wanted to blow
Speaker 1: up metal detectors at the Capitol, or like again, implying
Speaker 1: the use of violence in the most sacred institution of
Speaker 1: our government. You had Lauren Baubert and others, and Ron DeSantis,
Speaker 1: the era apparent to the Maga Kingdom, you know, using
Speaker 1: the derogatory phrase let's go Brandon and touting it and
Speaker 1: doing so publicly. Any one of these things on any
Speaker 1: given day would have been enough of an outrage if
Speaker 1: it were being done by a Democrat. This all happened
Speaker 1: in a week among Republicans. Nobody even batted an island.
Speaker 1: Nobody has gone to every Republican official and said, hey,
Speaker 1: do you condemn this? Do you stand by this? You
Speaker 1: had the president, former President of United States, Donald Trump
Speaker 1: say one of the most anti submitted things I've ever heard,
Speaker 1: which is say Israel controlled the American Congress for ten years. Now.
Speaker 1: Imagine if ilhand Omar's said that when she said something
Speaker 1: that was controversial, everybody in the Democratic Party from all
Speaker 1: the way up all the way down had to comment
Speaker 1: and condemn and put out letters and put out statements. No,
Speaker 1: the President just made another anti Semitic remark. Nobody in
Speaker 1: the Republican Party has asked about it. It goes to,
Speaker 1: you know, like nobody is asked to condemn it, and
Speaker 1: yet they want to talk about the squad and they
Speaker 1: want to talk about you know, members of Congress that
Speaker 1: are trying to put the spotlight on human rights abuses
Speaker 1: overseas and saying, oh, if you're not supporting a billion
Speaker 1: dollar missile defense system, you are anti Semitic because you're
Speaker 1: risking Israel security. So for me, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I look at it from the perspective of, like, hey,
Speaker 1: how does this play out around the world when people
Speaker 1: hear these kinds of statements from the former president others,
Speaker 1: what does that say about the way our democracy functions?
Speaker 1: We are the first to be We're the first country
Speaker 1: in the world they want to lecture other countries about
Speaker 1: their democracy. What we want, what we think is a
Speaker 1: legitimate democracy. What we don't think is a legitimate democracy,
Speaker 1: what we think is legitimate behavior in democracy. And yet
Speaker 1: when you look at some of the things that are
Speaker 1: happening at our own country, you're like, wait, hold up,
Speaker 1: look at this from the perspective of somebody outside of
Speaker 1: the United States watching our democracy, listening to our politicians,
Speaker 1: hearing the kind of comments, You're in no place to
Speaker 1: be lecturing the world about democracy at this point, given
Speaker 1: what has happened since January the sixth and every day
Speaker 1: since then. Yeah, you know, and I've said that, and
Speaker 1: I thank you so much for articulating that, because I
Speaker 1: find it offensive. If I were a foreign country at
Speaker 1: this point and America wants to come in and lecture me,
Speaker 1: I'm saying to them, go clean up your own house
Speaker 1: before you have the audenty. And I say that with
Speaker 1: regard to women's rights, we always want to go to
Speaker 1: the Middle East and tell them about how they are
Speaker 1: treating women and not educating women. And I'm saying, you
Speaker 1: don't allow women to have autonomy over their bodies. You don't.
Speaker 1: We won't support equal pay and pass legislation in Congress
Speaker 1: to make sure that women are paid equally across this country,
Speaker 1: regardless of industry. We don't do that. So how do
Speaker 1: you go into places like Iran and Side Arabia and
Speaker 1: tell them what they should and should not be doing
Speaker 1: with their with their female population, right, like totally And
Speaker 1: to your point, I mean, I get it. Like there
Speaker 1: It's not to say that American and Saudi Arabia are
Speaker 1: on the same level with women's rights, but it's the
Speaker 1: principle of relative to where you are in your own development,
Speaker 1: you're saying, like, oh, Saudi Arabia doesn't let women drive.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's Saudi Arabia's problem and they're trying to
Speaker 1: deal with it. But at the same time, as you said,
Speaker 1: women here are not getting paid equal to men. They
Speaker 1: don't have family leave, women don't have complete subegnty over
Speaker 1: their body. There's discrimination and healthcare the way that it's provided.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even going to get into things about
Speaker 1: human rights abuse of black people in this country, things
Speaker 1: like getanam obey mass surveillance of Muslims. So I get it.
Speaker 1: You're you're you want to say that you're better than
Speaker 1: other countries, but the truth is your own human rights record,
Speaker 1: on top of which your own domestic policies are in
Speaker 1: They don't give you the platform to stand up there
Speaker 1: and say to the world, hey, we're going to lecture
Speaker 1: you about democracy and human rights and women rights when
Speaker 1: in our own country many of those uh basic rights
Speaker 1: are under constant threat. Yeah, it's it's very it's very
Speaker 1: very frustrating. And you know, even even now, we continue
Speaker 1: to uphold Israel and Israel's you know, roll out of
Speaker 1: the vaccine and look how it's working. Blah blah, And
Speaker 1: I'm just like, is anybody talking about what is happening
Speaker 1: to the Palestinians in terms of like their vaccination status? Right,
Speaker 1: Is anybody talking about like what is happening in Gotham
Speaker 1: what they continue to do? Like I'm so confused about
Speaker 1: how you can hold up this place and say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we need to model after it. And I'm like, are
Speaker 1: you looking at a kaleidoscope? Like I'm just I feel crazy.
Speaker 1: And again, it's it's the ability to cherry pick the
Speaker 1: parts of the narrative that you want. And this has
Speaker 1: been a consistent problem with how as a country we
Speaker 1: look at other countries and say this is what we
Speaker 1: want to emulate and this is what we want to reject,
Speaker 1: and not in that reality of what is happening on
Speaker 1: the ground is what makes it so hard. I mean,
Speaker 1: people point out human rights abuses in China, people point
Speaker 1: out human rights abuses in other countries, and countries that
Speaker 1: the United States has relationships with seals weapons to people
Speaker 1: are not naive to understanding that foreign relations are complex,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, don't try and whitewash and
Speaker 1: hide away from the realities on the ground. Take them
Speaker 1: head on. I mean, you talked about what's happening in
Speaker 1: Israel pastine. There is definitely discrimination in the way the
Speaker 1: COVID vaccine has been rolled out in terms of the population.
Speaker 1: And it's not because people are going to say, well,
Speaker 1: look at the Arab population inside Israel, they're getting vaccinated.
Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is Israel controls all of
Speaker 1: the territory of the West Bank and Israel. There may
Speaker 1: be different types of categories of how much it has
Speaker 1: a physical presence and control over the lives of Palestinians
Speaker 1: in the West Bank, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's not like the Palestinian authority can just call up
Speaker 1: Fiser and have vaccines delivered to the West Bank without
Speaker 1: Israel's approval and not have money that it's sending and
Speaker 1: transferred going through banking mechanisms and international banking mechanisms that
Speaker 1: are part of agreements. They don't have the sovereignty to
Speaker 1: do that, so they just don't have the ability to
Speaker 1: go out there and try to execute their own public
Speaker 1: health policy, so to speak. That's in addition to all
Speaker 1: the other things that have been coming out in recent
Speaker 1: days about mass surveillance. According to the Washington Post the
Speaker 1: masterveillance program. You know that the Israeli military was engaging
Speaker 1: in terms of how they tracked Palestinians and taking their
Speaker 1: pictures and putting them in a database. You know, look,
Speaker 1: we talk about it in our country here and how
Speaker 1: much we value our freedoms despite the fact that they
Speaker 1: have come under a lot of stress in the last
Speaker 1: twenty years because of the War on Terror. But we
Speaker 1: complain all the time when we feel the government is
Speaker 1: overreaching with the way it is surveiling its citizens. And
Speaker 1: here is this article in the Washington Post revealing this
Speaker 1: allegation that Israel has been mass surveiling Palestinians, and nobody's like,
Speaker 1: you're not hearing any member of Congress saying this is outrageous.
Speaker 1: We have to investigate this, we have to stop this.
Speaker 1: We have to make sure our tax year dollars are
Speaker 1: not going to the violation of human rights abuses. They're
Speaker 1: not helping the technology of a country that's using it
Speaker 1: in human rights abuses, as we're now seen with this
Speaker 1: spyware that the US government is saying, hey, you know
Speaker 1: what this NSL spyware. I think it's crossing the line
Speaker 1: when the spyware is being used to target human rights
Speaker 1: defenders in journalists. You know, we have crossed a major line,
Speaker 1: and we have to ask ourselves to what extent we're
Speaker 1: complicit in that by just simply turning a blind eye
Speaker 1: and not speaking up against it, even if it is
Speaker 1: a country that we perceive to be a very close
Speaker 1: ally of ours. Yeah, and I would. I would say
Speaker 1: if you haven't seen Coded Bias, the documentary on Netflix
Speaker 1: which talks it, which is it's centering all black and
Speaker 1: brown exceptional algorithm theorists and and folks who discovered all
Speaker 1: of the flaws, the deep and flaws and racism and
Speaker 1: discrimination in our algorithms. But talking about mass surveillance, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a fantastic and scared the hell out of me.
Speaker 1: I want to throw my smart TV out of the
Speaker 1: window as well as my phone. I'm like, we're all
Speaker 1: being tracked. Um, finally, am And I want to ask
Speaker 1: you this because I follow you on Instagram, Um, how
Speaker 1: do you continue to follow the news in such detail
Speaker 1: to report on these things that are really soul depleting, um,
Speaker 1: that are really soul crushing in a lot of ways?
Speaker 1: And how do you how do you find an outlet.
Speaker 1: What are your outlets right to be able to analyze
Speaker 1: the news, deliver it to all of us, but then
Speaker 1: not internalize the tragedy. That will, you know, for a
Speaker 1: lot of people on the front lines, turns into depression,
Speaker 1: turns into anxiety, turns into a lot of other things.
Speaker 1: I say, I follow your Instagram because one, I'm waiting
Speaker 1: on my invitation to brunch, because apparently you're an amazing chef,
Speaker 1: um and you have you know, beautiful kids and and
Speaker 1: and wife. But but how but how do you maintain
Speaker 1: your your your sense of joy um and and like
Speaker 1: and passion when this is the work that you do
Speaker 1: and a lot of it is about tragedy and despair. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a really good question. I mean, I think,
Speaker 1: first of all, I think it is so important for everyone,
Speaker 1: regardless of what they do in life, to be able
Speaker 1: to have a good support system. And a support system
Speaker 1: starts with good friends, good family, a good network of
Speaker 1: people that you can kind of like shoot the ship
Speaker 1: with and just kind of get your mind off of things,
Speaker 1: and people who you can call and say, man, i'm
Speaker 1: really down, I'm frustrated, I'm annoyed, I'm bothered by things
Speaker 1: that are happening personally, professionally, even in the news. So
Speaker 1: having that outlet is very important. If you try to
Speaker 1: constantly bottle things in and just kind of take more
Speaker 1: and more of the pressure on you, I think it
Speaker 1: could be destructive. And I'm not gonna lie. I feel
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of pressure all the time because you
Speaker 1: just ask me a really important question, how do you
Speaker 1: decide what goes into your show every Saturday and Sunday?
Speaker 1: And I feel like I'm trying to watch and consume
Speaker 1: everything like everyone else to the degree that I want
Speaker 1: to say, I want to be able to make sure
Speaker 1: I cover all the biggest stories of the week. And
Speaker 1: I think it's really it's definitely really hard for sure
Speaker 1: to consume everything and to think about all the things
Speaker 1: that you wanted to read, all the articles, and there's
Speaker 1: always a little bit of guilt and remorse that like, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't get a chance to read this whole article,
Speaker 1: or I haven't read this whole entire book before my
Speaker 1: interview over the weekend, and that's definitely stressful. So I
Speaker 1: think you have to take a step back. You have to,
Speaker 1: you know, work within a team. I mean, I have
Speaker 1: an amazing team and I trust them, and it makes
Speaker 1: it makes my job a lot easier knowing that I'm
Speaker 1: not just one person looking at one story, but in fact,
Speaker 1: we're like ten or fifteen people looking at different stories.
Speaker 1: That's one. And to have a good support system that
Speaker 1: you can kind of unplug when you come home. As
Speaker 1: you said, I like, I love to cook. It's something
Speaker 1: that I've gotten into over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: So it gives me a little bit more purpose and
Speaker 1: intent when I'm not in the studio and I'm not
Speaker 1: reading that I can kind of apply myself to and
Speaker 1: it gives me a little bit of escape, and it
Speaker 1: makes me feel like I've achieved something, even if the
Speaker 1: food tastes bad. I'm like, you know, I just made
Speaker 1: an amazing pumpkin pie. Or this pie tasted horrible, but
Speaker 1: at least I spent like three or four hours learning
Speaker 1: how to make pie crust, you know, So I love
Speaker 1: I love it. Well, I'm waiting for the Aimen Eats podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for the Amen Eats cooking show Aimen and Friends.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for I'm waiting for that iteration of your
Speaker 1: I want, I want that iteration of your of your
Speaker 1: media career because I love to see it. It looks amazing. Um. Amen,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for for making the time to
Speaker 1: join Woke f and thank you for all of the
Speaker 1: work that you are doing on your new show on
Speaker 1: Saturday joining us. I know, asking you to come on
Speaker 1: the show on the weekends, it's always, uh, it's a
Speaker 1: tough order. You know, you want to have some time
Speaker 1: where you're like, you know what, I just need to
Speaker 1: unplug from all this madness. So we appreciate when you
Speaker 1: come on and you well, I very rarely say no
Speaker 1: to you, so so you ask, you ask, and you're
Speaker 1: one of the few people I'm like, oh, it's a weekend,
Speaker 1: but it's amen, Okay, I'll do it. Thank you all right, friend,
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Guys. Everyone check out Aim and show on
Speaker 1: Saturdays and Sundays and on Peacock on on Fridays. You
Speaker 1: know him, you love him. It's tremendous viewing. And they're
Speaker 1: not a lot of people who I support and have
Speaker 1: passion for these days on TV, but you're still one
Speaker 1: of them. So I appreciate that. That is it, dear
Speaker 1: friends for me today on Woke, A f as always
Speaker 1: power to the people and to all the people. Power.
Speaker 1: Get woke and stay woke as fuck.