Speaker 1: You are listening waiting on reparations production of I Heart Radio?
Speaker 1: What What's good happening? My name is Dope Knife Homa Franca,
Speaker 1: And today we are joined by the legendary Oh Ship.
Speaker 1: What's the name of the show. Yeah, reparations. We can't
Speaker 1: we can't tell them about the guests before we get
Speaker 1: to the show. Yeah, waiting on reparations. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: like you know, I would love reparations, but I will
Speaker 1: also take having Mike Satown back on the show as
Speaker 1: a consolation prize. Oh yeah, how are you? Who are you? Mike?
Speaker 1: A lot of people give a ship that I'm very
Speaker 1: excited to that. You know, we're happy that you're here. Alright,
Speaker 1: We've got Mike seats out on the show with us.
Speaker 1: Mike's with us. What are we gonna be talking about today?
Speaker 1: We're at SO today. Oh, there's all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: to talking about. Biden was just in Atlanta today. I'll
Speaker 1: be before with the police Go Dogs, and our main
Speaker 1: topic of discussion, we're gonna be talking about out Um,
Speaker 1: a gang in Chicago in the nineties that became a
Speaker 1: civil and human rights organization, the Young Lords, and along
Speaker 1: the way discussing the revolutionary potential of street games based
Speaker 1: on the precedent that they were set by the Young
Speaker 1: Lords back in the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties. Um,
Speaker 1: but first, what is going on? I like, what is
Speaker 1: going on? I was searching through the news today and
Speaker 1: I came across that story about our homie that we
Speaker 1: helped out the last years of making a little progressive
Speaker 1: stand there. So Nancy Pelosi recently made some news by
Speaker 1: defending members of Congress trading in stocks. It was a
Speaker 1: pretty tone deaf thing. He explation was she doesn't know,
Speaker 1: She like has never heard the tone. She was like,
Speaker 1: it's doesn't know. I support the free market and like
Speaker 1: I even like Fox, but you even have like Fox
Speaker 1: News in like Republican good being, Like damn, I didn't
Speaker 1: know we were just straight up support corruption like that.
Speaker 1: So anywhere it's a it's a it's a multipartisan. Hair
Speaker 1: has bucked the trend and has introduced the bill that
Speaker 1: would make it illegal for UH sitting members of Congress
Speaker 1: to trade in stocks. This is like an obvious snub
Speaker 1: at Nancy Pelosi. What do you what do you think
Speaker 1: this means? Mari? I mean, hopefully it means that they
Speaker 1: actually been trading on stock. I just saw recently that
Speaker 1: Ran Paul was like on some radio show talking about
Speaker 1: have room dissevere is a great COVID treatment when he
Speaker 1: owned stock. I mean, like they they're like naked about
Speaker 1: it out here. They're not even trying to play you,
Speaker 1: like they're not getting a rich off of our I
Speaker 1: don't know where the name escapes me right now, but
Speaker 1: who was the who did us off beat? Also beat?
Speaker 1: You know, David Purdue? And I remember because there was
Speaker 1: that debate where David Purdue just to and even show
Speaker 1: up and assof was like yeah, smiling with his little
Speaker 1: boyish chin and it's nice eyebrows and like gesturing to
Speaker 1: this empty podium that David Perdue wasn't sand and David
Speaker 1: Perdue and Kelly like zoom and like body bags ahead
Speaker 1: of like the pandemic some steak and zoom and ship
Speaker 1: while everybody was using it. And I mean also you
Speaker 1: gotta remember that like all those congressional people knew how
Speaker 1: bad COVID was gonna be and knew that it was coming.
Speaker 1: So when you take all of that ship into consideration,
Speaker 1: I mean we're just talking about straight up illegal activity
Speaker 1: right here at this point, you will talk about some
Speaker 1: gangs to ship. Yeah, today we're talking about oh street
Speaker 1: gangs like making the world better. Can we crack down
Speaker 1: on these corporate gangsters that like be you know, doing
Speaker 1: these backroom deals to like profit off of human suffering
Speaker 1: much akin to a drug dealer or you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what sex trash just legalized. The ship is
Speaker 1: just legalized. What do you think, Mike, I didn't know
Speaker 1: that you guys hilped so yeah, back in next last January, Uh,
Speaker 1: Mack and I so, I like was a part of
Speaker 1: this effort, this coalition of local politicians that like raised
Speaker 1: like Tony Grand to pay all these people who go
Speaker 1: out knocking on doors for him and war knocking. So
Speaker 1: Mac and I went hit the streets, was out talking
Speaker 1: to people about going out to vote, and and y'all, y'all,
Speaker 1: y'all just slid some ship in. So wait so it
Speaker 1: was aus off and uh war knock. Yeah, So y'all
Speaker 1: were the motherfucker's responsible for me getting like five warnock flyers.
Speaker 1: I didn't And I've said at city Hall for our
Speaker 1: stuff and athletes to yep, yeah, I mean that's cool,
Speaker 1: But I've man if if Warnock wasn't that I was
Speaker 1: gonna not vote for him because all those fucking flyers.
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, I'm already on your side, bro,
Speaker 1: I don't need these flyers, Like couldn't like all these
Speaker 1: trees you're killing, like gosh, map hurting you. But no,
Speaker 1: that's that's dope, man. I didn't know that. Oh yeah
Speaker 1: we did that. Ship, I did that. Now I have
Speaker 1: a hot take real quick because I feel like people
Speaker 1: really like Warnock because it's fiery pastor and ship. I
Speaker 1: actually I'm personally yeah. I mean I don't have people
Speaker 1: to him. His people his office has been really great
Speaker 1: and like coming down to Athens trying to like get
Speaker 1: in touch with the people. But between the stock training
Speaker 1: thing and the fact that asof didn't didn't I mean
Speaker 1: if he didn't vote no, but he didn't vote for
Speaker 1: Rama Manual for Ambassador of Japan. Those two alone in
Speaker 1: them eyebrows. Let's be real, I got things for skinny
Speaker 1: white boys. Um, I'm like, yeah, you know, he might
Speaker 1: be my favorite of I'm waiting for the be a
Speaker 1: live streaking him to come out and for him to
Speaker 1: do something that's gonna disappoint. But I don't want to
Speaker 1: be like a debbut downer on the ship, you know,
Speaker 1: because it is a hopeful thing. But in all honestly,
Speaker 1: I think cats like Warnock and us Off really are
Speaker 1: the only chances that the Democrats have, Like the only
Speaker 1: I think the only chance so that the Democrats have
Speaker 1: going forward is some some senator or congress person that
Speaker 1: is not like part of the pretty much they need
Speaker 1: like another senter of Obama situation, where like somebody who's
Speaker 1: quasi outsider is gonna come in and like just buck
Speaker 1: all the establishment trends and stuff like that. And I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if as Off and Warnock are those cats,
Speaker 1: but I mean they seem like them. And Stacy Abraham
Speaker 1: seemed kind of like, you know, Mike's not so sure,
Speaker 1: Mike's not so short. Not not with Warnock. I never
Speaker 1: got the book the trend h vibe from Warnock. I
Speaker 1: got it from ass Off. Warnock just seemed like he's
Speaker 1: trying to be like the cool guy next door that
Speaker 1: wants to be a politician. And that's fine, that's fine.
Speaker 1: He hasn't said anything that's really grossed me out or
Speaker 1: anything like that, so I'm fine with him. But I
Speaker 1: never got the vibe of I'm really gonna go in
Speaker 1: here and shake it up. We'll speaking of shaking shut up.
Speaker 1: So Mariah is joining us after you know, her committee
Speaker 1: meeting like she always does, so before Mike came on,
Speaker 1: you were hot when we were talking. You were hot,
Speaker 1: and I remained hot. The temperature is quite so. Um,
Speaker 1: these motherfucker's play was wrong, bitch. Firstly, that's the that's
Speaker 1: just the summarine. We can move on. But no, so
Speaker 1: as listeners of the show, remember I was leaping with
Speaker 1: the police chief back in December about the drug war.
Speaker 1: Has some pretty spicy things to say about the racist
Speaker 1: history of the drug war, and pulled actual receipts from
Speaker 1: like historical documents about why they started the drug war
Speaker 1: and you know it's modern day deleterious effects. So anyway, Um,
Speaker 1: he's he's talking some shit about me, and so this
Speaker 1: is my first opportunity the ship. He talked. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he tried to say that like, um, I didn't care
Speaker 1: about crime, like by name, call me out by name,
Speaker 1: but I don't care about people getting shot and killed
Speaker 1: out here, and called me an academic and like I
Speaker 1: said that like pretty much said that science isn't real
Speaker 1: because I was like bringing up all this public health
Speaker 1: science about how to prevent crime and prevent like you
Speaker 1: not do you not like read books? I don't. I'm
Speaker 1: so confused right now. I know. It's like I only
Speaker 1: want our kids you have right future and go to
Speaker 1: college and then you go to college and the smart
Speaker 1: who no exactly, And so it was very inflammatory, very
Speaker 1: directedly directed directly at me. So I had my first
Speaker 1: opportunity to be on a meeting with him this evening,
Speaker 1: and so I was just like, hey, what's up Brown? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm a lot of I'm just a lot of my
Speaker 1: colleagues know that I have zero faith in his um
Speaker 1: ability to respond professionally to reason critique, and um brought
Speaker 1: in fact one of his homies fucking murdered a guy
Speaker 1: in the park behind my house last summer, and like,
Speaker 1: the same guy that got shot was on Facebook three
Speaker 1: days before begging people to send him money on Vemo
Speaker 1: because he was so desperate. A couple of days later,
Speaker 1: he's out card jacking people and stuff get shot. So like,
Speaker 1: if y'all really want to talk about public safety, like
Speaker 1: y'all have fun talking about Oh, let's you know, band
Speaker 1: chokeholds and like, oh used the fourth policies that none
Speaker 1: of that ship would have saved this man's life. This
Speaker 1: man needed mental health care. So like, y'all hit me
Speaker 1: up when you're already to talk about some real ship.
Speaker 1: And then I was I just pieced out. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't really care, like they could say whatever the
Speaker 1: funk they want, frankly, because I'm right, I'm right, this
Speaker 1: story's gonna know. I'm right this what's going on? Right man?
Speaker 1: Like you know, every like you know at the time,
Speaker 1: everyone tries to twist the civil rights movement to their
Speaker 1: own agenda. But frankly, those people in that day, it
Speaker 1: wasn't It wasn't like like eight percent of niggas was
Speaker 1: not out there getting shot and like hit with hostes
Speaker 1: and police dogs. There's like a little that wered and
Speaker 1: everybody else thought they was fucking crazy and you know
Speaker 1: what they was like it was out there. And then
Speaker 1: an episode to like dive into that more because I
Speaker 1: think that is the misconception that a lot of people have.
Speaker 1: Even I had that misconception, so I've read into it more.
Speaker 1: But it's like, not everybody it was a part of
Speaker 1: the civil rights movie video, like it was the equivalent
Speaker 1: of like the general population, at least for a good
Speaker 1: chunk of the civil rights movement. The general population's reaction
Speaker 1: to the civil rights movement was kind of akin to
Speaker 1: how people react to like online activism on Twitter and stuff.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, You're kind of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're making noises, but it's not really you know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's not really like encompassing of the entire population
Speaker 1: of people. It's kind of like this a small subsection
Speaker 1: stuff like that. It was it's like, y'all, remember y'all
Speaker 1: remember the episode of the Boondogs were like Granddad, he
Speaker 1: was like, we got hosed down and pitting my dogs
Speaker 1: for your rights. And then it did a flashback where
Speaker 1: he like showed up to the protest arrange jacking on
Speaker 1: and everybody was all beat up already and they were
Speaker 1: like looking at him like the fun So it's it's that.
Speaker 1: It's that. So yeah, I mean, it's it's good. It's fine. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep on raising hell. But there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of holding, a lot of holding, um powerful as
Speaker 1: you know, white supremacists to account of late Biden was
Speaker 1: in Georgia today, um and um, so that was the
Speaker 1: whole thing. He came down here to you know, talk
Speaker 1: about voting rights and several large you know, voting rights
Speaker 1: groups and progressive groups like New Georgia Project, Black Black
Speaker 1: Voters Matter, UM Fair Fight, Like uh, Saty Abraham's organization.
Speaker 1: We're like, don't come, don't come, don't come down here
Speaker 1: and talk to us. Come go talk to John Manson.
Speaker 1: We got should to say to us. Our senators support
Speaker 1: voting rights. We support voting rights. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you gotta come say to us, frankly, and then Stacy
Speaker 1: Abraham's ended up pulling out. She didn't even show up,
Speaker 1: and so oh yeah, she was like, oh I had
Speaker 1: a schedulming conflict, like bitch who has Like I don't
Speaker 1: know if anybody's like, if you want to be there
Speaker 1: with the president, you will find a way and you
Speaker 1: reschedule that hair appointment like whatever to be there. So
Speaker 1: it was just kind of funny. I was about to
Speaker 1: ask the same question. I'm curious. I mean, it's these
Speaker 1: are the same people that like effectively got him elected
Speaker 1: last year, you know, like who I was out here
Speaker 1: registering voters in a pandemic, like you know, doing all
Speaker 1: this voter education outreach and there, and he had and
Speaker 1: he hadn't delivered on like the stuff people voted to get.
Speaker 1: And so they're saying, like, you ain't gonna use us
Speaker 1: as like a background prop to, like, you know, boost
Speaker 1: your poll numbers. Like I literally, strategically, why are you here?
Speaker 1: Go talk to Joe Manchin and christ the cinema Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't understand why you Like, this is a moment
Speaker 1: for more flowery words. So that's what the beef was about.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so that was a that's been a whole day.
Speaker 1: Well down here, speaking of whole days, we've got a
Speaker 1: pretty stacked episode and a lot of stuff to get through,
Speaker 1: so I think we should get into it now. All right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a little break and when we get back,
Speaker 1: we are going to be talking about the Young Lords
Speaker 1: and is it possible for modern day gangs street gangs
Speaker 1: to organize and you know, to do more than what
Speaker 1: they're doing. So we'll be back with that and after
Speaker 1: after the jump. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are back.
Speaker 1: So Mariah tell us a bit about the Young Lords before. Yeah, so, um,
Speaker 1: the Young Lords under the leadership of Jose MNEZ during
Speaker 1: the nineteen six seventies up until the early eighties. You know,
Speaker 1: they took inspiration from the Black Panthers and effectively turned
Speaker 1: themselves from street gang focused on turf battles like stealing cars.
Speaker 1: They sold like three D fifty cars in like a
Speaker 1: month span or something crazy just out here whiling out.
Speaker 1: Decided um in the face of urban renewal in their
Speaker 1: Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago, to turn their focus toward
Speaker 1: community empowerment and particularly self determination for Puerto Ricans. They
Speaker 1: were Puerto Rican street gang UM. From there they kind
Speaker 1: of built out. You know, they had solidarity of black
Speaker 1: people and colonized people all over the world. They engaged
Speaker 1: their mass education and they canvas. They organized community programs
Speaker 1: like community testing for TV and lead poisoning that like
Speaker 1: the Black Panthers, they had a free breakfast program for kids.
Speaker 1: And then what we're gonna talk about a lot in
Speaker 1: this episode is they also staged occupations of government properties
Speaker 1: and churches and engaged in direct confrontation with figures of
Speaker 1: authority from the clergy to you know, public health officials
Speaker 1: to obviously the police. So their platform demanded an immediate
Speaker 1: withdrawal the US military forces and basis from Puerto Rico, Vietnam,
Speaker 1: and all the press community is inside and outside the
Speaker 1: U S. No Puerto Rican should serve in the U.
Speaker 1: S Army against his brothers and sisters, for the only
Speaker 1: true army of the oppressed peoples, the people's army to
Speaker 1: fight all rulers. Their anti imperialist. Their anti imperialist stance
Speaker 1: was similar to the ten point program of the Black Panthers,
Speaker 1: who demanded no black person should serve in the military
Speaker 1: as well. Now their full platform included one self determination
Speaker 1: for Puerto Ricans, liberation on the islands and inside the
Speaker 1: United States. UH. They wanted self determination for a Latinos
Speaker 1: and liberation for all the Third world people. They wanted
Speaker 1: community control for our institutions and lands. They also wanted
Speaker 1: true education for the Creo culture and with freedom for
Speaker 1: all political prisoners and equality for women, saying that Machismo
Speaker 1: must be revolutionary, not oppressive, armed self defense and arms
Speaker 1: struggle as means of liberation, and last a socialist society.
Speaker 1: So as the as the organization grew, you know, they
Speaker 1: ended up being chapters all over the US and so
Speaker 1: different or different like chapters of the party, not the party.
Speaker 1: The organization ended up kind of tweaking on this and
Speaker 1: you know, developing different aspects of the platform UM for
Speaker 1: you know, for themselves. But you know it included resisted
Speaker 1: of sexism, imperialism, capitalism, um, all the isms. So before
Speaker 1: we go any further, so winner your thoughts on that.
Speaker 1: I'm still I remained very curious whether or not this
Speaker 1: UM model of organizing and taking existing structure of people
Speaker 1: that are willing to do whatever to get shift for
Speaker 1: their people, like it's replicable in the modern day because
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of conditions that were happening
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, this revolutionary spirit um or it's
Speaker 1: just like you know, it's just a time that's gone
Speaker 1: from us. I don't know what was magical was special
Speaker 1: about that time that we just don't happen twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I think at least from the tactics
Speaker 1: there's a lot to be learned from them. But what
Speaker 1: do you think, like like knowing hip hop as you do,
Speaker 1: and the way these things out here like God they said,
Speaker 1: you know, they got they like areas they wrap, etcetera.
Speaker 1: They have similar like structure in these little underground organizations.
Speaker 1: Do you think something like this is possible in the
Speaker 1: modern day? Um, I think it's definitely possible. Um. I
Speaker 1: think that that I don't want to call it, see
Speaker 1: I never I never really thought about Young Lords as
Speaker 1: a gang, So I think that's so my brain is
Speaker 1: kind of trying to wrap myself around that part. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that. I think that with the gangs we
Speaker 1: have today, which are completely different than the gangs even
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, completely different. Um. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: definitely think it's possible. I don't think it'll happen, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: because it's gonna take someone that's gonna go out there
Speaker 1: and actually do the work to get these groups together.
Speaker 1: But I definitely think it's possible. I wonder as well,
Speaker 1: if more people knew about this kind of history, if
Speaker 1: it would make it more possible. Like I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I you don't have to reinvent the wheel like this
Speaker 1: literally happened before. You ain't inventing anything new like this
Speaker 1: has totally been done down to tactics like this is
Speaker 1: how y'all could go about winning things for your people. Um,
Speaker 1: Because we just have such shitty history education in this country,
Speaker 1: you know, damn well, nobody learned about the young Lords
Speaker 1: and fucking high school civics. D I think you're definitely
Speaker 1: right in the sense that more education and knowledge about
Speaker 1: stuff like that would help help the possibility of it.
Speaker 1: I like Mike, I think it's possible. I just don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know how likely I think it is, just
Speaker 1: because you know, like Mike was saying, it's the differences
Speaker 1: in what street gangs are now compared to what they
Speaker 1: used to be. Um, you know, you've got a lot
Speaker 1: of things that are working against it. There's a lot
Speaker 1: more distraction now than there was back then. Um, social media,
Speaker 1: Internet streaming, well, there's there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 1: lot more comforts for to compete for people's attention to
Speaker 1: get them onto that stuff. And then lastly, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest obstacle towards something like that happening is like,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not like a street gang expert or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but I mean, for the most part,
Speaker 1: like street gangs now are like capitalistic enterprises, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like they're trying to get money. There's
Speaker 1: not like the whole the inception point is not like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is for the block, or this is for the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: or like you know what I mean, for some greater
Speaker 1: purpose other than like a monetary, you know, profit driven one.
Speaker 1: So you know what I think it is like when
Speaker 1: you're talking about social media and all that, I think
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier now for groups to just be like, oh,
Speaker 1: someone else is gonna do this, because you can hop
Speaker 1: on Twitter you'll see a whole bunch of other people
Speaker 1: talking ship. So you're like, oh, well, I ain't gotta
Speaker 1: worry about that because at some point user battle for
Speaker 1: today is gonna can take care of this ship, so
Speaker 1: I can go do whatever. Whereas when we were growing up,
Speaker 1: I can say I'm not sure how old y'all are.
Speaker 1: I know I'm older than both of y'all, Polly, But
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, there was no Internet, so
Speaker 1: it was basically like, oh, well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: somebody else is gonna do this ship. I don't know
Speaker 1: if somebody else is gonna go out here and make
Speaker 1: sure that trash is getting picked up, so maybe me
Speaker 1: and my friends should go out here and take care
Speaker 1: of it. So I think that's like one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things that's different. I mean the Internet can be
Speaker 1: used in both ways because you can also use it
Speaker 1: to organize. But I think a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: want to admit that the Internet just made a lot
Speaker 1: of motherfucker's lazy. Yeah, apathetic, Yeah, I mean I kind
Speaker 1: of point to that, like, based on personal experience I
Speaker 1: had recently. I know this cat, this local rapper um
Speaker 1: that you know, he got like a mad following on
Speaker 1: my Instagram and ship, like you know ship and donts
Speaker 1: of likes, and he posted on the story should currently
Speaker 1: of like you know, guns and money and smoking blunts, etcetera. Um,
Speaker 1: But after he recently had an attempt on his life.
Speaker 1: I saw the video. You know, somebody came shooting at
Speaker 1: him and he chased after them, shooting back and got
Speaker 1: you know, an attempted murder charge on him. And in
Speaker 1: the aftermath, you know, he was speaking very openly about
Speaker 1: like PTSD and wanted to help out the kids, and
Speaker 1: like I had a and I actually I went and
Speaker 1: spoke at his bond hearing for his trial, trying to
Speaker 1: get him out of jail because I had worked with
Speaker 1: him previously. He had like a water gun fight for
Speaker 1: kids in his neighborhood. You know, who live in this
Speaker 1: real run down part of town. He like was real
Speaker 1: pivotal and getting the street renamed after this lady that
Speaker 1: got shot and killed, like had already been using his
Speaker 1: cloud for like these little acts of like goodness and
Speaker 1: kindness in the neighborhood, even if he's still ultimately like
Speaker 1: very very you know, involved in the streets. And so
Speaker 1: with the social media say all that because like, you know,
Speaker 1: with a social media following like that, like they were
Speaker 1: able to organize the kinds of things they were doing
Speaker 1: in the sixties without any without like printed newspapers that
Speaker 1: they delivered door to door. You know, if you've got
Speaker 1: somebody that like uses social media early, definitely you can
Speaker 1: organize a ton of people in a short period of time.
Speaker 1: You know, last summer, I was pretty much just posting
Speaker 1: on Instagram like yo, I'm sure, like we're shutting down
Speaker 1: the street, and like you have like a hundred people
Speaker 1: show up, like people I don't even know. Um. Like,
Speaker 1: so if you use not only those like street connections
Speaker 1: of like the people that you roll with and like
Speaker 1: be out here doing grimes and whatnot, like, but also
Speaker 1: the broader following that you might have as somebody that
Speaker 1: is you know an artist that is kind of repping
Speaker 1: that sort of life. I don't know. I feel like
Speaker 1: you can actually get a lot done. And I'm hoping
Speaker 1: this cat, like if he avoids going to jail for
Speaker 1: a long time, could actually use his platform and his
Speaker 1: connections to do that kind of thing. To Mike's point,
Speaker 1: it's like everything you just said takes like like back
Speaker 1: in the day, it required a lot of work, because,
Speaker 1: like you're saying, you are talking about having to put
Speaker 1: up pamphlets and hand up hand up pamphlets and put
Speaker 1: up you know, things in newspapers and and actually physically
Speaker 1: be out there in the world and doing stuff. So
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, there's just a lot of
Speaker 1: obstacles in the a right now for young people in general,
Speaker 1: you know, which in a more conspiratorial mind, you could
Speaker 1: be like, that's a plot. They got it so comfortable
Speaker 1: so that we don't so that we're just all comfortable
Speaker 1: enough that we don't rock the boat and ship like that,
Speaker 1: Oh definitely, which is honestly another reason why like folks
Speaker 1: like running drugs and ship might be a better position
Speaker 1: to agitate for political change than somebody working two jobs. Seven,
Speaker 1: Because like if you had. If you at work six
Speaker 1: hours a week, you're not like showing up a city hall.
Speaker 1: You're not like organizing a free breakfast program. But if
Speaker 1: you're just sitting on stacks because like you just slipped
Speaker 1: a like a quap today, Like you have a lot
Speaker 1: of free time on your hands, so like, go do
Speaker 1: some good, help, go help people. Um, not that like
Speaker 1: I want people, you know, working in the black market economy,
Speaker 1: but like that there is that, so turn around and
Speaker 1: use it for good. You got a mad free time
Speaker 1: on your hands. Man. So I don't know, I guess,
Speaker 1: I mean it's not I think that. Um, it's not
Speaker 1: that I hold anything against obviously I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: hold anything against anybody for having to do what they
Speaker 1: gotta do black market economy and stuff like that. It's
Speaker 1: more so just like I don't think that, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think that there should be like
Speaker 1: an arbitrary expectation that like people's motivations, that everybody who's
Speaker 1: in its motivation is like something that's altruistic and not
Speaker 1: just like a personal thing, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like like, I yeah, and I don't think that. I
Speaker 1: don't think everybody who's in the street gang by virtue
Speaker 1: of by virtue of their criminal enterprise being something that's
Speaker 1: not corporate or elite, meaning that but that's just that
Speaker 1: it's good. Does that make sense? No, it doesn't. I
Speaker 1: don't mean. It's just like I feel what we're saying
Speaker 1: about it's not altruism, Like there is a certain self
Speaker 1: serving aspect to it, right, that's what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: So I think that, Yeah, sorry, that's exactly it. It's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a there's a self serving aspect of it.
Speaker 1: So it's just like what type of personality does that attract?
Speaker 1: You know? Good point. Counterpoint is that they're in gangs
Speaker 1: as well as like you know, we see in group
Speaker 1: like the Black Panthers historically there's the strong sense of
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna make up and say is like collective
Speaker 1: ego and that like people are like I will go
Speaker 1: kill you if you shoot at my people, Like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get money for my people. Um, and you see
Speaker 1: with like the Young Lords the Black Panthers are like,
Speaker 1: we're wrapping for our people by any means necessary arm
Speaker 1: struggle to fight off you know, any sort of like attacks.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna defend our people against the government.
Speaker 1: So that same sort of like like collective ego mindset
Speaker 1: or like all right, I got my people and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna defend them against anything can be leveraged to. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: then let's get people housing, like rather than just retaliate
Speaker 1: when some other sat shooting at y'all, Like, why don't
Speaker 1: you direct that I are towards like the authorities that
Speaker 1: are you know, y'all can't get no health care, y'all
Speaker 1: can't get no food, y'all can't get no education if
Speaker 1: you're gonna if you're gonna just like in a very egotistic,
Speaker 1: like self serving way, rep for your people no matter what.
Speaker 1: So I feel like that's another way there's like a
Speaker 1: pre existing underlying like condition on the ground that like
Speaker 1: might be serving for trying to turn some of these
Speaker 1: like you've seen trying to like you see Jacks, you know,
Speaker 1: turn this into something positive. Okay, Like when I was so,
Speaker 1: I'm off I was six years old when I saw
Speaker 1: New Jack City in the theater, Like Uncle took me
Speaker 1: to see that ship. It's like I remember being a
Speaker 1: little kid watching the scene where Nino Brown was handing
Speaker 1: out the turkeys, and like there was no aspect of
Speaker 1: that to have me feeling like, Okay, so Nino Brown
Speaker 1: like a guy or like, oh he has a heart
Speaker 1: of goals. Like no, I think it's still the bad
Speaker 1: guy like that, Like him handing out the turkeys wasn't
Speaker 1: because he was a good guy that cared about the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It was because he was trying to course people into
Speaker 1: supporting them, you know what I'm saying. So it's like
Speaker 1: it's like for for every for everybody who's caught up
Speaker 1: in it, who is like a victim of circumstance. You know,
Speaker 1: You've got some people who are in positions of leadership
Speaker 1: in that world that you know, if you gave them
Speaker 1: a different background, of different educationals, you know, like circumstances,
Speaker 1: they would be the evil corporate boss that we hate,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Just because their their ship
Speaker 1: played out differently and they're heading up a street gang,
Speaker 1: doesn't you know what I mean? I don't think that that,
Speaker 1: like just that simple fact means that, Okay, like these
Speaker 1: guys probably have a lot of the same sort of
Speaker 1: sentiments that I do. I don't know, man, I think
Speaker 1: that people that are in street gangs are probably if
Speaker 1: you look at it, they're probably the easiest dudes to
Speaker 1: flip into that mentality if you think about it, right, Like,
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking about like some fucking street gang
Speaker 1: in Marietta that's like se white kids that grow up
Speaker 1: with money. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: like real street gangs who grew up poor, who joined
Speaker 1: street gangs because they don't really see a way out,
Speaker 1: or they don't really see a viable way to get food,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Um, Yeah, sure, there are,
Speaker 1: of course those people that are just like, oh, I
Speaker 1: just want to make a bunch of bread. But if
Speaker 1: you're in a certain situation and you don't see a
Speaker 1: way to feed your family, street gangs are a viable option. Right.
Speaker 1: But if you can go to those people and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: well you joined the street gang because you didn't see
Speaker 1: a viable option, well there's a whole bunch of other
Speaker 1: people that look at it the same exact way. They
Speaker 1: don't have viable options either. And if all of you
Speaker 1: guys get together and try to form something, you can
Speaker 1: actually make a real change. I think that that is possible,
Speaker 1: and I do think that those street gang dudes would
Speaker 1: probably be pretty easy to flip that way. I think
Speaker 1: that nobody's willing to take the chancel go talk to them,
Speaker 1: either because they're scared or they think they're stupid, they
Speaker 1: think they won't understand it. Do you think would be
Speaker 1: needed to do something like that? Do you think it
Speaker 1: needs to be like a rapper, a rapper, somebody yeah,
Speaker 1: with like with like actual street credibility. Because another problem
Speaker 1: you often see, or at least I see in my work,
Speaker 1: is that like you often have like other community leaders,
Speaker 1: leaders like moralizing to these folks why they need to
Speaker 1: go get a job or or simply or simply just
Speaker 1: put the guns down, which like is admirable, but like
Speaker 1: if you have people, you know, like trying to come
Speaker 1: kill you, like I, you know, I understand why you
Speaker 1: stay strapped. I wish you didn't have to be, but
Speaker 1: like this is where we're at, and so yeah, you
Speaker 1: need somebody with street credibility. But to respond to Max's
Speaker 1: other point, like I found him found that most political
Speaker 1: actors are bad people to a certain degree. Like you
Speaker 1: got you got Nancy Pelosi out here defendings, you know,
Speaker 1: congress people trained stocks, got these Niggs on Wall Street,
Speaker 1: like getting everybody's houses taken back by the banks. Like uh,
Speaker 1: like there's always there's always some nefarious like either intention
Speaker 1: or uh effects of like what a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the political sphere are doing to a degree, um
Speaker 1: and so like I guess I would rather have people
Speaker 1: being most impacted by the factory of the folks at
Speaker 1: the top trying to make things better than purely leaving
Speaker 1: it to the folks that are or or who are
Speaker 1: doing crimes or doing things that should be illegal but
Speaker 1: aren't crimes because they make the laws, you know, get
Speaker 1: away with all the ship they're doing. So either side,
Speaker 1: I mean, like, no matter what happens with like the
Speaker 1: future of this country's gonna be decided by quote unquote
Speaker 1: bad people. But which bad you gotta pick which bad people.
Speaker 1: So folks out here was like grieving loved ones that
Speaker 1: got shot in the drive by and like you know,
Speaker 1: selling crack or whatever because they you know, dropped out
Speaker 1: of high school. Like you know, maybe we should give
Speaker 1: them a chance to help articulate what their community needs
Speaker 1: so that we can disrupt some of the violence happening
Speaker 1: out here. But anyway, let's go on, because We've been
Speaker 1: talking about a lot about like can a gang today
Speaker 1: do what the Young Lords did? But what do they do?
Speaker 1: So UM, It's all got started during Mayor Daily. We
Speaker 1: talked about Mayor Daily in the the greg Dick Gregory
Speaker 1: episode because Um Dick Gregory ran against Mayor Daily one time.
Speaker 1: But in Mayor Chicago, UM started out having all these
Speaker 1: urban renewal projects, you know where they getting federal money
Speaker 1: to tear down slums, etcetera and build like nice, shiny
Speaker 1: new ship. So one of the projects resulted in Puerto
Speaker 1: Ricans in Lincoln Park neighborhood and several Mexican communities getting
Speaker 1: evicted UM from what became prime real estate areas you know, Loop, Lakefront,
Speaker 1: old Town and Lakeview neighborhoods. Okay, So, so in response,
Speaker 1: like UM, the members of the Young Lords straight up
Speaker 1: ransacked and closed to the Department of Ubert Urban Renewal
Speaker 1: office at Chicago, telling the neighborhood association that was in
Speaker 1: favor of the gentrification that they would permit no further
Speaker 1: meetings on urban renewal until people of color were included
Speaker 1: on the board. But the implication I assuming that given
Speaker 1: their access to weapons and willingness to the funk down
Speaker 1: that they were willing to enforce this by violence if necessary.
Speaker 1: So like y'all ain't doing no more urban renewal over
Speaker 1: here until we are have a say in the political process,
Speaker 1: like we're not playing. So that's kind of how they
Speaker 1: got started, and like an approach they would often take
Speaker 1: with confronting like figures of authority, um to get what
Speaker 1: the people needed, you know. So the movement you know,
Speaker 1: expanded from Chicago to include chapters and dirty different cities
Speaker 1: including New York City, Philadelphia, when Connecticut, New Jersey, went
Speaker 1: in Boston, Milwaukee, UM, and then a couple of in uh, California,
Speaker 1: and then when in Puerto Rico as well, though the
Speaker 1: Chicago branch um you know, as as the movement became national,
Speaker 1: that remained their national headquarters UM. Around this time. So oh,
Speaker 1: I asked, this is the part I meant to read earlier,
Speaker 1: and then I read now, Yes, so, um, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: like I've talked about urban renewal on the show and
Speaker 1: referenced so there was an urban renewal project here in
Speaker 1: Athens where a bunch of black families got kicked out
Speaker 1: in their houses burned down. So they could build like
Speaker 1: student norms. And so what's interesting to me learning this
Speaker 1: aspect of the Young Lord's history is that, like with
Speaker 1: Lennon Town here in Athens, they actually did have black
Speaker 1: people on the board of the of the Urban Renewal
Speaker 1: like committee or whatever that was like, oh yeah, that
Speaker 1: ship's a slum. Tear that ship down. We don't get
Speaker 1: fucked like they like the government hand pick pretty much
Speaker 1: like you know, coons to to like sign off on,
Speaker 1: you know, tearing this neighborhood down and taking everybody out,
Speaker 1: destroying all these families. So, I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: just I think I just think it's interesting that, like
Speaker 1: the what was it gonna say, Like, I guess it
Speaker 1: reinforces to me, at least my understanding of what happened
Speaker 1: here that you know, black faces and high places doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily guarantee like political freedom for the people they are
Speaker 1: you know, purported to represent. I don't know how this
Speaker 1: worked out for the Young Lords. I'm assuming not well
Speaker 1: because our neighborhood got tore up anyway. But hey, they tried,
Speaker 1: and they at least like we're forcible about it. They
Speaker 1: weren't like, oh, well, you know, we'll try to show
Speaker 1: up in the meetings and see what's out. They were like, no,
Speaker 1: y'all are not y'all are not having any more meetings
Speaker 1: until we're invited and we here are people in on
Speaker 1: the conversation, which you know that last I don't want
Speaker 1: to harp on the same thing. It's like that last
Speaker 1: last thing that we read is like, who's gonna do
Speaker 1: that now? Like I mean, or like which which rapper
Speaker 1: is gonna is gonna like motivate cats to organize like
Speaker 1: that now? Because like, because we we had what we
Speaker 1: were doing when we were doing the we were doing
Speaker 1: the year and episode last week might and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, we're getting a bunch of stories together to
Speaker 1: recap of things that happened during the year. And one
Speaker 1: of the angles that I wanted to take was, oh, man,
Speaker 1: let me um just find a bunch of rappers commenting
Speaker 1: on the last year and a half that we've had. Right.
Speaker 1: I really couldn't find it, man, like like it I'm
Speaker 1: dead serious, Like if you were to just take in
Speaker 1: like and again, you know, people always get get on
Speaker 1: me whenever I'm like harping on mainstream hip hop because
Speaker 1: it's like I get it. There's way more hip hop
Speaker 1: that exists in the world. I'm sure, m C whatever
Speaker 1: the hell was like talking about all the stuff, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, But like the mainstream is important
Speaker 1: because like it acts as a de fact of representation of,
Speaker 1: you know, of what hip hop is to the world
Speaker 1: at LART. That's a bigger reach if you were to
Speaker 1: just go by mainstream hip hop. It's like, motherfucker's live
Speaker 1: in a different world, yo, Like the country didn't just
Speaker 1: go up through a pandemic, Like there's no leg weird,
Speaker 1: fucked up political tension going on. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like they're completely oblivious to it, at least on
Speaker 1: a on the aspect that I think most people are
Speaker 1: going to hear their thoughts, which is their music, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. If somebody's talking again, giving the
Speaker 1: caveat that somebody's talking about something in an interview, somebody's
Speaker 1: talking about something on a podcast, that's all cool. But
Speaker 1: I'm I'm of the mindset that more people are gonna
Speaker 1: hear you cover an issue in your music. If you're
Speaker 1: a rapper musician, more people are gonna hear you address
Speaker 1: that ship by your music than any other form of
Speaker 1: doing it. So it's just like just going by that,
Speaker 1: and I understand you can take it with a grain
Speaker 1: of salt, but just going by that, there seems to
Speaker 1: be a lack of interest in hip hop for some
Speaker 1: of these issues that it seems like an extremely daunting
Speaker 1: task to find a figure or figures that could you know,
Speaker 1: galvanized youth to doing something like the Young Lords are doing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think one thing, Mikey, you want to
Speaker 1: say something, I'll go after. I mean, I think one
Speaker 1: thing today that my be a barrier to like this
Speaker 1: kind of organizing is that like the ways they fuck
Speaker 1: you are a lot more like creeping rather than blunt
Speaker 1: and just like immediate. So like urban renewal, they were like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're I tear down your entire neighborhood, and so of
Speaker 1: course niches like, but no, don't do that. But like
Speaker 1: now it's like, oh, the property taxes just go up
Speaker 1: and up and every year, and then some guy shows
Speaker 1: up at your house, and then your neighbor's house and
Speaker 1: your auntie's house, like oh, we'll pay a hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for your house in cash on the spot, and then
Speaker 1: gradually the neighborhood just gets whiter, and then the white
Speaker 1: people start calling the cops and then like you'll on
Speaker 1: your house party and then all y'all in jail as
Speaker 1: opposed to just like blatant we kicking all your things out.
Speaker 1: So it's hard to keep up with. It's hard to
Speaker 1: figure out where to like you know, stick stick a pin,
Speaker 1: and like this is what we're fighting for, even thinking
Speaker 1: about the pandemic, Like what should we even ask for?
Speaker 1: Right now? Things are so bleak and terrible, but like
Speaker 1: do we ask for like free rapid tests at home?
Speaker 1: Do we ask for a nast and then shot down?
Speaker 1: Like what do we even do? Because it's not as
Speaker 1: cut and dry. It's just like we want to end
Speaker 1: more in Vietnam or something. So you're you're definitely right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna gonna touch on the And of
Speaker 1: course we don't have to stay on this because we
Speaker 1: could probably do a whole show on mainstream rappers not
Speaker 1: giving a funk about certain things. But I mean, at
Speaker 1: this point, me being you know, a forty plus year
Speaker 1: old guy, I don't I don't look to mainstream rappers
Speaker 1: anymore to do ship just because I understand how it goes.
Speaker 1: You know, these dudes might have grown up in far
Speaker 1: worse conditions than I did, but once they get to
Speaker 1: that money level, all of that ship gets forgotten and
Speaker 1: it sucks. It totally sucks. But I see it happening constantly.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I'm not looking for a little baby
Speaker 1: or you know why being Cordain, and that's nothing against
Speaker 1: them at all, but I'm not looking to those dudes
Speaker 1: to actually do ship anymore. I'm not surprised you couldn't
Speaker 1: find mainstream rappers talking about these conditions because to a
Speaker 1: lot of them, these conditions don't exist because it doesn't
Speaker 1: affect them. You know, like when when Wayne said, yeah,
Speaker 1: black lives matter, it's not anything I have to worry about.
Speaker 1: Black lives matter, Yeah it matters to my fature something
Speaker 1: stupid like that. He said, you know, um, same thing
Speaker 1: with Asap Rocky. And this is nothing against these guys
Speaker 1: because I like both artists. But you know, they didn't
Speaker 1: connect to these movements because it had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with them in their brains at that moment. You know,
Speaker 1: they're rich, they have basically fucking financed out of being
Speaker 1: you know, and good for good for them. I wish
Speaker 1: I could do I wish I could do that sometimes,
Speaker 1: but you know, I think if you're looking for mainstream
Speaker 1: rappers right now to be the figureheads, it's it's not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. And then that's what suck, because I mean exactly,
Speaker 1: just to clarify, it's like it's less of an expectation
Speaker 1: for me and more so just like an observation, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. It's like, it's like it that's all.
Speaker 1: I mean. It's just like, damn, the the climate is
Speaker 1: just right for that sort of thing that if somebody
Speaker 1: were to take that mantel seriously, they could probably do
Speaker 1: some damage out there, you know what I'm saying. It's like,
Speaker 1: but who Who's going to be that cat to do it? Though? Well,
Speaker 1: I would say I would say, that's why you need
Speaker 1: these local ask rappers that are like medium famous, like
Speaker 1: the famous in their neighborhood and like in the city,
Speaker 1: but like they're not They're not on a level of
Speaker 1: money where they don't give a funk about anymore, but
Speaker 1: they have financed themselves. I think there has to be
Speaker 1: like a resignation to that fact though, because if if
Speaker 1: the if the motivation though is eventually like like a
Speaker 1: I'm local now, but eventually I want to be like
Speaker 1: a superstar, then I think that will affect their decision
Speaker 1: making in that end too. But if somebody was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like, I'm the king of my neighborhood and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like ride from my neighborhood, whether it's like
Speaker 1: musically or you know, organization wise, then then I think
Speaker 1: you're working with something. But if somebody's got stardom in
Speaker 1: their eyes, like Mike was saying, it's like everybody's you know,
Speaker 1: I really like that that phrase. Everybody's trying to finance
Speaker 1: themselves out of nigodot to us. So yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: love it. If Young Thug one day just woke up
Speaker 1: and was like, yeah, I'm gonna be a revolutionary in
Speaker 1: a different way. He's already revolutions, remember, But if he's
Speaker 1: just like you don't remember the video, Oh, I forget
Speaker 1: the name of the song, but h During the Ferguson
Speaker 1: protests and stuff, Young Thug came out with a video
Speaker 1: that like the video was him and a bunch of
Speaker 1: people like marching in the streets like Ferguson style, and
Speaker 1: like all all of the press, like all of the uh,
Speaker 1: you know the I think at the time, up Rocks
Speaker 1: are still ship, Like you know, all all of the
Speaker 1: blogs that were posting it up, we're like, check out
Speaker 1: Young Thugs new political video, Young Thug touching Politics. So
Speaker 1: I listened to the song and it's it's pupil marching
Speaker 1: like Young Dug definitely is dressed like a black panther marching.
Speaker 1: But the song is like I beat that push up,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like the song had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the imagery that you're seeing. So like, see,
Speaker 1: I feel like, well, we need the opposet, we need
Speaker 1: the video where everybody's got the aks and ski masks
Speaker 1: and they're like dancing on dancing on the car and
Speaker 1: everybody's working in the lyrics like yeah, let's get the
Speaker 1: bakers and hang them in the square. I don't actually,
Speaker 1: it's like I don't think that attitude exists, like at
Speaker 1: that level of hip hop, that attitude of like yo,
Speaker 1: we gotta get the bankers. It's like I don't think
Speaker 1: there's you know, I don't think you know, I don't
Speaker 1: think that attitude is coming for like a hundred years,
Speaker 1: like I think, and that's that's what. Yeah. So when
Speaker 1: I was saying earlier than the nineties ses are over
Speaker 1: and just never coming back. I think what's missing now
Speaker 1: that they had then was like widespread revolutionary consciousness, like
Speaker 1: just in like in the streets, there was all kind
Speaker 1: of protest movements, and it was really easy to like
Speaker 1: just you know, by the by the wayside whatever, developed
Speaker 1: like a sophisticated political analysis of what's wrong and what
Speaker 1: you need to do to get it right. Like we
Speaker 1: just don't have that nowadays. So it's like people want
Speaker 1: to help little baby, you know, trying to help different
Speaker 1: people speaking out, you know j Cole with his song
Speaker 1: last Summer, you know, just expressing his self consciousness about
Speaker 1: knowing not knowing what to do in the movement, Like
Speaker 1: it's just because niggas don't know, because like there's just
Speaker 1: not a spirit in the air of like of just
Speaker 1: you know, revolutionary ideas empowering people to take action to
Speaker 1: make their lives better and believing as possible. So that's
Speaker 1: why peoples out here being done. We need a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of like, we need a whole bunch of dudes
Speaker 1: to make more albums like RBG, which is my favorite
Speaker 1: Dead Press album. Unfortunately, they kind of disappeared after that album.
Speaker 1: I mean, I always wondered what the hell happened. I
Speaker 1: ran into uh into into stick Man and Whole Foods.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask him, like I was. I was
Speaker 1: star struck, so I couldn't get that far. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to be like grou But like when you're talking
Speaker 1: about that young thug ship where you know he's marching
Speaker 1: the streets, but the music is beat etera. It's like
Speaker 1: when you listen to RBG, whereas they're making this almost
Speaker 1: party music, but it's talking about ship. Like that's the
Speaker 1: one that had let's go steal credit cards for the
Speaker 1: you know, for the revolutions. That's the one that had
Speaker 1: hell yeah, yeah, okay, yeah absolutely right, yeah yeah, hell yeah,
Speaker 1: hell yeah. It was a b et uncut video. Yeah,
Speaker 1: scattered scattered Acid Booty all in the video, and the
Speaker 1: song is about revolution. The song is completely about The
Speaker 1: song is about stealing credit card and acting like you're
Speaker 1: this white dude, but you're gonna use the money to
Speaker 1: fund the revolution. Like this is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I'm serious with the videos like big big booty porn
Speaker 1: stars in the trap house are happening about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what we need, you know, And and here we
Speaker 1: are to go on, get back into the Young Lords.
Speaker 1: Please nobody get in my comments about like, oh, but
Speaker 1: you know they're young. They're young, you know, because people
Speaker 1: use that young younger killed exactly like that we're talking
Speaker 1: about that, we're making a comparison to these motherfucker's were
Speaker 1: way younger than the people that were that we're talking
Speaker 1: none of these none of these cats affording none of
Speaker 1: these cats happening again when he died. When he died,
Speaker 1: so that means that all the ship, all the ship
Speaker 1: that Fred Hampton was known for, like that the ship
Speaker 1: that Fred Hampton did that made it a big deal
Speaker 1: when he died and made it, like everyone feel like
Speaker 1: a huge sense of loss that motherfucker was doing when
Speaker 1: he was Like come on now, listen, let's stop with that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, let's move on and talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about what the Young Lords actually went out here
Speaker 1: and did. So one of their fame most famed tactics
Speaker 1: is that they undertook a series of occupations to get
Speaker 1: their demands met and the use spaces for their program. So,
Speaker 1: for example, the Young Lords of Chicago stage and occupation
Speaker 1: of the Armadage Avenue United Methodist Church and set up
Speaker 1: programs including community medals and classes and what inside what
Speaker 1: they were calling the People's Church. This is back in
Speaker 1: May nine. United Methodist pastor Reverend Bruce Johnson UM of
Speaker 1: the Northside Cooperative Ministry worked with them to obtain funds
Speaker 1: to support their programs. Actually so they had the support
Speaker 1: of some of the clergy, and the building actually remained
Speaker 1: a church but also served as the Young Lords national
Speaker 1: headquarters for nearly two years. UM. In New York, they're
Speaker 1: up there, all of suit and took over the first
Speaker 1: Spanish United Methodist Church in East Harlem the demand that
Speaker 1: the church get more involved in programs for the poor
Speaker 1: UM and over a hundred members were arrested in their
Speaker 1: two weeks takeover. UM, you know, but thankfully, like blood
Speaker 1: shad was avoided. But in both cities many clergies sided
Speaker 1: with the Young Lords. UM. Reverend David York, who worked
Speaker 1: in the New York office, had been saying, if Jesus
Speaker 1: were alive today, he would be a Young Lord. So
Speaker 1: my question for y'all is, you know, we've been talking
Speaker 1: a lot about whether something like this is possible today,
Speaker 1: but this extends as well to the possibility of an
Speaker 1: alliance between the clergy and gangs like that, that to
Speaker 1: me seems like like no, like but what do y'all
Speaker 1: think is that even? Is that you? Or yeah? I
Speaker 1: like to yeah, like now like they these days, they
Speaker 1: make they make everything, make a dirty money just like
Speaker 1: everybody else. So yeah, but like you know, you church
Speaker 1: programs out here giving out food, doing community meals, trying
Speaker 1: to get kids, you know, backpacks and clothes for school.
Speaker 1: Like do you think that if they saw all like
Speaker 1: the Bloods out here doing the same thing, and the
Speaker 1: Bloods rolled up and was like, yeo, we're trying to
Speaker 1: use your church basement to like do free breakfaits for
Speaker 1: kids three days a week with you. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't want to generalize because like there's many different kinds
Speaker 1: of like theology out there, but like, could you first
Speaker 1: see something like that even being possible? Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean if they if they were doing it, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so, if they were doing it, like you know,
Speaker 1: and I mean even just to be fair, like I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure you know we you know, if we really
Speaker 1: sat down and look, we could probably fill up a
Speaker 1: sheet full of examples of bloods and crips and you know,
Speaker 1: street gangs actually doing positive stuff in their community and
Speaker 1: getting the support of the community. You know, it might
Speaker 1: be on like a real, real localized level, localized scale
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, but I'm sure we could find that.
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of like, what do you do
Speaker 1: to amplify that or what do you do to expand that?
Speaker 1: That's the that's the question. Yeah, I don't know. Man,
Speaker 1: speaking specifically about the church. Um, them occupying the church
Speaker 1: was probably one of my favorite things that the Young
Speaker 1: Lords did, and when they were just like yes, because
Speaker 1: this church was doing nothing for the community, so we
Speaker 1: took it over and now we have medical training and
Speaker 1: free breakfast like that was the dopest ship to me today.
Speaker 1: Could I see that happening? No, I think Pastor would
Speaker 1: call the cops so fucking quick, it wouldn't even be funny.
Speaker 1: I think that most churches, and of course I don't
Speaker 1: want to say all, but most churches, I think they
Speaker 1: would even sit down and have a conversation with these guys.
Speaker 1: And that's that's the biggest problem, because if we really
Speaker 1: are talking about Jesus and all this ship, yeah, Jesus
Speaker 1: would hang out with the young lords. But you know,
Speaker 1: Pastor Fowler ain't hanging out with the young lords, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, that he's not gonna have anything
Speaker 1: to do with that. I guess I should have made
Speaker 1: clear that oftentimes these relationships between the clergy and the
Speaker 1: young lords were coerced, so like they would come occupy
Speaker 1: your church, and after a while the clergy would be like,
Speaker 1: you know what, they're not so bad, and like then
Speaker 1: start to roll with them and like support them and
Speaker 1: help them. But like it wasn't always just like they
Speaker 1: showed up and like nailed the doors of the church
Speaker 1: shot and the pastor was like sick, you know, Like
Speaker 1: all the times it was like a forest relationship that
Speaker 1: ultimately like evolved into an amicable one. I mean that's
Speaker 1: what That's what the young you know, putting that initial
Speaker 1: pressure on them, you know what I'm saying, Like you
Speaker 1: can't avoid us because we're we're in your home. You
Speaker 1: gotta deal with They were doing things that the churches
Speaker 1: were supposed to be doing themselves, Like why are you
Speaker 1: here if it's not to serve the community, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like like it's funny, like real quick,
Speaker 1: when um one of the biggest arguments I ever got
Speaker 1: into when my band was on tour, when we played
Speaker 1: in the place in South Carolina and we were driving
Speaker 1: through the neighborhood and I noticed like every single house
Speaker 1: was just fucking dilapidated. It was just a wreck. They
Speaker 1: had one church in the neighborhood, and I swear you
Speaker 1: should have seen this ship. It looked like it was
Speaker 1: just like an amazing, beautiful mansion of a place. And
Speaker 1: when we played, I said something about that. I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, the people that live in this community,
Speaker 1: do you guys not find it geared that you are
Speaker 1: living in squalor? But the one, the one building in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood that is actually clean and pristine is the church.
Speaker 1: And I was like, is are the people from the
Speaker 1: church actually coming to your neighborhoods and trying to help
Speaker 1: you keep your neighborhood clean? Or is only the neighborhood
Speaker 1: serving the church? Was like, that's fucking weird. And man,
Speaker 1: I got eight the funk up, bro, Like these dudes
Speaker 1: they were not having it. They were just like flipping.
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't understand what I'm saying. That's
Speaker 1: so crazy. And I look at the same type of ship. Today,
Speaker 1: I'll drive through these neighborhoods and I'm just like, damn,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. But the church just looks like everyone
Speaker 1: is doing their part to make sure that it's clean.
Speaker 1: But I guarantee you pastor don't give a fuck about
Speaker 1: the neighborhood around that church. Well, this is one thing
Speaker 1: that's challenged, you know, my faith throughout my adulthood, particularly
Speaker 1: you know, after like two thousand and eighteen, when like
Speaker 1: my aunt got killed, and like we would go to
Speaker 1: church and they'd be like, well, it's a part of it,
Speaker 1: it's part of the plan, and I was like, fuck, no,
Speaker 1: this is a policy failure, like you know what. And
Speaker 1: so like I've heard oftentimes by folks that you know,
Speaker 1: compare the militancy of religious figures in like the Civil
Speaker 1: Rights era versus today when folks have sort of fallen
Speaker 1: back on like, you know, being good in this life.
Speaker 1: But just like chill good because like heaven awaits on
Speaker 1: the other side, so all the injustices you face, like
Speaker 1: you will be your washed clean of you when you die,
Speaker 1: versus like you don't. We don't have to be living
Speaker 1: like this now, like you know, to live a good
Speaker 1: life in service of the people, and the Lord is
Speaker 1: to like get out and fight for something better. You
Speaker 1: ain't gonna wait till you get to heaven. And so
Speaker 1: I feel like that is that is like h an
Speaker 1: extension of that mindset you're talking about, or perhaps the
Speaker 1: basis of it of people are just like it's cool.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna like be nice to everyone, to like
Speaker 1: go to Evan and it's like that is that's required.
Speaker 1: That's really that's all you got. But I mean, people,
Speaker 1: it's people paid a heavy price for fucking with the
Speaker 1: Young Lords. Um, David, I think you mentioned him earlier?
Speaker 1: What's his name? And keep getting lost? Okay wait, okay,
Speaker 1: so so no, no, no, that nigga. What's his name?
Speaker 1: David York? No different guy? Sorry. September twenty nine, Reverend
Speaker 1: Bruce and his wife Eugenia Ramsey or Johnson that we're
Speaker 1: funking with the Young Lords helping them out. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a guy to help fundraise for them, a
Speaker 1: think at the People's Church and Armadig Avenue. Yeah. For
Speaker 1: that guy and his wife got dads of death in
Speaker 1: their home and the case has never been solved. I mean,
Speaker 1: what did they think that there was the reason. We mean,
Speaker 1: what do you think the reason why they got co
Speaker 1: intel pros? I mean you think like a daid, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody you know, I never heard about that. They weren't
Speaker 1: even the only ones. There's another guy that got transferred
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles from I guess maybe either the New
Speaker 1: York or the Chicago office he was working with then
Speaker 1: also got killed, like killed as well, And that's also
Speaker 1: a cold case. They never found out who did it.
Speaker 1: I mean that goes into what you were saying earlier
Speaker 1: about like the acts against them being a lot more
Speaker 1: blatant than it is now than the creep that's happening now.
Speaker 1: So it's like if they're dudes, like obviously you know
Speaker 1: you've got the coin to the coin tel pro. But
Speaker 1: I mean if it's getting down in the straight up
Speaker 1: assassinations and ship, you know, it's like it doesn't get
Speaker 1: any more hand fisted than that ship. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: mean that's another reason why I feel like gangs might
Speaker 1: be a site for like this kind of revolutionary activity
Speaker 1: because you think it's already out here ready, But okay,
Speaker 1: they out here shoot at each other like all this
Speaker 1: crazy ship like you know how talking about spot. It's like,
Speaker 1: this is something that has happened before. If y'all really
Speaker 1: bound that life, you're trying to put it all over
Speaker 1: the line for something, but something good. This question is like,
Speaker 1: how about that life? Are they though? And we've we're
Speaker 1: talking about this before, and we talked about it with
Speaker 1: Mike c Town and Ship, but like, you know, the
Speaker 1: lack of pushback within from just like the I guess,
Speaker 1: the the urban community at large against like some of
Speaker 1: these very direct like physical threats from like right wing
Speaker 1: groups and right wing gangs themselves. We just did the
Speaker 1: episode last week where we were talking about um uh,
Speaker 1: you know Patriot Front and stuff like that. You know,
Speaker 1: the Patriot Front, the Nazi group that marched in Washington
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. You know, they're suspected of
Speaker 1: like having an organized campaign to spread COVID during the
Speaker 1: through black communities during the pandemic like that, like they
Speaker 1: found from their like their their internal documents and chatter
Speaker 1: and Ship like that, like that was something that they
Speaker 1: were doing, like organizing to do, was to go into Chicago,
Speaker 1: go to New Orleans and like a truly actively like
Speaker 1: spread And I'm not like talking about Ship like like
Speaker 1: some of these dudes who are involved with this ship
Speaker 1: have Twitter accounts in YouTube channels that get more views
Speaker 1: and more likes than a lot of rappers. We might
Speaker 1: talk about you know what I'm saying, and it's like
Speaker 1: and and my thing is, it's like, like, the reason
Speaker 1: that makes it difficult for me to imagine some of
Speaker 1: this organization that the Young Lords are doing. The reason
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to imagine it now is because,
Speaker 1: like you said, on just the base level of what
Speaker 1: you guys are already doing, which is beefing with each
Speaker 1: other and ready for war and ready to fight and
Speaker 1: ship like that, it's like that ship is not a threat.
Speaker 1: They're they're not doing that ship in a way that's
Speaker 1: a threat to anybody but their own community, because they're
Speaker 1: not like, hey, we're beefing with Nick Fuentez in these
Speaker 1: fucking neo Nazis that are you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like like I'm not hearing any any I'm not seeing
Speaker 1: anybody make any videos where they're shirtless waving the a
Speaker 1: K around like funk these Nazi niggers. I'm get you, motherfucker,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But you'll see that against
Speaker 1: like other rappers and other people that got beef WITHO
Speaker 1: on Instagram and ship like that. So it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't think the motivation to push back against some of
Speaker 1: these external forces is there on even like a basic
Speaker 1: physical front, let alone to get it to be into
Speaker 1: like some intellectual Hey, we've got to organize and do this,
Speaker 1: and you know what I mean. All I'm saying is
Speaker 1: these cats are already living an imminent threat of incarceration
Speaker 1: every day, of going to jail every single day for
Speaker 1: the ship they're doing, of dying every single day for
Speaker 1: the ship they're doing. So I agree that like the again,
Speaker 1: the political analysis of like who the enemy is isn't there.
Speaker 1: But like if you're already a living on the margins,
Speaker 1: like gonna get picked up at the cops any day now,
Speaker 1: like like why not engage in civil disobedience, like your
Speaker 1: life is just at risk? I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: agree it's not there. It's not there right now, at
Speaker 1: least from you know, we don't know about it. I
Speaker 1: think that these guys are are are typically think thinking
Speaker 1: about tomorrow and the next day and maybe next week,
Speaker 1: so they're not thinking as far as you know, white
Speaker 1: supremacy they're thinking about, like, yo, I gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: feed my family tomorrow or I might get shot on Thursday.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I don't I don't know how feasible
Speaker 1: it is for these guys to just one day wake
Speaker 1: up and be like, all right, yeah, let's go funk
Speaker 1: with Adam Woffin. Like they're not gonna think that way.
Speaker 1: But it would take someone having to go in there
Speaker 1: and really sit down with these dudes and and get
Speaker 1: them to understand, like, these problems that you're having in
Speaker 1: your neighborhood are because there are bigger problems outside of
Speaker 1: your neighborhood that are affecting your neighborhood. But who's gonna
Speaker 1: take the time to do that? And I love you
Speaker 1: for I'm just playing maybe, but I mean I hear you.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to get I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: you're wrong. I don't disagree with you. Um yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's like I everything you said is right. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just like it's it's beef though, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's just that I think that's probably
Speaker 1: the biggest, like one of the biggest like surprise developments
Speaker 1: to the social media age for me is like who
Speaker 1: people choose to respond to and stuff like that, Because
Speaker 1: on one hand, you're right, like a lot of these
Speaker 1: guys are thinking about living tomorrow and they're not thinking
Speaker 1: about these giant, big galaxy brain ideas and ship like that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it's like, you know, if
Speaker 1: somebody leaves the wrong comment on somebody's Instagram, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, it's like motherfucker's can work out the
Speaker 1: time and to to respond and blah blah blah. So
Speaker 1: for me, it's just it's weird because it's not even
Speaker 1: about thinking about concepts of like white supremacy or not,
Speaker 1: Like this is no different than damn how come more
Speaker 1: more caps aren't Like how come more cast didn't reference
Speaker 1: George Zimmerman, you know, like like why isn't he more
Speaker 1: of like a figure that's like reference that people hate.
Speaker 1: Like again, going back to the episode where we're talking
Speaker 1: about like rapperence lines and maybe I'm harping too much
Speaker 1: on rap with this, do you guys think so it's
Speaker 1: I don't think you're harping too much on wrap. I
Speaker 1: just think that, um, I think we're making it sound
Speaker 1: like it's a easier easier to do. I think that
Speaker 1: that these guys are are really only worried about what's
Speaker 1: directly affecting their neighborhoods, and a lot of them either
Speaker 1: don't have the time or don't have the resources to
Speaker 1: go and learn about how these other things are actually
Speaker 1: factually affecting their neighborhoods. So when you say, like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: why aren't they you know, talking about this group and
Speaker 1: that group, because that group is not directly in their
Speaker 1: neighborhood saying I'm gonna kill you. You know, white supremacist
Speaker 1: groups are not going to march into these areas and
Speaker 1: talk ship. They're just not. So these street gangs are
Speaker 1: not worried about them right now. They're worried about the
Speaker 1: next street gang that's gonna cause problems. I guess what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is I think that from a strategic level,
Speaker 1: they probably should be worried about those those like because,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's that's I guess That's what I'm
Speaker 1: saying at the end of the time, is like they
Speaker 1: should probably look at them like their street gangs and
Speaker 1: beef with them accordingly. But again, I'm not advocating anybody
Speaker 1: beefing with each other and blah blah blah, like there
Speaker 1: should be real Huh, why not? Because when those consequences
Speaker 1: that come with that, And I'm not I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: sit here and tell somebody else that they should go
Speaker 1: get into some ship and face some consequences that I'm
Speaker 1: not that you're not going to. So I'm not saying
Speaker 1: here like, yeah, man, I'm about to go do a
Speaker 1: drive by on some Nazis. So how come y'all aren't
Speaker 1: doing it like that. I'm not here advocating for that
Speaker 1: sort of ship. It's just it seems like a mission
Speaker 1: to me. It just does. Here's the other reason why
Speaker 1: I think it's hard for people to even imagine is
Speaker 1: that because you don't learn about history of groups like this,
Speaker 1: people don't realize you can actually win something more than
Speaker 1: like a meal on the table tomorrow. So like the
Speaker 1: Young Lords, they did an occupation um at McCormick Theological
Speaker 1: Seminary Um that one resident sixty six d fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for low income housing. Like people can't even imagine
Speaker 1: like actually being able to achieve something like that. They
Speaker 1: uh for for four months um they camped out on
Speaker 1: what they called the People's Park took it over um
Speaker 1: this this spot over at halstet and Army Didge Avenue, UM,
Speaker 1: and they prevented the construction of fucking for profit tennis
Speaker 1: courts on land that was used for low income housing.
Speaker 1: So like, I feel like if people knew that you
Speaker 1: could actually win things if you fought, like they'd be
Speaker 1: more willing to try. But like they purposefully don't really
Speaker 1: teach you about this kind of history because they don't
Speaker 1: want you to know that you can win stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I agree though that that that like somebody,
Speaker 1: it's like some sort of education needs to take place
Speaker 1: if anything like this is even remotely possible. But um program,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, like what type of education do you
Speaker 1: think could be implemented to? I mean, they had all
Speaker 1: kinds of classes. I'm not sure what the content was,
Speaker 1: but I imagine it had to do with political analysis
Speaker 1: and organizing. Like yeah, so like the Black Panthers I
Speaker 1: know a little bit more about than the Young Lords,
Speaker 1: but like they would they had their newspapers, so they
Speaker 1: had like articles in there about various you know, organizing
Speaker 1: projects of their's and and reasons why everything is so fucked,
Speaker 1: you know, like explaining the relationship with the government, capital
Speaker 1: into imperialism, etcetera. To like help people understand why things
Speaker 1: were they were the way they were. Um. They also
Speaker 1: you know, just give out books books to people and
Speaker 1: people just you know, have have reading clubs where people
Speaker 1: just discussed books and things like that. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't really have the answer, but um, I believe it's possible.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about for example, the uprising last summer,
Speaker 1: so many people were just learning from like Instagram, like Instagram,
Speaker 1: intrographics and ship like using social media to create material reels,
Speaker 1: you know, go on live on Instagram talking to people
Speaker 1: about issues some um as a new way to engage
Speaker 1: in that kind of nass political education. I think good
Speaker 1: things around but but um so, then the Young Lords
Speaker 1: and New York and Chicago continue to grow and influence
Speaker 1: and numbers until about NKA three and they joined up
Speaker 1: with joint forces with Fred Hampton as y'all know, and
Speaker 1: the Young Patriots Organization, which interestingly was a white working
Speaker 1: class group that had once used the Confederate flag as
Speaker 1: their symbol, but came together with the Young Lords and
Speaker 1: the Black Panthers under the Rainbow Coalition to fight poverty
Speaker 1: and discrimination. Together but the powers that be certainly didn't
Speaker 1: like that, because two months later, Fred Hampton got killed
Speaker 1: in the infamous FBI raid, which I swear to God.
Speaker 1: Another thing they don't teach you about history is that
Speaker 1: whenever there's like a multi racial movement for change of
Speaker 1: working class people, that's when they start killing people that
Speaker 1: like Martin Luther King Jr. Coming up on his you know,
Speaker 1: his day on the seventeenth, Like they killed him when
Speaker 1: he was starting to organize white and black people together. Uh.
Speaker 1: All you know, although the whole multiracial working class to
Speaker 1: demand like economic freedom, fucking rainbow coll whch she comes together, Boom,
Speaker 1: Suddenly Fred Hampton is dead. Like there's nothing that like
Speaker 1: the powers that be fear more than people putting aside
Speaker 1: like racial differences or whatever to like fight for ship.
Speaker 1: Like even if you look at you know, the history
Speaker 1: of I guess you could say, like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: let's let's take unions for example, Like, um, when they
Speaker 1: started to have better labor protections, Um, I think it
Speaker 1: was in the New Deal era they specifically excluded like
Speaker 1: domestic workers and farm workers that were disproportionately black. Because
Speaker 1: if everybody got the same stuff, if the white and
Speaker 1: the black people got the same stuff. The white working
Speaker 1: class would like flip out, but they needed to keep
Speaker 1: us divided and conquered, etcetera. Cut this out. This was
Speaker 1: a bad example. But um but I'm telling you, whenever, whenever,
Speaker 1: it really isn't they gotta keep us fighting each other,
Speaker 1: you know, in order, because that then that then it's
Speaker 1: a real threat. We have people coming together cost color lines. Well,
Speaker 1: the one point I wanted to make about that, and
Speaker 1: it might be kind of off topics, so we might
Speaker 1: cut it out. But like I see a lot of
Speaker 1: people like now, like a lot of leftists and ship
Speaker 1: now who make that point. But it's like, I don't
Speaker 1: think like the like the Black Panthers and fred Hamton
Speaker 1: in them, like they were making these like multiracial coalitions
Speaker 1: and stuff like that and putting aside racial differences. But
Speaker 1: it's not like the Black Panthers were like actively trying
Speaker 1: to go like work with white people who hated black people.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Confederate flag was their symbol, but they
Speaker 1: themselves were not like a white supremacist group. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like a white supremacist group was like, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: let's work with the Black Panthers. Now, I mean they
Speaker 1: didn't funk with black people. I'm asking like they were
Speaker 1: like actively like we hate, we don't like black people,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna work with what would you call an
Speaker 1: organization to what would you call an organization today that
Speaker 1: is trying to promote the interests of white people. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, but we're talking about two. I think that
Speaker 1: we got to add the context of the times now
Speaker 1: into that. You know what I'm saying, like if if
Speaker 1: you're if, if you're if, we're like recognizing that it's
Speaker 1: like this was like a like a group back then
Speaker 1: in comparing it with the group now, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know, But I mean again, I honestly don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying this like to be like facetious or
Speaker 1: to like make like a contrarian point. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 1: So if you guys tell me that this was like
Speaker 1: a full on we were a white supremacist group and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, we're gonna make this truce with the
Speaker 1: Black Panthers, even though we hate you guys when we
Speaker 1: hate black people, will make this truce with you for now.
Speaker 1: If that was what they were on, then I don't
Speaker 1: know then in that case, I'm wrong, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: but I don't think they were like you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because I hear a lot of lefties now
Speaker 1: trying to get motherfucker's to work with the alt right
Speaker 1: and no, we should, we should work with the Proud
Speaker 1: Boys and ship like that. It's like, I don't think
Speaker 1: I don't think Fred Hampton was working with the Proud
Speaker 1: Boys type of organization. No, that's totally different. I think
Speaker 1: that the Young Patriots, they weren't necessarily a white supremacist group,
Speaker 1: but they certainly were not a group that was running
Speaker 1: around looking for black people to work with. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, if a random black person just
Speaker 1: happened to show up at one of their meetings, I'm
Speaker 1: sure they'd be like, what the funk are you doing here?
Speaker 1: You know? I think that I think that look like
Speaker 1: imagine if imagine if that January six ship happened, but
Speaker 1: it was all poor white people, all poor black people
Speaker 1: uniting to take over that ship, Like that's the type
Speaker 1: of ship that needs to fucking happen. Once poor white
Speaker 1: people realize they're Niggers who, then this ship will get
Speaker 1: over get a lot better faith and poor white people
Speaker 1: of two thousand twenties. It's not poor white people of
Speaker 1: two They're just not. It's it's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. They just need someone to explain this ship,
Speaker 1: just like I keep saying that they that these street
Speaker 1: gangs needs someone to explain this ship. So do poor
Speaker 1: white people. Poor white people. The reason they're like this
Speaker 1: is because they have some other person that's charismatic enough
Speaker 1: to convince them that all of their problems are due
Speaker 1: to somebody else. But that somebody else is black people,
Speaker 1: is Mexican people, is women. Imagine if they had someone
Speaker 1: that's like, look, these problems are because of these other
Speaker 1: white people that are way richer than you, that don't
Speaker 1: give a funk that you're poor, and they, matter of fact,
Speaker 1: they actually like that you're poor because they can keep
Speaker 1: you uneducated. And if they can keep you uneducated, they
Speaker 1: can keep you fighting with these other black people that
Speaker 1: are also having the same problems that are just I
Speaker 1: agree with that. I just think that they're aware of that.
Speaker 1: By and by and by and large, I think they're
Speaker 1: they're aware. I think the promise of oh, but we'll
Speaker 1: be better off than the blacks is enough for them
Speaker 1: for I think I think they're absolutely aware of their
Speaker 1: economic situation. They're absolutely aware of their status. They know
Speaker 1: the elites are sucking them, and they're like, well, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean if the trade Office that you
Speaker 1: guys get to funk us over, but we get to
Speaker 1: funk over the blacks and the gays, I'll take it like,
Speaker 1: that's what I asked. What I think they're that's what
Speaker 1: I think they're off. I think your average poor white
Speaker 1: person doesn't think that way. I don't think they have enough.
Speaker 1: I don't think they have enough information to think that way.
Speaker 1: I think we're coming back to, like earlier we're saying, oh,
Speaker 1: people are worried about like their next you know meal
Speaker 1: like that people. I like a lot of people, I
Speaker 1: would say probably not even poor white people, like middle
Speaker 1: class white people especially, or a lot of racial anxiety
Speaker 1: about you know, staying above um the you know, the
Speaker 1: real niggers. Um. But yeah, poor white people are probably
Speaker 1: also just were as worried about like getting their next
Speaker 1: box of diapers for their kid or whatever, and not
Speaker 1: thinking like, oh I hate those black people learning like
Speaker 1: you know openly though there are certainly cases of that
Speaker 1: as well. But they think the same way these street
Speaker 1: gangs do. Like these street gangs are like, Yo, I
Speaker 1: can't get ahead because of these niggers on the block.
Speaker 1: I can't get ahead because this gang around the corner,
Speaker 1: these other black people, and these fucking poor white folks.
Speaker 1: I can't get ahead because he's got damn niggers. I
Speaker 1: can't get ahead because he's damn Mexicans. It's like, if
Speaker 1: we were able to convince them that this was not
Speaker 1: the case and these were the actual problem, I just
Speaker 1: don't know if we can convince them of that. Man,
Speaker 1: we can't think you can't. I think that's I'm not
Speaker 1: the rock. The Rock can do it. If you get
Speaker 1: the Rock to go talk to these poor white people.
Speaker 1: Let's get you're right about that, right, But if the
Speaker 1: Rock was to say the wrong thing, that deal's done,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And by rock and by
Speaker 1: wrong thing, I don't even think like like if the
Speaker 1: Rock were to be like, hey, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: the Rock and I've been I've been playing it, smiling,
Speaker 1: and I'm like everybody loves me. I'm a beloved national figure.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I don't. I don't really
Speaker 1: jump too much into politics and take one side one
Speaker 1: way or the other. But you know that Bernie Sanders guys,
Speaker 1: really makes sense about this medicare for all things. It's done.
Speaker 1: It's done. White people don't. White people don't like in million.
Speaker 1: People don't like the Rock no more instantly, instantly, the
Speaker 1: Rock is the only he's not even white. And they
Speaker 1: don't they It's like either they don't know has I mean,
Speaker 1: like just the last election, the Rock made vote for
Speaker 1: Biden video and just what the fund is trumps sucking
Speaker 1: up video, And I mean I read those comments on
Speaker 1: that post. The majority of the people like I thought
Speaker 1: you were one of oz, like I'll never watch another
Speaker 1: Rock movie again, you know, And I'm like taking I'm
Speaker 1: taking the time, I'm wasting, I'm wasting my life to
Speaker 1: actually scroll down these things. And when I find one
Speaker 1: that's like, oh you tell him Rock, I like that,
Speaker 1: it's of note, like oh one of the Rocks fans
Speaker 1: is cool. Okay, you know what I mean? But damn right,
Speaker 1: probably if he was thinking about his career, he probably
Speaker 1: should have come back to himself, Hey, we're we're gonna,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be back with the music discussion right after
Speaker 1: the break. We'll see you guys after the job, all right,
Speaker 1: into the music discussion. So yeah, so in summary with
Speaker 1: we're talking about Young Lords ultimately got co intel prode etcetera.
Speaker 1: We ain't got to get into that depressing ship and
Speaker 1: za I can talk a little bitou hip hop. So
Speaker 1: we got this track by Moral Technique Young Lords UM,
Speaker 1: in which he describes, you know, solidarity with Puerto Ricans
Speaker 1: as a man of Peruvian descent, paranoia about cointel pro,
Speaker 1: targeting critiques of capitalism, imperialism, and then interestingly describes how
Speaker 1: incarceration um could be an illuminating experience UM, similar to
Speaker 1: the sort of revelation that Chacha had while he was
Speaker 1: in prison, and Malcolm X famously also had its in prison.
Speaker 1: But let's let us do it off the coin soul pro, assassinations, aids, epidemic, crack,
Speaker 1: refraction of nation. You know, it's it's though we were
Speaker 1: kind of talking about it earlier. It's one of those
Speaker 1: joints where you know, the song has the name the
Speaker 1: Young Lords and it's a Mortal Technique feature. In about
Speaker 1: like three, Yeah, Pumpkin had three the other rappers or
Speaker 1: four other rappers, and I mean, in my opinion, I
Speaker 1: think the only person who was sticking like hard to
Speaker 1: the cut to the name of the song was probably
Speaker 1: a Mortal technique. We do move your thoughts on that, Like,
Speaker 1: I thought that he was really sticking to the topic
Speaker 1: in terms of actually rapping about the Young Lords at
Speaker 1: least a lot more than everybody else was. So from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, I don't know how effective the song was
Speaker 1: as far as, like, you know, educating people and putting
Speaker 1: them up on the Young Lords and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But I like it when songs have names like this
Speaker 1: and that's not necessarily the focus of the song because
Speaker 1: like for someone like me, especially when I was younger,
Speaker 1: I would be like, Okay, what does young Lords mean?
Speaker 1: And then I would probably try to look it up
Speaker 1: and you know what I'm saying, And then I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like one thing in moral technique has done
Speaker 1: really well is that like interweaving like revolutionary thought and
Speaker 1: thinking and critique in with just treat ship in a
Speaker 1: way that doesn't feel like he's being too pan. I mean,
Speaker 1: sometimes a little pedantic, but it's not like he's beating
Speaker 1: you over the head with like civil rights Ship it's
Speaker 1: just like yo, I was like here on the block,
Speaker 1: like flipa g is like I went to jail. And
Speaker 1: also like here's a little a little something about che Guevara,
Speaker 1: here's a little shot about Malcolm X. What's up? Like
Speaker 1: it does it feels but it doesn't feel very like
Speaker 1: teachery uh. And that's kind of what this song was
Speaker 1: like for me, where he's kind of talking about day
Speaker 1: day of the life, you know, growing up in the barrio, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But then it just like drops these things about like
Speaker 1: fucking perialism, etcetera, which it kind of goes back to
Speaker 1: you were saying earlier about like happens working in the
Speaker 1: video and they're like seeing the credit cards or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like that. It's got a little it's
Speaker 1: like a little you know, political twins to it, but
Speaker 1: it's still a lurs you win with like imagery that
Speaker 1: is familiar if you like. I think that is at
Speaker 1: his best is like when he's when he's just rapping
Speaker 1: and the politics come through like whatever he's rapping about.
Speaker 1: It's most of his songs where he's like sticking hard
Speaker 1: to like a specific political subject and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I like him more like you said, when it could
Speaker 1: sound like he's just rapping street ship or he's just
Speaker 1: spitting battle bars even you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: like peppered in that, you've got like these these little
Speaker 1: these little lines in these little nuggets of like, oh
Speaker 1: he thinks this about that issue. Oh he thinks us
Speaker 1: about that. Oh he's he's bringing awareness to this issue.
Speaker 1: But then overall the song, that's not the intent of
Speaker 1: the song, And I don't know for me it makes
Speaker 1: for a more enjoyable listening experience. Agreed, But hopefully we
Speaker 1: can do another episode more on like the Puerto Rican
Speaker 1: independent Struggle, which is like fascinating, uh, young lords, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they so you know, they were about like
Speaker 1: independence for all colonized people, but particular but you know,
Speaker 1: with various levels to it. You know, they want self
Speaker 1: determination for Puerto Rican communities and Latino communities in America.
Speaker 1: Independence for what is you know, effectively a US colony.
Speaker 1: I mean no, definitely a US colony in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: But then like seeing the similarities and struggles for you know,
Speaker 1: people in Vietnam or various other territories under US occupation
Speaker 1: in various forums being economic or like literally military presence.
Speaker 1: So I mean, like the Puerto Rico independence struggle is
Speaker 1: still ongoing. So this is something that they were like
Speaker 1: about whether people are out here today still like fighting
Speaker 1: for in different ways. There's not like a unified you know,
Speaker 1: there's been various different opinions on what should happen. But
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll come back and talk about that sometime. So
Speaker 1: and Mike before we bounce out, So, what do you
Speaker 1: got going these days? What's up? Um? We're still doing
Speaker 1: dead end stuff. You know. We have like got five
Speaker 1: or six different podcasts going. Um, we don't get to
Speaker 1: do you on all the podcasts? Go ahead? What are
Speaker 1: you about to say? I'm on three of them? Three
Speaker 1: of them? Um, But we don't get to dive deep
Speaker 1: into political stuff like this. You know we have there's
Speaker 1: the mic still on. That's probably the closest thing to
Speaker 1: the media ever. Fire over there right now. Hey, bro,
Speaker 1: we're trying. We're trying. We're trying. But I mean this
Speaker 1: was fun because you know, y'all make me think I
Speaker 1: don't have to think that much when I do shoot
Speaker 1: think that hard? You know what I mean? For coming on? Man,
Speaker 1: where can people find you? Um? You can mostly find
Speaker 1: me with dead in hip Hop so YouTube dot com
Speaker 1: forward slash deaden hip hop, talk about you know, hip
Speaker 1: hop man, talk about rap albums, talk about hip hop culture. Um,
Speaker 1: you can find me on my own ship, Um mike
Speaker 1: ctown dot com, m y k e c t own
Speaker 1: dot com. Um, you can find me talking about other
Speaker 1: ship outside of hip hop, because you know, black people
Speaker 1: are not a monolith and people need to start really
Speaker 1: recognizing that ship. And I want to make a safe
Speaker 1: space for weirdo black kids to not be called brido
Speaker 1: black kids by white people. So come through. Well that's
Speaker 1: what's up, y'all. Make sure you gotta check out that
Speaker 1: in hip hop. Those album reviews are banging. I've been
Speaker 1: watching that in hip hop since they have, Like when
Speaker 1: y'all was having like three views on ship was good
Speaker 1: old days. Yeah, I was watched in that ship. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, Yo, one day, I'm gonna be on that.
Speaker 1: And you've been on there a couple of times, I know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, um, Mariah, we gotta close us off
Speaker 1: the way we always do. Right. Yes, I can do
Speaker 1: some rap music and Mike, you canna drop some bars
Speaker 1: on this rapide for you're gonna we're not gonna get
Speaker 1: the white seats. I mean, if you let me know
Speaker 1: ahead of time. I wrote you a fire sixteen but
Speaker 1: you didn't say nothing. You know what I'm saying. Yet,
Speaker 1: you gotta pay me a rap on the spot. Bro Alright,
Speaker 1: we heard it. We heard it here first, Me and
Speaker 1: Mariah are gonna start to go fund me and you're
Speaker 1: gonna get sixteen bars from Mike Sea Town in the future. Yo, Joel,
Speaker 1: can you drop a beat? Yeah, waiting on reparation, dope
Speaker 1: knife Mike Sea Town, young lords. What They didn't listen
Speaker 1: to the grievances when we was vocal license, So we
Speaker 1: put the petty beef away and started organizing. They was
Speaker 1: picturing it at first, So we hit the war Herst,
Speaker 1: gathering all the troops, and then we started sitting in
Speaker 1: the church. It's waiting on reparations. You better reimburse because
Speaker 1: I eat by you niggas, and I hit you with
Speaker 1: a curse. Now they keep us in the slums or
Speaker 1: the one the cops hunt for. Better pay your homage
Speaker 1: while you think they call us young lords. If you
Speaker 1: really want more, we got it all in spades. Reparations bits.
Speaker 1: You motherfucker's are the page. They want us on our
Speaker 1: hand and knees to put us in the cage. They're
Speaker 1: trying to make a sequel. Call it twenty years of slave. Look,
Speaker 1: get in your place. I'm spin in your face. Want
Speaker 1: to scare white folks more than critical race. And when
Speaker 1: I hear be spent with the rhythm and paste, slap
Speaker 1: you in the mouth and leaf you. Fuck us without
Speaker 1: a taste. Dope, listen dope knife and you have been
Speaker 1: listening to Waiting on Reparations production of I Heard We'll
Speaker 1: see you guys next week. Listen to on Reparations only
Speaker 1: I Heard Radio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.