Speaker 1: This episode is sponsored by FX's Fleischman Is in Trouble,
Speaker 1: starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzie Kaplan, and Adam Brodie.
Speaker 1: The strama tells the story of recently divorced Toby Fleischmann,
Speaker 1: who dies into the world of at bass dating with
Speaker 1: the kind of success he never had in his youth.
Speaker 1: Then his ex wife disappears, leaving him with their two
Speaker 1: children and no hint of her return. Effectus Fleischman Is
Speaker 1: In Trouble, streaming November seventeenth only on Hulu. Welcome to
Speaker 1: PM Mood then No Talking Points, No Bullshit podcast that
Speaker 1: takes you behind the curtain, off the red carpet, and
Speaker 1: to the front lines of progress with change makers and
Speaker 1: innovators that are doing the work to shift our culture
Speaker 1: and expand our social impact. I am so excited to
Speaker 1: welcome to p M Mood, friend, activists, all around, badass
Speaker 1: and now new author Bakari sellers of the book My
Speaker 1: Vanishing Country, a memoir. You're also a CNN political analyst.
Speaker 1: You're also the youngest um a member of the South
Speaker 1: Carolina legislator that was that was ever elected at that
Speaker 1: time twenty two. I don't know how you go about
Speaker 1: getting elected at twenty two. I wasn't electing to do
Speaker 1: anything but tequila, um at that age. Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So I don't feel I don't feel that bad. But Bacari,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? And and you know this this book,
Speaker 1: I'm excited about it. I'm excited because I don't have
Speaker 1: anything hopeful that I'm reading right now because I should.
Speaker 1: That sure is not the news. Um. So tell me
Speaker 1: about the title, about the memoir, about what sparked this,
Speaker 1: and how things have changed, given the the kind of
Speaker 1: the climate that we're in right at the moment. So
Speaker 1: the title My Vanishing Country, it means a few things
Speaker 1: for me. It's about that rural community, that rule upbringing
Speaker 1: that many people have throughout the South, especially these towns
Speaker 1: at once were bastions of upward economic mobility. Those small
Speaker 1: businesses are being shuttered, those manufacturing companies have left. Things
Speaker 1: have changed, and the country that we knew, that country
Speaker 1: living that we knew, is vanishing. And then on the
Speaker 1: fifty view, the fifty thousand foot view, those ideals that
Speaker 1: all of us hold true, you know, not just the
Speaker 1: access to life, liberty and the ability to pursue happiness,
Speaker 1: but also justice and freedom and peace, these not so
Speaker 1: tangible ideals for many people of color, poor people, immigrants,
Speaker 1: those ideals aren't They're vanishing there. They aren't attainable for
Speaker 1: us any longer. And so, you know, I thought about it,
Speaker 1: and my publisher was telling me Patrick, who I love,
Speaker 1: my editor, He was telling me how this book couldn't
Speaker 1: have come out at a better time. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have their dates back. We started talking about it,
Speaker 1: We started having a conversation. You know, Corona is ripping
Speaker 1: the band aid off the issues of systemic injustice and
Speaker 1: racism in this country. Brianna Taylor and a mod Aubury's
Speaker 1: lives were taking from them, one by law enforcement, the
Speaker 1: other in a good old fashioned South Georgia by the
Speaker 1: sun lynching. And I realized that this book is ever
Speaker 1: green because we talk about those issues, we highlight those issues,
Speaker 1: and any time it would have come out, we still
Speaker 1: would have been talking about those systemic injustices. We still
Speaker 1: would have been talking about those lives cut short. And
Speaker 1: so I'm just happy I'll share this with you, Danielle.
Speaker 1: I wasn't trying to write a memoir at thirty three,
Speaker 1: thirty four years old. I wanted to write a political book,
Speaker 1: but no one wanted to buy it. For Tracy Sharad,
Speaker 1: Judith Kerr and Patrick Bass gave me a chance to
Speaker 1: tell my story. I thought it was one of the
Speaker 1: country needed to hear. And I'm really happy that I
Speaker 1: put my trauma, everything I lived through, down on paper
Speaker 1: so that hopefully others can It may not my trauma,
Speaker 1: may not be your trauma, but I believe that if
Speaker 1: we if we try to understand, have some compassionate empathy,
Speaker 1: we can persevere. So I'm hopeful. I have to be hopeful.
Speaker 1: I have sixteen months o twins. They don't deserve Donald
Speaker 1: Trump as president of their United States of America, and
Speaker 1: so I'm hopeful we can change that. You know, what
Speaker 1: I love about your book is that it is to
Speaker 1: me reading it, the child of immigrants did this country.
Speaker 1: My family was born in Jamaica, But it's this idea
Speaker 1: of country and of rural America. And you know, we use,
Speaker 1: as you know, having been a son of the South,
Speaker 1: use a lot of coded language, right, so even just
Speaker 1: in you know, in this past and primary cycle, when
Speaker 1: we are talking about working class Americans or we're talking
Speaker 1: about rural America, it conjures a picture in your mind.
Speaker 1: In the media or the media present this has presented
Speaker 1: this narrative that that is white people right. So when
Speaker 1: we are talking about rural America or real America, we
Speaker 1: are talking about white America. So can you talk a
Speaker 1: bit about what it means to be country, to live
Speaker 1: in the country, to having grown up in rural America
Speaker 1: where you know, we are seeing and have been participating
Speaker 1: in this divide, you know, urban against rural, urban against suburban,
Speaker 1: and all of these things, and black people we live everywhere,
Speaker 1: and yet and yet urban right is the moniker in
Speaker 1: which we are forced to carry as if that's the
Speaker 1: only place that we have ever been. And obviously your
Speaker 1: book goes into great depths into the exploration of that.
Speaker 1: So we give we try to pull that ugly We
Speaker 1: just pull that ugly lie apart that the media and
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans are like trying to try to, you know,
Speaker 1: get us to believe in adhere to that for some reason,
Speaker 1: rural means white, working class means white. No, I say
Speaker 1: that's not the case, because that's not that ain't how
Speaker 1: I grew up. I grew up around the black in
Speaker 1: the black working class. I grew up in rural America
Speaker 1: with black folk. I grew up with the roads from
Speaker 1: the black man, which does not mean black folk live there,
Speaker 1: but the black book talk about the richness of the
Speaker 1: soil from the crops we used to plant. I talk
Speaker 1: about that up bringing, but I also talk about the
Speaker 1: political overlay of living where you don't have access to
Speaker 1: quality healthcare, of living where you have a quarter of shame,
Speaker 1: where you're eating in air or don't work in your infrastructures,
Speaker 1: falling a part of your schools. I talk about living
Speaker 1: in food deserts. I talk about living where you're drinking
Speaker 1: unhealthy water, or you're living next to the brown fields.
Speaker 1: I talk about these things because I want people to
Speaker 1: understand the plight of what it means to be black
Speaker 1: in this country, the plight of what it means to
Speaker 1: be from rural America in this country, in the rural
Speaker 1: America where you may not know. And so I write
Speaker 1: this book saying this. I think when black folk greeted,
Speaker 1: they'll get a sense of pride from you. From New York,
Speaker 1: in Chicago, Philly, you wanted them city. You got your
Speaker 1: people from down South. They from Alabama. Depending on migration patterns,
Speaker 1: they from Alabama, Mississippi, Georga, South Carolina. So you'll get
Speaker 1: a sense of pride. I think white folk reading white
Speaker 1: folk reading this book will get a sense of understanding.
Speaker 1: Bishop Jakes and I had this conversation which is actually
Speaker 1: kind of air on Tuesday night, and he talked about
Speaker 1: the fact that you can teach people geometry, and you
Speaker 1: can teach them science, you can teach them English language,
Speaker 1: which you can't teach them blackness. And I am trying
Speaker 1: to give people our experiences and our trauma so that
Speaker 1: they have understanding. And the only way that you can
Speaker 1: have healthy conversations about race, which I believe my vanishing
Speaker 1: country will spur, is if you is if you have
Speaker 1: some level of understanding. You know, you bring up at
Speaker 1: the at the beginning of our conversation and you talk
Speaker 1: about putting your trauma down on paper. And I often
Speaker 1: think that we as as as as black people, right like,
Speaker 1: our trauma is so embedded in the story of America
Speaker 1: and yet um disconnected from it, right, Um, we are
Speaker 1: so used to seeing our trauma play out as you
Speaker 1: mentioned a Maud Aubrey. How many videos, right do we
Speaker 1: need to see of our bodies being brutalized, right, whether
Speaker 1: it's Mike Brown and being shot and left in the
Speaker 1: street to bleed out for hours in your neighborhood in
Speaker 1: front of your friends and family, whether it is you
Speaker 1: know um Ah Maud Aubrey or or you know Alton
Speaker 1: Sterling or all of these names, filendo castile, all of
Speaker 1: these people. What is it about the expression of our
Speaker 1: trauma that seems to, in your mind, be lost on
Speaker 1: white America in a way that it's it's something that
Speaker 1: they're so used to seeing but not necessarily have the
Speaker 1: ability to connect to. And then also, what do you
Speaker 1: say to those black folks that are just like I'm
Speaker 1: tired of us seeing each other's trauma, and like don't
Speaker 1: share the video, and like stop telling these stories, and
Speaker 1: I want something that is uplifting? What do you say
Speaker 1: to them as well? So, so the first part of
Speaker 1: your question this is about this is the very nature
Speaker 1: and fabric of what this country is. It's the trauma
Speaker 1: of people of color. You know, my father is a
Speaker 1: part of the Imatil generation. He says still is the
Speaker 1: strongest woman in the movement, right because she got it.
Speaker 1: She allowed the world to see her son's face and
Speaker 1: all the brutality beaten, there were no bones left, and
Speaker 1: tack in his face off because he allegedly was about
Speaker 1: a white woman, and we not know that to not
Speaker 1: be true. And so whether or not you' talk abou
Speaker 1: Jimi and the Jackson, you're talking about, maker average, you're
Speaker 1: talking about in it till you understand it, it dates
Speaker 1: back even decades years, centuries before that. The violence and
Speaker 1: the trauma, the imagery of that is seared into our
Speaker 1: collective brains. I think that we have to make sure
Speaker 1: that people in this country that are not us, especially
Speaker 1: white folks, see this trauma, because there is a sometimes
Speaker 1: I believe, a will for ignorance to act as if
Speaker 1: it does not exist. And so the best way for
Speaker 1: me to show you that they are hunting us in
Speaker 1: the street is to show us being hunted for black folks.
Speaker 1: I think we have to understand the necessity. And I'll
Speaker 1: never compel a black person to watch this that doesn't
Speaker 1: want to watch this, because, as I said, my trauma
Speaker 1: may not be your trauma, but we have to have
Speaker 1: some understanding. And there is a level of trauma where
Speaker 1: this may be just too much. And I hear that,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to continue to show these images because
Speaker 1: I think that as painful as they are, I don't
Speaker 1: want these individuals lives or their deaths to be in vain.
Speaker 1: I want to remember them for the life they lived.
Speaker 1: All want us to remember the power in which they died.
Speaker 1: And I also want to try to make sure that
Speaker 1: we ensure we live for them and there doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be another one of them. The latter part of
Speaker 1: the I've failed it because we keep seeing it over
Speaker 1: and over again. But I'm going to keep trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that the last video is the last video.
Speaker 1: I always wonder every time I do watch one, when
Speaker 1: the last? When when it will be a last and
Speaker 1: when it will be enough? I think that what's so?
Speaker 1: I mean, you're there's so many different facets of your
Speaker 1: story that is so incredible, and I think that you know,
Speaker 1: one of them being the fact that you are a
Speaker 1: movement baby. You are you are literally a product um
Speaker 1: of the civil rights movement. And you talk a lot
Speaker 1: about you know both of your parents, but you know
Speaker 1: in particular your father who was a political prisoner, right
Speaker 1: who did um work to stand up for the people
Speaker 1: of South Carolina. To try and desegregate, to try and
Speaker 1: you know, bring a humanization to um, to black folks.
Speaker 1: What does it feel like to at once live that
Speaker 1: legacy that is extended to you by your father, but
Speaker 1: then also explore it in a completely different way, Right,
Speaker 1: like you went inside of government, he was working outside
Speaker 1: of government. But like you need both, you need both
Speaker 1: and and he in his life that the frame you
Speaker 1: have to look at the totality of his life. Because
Speaker 1: I agree with you, I tell people and you'll you'll
Speaker 1: appreciate this. I tell people all of the time, I'd
Speaker 1: rather be considered that Julian Bond than a Barack Obama.
Speaker 1: And you know, people up by, I loved you. I
Speaker 1: love Barack Obama. I know Julian like I know like
Speaker 1: uncle Julian. I grew up with Julian. I've cried with Julian.
Speaker 1: I need crabs with Julian. You know, he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's been at my house before he passed away. But
Speaker 1: Julian came from that struggle, and so I empathized with Julian.
Speaker 1: He came from that struggle, and then he went to
Speaker 1: the Georgia State Senate and he continued to struggle and
Speaker 1: something I talked about him is both Julian should be
Speaker 1: I love John Lewis. Julian should be the United States
Speaker 1: congressman from that district in Atlanta. Had to have been
Speaker 1: a clean your race. And so I think that for
Speaker 1: every Bakari sellers, there has to be a Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter protester are willing to throw a break through the
Speaker 1: side of the building right right. There has to be
Speaker 1: these pressure points. We all, all of us don't play
Speaker 1: the same roles. I think my role is vastly different
Speaker 1: than Philo Bagne, but I think we're both necessary. I
Speaker 1: think my role is different than some of these people
Speaker 1: who are at the forefront of these movements, um, the
Speaker 1: Alicia Garth's for example, who's brilliant. I think our roles
Speaker 1: are different, but they're both necessary. And so my job
Speaker 1: is to lift them up on their leadership platforms and
Speaker 1: push them and push them, and then my job is
Speaker 1: also to listen while they push me. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that it's I think that both and is
Speaker 1: incredibly important. And I know that like with inside you
Speaker 1: know of this movement, we sometimes don't give each other
Speaker 1: a break right where it's like, well, why are you
Speaker 1: trying to go inside and be the man right that
Speaker 1: we're supposed to be fighting against. And then and we
Speaker 1: say to the folks that are out in the streets, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you need to understand how systems actually work
Speaker 1: and how to move policy through in order to get
Speaker 1: what you need. And so we need more of the
Speaker 1: Bakari sellers of the world that have the ability and
Speaker 1: the nimbleness to straddle both. Thank you for that. Thank
Speaker 1: you keep us in your prayers, because sometimes that's straddling
Speaker 1: in the nimbleness. Sometimes your feet get heavy and your
Speaker 1: back gets weary, But especially when you're dealing with some
Speaker 1: of these new characters that are on the opposite side
Speaker 1: of you in this political struggle. Let's talk about those characters,
Speaker 1: shall we. So I am in a struggle place myself
Speaker 1: where I continue to ask myself and probably more so
Speaker 1: over the last several months, but definitely over the last
Speaker 1: three and a half years of this Trump administration, as
Speaker 1: America just continues to show the ugly side of her right,
Speaker 1: I continue to ask myself is America worth salvaging and saving?
Speaker 1: And see, I don't have kids. You have beautiful sixteenth
Speaker 1: month old twins and so children provide a hopefulness, right,
Speaker 1: like a future that you want to create for them.
Speaker 1: But as you know, Barack Obama just gave a commencement
Speaker 1: to the twenty twenty graduates, and for the first time, right,
Speaker 1: we are not leaving the world better right for these
Speaker 1: young people. We're actually leaving them a complete and total disaster, right,
Speaker 1: climate change, increase, racism in, increased disparities, job now, joblessness
Speaker 1: a pandemic, A pandemic, a pandemic. Right, So it's like,
Speaker 1: how how do you reconcile with yourself the idea that
Speaker 1: America is worth saving? Or you know, are we in
Speaker 1: a are we in a space where we should be
Speaker 1: wanting to kind of burn it all down to the
Speaker 1: ground so that we can create something new, because it
Speaker 1: seems to be burning itself up just fine. So when
Speaker 1: I refused to give to allow the kemps that the
Speaker 1: scansis is the Henry McMasters. They take a lot from us,
Speaker 1: but I refused to give them my hope. In my faith,
Speaker 1: I believe in with Abraham Lincoln call the better angels
Speaker 1: of our nature. I believe in that same promise that
Speaker 1: King talked about. But I also know the work that
Speaker 1: it takes to get there, and in this country we
Speaker 1: cannot we cannot, we cannot not articulate the fact that
Speaker 1: we've made progress, but we also have to understand we
Speaker 1: got a hell of ways to go. And so understanding
Speaker 1: this journey for me is looking back and looking at
Speaker 1: and that's what I try to do in my country
Speaker 1: through the lens of those who gave so much. You know,
Speaker 1: I look at Democratic Party politics, politics the lens of
Speaker 1: Fanny Gluh Hamburg and Ella Baker like I was able
Speaker 1: to get on the stage in the twenty sixteen on
Speaker 1: Thursday Night before Hillary Clinton, until the world it would
Speaker 1: not be able to be a Hillary Clinton if it
Speaker 1: wasn't a Carol Mosley Broun. It wouldn't be a Carol
Speaker 1: Mosley bron if it went to show Chis and went
Speaker 1: to Shirley Chishlm, if it wasn't a family lu Hammer,
Speaker 1: Ellie Bake, Ella Baker, and so I just I feel
Speaker 1: like one it's worth salvaging because we cannot let those
Speaker 1: people down with getting so much and the work their work.
Speaker 1: Our work is not yet completed. And you're right, kids,
Speaker 1: change your entire perspective, stady and stokely do not deserve
Speaker 1: to live in a world or Donald Trump is the
Speaker 1: president of the United States. They don't, And so I'm
Speaker 1: not going to. I am not going to. I'm a
Speaker 1: fight like hell to make sure that I don't leave
Speaker 1: them with that and leave them with the remnants of that.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have a lot of listen to the
Speaker 1: four years of Donald Trump will not be as bad
Speaker 1: as the four years of picking up after Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: I want to believe that we have that optimism. I
Speaker 1: want I want to believe that you are totally and
Speaker 1: completely right in that assertion. But I am. I am
Speaker 1: deeply concerned, right, and I think that you know, again,
Speaker 1: my vanishing, vanishing country to me, you know, is kind
Speaker 1: of like the nightmare that we're all living in. Is
Speaker 1: that everything for those of us that believe in democracy,
Speaker 1: you believe in each generation's responsibility to do the work,
Speaker 1: to put in the work so that it is less
Speaker 1: work for the generation that comes behind us, it's hard
Speaker 1: not to wake up every day and feel like the
Speaker 1: country is in fact vanishing. And you know, you talk
Speaker 1: because you come from rural black America, black working class people, right,
Speaker 1: who are all but invisible, right, they're all but invisible
Speaker 1: in this pandemic except for whose toil we wouldn't all
Speaker 1: be able to shell in place, right, got the thesis,
Speaker 1: and it's not the thing. And see, I don't want
Speaker 1: people to think that they're voiceless because they ain't handicapped.
Speaker 1: They have a voice. They just their voices have just
Speaker 1: been unheard. And so there's a big difference between being
Speaker 1: voiceless per saying being unheard. Some people are voiceless than
Speaker 1: the Clemente Pinkneys of the world. I try to give
Speaker 1: his life voice in this book. But for those working
Speaker 1: class people every day that are toiling in the vineyard
Speaker 1: as they say, yeah, this hopefully will be there their elegy,
Speaker 1: you know, and and them having a story that is
Speaker 1: told in one with pride. What do you think is
Speaker 1: one of the most misunderstood things, um, that you that
Speaker 1: your book seeks to tell. What do you think is
Speaker 1: the most misunderstood thing about um? Black people in the South,
Speaker 1: black people in the country and rural America. UM. The
Speaker 1: belief that we are all ascribed to a culture of
Speaker 1: anti intellectualism and we date our cousins like we not
Speaker 1: all fairpoint. We can be country and we can be Bamma.
Speaker 1: We can be proud of that. But it does not
Speaker 1: mean that you're going to pull the wool over our eyes.
Speaker 1: It does not mean that we have not been at
Speaker 1: the forefront of civil rights movement, gay rights movement. We
Speaker 1: have not been at the forefront of fighting for our
Speaker 1: freedom in this country. You know that we have a
Speaker 1: ton of HBCUs that are that are the you know,
Speaker 1: the backbone of our culture of intellectualism. And so that's
Speaker 1: one of the main themes that I want to Rebut
Speaker 1: to be it doesn't mean that you are some bump.
Speaker 1: I think you're proud of your proude for your merchanarity.
Speaker 1: You have a work ethic and motivated and a product.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you have to have that you
Speaker 1: have to carry the weight of that experience with you
Speaker 1: wherever you go? Do it? Is it a burden? Is
Speaker 1: it both a burden and a pride to be able
Speaker 1: to consistently people see you and they see the star
Speaker 1: you know, they seem the glitz and the glamor of
Speaker 1: the CNN and of you know, and of what that
Speaker 1: media shine does. Do you feel that it's a burden
Speaker 1: to continue to have to bring that fullness of yourself,
Speaker 1: to remind people, to teach people about what it means
Speaker 1: to be country, what it means to be rural, and
Speaker 1: what it means being unapologetically black. The answer to the
Speaker 1: question is yes. I talked about it in one of
Speaker 1: the more difficult chapters. Are right. It's called anxiety a
Speaker 1: black man superpower, because I suffer from anxiety. I have
Speaker 1: fears of death and failure. Those fears, they though, they
Speaker 1: push me, they they motivate me. They try to afford
Speaker 1: me to do better, because you do have to carry
Speaker 1: the best example is being on TV. They're on a
Speaker 1: lot of black men on TV. And I say with
Speaker 1: every ounce of humility that I have that you know
Speaker 1: when people see me on TV, they for better or
Speaker 1: for worse. That is the image they see of black
Speaker 1: men when they encounter them throughout the world. And so
Speaker 1: you can't afford to have a down moment. And so yes,
Speaker 1: I am living in my truth. Yes I'm unapologetically black,
Speaker 1: and yes I'm very prideful. And yes that is a
Speaker 1: burden that, combined with my anxiety, makes me an interesting
Speaker 1: virgo to say the least, you know, we we don't,
Speaker 1: we don't often and this is this is I think
Speaker 1: a conversation that is always worth having. And I appreciate
Speaker 1: you know that chapter, that realness, that rawness of sharing. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: we don't get to talk about our trauma. We don't
Speaker 1: even necessarily a lot of times talk about it with
Speaker 1: each other. Do you feel like, not because it's a um,
Speaker 1: not because of the negative connotations of it, but do
Speaker 1: you feel sometimes that if we slow down to have
Speaker 1: those conversations about it, that it will overwhelm us? Because
Speaker 1: that I mean, I'll be honest, That's how I feel,
Speaker 1: which is why I just keep moving. I feel like
Speaker 1: sometimes if I stop, got it. But sometimes you gotta
Speaker 1: slow down. Yeah, sometimes you have to slow down and
Speaker 1: appreciate your culture, the richness of who you are, right,
Speaker 1: that's necessary, I mean, and I mean, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, is we're going through this pandemic. We don't
Speaker 1: have a choice but to slow down. You can't can't move,
Speaker 1: you can't ignore it this right here, and so we
Speaker 1: have to be physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally healthier on
Speaker 1: the back end of this than we where we went in.
Speaker 1: That's those are those are my goals. And so it's tough,
Speaker 1: but the world needs us, me and you to display
Speaker 1: their richness of who we are. And so it ain't
Speaker 1: really no turning that off. In the words of the
Speaker 1: great American poet Christopher While it is also known as biggie,
Speaker 1: we sleep when we die, hmm, I know that's where
Speaker 1: I know. That's hright. What what do you think about
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party right now in this in this moment,
Speaker 1: What do you think about our ability to turn around
Speaker 1: the disaster, the tragedy that is Donald Trump, that is
Speaker 1: the Republican Party. Well, I think I think that one,
Speaker 1: we have to show our level of appreciation and mobilize
Speaker 1: and energized with black women, that with a black female VP.
Speaker 1: I also think you got a message to black men
Speaker 1: because you know, Donald Trump is feeling that space with
Speaker 1: lives and ignorance. But he's feeling that space and Democrats
Speaker 1: for a long period of time simply have taken you know,
Speaker 1: they haven't message to black men, and they've effectively become
Speaker 1: swing voters in this country, choosing either to vote Democratic
Speaker 1: or choose the couch, and many of them stay home. Thirteen.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump has a lot to do with messaging and
Speaker 1: a lot to do with misogyny. But I digress. Um.
Speaker 1: And so, UM, I think that Biden is doing is steady.
Speaker 1: He is a steady hand. Um. I think that's why
Speaker 1: he's the nominee, because he is a steady hand with
Speaker 1: some level of certainty in what you're going to get,
Speaker 1: some level of norm normalcy. I mean, do you remember
Speaker 1: when we could go weeks without even you know, we
Speaker 1: knew Barack Obama's president, but we really hear from him,
Speaker 1: like the world was just sticking along. Yeah. Well, but
Speaker 1: I could go on and with my day to day
Speaker 1: life and I you didn't have to worry about him.
Speaker 1: Time my hee was popping in hydro chloroquin like, um,
Speaker 1: like he confused with hydroxy cutters on like the neck. Um.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, yeah, this is gonna be a close race, man,
Speaker 1: a close race. And so I'm not sure. Um, I
Speaker 1: believe firmly that we will win this race, but it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a close. But also know that I'm the
Speaker 1: same person I thought Hillary Clinton was gonna be president.
Speaker 1: In my say, well, the polls told us that precarring,
Speaker 1: so it was you know, supposed were right though she
Speaker 1: won by three points. Don't make me upset because I'm
Speaker 1: I stay angry. Um, you know I feel what are
Speaker 1: one what are some of the ways? Um? And obviously
Speaker 1: writing My Vanishing Country, well, let me ask you, actually,
Speaker 1: let me not put words into your mouth. Did writing
Speaker 1: this book My Vanishing Country allow you to release, um,
Speaker 1: some of the stress and the strain? Was it? Was
Speaker 1: it cathartic for you? Very much? So? Um, it's cathartic
Speaker 1: for me because I'm probably over overly optimistic at the
Speaker 1: power of my words. To let me have that, because
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, white people gonna read this book. Man,
Speaker 1: Black people are gonna read this book, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be like, okay, right, we can finally begin to heal
Speaker 1: and have some of these conversations we need to have.
Speaker 1: I'm going to hold on to that optimism and try
Speaker 1: to speak it the truth. I'm speaking to power. But
Speaker 1: I don't know my journey is not yet complete because
Speaker 1: you know, again, going back to this family that I'm living,
Speaker 1: I want you know, my wife almost died doing childbirth.
Speaker 1: I talk about that. My daughter had deliver your transplant.
Speaker 1: So we experienced the broken healthcare system. Grew up in
Speaker 1: the poor old South. My dad was shot in prison,
Speaker 1: a good for inclement painting, was shot in a church.
Speaker 1: But then we've had some successes like getting elected, having
Speaker 1: a beautiful family. It's these traumas that require perseverance that
Speaker 1: hopefully people have learned something from when reading My Vanishing Country.
Speaker 1: I'm sure and I'm I'm I'm absolutely certain of it.
Speaker 1: The last question that I always ask folks on you know,
Speaker 1: on PM mood is but I'm going to make it
Speaker 1: a two parter for you because you have twins, so
Speaker 1: I get to do that. The first thing is what
Speaker 1: do you hope for them? What is you? What is
Speaker 1: your What is your hope for them? They are sixteen
Speaker 1: months right, so hope, God willing, they will not remember
Speaker 1: the presidency of Donald Trump and it will be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I was born. I was surround during that time.
Speaker 1: But thank god Daddy went to work and I, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't have to deal with that.
Speaker 1: What do you hope? Um, for them to be free
Speaker 1: to no matter who they love, who they prayed, to
Speaker 1: the color of their skin, they're able to get the
Speaker 1: benefit of their humanity on like Breanna Taylor and unlike um,
Speaker 1: um are very um. That's it. I mean, it's very
Speaker 1: simple for me. That's my goal for them to be free,
Speaker 1: and we have to work really hard. I want them
Speaker 1: to be able to pick up my finishing country one
Speaker 1: day and read it as a fiction and be like,
Speaker 1: I know that I wasn't the flight of that would
Speaker 1: mean because this is that's a long time ago, that's
Speaker 1: not that's not the America who we know today. That's
Speaker 1: my dream and that that's the work that we all
Speaker 1: have to do, including you, Daniel. We're not letting you know.
Speaker 1: Oh I feel please, I know you here now, man,
Speaker 1: I'm here now. And then the actual final question that
Speaker 1: I always ask us on PM mood is how do
Speaker 1: you get in the mood to change the world? Prayer,
Speaker 1: being intentional, listening to some good music, some young jeez
Speaker 1: and some outcasts, best Southern stuff, and get focused on
Speaker 1: going out there in a no words and benjoin elves amazed,
Speaker 1: and all things that you do you do them so
Speaker 1: well that no man living day or yet to be
Speaker 1: born can do them better. Just go try to be great.
Speaker 1: You are absolutely an amazing treasure bookari sellers, thank you
Speaker 1: so much, and you know and thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for being so brave and courageous to put your story,
Speaker 1: your trauma and hopefully you're healing in your book, My
Speaker 1: Vanishing Country, and everyone should pick it up. Thank you
Speaker 1: for allowing me to use the platform. Have a bless day,
Speaker 1: you two. Thank you thanks for listening to PM mood.
Speaker 1: As always, you can hear episodes every week for free,
Speaker 1: and my daily political podcast, Woke a F Daily, is
Speaker 1: on Patreon for just five dollars a month at patreon
Speaker 1: dot com slash woke f. That's five dollars a month
Speaker 1: for five shows a week, so check it out. If
Speaker 1: you're in the mood for more of me, Danielle Moody,
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter and Instagram at D two cents
Speaker 1: d e E two c e nts, and as always,
Speaker 1: stay in the PM mood to change the world.