WEBVTT - Vigilante Injustice 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.560 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.800 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live from our pot 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:22.360 Stream studios in Times Square. Folks, this has been one 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.040 of the darkest weeks that I think that we have 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.000 seen in America since the election of Donald Trump. I 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.720 said that on Woke Wednesday yesterday, and I need to 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.040 repeat it again today. If you are feeling a sense 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:43.040 of anxiety, depression, anger, rage, loss, exhaustion, you are not alone, 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.159 because I'm waking up and going to bed each night 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.599 with a sense of impending doom. I thought that this 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:53.400 was going to be erased when we elected Joe Biden 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.200 in the most historic election that frankly, you would think 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.600 as a democratic nation that we would have sell librated 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.080 the immense and historic turnout that we had in twenty twenty. 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.520 But no, what we have seen since then is a 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.839 punishing of voters. How dare you show up to the polls? 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:16.360 How dare you black, brown, young BIPOC folks think that 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.480 you have a voice in this democracy. You do not. 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.560 Your voice is not valued. You are not wanted here, right. 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.200 That is what the over three hundred pieces of legislation 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:29.840 that have been rolled out across this country. Are telling 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.959 each and every American that is not white, that is 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.279 not straight, that is not male, that is not ciss 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:44.559 right in this country. This week we have seen Texas 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:51.560 become the breeding ground for the Handmaid's Tale. Texas now 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.640 is in a time vortex. What do I mean by that? 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:01.440 They have effectively rolled back the clock, rolled back time 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.760 to the nineteen fifties. Why do I use the nineteen 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.720 fifties as a marker because it was one of the 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:13.160 many egregious markers of violence and threats of violence, of 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:18.519 domestic terrorism that we had ever seen. What happened leading 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:23.080 up to the nineteen fifties begat the Civil Rights movement? 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.000 And what did the Civil rights movement create the Voting 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.800 Rights Act? And why was the Voting Rights Act necessary? 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.400 Because people were being Black people. Let me say that again. 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:39.040 Black people were being brutalized at the polls. Their homes 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.400 were being torched, they were being lynched, they were being 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.520 jailed just for the offense of wanting to have a 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:53.160 voice in our democracy. Effective this week, Texas has done 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:59.800 two of the most outrageous, despicable anti American things that 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:03.800 we have seen in decades and folks, you know the 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.240 kind of shit that we have been living in. And 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.840 so when I say that this is the most despicable 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:15.200 and disgusting shit that we have seen in decades, I 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.160 mean it. What has Texas done? Will let me tell 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:29.040 you effectively? The Supreme Court's in action on Wednesday Tuesday 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:33.720 night actually to intervene in Texas' desire to have a 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:40.240 six week abortion ban, meaning that once a fetal heartbeat 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.680 is detected, a woman can no longer have an abortion 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.120 or a person with a uterus can no longer have 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:53.160 an abortion. Six weeks, folks, is when most people don't 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.800 even know that they are pregnant. Six weeks you may 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:03.680 not have missed a period, depending on your cycle. Also, 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.480 in this law, and this is what I want folks 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:12.200 to wrap your minds around, they have literally set up 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:18.680 vigilante justice in Texas. What does that look like? It 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:23.159 looks like your ability to sue your neighbor in civil 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:28.400 court for up to ten thousand dollars if you think 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.840 that they've had an abortion. You do not have to 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.240 be a member of that person's family. You do not 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.320 have to be the person that got them pregnant. You 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.960 do not even get this, have to even fucking know 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:49.120 the person, But you, as a Texan have the right 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.440 to sue them for having an abortion. Do you know 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.279 who else you get to sue in Texas now that 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:00.240 the Supreme Court has not intervened. You'll get to sue 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:05.240 the uber driver that potentially took said pregnant person to 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:09.760 go and get an abortion. You can sue their potential 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:14.880 family members for having assisted them, either monetarily or with 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:19.440 rides or with support. Do you know what the woman 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:25.039 or person with a uterus can't do? They can't defy 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.159 this law by saying that they are pregnant due to rape. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.640 There is no footnote for that. They can't defy this 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.680 law in saying that this child, this fetus is a 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.919 product of incest. Nope, there is no footnote for that either. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.080 There is only a footnote for quote unquote medical emergencies. 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.120 And I'm wondering who gets to decide what a medical 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.520 emergency is. Is it going to be the doctor or 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.760 is it going to be the judge or the politician 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.480 who gets to decide whether or not your body is 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:05.200 in distress and that this fetus needs to be aborted. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:16.200 Texas is now the first state to officially overturn Roe v. 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:23.279 Wade to essentially set up back alleys where women and 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.159 people with uteruses are going to have to go in 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:31.880 order to effectively take charge of their own bodies. Because 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:36.520 in the state of Texas, right your liberty extends to 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.080 your ability not to wear a mask, but not to 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:45.000 have control over what grows inside of you. You cannot 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.599 wear a mask, which, in doing so, will affect an 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:54.560 entire community of people and potentially kill them. Right, but 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.479 that person has more rights than a woman or a 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.160 person with a uterus deciding they do not want to 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.760 start a family. This is what we are living in 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.320 right now in America. And I want to say this. 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.040 Do not shrug this off and think to yourself, well, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.000 I don't live in Texas, so I don't give a fuck, 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.240 or those people in Texas should just move. That is 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.880 a very privileged and ignorant thing to say. And I 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.440 will call myself out. I have often lambasted the people 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.080 of Texas. I've often lambasted the people of Florida. Mostly 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.520 I'm talking about the right white wing of white evangelicals. 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.920 I'm talking about those folks. I'm not talking about every 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.800 single Texan but I'm talking about the Bible thumpers. I'm 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:43.920 talking about the people that have never read the content 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:45.960 of the Bible but want to beat you over the 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:50.520 head with it. But here's the thing. You cannot blame 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.880 all of the people of Texas. You know why, because effectively, 0:07:54.960 --> 0:08:00.200 over the years, they have been eroding the right to vote. 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.360 And so in a twofer that the state of Texas 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:10.120 has done as the Republican's new Petrie Dish, not only 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:15.760 have they overturned Row, but they have effectively made it 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.040 damn near impossible for people to vote in the state 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:23.640 of Texas. Texas already had some of the most ridiculous 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:28.360 and unnecessary voting restrictions in the country. Well, now everything 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.360 that was instituted in twenty twenty in order for people 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.560 to vote in a pandemic such as twenty four hour voting, 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.920 such as drive through polls, such as more drop boxes 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.240 for it to be convenient for you to be able 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.920 to drop off your ballot. You will no longer be 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.440 able to send out absentee ballots without there being a 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:52.440 specific request. You will also be able to criminally and 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:58.480 civilly sue posters. Let me say that again. You will 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:05.560 be able to criminally and civilly sue polsters. People who 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:10.640 are volunteering and doing a public service to make sure 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.440 that we have free and fair elections are now going 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:22.280 to be under a microscope and potentially sued for the 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.680 way that they are counting the ballots or the way 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.760 that people perceive them to be counting the ballots or not. 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:36.199 Texas is the beginning, not the end. Texas is going 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.720 to be the norm, not the outlier. And so when 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.320 we shrug things off and we say, well, this doesn't 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.640 affect me, we are not fully paying attention. It's the 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.560 same way that back in twenty twenty when we saw 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.760 the beginnings of things happening in China and we're like, oh, 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.679 well that sucks because stars never came here. So we 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.280 were like, oh, we're good. That's not the world that 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:04.199 we live in. More, what is effectively happening in Wuhan 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.440 is effectively going to happen in the United States. What 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.760 is happening in Texas will happen everywhere. What is transpiring 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:17.960 in India will get to your front door, whether we 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.280 like it or not. We are interconnected as a globe, 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:29.400 and we are so disconnected as a country. Republicans have 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:34.200 been waging a war on America for decades, but Democrats 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.360 have been paying attention to all of the wrong things. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.880 You see, for decades, Republicans have looked at the courts 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.720 for what The courts are the last bastion for where 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.559 people get their rights. You see, we may create policies 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:54.800 that then turn into laws. But if you effectively look 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.480 at all recent and I mean over the past fifty 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.120 plus years of how progress has been made of how 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:08.479 marginalized communities have been able to ascend to first class citizenship, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.280 it hasn't been through legislation. It has been through the courts. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.280 Brown versus the Board of Education, plus e versus Ferguson 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:25.880 windsor right. You're talking about everything from segregation, abortion to 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:32.560 same sex marriage. All of those rights came through the courts. 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.000 What is it that Mitch McConnell had his eye on 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.000 since before Barack Obama stepped foot into the White House 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:45.280 the courts. It is why he obstructed his ability to 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:50.120 seat a Supreme Court justice. It is why he held 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.959 up and why Barack Obama left office with hundreds, folks, 0:11:55.360 --> 0:12:02.160 hundreds of open federal justice seats. You see, all Republicans 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.240 ever talk about to their constituents are the courts, And 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.200 they have the audacity to tell us that the folks 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.800 that we are trying to seat right are the radical 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:20.200 justices right. Who was more radical than an Amy Covid Barrett? Yes, 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:24.760 I call that bitch, Amy Covid Barrett. Who was more 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:30.920 radical than that? Who was more radical than a Oh, 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:36.800 I don't know, mister, I had a beer, Kavanaugh. You 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.440 have predators that are on the bench that want to 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:45.760 dictate rules to the rest of us. You have evangelical 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:50.240 Christians on the bench that want to essentially set up 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.520 some type of religiosity in America that we all have 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.440 to abide by, because when they talk about religious freedom, 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.080 they are not talking about their Muslim neighbor down the street. 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.959 They could give a fuck about them. When we talk 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:08.760 about religious freedom, it is the freedom for evangelical Christians 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:13.360 to be able to oppress us with their distorted values 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:21.360 and their misinterpretation of their Bible. Their Bible has been 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:28.679 used to justify so much hideousness, domestic violence, slavery, discrimination, 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.000 the beating of children because you believe that you can 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.120 beat the gay out of them. All of these things, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.480 these people have twisted the words in the Bible to 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.040 justify their cruelty and their evil. But you know, I 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:50.520 say this, this country was founded on religiosity and fundamentalism. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:55.040 It was those pilgrims that boarded ships to come here 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:01.320 to get rid of the indigenous population, right to kill 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.960 them off, whether it be through disease, right torture, murder, 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:10.000 trying to enslave them. But then that didn't work. Also 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:14.880 that they could pursue their religiosity. That's why they fled. 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.240 It wasn't about the freedom for the rest of us 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.360 to be able to worship or not worship in the 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.960 way that we want. No, that's not what that means. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.120 If you think that, oh, we have this separation between 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.040 church and state, then you never pay attention to any 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.000 closing or any beginning of any political speech. When we're 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:38.120 talking about God blessing the troops. You've never exchanged currency. 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.400 We're on every bill it says in God we trust. 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.720 We have no separation between church and state in this country. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.040 We never have. It's an illusion, just like our democracy. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.080 You see. The thing about illusions, though, is that if 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.080 you don't recognize what you were looking at, If you 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.160 don't know, then you continue to be bamboozled and fooled, 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.040 just like we are being bamboozled and fooled into believing 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.680 that we are living in a two party system when 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.720 we are not. I say it every fucking day because 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:21.400 I want it to be beaten into our minds, because 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.040 if you do not know what you are dealing with, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:28.560 then you don't understand how to create the fight against them. 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:34.080 We are still using twentieth century tools to wage a 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:41.760 twenty first century war. That's it for today's Woke AF 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:45.080 Daily podcast. To hear more from me, including five full 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:49.160 hour long shows every single week, exclusive guest interviews, and more, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.040 support me on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Woke 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.320 AF Power to the people and to all the people power, 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:58.680 get woke and stay woke as fuck.