Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Monday, January twelfth, and this isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily the episode we planned on recording this evening, but
Speaker 1: our thirteen year old walked into the house a little
Speaker 1: while ago and showed us a video from TikTok that
Speaker 1: made us rethink our plans. And so here we are
Speaker 1: welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ one in
Speaker 1: which we are talking robes about where we are in
Speaker 1: this country in terms of a language which you can say,
Speaker 1: which you can say, what words awful limits and to whom,
Speaker 1: and how much racism you can seem to shout from
Speaker 1: the mountaintops and it not be racism anymore. So let's
Speaker 1: start first with the headlines everybody's been seeing about the
Speaker 1: President and what he said to the New York Times
Speaker 1: about reverse discriptination that's got everybody talking to it.
Speaker 2: Yes, reverse discrimination.
Speaker 3: President Trump said that white people that Civil Rights era protections,
Speaker 3: by the way, have resulted in white people being quote
Speaker 3: very badly treated. Yes, he said that, and he directly
Speaker 3: attributed it to the Civil Rights era, and that it
Speaker 3: would be it became unfair that white people couldn't get
Speaker 3: into certain colleges, they couldn't get certain jobs, so it
Speaker 3: was reverse discrimination.
Speaker 2: And he said that.
Speaker 3: When he was asked about his anti woke policies if
Speaker 3: he was trying to make Americle white, and he just said, well,
Speaker 3: I just want to have people who love our country.
Speaker 1: Okay, So were you surprised to hear the president say this.
Speaker 1: It's making headlines everywhere and folks are writing their opinion
Speaker 1: pieces and people are giving their reactions and their videos
Speaker 1: online at they're posting. But was this it's a shocking
Speaker 1: statement to you?
Speaker 3: It wasn't shocking coming from President Trump now because obviously
Speaker 3: he his big anti woke campaign, his anti DEI campaign.
Speaker 2: All serves that purpose.
Speaker 3: So he's just stating what he's already taken action on.
Speaker 3: He's just explaining the why behind it. But what other
Speaker 3: why could there have been?
Speaker 2: So it's not shocking.
Speaker 3: I think what is shocking, though, is when you start
Speaker 3: to see certain things on social media coming from the
Speaker 3: administrations and particularly from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions.
Speaker 1: It's a Saturday Night Live skit that was shocking to me.
Speaker 2: It's a Saturday Night Lives sit it is it seems
Speaker 2: so surreal.
Speaker 3: So can we let you all know because I hadn't
Speaker 3: seen this until you pointed it out to me, babe.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this is a commission
Speaker 3: that was formed in nineteen sixty five under the Civil
Speaker 3: Rights Act. Well, there is a new commission chair under
Speaker 3: President Trump. Her name is Andrea Lucas, and she put
Speaker 3: this out on x This was a video and it
Speaker 3: was a message to explain what the agency is focused on.
Speaker 3: So Lucas says, this, are you a white male who
Speaker 3: has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex.
Speaker 3: You may have a claim to recover money under federal
Speaker 3: civil rights laws. Contact the EEOC as soon as possible.
Speaker 3: Time limits are typically strict for filing a claim. And
Speaker 3: then she goes on to say the EEOC is committed
Speaker 3: to identifying, attacking, and eliminating all forms of race and
Speaker 3: sex discrimination, including against white male applicants and employees.
Speaker 2: That was shocking to me.
Speaker 1: That last part is usually reserved to call out including
Speaker 1: our Asian American community, including the Latino community, including the
Speaker 1: African American You're not used to seeing. At the end,
Speaker 1: protect everyone, including the white folks, not.
Speaker 3: Even white folks, white men in particular.
Speaker 1: Who have in this country, without a doubt, been the
Speaker 1: top of the top of the food chain.
Speaker 3: Look at every boardroom, look at every person with power,
Speaker 3: and almost all of them singularly are white men.
Speaker 1: And we have now turned white men into a class,
Speaker 1: a protected class, who've been discriminated against, who are being
Speaker 1: discriminated against. This is not new, This is not surprising.
Speaker 1: This is something that Jdvans in particular has talked about.
Speaker 1: But this is something they've been going this direction. It
Speaker 1: is offensive that any time. This is something that we've
Speaker 1: joked about amongst ourselves sometimes as black folks, but it
Speaker 1: is difficult when you make it up the chain, When
Speaker 1: you make it to the upper level, the top floor
Speaker 1: of someplace, and you're the only black person on that floor,
Speaker 1: you look around in other people look at you and think, well,
Speaker 1: the only reason you're here is not because of your ability,
Speaker 1: it's because we need a diversity, right. And this idea,
Speaker 1: now as you talk about white men, is all with
Speaker 1: that undercurrent of if you are black, and if you
Speaker 1: are ahead of that white man, or even equal to
Speaker 1: that white man in your career, then you're actually inferior
Speaker 1: because you're only here because of this or that. That
Speaker 1: part of all this.
Speaker 3: You've kept through another white man from the position he
Speaker 3: rightfully should have been. You never heard it exactly exactly,
Speaker 3: and you spoke about JD. Vance and he went on
Speaker 3: to X and actually, yes, got very specific said he
Speaker 3: blamed all of these diversity initiatives for depriving white men
Speaker 3: of opportunities. His quote is a lot of people think
Speaker 3: DEI is lame diversity seminars or racial slogans at NFL games.
Speaker 3: In reality, it was a deliberate program of discrimination, primarily
Speaker 3: against white men. So instead of it promoting and giving
Speaker 3: opportunity to people who had been shut out because of
Speaker 3: the color of their skin, No, it wasn't that. It
Speaker 3: was to punish, to discriminate against white men. That is
Speaker 3: what our administration is saying and selling.
Speaker 1: You know, I was dragging into a lawsuit in my career.
Speaker 1: I think I told you this when earlier in my career,
Speaker 1: when because a white man sued because he lost his
Speaker 1: job and I got hired, and this was the exact thing.
Speaker 1: I had to sit across from a white lawyer for
Speaker 1: three hours and defend my worth on planet Earth in
Speaker 1: a lawsuit. So this idea really robes is a difficult
Speaker 1: one to stomach. And the way the New York I
Speaker 1: put it down here the way the New York Times
Speaker 1: put it. I'm sorry I lost that. Yes, President Trump
Speaker 1: has equated diversity with incompetence and inferiority. That's it. Wow,
Speaker 1: your equated diversity. If you're diversity, that means you're incompetent
Speaker 1: and inferior. You're only here because somebody needs to meet
Speaker 1: a quota or betaverse. We deal with it every day,
Speaker 1: and something like this in the headline. It's not surprising,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people jumped on it, And I
Speaker 1: just hope we don't because we could have gone on
Speaker 1: and popped off. But I just I hope for better.
Speaker 1: We too often in these cases robes, don't we We
Speaker 1: end up talking about him instead of talking about what
Speaker 1: he said. There's nothing we are going to say. There's
Speaker 1: no way you can clap back or throw any history
Speaker 1: at him or his followers who are going to give
Speaker 1: a damn. It doesn't matter what the numbers show and
Speaker 1: throw the numbers about discrimination. It doesn't matter to them.
Speaker 1: But why aren't we talking a little better? Why not
Speaker 1: have a better and a more civil conversation about that
Speaker 1: thing which is real, which is do you look at
Speaker 1: people on your floor who are black and think they're
Speaker 1: there because they work just as hard or they earned
Speaker 1: it like you did. How do you view people in
Speaker 1: those positions? It happens in every single office, It absolutely does,
Speaker 1: and that it gives us a chance to have a
Speaker 1: more civil conversation instead of just trying to beat down
Speaker 1: something else.
Speaker 3: The President's said, Yes, and look, I do appreciate how
Speaker 3: measured Derek Johnson was in light of all of this.
Speaker 3: He was interviewed by the New York Times, and he
Speaker 3: could have said a lot of things, he's the president
Speaker 3: of the NAACP, but he just simply said, I thought
Speaker 3: he was very measured. No evidence, there is no evidence
Speaker 3: that white men were discriminated against as a result of
Speaker 3: the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Act, and efforts
Speaker 3: to rectify the long history of this country denying access
Speaker 3: to people based on race in every measurable category.
Speaker 1: Yes, and do we is anyone listening? Is anyone a
Speaker 1: part of this conversation right now? Really help the pale
Speaker 1: leaf that white men as a whole have suffered because
Speaker 1: of the Civil Rights Act, that they generally are a
Speaker 1: discriminated against class of people. White men.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they're talking about.
Speaker 3: They are talking about universities and certain quota systems about
Speaker 3: who can get in.
Speaker 2: And how many white men are allowed into.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is all I can see them pointing
Speaker 3: to that and certain yes job promotions. Those are the
Speaker 3: like where you have mandatory you have to fill X
Speaker 3: amount of spaces or titles or positions with certain people
Speaker 3: of color, and so that's what they're pointing to.
Speaker 2: And they just want a merit based system.
Speaker 3: But the problem is is, you know, we're not all
Speaker 3: on even ground, period.
Speaker 1: Man, What are we going to do? Where are we?
Speaker 1: And you mentioned the and I have it up here
Speaker 1: in front of me. I forgot to mention this when
Speaker 1: you were talking about a second ago, and it's still
Speaker 1: here in my face. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that
Speaker 1: you were speaking of. Yes, I happened to go to
Speaker 1: their website today. I just wanted to check it out.
Speaker 1: On their front page. As soon as I clicked on it,
Speaker 1: there was a banner that says DEI related discrimination, What
Speaker 1: to do if you experience.
Speaker 3: It DEI discrimination. So that is a direct shout out
Speaker 3: to white men and encouraging them to report it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 3: I've never I've never seen this before in my life,
Speaker 3: and I honestly never thought I would. It's that shocking
Speaker 3: to me when I actually sit down and think about that,
Speaker 3: that is out there a call a shout out to
Speaker 3: white men, let us know if you've been discriminated against
Speaker 3: because you're a white man. That actually becomes funny to me.
Speaker 3: And maybe people will tell me that that's not funny.
Speaker 3: And I don't know what I'm talking about, but I
Speaker 3: just can base this off of my experience.
Speaker 2: In the world. That's hilarious.
Speaker 1: But that's not all we found. On that Equal Employment
Speaker 1: Opportunity Commission website will tell you what else is there
Speaker 1: and where do we go from here? All right? We
Speaker 1: continue here on Amy and TJ The Big Headlines. President
Speaker 1: Trump does an interview with The New York Times and
Speaker 1: at some point saying that the Civil Rights Act actually
Speaker 1: ended up doing some bad things for white people. It
Speaker 1: treated some people very badly. You know what, we didn't
Speaker 1: mention and I should. I am so so sorry. He
Speaker 1: also said in here, yes quote, I think it was
Speaker 1: also at the same time a pumplished some very wonderful things,
Speaker 1: but it also hurt a lot of people. People that
Speaker 1: did I wanted to make sure we got that in
Speaker 1: the Diday.
Speaker 2: You know, that's a good point.
Speaker 3: I did say that it accomplished some very wonderful things,
Speaker 3: but it also hurt a lot of people. People that
Speaker 3: deserve to go to a college or deserve to get
Speaker 3: a job were unable to get a job.
Speaker 2: So it was it was a reverse discrimination.
Speaker 1: A lot of people. How many does that mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but it's a Somebody somewhere is hearing this
Speaker 1: who is upset about where they are in their life,
Speaker 1: what's happening in their home, the type of home they're in,
Speaker 1: the type of car their drive, and how much money
Speaker 1: they make, and they're hearing their president say, man, this
Speaker 1: is the problem. These folks over here hurt you in
Speaker 1: your career with this stuff. What an easy out. I
Speaker 1: hate that as an He's given too many people an excuse.
Speaker 1: And the president is saying.
Speaker 3: Hey, well yeah, when you also go on a fishing
Speaker 3: expedition to try and encourage a group of people who
Speaker 3: have I'm sorry but generally speaking, have always been in
Speaker 3: a position of power and ask all of them to
Speaker 3: say if they've experienced any discrimination based on the color
Speaker 3: of their skin aka been passed up for a job
Speaker 3: that you thought you deserved, but someone else got it.
Speaker 3: And if that's someone else who got it, wasn't a
Speaker 3: white man, Bam, you were discriminated against. I mean, that's
Speaker 3: a scary sentiment to suggest to someone you can go
Speaker 3: back in your life and think, yeah, you know what,
Speaker 3: I was the most qualified or I was the hardest worker.
Speaker 3: Why did that person why did she get it? Why
Speaker 3: did that person of color get it? And all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, it's not your fault? How tempting? How delicious
Speaker 3: is that to think, Wow, I got robbed of something.
Speaker 2: I'm owed.
Speaker 3: Now I'm not going to feel bad about not getting
Speaker 3: that position. I'm going to say it wasn't my fault.
Speaker 3: It was your fault and your woke policies. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: that's the problem.
Speaker 2: It's very tempting.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and look if they have been folks are
Speaker 1: being told that that is okay, and that is legitimate gripe.
Speaker 1: Right now. The other thing about the equal opportunity I
Speaker 1: did refresh, and there's another banner there. I was. This
Speaker 1: was sport for me, I did say. Now, the other
Speaker 1: ones that report anti American employment bias report anti American
Speaker 1: employment bias under that it says they have resources to
Speaker 1: help employees or job seekers identify and report unlawful national
Speaker 1: origin discrimination. Now national origin discrimination is legit, but they
Speaker 1: focused it all on America.
Speaker 3: So basically, if someone who was born in another country
Speaker 3: gets a job over you, that's anti American discrimination.
Speaker 1: And that's, my gosh, pretty good.
Speaker 2: That is scary.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: You started off.
Speaker 3: The podcast talking about coming home, Yes, Yes, and showing
Speaker 3: us a TikTok tick talker named Benny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, maybe I shouldn't have. The name
Speaker 1: is out there at this point everywhere, and it's everywhere,
Speaker 1: but we had no idea who this guy fifteen years
Speaker 1: old was. Yes, And she explained that some fifteen year
Speaker 1: old was out there and he dropped the N word
Speaker 1: in a in a in a video and it was posted.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't that he was singing along with lyrics
Speaker 3: that that's okay and even you know something like that
Speaker 3: it was. She was like, no, he just said it.
Speaker 3: And the scary thing is the reason why he said he.
Speaker 1: Could say I didn't get I didn't say.
Speaker 2: It's twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: I feel like that is referencing where we are, this
Speaker 3: whole anti woke campaign. You can't tell us what we
Speaker 3: can say. We're not going to be discriminated against us
Speaker 3: white men. If I want to say the N word,
Speaker 3: that's where twenty twenty six, that's where we are.
Speaker 2: That's how I took that.
Speaker 1: It crushed my mood when she showed me that, because
Speaker 1: we were both kind of shocked and the kind of upbeat,
Speaker 1: and I saw it in my just my heart sank.
Speaker 1: The idea of don't know this young man and where
Speaker 1: he's from and what he's about, and if he's a
Speaker 1: good kid, whatever it may be. But to see someone
Speaker 1: say to camera in such an arrogant way, and who's
Speaker 1: only been on this earth for fifty.
Speaker 2: Years, has no idea.
Speaker 1: To say, I don't care. He teed it up, I
Speaker 1: don't care. I'm gonna say it and just.
Speaker 2: Drops y'all can cancel me. I don't care.
Speaker 1: And that's just terrifying that the.
Speaker 3: How suddenly there's a feeling of being emboldened, of being
Speaker 3: supported to say things that normally would have absolutely been
Speaker 3: not just inappropriate, but just devastating.
Speaker 1: Horlmost now celebrated. You know what you made me. Just
Speaker 1: think of the woman can't remember where she was called
Speaker 1: the baby on the playground, the world. What she got
Speaker 1: up to seven eight hundred.
Speaker 3: Just shows you there are, yes, there is there are
Speaker 3: people out there who absolutely are applauding this and.
Speaker 1: Feel fine, why not go ahead dropping in words. No,
Speaker 1: we just wanted to hop on on this one, folks.
Speaker 1: This isn't the one we planned, but thanks Sabine. All Right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hop in here and try to find some
Speaker 1: more story ideas from Sabina on TikTok over now.
Speaker 3: T J.
Speaker 1: Holmes alongside Amy Robot will talk to Yilson