Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody. Pre recording from the Home Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: I hope that you have been enjoying these conversations this
Speaker 1: week on wokaf's Cookout, where we are having conversations with
Speaker 1: some of our favorite guests to delve into this complicated
Speaker 1: week of celebrating America's independence. What does it mean to
Speaker 1: live free in a democracy that is backsliding? What does
Speaker 1: it mean to have patriotism towards a country that has
Speaker 1: done everything and anything that it can to ensure your
Speaker 1: subjugation if you are black, indigenous, or a person of
Speaker 1: color or from a marginalized community, and so on today's episode,
Speaker 1: I am so grateful to be in conversation once again
Speaker 1: with my friend, doctor Christina Greer, who is a political
Speaker 1: scientist and associate professor at Fordham University here in New
Speaker 1: York City. She is also the author of Black Ethnics
Speaker 1: and the co host of faqn YC and host of
Speaker 1: the Blackest Questions on the Grio. In this conversation with Christina,
Speaker 1: and you know, if you've been listening to WOKF that
Speaker 1: Christina joins the show. Ever so often, you know, we
Speaker 1: talk about the complications of being a black woman in
Speaker 1: these United States. How do we keep our sanity, let
Speaker 1: alone have some semblance of freedom in a country that
Speaker 1: wants to right on all of its marble buildings and
Speaker 1: statues and plaques, use quotes and messages about justice and equity,
Speaker 1: and we know that those things are false advertising. Because
Speaker 1: when you just begin to slowly peel back the layers right,
Speaker 1: or just slowly begin to open up your eyes to
Speaker 1: the real America, you know, the the activation that is
Speaker 1: happening behind the curtain, behind the smoke and mirrors, you
Speaker 1: realize that this country, boy, you know, is kind of
Speaker 1: the master at gaslighting. And you know, for those of
Speaker 1: us who have built careers around wanting to perfect our union,
Speaker 1: wanting to educate those to believe that they have the
Speaker 1: power and the ability to shape the future of this country,
Speaker 1: some days, folks are better than others. Some days feel
Speaker 1: a lot better than others. And there are times when
Speaker 1: we're just like, you know what, fuck it, y'all can
Speaker 1: have this mess right, you can burn it down if
Speaker 1: you want to, just leave me the fuck alone. And
Speaker 1: the reality is is that Unfortunately, white Evangelical Christians, the
Speaker 1: far right, the you know, Republican cult party, They refuse
Speaker 1: to leave people alone. We do not live in a
Speaker 1: live and let live society. It's live and let me
Speaker 1: oppress you and contort you into the ideas of who
Speaker 1: you should be, who I think you should be, and
Speaker 1: not who you tell me that you are. And so
Speaker 1: this conversation with my friend, doctor Christina Greer, we talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, her work as a professor in trying to
Speaker 1: shape the minds or open the minds and expand the
Speaker 1: minds of the next generation of political scientists. We talk
Speaker 1: about her ideas around freedom and liberty and equity and
Speaker 1: how we keep our shit together when some days we
Speaker 1: just want to walk out of our front door and
Speaker 1: just you know, give a primal scream. I wish we
Speaker 1: could all just decide on the time of day that
Speaker 1: we would do that and just do it. I think
Speaker 1: it would do us all a great deal of good.
Speaker 1: I hope that you enjoy this conversation between myself and Christina. Folks,
Speaker 1: you know, whenever I have the opportunity to rope in
Speaker 1: my friend doctor Christina Greer, Political se Scientists Associate Professor
Speaker 1: at fordom University, an author of Black Ethnics, and co
Speaker 1: hosts of f BAC NYC, and the host of the
Speaker 1: Blackest Questions on the Grio pod. I am overwhelmed with
Speaker 1: joy because we get into so many conversations and Christine,
Speaker 1: I will tell you this, a lot of people will
Speaker 1: tweet me and be like, I love when you have
Speaker 1: a Christina Greer on It's the best conversation. So so
Speaker 1: welcome back to wok F. It is fourth of July
Speaker 1: week and on the pod, we are doing our cookout
Speaker 1: where we are bringing on our favorites and you are
Speaker 1: definitely always at the top of that list. But we
Speaker 1: also want to talk about and have conversations around what
Speaker 1: does it mean to celebrate this country's independence. I have
Speaker 1: a very complicated relationship as well as many people know.
Speaker 1: And you know, the fourth of July, you know, it
Speaker 1: is a bunch of flags waving and people putting out
Speaker 1: their flags and going to old Navy and purchasing flag gear,
Speaker 1: and that he is supposed to identify their patriotism, right,
Speaker 1: but us, you know, black folk in particular, you know,
Speaker 1: just marching in the streets and actually wanting this country
Speaker 1: to live up to this creed. We are not seen
Speaker 1: as patriots. We are seen as antagonists to America's legacy.
Speaker 1: So in this season of America.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: How does the Fourth of July holiday land for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, first of all, black people are the original
Speaker 2: and true patriots of this nation. So there's that. I'm
Speaker 2: still laughing about old Navy because I don't know how
Speaker 2: they got a hold on Fourth of July, but that's
Speaker 2: their thing, but they do. Yeah, it's totally their thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So here's the thing, Like when you rewind and you
Speaker 2: think about the Fourth of July, it's the celebration. You know,
Speaker 2: we basically escaped from the shackles of Britain and let
Speaker 2: them tell it. It's like we're a bunch of like
Speaker 2: criminal derelicts that ran across the ocean and rereak taboc.
Speaker 2: So our origin story has never been correct, Like we've
Speaker 2: just created these false narratives and origins stories. I mean,
Speaker 2: the same way we talk about like Kim Jong il
Speaker 2: and Kim Jong un just created these like fake narratives
Speaker 2: of North Korea. So do we I mean, that's just
Speaker 2: that's just what countries do. Sadly, and we have this
Speaker 2: independence in the shadow of genocide and chattel slavery and
Speaker 2: just real brutality and exclusion. And now fast forward to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, we're supposed to stand outside in line
Speaker 2: for fireworks and celebrate this great nation. Now that being said,
Speaker 2: I do think that, you know, there is a lot
Speaker 2: of potential in this country, but it's because of the
Speaker 2: people who are most abused, who actually have invested in
Speaker 2: this nation to try and make it into the thing
Speaker 2: that it's supposed to be. It's far from the ideals,
Speaker 2: but we have to be realistic to say that we
Speaker 2: have come a very long way. I mean the fact
Speaker 2: that the two of us are not enslaved and we're
Speaker 2: sitting here chopping it up on a podcast. So the
Speaker 2: issue with America is that we have never answered the
Speaker 2: question as to like, who really gets to be a citizen.
Speaker 2: Deep down, we're still kind of grappling with that because
Speaker 2: you know, as I write about black ethnics, as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: you know, black people, it's like we always get to
Speaker 2: be American with a prefix. We don't just have to
Speaker 2: be American, yeah, you know, and lots of other people
Speaker 2: get to be Americans based on phenotype, and we see
Speaker 2: a lot of people are trying their hardest and their
Speaker 2: damned is to try and just be American without whatever
Speaker 2: their ethnic preface prefix will be. But I think we
Speaker 2: still have not really grappled with specifically for black people,
Speaker 2: because there's a there's a definitive dichotomous relationship between black
Speaker 2: people and white people, largely because black people are the
Speaker 2: only immigrant group, migrant group that is a non voluntary immigrant.
Speaker 2: Everyone else came here looking for something. You know, Nikki Haley,
Speaker 2: I see you. So you know, everyone's families, you know,
Speaker 2: chose this country for a reason because they wanted something.
Speaker 2: They believed in the ideals. Black Americans we have a
Speaker 2: different narrative, We have a different relationship with this country.
Speaker 2: So when we think about our citizenship and our quest
Speaker 2: to be included, as we fight for this country, and
Speaker 2: we've been in every single war since the beginning of
Speaker 2: this nation, right so as we celebrate seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 2: you know, we're going to have this big two hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty year anniversary coming up in three years. You know,
Speaker 2: we've fought and died and bled for this country. We've
Speaker 2: been lynched in our uniforms in this country. You know,
Speaker 2: after we came back. We survived atrocities abroad, only to
Speaker 2: come back and you know, be caught up in the
Speaker 2: hand of you know, white domestic terrorism. So on the
Speaker 2: fourth of July, I'm reflecting on all that this country
Speaker 2: has been, all that it could be, and to be
Speaker 2: very honest, And this is one of my bosses told
Speaker 2: me when I worked for the High Commissioner of the
Speaker 2: Gambia in London many years ago, and I was like, oh, America,
Speaker 2: and I was talking crap about America and he was like,
Speaker 2: but it's your country, Chrissy. He's like, why do you
Speaker 2: let them sort of make you believe that it's not
Speaker 2: your country. He's like, you've been there longer than most people.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know your people. He's like, your people
Speaker 2: have built X, Y and Z, your people have toiled,
Speaker 2: your people have actually helped the country move forward, So
Speaker 2: why would you abandon something that is rightfully yours? And
Speaker 2: so I always remember that conversation from nineteen ninety eight,
Speaker 2: and I really try and remember, like, yeah, this is
Speaker 2: my country, and like my ancestors actually have contributed more
Speaker 2: than most and sacrificed more than most. Right, so I
Speaker 2: actually am allowed to celebrate how I feel like it.
Speaker 2: And part of being an American without a prefix, all
Speaker 2: with the prefix, is that I get to celebrate the
Speaker 2: fourth of July however I see fit and however my
Speaker 2: spirit moves me that day. And so if I feel
Speaker 2: like going to a cookout, sure, if I feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, hanging out with friends and seeing fireworks, sure
Speaker 2: if I feel like reading you know, sol on ice
Speaker 2: and sitting at home and you know, reading black literature
Speaker 2: and not acknowledging the jolly forth other than the fact
Speaker 2: that I can't go to the post office. That's my
Speaker 2: prerogative too. So I think I'm just sitting in my
Speaker 2: feelings as to where this country has gone and all
Speaker 2: the beautiful things that it has produced, and all the
Speaker 2: ways that it still has to live up to its ideals.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think that that's really interesting. And what you say
Speaker 1: with regard to what a friend of yours has said,
Speaker 1: like it's your country too, like don't make them, you know,
Speaker 1: make you think that it's not. And I think that
Speaker 1: that has been the desire right of white supremacy, which
Speaker 1: is to make it not that we are visitors, because
Speaker 1: a visitor you welcome in, a visitor.
Speaker 2: You no, they treat us like vampires, where it's like
Speaker 2: we're just stuck on the porch.
Speaker 1: Right, we have not invited you in, or you are
Speaker 1: the stain, Right, you are the problem, You are the stain.
Speaker 1: You are to be in the back of the house.
Speaker 1: That's where we that's where we felt comfortable with you,
Speaker 1: with you in the kitchen, not in the front, and
Speaker 1: people knowing that you exist. And you know, one of
Speaker 1: the things that I have done, and I talk about this,
Speaker 1: uh with with my friend the wherever Mark Thompson because
Speaker 1: he has done it on his show is reread right
Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas is you know what to the slave is
Speaker 1: the fourth of July And every year for the last
Speaker 1: couple of years that I have reread that and sometimes
Speaker 1: I've recited it with my sister on Instagram lives, I
Speaker 1: have recited it on this show. It takes me to
Speaker 1: a place where I realize, you know, if not for right,
Speaker 1: if not for the enslaved, right, if not for their
Speaker 1: forced labor, if not for their blood, if not for
Speaker 1: their tears, if not for the ripping away of family,
Speaker 1: if not for all of their sacrifices, where the fuck
Speaker 1: would America have been America would never have been able
Speaker 1: to fight off the British. America would have never have
Speaker 1: been able to claim its independence because it would not
Speaker 1: have had the economic capability to fucking do so. And
Speaker 1: so I get so enraged because I feel like there
Speaker 1: has been a entire industry that has been created to
Speaker 1: make us believe that we do not belong, and all
Speaker 1: we have ever done in this country post our enslavement
Speaker 1: is be that square that is trying to fit into
Speaker 1: this circle, right that it rejects us at every which way.
Speaker 1: And so there is a part of me that I
Speaker 1: remember really being like, you know, my family's Jamaican, right,
Speaker 1: Like my family came to this country in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: Like y'all can have your fucking Fourth of July, Like
Speaker 1: I really don't care, right, but then recognize it, but
Speaker 1: I am American. They came to the United States, so
Speaker 1: that right being something right, And so there is just
Speaker 1: this conflict of I don't want to own this pile
Speaker 1: of shit, right because it's fraudulent and its depiction of
Speaker 1: what democracy and what patriotism is. I feel like the
Speaker 1: Fourth of July to me is a charade, right, It
Speaker 1: is very much a charade, and even after now the
Speaker 1: Congress had wanted to make Juneteenth the federal holiday, while
Speaker 1: we have twenty three states in this country that have
Speaker 1: outlawed thought it is. It's an aggressive insult to our
Speaker 1: intellect and to our ancestors sacrifice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but we know that like this country is one
Speaker 2: a historic two loves the celebration with no real conversation.
Speaker 2: And three you know, when we say American, I think
Speaker 2: the default system is whiteness. So it is incumbent upon
Speaker 2: us to complicate what this holiday is amongst ourselves and
Speaker 2: then you know, share it with the wider audience. I mean,
Speaker 2: it would be nice if white people instigated the conversation,
Speaker 2: but when have we ever seen that? Like that doesn't happen,
Speaker 2: so we have to sort of say, hey, problematic, here's why. Right.
Speaker 2: And again I said this all the time to white
Speaker 2: allies who were just like what should I be doing?
Speaker 2: And I always say, it's like, remember when you're about
Speaker 2: to have a party at the house or cook out
Speaker 2: or whatever, and your mom is running around trying to
Speaker 2: get everything together, right, you have people coming and I
Speaker 2: love it, and it's like, what should I be doing?
Speaker 2: And she gives you that look like, girl, if you
Speaker 2: don't look around and start lifting some things like why
Speaker 2: do I need to tell you to empty these trash cans? Right,
Speaker 2: to cut these vegetables, to make these beds? Like So,
Speaker 2: I just think that in our quest to have these
Speaker 2: hard conversations, continuously hard conversations, right, just about police brutality,
Speaker 2: not just about inequities in school and housing, not just
Speaker 2: about the way that you know, black women get ignored
Speaker 2: in all facets of politics and policy. But in this conversation,
Speaker 2: even in this larger like, while we celebrate this seemingly
Speaker 2: benign thing, it's like, well, why do you think X
Speaker 2: percent of you know, your fellow countrymen think that it's
Speaker 2: a bullshit holiday? Dot dot dot? Look around, answer some
Speaker 2: questions for yourself. Right, read a book. We've got the interweb.
Speaker 2: Like I tell my students all the time, I'm like, hey, y'all,
Speaker 2: I didn't have college. I didn't have internet in the college.
Speaker 2: What I'm like, Right, I did not have the Internet
Speaker 2: in college.
Speaker 1: Okay, barely I see these books behind barely had it read.
Speaker 2: Like these are real, real live books. Right, barely had
Speaker 2: the internet in grad school. So you won't have no
Speaker 2: excuse to not have this information at your fingertips. But
Speaker 2: I think you know, we sort of live in like
Speaker 2: very different countries within the same country, and we also
Speaker 2: subscribe to these narratives. You know, you got somebody like
Speaker 2: ryand de Santis. It's like rind de Santis, you and
Speaker 2: your people just got here. So you tell people leave,
Speaker 2: It's like you just got here. So but we see
Speaker 2: sometimes the newest newcomers are the cruelest, and they're the
Speaker 2: ones that want to cut the latter out from from
Speaker 2: anyone who wants to come right, you know, talking to
Speaker 2: people who used to be undocumented and they're immigrants themselves.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm thinking about Latinos in Arizona right now,
Speaker 2: and it's like, wow, you are really anti immigrant. Job.
Speaker 2: Why don't you ever read like five minutes ago. So
Speaker 2: like we're not having these complicated conversations about how all
Speaker 2: these all these different angles of what it means to
Speaker 2: be in America, what it means to be a citizen,
Speaker 2: are wrapped up or should be wrapped up in conversations
Speaker 2: that we should have on the fourth of July about
Speaker 2: what does it mean to birth the nation from another
Speaker 2: cruel nation? The differences they did all their other nastiness
Speaker 2: on other people's soil, so they didn't have to look
Speaker 2: at it at the kitchen table, whereas America was like, ooh,
Speaker 2: let's try something new, let's do it in our own house, right,
Speaker 2: so that I can get my wife and my kids
Speaker 2: in on the project. The British didn't do that. They
Speaker 2: were like, let's go to the four corners of the
Speaker 2: earth and do horrific things. But then we can, you know,
Speaker 2: take shower, change our clothes, come back, come back to England,
Speaker 2: sit in front of our families and pretend that, you know,
Speaker 2: we're civilized people. In America they were like, no, I
Speaker 2: got to get Missan in on it. And by the
Speaker 2: time my child's four, they fully know how to be
Speaker 2: an enslabor right, they fully understand race and racism and
Speaker 2: the power dynamics they're in and how they can control
Speaker 2: a grown as black man, right as a child a
Speaker 2: white child. So there are different ways that America adopted
Speaker 2: British cruelty. I mean, they're just British people with soil
Speaker 2: and changed their names the same with like Australians. You know,
Speaker 2: it was like a whole bunch of British criminals. We
Speaker 2: get it. So that history as to like the husk
Speaker 2: that we come from, you know, the the nation that
Speaker 2: birthed this nation, it's like, was highly problematic with how
Speaker 2: they treated people in Jamaica for example, right, or people
Speaker 2: in India, or you name said country across the Caribbean,
Speaker 2: across you know the yeah, you name it. When you
Speaker 2: go to the British Virgin Islands. I mean, I told you.
Speaker 2: I was just in Saint Martin. I was like, Wow,
Speaker 2: the French and the Dutch just came up here, couldn't
Speaker 2: get it together, split up a whole island and it
Speaker 2: was just like oughay like and we still run things,
Speaker 2: still rent it. Like you can barely even get property
Speaker 2: on the French side because it's like unless you your
Speaker 2: grandfather ad it your sol And I was like, so
Speaker 2: we think about all these European nations that did this
Speaker 2: stuff and how America's emulated this horrendous behavior. The difference is, yes,
Speaker 2: we have done it. Listen, ask people from Puerto Rico
Speaker 2: and Guam, right, and Saint Croix how America does it.
Speaker 2: But we also have done it on our own terra pharma.
Speaker 2: And for me, July fourth is the time to reflect
Speaker 2: on all the amazing things that this country has produced.
Speaker 2: There was a great play called Ain't No Mo that
Speaker 2: was off Broadway and then it got to Broadway. Unfortunately
Speaker 2: it didn't do very well, but I mean you did okay,
Speaker 2: I guess, but it ended early. But one of the
Speaker 2: beautiful things about this play was they had to, like
Speaker 2: when they were going to Africa, all them on an
Speaker 2: airplane together, everybody, Barack Obama was flaningplane. They couldn't take
Speaker 2: anything that we birthed in America. So it's like, what
Speaker 2: do you mean. We can't take our music, we can't
Speaker 2: take our literature, we can't take our art, Like and
Speaker 2: you realize we've created the cultural schema of the United States, right,
Speaker 2: so many art forms, so many forms of everything, political, thought,
Speaker 2: whatever it may be. It's like it comes from us.
Speaker 2: So for me to turn my back on a country
Speaker 2: that you know, the vast majority of all the great
Speaker 2: things come from people who are you know, I'm descendant of,
Speaker 2: I can't. I can't turn my back on that. So
Speaker 2: like I am kind of proud to a certain extent
Speaker 2: to be part of this really great lineage. It just
Speaker 2: happens to be, you know.
Speaker 1: So fraud.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it feels like polishing in.
Speaker 1: Turt Yeah, and that's exactly right, Like, that's that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: I think that all of the things that you just
Speaker 1: stated I never really thought about in terms of what
Speaker 1: the British Empire did. They did, you know, through manifest destiny.
Speaker 1: They did through you know, and then they come back
Speaker 1: as heroes every time that they return. Look what we have,
Speaker 1: we what we are bringing to your people, and we
Speaker 1: can we can tell this tall tale, this fucking lie,
Speaker 1: not about the raping and the pillaging and the murder
Speaker 1: and the scalping and all of these horrendous things that
Speaker 1: you were doing, the brutalization that you were doing. You're
Speaker 1: just coming back with the goods, and the people are like,
Speaker 1: look at our explorers, and that's the story that they tell.
Speaker 1: But what America did was just like, no, we're gonna
Speaker 1: show you our brutality right in your front yard, but
Speaker 1: then we're gonna spend two almost two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: years lying about it. To what you saw in front
Speaker 1: of your what you saw with your own eyes. It's like,
Speaker 1: are like what it's like that.
Speaker 2: Old joke when you know the woman walks in and
Speaker 2: her husband having sex with another woman, in the bed
Speaker 2: and he's like, maybe, who you gonna believe me or
Speaker 2: your own eyes. It's like that's what America.
Speaker 1: Say every every time, that they're fucking up.
Speaker 2: Me or your eye. And it's like, but here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, as we crack up laughing, I think this
Speaker 2: is also the part of the beauty of it, because
Speaker 2: it's like we've also created a whole new wing of humor,
Speaker 2: like you know, Gallows humor if you will, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that there's a you know, there
Speaker 2: are lots of really interesting books written about like Jewish
Speaker 2: humor and fascinated with humor, and you know, I like
Speaker 2: to hang out with comedians. I just think that they're
Speaker 2: some of the smartest people on the planet when done correctly.
Speaker 2: But you know, the fact that black people can find
Speaker 2: the funny in almost anything, especially dealing in this country,
Speaker 2: comes from knowing who like we we are looking at
Speaker 2: y'all laughing because it's like you really think that, hey,
Speaker 2: you're pulling the wool over our eyes and right like
Speaker 2: you believe that this country is like, oh, she's perfect.
Speaker 2: It's just you all of the end perfect ones. And
Speaker 2: we're like, if you don't get out of here with.
Speaker 1: This, with this bullshit, like take this bullshit out of
Speaker 1: our faces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's but I think that I am just
Speaker 2: how do I say this? There is something so special
Speaker 2: about being black in this country, as crazy as this
Speaker 2: country is, and so I think it's sort of you know,
Speaker 2: like you have a sister, right, So it's like sometimes
Speaker 2: when you look at your parents, who're like, these people
Speaker 2: are crazy, how do we make it out of here?
Speaker 2: Like your mom will say something, it's like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: she is not, and we are like we survived. We're
Speaker 2: in our forties. What how right? I feel like sometimes
Speaker 2: that's like, collectively all like forty five million black people,
Speaker 2: we're looking around like these people are lo co like wps,
Speaker 2: Like what are they doing? And it's like we're all
Speaker 2: in on it. And you know, I talk about this
Speaker 2: in my book. It's like you win some, you lose some,
Speaker 2: you know, Like I think that's kind of our attitude,
Speaker 2: which is like we try our best, but we're very clear.
Speaker 2: You could end up in prison for the rest of
Speaker 2: your life over some bullshit marijuana charge. You can also
Speaker 2: end up, you know, going an ivy League institution because
Speaker 2: someone saw you, you know, one time in a spelling
Speaker 2: bee and here you are right, and then you go
Speaker 2: on and do amazing things and you have amazing friendships
Speaker 2: and you give back and all the things. So I
Speaker 2: you know, I'm cautiously optimistic, I'm pragmatically optimistic. I do
Speaker 2: think that as hard as the road has been for
Speaker 2: black people in this country and a lot of other people,
Speaker 2: but you know, I'm thinking about black people on this
Speaker 2: particular holiday. As hard as the road has been, it
Speaker 2: has been some really beautiful passages on the road and
Speaker 2: some really beautiful people on the road. And I try
Speaker 2: and think of America more as like not polishing a
Speaker 2: turd in the middle of a shit storm. But I
Speaker 2: kind of feel like we're like if you think about
Speaker 2: like eighteen forty nine, you know, like gold Prospectors, it's
Speaker 2: like we're out here and some things in this country.
Speaker 2: Some days it's like, Wow, there's some really great things
Speaker 2: about people in the places in this country. You know, Listen,
Speaker 2: I've driven across country and to all my students, they
Speaker 2: must do that at some point in their lives. It's
Speaker 2: a beautiful nation, like physically just absolutely stunning. And then
Speaker 2: you know, just like the people, there are some really
Speaker 2: really great people in this country who are doing some
Speaker 2: really fascinating work. And then you know, we got to
Speaker 2: kind of sift through all the other nonsense, of which
Speaker 2: there's plenty, sure, But I feel like I don't want
Speaker 2: to only focus on the terribleness that is this country. Granted,
Speaker 2: not to devalue that. I know a lot of people
Speaker 2: are going through just seems like a terrible onslaught all
Speaker 2: day every day. But you know, on this reflection of
Speaker 2: July fourth, I really do think that there's been some
Speaker 2: really great work. There's been some great coalition building. There's
Speaker 2: been you know, like black immigrants troops kind of coming
Speaker 2: together from different countries. There's been people who sort of
Speaker 2: identifying with our struggles. You know, we've seen sort of
Speaker 2: different cities, different groups coming together of different racial and
Speaker 2: ethnic and class backgrounds. So I'm inspired. You know, also,
Speaker 2: as your listeners know, I teach the youth of America,
Speaker 2: I can't help but be inspired. These people are doing
Speaker 2: great stuff. They're curious. You know.
Speaker 1: I think that what you're what you're offering here is
Speaker 1: that you know, if you only want to look at
Speaker 1: the bad, there's plenty of bad to look at. But
Speaker 1: if you spend some time looking for the good and
Speaker 1: reflecting on the good, which is not going to be
Speaker 1: given to you by mainstream media, which is not going
Speaker 1: to be given to you on cable news because that
Speaker 1: is not what sells. But like that, you it is
Speaker 1: up to you, truly to look through the kaleidoscope and
Speaker 1: see what you want to see about this country. I
Speaker 1: think about America really as a mosaic. And why do
Speaker 1: I say that, Because I'm like, this place is shattered, right,
Speaker 1: you know, it is sht like every but you can
Speaker 1: either walk over or choose to walk up with that
Speaker 1: fucking broken glass, or you pick up some pieces and
Speaker 1: you make something better with it, or you make something
Speaker 1: more expansive and different every time because something breaks all
Speaker 1: the time. And that's you know, and that's pretty much
Speaker 1: where we are. It's breaking open people's thought and expanding
Speaker 1: minds and just understanding is I think, is you know,
Speaker 1: is truly the goal of what it is at all
Speaker 1: of us, at least that are conscious, are trying to do.
Speaker 1: So for me, that's that's the perspective that I look
Speaker 1: at it, and it's you know, it's a wild place
Speaker 1: to be. It's a wild place, particularly on these holidays,
Speaker 1: but it is a wild country to to existence. So
Speaker 1: final final question for you, just real quick. In three
Speaker 1: years it will be the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary
Speaker 1: of the founding of this nation or whatever we call it,
Speaker 1: the independence, whatever we call it. Do you think we
Speaker 1: will have a democracy? Then?
Speaker 2: Can't call it? This PhD is a little shaky these
Speaker 2: days on the political sciencetic, but in all seriousness, I
Speaker 2: do think we will. It depends on how we define democracy.
Speaker 2: But I do think that we're going to see some
Speaker 2: real pushback in some conversations about like, so we created
Speaker 2: this nation for what and for whom? Yeah, and what
Speaker 2: have we done with it? And we've squandered a lot
Speaker 2: of time, and a lot of folks are feeling like
Speaker 2: we are moving back to seventeen seventy six. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it's incumbent upon folks. You know, It's like, listen, black
Speaker 2: women can't be wielding this sword and this shield every
Speaker 2: day all day. No, I'm tired of this magic whatever
Speaker 2: you keep calling it, black giral magic. Yeah, Like I'm
Speaker 2: over it right to black throg rest Listen, you know
Speaker 2: I believe in rest. I mean, what's so fascinating is
Speaker 2: you know, I take vacations. So on the one hand,
Speaker 2: people are like, you're always working, Christy, You've got twelve jobs,
Speaker 2: which I do, right, But then when I take a
Speaker 2: two week vacation, it's like, oh my god, two weeks
Speaker 2: what are you doing? Do you ever work? And I'm like,
Speaker 2: which one is? Which one is that?
Speaker 1: Do I always work? Do I never work? That's really fun?
Speaker 2: And guess what it's like, I am unapologetically you know.
Speaker 2: People are all into this like intermittent fasting these days.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm intermittent working. Okay, I'm work than a rest.
Speaker 1: You're gonna teach me more about that when I see you.
Speaker 1: When I see you because of that, Yeah, that is
Speaker 1: that's the space. That's the space that I need to occupy.
Speaker 1: My friend, doctor Christina Greer, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your reflections on this very complicated, layered holiday and for
Speaker 1: making the time to join us. I'm okay, as I
Speaker 1: always appreciate you anytime. That is it for me today,
Speaker 1: dear friends on woke a f as always power to
Speaker 1: the people and to all the people. Power, get woke
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck.