Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to woke F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody, recording from the Long Island Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: you know, I often say to you that you need
Speaker 1: to take a break so that you do not have
Speaker 1: a breakdown. And with all of the compacted crises that
Speaker 1: we are dealing with at this time and making the
Speaker 1: march to mid terms, there never seems like the right
Speaker 1: time to take a break, But I say that you
Speaker 1: have to make that time. And so for me, dear
Speaker 1: friends here on woke F, I am going to be
Speaker 1: taking a much needed vacation so that I can rest
Speaker 1: and recharge as we head into what I believe is
Speaker 1: going to be one of the craziest falls we've ever
Speaker 1: seen in politics. So I am going to be headed
Speaker 1: out on vacation through Labor Day. And do not worry.
Speaker 1: Do not stress, because I have left you with eight
Speaker 1: amazing episodes that we have recorded back in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one with some of the most thoughtful, engaging and insightful
Speaker 1: commentary that looks at our politics, our spiritual nature, our
Speaker 1: emotional well being, and a look inside frankly with some
Speaker 1: of the guests that we are bringing to all of you.
Speaker 1: These conversations have been heard by our amazing Patreon supporters
Speaker 1: who get video episodes every single day because of their
Speaker 1: belief and financial support of woke F throughout the years,
Speaker 1: and so I'm really excited to bring all of you
Speaker 1: across all the platforms that you listen to woke F
Speaker 1: daily on these episodes and these interviews that I think
Speaker 1: will be enticing to all of you. They hit on
Speaker 1: all of the major topics that we consistently discuss here
Speaker 1: on woke F, from racism to gender inequality, to police
Speaker 1: misconduct to wealth inequality, which my God and the need
Speaker 1: and the need and the need upmost for spiritual connection
Speaker 1: and wellness practices that allow us to successfully maneuver all
Speaker 1: of the things that have been thrown at us over
Speaker 1: the past couple of years. And so, friends, while I
Speaker 1: will be out from the show, I will not be
Speaker 1: out of sight for the next several days, and so
Speaker 1: you can continue to follow me on Instagram and on
Speaker 1: Twitter at D two cents, D E two c E
Speaker 1: n TF. Of course, I will be dropping in with
Speaker 1: my two cents and you can check me out on TikTok,
Speaker 1: where I'm sure certain that I will drop a few
Speaker 1: videos in the next couple of days, and there you
Speaker 1: can find me at Danielle Moody Underscore. You know, friends,
Speaker 1: I really hope that you take these last days of
Speaker 1: summer as an opportunity to really enjoy, to really ground
Speaker 1: in your friends, in your family, in the environment, in
Speaker 1: the sunshine right because I believe that what is coming
Speaker 1: and what we talk about on woke f all the
Speaker 1: time and what if, frankly is here is really daunting.
Speaker 1: And if we don't make time and make space and
Speaker 1: continue to tell ourselves that, oh, I'll take a vacation
Speaker 1: another week or another month and keep kicking the can
Speaker 1: down the road of our wellness, we won't have the
Speaker 1: strength that is necessary to deal with the weight of
Speaker 1: what is being thrown at us by the opposition, those
Speaker 1: that oppose democracy, equity, justice, humanity, right, our environments, well being.
Speaker 1: And so I encourage all of you that if you
Speaker 1: do have the opportunity as we wind down the summer,
Speaker 1: that you wind down in a way that makes you
Speaker 1: feel recharged, hopeful about the work that is ahead. Because
Speaker 1: there is work ahead, and there will always be work ahead.
Speaker 1: I don't think that there will ever be a time
Speaker 1: that we put our protest signs down, that we take
Speaker 1: off our marching shoes, that we stop doing the things
Speaker 1: that make us a democracy, stop doing the things that
Speaker 1: make us responsible citizens. But in order for us to
Speaker 1: continue to break through all the obstacles that Republicans and
Speaker 1: dissenters and white supremis put in our way, we need
Speaker 1: we need to take a break, and that is absolutely okay.
Speaker 1: And in order for me to be able to do that,
Speaker 1: I just want to shout out and be ingratitude to
Speaker 1: the team at DCP, to Andrew, who you all know,
Speaker 1: because you get wonderful audio quality and fantastic descriptions for
Speaker 1: giving me the opportunity and the space because I have
Speaker 1: such a great team to be able to take a break.
Speaker 1: So I hope that you all enjoy these next fantastic
Speaker 1: episodes that we have. Do drop your thoughts in the
Speaker 1: comments section, do hit me up in the socials. Just
Speaker 1: don't draw my attention to anything that is terrible because
Speaker 1: I'm taking a break from the news. But dear friends,
Speaker 1: I really do hope that you enjoy these next eight
Speaker 1: episodes and I will see you with brand new episodes
Speaker 1: after Labor Day. Indisputable with Doctor Rasha Ricci is one
Speaker 1: of the latest shows on the TYT network and also
Speaker 1: the fastest growing news show in Amry. On his show,
Speaker 1: Doctor Ricci plays no games regarding policy, delivering a heavy
Speaker 1: dose of fact based truth and penetrating analysis on all
Speaker 1: the top news stories focusing on racism, criminal and social justice, politics,
Speaker 1: police brutality, Karens, and much more. Listeners can also expect
Speaker 1: interviews with fascinating guests, political leaders, commentators, and even fiery
Speaker 1: debates with conservatives on a wide range of policy topics.
Speaker 1: In the Bullpen. It is an indisputable fact that you
Speaker 1: will love this show. Listen to Indisputable with Doctor Rashad
Speaker 1: Ricci on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe
Speaker 1: so you never miss a new episode. Get a behind
Speaker 1: the scenes look at Comedy Central's The Daily Show on
Speaker 1: Beyond the Scenes, an original podcast from The Daily Show
Speaker 1: with Trevor Noah. Every week, host Roy Wood Junior goes
Speaker 1: deeper with the notable guests and spurts from the Emmy
Speaker 1: Award winning series. Together, they use comedy to tackle current
Speaker 1: topics from gentrification to gun laws, and take a closer
Speaker 1: look at how and why these topics matter. Listen to
Speaker 1: Beyond the Scenes from the Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast. New episodes every Tuesday. I am so excited
Speaker 1: to be joined on Woka app daily by my friend
Speaker 1: new author, but new author, Heaven McGee and chairwoman of
Speaker 1: Color of Change, which you guys are very familiar with.
Speaker 1: The online civil rights organization that has been doing the
Speaker 1: work has exposed so much about our broken criminal justice system,
Speaker 1: how GOP funds behind closed doors, our oppression and suppression,
Speaker 1: and so how there I can't express to you that
Speaker 1: when I received your book in the mail, the sum
Speaker 1: of Us, what racism costs everyone, and how we can
Speaker 1: prosper together, I screamed. I literally gave out an audible scream.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell the listeners why. Because I
Speaker 1: was working with Heather four years no three years ago,
Speaker 1: three or four years ago, when I was still doing
Speaker 1: PR and communications at a firm. Heather was a client,
Speaker 1: had a major viral moment and she's like, I got
Speaker 1: to write a book, and now the book is in
Speaker 1: my hand, and I cannot believe it. How are you feeling?
Speaker 1: How are you doing? And then I want to dive
Speaker 1: into the book. Well, thank you for asking that I
Speaker 1: am doing fine personally. I'm feeling good. I am healthy.
Speaker 1: My immediate circle is healthy. You know that's really ultimately
Speaker 1: all that matters in this day and age. But I am,
Speaker 1: you know, just getting my ducks in a row to
Speaker 1: try to tell as many people as possible that racism
Speaker 1: is costing everybody and it's time to stop. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I people people know, and I think I might have
Speaker 1: said this to my producer, you know. I was like, Heather,
Speaker 1: is like, would be if I only had a good angel,
Speaker 1: you would be that you would be that good angel
Speaker 1: because people know the hot shit that I say about
Speaker 1: white people, about white supremacy. And I'm like, so, Heather,
Speaker 1: it would be like the good angel, Heather, it's the
Speaker 1: person you want to talk to about how racism calls
Speaker 1: you me. I'm like, bitch, stop being racist. So talking
Speaker 1: to talk to talk to us about how how you
Speaker 1: grounded this book, because this has been a journey. You
Speaker 1: have experienced a lot, and so I want folks to
Speaker 1: understand how you grounded this journey and came to this
Speaker 1: recognition that racism isn't its harming the people who are
Speaker 1: on the spear side of racism, meaning black people, marginalized communities,
Speaker 1: queer people, but it is also holding It is also
Speaker 1: hurting the person that is actually holding this sphere. So
Speaker 1: talk to us about that. So I came at this
Speaker 1: from an economic standpoint in the sense that I spent
Speaker 1: nearly twenty years trying to advance public policy solutions to
Speaker 1: inequality in our economy. Right, just the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: there's too much month at the end of the paycheck,
Speaker 1: and there has been for most families in this country
Speaker 1: for the past forty to fifty years, and that we
Speaker 1: have I've grown up in the inequality era where everything
Speaker 1: the cost of the basic are too the basic things
Speaker 1: are too high, good secure jobs with benefits are too
Speaker 1: hard to find. Where we're just not investing at all
Speaker 1: in our you know, the things that we need to
Speaker 1: hold in common, our roads, our bridges, our schools. We're
Speaker 1: not handling big things like the fact that we need
Speaker 1: universal childcare, universal healthcare. We're not dealing with a public
Speaker 1: health system to prevent pandemics. We're basically, we can't seem
Speaker 1: to just get it together in what's about the greatest
Speaker 1: country on earth, to just have nice things for our people.
Speaker 1: And that's the way I opened the book. I say,
Speaker 1: have you ever wondered why we can't seem to have
Speaker 1: nice things? And so I spent twenty years trying to
Speaker 1: bring math and statistics and research and litigation into that
Speaker 1: pursuit of nice things for more people, particularly for black people,
Speaker 1: mind people who are particularly ill served by bad economic
Speaker 1: policy decisions, but they also impact everybody who's struggling. And
Speaker 1: I kept coming up against this sort of secret that
Speaker 1: nobody was really talking about, which is that racism is
Speaker 1: always strengthening the hand that beats us every time we
Speaker 1: try to wage a fight, even for policies that would
Speaker 1: impact everyone on and help everyone, like universal healthcare, like
Speaker 1: debt free college, like a fifteen dollars minimum wage, all
Speaker 1: of these things that are purely economic things. They have disparities,
Speaker 1: but it's white voters who keep supporting a party that
Speaker 1: is opposed to all of these things that white people need.
Speaker 1: And so it occurred to me that I was sort
Speaker 1: of coming at this fight with the wrong tool, because
Speaker 1: this really wasn't about dollars and cents and cold, rational
Speaker 1: economic self interest. This was really about deeper questions of
Speaker 1: status and belonging. This is really about a sense of
Speaker 1: threat that the white majority has about our presence and
Speaker 1: our power, and that ultimately they're seeing the world through
Speaker 1: a zero sum prism that white people, the majority of
Speaker 1: white people, see raise as a zero sum game where
Speaker 1: for us comes at their expense. We don't that way,
Speaker 1: The facts don't bear it out. But that's a story
Speaker 1: that they've been sold generation after generation. It's what they believe,
Speaker 1: and it is literally, you know, in the instance of
Speaker 1: the pandemic killing us. And so I went on this journey.
Speaker 1: I left my amazing job running a think tank and
Speaker 1: went on a three year journey across the country, when
Speaker 1: from California and Mississippi to Maine and back again, talking
Speaker 1: to people, learning as much as I could, and that
Speaker 1: led me to this book, The Some of Us. You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's so interesting because one of the things that
Speaker 1: I have been thinking about and talking to various folks
Speaker 1: about it is the idea that white people understand our
Speaker 1: society from a scarcity model, right like there they do
Speaker 1: not exist in abundance, where we believe that there is
Speaker 1: more than enough. We are the richest country. And yet
Speaker 1: if Jane down the street has healthcare and Jerome needs healthcare,
Speaker 1: It's like, well, then Jane's like, well we need to
Speaker 1: just throw out the entire healthcare system because Jerome can't
Speaker 1: have healthcare. That seems crazy right like in and and
Speaker 1: the question that I have been asking folks is, Heather,
Speaker 1: how do you how do you shift that that that
Speaker 1: is something that is fundamental in their thinking, their belief
Speaker 1: their their ideology, their system is the idea that there
Speaker 1: is not enough and that if other people have something
Speaker 1: that I had, then that means that they are taking
Speaker 1: it away. How do you adjust that framing, especially now
Speaker 1: in this very hyper racialized place that we are in,
Speaker 1: um and hyperpartisan place that we are in. How do
Speaker 1: we how do we move that needle? Well, everything we
Speaker 1: believe comes from a story we've been told. And they
Speaker 1: didn't get that idea about the zero sum, you know,
Speaker 1: out of thin air. It is a story that is
Speaker 1: aggressively marketed and sold to white people's a story that
Speaker 1: was created with the foundation of this country to justify
Speaker 1: an economic model based on stolen land and stolen people
Speaker 1: and stolen labor. And you know, very much at that time,
Speaker 1: there was something true about the zero sum right. The
Speaker 1: white slaveholding elite that was the most profited from settler
Speaker 1: colonialism and slavery was saying, you know you, I will
Speaker 1: profit at your expense and I will leave you nothing
Speaker 1: you have. You people of color, can gain nothing from
Speaker 1: your labor. I will take it all, right, And so
Speaker 1: they needed to sell to a white majority. You know,
Speaker 1: the idea that liberation for people of color was going
Speaker 1: to take money out of their pockets, right, And I
Speaker 1: think today the economic bargain of that is no longer true.
Speaker 1: That we're all actually worse off because of these policies,
Speaker 1: that white people are still supporting this sort of national
Speaker 1: stinginess that we have. And so what I've decided that
Speaker 1: we need to tell a new story. I need to
Speaker 1: tell a new story of mutual benefit. The parable at
Speaker 1: the heart of my book, and it's represented on the cover,
Speaker 1: is the story of what happened to towns across America,
Speaker 1: not just in the American South, when in the first
Speaker 1: part of the twentieth century, governments, federal governments and local
Speaker 1: governments would spend millions of tax dollars making these grand
Speaker 1: resort style public swimming pools in the hearts of their towns.
Speaker 1: And it was sort of this like very small scale
Speaker 1: but real kind of symbol of like a government commitment
Speaker 1: to just a good quality of life. Right like in
Speaker 1: the summer, you and your family can just swim, you know,
Speaker 1: you can drop your kids off at the pool and
Speaker 1: it's you know, they didn't have air conditioning, right, It
Speaker 1: was actually sort of important. It was kind of a
Speaker 1: literal melting pot for people to get to know each
Speaker 1: other and get married and form relationships and all of that.
Speaker 1: And for many of these pools it was segregated. It
Speaker 1: was whites only, right. They belief inferiority, Black danger. All
Speaker 1: of that was you know, so strong that we couldn't
Speaker 1: swim in the pool too. And when the civil rights
Speaker 1: movement came along and m courts started to say that
Speaker 1: it was unconstitutional to collect black people's tax dollars tax
Speaker 1: dollars and not let them swim in these public pools,
Speaker 1: so many towns across the country drained their public pools
Speaker 1: rather than folks swim. And it feels to me like
Speaker 1: that it's just a perfect metaphor for where we are
Speaker 1: as a country now. We are all sitting in the
Speaker 1: drained pool, you know, with nothing, with nothing left for ourselves.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting, Danielle, because you know, the Trumpism, all
Speaker 1: of that actually recognizes a piece of that right, like
Speaker 1: it speaks to everybody. Right. The white people knew they
Speaker 1: lost a pool, right, like they weren't missing the point.
Speaker 1: But when Trump's talks about make America great again, he
Speaker 1: is saying, there was a time when you had it
Speaker 1: on easy street. Roman did give you free stuff, and
Speaker 1: there was a fence around it. It was and I have,
Speaker 1: you know, a section of the book where I just
Speaker 1: start listing all the free stuff that white people got
Speaker 1: for free from the government, from the Homestead Act on
Speaker 1: through right. It really is important for us to recognize
Speaker 1: that white people are not stupid. They know that there
Speaker 1: was a time when the government was on their side
Speaker 1: and the life was easier and that low and behold.
Speaker 1: Around the same time that black and brown people started
Speaker 1: asking for rights, it all went away. But that's not
Speaker 1: because black people and brown people started asking for their rights.
Speaker 1: We didn't take the poll. It's not like we like
Speaker 1: picked up the pool. Neighborhood were like, you can't come right.
Speaker 1: It was that powerful elites closed the pool for everyone,
Speaker 1: and then gin end up resentment by the white majority
Speaker 1: that had lost the pool, right or lost their union job,
Speaker 1: lost because we shipped them overseas, not because you know,
Speaker 1: a black person on the line took the job, right,
Speaker 1: or you know, we started to stop investing. Right, the
Speaker 1: tax our tax revenue as a country per capita peaked
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five. Right, we just stopped investing in
Speaker 1: things like free college. Right, we all know, right, college,
Speaker 1: state schools, universities used to be virtually free. Yeah, impel
Speaker 1: grant and it would pay for your living costs. And
Speaker 1: you had tuition free college and debt free college in
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, fifty sixties, seventies. And then once the
Speaker 1: student population began to be more diverse, suddenly the white
Speaker 1: power structure was like, you know, well we don't need
Speaker 1: to invest in this, we need to build prisons instead. Right,
Speaker 1: So white people were still trying to go to college.
Speaker 1: Suddenly are paying you tens of thousands of dollars in
Speaker 1: tuition every year, just like we are. And what I
Speaker 1: found in the book was that when there were places
Speaker 1: where people were able to come together in collective action
Speaker 1: across lines of race, we could. I started to see
Speaker 1: what I began to call these solidarity dividends, which are
Speaker 1: these gains that we can get if we come together
Speaker 1: across race to do things for our mutual benefit, and
Speaker 1: that we can have those, whether it's cleaner air, or
Speaker 1: higher wages, or better funded schools, or an actual universal
Speaker 1: healthcare system or universal childcare. But we have to we
Speaker 1: and by we, I mean Americans and specifically white Americans,
Speaker 1: need to let go of this zero sum approach to
Speaker 1: the world. You know, I think that I've always looked
Speaker 1: at the fact that racism and racial discrimination is white
Speaker 1: people cutting off their nose to spite their face. Right,
Speaker 1: like the country could be rich, air could be deeper if,
Speaker 1: in fact, we recognize that all people's participation at the
Speaker 1: fullest extent that they can participate, matters, and it makes
Speaker 1: us all whole right and better. And there is but
Speaker 1: there is this this feeling that in order and it
Speaker 1: is it is it is our capitalistic structure. It is
Speaker 1: the idea that in the belief that there must be
Speaker 1: a bottom right, there must be a suffering class right
Speaker 1: for us to stand on in order to build up
Speaker 1: what it is that what we perceive as our own
Speaker 1: personal kingdoms. There must be a struggle class. And so
Speaker 1: how how do you how do we right have conversations
Speaker 1: that are not getting letting white people off the hook
Speaker 1: for their racism, but that is telling them that they
Speaker 1: are a part of a farce, They are a part,
Speaker 1: they are actors in a lie, right um, and that
Speaker 1: they have been duped. I mean, listen, everybody wants to
Speaker 1: be the hero in their own story, you know. And
Speaker 1: and part of the issue here is that in order
Speaker 1: to justify the current racial order, no, in order to
Speaker 1: justify racial injustice, in order to justify white privilege, there's
Speaker 1: a whole set of facts you need to pretend not
Speaker 1: to know. You need to dismiss, you need to reject.
Speaker 1: There's a whole sort of other world you need to
Speaker 1: live in in order to justify the current racial order.
Speaker 1: And I talked to some people who are psychologists, who
Speaker 1: like you know, work in these issues, and they're like,
Speaker 1: that's actually like an exhausting mental hijinks to do, right yep,
Speaker 1: I said, I said yesterday, I said, white supremacy is exhausting.
Speaker 1: I am I am tired, do you know what I'm saying? Like,
Speaker 1: I am tired, I am both. I am both underwhelmed
Speaker 1: and overwhelmed. And I like to remind people to always
Speaker 1: say the lie of white supremacy right, because you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, white supremacy suggest that people are actually supreme
Speaker 1: when they are white, that they are actually superior. Of course,
Speaker 1: we know that that's a lie, but we want to
Speaker 1: make sure as we start to use that phrase more
Speaker 1: often that we're making sure that right, we're not talking
Speaker 1: about us a social order that puts white people at
Speaker 1: at the top of it, you know, by violence and impression.
Speaker 1: You know, we're that's that's not necessarily all that's communicated
Speaker 1: when we keep saying white supremacy. I think we keep
Speaker 1: saying white supremacy. It's like, yeah, white people are supreme,
Speaker 1: White people are supretty people's right, right, right, That's a
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a tangent. But I do think
Speaker 1: you're you're exactly right. And for example, I went to Mississippi,
Speaker 1: to Canta, Mississippi and talk to a bunch of workers
Speaker 1: at a Nissan Auto factory that had just the plant.
Speaker 1: The eligible workers that the plant had just voted no
Speaker 1: to join in the UAW the United Auto Workers to
Speaker 1: becoming a unionized car manufacturer. And I grew up in
Speaker 1: the Midwest where like the UAW jobs, the manufacturing jobs
Speaker 1: were like the best jobs, sought after jobs. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's like, why would you give that up if you could? Right, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, it was all in place. And so I
Speaker 1: talked to workers, white black pro union against the union,
Speaker 1: and what they said was that ultimately, particularly in the South,
Speaker 1: union had become sort of a dog whistle for black people,
Speaker 1: for lazy black people who needed the union to kind
Speaker 1: of compensate for some flaw in their character. Right, this
Speaker 1: white guy named Joey said, you know, the white mentality
Speaker 1: is if blacks are for it, I'm against it. I
Speaker 1: ain't voting yes because the blacks are voting yes. Right,
Speaker 1: And of course that meant that nobody had job security,
Speaker 1: you know, good healthcare, benefits of retirement, pension, right, wage increases,
Speaker 1: you know, safety improvements, all the things that they knew
Speaker 1: that everybody wanted. But at the same time, I remember,
Speaker 1: after the first day that I was down there talking people,
Speaker 1: so many of the workers were talking about the way
Speaker 1: it was actually better to be white. At the plan.
Speaker 1: You had what they called the cushier jobs, right, the
Speaker 1: jobs where you could go straight from the plant to
Speaker 1: the happy hour and not had to take a shower, right,
Speaker 1: because you didn't actually work that hard and get up
Speaker 1: work up a sweat, right. I thought that was like
Speaker 1: a beautiful reminder of the difference, you know, And you
Speaker 1: know it was that the white folks would have those
Speaker 1: kinds of jobs and the black people were stuck, you know,
Speaker 1: on the assembly line moving parts. And you know, I
Speaker 1: went home to my hotel at the end of that
Speaker 1: first day and I was like, well, maybe I was wrong,
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not in the white self interests to have
Speaker 1: solidarity with black people if you're getting these little perks, right.
Speaker 1: But then I had to remind myself that nobody had
Speaker 1: a good pension, right, and nobody had job security, right that, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the thing when we talk about white privilege and
Speaker 1: white advantage. It's not that it doesn't exist, of course
Speaker 1: it does, but there's some other level that we could
Speaker 1: all be at in a system where there wasn't this
Speaker 1: like yawn and chasm at the bottom. Right. And I
Speaker 1: also think the other thing about white privilege is that
Speaker 1: most of the things we're talking about, like the privilege
Speaker 1: of thinking that your vote is going to count the
Speaker 1: privilege of, you know, not being afraid of the police, right,
Speaker 1: the privilege of being able to have your name on
Speaker 1: a resume and have it, you know, not be discriminated against.
Speaker 1: All of that our privileges we want everybody to have. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: It's not like it's not like we racial justice advocates
Speaker 1: are like, we don't want white people to have freedom
Speaker 1: from the police. It's like we want us all to
Speaker 1: be free. And so we're not actually, you know, in
Speaker 1: that zero sum ourselves. We don't want to communicate a
Speaker 1: deep story about a zero sum ourselves when we're talking
Speaker 1: about the advantages of racism to whiteness. Basically, we want
Speaker 1: to make sure when we're out here, we're not selling
Speaker 1: racism to whiteness quiet as it's kept right, keeping you
Speaker 1: out of jail, it's keeping food on your table. Oh good,
Speaker 1: you know Jesus. So, yeah, we don't want to do that. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: we don't. Um. You know, one of the things with
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes that we have left that I
Speaker 1: want to shift gears to talk about is what were
Speaker 1: your feelings on one six right, Like, I'm going through
Speaker 1: this with everybody that comes on to the show, because
Speaker 1: I think that it has. It has colored the books
Speaker 1: and the way people are are framing the books that
Speaker 1: they that they wrote before this, that are that have
Speaker 1: come out um the way that it has colored their
Speaker 1: perception of our democracy and what is broken and what
Speaker 1: needs to be fixed. But for you, we're while watching
Speaker 1: it happened and unfold live and what were you thinking
Speaker 1: in that moment? And and now the weeks the week following,
Speaker 1: so I had been so immersed in the research for
Speaker 1: this book and in my journey to write this book
Speaker 1: and the conversations that it wasn't surprising to me. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the lesson. It is only a surprise.
Speaker 1: It can only catch us flat footed and unaware and
Speaker 1: with our guard down and in the you know, the
Speaker 1: instance of the actual Capitol police m outnumbered. Right if
Speaker 1: we do not know the history, and I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about ancient history, I'm talking about fifty years ago, one
Speaker 1: hundred years ago, right when my great grandmother who I
Speaker 1: just saw, you know, was alive. Right, I really think
Speaker 1: it's important. So emotionally in the moment, I both felt
Speaker 1: like this is dangerous and scary, and it wasn't until
Speaker 1: I really thought about what would have happened had they
Speaker 1: actually been able to get their hands on some of
Speaker 1: our leaders right where I really felt fear and anguish,
Speaker 1: But I was not surprised. I wasn't surprised because I
Speaker 1: know that in Colfax, Louisiana, a white mob during reconstruction
Speaker 1: surrounded the courthouse where the election results were to be
Speaker 1: certified because a pro a pro reconstruction governor had been
Speaker 1: had been elected, and black people defended the courthouse, and
Speaker 1: the white mob killed a hundred black people and then
Speaker 1: burned the courthouse to the ground, burned the edifice of
Speaker 1: their own government to the ground, rather than submit to
Speaker 1: a multiracial democracy. And you knew that history and didn't
Speaker 1: deny that history like Republicans try to do all the time,
Speaker 1: then you would have seen this coming. That would you
Speaker 1: would have seen that when the person with the biggest
Speaker 1: megaphone in the entire world said this election was a fraud,
Speaker 1: it was stolen for you, and I need you to
Speaker 1: stand back and stand by that, he was inciting people
Speaker 1: to do just that, and they did. There were pipe bombs, right,
Speaker 1: they would have blown up folks. They would have brought
Speaker 1: Mike Pence out and strung him up ye, And so
Speaker 1: that's what I felt. I felt like, this is you
Speaker 1: know that the past is not even the past, right.
Speaker 1: But I also felt like, I'm not going to let
Speaker 1: this steal what just happened the day before either, which
Speaker 1: was also history rhyming and in fact singing when you
Speaker 1: had the heir to doctor Martin Luther King's you know seat,
Speaker 1: be part of the anti racist majority movement in Georgia
Speaker 1: that basically saved this country right by putting the Democrats
Speaker 1: in charge of the Senate in the middle of this pandemic,
Speaker 1: you know, it changed history. And and I do think
Speaker 1: that there that is you know, that's America. Right. She
Speaker 1: breaks your heart, she puts it back together again, she
Speaker 1: breaks her heart, she puts it back together again. Right.
Speaker 1: There are so many of us who have this commitment
Speaker 1: to this vision of a real new world, right, of
Speaker 1: a new world where we are all truly, truly equal
Speaker 1: and truly free. And we're actually the fact that there
Speaker 1: are so many of us who are from you know,
Speaker 1: every single walk of life on the planet is a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing, and we wouldn't trade it for anything, you know,
Speaker 1: because it helps reveal our common humanity. And you know
Speaker 1: that was Amanda Gorman, our national youth poet laureate. You
Speaker 1: know whats so beautifully right? She too is America and
Speaker 1: so I you know, you hold this tension and that's
Speaker 1: why ultimately this some of us is hopeful. All the country,
Speaker 1: I talk to people white, black, brown, everything in between
Speaker 1: who both had lost so much because of this uniquely
Speaker 1: American mix of racism and greed, had lost so much,
Speaker 1: their homes, their dreams, have shot at a better job.
Speaker 1: And then there were so many people who had overcome
Speaker 1: and had locked arms and linked arms with people who
Speaker 1: were different than them and had taken on big, entrenched
Speaker 1: powers and had won. And you know that's our story too. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know you're you're absolutely right. There there are
Speaker 1: days and and the folks that listen to Wika f
Speaker 1: know that there are there are many days where I
Speaker 1: am done with America, where I am where I have
Speaker 1: exhausted my ability to be hopeful, Yeah, my ability to
Speaker 1: to for America to show me that it is better
Speaker 1: than what it shows itself to be. But then, yes,
Speaker 1: there are those moments. There are the Reverend Warnocks, there
Speaker 1: are the triumph of Georgians to to save our democracy.
Speaker 1: There are the Amanda Gorman's. There are the Stacey Abrams
Speaker 1: and the little you know, like there are um the
Speaker 1: people that remind me like, no, this is why you
Speaker 1: continue the work. This is this is why you do
Speaker 1: it because of what makes America unique is the possibility
Speaker 1: of it is the possibility of the thing. Um, and
Speaker 1: that is why people come. That's right. And don't let
Speaker 1: them expel you from this country. Right, Your people, you know,
Speaker 1: have built this country and we too are America, right,
Speaker 1: So don't you know, I mean that's the thing that
Speaker 1: I am. You know, I just think it's very important. Right.
Speaker 1: Their vision is that America is for whites only, right,
Speaker 1: like you know, and and that is and that has
Speaker 1: never been true. It has always been a lie. It
Speaker 1: has always been a lie and a fool's lie. And
Speaker 1: just imagine America without black people, come on, you know, idea.
Speaker 1: I would love it. I would love I would love
Speaker 1: for them to last a day. I'd love to see
Speaker 1: it without indigenous people, I mean right, like, I mean literally,
Speaker 1: they would not they would not have last. They'd all
Speaker 1: have gone the way of Jamestown, you know, yeah, Roanok,
Speaker 1: sorry a Roanoke, the lost colony, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I think that we have to reclaim the
Speaker 1: idea of this country as ours and as something that
Speaker 1: we are willing to share, and we want to invest in,
Speaker 1: and we want to invest in our people without prejudice broadly,
Speaker 1: and and I offer this book as an invitation to
Speaker 1: anyone who wants to join us on that. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna get there. You know, we're gonna get there. You
Speaker 1: can either ride with us or you can be left behind.
Speaker 1: But that's where we're going. You know, it's a beautiful
Speaker 1: place where we're going. Heather McGee, I could talk to
Speaker 1: you all day and the next time I want to
Speaker 1: do it over cocktails. Friends. The book is the some
Speaker 1: of us, what racism costs everyone, and how we can
Speaker 1: prosper together. Pick it up, buy it, Buy it for
Speaker 1: all of your people. Heather is one of the most
Speaker 1: thoughtful UM experts and just thought leaders that I have
Speaker 1: the pleasure of knowing. And I'm just I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of you. Congratulation, congratulation. I'm so proud of you. I
Speaker 1: love your voice, keep it up, keep me on your
Speaker 1: shoulder sometimes, but I love your I Okay, keep the
Speaker 1: good Heather. On this side, they're real me on this
Speaker 1: side as always, dear friends. Power to the people and
Speaker 1: to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke
Speaker 1: as fuck. See after Labor Day. Get a behind the
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