February 8, 2025 • 34 mins
News anchors Nichole Deal and Mike Eiland join Ramses Ja on today's podcast to discuss this week's major news stories.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's been another busy news week and we like to
review the major stories of the week here on the
Black Information Network. Today we are joined by Black Information
Network news anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal to discuss
this week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network
Daily Podcast, and I'm your host, ramses Jah. All right,
Mike Island and Nicole Deal, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
To the show.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
First off, I gotta, you know, point out the obvious.
Q is indisposed this morning, so he has taken the
day off. But fortunately I think that the show is
in good hands. Mike, talk to me, man, have you
been since the last time we spoke.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Not bad at all, staying busy of course with the
Black Information Network and working with great people like Nicole Deal.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
So I've been doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I love that, and we save the best for last. Nicole.
What's the latest with you?
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Oh wow? Hey, Mike, your check is in the mail.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
Thanks so much for the flag all as well, Rams
as I'm holding it down here in Texas all as well.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
So glad to talk with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Okay, all right, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Now, before we get to the stories, I do want
to point out a couple of things. First off, we
want to send some well wishes and our thoughts and
prayers to the family of IRV Gotti, the founder of
Murder Inc.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Has passed away this week at fifty four years old.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And of course we have the full story of at
bionnews dot com for those that want to check that out. Also,
we wanted to point out this of course, was Black
History Month. We wanted to point out that this week
would have been Trayvon Martin's thirtieth birthday. And we also
have more content up on the website as well. Once
again binnews dot com. And now to our stories. First up,
(01:45):
it's tax filing season and many Americans are concerned that
Donald Trump's right hand man, Elon Musk, is getting involved
with the tax filing process in a bad way. Nicole,
you cover money news for the Black Information Network, So
let's start today's show with you share some details with
our listeners on what Elon Musk is doing. And then Mike,
of course we're going to get your thoughts next.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
All right, Ramsay, So basically, Elon Musk made a post
on x tweeting that he deleted the IRS tax filing service.
So he also referred to the Tax Filing Service as
a left government, far left government wide computer office that
(02:27):
was built by Elizabeth Warren. Well, anyway, according to BT,
he did not delete the Tax Filing Service, and of
course it's still online and still available. This is tax season,
so you know, just put those those issues to rest
right away. People can still go online and file. The
White House is characterizing billionaire billionaire Elon Musk as a
(02:51):
quote special government employee. Okay, we already know he was,
you know, appointed by President Trump to work on the
Department of Government at Fishial or DOGE, and the whole
idea of DOGE is to reportedly cut federal spending. So
I think that his involvement in the federal government is
(03:11):
a little bit confusing. And I actually think it's even
confusing for White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt because earlier
this week she said she didn't know whether or not
he had security clearances, et cetera, et cetera. There are
already multiple lawsuits about doze's access to payment systems within
(03:34):
the Treasury departments, and this is a pretty big deal.
It's a big deal because that is an entity that
is responsible for protecting our finances, as American people, and
they are also responsible for managing our federal finances, collecting revenue,
making social Security disbursements, tax refunds, et cetera. And so
(03:56):
there are also privacy regulations that have to be considered.
So the question, just for me is why is Elon
Musk involved. That's that's just a question. And and and
I don't mean any disrespect with that. I mean, maybe
maybe Elon Musk is the right person for this job.
I don't know, but but what is the job exactly?
(04:20):
I don't think the White House is doing a very
good job of communicating his involvement and why, et cetera.
I mean suffice it to say, we need someone if
we're going to have someone in that position that has
access or pseudo access to another person or person's we
need someone that we can trust. We need someone who
(04:41):
is vetted, and we need a full understanding of the
role of Elon Musk as a quote unquote special government employee.
And and also the last thing I want to do
is play you this clip from black congresswoman in Texas,
Jasmine Crockett. She was absolutely outraged at the thought that
(05:04):
Elon Musk was going to have access to federal treasury funds.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Listen to this.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
Some people think security clearances are all about whether or
not you have a warrant or not. No, they look
at whether or not you have some sort of divided interests.
They look at whether or not you have good credit.
They look at so many other things. And we're talking
about someone who's unelected, unvetted, and definitely unconfirmed, that is
now literally sitting atop our six trillion dollars.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Yeah, I think you can tell by her tone that
she's not happy about this. She was recently on MSNBC
and she was being asked about his role in government.
So that's just kind of my take on it. It
just leaves me with questions, what is he doing, why
is he there? And we need some more communication as
to understand his role, and then if he is going
(05:54):
to have a role, he needs to be vetted.
Speaker 8 (05:57):
Sure, Mike, speaking as an observer and you know, a layman,
it feels like an invasion of privacy.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Someone who we didn't vote, no one voted for in
this position, who makes cars, all of a sudden can
control my seemingly control my financial destiny. That that's a
very scary thought. Some of it, I think is positioning.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
It's just.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
It's what Donald Trump likes. He wants people who are
not politicians. I forget the term. He uses a non
politician or a just someone who's not involved in the
political structure to be by his side. And I think
it's just positioning of him getting people he likes. The
(06:47):
scary part people who will say that will be on
his side and also agree with him in every step,
and Muscus continues to show that he's that person for that.
The scary thing for me is that you can easily
target people that you don't like or who say things
that they don't like, and go in and mess with
(07:10):
something that's with their finances or maybe cut the department
where they work, and that type, just like the onlady
we just heard on the air, and she could be
a target just for saying certain things. So that's where
we're going with this, you know, just like again as
an observer of this and not as a political ally
(07:30):
or anything like that. It's just a very scary thing
right now for most people. And the tax filing thing,
you know, if you take it on the surface, if
you don't really dig deep into it, you're thinking, oh,
I don't have to file my taxes this year. You know,
that's the first impression you get when you hear that
he's deleted that group, not realizing that it's just a
part of the tax filing process.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Right, it was just a piece of it, you know
that he got rid of.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But I think that Nicole, your point is well made.
Who is Elon Musk?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right now?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
We know him, We're we're involved, we're engaged, We read headlines,
we follow trends and markets and that sort.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Of stuff, but really, who is he?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
There's conceivably people out there who know who the president
is because they had a chance to vote for them,
but they may not know who Elon Musk is. They
may not know who Lebron James is. That part of
the world doesn't exist to them.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Right, we accept, we.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
On this conversation, we accept that Elon Musk is a
businessman at the helm of Tesla, Twitter, et cetera. But again,
conceivably there are people who have no idea who that is,
who are now subject subjected rather to his is whims,
(09:02):
his decisions, and they did not vote for him, they
did not ask for this, and he is making changes
that will affect or impact their lives and they are
forced to deal with that. Now, one thing that I can,
(09:23):
and will and should say is that Elon Musk is
a Nazi. And if you didn't hear me, I'll say
it again. Elon Musk is a Nazi. Yeah, he doesn't
want everybody to use that against him, but he certainly
(09:43):
wants to appear like a Nazi to the Nazis. He
wants to appear like a white supremacist to the white supremacist.
He wants to app you know what I'm saying. He
wants to be that guy to those people, right. But
you know the larger population will look down on that,
and so he kind of rides this line of plausible deniability.
(10:05):
But you know, those of us that no better can
see right through it. Elon Musk has lived on this
earth long enough. Elon Musk, for all of his brilliance
and genius that people ascribe to him, somehow missed a
Nazi salute. He works in the in the car industry, right,
so that means he's had to vet his competition. Volkswagen
(10:30):
comes to mind. Ford comes to mind. You know, Henry
Ford was famously an anti Semite. And it doesn't even
we don't even need to have a conversation about his salute.
We can just look at his own Twitter feed. And
again I'm not the only person saying this. It's it's
(10:50):
virtually indistinguishable from a far right or from a Nazi,
or from a white supremacist twitter feed. And so again,
for people that didn't vote for that, it is very
jarring and very alarming, and I think that it needs
to be said that this is where we are, and
these are the consequences that come about when we don't vote.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
That's it. We're here for four years.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Black people are going to be around a lot longer
than Donald Trump. Black people are going to be around
a lot longer than Elon Musk. We are here to
stay on this planet. But hopefully black people have learned
a lesson and everyone else has learned a lesson too,
that these aren't the sort of games that you can play,
particularly when it comes to the folks that say, look, man,
it don't make no difference in my life who wins
(11:36):
the presidency. I think now we're at the find out part.
Next up, recent activity at one college campus that was
supposed to be a prank wasn't funny at all, and
hinted at racist behavior towards certain student groups at this university. Mike,
let's go to you for more details on this story,
and then Nicole, we're going to come to you next.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
It's only the beginning.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
It's really as another play on previous pranks, just like
toilet papering a house or anything like that. This is
just another version that's been prompted by what's going on
in our administration. Now there's a looseness going on that
this will be okay and that they will be people
will be pardoned for certain misdeeds, you know, such as
(12:20):
vandalizing churches and things like that. This is just another
version someone came up with. Hey, let's let's pretend to
be ICE agents and let's go harass, you know, the
people we dislike and fear. And I don't think it'll
be limited to college campuses either. But what happened here
a trio of Temple University students posed as ICE agents
(12:40):
and temples in Philadelphia if in case people don't know,
and they thought the stunt was funny, and the also
impersonating an enforcement officer as a crime of course, but
they're not worried in this case because they didn't think
of it that way. They just wanted to say, hey,
us be Ice agents for whatever they think they are,
(13:04):
and let's go harass people. It's a very simple prank.
It has a lot of complicated consequences and all that,
but the people who carried this out probably don't think
they were. If you can destroy a government building, you know,
the capital or something like that and be pardoned for it,
(13:24):
what worry is there pretending to be an ICE agent
and harassing people. You know, what consequence can you possibly
think could happen? So there's going to be more of
this as long as there's a feeling that you can
get away with it in this particular time that we're
in right now. So look for more. And I can
see neighbors happening in neighborhoods. You know, you have Hispanic
(13:48):
or black neighbors down the street or something like that
that you don't want your neighborhood go and pretend to
be an Ice agent's and get you know, scare them
out of there.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Things like that. There's more to come.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, I can see that, Nicole.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
First of all, I'm going to piggyback on something Mike said,
impersonating law enforcement officers is a crime, period. So let's
just let that stand all across the country, all day,
every day. Because if you can get pulled over by
a fake cop and have some ramifications for that officer,
then that still stands whether you're in Texas or Colorado
(14:28):
or California wherever. If you go and knock on someone's door,
kick the door in pretending to be a cop, hey,
that's a crime. So this was not a prank in
my opinion, or it was a very poor impersonation of one. Also, Mike,
you said something interesting, let's terrorize the people that we fear,
(14:49):
and that right there is a mouthful. In today's climate,
there are so many legal citizens who are here in
our country and and their their minorities that are actually
afraid for themselves and their family members. So I don't
think there's this This is just not a laughing matter.
(15:13):
And I think what you said, Mike about there's there's
more to come. I'm going to add to that and say,
first the Browns and then the blacks. Okay, I think
you guys can interpretate that. I think that the acts
of these students is completely tone death. It lacks empathy,
(15:33):
it lacks sympathy, it lacks regard for other racial groups.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
I'm just disappointed in their actions.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
But with all that being said, I will say that
they are young, and maybe, you know, maybe the public
and the university should cut them a little bit of slack,
just not be too hard on them. I would hate
to see them in up with criminal charges or being
(16:02):
expelled from school as a result.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
One of them got expelled.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
One of them already got kicked out, and they're still
investigating the other two.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
But okay, were they were they expelled for the whole
year or were they just.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think they're they're expelled permanently.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Okay, I think the one is because this is this
is newer information that I just got, so I'm hoping
it's as accurate as I remember it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But they were seeing on the video wearing the clothing.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
To impersonate the officers, and that's how the school used
that against them, and at least one of them was
expelled from school, and I believe it was a permanent expulsion.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Wow, Okay, Okay, Well again, I just I hope I
hope this is not. First of all, I would expect
that that's going to be appealed in some manner if
there is an appeal appeal process. But you know, I
just they're young. You know, maybe they can leave that university,
learn a valuable lesson and go on to another university.
(17:07):
I don't know, but I just hope it's not going
to end up being a permanent stain for them.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Sure. Sure, Well.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
For me, first of all, I appreciate that, nicole, because
I do believe in my heart of hearts that nobody
is simply the worst thing that they've ever done. Right.
People make mistakes, and people should have a road to redemption.
If not, then all they are. If they're ostracized from
(17:36):
a community and there's no way to get back in
good standing with the people, then they will succumb to
isolation and then find their own community, often in these
fringe circles, and then they will double and triple down
on usually their hatred, their racism and whatever else, enophobia
(17:58):
and all that sort of stuff. So having a path back,
and not only is it human, but it's a good
strategic move, right, people can learn from their mistakes and
then they come back stronger as a stronger ally. However,
the other side of this, of course, is that in
my estimation, this was intentional. As you mentioned, this wasn't
(18:21):
simply a prank, you know, people causing trouble. This was
intentional because you could do a lot of things just
to get a rise out of people. But this was
meant to terrorize people, a specific group of people and
it were especially vulnerable to this type of action. And
that is mean, and that is the point. And you
(18:44):
know you were talking about fear and so forth, and
I get that, and I understand that. Indeed, I was
watching a clip recently. Maybe you've both seen it, but
the clip was a bunch of babies in a room
with a bunch of snakes. Some people brought some snakes
in and they were talking about, well, the only thing
that we're born afraid of is loud noises and falling.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
You know what I mean, We're not afraid of it.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
These huge snakes are there, good, and the babies are
just touching them and playing with toys, and you know,
there's nothing to be afraid of here.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Everything else is taught. And I think that in.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Order to justify this action, this this pretending to be
ice agents and rating uh, these these these rooms, in
order to justify that, they have to say, well, these
these populations are bad and we are right to be
(19:42):
afraid of them. And the person that taught them that
fear is Donald Trump. If I'm being honest, Donald Trump
has suggested that immigrants are invading this country.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
No, they're not.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Donald Trump has suggested that immigrants are bringing crime with them.
Immigrants don't commit at a higher rate than Americans. In fact,
they commit crimes at a far lower rate than just
average Americans. In other words, if the whole country was
all immigrants right now, the crime.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Weight would drop.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
But the way that it's spun, the way they taken
cherry pick isolated stories and then present that to the
masses so that they can campaign on fear of an
open border and lacks liberal policies with respect to our
relationship with Let's be honest, our southern border, has allowed
fear to take written people's minds, which in turn allows
(20:37):
them to justify actions like this, which are acts of
terror that they're committing. And so, yes, while no one
is simply the worst thing they've ever done, there's also
the other side of it, which is now we know
what you do with fear. You don't learn, you don't
educate yourself, you don't figure out how you can help
you try to terrorize these communities, and that's something that.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Some punishment.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Black Information Network news anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal
are here with us discussing this week's major stories.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
All right, Next up, the.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Trump administration continue to wreak havoc on all things black
this week, as another government department announced changes in their
plans for Black History Month. Nicole, let's go back to
you give us the latest on this story, and then
Mike will get your thoughts next.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Absolutely, so, the Army Corps of Engineers is just one
of the many organizations across the country who are canceling
Black History Month events. This seems to be, you know,
an unfortunate fad or an unfortunate trend. But the businesses, corporation,
(21:50):
state and government agencies are canceling these events, and they're
doing so because they are citing President Donald Trump's executive
Order which is aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
So not only is it the Army Corps of Engineers,
but the Pentagon's intelligence is pausing and canceling activity activities
(22:12):
related to Martin Luther King Day June teenth, Black History Month,
LGBTQ and Pride Month and even Holocaust Remembrance Day. They're
canceling all of their quote unquote special observances. The US
Military Academy at West Point is another one that they
just ordered a dozen cadet clubs to immediately cease and
(22:33):
desist all activities of those particular groups. And a couple
of those groups. Two of those groups are centered on well,
they're all centered on gender and race and ethnicity. But
it's impacting clubs like the Society of Women Engineers and
the National Society of Black Engineers club. So it's just
(22:53):
unfortunate to see this kind of passively rolling down hill,
and maybe not so passively. I remember years ago there
was a comedian who started using the phrase, and I'm
going to try to say it in the comedic fashion
that in which he said it, And I don't even
remember what comedian had name, but I just remember the phrase.
It may have been Dave Chappelle, I don't know. He
(23:14):
says it's an attack on black you know, And I
feel like that phrase is really relevant here. There are
lots of civil rights icons and activists and their families
who have fought for decades to defend black principles and
communities and our culture and to bring about social and
(23:40):
economic changes in the black community. And this type of
executive order by the new administration is pushing us back.
And when I say back, I mean pushing us back
in time, pushing us to the back of the line,
put pushing us to the back of the bus, you know,
(24:04):
pushing us back to segregation and things that are divisive
among racial groups. And this is just not the time
to go back. This is the time to stand up.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Mike Well ties back to Kamala Harris's We're not going back,
she warned. Back then, she also warned about Donald Trump's
to do list. He is making a list and checking
it twice, and he is now putting action to it
all the things that he deep down despises. And the
(24:43):
timing too for Black History Months. So for me, you know,
with the Trump administration, is not Black History Month, It's
Blackest History Month.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
That's exactly how I see it.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
So they're going to continue to you know, Reka it
like you say, on all things black, and and I
just and again I say more to come.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
But a lot of people are confused.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
They don't know, you know, some people may be confused
to the point where they don't know if they.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Can celebrate Black History Month. But they can.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
But these are mainly in federal places, federal offices and
different government areas that these observances are being canceled. It's
not being canceled in the local schools or anything.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
As of yet.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
There are Black History Month observations going on, you know,
down the street, at the high school, down the street.
But some people may be thoroughly confused. And obviously people
don't read about the issues. If they had if they
had read Project twenty twenty five, if they if we
read you know those things, if they're hidden them books,
we will miss will miss out. So's that's what's going
(25:53):
on now. And you know, like I said, Blackest History Month.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, I've seen a lot of what the Trump
administration is targeting a lot of the buzzwhears that they're
combing through UH legislation to find, you know, what exists
to bring about equity, what exists to bring about UH justice.
(26:20):
Social justice I think is one of the terms there
that they've identified that needs to be flagged for review.
And you know, all this stuff is kind of part
and parcel to you know their game plan, and we
knew this going into it. You know, I always kind
of felt and and someone I recently heard speaking made
a great case for the for all of this Trump's
(26:44):
first presidency and now this being a response to the
election of Barack Obama, because we had a nice long
run where there was always going to be some pushback
from the furthest you know, right, you know, circles to
anything that benefited black folks. But now to see kind
of where we are, like this man was elected. He
(27:09):
didn't fight a war and win the country. He was elected.
There's a huge number of people that look past what
he said he was going to do. What he said
he was going to eliminate what he said he was
going to There was black people that look past what
he said he was going to do, and now that
he's doing it, it very clearly looks like, at least
(27:32):
for a huge part of the country, that either these
things weren't important to them or their votes were intentional
because they saw the country going in a direction after
the election of Barack Obama that they didn't approve of,
and they are more comfortable in a white dominated country
(27:54):
where the elected officials are white and the judges are white,
and the police are white or otherwise espoused white supremacist values.
And again when there's fatigue every few years, everyone has
to get out and vote, and you don't feel like
your life is getting any better.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I understand that.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
But your vote for better or worse was holding the
bottom up as we inched further and further toward progress.
On the scale of a human life, progress is very slow,
but on the scale of a country, we were moving along.
We are not slaves anymore. This is not Jim Crow anymore.
And now that we have not voted, the bottom has
(28:36):
fallen out. Inconceivably, we could go back in as little
as four years. And as I mentioned, black people are
going to be here a lot longer than Donald Trump.
So we cannot remain in the pit of despair. But
my hope is that we and our allies and people
who just generally don't like this type of nonsense have
all learned that, yeah, we can't let a single issue
(28:58):
like you know, what's going on in power Stein, or
a single issue like whatever Kamala Harris locked up black men.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
She didn't, but whatever whatever.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
People's single issue was, we can't let that stop us
from voting because this is definitely the worst timeline.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
That's exactly what did And again you said something very
profound about black people not trusting other black people in
a position of power, you know, like they're comfortable with
white lead, you know, a white lead government or anything,
or a corporation, you name it. But it reminds me
(29:34):
of an episode in Saffern's son, an old Norman Lear
comedy with Red Fox, where he didn't trust a black doctor.
And I remember one of the one of the lines
in that episode, he goes, white doctor, please so our own.
We don't trust each other in some cases, and I
think that's what I heard from a lot of black
people about Kamala Harris. Well, we really don't know her,
(29:55):
and I don't know if she's ready for the job.
But now you have the alternati.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
So there you go, all right, exactly all right.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
For our final story, this involves the racist Proud Boys
group and a favorable court ruling that served up some
poetic justice for one black church. Mike, go ahead and
tell us more about this story to close us out,
and the Nicole will get your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Well, you talked about talk about fighting in a smart way,
just part of one of the smartest things I've seen.
It didn't involve violence, it didn't involve putting people down.
It spoke of knowledge, just just being smart about how
to push back with excellence and fight bigotry with excellence,
(30:36):
fight back with excellence. And that's what this church did
just by simply taking a name and using it in
their favor. What happened was the Proud Boys group they had,
they vandalized the church, and the church that was vandalized
decided to take their name and now they can't use it.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
It was as simple as.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
That, and now that's a way to fight back. I
don't know what their response is. I haven't seen a
total response yet from the Proud Boys, but they're going
to have a hard time using that name and some
of their other some of their other.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I guess intellectual property.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yeah, intellectual property and banners and things like that. That
stemmed from a confrontation back in twenty during the pandemic.
I remember that when the Proud Boy supporters attending a
pro Trump stopped the steal event. They climbed the fence
of the church and destroyed a Black Lives Matter sign,
and it just went on from there and their response
(31:39):
not violent or anything like that, not destroying Proud Boys signs.
Just take the name. There you go, Nicole.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
Oh wow, this is who decided to put this in
the lawsuit.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
I mean, this is genius. Genius, genius.
Speaker 6 (31:54):
I mean, okay, So, just to recap, there was two
point eight There was a two point eight million dollar
order for compensation back in twenty twenty three, and it
was the Honorable Judge Tanya Jones, who is black, that
came down with the ruling. And just to recap what
Mike said, now, the Proud Boys cannot use the name
or sell any merchandise without the church's approval. I mean, wow,
(32:21):
this is this is justice as far as I'm concerned. Now,
I do know that this is a very serious story,
but I have to bring a little bit of laughter.
The undertone of this story reminds me of something I
used to say as a child and something I often
heard others say to me as a child. And as
far as the name being taken from them, I say,
that's what you get. Yeah, I like that, that's what
(32:42):
you get. I mean, I know it's petty. I know,
Pete eat to the t T Why all right, I'm sorry,
I'm back.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
No, it's all right, man, I'm down for a petty party.
That's right, Nikky, that was.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
All nikky, all right. Nicole is back. Nicole is back.
But it is a heartbreaking story.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
But I do have to say it was an act
of racism on the act of the Proud Boys. They
knew what they were doing, they knew who they were targeting,
and I'm just so grateful that it didn't end in
a loss of life for the black community. For example,
the shooting at the church in Charleston, South Carolina, back
in twenty fifteen, where nine or ten people were murdered,
(33:21):
or another example, the Top's grocery store. In other words,
there were places and times where black people were actually
targeted and could have been heard, and in those instances,
they were heard. But I'm just glad that this particular
incident did not end in death or more violence for
the black community. They handled it with mercy and grace
(33:44):
to a certain degree, and they just suit them, hit
them where it hurts, and.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
That's how you do it. Well.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
I'd like to thank you both, as always very much
for your time and your insight. Once again, today's guests
are black Information Network news anchors Mike Island and Nicole
Deal has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
(34:10):
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I'm your
host Ramse's Jaw on all social media, and I'll be
hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend on a
station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info, Checkciviccipher
dot com and join us Monday as we share our
news with our voice from our perspective right here on
the Black Information Network Daily podcast
It's been another busy news week and we like to
review the major stories of the week here on the
Black Information Network. Today we are joined by Black Information
Network news anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal to discuss
this week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network
Daily Podcast, and I'm your host, ramses Jah. All right,
Mike Island and Nicole Deal, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
To the show.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
First off, I gotta, you know, point out the obvious.
Q is indisposed this morning, so he has taken the
day off. But fortunately I think that the show is
in good hands. Mike, talk to me, man, have you
been since the last time we spoke.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Not bad at all, staying busy of course with the
Black Information Network and working with great people like Nicole Deal.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
So I've been doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I love that, and we save the best for last. Nicole.
What's the latest with you?
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Oh wow? Hey, Mike, your check is in the mail.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
Thanks so much for the flag all as well, Rams
as I'm holding it down here in Texas all as well.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
So glad to talk with you today.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Okay, all right, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Now, before we get to the stories, I do want
to point out a couple of things. First off, we
want to send some well wishes and our thoughts and
prayers to the family of IRV Gotti, the founder of
Murder Inc.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Has passed away this week at fifty four years old.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And of course we have the full story of at
bionnews dot com for those that want to check that out. Also,
we wanted to point out this of course, was Black
History Month. We wanted to point out that this week
would have been Trayvon Martin's thirtieth birthday. And we also
have more content up on the website as well. Once
again binnews dot com. And now to our stories. First up,
(01:45):
it's tax filing season and many Americans are concerned that
Donald Trump's right hand man, Elon Musk, is getting involved
with the tax filing process in a bad way. Nicole,
you cover money news for the Black Information Network, So
let's start today's show with you share some details with
our listeners on what Elon Musk is doing. And then Mike,
of course we're going to get your thoughts next.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
All right, Ramsay, So basically, Elon Musk made a post
on x tweeting that he deleted the IRS tax filing service.
So he also referred to the Tax Filing Service as
a left government, far left government wide computer office that
(02:27):
was built by Elizabeth Warren. Well, anyway, according to BT,
he did not delete the Tax Filing Service, and of
course it's still online and still available. This is tax season,
so you know, just put those those issues to rest
right away. People can still go online and file. The
White House is characterizing billionaire billionaire Elon Musk as a
(02:51):
quote special government employee. Okay, we already know he was,
you know, appointed by President Trump to work on the
Department of Government at Fishial or DOGE, and the whole
idea of DOGE is to reportedly cut federal spending. So
I think that his involvement in the federal government is
(03:11):
a little bit confusing. And I actually think it's even
confusing for White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt because earlier
this week she said she didn't know whether or not
he had security clearances, et cetera, et cetera. There are
already multiple lawsuits about doze's access to payment systems within
(03:34):
the Treasury departments, and this is a pretty big deal.
It's a big deal because that is an entity that
is responsible for protecting our finances, as American people, and
they are also responsible for managing our federal finances, collecting revenue,
making social Security disbursements, tax refunds, et cetera. And so
(03:56):
there are also privacy regulations that have to be considered.
So the question, just for me is why is Elon
Musk involved. That's that's just a question. And and and
I don't mean any disrespect with that. I mean, maybe
maybe Elon Musk is the right person for this job.
I don't know, but but what is the job exactly?
(04:20):
I don't think the White House is doing a very
good job of communicating his involvement and why, et cetera.
I mean suffice it to say, we need someone if
we're going to have someone in that position that has
access or pseudo access to another person or person's we
need someone that we can trust. We need someone who
(04:41):
is vetted, and we need a full understanding of the
role of Elon Musk as a quote unquote special government employee.
And and also the last thing I want to do
is play you this clip from black congresswoman in Texas,
Jasmine Crockett. She was absolutely outraged at the thought that
(05:04):
Elon Musk was going to have access to federal treasury funds.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Listen to this.
Speaker 7 (05:09):
Some people think security clearances are all about whether or
not you have a warrant or not. No, they look
at whether or not you have some sort of divided interests.
They look at whether or not you have good credit.
They look at so many other things. And we're talking
about someone who's unelected, unvetted, and definitely unconfirmed, that is
now literally sitting atop our six trillion dollars.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Yeah, I think you can tell by her tone that
she's not happy about this. She was recently on MSNBC
and she was being asked about his role in government.
So that's just kind of my take on it. It
just leaves me with questions, what is he doing, why
is he there? And we need some more communication as
to understand his role, and then if he is going
(05:54):
to have a role, he needs to be vetted.
Speaker 8 (05:57):
Sure, Mike, speaking as an observer and you know, a layman,
it feels like an invasion of privacy.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Someone who we didn't vote, no one voted for in
this position, who makes cars, all of a sudden can
control my seemingly control my financial destiny. That that's a
very scary thought. Some of it, I think is positioning.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
It's just.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
It's what Donald Trump likes. He wants people who are
not politicians. I forget the term. He uses a non
politician or a just someone who's not involved in the
political structure to be by his side. And I think
it's just positioning of him getting people he likes. The
(06:47):
scary part people who will say that will be on
his side and also agree with him in every step,
and Muscus continues to show that he's that person for that.
The scary thing for me is that you can easily
target people that you don't like or who say things
that they don't like, and go in and mess with
(07:10):
something that's with their finances or maybe cut the department
where they work, and that type, just like the onlady
we just heard on the air, and she could be
a target just for saying certain things. So that's where
we're going with this, you know, just like again as
an observer of this and not as a political ally
(07:30):
or anything like that. It's just a very scary thing
right now for most people. And the tax filing thing,
you know, if you take it on the surface, if
you don't really dig deep into it, you're thinking, oh,
I don't have to file my taxes this year. You know,
that's the first impression you get when you hear that
he's deleted that group, not realizing that it's just a
part of the tax filing process.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Right, it was just a piece of it, you know
that he got rid of.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But I think that Nicole, your point is well made.
Who is Elon Musk?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Right now?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
We know him, We're we're involved, we're engaged, We read headlines,
we follow trends and markets and that sort.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Of stuff, but really, who is he?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
There's conceivably people out there who know who the president
is because they had a chance to vote for them,
but they may not know who Elon Musk is. They
may not know who Lebron James is. That part of
the world doesn't exist to them.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Right, we accept, we.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
On this conversation, we accept that Elon Musk is a
businessman at the helm of Tesla, Twitter, et cetera. But again,
conceivably there are people who have no idea who that is,
who are now subject subjected rather to his is whims,
(09:02):
his decisions, and they did not vote for him, they
did not ask for this, and he is making changes
that will affect or impact their lives and they are
forced to deal with that. Now, one thing that I can,
(09:23):
and will and should say is that Elon Musk is
a Nazi. And if you didn't hear me, I'll say
it again. Elon Musk is a Nazi. Yeah, he doesn't
want everybody to use that against him, but he certainly
(09:43):
wants to appear like a Nazi to the Nazis. He
wants to appear like a white supremacist to the white supremacist.
He wants to app you know what I'm saying. He
wants to be that guy to those people, right. But
you know the larger population will look down on that,
and so he kind of rides this line of plausible deniability.
(10:05):
But you know, those of us that no better can
see right through it. Elon Musk has lived on this
earth long enough. Elon Musk, for all of his brilliance
and genius that people ascribe to him, somehow missed a
Nazi salute. He works in the in the car industry, right,
so that means he's had to vet his competition. Volkswagen
(10:30):
comes to mind. Ford comes to mind. You know, Henry
Ford was famously an anti Semite. And it doesn't even
we don't even need to have a conversation about his salute.
We can just look at his own Twitter feed. And
again I'm not the only person saying this. It's it's
(10:50):
virtually indistinguishable from a far right or from a Nazi,
or from a white supremacist twitter feed. And so again,
for people that didn't vote for that, it is very
jarring and very alarming, and I think that it needs
to be said that this is where we are, and
these are the consequences that come about when we don't vote.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
That's it. We're here for four years.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Black people are going to be around a lot longer
than Donald Trump. Black people are going to be around
a lot longer than Elon Musk. We are here to
stay on this planet. But hopefully black people have learned
a lesson and everyone else has learned a lesson too,
that these aren't the sort of games that you can play,
particularly when it comes to the folks that say, look, man,
it don't make no difference in my life who wins
(11:36):
the presidency. I think now we're at the find out part.
Next up, recent activity at one college campus that was
supposed to be a prank wasn't funny at all, and
hinted at racist behavior towards certain student groups at this university. Mike,
let's go to you for more details on this story,
and then Nicole, we're going to come to you next.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
It's only the beginning.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
It's really as another play on previous pranks, just like
toilet papering a house or anything like that. This is
just another version that's been prompted by what's going on
in our administration. Now there's a looseness going on that
this will be okay and that they will be people
will be pardoned for certain misdeeds, you know, such as
(12:20):
vandalizing churches and things like that. This is just another
version someone came up with. Hey, let's let's pretend to
be ICE agents and let's go harass, you know, the
people we dislike and fear. And I don't think it'll
be limited to college campuses either. But what happened here
a trio of Temple University students posed as ICE agents
(12:40):
and temples in Philadelphia if in case people don't know,
and they thought the stunt was funny, and the also
impersonating an enforcement officer as a crime of course, but
they're not worried in this case because they didn't think
of it that way. They just wanted to say, hey,
us be Ice agents for whatever they think they are,
(13:04):
and let's go harass people. It's a very simple prank.
It has a lot of complicated consequences and all that,
but the people who carried this out probably don't think
they were. If you can destroy a government building, you know,
the capital or something like that and be pardoned for it,
(13:24):
what worry is there pretending to be an ICE agent
and harassing people. You know, what consequence can you possibly
think could happen? So there's going to be more of
this as long as there's a feeling that you can
get away with it in this particular time that we're
in right now. So look for more. And I can
see neighbors happening in neighborhoods. You know, you have Hispanic
(13:48):
or black neighbors down the street or something like that
that you don't want your neighborhood go and pretend to
be an Ice agent's and get you know, scare them
out of there.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Things like that. There's more to come.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, yeah, I can see that, Nicole.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
First of all, I'm going to piggyback on something Mike said,
impersonating law enforcement officers is a crime, period. So let's
just let that stand all across the country, all day,
every day. Because if you can get pulled over by
a fake cop and have some ramifications for that officer,
then that still stands whether you're in Texas or Colorado
(14:28):
or California wherever. If you go and knock on someone's door,
kick the door in pretending to be a cop, hey,
that's a crime. So this was not a prank in
my opinion, or it was a very poor impersonation of one. Also, Mike,
you said something interesting, let's terrorize the people that we fear,
(14:49):
and that right there is a mouthful. In today's climate,
there are so many legal citizens who are here in
our country and and their their minorities that are actually
afraid for themselves and their family members. So I don't
think there's this This is just not a laughing matter.
(15:13):
And I think what you said, Mike about there's there's
more to come. I'm going to add to that and say,
first the Browns and then the blacks. Okay, I think
you guys can interpretate that. I think that the acts
of these students is completely tone death. It lacks empathy,
(15:33):
it lacks sympathy, it lacks regard for other racial groups.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
I'm just disappointed in their actions.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
But with all that being said, I will say that
they are young, and maybe, you know, maybe the public
and the university should cut them a little bit of slack,
just not be too hard on them. I would hate
to see them in up with criminal charges or being
(16:02):
expelled from school as a result.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
One of them got expelled.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
One of them already got kicked out, and they're still
investigating the other two.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
But okay, were they were they expelled for the whole
year or were they just.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think they're they're expelled permanently.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Okay, I think the one is because this is this
is newer information that I just got, so I'm hoping
it's as accurate as I remember it.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But they were seeing on the video wearing the clothing.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
To impersonate the officers, and that's how the school used
that against them, and at least one of them was
expelled from school, and I believe it was a permanent expulsion.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Wow, Okay, Okay, Well again, I just I hope I
hope this is not. First of all, I would expect
that that's going to be appealed in some manner if
there is an appeal appeal process. But you know, I
just they're young. You know, maybe they can leave that university,
learn a valuable lesson and go on to another university.
(17:07):
I don't know, but I just hope it's not going
to end up being a permanent stain for them.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Sure. Sure, Well.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
For me, first of all, I appreciate that, nicole, because
I do believe in my heart of hearts that nobody
is simply the worst thing that they've ever done. Right.
People make mistakes, and people should have a road to redemption.
If not, then all they are. If they're ostracized from
(17:36):
a community and there's no way to get back in
good standing with the people, then they will succumb to
isolation and then find their own community, often in these
fringe circles, and then they will double and triple down
on usually their hatred, their racism and whatever else, enophobia
(17:58):
and all that sort of stuff. So having a path back,
and not only is it human, but it's a good
strategic move, right, people can learn from their mistakes and
then they come back stronger as a stronger ally. However,
the other side of this, of course, is that in
my estimation, this was intentional. As you mentioned, this wasn't
(18:21):
simply a prank, you know, people causing trouble. This was
intentional because you could do a lot of things just
to get a rise out of people. But this was
meant to terrorize people, a specific group of people and
it were especially vulnerable to this type of action. And
that is mean, and that is the point. And you
(18:44):
know you were talking about fear and so forth, and
I get that, and I understand that. Indeed, I was
watching a clip recently. Maybe you've both seen it, but
the clip was a bunch of babies in a room
with a bunch of snakes. Some people brought some snakes
in and they were talking about, well, the only thing
that we're born afraid of is loud noises and falling.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
You know what I mean, We're not afraid of it.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
These huge snakes are there, good, and the babies are
just touching them and playing with toys, and you know,
there's nothing to be afraid of here.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Everything else is taught. And I think that in.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Order to justify this action, this this pretending to be
ice agents and rating uh, these these these rooms, in
order to justify that, they have to say, well, these
these populations are bad and we are right to be
(19:42):
afraid of them. And the person that taught them that
fear is Donald Trump. If I'm being honest, Donald Trump
has suggested that immigrants are invading this country.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
No, they're not.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Donald Trump has suggested that immigrants are bringing crime with them.
Immigrants don't commit at a higher rate than Americans. In fact,
they commit crimes at a far lower rate than just
average Americans. In other words, if the whole country was
all immigrants right now, the crime.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Weight would drop.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
But the way that it's spun, the way they taken
cherry pick isolated stories and then present that to the
masses so that they can campaign on fear of an
open border and lacks liberal policies with respect to our
relationship with Let's be honest, our southern border, has allowed
fear to take written people's minds, which in turn allows
(20:37):
them to justify actions like this, which are acts of
terror that they're committing. And so, yes, while no one
is simply the worst thing they've ever done, there's also
the other side of it, which is now we know
what you do with fear. You don't learn, you don't
educate yourself, you don't figure out how you can help
you try to terrorize these communities, and that's something that.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Some punishment.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Black Information Network news anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal
are here with us discussing this week's major stories.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
All right, Next up, the.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Trump administration continue to wreak havoc on all things black
this week, as another government department announced changes in their
plans for Black History Month. Nicole, let's go back to
you give us the latest on this story, and then
Mike will get your thoughts next.
Speaker 6 (21:30):
Absolutely, so, the Army Corps of Engineers is just one
of the many organizations across the country who are canceling
Black History Month events. This seems to be, you know,
an unfortunate fad or an unfortunate trend. But the businesses, corporation,
(21:50):
state and government agencies are canceling these events, and they're
doing so because they are citing President Donald Trump's executive
Order which is aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
So not only is it the Army Corps of Engineers,
but the Pentagon's intelligence is pausing and canceling activity activities
(22:12):
related to Martin Luther King Day June teenth, Black History Month,
LGBTQ and Pride Month and even Holocaust Remembrance Day. They're
canceling all of their quote unquote special observances. The US
Military Academy at West Point is another one that they
just ordered a dozen cadet clubs to immediately cease and
(22:33):
desist all activities of those particular groups. And a couple
of those groups. Two of those groups are centered on well,
they're all centered on gender and race and ethnicity. But
it's impacting clubs like the Society of Women Engineers and
the National Society of Black Engineers club. So it's just
(22:53):
unfortunate to see this kind of passively rolling down hill,
and maybe not so passively. I remember years ago there
was a comedian who started using the phrase, and I'm
going to try to say it in the comedic fashion
that in which he said it, And I don't even
remember what comedian had name, but I just remember the phrase.
It may have been Dave Chappelle, I don't know. He
(23:14):
says it's an attack on black you know, And I
feel like that phrase is really relevant here. There are
lots of civil rights icons and activists and their families
who have fought for decades to defend black principles and
communities and our culture and to bring about social and
(23:40):
economic changes in the black community. And this type of
executive order by the new administration is pushing us back.
And when I say back, I mean pushing us back
in time, pushing us to the back of the line,
put pushing us to the back of the bus, you know,
(24:04):
pushing us back to segregation and things that are divisive
among racial groups. And this is just not the time
to go back. This is the time to stand up.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Mike Well ties back to Kamala Harris's We're not going back,
she warned. Back then, she also warned about Donald Trump's
to do list. He is making a list and checking
it twice, and he is now putting action to it
all the things that he deep down despises. And the
(24:43):
timing too for Black History Months. So for me, you know,
with the Trump administration, is not Black History Month, It's
Blackest History Month.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
That's exactly how I see it.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
So they're going to continue to you know, Reka it
like you say, on all things black, and and I
just and again I say more to come.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
But a lot of people are confused.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
They don't know, you know, some people may be confused
to the point where they don't know if they.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Can celebrate Black History Month. But they can.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
But these are mainly in federal places, federal offices and
different government areas that these observances are being canceled. It's
not being canceled in the local schools or anything.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
As of yet.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
There are Black History Month observations going on, you know,
down the street, at the high school, down the street.
But some people may be thoroughly confused. And obviously people
don't read about the issues. If they had if they
had read Project twenty twenty five, if they if we
read you know those things, if they're hidden them books,
we will miss will miss out. So's that's what's going
(25:53):
on now. And you know, like I said, Blackest History Month.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, yeah, I've seen a lot of what the Trump
administration is targeting a lot of the buzzwhears that they're
combing through UH legislation to find, you know, what exists
to bring about equity, what exists to bring about UH justice.
(26:20):
Social justice I think is one of the terms there
that they've identified that needs to be flagged for review.
And you know, all this stuff is kind of part
and parcel to you know their game plan, and we
knew this going into it. You know, I always kind
of felt and and someone I recently heard speaking made
a great case for the for all of this Trump's
(26:44):
first presidency and now this being a response to the
election of Barack Obama, because we had a nice long
run where there was always going to be some pushback
from the furthest you know, right, you know, circles to
anything that benefited black folks. But now to see kind
of where we are, like this man was elected. He
(27:09):
didn't fight a war and win the country. He was elected.
There's a huge number of people that look past what
he said he was going to do. What he said
he was going to eliminate what he said he was
going to There was black people that look past what
he said he was going to do, and now that
he's doing it, it very clearly looks like, at least
(27:32):
for a huge part of the country, that either these
things weren't important to them or their votes were intentional
because they saw the country going in a direction after
the election of Barack Obama that they didn't approve of,
and they are more comfortable in a white dominated country
(27:54):
where the elected officials are white and the judges are white,
and the police are white or otherwise espoused white supremacist values.
And again when there's fatigue every few years, everyone has
to get out and vote, and you don't feel like
your life is getting any better.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I understand that.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
But your vote for better or worse was holding the
bottom up as we inched further and further toward progress.
On the scale of a human life, progress is very slow,
but on the scale of a country, we were moving along.
We are not slaves anymore. This is not Jim Crow anymore.
And now that we have not voted, the bottom has
(28:36):
fallen out. Inconceivably, we could go back in as little
as four years. And as I mentioned, black people are
going to be here a lot longer than Donald Trump.
So we cannot remain in the pit of despair. But
my hope is that we and our allies and people
who just generally don't like this type of nonsense have
all learned that, yeah, we can't let a single issue
(28:58):
like you know, what's going on in power Stein, or
a single issue like whatever Kamala Harris locked up black men.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
She didn't, but whatever whatever.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
People's single issue was, we can't let that stop us
from voting because this is definitely the worst timeline.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
That's exactly what did And again you said something very
profound about black people not trusting other black people in
a position of power, you know, like they're comfortable with
white lead, you know, a white lead government or anything,
or a corporation, you name it. But it reminds me
(29:34):
of an episode in Saffern's son, an old Norman Lear
comedy with Red Fox, where he didn't trust a black doctor.
And I remember one of the one of the lines
in that episode, he goes, white doctor, please so our own.
We don't trust each other in some cases, and I
think that's what I heard from a lot of black
people about Kamala Harris. Well, we really don't know her,
(29:55):
and I don't know if she's ready for the job.
But now you have the alternati.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
So there you go, all right, exactly all right.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
For our final story, this involves the racist Proud Boys
group and a favorable court ruling that served up some
poetic justice for one black church. Mike, go ahead and
tell us more about this story to close us out,
and the Nicole will get your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Well, you talked about talk about fighting in a smart way,
just part of one of the smartest things I've seen.
It didn't involve violence, it didn't involve putting people down.
It spoke of knowledge, just just being smart about how
to push back with excellence and fight bigotry with excellence,
(30:36):
fight back with excellence. And that's what this church did
just by simply taking a name and using it in
their favor. What happened was the Proud Boys group they had,
they vandalized the church, and the church that was vandalized
decided to take their name and now they can't use it.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
It was as simple as.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
That, and now that's a way to fight back. I
don't know what their response is. I haven't seen a
total response yet from the Proud Boys, but they're going
to have a hard time using that name and some
of their other some of their other.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
I guess intellectual property.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Yeah, intellectual property and banners and things like that. That
stemmed from a confrontation back in twenty during the pandemic.
I remember that when the Proud Boy supporters attending a
pro Trump stopped the steal event. They climbed the fence
of the church and destroyed a Black Lives Matter sign,
and it just went on from there and their response
(31:39):
not violent or anything like that, not destroying Proud Boys signs.
Just take the name. There you go, Nicole.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
Oh wow, this is who decided to put this in
the lawsuit.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
I mean, this is genius. Genius, genius.
Speaker 6 (31:54):
I mean, okay, So, just to recap, there was two
point eight There was a two point eight million dollar
order for compensation back in twenty twenty three, and it
was the Honorable Judge Tanya Jones, who is black, that
came down with the ruling. And just to recap what
Mike said, now, the Proud Boys cannot use the name
or sell any merchandise without the church's approval. I mean, wow,
(32:21):
this is this is justice as far as I'm concerned. Now,
I do know that this is a very serious story,
but I have to bring a little bit of laughter.
The undertone of this story reminds me of something I
used to say as a child and something I often
heard others say to me as a child. And as
far as the name being taken from them, I say,
that's what you get. Yeah, I like that, that's what
(32:42):
you get. I mean, I know it's petty. I know,
Pete eat to the t T Why all right, I'm sorry,
I'm back.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
No, it's all right, man, I'm down for a petty party.
That's right, Nikky, that was.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
All nikky, all right. Nicole is back. Nicole is back.
But it is a heartbreaking story.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
But I do have to say it was an act
of racism on the act of the Proud Boys. They
knew what they were doing, they knew who they were targeting,
and I'm just so grateful that it didn't end in
a loss of life for the black community. For example,
the shooting at the church in Charleston, South Carolina, back
in twenty fifteen, where nine or ten people were murdered,
(33:21):
or another example, the Top's grocery store. In other words,
there were places and times where black people were actually
targeted and could have been heard, and in those instances,
they were heard. But I'm just glad that this particular
incident did not end in death or more violence for
the black community. They handled it with mercy and grace
(33:44):
to a certain degree, and they just suit them, hit
them where it hurts, and.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
That's how you do it. Well.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
I'd like to thank you both, as always very much
for your time and your insight. Once again, today's guests
are black Information Network news anchors Mike Island and Nicole
Deal has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
(34:10):
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I'm your
host Ramse's Jaw on all social media, and I'll be
hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend on a
station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info, Checkciviccipher
dot com and join us Monday as we share our
news with our voice from our perspective right here on
the Black Information Network Daily podcast
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.