June 19, 2024 • 56 mins
Prop teaches us what Juneteenth is, why it matters and gives a couple pointers on appropriate ways to participate.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Call zone media. I actually think I remember this vividly now.
Memory is a weird thing, obviously, well not obviously, but
it's a weird thing. Sometimes our brains kind of fill
in areas that are murky, and we just kind of
like connect dots that weren't there. But I do know
(00:25):
that a very significant chunk of my rearing was my
father being very intentional in me and my sister understanding
our blackness. We would back when the library would rent
movies and they would be on VHS, and some of them,
(00:46):
I feel like, would be probably wildly inappropriate for our age,
others right on task, and sometimes they looked a little dated,
you know, because they were older films, and you'd have
to sort of suspend youry. It would be like if
you showed your kids now the first Star Wars film,
(01:06):
to where it's like, Okay, I know this isn't the
quality of film you're used to, but just stay with us.
So we would watch these different black films, the autobiography
of Miss Jane Pittman. We'd watch Woman called Moses and
that's a movie about Harriet Tubman. We watched Tutsie, we
watched the Blaxploitation films, you know, the ones that again
were relatively appropriate for five to eight year old. We
(01:30):
watched Sounder, We watched just movies about slavery, freedom. I
remember us sitting down and watching Roots, just things about blackness.
We went to parades and every Sunday for a long time,
we would hit an area called Lamert Park. Now y'all
have heard me talk about Lamert Park. I even gave
(01:50):
an episode called Every City Needs a Lamert Park. And
it's just about this like neutral zone where we get
to be black people really get to be full of
theirselves in the Myrt Park. It's a great place in
La Crenshaw District. But on Sunday they do drum circles.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
My father used to take us there and you'd see
that sort of African diaspora, you know. They would do
these drum circles and my father would take me there,
and eventually when I became a teenager, you know, there
was a thing called Project Blow that I talked about.
There was jazz clubs there, anything if you wanted to
go get some dope, jewelry, some incense.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Shade, butter products, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Blackness, the Myrt Park and then where I, you know,
cut my teeth, learning how to freestyle, rap and battle
and stuff like that, because it was just the center
of in a lot of ways, the center of Los
Angeles black arts. But also it would be the Juneteenth celebration.
So I remember going to the parades, I remember participating.
(02:50):
I remember buying licorice root you know you could do
your googles, and walking around with my father seeing all
the red, black and green flags, and I just knew
this was a day of blackness. But I don't think
I really knew what it was because again, it wasn't
a national holiday.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
This felt like a holiday just for black folks.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Like you didn't see nobody else there, and I didn't
necessarily know. I had a June teenth T shirt. I
knew it had something to do with being free in America.
I also knew it had to do with the celebration
of blackness. But I participated in June teenth long before
I understood Juneteenth. And unfortunately, there's a lot of black
(03:32):
kids out here who feel the same way that because
it wasn't again, it wasn't a day nobody taught us
in school. Nobody we learned about Martin Luther King, we
didn't learn our history. So even all this, like, I mean,
y'all figured it out now like white people ain't complaining
about critical race theory no more.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
They'dne moved on the DEI work.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
But the point is for y'all to actually think we
was learning anything about ourselves in school is laughable because
I'm like, you went to you.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Went to school with us.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What made you think we knew anything about ourselves. Everything
we knew about ourselves and our experience was taught outside
of our schools. So I didn't really know what your
kids was. I had to find out on my own.
So now you're gonna learn what.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
It is hood politics. So welcome.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Before I teach you all some things, let's talk about
what's going on currently.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Bull look is like this, BULLUK is like this, all right,
this week's it's like this.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So Hunter Biden is officially guilty and the takes have
been kind of strange to me. I listen, the worst
thing in the world to me is when you are
in a situation where somebody's takes be so bad it
got you defending lanes. You understand how many times I've
(05:08):
had to say this is by no means a defense
of the Biden family, Are they crime bosses?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Come on, gee, you telling me that, You're telling me that.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That large cheese pizza ass family is a crime like okay, No,
they basic run of the mill rich kids. Homie got
caught because rich kids be thinking they invincible. Homie had
a terrible tragedy and like everybody else, ain't know how
to cope. So he turned to the turned to the drugs,
(05:42):
to the kokayina right, crack is cheap, you feel me,
and tried to get himself a gun and his girl
was like, nigga, hell now and got rid of it
because she, like you ain't right, and he got caught.
I mean, it is what it is like this. Granted,
none of this stuff would be in the news if
he wasn't a press son. But you know what, nigga,
you are the president's son. It is what it is you. Yes, bro,
(06:06):
you was guilty like I like nobody you have. I
have no pushback on that. The pushback I got is
the twenty five years. Come on, gee, for for lying
on twenty five years is a lot now granted again,
first time offender with the drug problem. Now another thing
(06:29):
that got me like, man, don't make me defend This
is the way that the left, I mean not the left.
I'm gonna call this the okay, the left news. So
the CNNs of the world are like, oh, man, we
just see you know, you know, the Biden family just
coming in and supporting your family, and you know, if
you've ever dealt with addiction, and you know, like this
(06:49):
is really a tragedy. Man, Okay, y'all Okay, Now, with
y'all saying that when it was when it was somebody black,
when it was somebody around getting railroaded over there over addiction,
y'all wasn't saying that with that, y'all got nice when
(07:10):
it was an opioid epidemic.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
That's when y'all got nice.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So like, no, no, bring that same energy, you know
what I'm saying, actually the energy that should have never
been brought in the first place. Let me keep it real,
but like, let me be on my hating right now, Like,
don't like y'all being too nice to this man.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Granted it's the niceness that we should have all been getting.
I'm gonna keep keep coming back to that, but like,
don't make me defend this boy.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Guys twenty five years wow.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Also, what's going on right now is this parliament, this
European parliament election thing that I really don't understand. I'm sorry, y'all,
let me keep it a buck. I need to learn
a lot more or about whatever this voting process is
(08:07):
and how they're saying it's turning to the right, when
it seemed like the more I read they getting little
more centered than anything. I was more worried about, you
feel me when Lapin in them was on some like
we need to leave the we need to leave Brexit
and all that. Either way, I don't understand it. Anyway
that's going on right now. So y'all hearing me tell
(08:28):
you what my homework's finna because I don't understand. I
don't understand their parliament at all. I got a parliament
show coming up, but it's about the Kinnesset in.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Israel to explain that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And then lastly, in what's going on, it's like this
is choop of capital. Bro DJ Quick and problem got
a record together and it's hard. All right, back to business.
(09:20):
So what you may or may not have learned is
about the Emancipation Proclamation. Right that President Abraham Lincoln, in
a stroke of political genius, And I'll explain to you
why this was political. Genius declared freedom to all of
(09:41):
the slaves in the Confederate States. Now, if they had
already seceeded, then America don't have no jurisdiction over those
states because they rebel states.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So it wasn't what like you're the deck deloration was
a type of political maneuvering that allowed I don't know
why I'm talking so slowly like this because I'm putting
on my teacher hat here, but it allowed Linking to
(10:16):
at least present a moral high ground. There is obviously
no internet happening, so it's not like nor is there
any television.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's not like.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
He could just call the press conference and let all
of the country know this's what he doing. The word
gotta spread much slower, right, So you do you make
the magic pacent proclamation? Yea, Remember like the war's happening
right now. People jump insides if you are if you're
an African slave, and a Union army pull up and
(10:49):
they like, you can fight for us, nigga, you are
you gonna stay on that plantation?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
No? You were like, why would anyone do this?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I think that it's important to remember, Like I'm getting
ahead of myself, but I need you to remember like
that emancipation wasn't like understand this, It wasn't just given
to black people. We fought hard on the ground, shooting
actual guns in the Union military while still not having
the same rights and privileges of white Union soldiers. At
(11:18):
least we wasn't slaves over here being promised our freedom
if we fought in this war. It was like if
there was any moment to put it all on the
line and the risk at all, it would be for this.
This was your shot. Like we like, what do we
get to lose? I'm gonna die on this plantation or
I'm a die fighting for our freedom. That was on
one tier. On the other tier, you have somebody like
(11:40):
Frederick Douglass, which we should do a whole story on
Frederick Douglas going from slavery to freedom, teaching himself how
to read and write, and please, if you get a chance,
go look at his Fourth of July speech in him
explaining like y'all calling this y'all's day of freedom, but
you definitely not talking about us.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
How why would you expect any.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Of us to celebrate the fourth of July. This ain't
a day for us. We still slaves, right. Frederick Douglas's
role in moving Abraham Lincoln from trying to save the
Union to full abolitionist, it's Frederick Douglass. It's their friendship.
It's him coming to the White House, being one of
(12:23):
the first African American freemen to be in the White House,
to explaining to him the moral conundrum that he is
putting himself in by trying to threadn impossible needle. It
was Frederick Douglas that was explaining to Lincoln that you
are in your only solution is full abolition because you're
(12:49):
dealing with people. You can't play cake. This is impossible
to play cake. There is no ways for you to
playcate this now at this point, you have heard the
Thomas Jefferson episodes where the episodes that are on Behind
the Bastards, where Jefferson worked very hard and turning himself
into a pretzel and being able to articulately explain that
(13:14):
what we are doing is in fact, morally beyond a
shadow of a doubt evil, saying things like, yo, if
God is as just as we say he is, then
a day of reckoning is coming and God is not
going to be on our side. We are wrong, turning
himself into a pretzel and then trying at least can
(13:34):
we stop importing new slaves like you like, knowing enough
cognitively to know what he's doing is wrong, but can't
get himself in actuality because the comforts that slavery gives
you was too much for him to let go of.
Plus he really like, he really liked that black pudding
(13:55):
and all that. To say, the build up before we
even got to war. I think it's something that has
been flattened where there are stories of Lincoln trying to
appeal to the moral compass, then he tried to appeal
to the practical compass of the white population. Then he
(14:15):
tried to appeal to the financial like, trying his best
to make I don't know what to tell y'all to
say that you need to stop doing this. And some
of it was political theater, some of it was maneuvering
that may not have necessarily done something. The Emancipation Proclamation
was one of those strange things. Now, remember the thirteenth
(14:38):
Amendment is what ended slavery, okay, which is not the
emancipation Proclamation. However, having said that on January first, eighteen
sixty three, the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, it
was a document for which declared that quote, all persons
(14:59):
held as slave within the rebellious States are and henceforth
shall be free. So he just made this, he made
this statement. Now, since even though they call themselves in rebellion,
they are still a part of the Mountain, You still
part of United That's still your president. You could pick
jo Jefferson Davis as much as you won't. At the
(15:20):
end of the day, this proclamation again was a much
more political than it actually was practical. The practical one
was the thirteenth Amendment. Now with that, the freedom that
we actually got was much more complicated. Now, even this
(16:06):
particular proclamation, now before you get excited about it, like
really understand what was happening. Okay, this proclamation didn't emancipate
people in parts of Louisiana, in states of Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee,
West Virginia, even though each of those states they are
already about slavery before the war was ended. They've already
said we got to stop do this, stop doing that,
(16:28):
even before the war was before the whole surrender before
all that happened. Now, remember this is eighteen sixty three.
The Civil War ain't over till eighteen sixty five. They
still fighting for it. So remember this emancipation Proclamation. It's important,
but it's a maneuver. But either way, at this point,
according to the proclamation of the President, they done gave
(16:50):
us free. Right. But like I said, ain't no internet.
So how fast do you think this word traveled? And
even before you think about how the word traveled, if
you are a slave owning man, let's just let's just say,
and you way out west and you get a telegram
(17:13):
that says, hey, homie, the President said, you got to
set everybody free. Now, Remember, ain't nobody on your campus
can read, Nobody on this plantation can read, and you
the only one with the mail. It's kind of like
if you get your report card. They used to mail
report cards when we was kids. If you get a
letter home from school and they say to the parents
(17:33):
of and you get the mail first, let's say it's
on a Friday, is you really.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Finna hand them that letter?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
At least wait till the weekend over, Like, I'm not
gonna tell them, I'm failing all my classes if I
could stop them from knowing, Like, why would you tell?
Of course, I'm not gonna tell y'all until I absolutely
have to. My sister used to like again back when
they used to mail report on my sister hit her
report card all the time, Why the hell would I
show you this? Absolutely not I'm not finna show you, right, So,
(18:03):
the news didn't actually reach all of the Western States
until much later. As a matter of fact, it was
two years later. Matter of fact, they didn't even know
the war was over. The war ended April nineteenth and
nineteen sixty five, but again, that was way over there
(18:25):
in Virginia. That's where Robert Elite surrendered. How long you
think it take word to go, especially a word that
you don't want to get out mant to pace a
proclamation in eighteen sixty three, we were supposed to be free,
But it wasn't until June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, that
Union troops under the commander of Major General Gordon Granger
(18:46):
actually arrived in Galveston, Texas.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
That was the final city on June nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
When he got there and looked around and was like,
what are y'all doing that? Can you imagine that? Can
you imagine finding out till two years later you were
supposed to be free, Like wait, wait, the war over?
You still hoping and praying and calling all Jesus, hoping
at this thing in and it's like, oh no, nigga's
been done. What oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the war
(19:15):
been done. Y'all could have left two years ago, nigga.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
What So?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five marks the last plantation where
the last slave was notified.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
That they was actually free.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
That is why we call it June teenth. And I
don't know why it's not called June nineteenth, but probably
some sort of Southern something. But June nineteenth is the
day that eighteen sixty five is the day that we celebrate.
We don't celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation. Hell, will't really even
celebrate the thirteenth Amendment. We celebrate June nineteenth. It's when
the last of us was able to leave that plantation.
(19:54):
There's even stories of Lincoln going up and down the
coast trying to tell everybody.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Like, hey, it's over ya, y'all free? What? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Nik can go home now? Now again, let's just say
I'm just trying to humanize the moment. Let's just be
I think there was a Dave Chappelle skit. Let's just
say somebody walks up to your plantation while you are
actively beating the snot out of some man and.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Says, hey, uh, hey they free.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Now you know you can't this outlawed, You can't do
this no more?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Like wait, what.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
While you gotta whip in your hand and everybody watching
you beat the snot out of this man, wouldn't you
be terrified? Like, Oh, I just I wonder what that
last moment was, Like, uh, what what do we?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
What do we?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
What do we?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
What do we? What do we? Really? Sorry about that?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Bro?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
No, man, you're gonna you're gonna try to fight it.
You're trying to be like you know, you're gonna like
still try to exert your power because what they honestly
believe was if we let let them free, a race
war will start. They are going to do to us
what we did to them, and you know they lucky.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Black people love Jesus And this is biperia.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You have to remember, and I'm going to reiterate this
a little later, that the spiritual foundation of black people
in this time is a big reason why there wasn't
a slaughter. Now, remember Nat Turner was a pastor, and
the slaughter that you know, white people were so worried
(21:37):
about is not ununderstandable. But I'm gonna argue was bridled.
He believed he was on a mission from God. That
man was in his mind obeying Jesus and demanding the
freedom from him of his people and tossing off the
shackles of his oppressors. He's looking at the same Bible
you're looking at and being like, I don't think y'all
(21:58):
supposed to do this to us. But the next step,
some of you may already know, after Juneteenth, after the
end of slavery, was supposed to be reconstruction. And reconstruction
is a much longer conversation, but it was the process
of trying to put the world back together. Now, if
(22:21):
you could go back to the Lost Cause Myths episodes,
that'll tell you a lot more about how reconstruction worked,
as far as like if there had to be martial
law down there, because again, everybody terrified that we're finna
light the world up right, how do you integrate these
people into a system that was already designed to hold
(22:43):
them back, figured out ways, we started voting. We started
electing just hundreds and hundreds of black people to office,
and then that's when the Black Code started. But I'm
moving on too far into the future. Let's go back
to this moment in eighteen sixty five. So Granger and
his men went from street to street and they were
just yelling out, Hey, the people of Texas are informed that,
(23:05):
in accordance with the proclamation from the Executive of the
United States, all slaves are free. Just going just yelling,
like since there ain't no internet, they just going door
to door, like, hey day free, y'all can't do this
no more. Now, there's a lot of great, great, great,
great places where you can look up and again, I'm
(23:26):
gonna give you.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I'm gonna hit you to a documentary.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
That I was a part of a little later, but
the Jack Miller Center, the African American History Museum in DC. Like,
there's so many places you could see all this stuff.
But according to the Jack Miller Center dot org, I'm
gonna read this to you. Between nineteen thirty six and
nineteen thirty eight, the Federal Writers Project So Interesting conducted
(23:53):
interviews with twenty three hundred former slaves who were still living.
This included a number of them who lived in Texas
when they received word of the proclamation in June nineteenth,
nineteen six or eighteen sixty five. Since that was the
day that the last of the ex slaves learned of
the poclaation, June nineteenth was chosen to be celebrated as
(24:15):
June teenth. The emancipation had left an inevitable mark on
all those former slaves who were interviewed by the Federal
Writers Project. For example, please remember this name purely. Coleman
was freed on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, and shared
his first experience of freedom when he was interviewed on
(24:37):
June nineteenth, nineteen thirty seven. He remembered his owner telling
him and the other enslaved men working on the field
that you're all as free as I am, and the
men began shouting and singing in celebration. Now, although many
African Americans have rejoiced that the first June tenth, they
(25:01):
also experienced a lot of uncertainty of what that freedom meant.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Margaret Nilman, she was also interviewed in this thing. Now.
She was out in Fourth Worth.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
She talked about how the freedom brought an absolute explosion
of violence against African Americans, a lot of them who
were shot, tortured, and lynched by the hands of the
Klan because the clan immediately was formed right after we
got set free, right, And then it led to the
(25:33):
question of like, dog, is this what freedom is? Is
this what like if we just get enslaved, did we
just get freed from being enslaved to just being hunted
right after? Are we even really free? It's a weird
way to exist. And nonetheless, none of that takes away
(25:56):
from the beauty of that last day, where that last
black face was able to walk away from an institution
that America has yet to fully reckon with.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
And now we had.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Parades and as of June of twenty twenty one, it
was finally recognized as a national holiday.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But it's also a.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Very complicated one because we're still talking about reparations. There
were wrongs that were never made right, whether we're talking about, yeah,
the Homestead Act, and like I said, like I mentioned earlier,
you know, redlining and mass incarceration.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
These things that.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
The experience of the African American as That's why I
say it's complicated, as no parts of me would ever
want to live in any other era as a black
man in America.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Like, let me not be foolish. There's still some wrongs
that have not been made right. The you know, the.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And of course, like changed behavior is important, you know,
but the repairing of the breach, which is what reparations
is about, Like you're repairing the things that were taken,
and rather than seeing that sort of repair for what
(27:30):
we went through, we just continue to see an.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Evolving version.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Of the type of oppression that we experienced in So
this is why I say complicated. Yes, the institution discourage
of slavery has been removed from our laws, but the
discussion among black people is like, yo, are we truly
(28:00):
free in the sense that was this wrong made right?
The reason why we can say that is because you
still needed a civil rights movement, you still needed a
Black Panther movement, you still needed a Black Lives Matter movement.
You know, they're there. These things still needed to happen.
(28:21):
And of course, you know, people don't change overnight. But
my god, that was eighteen sixty five, y'all, like come on,
So yeah, So that's what also what makes this holiday
complicated is that it just kind of doesn't feel complete
(28:43):
in to the extent that it could be. And of
course I don't have to tell you.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
That I am not.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Saying I am not grateful for the completion of of Juneteenth.
But again, I don't know if I've said this already
or I'm going to say it later on.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
In this thing, like.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
All the rights we have as black people, we fought for,
like they were not given. We had to force them
out of the hands of the clenched fists of the nation.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
We to pry our liberties out of their hands.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
So just I don't know, I still celebrate Juneteenth because
I mean, you're right, slavery's over. Some tips I would
(30:07):
like to give you one of which may seem like
it's a little far fetched, but I need you to
understand this. It's can any of y'all say the word
nigga that's.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Nice even or not.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The realities of what it meant to be a slave
descendant in this country as a black person in a
lot of ways still sits in our bones because of reconstruction,
because of mass incarceration, redlining, all types of ways for
which the country attempted to keep us as deeply as
(31:12):
they as much as they possibly can disenfranchised, and how
every step of freedom and liberty we had was not
given to us. We fought for it, and the ways
for which we were able to sort of judo our oppression,
sometimes into beauty, making treasure out of trash, empowering ourselves,
(31:33):
taking things that were meant for evil to use Bible,
you know, God turned around for good, one of which
is nigga, which might be a bigger discussion later. I
guess it's all tied to Juneteenth. Is again a lot
of times we're in places where black people are being
free to be themselves, which means we gonna say nigga
(31:56):
a lot among each other. And the question that some
of y'all may ask is when is it appropriate for
a non black person to say nigga? I mean, the
short answer is never, But obviously it's more nuanced than that, because,
first of all, we don't even agree among ourselves whether
it is or is not appropriate, or when is the time?
(32:17):
And in front of what company, won't even agree on.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Who's black Like. There's so much nuance there.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I think that if you go back again to
the discussion with culture and who wasn't a side like
why we said we didn't want to hear Drake not
we didn't want to hear Drake say nigga no more obvious.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Well maybe not obviously. It has nothing to do with colorism.
It's not that. It's culture.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
The history and the baggage of what it meant to
be hard are nigga like. It sits in our bones
and it's something that we know even currently, were we
be transfixed to a different time, what it would mean.
So there's this understanding that when I look at this
person and this black man is black woman across from me,
(33:02):
I know the ways for which they would have suffered
because I would have suffered the same way were we
in the environment that our ancestors were in. Because again
j Cole is Justice light skin, red men, light skin,
Meth method Man's light skin. They're all very fair skinned men,
Clay Steph, there's no question about their blackness because there's
(33:25):
a cultural understanding of who and what and how. That
is a little more like we said that the boundaries
are more gray than we would like to admit. But again,
it's not his color that is keeping us away from that.
It's an understanding of our experience. Let me give you
(33:49):
an example as somebody who's actually black, you know, and
I say that, of course with big air quotes, like
there's never any question.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Like sometimes I know a.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Lot of Puerto Rican people that have to like prove
they're like no, seriously, like I'm black. Look at this nose.
Let me show you a picture of my auntie. Let
me show your picture my grandfather. Let me show your
picture of this. I'm like, okay, if you have to
go out of your way, now, this is my opinion,
you have to go out of your way to prove
to me that you are as black as you say
you are. That should give you pause as to how
(34:17):
freely you speak, because it's not necessarily about the right
or privilege to use a certain term. It's about an
shared experience. In my view, the reality is there are
in every hood in America, there's a white family who
grew up right alongside us. Who you from the black
part of town. Your parents just like worked at the
(34:39):
right factory and they made friends with this family. Some
of y'all grew up with us. I know down South
there's men that go y'all, little boys, y'all go mudding
y'all learned that that was the thing and the whole
time in your truck, you banging three six mafia, it's
gonna rub off. You're gonna start talking the way your
friends and your rappers talk. Now again, like I said,
the jury is still out among black people how often
(35:00):
when we should say nigga and if it's appropriate, But
we say it among ourselves because we understand that nuance. Now,
maybe in your circle of friends, offline, among each other,
you've been given a pass. But to me, and here's
my advice if you are one of those, to me,
(35:21):
it is not something that you should fight to defend
if you truly understand our experience.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
What am I saying by that?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Like I have some friends of mine who are certified
be Fellon crips gang members, hold low riding driving de Cambodian.
You would only know if you saw them they are
black as hell. The way they carry themselves. You wouldn't
have no idea. You would be like, oh, and I'm
some pretty strange some brown niggas over there, you know
(35:52):
what I'm saying? Like that's what you would think because
they black as hell, and even them in my presence,
who they say nigga among each other, and I know
they do, but they understand the black experience well enough
to know that, like, out of respect for you and
what you've gone through, I'm not going to talk to
you that. I'm not going to assume that I can
speak that freely now among theyhood among They said, that's different.
(36:14):
That's something that they need to discuss. And probably them
niggas that put them on gave them that particular pass.
But that's not They understand our experience well enough to
know that even though they from the field, they put
in more work than I did, still they understand that
I am, in fact they black men and they are not.
They are Asian men, and they understand that. And that
(36:35):
respect is to me the reason why they have a card,
and the fact that they understand that I should lay
that card down.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's not. It's actually the more I understand about your experience,
the more I know that just doesn't really have it
has no business coming out of my mouth because I
didn't as much as as much as I've been around y'all,
as much as the odd is just how I talk,
I understand I personally grew.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Up, you guys know, in a Latino community. I speak
a lot of better Spanish than a lot of my
Latino friends. I know there are some things that, even
though I may have a better understanding in them, it's
not my place because it's not my experience. So to me,
if you feel like you have the right to defend,
if you're not black, and you feel like you have
the right to defend or the need to defend your
(37:22):
right to say to say nigga, I feel like you
missing a point and you really don't understand us.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I feel like that is proof that you shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
In my mind, among homies, people give each other passes,
and who am I to talk about your friendship because.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Listen, among my homies, there are a lot of non.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Black people say nigg and they say it to me,
but we are talking among ourselves. They all know better
than to talk like that to my brother, or to
my sister, or to my cousins, or like they know
better because they understand that this is very relational. And
I understand y'all's experience well enough. So when you get
that close, that much proximity, you don't you understand, is
(38:01):
what I'm trying to get at. So should white people
say nigga. Like again, I mean, you should black people
say nigga. I'm just saying, the more you truly understand us,
the more you'll be able to answer that question yourself. Now,
having said all that, New York is an entirely different planet,
like I have no idea what to do.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
They done already made their decisions.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Anyway, that the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, they have all the
rights and privileges of black people. At least the New
Eurekans are like the Dominican Americans because a lot of
times the Dominicans be black as hell, look black as me.
But when they're immigrant, when they're like first gin, they're like,
I know black, I ain't know black, Like they don't
want to be black because they understand that, like to
(38:41):
be black in America is to be at the bottom
of the wrongs.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
So but they were like, nigga, you black as hell?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
But anyway, that's a whole other discussion that I'm not
equipped to talk about, because New York's a whole different planet.
If you ain't one of them, you should consider the
things I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
For this last part, I want to answer some questions
or a question I get from the collection of the
diaspora of the boiled chicken people, the people that don't
season air food or wash their legs.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
I love y'all.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I know a lot of you do season your chicken
and wash your legs, but that's probably because you met
us start using wash cloth. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this
is unfair. I'm just popping off because it's Juneteenth and blackness. Anyway,
the questions you guys often ask me, and I think
it's very genuine. How do you celebrate Juneteenth? What is
the most appropriate thing to do?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I understand this question for a number of reasons, probably
because all the stuff we just went through in what
is Juneteenth, and that the fact that it's only been
a national holiday for two years now, right, it's a
holiday that wasn't official, but it was.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
It was kind of a holiday.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
It's like a holiday light We had parades, you know,
Black people celebrated it in certain ways where we went
and just did really black stuff. But yeah, you know,
I get it. Your issue is let me first reflect
the issue. Let me catch everybody up to like the
issue that they're probably coming at this as it's at
least white Americans, because this is obviously a uniquely American celebration.
(40:43):
America tends to suck all the meaning out of their holidays,
like and especially ones that have to do with somebody
else's culture, Like do you really understand Cinco Demayo? Do
you know that this is not Mexican independence, like that
this had to do with the war against the Friend.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Do you understand that?
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Do you understand that in Mexico this is like this
Sinkle de Mayo barely is a blip on the calendar.
The independence is in September. That's that's when they go off.
And if your idea of celebrating it is cosplay, y'all
be putting on some breros and and making incredibly nasty nachos,
you know, and your little and your little taco bars.
(41:23):
For some reason, somebody told y'all ground beef belongs in
a taco. Like it's just just everything's wrong. You called
it sinko, They drinko. You're just gonna go get drunk,
which is in your defense what you do for Saint
Patrick's Day, Like, y'all just you just don't know how
to suprate. You just suck all the meaning out of
holidays Easter is like, I mean, it's supposed to be
(41:44):
a religious one, but what are you doing Easter? You
just you just watch sports and just like Thanksgiving is
Turkey Day, you just eat and watch college football, Like
there's the meaning is always secondary to you.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
Church, what's the fourth version? Quadr? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
They just don't have Chrispin doesn't mean any what's the
true spirit of Christ? Every movie you watch about the truth,
none of it has to do Like Halloween is just
spooky day, like you just you just dress up like
that's what y'all do, Like your holidays have no meaning,
and you, for some reason think it's okay to cosplay
stuff that comes from other cultures like that, you just
(42:24):
and the problem is if you cosplay black stuff, it's blackface.
You look like a menstrual show. You can't you cannot win.
And then sometimes black people really just be like we
just want a day where we ain't got what's called
a white gaze. Do y'all know what the white it's Listen,
if you a female, you understand the white gaze because
it's the same as the male gaze. Like y'all just
can't do nothing without eyes on you.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
You understand.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I'm sure you understand that ladies just at the club
just trying to dance with their homegirls, and y'all just
and a lot of time women just are some Some
women just be comfortable in their body and they dance
because they can dance.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
And you just enjoying yourselves.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
You don't want an arbitrary penis just leaned up against
you, you know what I'm saying, Like, I get it, Like
you dancing to be sexy because you dancing to be sexy,
not because you need eyes on you. I understand that.
I throw parties. I understand this. Sometimes sometimes you want attention,
sometimes you don't. And it's up to us to understand
us as in cisgendered men, to understand which is which
(43:25):
you dancing with your girls, you dancing with your girls.
I get it, that's what y'all need sometimes. Like and
I know I'm a male, I'm a little different, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
I don't look at the homies and be like we
need to just go.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Dance like I just that just that just don't that's
not something that happens. Like I'm just saying, like that's
not natural to me. Yeah, it's not that unless we
like going to see some like break dancers like on
some B boy stuff, or it's just like, yo, we're
trying to kill a cipher. That's different. But I'm not
going to the club dance in a circle with my homeboys.
I'd be I'm a married man now, so it's different.
(43:57):
But like most of the time, it was to try
to catch a glimpse of some nicely shaped females, like
that was the goal. Anyway, you don't want the male gaze,
is the point, just like sometimes we don't want the
white gays. Sometimes we just want times but we just
don't want to explain ourselves. And then other times we
be telling y'all, man, learn something, go learn about our culture.
(44:19):
Don't be looking at us explain. So you like, okay,
well guess I'll pull up to come understand what's happening.
So I'm at the Quanta celebration. You the only white girl.
You got your Nigerian you know, head wrap on, and
now we're judging you for like I get it, you
can't win. It seemed like y'all don't know how to
just enjoy stuff without like you be in your head.
(44:42):
Sometimes that's why I feel like while y'all y'all just
don't dance that well. Now I'm just saying is again
these are gross generalities. It's because y'all just be in
y'all head. And I understand sometimes you in your head
because you got such history of messing up.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Now here's some suggestions I know that every year. I'm
gonna give you an example. We live in a part
of town very close to Asian communities. I live in
an area called Boyle Heights. To the west of me
is downtown right like right across like eight minutes away
(45:19):
and connected to downtown is Chinatown, a little Tokyo. The
other direction you got East LA. But the north side
of East La is a city called Monterey Park. Now,
if you've seen The Brother's Son, it took place over there.
So it's a largely Asian, specifically Chinese space. So every
year for Chinese New Year, they have a parade, and
(45:40):
you know what we do, We just go and watch.
I don't wear no costume, I don't have my kids
dress up, don't. We don't throw themed parties at the house.
I'm not mixing culture like where there's like geishas here,
like you know, like, it's pretty simple. They pass out
the little envelopes for the kids, got like twenty dollars
(46:02):
in I let my baby go get one of those.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
They usually have like little shrines or exhibits set up.
We walk through, we look at the exhibits, we read
the things, get some dim sum, and go home. It's
not that hard. I don't have to put together. What
I'm saying is get out your head. It's not hard.
I'm pretty sure there's a parade somewhere. I'm pretty sure
there's a music festival. Crenshaw in LA does the you know,
(46:26):
the La Mirt Park Rising during June teen. There's usually
an MLK parade out here too, which is in January.
Of course, a different thing, which I'm usually telling you
don't go to that because at least in La, it
almost always gets shot up, so don't do that. But now,
the Lamurt Park Rising is a music fest, and of course,
like sometimes that might be a little two turned for you.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
I get it. But if you're in the hip hop.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, just go down there, get some jerk chicken. You
can visit a museum, barbecue, stay home. In Oklahoma they
do a June teeth on the East. It's a festival
I performed at many times. There's a whole lot of vendors,
whole lot of blackness. It's not that you're not welcome.
Of course, you're welcome. Go see the show on the
Juneteenth on the East they got a booth with cigars.
(47:08):
They do a car show. There's like motorcycles. Everybody we
loud and black and you just we're just enjoying ourselves.
We're being ourselves. We're being It's not that you're not welcome,
but don't come in a day shiki Like, That's what
I'm trying to say, Like, you can participate in something
without cose playing it if you want to go learn.
I'm pretty sure leading up to that, like, I'm pretty
(47:30):
sure in every city there is some sort of Afro
studies department that you know what I'm saying, I'm pretty
sure there's some sort of documentaries you can watch. Matter
of fact, I am going to link in this show
a documentary that I'm a part of. I'm not in it,
but I did a part of the soundtrack. It's about Juneteenth.
It's called June teenth, Faith and Freedom. It's on YouTube,
you can look it up. It's about an hour long.
(47:50):
A lot of my friends worked on it. Now it's
put together by this thing called Voices, which is a
partnership of this extremely Christian organization called The Daily Now,
before that turns you off or maybe turns you on,
I don't know, but before you draw any conclusions about
the fact that this is definitely faith based, it's because
abolition was.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
It's because the Civil Rights movement was.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
If some of y'all got evangelical baggage, and I totally
understand it, that you have that Black church with all
of its problems and we got them is very different.
The Black Church, for most of the time that this
has been a country, has been the moral compass. It's
(48:36):
been the conscious of the country. It's been Black church.
That's where we've organized, where we've strategized, has caused movements,
the civil rights movement, you know, and even if it's
not even and sometimes like it just church period, you know,
like even if we're talking about like the Nation of
Islam or or you know, Muslim communities, we're talking the
(49:00):
Hebrew Israelites, which is a sect of sort of a
black version of a type of anyway, we'd be a
whole other conversation about the Hebrew's lights. But either way,
faith spaces has been where black people have organized the
whole entire time. So you cannot from the civil rights movement.
(49:21):
You cannot extract the Baptist Church from the civil rights movement.
And it's the same with Juneteenth. You cannot extract the
role the church played, specifically the Black church, from the
abolition of slavery.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's just impossible.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
So the people to tell this story in its totality
are these people. I understand that, like the lines between
sacred and secular for other cultures might not be as
blurry as are, but for us, it's like you couldn't
because we face such such such deep oppression in the nation.
It was impossible to exist in this nation without some
(50:03):
sort of spiritual foundation, and that out of that spiritual foundation,
out of that tradition of Moses and the children of
Israel being freed from Egyptian slavery and like that, it
was hard for us to not see ourselves in that,
and that be a part of the way for which
we understand our existence in this country.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
Now.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Of course, obviously every black person ain't no Christian, you
know what I'm saying. Or come from that. But what
I'm saying is that faith is in some way. That's
why I mentioned Nation of Islam was you know, and
five percenters Hebrew is Arelite. Just the church, mosque, temple,
synagogue has always been a place where we've organized.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
So anyway, look at the doc. Teach your kids. Go
gets a barbecue.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
Like some of y'all weirdos have gone down to Gettysburg before.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Well, go to Galveston.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Now, if there's no parade, there's probably some sort of
like community like flea market or street fair somewhere in
the black neighborhood in your town. And if you ain't
got one in your town, go find one. I'm pretty
sure in the rural list of areas, if you drive
a little bit further, you're gonna find some black people,
right and just go visit again.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
You don't have to overdo it. You don't have to.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Don't corner no old black dude. You know, you gonna
find some You're gonna find some hoteps. You're gonna find
some brother omar's that umar that feel like you ain't
got no right to be there, And that's cool. Don't
worry about that. You know, every black community got the overwoke.
You know, sometimes you got to be able to read
the room and respect the place. Like there has been
times that I've had to read the room listen. I
(51:37):
have two daughters, and one of the one of the
oddest moments is if each of my daughters have a
friend over and then some of my wife's friends come over.
There's ten women in my house, and sometimes my teenage daughter,
when she was younger, she would have, you know, girls
spend the night. And I don't know if you know
(51:58):
how Now again, these are grossy and I'm just saying
this is my experience between my sisters and my daughters
and my wife. Like girls just they y'all just be
like in y'all draws and just going to the bathroom
and y'all shower while you talking and having conversations and
just it's the I'm like, I don't it's like y'all
(52:20):
treat the house like a locker room. Like y'all just well,
y'all that comfy with each other. I just I you know,
they my daughter are homegirl, they share bed. I'm like,
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
We didn't. I we just don't do that.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
So at that point I'd be like, I know I
live here, I know I have a right to be here,
but I should probably Sometimes when the older ones and
my wife has friends over and they're discussing, they're teaching
the little ones, you know, things to do about their
menstrual cycle, how to prepare for this. So that means
my wife's professional, unbelievably attractive homegirl who I've never thought
about as anything other than just my wife's homegirl, are
(52:55):
now talking about their period. It's probably time for me
to go. They didn't have to tell me. I'm just
like this, all this seems I should probably walk away.
I'm just saying you, Jo Antennas, there are probably times
white people when you can understand that, like the conversation
is probably not for me, and if not, it maybe
take some black people with you to be like, yeah,
you should probably should probably walk away from this. Just
(53:16):
ask me the questions, just read the room. That's that's
my advice. But all in all, guys, listen, it's a
great thing to celebrate. It's a moment where our country
got it right. There's probably a parade you could participate
without cause playing and just enjoy the day, barbecue and
celebrate with us.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
I hope that helps. And please, please, please, I'm speaking
specifically to the white women. Don't try to learn no
African dances. Don't go get your hair braided. Just I'm
begging you. Don't go get your hair braided. Please, do
not try to learn no African I'm begging you. Just
(54:02):
go watch the sisters.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
And maybe if one of them want to pull you
to the side and show you how to do something
that's different, let them lead the way.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
Okay, just I'm begging you. Hood politics.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
All right, now, don't you hit stop on this pod.
You better listen to these credits. I need you to
finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay,
so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded
in East Lost Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap
in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If
(54:46):
you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You
can go there dot com and use promo code hood
get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed,
edited and mastered by your boy Mat Alsowski killing the
beat Softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
I'm a spelling for you. Because I know M A T.
T O.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
S O W s Ki dot com Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
He got more music and stuff like that on there,
so gonna check out The heat.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive produced
by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your
theme music and scoring is also by the one and
overly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen. Don't
let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand politics.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
These people is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all
next week.
Call zone media. I actually think I remember this vividly now.
Memory is a weird thing, obviously, well not obviously, but
it's a weird thing. Sometimes our brains kind of fill
in areas that are murky, and we just kind of
like connect dots that weren't there. But I do know
(00:25):
that a very significant chunk of my rearing was my
father being very intentional in me and my sister understanding
our blackness. We would back when the library would rent
movies and they would be on VHS, and some of them,
(00:46):
I feel like, would be probably wildly inappropriate for our age,
others right on task, and sometimes they looked a little dated,
you know, because they were older films, and you'd have
to sort of suspend youry. It would be like if
you showed your kids now the first Star Wars film,
(01:06):
to where it's like, Okay, I know this isn't the
quality of film you're used to, but just stay with us.
So we would watch these different black films, the autobiography
of Miss Jane Pittman. We'd watch Woman called Moses and
that's a movie about Harriet Tubman. We watched Tutsie, we
watched the Blaxploitation films, you know, the ones that again
were relatively appropriate for five to eight year old. We
(01:30):
watched Sounder, We watched just movies about slavery, freedom. I
remember us sitting down and watching Roots, just things about blackness.
We went to parades and every Sunday for a long time,
we would hit an area called Lamert Park. Now y'all
have heard me talk about Lamert Park. I even gave
(01:50):
an episode called Every City Needs a Lamert Park. And
it's just about this like neutral zone where we get
to be black people really get to be full of
theirselves in the Myrt Park. It's a great place in
La Crenshaw District. But on Sunday they do drum circles.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
My father used to take us there and you'd see
that sort of African diaspora, you know. They would do
these drum circles and my father would take me there,
and eventually when I became a teenager, you know, there
was a thing called Project Blow that I talked about.
There was jazz clubs there, anything if you wanted to
go get some dope, jewelry, some incense.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Shade, butter products, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Blackness, the Myrt Park and then where I, you know,
cut my teeth, learning how to freestyle, rap and battle
and stuff like that, because it was just the center
of in a lot of ways, the center of Los
Angeles black arts. But also it would be the Juneteenth celebration.
So I remember going to the parades, I remember participating.
(02:50):
I remember buying licorice root you know you could do
your googles, and walking around with my father seeing all
the red, black and green flags, and I just knew
this was a day of blackness. But I don't think
I really knew what it was because again, it wasn't
a national holiday.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
This felt like a holiday just for black folks.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Like you didn't see nobody else there, and I didn't
necessarily know. I had a June teenth T shirt. I
knew it had something to do with being free in America.
I also knew it had to do with the celebration
of blackness. But I participated in June teenth long before
I understood Juneteenth. And unfortunately, there's a lot of black
(03:32):
kids out here who feel the same way that because
it wasn't again, it wasn't a day nobody taught us
in school. Nobody we learned about Martin Luther King, we
didn't learn our history. So even all this, like, I mean,
y'all figured it out now like white people ain't complaining
about critical race theory no more.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
They'dne moved on the DEI work.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
But the point is for y'all to actually think we
was learning anything about ourselves in school is laughable because
I'm like, you went to you.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Went to school with us.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What made you think we knew anything about ourselves. Everything
we knew about ourselves and our experience was taught outside
of our schools. So I didn't really know what your
kids was. I had to find out on my own.
So now you're gonna learn what.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
It is hood politics. So welcome.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Before I teach you all some things, let's talk about
what's going on currently.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Bull look is like this, BULLUK is like this, all right,
this week's it's like this.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So Hunter Biden is officially guilty and the takes have
been kind of strange to me. I listen, the worst
thing in the world to me is when you are
in a situation where somebody's takes be so bad it
got you defending lanes. You understand how many times I've
(05:08):
had to say this is by no means a defense
of the Biden family, Are they crime bosses?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Come on, gee, you telling me that, You're telling me that.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That large cheese pizza ass family is a crime like okay, No,
they basic run of the mill rich kids. Homie got
caught because rich kids be thinking they invincible. Homie had
a terrible tragedy and like everybody else, ain't know how
to cope. So he turned to the turned to the drugs,
(05:42):
to the kokayina right, crack is cheap, you feel me,
and tried to get himself a gun and his girl
was like, nigga, hell now and got rid of it
because she, like you ain't right, and he got caught.
I mean, it is what it is like this. Granted,
none of this stuff would be in the news if
he wasn't a press son. But you know what, nigga,
you are the president's son. It is what it is you. Yes, bro,
(06:06):
you was guilty like I like nobody you have. I
have no pushback on that. The pushback I got is
the twenty five years. Come on, gee, for for lying
on twenty five years is a lot now granted again,
first time offender with the drug problem. Now another thing
(06:29):
that got me like, man, don't make me defend This
is the way that the left, I mean not the left.
I'm gonna call this the okay, the left news. So
the CNNs of the world are like, oh, man, we
just see you know, you know, the Biden family just
coming in and supporting your family, and you know, if
you've ever dealt with addiction, and you know, like this
(06:49):
is really a tragedy. Man, Okay, y'all Okay, Now, with
y'all saying that when it was when it was somebody black,
when it was somebody around getting railroaded over there over addiction,
y'all wasn't saying that with that, y'all got nice when
(07:10):
it was an opioid epidemic.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
That's when y'all got nice.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So like, no, no, bring that same energy, you know
what I'm saying, actually the energy that should have never
been brought in the first place. Let me keep it real,
but like, let me be on my hating right now, Like,
don't like y'all being too nice to this man.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Granted it's the niceness that we should have all been getting.
I'm gonna keep keep coming back to that, but like,
don't make me defend this boy.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Guys twenty five years wow.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Also, what's going on right now is this parliament, this
European parliament election thing that I really don't understand. I'm sorry, y'all,
let me keep it a buck. I need to learn
a lot more or about whatever this voting process is
(08:07):
and how they're saying it's turning to the right, when
it seemed like the more I read they getting little
more centered than anything. I was more worried about, you
feel me when Lapin in them was on some like
we need to leave the we need to leave Brexit
and all that. Either way, I don't understand it. Anyway
that's going on right now. So y'all hearing me tell
(08:28):
you what my homework's finna because I don't understand. I
don't understand their parliament at all. I got a parliament
show coming up, but it's about the Kinnesset in.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Israel to explain that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And then lastly, in what's going on, it's like this
is choop of capital. Bro DJ Quick and problem got
a record together and it's hard. All right, back to business.
(09:20):
So what you may or may not have learned is
about the Emancipation Proclamation. Right that President Abraham Lincoln, in
a stroke of political genius, And I'll explain to you
why this was political. Genius declared freedom to all of
(09:41):
the slaves in the Confederate States. Now, if they had
already seceeded, then America don't have no jurisdiction over those
states because they rebel states.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So it wasn't what like you're the deck deloration was
a type of political maneuvering that allowed I don't know
why I'm talking so slowly like this because I'm putting
on my teacher hat here, but it allowed Linking to
(10:16):
at least present a moral high ground. There is obviously
no internet happening, so it's not like nor is there
any television.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's not like.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
He could just call the press conference and let all
of the country know this's what he doing. The word
gotta spread much slower, right, So you do you make
the magic pacent proclamation? Yea, Remember like the war's happening
right now. People jump insides if you are if you're
an African slave, and a Union army pull up and
(10:49):
they like, you can fight for us, nigga, you are
you gonna stay on that plantation?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
No? You were like, why would anyone do this?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I think that it's important to remember, Like I'm getting
ahead of myself, but I need you to remember like
that emancipation wasn't like understand this, It wasn't just given
to black people. We fought hard on the ground, shooting
actual guns in the Union military while still not having
the same rights and privileges of white Union soldiers. At
(11:18):
least we wasn't slaves over here being promised our freedom
if we fought in this war. It was like if
there was any moment to put it all on the
line and the risk at all, it would be for this.
This was your shot. Like we like, what do we
get to lose? I'm gonna die on this plantation or
I'm a die fighting for our freedom. That was on
one tier. On the other tier, you have somebody like
(11:40):
Frederick Douglass, which we should do a whole story on
Frederick Douglas going from slavery to freedom, teaching himself how
to read and write, and please, if you get a chance,
go look at his Fourth of July speech in him
explaining like y'all calling this y'all's day of freedom, but
you definitely not talking about us.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
How why would you expect any.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Of us to celebrate the fourth of July. This ain't
a day for us. We still slaves, right. Frederick Douglas's
role in moving Abraham Lincoln from trying to save the
Union to full abolitionist, it's Frederick Douglass. It's their friendship.
It's him coming to the White House, being one of
(12:23):
the first African American freemen to be in the White House,
to explaining to him the moral conundrum that he is
putting himself in by trying to threadn impossible needle. It
was Frederick Douglas that was explaining to Lincoln that you
are in your only solution is full abolition because you're
(12:49):
dealing with people. You can't play cake. This is impossible
to play cake. There is no ways for you to
playcate this now at this point, you have heard the
Thomas Jefferson episodes where the episodes that are on Behind
the Bastards, where Jefferson worked very hard and turning himself
into a pretzel and being able to articulately explain that
(13:14):
what we are doing is in fact, morally beyond a
shadow of a doubt evil, saying things like, yo, if
God is as just as we say he is, then
a day of reckoning is coming and God is not
going to be on our side. We are wrong, turning
himself into a pretzel and then trying at least can
(13:34):
we stop importing new slaves like you like, knowing enough
cognitively to know what he's doing is wrong, but can't
get himself in actuality because the comforts that slavery gives
you was too much for him to let go of.
Plus he really like, he really liked that black pudding
(13:55):
and all that. To say, the build up before we
even got to war. I think it's something that has
been flattened where there are stories of Lincoln trying to
appeal to the moral compass, then he tried to appeal
to the practical compass of the white population. Then he
(14:15):
tried to appeal to the financial like, trying his best
to make I don't know what to tell y'all to
say that you need to stop doing this. And some
of it was political theater, some of it was maneuvering
that may not have necessarily done something. The Emancipation Proclamation
was one of those strange things. Now, remember the thirteenth
(14:38):
Amendment is what ended slavery, okay, which is not the
emancipation Proclamation. However, having said that on January first, eighteen
sixty three, the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, it
was a document for which declared that quote, all persons
(14:59):
held as slave within the rebellious States are and henceforth
shall be free. So he just made this, he made
this statement. Now, since even though they call themselves in rebellion,
they are still a part of the Mountain, You still
part of United That's still your president. You could pick
jo Jefferson Davis as much as you won't. At the
(15:20):
end of the day, this proclamation again was a much
more political than it actually was practical. The practical one
was the thirteenth Amendment. Now with that, the freedom that
we actually got was much more complicated. Now, even this
(16:06):
particular proclamation, now before you get excited about it, like
really understand what was happening. Okay, this proclamation didn't emancipate
people in parts of Louisiana, in states of Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee,
West Virginia, even though each of those states they are
already about slavery before the war was ended. They've already
said we got to stop do this, stop doing that,
(16:28):
even before the war was before the whole surrender before
all that happened. Now, remember this is eighteen sixty three.
The Civil War ain't over till eighteen sixty five. They
still fighting for it. So remember this emancipation Proclamation. It's important,
but it's a maneuver. But either way, at this point,
according to the proclamation of the President, they done gave
(16:50):
us free. Right. But like I said, ain't no internet.
So how fast do you think this word traveled? And
even before you think about how the word traveled, if
you are a slave owning man, let's just let's just say,
and you way out west and you get a telegram
(17:13):
that says, hey, homie, the President said, you got to
set everybody free. Now, Remember, ain't nobody on your campus
can read, Nobody on this plantation can read, and you
the only one with the mail. It's kind of like
if you get your report card. They used to mail
report cards when we was kids. If you get a
letter home from school and they say to the parents
(17:33):
of and you get the mail first, let's say it's
on a Friday, is you really.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Finna hand them that letter?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
At least wait till the weekend over, Like, I'm not
gonna tell them, I'm failing all my classes if I
could stop them from knowing, Like, why would you tell?
Of course, I'm not gonna tell y'all until I absolutely
have to. My sister used to like again back when
they used to mail report on my sister hit her
report card all the time, Why the hell would I
show you this? Absolutely not I'm not finna show you, right, So,
(18:03):
the news didn't actually reach all of the Western States
until much later. As a matter of fact, it was
two years later. Matter of fact, they didn't even know
the war was over. The war ended April nineteenth and
nineteen sixty five, but again, that was way over there
(18:25):
in Virginia. That's where Robert Elite surrendered. How long you
think it take word to go, especially a word that
you don't want to get out mant to pace a
proclamation in eighteen sixty three, we were supposed to be free,
But it wasn't until June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, that
Union troops under the commander of Major General Gordon Granger
(18:46):
actually arrived in Galveston, Texas.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
That was the final city on June nineteen.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
When he got there and looked around and was like,
what are y'all doing that? Can you imagine that? Can
you imagine finding out till two years later you were
supposed to be free, Like wait, wait, the war over?
You still hoping and praying and calling all Jesus, hoping
at this thing in and it's like, oh no, nigga's
been done. What oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the war
(19:15):
been done. Y'all could have left two years ago, nigga.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
What So?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five marks the last plantation where
the last slave was notified.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
That they was actually free.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
That is why we call it June teenth. And I
don't know why it's not called June nineteenth, but probably
some sort of Southern something. But June nineteenth is the
day that eighteen sixty five is the day that we celebrate.
We don't celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation. Hell, will't really even
celebrate the thirteenth Amendment. We celebrate June nineteenth. It's when
the last of us was able to leave that plantation.
(19:54):
There's even stories of Lincoln going up and down the
coast trying to tell everybody.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Like, hey, it's over ya, y'all free? What? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Nik can go home now? Now again, let's just say
I'm just trying to humanize the moment. Let's just be
I think there was a Dave Chappelle skit. Let's just
say somebody walks up to your plantation while you are
actively beating the snot out of some man and.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Says, hey, uh, hey they free.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Now you know you can't this outlawed, You can't do
this no more?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Like wait, what.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
While you gotta whip in your hand and everybody watching
you beat the snot out of this man, wouldn't you
be terrified? Like, Oh, I just I wonder what that
last moment was, Like, uh, what what do we?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
What do we?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
What do we?
Speaker 3 (20:45):
What do we? What do we? Really? Sorry about that?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Bro?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
No, man, you're gonna you're gonna try to fight it.
You're trying to be like you know, you're gonna like
still try to exert your power because what they honestly
believe was if we let let them free, a race
war will start. They are going to do to us
what we did to them, and you know they lucky.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Black people love Jesus And this is biperia.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
You have to remember, and I'm going to reiterate this
a little later, that the spiritual foundation of black people
in this time is a big reason why there wasn't
a slaughter. Now, remember Nat Turner was a pastor, and
the slaughter that you know, white people were so worried
(21:37):
about is not ununderstandable. But I'm gonna argue was bridled.
He believed he was on a mission from God. That
man was in his mind obeying Jesus and demanding the
freedom from him of his people and tossing off the
shackles of his oppressors. He's looking at the same Bible
you're looking at and being like, I don't think y'all
(21:58):
supposed to do this to us. But the next step,
some of you may already know, after Juneteenth, after the
end of slavery, was supposed to be reconstruction. And reconstruction
is a much longer conversation, but it was the process
of trying to put the world back together. Now, if
(22:21):
you could go back to the Lost Cause Myths episodes,
that'll tell you a lot more about how reconstruction worked,
as far as like if there had to be martial
law down there, because again, everybody terrified that we're finna
light the world up right, how do you integrate these
people into a system that was already designed to hold
(22:43):
them back, figured out ways, we started voting. We started
electing just hundreds and hundreds of black people to office,
and then that's when the Black Code started. But I'm
moving on too far into the future. Let's go back
to this moment in eighteen sixty five. So Granger and
his men went from street to street and they were
just yelling out, Hey, the people of Texas are informed that,
(23:05):
in accordance with the proclamation from the Executive of the
United States, all slaves are free. Just going just yelling,
like since there ain't no internet, they just going door
to door, like, hey day free, y'all can't do this
no more. Now, there's a lot of great, great, great,
great places where you can look up and again, I'm
(23:26):
gonna give you.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I'm gonna hit you to a documentary.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
That I was a part of a little later, but
the Jack Miller Center, the African American History Museum in DC. Like,
there's so many places you could see all this stuff.
But according to the Jack Miller Center dot org, I'm
gonna read this to you. Between nineteen thirty six and
nineteen thirty eight, the Federal Writers Project So Interesting conducted
(23:53):
interviews with twenty three hundred former slaves who were still living.
This included a number of them who lived in Texas
when they received word of the proclamation in June nineteenth,
nineteen six or eighteen sixty five. Since that was the
day that the last of the ex slaves learned of
the poclaation, June nineteenth was chosen to be celebrated as
(24:15):
June teenth. The emancipation had left an inevitable mark on
all those former slaves who were interviewed by the Federal
Writers Project. For example, please remember this name purely. Coleman
was freed on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, and shared
his first experience of freedom when he was interviewed on
(24:37):
June nineteenth, nineteen thirty seven. He remembered his owner telling
him and the other enslaved men working on the field
that you're all as free as I am, and the
men began shouting and singing in celebration. Now, although many
African Americans have rejoiced that the first June tenth, they
(25:01):
also experienced a lot of uncertainty of what that freedom meant.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Margaret Nilman, she was also interviewed in this thing. Now.
She was out in Fourth Worth.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
She talked about how the freedom brought an absolute explosion
of violence against African Americans, a lot of them who
were shot, tortured, and lynched by the hands of the
Klan because the clan immediately was formed right after we
got set free, right, And then it led to the
(25:33):
question of like, dog, is this what freedom is? Is
this what like if we just get enslaved, did we
just get freed from being enslaved to just being hunted
right after? Are we even really free? It's a weird
way to exist. And nonetheless, none of that takes away
(25:56):
from the beauty of that last day, where that last
black face was able to walk away from an institution
that America has yet to fully reckon with.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
And now we had.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Parades and as of June of twenty twenty one, it
was finally recognized as a national holiday.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But it's also a.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Very complicated one because we're still talking about reparations. There
were wrongs that were never made right, whether we're talking about, yeah,
the Homestead Act, and like I said, like I mentioned earlier,
you know, redlining and mass incarceration.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
These things that.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
The experience of the African American as That's why I
say it's complicated, as no parts of me would ever
want to live in any other era as a black
man in America.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Like, let me not be foolish. There's still some wrongs
that have not been made right. The you know, the.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
And of course, like changed behavior is important, you know,
but the repairing of the breach, which is what reparations
is about, Like you're repairing the things that were taken,
and rather than seeing that sort of repair for what
(27:30):
we went through, we just continue to see an.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Evolving version.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Of the type of oppression that we experienced in So
this is why I say complicated. Yes, the institution discourage
of slavery has been removed from our laws, but the
discussion among black people is like, yo, are we truly
(28:00):
free in the sense that was this wrong made right?
The reason why we can say that is because you
still needed a civil rights movement, you still needed a
Black Panther movement, you still needed a Black Lives Matter movement.
You know, they're there. These things still needed to happen.
(28:21):
And of course, you know, people don't change overnight. But
my god, that was eighteen sixty five, y'all, like come on,
So yeah, So that's what also what makes this holiday
complicated is that it just kind of doesn't feel complete
(28:43):
in to the extent that it could be. And of
course I don't have to tell you.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
That I am not.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Saying I am not grateful for the completion of of Juneteenth.
But again, I don't know if I've said this already
or I'm going to say it later on.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
In this thing, like.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
All the rights we have as black people, we fought for,
like they were not given. We had to force them
out of the hands of the clenched fists of the nation.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
We to pry our liberties out of their hands.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
So just I don't know, I still celebrate Juneteenth because
I mean, you're right, slavery's over. Some tips I would
(30:07):
like to give you one of which may seem like
it's a little far fetched, but I need you to
understand this. It's can any of y'all say the word
nigga that's.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Nice even or not.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
The realities of what it meant to be a slave
descendant in this country as a black person in a
lot of ways still sits in our bones because of reconstruction,
because of mass incarceration, redlining, all types of ways for
which the country attempted to keep us as deeply as
(31:12):
they as much as they possibly can disenfranchised, and how
every step of freedom and liberty we had was not
given to us. We fought for it, and the ways
for which we were able to sort of judo our oppression,
sometimes into beauty, making treasure out of trash, empowering ourselves,
(31:33):
taking things that were meant for evil to use Bible,
you know, God turned around for good, one of which
is nigga, which might be a bigger discussion later. I
guess it's all tied to Juneteenth. Is again a lot
of times we're in places where black people are being
free to be themselves, which means we gonna say nigga
(31:56):
a lot among each other. And the question that some
of y'all may ask is when is it appropriate for
a non black person to say nigga? I mean, the
short answer is never, But obviously it's more nuanced than that, because,
first of all, we don't even agree among ourselves whether
it is or is not appropriate, or when is the time?
(32:17):
And in front of what company, won't even agree on.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Who's black Like. There's so much nuance there.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I think that if you go back again to
the discussion with culture and who wasn't a side like
why we said we didn't want to hear Drake not
we didn't want to hear Drake say nigga no more obvious.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Well maybe not obviously. It has nothing to do with colorism.
It's not that. It's culture.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
The history and the baggage of what it meant to
be hard are nigga like. It sits in our bones
and it's something that we know even currently, were we
be transfixed to a different time, what it would mean.
So there's this understanding that when I look at this
person and this black man is black woman across from me,
(33:02):
I know the ways for which they would have suffered
because I would have suffered the same way were we
in the environment that our ancestors were in. Because again
j Cole is Justice light skin, red men, light skin,
Meth method Man's light skin. They're all very fair skinned men,
Clay Steph, there's no question about their blackness because there's
(33:25):
a cultural understanding of who and what and how. That
is a little more like we said that the boundaries
are more gray than we would like to admit. But again,
it's not his color that is keeping us away from that.
It's an understanding of our experience. Let me give you
(33:49):
an example as somebody who's actually black, you know, and
I say that, of course with big air quotes, like
there's never any question.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Like sometimes I know a.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Lot of Puerto Rican people that have to like prove
they're like no, seriously, like I'm black. Look at this nose.
Let me show you a picture of my auntie. Let
me show your picture my grandfather. Let me show your
picture of this. I'm like, okay, if you have to
go out of your way, now, this is my opinion,
you have to go out of your way to prove
to me that you are as black as you say
you are. That should give you pause as to how
(34:17):
freely you speak, because it's not necessarily about the right
or privilege to use a certain term. It's about an
shared experience. In my view, the reality is there are
in every hood in America, there's a white family who
grew up right alongside us. Who you from the black
part of town. Your parents just like worked at the
(34:39):
right factory and they made friends with this family. Some
of y'all grew up with us. I know down South
there's men that go y'all, little boys, y'all go mudding
y'all learned that that was the thing and the whole
time in your truck, you banging three six mafia, it's
gonna rub off. You're gonna start talking the way your
friends and your rappers talk. Now again, like I said,
the jury is still out among black people how often
(35:00):
when we should say nigga and if it's appropriate, But
we say it among ourselves because we understand that nuance. Now,
maybe in your circle of friends, offline, among each other,
you've been given a pass. But to me, and here's
my advice if you are one of those, to me,
(35:21):
it is not something that you should fight to defend
if you truly understand our experience.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
What am I saying by that?
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Like I have some friends of mine who are certified
be Fellon crips gang members, hold low riding driving de Cambodian.
You would only know if you saw them they are
black as hell. The way they carry themselves. You wouldn't
have no idea. You would be like, oh, and I'm
some pretty strange some brown niggas over there, you know
(35:52):
what I'm saying? Like that's what you would think because
they black as hell, and even them in my presence,
who they say nigga among each other, and I know
they do, but they understand the black experience well enough
to know that, like, out of respect for you and
what you've gone through, I'm not going to talk to
you that. I'm not going to assume that I can
speak that freely now among theyhood among They said, that's different.
(36:14):
That's something that they need to discuss. And probably them
niggas that put them on gave them that particular pass.
But that's not They understand our experience well enough to
know that even though they from the field, they put
in more work than I did, still they understand that
I am, in fact they black men and they are not.
They are Asian men, and they understand that. And that
(36:35):
respect is to me the reason why they have a card,
and the fact that they understand that I should lay
that card down.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It's not. It's actually the more I understand about your experience,
the more I know that just doesn't really have it
has no business coming out of my mouth because I
didn't as much as as much as I've been around y'all,
as much as the odd is just how I talk,
I understand I personally grew.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Up, you guys know, in a Latino community. I speak
a lot of better Spanish than a lot of my
Latino friends. I know there are some things that, even
though I may have a better understanding in them, it's
not my place because it's not my experience. So to me,
if you feel like you have the right to defend,
if you're not black, and you feel like you have
the right to defend or the need to defend your
(37:22):
right to say to say nigga, I feel like you
missing a point and you really don't understand us.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I feel like that is proof that you shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
In my mind, among homies, people give each other passes,
and who am I to talk about your friendship because.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Listen, among my homies, there are a lot of non.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Black people say nigg and they say it to me,
but we are talking among ourselves. They all know better
than to talk like that to my brother, or to
my sister, or to my cousins, or like they know
better because they understand that this is very relational. And
I understand y'all's experience well enough. So when you get
that close, that much proximity, you don't you understand, is
(38:01):
what I'm trying to get at. So should white people
say nigga. Like again, I mean, you should black people
say nigga. I'm just saying, the more you truly understand us,
the more you'll be able to answer that question yourself. Now,
having said all that, New York is an entirely different planet,
like I have no idea what to do.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
They done already made their decisions.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Anyway, that the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, they have all the
rights and privileges of black people. At least the New
Eurekans are like the Dominican Americans because a lot of
times the Dominicans be black as hell, look black as me.
But when they're immigrant, when they're like first gin, they're like,
I know black, I ain't know black, Like they don't
want to be black because they understand that, like to
(38:41):
be black in America is to be at the bottom
of the wrongs.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
So but they were like, nigga, you black as hell?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
But anyway, that's a whole other discussion that I'm not
equipped to talk about, because New York's a whole different planet.
If you ain't one of them, you should consider the
things I'm telling you.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Now.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
For this last part, I want to answer some questions
or a question I get from the collection of the
diaspora of the boiled chicken people, the people that don't
season air food or wash their legs.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
I love y'all.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I know a lot of you do season your chicken
and wash your legs, but that's probably because you met
us start using wash cloth. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this
is unfair. I'm just popping off because it's Juneteenth and blackness. Anyway,
the questions you guys often ask me, and I think
it's very genuine. How do you celebrate Juneteenth? What is
the most appropriate thing to do?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Now?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
I understand this question for a number of reasons, probably
because all the stuff we just went through in what
is Juneteenth, and that the fact that it's only been
a national holiday for two years now, right, it's a
holiday that wasn't official, but it was.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
It was kind of a holiday.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
It's like a holiday light We had parades, you know,
Black people celebrated it in certain ways where we went
and just did really black stuff. But yeah, you know,
I get it. Your issue is let me first reflect
the issue. Let me catch everybody up to like the
issue that they're probably coming at this as it's at
least white Americans, because this is obviously a uniquely American celebration.
(40:43):
America tends to suck all the meaning out of their holidays,
like and especially ones that have to do with somebody
else's culture, Like do you really understand Cinco Demayo? Do
you know that this is not Mexican independence, like that
this had to do with the war against the Friend.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Do you understand that?
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Do you understand that in Mexico this is like this
Sinkle de Mayo barely is a blip on the calendar.
The independence is in September. That's that's when they go off.
And if your idea of celebrating it is cosplay, y'all
be putting on some breros and and making incredibly nasty nachos,
you know, and your little and your little taco bars.
(41:23):
For some reason, somebody told y'all ground beef belongs in
a taco. Like it's just just everything's wrong. You called
it sinko, They drinko. You're just gonna go get drunk,
which is in your defense what you do for Saint
Patrick's Day, Like, y'all just you just don't know how
to suprate. You just suck all the meaning out of
holidays Easter is like, I mean, it's supposed to be
(41:44):
a religious one, but what are you doing Easter? You
just you just watch sports and just like Thanksgiving is
Turkey Day, you just eat and watch college football, Like
there's the meaning is always secondary to you.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
Church, what's the fourth version? Quadr? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
They just don't have Chrispin doesn't mean any what's the
true spirit of Christ? Every movie you watch about the truth,
none of it has to do Like Halloween is just
spooky day, like you just you just dress up like
that's what y'all do, Like your holidays have no meaning,
and you, for some reason think it's okay to cosplay
stuff that comes from other cultures like that, you just
(42:24):
and the problem is if you cosplay black stuff, it's blackface.
You look like a menstrual show. You can't you cannot win.
And then sometimes black people really just be like we
just want a day where we ain't got what's called
a white gaze. Do y'all know what the white it's Listen,
if you a female, you understand the white gaze because
it's the same as the male gaze. Like y'all just
can't do nothing without eyes on you.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
You understand.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I'm sure you understand that ladies just at the club
just trying to dance with their homegirls, and y'all just
and a lot of time women just are some Some
women just be comfortable in their body and they dance
because they can dance.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
And you just enjoying yourselves.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
You don't want an arbitrary penis just leaned up against
you, you know what I'm saying, Like, I get it, Like
you dancing to be sexy because you dancing to be sexy,
not because you need eyes on you. I understand that.
I throw parties. I understand this. Sometimes sometimes you want attention,
sometimes you don't. And it's up to us to understand
us as in cisgendered men, to understand which is which
(43:25):
you dancing with your girls, you dancing with your girls.
I get it, that's what y'all need sometimes. Like and
I know I'm a male, I'm a little different, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
I don't look at the homies and be like we
need to just go.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Dance like I just that just that just don't that's
not something that happens. Like I'm just saying, like that's
not natural to me. Yeah, it's not that unless we
like going to see some like break dancers like on
some B boy stuff, or it's just like, yo, we're
trying to kill a cipher. That's different. But I'm not
going to the club dance in a circle with my homeboys.
I'd be I'm a married man now, so it's different.
(43:57):
But like most of the time, it was to try
to catch a glimpse of some nicely shaped females, like
that was the goal. Anyway, you don't want the male gaze,
is the point, just like sometimes we don't want the
white gays. Sometimes we just want times but we just
don't want to explain ourselves. And then other times we
be telling y'all, man, learn something, go learn about our culture.
(44:19):
Don't be looking at us explain. So you like, okay,
well guess I'll pull up to come understand what's happening.
So I'm at the Quanta celebration. You the only white girl.
You got your Nigerian you know, head wrap on, and
now we're judging you for like I get it, you
can't win. It seemed like y'all don't know how to
just enjoy stuff without like you be in your head.
(44:42):
Sometimes that's why I feel like while y'all y'all just
don't dance that well. Now I'm just saying is again
these are gross generalities. It's because y'all just be in
y'all head. And I understand sometimes you in your head
because you got such history of messing up.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Now here's some suggestions I know that every year. I'm
gonna give you an example. We live in a part
of town very close to Asian communities. I live in
an area called Boyle Heights. To the west of me
is downtown right like right across like eight minutes away
(45:19):
and connected to downtown is Chinatown, a little Tokyo. The
other direction you got East LA. But the north side
of East La is a city called Monterey Park. Now,
if you've seen The Brother's Son, it took place over there.
So it's a largely Asian, specifically Chinese space. So every
year for Chinese New Year, they have a parade, and
(45:40):
you know what we do, We just go and watch.
I don't wear no costume, I don't have my kids
dress up, don't. We don't throw themed parties at the house.
I'm not mixing culture like where there's like geishas here,
like you know, like, it's pretty simple. They pass out
the little envelopes for the kids, got like twenty dollars
(46:02):
in I let my baby go get one of those.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
They usually have like little shrines or exhibits set up.
We walk through, we look at the exhibits, we read
the things, get some dim sum, and go home. It's
not that hard. I don't have to put together. What
I'm saying is get out your head. It's not hard.
I'm pretty sure there's a parade somewhere. I'm pretty sure
there's a music festival. Crenshaw in LA does the you know,
(46:26):
the La Mirt Park Rising during June teen. There's usually
an MLK parade out here too, which is in January.
Of course, a different thing, which I'm usually telling you
don't go to that because at least in La, it
almost always gets shot up, so don't do that. But now,
the Lamurt Park Rising is a music fest, and of course,
like sometimes that might be a little two turned for you.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
I get it. But if you're in the hip hop.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Yeah, just go down there, get some jerk chicken. You
can visit a museum, barbecue, stay home. In Oklahoma they
do a June teeth on the East. It's a festival
I performed at many times. There's a whole lot of vendors,
whole lot of blackness. It's not that you're not welcome.
Of course, you're welcome. Go see the show on the
Juneteenth on the East they got a booth with cigars.
(47:08):
They do a car show. There's like motorcycles. Everybody we
loud and black and you just we're just enjoying ourselves.
We're being ourselves. We're being It's not that you're not welcome,
but don't come in a day shiki Like, That's what
I'm trying to say, Like, you can participate in something
without cose playing it if you want to go learn.
I'm pretty sure leading up to that, like, I'm pretty
(47:30):
sure in every city there is some sort of Afro
studies department that you know what I'm saying, I'm pretty
sure there's some sort of documentaries you can watch. Matter
of fact, I am going to link in this show
a documentary that I'm a part of. I'm not in it,
but I did a part of the soundtrack. It's about Juneteenth.
It's called June teenth, Faith and Freedom. It's on YouTube,
you can look it up. It's about an hour long.
(47:50):
A lot of my friends worked on it. Now it's
put together by this thing called Voices, which is a
partnership of this extremely Christian organization called The Daily Now,
before that turns you off or maybe turns you on,
I don't know, but before you draw any conclusions about
the fact that this is definitely faith based, it's because
abolition was.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
It's because the Civil Rights movement was.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
If some of y'all got evangelical baggage, and I totally
understand it, that you have that Black church with all
of its problems and we got them is very different.
The Black Church, for most of the time that this
has been a country, has been the moral compass. It's
(48:36):
been the conscious of the country. It's been Black church.
That's where we've organized, where we've strategized, has caused movements,
the civil rights movement, you know, and even if it's
not even and sometimes like it just church period, you know,
like even if we're talking about like the Nation of
Islam or or you know, Muslim communities, we're talking the
(49:00):
Hebrew Israelites, which is a sect of sort of a
black version of a type of anyway, we'd be a
whole other conversation about the Hebrew's lights. But either way,
faith spaces has been where black people have organized the
whole entire time. So you cannot from the civil rights movement.
(49:21):
You cannot extract the Baptist Church from the civil rights movement.
And it's the same with Juneteenth. You cannot extract the
role the church played, specifically the Black church, from the
abolition of slavery.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
It's just impossible.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
So the people to tell this story in its totality
are these people. I understand that, like the lines between
sacred and secular for other cultures might not be as
blurry as are, but for us, it's like you couldn't
because we face such such such deep oppression in the nation.
It was impossible to exist in this nation without some
(50:03):
sort of spiritual foundation, and that out of that spiritual foundation,
out of that tradition of Moses and the children of
Israel being freed from Egyptian slavery and like that, it
was hard for us to not see ourselves in that,
and that be a part of the way for which
we understand our existence in this country.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
Now.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Of course, obviously every black person ain't no Christian, you
know what I'm saying. Or come from that. But what
I'm saying is that faith is in some way. That's
why I mentioned Nation of Islam was you know, and
five percenters Hebrew is Arelite. Just the church, mosque, temple,
synagogue has always been a place where we've organized.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
So anyway, look at the doc. Teach your kids. Go
gets a barbecue.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
Like some of y'all weirdos have gone down to Gettysburg before.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Well, go to Galveston.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
Now, if there's no parade, there's probably some sort of
like community like flea market or street fair somewhere in
the black neighborhood in your town. And if you ain't
got one in your town, go find one. I'm pretty
sure in the rural list of areas, if you drive
a little bit further, you're gonna find some black people,
right and just go visit again.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
You don't have to overdo it. You don't have to.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Don't corner no old black dude. You know, you gonna
find some You're gonna find some hoteps. You're gonna find
some brother omar's that umar that feel like you ain't
got no right to be there, And that's cool. Don't
worry about that. You know, every black community got the overwoke.
You know, sometimes you got to be able to read
the room and respect the place. Like there has been
times that I've had to read the room listen. I
(51:37):
have two daughters, and one of the one of the
oddest moments is if each of my daughters have a
friend over and then some of my wife's friends come over.
There's ten women in my house, and sometimes my teenage daughter,
when she was younger, she would have, you know, girls
spend the night. And I don't know if you know
(51:58):
how Now again, these are grossy and I'm just saying
this is my experience between my sisters and my daughters
and my wife. Like girls just they y'all just be
like in y'all draws and just going to the bathroom
and y'all shower while you talking and having conversations and
just it's the I'm like, I don't it's like y'all
(52:20):
treat the house like a locker room. Like y'all just well,
y'all that comfy with each other. I just I you know,
they my daughter are homegirl, they share bed. I'm like,
I just don't.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
We didn't. I we just don't do that.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
So at that point I'd be like, I know I
live here, I know I have a right to be here,
but I should probably Sometimes when the older ones and
my wife has friends over and they're discussing, they're teaching
the little ones, you know, things to do about their
menstrual cycle, how to prepare for this. So that means
my wife's professional, unbelievably attractive homegirl who I've never thought
about as anything other than just my wife's homegirl, are
(52:55):
now talking about their period. It's probably time for me
to go. They didn't have to tell me. I'm just
like this, all this seems I should probably walk away.
I'm just saying you, Jo Antennas, there are probably times
white people when you can understand that, like the conversation
is probably not for me, and if not, it maybe
take some black people with you to be like, yeah,
you should probably should probably walk away from this. Just
(53:16):
ask me the questions, just read the room. That's that's
my advice. But all in all, guys, listen, it's a
great thing to celebrate. It's a moment where our country
got it right. There's probably a parade you could participate
without cause playing and just enjoy the day, barbecue and
celebrate with us.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
I hope that helps. And please, please, please, I'm speaking
specifically to the white women. Don't try to learn no
African dances. Don't go get your hair braided. Just I'm
begging you. Don't go get your hair braided. Please, do
not try to learn no African I'm begging you. Just
(54:02):
go watch the sisters.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
And maybe if one of them want to pull you
to the side and show you how to do something
that's different, let them lead the way.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
Okay, just I'm begging you. Hood politics.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
All right, now, don't you hit stop on this pod.
You better listen to these credits. I need you to
finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay,
so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded
in East Lost Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap
in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If
(54:46):
you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You
can go there dot com and use promo code hood
get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee. This was mixed,
edited and mastered by your boy Mat Alsowski killing the
beat Softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
I'm a spelling for you. Because I know M A T.
T O.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
S O W s Ki dot com Matdowsowski dot com.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
He got more music and stuff like that on there,
so gonna check out The heat.
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive produced
by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your
theme music and scoring is also by the one and
overly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen. Don't
let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand politics.
Speaker 3 (55:39):
These people is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all
next week.
Host
Prop
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