April 22, 2024 • 33 mins
Black Girl Magic is real, but it is not a tool for white people to use at their own whim. Dr. Christina Greer joins Danielle once again for a discussion about the politics of respectability as it relates to Black women today, as well as the outlook for Joe Biden just over six months out from the election when the "Genocide Joe" label is not going away.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Meet your Girl Daniel Moody. Recording from the Home Bunker, Folks,
I'm coming to you after hearing news of a protester
that self emilated close to the courthouse where Donald Trump
(00:32):
is on trial. At the time of this recording, I
don't really have any details. I have seen the clips
of the reporters who were there just getting this image
and broadcasting live. We are living in such unstable, uncertain
(00:54):
and just remarkably volatile times when you feel like the
only thing that you can do is this kind of act,
which monks have done, and we've reported on this show.
(01:14):
You know, just a couple of months ago, another protester
in front of an embassy Israeli embassy in DC did
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I know that some of you follow astrology and know
that some of you don't. Some people think that it's
just woohoo. Other people are like, it's one of the oldest,
you know, spiritual religious systems right that guided us for
quite some time. And what I will say about this
moment is that an astrologer that I follow, who is
(01:51):
also a friend, Channy Nicholas, who has an incredible app
has said that the astrology of this moment, this time
that we are living in mirrors the astrology from the
nineteen sixties and what was happening, and like you know,
the eclipses, the just astrological conjunctions and all of these things,
(02:13):
the return Jupiter Saturn, like all of these things that
are happening. I continue to say that we are at
an inflection point. The world is essentially a tinderbox, and
you know it is necessary, necessary, necessary, necessary to slow down,
(02:35):
to have grace, to give yourself grace, to give those
around you grace, to take a beat. I will be
very transparent that last week I had an absolute breakdown.
Couldn't really pinpoint the reason why, but I was feeling
very erratic, feeling just very unhinged, lots of tears, just exhausted,
(03:03):
emotional like, just feeling out of sorts. And I urge
you all that before you get to that moment of bursting.
And maybe sometimes the bursting is necessary, it's part of
the process. But when you start to feel yourself spinning
in any which way, find ways to ground yourself. If
(03:26):
that is meditation, if it is prayer, if it is
going for a walk, if it is playing with a pet,
if it is calling a friend, if it's dialing up
your therapist, if it is gardening, you know, if it
is music, whatever it is that grounds you reach for
it in abundance because the times, folks are just wild
(03:49):
a f Coming up next my conversation with my friend
and just brilliant mind, professor doctor Christina Greer. Is this
episode just chop full of black girl magic and brilliance
and analysis and just the most So I hope that
(04:12):
you enjoy it, folks. I am so excited to welcome
back to WOKF Daily, doctor Christina Greer, Political scientists, Associate
professor at Fordham University, author of Black Ethnics, and co
host of FAQ NYC, host of The Blackest Question. She
is the blackest person, Brooklynmon. I love this for all
(04:36):
of us. It's so great to have you. It's so
great to have you back on. There's been so much
that has been playing out in the news as of late,
and so I actually let us avoid the conversation around
Trump at least for the beginning first part of our conversation.
You know, the NCAA Women's tournament just ended incredible. I
(05:00):
mean incredible season for women's basketball. What I will say
to my woll Gay Up listeners is that I am
a newbie. I have always enjoyed basketball, but over the
last year I really got into women's basketball because of
my girlfriend, who's a big fan of the WNBA. We
went to a bunch of games and just like got
(05:21):
into it. And so this season of women's college basketball
has just been incredible. What's also been incredible is the
media coverage that has really showed America's ass in so
many ways as it pertains to misogyny, as it pertains
to patriarchy and race and racism. Missagy Noir, I mean,
(05:46):
you name it, I'm gonna throw anti anti blackness. We
have just seen it play out with the matchup of
these teams that we have seen with Iowa, you know,
and and and uh Caitlin Clark and you know, a
largely you know, majority white team and the mid you
(06:09):
know in the Midwest that the media wanted to portray
as America's sweethearts versus you know, LSU right, a black
team led by Angela angel Reyes and Flage and who
are unapologetically black. You go to the finals and you
have uh, South Carolina going you know against Iowa South Carolina,
(06:32):
black team headed by a black woman again, unapologetic black
woman coach. And the way that the media, Christina has
framed this has been so disappointing, but so you know expected, right,
But I think that for a lot of people again,
you're having meal, tens of millions of people tuned in, right,
(06:56):
And I wonder from you just you know, you were
watching the clips. You're a big fan of Dawn Staley,
you know, because she's Philly, Philly bred and born and
just a superstar you know, has been. She was a
superstar when she was a player, she's been a superstar
as a coach. What did you make of the media
brew ha ha over the.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Over this March Madness season. Well A, it's always great
to spend time with you, b you know, I'm gonna
quote my late grandmother who always said, the only time
you should be surprised is when you're surprised. And to me,
this coverage is like Larry Bird Magic Johnson all over again.
If those of your listeners remember that, it's like the
(07:37):
media needs a Larry Bird, they need a Christian Latner,
they need a white savior in this like growingly black sport. Now,
the conversation was always, Oh, we don't pay women anything
because no one watches women's sports. That's out the window. Yay,
because they've posted the numbers. The proof of ism is
in the pudding, you know, even when the Liberty made
it to the playoffs last year, record numbers, record and
(07:59):
so stop with the excuses. We sort of started happening
this conversation when Britney Griner was detained in Russia, yep,
and the conversations and why was she in Russia? Right,
because she doesn't make any money in the United States.
Can you imagine, you know, basically looking at her CB,
It's like Steph Curry's like, I got to go to
Russia to make a little bit of money in the
off season. No, you can't, right, And so how we
(08:22):
treat women period, not like just female athletes. To remember
a few years ago, we saw their workout and it
was like some yoga mats and a dumb bell set.
That was it from Target? Like that was it? I mean?
And people were showing pictures of their home gyms, like
I live in New York City. I got a better
setup than they do, right, And I live in an
eight hundred square for an apartment like that was what
people were posting. So fast forward to twenty twenty four,
(08:45):
you've got, you know, kind of these rematches, and even
when South Carolina wins, they try and make the story
about Caitlin right, and you see people online like, hey,
you can actually talk about the winners. You could still
talk about these black girls, unapologized black girls who have
made it to the final four. You know, you even
have some of these And this is the problem with
(09:06):
sports journalism. You very rarely can find a good sports journalist.
You have a lot of former athletes who are employed
talking about sports, but there's a real respect that we
have for journalists, people who dedicate their lives to it.
So you have these former athletes spouting the same misogynistic,
anti black rhetoric about black female athletes that you no
(09:27):
longer have to have old white men saying. You've got
young black men saying it. Well, if Angel Reives didn't
want to, you know, get talked about that, maybe she
shouldn't have come out and talking about It's like, what
are you talking about? This young woman does not deserve
the racist vitriol that she had to endure these past
few years. You and I know the hate mail that
we get, so we can only imagine the scale in
(09:48):
which she gets it. And we haven't had the conversation
about the politics of respectability right out loud, conversation about
these young girls with the nails, with the lashes, with
the with the baby hair, with the weave, where it's
just like they're doing their jobs and they may not
look the way you think a black girl should look,
they may not speak the way you think black people
(10:10):
should speak. But as we've seen, politics of respectability only
gets us thus far. And you know, we've had this
conversation about men when we think about Hank Aaron being perfect,
and we see the way he was treated, Bill Russell
being perfect, We saw the way he was treated. So
these girls are like, you know what, I would be
perfectly on the court. Everything else that's subject to your
(10:31):
interpretation and your opinion. So I'm gonna do me because
me sort of presenting myself in the way that you
want it is still not going to ever let you
accept me. So why not just be authentic and represent
where I represent? And I think someone like Don Staley
as a coach, being authentically herself and genuine about not
(10:51):
just her faith, but her struggle to get to where
she is, you know. I mean, I have the pleasure
of being friends with Gail Marquis, who was in the
nineteen seventy six women's Olympic team. They were silver medal. Okay,
she's seventy years old, just I mean brilliant. And we
went to a Knicks game together and she's telling me
stories and we're cracking and laughing, but they're horrendous stories, right,
(11:15):
So I was like, hey, Gale, did she ever think
about coaching? She was like, girl coaches made like seventy
five dolive Like. She was like, they didn't start paying
female coaches any money until recently. And she was like,
and now you see, you know, male coaches coaching female
teams because there's actually money there, right, But before, when
there was no money, you didn't see any male coaches.
So she was like, you know, she played overseas in
Paris for many, many years because there was nothing for
(11:36):
her to do here, right, I mean, she didn't have
a basketball team in her ice, in her middle school.
She didn't start playing basketball until high school. I mean,
so just even like the pipeline for women's sports, one
of my godsisters played for Northwestern. She was a major
star in the college circuit, but there was no WNBA
at the time, so like she went front office in
(11:58):
a lot of NBA sports, Like she couldn't work in
her own field at the time. And so we see
the inequities still exist. But the way, you know, people
try and talk about Coach Staley, I mean asking Coach
Staley about transports, which is sure if you want to
ask coaches that question, A, ask all the coaches that question. B.
(12:20):
Maybe not ask him that question in the middle of
the Final four, when you know the hatred and vitriol
they're going to receive from even broaching that topic. And
Don Staley A answered it perfectly. But our facts gave
a nod to the fact that, like, you do know
that you ask me this question is going to detract
from what I need to do, you know, and I
know that my players, my black girls got to play
(12:41):
against the players and the referees, right, because we do
know that America needs this sort of Caitlyn Clark, right.
We see this all the time. We see it usually
in the Super Bowl when it's a matchup between black
quarterback and white quarterback. We see it constantly, and it's exhausting.
You know, I saw the articles DNCE Daily had a
fifty seven hundred dollars Louis vuittan jacket on when she
(13:03):
was coaching. Well, you know what, she's just got a
major bonus because she's taken them to the playoffs and
she's taken them to the championship. And how she chooses
to spend her money is how she chooses to spend
her money. I don't think that I've ever seen an
article about the cost of tailored suits of Rick Patino
when he's coaching or whomever, right college or otherwise. And
(13:24):
so this we see it in politics all the time.
How you talk about women's hair, how you talk about
women's bodies, their weight, their clothing. You know, do they
have kids and I have kids? Or they married or
then you know, I mean we talk about the coach
of lsu Kim Mulki and her Shenanigans. Sure, but like
we know more about her outfits, and granted, her outfits
are wild and Owland is short, and she like, girl,
(13:46):
are you trying to the court, But it's like, why
are we talking about her clothes? I mean, I don't
agree with her politics and a lot of the things
that she says about, you know, anti vaxxing and you know,
some of her conservative us she's crazy, She's she's an
amazing coach, though, and so we spend a lot of
time talking about her outfits and not her coaching. And
so I think that I looked at don Staley as
(14:06):
a guide because she's a unbothered at least in the
public facing. She clearly has a good team behind her
that she can sort of decompress with. But I mean,
don't forget she's been a child star. I mean there
are articles about her from when she was in eighth grade,
you know, so she's unfortunately had to deal with the
racism and sexism and the massage noir and the anti
blackness because don't forget, she didn't go to fancy schools
(14:28):
in Philly, you know, like she did go to school
playing basketball and worked her way all the way up
to where she is now. So I think that she's
accustomed to this. It doesn't make it right, but she's
really good at I mean, her answers in some of
these q and as has been from a woman who
clearly knows how the media treats black women.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I'm also thinking about Fannie Willis being in the press
and being questioned about, you know, who bought you a
dinner and who did this for you and that for you.
And meanwhile, we have an entire fucking criminal that is
the Republican candidate for president, but we're not having conversations
about who paid his bail and who's doing this and
(15:17):
who's doing that. And so there's been a lot of
attention in the media, whether it be in politics or
in sports, of black women.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
What you're talking about tis James, you know here in
New York, and you know her the press. She has
a ven debta against Donald Trump. No, she has a
been debta against criminals and grifters, right, Like she's an
attorney general, Like that's her job. The same thing with
Fannie Willison. Then you look at just the treatment, you know,
and we watched Angel Reese break down right twenty and
(15:51):
remind ourselves she is twenty one years old. She is
a baby, right that has the spotlight on her is
not afraid of the spotlight. But it is also going
to be very real with people about what comes the good,
the endorsements, the money, this that and the other thing,
the Vogue shoot and the bad which are the death threats,
(16:12):
right and the fear, and so I just, you know,
I wonder Christina, like I feel like we have to
do so much explaining as black women. It never ends
on what it is to be in this black woman
body and deal with a white supremacist, patriarchal society, right,
(16:34):
and like and the exhaustion that comes from that. And
I'm like, I don't know, you know, for you, but
at what point or will we ever get to a
point where we're just like, I actually don't give a fuck,
like what you think and what you're saying and what
you're writing about. And I'm good and I'm gonna keep
being good because you're all gonna keep being terrible, right, So.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I think I'm swiftly approaching that point. So a few things.
So one, I detest these black women are superheroes T shirts,
because I'm like, we're not. We're mortals, just like everybody else.
We're just doing the job of everybody else. I'm not
a superhero. I'm a freaking human being. And because you're slacking,
(17:15):
I've actually got to pick up your slack. So it's
like we're like the housekeepers slash moms of the world.
I don't want to be that. Like j I'm tired
of being your cleanup woman. Part of me is just
sort of like I'm doing what I can do. I'm
explaining to you what you should be doing, but I'm
(17:37):
actually not going to do your job and I might
have to just deal with the consequences. But as you
and I have both seen the number of black women
we know who go into early graves because we're doing
everybody else's work. We're worrying about everybody else, and we're
trying to figure out how we can make everything work.
And it's like, you know what, the sun God willing
will rise again tomorrow without me, and you realize, you know,
(18:01):
I told you, I've told you the story before. But
the black secretary that was working at Fordham the very
first day of school and I'm like, I need you
know these syllabi xeroxton, I need my blue books and
where's my classroom and blah blah blah, and she was like,
I'm about to take off two weeks. I'm like two
weeks at the beginning of school. What like, who does that?
You're the admin, right, And she was like, listen, these
(18:22):
people are not about to rush me into an early grief,
because of course that's when everyone's hysterical the first two
weeks of school. And she said, look at here, this
is my first day. She says, my name will never
be on the outside of this building. And she just
let it hang out there, and then she looks at
me and she says, and neither will yours. So she's like, so,
you can give these people your whole life if you
(18:44):
want to. But at the end of the day, the
Lowenstein Building is still going to be named the Lowenstein Building, Okay. So,
and I swear that has been my north star for
a really long time, Like and Erica Badou, don't be
naming the buildings after me to go down dilapidated. Like so,
even if you do get a building named after you,
(19:04):
and what then? What? So? I feel like that's part
of me. I do this intermittent working thing. You know,
I work really hard and then I take off. Okay,
you know I love a swimsuit. You know I love
some sun. So I'm out next week. I'm out. I'm
gonna bust my help this week until next Wednesday. Next Wednesday.
You know, only people who know me know me, and
(19:25):
they can reach me. Everybody else you'll get my lovely
out of office reply. So that's two three. This is
where we slightly different, and this is why I love
black women, because we could be sisters and indifference. I
support your analysis of Tis James one thousand percent. I
do not agree with your analysis of Fanning Mail. Okay,
First thing my father told me. My first job airstep
(19:45):
busy brown shoe store. Second job TGI Friday's Smiley people
greeter aka hostis well, my dad told me, don't get
your honey where you make your money. Come on and Fanny,
we know that Donald Trump is the slipperiest of the
slipperiest man. Yep. We know that he hires p people
specifically yeah, to go after and find what your achilles
heel is. He's done in his entire career because he
likes to cut corners. He likes to not pay, He
(20:08):
likes to never pay the piper and face up to
what he's done. He always deflects to flex the flex.
You know this. You're smart enough to know this. You're
a lawyer. You've had clients like it. You've never had
a former president of the United States. So we unfortunately
have to rest on what our parents told us from
day one in kindergarten. You gotta work twice sorry to
get half as much. You know that you will be
(20:29):
judged differently. You can't do what they do. You can't
act like how they act. We know this the only
reason why she's that successful because she had parents who
told her that, and she listened to them, and that's
how she got where she got. But I don't understand
why she would think that having a relationship with someone
at her job is something that the former president of
the United States, that particular president, wouldn't find an exploit.
(20:51):
And she kept saying rightfully, So I'm not the one
on trial. Except for Fanny. We talked about you and
your sex life and Gorilla Grip and all this other stuff.
For three weeks. We didn't talk about Donald Trump. We
just talked about you. And all he had to do
was sow that seed of doubt in Moderates, Independence Weeklaning
Democrats and a lot of people. And so, yes, you
(21:12):
may still be on the case, but it's tarnished now.
And that's not necessarily his doing, it's his exploitation of it.
But you're the one who did it. And so that's
my frustrations as a black woman. I support whatever she does. Sure,
I know it's a lonely job, it's a huge job,
it's a high pressure job. Things I don't know. That's
not my job. But I'm like, you also know your
(21:34):
foundation from your parents, because it's the same thing that
my parents told me and your parents told you, because
that's how we're where we are, not just surviving but thriving.
There's a difference. And so like you work this hard
to get up there and throw it away for some
like some d girl, like just wait or get it
(21:55):
someplace else. It's Atlanta, Like you know what I'm saying.
So my frustration is, we know who Donald Trump is.
She of all people, knows who he is and how
shady he is and the types of people he has
around him who will do nothing but find some girl
who doesn't really like you, who wants to exploit it,
find somebody who's a little jealous of you, who wants
(22:16):
to tell your business all the things that we unfortunately
saw on display. And so like, yes, she's strong, but
it really it frustrated me.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
She shouldn't have put herself and I and I agree.
I think that where I came from it was you
shouldn't have put yourself in that position. You should have
known better, you do know better. You just decided not
to do better. And we are what I will and
here we are. What I did appreciate is the fact that,
you know, I thought that she was going to walk
(22:44):
into that space with her head coward, her shoulders slumped
and be really apologetic and give them, you know what
they wanted, you know, sorry, sir, I'll go back in
my place, sir, type of bullshit. And she didn't, and
so and so for that part, I was just like, well,
you did it, you know, so you might as well
(23:06):
just own it. And that's what she did, right. I
just would have rather you not do it if.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I'm mad that we even had to get to that point,
like so how she comported herself great? Fine, But I
wasn't like, yes, girl did it, because I'm just like,
why are we talking? I don't want to know anything.
I don't know anything about Jacksmith's sex life. I don't
know anything about Tis james the sex life. I don't
any think about al Brad's sex life, Like I don't
(23:32):
want to know anything about the prosecution. You know why,
because they're just doing their jobs and they're making sure
that the ship is tight. Because dealing with a former
president of the United States in an unprecedented manner, everything
has to be super super tight. And that's for white
boys prosecuting him. So you know, for a black person,
(23:53):
you know, for a woman, you know, damn sure, for
a black woman, it's gotta be air tight. I'm talking
NASA level air tight. And it wasn't. And so it
makes it look like, oh, even in the side position,
you got you know, Shenanigans on the mind. And here
we are. Yeah, we didn't talk about Donald Trump for
a long time. And now the Georgia case, which is
(24:15):
probably the best case against him, is dead. To rights
on the phone talking about giving these votes. It's that's
a tarnished case. Now, yeah, it's not over, but it's
delayed and it's tarnished. And November will come before Georgia.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Let me ask you this as we close out, because
I do want to touch upon where people's energy is. Recently,
Biden came out with a new what I thought was
a fantastic ad showcasing the story of a white woman
who was denied an abortion and is probably now infertile
(25:00):
and won't be able to have children again because of
the serious condition that she needed to be in order
to have an abortion, because her baby was not viable.
They put together a great ad. It's circulating right now.
But for whatever reason, whiteness, maleness, our obsession with wealth,
(25:22):
the fact that the Supreme Court has bought and sold,
the fact that federal benches have been bought and sold,
Donald Trump is still a viable candidate for president. And
you know, we're still in a place of fifty to
fifty toss up. What do you make of what you
are seeing right now? We're still seven months out in
terms of the probability of Democrats being able to hold on.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You know, I'm i've ascilated because after the State of
the Union, I was like, okay, great, I feel good.
I feel I felt really good after the State of
the Union. It so you laid out some visions. You know,
for a certain segment of the population, you cannot deny
loan forgiveness has been messes, right. I don't understand why
he's not in some communities. You know, obviously he can't
(26:13):
say to all communities because not everyone benefited from it,
but for a lot of black communities who did, it's
like that's gonna help with wealth creation. You can actually
buy your first home because you will be paying off
old debts. You can actually start saving for new futures. Environmentally,
is anyone perfect? No? But has he done exponentially more
than any other president? Yes? Right? So for like issues
(26:35):
that you know, being on the right side of history
when it comes to a woman's right to choose, I
still hate the fact that Biden and Democrats use Republican
language of pro life. Republicans aren't pro life. They believe
in the death penalty. They believe in starving American children,
they believe in starving children at the border, they believe
in starving children internationally. They're not pro life. So stop
using pro life. It's anti choice or choice? Do you
(26:56):
believe grown women and young women should have a choice
over their own autonomy? Right? Everything's economic issues. That's why
people go to the polls. I would argue abortion is
an economic issue. Mm hm. I would argue everything that
Joe Biden laid out is an economic issue. And unfortunately
people to judge camping your best sarrogate and you're only
(27:16):
Sarah Gate right, Like, we need to be able to
talk about stop talking about this a morphous thing called
the economy. People don't know what the economy is. People
know how their pocketbooks feel. People know can I afford
summer camp or not? Can I afford this gas or not?
When I go to the grocery store fifty dollars just
to give me two grocery bags. Now it gets me
fairly won like talk about it in that context, not
in sort of abstract terms, because the economy sounds like
(27:38):
Wall Street people, not regular people. So the language needs
to change. What makes me nervous, very nervous, is this
idea of international affairs. Now Oftentimes there's very little daylight
between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to international affairs.
But Americans don't really tend to care about international affairs
in the way that we should. I mean, we do
(28:00):
wild things across the world, always have since since our inception.
We are a bellicost nation. We can't stop being at war,
whether it's at home or abroad, usually abroad where people
are really paying attention. But that's where a lot of
our money goes. So when things are tight, especially in
a post COVID world. Folks are now actually sort of
allah the sixties with Vietnam, where's my money going? Because
(28:21):
it seems like my money is going towards things across
the world that I don't agree with. We didn't really
see this with Iraq and Iran in Afghanistan. Excuse me
with you know, the sort of we were growing up
during Desert Storm. We heard about it, but like, yeah,
it was like, oh, okay, well that's a war that's
you know, worth fighting. I guess that's where it was framed,
(28:41):
and Democrats were fine with it. Similarly, post nine to
eleven Iraq and Afghanistan, we know it's like the pretext
seems real false, real shaky, and really a lie, but
nobody was like, no, Democrats were holding George Bush. You know,
they disliked George Bush. Fine, but like Republicans weren't holding
into the fire. They were like, this is the world,
make it moneys, where you going to do? And even
(29:01):
when you know continues under Obama, it's like, shame on you, Obama.
You didn't close going down, But no one punished Obama
the way. Yeah, it seems like Joe Biden has become
the face of international relations, and it seems like people
of color and young people and first and second and
third gens, a lot of folks are like, I'm tired
(29:24):
of having international relations conversations that aren't directly related to
who we are as a nation. And it seems to
be falling on the feet of Joe Biden, and he
does not seem to be doing a great job articulating it. Now,
we know that the Republican Party will be exponentially worse
abroad on a whole host of issues, whether it's Ukraine
and Russia, whether it's Israel and Palestine, whether it's the
(29:46):
entire continent of Africa, whether it's South America and their
natural resources, you name it. We know that they will
be whole worse. But the genocidal conversations about Joe Biden
don't seem to be going away. And so for us
to be six months in and this is you know,
(30:06):
we have a very short attention span, right, I mean,
you saw all the Ukrainian flags. Now, I can bear
the fight in the Ukraine right now. But this doesn't
seem to be shaken off the way I think Democrats
thought that it would. And I think the wishful thinking
was well, by November, folks will just be like, let's
talk about the economy, let's talk about pocketbook issues. But
I don't think that this is actually going away, and
(30:29):
north do I think it should. But I do think
that Joe Biden is being held to a standard that
is trying to change the standard of how American presidents behave.
But his competition will never change that standard. He'll actually
make it worse. He'll make the entire country worse. So
here we are in this moment where we're trying to
figure out how do we hold several really important and
(30:52):
difficult conversations that really get at who we are as
a nation and how we spend our money as a nation,
and how we not only treat the people in this
country but also how we treat people abroad. We've always
had this disconnect. It actually hasn't been that much of
a disconnect. We treat people broad terrible, and we treat
people in this country terribly, and I think people are
just like, yeah, and it doesn't have to be that way.
(31:14):
And so my concern, though, is there seems to be
like and I'm going to show you Joe Biden that
I'm not taking it right, which frightens me only because
we are yes, we have multiple candidates, but it does
boil down to a two party system at the end
of the day, is George Washington warned us about. And
(31:34):
the alternative to Joe Biden is a frightening, frightening pop
position to me, largely because the first term of Donald
Trump was a dry run to see what he could
get away with. And now he knows where the keys
to the castle are, he knows who not to let
me not have any legit Republicans around me, because they'll
just slow me down, let me actually like be the
boy king that I wanted to be, and these Republicans
(31:57):
are like, no, sir, actually there are limits to executive orders.
No sir, Actually, we can't just you know, deport people
because I don't like them. No sir, actually, we can't
just like start selling things off and making money for
you and your family. But that's what he's done to
every company he's ever had, and so now he's he's
sort of seen this is how I can do it
to the American people. I mean, he's already as his
(32:18):
own party paying for his devents, right, so like, yeah,
he's a grifter, we know it. So that's what worries me.
We will become the shell of our former selves. And like, listen,
we've been playing the shell game for a long time,
but we will really be hollowed out. It's like the mob,
you know, like when the mob takes over your business,
it's like, yeah, you might still have the lights on,
(32:39):
but like internally, you know, we saw the Sopranos, We've
seen good fellows, we've seen the Godfather. Like internally, your
business is no longer yours. And I don't as complicated
as this country is. And you know, we write about it,
we talk about it, we rail against it, but like
we also fight for it because we're black people and
that's what we've always done for this country. And I
don't want to see it go down by the hands
(33:00):
of someone like Donald Trump. My grandparents and great grandparents
and the ancestors have fought and worked way too hard
in this nation to have it sold off for parts
by a man like him. A.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Well, we will leave it there today, my friend, and
pick it up god willing another day because the fight
is not over yet. My friend, Doctor Christina Greer, always
appreciate your analysis and your time.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I love spending time with you on Weird and Upward Loft.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
That is it for me today, dear friends on Woke
a f as always Power to the people and to
all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Meet your Girl Daniel Moody. Recording from the Home Bunker, Folks,
I'm coming to you after hearing news of a protester
that self emilated close to the courthouse where Donald Trump
(00:32):
is on trial. At the time of this recording, I
don't really have any details. I have seen the clips
of the reporters who were there just getting this image
and broadcasting live. We are living in such unstable, uncertain
(00:54):
and just remarkably volatile times when you feel like the
only thing that you can do is this kind of act,
which monks have done, and we've reported on this show.
(01:14):
You know, just a couple of months ago, another protester
in front of an embassy Israeli embassy in DC did
the same thing.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I know that some of you follow astrology and know
that some of you don't. Some people think that it's
just woohoo. Other people are like, it's one of the oldest,
you know, spiritual religious systems right that guided us for
quite some time. And what I will say about this
moment is that an astrologer that I follow, who is
(01:51):
also a friend, Channy Nicholas, who has an incredible app
has said that the astrology of this moment, this time
that we are living in mirrors the astrology from the
nineteen sixties and what was happening, and like you know,
the eclipses, the just astrological conjunctions and all of these things,
(02:13):
the return Jupiter Saturn, like all of these things that
are happening. I continue to say that we are at
an inflection point. The world is essentially a tinderbox, and
you know it is necessary, necessary, necessary, necessary to slow down,
(02:35):
to have grace, to give yourself grace, to give those
around you grace, to take a beat. I will be
very transparent that last week I had an absolute breakdown.
Couldn't really pinpoint the reason why, but I was feeling
very erratic, feeling just very unhinged, lots of tears, just exhausted,
(03:03):
emotional like, just feeling out of sorts. And I urge
you all that before you get to that moment of bursting.
And maybe sometimes the bursting is necessary, it's part of
the process. But when you start to feel yourself spinning
in any which way, find ways to ground yourself. If
(03:26):
that is meditation, if it is prayer, if it is
going for a walk, if it is playing with a pet,
if it is calling a friend, if it's dialing up
your therapist, if it is gardening, you know, if it
is music, whatever it is that grounds you reach for
it in abundance because the times, folks are just wild
(03:49):
a f Coming up next my conversation with my friend
and just brilliant mind, professor doctor Christina Greer. Is this
episode just chop full of black girl magic and brilliance
and analysis and just the most So I hope that
(04:12):
you enjoy it, folks. I am so excited to welcome
back to WOKF Daily, doctor Christina Greer, Political scientists, Associate
professor at Fordham University, author of Black Ethnics, and co
host of FAQ NYC, host of The Blackest Question. She
is the blackest person, Brooklynmon. I love this for all
(04:36):
of us. It's so great to have you. It's so
great to have you back on. There's been so much
that has been playing out in the news as of late,
and so I actually let us avoid the conversation around
Trump at least for the beginning first part of our conversation.
You know, the NCAA Women's tournament just ended incredible. I
(05:00):
mean incredible season for women's basketball. What I will say
to my woll Gay Up listeners is that I am
a newbie. I have always enjoyed basketball, but over the
last year I really got into women's basketball because of
my girlfriend, who's a big fan of the WNBA. We
went to a bunch of games and just like got
(05:21):
into it. And so this season of women's college basketball
has just been incredible. What's also been incredible is the
media coverage that has really showed America's ass in so
many ways as it pertains to misogyny, as it pertains
to patriarchy and race and racism. Missagy Noir, I mean,
(05:46):
you name it, I'm gonna throw anti anti blackness. We
have just seen it play out with the matchup of
these teams that we have seen with Iowa, you know,
and and and uh Caitlin Clark and you know, a
largely you know, majority white team and the mid you
(06:09):
know in the Midwest that the media wanted to portray
as America's sweethearts versus you know, LSU right, a black
team led by Angela angel Reyes and Flage and who
are unapologetically black. You go to the finals and you
have uh, South Carolina going you know against Iowa South Carolina,
(06:32):
black team headed by a black woman again, unapologetic black
woman coach. And the way that the media, Christina has
framed this has been so disappointing, but so you know expected, right,
But I think that for a lot of people again,
you're having meal, tens of millions of people tuned in, right,
(06:56):
And I wonder from you just you know, you were
watching the clips. You're a big fan of Dawn Staley,
you know, because she's Philly, Philly bred and born and
just a superstar you know, has been. She was a
superstar when she was a player, she's been a superstar
as a coach. What did you make of the media
brew ha ha over the.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Over this March Madness season. Well A, it's always great
to spend time with you, b you know, I'm gonna
quote my late grandmother who always said, the only time
you should be surprised is when you're surprised. And to me,
this coverage is like Larry Bird Magic Johnson all over again.
If those of your listeners remember that, it's like the
(07:37):
media needs a Larry Bird, they need a Christian Latner,
they need a white savior in this like growingly black sport. Now,
the conversation was always, Oh, we don't pay women anything
because no one watches women's sports. That's out the window. Yay,
because they've posted the numbers. The proof of ism is
in the pudding, you know, even when the Liberty made
it to the playoffs last year, record numbers, record and
(07:59):
so stop with the excuses. We sort of started happening
this conversation when Britney Griner was detained in Russia, yep,
and the conversations and why was she in Russia? Right,
because she doesn't make any money in the United States.
Can you imagine, you know, basically looking at her CB,
It's like Steph Curry's like, I got to go to
Russia to make a little bit of money in the
off season. No, you can't, right, And so how we
(08:22):
treat women period, not like just female athletes. To remember
a few years ago, we saw their workout and it
was like some yoga mats and a dumb bell set.
That was it from Target? Like that was it? I mean?
And people were showing pictures of their home gyms, like
I live in New York City. I got a better
setup than they do, right, And I live in an
eight hundred square for an apartment like that was what
people were posting. So fast forward to twenty twenty four,
(08:45):
you've got, you know, kind of these rematches, and even
when South Carolina wins, they try and make the story
about Caitlin right, and you see people online like, hey,
you can actually talk about the winners. You could still
talk about these black girls, unapologized black girls who have
made it to the final four. You know, you even
have some of these And this is the problem with
(09:06):
sports journalism. You very rarely can find a good sports journalist.
You have a lot of former athletes who are employed
talking about sports, but there's a real respect that we
have for journalists, people who dedicate their lives to it.
So you have these former athletes spouting the same misogynistic,
anti black rhetoric about black female athletes that you no
(09:27):
longer have to have old white men saying. You've got
young black men saying it. Well, if Angel Reives didn't
want to, you know, get talked about that, maybe she
shouldn't have come out and talking about It's like, what
are you talking about? This young woman does not deserve
the racist vitriol that she had to endure these past
few years. You and I know the hate mail that
we get, so we can only imagine the scale in
(09:48):
which she gets it. And we haven't had the conversation
about the politics of respectability right out loud, conversation about
these young girls with the nails, with the lashes, with
the with the baby hair, with the weave, where it's
just like they're doing their jobs and they may not
look the way you think a black girl should look,
they may not speak the way you think black people
(10:10):
should speak. But as we've seen, politics of respectability only
gets us thus far. And you know, we've had this
conversation about men when we think about Hank Aaron being perfect,
and we see the way he was treated, Bill Russell
being perfect, We saw the way he was treated. So
these girls are like, you know what, I would be
perfectly on the court. Everything else that's subject to your
(10:31):
interpretation and your opinion. So I'm gonna do me because
me sort of presenting myself in the way that you
want it is still not going to ever let you
accept me. So why not just be authentic and represent
where I represent? And I think someone like Don Staley
as a coach, being authentically herself and genuine about not
(10:51):
just her faith, but her struggle to get to where
she is, you know. I mean, I have the pleasure
of being friends with Gail Marquis, who was in the
nineteen seventy six women's Olympic team. They were silver medal. Okay,
she's seventy years old, just I mean brilliant. And we
went to a Knicks game together and she's telling me
stories and we're cracking and laughing, but they're horrendous stories, right,
(11:15):
So I was like, hey, Gale, did she ever think
about coaching? She was like, girl coaches made like seventy
five dolive Like. She was like, they didn't start paying
female coaches any money until recently. And she was like,
and now you see, you know, male coaches coaching female
teams because there's actually money there, right, But before, when
there was no money, you didn't see any male coaches.
So she was like, you know, she played overseas in
Paris for many, many years because there was nothing for
(11:36):
her to do here, right, I mean, she didn't have
a basketball team in her ice, in her middle school.
She didn't start playing basketball until high school. I mean,
so just even like the pipeline for women's sports, one
of my godsisters played for Northwestern. She was a major
star in the college circuit, but there was no WNBA
at the time, so like she went front office in
(11:58):
a lot of NBA sports, Like she couldn't work in
her own field at the time. And so we see
the inequities still exist. But the way, you know, people
try and talk about Coach Staley, I mean asking Coach
Staley about transports, which is sure if you want to
ask coaches that question, A, ask all the coaches that question. B.
(12:20):
Maybe not ask him that question in the middle of
the Final four, when you know the hatred and vitriol
they're going to receive from even broaching that topic. And
Don Staley A answered it perfectly. But our facts gave
a nod to the fact that, like, you do know
that you ask me this question is going to detract
from what I need to do, you know, and I
know that my players, my black girls got to play
(12:41):
against the players and the referees, right, because we do
know that America needs this sort of Caitlyn Clark, right.
We see this all the time. We see it usually
in the Super Bowl when it's a matchup between black
quarterback and white quarterback. We see it constantly, and it's exhausting.
You know, I saw the articles DNCE Daily had a
fifty seven hundred dollars Louis vuittan jacket on when she
(13:03):
was coaching. Well, you know what, she's just got a
major bonus because she's taken them to the playoffs and
she's taken them to the championship. And how she chooses
to spend her money is how she chooses to spend
her money. I don't think that I've ever seen an
article about the cost of tailored suits of Rick Patino
when he's coaching or whomever, right college or otherwise. And
(13:24):
so this we see it in politics all the time.
How you talk about women's hair, how you talk about
women's bodies, their weight, their clothing. You know, do they
have kids and I have kids? Or they married or
then you know, I mean we talk about the coach
of lsu Kim Mulki and her Shenanigans. Sure, but like
we know more about her outfits, and granted, her outfits
are wild and Owland is short, and she like, girl,
(13:46):
are you trying to the court, But it's like, why
are we talking about her clothes? I mean, I don't
agree with her politics and a lot of the things
that she says about, you know, anti vaxxing and you know,
some of her conservative us she's crazy, She's she's an
amazing coach, though, and so we spend a lot of
time talking about her outfits and not her coaching. And
so I think that I looked at don Staley as
(14:06):
a guide because she's a unbothered at least in the
public facing. She clearly has a good team behind her
that she can sort of decompress with. But I mean,
don't forget she's been a child star. I mean there
are articles about her from when she was in eighth grade,
you know, so she's unfortunately had to deal with the
racism and sexism and the massage noir and the anti
blackness because don't forget, she didn't go to fancy schools
(14:28):
in Philly, you know, like she did go to school
playing basketball and worked her way all the way up
to where she is now. So I think that she's
accustomed to this. It doesn't make it right, but she's
really good at I mean, her answers in some of
these q and as has been from a woman who
clearly knows how the media treats black women.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I'm also thinking about Fannie Willis being in the press
and being questioned about, you know, who bought you a
dinner and who did this for you and that for you.
And meanwhile, we have an entire fucking criminal that is
the Republican candidate for president, but we're not having conversations
about who paid his bail and who's doing this and
(15:17):
who's doing that. And so there's been a lot of
attention in the media, whether it be in politics or
in sports, of black women.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
What you're talking about tis James, you know here in
New York, and you know her the press. She has
a ven debta against Donald Trump. No, she has a
been debta against criminals and grifters, right, Like she's an
attorney general, Like that's her job. The same thing with
Fannie Willison. Then you look at just the treatment, you know,
and we watched Angel Reese break down right twenty and
(15:51):
remind ourselves she is twenty one years old. She is
a baby, right that has the spotlight on her is
not afraid of the spotlight. But it is also going
to be very real with people about what comes the good,
the endorsements, the money, this that and the other thing,
the Vogue shoot and the bad which are the death threats,
(16:12):
right and the fear, and so I just, you know,
I wonder Christina, like I feel like we have to
do so much explaining as black women. It never ends
on what it is to be in this black woman
body and deal with a white supremacist, patriarchal society, right,
(16:34):
and like and the exhaustion that comes from that. And
I'm like, I don't know, you know, for you, but
at what point or will we ever get to a
point where we're just like, I actually don't give a fuck,
like what you think and what you're saying and what
you're writing about. And I'm good and I'm gonna keep
being good because you're all gonna keep being terrible, right, So.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I think I'm swiftly approaching that point. So a few things.
So one, I detest these black women are superheroes T shirts,
because I'm like, we're not. We're mortals, just like everybody else.
We're just doing the job of everybody else. I'm not
a superhero. I'm a freaking human being. And because you're slacking,
(17:15):
I've actually got to pick up your slack. So it's
like we're like the housekeepers slash moms of the world.
I don't want to be that. Like j I'm tired
of being your cleanup woman. Part of me is just
sort of like I'm doing what I can do. I'm
explaining to you what you should be doing, but I'm
(17:37):
actually not going to do your job and I might
have to just deal with the consequences. But as you
and I have both seen the number of black women
we know who go into early graves because we're doing
everybody else's work. We're worrying about everybody else, and we're
trying to figure out how we can make everything work.
And it's like, you know what, the sun God willing
will rise again tomorrow without me, and you realize, you know,
(18:01):
I told you, I've told you the story before. But
the black secretary that was working at Fordham the very
first day of school and I'm like, I need you
know these syllabi xeroxton, I need my blue books and
where's my classroom and blah blah blah, and she was like,
I'm about to take off two weeks. I'm like two
weeks at the beginning of school. What like, who does that?
You're the admin, right, And she was like, listen, these
(18:22):
people are not about to rush me into an early grief,
because of course that's when everyone's hysterical the first two
weeks of school. And she said, look at here, this
is my first day. She says, my name will never
be on the outside of this building. And she just
let it hang out there, and then she looks at
me and she says, and neither will yours. So she's like, so,
you can give these people your whole life if you
(18:44):
want to. But at the end of the day, the
Lowenstein Building is still going to be named the Lowenstein Building, Okay. So,
and I swear that has been my north star for
a really long time, Like and Erica Badou, don't be
naming the buildings after me to go down dilapidated. Like so,
even if you do get a building named after you,
(19:04):
and what then? What? So? I feel like that's part
of me. I do this intermittent working thing. You know,
I work really hard and then I take off. Okay,
you know I love a swimsuit. You know I love
some sun. So I'm out next week. I'm out. I'm
gonna bust my help this week until next Wednesday. Next Wednesday.
You know, only people who know me know me, and
(19:25):
they can reach me. Everybody else you'll get my lovely
out of office reply. So that's two three. This is
where we slightly different, and this is why I love
black women, because we could be sisters and indifference. I
support your analysis of Tis James one thousand percent. I
do not agree with your analysis of Fanning Mail. Okay,
First thing my father told me. My first job airstep
(19:45):
busy brown shoe store. Second job TGI Friday's Smiley people
greeter aka hostis well, my dad told me, don't get
your honey where you make your money. Come on and Fanny,
we know that Donald Trump is the slipperiest of the
slipperiest man. Yep. We know that he hires p people
specifically yeah, to go after and find what your achilles
heel is. He's done in his entire career because he
likes to cut corners. He likes to not pay, He
(20:08):
likes to never pay the piper and face up to
what he's done. He always deflects to flex the flex.
You know this. You're smart enough to know this. You're
a lawyer. You've had clients like it. You've never had
a former president of the United States. So we unfortunately
have to rest on what our parents told us from
day one in kindergarten. You gotta work twice sorry to
get half as much. You know that you will be
(20:29):
judged differently. You can't do what they do. You can't
act like how they act. We know this the only
reason why she's that successful because she had parents who
told her that, and she listened to them, and that's
how she got where she got. But I don't understand
why she would think that having a relationship with someone
at her job is something that the former president of
the United States, that particular president, wouldn't find an exploit.
(20:51):
And she kept saying rightfully, So I'm not the one
on trial. Except for Fanny. We talked about you and
your sex life and Gorilla Grip and all this other stuff.
For three weeks. We didn't talk about Donald Trump. We
just talked about you. And all he had to do
was sow that seed of doubt in Moderates, Independence Weeklaning
Democrats and a lot of people. And so, yes, you
(21:12):
may still be on the case, but it's tarnished now.
And that's not necessarily his doing, it's his exploitation of it.
But you're the one who did it. And so that's
my frustrations as a black woman. I support whatever she does. Sure,
I know it's a lonely job, it's a huge job,
it's a high pressure job. Things I don't know. That's
not my job. But I'm like, you also know your
(21:34):
foundation from your parents, because it's the same thing that
my parents told me and your parents told you, because
that's how we're where we are, not just surviving but thriving.
There's a difference. And so like you work this hard
to get up there and throw it away for some
like some d girl, like just wait or get it
(21:55):
someplace else. It's Atlanta, Like you know what I'm saying.
So my frustration is, we know who Donald Trump is.
She of all people, knows who he is and how
shady he is and the types of people he has
around him who will do nothing but find some girl
who doesn't really like you, who wants to exploit it,
find somebody who's a little jealous of you, who wants
(22:16):
to tell your business all the things that we unfortunately
saw on display. And so like, yes, she's strong, but
it really it frustrated me.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
She shouldn't have put herself and I and I agree.
I think that where I came from it was you
shouldn't have put yourself in that position. You should have
known better, you do know better. You just decided not
to do better. And we are what I will and
here we are. What I did appreciate is the fact that,
you know, I thought that she was going to walk
(22:44):
into that space with her head coward, her shoulders slumped
and be really apologetic and give them, you know what
they wanted, you know, sorry, sir, I'll go back in
my place, sir, type of bullshit. And she didn't, and
so and so for that part, I was just like, well,
you did it, you know, so you might as well
(23:06):
just own it. And that's what she did, right. I
just would have rather you not do it if.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I'm mad that we even had to get to that point,
like so how she comported herself great? Fine, But I
wasn't like, yes, girl did it, because I'm just like,
why are we talking? I don't want to know anything.
I don't know anything about Jacksmith's sex life. I don't
know anything about Tis james the sex life. I don't
any think about al Brad's sex life, Like I don't
(23:32):
want to know anything about the prosecution. You know why,
because they're just doing their jobs and they're making sure
that the ship is tight. Because dealing with a former
president of the United States in an unprecedented manner, everything
has to be super super tight. And that's for white
boys prosecuting him. So you know, for a black person,
(23:53):
you know, for a woman, you know, damn sure, for
a black woman, it's gotta be air tight. I'm talking
NASA level air tight. And it wasn't. And so it
makes it look like, oh, even in the side position,
you got you know, Shenanigans on the mind. And here
we are. Yeah, we didn't talk about Donald Trump for
a long time. And now the Georgia case, which is
(24:15):
probably the best case against him, is dead. To rights
on the phone talking about giving these votes. It's that's
a tarnished case. Now, yeah, it's not over, but it's
delayed and it's tarnished. And November will come before Georgia.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Let me ask you this as we close out, because
I do want to touch upon where people's energy is. Recently,
Biden came out with a new what I thought was
a fantastic ad showcasing the story of a white woman
who was denied an abortion and is probably now infertile
(25:00):
and won't be able to have children again because of
the serious condition that she needed to be in order
to have an abortion, because her baby was not viable.
They put together a great ad. It's circulating right now.
But for whatever reason, whiteness, maleness, our obsession with wealth,
(25:22):
the fact that the Supreme Court has bought and sold,
the fact that federal benches have been bought and sold,
Donald Trump is still a viable candidate for president. And
you know, we're still in a place of fifty to
fifty toss up. What do you make of what you
are seeing right now? We're still seven months out in
terms of the probability of Democrats being able to hold on.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You know, I'm i've ascilated because after the State of
the Union, I was like, okay, great, I feel good.
I feel I felt really good after the State of
the Union. It so you laid out some visions. You know,
for a certain segment of the population, you cannot deny
loan forgiveness has been messes, right. I don't understand why
he's not in some communities. You know, obviously he can't
(26:13):
say to all communities because not everyone benefited from it,
but for a lot of black communities who did, it's
like that's gonna help with wealth creation. You can actually
buy your first home because you will be paying off
old debts. You can actually start saving for new futures. Environmentally,
is anyone perfect? No? But has he done exponentially more
than any other president? Yes? Right? So for like issues
(26:35):
that you know, being on the right side of history
when it comes to a woman's right to choose, I
still hate the fact that Biden and Democrats use Republican
language of pro life. Republicans aren't pro life. They believe
in the death penalty. They believe in starving American children,
they believe in starving children at the border, they believe
in starving children internationally. They're not pro life. So stop
using pro life. It's anti choice or choice? Do you
(26:56):
believe grown women and young women should have a choice
over their own autonomy? Right? Everything's economic issues. That's why
people go to the polls. I would argue abortion is
an economic issue. Mm hm. I would argue everything that
Joe Biden laid out is an economic issue. And unfortunately
people to judge camping your best sarrogate and you're only
(27:16):
Sarah Gate right, Like, we need to be able to
talk about stop talking about this a morphous thing called
the economy. People don't know what the economy is. People
know how their pocketbooks feel. People know can I afford
summer camp or not? Can I afford this gas or not?
When I go to the grocery store fifty dollars just
to give me two grocery bags. Now it gets me
fairly won like talk about it in that context, not
in sort of abstract terms, because the economy sounds like
(27:38):
Wall Street people, not regular people. So the language needs
to change. What makes me nervous, very nervous, is this
idea of international affairs. Now Oftentimes there's very little daylight
between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to international affairs.
But Americans don't really tend to care about international affairs
in the way that we should. I mean, we do
(28:00):
wild things across the world, always have since since our inception.
We are a bellicost nation. We can't stop being at war,
whether it's at home or abroad, usually abroad where people
are really paying attention. But that's where a lot of
our money goes. So when things are tight, especially in
a post COVID world. Folks are now actually sort of
allah the sixties with Vietnam, where's my money going? Because
(28:21):
it seems like my money is going towards things across
the world that I don't agree with. We didn't really
see this with Iraq and Iran in Afghanistan. Excuse me
with you know, the sort of we were growing up
during Desert Storm. We heard about it, but like, yeah,
it was like, oh, okay, well that's a war that's
you know, worth fighting. I guess that's where it was framed,
(28:41):
and Democrats were fine with it. Similarly, post nine to
eleven Iraq and Afghanistan, we know it's like the pretext
seems real false, real shaky, and really a lie, but
nobody was like, no, Democrats were holding George Bush. You know,
they disliked George Bush. Fine, but like Republicans weren't holding
into the fire. They were like, this is the world,
make it moneys, where you going to do? And even
(29:01):
when you know continues under Obama, it's like, shame on you, Obama.
You didn't close going down, But no one punished Obama
the way. Yeah, it seems like Joe Biden has become
the face of international relations, and it seems like people
of color and young people and first and second and
third gens, a lot of folks are like, I'm tired
(29:24):
of having international relations conversations that aren't directly related to
who we are as a nation. And it seems to
be falling on the feet of Joe Biden, and he
does not seem to be doing a great job articulating it. Now,
we know that the Republican Party will be exponentially worse
abroad on a whole host of issues, whether it's Ukraine
and Russia, whether it's Israel and Palestine, whether it's the
(29:46):
entire continent of Africa, whether it's South America and their
natural resources, you name it. We know that they will
be whole worse. But the genocidal conversations about Joe Biden
don't seem to be going away. And so for us
to be six months in and this is you know,
(30:06):
we have a very short attention span, right, I mean,
you saw all the Ukrainian flags. Now, I can bear
the fight in the Ukraine right now. But this doesn't
seem to be shaken off the way I think Democrats
thought that it would. And I think the wishful thinking
was well, by November, folks will just be like, let's
talk about the economy, let's talk about pocketbook issues. But
I don't think that this is actually going away, and
(30:29):
north do I think it should. But I do think
that Joe Biden is being held to a standard that
is trying to change the standard of how American presidents behave.
But his competition will never change that standard. He'll actually
make it worse. He'll make the entire country worse. So
here we are in this moment where we're trying to
figure out how do we hold several really important and
(30:52):
difficult conversations that really get at who we are as
a nation and how we spend our money as a nation,
and how we not only treat the people in this
country but also how we treat people abroad. We've always
had this disconnect. It actually hasn't been that much of
a disconnect. We treat people broad terrible, and we treat
people in this country terribly, and I think people are
just like, yeah, and it doesn't have to be that way.
(31:14):
And so my concern, though, is there seems to be
like and I'm going to show you Joe Biden that
I'm not taking it right, which frightens me only because
we are yes, we have multiple candidates, but it does
boil down to a two party system at the end
of the day, is George Washington warned us about. And
(31:34):
the alternative to Joe Biden is a frightening, frightening pop
position to me, largely because the first term of Donald
Trump was a dry run to see what he could
get away with. And now he knows where the keys
to the castle are, he knows who not to let
me not have any legit Republicans around me, because they'll
just slow me down, let me actually like be the
boy king that I wanted to be, and these Republicans
(31:57):
are like, no, sir, actually there are limits to executive orders.
No sir, Actually, we can't just you know, deport people
because I don't like them. No sir, actually, we can't
just like start selling things off and making money for
you and your family. But that's what he's done to
every company he's ever had, and so now he's he's
sort of seen this is how I can do it
to the American people. I mean, he's already as his
(32:18):
own party paying for his devents, right, so like, yeah,
he's a grifter, we know it. So that's what worries me.
We will become the shell of our former selves. And like, listen,
we've been playing the shell game for a long time,
but we will really be hollowed out. It's like the mob,
you know, like when the mob takes over your business,
it's like, yeah, you might still have the lights on,
(32:39):
but like internally, you know, we saw the Sopranos, We've
seen good fellows, we've seen the Godfather. Like internally, your
business is no longer yours. And I don't as complicated
as this country is. And you know, we write about it,
we talk about it, we rail against it, but like
we also fight for it because we're black people and
that's what we've always done for this country. And I
don't want to see it go down by the hands
(33:00):
of someone like Donald Trump. My grandparents and great grandparents
and the ancestors have fought and worked way too hard
in this nation to have it sold off for parts
by a man like him. A.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Well, we will leave it there today, my friend, and
pick it up god willing another day because the fight
is not over yet. My friend, Doctor Christina Greer, always
appreciate your analysis and your time.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
I love spending time with you on Weird and Upward Loft.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
That is it for me today, dear friends on Woke
a f as always Power to the people and to
all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Host
Danielle Moodie
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