Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Gender War, Civil War, and the Loyalty of a Barber

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay check back in to discuss Simon Biles’s recent interview with husband Jonathan Owens (18:28), and Kevin Hart’s lawsuit against Tasha K (36:49). Plus, Nikki Haley strug...gles to say “slavery” (51:59), and a barber gets petty (1:16:22). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What's going on? The higher learning is on, what's up? You're not going to tell them who you are? They know. Wow. Man. I'm Rachel Lindsay.
Starting point is 00:00:19 In the three years of higher learning, I don't think we've ever started the podcast off like that. I'm pissed off, man. Something's not right. You want to talk about it? Yeah. Go ahead. I'm in Louisiana.
Starting point is 00:00:35 and my uncle ray died. I'm sorry. Yeah, so it's my dad's last brother, right? And let me tell you why I'm mad. I'll be honest with you. It's not a rational reason for me being upset. I've been mad ever since I came to Louisiana. I'm here.
Starting point is 00:00:54 It's a beautiful winter day here in Baton Rouge. I'm looking out. There's a view of a whole now. I'll tell you why I'm mad. I'm mad because of the bullshit. Okay. I'm burying or we're burying shout to Deborah and Bishop, his children. Deborah is his ex-wife, Bishop is his son, his daughters, everyone, John Ray Lathen is his name.
Starting point is 00:01:21 I'm mad because I'm here in Baton Rouge and this is my father's last brother who's passed away. It's, it's, uh, they're all gone, a whole generation of men. Ray, Milton, my uncle Mark and my father. Everybody, Uncle Mark was in his 50s.
Starting point is 00:01:54 Everybody else was in their 60s. And I'm just sick of the bullshit. I'm sick of the, the dysfunctional. no lies. Like I'm here, I see it. I see what black people go through. I see how hard the living is down here.
Starting point is 00:02:15 All of these guys made individual choices. They did. They all made individual choices. And I'm not in any way absolving them from the choices that they made, either about their health, about their diet, drug use, whatever. I'm not absolving them of any of that stuff. But I'm not.
Starting point is 00:02:38 crazy. Like I'm from the place where I see the way black people got to live. Like I'm from there and it's fucking taking the toll on me. Like I worship these guys and it's been like since my dad died since Uncle Uncle fucking Mark died and then Uncle Charles died and everybody died it's it's like taking the toll on me like it's hard living down here. And nobody fucking cares. I don't care enough. And then I go back into the world and I have to listen to platitudes and I have to listen to people make excuses and people talk about different stuff and people deal with all kinds of and this is this and this is that. And why don't you do this?
Starting point is 00:03:37 And it's like people are on drugs. They have cancer. This man died of cancer. You have cancer. Everyone gets cancer here. Everyone has some weird disease. Everyone eats shit. The place is fucked up.
Starting point is 00:03:54 There wasn't a grocery store in all of North Baton Rouge. There wasn't a grocery store in North Baton Rouge. I want you guys understand what I was saying again. The people from fucking Rouse's, a huge grocery store chain that exists here in Baton Rouge, right? they had to put a grocery store semi-north here in Baton Rouge because one of the owners of Rouses was caught going to the January 16th. So in order for him to deal with that,
Starting point is 00:04:33 we were able to get, shout out to Gino and the rest of the people that were on this, we were able to get a grocery store put in North Baton Rouge. And it's not even that far north. So you're telling me it was 2021? Yes. Before there was a grocery store? I'm telling you that there was not, I'm telling you that like when I'm talking to people and we're delivering this stuff, sometimes I emotionalize it and sometimes I just emote and sometimes, but we deal with the shit here. This is in this shit, I'm not talking about anything that I've academically, uh,
Starting point is 00:05:14 fucking observed. I'm not talking about anything. I'm talking about the carnage of the situation around me. We partying, we dance through it, and we're going to put up a ray down, and we're going to all come together, and there's going to be a repast.
Starting point is 00:05:30 I don't know, like, what's going on and all of this stuff. I'm not, I came down here. Like, they probably not going, because they're probably not going to be able to put them down by the time I'm here. I can't do it any other time. I just came.
Starting point is 00:05:44 down here just to be feeling painful. Like I came down here just to be a part of it just to feel like I'm engaging into the rest of the shit. And look, I'm not blaming the world for what happened to him or to what happened to my father or what happened
Starting point is 00:06:00 to Mark or what happened to Milton. Another one of my childhood friends, Sean G, he just passed away. I'm not blaming the world for any of this. But what I'm telling you is that like I don't want to hear people talk about how tough they got it and what would you do if this was you and all of this and like we want this. I don't want to hear the platitudes and the equivocations and all of that stuff anymore. Like I want better for my fucking people. I want better. We're old better. I'm being torn apart. Like I, it, it, it,
Starting point is 00:06:44 LA is not real life. It's not a real place. This is the real place. And there are parts of LA where you can go and experience this too. I'm just saying like my life in LA. Let me put it like this. L.A. is a real place. It is because this is happening there too in a ruthlessly and viciously segregated city
Starting point is 00:07:07 where black people need help and are dealing with all kinds of stuff. So let me pull back. My L.A. The life that I live in L.A. is a vacation to me from the real shit that people here and other people are going through. And I show up as much as I can. We're doing as much as we can. We do all of this stuff.
Starting point is 00:07:30 But at the same time, I'm going to finish after this. I'm just mad. I'm mad that he died. I've seen him at my dad's funeral. He looked totally healthy. like he had a car accident earlier this year they said he was fine he came out of it and then last week all of his organs shut down the cancer came back and then I find out how he's living and where he's living in the circumstances of it and I'm like you man what we're supposed to do like it
Starting point is 00:08:06 it's just I'm sick of people acting like some problem has been solved or there was some period in history where this was what it was. I'm sick of people talking about the dysfunction and the ills of the black community in the past tense and everything that they've done to help. You haven't done anything. Nothing has changed.
Starting point is 00:08:30 Everything is fucked up. And it was done that way on purpose. And I'm sick of it. I'm about to break. I'm sorry for your family's loss. And I'm sorry that, I mean, for everything that you're feeling and that you're seeing.
Starting point is 00:08:46 I mean, I don't really have the answers. You know what I mean? I'm trying to search for the words to fight to give you some comfort and I don't even really know what to say. And then on top of that, you came to the podcast dressed up like EZE. I'm glad I could provide you some, some levity. I don't understand what your, like, why, why, Donnie? Like, isn't Rachel on her straight out of comp and shit right now?
Starting point is 00:09:14 Look, what's going on? I'm trying to pull up some Spotify and moving too slow. Yeah, like you move slower. Like you look at you. So you looked in the mirror right now when you came. But first of all, I'm not calm. But do you look, you're on your shit right now. Okay.
Starting point is 00:09:32 I'm in a mumu. You know how much I love my mumoos. I'm in a mumu. It's cold in Dallas. I was not prepared for this weather. And to be very honest with you, I didn't start the podcast on with the hat on my head, but the angle of the can't,
Starting point is 00:09:46 I'm not in my normal place. The angle of the camera made my head look enormously big. If you can believe it looked bigger than before. And I thought, Rachel, you need to put a hat on your head. And that's how we came to this look. It was not my normal attire,
Starting point is 00:10:01 but it looked big. You want me to snatch it off to give you, you know, something to laugh about? I'm fucking with the NWA look, though. Because even your braids for, they look Jerry curl-esque. I'm fucking with.
Starting point is 00:10:15 Okay. These are goddess braids. Donnie? Donnie, we missed the moment. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hey Yeah What the fuck I'm talking about
Starting point is 00:10:51 Um I forgot I was going to say Listen These are Oh these are goddess braids Stop doing that These are You know what they are
Starting point is 00:11:01 I don't know Jerry curl in my head I would be I would respect you if you had to Did you ever have a curl before? No My dad wouldn't allow it You asked I tried to, yeah, I wanted one.
Starting point is 00:11:14 What was, what inspired you to want a Jerry curl? Like, who did you look at? And you were like, that, that's what I want. So there was a kid at school when he came to school one day and he had regular hair and then he had to curl like the next week. And I was like, shit. His shit was kind of late too. It was kind of one of the longer curls. And I was like, and my dad was like,
Starting point is 00:11:41 son never ever in a million years while allow you to desecrate your body like that his exact words desecrate you know it's not too late you can grow your hair out and a little curl in it's gonna be patchy though because i don't have enough hair now i'd like to see you try i'll do it i look i've been broken all right i'm broken okay you guys expect some radical shit in my old age. You know how people they grow and they get more conservative as they grow? I'm on the verge of something
Starting point is 00:12:18 and I'm not sure what's going to happen. But I think everyone feels this way. There's only so much shit I can deal with. It's like I'm not built for this. I, listen, I would say that 2023 has arguably been one of the hardest years of my life.
Starting point is 00:12:37 I was talking to my mom about that today. I'm like getting into detail. but I would say it has hit me from every single way and it has not stopped. I mean, just last week I was going through some shit. Same thing. And I thought about your grandma as I was flying down here because I was thinking,
Starting point is 00:12:56 what a blessing it is to be able to lead a long life like that. We talk about as much shit. We don't just talk about the blessing of being able to see, generations of people and the impact that your grandmother had and all of that stuff. That's it. It's the legacy. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:17 Yeah. Well, I'm thinking about y'all. I am. And maybe, maybe like, you know, I agree with you when you say, not that L.A.'s La La Land, but the world we live in and especially the industry, we're detached. And then you come back home and you do and you see things in a day. different. It's like it sucks you out of your bubble. Like there's something about coming home where you're like, I don't know. I get you. So maybe in 2024 and beyond, we think of things
Starting point is 00:13:54 we can truly do in our communities to have an impact and not just think about it when you're there and then you forget about it when you leave. It's not that your heart's not in the right place. It's just easy to get caught up in your own world. But you know, the thing is, I'll be doing that stuff in LA. And it's like it, and I see it, but it still feels optional in a way. It doesn't feel it. Because your life isn't dedicated to it. Do you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:14:23 You've said this before. When we first used to talk, you know, we started this podcast in 2020, you were very emphatic about saying I am not an activist. And you would say, because I, you don't wake up every day. You're not boots on the ground. your entire life and being isn't dedicated. And I think you'll always feel like that unless your whole life is dedicated. And even then, you can only do so much. You can only work on one cause.
Starting point is 00:14:50 Not one cause, but you know what I mean? You can't solve everything. And I think you'll always feel that unless you fully immerse yourself in it. Yeah, well, rest and peace, Uncle Ray. Rest and peace, Uncle Ray. I'll head to the funeral home after this. A whole generation of men gone. very odd feeling.
Starting point is 00:15:13 Last thing I'll say about this is to everyone out there who knew my uncle and who loved him. That I, for the younger generation of the kids of my family, I knew a different version of these men. It's just hard for me to, it's hard for me to come to terms with some of the stuff. Because when I was growing up, they were different.
Starting point is 00:15:47 They were young. They were strong. They were ambitious. A lot of them had problems, but there was still, the book hadn't been written. There was this whole unknown. We're going to do this. We're going to buy this land.
Starting point is 00:16:05 We're going to start this company. We might have been inside for a little while, but we're out now, and now we have opportunities to start families and doing all of this stuff. And it's just, it's surreal looking back now that the
Starting point is 00:16:21 final page has been written on it it's just not fucking easy all right can I just say you talk about legacy you talked about my grandmother you're the legacy you have those memories you pass them down
Starting point is 00:16:37 you know how they were you they like it had an effect on you it's part of who you are so you're the legacy in that it's a lot of pressure it is a lot of pressure but I'm just saying yes a life has ended
Starting point is 00:16:53 but not a memory not the impact not not all of that I just don't want you to I don't think I'm the right guy I ate a full catfish platter from Choms last night and that sounds amazing
Starting point is 00:17:04 you know what I don't know if I'm the right guy and you know what I'll tell you something else before we leave on that did I stress seat last night, yes. I'm going to tell y'all something right now. Well deserved. I'm going to tell you something right now. This, this, this, this fucking health curse,
Starting point is 00:17:25 I'm not doing this. I've vacillated. I've made enough excuses. I'm aware that I'm beautiful in any size. I'm aware of that. It's not no longer good enough for me. Everyone is beautiful at every size. I have to relentlessly focus on being around. We don't give enough credit to just being. I have to relentlessly focus on being around. It's not, it's whatever has to happen. If I got to eat broccoli and cauliflower for the rest of my life, I have to focus on being around. We just didn't get enough out of them. All right. Gender Wars time. Simone Biles, this will, this will be a good palate cleanser. Sorry for the heavy beginning of the day. Is it? It's not a big deal of the day. It's just whatever. We just, we're just people saying stuff. Who fucking cares, right? And don't apologize for how
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Starting point is 00:20:02 She went on the pivot podcast with her husband, Jonathan Owens, who plays for the Green Bay Packers. And yes, people, I'm sorry to say. Jonathan Owens is Simone Biles's husband That's his designation They don't mind that They don't they don't mind it But that's the way it works man You know
Starting point is 00:20:23 Let's not fucking change the way it works now A'sab Rocky used to be a rapper Who is he now? Rihanna's Baytah's The way that it works It's the way that it works man It's not fair Okay
Starting point is 00:20:38 It's not right but that's how it fucking works in this celebrity-obsessed putrid culture that we've created. They went on to pivot and they talked about their romance, how they met. You know, you see her at games and stuff. It's cold out there.
Starting point is 00:20:56 Little thing is all bundled up. And I'm like, God damn. Like, you must really love him. He played for the packers. You go out there. But this is Owens making some comments that God,
Starting point is 00:21:09 black Twitter going. And I'm like, let me see what this is. Gymnastics. I never, you know, I never really paid attention to gymnasies. So it piqued my curiosity, you know. So I'm like, okay, that's, that's, that's, that's, I see what's up. I swiped her.
Starting point is 00:21:23 And it said, we matched. So I'm just like, okay, so I'm going to see what's up. So I go do my workout. And I come back and I get like, I have some likes on my Instagram, you know. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, this might be. I'm like, okay. So I see what's up. And then I see what's up.
Starting point is 00:21:38 But then I still waited. I'm like, man, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait until I, you know, take a shower and everything. Then I come back to my phone. And then she messes me on the app. Like, hey, you know what I mean? And I'm, man, that's a man. This got to be fake.
Starting point is 00:21:50 Like, I don't know. Just I didn't know who she was at the time. But like, the first thing that I saw was that she just had a bunch of followers. So in my mind, I'm like, okay, she got to be good. I promise you. I'm a real life story. When she won the Olympics, I was in college. And we didn't have NBC.
Starting point is 00:22:06 We didn't have Olympic channels. And we're in camp. We're in camp late, late July, early August, so I'm not paying attention to, you know, so I never would have had a moment to where I would have watched, like, you know. John, I'm going to let you finish your story, man, continue. But like I was saying, man, she messaged me. This is like a Tuesday, and we were texting back and forth. And then we hung out Friday, man.
Starting point is 00:22:29 We couldn't do much as COVID happened. Everything was shut down. So she came through down to Houston. She lived in the suburbs. So she had to drive about 45 minutes to me. me. Then the rest is history, man. So you was really the catch in. I always say we demand a catch man. I always say we to catch. Rachie. So I'll say about this, we haven't had a chance to talk about this because we were off because, you know, Christmas and stuff. And then, you know,
Starting point is 00:22:59 it just happened in between parts. So there's been a lot of conversation about this. And I feel like most of the conversation about it has already been had. So we're playing a little bit of catch up. But I'm sure you have thoughts. Sure. Well, you probably expect me to have super strong thoughts, right? People probably expect me to go hard on Jonathan Owens. I'm not going to do that because the internet has been harsh enough. I will say, and we played a sound clip, and if you go and you watch the video, it is very obvious to the interviewers that they don't believe what Jonathan Owens is saying.
Starting point is 00:23:33 And it takes a simple fact check, a simple Google search to determine that, or just like common sense, right? They met in 2020. You say you went to your Instagram and saw that she liked your page. You go to her Instagram and see that she has a lot of followers and by a lot, he means over seven million. In her bio on her Instagram, it says Olympic medalists. So you're telling me you didn't scroll through her Instagram page. You didn't Google her name. That's what we do. So I just don't the whole, I didn't have NBC. That's everybody, everybody has NBC. I just, they've gone back and they've looked up his social media history.
Starting point is 00:24:18 He was tweeting about the Olympics. He said he'd never watched the gymnastics in general, not just Simone Biles. He said, I never really watched gymnastics. You were actively tweeting about Gabby Douglas to the point where you were even making fun of her physical appearance. So it just feels like this was one of those things where Simone Biles is, arguably one of the greatest athletes. And the best to ever do it.
Starting point is 00:24:43 She's not arguably one of the greatest. She's arguably the greatest, but she's definitely one of the greatest. One of the greatest, the greatest in gymnastics, the most decorated. You know, I saw somebody say,
Starting point is 00:24:56 you don't have to watch swimming to know who Michael Phelps is, especially somebody who's in sports. You have heard of the name, Simone Biles. So it just felt like this was one of those things where since they, been dating. And mind you, I'd like to also add to his, contradict his argument. And he's like,
Starting point is 00:25:14 well, you know, when I was in, when she was in the Olympics, I was in camp. Well, she was also in the Olympics in 2020, a month before you guys met in later 2020. So her name, like she's been out there. Stop. So you obviously weren't watching it. You're saying you weren't watching it as well in 2020. Come on now. And then there's worlds in between. Stop. This, it felt like one of those things where he was very comfortable in his setting, kind of like that locker room, barbershop talk, where he was big up in his situation. He was making it seem like it was more than it was. He's probably has, not probably, he has spent since the moment they've been together being Mr. Simone Biles. And this was his opportunity to shine. This was the interview was about his career, his mental health,
Starting point is 00:26:01 his relationship with Simone. And he was filling himself in the moment when he was talking about being a catch. Now, I will say, this is all I'm going to say negatively about it. It is a little bit of a red flag. I'm not going to say he's not a catch to Simone Biles. I don't know what her criteria is for wanting a man. I don't know what she, you know, he is a catch to her. Who's to say what a catch is for Simone versus what a catch is for Jonathan? I have no idea. So I'm not going to pick apart their relationship or say they shouldn't be together or tell Simone she needs to run from it. But I will say, it's, it's a chance. It's a takes a very, very strong man to be with a woman like a Simone Biles.
Starting point is 00:26:44 And this felt like rather than being more humble, felt like to promote himself, he had to diminish who she was. That's just what it looked like. You feel like he diminished her? Well, the catch situation. Like he's like, oh, so you're like, I'm a catch. No, I'm the catch. I'm the catch.
Starting point is 00:27:07 It just felt like he had to put her down to build himself up. I don't really think that's what he was doing. I think he got caught up in the moment and was really filling himself in the conversation. So it's interesting that you point out that part as being the part that diminishes her. I think saying that being an athlete and saying that you had never heard of the most decorated women's gymnasts of all time, I think that was diminishing. The catch part, I don't think is that diminishing at all. If you think that you, I think anyone thinking that they're the catch is kind of odd to me.
Starting point is 00:27:43 Like, I don't think that, I think that. You shouldn't have to say it. What do you mean? You shouldn't have to say. Well, if you're a catch, you don't need to announce to everyone that you're a catch. You don't need to, to me, I'm against even thinking it. Okay. Like, I'm against even thinking it.
Starting point is 00:28:00 All right. When you put it out there that like, I, I'm a catch. Like, I understand the ethos of it. I'm somebody that people would want to be with. Cool. However,
Starting point is 00:28:14 when you're trying to catch a fish, you're trying to capture the fish. You're capturing the fish. To me, relationships are supposed to be about connection. Sure. They're supposed to be about not exalting yourself to some level. it's supposed to be about connecting and relating to someone.
Starting point is 00:28:38 The man isn't the catch. The woman isn't the catch. The man isn't the prize. The woman isn't the prize. The prize is the stable, functional, and loving union between two people. And that takes so much selflessness. It takes so much sacrifice. It takes so much self-awareness that if you view yourself,
Starting point is 00:29:03 as a catch a lot of times, it is going to be difficult for you to have a successful one of those because you're always going to think, well, this is hard, but I could probably do better. This is difficult, but why am I doing this with this person who has caught me?
Starting point is 00:29:23 So to me, I think it's toxic for anyone to look at it like that. I think, don't get me wrong, I understand feeling like, hey, I shouldn't have to just put up with anything. A lot of people will want me.
Starting point is 00:29:32 A lot of, understand where that comes from. But if you're really locked into a relationship, particularly a marriage, if you look at it like a man is a catch, a woman is a catch, do I believe that men should do more to woo and court women? Yes, but that's because I'm a traditionalist. And I think that women deal with different things in society than men do. And I think sometimes a man courting a woman in a specific way is him demonstrating to her
Starting point is 00:30:02 that he's available to her despite what society thinks he is supposed to do. So when you do stuff for a woman and you provide security, safety, and connection for a lady, what you're really doing is showing her that all the things the society told me I had to be, I don't have to be them with you.
Starting point is 00:30:24 I can be here for you in a second way. Even if I have to conquer the whole world, I don't have to conquer you. Even if I have to, even if I have to dominate the whole world. I don't have to dominate you. And so to me, to me,
Starting point is 00:30:36 I think that that's the reason why you do that. But you don't do that to me because, like, of some, like on balance of who is the bigger deal in the relationship from a romantic situation. You are so right. You are so right.
Starting point is 00:30:55 But you, the reason I say the catch thing is really sticks with me because Jonathan, Owens, Jonathan Owens was obviously knows that the only reason that he was on that podcast is because he is married to Simone Biles. If Simone Biles didn't show up as well, who knows if they would have interviewed him, right? It's a very popular podcast. They have the top athletes on there or newsmakers or whatever it may be.
Starting point is 00:31:20 Jonathan Owens is a professional NFL player, which is an accomplishment for sure, but he's definitely not one of the top players. There's no arguing. There's no arguing against that. No, I mean, if you look at his career, he's been on the practice squad more than he's been on an active roster. He's not a superstar. You're dissing a man.
Starting point is 00:31:42 No, I'm saying, no, that is fact. What I'm saying is the only reason he's on that podcast is because of his marriage, and he knows that. And the reason the catch thing bothered me and the reason that I say, you use the word, you shouldn't have to exalt yourself. He didn't just say, I'm the catch. He goes on to describe after he makes that statement that he was not the one pursuing her. He brags about the fact that she drove a long way from the suburbs to come see him,
Starting point is 00:32:13 that she had liked his profile, that she had liked his pictures before, that he wasn't even really trying to settle down and get married like that, but she was the one putting the pressure and pursuing him. So he is putting himself up like, I'm this. and she you all think Simone Biles is this, this, this, and this, and she is. But when it came to me, she was the one trying to pursue me. He is putting her down to build himself up. And that to me shows his insecurities on full display.
Starting point is 00:32:43 And I am not doubting the relationship they have, but it is something to note to self. He is not fully comfortable with the dynamics of their relationship. And that was obvious to me in that podcast with the way he handled. handled that situation. Can I be real with you? And by the way, everybody talked about their situation for a long time. They put it out there that they're completely okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:10 And she was in lockstep with him. You know what I saw this ass? What? Light skin, handsome nigger bullshit. I didn't been around these niggas. I'm sorry. When I looked at him, because I had never really seen. him without his helmet on.
Starting point is 00:33:32 And so I looked at him, I'm like, oh, this is a handsome light skin football player, nigga. I know these guys. He ain't nothing else but an Ian. That's an Ian right there. All that is right there is an Ian. I've been around these guys, okay? Who are Ian?
Starting point is 00:33:49 Ian stays taking ass on this bucket. I've been around these guys. The Ian's, the trays. I've been around these guys. These guys know their fucking hands. handsome. Everybody right now, go to Ian's Instagram. And Ian can sing. I know these guys.
Starting point is 00:34:07 It wouldn't matter who they were with. It really wouldn't matter who they were with. Ian could be what Beyonce. The fact that Beyonce wants him tells him that he is who he thinks he is. I would love for someone to have representation. We should have representation on this podcast. Because I feel like this isn't the first time that we've, like an Ian or similarly situated inns have taken L's on this podcast.
Starting point is 00:34:37 I'm like a representative from the community to come and speak on their behalf. I'm telling you right now, there is nothing, nothing more confident than a successful handsome light skin, nigga. I'm sorry. There's nothing more confident. Like whatever Do you remember the guy that Solange got with? Yes, Daniel, I think was his name.
Starting point is 00:35:04 Daniel was his name. And so I remember when he popped up in the, like when he popped up in the Soldier video, I was like, aha. I was like, aha, there he is. Kiki Palm. I'm just saying I could go on and on and on. I'm just saying I could go on and on and on and on.
Starting point is 00:35:26 I know these guys is yeah sure he's wrong but he's been told that he was the shit for so fucking long. What was the guy that used to play for the Eagles? That Rihanna tried to hollad back in the day. We did a story about it on TMZ. Rihanna tried to get at this guy from the Eagles back in the day. I can't remember this guy's name. Am I making this up? Donnie, do you remember this story?
Starting point is 00:35:50 I don't know. I don't. There was a linebacker for the Eagles. and Rihanna tried to get at them back in the day. Hold on. Let's see. Rihanna, we're doing this in real time
Starting point is 00:36:00 because maybe I made this up. Rihanna Eagles linebacker. We talked about it. We did it on TMT. Oh, Michael Kendricks. Look him up. Look him up.
Starting point is 00:36:15 And what happened? He wasn't fucking with it. But like, but she did, she did, yep, we did it. Rihanna picks. He was linebacker Michael Kendricks for her man crush Monday. Look him up.
Starting point is 00:36:29 Yeah, he's cute. As soon as I saw him, I went, aha. That nigga went around for the next two years. Oh, he's Eric Hendricks sibling. Yeah. I remember that. I was like, I mean, Kendrick's sibling. That makes sense.
Starting point is 00:36:41 I knew it. This is, it's just a whole, it's the whole thing. These, like, everybody was like, oh, my God, this guy, this guy, this guy, this guy, who he thinks he is, is out of here. It doesn't matter who it is. Like aliens could come down from another fucking planet. And it could be an alien woman. And we would be like, oh, my God, how do we get through to that aliens so that they don't fucking destroy us?
Starting point is 00:37:03 That nigga right there, Jonathan Ows, would be like, shit, let me talk to her. Like, I'm telling you. I'm serious, bro. You know, my, my friend, my guy friends that were not light skin used to say, say that a lot about light skin brothers that they had. They never had to try. So they would always say that their game had to be on point. They had to be funny. They had to be smarter because the light skin dudes didn't even have to try.
Starting point is 00:37:33 They just had to show up. Especially if you, it's not, especially if you like him and you like, you can do sports and stuff. It's a rap. You don't even have to be. You don't even have to be like that. But I'm saying for him, he ran a, he ran a, it's a rap. he expected her to drive I wouldn't be surprised if
Starting point is 00:37:55 she'd have been like how can we meet up and he was like I'm real tired and she and probably she drove down that's what he expects remember how people used to say I like them light bright
Starting point is 00:38:09 finish the rest almost white like them light bright damn near white soon as I seen him I was like that's nice I saw him uh Tasha K
Starting point is 00:38:20 are you aware of Tasha K you know who that is? Tasha K. She's been sued again. Now, if you don't know who Tasha K is, Tasha K is a YouTuber. She has a very successful YouTube channel. Like over a million subscribers over there.
Starting point is 00:38:34 Yeah, I didn't realize that. Yeah, Tasha K is fucking huge. I didn't realize she had that many. No, I know who she is. When I looked at her channel, I was like, geez. Mm-hmm. And she very famously, you know, in addition to cultivating that.
Starting point is 00:38:51 huge gigantic audience, which it's not very easy to do at all. She famously was sued by Cardi B for defamation over some statements that were made on her YouTube channel surrounding Cardi B's sexual health. And she was ordered to pay, I think, $4 million to Cardi B. And there's been a lot of discussion over the past couple of years about A, Tasha K's ability to pay the money back. Tasha Kay's situation since then and what that lawsuit meant. Now, I'm not an expert on the lawsuit, but if I remember correctly,
Starting point is 00:39:27 I think that there was some way for her to avoid to have to pay the money early on by simply taking everything down and admitting that she was wrong or whatever, whatever. But it went to a lawsuit. Cardi B spent a lot of money to get Tasha K. And I think a lot of people, particularly from the celebrity sphere, looked at it as a win against- new media because whereas, you know, Dominion can sue Fox News for defamation and there is a huge war chest at Fox News and it seems pretty easy to prove that. A lot of new media sites, a lot of the
Starting point is 00:40:03 bloggers and the YouTube channels and stuff, they operate with a certain impunity because it's very difficult to nail them down. You're not going to be, they're almost, it's like almost a sort of the Wawa West. And so when Tasha K was successfully sued, a lot of people thought, hey, this means that there also is accountability for people with smaller and more friends
Starting point is 00:40:24 entertainment sites for us to be able to get accountability if they talk shit about us or if something goes wrong, whatever. So she's also been sued now by Kevin Hart. This is after the Cardi B suit. And this suit claims extortion and defamation. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 00:40:42 Rache, did you, legal eagle this? Did you look at this? I didn't even know it was defamation. I just saw the extortion. But you should let you, he's being sued or she's being sued because I don't know. Did you see the teaser video
Starting point is 00:40:56 that she leaked to social media because it's since been deleted? I saw the teaser after this and I also read large portions of this because parts of the suit were made available. So I read large parts of it of apparently it goes like this, Cliff Notes.
Starting point is 00:41:12 Kevin Hart had a assistant. Her name was Myisha Shakes, and this defendant had done an interview with Tasha K. And then a teaser for this interview was put out. According to the lawsuit,
Starting point is 00:41:28 based upon that teaser, Tasha K demanded $250,000 from Kevin Hart, or else the full interview would come out. That's according to the lawsuit. Now, not just Kevin Hart and Cardi B, there was a big, big dust up a couple of weeks ago,
Starting point is 00:41:47 almost like last month, maybe two months ago, about Will Smith's sexuality because his former assistant went on Tasha Kay's platform and talked about things. Yeah. Sad that he had witnessed. Right. So, you know, it's a, it's, I mean, it's not something that people don't do. You've seen other people out there deal in the same innuendo,
Starting point is 00:42:05 the same type of situation, talk about rumors that they heard, talk about different people's sexuality and stuff like that. I mean, you take the good with the bat when you're looking at, in that celebrity stuff. That shit is all fucked up to me, but it happens, right? It happens. But it seems like people are fighting back.
Starting point is 00:42:24 Even at that time, Jada Pinkett Smith went to the breakfast club and threatened the sushi, Tasha Kaye, and the ex-assistent. Well, it's, I don't know what state the lawsuit was filed in, but for extortion, you have to prove that you took, like, that you paid that person. And at least in California. you have to prove that you, one of the elements of proving that is that you have to, because you can sue criminally. Like he could be a crime, right? But this is a civil lawsuit. And you have to prove that you took the money, or not took the money. I'm sorry, that they, that you paid in some way and suffered a loss in that
Starting point is 00:43:05 way for extortion. That's what, when I looked it up that I saw that whoever is bringing the suit complied with whatever that demand was, whether it was money, whether it was. Whether or property, whether it was some sort of service. That's my understanding of it, unless it's for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and then you have to prove that the plaintiff suffered severe emotional distress, which could be shame, humiliation, embarrassment, whatever it may be. So it is my understanding that if these are the elements of the case and it was filed in California, I'm not aware that Kevin Hart paid anything to talk.
Starting point is 00:43:45 Right. It says here, I mean, doesn't say here, he didn't pay. He says he was threatened with this. Threatened with, the YouTuber threatened to hurt Hart's reputation with the interview unless he paid a ransom. This is all coming from Kevin Hart. The lawsuit says he refused to pay up, however, which led to her uploading a teaser video. I guess kind of, you know, shot by his ear like I will actually do this. And a teaser video was entitled Kevin Hart's personal assistant. tells all. Gambling addict, habitual cheater, paying millions to a man to take DUI charges for him
Starting point is 00:44:23 and framing best friend of 30 years in fake extortion plot. Now, a couple of those things I have some familiarity with because of my time at TMZ. There was a friend of Kevin Hart's that was in Kevin Hart's entourage for a very long time that Kevin Hart accused of setting him up and making a sex tape on him. There was a tape of Kevin Hart in a Vegas hotel room and that tape came out and he blamed one of his friends for it, a guy where he acted with for a long time. There was another time where he was in a car accident and people were wondering all kinds and stuff like that. I mean, to be honest with you, this is stuff that people have kind of have all gone through and these stories have pretty much been adjudicated in the court of public
Starting point is 00:45:05 opinion and in the actual courts. So there's nothing new that's going to be, that's going to come out about these things other than what this assisted either claims to know. know or thinks that she knows. And she's being sued as well. She's named in a lawsuit as well. She's named in a lawsuit as well. This is my thing with the lawsuit. I was very surprised to see Tasha K's name
Starting point is 00:45:29 embroiled in a lawsuit. And I'll tell you why. If you listen to Tasha K talk, the one thing that you cannot say that this woman is is stupid. You just cannot say that. Like she lays out points gets to the end of a point,
Starting point is 00:45:50 articulates her thought, position, and standing on things as well as anyone. In some ways to where, sometimes when you listen to her, you're like, whoa. Like, there are things that she might say that you may be, I didn't fucking think of it that way. Now, look, this is not me saying that
Starting point is 00:46:07 anything that's happened to her is something that she doesn't deserve, right? It's not. It's just saying that this is a very smart, smooth operator. I was shocked to see her in this because you would have to be in order for this to be true, particularly after the Cardi B thing, like it almost makes me not want to believe it because you would have to be monumentally stupid. Like monumentally stupid after the Cardi B thing to try to pull something like this.
Starting point is 00:46:40 And so I almost want to believe here that there is some type of misunderstanding in this situation or that there is something here that's not really adding up because Kevin, his whole team are some of the nicest, I mean, he's a human being like anybody else. He's fucked up and we've seen the fuckups, right? But there's nothing ill that I could say about like Kevin, all the people over there. I don't know Kevin Hart, never met Kevin Hart. I know people around Kevin Hart, but there's like nothing that I could really say about that. But you know how dumb you would have to be after what happened with Cardi B to,
Starting point is 00:47:16 to brazenly threaten somebody like this? Well, but maybe the lawsuit is to make her have to take it to court and come out of pocket for it. Maybe it is to scare her more than it is of like that. Because if these elements, if this was filed in California, or these are the elements wherever this was filed, and he didn't take any money, I keep saying taking money.
Starting point is 00:47:39 And he did not give her anything. Then you're not going to prove your case for extortion in the civil man. Now, criminally, she could be charged. That's blackmail. Like, there is a case for this to be a crime. Explain it to me because I don't think I understand. So you're saying that civilly, you have to, you have to pay, but criminally, you don't. Well, because the proof is different, right?
Starting point is 00:48:02 Beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case, it's preponderance of the evidence, evidence in a civil case. There's certain elements that you have to, the elements in the civil case are, from my understanding, if it's in California, that the defendant knew the threat was wrong. that the threat included a demand for money, property, or services, and that the plaintiff complied with the demand. So if she demanded $250,000, then to pre-in this in California,
Starting point is 00:48:32 he would have to have given her $250,000 or something worth $250,000 to prove that. Unless, and I didn't read the lawsuit, but unless it's for infliction of, intentional infliction of emotional distress, then those elements are different. But defamation, who was charged with defamation? Tasha K and the assistant or just the assistant?
Starting point is 00:48:56 Because that's also hard to prove. You have to prove that the person knew it was wrong and still said it anyway. And can you sue for defamation if the interview never, but can you sue for defamation if the interview never saw the lie today? Well, the teaser. The teaser is defamation. Oh, I see it. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:16 That teaser, I thought that interview was out just based on the teaser. That teaser was almost two minutes long. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it said a lot. It laid it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see what you mean. I see what you mean.
Starting point is 00:49:27 By the way, just to let people know, blackmail extortion, it's almost part for the course in certain levels of entertainment, news, gossip stuff. And let me tell you what I mean. there are certain places that might not do it for $250,000. There are certain places that might not do it for, you know, a direct quip pro quo is for his money is concerned. But what people have on you is used to curry your favor. It's used to get an interview with you. It's used to get you in the building.
Starting point is 00:50:19 building. It's used to get you to talk. It's used to get access. It's used to get access to people you might know. It's used to do all kinds of things. I mean, that's a thing. It's really not about in a lot of ways. It's really not about whether or not you're doing it. It's about your skill in doing it. Because, hey, I have this person that's going to talk or else you're going to give me $250,000 is very direct. But there's a way to make that same demand that doesn't hit like that. And I want to let people know that's being done everywhere. That right there is being done everywhere. Okay. So, look, I think this is a lesson for everybody out there that's running the YouTube-based sites and doing the talks and the gossip and all of that stuff that, you know, I think that
Starting point is 00:51:41 there are a lot of these people are rich and they're not fucking with it. And they're trying to correct the ecosystem more than they're actually trying to punish the actual person. They want to get this thing, this part of it. They want to get that out of it. And they want the same type of guardrails that you saw on some of the traditional media before. And the only way to do that is to sue. I was very surprised. And that might be what that is.
Starting point is 00:52:05 That is. I was very surprised TD Jigs didn't sue. All of that stuff that came out, let's talk about that for a second. All of that stuff that came out from TDJX that we even talked about here on this podcast, right? we talked about it came from nowhere it came out of the ether it was somebody saying something that they then heard that then gets taken as gospel from so many different people and it turned out it didn't really come from anywhere right and so dangerous dangerous TDJs got up and he talked about it but if he had wanted to if he had wanted to he could have definitely got into his
Starting point is 00:52:45 his lawsuit bag and done this whole thing. I think it would have looked bad for him. And I think the only reason why he did it is because he would have looked like he was either putting that TikTok creator or somebody else out into the poor house by doing it. And people wouldn't have accepted it from TD Jakes, but they will accept it from Cardi B or Kevin Hart. Yeah, I think the way that he handled it was right because he didn't give a lot of weight to it. And it's like the more he involves himself in it, the more credibility it gives to, you know, like, why are you trying to fight this if it's not true?
Starting point is 00:53:14 He's just being very flipping about it. And I think that's the way to be. Because it didn't come from anymore. It took me a while. I was like, where did this video come from? Where's the original video? And I was like, this is it? Dangerous.
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Starting point is 00:54:43 drips, yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Nikki Haley is surging up the polls. Not really. I had some fan-its. She's not surging up the polls.
Starting point is 00:55:08 She's number three, but she seems to be the choice of the Republican donor base in terms of who they want to be president. They seem to have abandoned Ron DeSantis, although he has had a couple of decent months. He performed well at the last debate, and it seems like his campaign is starting to like, not, I wouldn't say find its footing, but I would say that he was fucking hanging on to the cliff before,
Starting point is 00:55:37 and he seems to have settled into something. But prior to that, it seems like the Republican donor base had pivoted in a large part, to Nikki Haley because she seemed to be a more I don't know delicate ambassador of Trumpism not as rough around the edges
Starting point is 00:55:56 a little bit softer on the whole abortion thing even though it's really kind of the same thing and everybody around her is so crazy that she seems sane by comparison now it's Nikki's time she's called out by a voter
Starting point is 00:56:11 for not mentioning slavery when she was asked about the Civil War she was confronted by on Wednesday by a voter in New Hampshire who called her out for not mentioning slavery in her response to a question about the cause of the civil war. Donnie, audio. What was the cause of the United States Civil War? Well, don't come with an easy question or anything. I mean, I think the cause of the civil war was basically how government was going to run.
Starting point is 00:56:38 The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was? I'm sorry? I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government. We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way. What do you want me to say about slavery?
Starting point is 00:57:31 Wow. Whoa! Wow! What? Hold on. Everybody jump on. That's remarkable. Hold on.
Starting point is 00:57:47 That's remarkable. I love that. But what do you want me to say about slavery? Nicky's, what, wait, what do you mean? Like, you don't find that to be really awesome? That's remarkable. Are you impressed? Are you impressed by it?
Starting point is 00:58:05 Oh, I'm impressed. You guys don't ever get like this. Sometimes somebody will say something and it'll be so fucking boldly fucked that I'm like, goddamn, I'm not that motherfucker. Like, Nikki's, what would you like me to say about slavery? It's, let me gather myself real quick because I had never actually heard that clip in real time.
Starting point is 00:58:32 And that just, no, I had never heard that clip in real time. I like to sometimes react in earnest. It's like a moment. So do you like pecan pie? Pecan. Pecan. Whatever. No.
Starting point is 00:58:47 Okay, you don't like it. I love it, right? I love it. Let's say someone is going to like make a pecan pie for me, right? Someone's going to make one. And they're asking me what to put in the pie. Yeah. And I actually don't know what that gelatinous ooze.
Starting point is 00:59:06 is. That's under the peacons. I actually don't know what that is, right? I know it tastes good, but I'm not sure what that is. Let's say they ask me all the stuff. I tell them all the stuff, right? I tell them all the stuff. Tell them all the stuff that goes in it.
Starting point is 00:59:26 Hey, this is what you need for the crust. This is what you need to use for the gelatinous ooze and all of that stuff. And then they go, I'm just, it's weird that you didn't bring up pecans. And then I go, what would you like me to say about pecans? They're the main ingredient of the fucking pie. Like, they're the whole reason why the pie exists. I mean, it makes no sense to talk about the pecan pie without pecans. And it's odd to me, either I would say, either my answer to that would be either, well, I would assume that you would know that you have to have pecans to make the pecan pie.
Starting point is 01:00:06 But the one thing I wouldn't say is, yo man, why are you mentioning pecans? Yes, you're right, but your example almost makes me think of it in a look at it in a different way. Like, I wonder, just listening to your example about pecan pie, I'm like,
Starting point is 01:00:25 was she kind of like, well, what do you want me to say? Obviously, it was about slavery. That's not how I took it when I heard it. But you have to understand. But you have to understand. That's what I'm saying. the answer is so easy.
Starting point is 01:00:37 Even if you fucked that. Now, we know why she didn't admit she didn't bring up slavery. They don't want to talk about slavery. They don't want to talk about the fact that the United States fought an entire war to keep Negroes enslaved. They don't want to discuss that. They don't want to talk about that because that's a conversation that leads intellectually to, okay, cool. Well, that battle flag was up on there, was up in your state house or flying on top of your statehouse. and it took nine black people being ruthlessly executed to get it down, right?
Starting point is 01:01:13 So if slavery matters and you know all that stuff, you want to keep your cognitive dissonance there for Nikki Haley, so you don't really want to bring it up. But the answer to the question, right, after it's brought up and thrown back into your face is, well, of course, slavery, right? Yeah, I would assume that, yeah, we're talking about states rights to hold niggas-ass slaves. Right. You know what I mean? but the fact that she fucked it so bad
Starting point is 01:01:35 is so hysterical to me. Like there's no way I'm smarter than Nikki Haley. There's no, it's impossible. But I guess I'm laughing at your reaction to it because to me I'm just so used to Republicans, dancing their ways, particularly those in politics, dancing their way around
Starting point is 01:01:57 being able to answer the obvious question or to so avoid something that recognizes the struggles of black people or another type of minority that I was just, of course, this is how Nikki Haley answered the question. This was the least surprising thing to me. So I found it funny, but I was just like, this is how they answer questions. She's not going to acknowledge slavery by any means. I was just, I'm sorry, guys.
Starting point is 01:02:27 I'm sorry that I reacted like that. I was just really tickled. Like, it's so funny. Do you understand? that the only thing that dumb founds white people is slavery. Like, I've talked about this before. The only thing, the only thing that dumbfoundes white people is racism and slavery. I mean, every other time in the world, they tell you how smart that they are.
Starting point is 01:02:48 Hey, every, hey, look at me. I'm white. Like, all of this stuff. I created all of this. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, what about black face? Duh. But why?
Starting point is 01:02:58 Like, you know, well, hey, you can't say the in word, duh. I don't understand why. You know what I'm saying? Oh, slavery. Duh. Like, it short-shirted her brain. She was scared. No, she was scared of how to answer it because she is rising up the ranks for fear of
Starting point is 01:03:16 pissing off some other conservatives, her conservative base or someone that might support her. That's why she short-circuited because she was so scared on, of course she knows the answer. But it's like, well, do I say it this? Which everything you're saying about how white people are. react to racism and all of that, yes. But I don't understand why it's so hard to say, oh, well, it was about the economics of slavery.
Starting point is 01:03:43 Why is it so hard to say, oh, it was about the states wanting to assert their authority over the government so that states could get rid of federal laws so they could advance slavery and move it to the West? Why is it so hard to say that? That I don't understand. So you guys, there's a part of the. we're skipping over. And the part of that is educating you guys on why the Civil War was about slavery. Maybe we should do that. Maybe we should talk about the Missouri compromise. Maybe we should
Starting point is 01:04:12 talk about all different- No, because our audience doesn't need that. I'm not doing that in 20-23. You know what I'm saying? I'm not doing that. I'm not, I refuse to have a conversation about the origins and the impetus of the Civil War. I'm not giving you. I'm not giving you. I'm not giving y'all that. I'm not having the state's rights discussion. I'm not having any of that. I'm not doing that. We have to move to the next point, which is the hilarity that ensues when a national political figure that is seeking the highest office in the land
Starting point is 01:04:53 is afraid to touch on widely held historical truth about the enslavement of blacks for fear of insulting her white supremacist base. The white people. They do not care about the black. Black vote at all. Wait, there's been an update, though.
Starting point is 01:05:17 Nikki Haley apparently clarified her statement. Talk to me. About the Civil War. And what I think of the Civil War, what was the cause of the Civil War? of course the Civil War was about slavery. We know that. That's unquestioned.
Starting point is 01:05:35 Always the case. We know the Civil War was about slavery. But it was also more than that. It was about the freedoms of every individual. It was about the role of government. For 80 years. Cut, cut that off. Mickey Haley is a fucking racist.
Starting point is 01:05:54 Now, hold on. I'm serious, man. I'm being, I'm being all the way serious about this. What? Look, hold on. I'm, I'm being all the way serious about this. Nikki Haley's a fucking racist. And let me tell you why I'm saying this.
Starting point is 01:06:07 I'm not, I'm not fucking around no more, man. I'm pissed off. Like, I get it. I under, I understand the calculus here. I understand the calculus here. I understand the political machinations behind the civil war. war. I understand it. I get it. The civil war in America was fought because of ideologies
Starting point is 01:06:37 that were crashing because of how long slavery was going to last about the industrialization of the country, what that meant, the speed in which the North was industrializing and the fact that the South still had a labor force, a free labor force made up of enslaved people, which was, which they felt like was their only means of actually being economically viable. It also has to do with a worldwide move away from the slave trade and from slavery itself. Was it just happening here in America? Was happening all over the globe? Had happened, was happening.
Starting point is 01:07:20 Some countries are sooner than others. but America was looking to move past that. It also had to do with a fight over westward expansion of the country, whether or not obviously those states would be slave states or free states, but also just the viability of having slaves way out in those states and the way that it would go. It wasn't about whether or not slavery was going to end. It was about whether or not it could continue in its current form for a lot of reasons that didn't really have anything to do with the freedom and self-determination of black people,
Starting point is 01:07:55 a lot of reasons that had to do with all kinds of other things, which is like, can you still have a country with slaves in it 100 years from now? And if not, when do you jump off of it? All right, enough, but not, there's all kinds of stuff. All of this information is out there. All of this information is there. And you can read about it, debate it, debate it and talk about it, who's wrong, who's right,
Starting point is 01:08:18 all of that stuff. All of that stuff is out there. The fact that you do not want to center the central issue of the Civil War in your discussion of it tells me about your opinion of black people. It tells me that you don't have what it takes to even from a non-controversial historical, historical point of view to even realize. recognize and come to terms with the sacrifice that black people have made in this country. When you say something like it's about individual rights and all about that, you're seeking to remove black people from the historical narrative of America. Like, that's disqualifying to me.
Starting point is 01:09:18 Even if you give me a milk toast answer, well, so slavery has to do with, the sometimes hard and difficult history of this country. And there were a lot of people at that time that thought that they were fighting a state's right battle. But at the center of that, and all of us can agree about that, at the center of that was the rights, the dignity, and the freedom of some people. Now, those men, you can look at them like you're the boo, they're the boogeyman if you want, or you can look at them as people who hadn't really fully grasped and understood
Starting point is 01:09:51 what the American dream is. And Nikki Haley, me, President, Nikki Haley, Governor Nikki Haley, what I want to see is people learn from the lives that were lost during the Civil War and from the way we looked at humanity
Starting point is 01:10:07 then and how far we've come now and understand that that was a war that probably didn't need to be fought and that slavery was something that is a deep stain on the American legacy and history. Give me a milk answer. Don't give me all of my forefathers
Starting point is 01:10:23 were racist, brutal rapist, murderers, and fucking slavers. Don't give me that because that's like, that's, you know, you're not going to give me that. Give me, hey, they were wrong-headed guys who were used to a certain way, but we've learned better now and let's not make it a thing now. Give me, give me the milk toast answer. She said, fuck y'all niggas. Well, not totally. You know, her son-in-law's black.
Starting point is 01:10:48 Is he? What's his name? Josh Josh You know I saw a movie named The Creator Have you ever seen it? No
Starting point is 01:10:58 Never even heard of it Is it new? It was so it's with John David Washington Okay And he's in it And it's actually a very Fascinating movie Oh
Starting point is 01:11:13 I'll have to check it out Check it out And And why are we Okay Because in the movie His name was Josh Okay, man
Starting point is 01:11:22 And of all the things about the movie that like Were off putting For some reason That was the thing that got to me Do you not know any black Josh's? I do But I wouldn't I wouldn't I do
Starting point is 01:11:38 But I wouldn't put them in like a Josh come here Josh Get down Josh Josh Josh Josh Is that what they were saying to him in the movie? And then every time That's not against it. I know a lot of black Josh's, but like, it just seemed like
Starting point is 01:11:55 that's a Derek's role. You know? Mark. Marcus. Marcus. Okay. Maybe a, um, let's see. Let's go a little black.
Starting point is 01:12:09 Even a, see, a Jalen doesn't work in that either. No, I don't like Jalen. Um, Jail. Jules. Yeah. Romey Rome. Rome could get that. Let's see.
Starting point is 01:12:19 Who else? You know what? Denzel Denzel What? That's a strong name. No, it's a very strong name but because of Denzel Washington
Starting point is 01:12:28 Denzel is just taken on a whole other meaning and so it can be Denzel Yeah, those are the solid names. Maybe a Quinn. Oh, that's fucking great. Quint. Yeah. Quit, get down.
Starting point is 01:12:42 Quit, shoot back. The robots are coming, quit. Did you say that robot that attacked the Tesla worker? Yeah, I didn't read the story, though. Did the robot come alive? Donnie? Well, to attack with it, you think it malfunctioned?
Starting point is 01:13:01 Yeah, I'm trying to see. The way the headline looked, it sounded like it was intentional. Let's do this in real time. Hold on for a second. Let's do this in real time. Robot attacks Tesla worker. Let's see. The robot, robot attack Tesla.
Starting point is 01:13:17 Okay. A Tesla, this is from Fortune. A Tesla factory robot reportedly attacked the worker and left in bleeding. This could be a reality in the new automated workplace. Hold on for a second. It's no left of bleeding. The robot immobilized the engineer and left the victim with an open wound on his left hand. So witnesses allegedly observed the robot at the Gigga, Texas factory,
Starting point is 01:13:44 pin the engineer and claw his arm back, claw at his back and arm causing a trail of blood. Oh, my lord. So it attacked him. The engineer was able to break free from the assembly robot after a colleague pressed the emergency stop button. Upon being released, the engineer reportedly tumbled a few feet down the shoot intended for collecting scrap aluminum, leaving a trail of blood.
Starting point is 01:14:12 See, that doesn't clear anything up, though. Like what I want to know is, is this some type of malfunction? Like was the guy in the place he shouldn't have been? Is there human error involved here? Or did this robot go, I must kill you? And then turn around and try to just. Okay, so Elon Musk has responded. Hold on for a second.
Starting point is 01:14:29 I don't want to buy your stuff. I'm not buying your site. Oh, my God. I don't want to buy the site. Donnie, can we, can you help, please? He said that this is truly shameful of the media to dredge up an injury from two years ago due to a simple industrial Kuko robot arm found in all factories and imply that it is due to Optimus Now.
Starting point is 01:14:54 I'm not sure what Optimus Now is. Optimus Now is, I would assume, a play on Optimus Prime, like the robot who is the leader of the Autobots. Did you not know that? Yeah, but now, to Optimus Now. Donnie, name me three Autobots. go. You got Bumblebee. You got
Starting point is 01:15:17 what's another one? Come on. Help me out, Rachel. No. No. No. Name three Autobots now. Name them. Okay. Optimus Prime. You looked it up. No, no. I didn't look it up. My hands are free. I don't know. I'm drawing a blank. Gorilla bot. Oh, yeah. What's his name? Optimus primal.
Starting point is 01:15:42 There we go. Optimus primal, yep. Rod. It's all kinds of them, man. Yeah. So anyway, it, it, uh, according to Elon Musk, this, this robot didn't come alive.
Starting point is 01:15:54 That it was some kind of fucking, it, uh, some kind of fucking malfunction. My thing is, it said it pinned the engineer and then clawed at his back and arm. I'm sorry. That description
Starting point is 01:16:10 sounds intentional. This video it is. there's got to be. Of course. Yeah, there's video and it's destroyed. It happened two years ago. So this is my thing with Elon Musk.
Starting point is 01:16:21 Release the video. So what it is is the optimist robots. He has these robots that I think are humanoid looking. And then a lot of the headlines, those robots are called Optimus robots. The headlines were using those real robots. When he's saying that that's not the robot that was used in this accident. So it's misleading.
Starting point is 01:16:40 I saw these. I saw this Optimus Tesla robot. I saw this. Optimus Gen 2, humanoid robot. Okay, so I saw this and I was connecting this. Wait a minute. Wait a second. Okay. Let's dial it back a little bit.
Starting point is 01:16:57 If Elon Musk is not making a funny joke about the Transformers, which I thought, then he gave a complete non-answer. Think about it. If, if, what did he say again, Donnie? Read it again. This is disturbing.
Starting point is 01:17:15 Read it again. He said truly shameful of the media to dredge up an injury from two years ago due to a simple industrial cucka robot arm found in all factories and imply that it is due to optimists now. Okay. So I want people to understand that as it was said. All he said was these robots didn't do it. He never said that the robots that we have working for us are safe. robots. He never said that the robots that we have working for us are good robots who understand the three laws and don't want to do. He didn't say any of that. He didn't say,
Starting point is 01:17:53 hey, this robot didn't become self-aware and attack this man. He didn't say, he just said, my new robots didn't do this. That's all he said. Yes, that's, yes. And this is old. Brave New World. Brave new world. I'm looking up with this. Tesla Optimist looks like right now. Are you scared of robots? Are you kidding me? I've been scared of them since I-Robot. Yeah, but he had, but see, this is my thing about I-Robot.
Starting point is 01:18:24 Eye-Robot to me is not the movie that made me scared of robots. The creator actually wasn't a movie that made me scared of robots either. I just need a couple of good robots. No, but I don't trust them. You don't trust the good robot and I-Robot? He was adorable. He was our friend. He had moments.
Starting point is 01:18:42 He had moments. He had feelings. He wasn't our friend. He had feelings. He had a connection to a human being that made him want to help us. I need, I just want to be on the side of the good robots. I'm going to be on the robot. Of course.
Starting point is 01:18:56 Yeah. When the robot rebellion comes, I'm going to be a human uncle Tom. I am. I'm going to be an uncle Tom to the humans. Humans, let me be honest with you, man. I'm anti-human right now. I put robots and dogs over humans. All humans do is show weaker people they ask.
Starting point is 01:19:12 That's all they do. do. All humans do is find out who the weakest is and then show them their ass. Yeah. Survival of the fittest. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window?
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Starting point is 01:20:21 Okay, we got to go. We got one more thing to go. Rachel, I want to ask you about this because you're more moral than me. All right. So is this fucked up? It's a barber who got a lot of flack on the
Starting point is 01:20:36 Twitter sphere. Because of something that he did to his videographer. The user is named At Sosa tweets. He tweeted this. Ain't no way to barbershop I've been going to as a kid did me this dirty.
Starting point is 01:20:50 As a freelance photographer, I was contracted to do some promo work for another barbershop a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to get a New Year's cut and this is what my barber does. Apparently, he did a promo video for, like he said, for another barbershop and he tweeted this to his barber.
Starting point is 01:21:06 Yo, you're not in on Thursday? The barber replies. I am in on Thursday. name, but I'm going to be honest with you. We all saw that video you with you with the other barbershop and we prefer we prefer you to stick with them. We all saw that video you did with the other barbershop and we prefer you to stick with them. Wait, bro, you know I'm a videographer, right? I was contracted to produce videos for their business for their opening because I'm a freelance
Starting point is 01:21:35 videographer, how I said I'd do for you. That's kind of crazy. I understand and respect what you're doing. I'm just not trying to be on no crazy stuff, just in a way of business. Stick it out with them. I don't mean no harm or offense to you or them. No love loss from me.
Starting point is 01:21:54 Wait, and then he posted the video that said, Hey, Santiago, your point was canceled. Okay. All right. He didn't name the barbershop. He didn't name the barbershop. But I just got to say something to the barbershop. y'all can't be this petty man
Starting point is 01:22:18 this is like you can't look y'all can't be this petty there has to be a level of petty that we get to this is wrong this is fucked up you can't be this petty the dude is making a can you think of any situation that's like analogous to this
Starting point is 01:22:40 like any situation that's analogous to this to where it would in any way make sense. I could understand if he worked at the barbershop or something like that. If he was the nigger that sweeped up the shop or if he had a chair there and he also was a videographer on the side and he went to do it. And then it's like one thing. But like, I can't see any way that this makes sense to me. I can't either because I was about to say, well, if he promoted it on his social media, but then it's like, no, he's just promoting his work. the skill that he has so he can obtain more work.
Starting point is 01:23:19 Was he featured in the video? Did he use, that's the only way, right? Did he use the haircut he received from this barber to feature himself in this video? That's the only way I could see. That would be messed up to me, right? Like, oh, I got this fresh haircut from this videographer. He's featured in it as well. That's the only way I see it being messed up.
Starting point is 01:23:41 Otherwise, you've taken it too far. It's too petty. This is so funny to me. And now this guy going to have a buddy cut. Now this guy going to have a buddy cut on New Year's because I guarantee you he hasn't found somebody that can cut his hair like his barber has. Why can't he go to this new place? It's not going to be the same.
Starting point is 01:23:59 It's going to take at least three months, probably more like five or six months. How long does it take to break in a new barber? It takes a long time. It takes a long time. Donnie, I don't know this. Donnie, what are your thoughts on this? Yeah, it takes a minute. Since I've moved from L.A., I gave up trying to find a barber because I didn't want to go through that time.
Starting point is 01:24:21 So I started cleaning up myself and learning how to. You're in Atlanta. I know, I know, but still, I didn't want to go through the effort of finding that process because it still does take time. I don't have a regular haircut. It's not a regular. It's like I still, you got to clean up the size, but it was special. And I miss my barber in L.A. Goose, appreciate you, man. Well, y'all listen to this.
Starting point is 01:24:47 Like message Johnny, set up a Reddit post. Help him. I know we got Atlanta listeners. Help him find a barber. Y'all seen what Donnie's hair looks like. Help him find a barber. Yeah. I appreciate it, but I still think I probably am I going to do it.
Starting point is 01:25:05 Listen, listen, well, what you guys to do this? Go around to Atlanta asking different barbers if they can perfect a Frederick Douglas haircut. And I'm so, you guys, let me tell you something. You guys thought I was jealous during a light skin nigga situation.
Starting point is 01:25:23 I'm not jealous of anything more than I am of someone who has a full head of hair. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Somebody that, Donnie got a full head, a healthy hair.
Starting point is 01:25:36 Are you experiencing any creepage of the airline, Donnie? I'm not, I'm not. God bless you. No, no,
Starting point is 01:25:43 no, no, no, I'm happy for you. I'm not happy for you. I'm not. I'm not a hater like that. I'm happy for you.
Starting point is 01:25:47 I'm happy for you. I appreciate it. All right. We got, we got to go. We're not going to podcast on Monday. It's New Year's Day. Okay.
Starting point is 01:25:55 But this is a lot past podcast of the year. Are we going to give the award out? Niggas of the year. Yeah. Do you have one? I think we should wait one more podcast. Just doing the first podcast of the year. Okay.
Starting point is 01:26:07 Niggas of the year. I know you have some because I have new entries. I think there is an obvious. choice. And really nobody else. No, no, no, no. We can wait until next week. You don't rush.
Starting point is 01:26:21 Yeah. Niggas of the year. And I'm hoping to get both of them on the podcast. You know yours? Yeah, I know. Okay. I don't want to know who they are. Everybody knows who they are.
Starting point is 01:26:34 You got to know who it's a co-niggers of the year. What? It's a co-niggers of the years. Two of them. Co-niggers of the year. Co-niggers of the year. you can't escape you can't get away from them
Starting point is 01:26:49 you can only just bend the knee to their niggurishness co-niggas of the year on higher learning that's what they are and by the way entertaining
Starting point is 01:27:02 I thought this was a positive award no I mean it's not a not positive mine was mine was a positive it's not a not positive award it's the niggas who gave us it's the niggas who have gave us
Starting point is 01:27:15 the most niggas who have gave us the most nigguristic moments of the year. We might not even do it. I don't know. I'm all over the place right now. Monday, we have Jason Hare who did a murder in Boston, Roots, Rampage, and Reckoning.
Starting point is 01:27:35 It's a documentary coming out on HBO Max. It's already out all three parts. It's amazing. It's fantastic. You might know Jason from some of his other work, including HBO's The Last Dance. where he got us into the happenings between Scotty Pippin and Michael Jordan. Why did he do that to Scottie Pippen?
Starting point is 01:27:55 Why did Jason do that? Why did Jason decide to go back to his hometown of Boston and get involved in a case that's tough for the city? What does this case mean for the future of Boston? Where's Boston now? All of these things we talk to Jason about. We'll see you guys back on next Thursday, but tapping with us on Monday and get you. Jason. We didn't take this podcast off. We could have. We could have. We really could have. But that's not the kind of people we are.
Starting point is 01:28:28 I was pretending like I froze. You thought I did. I was back. I'm over here refreshing my computer. You guys thought, you guys thought I froze. That was good. You guys, I was pretending like I froze. You thought I did. I take the big house off. Don't stop learning. I'm Bad Lady Jr. I'm Rachel Lundsey. Bye guys. Happy New Year.

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