Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Is Van Jones Working With the White House? Plus Trump's Vile Retweet

Episode Date: June 30, 2020

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss President Trump retweeting a video that included a “white power” chant (4:58), the Daily Beast article revealing Van Jones worked with the White House on the police reform bill (23:53), Cam Newton signing with the Patriots (58:09), and the death of Elijah McClain (1:11:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to Higher Learning. Put your thinking caps on. I am Van Lathen. What's up, guys? I'm Rachel Lindsay. Rachel, what did you do this weekend? I knew that was the first thing you were going to ask me. Yeah, I was like to check in on you.

I hate to say this. Isn't it crazy? We can't say this during these times, but I was a little under the weather. Not with COVID. I get really bad sinuses. So I just have really bad. had sinuses. And so I had a little bit of a migraine, a little bit of sinus pressure. So I was

pretty much bedridden. Just watch movies. Okay. So let's go through these symptoms one more time. Wait, wait, let's go through these symptoms. So you had a headache? Yes. Sinus pressure. Sinus pressure. Okay. No cough. No cough. No fever. No fever. All right, we good. We're good. Rachel, I just been concerned because last time we talked you were talking about how much time you're spending on South Beach. And now you're saying that you've got some symptoms. And it's like if I was to put, I'm not Sherlock Holmes, but if I were to put the two things together,

it could be a little concerning is all I'm saying. For those of us who are new listeners joining, I had to take care of business on South Beach. I wasn't there for pleasure. I wasn't dancing on top of cars. I don't know if you saw those memes, but it was wild in South Beach this weekend. Because they're shutting it down for Fourth of July.

So people are trying to get the party in right now. Not I. I was in the bad. Right. So what you do this weekend? Wait, wait, what did you do this weekend? Oh, I boxed. I boxed.

I went boxing. I went to the boxing gym. No, I went to, I went to the boxing gym. You know what I'm going to the gym and a box? You got your creed on? Yeah, I did. I got my ass whooped on Saturday. It's true story.

Did the bag whoop your ass or were you going against a person? I had a sparring partner. Okay. I had a sparring partner. So I hadn't sparred in a very long time. Shout to Phil Polina and everybody at Polina boxing. We're in there. Things are as safe as they could be.

Only three people in the gym. You know, temperature checks. Everything wiped down. The whole nine. It was good to see. I got in there with a guy who, before the fight starts, the worst thing that can happen is I realize his age.

Because, you know, with brothers, you can never really tell. Very true. Like, where brothers, you can tell. Like, literally, as a black kid, man, you get to about 28 or 29, and at that point you could either be 29 or you could be 55 for a lot of brothers. Okay.

But this guy said I just turned 51. Wow. And he was smaller than me. So even though I hadn't sparred and my body is fat and the cardio is not where normally, I'm still running a lot, but my cardio is not boxing cardio.

I thought I was going to go in there and really get off is what I thought. He got you. Now, he didn't just get me. He was in that playing around. I mean, like, the reality is that he might as well have been Sugar A. Leonard in there. That's that old man strength. That's that old man strength.

That's an old man strength, like a gray beard, just putting them hands on me. But you know what? Here's the thing about combat fighting. After he was done schooling me, busing me all in the solar plexes and stuff like that, we pieced it up. After that, you know, I got some tips, got some pointers. I went to the gym today moving around. I'm feeling better, man.

I get my rematch this week. I get a rematch against them this week. Oh, we're rematching. Oh, we're going back. You think I'm just going to, you're going to be punching my shit and not try to go back and get them back to you? You said he was just playing around.

So it sounds like you didn't learn your lesson. I feel like he's going to step up his game. Remember, you get a weekend and so does he. Yeah, but at the same time. But you understand, though, is like he has been training. So my, catching him is going to be easier than it is for him to put more time ahead of me.

You know what I'm saying? Like, me closing the gap, It's going to happen sooner than him getting better than me. He's been training. That's the best I'm going to see from it. What time is this match going down? I think it's 11 on Thursday. So when we record the next box.

You'll go TMZ him. Bring the cameras. I want audio. I want to see it. I want to see it. What? I got the last stuff on video. I'll send it to you if you want to see it.

No, no, don't sit it to me. Send it to everybody. You think I'm a post? Why would I post that? You know, I can't post anything with already getting like crazy comments from people. You think I'm going to post? Because you say crazy things. I don't say crazy things.

The support is really not there. But look, I'm glad you're doing okay because we need you. We need your voice out here in these streets because President Trump. President Trump, he's the president. Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America. Crazy times. President Trump, I want everyone to sit in the moment of what I'm about to say. And I want you to consider the times that we live in when I say this.

The president of the United States of America retweeted a video where someone says white power. I will repeat very slowly for you, the president of the United States of America, the most powerful man in the free world, the leader. the leader of the country retweeted a video from down in Florida where some residents of a South Florida community were screaming white power that came from the highest office of the land. Big Rach, your thoughts. I mean, what do you even say after that? Van, you can't make this up.

I mean, I'm to the point right now. Like some things Trump does, we laugh at. we make fun of. But retweeting, you holding the highest office in our country, an office that is regarded as, you know, the top, something you aspire to, something that you, you, our president, our leader of our country is promoting white power. I'm to the point now where you can't talk to me about Trump. because if you're excusing him, if you're trying, like, excusing what he's doing,

if you're trying to defend him, then you are excusing and defending hate, racism, stupidity, and lying. I mean, I can't, I can't comprehend it. I know people who are Trump supporters. I know people who repost things on social media in regards to Trump. And at this point, I don't get it. because Trump is either a racist or a blithering idiot or both. It's one of those three options.

And this is somebody who is representing us as a nation. And that's what he stands for and that's what he represents. I mean, Trump's people are saying that he did not hear white power. So to be clear, if you haven't seen the video, the white power is chanted within the first eight seconds of the video. there's no way you didn't hear it. There's no way you didn't watch it. And even if you didn't hear it, the video has people calling Trump supporters racist.

Their protesters calling them racist. Why would you retweet that? Why would you put a stamp of approval on people who support you as racist? Why are you empowering white power, racism, hate, I don't understand it. I'm like, I'm done. I'm almost speechless.

It's hard for me. even talk about it because it's just so he's a demon man he's a real life demon and he is representing this country that we live in don't nobody talks to me about trump anymore nobody it's not a productive argument we can't have an educated conversation it's impossible if you support trump you are aligned with the same things that he stands for that's i see it so yeah i agree i agree totally of course, as is customary, when the president does something like this, his people came out, like you said, said that he didn't mean it. Now, so we're to, in order to normalize Donald Trump, we have to believe that it's interesting what Trump supporters want you to believe. They want you to believe that Trump is both in some way the sharpest, most accomplished American president ever, who is a shrewd dealmaker,

an attention to detail freak, someone whose mind is a steel trap, and at the same time, he is responsible for nothing that he ever says or does. So the president says that people should try to inject themselves with bleach or hit themselves with a tremendous light to cure the coronavirus, that he didn't really mean that. If the president retweets a video where people are shouting white power, well, he didn't really hear that. We do more cycle analyzation of any figure in America, we do that of Trump, more than we do any other figure in America. They're always trying to tell you what he actually meant when he was joking, but he was trying to say what he actually was trying to accomplish, what he was trying to do.

I think that there's not a more intentional president in the history of the office than Donald Trump. I think everything that he does is with an insane amount of intentionality. He knows exactly what effect he's trying to, um, to produce. And he knows exactly who he's trying to trigger and exactly who he's talking to. I obviously don't believe that President Trump didn't know that he was retreating something with white power. I think he wants the white power of people that he's always cozyed up to to know that he is

their president. I think that's the only takeaway. I think when you have a president while he was running who refused to disavile and condemn David Duke, that was pretty clear. that whatever David Duke and that contingent of Americans was offering the president that he was willing to take it. So to your point, it's no longer about Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with President Trump.

No matter what it is that you talk to me about the president, if you talk to me about unemployment, if you talk to me about what he's done for farmers, even the First Step Act, which was a good piece of legislation. that was passed under the Trump administration. Now, I will say this every time we get into a discussion about the first step act and police reform. I want you guys to know that a, that a stricter, more useful bill was presented to President Obama during his time, and the Republicans shot

that bill down. So what you got was sort of a watered down addressing the police reform, which the Democrats went along with as far as the First Step Act, but I'm not going to, because of my political differences with someone, spit on progress. Okay. This is what I'll say. I'll say that there is no longer any intellectual way to defend the president. Exactly. There's not.

If you are pledging allegiance to the cult of Donald Trump, if you are drinking the Kool-Aid of the president, then that's fine by you. And I'm talking directly to Dan Crenshaw. I'm talking directly to Tim Scott, who we would have, we are looking to have on this podcast, any of the Republican leaders that are in the House, any of the people that I've talked to before that give me reasons why they support the president. We're talking about Senator Tim Scott, who said that the president should take it down. He said it was indefensible. Indefensible. The president should take it down. I understand that.

and I'm seeking to understand the other side wholeheartedly. I am. But when you understand what white power means and what that's meant directly to black people's lives, not just in terms of the domestic terrorism of the skinheads and the KKK, but also in terms of what the term white power has inflicted upon us, what that means. To have the president co-sign that with a retweet,

it's not just indifisible. it's disqualifying. President Trump should resign. Yeah. And if you were following President Trump before all of this and you still consider yourself to be a Trump supporter, I can't in good faith build with you because I think that you'll go along with anything.

Well, we saw that this weekend. So, you know, I'm normally very more turned up about these things, but I'm very calm now because I've achieved clarity in my relationship with the American public and the way they view this presidency. It's very simple. If you in any way support Donald Trump, you are not someone that I have a difference of opinion about with. You are not someone that I disagree on policy about. If you support the president, you are in action, in conscious, and,

in policy, my enemy. 100%. That's it. But do you think it's in policy? Because here's my thing. We constantly say, and I've said it to, that Trump is doing this because he knows who he's talking to and he's playing into a specific audience. When he retweeted the video of the white power and like you said, what that means, the true

meaning of white power, it's not just two words. To me, he's not just. just being a political opportunist at this point. To me, at this point, he is showing who he is. His personality, what his character is, what he stands for. He is a racist. And he believes in promoting hate. And if you align yourself with him, that is exactly the ideals that you align yourself with as well. This isn't about voting on a one party issue. That's not what this is anymore. If you support him, you are also supporting all these other things. You can't make excuses.

We're three years in at this point. We can't have another four years of this. Yeah. It's, you know, and to be honest with you, I'm, look, I'm not upset with Americans. I'm not going to be emotional about it. I'm not upset with Americans who decide that they want, that it's in their best interest to support the president. By the way, this is not about party.

It's not about party. That's why I'm talking about it as a person. Yeah, this is not about party. What this is about is what you want, what you view this country as and what you want out of your leadership. I personally believe right now that before he would leave the office and facilitate a peaceful transfer of power, that Donald Trump, his cronies around him,

would rip directly through the middle of the fabric of America. They would blow the whole thing up. That he would take his ball and go home and when I say take his ball, I mean, he would take what semblance of unity or solidarity that Americans have with him. He would rip the country, would rip that out of the middle of the country for his own personal game. I mean, you know, Trump is cozy it up next to Putin. It was also reported this week that Russia was putting bounties on the heads of American military and that Donald Trump never ever called Vladimir Putin on this

or took him the task for it. I just don't know how many lies about the guy, but remember, he's the pro-military guy. He's a guy that's all about the troops. He's the guy, no, he's all about him. Well, that's how he, that's how he. All about the troops. Yeah, that's how he.

But avoided the draft, yes, yes. That's how he plays it, right? So, you know, look, at this point, it's not even a lie. me, you are choosing to go along with the facade of the president because in some way you feel empowered by the bigotry, by the incompetence, by the entire cult of personality that he represents. And if that's your choice, then that's who you are. I'll never work with. I'll never share a break bread with. I'll never in any way empower or share ideas in a building

way with anyone who has supported this president. And I think when you talk about the emotion, when you're saying, you know, like, you're okay and you're not going to get emotional about it, I think when you know somebody that you're close with that does support it, then it's hard to separate the two. And I think that that is what's hard for me to grapple with in light of what has happened with just over these last few days, with the tweeting of the white power, with the filing to take away affordable health care act, possibly taking health care away from 20 million plus Americans in the middle of a pandemic, retweeting that terrible video about that

couple in St. Louis that was standing on their lawns with guns pointed at protesters. This is what you stand for. And so it does make me, I do get emotional and it makes me down because I know people who I'm close to who support a person. who stands for this. And I don't know how to keep going in that type of relationship when this is what you align yourself with.

And I know I'm not speaking for myself. I know there are a lot of y'all out there who are listening right now who are probably grappling with the same thing that I am. Right. Can I be real with you? I don't know how you do either. And I was talking to another friend of mine,

very prominent guy, and he says he has friends who are Trump supporters. He has people who he deals with it works with her with Trump supporters. I can say right now that I don't really have anyone around me that really is, but that's kind of almost by accident, you know, coming from TMZ, obviously I did. But at this particular point, it's such a big fuck you to me that almost, Rach, like, it's unfair, but not only am I starting to look at Trump supporters in a way, I'm starting to

to look at people who fuck with Trump supporters in a way. Like, not you specifically. Yeah, it's not that close. Yeah. I don't want you think I'm living with somebody who's like that is not.

Hey, that's why I thought you were getting that. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's a deal breaker for me. He's a Colombian Trump supporter. No, don't do that to my husband. Show me the maga. I could never.

We have to be politically aligned. I'm too outspoken. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a hypothetical right now. Hypothetical. for, let's say you found out that your husband was like a, okay, so you're married, you're having, like he's got abs, right? Yeah.

You can see his abs. So I bet you like that, right? You like the abs. Yeah. Yeah, right? Because it's like abs are, well, I haven't seen my abs in a long time. But like, so abs are a very important thing. It's hard for women to just be like, well, break up with a guy who has abs.

Okay. So, no, I'm not going to let you stay such a stereotype. I, you know what's funny? My husband is the first guy I dated with abs. And he's the one you married. Yeah, everybody else. Everybody else, I know, I like, I was like chubby a man. Point made.

He's the first guy that you dated with abs. Wait a second. Let's say, let's stay here. He's the first guy. So what you just said was after you actually tried to like disprove what I said was basically the first guy that you met with some abs, you married him. Not the first guy I met. that's where you're adding it in.

The first guy you dated. Seriously. Seriously. Seriously. So the first time you had a shot at the app title, you married them, right? So I'm just saying. Keep going. Keep going with this hypothetical.

And please, please keep saying this is a hypothetical. It's a hypothetical. Let's say you've met the guy of your dreams, Colombian abmaster. And you know, you're looking through his texts. I don't know why y'all do that, but y'all do. you're looking through his text. That's the stereotype number two. Just keep going.

You're looking through his text and all of a sudden you see him text in one of his boys and it's like, yo man, hashtag maga, I love what this guy is doing in the White House. I cannot believe how well things are going. They're lying about the coronavirus on them. They're lying about this. They're lying about this. We are going to win in November and we're going to change this country forever. maga, maga, maga, maga.

You don't see anything with any other chicks, but you just see all this maga shit. And then it leads you to, like, go through his gym bag. And while he's not hiding, like, anything in his gym bag, it's nothing but maga hats. And you know what I mean? And all of that stuff like that is MAGA. It's him with, like, Sheriff Clark and Killianne Conway.

He's been going to secret MAGA meetings and all of that stuff. You're married to him. You find out he's MAGA. What happens? This is a very easy choice for me. Copper and I would be out. There would be no word spoken. No, no, no, no.

Like, I'm not kidding. These are discussions that I have prior to a serious relationship and now marriage. We have to be politically aligned. I'm too outspoken. I can't handle it. Everybody has their deal breakers. That's me. There would be no word spoken.

Because one, now you lied to me because I've already talked to you about this. You've been living a whole different life. Two, you're not the man that I married. I don't know you. We would be out. So what would be easy? What will be easy to forgive? Maga or if you actually saw some weird shit in the text messages, like Maga or infidelity?

Or like cheating? Yeah. What would be easier to forgive? Cheating or cheating? Cheating. I'm dead serious. You were forgive cheating before you forgive. You said, I didn't say 100%, but if I have a choice, the lesser to me.

To me. To me, I'm serious. That's how, that's how. deeply I feel about it. That's hate. It's bigotry. I just, I can't, it's misogyny. I can't handle that.

That is what, who you are to me when you put on a maga hat, a shirt. It's just, that's what you don't represent anything other than that. And then I also look at you as stupid. I do. I can't handle it. That's an easy choice for me. Easy choice. Okay.

I mean, look, I'm saying. Now, Brian, if you're listening, don't get any ideas. Oh, he's probably like, oh, dog. As long as it's going to be madden. We got a hall pass. We go out there and do our thing. Speaking of secret Trump support, the Daily Beast, not Secret Trump support. I'm interested to know what you think about this.

The Daily Beast talked about our friend. By the way, I just want to. Our. Our friend. Let's redo this segue. Our friend. Our friend of the culture. right, Van Jones.

Friend of the culture. You wouldn't say that Van Jones is a friend of the culture? You wouldn't say that? You're going to say that Van Jones. Which circle you're rolling in? Question. Do people think that you're

Van Jones at times? Do you have to defend yourself? Were you trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons? See what I'm saying? I don't like when niggas do shit. Nigga, you know that they do that. Like, you know, like, I don't like

when people do stuff like you just did. You know that they do that. You just call my husband a MAGA, supporter, okay? We went to a whole. I said, what if he was? What if he was? Okay.

Well, what if people confuse you? They do. And I've addressed this on Twitter and I've addressed this on Instagram. I'm not Van Jones. Stop. Okay. Stop with this van. I am not Van Jones.

I'm Van Lathen. I look nothing like Van Jones. I have completely different politics than Van Jones. I guess, I don't know. We're going to get into it. I'm not Van Lathen. Van Jones. And people come at you when they come at me like I'm Van Jones. They come at me very, bro, is this you posing in the picture with Eric Trump? And I'm like,

why don't you look at that fucking picture? That's obviously not me. Have you ever seen me wear glasses? Do I look like, I'm like, you work contacts that day. Whatever, man. Whatever. So anyway, the Daily Beast, and this is a, this kind of hits on exactly what we just talked about. In case you guys didn't know, the Daily Beast, a fantastic online publication. ran in a piece where it, I almost consider it to be an expose, where it is essentially the takeaway of the piece is that Van Jones, CNN contributor and political activists, had a very, very big part in crafting the executive order that President Trump enacted last week, a couple of weeks ago, involving policing. So Van Jones, according to the Daily Beast, along with Jericho. Kushner. They sat around and they basically came up with this thing. The president then signed it at the White House with all of the policing guys around him. A lot of people, when the executive

order was sort of enacted, they criticized it wrongly saying that it was not, it didn't go far enough, that it was lip service, that it was not going to be effective and effective deterrent. in police violence against minorities or the community or society at large. Now, the issue that a lot of people are having with Van Jones having had a part in crafting this is that Van Jones then went on CNN without telling Anderson Cooper or anyone else at CNN that he had had a part in this and praised it. So that makes it seem like Van Jones is essentially doing the bidding of the trumpet administration and that it calls into question his credibility as a political activist and to be

quite honest with you as an intellect on this because it seems very self-serving and unethical to not tell people that you had a hand in this. He said that it was a positive step and that the president was on the right track when he's the guy that really put it all together. And also in this article, which I would suggest that you guys read, it talks about, you know, Van's place inside of the Trump administration, how close he's gotten to Jared Kushner, while he felt a little alienated, because he also was an advisor to the Obama administration, why he felt a little alienated in the Obama administration, and what his motivations might be for his close relationships with Jared Kushner and President Trump.

the point of the article really seems to make Vans seem like a self-serving political mercenary that will do anything for his own advancement and that he is in some way trading his legitimacy and his advocacy to the community for a cozy relationship with the president. Now, you read this. Do you have thoughts on Van Jones?

Well, we spoke about Van Jones. And at that point, you said that you were saying, that I'm always calling somebody out. And I said, we've only had a few episodes. I've only called out like three people. Well, clearly I was right because Van Jones was one of them. We talked about his response to Trump's executive order. Van Jones was over here to the left and everybody else was over here to the right.

It was like when Van Jones was the first person to speak after President Trump finished signing the executive order and it was like which one of these is not like the other. Van Jones said that it was a step in the right direction and that today, the day the executive order was signed, showed that we are winning. Everybody else is looking around like, where? What in Trump's speech made you feel like that was a win today? Now it all makes sense. Now it should be noted that Van Jones denies having any say in this executive order. He says he was not behind it.

He had no involvement with it. He hasn't even been to Washington since the coronavirus, and he hasn't been on the phone or in any meetings in regards to the executive order or police reform. I will say it's hard to believe Van Jones. I don't know if you believe in Van, but now it all makes sense with his response to the way he said Trump was taking a step in the right direction, and nobody else did. Not any type of activist, not any political commentator, not Al Sharpton, not color of change an organization he helped start.

Shout to Rashall Robinson over the color of change, man, doing great work. Oh, yeah. I was on an interview with him the other day. Yeah, I'm sure you were. Big deal. You're getting around these days. Anyways, it also should be known. We're having a conversation about people who align themselves with Trump and his administration.

When somebody affiliated a family member of Trump says, quote, in a tough situation, van, and because of the audience I'm in, I will be clear to, to say Jones in parentheses has shown me that he's got true character. He's focused on the right things, end quote. That is what Jared Kushner said to the Daily Beast, the same people who wrote this expose on Van Jones. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to believe what this, what is in this article, the contents of the article, because it reflects how Van Jones responded to the executive order and the fact that he has aligned himself with the Trump administration, specifically with family members in Trump's family,

it's not looking good for Van. It's not looking good. He's not on our side. He's not on our side, Van. You know, I love that. So listen, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do. I'm going to stop short at calling Van Jones a liar.

I have my own thoughts, but I'm going to stop short at calling him a liar. I am. Okay. I love the, I'm going to stop short to call him a liar. If you were asking me my gut, my gut is I agree with you.

Of course. I think that the, The most likely scenario is that he did have something to do with this. And the reality is that we know that he was instrumental in the First Step Act, right? He has a relationship with him. They're looking to people that have an expertise in this to deal with it. They probably call the Tim Scots and they call the Van Joneses and then they work it out. I don't think that president-

No, I would not want to be on that list. I don't think that President Trump himself would know how to craft this. And to that degree, neither with Jared Kushner. a step away from any expertise or knowledge on what the community's relationship with the police would be and what the community is asking for from the police. So it makes sense that they will call him. This is what I'll ask you. Now, we talked about people a second ago, people that we know that are Trump supporters. Do you look at it any differently for people who are political activists? For example, Lee Merritt, a very prominent civil rights attorney from down.

Alice was on, you know Lee, was on hand at the White House when this executive order was signed. You know, the question would be, and we've seen other people, I guess, go up there and talk. Deontay Wilder, when President. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. President Trump, pardon Jack Johnson, Jack Johnson, who, by the way, I'm going to start doing this every episode, but I want you guys to look up one figure in history. Today, I'm going to give you one figure in history to look up, thought warriors.

Jack Johnson. Now, normally these guys are going to be not sports people, but the life of this extraordinary, amazing, beautiful black man is one that gives you sort of some insight into the facade of American excellence. You had someone, Jack Johnson, who was as excellent an athlete as anyone had been in his time, and you will see what America gave Jack Johnson for being so black and so excellent. Anyway, he was pardoned by President Trump. Deonti Wilde went to the White House. What I'm asking you in a very bloated way is do you make any distinction to politicians, do you give any special, do you make any distinction around politicians and political activists who work with the president to an end? If Van Jones comes to you and Van Jones says, yes, I work with the Trump's, but it's because I care so much about police reform. Yes, I work with the Trump's, but it's because I care so much about criminal justice reform.

And these are the ways to get done what I need to get done. So I'm going to work with whoever is in the White House to get that done. What does that sort of stand with you, that reasoning? I think conversations have to be had with an administration, even if you don't agree with what they stand for, because you have to fight for change, for justice. However, it doesn't mean you sell yourself and compromise your morals, your beliefs, and what you stand for to align yourselves with them.

Lee Merritt, you gave an example of, right? Lee Merritt was there when the executive order was going to be signed, but did you see him out there in the audience? Did you see him standing next to President Trump when he signed it? No, because he had a conversation with those families who have lost family members at the hands of the police. They did not like the way that it ended. They did not like what was said, and they walked out. They set their peace.

They did not compromise. They stood strong and they bounced. and the president had to hear what they said. I have another friend who's an attorney as well, Justin Moore. He's notorious in the memes when Kanye went to the president. He's sitting there like this. And he went to talk about criminal justice reform. But he didn't hang around for that.

He said what he needed to say. He got his message across and he bounced. Van is not that person. He's not Justin Moore and he is not Lee Merritt. Jared Kushner, if he was those people, Jared Kushner would not be quoting about his true character and that he's on the right side of things. Right.

When he says he's on right side of things, he means he's on our side of things. That's Van Jones he's talking about. We've lost him. Yeah. Uh, who. It's like that. I, look, I'm with it. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm with it.

I'm with it. You think, we, you say we have lost Van Jones. Van Jones is now. Color of change started in, what, 2005? It's 2020. 15 years has passed. It's not, it's not the same. I'm not looking to say.

No, I tell you. I feel you. I feel you. What I'll say is, you know, you'd never see me in the White House. Like, I used to have, I remember I was having a conversation with one of my homeboys, and I was like, listen, if reparations were coming through and the president was going to give $10 trillion to Black America, I wouldn't go there to talk about it with the president. I wouldn't.

The moment that he was signing it. I will go watch him sign the check and then be the first one to cash it, right? Like, right. You know what I mean? I will go there to watch. And by the way, I'm not going to, we're going to eventually talk about reparations on this very podcast and want people to know because there's a lot of people listening. They think, oh, okay, when Van talks about reparations, he's talking about paying black

people for doing nothing. I'm talking about actual money that is owed to the wealth building that African Americans did for America. You have to understand the economic business. base of the country came from a lot of free labor that then turned around. And when America was able to expand a lot of the land that was the result of that free labor through the Homestead Act and through a million other things was given to a lot of white people that had just gotten here.

None of it was given to us. So when you're saying that no one ever gave anything to anyone in America, that is simply not true. It's just that they never gave black people anything. So, you know, I would say that. I will go there for the signing of that because my distrust for the president is so high that I don't believe that he would do anything

that is in our specific interests. I think he just wants to weaponize blackness to use against other black people to get more black people on his side. Now, I am saying there is nothing that can get me to the White House. I know who the guy is. You'd go for what?

What would you? What could get you to the White House? No, if I, like a situation with what Lee Merritt just did, I would go to speak to be heard, to give my opinion, but then I would bounce. I wouldn't stay for a photo op. I wouldn't stay, you know, for a signing of something unless it was something that was signing in our favor that truly, you know, embodied what it was that we were fighting for, which I wouldn't happen with this president. But I would, I would definitely go. I wouldn't turn. I honestly would feel like a hypocrite.

how could I say that I'm fighting for reform and change in justice and get the opportunity to speak on it and then turn it down because I don't like the president or what he stands for or his administration or because I feel like nothing would be done. I just think it's hypocritical. If you say that you're demanding these things

and you get the opportunity to have a platform and speak on it, why would you not? Well, because I think personally, that a platform is only as good as who's listening. So if you want to talk about criminal justice reform, right? If you want to talk about all of those things and work to all of those deals, you can work on those things ever. I don't think, like, for me, what obviously is issue-based,

but my distrust for the administration is such that I don't have any good faith belief that they are willing to work with me on anything that significantly benefits the black American experience in America. I get that. So because of that, I would go going to the, like, you know, Jim Brown went up to the White House, right? Steve Harvey and all of these guys, when he was president of like, they went to Trump Tower. They talked about all of these things.

What I want to know is what has come of any of those conversations? Now, Yey talked, Ye and Kim Cardassadavich. were actually able to get Alice Johnson out of jail. Now, you guys know, Alice Johnson was a lady down there in Tennessee that had gotten hit on a conspiracy charge and had been in jail for a long time, and they were actually able to secure her release.

My question is, has the president delivered in any way on the substance of any of these conversations? And to me, he hasn't really. Not even with the first step back. And to be honest with you, we could talk about what he, he's done in terms of criminal justice reform,

but then we could also talk about the multitude of putrid federal judges that he's appointed while he's been president. So very few, almost zero of the federal judges that he's appointed since he's been president have impressive ratings or the endorsements of people like the ACLU and the NACP. These are guys that are mostly bad on civil rights. rights. So he's in your pocket on one hand saying, look what I do for you. On the other hand, he's wrecking the federal court system for a long time because these are

lifetime appointments. So I don't have any faith in that. So because of that, I would feel like going to the White House legitimizes him as president, and I don't think that he is a legitimate holder of that office. See, I guess I don't look at it as legitimizing him. And I don't like to give people an excuse. So it's like, oh, well, you had the opportunity to speaking, you didn't. You know? Oh, well, he wouldn't have listened to me. Well, that might be the case, but at least I still went out there and did it.

I get it. I hear both sides of it, but whatever. Guess what? Neither one of us are going to be invited to the White House to go speak. That never let me up there. That never let me up there. Oh, I got a question. Like, would you stay, you say you do your thing and you were bounce at the White House, right?

Would you stay a little bit longer if they had red velvet cake? Let's say if you were just about to. God damn it. You know what? Like, you know what I'm picky. It's like, you know what I'm saying? Like, what's with you, dog?

You're a Cosby kid? Red. Like, what's, what's your thing? Like, what's, what's with you? Like, what's... Oh, my God. Like, you... So you don't fuck with that.

Velvet cake? What's your deal? What? How are you going to judge me so harshly harshly over some red velvet cake? I got to, I'm not going to lie, man. Like, I kind of... I kind of put you in Van Jones territory now that we talk about this.

Oh, I'm sorry. Is red velvet a part of the culture? It's not like you ask me if I like sweet potato pie or something like that. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. You're saying right now that red velvet cake isn't a part of the culture? I don't know people who just eat red velvet cake. You're wilding.

Is it a Louisiana thing? I don't know. Stop, stop trying to come in. Nobody in my family has ever made red velvet. Pound cake, pecan, sweet potato. that's it. You like pumpkin pie too, don't you? No, I don't.

Oh, man. Every episode. You walling. You walling right now. If you don't think red velvet cake is part of the culture. I don't like red velvet cake. No, I don't. We definitely have to do a poll on this one.

I think it depends. I think it depends where you're from. I think it depends where you're from. I don't know anybody who eats any of my black food, or they just don't talk about it, who eat red velvet cake like that? You think you know what it is? They eat their red velvet.

they eat their red velvet cake in secret because they're trying to hide that because they know you're a judge. Like they don't want to be too black-or-ized. I'm legit about to text my friends right now. You're like, your friends, they get together and they watch episodes of Martin

and they eat red velvet cake. Okay, stop. While you're watching friends. I watch Martin. While you watch Martin and friends. I watch Martin and friends. No, no, you can't. You got to choose one.

Don't get mad because I'm well-rounded. You're upsetting me. I know both. You're upsetting me. Nobody can watch Friends and Martin. Like if Martin would have popped up on friends, he would have been arrested immediately. All right.

So like, no, you can't. I watch both. Now, do I enjoy one more than the other? Sure. You like friends better.

No, I like Martin better. Here we go again. All right. Okay. Well, you know, now look,

those shows are both from the past. We now have to talk about the future of America. And it looks like the future of America is black and brown. White people that are listening to this now because we know we have a lot of thought warriors out there. Tell them to take a seat. Tell them to take a seat.

Okay, yeah. Listen, white people that are listening to this, I know that some of y'all are running, you're petting your dogs, you're doing so. I need you to stop for a second because I'm about to give you some really, really, really hard to hear information.

Okay. According to the census, we are in the era. of hashtag white decline. No, no. White decline. The census shows non-white majority amongst the youngest. What this essentially means is, according to William Frey,

a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, we are browning from the. bottom up in our age structure. For the first time, browning. Like, they, like, they're getting ready. Like, they're getting ready to, like, to bake something. To bake us. They're about to fry us. Like, we're just going, we're just browning.

America's browning. From the bottom up. Yeah. We're going to barbecue it pretty soon. No, for the first time, non-whites and Hispanics were a majority of people under the age of 16 in 2019. So, the census has showed that amongst the youth, the youths, like they say in my cousin Vinny, the youths, amongst the youths,

it's brown. America's becoming a brown town. Is this cause for celebration, Rachel? Of course. Listen, it's been rumored for a while that pretty soon the minority is about to be the majority. And according to this article, we're already here. It's happening. You better hold on to your wife.

White power videos because you can't be playing them anymore. It's time for Brown at this point. I'm for it. Why not be excited about it? It's a beautiful thing. Brown is beautiful. Black is beautiful. Yeah.

I mean, look, here's the reality. We joke about this. But what we have to understand is a lot of the angst that we're seen in America, the, the explosion, the culture explosion, the panic. The panic of the Karens. By the way, white women, please relax. Y'all got to calm down. Who knew that white women were this crazy?

Like, white women, you knew that they were this crazy? I never had a white woman just, like, go off on me like this before. I haven't either, but I have white friends. God damn, man. White women, like, you know. Chill out. But yeah, I think a lot of the angst that you're seeing is because this fact is in the back of a lot of people's minds.

They see the country moving in a way that's more inclusive, not just socially, but actually in population. You're seeing black people and brown people in spots that you've never seen them before. Now, here's the deal. While it is understandable to me that if you always had it your way, thinking that in the future, you might not have it. your way one day is concerning, this strikes at the heart of an American ideal.

America, one of America's strengths has always been touted as the fact that we're such a melting pot, right? That the pot, you put it all in the pot and it melts, right? Well, if you put it in a pot and it melts, if it melts enough, eventually the color is going to change of whatever's in the pot. it's like eventually that's going to happen. And the reality is that when you guys see all of this stuff that's going on, like for example, Rachel and her husband,

when they start popping babies out, they're going to look like little Spanish drakes. They're going to be brown. Little brown babies. They're going to be brown. Little brown babies. You know what I mean? And the reality is that like, you know,

you add to white and then the brown comes out. So the more of the situation, the one drop, I'm saying, this was naturally going to happen. And I think it's going to be interesting in the next 10 to 15 years, whether or not America can withstand this change. I think that you're going to see people sort of try to protect what they feel like is inherently there. Like theirs. I mean, they like, to me, one of the biggest problems with our. country is that when you say American, most people picture somebody white right away. So what happens when that's no longer the truth? Well, they have, you've seen the picture or maybe you haven't,

of what the average person is going to look like. It's like 2050, 2060. And they look biracial. They look ambiguous. They're brown skin. They have darker hair, dark eyes, curly hair. I think, I think that's, that is the true definition of a melting pot. But it's interesting that you say melting pot because I feel like when that term came about and they were referring to melting pot, it was more of melting pot, the melting pot of ethnicities, people still with white skin. It was, oh, it's a melting pot because there's Italian and Greek and Irish and Jewish. Do you know what I mean? They weren't referring to the brown people when they were talking about a melting pot. I don't know. I think that, I think the melting pot thing is both cultural and ethnic.

I think that it was used in a way to frame America as something more altruistic than what it actually was. And I think because they were capturing people who still look white but have a different background, have a different ethnicity. That's where the melting pot thing comes from. It was never in the plan for it to turn brown. Well, look, I don't think it was in the plan, but I don't, I think for me, the reality is that, you know, America was very good at its PR job. It's sold to a lot of people that this was a country where it was a meritocracy. You could come and get ahead and do all those things.

And there have been a lot of stories, if we're being honest, while we're hypercritical of the country and some of its institutions and systems, there's a lot of stories, a lot of breakthroughs, you know, that black and brown people have made. We have contributed to the excellence of America every step of the way. I could get super deep with you guys and talk about. all the inventions that slaves came up with that were then stolen by their masters because they really couldn't have patents and stuff like that. Well, something that Jefferson Davis tried to do. Anyway, when they did the comparison, anyway, what I'm saying is that

when the population kind of gets to that point, it'll be interesting to see whether or not the fabric of this society can deal with that. Because if there is to be... Well, they have a choice? Well, you guys, there is a choice. The choice is that there's no more America. But people have to understand it's very important that people realize that there hasn't been a great nation or a great empire that hasn't fallen. They all have.

You know, if we were doing this podcast 30 years ago, more like 35, the Soviet Union was a great, big, gigantic. world power. That thing broke apart. You know, Rome, all of these things, the Ottoman Empire, whatever it is, if you go back and look throughout history, the British Empire. Empires fall, they crumble, they change. And a lot of

times there's always a point in its history you can point to when people decide it whether or not they were going to continue to live as they were, as they are, or whether or not they couldn't live with how things were evolving or going in their country. And there's a chance

that we have reached a point of social unrest and animus between people in America that we can't come back from it. That's definitely, definitely, definitely, definitely a possibility but the country's going to have to decide that for themselves. Don't you kind of feel like we're in that now? I don't know. I think we're in a moment where the decision is more

in your face than ever. I think that because in the past, there have been so many things to distract Americans, right, right? I'm growing up and I'm a kid, right? Right. And when I'm growing up, they give me Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan and Prince and Eddie Murphy. They give me all these people and they say, listen, you can go be that. All you got to do is just work extremely hard and be extremely talented. You can go be those guys.

That distracts you for a long time, you know? You stop looking at the systems around you. And the capitalist dream of the country becomes what you're aspiring to, right? So you don't take the time to look around and be like, yo, it's all fucked up around that. And it's all fucked up for all of us. Why? Yeah. And then by the time you start asking that question, there's so much resentment built up that now you're almost re-learning what it means to be a citizen.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so I think when you take a step back, the moment that we were just in, it's like everybody is like looking at whether or not the country really works. Like they're all looking at whether or not the country really works, whether or not it really works for people. And for the first time, there's a decision for us to make as a nation sitting in this moment all together.

And I haven't seen that. Right. Not even after 9-11. I haven't seen that in my lifetime. Yeah. I don't know. I just thought about something when you said that because of the moment that we're in and the undivided attention that we have.

And we see a Trump administration and his flonkey's pushing to reopen the economy and get things back to normal. I'm thinking part of that might be because everybody's sitting at home, watching what's going on, getting involved in the movement, getting unlearning things, getting educated. Their eyes are open to something that they've never seen before who don't just look like us. You know, like we've known it.

But now other people are recognizing it. And it's like, you know what? We got to distract them. We got to get them out of the house. We got to get them back to work. Never even saw it like that. Now I'm thinking that's part of the push. Sure.

Sure. Just let you guys know. The black population over the past decade grew about 12%. The white population increased by 1,000. 4.3, we come in for that ass. Since when? Since 2010. The Hispanic population grew by 20%

with almost three quarters of that growth coming from natural increase that comes when more people are born than die. Do you know what that means? Shout out to all my Hispanic brothers and sisters. Keep fucking.

Y'all are out here getting it in. Living LaVita Loca. So you really should thank me. because I am, I'm married a Latino man. Right. Hispanic man. I mean, you got, you, you, you, you hit both sides right here.

You hit, like, you hit both, I mean, you hit both sides right here. You know what I'm saying? It's about time I get some credit on this podcast. You don't take all my cards away. I'm not taking away. I'm just saying the Vervillevail cake thing is crazy. That's like a weird thing. Like, I don't know.

That's a weird thing you don't fuck with like, what did y'all do? What is your mother making? I just told you pound cake, pecan, sweet potato. Pecanas not a cake. It's a pie, but I feel... Fine. Two pies and a cake. My mom makes the best pound cake.

Does she? Home, it's so good. So good. If I ever get the chance... Just put a little icing? A little icing on it? No icing. No icing. It's that good.

No icing is needed. You don't want to make a... Jamal make a 7-Up cake at all? No, but I like 7-Up cake too. Oh, my God. It's so good. So good. Oh, so crazy.

It's moist. And it tastes like... It's like... It's like... We shouldn't be eating this shit. Black people, who came up with a seven-up cake? I don't care. Like, who came up?

Who said, who was like, I tell you how, my people are glorious. Somebody was drinking a seven-up one time, right? They was drinking it. And they was like, oh, shit, lemon lime. This shit is fucking off the chain. Oh, my God. You know what we all to do? A, Bertha.

No what we all to do? Bertha. On God. On G-O-D. I'm being serious. On grandma. For real, for real. We need to take this taste

and put some fucking baked good goodness with it. Make an icing, slather that over a pound cake. Right away, cholesterol shoot up 10 points, but don't matter. We're going to have a... We're going to be happy. We're going to be happy. I forgot about 7-Upcake. I haven't had it in such a long time.

Hey, fuck it. I'm already fat. We're doing 7-Up cake this weekend. Fuck it. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies.

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Visit weathertech.com today. Fuck it. So you all celebrating 4th of July. Fourth of July 7 uptake. Now, we're going to touch on a little sports here. So I got to get into the sports. I know that, you know, maybe some of our demo doesn't like the sports talk as much. They don't like when we talk sports.

They don't like it at all. We got to talk sports. But this is an interesting sports story. Cam Newton signed with the Patriots. One deal, $7.5 million. I'll tell you why this is interesting people. Cam Newton is a black quarterback. You guys don't know, you know, the black males have had issues quarterbacking in the NFL traditionally.

Now, recently, things have changed because the game is so wide open and our athletic skill sets are now being valued. Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Cam Newton, all kinds of guys. Russell Wilson, he of the good hair doing that thing. He is going to play in Boston, which is traditionally not a great place, black guys. I know an NFL player. who told me that the most racist fan base, this is what he told me, Patriots fans. Don't get mad.

This guy in the NFL, he said he never got called the N-word as much as he did when he was playing at Foxborough. That's what he said. Was he a guess? Not that it matters. I'm just curious. No, no, that's exactly what you just said. It's okay.

No, no, no, you said like. No, because I'm wondering if he experienced. this every game like all the time or when he went there to play because that's even worse oh that's that's just what i'm i'm just yeah he went he would he played uh for a different team and he would they would go play the patron and he said it was the worst most racist place for them so it's not like they haven't had a black quarterback before i think they had they had jacobo burset for a little while not too long ago jacobo rissette who now plays i think for the cults even though phil rivers is playing the cults going to be their starting quarterback starter quarterback jacobo bcid started for a little bit

a while. He started for a little while, though, because of injury. But this is going to be their starting quarterback. And also, it's different because Cam Newton is an ex-NFL MVP. You saw Cam. Cam, Cam is in New England. What was your first thought? I wasn't surprised maybe at the announcement, because we found out late at night, that he was going, and I honestly kind of forgot about it. We've been talking so much baseball and basketball, not on this show,

but just in sports in general, that I forgot that this was still happening, that not that Cam was out there, but just that this, because people thought this was going to happen at the beginning of June. Okay, so he goes, the immediate thought I had was, because you said his contract is 7.5,

it's incentivized to possibly get 7.5. The actual contract, I think, is league minimum. Yes, very small. League minimum, less than the fine that they were just issued, that 1.1 million. So my thought was, did nobody want Cam?

or was Cam really wanting to play under the Bill Belichick regime and just was like, this is where I want to be and I'll take whatever. That was my first thought. So apparently Adam Schaefter reported that the only teams that were interested in Cam Newton were the Browns who had a conversation with him and the Patriots who actually ended up offering him a deal. But the anticipation is high that he will be the old Cam Newton, especially coming to a Patriots team with, if not the best coach, one of the greatest coaches in the league ever.

He's got to be the best coach now. And a great offensive line, which Cam Newton has never really had when he played for the Carolina Panthers. I know there's a lot of uncertainty, but this also goes towards black quarterbacks, right? You have to be the best, the top of your game, worked twice as hard for half as much. Another quarterback could have faced the same injury, and he probably would have been picked up sooner than Cam Newton. This is the tale of black quarterbacks in the NFL.

Yeah. I mean, look, we're not going to spend too much time on it, but I want to say that I'm excited about one thing. Cam is going to a winter climate. And you guys need to get Peter on standby. Because the amount of furs, the amount of chinchillas, all the men hide the minks, hot the furs, hot the rabbits,

hot, whatever. If you guys never saw and I've never seen the way Cam dresses, he looks like a, I don't know, man, he looks like a, you can't describe it.

Like a 250 pound Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes he wears shorts like him. The things that Cam is capable of wardrobe wise, consistently, consistently amaze me. And just to see him in the winter, I just want to see what he's going to pull out. Yeah, I'm amazed.

I'm amazed. I'm not amazing in a good way. He looks like a, Batman villain. But to me, I want to see what he's going to wear. I don't think it's going to work and do anything. I don't. But I want to see what's going to wear. Also, we should say, while we're supporting co-workers, Tyler Ricky Tynes here, Ringer staff has a Cam Newton podcast. They're going to be doing it here at the Ringer. Oh, yeah, I heard that. Yeah, it's going to be out a little bit later on. Now, they got even more stuff to talk about. Now, stay with sports. John Morant, probably the rookie of

the year, got in some trouble. John Moran had quote tweeted a jersey, and on the back of the jersey, it said fuck 12. So kind of like the same thing, like, kind of that President Trump did. He didn't, it wasn't his original tweet. He didn't know. Right, right. He didn't know. But he retweeted it, got himself in some trouble.

They let an NBA players talk about, like, you know, sort of customize some of their jerseys. And I guess he was joking around or maybe he put up a jersey, replaced a jersey, and it said, fuck 12 on it. Fuck 12, you guys don't know what that means. 12 is the police. Fuck 12 means fuck the cops. John Moran then had to come back out and say that he knows that he shouldn't have put that up, that it shouldn't be fucked 12. And the cops have protected him both when he was at college and when he was in college.

And since he's been playing an NBA, he is a fantastic, sensational player, is most likely the rookie of the year. he basically said he knows not all cops are bad and that when he says fuck 12 or anything like that he means he's talking about the bad cops I don't like that John Moran had to apologize I know you were going to say that I think he took it too far

there's a way that it could I shouldn't have done that period really you think or maybe like I should have used different language you know what I mean like I get the I get he has to say something but the whole like he didn't have to go deep with it. I get it. Do you, you think,

so we can't say fuck 12 right now. If there's any time that we should be able to say fuck the police, it's right now. Like I don't like, I don't like to see what I really,

first of all, shout out to John Morant. He's a young guy. He did what he had to do. But what I don't like to see right now is this energy in any way being muzzled. We don't have to talk nice to them.

We've been saying, And people have been saying that, though. Like, that's what I'm saying? So why don't switch up? Like, if you say, if I say fuck 12, don't get offended, ask me why I feel that way. Here's my thing. If you say it, put something more behind it, right? Like what?

Okay, because when I went to a protest, there was a guy who spoke and there was a woman who spoke. The woman who spoke, we didn't need to hear from the man. I should put it like that. Wow. And no. And the reason being is because you have all these people gathered who are marching for the same thing. They got their posters. They got their megaphones.

And if all you're saying is fuck 12 with no meaning behind it, not addressing the crowd and saying why you're saying fuck 12, why we're here, what we're trying to accomplish and where we're trying to go, then to me, I don't want to just see you say that statement. Like say something else behind it. If he had put up the jersey and then the full caption as to why he was saying it and why he believes you should say fuck 12, I'm for it. I just don't believe in just shouting it out and there's no purpose behind it. Like you're just saying it because it's popular to say right now. That's not what I'm saying John Moran is saying. That's what I witnessed in some people in the protests.

See, I don't think, I think I'm weird about it. I see what you're saying, but I'm weird about it. because when I say fuck 12, I'm always, when I say or fuck 12 or fuck the police or whatever, I'm almost looking for someone to give me an explanation as to why I shouldn't feel that way. Like when I say that, I don't feel like I need to qualify that at this point. I need you guys to tell me what the other side of it is and like why I shouldn't look at it that way. Because to me, going off what I've seen in the last really 40 years of life that I've been on this earth, I can't see too many reasons not to say that

and especially now. So it's like, if I say fuck the police, I'm not going to qualify that for you. You should really have something to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way. Okay, this is why I think it's a difference. If you say that, I don't think anybody's surprised. And the reason is, is because of what your brand is,

what you stand for, what you represent, what people know you for. Right. They don't know John Morant like that. John Morant has who knows, I don't know who follows him, I don't know who his audience is, but he is not known for having a platform that's all about social justice. That doesn't mean that he can't speak on it. But it's like, let's provide some background and some explanation.

So if you're going to have a jersey that says fuck 12, great, why? Like, tell your audience why you're, when we've never heard you speak in this way and where it's coming from, don't make it trendy. Tell us why you feel that way. Tell us, and you have a reason to, I understand what the phrase behind it. I'm not disagreeing. And I'm just saying, tell people why you think this way. They don't know you like that. They know you like that, Van.

Yeah, but look, I mean, for real, I feel the young brothers get out. Yeah, Van Lake it. I feel like I'm forever going to have to say your name, full name. Yeah, the young brothers are frustrated. The young people, the young sisters are frustrated. The young people are frustrated. And when you get frustrated with someone, it's, almost like, you know, after a while, like your computer keeps booting up and then like

stop it. It keeps restarting. You try it. You try it. You try it. You're trying to get the computer to work with you. You need it. You want it to be functional.

After a while, you know what you say? Man, fuck this thing. After a while, you're like, fuck this computer, man. You don't get a whole post. You don't post it. You say it to whoever will listen. You take it to the best buy Geeks squad and be like, yo, man, fuck this thing. We need to fix this thing.

We need to fix it. And then the Geese Squad tells you how to fix the computer. What we need is people to not get offended when we say fuck 12 and tell us how we go fix 12. I'm just saying, don't get mad, get active. Do you believe in the role? Because I am not saying he should not feel that way. What I'm saying is, is use your platform to also talk about it when you've never spoken in that way before. Job Moran is a role model to an audience.

who is... God damn it. You like the role model thing, you really fuck with the role model thing. No, but listen to what I'm saying about it. Like, we're all role models in different regards, right? Right. Just like when people get on to me and they're like,

oh, you were... Unless my mom says it. Oh, you were cursing you're a role model. Then, like, that... That doesn't apply to me. What I'm saying with John Moran is, you're known for playing basketball. You're an amazing basketball player,

probably rookie of the year. You have a certain image. My thing is, is nobody's telling you not to feel that way, but I just think that there's a way to do it and still say what you want to say. Because I don't think he should have apologized in the way he did, I agree. I think he could have been like,

no, that's what I said, but let me tell you why I said it. I feel you. Then he can say it, say it, say it all he wants. I just particularly want the kids to keep the edges of their teeth sharp. I get it. I do.

But I want kids to know why they're saying fuck 12. Why are you saying it? You need to know. I don't even think it's fair for us to say that he doesn't know why. I think it's fair for you to say that he didn't explain why. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

But I don't know if, I don't, it's, it's, we can agree to disagree. I don't think black America owes America explanation as to why we're fed up with the police. I'm not talking America. See, I get to. You're just saying, you're saying John Moran. No, I'm not saying he owes it. It's more of like, you feel this way and rightfully so. and you fill it with a passion.

So almost use your platform to empower other people to understand your passion. Forget being judged. That's not what it is. It's just like take that and inspire people to gather behind you and the reason why they should. That's all I'm saying.

Right. I get it. So this past week was not without tragedy. Well, this past couple of weeks was not without tragedy. There's been another case to sort of explode into the minds and hearts of everyone who is concerned with the value of Black Life in American. That's the story of Elijah McLean, Elijah McLean, who was killed last year. He was killed last year.

And the audio from the body cam of the police officers who killed Elijah McLean is out there on the internet. You can listen to it. and it is heartbreaking. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. I haven't heard the audio, but I've read the transcripts. It's very difficult for me for my self-care and my mental health to continuously listen to black people die every couple of days.

I can't exist in the world and then do it. So I'm sorry for not having heard that and being on the podcast with it, but I mentally cannot do it. This particular case is affecting people. in a different way because of his last words and because of the innocence. People posted other videos of this young man. One video where he looks like people are surprising him and showing him love and just a look on his face. This is very hard to know how his life ended.

Your thoughts on this, your thoughts on whether or not it's actually healthy, are you concerned? I'll ask you, are you concerned with our mental health from consistently being inundated with consuming people's last breaths? Especially when they know that they're being killed by the state. Absolutely. I mean,

I read what's happened to Elijah McLean. I can't bring myself to listen to it. I couldn't bring myself to watch the full video of George Floyd. Like, I know what I can't watch it again. And I think that what, but I feel like it is necessary as hard as it is for us as black people, because we've known this has been happening.

It is necessary for the people who are just now realizing what's happening. You need to be shocked and uncomfortable and angry at what is happening. I mean, when I saw the Elijah McLean story and I thought, oh my gosh, it just happened again. And then I, and then not the story, excuse me, Elijah McLean murder. When I saw that he was trending and I looked it up and I read about it and everybody's posting it and they're getting people to sign the petition, I thought, when you're posting his name and you're posting his picture and you're writing about what happened and about his murder,

are you realizing the bigger problem in this? This happened in the fall of 2019. We are fighting for justice for Elijah McLean that is long overdue. Do you get our anger and our frustration right now? Elijah McLean is one of many. You will not stop hearing about old cases because this has been happening to us. That is what I want people to realize. Don't just post a picture.

Realize that this has been happening. And this is that this happened almost a year ago. His family has been. suffering and fighting. Thank goodness his family has not stopped the fight, and it has been brought to a national attention. Second issue, these cops who did this, three of them, again, three, well, four, I guess, in Georgia Floyd,

but three cops. So we should say what they did. Go ahead, so August 24th, 2019. This is in Aurora, Colorado. There was a report. Someone called number one saying that, I guess it was a lot, that was wearing a ski mask and was flailing his arms. Now it looks as if people around there looked like Elijah was just dancing,

most likely just dancing. The same caller that called said they didn't believe that he was armed. He wasn't armed and didn't believe that he was in any danger. The cops come out. The cops say that he resisted and attempted to reach for an officer's gun. Meanwhile, a attorney from a claim's family says that an officer, officers that were involved slammed him into a wall immediately after apprehending him. This is where things get credibly, incredibly tough.

Three officers, Nathan Wardyert, Jason Rosenblatt, and Randy Rodema. They held him on the ground for 15 minutes. While he was detained, he was clearly in distress because he vomited. He apologized for vomiting, saying, eerily, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to do that. I cannot breathe correct. Wardyard then applied a chokehold to McLean's neck who was injected with ketamine. We vomited several times, suffered two cardiac arrests while being taken to the hospital.

It was pronounced brain dead days later. They killed him. And the reality of it is, once again, you have someone who died for absolutely nothing. Baj McLean did not have a gun. Baj McLean was not a threat. And whereas they could have affected this entire situation. de-escalated it, found out what was going on. They choose to be judged jury and executioner, and they executed this brother.

So, yeah, the attorney representing his family has accused of officers of purposely taking off their body cameras to support the false allegation that he was reaching for a gun. The claim that he reached for somebody's gun has never been supported by any, any of the investigations into this at all. So, yeah, it's a situation to where at this point, the details of this have become public to everyone. I mean, the video that I just saw there that didn't watch was from seven months ago. So this information has been out there, but the increased scrutiny of the way police are treating black people has led to people demanding justice for him. And now, I'll say this. The last thing I'll say is that also there is video of a violin vigil that was held there in Aurora, Colorado, or Elijah McLean, a very peaceful and beautiful violin vigil. And you see the police officer like Gestapo stormtroopers roll in and break it up.

People just expressing their love and expressing their love in a musical and peaceful way. And we can't even do this. Sometimes, Rachel, it seems like we're too far going. Yeah. No, I mean, it's, I have to not watch. I can't listen to the audio. I've listened to the transcript. I have to mentally take my mind away from some things.

Not that I'm ignoring the issue, not that I don't, I'm not informed as to what's going on and what should be done. It's just you have to do things for your own mental health. I can't, I can't listen to him beg for forgiveness from the cops that were murder. I can't listen to him, explain himself. I can't listen to him. I can't do it. And what I need people to understand is that in addition to this murder that happened again to a black man, a young black man at the hands of the police, you have to also understand that these police went back on the street. It was found that nothing that they did not commit a crime and they're

back on the streets to serve, and I'm using air quotations and protect us. These are murderers. I mean, just ask yourself this question. Is this the type of officers that you want protecting you? Would you feel safe if they stopped you or pulled you over? This is what you need to under. This is what people are fighting for, not just for justice, because there's nothing that we can do to bring this young black man's life back. His family has not stopped the fight for justice for him. Now it is our job to fight for justice for him, not just with the cops that killed him, but also for reform within that police department and police departments across the nation. This is a problem. Elijah McLean, unfortunately, sadly, is not going to be the last name

that we hear about these type of tragedies with. And that's what I need people to understand. Don't let this be another name. It's going to happen again. You're going to hear about an old case. It's just, it's disheartening. So, look, I want to also let people know that, uh, you can be involved without overindulging in things that are going to upset anger and trigger you. I have to be a little bit angry. I draw from that. I draw from my anger. I draw from my emotional response or reaction to these things. But also, it's up to everybody out there to find the balance in their life of what it is that you consume, act on, and put in your mind. Sometimes you don't watch things. You just

read about them. Sometimes you stay informed. Sometimes you give yourself a day, two days, three days, away from the news. I promise you, while you take a break, there are going to be people working. It's not up to any one individual to take all of this in and fix it all. We're going to have to fix this as an engaged, informed community. And sometimes we're going to have to cover each other as other members check out for a little while because this shit is hard. It's hard to deal with. It's hard to deal with over and over again. It's hard to look at his face. It's hard to look at our sister Brianna Taylor's face. It's hard to watch these videos. It's hard to look at the video of George Floyd or Amad Arbery.

It's hard. It's difficult. It's impossible. It's unnatural. No, we talk about coronavirus. You know, it's unnatural. Coronavirus is getting worse in America. It's unnatural to wake up and look at numbers of how many people died every day. It's like it's not something that we really have our condition to be able to do our handle.

So when you need to take a time out, take a time out. Don't feel bad about it. Don't feel bad if you haven't watched the latest video of a comment. smacking somebody in the head with a baton. Feel bad if you haven't watched it. Don't feel bad if you need a break. That's good advice. You can't take it all on all the time.

Having said that, when you do recharge, we need you. And there won't just be justice. There's going to be systemic change. We are going to figure out how to recraft this country into one that works for everybody. We're not going to care who has to lose to do it. Now, before we go, I want to ask you this, are you scared of coronavirus and the uptick in cases that we're seeing?

The whole fucking map now is like red. It's like the end of training day. When Denzel Washington looks around and says, I'm putting cases on all you motherfuckers. That's coronavirus. Cases and cases and cases everywhere. It's so weird. the one place where she is steady is New York.

That's crazy. Everything that Dr. Fauci has predicted is happening. And we're still in the first wave, right? We're approaching the fall, the winter. Other things are going to be happening. Am I scared? I'm scared for my parents. I'm scared for my grandmother, my aunt, like people who are older.

I'll tell you this. I know somebody who, because, you know, now it's the average age of 35. I know someone whose family got it because a sister had it and passed it along to other people in the family. I got a text today. She's less than 25. The sister couldn't breathe, couldn't fill her body and was rushed to the hospital.

She's okay now, thank God. But people need to understand it's still affecting young people. But I'm not necessarily as scared for myself as I am for my older family members. I actually have to get on the plane this weekend. And I know I'm going to do everything I can to protect myself and to cover myself, but there's only so much you can do. At the end of the day, we still have to live life. It's just do it responsibly.

Wear your mask. People, please, wear your mask. Wear your mask. Yeah. I'll tell you what I'm concerned about. I live here in downtown L.A. And I used to do walks and runs and jobs and stuff like that. And when I walked, I'd see businesses and I'd see people in these businesses that are

that like I got to know. And they're dropping like flies. These places are dropping like flies. Like community businesses, businesses down here near. I'm not talking about big chains and stuff like that. I'm talking about my comic book shop. Yeah, yeah. You know, places like that, they're gone.

Now, what I'm trying to tell you guys is you think that a shutdown is actually what's costing these businesses their livelihood. You're only partially right. What's costing these businesses their livelihood is the fact that you won't fucking act right. Yeah. That's what's costing them.

What's costing these people, their ability to go in and make money as a small business is you won't do what the fuck you're supposed to do. You won't wear a mask so that we can actually go back and forth into these places and suppress the spread of the disease. You won't go out and gather in 200, 300 groups, people doing whatever so that we can actually keep the disease at a

manageable level so we can have some sort of commerce, right? Like, so you can have some sort of stuff. Like, you want to go out in Miami and party and go out all these places and party and bring it back to L.A. or bring wherever, not indicting South Florida. My indicting Houston or indicing any of the other places or Atlanta where you've seen these videos because it's going on here too. if we could exhibit some level of self-control, we could buy time to where we could operate the economy

and public health concerns at a level to where we could have a little bit of what we had six, seven, eight months ago. Yeah. But because we're such an all or nothing, community and society that seems incapable of making a tiny sacrifice for the greater good, we are going to continue to do damage if we don't wake up to our economy, to our psyche,

and to our public health that might be irreversible. And like wearing your mask, you dumb fuck, it's such a small thing to do. Look, people saying, I can't breathe in a mask. They got the, I can breathe in mine. They got the mask that you can breathe in and out in. Just wear the mask. Just wear it. Like, you know, it's so funny.

I see people that go into drug stores, right? They go into drug stores, they get prescriptions for stuff, and then they take it. They take it. And then it helps their body. All right, that's what happens. You go to a doctor, a doctor, you ask the doctor, hey, what should I do? The doctor says, take this prescription and it'll help you. And then what do you do?

You do what the doctor says? eight months ago, if a doctor tells you, hey, you need to take this pill once a day for your blood pressure to go down, your penis to work, to help you with cancer, to help whatever, you take the pill. It's doctors that are telling you to put the mask on. Why would you listen to a guy about your blood pressure and not listen to him about a deadly infectious disease? Because Americans are arrogant, they're selfish, and they think that they're invincible. stop, stop politicizing this disease. People are dying. This isn't a joke. It's not because we have more testing. I don't care what your president is saying. I don't care what your vice president is saying. I don't care what your governor or your mayors of your local cities are saying. People are out here dying. This disease is real. People are unemployed. It is shutting down the economy. And it is all because you are selfish. It takes nothing to put on a mask, to wash your hands. And if you can't do that, just stay inside. Stay inside. You. You're are the problem, period. Right.

All right. Just do it. We ended the podcast on a very emotional note. Listen, guys, we just want the best for y'all out here at higher learning. And when we say thought words and put your thinking caps on, some things you don't need to think that much about. Doctor tells you, hey, do this. It'll help. Fucking do it.

Do it. I'm Van Lathan. I'm Rachel Lindsay. Oh, by the way, just let you guys know. We'll come back real quick, is you only get one visit with the Thought Warriors because we got a holiday weekend, so we're out of here. Extra day off. Extra day off. Only one this week.

But we'll see you guys next week. Till next time, Thought Warriors. Peace out. Did you know if your windows are bare, indoor temperatures can go up 20 degrees? Get ahead of summer with custom window treatments like solar roller shades from Blinds.com and save up to 45% off during the Memorial Day Early Access sale. Whether you want to DIY it or have a pro handle everything, we've got you. Free samples, real design experts, and zero pressure. Just help when you need it.

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