Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Presidential Debate Reactions and Reparations in California???

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss Tuesday’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the news that Gavin Newsom is exploring reparations for Black people in California, and the cast of the next season of ‘The Bachelorette’ being released. They close with a mailbag and their Unexpected Allies of the Week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo. What up? It is higher learning. Put your thinking caps on. I'm Van Leighton. And I am Rachel Lindsay. Rachel, I'm going to have to make a better effort here on the podcast aesthetically, I think. Oh, well, I'm going to take that as a compliment.

No, don't take it as a compliment. Oh. Well, you know what? Why would I do that? Why would I expect a compliment for me? But go ahead. Continue. No, the reality is that, you.

You're filming and you've got your face on and all of that stuff like that. And you are crushing me. You're just killing me right now in terms of like the aesthetic of the podcast. It looks, I look horrible right now. I don't think I even brush my hair today. But it's okay. But I don't want you to take it as a compliment because I think it's inappropriate. I think you should strive to come down to my level.

of ugly. Because I don't think I could do that if I tried. Well, why don't you try? Because I think it's very unfair for people. I think it's unfair to me when you're all straight from hair and makeup. And I legitimately right now don't have pants on. Why don't you level up? Why don't you step up?

We didn't need another pants part, but why don't you step it up? Because step it up to what? That's not my thing. Well, we've discussed this before. And being a friend And knowing that, I just think that maybe like, you know, maybe you come in here one day. You used to do it. I used to come in. But I mean, I'm on set. I'm on set.

I'm on set. You're so busy. You're so wealthy. By the way, is your Instagram for real? Do you have an Instagram or is it just like basically, your Instagram is basically like QVC. It's ad after ad after ad after ad. Don't say that. Don't say that.

Don't say that. Don't say that. Because they call me out on that. Did you see my last post? My last post was not an ad. And the trumpets are upset. What happened with your last post? I'm realizing that it's either bots that are clicking the hashtag that are wanting to come at me or it's really people who follow me.

Actually, I lost followers. So it's people who follow me. I basically was just like what I kind of what I repeated on the podcast when I said, I'm tired of just generally telling people to vote. I'm actually going to be like, you know what? This is how I'm voting. and this is why. And after the debate last night, I was like,

I'm tired of telling you all to vote, you need to vote for Biden Harris. Right. They brought out all the trumpets. They got in your mentions, what did they say? I can't read them all. Like a lot of Trump 2020,

there's a lot of arguing going back and forth, but it's mainly white women telling me what Trump has done for black people. That's what drives me crazy. How do you have the audacity to tell me I'm black and you're telling me what's been done for me and my community. That's the craziest thing.

I'm expecting that from Facebook, not so much Instagram. That's what's happening right now in my comment section. Well, I think that sometimes white people feel like it is their inherent duty to parent black people. Mm-hmm. I think that that sort of relationship has been established here in America for a very, very long time, that there's a group of people. Like think of a home, right? When you have a home and you have a house.

And then the people that have domain over that house, the ward, lords, the parents of the home, it's up to them to make that place safe, livable, and understandable for everybody else that's in there. They pay the bills. They make the rules. They tell everybody else how they're contributing to their lives. Like, you know, when you're dealing with your parents,

you live with your parents and you think you're on, equal footing and your parents eventually one day tell you, hey, this is all that I do for you. These are all the things that happened for you because of me. And this is what I had to do even before you were here to make sure that you had a good life. So look, you should say thank. And I don't live in their home. You don't. And so I think that's more than anything, the goal of Black Americans. The goal of Black Americans in establishing our own community is to let people know that we're not asking for anybody to do anything from, us. We're not asking for anybody to tell us how things should be and tell us how great or bad

things are. We can see it for ourselves. So if I say I don't fucking like Trump, I don't fucking like Trump. Fuck off. You can't, I mean, I mean, really, like, you can't explain. Yeah, you can't explain America to me. We've been living here. Yeah. These people are like, stay in your lane. Who does she think she is? I thought she was smart. They're so, they're so bad in my comments. even my mom is in my comments defending you. My mom is not that type of person at all. She's not. Your mom, she doesn't defend you?

No, like not to be, of course she defends me. Of course she defends me. Did you guys not have a close relationship? Here we go. Was there strife? Let me stop you right there. Was it tough in the high school years? Let me, let me actually know.

And let me stop you right there. My mom and I are very close. But my mom isn't the type of person to like be confrontational and go at people. And she is in my comment section, which I find her. Stop trying to create a narrative. Are there ever times that you wish she defended you more? No. My mom has always had my back.

Stop! This ain't therapy? Yo, by the way, I want to say something about therapy. I want to shout out my therapist, Colie Williams. Look, I've been going through therapy and doing the therapy for a while, right? Mm-hmm. And whereas the therapy, the therapy makes some relationships with your family a little bit tougher.

There are some things that have come out. They bring out to stuff. No, I know. There are some things that have come out during therapy that I've had to kind of like take a step back and really kind of be in my own thing. Not like me, never anything is my lovely and angelic mother. Not like you, should I say.

But, you know, me and my mother are very close. And my mom is, you know, like a soulmate, beautiful lady. but I have had to pull away from family just a little bit recently to kind of get my head straight after therapy like a lot of stuff happens in therapy. They say you might feel worse before you feel better.

They're not bullshit. You might feel worse at first. In the beginning, when I first started there because I went for a specific reason and then other stuff started to come up and that's when you start having these family conversations because you're trying to understand things like why you think of certain way,

things that have happened to you before. It was hard then. Now, you know, I'm deep in the game now. All right. Before we keep going, we've got to pay some bills so we can keep doing this. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you?

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Sign up and get a $25 bonus. Offered by Fandul prediction markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at bandwool.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Deep in the therapy game. Speaking of therapy, did you need any therapy following the debates there on Tuesday night?

Did you need therapy after watching the debates? You know what I needed was this podcast. Interesting. I needed to come. I needed to be miced up. I needed to sit here and hash things out with you. That's what I needed after. therapy, no. Did I have an intense headache afterwards? Yeah. I'm one of those people who couldn't

watch it all the way through. I watched it. You turned, you tuned out. I tuned out. I came back. I turned it back on. I tuned out again. I said, let me watch Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon. I stopped again. And then I watched the coverage in the morning. It was frustrating. It was. Now, I'll say this. We are now a little bit removed from it. It was Tuesday. We're recording this on Thursday. It'll be out on Friday. So we've had a chance to have the during the debate reaction, the knee jerk, after the debate the debate reaction, and then even post one day a whole sort of 24, 48 hours to sort of digest what it was that we saw. Right. Has there been any evolution in your initial thoughts of it based upon any new information or anything or have you calm down or? Or has there been any movement in your overall thoughts of the debate since it came on?

No. I was pretty, I wasn't shocked at what happened. It was just more of annoying and frustrating. And it was like, wow, this is our country. And these are the people that are going to lead it. It was embarrassing. That's how I felt watching the debate. I thought other countries have to be looking at us and laughing at us.

I was a little bit more harsh on Chris Wallace initially. And then as the days passed, I'm not as harsh on him because I think he was asked to do a little bit of an impossible job. I do think he could have been better. I think he was trying to be a bit of a gentleman. And he should have taken his role more forcefully. But I've calmed down even more so because although there was the talk that maybe there won't be additional debates, they are talking about changing the way the next two debates will go

and that makes me a little bit more hopeful that we'll actually have some depth to the debate rather than a cat fight. A Real Housewives reunion. That's what it looked like. Yeah, real Housewives. I mean, it did. I think that I was like everyone else

sort of disenchanted when you first saw that, right? Yeah. You, everyone realizes sort of the position that we're in right now here in America, all right? And we get it. And we always say that we get it. It's another thing to kind of see it play out on live television. We're in such a place to where we really have no clue who we are.

We don't even know what we're arguing against. You know, as I watched it, I thought to myself, hey, wow. This is depressing because this is just another visual reminder of where we are right now in terms of American society. And it's very, very, very, very distracting and disenchanting. But the more I think about it, the more I think about the fact that that was the most authentic debate I've ever watched. Whoa. That's a hot take. Why?

Because we've lost the expertise that is needed to be artificial. See, politics is oftentimes a game about being able to be as artificial, as sanitized, and as digestible as possible. Okay? So it's about going up there and feeling away, having all of these. terrible alliances and all of these ridiculous sort of allegiances to people. But being able to put your good face on, go out there in front of the American people and tell very passionate half-truths. And what's really happened in this country, especially this year, is that there's been such a degree of failure at every level of governance that there is no longer even

the ability to hide who we are. Everybody in the debate, everybody that took part in it, everybody that, from Chris Wallace to the Biden people, the Trump people are going to tell you, hey, that's not what America is. That's a lie. That's what we are. Holy 100% and authentically right now. Right now, this country is loud.

arrogant, disjointed, divided, undisciplined, and completely lacking focus. That's what the debate was. That's a good point. That's what the debate was. And so the more I come back, right, and the more time that gets put between it, the more I start to think, hey, how can we change what we are if we can pretend that we're. something else. And if that right there, that disgusting display, particularly on behalf of President Trump, helps us get an understanding of what we are so that we can try to be something different,

I'm with it. I mean, I would agree with you. I actually think that's a really interesting point. I think the display of it all, yes, to your point, shows, reflects the state that our country is in. But if you're talking about authenticity and then you look at the things that Trump was saying, there were so many lies. There were half-truths that you're speaking of or just blatant outright lies that maybe that's what I can't jump on board with what you're saying.

But I'm going to blame you for the reason that I had any expectation. Yes, I'm serious. What did I do? Any expectation for this debate because it's something that you said in our last podcast. You talked about what you wished you would see

from the Democrats and what you hope to see from Joe Biden. and you wanted him to point out how Trump has actually hurting Americans. Not that he's this monster and bad guy. We get it. We know that. But that he's hurting people and to point that out because that's what the other side does a great job of doing or does a good job of doing. So I thought, you know what?

That is such a good point. I bet they see it as well. And Biden's got a great team around him. We're going to get to see that come out in the debate. And he could barely even form a sentence. You know what I mean? Shut up, man. Shut up was like literally the only sentence he actually formed. So I was frustrated knowing that, and that's what I hope comes about in the next two debates is I want some depth.

I want their, if you're going to put, say this statement, like, oh, you know, millions of Americans are going to lose health care, you know, if Trump is in office. I want you to explain why, you know, 20 million plus people are going to lose health care. Talk about what he wants to take away in the Affordable Health Care Act. about how he's been fighting to do that for the last three and a half years and explain to people that are low income and middle class how they will lose it. That's what I want to be able to be explained in the next debate. And I'm hoping with this lowering of mics, Megan Kelly actually had a really good point of being the moderator needs to be in control of the cameras and the mics. So then you can say to President Trump, hey, the camera's actually on me. Nobody can see you.

The mics are down. Nobody can hear you so you can stop right now. And it's not coming back on. until you allow him to finish his point. He has two minutes, you have two minutes. That's just what's going to have to happen. So a couple of things with that. Number one, I don't know if the Trump administration or the Trump campaign would agree to the president having his mic muted or his camera down.

I don't know if they would agree to that. Can't you just do it? No, the debate rules, both sides are going to have to agree to them. Oh, well, then it's not going to happen. So I don't know if. Wow. And first of all, symbolically, muting the president of the United States of America

is a fucking hell of a statement. It's just a hell of a statement for a journalist. I'm not saying that it doesn't need to happen. It's just a hell of a statement for a journalist to then to mute the president in the United States of America. Well, when you're throwing a tantrum, what are we left with?

So I guess, you know, by this point, people have heard, it's been discussed ad nauseum the things that President Trump said, the litany of things that President Trump said that were objectionable during the debate. He basically became commander-in-chief of the proud boys during the debate.

He gave orders to a white supremacist group. Think about that. During a debate, the President of the United States gave orders to a white supremacist's group. Yeah. Okay? The proud boys, started by Gavin McKinness, back in the G,

are a white supremacist group. a bright supremacist group that uses, has used, and advocates violence in achieving their goals. It says they don't care. They'll beat, they'll kick, they'll kill. Okay, that's what the proud boys are. Fine. The president says, stand by and stand down to the proud boys.

He didn't say that the- Stand back and standby. Excuse me, stand back and stand by, stand by to the proud boys. in that, I just, I'm trying to get people to understand how fucking wild that is. And you shouldn't have to, but, you know, if the president is giving marching orders to the Ku Klux Klan and to the Skinheads or to something like that, it's just an insanely crazy place to be in American history right now. However, it's not totally surprising.

I think the thing more than anything that kind of disappointed, me about the entire debate, despite what I said earlier, was the fact that there seems to still be no strategy to control Donald Trump. If Donald Trump is defeated in November, that's one thing. The birth of the political movement that Donald Trump represents where that came from, that's not going anywhere anytime soon. Yeah. So the question then becomes whether it's on a debate stage, whether it's in the halls of Congress, wherever it is,

how do you control an increasingly violent, increasingly white supremacists, an increasingly fact allergic, and increasingly loud, boorish, and arrogant political movement? How do you stop that and get, things back to some semblance of regular old American like fucking

excess racism. I don't know. I honestly, time, that's the only thing I can say at this point is time. If, you know, if Trump is removed from office or voted out and Biden comes in, and I think you bring up a great point in that we don't

know, or not we don't know, it's not going to be an easy transition. You know, Trump's telling people to stand by. He is telling people to go to the polls and get your army of people together to go to the polls and watch them and watch what they're doing. He is empowering and inciting an army of his followers to basically attack if he isn't chosen as the next president because he's already planning those seats that it's rigged. How do you fight that? Van, I don't know. What do you do? Do you think that

Vice President Biden came off at any time during the debate as two weeks? Yeah. We talked about this, and I think anybody knows this. If you've watched Trump for five minutes, you knew how he was going to come into the debate. So there's no way that Biden wasn't prepped and had mock debates where he was attacked in the way that Trump was attacking him. He continued to laugh through Trump's antics. He laughed a lot. He called him a clown. He told him to shut up instead of just being just as forceful. It was maybe it was okay at one point to let him throw a tantrum and to do his thing. But, but he called him a clown. He told him to shut up. But eventually you needed to fight back with your words and you needed to push your voice and your plan and your agenda through. You needed to call him out on his lives, not laugh through them. That's what needed to happen. I think I got it. He was frustrated. It was a joke.

He was probably embarrassed standing up there having to debate this child's man child. And, you know, he probably nervously laughed his way through it. But I thought he missed. There were a lot of opportunities he missed to stand up. You know what the one glaring opportunity that he missed? And shout out to Tommy and Cord. The people that we, that I watch with. Oh, also, I have a brand new political podcast that I love.

It's called What a Day. So there was one glaring shot that he missed. And everybody in the house and on Twitter saw this, I don't understand how Biden let this slip. Trump says, I have all of these big rallies. people come out to these rallies. Nobody's ever been hurt. Nobody's ever been fucking. Oh my gosh. As soon as he said that, the whole house is like, hey, from a Tulsa rally, celebrity, former presidential candidate, Herman King came to Tulsa rally. He came there and then

he died of COVID after that. I am not laughing because Herman Kane is dead. No, it's a tragedy. It's crazy that it happened. I am, that is wild. And to me, like, right, and I guarantee you hear that next debate. I guarantee you hear that because everybody's like, like, I'm sitting down and I was eating barbecue chicken from blood soles, right? It was eating the chicken, okay? No sauce. I took the skin off, okay?

Fit van, fit van, okay? And everybody goes, I got a mouth for the chicken. I almost choked. I'm all right, I was a herbert churn. Everybody's saying it. So, you know, but that just might speak to the fact that, Joe had what he thought his talking points were going to be. And I wonder sometimes if he was living enough within the organism of the debate itself

to be able to pivot off things and go back and forth with them. And plus Trump was just destroying the rhythm of the debate by badgering, badgering Joe Biden so much that I just never felt like at least for a while that Joe really got comfortable in having a tip of time. Because how do you go back and forth in that when you're talking about COVID and he's like giving, like Joe's like naming these numbers because Trump's trying to attack H1N1

and he's like, we didn't shut down the economy. 14,000 people versus 200,000 people. And Trump's like, well, you wouldn't have done any better. I'm not in office. Like how do you even, so he says that, it throws you off the rhythm and you're like, that is the most stupid thing that you could say. I'm not even in an office.

How could I have done? You don't even know what I would have done. But that threw him off. That would throw me off. He just throws out the most random, ludicrous things. Yeah. Trump. When's the next debate?

But I think the next debate is October 15th. I think it's October 15th. I personally am so in favor of no more debates that I don't really know how to explain it. I need one more. I can't. I need one more. Why do you feel like you need to see it again? It's not that.

I'm hoping that I don't see it again. I'm hoping it's not the same thing. I'm hoping that they agree to something to where they're able to have better control of it because honestly, neither one of them came off looking well and for different reasons. I need Biden to be more forceful. I need him to attack with his plan,

his agenda, the facts, and what he wants to see for this country in the next four years. I need to see. I don't because I know what I'm doing, but I feel like there are a group of people who need to see that. I don't want people to say Biden didn't say enough.

Biden didn't do enough. Biden should have stepped up. I don't want that. I want him to get his plan, his point, and his agenda across. I just need one more. I need one more. Well, there's been some reaction up on the old Capitol Hill. They talked to a couple of different Republican senators,

and I think some of them are galled by the fact that the president would not give a full-throated condemnation of white supremacy. They've asked a couple of different people about that. They asked Tim Scott about it. What about Timmy said? Tim Scott said he thinks that the president misspoke. I hate when they say that. I hate when they say that. I do.

Sorry, go ahead. No, no. It's so frustrated. Oh, he was just joking. Oh, he misspoke. No, he did not. But go ahead. Go ahead and finish what Timmy said.

Tim Scott said that he thinks that the president misspoke. And he hopes that the president will clarify it. But if the president doesn't clarify it, then I guess he didn't misspeak. It must be tough to be Tim Scott. No, it's not tough to be Tim Scott. It's got to be tough to be tough to be called a nigger to your face and have to act like it never happened. It really does.

But would that be tough for you? No, you would remove yourself from that situation. Well, I mean, look. You wouldn't roll over and play house. Well, obviously, obviously there is something go. look, obviously, and that's why it would be fascinating to have the conversation with Tim Scott or anyone that's that close to the Trump regime,

it would be that close. I need to understand what it is that he sees and I'm not seeing. If for any other reason, just to figure out how I would bill with him, fuck Donald Trump. You know, fuck the Trump administration. Fuck all of those things, right? But to understand why Senator Scott

or anybody, specifically that's black or a woman, that is close to President Trump, the reasons why they think that these things are okay or not even okay, but aren't incredibly harmful to the fabric of the country, or not destructive to it, or not even emboldening these groups. If you have, if the proud boys who have now changed their motto

to stand by and stand down. Shut up. Of course they have, right? they got a fucking endorsement from the President of the United States of America. Like, of course they did, right? So when President Trump was talking about people going to be poll watchers, on what planet do we think, or what planet do we would have to be on, should I say,

for us to not think that the proud boys are showing up to the polls on November 3rd? Right. They definitely are. They were just given a mandate by the most powerful human being on earth And they will feel that they need to be activated at polling places on November 3rd When you go out to vote Be on the lookout for the proud boys because they are going to be there Right?

Because President Trump called upon his people to be poll watchers And he also basically took ownership of the proud boys as his people during the debate. So we have to see what happens in the next debate. We have to see how the administration reacts to this, but it's going to get

really fucking hairy here in about a month. As of Thursday, because we're doing this podcast, like you said on Thursday, has President Trump taken back what he said? He said that,

yeah, he said that, well, not yes, he said that he doesn't know who the proud boys are. Yeah. Same thing he said about David, do, which we knew, which we knew to be a lot. He said that he didn't know who the proud boys are.

I'm not sure if he had, if he talked specifically about what he said about white supremacy, but the, the, the, the administration came out and they made a bunch of, they talked to Chuck Todd, they talked to Jake Tapper, they talked to everyone. And it seems as if what their goal was, was to make it seem as if Joe Biden was actually the real white supremacist and Donald Trump wasn't more than it was to clean up, clarify, or denounce anything that President Trump had said or, I guess, denounce white supremacy like he didn't do during the debate. And that's what I don't understand. Tim Scott said, well, if he doesn't denounce it or whatever he stated, then he must have meant it. Well, at this point, we're days past the debate and he hasn't really

forcefully denied white supremacy. So Tim Scott, what do you think now? It's almost like, because you said you wanted to sit and talk with him and understand, it's almost like when you're in a bad relationship and you know it's bad for you, but you put your heart into this. You stood by this. You put all the work into this relationship. And even though you know you should leave it, because you know it's wrong for you,

you stay in it because you feel like, what then am I if I leave this? put my all into this. Like everything I've stood for is almost in this. I feel like that's Tim Scott with the Republican Party and specifically following Trump and his leadership. He's got to, he feels like he's given his all to it at this point. Now what do I do? What, what, who am I and what do I stand for if I've dedicated this much to President Trump? I can't go back now. I'm all in. Even though I know it's wrong and it's toxic. I got married to it at this point. Yeah, I mean, more than anything, I don't want to have animus with black conservatives. I think that there's room for black conservatives.

I'm not one of them. But I think that there's room for black. First of all, I don't think that there's room. I know that there's room. There has to be room for black conservatives to have their ideals and support what it is, their vision of America and, you know, all those things. And we can disagree. We can vehemently disagree fiscally about reproductive rights, you know,

about things that fundamentally I am never going to agree with you. you on, right? But in terms of empowering white supremacy, and in terms of like, we have to be able to agree on that. And I would just like to hear from more black conservatives, and we'll probably have more of them here on the podcast, about what I'm missing, about whatever it is they're seeing in this specific guy and this specific brand of Republican politics. You're not missing it. In terms of what they see. Well, I think they tell you He was just joking

Oh, he couldn't possibly mean that He just misspoke. You know, he didn't mean by that. He meant, I heard, I think I heard the campaign manager say, he meant stand by the wayside. That's the kind of stuff they say. Well, why can't we hear him say it?

You know, why can't we hear Trump say it? That's the issue. But I honestly think you'd be frustrated because you wouldn't get anything further than that. That's the best thing that you can say. What is the wayside? When people say the wayside, it goes by the wayside.

It stands by the way. What is the wayside? What is that? To the side. But like, what is it? What's the wayside? You ever been to the wayside before? I'm being for real.

Like, what's the wayside? People say, it goes by the wayside. What's the wayside? Nobody knows what the wayside is. I should open up a bar and the bar should be called the wayside. And that way, that way, that way, that way,

it's like they go by the wayside and you get, you know, fucked up when you come to the bar. Do you have a definition on the wayside? It says, what does the wayside mean in the Bible, side of a land adjacent to a road or a path? Just by the side. I don't know what Bible people are using. I never heard about no wayside in the Bible. Natalie Manuel Lee. Natalie Manuel Lee, Brian Lee, my spiritual people, if the wayside is in the Bible, then you got to let me know what it is. Because when people say, it goes by the wayside and stand by the wayside.

Telling the proud boys to stand by the wayside, maybe the wayside right around the corner from here. I don't want them sitting around here. If nobody knows what a wayside is, then how do we know that the wayside is bad? Well, here's the thing. The phrase says if a person or plan falls by the wayside, they fell or stop before they complete what they set out to do.

So you're not telling them, don't ever do this again. You're not condemning it. You're like, just stop for a second. That's like, just wait, just wait until the time is right. I know what it is. I know what that means. You want to know what wayside means. I got you.

I want to know where it is. Yeah, I need coordinates. Because I don't want to fall by the wayside. Anyway, oh, ooh, oh, I know that we've established earlier here in the podcast that you're already rich, but I got a good news for you. We did not establish that. Whatever, Rachel. I got why you in your Buick.

I got all, I got good news for you, Rach. What's up? You're about to get richer. What happened? Because you are a Negro. In, where? A Negro where? In California.

Negroes in California. And because you are one of those, this bill, Bill AB3-1212-1, just might apply to you. This is a bill, which is the first of its kind in any state signed on Wednesday by Governor Gavin Newsom that is going to establish a task force that's going to inform Californians about slavery and explore the ways the state might provide reparations for slavery. Okay. The task force will convene in the wake of nationwide protests, calling for racial injustice, police reform,

the death of our brother, rest and peace, George Floyd. Lawmakers of Congress have called upon a bill to study reparations. Here's the thing. One of the most unpopular things in America is reparations. It's going to be tough to get that bill passed because America doesn't want to pay your ancestors for what they did. I want you guys to think about this.

Think about how hard it is to get paid out for the vacation time that you've accrued from these little jobs that you be working. Think about that. You go there, things about to happen. You're about to leave. You want to get paid out your vacation time, right? Think about how crazy they act when you want to get paid that. Think about how crazy people act when you want to get your security deposit back. Think about what they try to do to you. Now think about if this stuff was money that you had owed, that they had never paid, but it was probably around $500 trillion. Think about whether or not they would I actually want to pay you for something that somebody else did, who is you, who is your

family, or to the tune of around $500 trillion. Think about how hard it would be to get that money. Not that that money is not owed to black people, because that money is owed to black people. 100%. That money is especially and specifically owed to black people. There are white people listening to my voice right now who don't understand the reason why reparations are so important. America apologizes in a very specific way.

They apologize with checkbook and giving reparations to black Americans would be America saying, hey, what we did to your ancestors wasn't just wrong, but we need to make it right. It's a difference between saying something that's wrong and making something right. Anyway, so Gavin Newsom is trying to establish a task force that would study how reparations would be divvied out. I'll tell you two things from this. Number one. If reparations do some kind of way, 10 years, 20 years, whatever, get, you know, approved here in California, California is going to go from 40 million people to 80 million people really quick. So quick.

We go, we're going fucking, everybody's coming, baby. Everybody's coming. And they should. Everyone. You see all that desert, that desert land between here and Vegas, between here and San Francisco, that's going to fucking be Atlanta. Like we're going to take over all of that. Give us that money. We buy and land.

We're about to get it, baby. Second thing is it would be interesting to see what type of precedent here is set for the study and the potential reality of reparations. What do you think about this? What do I think about reparations? As in, like, should we have them or should we not? What do you think about California being first here? Well, it's no surprise that it's California. I mean, it's a very progressive state. When I heard this, I was like, okay, I'm never leaving California if they're going to be the state to take the first big steps. I mean, it is important to note that bills have been proposed before in Congress about reparations most recently one in June by Texas's own Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. I think that I think it's important to recognize why. reparations are so important to black people because I feel like what's going to happen is,

and you kind of touched on this a little bit, is you said that they don't want to pay for what their ancestors did, right? Which is kind of Mitch McConnell, Senator Mitch McConnell's thing. He's like, listen, you know, we, I think I had the quote somewhere. He said, Mitch McConnell said that none of us are currently living as responsible for what he called America's original sin. That's horseshit bullshit. It is, it is. But that is the thinking that a lot of people think of, okay, you know, you know what white people like to do.

They like to point at one person who made it and say, then you all should be able to make it. Or they find that black person who agrees to that same ideology and we'll say that exact same thing. And this is what I need people to understand. With reparations, for it to happen, for it to pass through Congress, they're going to understand they have to recognize what has happened to black people in this country at the hands of those in power, that being white people. They're going to have to recognize their white privilege. They're going to have to recognize that with slavery, we built this country and we contributed

so much to this country without any sort of compensation. They're going to have to recognize that their own generational wealth was built on the backs of black people. They're going to have to recognize that everything that they have is a result of our servitude and we have absolutely nothing for it. And I think what you also have to, they have to understand is that even though slavery stopped, it didn't mean that the mindset that created that slavery stopped. And you saw that with segregation and everything that came out of slavery even when it ended. And that is why reparations are due to us. And they have to understand that.

And they have to recognize that. And even though I think that this is a huge step and it's beautiful that Governor Newsom is recognizing this and is trying to put something together for a task force to study this so there can be proposals for reparations, you have to convince people that they have to recognize the things that I just said. And I'm not sure if we can ever get to a place as a country. And by we, I mean, I don't know, I'm not sure if white people can ever get to a place in the country where they are willing to recognize those things because they can't see it, right? You look at black people now and you see that they are not enslaved. You don't, and so it's hard for them to accept

what was done centuries and centuries ago and how that has had a trickle-down effect even to black people right now. Yeah. It, well said. It really isn't a trickle-down effect, though. Like, there's just an effect. An effect, you're right.

You're right. Like a real tangible effect. A direct effect. You're right. Like a direct effect. Like, Ms. McConnell is fucking stupid. Like... So many people think like that.

They don't want to see it. Okay. So let's look at something really quick. So when the Japanese, our Japanese brothers and sisters were interred during World War II, later on, things moved through the legislature and there was a reparations bill passed for them. They paid out a bunch of money. It's very important to know the reasons why that happened. During the late 70s and the 80s, the 80s, the, the,

Japan became a huge, huge, huge economic rival and potential economic partner of America. Right. And so there was a reason, fiscally, and geo-economically, for the United States to apologize to what it had done to Japanese Americans during the 40s during World War II.

Because if you want to establish trade relations, with Japan and be on the same type of situation with Japan and, you know, have an openness between you and Japan, then you had better apologize and acknowledge the wrong things that you did in World War II. Just as Japan had to completely rebuild its society and its economy following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nakasaki, right? So after that happens, they give reparations.

to the Japanese Americans, who, by the way, deserved them for being rounded up out of their homes and thrown and having their civil liberties violated, thrown into concentration camps, which is what they were during the 40s. Okay. For black Americans, there is not only no real incentive for America to do this, meaning because we haven't done what we needed to do, as a society, which is hold a political gun to America's head, which is what we should do and demand things for them. The only real reason to do this would be because it's right. And I want people to understand something here. America never, ever does anything because it's right.

If you ever think there's been any war, any conflict, any situation, that America has ever ventured into or become a part of strictly because it's right, you're living in a dream world. Yes. America is a government that does things like other governments do on a transactional basis. Okay. So I guess what black Americans have to find out is how to make it worthwhile for one specific political party to back this.

And we're going to have to become more economically viable and more politically sound and strong in order to make that happen. Now, the reason why what Mitch McConnell said is so particularly enraging and upsetting to me is because if you look around at black communities all over America, you see them in a lot of times, in a lot of places, not across the board, but in a lot of times in a lot of places failing, in peril, in trouble, in distress. There's a belief that the reason why those places are like that is because the people inside of them, like the wherewithal, the stictuitiveness, or the, shit, the cerebral makeup, the smarts, their education to change their society.

People think that niggas is too lazy and dumb to get up and change it. The reality is that black people in a real way, American, seriously, just deal with it. It was illegal to teach your slave to read. Mm-hmm. It was illegal for slaves to assemble. It was illegal for like everything about actually being an American, being self-sufficient, being ingenuity. Independent.

Independent. Thinking. Thinking. All of those things were purposely and intentionally taken from black Americans, not just taken, but like if you access these things, then we will kill you. If we see enough of you are together, we will kill you. If we see you're reading, we will whip you and kill you. And then after slavery is over, now all of these things are purposely kept from us

in order to keep us in the same economic position to have a share crop and work as maids and butlers and servants, terrible schools, all of these different things that stop us from voting and participating in America. the only way to undo that is to take the same emotion, power, and intention that was put together in having those things and use it to undo them. You would have to care about how well black people are doing. You'd have to say these people are, we're an integral part of American society and the building of American society, and we need to make sure that they can rise up and be a part of this country. And the question is, you know, why would they do that? Right. And if the answer is because it's the right thing to do, then it's never going to happen.

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Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order. Sweetgreen.com. Now, I got to move on to something. We got to move on here because talking about slavery, we're going to end up, I mean, we, like, Rachel, you're literally 10 seconds from Kill Whitey.

As I'm on. As you're on. I feel like I'm going to open my door. I'm going to open my door. It's so weird. How are you getting militant? You're on a set of extra right now. You're on this set of extra.

Like you're doing all of this militant shit right now on the set of extra. This isn't militant. This is a militant. I don't even going to phrase it as militant. This is me talking about what black people have, how they've been treated and represented in this country. That ain't militant. That's facts.

But later tonight on extra, Rachel Lindsay and Chris and Kid Rock for an intimate sit down. Like, I'm telling you. It's like, this is. See, what you're challenging about higher learning is this is Rachel's time to get her shit off. It really is. And I know that because I worked at TMZ. Because Rachel don't know who's going to pop up on the show. Later on, Rachel and Richard Spencer, an intimate discussion on Brace and America.

I already told you. What did I say? When the debate was over, I needed a podcast. That's what I needed. All right. So I'm very, very happy to say in other batch names. news that the cast

for the next Bachelorette has been announced. Okay, Bachelorette 2020. Can I just give you a tad bit of history? Normally, the bios like this don't get to come out before the season starts. But what happened was there's this guy named Reality Steve who leaks a bunch of stuff,

and so the show is trying to get ahead of all of this. So this is very exciting for Batchez because, We weren't privy to this information prior to a couple of years ago, really last year, I think. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and go down the list. I want you to pick your faves. I've seen them.

I've seen them. I'm going to go down the list. Before I pick my faves, I'm going to tell all the niggas that just need to go home. You fuck. Wait. Wait. Let me pull it up because I got to see it. Right. Right.

So I just got to pick all the guys right here. You're hearing it first. You have, it's fucking over it for you. You're not going to get it. Okay. AJ, software salesman from Plydale, Ray, California. Pack your shit, Skippy.

You're out. AJ, you have no fucking chance. You're done. Plydele Ray is a nice place. I used to work over there. There's a nice little area. Why don't you go over there on Lincoln and run? Walk your dog.

Get like a scooter, one of the birds. Burn it up, bro. go hang out around LMU or something because you're out. You're done. Bennett, you might have a shot. A couple other guys right there.

Oh, Blake Moyes, a wildlife manager from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Fuck off, bro. First Snyder. He's out. You're done. You're out of here, Blake Moyes.

Like, it's something's awful about you. I don't really know. You almost. have like a front mullet going on with the hair. It's not going to work. Lake you're out. I'm not going to lie. It looks nice. It looks like a nice guy. Brandon, the real estate

agent from Cleveland, Ohio? You're in the finals, gee. I love it. So he's cute to both men and women. You know, because sometimes there's like a man that's only cute to women, men, you know what I'm saying. He's universally cute. Nah.

It's Brandon. Brandon, you're in the finals, my man. Let's see who else is out there. couple of these guys, this guy, Brendan, is racially ambiguous. He'll probably make it far because, oh, no, he's a commercial roofer. Done. No way. These dudes have legit jobs. This is, we've never seen anything like this before. Normally, they're unemployed or they make up some type of employment for them. Well, here's the deal. Okay, so now we got a couple other people here. We're getting to the chocolate. I noticed that they put the niggas all in the same spot, by the way. They're announced about a quarter. I just want, I'm going to go ahead and spell that. So, so, so, wait,

Wait, wait, wait. So these are the three black guys they got. Dale, Demar, and Easy. I like DeMar. Okay, you like Demar? Demar, to me, is a spin cycling instructor. I didn't see that part. Damar might have a shot.

Dale, former pro football wide receiver from Brandon, South Dakota. Just looking at him and the fact that he's from South Dakota, this is my issue with Dale. Now, do these guys stay after it switches from Claire to crawl to Taisha? Taisha. Tasha, do they stay? Do these guys stay? If Tasha's the Bachelorette, if that's actually true, yes, some of them stay.

Most of them stay. Okay. Well, here's the thing about Dale. Dale don't look like he signed up for no black women. Dale is a former pro football receiver from South Dakota. And, you know, he went pro in football. So right away, you know, probably doesn't happen. And then also he's from South Dakota.

When he sees Tasha Dell out. Dale's like, I didn't sign up for this. Better love our sisters. Easy 29 sports marketing agent from Newport Beach, California. Shout out to Easy. Easy might have a chance. Ed, health care salesman from Miami, Florida. I don't know about this.

Ed, no way, Ed. Ed, to me, looks like. he's going to pop up on MSNBCs to catch a con man. I don't trust it. You just see salesman in his title. You just like salesman, but look at him.

He looks like a salesman. He looks like a salesman. He does. He does. He does. A professional journalist, journalist from North Hollywood, California.

He's a professor at USC. At USC. You know what? He's a plant. He's a plant. I want to hate on my nigger, Garon. but, I mean, Garen has no chance,

but something about Garen, I fuck with Garen. He's a plan, a professor at USC of journalism. He's writing a book. Let me see here. Ivan 28, an aeronautical engineer from Dallas, Texas. Do you know this guy? Ivan? He's 28, no.

No, okay. Let me look. He doesn't look like he would know me. Let me see. Oh, bro, Jordan, cybersecurity engineer from Santa Monica, California, 30, with no chin. Nobody with no chin

will ever, ever, ever, ever win the Bachelorette. He's six, eight. Oh, that's why you don't have no chin. All the fucking genetics. No, I've dated people around that height. All the genetics went to his, look, yeah, he had a handsome dude.

He just ain't got no chin. I barely have a chin. Kenny, a boy band manager from Chicago with a dragon tattoo on his left pet. Kenny, if you don't get your ass off the fucking Bachelorette. Kenny, you're done. Like,

nobody's fucking with you, Kitty. Kitty! Get off the Bachelorette. You fucking finish, bro. Like, you're out of here. What about fucking putting, kidding on there?

Zach, cleaning service owner from St. George, Utah. Let me tell you why. Oh, we skipped a few. Okay. Okay, let me go down. I'm going to skip a couple.

I'm going to skip all of these guys. Let me skip all of these guys. I see another guy with a, ooh. All right. Listen, there's a favorite. I have an odds on favorite here. How many?

Just one? Two. One is the other dude, just because, you know, he was really, you know, just handsome guy. But Paige, a chef from Austin, Texas. Let me tell you why I think Paige. 37-year-old chef from Austin, Texas. Paige, are you kidding me? Let me tell you why.

It's not about the look. It's not about the look. It's not about the look with Paige with my nigger, Paige. It's not about the look. You know what it is? It's one word. chef. That's what you would want. These are selfish motives here.

No, that's chef's shit. That chef shit goes far, Rach. He's a chef from Austin, Texas. He's a chef from the coolest city in America. He's an Austin chef. He got a tattoo of a rose in the middle of his chest. What I remember about his bio is that he doesn't understand people who like football. I distinctly remember that about him. So what? Who cares? I'm telling you. Let me go down here a couple of more. Mike, Digital Amia advisor from Calgary, he might have a shot. Riley, an attorney from Long Island with the sharpest, most pointy ears I've ever seen before my life.

Notice the most random thing. This brother's ears, this is black Yoda. This is like this dude right here, his ears is like, I mean, a handsome guy, but you know. What about Jeremy? 40, a banker from Washington, D.C. Where Jeremy at? I don't see Jeremy. It's an alphabetical order.

Oh, got to go up here. Jeremy. Jeremy. He might be a front runner. Jeremy got frosted tips. It looks like. No, he doesn't. No, he does not.

It looks like in the front, he got frosted tips. Like, Grays. You made it seem like he had like in sync Justin Timberlake frosted tips or something. No, he's got great hair. That niggas, Tony the Tiger. They're frosted. Like he, like, he looks. Tony the Tiger is never going to win the back.

Look, I, look, man. You know, I got to see. You think she's got some good, good guys. I think they, it, I feel like there's more men. More men than this? I guess there might be the exact C.

Addiction specialist. Okay, he's in finals. Zach C's in the finals. He's an addiction specialist. He's an addiction specialist. So why does that make him in the finals? Because there's got to be some reason why he's doing that job. Like, you know what I mean?

I think in his bio, he might have said he's, did he used to be? And maybe I'll make you that up. Exactly. If you're an addiction specialist, think about Career Day. First of all, that's an amazing profession. But think about Career Day, 7th grade.

Nobody goes, hey, you know, I want to work in the methadone clinic. Nobody says that, right? So if you're an addiction specialist, there has to be a story behind that. Those are the type of stories that well up the eyes, well up the heart. And before you know it, you're in the fantasy suite.

You know what I mean? because this guy's made you feel something. So there you go. Look, I think she's got a good class of guys here. A lot of brothers. A lot of brothers, man. Claire has been very vocal that she likes diverse men. Whoa, Claire.

Wow. Yeah, that's what she has been very, before the season, she was like, I date everybody. She was like, I need some black guys in here. Claire Crawley. Double C. Okay, well. I love your interest.

It starts. It premieres in two weeks. October 13th, Van, will you be watching? Will you be having a watch part? I feel like we might need to watch it together. Of course I will. What about Ben 29? Oh, we're still going.

Y'all, he's so into this. Just one more. Let me tell you why Ben 29 might have. He's an Army Ranger. He's an Army Ranger. Look, he's an Army Ranger. Do you know why? That matters?

Because of the movie Con Air. In Con Air, Nicholas Cage's character is an Army Ranger, right? And what do you do in that? So you automatically start thinking of the theme song, How Do I Live in your head? Is that what was... How do I live without you? You know what I'm saying?

But here's the thing. As an Army Ranger, do you know why Nicholas Cage went to jail in Conair? Oh, he killed somebody. But why? I can't remember. Because they were trying to attack his girl. He had just got back from the Army. They were trying to attack his girl.

He was being protective and he used Army Rangers skills. And because he did that, the judge said no. And he threw him away. Army Ranger. So all Army Rangers are like this. Okay. So because of Nicholas, Cage and Conair.

He's going to be in there. All right. Okay. That's it. That's, that, there is. There is. Some of y'all, some of y'all pack it up. Some of y'all are done. Usually, like, eight men go home the first night.

Eight? Mm-hmm. God damn. So she usually about 30-something and you keep 20-2 because they all got to fit in the house. Well, in this case, it's different because, you know, they're on a resort, but. Whatever. All right. Okay.

It's time for you guys is, uh, oh. before we get to this, I just want to quickly point out something. The Steelers and Titans game has been postponed because of five Titans that tested positive for COVID. Okay? Just remember, guys, we're enjoying sports. We're enjoying the competition and everybody being out there. We say this all the time that these guys are literally putting their life on the line for your entertainment, but I want you guys to know something.

These guys are literally putting their life on the line for your entertainment. So, yeah. All right, but now it's time for mailback. Rachel, you ready for mailback? I'm ready. Always ready. Jordan Liggins. Start us off with the mailback.

Okay, keeping with the reality show theme, from Logan Dean Brigham, what would Van and Rachel's Bravo Housewives taglines be? And if Van could choose his own way to exit the Bachelet limo, what line gimmick would he use? Do you understand the tagline for Housewives? I don't know what any of this is.

So, okay. So I'll explain them both. Housewives, every city, when they do their intro, they start off. I'm going to do a little bit of a, for those of you who can't watch, I'm turning around, they show the back of them, and then they turn around to the front, and then they're in a ball gown, and then they say their tagline. Like, that gives you a taste of who they are. Just one line.

So everybody has one. And you look forward to it every season. my gosh, what is Rachel going to say? So mine would be, clearly I've thought about this before, mine would be, I'm too old of a cat to be fooled by a kitten. Ooh.

Dad, I gotta give that to my dad. That's one of my dad's saying. That's one of my dads. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow, I like that. Do you like that? You should use that. I'm too old of a cat.

To be fooled by kitten. Okay. What would mine be? be? Hmm. I have no clue what it would be. That's okay. You think about that. What would your limo though? What would your, and then I'll tell you what I said coming out the limo. So I have no clue. I don't know what these things are. Oh gosh. You're such, you're in for a wild ride. When, when the contestants show up to the bachelor mansion, they come in limos. It's usually, usually everybody comes to limo unless some people come on like a horse or they drive their own car. There's always something. And it's your way to stand

out, your first impression. So usually like five of you are in the limo. They turn off the air. You duck. The guy comes out, opens a door and one by one, you come out of the limo and you say something or you bring something or you dress up a certain way. This is your first time meeting whoever the lead is. The lead on the show. The lead on the show. Right. And then you say something to the camera. What would you do to let them know this is like I'm man, this is me and this is why you're, you should get to know me more inside. To... To...

Whoever the lead is. To whoever the lead lady is? Yes. You can come in any way. People have come in an ambulance. They've come on a horse. They've, you know, like, whatever. Costume.

Right. Okay. This is good. Maybe I would come in the Batmobile. Right? Okay. You know, I pull up in the Batmobile. And I say, whether I'm Batman or Bruce Wayne, this dark night, is she white?

Oh, yes, probably. Right. Statistics show she'd be white. Whether I'm Batman or Bruce Wayne, this dark night will always save you. Bam! Oh! And then you flash the bat sign with my face in it, you know what I'm saying? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Somebody's going to steal that. You know what I'm saying? This dark night will always because I'm dark. Because, you know, black. It was good. Somebody's going to take that. That was good. That was much better than mine.

So they were like, so they told, they'll tell you like, I went to law school. No, they'll tell you. I want him to know that I was in the sports. They'll tell you like, you don't really need to do a big deal if, if like, we think you're okay. Like, if you need to stand out, they'll tell you to do something huge. So, um, I said, hi, I'm Rachel. So nice to meet you. And then I said, just.

you know, I made sure to set my fantasy team before I got here. And he was like, he was like, oh, yeah. And I go, yeah, because the only games I want to play this season are for your heart. Boom! Oh, so wait, you were on the Bachelor before you were on the Bachelor? Y'all, he don't know me.

You were on a season of the Bachelor? You have to go through it, except for Matt James. They've never done that before, as of recent. You would go through the Bachelor, bachelorette, and then you make it to a certain place. Like, I made it to top three. And then I didn't get chosen. So they're like, oh, you want to be the bachelor's.

Who was your bachelor? A guy named Nick. Nick. So what if Nick would have chose you? I knew he wasn't going to choosing. You knew why? Because with men, it's always very obvious who you're into. First of all, I never thought I was going to go far.

I told my boss, I was like, Black people don't go far on the show. I'll probably be home in the second week. Right. So you, so wait, you put, you sent in a packet. No, my coworkers came into my office and were like auditions are down the street. We should go. So we were going to, we were like, oh, let's go to brunch. Let's get like faded and go to the audition.

And then it didn't end up happening that way. We just ended up showing up. So I get there. It took forever. I tried to leave and I turned my packet in. She had to do an on-camera interview. And I was like, I got to go back to work. And they were like, no, no, no, no, no.

Wait five minutes and we'll skip you to the front of the line. And they did. And then that was it. So you, so you, you, you, you, you, wanted to be on the bachelor, so you wanted to go. No, I wanted to, it wasn't like that. Like, oh, I want to be, I just want to be on the bachelor so bad. They were like, we're all going to go.

You should go. And I'm like, why not? I've never, I've never done something like this before. This was God's plan. So you can meet Brian. Clearly. Clearly. Clearly. Yeah.

And also, it was slightly thirsty, but. Please. Please. Please. Like, Jordan. Next question. From Bobby Hayden. Best Homecoming Weekend story from college.

Oh, man, I know you got a better one than me. You went to an HBCU. I can't tell any of these stories, man. Oh, but you must. You told about the prostitute in Brazil. Wait, did we air that? Yeah, we did. We put it on in the prostitute story, by the way.

Family's very proud of me. Best homecoming story from, oh, the Battle of New Orleans. Do you have a good story, first of all? University of Texas does not have a homecoming. So we used to travel down to Baylor. I used to go to Spellman. I used to go to Spelman-Moorhouse's homecoming. Well, it's really Morehouse's Homecoming for my sister when I was in high school.

Right. So it's a great time. It's a great time. The Battle of New Orleans. I can't tell this story. I can't tell this story. I mean, I don't want to bed. but like, nah, got to hear this story.

It's about a fight. No, I can't tell the story. You know what? How about this? What's the Battle of New Orleans? Is it like the Bayou Classic? So this was in the, I don't have a good homecoming story. I rarely went to homecoming. Just because it just wasn't, you know, go to the homecoming game,

but you go to the parties and stuff like that. It's great, whatever. But I went to every Bayou Classic. You never missed the Bayou Classic, right? But BYU Classic in case you guys don't know It was an annual game held in November between Southern University and Gramand Bramlin State we normally kick their

fucking asses. But nobody cares about the game. Nobody cares about the football game. But yeah, shout out to Graham now. But no, there was a friend of mine who told me that once we got to New Orleans, if he saw a certain guy with a certain guy that there would be a certain fight

and we got down there and we saw this guy with this girl and rather than letting it slide, I said, hey, remember what you said you were going to do if you saw him. There he is. All I'll say is this. That night could have very easily ended Van Lai.

because where that ended up going stopped me from being instigating and messy for the rest of my life because you're down there in front of all of those people two people get to getting it three people get to getting it four people get to getting it all of a sudden been on top of that the police and all of that stuff and say that years and years after

there were still people who were paying the penalty for something happened. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we laughed the whole way. But, you know, one... I wasn't expecting that kind of story. Well, it goes down. Baton Rouge. Every decision. Life for death. Okay. Last mailback question. From Katie Rajakshah. What's your favorite Trader Joe's food or snack? It's Trader Joe's salmon.

Trader Joe, you get the salmon from Trader Joe's in the little packets. You put it in the airfire. You know what I'm saying? The salmon in the little package, you put it in the air fry. You like the air friar? I love the air friar. Okay, maybe I should get one. You don't like the air fire?

Do you cook? I've never, I'm known to spend some time in the kitchen. Like, what do you cook? I cook everything. Meat. I mean, I don't have like my go-to dish where I'm like, oh, you coming over? but I mean, I could cook. Like, I could host.

Like, what would you like to eat? Well, no, what would you like to cook? Like, if you're going to host somebody, what do you cook? You know, like, whatever your choice of meat would be, I would cook it, however you wanted it to be cooked. And, you know, like, I make great Brussels sprouts. I will say that. Let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something right now. You can't cook. You can't cook. Because I named a vegetable? Anybody, if you ask somebody if they could cook and they say, yo, my cauliflower is off the chain, they can't cook. They can't cook. My Brussels sprouts are pretty amazing.

But here's the thing. I'm not going to brag and say, I'm one of those people who eats to survive. I don't eat because I just enjoy food and I can't wait to, like, tear into this meal. That's not me. I eat because I have to. I know that it's weird for you. Like, I know you've talked about your love of food. I know that's weird for me to say to you.

But, like, I don't enjoy. eating that way. So what do you get from Trader Joe's then? I don't really shop at Trader Joe's. But I will tell you there are, there's a, these cookies, these shortbread cookies from Trader Joe's, their little circles. And in the middle of them, they're chocolate. And they keep them in the refrigerated section.

And they are so good. Everybody go out and tribe. I don't know what they're called, but they're amazing in the dessert section. All right. So do me a favor. Let's say your host in the meal, right? Okay. We're still not over this.

You're hosting the meal. You're going to host a meal and you're going to invite four people. But it's all white. It's an all white table. Why they got to be white people? Because it's your house. I would serve the same thing, whether they were white, black. It's your house.

No. I'm not asking what you were serving. I'm asking who's coming to your all white dinner. All white dinner. Rachel, you have to have a dinner, all white. Four white people. Living or dead. Four white people.

Living or dead? Living or dead, baby. living a dead, four whites. Who's coming to it? Four white people living a dead. Man, this is tough. I know. I don't know.

You answer. Okay. John Brown. Who come? I don't want to answer anymore. John Brown. Me and John Brown just going to sit down there and get. If you don't know who John Brown is, please look him up.

You need to understand why I'm laughing so hard. That's the first. Which also lets me know you've thought about this question before. I have. I have thought about this question before. That's why I don't want to answer. This is my list. This is my list.

Seriously. It's John Brown, okay. JFK and Marilyn Monroe. You're messy. What do we just say about instigating? I'm not instigating. You're going to have Marilyn Monroe and JFK there. And JFK.

You're going to ask some questions, aren't you? I'm not going to ask some questions. Let me tell you why. if I can go and rescue people from the hereafter, I want JFK and Maryland Monroe to be able to get their shit off, you know, in front of everybody. Just have a good time at dinner. Okay.

So yes, you definitely thought about this before. Do they count as one person? No, it's two people. Okay, there too. It's, it's John Brown, J.FK, Maryland Monroe. So, but listen, I don't want you to shit on the JFK Mailman. Because I can talk to JFK about, you know, all of the stuff he was into.

Him, I understood. Who's the fourth person? You're hating on Maryland Monroe, though, huh? It's that you name the, come on, let's just be for real here. You're messing. What? I'm not being messy at all. What you want to talk to Marilyn Monroe about? A lot of things.

Like what? Name, name two things. I can name two things. Who's a fourth person? The fourth person I really have trouble with. The fourth person I really have trouble with, I really do have trouble with. Like, because think about it. I don't know if it's that many people.

you know, that I would want to really have at the dinner. So it's really kind of just sliding somebody in. It could be like, it could be David Bowie one day. It could be John Mayer Keyes the next day. It could be Albert Einstein. You know what I mean? There's a lot of people that kind of go in there. I can't really, really think.

I got to get back to you. I've never thought about that. One person I would tell you that I would want to see is Lucille Ball. That's the only person that I could think off off the top of my head. super whack. Did I criticize? You said Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe.

There's a lot more reason for me to hang out. Lucille Ball's great. But no, so yeah, that's it. So Trader Joe's, you like shortbread cookies with chocolate in. That's right. Do you have an unexpected ally? Try it. Yes, my unexpected ally.

I forgot about that. Thank you for reminding about unexpected ally of the week. I'm going to give mine to a group of people because I feel like I'm constantly... The proud boys? criticizing. No, no, no, no, no. Stand back and stand by, not them. No, no, no, no. I feel like I'm constantly criticizing this group of people and I'm lumping everybody in and generalizing them all. And we spoke about this at the beginning of the podcast. I talked about my most recent post and how so many people who follow me wrote very, it was sad. It's sad to

live in my comments right now. But I got a lot of messages from people in Bachelnation saying, hey, I'm not that way. I'm not like that. Because I did an interview with the Washington Post. They're creating a newsletter each week about the Bachelor, Bachelor, Bachelorette, depending whatever may be on. And in it, they asked me, if only Bachelor Nation people could vote, who would be president? And I said, Trump, hands down, 100%.

And then I said, and if I'm being 100% honest, if the leads could vote, it would still be Trump. and I said, and I talked about the audience and I described what they look like. And I had a lot of people write me and said, hey, I want you to know, you know, like, I'm white and I don't think that way. I'm from the South and I don't. I'm a Christian. I'm Midwestern. And so I just want to like give a shout out to all those people in my DMs. You know, I generalize a group of people and you let me know, hey, I'm not necessarily that way.

Keep doing what you're doing. I support you. So they're my unexpected allies of the week. That's amazing. look at Rachel Lindsay, do something right there, take accountability, learn, and grow. What an amazing thing. Seriously, that's actually dope.

That's actually dope. They got in your ass, didn't it? No, they really didn't. They were just like, hey, nobody was upset. They were like, just want you to know you got a friend in me. But I generalize, and not everybody's that way. So I just want to give them my shout out this week. My unexpected ally of the week is a gentleman named Lawrence

Bender. If you guys do not know who Lawrence Bender is, he is an award-winning producer. He's produced movies alongside Quentin Tarantino. He produced Reservoir Dogs. He produced Fresh. Quintrino didn't do that, but he produced it. He produced Pulp Fiction, produced Kill Bill, a lot of these movies. Lawrence Bender is also working with me on a short film that we wrote and got made called Two Distant Strangers. And it is a very, very powerful cultural film starring Joey Badass. And it's a, it's a movie that has to do with the specific space that we're in right now culturally. It was our goal to make this movie, my production company, six feet over productions with me, Trayvon Free and Nick May. It was our goal to make this movie without any money from white people. That's what we wanted to do. Okay? We feel short in that goal.

We had to record. But one of the guys who stepped in and was really a big part of helping us get the film off the ground and get the short finish was Lawrence Bender. So there are allies that are unexpected and sometimes allies when you don't even want allies. And I got to say shout out, shout out to Lawrence and shout out to all the other great partners that we had that have made this film.

Congratulations. That's what you call tooting your own horn and to shameless plug. Yeah, shameless plug. Two distant strangers. No, that's great though. That's great. You guys are going to see it pretty soon. All right.

A lot of stuff going on. We're going to be on top of all things that are happening in this culture. I want everybody to do this. I know everyone's disenchanted from the debate. Take a breath and do one thing. Access what being American means to you. Sometimes when you can't see the definition of your country or the virtue in your country and the people that might be chosen to represent it or

the people that are currently vying to represent it, sometimes it's best to fall back on what your definition of America is, what your definition of being an American is, and how you best live out that definition every single day of your life. Figure it out for yourself, and then maybe you'll be able to see it

in some of those other people because it's getting pretty hard right now. We're about to get out of here, Rachel, you got anything? Well said. No, no, no, no. Well said. Everybody, have a great weekend. Have a great weekend. We will see you guys next week. Take your thinking caps off.

Do not stop learning. I am Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay. We out.