Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Jonathan Majors Verdict, and Cultural Gatekeeping
Episode Date: December 19, 2023Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to the verdict in the Jonathan Majors trial (15:12), before discussing blaccents (39:46), Anthony Edwards’s leaked text messages (1:00:49), and criticism of the I...DF following the death of three Israeli hostages (1:26:14). Plus, actor Christian Keyes accuses a powerful figure of sexual harassment (1:41:34). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors.
What is that?
The High Learning is on.
It's Ivan Lathen, Jr.
And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay.
Rachel?
What?
How are you feeling?
A headache.
Me too.
I don't know.
I have a headache.
No, I thought I had a brain tumor.
I looked up the symptoms.
I had a headache.
Just from a headache?
Well, the headache lasted for like a couple of things.
days. Was it a migraine?
Maybe. Did you look up those symptoms
before you jump to brain tumor?
You and Kaleika have to figure something
out. Why the attack?
It must be really rough for you because you get it at home
and you get it at work from the
Why? This only thing I was it. Why the attack?
It's not an attack. Donnie, was that not an attack? Like I said, I was concerned
and I looked up brain tumor.
why isn't there a scintella of concern?
You know what it is?
The concern, maybe the delivery is wrong,
but the concern is you're jumping to the extreme
and I'm trying to save you some anxiety.
There are steps to it.
Why isn't the first thought migraine?
Why don't you check those symptoms
before jumping into something that is life-threatening?
That's why I'm like, I'm trying to like
bring in or like tone down your anxiety.
Okay.
But it's not, if you check for the brain tumor and no brain tumor, then everything else is, you know.
Did you go get a CT scan?
Got one coming up.
You're going to coming up Wednesday.
Have you been drinking a lot of water?
Not as much as I should.
Okay, that could be contributing to your headaches.
Might be dehydrated.
Yeah.
Like, there's so many things.
If you get the scan and there's no brain tumor, now we know what we need to work.
Are you going to get that full body scan that tells you everything that could possibly be wrong with you?
Yep.
What is it called? Brian did it?
Did he?
And it said the scan said, oh, you're sexy.
No, I just, I think for me that would give, that's, I don't understand that somebody with anxiety, why you would do that.
Because it's going to tell you every little thing.
It's the same thing with like Alzheimer's runs in my family and people get tested for that gene.
I don't want to know.
I don't want that cloud over me.
maybe I'll get it
because it doesn't mean you'll get it
but it means you could.
And so I just don't want to,
I just wouldn't want to function that way.
You might as well go get it
because you're going to forget anyway.
You know,
those jokes never really land the way
that you want them to.
It's like low hanging fruit.
For me, they do.
Because anybody else?
It's my only
defense response
to having
very real concerns about me weaponized in a very insensitive way.
You were so good at the victim mentality.
Oh, my God.
I had that down by like 92.
Are you fucking kidding me?
I had that down by like 92.
It definitely shows.
I'm good because I can vacillate from aggressor to why me in literally 15 seconds.
Somebody wouldn't even know that it was happening.
You and white people.
No, but white people do it differently, though.
See, white people...
Oh, how are they different from, from you?
See, white people aggress, right?
And then on that same aggression, ask why me.
See, I don't do that.
That's too white.
That's two Europeans.
See, I wouldn't come in here and take all of your water and then say,
why do you blame me for being thirsty?
I would never do that.
I think you've done some things.
like that.
Give me an example.
I don't have it in front of me.
Give me time.
Keep it on the playground.
Like Monique says, if you can't give me an example, I never do some shit and then blame you.
Well, Kalika might say differently.
But I don't do it in that way.
The way that I do it is, see what just happened earlier when you attacked me for no reason
at the beginning of the podcast, I managed to use that and then at the end take my power back.
It was, come on, man.
You got to deal with it.
took your power back by making fun of a disease that has been debilitating to the women on my side of the family.
In my family.
Do you know what's been debilitating the people in my family?
Anxiety.
Okay?
It runs in the family.
Right now somewhere my mom is listening to this.
And she's going, does my baby have a brain tumor?
Oh, my God.
Now, I'll tell you the story of how my mom reacted when we went to the community.
community center and my sister had sickle cell trade.
Wait, she went, she got tested, that she had it.
She didn't have sickle cell.
She just has the trait.
So I don't know if they're still doing this.
But as a part of young Negro youth, did you have this?
No, we talked about this in the podcast.
I don't ever recall doing this.
Okay, I'll say it one more time.
I don't know we talked about it.
See?
Forgetting stuff.
Maybe I need to.
So we go and we get the whole thing with the sickle cell trait, right?
You have to go in there and they test your blood.
Do you have sickle cell?
Do you have sickle cell trait?
Because if you have sickle cell trait, you might develop it.
Your kids might have it or something like that.
So we go there, man, no sickle cell.
I don't think.
That didn't get tested or whatever.
Ebony had sickle cell trait.
We're driving home and mom is silent.
Like she is silent.
And dad stops in the red light.
He goes, son, let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something right now.
I see your mama.
Your mama right now has sickle cell.
She was like, she has sickle cell, everything has sickle cell.
I have sickle cell.
We all have sickle cell.
There's no difference in what happened when the people told us we didn't have it.
and your mama believing that everybody in the car has sickle sale right now.
And for the next week, we all going to have sickle cell.
It's going to be a sickle cell house.
We're going to be drinking sickle cell herbs and watching sickle cell TV and doing sickle cell activities.
And so your mama gets it out of her system that we don't have sickle cell.
He was so frustrated because living with someone with anxiety in that way can be debilitary.
to the person that they are with.
Yes, yes.
And it's the same thing.
When you have anxiety, you always, you want to make it, I'm so scared.
But like, the people that are around you that are trying to tell you, that are trying
to tell you that it's okay, it's so tough for them.
And he didn't really know how to deal with it other than to kind of be a dickhead about
it in front of the whole car.
But it was, I laughed and I got in trouble.
Because as he was saying it, he was so upset.
He was so frustrated.
knew what was coming.
Because he knew that it was going to be, and he was right.
Sickle-Sell books.
I like a single-cell telephone.
A telethon.
It was like, for a second there, it was a sickle-cell-centric house.
But you know what?
You recognize it, though.
You recognize it in your mom, then you realize you're doing.
it as well.
I can't stop.
And you can't stop yourself.
I mean, the fact that you ordered
a CT scan is wild to me.
Also, you must have great insurance
because I would not be thinking,
let me just go.
Because those are,
that is expensive.
And so is the full body.
Called the doctor.
Do you all understand?
I've had full battery of tests.
Neurological exams.
At one point, I thought I had
Parkinson's disease.
And so I...
I'm exhausted.
What?
So I had...
So after I saw, what was the name of the movie where Old Boy was playing Stephen Hawking?
You know, don't look at me.
What's the name of the movie?
The theory of everything was that the joint?
So after I saw that, I was like, I just would look at my shit and try to work my shit.
I just, you know, make sure my shit was working.
That's got to be exhausting.
Like, I just can't imagine.
Like, I actually do feel bad for you because I can't imagine constantly living in a state of worry.
like that. Like I worry, but not over stuff like that. I'm actually probably the worst. I actually
could do better. I could use a little bit of you. I'd never go to the doctor. You don't care.
I think my anxiety shows up in different ways. I'm the opposite from you. I get scared of what could happen
rather than just ruling it out. Like it's scary to me. I'm like, oh, no, I'll be fine. Like I'll just,
you know, like drink some water, go to sleep rather than acting on it. So it's the opposite for me. So I have
anxiety too, but in a different way.
Rather than, yeah, I just don't go.
So understand that when you realize that someone is dealing with hereditary affliction,
such as anxiety, you know, being a hypochondriac, one time my mother, I don't want to tell
too much, but this is how we are.
And you know what?
It causes her to be one of the most.
in tune people to what you might be going through.
She's just like an empath.
And she's like literally the most precious person in the world
because she's so concerned with what might
and could be happening to you.
And that's part of the love thing.
So for me, somebody tells me,
I can't sleep.
I go, what do you feel like when you wake up?
Do you feel lightheaded, dizzy?
These are the things that it could be.
Let's go get checked out.
How, what amount of time do you spend Googling symptoms?
You know, it's been better lately.
Okay.
But it used to be a lot.
I googled the symptoms.
And you shouldn't do that, right?
Because everything is everything.
I Google symptoms, though.
Of course you do.
But then you don't do shit about it.
See, you're lazy.
Because I'm, no, because I'm scared.
No, truly, I'm telling you, as I'm talking to sound, I'm like, I have anxiety, but on the opposite end.
Anyways, I was in Houston this weekend.
That's what I was asking you about.
I was in Houston.
We celebrated my grandmother's life.
And, you know, it's like, it's so weird because, you know,
funerals are a weird thing because you're obviously super sad at the start of it.
And there's the processional.
And you view the body.
And it's very sad.
And then there's always a song that just like breaks you down.
And then people come to the microphone and they talk and they start telling stories.
And there's just like this moment of,
levity where like you're talking about thank goodness no one broke down when they were talking but
of like sharing memories and telling stories and like you're remembering that person in a completely
different way and it's like this moment of peace and then they play going up yonder and it hits you all
over again and then you go outside and then you're seeing everybody who came and then there's this
other light moment but then like in the back of your mind you're like but we're here for this reason
and this person's not here,
but then I'm so happy to see family that I haven't,
it's just like a roller coaster of emotions.
And then at times I feel guilty for being so, you know,
happy to see family because the reason we're here is because she's not here.
It's just a lot.
But it was a beautiful celebration of life.
And she went out in a beautiful way.
And yes.
So now it's as somebody said to me, it's just accepting the new normal.
Yeah, it's tough.
Yes.
I don't remember my father's funeral.
I remember like, but I was glazed over.
Oh, I'm sure.
I don't remember it.
Like, I don't.
There's like a whole gap in my memory from around that time.
Like I don't, for someone who has a pretty formidable memory, I don't.
I don't remember the feeling.
I don't remember very much.
It was just kind of like.
Maybe that was a way to protect yourself.
I don't know.
But what you're saying is true
because what ends up happening is
you start to put into context
just how much joy this person brought to everybody.
Yeah.
You know?
And it's like, oh man, what a great life.
Now, sometimes at funerals, it's more difficult.
Growing up in Baton Rouge, you know, sometimes people would check out at different times,
and maybe they're 24, 25, and it was violent.
And then the funerals about what they loved to do and what this means
and how we need to be strong together.
But for a woman who, 86 years old, that.
meant so much to everybody.
Everyone is probably like thinking about just how strong this presence was and what it meant
to everyone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was, yeah.
It was, it was nice.
And it would have been, she would have wanted family to be laughing and gathering and
connected.
And the legacy of my grandparents is just like our, that side of the family, I've never
seen anything like it.
And my uncle is actually in town.
My uncle came in town.
today or last night.
We went to dinner, went to steak 48, shout out to
Quincy, Q's.
It's cute dog, cute dog.
And...
Whole family in different cults, huh?
He's a Q-Dog. And it was just nice to have dinner and just
like we were just talking about it, everything and reminiscing
and just talking about our family and the connection.
And then, you know, it's just, there's just a lot of laughter.
It was really good to...
It's just, you know, we don't have family here.
So it's like good.
when family comes, it just feels different.
So especially after this weekend, I'm really happy that he's here.
I'm glad you're feeling well.
I looked at some of the pictures and you come from good Negro stock.
Let's get to the show.
On the other side of this, the big deal of the day.
Verdict in the Jonathan Major's case.
The playoffs are here and you can predict the action all the way to the final with
Banduil predict.
predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner.
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 inspires 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 fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms.
Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriatic arthritis?
which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling?
Does this sound like you?
Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away.
Trimphaya, gusalcomab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,
who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active
psoriotic arthritis.
Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur.
Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis.
Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine.
Imagine being a million miles away.
Explore what's possible.
Ask your doctor about Trimphia.
Tap this ad to learn more about Trimphia, including important safety information.
Okay, just so everybody knows, we are just getting this information.
Like, literally, we had a different big deal of the day picked for the podcast.
and Rachel was actually leaving.
I was on the street.
I was out the garage on the street.
Rachel was over.
And we came back in because as we were leaving,
a verdict has come out in the Jonathan Major's case.
We probably should have expected a verdict today.
We should have.
Because they got the case Friday.
Yeah.
And we should have known.
Right.
That's our fault.
The verdict for Jonathan Majors is guilty of assault and harassment.
He was acquitted on some of the other charges.
So there were, I think, four charges that Jonathan Majors was facing.
Two charges stemmed from what happened allegedly inside the car.
And let's go back through what the case is about.
Apparently, Grace Jabari, who is the victim in this case,
was right in the car with Jonathan Majors,
when Jonathan Majors received a text and the text said
how I wish to be kissing you right now.
This is what Grace Jabari testified to.
She saw that and she
according to her testimony, grabbed his phone
when she saw that text.
And after grabbing his phone, she alleges
that he grabbed the phone back,
pried her finger off of the phone
and then hit her
about the head
to get the phone away from her.
That happened inside the car.
Outside of the car, there was then another assault charge that stemmed from what she believed, what she said, was Jonathan Majors picking her up and forcefully putting her back inside of the car.
All right. So to everything, a third degree assault charge of him picking her up, excuse me, a third degree assault charge of him hitting her inside the car, harassing her inside the car.
both of those things he was found not guilty on.
What he was found guilty on
was the contact that happened outside the car
when he pushed her, picked her up
and put her back inside of the car
and the harassment that is subsequent from that.
He's found guilty of one count of assault,
one kind of harassment acquitted
of two other counts of assault,
so two other counsel of assault he was acquitted from,
and aggravated harassment
and a split verdict.
So this is a split verdict.
Pull your laptop to you a little bit.
This was a split verdict.
I'm reading right now from ABC News.
ABC News has the latest on this.
They say that the mixed verdict signals
the jury believed majors
recklessly assaulted his ex-girlfriend
but did not intentionally do so.
Again, the mixed verdict also suggests
that the jury did not believe
Majors intentionally committed
aggravated harassment inside of the
SUV, but did believe
he harassed her outside
of the vehicle by picking her
up off the ground and throwing her back
inside. Majors did not
appear to react as the verdict was read.
He stood with his lawyers
basing the jury as the four women
announced the verdict on each of the four
counts.
I am
interested
in what this means.
Prosecutors claimed that Majors inflicted
a manipulative pattern of psychological abuse
and physical abuse on Jabari
that culminated in the incident in the SUV
that left her with a cut
behind her ear and a broken finger.
Prosecutor Michael Perez said
during opening statements that Majors
grab and squeeze her hand,
her middle finger specifically, and then struck a blow
that swiped across the right side of her head.
He was acquitted for all of that.
That's the thing.
Yeah.
If you're saying that there was no intention behind it, then how do you explain her injuries?
They're not.
They're not.
And they were asked to.
The jury was asked to do that.
And they believe that the evidence doesn't show that, as presented, that he intentionally did those things.
Now they're saying he was reckless in it.
So there's saying that his reckless behavior could have attributed to some of those injuries.
you know, an example, not saying this
what the jury was saying, but an example of like,
he squeezed her hand trying to push her back in,
maybe didn't realize how hard he squeezed it.
Or maybe in pushing her back in, like another injury occurred.
He was reckless in his behavior,
but he did not, that his intention was not to hurt her.
So this is the bottom line.
Jonathan Majors is guilty of assault.
And harassment.
And harassment.
But not in the way that he was being accused, ultimately.
Well, and let's not forget
I'm accused by the state
Accused by the state of New York not by her
she did not want to proceed with charges
so like that's important to
note as well
but
yes
but I don't know if that it's
if this was
think of like negligence
right so like you didn't
intentionally intend to
you know
hit someone with your car
but you were reckless in it
you're still, you're still,
I mean, no,
your actions,
they're still saying,
the intent is not there,
but they're still saying
your actions were the result
of these injuries.
That is what the jury is saying for sure.
Okay.
The reason behind your actions
is the difference,
but they're saying the way you behaved
caused her resulted in an injury to her.
That's what they're saying.
What does this mean for us?
Who's us?
Higher learning, black people, what do you say?
Not us, not black people, not higher learning.
Let's talk about what trials like this are oftentimes about.
Grace Joubar is a victim here.
She is now officially deemed by law a victim of assault.
I keep repeating this over and over again,
and I don't want it or mean it to sound selfish.
But there are two different things that are on trial here.
One is Jonathan Majors as a man, a partner, and a human being.
The other is Jonathan Majors as a public entity that people can invest into, be a fan of, and support.
Those are the two things that are on trial.
Anytime there is a prominent person that is on trial, those are the two things that are on trial.
Because the answers that you're looking for from someone, from the law, should I say, are answers about their conduct,
but also answers about how you go forth
in supporting or not supporting them
because that's what people are talking about.
We are trying to set a standard
where abusers,
rapists, sexual harassers,
coons, political bad actors
don't have the same platforms
that they've had
over the course of these past decades or centuries, really.
And that's kind of what a lot of stuff is about.
The question is,
this verdict giving the answers to whether or not
it's okay to be in the business of Jonathan Majors
because
the way it reads
and this is
and hopefully Matt Bellany
or Megan Cuniff or somebody
the way it reads
the verdict reads is that this was a situation
that got out of control
and not a situation
where he beat the shit out of her
right because punching her
and breaking her finger
and all of that stuff inside of the car
they say he didn't do that
pushing her back into the car
and then running away
which making contact with her
is definitely assault
and the harassment
I'm not minimizing any of it
I'm saying that
the split verdict
kind of doesn't answer any questions
well it never was going to
not for the court not for the
court of public opinion because in the court of public opinion, people make up their minds before
a verdict even happens. We saw that with Tori and Megan. I've copped to my own feelings about that.
So whether he was found fully guilty on four, three out of the four, two, one, none, I don't think
it would have given anybody the answers. I know, and we've discussed this on the podcast, you wanted it
to give you answers, or you were asking what are you supposed to take from this?
But that again, and I think that was my original response to you, that's a personal decision.
Because just because they're found not guilty doesn't necessarily mean they're innocent.
It doesn't.
I know, but what?
And that's why I say it's personal.
That's what I, as human beings, when you do, when you, when you practice law, it's, they always say you're applying black and white letter law to the issue, right?
But as humans, we don't do that.
We function in the gray because of,
our emotions get there. So it's hard to say that humans are going to react the same way
that you would in a legal capacity. You don't because there's emotion and there's feelings and
there's personal bias attached to a situation that you're not supposed to have. The law is
supposed to be void of that. The jury is supposed to be void of that. So it's hard to say that
a jury that is supposed to be void of any type of emotion and feelings that is applying the
laws it's written to the evidence that's given to them,
it's supposed to then make you decide as a human being
who doesn't function that way and tell you what to do,
I just don't think that you can reconcile those two.
Does that make sense?
It does.
I mean, it does.
My confusion from this comes from,
not my confusion.
My questions from this come from this space of solidarity.
Right, like what you're asked to do or what you're expected to do.
you're expected to put your morals and your best intellectual foot forward in terms of how you view people who hurt people.
And the box you put them in, the way in which you regard them.
That's what you're being, that's what you're being asked to do.
Just, hey, this is a fucked up niggins.
Okay, well, we don't let fucked up diggas in the party.
Hey, there's a fucked up lady.
Okay, well, we don't let, we don't let fucked up ladies in the party.
this person is this way, this person is that way.
Okay, well, they can't come.
That's what we're trying to do.
We're trying to make sure that we're around
and exposing people to the fewest amount of fucked up people that we can.
The question is, how do we decide that somebody's fucked up?
It's personal.
But that can't be the answer.
Because, you know what I'm saying?
It's like that.
Okay, but it's.
Because we're making cultural and societal determinations on people
based upon how we support
things that we do in the conversation.
So then don't question it.
He was found guilty.
His behavior.
So if that's how you want to apply,
because I don't think it's possible.
I do think it's personal.
But if you want to draw a line,
a jury of six people found him guilty
on two out of the four.
They said that he's not bad
as in he planned or intentionally
was like, I'm going to hurt her in this way.
But he used a level of force
and was reckless in the way that he applied it,
that resulted in some injury towards her.
That is what a jury decided.
So if you want to draw a line,
his reckless behavior caused an injury.
And he's guilty of that.
So if you want to,
and take all emotion out of it,
how would you, what would you,
how do you take that?
So somebody who's not doing something intentionally, right?
But you were reckless in how you did that.
So this is the entire way that I look at.
And you guys hear the phone blowing up.
Everybody's talking about this right now.
So.
Your phone phone phone.
Yeah, everyone is discussing this right now.
Everyone's talking about it.
I look at this verdict as honestly giving Jonathan Majors the opportunity to address some things about himself.
I think he has a chance.
That there are issues.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think this verdict is not.
I mean, for some people it will be, but, you know.
Don't you think we have to wait to the sentencing to see?
I mean, maybe.
Because he could go to jail.
So, I mean, if he goes to jail, then...
Well, then I'm saying, what's the message, right?
Because a judge...
I doubt that he goes to jail.
Okay.
He's facing up to a year.
Right.
I doubt that he goes to jail.
But I do think that if people that are interested in knowing what happened here,
interested in understanding what happens here,
And by the way, we need to kind of delve into these issues a little bit.
Just here on the podcast, we need to have a more robust conversation about well, all of this means.
Like, what it means to be an abuser, what it means to be a victim, what it means to be a, we need to have a more robust conversation about this.
Because it's clear that as a 43-year-old man that has been around people that have been a victim of all different types of violence,
but I still don't have the first fucking clue of what it means,
how serious the issue is, the toll that it takes,
and all the different micro ways that the issue can affect people
and change their lives.
It's just obvious that I have so much more learning and work to do.
And I apologize for the audience.
But it's just like, I got too many questions to be as old as I am.
It's just a fact.
But in my opinion, there's a version of this to where he got mad at her and he beat her up.
And he's like, hey, you try to grab my phone, who you think you are, punch you in your shit, break your finger, he beat her up.
Obviously, there was some kind of physical shit that happened.
But there are rational people that can look at this and go that it all happened.
under the framework of wrestling over a phone or trying to get away or trying to put her back
in the car or whatever. And the whole non-in-that-it was an incident that got out of control
and it doesn't necessarily paint him as an abuser is what I'm saying.
A physical abuser or because that's, it doesn't mean that because you're using abuser in general.
Abuser in general. That's true. So what I'm saying is to that. What we do know is they're still
bit some video, excuse me, some audio, that doesn't sound very good. And text messages that don't
sound very good, don't look very good, right? And if you ask me what this represents, I think that
Jonathan Majors is probably going to be able to resume his career in some capacity. Like,
I think that this is probably going to be a thing to where I think King and the Disney thing is going.
I just don't think Disney's going to be able to sell it to the house.
of Miles that someone that has been found guilty of assault in any way is going to be able
to make family movies or whatever, right?
But I think that moving forward, he's going to have the opportunity because this isn't
the harshest that it could have been to move on with his career and continue to achieve
as an actor.
The question will be how much work that he does not in front of the screen, but how much work
Jonathan does on himself.
Oh, wow.
Jesus Christ.
Can I pick that up?
That was the most
fucking relentless
stomach growl.
That was an inward fart.
I'm not going to lie.
That was crazy.
That was an inward fart.
I haven't eaten today.
Yeah, I haven't either.
But you don't hear my stomach over here.
But yeah, so I think that
you know, between
Jonathan,
Grace Jabari,
who he probably still owes something to
in terms of
whatever
psychological
scars that she has from
all of this,
I think he probably is going to be afforded
the opportunity to move on
in a way that he might have not been
and the question will be how he goes about it.
The question will also be,
we're taking the time
to note that there were four counts
that not just read a headline that he's found guilty
to realize that he was found guilty
two out of the four and lesser charges
than two out of the than the other two.
Also taking the time to note that the intention
is removed, as in that it wasn't intentional,
that it was a reckless behavior,
not excusing it, just saying that that's why they're lesser charges.
We're taking the time to do that.
The question is, when you're talking about
the court of public opinion, will people take the time to do that? I'm not, I hope that in some
capacity, he's, or just, I hope period, not in some capacity, I hope that he's able to work again
for in his profession. But do I think that people are going to really take the time to understand
what it is that he's charged for, what it means, the work that he, that there is work that needs
to be done. We noted that before on a prior podcast, like there's clearly some issues there that he
needs to work on. Will people give him
that grace
and understanding of what he
was convicted of and
what has to happen
thereafter? I don't know.
Especially if
Disney does remove him, then there's
another headline. Oh, Disney
has removed him.
Put them on speaker.
That's Charlotte, Maine.
Never mind.
I don't do that.
Yeah.
I'm just telling you,
we're asking a lot of questions,
and it's seemingly that we're not getting
as many answers as we like.
And I think really, guys,
and just to be honest with you,
there's a part of this as cowardly on my part.
I was looking for an easy answer
so that I didn't have to make any decisions for myself.
That's something I normally don't do.
In this case, I'll cop to that,
that that's something that I was doing here.
I wanted someone else to make the decision about,
this for me.
I keep telling people
and everyone keeps
it's like,
you know,
capitalism is like a
like a really, really, really,
really, really powerful thing.
Now I'll tell you why. I say that.
This will be the last thing I say on this.
Is that
I've tried to articulate it before, but
who someone is
is oftentimes
more valued by the productivity that they have.
If your talent is amazing, right?
We love talent.
Like we love watching somebody who can sing or dance or do it,
stuff like this.
There's human beings.
A lot of times things don't have much meaning.
And when we see someone who can deliver beauty,
it makes us feel like all of the world makes sense, right?
When you hear somebody, oh, my God, this person is fucking terrible,
whatever, but Jesus Christ, they can do something and it touches your soul
and it makes you go, oh, my God, being alive is worth it.
because sometimes in life we prioritize beauty over pain,
like the high you can feel is prioritized over the low that you can feel sometimes.
Sometimes.
Now, we remember the pain better than we remember the beauty,
but we're searching for the beauty so much that sometimes it's difficult to know that,
hey, this beauty comes with a lot of stuff on the other side of it.
And so when we see someone who's capable of performing the way of Jonathan can perform,
we want to not believe
that they're capable of other things.
Here, it's interesting because
I think what people wanted
to not be that type of hypocrite
was for someone to say, yeah, he did this.
Okay, so he did this,
and so now you have to decide, whatever.
The mixed bag of it
makes you go, all right,
what level of this are you okay with?
Like, what would you want to see happen?
Like, if I watched the movie
with Jonathan Majors right now,
like, would I have a thing?
My mind, like, okay,
okay, that's the guy that did this or that's a guy that did that.
And honestly, the answer is like, no.
Like, I'm not going to look at him as the guy who beat up Grace Yarbarre.
Because that's not what he was charged with.
Because, but he kind of was.
He was charged with beating her up inside of the car.
He's charged with being reckless or careless.
And the only reason I say that, and I'm not trying to defend it,
it's you could excuse it away.
Because from what we saw in the video, right,
take the driver's testimony that said he didn't attack her.
You see him forcefully pushing her back into the car,
and then you see him running away.
An argument could be made that he was reckless in the force that he used.
He was careless.
And the force that he used,
but he also could have been defending himself
in a way to get away from her.
I'm just like trying to get away.
Right, because if he had wanted to,
I'm just going to keep it all the way.
If he had wanted to beat the shit out of her right there, he could have.
And the jury found him not guilty on that.
So you're not being wrong in saying that.
So what I'm saying is,
is you can explain to yourself as you're watching it.
It was a toxic relationship.
It was a volatile situation.
He was trying to get away.
He used too much force and he was careless and how he used it and he ran away.
And that's what he's being charged for.
That's what he, I mean, not charged, convict.
That's what he was convicted on.
So they were fighting and he was used force to get away.
That's what he's being convicted of.
So I can see how you can reason that or even why you're stuck with,
or you wanted the easy answer of he intentionally is a bad person who did this or we believe the evidence shows nothing.
I can see why you would want that.
Well now, this basically means that it is now going to be on Jonathan after he has sentenced, of course, to make his case in the public, talk to people.
You know, there's just been other stuff that's been discussed.
And so that's going to be a part of of however he gets not his career back on track,
but his life back on track because this has been destabilizing to him.
And we all have moments where we need to take stock and look at who we are.
And I guess it's one of those for Jonathan Majors, man.
And I do want to note that we are speaking in the context more so of this incident.
I'm not talking about
when I talk about
him getting away and stuff, I'm not talking about
that there's an issue with the way he was talking to
in those text messages or
in the audio recording. That's a whole
another issue which is why when I said abuse,
what abuse are we talking about? Because it can be
more broad than that. And there obviously
is some work that needs to be done. I just want to be very
clear, speak into the case.
Right. Did you know
about one in three people with plaques psoriasis
may also develop psoriotic arthritis,
which causes joint
pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million
miles away. Trimphaya, guselcomab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with
moderate to severe plaques psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy,
and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections
and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections
and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine.
Imagine being a million miles away.
Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trimfaya.
Tap this ad to learn more about trimfaya, including important safety information.
This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business.
And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes,
connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based
support.
Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business.
So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more.
Restrictions apply.
Services not available in all areas.
All right.
From there, we're going to move on to Black Sense and what they mean is happening again.
Okay, there's a woman named.
Tray So.
It never stopped happening.
We're making famous because she sounds like a Negro.
Started an entire conversation.
She is from Georgia.
And she is an Asian lady.
I think she's Thai.
Okay.
Donnie, do we know she Thai?
She says she's from Thailand.
So yes.
From Thailand.
So we're going to take a word for that, Johnny.
Donnie, I almost called you Joviere.
And she went viral because this clip,
she's a very pretty lady,
this clip of her drop and this is how she was talking.
First of all,
what?
Yes, I have an accent because I ain't from here.
I was born in Thailand
and I grew up in Georgia for a decade.
And then I fucking moved to Nebraska.
Ain't she over there, by the way?
How de hell y'all gonna tell me
how I'm supposed to sound like?
Do you want me to speak in broken English,
bitchling bitch?
the fuck?
Or would you like for me to speak formally to you, sir?
Fuck out of here, man.
So that was her,
sounding like a little baby.
Like five different people.
You don't think so?
There were several accents within there.
I mean, if you guys ever been down to Georgia,
different parts, Georgia,
the Atlanta surrounding area,
the only thing she was missing was the goddamns.
Shout out to the homies from Atlanta
who, when you talk to them,
man, van, we come over here
from the goddamn,
situation the goddamn
Donnie, how many goddams do you hear
from the homies in Atlanta?
It'll be every other
sense or something like that, but it also
depends, because there's also a lot of transplants
in Atlanta too.
So there's like people who
have lived here for a long time. It might have
picking up things, but
they also don't like, aren't full on
Atlanta. So the people
that are transplants to Atlanta, they don't say
the godams. I don't hear from them.
But if you've been there for a long enough time,
them goddams be coming out the goddams is around she didn't have it the second audio dropped of her
this what she sounded like ben thought i picked some words for my previous video and the first word is axe
a day is old fervour scourri screech screep scred it's an easy one thank rule and a bonus wrong
and on
on on
Mm-hmm
Okay so she's dragging
Okay
She's dragging
So what happened
Let's just be real
What happened was
She went viral
Because of the way
Of the first video
And then the second video
She's dragging
Now
I talk to Charlemagne all the time
And
Charlemagne says
Shrimp is scrimp
It's all of that
He's a real
Gitchie
That's how he talks?
Yeah, that dude is from South Carolina.
It's a real geichi dude from Monks Corner, South Carolina.
You talk to other people, that's how they sound.
So she knows that she's, in my opinion,
she knows that's how she's supposed to sound.
She's dragging.
All right.
That's why I said five different places.
She sounds like five different accents.
People don't say that in Texas, in Louisiana, in Georgia.
It's like five different accents.
Okay.
So, you know, people, once you start to go viral,
people were looking for more content
okay got a new virus what do we got to do
see where they've been i see where they go
what school do they go to who their mom is
where they go so this video popped up donnie
i decided to go on my little run
and this is the beginning
you probably wondering how I ended up here
let me tell you something
chick fillet actually ran into me
this is me after finishing my meal and running back
moral of the story don't have what going around with tray
does she sound like
uh
She does not sound like one and two.
She don't sound like one and two.
So this started kind of a conversation on the net.
All right, let me tell you what the conversation is.
There are some people that are like, hey, she can't control how she sounds.
She comes from a place in Atlanta.
She moved there or around Georgia.
And that's how she sounds.
And it's more on us because we're fascinated that this Asian lady
sounds like us.
Like that's the thing.
And then, you know,
other people were like,
hey,
we can't gate keep the way we talk.
Um,
it's bad.
And then the third conversation and the most prevalent one is,
what do we do about people that are cosplaying parts of black culture
for the purpose of clout and getting followers and blowing up?
is this the same conversation that was had about aquafina?
Is this the same conversation that, you know,
we have about different people who co-opt different aspects of black culture
to gain attention for themselves?
Well, yeah.
I mean, when you line up all three,
it'd be different if you heard these videos separately,
but when you line up all three videos together
and you hear the last video,
which is the oldest of the videos from my understanding,
And doing a, I did a deep dive into her.
She must have erased a lot of her videos.
Like she's changed her TikTok names or social media names.
It was hard to find a lot of videos on her where she's talking.
So a lot of non-talking videos and maybe for this very reason.
When you line up all three videos together, it's very clear that she did not always talk with this accent.
Or I say accents.
So she's doing it.
You ask, is it similar to the aquafina?
Absolutely.
And it becomes this conversation of cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation.
I think in the case of Traceau and Aquafina, it's obviously cultural appropriation because you're doing it for clout.
You're using what you think to be something that's a part of another person's culture and you're misusing it for clout.
Right? That's what Aquafina was doing.
She didn't even talk like that anymore.
And that's exactly what Trayso was doing.
And so if you go back to the gatekeeping,
what you were talking about,
whether or not you should do it,
I think that gatekeeping is necessary in instances like this.
Because I think that when people are talking about gatekeeping
and whether or not this should be done
in specific to the instances with Trasso and Aquafina,
I think that gatekeeping is necessary
to prevent cultural appropriation.
And I think that you have to.
You can appreciate somebody's culture
without pretending to be like them.
It's a totally different thing.
I've said before that I don't mind
when other people braid their hair.
Would you gatekeep on that?
Would you get keep?
Do you think we should gatekeeping on hair braiding?
Okay, this is what I think.
You're going to gatekeep.
You're totally gay.
Like, a couple of things.
Number one, I don't know where people grew up,
and sometimes people grew up,
and they talk like where they grow up.
So I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know about her.
Aquafina is from Flushing Queens.
I don't know what the deal is.
Right.
Like Paul Wall.
Okay.
Paul Wall.
Perfect example.
Paul Wall, perfect example.
Other guys that grew up around us that weren't black, sometimes they talk like this.
Okay.
Two things I have a problem with in this situation.
Number one, there's a lot of Cooninin'n going on here.
She's a pretty Asian lady.
And because she talks like she's black or her.
she uses a black scent, you have to then make her famous in a very specific way.
What we have to stay away from to me is romanticizing non-black people who we think are good at
doing black things. What's the deal? Like why? Why is it so awesome when some little white
kid dances like they're Chris Brown? Playing little black kids that dance like they're Chris Brown.
Why don't we make it sure that they have what they need? Why is it such a
big deal that this is the deal. It's unexpected. Oh, cool. There's an oddity. Cool. Move on.
Now to make someone into a cultural phenomenon, it doesn't make any sense. That's number one.
Number two is, of course culture should be gatekeeping. Of course culture should be gaycapped.
Culture by definition is gatekeeping. It's a set of things that one group of people do for some
reason. Most of the time when you're building a culture, the reasons why you do things are out of
necessity. It's out of necessity to keep family structures together. It's out of necessity to eat in a
certain way, to sing in a certain way. Let's just take black culture. Most of the things that we do
in black culture, they've come from us, from the cultural ingenuity of people that have made
due with less, right? So even if we talk about the food that we eat, they're documenting.
minories, books, all types of reading about this.
Why do we eat the food that we eat?
Some of it comes down from traditions that were passed on from the land from whence we came.
But other parts of it are, hey, this is what we got.
We're going to make it into something great.
So that's what we do.
So for us, our survival mechanism and our mechanism for an American life or an American identity can't be just done
by somebody else for fun.
There has to at least be a conversation
about why we do it
and why you're doing it. And by the way,
everyone feels that way.
Everybody feels
that way about their culture.
If this was a black person
that had grown up in a
primarily Asian place
and was speaking with what people
would consider to be
a heavy Asian
influence accent, there would be
people that would say,
why are you doing that? It's like, why are you doing that? Like, why? Like, and that's okay. A culture is
for a people. It is okay to gatekeep your culture. Not only is it okay to gatekeep your culture,
you should gatekeep it. You, I had, I had somebody say, everybody wants their culture shared.
Everyone wants their culture share. Someone hit me up on Twitter. It was like, that's not true.
Everybody wants their culture shared. Everybody wants their culture diffused. His thing,
when you say share, that denotes agency.
Yeah, I can share my culture.
I can elect to share it.
I can say, hey, come on in here.
Try some of the food.
I can say, hey, I'll sell this.
You can buy it.
I can say, hey, all this, I can share my culture.
But the question becomes for black people is have we shared our culture?
or has our culture been taken and sold other places?
So that's where I think it becomes difficult.
I do think that you should use gatekeeping to an extent,
and this is what I was trying to say earlier.
I think gatekeeping is necessary in order to prevent somebody
from whitewashing your culture.
For example, I've said before that I don't really have a problem
with other people wearing braids,
but braids is obviously something that is specific to our culture.
it meant something historically, the braiding aspect.
But then when you have other people wear braids and then it's deemed, I think it was Kim Kardashian,
it was like, oh, or Bo Derek, or they were wearing braids and they called it, they called it
something different.
They changed the name of cornrows to something different.
I can't remember what the name was it was.
That's why it's important to gatekeep because you're erasing what it meant to the culture
that created it.
So I do agree that gatekeeping is necessary.
You can say the same thing about Native Americans, right?
Came in, Native American culture.
Europeans came over here.
We know the history and that.
They put them in school to take away their culture and teach them to be more European, white.
But then they took their culture and mocked it and commercially sold it to us from their whitewashed version of it,
which was incorrect and inappropriate.
So I do think that it is necessary in order to keep the culture, the culture, the
culture of what it's meant for. The question I have is to what extent do we gatekeep? Like,
how far do you go? Does it go with everything? You know, are, I see a lot of people wear Hina.
Like, do apply Hina. Is that only specific to that culture? People do yoga, practice yoga. Is that
specific to that culture where other people shouldn't be doing it? Like, how far do you extend
gatekeeping? Like, where's the line? Is it just, is it all,
or nothing, or is there somewhere to meet in the middle?
Obviously, there's somewhere to meet in the middle, right?
So there are cultural inventions that people have come up with, right?
And then those cultural inventions become worldwide phenomenon.
Right?
I ate Chinese food like last week.
I don't think that eating Chinese food, shout out to Gingas Cohen.
It's American-Irish food, but it's very good.
Okay, I don't think that that's necessarily a problem.
cuisine, things like that, right?
But there has to be a conversation and there has to be agency.
Yoga is brought to America.
People are yoga practitioners.
The way of life, the health benefits, all of that stuff,
and benefit people.
The benefit people.
It's fine.
It's cool.
Whatever.
So long as we understand where yoga comes from,
who invented yoga,
and the importance of yoga.
as a cultural invention of said people.
That doesn't happen with black people.
It doesn't happen.
Our ingenuity, our cultural ingenuity is not respected.
You just said it.
It becomes, hey, look at the fact that Kim Kardashian invented wearing Jordans.
Hey, look at the fact that, who, you ever seen anybody do the moonwalk?
Justin Timberlake is reinventing the moonwalk.
there's stuff like that and it's like they're fucking with us.
And we know, by the way, that there are many things that we have done that we just kind of get written out of.
So the reality is, if you don't want your gates crashed, you need to keep them.
If you don't want your party ransacked and people just come in there and steal all your chips, go over to your house and then say it's their party, you need to keep your gates.
And I think people get upset and annoyed when black people gatekeep because black people are expected to surrender every aspect of who they are for consumption by the American dominant culture.
Which is how we got here.
And so because we don't do that sometimes.
Oh, we can't gate keep.
And then other black people, I want to know why she sound like this.
Now, if she grew up and, you know, she got adopted by Escape or something like that, and she was in Atlanta, it's fine.
But I want to know why she sounded like this.
And by the way, her talking like a black person or speaking in a black scent is not a reason to make her into a star.
I didn't realize she became a star.
That's something I want to point out.
When you were like, oh, people are saying she's, I thought she went viral for the wrong reason.
I did not realize people were fascinated by the fact that she told.
talks like this. To me, it is very obvious that she is not talking how she would normally talk.
I didn't even need to see the videos for that. Sorry if I'm assuming. I knew that she was putting on
an accent. But to me, I think that this, because I talk about the line, I think this is very simple.
Appreciation versus appropriation. It's very simple. Listen to the music, eat the food, but don't try to be that.
that's to me that that's just
it's that simple.
Don't try to be that.
Why are you trying to be black
or what you think is black?
Once you step into that space,
know that you're appropriating it.
It comes off as if you're mocking us,
which is also rooted in history.
People speaking,
menstrual shows,
what they think black people sound like.
It's so deep rooted to me.
It's very obvious.
It's like just not saying the N-word.
I have no problem with gay people.
Okay.
Other cultures, gatekeep their cultures, very directly.
I'll let you know, okay?
Gatekeeping to me is a sign of cultural power.
So if you guys are mad that Van is gatekeeping, fuck you.
No, no, fuck you.
I'm not going to fuck you.
I'm going to keep.
I'm going to gatekeep black culture.
Not only am I going to gatekeep black culture.
I'm going to gatekeep.
Because remember, black culture is both the shared experience of black American culture.
I'm not gatekeeping any black.
culture that exists in the islands or in Africa or anything.
Black American culture is both the shared American culture of 40 million some odd black
people that live here, but it's also subsets of it, right?
So if I hear bounce music, I'm from South Louisiana.
If I hear bounce music in a song, somebody sampled Magnolia Shardie or Big Frida.
Drake.
Drake, right?
You're talking about Drake.
I want people to, not just Drake, but Beyonce too.
But like, I want people to know where the fuck that came from.
That's our shit.
And to be honest with you, even more than being our shit, when you say South Louisiana,
it's New Orleans and shit.
Yeah, it is.
Because there, because there, we listen to Bounce in Baton Rouge, hugely listen to it.
But for the most part, that's the music of the city.
So I want people to know that that's Bounce music that came from that city that's now being put on
because Bounce has to live
and order for it to live
and thrive in New Orleans.
It has to be associated with New Orleans.
Yeah.
That ratchet shit,
that's from bad rules.
But here's the thing
when you're like,
you're completely gatekeeping.
So you have a problem with white rappers.
No.
As long as...
Explain.
You got to have a problem
with Iggy Azalea.
Yeah, because that was,
that was an imposter.
I have a problem.
See, that's what I'm talking about.
See, the Iggy Azalea thing
is a thing to where...
First of all, hip hop, just to be honest with you.
Hip hop is a black American and Latino creation, okay?
But there are a lot of people that were invested and involved
into the beginnings of hip-hop, right?
A lot of people from a lot of diverse backgrounds
made contributions to hip-hop early on, okay?
That's black culture, that's black music, no doubt.
But hip-hop has always been,
especially when it started to kind of rise
in the early 80s, early of the mid-year-old.
hip hop has always been something to where it's been sampled with other artists have been sampled
other music expenses it's always been something that is that so i don't have a problem with white
rappers i think hip hop is actually a deeper story and i would like to shout out right now both ninth wonder
and sway who i've had conversations with about this and who do a great job of of detailing
and expressing just how varied all forms of hip hop expressing have been for a long time all right i don't
have a problem with white rappers. What I do have a problem with, though, is someone who would be
white and would be in a black art form and wouldn't pay homage to the fact that it is a black
art form. That's it. That's it. It's a black art form. It's black. It's black art form. You're doing
some black shit. You're blacking it up. That's fine. That's cool. It's very, it's not just black.
It's very specifically black.
Like it's specifically black.
You know?
A guitar is a guitar.
But the way you play that motherfucker could be either like Muddy Waters or it could be like
motherfucking Keith Richards, who even Keith Richards is playing guitar like the black people that inspired him to play guitar.
Again, would you gatekeep that?
I mean, you can't keep it to the dude.
I don't want people not to be able to do.
My point is it gets sticky, is what I'm saying.
Like, it's hard to draw a clear.
line. That's my point.
All right. Anthony Edwards, are you familiar with him?
I know he is.
He's one of the most sensational basketball players on the planet.
Hmm.
He is.
I'm not going to, I'm not going to say anything about his professional,
his professional career.
Donnie? Yeah.
What's your opinion of AE as a basketball player?
I'm not saying he's good.
He's good.
One to watch.
The future MVP of the league.
I don't disagree with this.
The Minnesota Timber Wolves,
right now one of the best teams of the league, maybe the best team in the league.
Okay, they made it work.
80, Kat, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert.
They're making it work up there in many, many, Minnesota.
Shout out to Prince, rest and peace.
He was going viral this weekend because texts were released,
that looked like he was pressuring a woman to have an abortion.
Now, we know that these texts.
surreal because Anthony Edwards has
respond. I'm going to read some of the texts.
Okay? Between him
and an IG model,
her name is Paige.
Paige Jorday.
She claimed that he impregnated her.
Impregnated is a very funny word.
It's very formal for
the term that means nutting in someone.
Okay, but just keep going.
You don't find that funny?
Well, I don't normally say that either.
That's not how I refer to it either.
But think about that, though.
They got her pregnant is what I would normally say.
I wouldn't say.
Let me tell you why that's not good enough, okay?
Because got her pregnant isn't, it doesn't really get to where we're going.
Because you want a visual.
It's not true.
No, it absolutely is true.
It gets to where you're going.
Impragnated means exactly that.
Okay.
Got her pregnant means exactly that.
But you got, I don't need anymore.
To me, you want the physical act.
No, to me, when you're talking about this and you're talking about the level of maybe
irresponsibility or reckless.
you have to think about the fact that there was a
most likely.
Fans, people know how babies are made.
I know, but we just talk about like,
hey, people had sex and then a baby came from the sex.
Like, I get it.
But for him to act this way, you have to remember
that he took the time to fully nut in this one.
You're a pervert.
Okay.
You understand what I'm saying?
No.
No.
I feel like it's, it's unlawful.
I think sometimes we make it a little too cute.
Like, oh my God, they had sex, but like, there's things that you do during sex that stop something like this.
It's not story time.
It's an article.
So you don't need to get into every little detail of how it happened.
We get the point.
She's pregnant.
She was.
So she hits them up with, uh, this is, looks like it's through text here or Instagram DM.
I'm not sure I thought it's text.
It's text.
And she has a clear blue easy.
And the thing about clear blue is it's never easy.
That bitch is hard, man.
Because some hard decisions have to come after that clear blue situation on both sides normally.
And it's like, I have an appointment on the 27th.
And he says, hell, no, I can't do this.
She goes, so now what?
Great response.
He goes, so now what?
And he goes, get an abortion.
She didn't reply.
He said, get an abortion laugh out loud.
Please, that's important.
But it was a lowercase L.O.
Okay, but that's important.
Keep going.
So it wasn't like,
get an abortion,
L-O-L.
And then it says,
honestly, I had an abortion
with my son around two years ago
and I regret it every day.
Man, you can't force a kid in the world,
is what we said.
You don't know what it is yet.
She goes, that's not the point.
I had an abortion two years ago
and I regret it.
And she goes, being cool to you
is just going to get the abortion by myself
and you're not having to do shit
and going about your day.
That's being cool to you.
Obviously, you've been through this before, just by your reaction.
He says, I will send you money to help you out.
I didn't ask for it, but okay.
You just don't want a baby?
Is that why you're saying all this?
Because I've been cool with you.
I don't want kids.
Let's handle this like grownups.
Okay, I'm not trying to force you to be a dad to a baby you don't want.
It's don't like abortions.
That doesn't make me wrong.
If you really don't want to do this, then I'm fine.
I won't.
And then it cuts ready.
He goes, just take the pills.
And she goes, you don't care about nobody but you.
you got your money what's the hold up.
Now, this is the part where it gets interesting.
Apparently, there was a $100,000 sum that was paid
from him to her for her to get the abortion.
I don't have to go back and forth
through all the rest of these messages.
He then demands that she sends a video
as some sort of proof that she had to abortion.
I'm not sure what the deal was proof.
She got the pill.
And he was like, send the video that you got the pills.
That you got the pills.
Send a video that you got the pills too.
Or maybe that she took the pills too.
And she sends him a picture.
of a biracial baby.
And it says, look how cute, though, with the broken heart.
And he goes, he responds to that, send the video.
And she goes, I haven't even taken them or received anything.
I suppose she's not about the money.
He goes, send the video.
She goes, why are you repeating the same shit?
This is over the course of like a day.
And he goes, the video.
And then she goes, I was asleep.
Okay.
And then he goes, where's the video?
So at a certain point, he stopped.
at all, just to be honest with you,
dealing with her as if she's a person.
I'm just with you.
He never talked to her like a person.
He never dealt with her like she was a person.
And it's like, do it, do it, do it.
He says, so I send you what you ask
and then it's fuck me, you're going to ignore me now?
He says, my attorney is going to handle it.
Balo blah, blah.
So apparently she got the $100,000.
She posted a receipt of a wire transfer from an 1127
of $100,000.
and then he came back and talked about this morning.
He said, I made comments in the heat of the moment that are not me,
are not aligned with what I believe and who I want to be as a man.
All women should be supported in power to make their own decisions about their bodies
and what is best for them.
I am handling my personal matter privately and will not be commenting on them any further at this time.
Rachel?
The thing speaks for itself.
We already noted that.
that he never talked to her
like she was a person.
He never talked to her,
treated her like she was a human being,
somebody that had feelings,
somebody that was going through something,
and even almost without saying it,
blamed her, right?
Like, I don't want a baby.
You need to fix this and take care of it.
As if this did not take to,
as if he has no responsibility,
and as if this was a transactional situation.
Help me understand from a male perspective.
Okay.
how this, like, you know how, maybe he needed to hear what you wanted to say,
how you wanted to describe this at the beginning.
Maybe he needed to hear the when you nut inside of her conversation,
because it's, I don't understand how if you clearly are saying you don't want a kid,
which really means I don't want a kid with you,
because it's my understanding he either has a kid or a kid on the way with his actual girlfriend.
It should be noted he has a girlfriend.
So he does not want a kid with her.
If you know you don't want a kid,
you know how babies are made,
why are you now blaming her
that you participated in an act
that contributed to her being pregnant?
I do not understand
why it's her fault and not yours.
How would
how would you have liked him to have handled it?
Let's say, first.
Let me ask you a question.
Pick up the phone and talk to her.
Don't do this in writing.
Acknowledge the fact.
that she is pregnant.
Well, she texted him.
She texted him.
So she's...
I would have picked up the phone and call.
Okay.
Then I would have, let me go back to the top.
I would have acknowledged the fact, let's just say this all was in text message.
I would have acknowledged the fact that, okay, you are pregnant.
I don't want that.
You sound like you do.
Let's talk this out.
Obviously, the words that he seemed to form with the help of his team later on should have been communicated
to her before.
What he said in the end, weeks later of a woman should be supported and empowered to make their own decisions about their body and what's best for them, that's what he should have said to her at the beginning.
I'm telling you that I don't want to be a father to this child.
I'm telling you that I don't want a baby.
And I was irresponsible in this situation because if I didn't want that, then I should have used protection or not even had a relationship with you because, hello, like I just said, he has a girlfriend.
And you should have acknowledged her pain when she said,
I don't want to.
I've done this before.
I've lost before.
I don't want to put my body through this.
You should have talked that through her and said,
listen, if you do decide to have this baby,
that is your right,
that you have the decision over your body.
But I'm telling you how I feel as well about the situation.
What can we do from here?
Okay.
So there's no way you can look at this
and make any excuses about why
the way that he acted, right?
Yeah.
He treated her really, really shit.
Like a piece of shit.
He did.
He treated her like a piece of shit.
He did.
He did.
I do wonder why she leaked this
after she got her $100,000,
though.
Maybe because people,
maybe because she found out,
maybe, I don't know if she knew
he had a girlfriend.
I, like,
hell have no fury like a woman scorn.
Yeah, but it almost is like.
But isn't that,
isn't that shitty on her part, though?
Of course, but who cares?
Right, who cares if she's shitty?
No, no, no.
I don't care.
it doesn't bother me that she leaked that
because he treated her like shit.
Right? So like, I don't know
what I would have, how vengeful. She's obviously
being vengeful, right? Like, she's obviously
acting out.
Right. But she's angry
probably because, one,
she wanted this baby. He didn't.
He's treating her like she's nothing. She probably sees
how he does treat a girlfriend when he has them.
And he's paying her off. And who knows how long
She had the abortion.
She is sitting there and she's like, fuck this shit.
Why do she want the baby?
Why am I protecting him?
Why does she want the baby?
That is a question for her.
Right.
We're making all types of, but like you're assuming she wants the baby because it's by Anthony Edwards?
Yes.
That's fucked up.
What?
Eat you up.
She's had an abortion.
Okay.
She doesn't want another abortion.
Okay.
Why can't it just be that?
So you think she trapped him is basically what you're saying.
First of all, if she did.
If she wanted a baby.
by Anthony, then she would have had the baby.
Okay.
She got $100,000, which is why she didn't have the baby.
She could have had the baby.
She could have had child support.
Right.
She could have had another Anthony Edwards, Jr.
This is my name.
Like a hooping.
It would have been another light-skinned hooper.
This is my problem with all of this.
Number one, you shouldn't treat people this way.
Anthony Edwards is wrong, and he's an asshole for treating her this way.
And I don't think that any of the stuff that he said in his response and his
apology is real.
I will say this, though.
No, you treated her like this for days.
I know heat of the moment shit.
Nah, he treated her like this for days.
His lawyer was involved.
It ended the whole thing.
He didn't want to either jeopardize his relationship
by having all of this come out because once the baby comes out,
or he didn't want a baby with someone that he didn't really have.
It's both.
Right.
Now, you're not going to tell me, if I'm just being real,
that she didn't want this baby because...
You can't do that.
that. Why? You ever talk to women who've had abortion? Yeah. Like, it becomes, it, it kids people in
different ways, right? So the fact that she has expressed, I've done this before, I don't want to do this
again. Okay. So let me ask you a question. Before we had this, at the beginning of this, you were having a
conversation, right? Uh-huh. You were having a conversation and you were like, he decided to sleep with her.
I said it takes two.
It does take two.
The only reason I said he is because he was putting it all on her
and wasn't including himself.
Okay.
So in this situation, well,
in this situation,
she's had the pain of having an abortion.
Right.
She's had the crisis of having an abortion,
and it's very, very, very, very debilitating to her.
Why not ask him to wear a condo?
It's a good question.
If it's that big of a deal.
Because what's going to happen?
happening here in this situation is, is even what we're talking about now, we're talking about the fact now that, in this situation, she's been scorned. And so whatever happens now, he deserved it.
But let me, let me refute what you just said. Why now, you said, why not wear a condom? She didn't say that she doesn't ever want to have kids. She didn't have a kid before. She probably told herself, if I get in this situation again, I'm not going to have an abortion.
Right. She didn't say she doesn't want kids. So she's free.
So that's him who said that.
So he ought to have strapped up from the beginning.
She never said I don't ever want to have kids.
Okay, well, what would you call it when one person has sex with someone who, what would you?
Okay, I'm not saying she trapped at all.
Take your time.
I'm not saying she trapped him.
What I'm trying to say right here is that if she wants kids and he doesn't, she didn't know that at the time.
Well, what I'm saying is if it's, if what happened to her was so traumatic.
the problem the question is why not ask him to wear a comment because she's not saying she doesn't
want kids she's just saying if I'm ever in this situation again I don't want to have an abortion
yeah but does she think that he wants kids with her you have we okay we're we're doing a lot of
speculating here I'm not speculating at all but you have no one on the speculation and the
speculation is I guarantee you that they did not have a discussion about wanting kids prior to this
and you have no idea what was said to her in that bedroom or
what she said to him.
Like, we just don't know.
Like, people say some things in the heat of the moment.
I do say this.
I do know right now.
I do know right now.
Okay, I give you an example.
Freddie and his and his baby's mom,
his recent baby's mom,
they went back and forth.
And in the text messages that Freddie was,
when he was going through it,
she put out a lot of stuff
that made it seem as if he had wanted kids with her
and then when it actually happened
that he didn't want it.
Now, that's their business, whatever.
That's very specific.
here, I feel like if there have ever been a situation to where it was like,
you told me that we were going to raise a kid and it was going to go on to become the next
Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, down the line, that that would have been something that would have been brought up.
No, I'm sure, but I don't think that there was a conversation at all.
I don't think they were talking like that.
They were fucking.
Okay.
Right.
So being that they were fucking, what would make you think that he would want to have a kid with her?
The fact that he didn't put a condom on?
That, come on now.
But I'm just saying, but the fact that he doesn't want to put a coffee.
But you're doing, I'm telling you right now, you are doing a lot of blaming.
on her. I'm not blaming her at all. No. I'm asking her to take responsibility for her part in it.
She's not, she is taking a responsibility for her part in it. What I'm saying is, I'm not going to
blame anyone. What I'm saying is Anthony, Anthony Edwards, for his part in this, asked what he
should have probably asked her, what he wanted to ask her in a very insincere and, and, um,
and, uh, insensitive way, right? He asked what he was going to ask in a very insensitive way. Right. Hey,
he treated her. He thinkified her. He thinkified her.
no doubt about it.
He, there's no way
these text messages could have come out from him
and him
say what was actually on his mind
to where it would have looked okay.
Like, pull, put a condom on.
Why are you acting like
it's only his decision about whether or not he wears a condo?
Because here's my thing.
There's a video that came out about him
about how like he got a new contract
and this was after the Zion Williamson
situation when he was being exposed
and he was like, I, nobody's going to get this contract.
It's reserved for one person.
He shows his girlfriend.
He's like, nobody's going to get come up on me.
If that's how you feel, you can't trust people.
If you think people are coming after you for your money,
you got to know you can't trust people.
If she said, I'm on birth control.
If he didn't pull out and it was like you,
if that's your concern, then why would you not put a condom on?
But do you understand, though, how your framing of this makes him
look like, pun intended.
The Big Bad Wolf and Her
looked like a baby in the woods.
My question to you when we first started was
talk from a male perspective.
I don't understand how
professional athletes put themselves
in these situations. If you constantly
talk about you can't trust these women.
I'm making women. I never said that. I'm saying they do.
I'm making women.
It's like they know they're after them for their money, for their fame.
You said, how do you know she didn't want a baby by him?
Like she wanted to. She specifically wanted a baby.
specifically wanted a baby by him.
Yeah, she says she wanted it.
My thing is, if you know this
and you know people are coming after you
for a particular reason, right?
Like, you're just trying to get off.
She wants to,
maybe wants to keep you forever.
Why would you not protect yourself?
He was stupid.
That's why I said it's important earlier.
And that's why I said,
explain this to me.
And I'm like, it's because what he did was reckless.
He netted in her, right?
And that's, that's important.
What I'm saying is,
when I look at this, this is what I look at.
This is the wrong part of it.
Him saying, hey, I don't want to have a kid.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Nothing wrong with that.
Like, nothing wrong with that.
Like, I don't have, like, him saying, hey, I don't want to have a kid,
nothing wrong with that.
Nothing wrong with him saying, hey, I don't want to have a kid.
To me, I think there's a way that you do that, like,
sort of accesses her humanity or treats her like a human being
more than just, hey, send the video.
Hell, nah, we can't do this.
The whole deal.
I think that's fucked up.
Yeah.
Right?
I absolutely think that's fucked up.
But what I will say is two things.
Number one, if it's so important to people not to have children,
not to men,
because he didn't jack off on her and have the nuts seep through her skin
and get her pregnant.
If it's important for people to not have children,
like if she doesn't want children, she wants to have abortion,
say, put a condom on.
Put a condom.
But there's a huge difference here.
And so he should have put a condom on.
and she should have been like, hey, I want you to put a condo.
She never said she didn't want children.
Yeah, but even so he did.
And so in that case right there, then there's always going to be an impasse when she gets pregnant.
And it doesn't matter.
And the only thing you can ask him to do is say it nicely.
Yeah.
And she wanted, I absolutely believe she wanted a child.
She knew if she was in the situation again, she didn't want an abortion.
And she probably looked at those messages that he sent and was like, what kind of father is this going to be?
To the child, I'll take the money.
She probably did do that.
The only problem, this is the only problem I have with the two problems.
Number one, it's funny.
Arenas by Kulika and Kaleika said, if she got $100,000,
then what is she complaining about?
Very interesting.
So there's two things.
I don't agree with Kaleak on that.
Number one, she settled way too low.
You can't do $100,000.
This is a nigger.
This is a $400,000, $500 million.
I would have the baby.
If you're going to have, if you're going to do this,
and this is to all the ladies out there
that might find yourself in this position.
If you're going to do this, 100,000,
that's not going to work.
Have the baby.
Like, either have the baby.
Either have the baby or do some math.
Because you, when I'm talking about
do some math, think about what it is.
You have the baby, you have a cute little pal.
Y'all go to Disney World together.
The whole nine, you raise the baby, cool.
But $100,000 is probably why she feels.
I wouldn't be surprised now
if she doesn't get more money now.
And she should.
She should probably get more money now.
She should probably try to get a couple Ms out of them in this case or say, or else I'm going to do a whole.
Maybe that's why she did it.
Maybe it is.
Because this is like, she's like, I got more.
Maybe so.
But what I will say is I am interested in the fact that we talk so much about equality and equity.
And then when we get in situations like this, there is not enough discussion.
No.
about how grown women
comport themselves in these situations as well.
I'm not one for the trope that there are,
there's this group of women that are running around
trying to have babies by athletes,
even though we know it's true.
I'm telling you it's true.
I'm telling you I know it's true.
So then I worked to Timothy for 90s.
And they know it too.
That's why I'm like.
So it's all on them to protect themselves.
And for the woman can then play the victim after.
No, but I'm, no.
She's not playing the victim in this situation.
All that you're saying would be true.
If she didn't specifically, if she specifically said, told him, I don't want children either.
If we saw that, all we can assume from what we have here is that she wanted children, he did not.
By the way, he signed a five-year contract extension that could reach $260 million.
I would have had the baby.
He's got more money coming.
He's got more money coming.
He's got more.
he's going to make more money than that.
He's got more money coming.
If he stays healthy,
he is going to be one of those ones
that makes a shit ton.
We're talking $500,
million in the NFL
in the NBA contract.
Like, and if you're,
if I'm somebody with money, period,
I'm going to,
and I'm a man,
I'm assuming everybody I'm having sex with
wants to have my baby.
So you remember,
you know,
Sophie, Drake's baby's mom?
Yeah.
So we had done a story,
um,
we had did a couple stuff,
a couple of things like,
remember this when I was at Timsy.
When she was pregnant, at first she didn't know who the baby's father was.
Oh, I didn't know that.
So, or there was, let me not say she didn't know who the baby's father was.
Let me have to remember it.
There was a couple of different guys that the baby's father could have been.
And then I think it was like, A-Sab Rocky.
Oh, James Harden.
I don't know.
They were all famous.
Drake.
Yeah.
Hell yet.
Oh, I didn't know that.
I didn't know the story at all.
She thought it was always Drake.
So it was A-Sap Rocky.
I think it was James Harden and Drake.
There may be one other person.
And that told me something during that time.
Nothing in.
Nothing inside.
And anytime you take, you guys don't want to say it harshly,
you want to say impregnate,
but if you, you nut, okay.
Now, everybody's going to love these kids eventually.
It always happens.
It always happens.
The kid comes out, it looks like you,
you got the same jumper or whatever,
and you go, oh, my God, like everybody,
it, well, not it doesn't always happen,
but in cases like this,
sometimes it happens, right?
Something you get out there by time
your son and your daughter gets in it,
and I say, that's my son and my daughter, it's like,
whatever. But,
I mean, in this situation,
I get that he's the asshole.
But if we look at it through,
he is, he's the asshole.
But if we look at it through like a 360 view here,
the thing that's wrong about it is,
is him speaking to her the way he did.
Yes, that's what it is.
It's not the fact that they had sex.
And she got, no, it's, yes, it's the way he spoke to her.
And it's not the fact that he didn't want to have the child.
No, I, no, but again, if you didn't want it, if you knew you didn't or you were in a relationship and you knew you were going to step out, I don't know.
To me, I just wouldn't trust, I've said this before, multiple times, I would not trust.
I'll tell you, if I'm, I can trust women that I was having sex with.
I would think that they all wanted to have a baby with me.
But does that absolve the women of their motives?
No.
It seems like you're absolving her.
I am in this situation.
From what we know, I'm specifically absolving her in this situation.
In general, I, again, I know these women.
What, the women that do this, I should say, not women in general.
What do you give his apology?
What are you ready?
There was no apology.
No, I'm sorry.
It was a message.
Yeah.
It was an acknowledgement of what he should have done and what he didn't do.
But like, Anthony, you know.
come on.
Grow up.
Grow up and treat people like people.
And let this guys just like protect yourselves.
Right?
So you're not in a situation like this.
Guys.
You can't trust anybody.
Everybody protect themselves.
Everyone.
You can't trust anybody.
Everybody protect themselves.
Men, women wear condoms.
Everyone, Rachel.
Women wear condos.
Women make men wear condoms or ask men to wear condoms and say,
I'm not having sex with you unless you have a condom on.
But I mean, people, sometimes people want to feel
the veins.
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.
Sweet Green's new wraps have got you.
Real ingredients?
Zero shortcuts.
Everything you love in one hand.
Think green goddess chicken.
Garlic aoli.
Crumbled bacon.
Corn salsa.
40 grams of protein.
Made to keep up with whatever comes next.
New sweet green wraps hit different.
Order now at order.
Sweetgreen.com.
This episode is brought to by WeatherTech.
Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess.
You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping.
Then you'd want a cargo liner.
Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.
Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors.
So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer.
You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer.
Visit weathertech.com today.
Meanwhile, back in Gaza,
three hostages were shot dead
after being misidentified by a soldier,
says the IDF.
There's an investigation into the killing of three hostages
held by Hamas.
They were held in Gaza.
These captives were shirtless
and waving a white flag
as Israeli soldiers
fired on them.
This was admitted by the IDF.
This was on Saturday.
apparently these hostages managed to evade their captors in the northern Gaza neighborhood,
in the A northern Gaza neighborhood, shall I say,
and they were mistakenly identified as they exited a building on Friday.
They were shot by an Israeli soldier.
Two were killed immediately, another was wounded, and ran back into the building.
The soldiers heard a cry for help in Hebrew.
The soldiers' battalion commander ordered the firing to stop.
The third hostage later died of its wounds.
This has led to a conversation about Israel's tactics in Gaza, its strategy in Gaza,
and whether or not Israel is prosecuting this war in a way, that prioritizes innocent life,
in this case, the innocent life of three Israeli hostages.
There have been action in protest by the families of other hostages
that are demanding that the Israeli government make a deal with Hamas to release the remaining 100-and-so hostages that are being held.
The fact that these gentlemen were dressed in civilian clothing and waving a white flag is,
is pretty concerning to a lot of people.
This was big news over the weekend.
And it should be concerning.
I mean, first off, my heart just goes out to these families
already to be dealing with the fact that...
Families of all the hostages.
The families of all the hostages,
but I'm going to specifically speak about the three hostages that were killed,
to know that your family member was captured as a hostage,
has been living in these conditions,
the condition that you don't know for months,
at this point, and then for them to somehow,
whether it was escaped, left behind,
because I don't think they're sure, get away,
wave a white flag, scream for help in Hebrew,
and then they take your child's life.
I can't even imagine what that family's going through.
And so my heart goes out to them.
And yes, of course, additionally to all the families
that either have family members lose lives
or being held hostage.
But of course people are upset.
And they should be because it brings to light the question of what's the goal here?
Is the goal really to get back the hostages or is the goal to completely obliterate Gaza and anything that gets in its way?
And it seems to be the latter with this.
I mean, how do you, what protocols, it says that they ignore protocols, what protocols were in place?
Like to me, this seems very obvious.
You see three people in civilian clothes.
I think a couple of them didn't have, were shirtless.
They're waving a white flag.
They're talking to you.
Even if there's a fear that, hey, this is, you know, Hamas disguising themselves as a civilian,
the protocol that was supposed to be in place is that you don't shoot first.
You detain, you figure it out before just immediately killing on site.
And so one, I'm actually shocked
that the IDF reported this.
I mean, I guess they had to
because they were Israeli,
but I'm surprised that they did
because there was, like,
Hamas has been reporting that Israeli,
there have been other Israelis
that have died in the airstrikes in Gaza,
but IDF wasn't reporting that.
It's just,
it's infuriating
that these people,
innocent people lost their lives
in this way
when this could have been prevented.
And I think that's the question, like I said,
that's on everyone's mind.
What's the mission here?
Well, Israel's mission, they've stayed in this year.
The mission is to destroy Hamas.
But like, destroy Hamas,
this, but in what way?
In whatever way they have to.
So that's the question.
And that's what I mean.
And so the question here is not about,
whether or not war is justified.
I don't think that there are very many people
who are going to say after what happened
on October 7 that war isn't justified.
Right.
I watched this 60 Minutes interview
with a freed hostage
and she was talking
and what she said was
every moment she was afraid
that she would be killed in an air strike.
Israel wants to wipe Hamas
off the face of the planet.
It's their stated goal.
The release of the hostages
in my opinion,
seems secondary to that.
Now, everything that happens
as the war is being prosecuted
has been explained away
by being a part of either the fog of war
or the tragedy of war.
So, hey, a baby got killed.
Babies die in war.
There was a situation here
where a Catholic church was hit.
Hey, you know, people die in war.
It's a tragedy,
but the bigger tragedy is
if Israel is unsafe.
I think for me, obviously,
this is being treated differently now
because of the fact that these,
this was friendly fire and these people were Israeli.
But innocent people dying in Gaza is not a headline.
It's the irony of this
and the haphazard way in which it happened,
the undisciplined way in which it happened,
happened speaks to the larger concern of how things are going over there.
Dumb bombs being used, bombs with no guided missile systems are just being dropped, you know.
Over half of the artillery there is, are dumb weapons, people are saying.
So it doesn't seem like there's a scalpel being used to make sure that human life is value.
And whenever that is, people are going to have an issue with it.
people have a problem with it because it just seems like
we blow up everyone and
eventually
will blow up somebody
that is
an enemy to Israel.
So for me,
when I look at the fact that they
that the IDF killed three
of its own citizens,
the only way that it
actually is different
in that that's not their
stated goal. Their stated goal is to get
Hamas and they go,
whoever else dies we don't care.
And now you have to kind of turn to your own people, your own country, and make that case.
And make that case about whether or not that's okay with them.
Is it okay with them that we get all of Hamas and whoever else dies, that's kind of it is what it is?
Because that means that some of yours are going to die.
Obviously, 3D.
Right.
And if it is about releasing the hostages, which the hostages should be released,
because they didn't have anything to do with any of this stuff.
They definitely should be released.
I'm calling on the world community to call for the release of the hostages.
And if a ceasefire has to happen for the hostages to be released,
I think that there are families in Israel.
And, you know, there are close to those people that would love to see that happen.
And there is talks right now going on about whether or not there is going to be another
either prisoner exchange or the release of hostages.
and something that happens.
But what I will say is this,
is that like,
to anyone that felt differently before Saturday
than they do now,
I guess,
the question I would ask is why.
Well.
I mean, no, no, no, no.
That question is both rhetorical and direct.
Right.
The question I would ask is why.
I mean,
the deal was that it was okay
for innocent people to die
as long as Hamas was
taken down. And look, in war,
innocent people die. The question has always
been, how many and what are you
doing to stop that from happening?
Is it, what's the number?
It's not an intellectual
exercise, it's a direct one.
Is it 50,000? Is it 100,000?
Is it 150,000? Is there no upper limit to the number
of people that, innocent people,
that die in order to erase
Hamas from Gaza, right?
And the question is,
how many of theirs, how many
Israelis like, how do you do this?
Like, what do you do?
What's the right way to do it?
What's the humane way to do it?
What's the way to do it that is in lockstep with international law?
And as this has been going on, the answer to those questions has been, we do it any way that we have to.
Yeah.
Any way that we feel necessary.
We do whatever we have to do.
We do whatever we have to do.
We do whatever we have to do.
And we're not going to stop and no one is going to tell us to stop.
Fine.
The question now becomes three of yours have been lost.
probably more once we figure out everything.
Is that worth it?
Is it worth it to the families of people
who have been waiting for people to come back?
These people have been free.
They have been let go.
Those families have one.
They had one.
The worst portion of their life,
and it is, I want to say something real quick about this.
There's somebody who can listen to this
and come back with a specific set of thoughts.
their mind. The thoughts are, all of this is Hamas's fault. Right? Right. All of this is Hamas' fault.
Hamas killed those three people by even necessitating this war. Because starting October's, yes.
Right. October 7. Okay. That's both true and false. I'll tell you how. It always starts there.
For everyone listening, you are responsible for what you do when you're doing it. Always. Always.
the United States was hit by one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in history,
the most deadly terrorist attack in our history.
Propitionally, what happened on October 7th, people will argue was worse than 9-11.
And the barbarity of it in many ways, the viciousness of it was worse.
You know, people burning the death in the Twin Towers is obviously unthinkable as well.
but when you look at some of the acts that were committed,
some of the people in the way that they died,
hostage is taking, all of that stuff.
I'm not one person that goes,
hey, what happened wasn't horrific, terrible, all of that stuff, you know.
I'm not into calling people animals,
but as human beings, we can't be barbaric and we can, you know.
But after 9-11, right, how did the United States respond?
there was a global war on terror
and that war on terror
was
prosecuted
in some ways
that changed American
life
and in some ways
that were
antithetical
to America's
stated moral
values.
I'm not saying
that we ever had
these values
but they're stated
moral values.
The torture
of people
was questioned
after this.
This is all
post 9-11.
So just some people
the torture of people was questioned after this.
The legitimacy of droning someone
at a wedding somewhere halfway across the world
where they might be with a bunch of non-combatants.
All that's been questioned.
The wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq
that were a direct result of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
All of that has been talked about
in terms of our response to that
because nothing that happens to you, in my opinion,
gives you a blank check to run off and do whatever you feel like you should do
with absolutely zero accountability.
It just doesn't.
It doesn't.
Like Christopher Dorner was a guy here in Los Angeles
who went around killing police officers in a rampage some 10 years ago.
And when you read his manifesto, his letter, he talked about the fact that he experienced racism
and that, you know, Trayvon Martin got killed and all the things that would happen.
And look, as black people, as people that have been under an oppressor's hand, you look at that and you go,
oh, man, this guy finally snapped and he picked up his gun, he went and did something.
The reality is, does that excuse him walking up on somebody that sitting in a car somewhere
and shooting him in the back of the head for no reason?
Of course it doesn't.
It's so the way you have to go about it.
And there's still rules that we live by under the guise and the goal of being a civilized, moral people.
We fail all the time, but that doesn't mean we should ignore when people fail.
So anyone that's talking about this and discussing this, if you are being a responsible citizen of the global community, you have to talk about how this is being done.
You have to.
Not just for the outcome that you want here, which is peace in the region, which I feel like.
like this bombing campaign is going to set back.
But also, as someone who doesn't want to see babies burn them.
Right.
Anybody's babies.
So, look, you know, there are people that went,
ha, nanny boo-boo, you kill three of your people.
And they were like, oh, my God.
But indiscriminate bombing and killing in this particular situation
where a scalpel should be used
rather than a meat cleaver
was eventually going to
end up with these type of outcomes.
It'll be interesting to see how they respond
thereafter.
I mean, they're already saying
that they've sat down with their soldiers
and had to warn them again
or gone over the protocols with them,
but this could very well happen again.
We had a little back and forth
about something
and I want to bring it back up.
There was an actor that I know named Christian Keys.
It's talking of broad strokes.
Broad strokes.
So broad strokes here.
Broad strokes.
Okay.
And this actor, Christian Keys, been in a lot of stuff.
I used to see him around town.
Very handsome guy.
Christian Keys is the type of guy you don't want to see your girl be, for instance.
It is.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, Christian's a great guy.
But Christian's the type of guy that you're like,
hey, this is my new friend from working.
and you're like, wow.
You know what?
He's attractive.
That's a tough one.
Brother from Detroit
that has been working
consistently in this town,
putting together a career,
and it's like a hustler.
One of those, if you're in the town,
you know people,
you see them all the time,
they're in different stuff.
Christian showed up in The Boys,
one of my favorite shows for a long time,
but you see them all the time,
building a great career
and just been working for a long,
time, man. He did something that I thought was really brave. He, um, you seem in all kinds of stuff.
He's been in, uh, Saints and Centers was a show that I think was on Bounce TV. Shout out to,
uh, to my homeboys from The Wire that were on that. I think, I think Trey Chaney was on that.
Um, well, maybe I'm wrong about, oh, no, that wasn't, Trey. That was, uh, J.D. Williams
That was on that. Um, but, uh, J.D. Williams, my man, Bodie from the Wire. You know, Jay,
J.D. You ever man?
Bodie? I know, well, no.
But I know who, I know Bodie, yes.
Yeah.
And so there's no lots.
If you look it up right now, I'm looking at right now.
It's like supernatural family business.
Legends of Tomorrow, 9-1-1, the boys, young and the wrestlers,
the rookie, all the queensmen, like just an actor.
Well, he took to his Instagram and in a very raw,
one-hour Instagram live accused
a very powerful Hollywood man
who he says is a billionaire
of a pattern of sexual assault
and harassment that has lasted for a long time.
Over a couple of different incidents,
he said that this person tried to take advantage of him.
He said at one time he was drunk or had been drinking
some Hennessy, Hindogga Dog,
and he was sleep in a room in this person's house
because he went to go sleep it off after a party
and he was then
woken up by this person getting in bed with him
and trying to crank it off.
He says after that, the person apologized.
And when they apologized, he went up.
Actually, Donnie's got a clip.
Donnie, play a little clip for everyone.
You got a guy that's a billionaire
and I got three grand
in my bank account.
Now, who are he going to believe?
Right?
I got that three grand.
That's my son's mom's rent for the next month.
You know, got to make sure a little man is taking care of.
That's my rent.
And that's a little bit for the gas tank.
And the rest of it, I can go to the dollar store and get some bread and bologna and hot dogs and mustard.
And, you know, I can get by.
Work was slow.
And a lot of the work that was coming was, it had.
penis attached to it. I'm like, fuck that, man. I'm not, that's not what I want. That's not what I'm
allowed to do. I regret not speaking up then, not being brave enough to, and I regret not hurting
this person because I'm a, I'm a big heart. Mother had a big heart. Mother's heart was just
big, slim issue. She was like a little little yellow boy, you're going to come and you're going to be a part
of my family. And I always try to think about things, you know, and not lash out even though I wanted to,
even though I want to. I'm mad at me for not hitting him. I'm mad at me for not speaking up and
saying something. Because between that year and now, how many young black actors have fell for that?
So he goes on to say that this man who he says is a big deal, huge producer, also a billionaire.
We're not going to get into any speculation here.
But sexually harassed him for a long time.
Grab his dick, tried to make him strip, tried to buy him a car after he asked him the strip as an apology, a lot of different things.
And it's going on for a long, long time.
And he is ready to talk about it.
everybody was talking about it all week and long.
Did he say is it still going on?
No.
He didn't.
As far as I'm concerned, he didn't say that it was still going on, but what he did say was
that the strength of Cassie and other people is what made him come out and decide to tell
his story and that this is somebody that everybody reveres.
And that's so important.
That's why it is so important.
You know, obviously with Cassie coming out, there was a lot of talk and a lot of criticism
about how long she waited.
and then how other people are coming out.
But what Christians doing is exactly why Cassie,
one of the reasons she wants to tell her story.
It gives people the courage to speak up
when they didn't otherwise have it.
And particularly for men,
because majority of the time we talk about women
who are sexually assaulted and harassed,
but it goes to men, to non-binary.
Like, it's not specific to just women.
And we don't talk.
about that enough. And so
I can only imagine, even
with Cassie,
him being encouraged
to speak out because of what she said, I can still only imagine
how hard it was and how scared he must be
because if this, you know, he's
saying this, this is a billionaire, this is obviously
somebody who's powerful. You just said it's
somebody that he said is revered.
It's scary for what this means for the rest
of his career when he spent so many years
building this up.
But what Ben and I were talking
about off Mike, and I'll
say it again here. I have not experienced what Cassie or Christian have. So I cannot,
I do not know what it is like to go through it. I don't know what it's like to then, you know,
muster up the courage to be able to share this with the world and open yourself up for the positive
and the negative reactions for the court of public opinion. I have no idea what that is. But it does
make me wonder, especially something that he said in the clip that Donnie just played, if you want to call
it out and you want to speak to an issue that happens in general, but specifically in Hollywood,
and you know you're not alone that it's happened to, what does stop you from calling out the person?
Because I'm just going to be honest of where my mind goes.
you're doing it for a purpose.
You're doing it for yourself.
You're doing it for others.
If there is this monster running around Hollywood,
subjecting people to unwanted advances
and harassing them and assaulting them
and making them feel uncomfortable and pressure
and using their power to make people
or try to make people do certain things,
why would you not call out the person
to make so they can't do it anymore,
especially if this is somebody who's been revered
and nobody believes or knows
that this person does something like that.
Okay, something just popped up in my mind
and it literally just popped up.
So if we need to redo this in a different way,
then let me know.
He did intimate.
I see what you think about this,
that he might have signed some sort of India.
Well, he's talking now.
the indie
Would that be
from a legal
legal
standpoint
would his talk
now be
the breaking
of an
NDA?
Well it depends
what the
terms of
it wore
but I
would imagine
that
of course
it said
don't say
who it is
but I would
imagine
that you
can't even
talk about
it
because I'm sorry
he's giving
we're not
going to
speculate
he is giving
a lot
of clues
and particularly
the timing
based on
what has
come out
specifically in that
clip that
you just
paid the
timing of
what is out there
even more so alludes
to who it is that he's speaking to.
So most NDAs,
you can't talk about it at all.
So you can't say nothing. But I don't know the
terms. It could have been like just never, you can never mention
the name. I have no idea, but I would imagine
it was like you can't discuss it at all.
He,
he mentioned that
that an NDA doesn't preclude you from
sharing information with the police.
So you can still do that. Because
sexual harassment is a felony, sexual assaults a felony.
Right.
You know, it's interesting, man.
It's like the video, you watch the video itself,
and it's like the effect that this has had on somebody is so obvious.
You know, so obvious.
And to your point, let me tell you what we don't talk about.
And I don't want to get into a whole diatripe about this.
but there's this thing that exists, particularly in the South.
And maybe it's some guys that are just making stuff up
to make themselves seem more virile or like they've got more chicks or whatever.
But you'll talk to somebody.
Like in and around Louisiana, like, you know, people in my crew, different people.
And you'll ask them like, you know, when was the first time you started like having sex or whatever, whatever?
And they'll be like, I'm not going to lie, bro.
Like nine to 10 years old, they used to be this girl that would come over and like,
watch us.
I heard this before.
And then I would, like, that was the first woman that either
gave me head or the first time I had sex.
And you hear that at like 14, 15, and you're like, oh,
okay, damn, like 9, 10, you was getting it off.
Like, yeah, bro.
Then you get to one age and you go, fam,
you were molested.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You know, you get to a side
and you're like, I know that
I was molesting.
I was getting, I was liking that.
I was getting, I was getting head, bro.
I was doing this, man.
Like, I was, I was enjoying it, bro.
She let me do this and she let me do that.
She was like one of my mama friends,
or she was one of my mama friends' daughters
that we went to church with, brother.
She was like 17, 18, whatever.
I'm like, yeah, but you are molested
in the traditional definition of molestation
in the actual meaning
of what it means to be molested
you were molested
nah man one of my mom of friends taught me how the fresh kiss
or like one of my aunties or something like that
has come over you know whatever whatever
yeah yeah the story keeps getting
more molesty
as it goes because I don't know if you know
that your masculine energy
doesn't free you.
you from being assaulted or molested.
Like you were molested.
Yeah.
And the trepidation or the hesitation, should I say, and those brothers admitting that,
being like, yeah, I was a kid that was probably too young, not probably, definitely
too young to be introduced into the sexual world like that.
In some cases, pre-pubescent, in some cases right on the line.
their unwillingness to admit that
is probably why it's so hard for a man
in the situation that Christian found himself there
to talk about it.
It's hard for everyone,
but there is a specific pain
and a specific hurdle that men have to jump over
when something like this is going on.
Their sexuality is often called into question.
their masculinity is often called into question.
Like, why couldn't you handle something like that?
Like, why couldn't you deal with something like that?
So watching him talk about that.
And he also talked about a time that he was sexually assaulted on set by a woman.
Walked by and patted his dick.
It's very difficult.
As far as why, you know, name the person.
I don't know.
I mean, like, you know, we had this conversation all the time.
Like, somebody did something, somebody touched something.
like, what's the right thing to do?
Is the right thing to do the right thing to do the right thing to do the right thing for the
town writ large?
Because all of this did will start speculation about who this might be.
And everybody's trying to put the pieces together and stuff.
But it's still his story to tell at the end of the day.
So do you think that that at some, obviously people are paying attention and giving space
to what he said.
But at the same time, sometimes that speculation, when you say all of that except for the
who overshadowed.
what you're saying.
Certainly.
Certainly.
I would love for him to say
why he didn't.
Go that far.
Maybe it is,
you said there's an NDA,
so let me stop.
Maybe that's, maybe that's
But apparently the NDA is not going to stop him.
Well, it depends.
Oh, from going.
From going to the police with it.
Did he say he is?
He said that it just doesn't.
He said that the NDA doesn't stop you
from going to the police with this,
and NDA doesn't stop you from,
from, you know, admitting this into evidence
and then having people, you know what I'm saying?
He said that it doesn't.
so. But, you know, I commend him.
I hope this gives him some sort of...
Catarsis.
Yeah, like some peace, some something.
I mean, obviously people are going to be talking about it for a while,
but I hope he stays away from all of that and just, you know,
I hope he's proud of himself for what he did because that took a lot of courage.
There's a lot of goods.
I'll tell you about the time I introduced Kalika to Derek Jeter.
Yes.
did.
That's also somebody you said you wouldn't want to be friends with.
I'll tell you about, do I mention it here on the podcast?
No.
We went to the Bahamas and we met Derek Jeter who was just the nicest guy.
Derrick Jeter was down there with the Players Alliance.
Shout out to Brandon Watson.
Shout to cheat.
Shout to everyone down there that I met during a player.
Maybe did you say this on the podcast?
No, this was before we recorded.
Okay.
So, you know, I meet Derek Jeter.
And Derek Jeter's super nice guy.
Very, very, very, very.
He was very nice.
Yeah.
And I introduced him to Kalika just to see how she was going to react.
Okay.
And he goes, hi, I'm Derek.
And I'm like, come on, man.
You know?
I love that he death out.
You know?
I'm like, come on, brother.
For real?
I literally said this to him.
I was like, come on, man.
Don't do it.
Don't do the thing, bro.
And he was like, well, and Kalika's like, she jumped in.
Because immediately he's like, it's like, what are he supposed to do?
I'm like, if I was you, Derek, I'd have introduced myself by put my hand out and go, going,
it's your pleasure to meet me.
And what did I tell you?
That's why, and that's why you're.
What?
And Derek left a nice guy.
He introduced himself.
He was so humble.
He was talking about family, man.
stuff. I'm like, this is
fucking Derek Jeter. This
is the captain. You know?
See, God knew you can't handle all that. Can't
know I can't handle all what? Being
the Derek Jeter. I couldn't, I couldn't handle that much
club. Yeah. I am
very
like outgoing and stuff and very
nice to people and stuff like that, but like
you know, I wonder
if a Derogeter or Leonardo
DiCaprio or Sayreira or
Beyonce like looks in the mirror and goes
I'm fucking Leonardo DiCaprio.
Absolutely.
Bitch!
You ever wondered at?
Like what, like, you stand in the mirror like, like, imagine that you're like, that
you're like, I don't know, imagine you're Denzel.
Okay.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is, this is, you're Denzel, right?
Yeah.
You're like, you're at your house.
You know, the kids have gone.
Everybody's out of the house and you're looking in the mirror and you're like, you know who's
looking back at me?
that's that niggas.
I really am that nigginsale
especially in circa like 2003.
Yeah, towards to be like right when he
before then.
I mean he was the man like even like
he was doing it in the 90s for sure.
Denzel is like he's looking at
Mobeda blues just dropped and like he's looking at
himself play the trumpet.
He's like oh my God who's that I see in the mirror?
Yeah.
Is that that nigga?
Yeah.
Denzel did for sure.
Is that him?
Yeah.
And I just wonder like,
how people, like, if that happens, like, you look, like, you got to know, right?
You got to know, like, if Beyonce, like, if Beyonce, like, walks out of the house and she passes
the mirror and she stops and she goes, oh, hey, hi, Mrs. Nose Carter.
You're the black queen of the universe.
And then walks out the house.
I'm sure it's not quite like that, but I'm sure there's some degree to it.
Did you do that after you won the Oscar?
No, I've never had a moment where that's.
that's appropriate.
It's not that way.
Right.
I have thought before,
that's pretty cool.
But like,
there's only,
because here's the thing,
there's only like a couple of people
that could do this.
Let's name that.
Or it should do this.
Should be.
Leonard DiCaprio.
There's a lot of people you can name.
Nah.
People that can have the mirror moment is,
it's really only a couple.
It's Beyonce.
It's Rihanna.
Okay.
Taylor Swift.
Maybe not.
Maybe not.
Taylor Swift just won,
Like she's had a heck of a year
She's doing it
She's definitely doing it this year
No way she's not doing it this year
But she don't have like the thing though
She does to a lot of people Van
You're speaking for yourself
Yes she does
She doesn't have
Is this but is she to
That girl?
Yes
We that she's not
She didn't hit us in that way
But to a lot of people
Yeah
The numbers speak for themselves
And if she wasn't filling herself
For the addition of Travis Kelsey,
she's definitely walking past the mirror saying that.
Taylor Swift is amazing, by the way.
Yeah, I can't really where, no, there's a lot of people.
Michael Jordan on your shirt.
You don't think Michael Jordan walked by himself?
Oh, Michael Jordan didn't just do it in the mirror.
Michael Jordan did it to other people.
There's so many people that's not, but you have to understand.
Even like a Jordan, Jordan is probably like the only guy,
like one of the only guys in NBA that really could get away with you.
Like I wouldn't say that there are other dudes like Janus is not.
No, no.
You know what I'm saying?
Right. But is that, Yokic, it's not like you just can do this with your place, but you have to be a specific level of that motherfucking nigger to do this.
Oh, so you don't think LeBron does it? I don't think it's, I don't think he's worth it.
I said, do you think he doesn't?
I think maybe he does, but he probably shouldn't.
I don't know what, I don't, you're all over the place with dishing this out. I don't know what, what factors you're putting into place, but this is, this is your.
You know what? LeBron is like too upstanding, man.
LeBron got his own school where he gets...
Let me say something.
I'll say something right now.
What LeBron James does with the I Promise School
is maybe one of the best things the athlete has done in a lot.
LeBron is like a family man and all of this stuff.
I'm talking about like you kind of...
It's different, right?
I don't know what you're basing it off of.
But sure.
I'm just listening.
A James Dean, Marlon, Brando, Marilyn Monroe.
I don't know.
Josephine, Beasie.
Baker type of
motherfucking energy.
I'm talking about a goddamn
Billy D. Williams energy.
I'm talking about,
you know what I'm saying?
I'm talking about that shit
that you bring with you,
that shit.
So maybe they're too young for it
is what you're also saying.
Maybe, because you're naming legends.
Well, I mean, because that's what I'm saying.
It's like you, when you,
I'm talking about Sinatra.
You know, I'm talking about,
I'm talking about like the coolest
or the cool mother.
I'm talking about Michael fucking Jackson.
I'm talking about that.
shit when you bring that
shit with you. You know what I'm saying?
It's like, because a lot of people are stars
and that's the thing about Taylor Swift. A lot of people are
stars. They're big, huge
fucking stars. But they don't
have that shit. You know,
I don't think Taylor Swift got that shit.
That shit is different that you bring.
Like, Leonardo de Caprio got
that shit. Dinsale Washington got that shit.
You know, it's other people that got that
shit. Donnie, do you know what I'm trying to say?
They got that shit.
I don't because I feel like
this doesn't necessarily
apply to people
that are in that industry
or in the like an attention-grabbing industry
so I feel like honestly
anybody has that in them
to be able to look at them.
Oh shut the fuck up, Donnie.
No, no, no, no.
Brad Pitt got that shit.
You know what I'm saying?
I feel like
Brad Pitt like it's like
you know, you get you get it?
I,
know what you're saying, but you're just like,
I don't know what your basis is
because all you keep doing is saying a name
and going, that shit. And it makes
it, it makes it
real to you, right?
You want to pick a name? You're like,
George Poonie got that shit.
50 cent got that shit.
You know what I'm saying? It's like... Just because you
say it like that and hunt your shoulders up for those
who aren't watching the video. Mahamma'u'lli.
And...
Muhammad Ali got that shit.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, it's like, you know, it's like, it's like, you're like, God damn.
Like, if you Muhammad Ali and it's like 19, 73, it's like 173, it's 19, fucking 66 before all the shit went down and stuff, you're in the fucking mirror, you're like, wait, what?
You know he did it.
Am I Muhammad Ali?
You know Muhammad Ali.
Like, how can it be that I'm Muhammad Ali?
Like, think about it.
Like, how can it be that I'm Muhammad Ali?
How do we get here?
How do we get here?
That's that shit.
Okay, let's, let's, um.
But LeBron is not that.
But LeBron isn't, you know what I mean?
That's why I said, I think he's doing legends.
It's different.
It's different.
Show me, is there somebody you want to name?
LeBron absolutely does this.
Nah, bro.
No, he doesn't.
I said he doesn't.
He doesn't.
He does it.
He does it.
But LeBron, I put you like this.
LeBron is a little bit too wholesome.
He's wholesome.
And so because.
he's so wholesome, you can't
really be too wholesome and have that
shit. You know what I'm saying? That shit
is different. You can't really be wholesome. You've got to be
a little subversal. LeBron
is very, he's wholesome with his
stuff. Kobe,
Colby, hold on. Kobe had that
shit. LeBron is a little
wholesome. He's very wholesome.
You're just trying to make, we, I hear you.
God don't fuck with me.
But you're just all over the place.
I'm trying to think of one more person.
There's so many.
Like, give me example of somebody.
It's got it.
Barack.
Barack Obama.
There you go.
Michelle.
Shit, Michelle.
Nah.
Wow.
No, she would never do that.
She's too selfless.
You know, hold on.
Michelle is like a, that's a godess level situation.
There is a level.
I'm not saying that this is the level of cool that we're talking about.
I'm saying Michelle Obama is like, she's like way too much for this.
I don't know.
I want to play anymore because I don't know what your basis of.
this is.
Derek Jeter,
I will say Derek Jeter.
Oh, that's how we started.
Derek Jeter.
It was Derek Jeter.
That's how we started.
Okay.
All right.
But he acted like he don't
had that shit.
But then he had it.
But he knows.
He knows.
That's the thing.
Right.
Derek, bro, I appreciate meeting you, bro,
because you were very humble.
I appreciate meeting all the players out there.
Once again, Edwin Jackson,
Michael Bourne,
Big West that plays for the,
for Cincinnati.
Eric Davis.
It was Eric Davis got that shit.
Eric Davis.
Everyone, I appreciate meeting all
you guys, everybody that came out there,
Derek, you to try it. You can't got that shit. Derek, you got that shit. You know you got that
shit. All right, we got to go. Um, yes, let's go.
Y'all know what I'm trying to say.
Take the thing caps off. Do not stop learning. I am Van Lathen, Jr.
I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.
