The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - DeRay Mckesson on America's Police Violence Epidemic and "On the Other Side of Freedom"

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

"Pod Save the People" host DeRay Mckesson discusses his journey as a civil rights activist, the story behind his iconic blue vest and his book "On the Other Side of Freedom." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Please welcome, Dorey McKesson. It's good to be back. Welcome back to the show. Yeah, it's good to be back. This is crazy because you're one of the few people who has been on the show twice. You look older. Thank you. I'll take, distinguished, I think, I would prefer. You're also one of the few people who's worn the exact same outfits.

Oh, no, not in a bad way. I gave you one last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last last. I I I tha. I tha. I tha. I tha. I th. I th. I'll, I' th. I'll, but I'll, but I'll, but I'll, but I'll, but I'll, but I'll, but I'll, but I'll th. to to. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to be. to come. to come. to come. to come. to come. to come. to come. too. too. too. too. too. to me. to me. to me. to me. to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me, to me. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Welcome, too. Oh, no, not in a bad way. Not in a bad way. I gave you one last time as a gift. Do you still have it? I do, but I don't wear it all the time. Tell me, no, no, you know, you know it's great. Like, honestly, I didn't know many of the stories behind the why. Many people know you, DeRae, they go, oh, blue vest, we know, we know, we know, we know, we, we, we, we, we, we, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I the, I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I, I, I, I, I th. I th. I th, I th, I th, I th, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't th. th. tell, I don't tell, I don't know, I don't know, I don't tell, I don't tell, I don't th the. I don't. But the story in the book about the why really touched me. Why do you wear that vest and why do you keep that exact same vest? Yeah, people forget that we were in the street in Ferguson for 400 days, you know?

So if you ever saw us marching, it wasn't we thought marching was cool. It was illegal to stand in August, September, in 2014. 2014 if we sit still for more than five seconds we were arrested and I think about the vest we were there for so long that it got cold and I needed something that would keep me warm and this kept me warm if it got too cold I put a hudging on under it and that was good and I keep wearing it because it reminds me that that stuff was real you know like I had this vest on when I was tear gas when I was shot at with rubber bullets like like when when when when I the the the th when I the th when I th when I the th I th I th I th I the th was like when I th was like when I th was I was I was I was I was th was I was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was I was thrub with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with with th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th was th th th th th th th th th was th th th th th th the th the the the the the the the the theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and the and th things, and this keeps me grounded in the fact that that stuff happened to me. Right, when you look at that journey and we look at the book, on the other side of freedom, the case for hope, the case for hope, yeah.

Do you feel like you're hopeful about hopeful? thoa' theea' that that's a the-a'l-n' tho' tho'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'l-s'l-s'l-s'l-s'l-s'l-s'l-s'lo'l-s'lo'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'ee is like real work, not hope is magic. And I am hopeful. My faith wavers a little bit. Faith is about certainty. And like sometimes I'm not certain we're going to win. But do I think that we can win? I certainly, I'm hopeful in that way. Oh, that's really interesting. So, so you're someone who's been on, you know, the front lines of many discussions. You know, it was black. try and explain the idea. I mean, people were like, is this anti-cop, is this anti-white people, is this anti-everything that is not black?

And you had to speak on that. And you know, you've spoken out on many issues. You've seen yourself as somebody who wants to speak about what's happening in the world. The book is about a combination of two the world that we now live in today. How do you think who you are as Dore Mekesson affected how you see the world today? Yeah, you know, it's important for me to talk about some of the personal stuff. I've never written about being a gay black man in the movement or in the world.

I write about that. My mother left when I was three-a-tris. I think about identity. But then I write about some of the stuff that you'd expect, right? Like the police, the protest. I'll ask you, name something you can buy for $300. Name something you can buy for $300. Seven copies of Madden. Today, in Florida, theft over $300 is a felony, and if you become a felon you permanently lose the right to vote, which is wild, right? But when people think about felons, they think that everybody like robbed a bank, killed him people. But it's like, imagine like losing the right to vote as an 18-year-old because you like stole seven copies?

Yeah. Seven copies of men. Yeah, seven copies of men. Right. You know, it's funny. You talk about all of these the statistics. And what's interesting is when you're talking about police violence, specifically, you speak about police violence across the board. So it's not like a black issue, just call Americans.

This is how many American people have been killed by the police. And you have a year where a thousand people were shot by the police, which is a high number for any country in the world. And then you see a disproportionate number of that amount of people being black as well. What was even scarier was that these statistics weren't being counted in any way, shape, or form. If you get killed in this country and a newspaper doesn't write about you, you literally don't exist in the database because the government doesn't keep the data.

So we know the rainfall in Missouri and literally don't know anything about police violence in the past year. That's th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, thi, th, the thi, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, thi, thi, their, their, their, their, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, and their, their, their, their, their, their, thri, throwneea, they, throoooooo, and their, their, their their their, their, their, their, the past year. That's sort of while a third of all the people killed by a stranger in this country is actually killed by an officer. Like one in 11 homicides in California is actually committed by an officer. So this is like a big deal. Part of the data work we did was like myth busting. You know, black people are actually we wanted to like lay it bare so people could not perpetuate these myths about the movement. Now, when you look at the myths around the movement,

I mean, you cannot escape the conversation and the narrative that's happening now. Colin Kappenick, the NFL, the Nike commercial police in this country. People then said, no, what you're protesting is America and the troops and the anthem. Do you think that there is another way that he could have protested? Do you think that there is any way for black people to protest in America that's acceptable? You know, it doesn't seem like, we just stand. They were like pushing them. If I done that, if I had done that, I'd be like an in-memorium sort of moment on the daily

show right now. Like, pushing the police. It's just a tombstone with your vest. Yeah, that is like, shady. If I like, push the police, if I like, thrown, it's like, the, the, the, the, the, the, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, like, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, the, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, the do all that stuff. I think that what's interesting about Colin is that he's just talking about simple truth. Colin is literally like, racism is real and present. And people are like, oh my goodness. And you're like, that's sort of what he said. Right. He's saying that we shouldn't play protested and found somebody on the other side

saying oh now that I've seen you protest I understand what you're saying or do you find that the protest just incites more like what what is the purpose of your protest then? I will say now I'm like pretty chill saying the police should never kill somebody and I say do do you have any kids and he's like yeah and I'm like well when should the police kill your child and he's like I don't know I don't know either then right like part of it is like how do we put the work back on the to have to grapple with this stuff like I'm not here to give speeches the book, some of the laws, like in California, there's a law that says that any investigation of an officer that lasts more than a year can never result in discipline regardless of the outcome.

You can love the police and think that, that doesn't make sense. In Cleveland, they destroy police officer disciplinary records every two years. You can love the police and that. toe, the police, it's, it, it, it, it, thin, thin, thin, thin, thi, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, their, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, the. the. the. the. the. the...... the. the... the.. the. the. the. the. the. the. toe. toe. toe. too. too. too. too. toe. toe. too. toe. toe. toe. the the toe. toe. toe. the toe. the toe. the. the. the. to. loved about the book was the combination of the dates of the anecdotal stories and this journey that you are on. Where to from here? I've always wanted, do you see yourself running for office? Do you see yourself as always just being in the activist space? Like, what is DeRay's dream?

What is? Ah, hopefully, I look back on this. I'm like, we changed all the laws and policies. because it is Beyonce's birthday as well today. That it is. That it is. Rumor hazard that Bionte kissed you on the stage at the ESPN? I would have, I would have, like, I handed her a thing when they were honoring Colin Kappenick and she was just nice, like, hello. And then people were like, you kissed Beyonce! I was like, I did not kiss Beyonce. I would have to that. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th that. I would that th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would that I would that. I would that. I would that. I would that. I would that. I would that. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would th. I would the. I would the. I would the. I would thea. I would thean. I would thean. I would tha. I would thean. I would thi. I would thi. I would thi. I would that that not have washed my cheek like you don't watch the vest. That's what I've... Thank you.

I'm messing with you, man. Thank you so much. I appreciate it so much. On the other side of Freedom, the really fantastic book is available now. Dorey McKesson everybody. The Daily Show with Trevnoa, ears edition. Watch the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube

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