What A Day - Remembering Tyre Nichols

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

Tyre Nichols was remembered at a funeral service in Memphis, Tennessee on Wednesday. His family spoke about their grief in the company of political figures from around the country — including civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, who gave the eulogy, and Vice President Kamala Harris.And in headlines: the College Board unveiled the official curriculum of its AP African American studies course, the Fed said it will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percent, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said he’s retiring again.Show Notes:2022 Police Violence Report – https://policeviolencereport.org/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, February 2nd. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What a Day. On today's show, the College Board unveiled a stripped-down version of its AP African American Studies course. Plus, the chair of the Federal Reserve said it's premature to declare victory over inflation. But first, Tyree Nichols was remembered yesterday at a funeral service in Memphis, Tennessee. This came more than three weeks after he was beaten during a traffic stop by Memphis police and five days after the city released videos of his brutal assault by the officers. Nichols' death led to second-degree murder charges against five police officers,

who were also fired, as well as the termination of three fire department employees and disciplinary action against two additional Memphis cops who were at the scene. Since the video was released last weekend, the Memphis Police Department's Scorpion unit, whose members included the five officers who were charged, was permanently disbanded. Yesterday, Tyree's family and friends gathered alongside national figures to remember him with tributes and songs as well as calls for change. What was heartbreaking but very authentic about this entire funeral was that it was about how his family wanted him to be remembered. It was about celebrating his life, and I thought that was beautiful, but again, heartbreaking. So can you talk through a little bit about how his friends and family want him to be remembered? Yeah. So according to his loved ones,

Tyree Nichols was a free spirit who loved his four-year-old son and his mother. He liked to skateboard. He would go to Shelby Farms Park on Saturday mornings to skate or in the evenings just to snap pictures of the sunset. He loved watching the sunset. In videos that have been shared on social media, you can see him on his skateboard, smiling, practicing tricks. By all accounts, he was just a lovely young person who was enjoying his life and really trying to make the most of it. His family was understandably very emotional about his life being cut short. Here is a clip of his sister, Kiana Dixon, speaking during the service. I see the world showing him love and fighting for his justice. But all I want is my baby brother back.

And even in his demise, he was still polite. He asked him to please stop. He was still the polite young man that he always was. He asked him to please stop, and they did it. And that's why my family will never be the same, and I will just always love my baby brother forever. That is heartbreaking and so hard to listen to, but I think very important for everyone to hear. Nichols' mother and stepfather also spoke about their grief and reiterated calls for justice. You briefly mentioned earlier that there was a large audience there beyond Nichols' family and friends. Can you tell us who else was in the room? Yeah, so a lot of political figures from around the country were in attendance,

including civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, who gave the eulogy, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, who also spoke. Both of their impassioned speeches called for Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Also in attendance were the families of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, and Botham Jean, all of whom were black people killed by police. Their families came to support Tyree Nichols' family in enduring a tragedy that they have come to know too well. And just remembering how it felt as Reverend Al Sharpton

and Benjamin Crump, the lawyer representing Nichols' family, called out their names, called out the other families who've lost loved ones to police brutality and police violence. It was heartbreaking and incredibly sad. And as you just mentioned, that list included Tamika Palmer, whose daughter, Breonna Taylor, shared a birth date with Tyree Nichols. And seeing them on stage together was a stark reminder of the fact that inaction is only going to lead to more of this violence and more of this death at the hands of police. And Tyree's stepfather, Rodney Wells, said as much. As for the politicos in the audience, after Reverend Sharpton acknowledged Vice President Harris from the pulpit, he invited the VP to say a few words, which seemed a little bit like an impromptu moment. Take a listen to what the Vice President shared with the congregation. This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety.

It was not in the interest of keeping the public safe because one must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe that Tyree Nichols would be with us here today? Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe? So when we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyree Nichols should have been safe. When I tell you the sadness was palpable throughout the service for Tyree and the vice president was tapping into what we all know is the truth that Tyree should have been safe and he should have made it home that night. In her remarks, Vice President Harris also called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, as many others did throughout the service, including Tyree's family. Reverend Al Sharpton also announced that

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee is set to reintroduce the legislation in the House following President Biden's State of the Union address next week. And considering how the bill had been diluted throughout negotiations, there were mixed reactions to the repeated calls to pass the legislation. Yeah, I want to dig into that. But before we do, can you remind our listeners what happened to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act during the last Congress? Well, in March 2021, the House passed the bill along party lines only for the Senate negotiations to hit a stalemate when GOP Senator Tim Scott and police unions organized against the bill because it included key language about ending qualified

immunity, which protects law enforcement officers from most civil lawsuits, as well as language making it easier to prosecute officers accused of misconduct. Also, like most legislation, Senate Democrats needed 10 Republicans to support the bill in order to get around the filibuster, that good old filibuster. And that was not happening in the last Congress. Also, when you add to that the fact that many activists were rightfully frustrated by the fact that the bill would give police forces more money and more resources for training programs, which are clearly ineffective in stopping police from brutalizing and killing black and brown people.

I think that frustration is warranted, especially when police killings are on the rise. According to the police violence report, 1,192 people were killed by police in 2022. That's more than any other year in the past decade. Honestly, all we want, all black and brown people want is not to be killed by police. It's that simple. Yeah, it's utter insanity that that number is on the rise. Given everything we know, everything that's happened in the last few years, that is not how that should look at all. Right. Going back to this bill,

what do you think is the likely outcome here? I mean, it doesn't look good, right? In this current Congress, as the bill is about to be reintroduced later this month, the key negotiators, Senator Cory Booker and Senator Tim Scott are already at odds over who is to blame for negotiation stalling in the last round. And we have a GOP controlled house that is hell bent against doing anything to combat this

brutality from police. I mean, Representative Jim Jordan made that abundantly clear when he went on Meet the Press this past Sunday and said that he didn't think that any law would change what we saw in that body camera footage. So let's just say it's pretty fucking bleak right now. Yeah. If you are a lawmaker, a person in power who is tasked with making the rules and you say, well, the rules actually wouldn't work. Like, how are we supposed to trust you with anything?

I'm sorry. That is an unacceptable answer. Completely unacceptable. But it rings true to what we know Republicans came to do in this Congress. Absolutely nothing for people in need. So he's sticking with that. But we know Democrats are pushing back against that. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are set to meet with President Biden's Delaware vacation home on Wednesday for any more classified documents that he may have held onto. But at least according to Biden's lawyers, they didn't find any. The only materials authorities seized from

the property were some handwritten notes and other items from Biden's tenure as vice president, which they plan to review. This comes after the Justice Department recovered a small number of classified documents at Biden's home in Wilmington nearly three weeks ago. The only other place where Biden may have stored classified materials is the University of Delaware, his alma mater, where he donated a ton of documents from his time in the Senate back in 2012. However, a spokesperson told The Washington Post on January 11th that the university had not yet been asked to go through them. House Republicans plan to hold a floor vote today on a resolution that would remove Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution cites Omar's past criticisms of Israel and pro-Israel lobbying groups, claiming she's unfit to serve on the panel because of her, quote,

biases against Israel and against the Jewish people. The move is likely intended as payback against Democrats who booted far-right Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar from their committee assignments last year after they posted violent videos and violent rhetoric on social media. They were quickly put back on committee rosters when Republicans took control of the chamber earlier this month. Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Steve Scalise said on Wednesday that they were confident that they had enough votes to pass the resolution. Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to rally some Republicans to support her.

Yeah, it's very upsetting to me that people might read this headline, might see this news and think that there is an iota of truth to this. If Ilhan Omar had done anything remotely close to what Marjorie Taylor Greene or Paul Gosar did, Democrats would be calling for the same thing. It's absolutely not true. It's crazy. Only one party in Congress actively perpetuated violence and acted on it with the help from a former president. So there's that. The College Board unveiled the official curriculum of its AP African American Studies course yesterday. This comes days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he would ban the course from being taught in his state because the initial framework included topics like critical race theory, and apparently that is part of his job

now. Who knew? The board said it would not be intimidated by DeSantis' remarks when finalizing the course, but the cuts made to the program say otherwise. While it still touches on topics like the history of Africa, slavery in the United States, and the civil rights movement as outlined in the initial draft, sections on contemporary issues like Black Lives Matter, mass incarceration, and reparations were thrown out. Kind of seem like a big deal. I don't know. The contributions of Black writers and scholars

associated with critical race theory, Black feminism, and queerness were also edited out of the curriculum. The one thing they added to the course? The topic of Black conservatism is now offered as an option for research projects. Hmm. I mean, nothing like bending to the will of a white supremacist on the first day of Black History Month, but alas. We hate to see it.

The drama over dwindling water resources from the Colorado River continues, this time with a clapback from California. We told you yesterday that states that rely on the river for water missed a crucial deadline this week. They were supposed to show the federal government how they plan to collectively conserve water or face sweeping mandatory cuts by 2026. Six Western states submitted their own proposal, but California did not sign on

because it would essentially force California to make the steepest cuts. Late Tuesday, the Golden State struck back with its own proposal, offering some cuts on its part, but threw serious shade on states like Arizona to do more to conserve. And speaking of shade, California's plan also outlined how it could save water by simply not letting so much of it evaporate as it's being diverted and stored. California pulls the most water from the Colorado River than any other state and has the oldest legal claim to those rights. But experts say all seven states need to come to an agreement now because the river is the driest it's been in 1,200 years. Amid reports of inflation very slowly beginning to ease, the Fed announced on Wednesday

that it will increase interest rates by a quarter of a percent, a narrower increment compared to the seven times the central bank raised interest rates in 2022. So far, the aggressive rate hike seemed to have helped cool off inflation, though Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that we are not out of the woods just yet. He signaled that there would be at least two more increases this year, but the ultimate goal of bringing inflation down to 2%. Separately, Powell refused to speculate on what the Fed may do if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling before June, saying, quote, there is only one way forward here, and that is for Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Any deviations from that path would be highly risky. Once more, the quarterback has doubled back. I guess that's a football term.

On the one-year anniversary of the first time he retired from the NFL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has retired yet again, announcing in a video post on Instagram that he would not be returning to the league next season. Tom Brady's unretirement, which began 40 days after his first announcement, marked the beginning of a series of flops for Brady from the end of his marriage, his multi-million dollar investment

in crypto scam FTX, and ultimately his losing season with the Bucs. On the bright side, his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen did comment on his Instagram post saying, quote, wishing you only wonderful things in this new chapter of your life.

Oh, my God. Turn the dagger deeper. We look forward to his next gig sitting in the back of the movie theater at New England screenings of 80 for Brady. Whatever that is. Just trying to feel something. Wow. I hope he comes to several theaters i mean clearly they're his fans i don't think there's ever been a flop era quite as um grand as this what a fall from

grace it only took 365 days for this man to ruin his entire life so i know and in such a grand fashion it really is wild i mean there's clearly no love loss for me. And those are the headlines. We'll be back after some ads to check our temps. It's Thursday, WOD Squad, and for today's temp check, we are talking about Queen B returning to the stage. After the dates were announced literally yesterday, pre-sale begins today for Beyonce's Renaissance World Tour. The 41-date tour will kick off by taking her titular Grammy-nominated 2022 album internationally from Stockholm to Barcelona. She is the queen after all, so she is due for some diplomacy. In July, B is coming stateside performing stadium shows throughout major U.S. cities through September. For context,

the last time Beyonce headlined a solo tour was almost seven years ago with the Formation World Tour. With Taylor Swift's Ticketmaster disaster still in the rearview mirror, Juanita, will you be braving the online queue for these tickets? You bet your ass I will be. Yeah, why would I even ask? Like, what I do think is promising is that Ticketmaster has set up three different pre-sale dates for three different sets of cities domestically. So that makes me feel a little better about them not crashing a website or all the tickets disappearing and disintegrating into nothingness in 10 seconds flat. I like my chances here.

You know, I'm coordinating with my friends. We're a tag team in this. Whoever gets in first gets the tickets. Yeah, I like my chances here. You know, I'm coordinating with my friends. We're a tag team in this. Whoever gets in first gets the tickets. Yeah, I like your plan. You sound like you have come up with some really exciting options. So I'm frankly quite jealous. But I mean, if Ticketmaster bungles this, I think they can. I think they really would have had to say, Beyonce, we can't sell these tickets.

Let's be real. If they thought they got heat from Taylor Swift's fans, let me tell you, the Beehive will ruin this company. Like we will take Ticketmaster the fuck down. Taylor Swift fans were one thing. Beehive is next level. Ticketmaster, do not fuck this up. Yeah. I feel like the fact that they are even opening this means that they have to be confident that it's going to work because if they aren't, why would they put themselves in this position again? So I'm choosing to believe that they are prepared. Glass half full.

We can learn from mistakes. We can improve. Ticketmaster, that means you. Yeah, glass half full or glass of water in my face. We will find out tomorrow. Just like that, we have checked our temps. You know, a little lukewarm. Not about Beyonce, just about Ticketmaster

you know good feeling all right I feel okay one more thing before we go award season is here and it's time to celebrate the best in film music tv and more to get the best takes, insights, and juicy details, check in with our princes of pop culture, Ira and Louis, on the Keep It podcast. New episodes drop every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, fight off inflation with your bare hands, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just your position in the renaissance world to a ticket queue like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi.

And happy Groundhog Day. I think. I don't really know if it's a happy occasion. As happy as you can be. We'll see. Let's see what the weather prediction is and we can go from there. I fear more winters coming for the East Coast, but alas. Exactly. Well, I'm not ready to say happy anything quite yet. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Jazzy Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is Jossie Kaufman, and our executive producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. you