Hey, folks, it is Monday, January twelfth, and this isn't necessarily the episode we planned on recording this evening, but our thirteen year old walked into the house a little while ago and showed us a video from TikTok that
made us rethink our plans. And so here we are welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ one in which we are talking robes about where we are in this country in terms of a language which you can say, which you can say, what words awful limits and to whom, and how much racism you can seem to shout from
the mountaintops and it not be racism anymore. So let's start first with the headlines everybody's been seeing about the President and what he said to the New York Times about reverse discriptination that's got everybody talking to it.
Yes, reverse discrimination.
President Trump said that white people that Civil Rights era protections, by the way, have resulted in white people being quote very badly treated. Yes, he said that, and he directly attributed it to the Civil Rights era, and that it would be it became unfair that white people couldn't get into certain colleges, they couldn't get certain jobs, so it was reverse discrimination.
And he said that.
When he was asked about his anti woke policies if he was trying to make Americle white, and he just said, well, I just want to have people who love our country.
Okay, So were you surprised to hear the president say this. It's making headlines everywhere and folks are writing their opinion pieces and people are giving their reactions and their videos online at they're posting. But was this it's a shocking statement to you?
It wasn't shocking coming from President Trump now because obviously he his big anti woke campaign, his anti DEI campaign.
All serves that purpose.
So he's just stating what he's already taken action on. He's just explaining the why behind it. But what other why could there have been?
So it's not shocking.
I think what is shocking, though, is when you start to see certain things on social media coming from the administrations and particularly from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions.
It's a Saturday Night Live skit that was shocking to me.
It's a Saturday Night Lives sit it is it seems so surreal.
So can we let you all know because I hadn't seen this until you pointed it out to me, babe.
Okay.
So the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this is a commission that was formed in nineteen sixty five under the Civil Rights Act. Well, there is a new commission chair under President Trump. Her name is Andrea Lucas, and she put this out on x This was a video and it was a message to explain what the agency is focused on. So Lucas says, this, are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex. You may have a claim to recover money under federal
civil rights laws. Contact the EEOC as soon as possible. Time limits are typically strict for filing a claim. And then she goes on to say the EEOC is committed to identifying, attacking, and eliminating all forms of race and sex discrimination, including against white male applicants and employees.
That was shocking to me.
That last part is usually reserved to call out including our Asian American community, including the Latino community, including the African American You're not used to seeing. At the end, protect everyone, including the white folks, not.
Even white folks, white men in particular.
Who have in this country, without a doubt, been the top of the top of the food chain.
Look at every boardroom, look at every person with power, and almost all of them singularly are white men.
And we have now turned white men into a class, a protected class, who've been discriminated against, who are being discriminated against. This is not new, This is not surprising. This is something that Jdvans in particular has talked about. But this is something they've been going this direction. It
is offensive that any time. This is something that we've joked about amongst ourselves sometimes as black folks, but it is difficult when you make it up the chain, When you make it to the upper level, the top floor of someplace, and you're the only black person on that floor, you look around in other people look at you and think, well, the only reason you're here is not because of your ability,
it's because we need a diversity, right. And this idea, now as you talk about white men, is all with that undercurrent of if you are black, and if you are ahead of that white man, or even equal to that white man in your career, then you're actually inferior because you're only here because of this or that. That part of all this.
You've kept through another white man from the position he rightfully should have been. You never heard it exactly exactly, and you spoke about JD. Vance and he went on to X and actually, yes, got very specific said he blamed all of these diversity initiatives for depriving white men of opportunities. His quote is a lot of people think DEI is lame diversity seminars or racial slogans at NFL games. In reality, it was a deliberate program of discrimination, primarily
against white men. So instead of it promoting and giving opportunity to people who had been shut out because of the color of their skin, No, it wasn't that. It was to punish, to discriminate against white men. That is what our administration is saying and selling.
You know, I was dragging into a lawsuit in my career. I think I told you this when earlier in my career, when because a white man sued because he lost his job and I got hired, and this was the exact thing. I had to sit across from a white lawyer for three hours and defend my worth on planet Earth in a lawsuit. So this idea really robes is a difficult one to stomach. And the way the New York I put it down here the way the New York Times put it. I'm sorry I lost that. Yes, President Trump
has equated diversity with incompetence and inferiority. That's it. Wow, your equated diversity. If you're diversity, that means you're incompetent and inferior. You're only here because somebody needs to meet a quota or betaverse. We deal with it every day, and something like this in the headline. It's not surprising, and a lot of people jumped on it, And I just hope we don't because we could have gone on and popped off. But I just I hope for better.
We too often in these cases robes, don't we We end up talking about him instead of talking about what he said. There's nothing we are going to say. There's no way you can clap back or throw any history at him or his followers who are going to give a damn. It doesn't matter what the numbers show and throw the numbers about discrimination. It doesn't matter to them.
But why aren't we talking a little better? Why not have a better and a more civil conversation about that thing which is real, which is do you look at people on your floor who are black and think they're there because they work just as hard or they earned it like you did. How do you view people in those positions? It happens in every single office, It absolutely does, and that it gives us a chance to have a more civil conversation instead of just trying to beat down something else.
The President's said, Yes, and look, I do appreciate how measured Derek Johnson was in light of all of this. He was interviewed by the New York Times, and he could have said a lot of things, he's the president of the NAACP, but he just simply said, I thought
he was very measured. No evidence, there is no evidence that white men were discriminated against as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Act, and efforts to rectify the long history of this country denying access to people based on race in every measurable category.
Yes, and do we is anyone listening? Is anyone a part of this conversation right now? Really help the pale leaf that white men as a whole have suffered because of the Civil Rights Act, that they generally are a discriminated against class of people. White men.
Yeah, I think they're talking about.
They are talking about universities and certain quota systems about who can get in.
And how many white men are allowed into.
I mean, this is all I can see them pointing to that and certain yes job promotions. Those are the like where you have mandatory you have to fill X amount of spaces or titles or positions with certain people of color, and so that's what they're pointing to.
And they just want a merit based system.
But the problem is is, you know, we're not all on even ground, period.
Man, What are we going to do? Where are we? And you mentioned the and I have it up here in front of me. I forgot to mention this when you were talking about a second ago, and it's still here in my face. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that you were speaking of. Yes, I happened to go to their website today. I just wanted to check it out. On their front page. As soon as I clicked on it, there was a banner that says DEI related discrimination, What to do if you experience.
It DEI discrimination. So that is a direct shout out to white men and encouraging them to report it.
Yeah, that's incredible.
I've never I've never seen this before in my life, and I honestly never thought I would. It's that shocking to me when I actually sit down and think about that, that is out there a call a shout out to white men, let us know if you've been discriminated against because you're a white man. That actually becomes funny to me. And maybe people will tell me that that's not funny. And I don't know what I'm talking about, but I just can base this off of my experience.
In the world. That's hilarious.
But that's not all we found. On that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website will tell you what else is there and where do we go from here? All right? We continue here on Amy and TJ The Big Headlines. President Trump does an interview with The New York Times and at some point saying that the Civil Rights Act actually ended up doing some bad things for white people. It treated some people very badly. You know what, we didn't
mention and I should. I am so so sorry. He also said in here, yes quote, I think it was also at the same time a pumplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people. People that did I wanted to make sure we got that in the Diday.
You know, that's a good point.
I did say that it accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people. People that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job.
So it was it was a reverse discrimination.
A lot of people. How many does that mean, I don't know, but it's a Somebody somewhere is hearing this who is upset about where they are in their life, what's happening in their home, the type of home they're in, the type of car their drive, and how much money they make, and they're hearing their president say, man, this is the problem. These folks over here hurt you in your career with this stuff. What an easy out. I hate that as an He's given too many people an excuse.
And the president is saying.
Hey, well yeah, when you also go on a fishing expedition to try and encourage a group of people who have I'm sorry but generally speaking, have always been in a position of power and ask all of them to say if they've experienced any discrimination based on the color of their skin aka been passed up for a job that you thought you deserved, but someone else got it. And if that's someone else who got it, wasn't a
white man, Bam, you were discriminated against. I mean, that's a scary sentiment to suggest to someone you can go back in your life and think, yeah, you know what, I was the most qualified or I was the hardest worker. Why did that person why did she get it? Why did that person of color get it? And all of a sudden, it's not your fault? How tempting? How delicious is that to think, Wow, I got robbed of something.
I'm owed.
Now I'm not going to feel bad about not getting that position. I'm going to say it wasn't my fault. It was your fault and your woke policies. Oh my god, that's the problem.
It's very tempting.
Oh yeah, and look if they have been folks are being told that that is okay, and that is legitimate gripe. Right now. The other thing about the equal opportunity I did refresh, and there's another banner there. I was. This was sport for me, I did say. Now, the other ones that report anti American employment bias report anti American employment bias under that it says they have resources to help employees or job seekers identify and report unlawful national
origin discrimination. Now national origin discrimination is legit, but they focused it all on America.
So basically, if someone who was born in another country gets a job over you, that's anti American discrimination.
And that's, my gosh, pretty good.
That is scary.
Now.
You started off.
The podcast talking about coming home, Yes, Yes, and showing us a TikTok tick talker named Benny.
Yeah, and you know, maybe I shouldn't have. The name is out there at this point everywhere, and it's everywhere, but we had no idea who this guy fifteen years old was. Yes, And she explained that some fifteen year old was out there and he dropped the N word in a in a in a video and it was posted.
And it wasn't that he was singing along with lyrics that that's okay and even you know something like that it was. She was like, no, he just said it. And the scary thing is the reason why he said he.
Could say I didn't get I didn't say.
It's twenty twenty six.
I feel like that is referencing where we are, this whole anti woke campaign. You can't tell us what we can say. We're not going to be discriminated against us white men. If I want to say the N word, that's where twenty twenty six, that's where we are.
That's how I took that.
It crushed my mood when she showed me that, because we were both kind of shocked and the kind of upbeat, and I saw it in my just my heart sank. The idea of don't know this young man and where he's from and what he's about, and if he's a good kid, whatever it may be. But to see someone say to camera in such an arrogant way, and who's only been on this earth for fifty.
Years, has no idea.
To say, I don't care. He teed it up, I don't care. I'm gonna say it and just.
Drops y'all can cancel me. I don't care.
And that's just terrifying that the.
How suddenly there's a feeling of being emboldened, of being supported to say things that normally would have absolutely been not just inappropriate, but just devastating.
Horlmost now celebrated. You know what you made me. Just think of the woman can't remember where she was called the baby on the playground, the world. What she got up to seven eight hundred.
Just shows you there are, yes, there is there are people out there who absolutely are applauding this and.
Feel fine, why not go ahead dropping in words. No, we just wanted to hop on on this one, folks. This isn't the one we planned, but thanks Sabine. All Right, we're gonna hop in here and try to find some more story ideas from Sabina on TikTok over now.
T J.
Holmes alongside Amy Robot will talk to Yilson