032523 DeSantis and Florida H.B. 999 (Part 2)

Checkmajorthreads dot com. And today we'll be reading from the New York Times. As you know, those of you who listened to the show, you may have heard the name Brian Stevenson. We're big fans of Brian Stevenson around here. He is a lawyer and a great orator and a person who really inspires us. He's also the director for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the leader

of the Equal Justice Initiative. So I'll read. Montgomery, Alabama, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, on a six acre site overlooking the Alabama State Capitol, is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy, and it demands a reckoning with one of the nation's least recognized atrocities, the lynching of thousands of black people in in decades long campaign of racist terror. At the center is a grim cloister, a walkway with eight hundred weathered steel columns, all hanging

from a roof. Etched on each column is the name of an American county and the people who were lynched there, most listed by name, many simply as unknown. The columns meet you first at eye level, like the headstones that lynching victims were rarely given, But as you walk, the floor steadily descends. By the end, the columns are all dangling above, leaving you in the position of the callous spectators in the old photographs of public lynchings. There's nothing

like it in the country, which is the point. They have catalog nearly four four hundred in total lynchings. Quote. Just seeing the names of all these people, said Brian Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, of the nonprofit organization behind the memorial. Many of them, he said, quote, have never been named in public. We want you to check out museum and memorial dot eji dot org, learn about that, and become a better all all right Florida

State House bill. So, as you know, and as we've discussed on the show, it's some people out there that they don't want us to know about history. And uh and that's where it starts. That's where it starts. And before we actually get into this, I think we've got a clip to play. Right, let's so firight out.

burned books. The freedom to read, which is protected by the First Amendment, is our essential right and duty of our democracy, even so it is continually under attack by both the public and private groups who think they hold

the truth. In response to the book banning throughout our country and Martin County last year during the time I was ninety nine, I have created this guilt to remind all of us that these few, of so many more books that are banned or targeted need to be proudly displayed and protected and.

multiple perspectives. We've long since known that conservatives in this country often their numbers are weakened as a result of higher education. In other words, the more educated you become, the more liberal a philosophy you adopt, the more liberal your voting tends to be. You tend to see the world with more empathy and more understanding because you've expanded your cognitive boundary Greece and you recognize that certain things are possible. There's less to be afraid of, we have

more in common, et cetera. You do not notice folks who have a liberal philosophy trying to hide education, and I don't know if that's excuse me. People that are more educated are people that are more enlightened. Right because government of scientist has a degree from Harvard Law School, so very educated. Still hyper right wing conservatives still very

very selfish and or bigoted and racist. So to the point, not just the idea of more education by way of school, but more enlightened people seem to seem tend to be I'm sorry, more caring, more empathetic, more inclusive. And that's a good point because education does not completely eradicate conservativism. There are people who are just conservatives and that is the way that the world that they see the world, and that's okay, unfortunate, I mean, not really.

Governor Ron Desantus's desk. Okay. Opponents of the bill worry that its language is too vague and could be used to ban activities promoted by multicultural student unions, black fraternities and sororities, and courses in Jewish history, women's studies, and LGBTQ plus studies. An official analysis of the bill cited examples of current courses that would be banned under the proposed legislation, including Florida Atlantic University's Gender and Climate Change

and Florida University's Social Inequities Social Construction of Difference Inequities. Okay, Now, it actually goes further than this, because this bill allows the governor effectively to create a panel of deciders who get to decide on tenured teachers whether or not they'll continue to be able to teach right if they have a problematic history of teachings on you know, right right on the edge of that line.

the deciders are. And of course, as you know, if you decide, if you're the one deciding who the deciders are, you're effectively the decider, right, And then they get to decide if you can teach carbe Blanche.

like white supremacy. The reason it sounds like it, because I know it does, is because it is right. The thing is crafted in this language and under the guys are protecting children from feeling ashamed about themselves. These folks can get away with this. Not to mention that this is a playbook straight out of Nazi Germany, and they're

not the only ones to do it. But we see oppressure, oppressive regimes ethno states, people that really try to prop up one facet of their citizenship and make all the other second class citizens second class citizens to kind of serve that elite base. This is exactly the playbook, and it might sound good to people who are susceptible to fear monitoring.

stuff there. And when I got there, I realized, Man, I'm at a loss. I'm learning things that I didn't know. I'm realizing the genius of these people, you know, and it's and it's not just there. I've been in France, been in Switzerland, you know, I've been a lot of places around the world. You know, we both have and the history is so deep. But we and you might know this about us. We in the United States, we're so focused on us that it's kind of like rude.

We're kind of a self centered country. Arrogance is the words you look, Yeah, definitely, and I think that it's ultimately it is to our own detriment. We live in this small little peace of the world where everything is we think everything is safe. We're afraid to travel, afraid to expand our boundaries, and there's a lot of people happy to just allow us to live our lives in a very small way and significant way, because again, the more we know, the more we expand our boundaries, the

more we understand that we're all basically the same. When I was in Southeast Asia for I don't know, four or five months, bouncing around from Singapore to Malaysia, to Vietnam to Hong Kong to all of them, you know, Indonesia, I learned something that seemed very simple, but it was very profound for me. Every time I ended up on a new piece of dirt, I saw people there who were using what grew out of the ground to put some food together or make some money so that they

could feed their babies, because they love their children. And I'm like, man, if that ain't the most human thing that I've ever seen. And here I am on the other side of the world. It's dark as night. It's four in the morning where I live. Over here, the sun is shining. These people's working, happy, laughing, listening to the music, dancing, kissing each other, loving each other, deserving of whatever life could hold for them. They don't live

under the stars and stripes. Ain't no guns in the country, you know what I'm saying. Happy as they want to be. They go up hike a mountain, drop off a little bit of incense that a buddhas, say a prayer for their you know, pass away loved ones, back down the mountain, keep it pushing. That grew me up a lot seeing

that beautiful. And the sad part about it is most of the people that I know in the United States never will have that eye opening moment where they like get to see that and recognize, like, yo, these people are just like me. So it's so much easier to see like, these are my brothers and my sisters over here doing their thing. I'm happy to support. I know what that's like. If you're up here crying and praying because you have a sick grandmother, I know what that's like.

My grandma was sick too. You love your grandma too, You're doing your best for her. I respect you. I know what that. I've been there. You know what I'm saying. And now we don't speak the same language.

many people. There are just powerful people that profit and benefit from the things that divide us that they spend a lot of resources making sure they highlight those things and keep us from you. Not because the haves love that there are so many have nots It gives them a much bigger pie to split between each other.

be afraid of. So yeah, stay woke. And if this dude does run for president, which is you know it's pretty much a sure thing, do everything that you can to keep this man from getting power, because we've seen what he'll do. All Right, it's time for the Way Black History Fact. And in today's way, Black History Fact is sponsored by the Black Information Network Daily Podcast and I will be reading from Wikipedia. In other words, you

can check this out for yourself. There is mention of suicide in this story, and so fair warning, so I will read. Kalif Browner was born May twenty, nineteen ninety three, and he lived until June sixth, twenty fifteen. Was an African American youth from Bronx, New York, was held at the Rikers Island Jail Complex without trial twenty ten and twenty thirteen allegedly stealing a backpack containing valuables. During his imprisonment,

Brouder was in solitary confinement for seven hundred days. I also need to let you know that if you do want to read this or real long, I'm skipping around, just how to condense it a bit here for the show, all right. On May fifteen, twenty ten, police apprehended Brouder and a friend on Arthur Avenue near East one hundred and eighty six Street in the Belmont section of the Bronx.

Broder said he was going home from a party. He thought police were carrying out a routine stopping frisk, a police procedure he had undergone on a number of occasions. Police officers were responding to a nine to one one call placed by Roberto Bautista about the theft of a backpack containing a camera, seven hundred dollars, a credit card, and an iPod touch. Baltista said, two black, two male black guys, they took my brother's book back. Brouder told

the attending police officers. I didn't rob anyone. You can check my pockets. The police search Browder, but they didn't find the backpack. Seventeen hours after the arrest, Browder was interrogated by a police officer and a prosecutor. The following day, Brouder was charged with robbery, grand larceny, and assault. Because he was on probation, Brouder was not released At his arraignment. He was charged with second degree robbery and bale was

set at three thousand dollars with a bail bondsman. The amount needed was nine hundred dollars. Brouder's family could not raise this amount. Brouder was jailed at the Robert N. Dverreen Center, and I want to make it known that his prior arrest. He also claimed that he was innocent for that arrest too, okay. Brouder was jailed at the

Robert Inn Devern Center on Rikers Island. Greet Burana, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that the R and D C had a deep seated culture of violence in which inmates suffered broken jaws, broken orbital bones, broken noses, long bone fractures, and lacerations requiring stitches. Brouder said inmates washed their own clothes with silk and a metal bucket, causing rustines on the clothes. Router's mother began visiting him weekly and provided him with

clean clothes and snack money. To avoid becoming a target of the inmates, he slept on the top of his belongings, including his bucket. Browder said he felt pressure to gain physical strength and to defend himself from carcerl violence. He said, quote every here and there, I did a couple of pull ups or push ups when I went in there. That's when I decided I wanted to get big. Router was a victim of carcel violence. On one occasion, he

and other inmates were lined up against the wall. Correction officers wanted to find the instigator of the fight Broader, and the inmates were punched one by one. He said their noses were leaking, their faces were bloody, their eyes were swollen. The guards threatened the inmates with solitary confinement

if they reported their injuries. On December tenth, twenty ten, a potential trial date was set after prosecution and defense had submitted notices of readiness On January twenty eighth, twenty eleven, two hundred and fifty eight days after his arrests, Browder appeared in court. The prosecution requested a defermative proceedings. On

June twenty third, twenty eleven. Brouter's record showed the people not ready request one week August twenty fourth to twenty eleven, the people not ready request one day November fourth, twenty eleventh, the people not ready, prosecutor on trial request two weeks and December second, twenty eleven. Prosecutor on trial request January third,

twenty twelve. On June twenty ninth, twenty twelve, Browder's record showed the people not ready request one week September twenty eight, twenty twelve, the people not ready request two weeks November second, twenty twelve, the people not ready request one week December fourteen, twenty twelve, the people not ready request one week. After nine hundred and sixty one days in Rikers, Browder had appeared before for eight judges. He later opemed these guys

were just playing with my caste. March thirteen, twenty thirteen, Brouder appeared before Bronx judge Patricia de Di Mango shoffered Brouder a plea bargain of immediate release for his admission of guilt on two misdemeanors, with consideration of time already served.

Brouder refused the offer and was returned to Rikers. On May nine, thirteen, De Mango freed Brouder in anticipation of the dismissal of the charges against him one week Hence, Bautista had returned to Mexico and could not give testimony against Brouder. While incarcerated. In twenty ten, Browder made his first suicide attempt. He tried a second time on February eighth, twenty twelve, trying to hang himself using strips of sheet tied to a ceiling light in the cell. Rouder later

said the CEOs goaded him to commit suicide. On another occasion, after an appearance before judge, Brouter made sharp implement from the bucket in his cell and started to slit his wrists. An officer intervened. After released, Brouder continued to have symptoms of depression. He said, people tell me, because I have this case against the city, I'm all right, But I'm not all right. I'm messed up. I know that I might see some money from the case, but that's not

going to help me mentally. I'm mentally scarred right now. That's how I feel. There are certain things that changed about me. They might not change. Back before I went to jail, I didn't know about a lot of stuff, and now that I'm aware, I'm paranoid. I feel like I was robbed of my happiness. In November twenty thirteen, Browder made another suicide attempt and was admitted to the psychiatric ward of Saint Barnabas Hospital, the first of three

admissions to the war. On June sixth, twenty fifteen, at twelve fifteen pm, Browder hanged himself from an air conditioning unit outside his bedroom window at his mother's home. His mother discovered his body, And that was the story of Anthony Browder.

it deserves. Because you're listening to that story of this kid accused of something, no evidence found to even suggest that he did it, and we're just gonna throw him in jail anyway. And that decision being made by someone else, as he said, robbed him not just his happiness, but his innocence of thought, his blissful ignorance, if you will. And it is really sad that again, that's not just his story, it's just the one that we told today.

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