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This hood politics tapping in was so important to me, I felt like I need to do it on video. Also, I'm sure you know LA is under siege I don't know how else to say it, by the Marines and the National Guard in response to scattered protests against ICE agents capturing about two thousand people, some of which are citizens, some of which are not on some like oopsies and just kind of throwing them in holding tanks. And if
you know anything about LA, won't play that. But I want to talk about something particular, which is black love and brown pride and some of the black community feeling like we should just sit this one out. I think we need to talk about this type being with its First of all, let me lay out the sentiment that black people are saying right now with sitting this one out.
When Trump got re elected and we saw mass protests around Tesla and the fascist takeover, the original sentiment came from that, which is like, you know what we tried to tell you, I'm gonna set this one out issue your turn. Okay, We've been on the front lines for a long time. By a long time, I mean the whole time right now. Any knowledge of history knows that we are not the only people who have fought for
civil rights, right. You have many of the queer commun unity and some of those even in Los Angeles, you know. But the thing that's been interesting about the Black experience is our movement was never just about us. It was always about humanizations. And even when they were just about us, because we were taking the brunt of anti blackness, we were the enslaved ones because we took so much on It was not easier, but it was Our movements lended
itself to intersectionality. People joined our movements black. You have the Black Panthers and then the brown berets, you know what I'm saying, Labor movements, these movements that we have done, the fighting that we have done, we find ourselves a lot of times, and specifically like the Black Church being sort of the conscious, the moral compass of the country, you know, and we're the ones with the dogs released
on us. We were the ones with you know, the fire hoses, did the sit ins, we did all that, We got the schools integrated.
So there's this feeling.
That we're kind of tired, and especially because oftentimes we find ourselves having to explain the smell of your boot leather while it's on our neck.
Does that make sense?
We're actively being oppressed, But it's also our job to educate everyone about oppression, about what it means, about how this affects the rest of you, right that we are fighting for the rights of all that's kind of been in the stance. And then and then you get the ab in a Trump and we're like, look, fam ninety two, we did our part. We did not vote for this man.
We voted for the weird laugh Okay, we told y'all this shit was going to happen, right, So the attitude is like, dog like, you know what you all want to listen to was we tried, We tried, We tried, we tried. We told you this was a problem. We told even this is I'm explaining the attitude. We told even Asian and Latino communities that like what he doing
to us, they gonna do to you. You remember last year when that Asian dude fought to end affirmative action, We were like, these people don't love you, and what we're trying to tell you is this is not gonna help. So we felt like of all of our sacrifices, we were also not considered. And then the Black Lives Matter movement happened, and that was one of those moments.
Where it was really beautiful to see a lot of the solidarity.
Sort of around around the country, only to have DEI get attacked and people who had our back fold like you put your little black square.
On your Instagram and then that was it.
Right, So there's this sentiment that, like, y'all take our support for granted, and our work is never it feels like it goes unappreciated or underappreciated. So now with these ice raids and these immigration issues, the attitude has become a this ain't our fight attitude, which, if you know me, almost infuriates me, Like, what the hell are you talking about?
This ain't your fight? Now.
On one hand, I can understand the sentiment of we need to sit this out because we've done our part. We tried, we told y'all, and then to watch the Latino community vote for Donald Trump, We're like, you can't be serious, y'all asked for. This is a sentiment that we're struggling with. But while I feel like it's a shame that I have to even make this case, let me make a case as to why the moves that ICE are doing absolutely will affect black people.
So here we go. First of all, let's use some logic.
You mean to tell me the country that kidnapped your ancestors and made them work fields would not give them freedom until a war happened and you was gonna lose the country for which we had to fight in and then turned around and built an amendment that said that even though you free, and we not allowed to make you a.
Slave unless.
Unless you was in jail, and then invented redlining Jim Crow in mass incarceration.
That country.
You telling me that country would not think twice about sending Joe black ass to another country to go to jail. Are you serious right now? You think it's truly just about them? Do you understand that ICE has no jurisdiction to arrest someone that's a citizen. They're not cops. So the fact that they accidentally picking people up, you think that ain't got nothing to do with black people? Like, I don't understand where your head at.
How about this one?
How about an Alabama there's a proposed bill, what is it called HB six eighteen that would allow Alabama to send people incarcerated in their state to foreign prisons.
Let me read it right now. This theal dot Com.
It says this bill would authorize the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections to enter into contracts with foreign nations to confine Alabama inmates in penal institutions or correctional facilities. This is what the legislation states, because I quote, our prisons aren't harsh enough. I and my last point I want to make with you is you think ain't no black people in Latin America. Many times if I said this, we too often identified with where the boat dropped us off,
then where it picked us up. When you look at a Cuban and you're like, damn, you look like you black, it's because they are. I don't understand what you don't understand. You know, we got dropped off all over the Americas.
They us.
I just I don't understand what you don't understand. Now listen, I also come from the Inner City, and I have watched the Latino community, the Asian community, and every other community of the diaspora of people that seizing their chicken and washed their legs. I've seen them practice a number of anti blackness things I've seen.
I've heard all the racist.
Jokes coming from all them people, like I tell you the Filipino one, what did the white goat say to the black goat?
God? I know? Okay.
Having said that, I also know that the President was looking for any reason to bring the Marines to our streets and that man don't see no difference between us. I can't stress this enough. The state of California didn't call for a state of emergency. Trump just did it. He just sent the National Guard. That's illegal. The fact that the Marines are in our streets like this more
freaking fallojah. I don't know what else to tell you how outlandishly illegal that is, Like, are you what the hell you mean?
This ain't your fight?
You think these people they don't see no difference with us? You understand it's jump out boys in our streets. Listen, I think somebody said it on Twitter. Anytime the government got jump out boys when people are hopping out the van and snatching people.
That is a trillion percent black people business. How that what?
And finally, last, but definitely not least, and probably should be first, your boy tried to end birthright citizenship I don't understand how the conversation didn't stop with that one. So for you to think that this ain't your fight, I just listen. They selling you a wolf ticket. But again, let me end with this, I shouldn't have to tell you that. Maybe it's because I'm from LA that I understand our lives. Black Latino, Filipino, any Asian, any immigrants,
our fates are connected. If you got a little bit the melanin in you, they coming.
For you too. But I don't have to have skin in the game.
I love this city and I stand in solidarity with suffering people everywhere. What's going on in Palestine, what's going on where Ice, what's going on in Los Angeles.
It's one thing. It's one thing. Tap in with me.