Black Lives Matter

sort of the intention we're bringing to this episode. And I think that first and foremost, let's get one thing absolutely straight for anyone that's listening to this, which is black Lives matter. That needs to be said at the top of everyone's lungs. And I personally, like I want to apologize for not being as loud about this and not being as angry about this. I think I've always been angry. You know. This is an incredibly intense moment where I think the world is at a tipping point

and we need to be just as angry. We need to be more angry. I think that this that what's happening out on the streets right now and what's happening in this country is a long time coming, because this is just we are. It's it's sick, what's going on. I have a protest at time a window. I just came from a vigil today. UM. It is you know, there, there, there, there, there's a ground swell happening. UM. And today we're recording this on June one. You know, there's little little little

openings of something happening. UM. Keith Ellison being appointed UM to investigate what happened in Minneapolis is sort of a slightly positive development. UM, someone who has a really extensive background in civil rights cases. UM and the independent investigation on Joy George Floyd's murder coming through and saying this absolutely was a homicide. And just to speak to UM, to speak to the first result, which kind of blamed

his death on pre existing conditions. I just want everyone to really try to understand how insane that is, because that that what that actually is saying is that had he been walking down the street, he could have died of those pretty distant conditions like the next like the knee on his neck actually didn't have as much to

do with it. It's a really flagrant sort of display of like a specific kind of racism, which is biological racism, which is putting forward the notion that, UM, the reason for racial inequities are because are the cause or the that there are these physiological inequities among different racial groups,

and that is um what causes rachel iniquities. Right. So basically what that sort of what that autopsy autopsy implied was that George Floyd died because he had these pre existing conditions that are coincidentally, um prevalent among black Americans. So it's saying that these this death was not at the hands of police, that it was sort of he

was genetically predisposed. Even let's say, which is I mean, think about that, Think about how completely horrid that is the reason, like racial iniquities are causing these biological, um, these physiological inequities. I mean, I mean, I mean, I hope people understand that. I hope people understand that it's just it. It's a way to try to get these cops off the hook, you guys, like it's it's and

it's crazy. And I really hope that we can just see black and white like to use it, just to use a phrase like this is this is wrong and then an independent investigation comes in and says, no, it was absolutely a homicide, which is what it was. And I also just want to speak very quickly because there is still a lot of hesitance amongst white people to

say the words black lives matter. And I still feel like I'm still seeing responses on social media to the hashtag black lives matter, which is no, all lives matter. This is why it's important to say that black lives matter. Black lives litter, no no qualification. You don't qualify that statement ever, ever, ever, ever, it's just of course, every

human life does matter. But when you when you fail to say that black lives matter, there is a base sort of experience in this country, which is that we are just so desensitized to these black lives just being lost and these black lives being taken. So that's we need to say black lives matter, because they have not mattered in the past. So but in saying black lives matter, we're not saying only black lives matter that which is

it's crazy that you would think that's the case. We're saying that black lives matter just as much as any other life, and we need to change the way that this country has been behaving as if that they don't. That's what we're saying. We're saying now we have to really start shouting from the rooftops that this is unacceptable, This pattern of behavior is unacceptable. Police brutality is not acceptable.

The system is broken. Yes, yes, of course Matt and I are very sort of Um, I would say upfront about the ways that we've been anti black on the show multiple times. I mean, but just the ways that our our biases have informed a lot of the ways that we talk sort of socially or even on a recorded podcast like this, where we sort of will appeal to like auditory black face in some terms, like in some ways, like the ways that you and I will like trade in sort of you know, casual racism. Racism.

It's not even whi which which is not even a real thing. I mean, like the term microaggression isn't even like really applical but applicable anymore at microaggressions are sort of used as this term in quote unquote post racial America for us to talk about racing a more nuanced way. But I mean, there there isn't any nuance to racism. Is is kind of what we're all learning, right It's like and in a lot of anti racist reading that UM,

I think everyone's doing right now. I think we're all seeing that, UM, the terms institutional racism, systemic racism, structural racism are redundant because all racism is inherently institutional, structural, systemic. You know, It's like and and it's and I hope everyone just takes this time to um examine the ways that they've been racist before, because and do not deny, because denial is built into racism itself. For you to say that you're not racist, is you telling on yourself

that you are? Because we all are. We all are racist, and it's not I have been We're we are all racist. And um the way that Ibram X Kendy writes about in his book, racism and anti racism are identities that we can peel off and put on ourselves, like sort of hell are my name is name tags? It's like one moment we can behave racistly and another moment we

can behave anti racistly. We have to redistribute the racist so that it is overwhelmingly overwhelmingly We're we're wearing the anti racism identity UM in our lives more often than we are the racist one. I hope, I hope people sort of try to use that as a guide. I don't know, UM, it's it's hard to make broad sort of suggestions and guidances as to non black people. Um, but that's sort of kind of what I'm taking away from a lot of my reading and my absorption right now. Yeah.

I think a lot of people in this country are in shock right now because of how big this moment feels to them. And I think that we all, to a certain extent, really have forgotten or blocked out exactly how America came to be what it is, which is important to say, you know, America is there is no America without black people because America or the white people, white people stole African people from their lands and brought them here, enslaved them, forced them to build this country.

And then I think, because there are serious gaps in education, we think that, oh, well, it ended when slavery ended, and then it was still bad for a hundred years or so until the Civil rights movement, and then it was fixed again. There are so many gaps, and there's there's there's so much to learn, and there's so much to examine about why we have arrived at this moment in time, and I think that people are very resistant

to really examine that. And I think that we all because because if we really examined it, we would feel crazy amounts of pain. And understand that those crazy amounts of pain are felt every single day by people who are afraid to leave their homes because they might be

murdered because of the color of their skin. It's gotten to the point where if you are watching the news and this amount of pain shocks you, the or this, this whatever however you wanna, if the protests surprise you or shock you, if the fact that sometimes they get violent, if that shocks you or surprises you. This has been existing for centuries. This is that we are at a breaking point because it cannot continue and a lot of people are sitting at their homes getting really upset about

people who point this out. And I do think that this is why, for example, someone like Alexandria Costio Cortez, she earned so much hatred for trying to do this the quote unquote right way, or speak or speaking to these issues in public, and how dare she? But this is what this is what life is like. And so now when people have tried and tried and tried to do things the quote unquote right way, you cannot condemn what is happening in this out in America right now.

You can't police or tone police the way that people are demanding that their lives be protected or not ripped away from them. And I'm very aware of the fact that this isn't coming out as eloquently. No, it doesn't it that's we're not That's not what anyone's asking of really anyone, right, I mean, what I'm noticing is everyone is having a similar emotional response to this. Hopefully I'm trying. I'm basically saying that we're all catching up to a

certain baseline vocabulary. That is what's happening. That is the reckoning that that is part of the reckoning in terms of UH as a culture, the way that we talk about this. We're all being brought up to speed on what the what what what the vocabulary is. And white people need to be coddled there too much about like

this owning up to the privilege of it all. And I think that we've made some progress in terms of understanding that privilege is not something that's that you're told you have um and it means that you're a bad person. It just means that we all have to own up to the amount of privilege that we have and understand that that protects us in a racist society, which we have a racist society, and we have a society that runs with certain systems in place that protect white people

and do not protect black people. Yes, Um, if you or someone you know is struggling with a basic grasp of this, the way that you can explain this to someone, hopefully in terms that they can understand our um that racism are is just a set of personal biases, um, personal prejudices, and that gets scaled up to misuse and abusive power. And then I mean, this is this is

the way. This is the way that I saw someone explain this to their parents is that, Um, someone was someone's parents were like very anti looting, um, and then uh, this person was like, well, mom, what would make you so angry that you would want to smash a window in? And she was like, well, if they hurt my family or my children, or if my livelihood was taken away, then that would drive me to such anger that I

would do that. And I mean this is just assuming that um, a majority of these agitation like that a majority of these sort of agitating events of looting happening

or whatever. I mean that that's just assuming that that it's all being sort of orchestrated by the protesters themselves, when I mean, we're seeing it's not the case, and it's people who are being opportunistic either um, either on the far right or people who are just like, oh, I'm just or just like some fucking idiot white dude who like goes into a surf shop that's been broken into and takes the fucking surfboard out, like like we like,

there's just like a million different reasons for people to act horrendously right now, and none of that can be lumped together in a way that is uh neatly filed away into be certain people's mind. And um, another thing is, you know, I had a conversation with someone close to me and this was the first thing they said. You know, we began the conversation, it was, well, this is not how you get the point across. And just if you have that conversation with someone in your life, try to

redirect to that conversation to why this is happening. And this is happening because there is a violent, murderous pattern in this country that has to do with police killing black people. Innocent black people. That is what we should be as a nation most furious about and try to make the people in your life understand when someone is using their voice and that is and that voice is

a minority person, you must listen to that voice. It's like this with That's why when people say believe women, women have everything to lose when they step forward and they say I was assaulted by this person, powerful or not, That's why you listen to that person, the weaker person in the argument, because logically they step forward with everything to lose, because we can see historically that the the accused in this situation, which you know, let's say whoever

it is like white man man. However, these are people that historically get away with this, and we we there's there's a record of this there. It's just it's a tale as old as time. So when black people take to the streets and they say stop killing us, that person is taking a risk doing that, and every all they're risking their life. They don't do this lightly. Do you think that every protester in America woke up today and said, you know what I'd like to do, risk

my life screaming in the streets. No, they don't want to do that. They want to be treated fairly. They want to live. They want to be able to go to work, live their life, raise their family, only live in their own apartment, do basic things that everyone else is able to do. But they're not because they have to see on the news all the time explicitly why they can't do that or why they should be afraid.

They have to watch a video of Amy Cooper, who should be in jail, by the way, knowingly call attempting to call the police, then calling the police and saying, there is an African American male threatening my life because a birder said leash your dog. Because she was breaking, she was violating, She was breaking a lot, weaponizing police brutality in a way that was she was so aware of it and with malicious intent. She called the police on Christian Cooper. And we should point out that her

apology quote unquote was also um forget how well. It also just had that trademark line of I'm not racist. Um. Denial is built into racism. You cannot deny. This applies for everyone, us included, just everyone. Everyone. Denial is built into racism. Anytime we have been racist, we have at

one point or another. I'll speak for myself, have had the instinct to deny, but absolutely that's a that's an instinct you have to kill immediately because in the recent discourse of racism, like this is where you get your I mean, the reason why you're Richard Spencer's say ship like racism went from being um a descriptive word to a pejorative word. It's not you cannot frame it around it being this word that like is condemning. I mean, it's obviously a condemning word, but it's not a word

that is um out to. You're not gonna go to jail for being called that. You're not going to die for being called that. Now, what what you're doing? What what's happening is you're being called out, and in that call out, truly like literally, what is the worst thing that's gonna happen? Like, you know what, you have to

use that as an opportunity to grow. And I think that because there is so much reactionary people are people are afraid that they're gonna lose everything or look bad by being called out because of the things that they've done and said. That is unfortunately something you're gonna have to shoulder. And it is where no one is saying

fuck you like you're done forever. We're just saying these are patterns of behavior that we as a human race have to change as as white people, as non black people, we have to understand these ways that we demean black people knowingly and unknowingly and even worse than de mean, degrade, dehumanized, murder kill. I want to because I know that we are also dealing with this in the middle of a pandemic. So many people are not comfortable taking to the streets,

and that is understandable. And let's just say to everyone, not all forms of activism are for everyone, Not all forms of protests are for everyone. I would like to read some organizations right now, some good organizations that you can donate your money to, and I want to implore you to send money to these organizations. And I'm not even gonna do the thing of if you can give, you can all give. You can some of you can give five dollars, some of you can give five dollars.

And there are thousands of people that listen to this podcast. We're at a point now where, um, you, we have to ask ourselves if we're willing to be uncomfortable in every kind of way, and that includes financially. I mean you have to have to have to you have to by whatever degree you want to define it by. I sound like like I'm saying nothing, But what I mean is like you have to decide how uncomfortable you're willing to be in order to make things better or not

even better, just do do right by people. This is not even this is not comfortable for Bowen and I to discuss flat out, like, I don't think either of us are in our element doing this, but that is part of that is part of the work. Part of this is we are stopped for this episode. We are stopping this the podcast as it exists, because we have to address what is going on. Bowen and I are comedians. We but we also have a platform here, and I am I was really sick of just being a tweet

and an Instagram story with a swipe up you. I just would feel really sick if like we look back at this moment and didn't do everything that we could with this platform. And I know that because I I know it. I know there are people that listen to this podcast. Maybe there aren't thousands of people that listen to this podcast, but there are a lot of people that listen to this podcast who have expressed that they think politically differently than we do. I implore you to understand.

I hope that maybe, like our change in tone just gets across to you how how strongly we are taking this and I I I want to read these organizations that I have donated to that I'm sure Bone has donated to, and I want you to consider sending money.

Black Lives Matter Global Network, Reclaim the Block, National Bailout, the Black Visions Collective, the n double a CP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Police Accountability Project, Color of Change Education Fund, Unicorn Riot Campaign, Zero Advancement Project, the Martial Project, the George Floyd Memorial Funds, Color of Change,

Equal Justice Initiative. And I also want to call attention to all of the bailout funds that you can go to act blue dot com and help out, because that is something that I'm really passionate about during this time, is making sure that these protesters who are often unfairly

put in jail. And I want everyone I understand that we're all on different Twitter bubbles, but what I am seeing is too many instances of peaceful protesters being arrested by the police because the police feel quote unquote agitated by the nature of that protest. But they are peaceful, and they are non violent, and they're being put in

prison during a pandemic. And so I would like everyone to really, if you're thinking all about all these about all these organizations, really consider the bail bailout funds because people are being put in jail, and those jails are cesspools for COVID nineteen and a disease that already, mind you, disproportionately affects communities of color already because of the systems in place that don't allow people of color to receive the same medical care, to receive the same attention in

their communities. So that's something that I would like to call particular attention to those. Yeah, those are great, those are great organizations. UM. There is also I think maybe an important intersectional element to this, where a lot of trans advocacy groups, Black transadvocacy groups are um I'm sure are eager to get some funding. Translifeline, Translate Fline, tj I Justice Project, the Ocre Project, which is um New York based. Uh, it's combating food and security among black

trans folks. UM doing really important work. There was representative today at Sheridan Square. They have sort of two different memorial funds for Nina Pop and Tony McDade for mental health resources for black trans folks and anything you can do to support the project and t G Destice projects are are very important. Um and understand too. This is

redundant to say at this point. This is something that we as human beings in America, as Americans, as allies, are going to have to do ourselves because there is not leadership in this country. We have a president who is only focusing on his passionate base. At this point, the lights are off in the White House. Literally, he's a coward. He's a fucking joke. But unfortunately it's not a joke. He actually is the president of the United States. And it's redundant to say, but local leaders as well.

And I live in Los Angeles and not for nothing, but Garcetti, you didn't care before either. I've lived here a little bit over a year and the homeless situation

is out of fucking control and everyone knows it. And do Blasio do Blasio, I think it's so so upsetting for someone to run on a campaign of police reform and to use his son as a prompt essentially, I mean, Dante, I mean, I I don't mean to to speak on that relate that the relationship, but we there there there is a window of fairness to call that sort of um a proper performance, to use your son as a way to emotionally hit a nerve among New Yorkers, among

people who whip. It's so manipulative, and the cops already fucking hate you, and MP already fucking turned your back up on you at a at some damn function. What's defunding them a little bit more? Gonna do? What's not setting a curfew that you very easily and stated within hours, even though I don't know during the peak of the cocon Nina break, you just very casually we're going to

call for a lockdown, not really care. I mean, it's like it's so transparent, the ways that we are flat, the ways that our leaders are flexing their their their power for specific, specific, circumstantial things. I mean, the same goes for Quoma. I mean, to be honest, I hope everyone's boner for a Cuoma is shrinking slight in a

major way. UM. It's just it's just so upsetting. Um. Everyone, If if you're listening to New York UM, look up UM ways to Appeal fifty A. That is the civil rights m measure that basically UM destroys all police transparency in New York State. Look at plays to call your assembly person, your state senator, any representative who can help bring this to the floor and repeal it. UM demand New York Budget Justice UM to reallocate funds. That's what UM, That's what we claimed the block and a lot of UM,

these great organizations in Minnesota are doing. It's it's about budget reallocation. It's about changing and dismantling racist policy, because that's kind of what we're dealing with. That is the that is the source of the problem here. Racist policy and that includes police. Yes, modern policing is racist policy and is not It has never been about community empowerment. It has never been about ensuring the safety of their

communities that they claim to protect. It is about it is a tool for social control i e. White supremacy. So everyone, please, UM, there's as people know now. End of Leasting is a free e book that people can download UM. I am looking forward to really getting into it, UM once I finish up some other reading, and to speak about Los Angeles. Right before I got on here, Garcetti addressed the city. I don't say this as a

compliment to him at all. I think he's doing the best he can and it's not good enough because and he needs to go. He needs to go, and we really need to get our ships together when we vote, okay, because this is a this is beyond unacceptable notifications that we're getting on our phone that call for curfews at six pm. What they're sending out at five pm. Then people are confused, said whether it's a city mandate or a county mandate today they call, they say it's at

six pm. Then we get one that says it's five pm. Then he has to issue a correction. What the funk is going on? Are you serious? And then he has the nerve to get up there in address and say, I know it's confusing. It shouldn't be confusing. It should be clear, because it's the job of a leader has to be clear. This it's brass tacks. This is what leadership is. A leader makes clear decisions. Your decisions are unclear, and they're messy, and they're confusing the populace and they

panic people. And that's what you've done to this to this city. You've panicked everyone for what because you were uncomfortable with the nature of some of the protesting. I've seen the videos. I have first hand accounts of people who are at protests in l A. That's say, cops are shooting rubber bullets at peaceful protesters. While we're on the subject, let's talk about the rubber bullets of it all. If you think that a rubber bullet can't kill, you're

sorely mistake. A can, because if a rubber bullet is taken to the head fatal, it can have serious it can do serious damage. People have lost their eyes their eyesight based on actions by the police. UM. We're already getting some stories of folks dying at protests. UM. James Skurlock in Omaha, Nebraska shot and killed by UM, racist, homophobic club owner UM while James is protesting UM and UH this business owner David McAfee UM in Louisville, UM

an arm shot Dad by Louisville police. I mean, they're they're the blood sacrifice is still is still happening. I mean, maybe that's the way to frame it too. It's like, well, y'all, hands up, don't shoot. Isn't a meme. It's begging for mercy. And the fact that it's popular is because it happens all the time. These words aren't on signs because their memes. These words are on signs because they are begging the police to not shoot them. Whoever is using them as memes.

I mean, well, I'm saying, well, I guess what I'm saying. No, no, no no, no, no, no no. Yeah. It's they're not like slogans. They're not slogans. Yeah, this isn't like Also, think about if if it was, what the fuck? The fact that you see it so much should speak to the tragedy of the situation. We are in a tragic situation. We need huge, massive change, and we need to not just

think about the presidential election. And I that's another thing I want to say, is you go, You've got a lot of people out there that are confused and sort of spell bound by the fact that this is happening because you really thought racism died with Obama. Racism did not die with Obama. You know, America was not made great again by Trump, and the soul of America will

not be healed by Joe Biden. Okay, what's gonna need to happen is we're going to need to elect people who will protect and respect all Americans on every level of government, the d A, on the state level, on the local level. We have to really be putting as much energy into the big event into the small events that feel small. They're not small. What I'm saying is they felt small in the past. You think because it's not a big seat, because that person isn't gonna become famous,

that that person is not very important. This is another opportunity for everyone to get really granular with who represents you. Um. The resources online for that obviously, UM. And look up who is running in your districts this election if your primary hasn't happened yet. Especially Also, I mean we're not we're not endorsing any any particular thing, but um people parate politics, I mean has always done me right, um or always goes well with my value system, so you know,

maybe that maybe it might drive with yours too. You know. Also, look up your what your ballot is going to be before you get to the ballot box, you guys, because oftentimes I'll i will not be trying to say I'll arrive with the best intentions to the ballots, and then I'll get to some of the less publicized races and they'll be, you know, five six Democrats running on the ballot, but I won't know which one to choose because I did not do my due diligence in finding out which

of those quote unquote Democrats actually have progressive policies. And I think that that's something that needs to be talked about a little bit more, is understanding every single race that you're going to be voting for and and the candidates that are running in those races, because let me tell you, the harsh truth is that D next to that candidate's name doesn't mean ship not anymore, and maybe it doesn't mean shit. Really, we need to start getting

real about what it means to be truly progressive. I think hopefully the takeaway in recent days is that whoever you're electing into a d A or a prosecutor or a judge appointment into any of those offices, that those are basically the people who have all the power in terms of in terms of what's happening in Minneapolis, Like those are the people who have power in charging and prosecuting anybody who happens to have murdered a black person.

I mean, if that shifts sort of your your enthusiasm over certain races, um, I hope that sort of yeah, I hope. I hope that might be a rejustment in your and your view of things. And these progressive candidates who are running for d A, that's you know, they've these are people who have tried cases in the system and they see firsthand. That's why they're running because they see firsthand the injustice and that is what it is.

It's in us, this the lack of justice. So that's I guess we really need to be thinking about that because what I really hate is the sort of very white idea that will can't wait for November when this can be over. Guess what you didn't. We did not choose the candidate where this is going to be over in November. We chose a candidate that will have the ear of progressives. Hopefully that's what we have done, but

that's not a guarantee either. It's that's what I'm saying. Hopefully, Hopefully the Democratic candidate for president, Joe Biden, who has been a part of this government that has failed us for decades. Let's just say that. And of course I will support him in this year. Of course I'll support him in November. But but it's gonna be work, and the work does continue, and I'm not disparaging him, but I am saying he has work to do. And if you think that it's this, it's this thing of don't

talk to me about him until until after he's elected. No, no, he We we have to get this to a place where this is actually going to enact change. We need real, definite, concrete, quick change. So it's not about November three comes and we elect Biden hopefully and things all get Peach, I can't even invest anything in that outcome either. I mean, like, not now it'll be it'll be day one. That's when the work will start, is when he gets elected. This is not gonna be one day you wake up and

your heeled of the wound. This is gonna be a long healing process. Hopefully everyone with a conscience around this, which I can't imagine. If you don't, you have to commit yourself to do doing this work every day it doesn't matter what the scale is. I mean it matters, sure, but it's like as much as you can take on on a day to day level of just examining and self reflecting as much as you can and then transmuting that into action to dismantled racist policy, that is, that

is what will get you out of this feeling. That's something that you should be prioritizing within yourself. You don't have to broadcast that out. I mean, like I am catching myself just like shutting myself up and like just just I mean, unless it's of use and of service to people and it's about donating, even on a baseline level, it's like there's there's no reason to really vocalize and like some sort of there's no need for your individual pathos in this you. Let's just all work towards a

common goals. That's really I think what you just said right there, are sure this is not about a personal journey you. It's about us. It's it's about us altogether. Chaining the way we spoke about it a few episodes episodes ago, about the way we discussed women's bodies. We have to make an active decision to change going forward. And it is hard, you know what I mean, Like and and it's hard because that's what conditioning is, you know what I mean, Like, this is just psychology. You're

we were born into a racist world. Yeah, and we were born and a lot of people have internalized, you know, things that they don't realize that they've internalized. And it's it's it's time to accept that that's true and not just say that's a shame that that happened to that person. That's a shame that happened to that person, and what an evil person that did that. We it's it's because because in a macro sense, it's not a person that did that, it's a system that did that. It's a cult,

sure that did that. And it's heartbreaking. Yeah, but I want everyone that feels really tired every time they turn on the news that if you're tired of hearing about this stuff, you know you're you're exhausted by it. Black people have been tired and exhausted for a long time because this is the energy that to put in every

single day. That is the psychic toll that all of this takes on a person on an individual level, on then on a communal level, where this is Okay, I I mean I I posted everyone's kind of seeing the Jane Elliott um blue eye brown eyes exercise. Maybe, but she she basically rounds up people um, and she tells people with blue eyes to put on this dumb little poncho.

Go in a separate room. Then she explains to people with brown eyes, um, hey, um, in this room, these this is, these are the social rules that we are going to engage, and we're gonna belittle them. We're gonna tell that like there's posters all around around the room. Let's say, um, blue eyes are only good if they're like the brown eyes, or a blue eye should aspire

to be like a brown eye. All these signals that are psychologically taxing on someone with blue eyes, who is you know, by virtue of the melanine levels, and their eyes and on their skin are white or white passing. So she gets all these people in. They are so thrown off by being mistreated, even in a closed system as as like a classroom somewhere, and inevitably she talks about how inevitably, like two people break down in tears, one person storms off, and but in this particular exercise

that was recorded like back in the nineties. She starts berating this girl. She doesn't really brate her, but this girl sort of breaks down in tears at one point, and then Jane goes back to her and she goes, you're upset, aren't you? She goes yes. She goes, why are you upset? Because, um, I'm made to fealty valued. And why are you looking at me? Because I'm afraid I'll get even more upset. And as a take energy for you not look at me, yes, must be pretty bad. Huh.

And And what if you have to spend spend that energy every single day to not look at me so you don't get angrier? Would your heart rate go up? She goes yes, yeah, right. And if you thought about this the way that your kids experienced the same thing every day, that your parents experienced the same thing every day. This is the This is the toll that it takes on a whole group of people. This is this is this is a pathos that is happening on a worldwide level.

White supremacy is the great tragedy of the world because it has led to capitalism, which is then basically plundered our natural resources. It's destroying the world race is a construct invented by some Portuguese fucking prints in the fourteen hundreds and then later on categorized by Carlinaeus himself, the guy who fucking does the homo sapiens, you know, by binomial taxonomy whatever whatever the it's called. But just don't ever use that, don't don't ever, don't ever term animals

that way anymore. Just once you realize that like the father of racial hierarchies also invented animal hierarchies, it doesn't matter. Just don't buy into it anyway. I'm saying that this is this is this, this is a this is a communal pain we're expressing, we're experiencing, and and Matt has has touched on that in a very eloquent way too. Again,

we're not the best people to talk about this. We are not black, but we are um taking this time to reiterate our solidarity, our action among our black siblings. You know that all being said, like black people have been saying this, yes, of course, and that's why I think, like, you know, mostly, I guess the message that I want to get out right now is to the white people that are listening to this podcast, And there are a ton of you. It's time to engage with two things.

Yourself and everything that you might be cultured to believe. Think, really, start asking yourself questions about the way that you where you came from, the way you lived your life. Here's something. Have you never left your town? It's fine if you haven't, but understand that you have a very limited scope of the world. Try to try to think about who are the voices that you're hearing from that are screaming out that there's a problem. Have they what have they experienced

more than just the small town you live in. Then they probably know something that you don't. And I'm not saying that, I'm not saying like this is not about educated people are better. This is not about you know, people who live in cities are better. It's about the fact that by nature of exposing yourself to more than just a small world, you do learn more, and you

do gain that empathy, and you do gain that knowledge. Yeah, and it's it's okay if you are the kind of person who has always lived where you've lived, but understand that that is not the world. That's not the world. And the second thing you need to engage with is not just yourself and not just ask yourself those hard questions.

Engage with those relatives of yours. It's really difficult. But not not just the relatives, is engaged with what you see other people, external people that are in your life. That's say that funck up thing, that's say that racist thing, that do that racist thing that that indicate that racist behavior. Tell them you will lose me if you continue to behavior this way. I've had it, I personally me, Matt Rogers have had it. I am not dealing with that

racist behavior anymore. It is dead to me. I mean, we're just I think in thinking that statements, I think we're I think hopefully people can understand that we're just asking um for our listeners to hold themselves accountable, hold their loved ones accountable, and we promise we will hold ourselves accountable to you and to this movement and to mutual aid and to the greater good of this moment.

I mean, I hate to use the word greater good because the people who use that word often end up being m hedemonic white people who like to go back to the good old days or whatever. But it's like we promised to do better, to call each other in slash out when if and when and they will and if and when sort of these instances happen again. Um, you know, I'm thinking about how quickly and comfortably and nimbly we've sort of like kind of bartered in like

black female language. And you know, I this is just I know this is an uncomfortable thing for us to talk about, MAP, but it's like, this is just something that I've thought about between you and I, and it's just like, and I'm sorry to air this out publicly, but it's like that's something that you and I have to keep an awareness for. And I'm just I'm just sort of saying this to you now as a way

to hold each other accountable to everybody, everybody. It's important. Yeah. Also, when you speak of the good old days, let's just say right now that that they were there were never good old days. There were good old days for for you, the white person, you know what I mean, Like there were good old days for you the ignorant non black person, you know what I mean? Like this is this is not And that's another thing is a lot of people are they think that this has come out of nowhere.

This is not going out of nowhere. This is just it's I mean, it's Will Smith said, it's like racism is not getting worse, it's getting filmed. It's getting filmed. I saw that. That's you know, that's that's where this comes from. In regard to the way that we behave, what I would say is I think that there is a lot. There's a lot to being queer and trying to find identity and trying to find the way that

you want to express yourself. And sometimes the prism through which we refract that identity is an established vocabulary, one that seems one that seems very fun and very exciting, um and very like adaptive and cool and dynamic, and

it always changes and there's always something new. But we have to I'm but I'm you know, we have to recognize that that is not something that is for us is for us, or I mean, except for except for the times when it's like, you know, a catchphrase that Matt himself will come up truly independently and it's beautiful.

But like you know, when whenever Matt need goes, let's go, I said, like that, it's like, I don't know, as opposed to like other times when it's like I mean, I'm I'm thinking about digital black face, where people just use gifts of like nemi leaks and shed like a white person will use the gift of nemi leaks too, like eyebrow rais or something. I'm just like, oh yeah, Like that is a seemingly innocuous microaggression. Let's say to to like unearth a term that we just eulogized twenty

minutes ago. But it's like but that, but but now we're just realizing that none of that is nuanced, none of that is actually innocuous or um harmless. It's all harmful. And I think that there's gonna be a lot of people that listen to this right now, this conversation and think, Okay, they are overdoing it. That is actually part of the way you get better at this everyone is you have to over analyze this type of thing. You have to really analyze your behavior to to bring it to a

place of acceptability. And maybe you don't, maybe you Matt Rodgers don't agree with me on this point that I'm raising, But it's like, but that's the thing that we're sort of negotiating to right It's like, I'm i be over correcting in a way, But it's it's it's better to overcorrect because you're at least at least then you're getting into a place where it's correct dead, do you know

what I mean? Better to err on the side of empathy and responsibility and accountability than allowing it to you know, it's kind of the thing of like when someone tweets something and it gets liked, well, it must have been good or useful, not true. And when you say something and it gets laughs, then that must have been funny

or useful or good, not true. And so that's why I do believe there is a lot of validity and what you're saying about, you know, doing that hard work of really deeply analyzing where you got something, why you're doing the thing that you're doing. There's a there's a lot to examine there, and what you're saying. For sure, the conversation between you and ice friends is like someone

engaging in productive as far as building towards accountability. Right. Ultimately, what we really just need, I think, and what I've what I've really looked inward about and what I've been talking about is just the acknowledgement that there's something extremely wrong with the world, that the way it is, and that's why we stop everything, and that's why your protest and I just of course I want to live in a world where people are allowed to protest, get their

get get their feelings out there, make people understand, make people heard. And I think that there's a force coming back at us right now, which is a lot of people in this country and the systems in this in this country that are in place that are stopping that

from happening. And I think that on this podcast today, right here, right now, what's important for us to say, and I hope this is clear, is that we do hear you, and we are furious alongside you and black lives matter, and that we are going to be part of that change and we are going to be part of the work and it will change no matter what. And it's not lost on us as queer people as

we are. This is the first episode we're gonna be doing in Pride Month that the reason why we even have rights to begin with is because if there was a brick throne. So let's not pretend like you know something that's you know, the Pride Month is celebrated in elementary school classrooms nowadays. Okay, so let's not pretend that like that didn't start in a quote unquote violent way or a physical way, because it did. It did not

start as a parade. It started as a riot and started by people who ended up being marginalized again to this day by black trans women that just enter in the way that we've talked about we're issues after marriage equality. It's like somehow it recentered on sister under white men. Yeah, it became you know, gay rights was spoken about by

white gaze. The face of gay rights were white gays or um, you know, gorgeous white lesbians, you know what I mean, like, and that I think has a lot to do with the fact that gay rights had to be marketed to white men, and who are white men

gonna listen to white men? And I think that's why we have the sort of rollout of rights the way we've had, you know what I mean, like or the visibility has rolled out the way it has, Like it took years and years, Like when people started talking about gay rights, they were not talking about like I mean

even in two thousand and seven, two eight, whenever. It was when we were at the end of high school and there started to be some kids in class that were like, actually, I think gay people should get married. I mean, so you could say that same kid who was in support of gay rights, what about trans and that that kid would be like no, no, no, no, no, no no no no no. You know what I mean. It's work that we have to constantly be doing because it's it doesn't make sense that you would say that,

but you do. You did say that, and we did say that because that's what we were conditioned to do. And it's about unlearning that, understanding the hypocrisy and that and there's still there's so much too and learn because so much is static. In this particular conversation today, is that we're having echoes of protests that happened fifty years ago, that happened twenty years ago. It's it's it's just tickets taken for granted, that it's thematically, that it's just repetitive,

that it's just it's just amount to live at this point. Yeah, I just I just I just want to emphasize that, um, we are not at all interested in any sort of optical version of ally ship. I mean, we realized that we're aware of this platform, and that's what we're sort of intended, and that that's what we're putting our intention behind right now with this episode. But this is this, this is earnest. We're we're we're we're talking about action here,

so we're talking about accountability. We're talking about um holding ourselves accountable. So I hope, I hope everyone can join us, and by all means, if you turn this off an hour ago to go listen to a black voice speak on this issue, good please God. And I also want to really encourage everyone that is sharing things on social media share, share a black voice, amplify a black voice, don't retweet whoever, don't readtweet Ellen, don't retweet, you know,

amplify black voices during this time. And I just it's let's, you know, let's really think about the things that work can assuming where they're coming from, because there's agendas all over the place. I mean, in the media is a mess, and that's a whole other issue. The media is a mess and has interests, has interest in other places than just your knowledge, and that is that is another system

that is broken. And this is what I mean when I say it has to start with us, because you can't look to anyone in mainstream news really and really trust where that is coming from. You certainly can't look to our elected leaders, not all of them, and trust that they have that they don't have their hands tied up in something. We have to do this ourselves based on what is right and what is wrong. And that's really important, I think is don't wait to be told

what to do. You know what's right and wrong. Go with yourself, but but receptive to other people, UM guiding you along that journey. So at at about this time in the podcast, um, we would do I don't think so, honey, And we're not going to do that. I think that instead, what I would encourage everyone to do is to take the next two minutes that Bowen and I wouldn't ordinarily take to do I don't think so, honey, and donate however much you can to one of those organizations that

I listed before, those groups that I listed before. Take that time. When did we ever pretend to not be who we are? You know what I mean? Like? Everyone lose the ego? Lose the ego? Um? Okay, well that this is this is this is feeling in about two minutes of time anyway, So well here, how about this? What George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Ahmad are Very Tamir, Rice Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Fialando Castile, Samuel de Bos,

Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Terrence Crutcher. Say their names, Um, it's I guarantee you it will sort of steal something in you, in your soul once you say those names. I mean, if you haven't, I'm sure a lot of people have, but um, you know, learned their stories and understand who they were. That front page of the New York Times a couple of weeks ago that was um had listed all the deaths from COVID. That was beyond moving to me because it didn't say just the name

of the age. It said name age. It said had an easy laugh. Name age always said hello to everyone. These are human beings. These are human beings that deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity, and deserve safety, and deserve to be able to live their life without worrying that they're going to have a police officer step on their neck for eight minutes and the last things they hear are the people around them screaming

at that person to stop. It's crazy, and you've seen it with your eyes, and you saw it years ago with Eric Garner. Nobody deserves this. This is a tragedy. We are living in the middle of a death, a nationwide death, and we have to save ourselves. We are gasping for breath because that those people, they're us. We all, we all have to do this together. This is unacceptable and you have to start looking for reasons to let

yourself up the hook. If you hear that person say, well, they shouldn't have been doing this, well they shouldn't have been doing that. Really, look that person in the eyes and say, but they deserve to die for it, for selling cigarettes on the street. Are you kidding? Are you crazy? These people have murder in their hearts, these cops. It's sick that we It's a very sick disease. The way we the way we address this is by fighting racist policy.

And racist policy is abroad catch all for any process or law written or unwritten that's endangers lives, creates an equity based on race, and this is the thing police are tool too and force social control. And it's not just it's not just about not participating in these things. Loudly denounced loudly call out, shut it down, shut it down. You whatever your personal stay s are amount to absolutely nothing compared to what is being fought for on the

streets right now. Absolutely think about that. Just just think in those terms. If you can, I hope, I hope you can absolutely and UM to everyone out there who needs to hear this, we have your back. And I apologize deeply and profoundly that it has taken me this long to get this upset and this angry. But know that I am and I am committed to the change, and you can know that. And i'd really, like I said before, I'm sure you felt the same way, Bowen. I just did not want to be a tweet anymore.

But this is the thing. It's it's a cumulative thing because I I fucking lost it, lost it, lost it when Eric Garner died, marched marched in downtown Manhattan that night, um one of the nights, I should say, and just thinking I remember thinking like I just remember feeling helpless back then. But it's all cumulative because nothing has changed,

nothing has changed. And this is my this is part of like what's calcified like mentally for me is like Okay, we need to like really really really focus on on the action on the problem, which is policy. So this is my thing. It's like the fact that de Blasio did not lift a fucking finger, I mean, and and then the officer who was fired, by the way, um

I wasn't even fired by de Blasia. It was just the precinct sort of whoever led the precinct with just made the decision, like fucking what four years later last August to to to let him go after he wasn't connected of anything. It's like to Blasia, it's like, this is this is the thing. The people who enforce enact generate policy, racist policy are the ones that we should

hold accountable, Like that is the problem. I mean, obviously we're all sort of making sure we're on the same page behaviorally as like citizens and as people, as as as like accomplices and allies in the movement we direct our attention. It's like, I I am, I'm kind of already speaking for myself. I'm not really concerned with calling out someone's behavior on social media. They're not posting enough, they're not you know, doing this, they're not doing that.

It's like that person is not responsible necessarily for racism on the same scale that someone like de Blasio. Let's just say, at least as a New York or like, let's say, like de Blasio is that we should be directing our energy at at people and things and institutions that are generating racist policy. I have constant flashbacks to to Eric, to Eric Garner. It's like nothing, nothing's changed. It's been watched it. We watched it, repeat, we watched

it happened again. It just instead of instead of a hand around someone's neck, it was a foot. Me was in fucking knee something that you can completely control your center of gravity on whatever. I don't even want to talk about. It makes me sick. I was saying to Jared before. I was like the evil in someone's heart that you have to have to put your knee on the neck of another human being. It's it's it's the depths of evil. I cannot even understand. It's the depth,

it's it's the darkest evil. And the people that would support and encourage a system and yes, I will say Amy Cooper again, white women like that who would clutch their pearls and allow a system like that. Some white Hillary Clinton supporter who thinks they're better than that. That's the denial that's built into racism. That's the denial that's built into racism. How could it be me? But I do all these things, I I do this that the other thing it is you, it's us. Um. You want

to know something fascinating. Um, at the start of COVID, when there was kind of a spike in Uh. This is not to this is not to center the conversation on another racial group, but this is just this is just a point. The point of making is this. Statistically, most of the perpetrators of Asian hate crimes during the

beginnings of COVID and probably still um, were white women. Yeah, white women were the ones like spitting in people's faces, in Asian people's faces, and like god, there's so many clips out of Australian ship of like these insane, insane, satanic seventeen year old fucking girls screaming, spewing fucking invective at Asian people and it's okay, Yeah, you can actually completely, completely so cleanly draw a straight line um from that

instance too. Just a general just a general white supremacy, just a general mentality of colonialism where um it's about it's it's about dominating UM and and subordinating another culture. That's it disgusting. So that's just disgusting. We're dealing with the same thing here, That's all I'm saying. It's it's it's obviously different scale, Like it's obviously a different scale. So I could not stop. I could not stop thinking

about the Amy Cooper thing. I was like, she really it might as well have been charged with attempted murder. It was an attempted murder in my opinion, that is what that was. She had malicious attempt. She weaponized her privilege, she weaponized that the call, she knew what the call meant and knowingly vocalized it. Disgusting. The most disgusting person I've seen in quite some time now. In wrapping up, Yeah, hope now you've donated to something UM. I hope that

you have. And again I just like to highlight act blue dot com. You know you can go there and if you forward slash donate UM you can find many different bail funds UM to support. And I do think that that is something we should be taking an extra look at because again we are in the middle of this pandemic and that is this could turn out to be an even bigger tragedy. Please, I I know that

I'm giving. This isn't this is not a pat on my back either, But I am giving more than I have been comfortable giving, because that's that is what we must do. We we owe more than that, so much more than that. I absolutely agree, Act Blue is um a good a good sort of than you for that bail split If you look, if you google bail split one word, UM, I think you are able to make one donation and split that amount to various bail funds

throughout the country. UM. If that's also of interest. Boone and I have a lot of love in our hearts and we want to We're sending all that love out with the message that we are working hard for what it's worth. We have loved, we have a lot of love in our hearts or whatever it's worth, for whatever

it's worth. I'm not and I'm not saying that to minimize what you just said, Map, but I'm saying, like, you know, that's something that Um, it's an element of what we're It's the fuel for our motivation, it's the fuel for our intentions. Sorry, God, I'm like, I'm just like all my words are blending together at this No. I mean like, look, I don't like this wasn't a thing where we before this episode got together and we're like,

here's the right thing to say. No, no, no, you know what I mean, Like we got on here and we're speaking from our hearts and we're speaking from our position and our perspective, and what what what we're saying is we know that things have to change, and things have had to change, and we are arriving late to this moment where we were, and we are employing the people that may listen to us to really consider this and give this the thought and the consideration that it deserves,

which is all of your thought and consideration and your resources. I've been sent a link to donation resources, pase have more, the Los Angeles UM chapter of Black Lives Matter. We said, look, well, even I think when we released this episode, obviously will be posting links to all of these organizations. So thank you to our epana for sending that linked to us UM and we will be sure to signal boost all

of those. And this is not the new tone of the podcast, but understand that this is the This is in a way that we can protest in a way, absolutely and it's necessary. It's absolutely necessary because this needs to be shut down and changed and we will come back and we will be the lost cultural stass that you know and love. And we had a really fun episode plan today where we were going to talk a lot about drag Race, and you know what, shout out

to Jada Estence Hall. Shout out to Jada, because you did that and you were the only winner of that show and it deserves and I'm so happy that you won it someone who brought their work ethic and lead without the entire time. And she said something beautiful about how you know her her portrayal on the show, it kind of would almost appear like she was just only

a pageant queen, like she just wears beautiful dresses. But she said beautifully that where she comes from, those things are not are just something that she never would have had access to. She had to make nice things for herself. It's it's all about it's a beautiful story about sort

of self starting. And then on the finale net where she talks abou out just her grandma and the movies that they would want in her grandma, introducing her to like Letz Taylor and Judy Garland and it's like and how they'll clothes that Jada wears now are an homage to those, to those experiences she shared with her grandma. I mean, you can't beat that. You can't beat two narratives like that. And those narratives were left out of

the show until the very end. Yes, and so we're very proud of Jada Essence tall and we so Luca rooted for her for day from day. She was the only winner. She was the only winner, the only winner. We'll talk about this more in depth, absolutely, Yeah, and we'll be We'll be back, y'all. It's just this, this, this is a necessary moment in time. Please change the way that you have interacted with with this moment in time. I know it feels far away from you because Dawn Television,

it's online, it's not it's inside you. And we have to do this sucks. We have to be the change. Yeah. Well, we love you very much. We do, and feel free to reach out if you have thoughts, concerns. We will do our best to respond. I opened up d M s um at the beginning of the outbreak to talk about Asian specific stuff. East Asian Asian specific stuff. UM. I obviously don't have as much to contribute to this conversation in the way of personal experience, UM when it

comes to black experiences. But I'm happy to talk about stuff. If you heard something on this episode and want to talk it out likewise to a to an extent, I mean, I'm not gonna no, I get it, I get it. The d ms can get nuts. But of course, of course willing to engage and get better and grow from this because what we have said is guaranteed not perfect. No, of course not. But don't don't get what I'm saying is don't get m I d M s and say Hashtag Team Crystal get the sunk out. Oh no, no, no,

we don't want any of that. I don't care. Like I tell you, I don't care. I don't care. Also, if if if what this is what I'll say, If I don't think so, honey, if the one thing you got from this conversation is no, never mind, if it's no, actually, Hashtag Team Crystal, go fund yourself. Oh yeah, if you're gonna come in, if you're gonna come at us with hashtag Team Crystal after all of this, now, you're done, you're done. We'll be back. Y'all. Just take this moment.

Let's reflect, Let's examine that, examine that we love you. We love you, Bye bye,