Control the Narrative

what the fuck the Biden administration is actually doing. And we've had votes by the Republican Party that prove once again that they are the party of insurrectionists, that they are the party of white supremacy, and that they are a cult right. They have censured the people two people that actually make any fucking sense, and they are continuing to double down on Trumpism, continuing to double down on racism.

Joe Rogan is you know, the latest celebrity that they are embracing, which tells us everything that we need to know.

And I have said this so many times that if you find yourself talking to somebody who is, well, I'm a Republican, but I don't stand for these things, you can no longer continue to call yourself a Republican and say, but here's the laundry list of all of the things that you no longer associate with, Because then if in a sensical world, well what the Republican Party now represents, you no longer are a party too right, And so you would think that there would be more people publicly

disavowing the Republican Party, publicly leaving right, that people would be leaving in large numbers, except they're not. And so what does that tell us about the state of affairs in America and the state of white supremacy? You know, I am I'm working right now on a piece, and I was harkened back to the twenty sixteen election and thinking to myself and saying out loud on Canadian broadcast television that this was going to be white supremacy's last stand.

Now when I said that, it wasn't as if, oh, it was going to be four years and then it was going to be back to quote unquote normal, Because what we know right now is that there is really no sense of normal. What we had allowed, right, what we had told ourselves was normal behavior, was anything but right. The disparities in health and wealth in this country between

races between genders has always been excruciatingly problematic. Right when we talk about marginalized groups and where they fall right on the political totem pole, we know that they are always folks that are at the bottom. We also know that there has been no policy, no measure, and frankly, no fucking Republican president but has ever offered the American people how we are dealing with some of the most complex,

right and layered issues and problems that we have. Their decision is that you just ignore it, right, or you erase it, or you gaslight people into believing that it

doesn't exist. And so when you have then the alternate party of Democrats who essentially are not exercising their I don't even know what the fuck you would call it at this point, not exercising their power, not exercising their voice, you know, pretending that everything is ho hummed okay I and that you know, we're living in a time of just like political adversaries, and there there isn't the state of our country and our democracy hanging in the balance

with just a handful of months to do something right about those people who the Republicans say, you know, are just participating in regular political discourse. I don't know what political discourse involves shitting in the halls of the Capitol building, But you know, what do I know? I'm a traditionalist. Apparently. The reality here, though, folks, is that people are tapped out. Right.

I've talked to you, and you all have talked to me about your level of exhaustion and your frustration and just you know, being burnt out, being burnt out by the discourse, being burnt out by the demeanor, and just one bad headline after the other. But the thing that I consistently come back to is our future, which is young people, people and wondering what they are thinking. Right. I can remember going into politics, right, going to college,

and that was on the heels of the Clinton administration. Right, that was on the heels I remember being in high school and sitting around with friends, other friends that were in you know, government and politics into it and watching President Clinton tell the American people that he didn't have sexual relationship with that woman. Right. It was politics was you know, not just tabloid page six fodder. But it

was exciting. It was exciting to believe that you could participate in how this country shifts and expands, Right, and that there was an excitement that was there. I wonder right about young people who are coming going into college right at an age in our political discourse where it is so horrific, where there is no conversation, there is no debate like how do you teach this right now? And what are young people, those eighteen and nineteen year

olds who you know should be filled with possibility. What do they think about the world that they are inheriting and growing into as adults. And so I'm excited for you all to take a listen to my conversation with returning guest, our friend, doctor Christina Greer, who is associate professor of political science at Fordham University here in New York, and we will talk about the lay of the land

and where we think that democrats go. But as a professor who has made it, even though she is a tenured professor and an esteemed professor who doesn't have to no longer has to take up these you know, freshman politics one on one, classes realizes the importance of doing just that, that ensuring that the people, right the professors who are laying the foundation for the future leaders understanding of politics are doing so in a very real and

textured way. And so I'm excited for you to take a listen to my conversation coming up next with doctor Christina Greer. Folks, I am so excited to welcome back to woke f Daily our friend associate professor at Fordham University, doctor Christina Greer. She is also a political editor at The Grio. Doctor Greer, Christina, girl, I don't know about you, but a month into this new year of twenty twenty two, I am feeling really underwhelmed with where Democrats seem to

be headed. I am underwhelmed with this administration and their stalled agenda. I am underwhelmed with Senator Kersen Cinema and Joe Mansion. I'm tired of saying their names. I'm tired of the gaggles following them around the Capitol like they are so the second coming of the Beatles or Beyonce.

I don't know which, but I am over it. And just in general, as I keep talking to folks and we are what eight months or so away from midterm elections, people just feel over it, Like over the entirety of it. There is no energy when you look at NBC poll numbers for enthusiasm about midterm elections, Democrats are lagging right where, of course the GOP is now surging because you don't need to have an agenda, you don't need to have any of these things. You don't need to tell the truth,

you don't need to believe in science. You can just spread lies and surge. How are you feeling about this moment in our politics right now as we head into the most consequential and probably the last midterm election that is free and fair and open. How are you feeling? Yeah? Maybe live in boring times again. I beg I try not to get too personal with it, only because this is my chosen profession, so if I think about it on an emotional level too much, I will just stay

in bed, under the covers and go anywhere. I also can't have a brave and exciting face when I go into the classroom multiple times a week and try and inspire a whole new generation of kids to actually want to be a part of politics, either running for office themselves or voting or just being interested in reading the paper. So there are a few things that I'm trying to contextualize for them and kind of remind myself at the same time. The party in power oftentimes loses the midterm elections.

That's just it happens to Republicans, it happens to Democrats. What is worrisome, yes, is that there seems to be a malaise and a frustration and a real disdain from Democrats because of what they feel as you know, sort of unproductive administration under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. What frustrates me most about this administration is they're actually doing a lot of good stuff. They just don't per usual,

Democrats don't know how to articulate they're wins. So Republicans are running with this message of they're doing nothing, and it's like, well, first of all, they are doing quite a bit under the constraints, but the reason why they

don't have big wins is because of the Republicans. The Republicans are just saying, even when Joe Biden compromises with us and gives us what we want, we still say no. Or we'll say yes and take it, but then we'll tell our people we said no, right, And so they control the narrative in a lot of ways, and Democrats are constantly playing defense to what Republicans, and they lead these two bedraggled senators who are just lavishing their team

minutes of fame. And so you know I said this before, and we live your citizens of the state of New York, Chuck Shumer, I need you to get it together, right, I need you to sort of get your LBJ on and like we never we should know who Cinema and Mansion are to be quite honest, right, Chuck Shumer, you should have gotten them together a long time ago. You

should have given them what they needed. It's called law rolling, right, But what they want is attention, and what they want is to sort of hijack the narrative because it's this false narrative of bipartisanship and this false equivalency of like, well, both parties are being obstinate, like no, no, no no, no one party. The Republican Party is trying to take away. As you said, this might be our last free and fair election, because it's always an asterisk with free and

fair elections. Do you remember two thousand with Florida. So the fact that Cinema and Mansion are aiding and embedding that type of behavior across the country, not just in their home states, lets us know that the message isn't getting out like Joe Biden should be letting Americans know every single day, this is what I'm doing. And use your surrogates, right, Use your mayors. Most mayors in major

cities they're Democrats. Use your mayors. Use your governors. A few that we have left that we're lost under Obama and the state houses lost under the Obama administration. Use them to go out and be the surrogates to tell everyone what you're doing. And what you're doing is a lot. The fact that we still have people in their homes, that's the Biden administration. The fact that people got paid real cash money to not be out in the world during the height of the pandemic, you know, these past

few months, that's Joe Biden, right. And so they're they're finding money in various ways because you know, we got the money. Like, let's be clear, we're one of the registrations of the world. We got the money, we just don't want to use it on certain people. So I think my frustration is that the Democrats never articulate all the stuff that they're doing for people, and they're not

using people who want to be used. Right, tell me what I need to be saying, well, how can I be the champion so that we can get people inspired to turn out in mid terms, because we know when Republicans win in midterm elections, it's not because they have more voters. It's because they use two things. One the institutional mechanisms to prevent Democrats from voting, and then two, Democrats just tend not to turn out in the same rates as Republicans during midterm elections. And so that's how

we're going to see, most likely this pendulum swing. But Joe Biden and his administration have eight months to ring the alarm to say just how dangerous this is. But I think that there's a simple but there's a type of apathy that people have where it's like, well, we've been on high alert forever, right, And then you add politically, we've been on high alert since Donald Trump came down

that gold escalator and called Mexicans rapists. And then we've got a pandemic, and then we've got unemployment, and then we've got mass debts. Almost a million Americans have died from COVID. Say nothing about people who are languishing in hospitals and long term COVID people who were once healthy and did all the right things, but somehow got COVID

and they're just never going to be the same. And then you have you know, parents who are just like I'm homeschooling, Like what I have a day in Algebraison's ninth grade? Like what am I supposed to be doing? So there's this exhaustion that Joe Biden is competing against, this like global exhaustion. But for Americans, you know, our middle class, I'm just gonna say blanket mid class. I'm not gonna talk about the bla middle class just yet, but the blanket middle class is holding on by a thread.

But we know to be black middle class is literally to be one paycheck away from poverty. Because most black middle class people we're in mixed class households, mixed class families. Right, so we know we've got you know, good jobs, and we may work for ourselves or whatever, but like we're in a tenuous position. We don't have savings. You know, when our grandparents die, we don't automatically become millionaires. We tend to be from families where we have to like

come together as a family to bury grandma. Not oh grandma's house you know is in the white part of town. And so it's now we're two million. We don't have that luxury. So this exhaustion that I think black people have where it's like, oh, you'll save the democracy again, it's like, I'm tired to save in this country. Look,

we understand why. I mean, I've got this candle of Stacey Abrams behind me, right, and I haven't just because I have the most respect for Stacey Abrams, but it's also this reminder, like a tongue in cheek reminder for myself, where it's like, I'm tired of us being saint black women, Saint Danielle tell us all the news we need to know, Sat Professor Chrissy, you know educators. It's like, you know what you good liberals, pick up the slack, do the work.

And I think I said this, you know, on the podcast when I was with you and Terray, which just you know, when I was younger, we have this big house and you know, companies coming over at three, and I'd ask my mom like, so what do I need to do? And she would just look at me and she's like look around, like I don't need to give you, Like you know that we're about to have a hundred people up in this house in approximately four hours. Do not keep asking me what I need to do, Like,

you know, these trash canting to be empty. You know, these bathrooms need to be clean. You know, get the vacuum out, get the room, get the mop the dust, mop the wax of lords. I mean, we were full Cinderella up in that house. But I just think that so many white Americans who mean well are looking to black women like, so what should I be doing? And it's like, are you serious? Like serience, right now, you were asking me to help you figure out what needs

to be look around. Convince your dad and your uncle and you and your mom that voting Republican for these white nationalists, it's going to hurt the country in the long time. Stop telling me that your dad's awesome, but he's he's voting against my voting rights on a daily basis, right. I mean, like I talk to people all the time, and it's like they think it's enough for them to pat themselves on the back because they're on like the

good side of history. I was like, yeah, but your entire family isn't, So why don't you do the heavy lifting? Because they're gonna listen to this a little black girl with a PhD. You spend that time, but you know, you say so many things that makes so much sense. I mean one like I could do an entire month on the level of exhaustion, on the level of language, on the level of you know what. Today, I'm actually in the mood where I'm like, here's the match, y'all

want this shit to burn down. You don't want America to function in the way that it was. Woke up this morning to hearing that the killers of Ahmad Aubrey got a backdoor deal with the federal government, you know, to make their time in prison easier. I'm like, you lynched a man in broad fucking daylight, right, But like, but once again, let let black people wake up to the fact that not only is this country not equal, not only is our politics and our democracy hanging on

by a thread. But like, you ain't shit right, It doesn't matter what it is that you do, whether you're going out for a jog, you're going for an Arizona iced tea, you're going around the block, or you're sitting in your goddamn car, right or like me, I'm a burner, can't I just enjoy nature like everybody. Can you No, no, you can't. And can you sleep in your bed? No,

you can't do that either. And I think that when you tick all of these things off, and we do it as a personal reminder, but it's also like with every single one of those instances, I want to go and lay down. Do you know what I'm saying? And I'm tired of hearing about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris having all of these wins in the first year, but they don't know, they don't know how to message you.

We just finished four years under Donald Trump, right, a man that and an administration and a Republican Party that has become so disgustingly cruel, so vicious, so violent, so rage filled, and they have single handedly figured out what

makes their base tick. It doesn't matter that their base is white supremacist, it doesn't matter if their folks are oathkeepers or their proud boys, because they figured out what makes them tick, and they give them all of the red meat and all of the things that they need in order to keep functioning. So the question that I have for you, Christina, is that you know it isn't enough for us to continue to say obial democrats don't know how to message is, particularly when we're talking about

messaging being the difference between life and death. We're talking about a million Americans have died of COVID it because of messaging, right, Like, yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like, but white people don't. They're not at the life and death point yet They're getting little glimpses, right. Texas Democrats are like what abortion Right, It's like, what are you doing? You know, like they're little glimpses. But I've said this before and I it sounds blunt, but I'm it's just

how I feel. White people don't understand the capacity of white people. They don't understand what white people are capable of.

I think there are a lot there are a lot of white people in this country, good white people, like white people who were either on the on the team and like will fight for the cause or just kind of like the ones Martin Luther King warn is about, like the moderates where it's like, listen, I'm not gonna stand in your way or progress, but I'm also not gonna put my skin in the game, like settle down. But those two groups of people do not understand January six.

They see them as like, well, I mean it's an overreach, but like I can sort of see because like those guys are with my uncles, and like there is just a I can see how they have a lot of frustrations, like no, no no, no, you don't understand that, like when you really read history books, because I mean, this is the part of whitewashing our history right, always done. I

mean CRT is just another iteration of it. It's like you don't understand the number of white people who were killed in the Civil rights movement, either the ones who had the skin in the game or the ones who were just on the sidelines and weren't virulent racist, right. And so it's like I don't think that the vast majority of white people in this country understand the extent to which certain white people will go to burn this

country to the ground with them in it. They don't care as long as colored people and immigrants and all the folks that they've been told are stealing from them. Forget that it's their own party. I mean, this is I use this quote all the time because it's so real. This is why LBJ is my favorite president. It's like LBJ said, because you know, don't forget he was poor,

he was from Texas. He used to be a good old boy and then he evolved with the times because he was smart and he felt like he needed to whether he was genuine about the civil rights moving the vone and right Zack in the immigration neck, I don't know, I don't care, and I don't care. I don't care. The bab brain he gave the pen to mart Luther King,

so here we are. But he was just like he said, if you can convince the poorest white man that he's better than the negro, then you can pick his pockets long. And I think that's what the Republican Party is looking at Donald Trump, like, wow, you unlock the secret code, like you and your you know, thousand air status. But it's like that frumpled suit, that cotton candy hair. All that is an aesthetic to make people feel like he's regular and he's with them. That sort of broken English.

I mean, he uses fewer words than mister t right, Like he is this person where he can go to the dregs of society and make them feel good, and even the wealthy folks, they can excuse it and say, well, I don't like the packaging, but I'm still gonna vote for it. Right. And this is why someone like Junkan is so dangerous because he's actually quasi educated and he comes with the LLL being you know, fleece fast, and he says, if you're listening closely enough, he says the

same things as Donald Trump. He just says it in a much more professional and educated way, which gets people to vote for it. Because at the end of the day, so many Americans, white Americans in particular, who are still holding on to this Republican Party. It's like, just be honest, you care about money more than people. That's fine, just say it. But I'm like, just here's to say it.

But and this is where this is actually where I'm going to say something that I don't normally say, because I don't normally do Devil's Advocate and I don't normally

do both sides. But let me tell you something. What I have realized and why it becomes why there are days where I am just wanting to throw my hands up is because Christina, both of them only give a damn about money, right, And this is what I said, I'm like, you know, do you go with the party that says fut your face or the one that smiles in your face and then says f you behind your back? Because to me, that is right now the distinction between

Republicans and Democrats. Republicans are ready to lynch every single one of us that does not look love and pray like them. Okay, that is not white, that is not sith, that is not Christian, that is not like an avowed quote unquote real American. They're ready to get rid of every single one of us and put them back on the plantation, the boat, the wherever, right out of sight, out of mind. But Democrats with an opportunity to actually

do more. Right, you have Joe Manchin driving around in a maserati, and you have Kersen Cinema going to Europe to go fundraise right in the height of a pandemic. So you have these people, even the policy the bill right now that is going around going around the hill, that is about, Hey, how about you don't have the ability as a sitting member of Congress to be able to do insider trading. How about you shouldn't be able to do that to get a lega and guess what.

It ain't a bipartisan bill because it's not going to go anywhere because both Democrats and Republicans get to make money off of their inside intel and so no one

wants to do away with that. And so when we get to this place where we recognize that we are dealing with one unabashed evil and one that is fairly negligent, right, then what do you do with the population of people, and particularly with your students who are trying to enter into this field when all you do is step back and you're just like, this is just all about money,

and whoever gets the most wins, right. But I think the difference is this, and this is at least what I tell myself, what I trick myself when I tell my students. Whatever it may be, there's still enough Democrats throughout the country, on all different levels of government who are actually working towards certain things. I think sometimes when we talk about and money is permeated in all facets, like in all levels, right, even when you're running from

mayor city council or whatever it may be. But I do think that Democrats, because we organize ourselves in parties, right, parties aren't mentioned in the Constitution. But we've always had parties in some iteration because this is the way that we get politics done right, Because someone who just has an interesting idea isn't necessarily going to get elected. You

need a party structure to assist you. I'd much rather be with a party that's like, ah, well, at least we're not going to rip the whole institution away from you being able to participate. Right, at least I'm not going to throw you in jail for giving Danielle a glass of water while she's standing online. Hey, maybe it's actually not an inspirational story that a black woman waits in line to vote for a Barack Obama for ten hours, right,

And that's that's im media's fault. But you know, like I think that the Democratic Party is at least there there are enough individuals in that party that are working towards like this is. You know, we're people of color. I mean, Republicans have chosen and made it very clear the ninety seven percent of who they want to put

forward are white men. That's it, right, When you look at the judges that Donald Trump put in a place, when you look at people who are running and of course they highlight their like random colored person, you know, the lieutenant governor of Virginia now who's an immigrant or Nicky Hailey child of immigrants, you know, like they have

their special Yeah, they have their token. Yeah, let's let's be whatever, but that they are who are complicit in white supremacy exactly because hey, guess what, you don't need to be white to be white sass, right on the same way, you don't need to be a man to participate in patriarchy colo white women, right like, And I learned that from Mark twain Um and camp. But that's a whole other story. When I was ten years old, so someone was like, how do you have this like

full understanding of patriarch and whit supremacy. I was like, I went to camp let sleepaway camp to be a specific. So I say that because when I'm talking to my students right now, I always teach intro to politics for someone of my stature who is the associate chair of the department, I'm the chair essentially of the Lincoln Center campus. I am tenured, right, I've written books and articles. For me to teach an introductory course is kind of odd, right,

people of my stature would teach advanced leable courses. I always teach intro every semester. That's the course that you know, most of the time adjuncts teach. You know, like people who are in graduate school who just need a few extra books, and you know, they come into a department and I'm like, no, no, no no, no no, because we, you know, usually teach multiple intro classes each semester. I'm like, one, I like to see all the smart kids from the

other majors. But two, the intro to politics class is your foundation of politics. I'm getting you interested in reading the newspaper. I'm getting you interested. I mean, my specialty is American politics. But you know, I have lots of

people who are obviously interested in international comparative politics. It's like, well, then we can talk about what's going on in Brazil or Ukraine, right and so, and related also back to America, because if we get into an interaction in Ukraine with Russia, like we ain't got no money, and Pootin knows that, right, and so we can talk about those types of things. I think, what's what is inspiring? I will say in this moment, because you know I always ask my students.

I'm like Okay, so I'm talking about Barack Obama. I'm like, how old are you guys again? And they were like, hey, I mean so they're getting younger and younger. Right, Like when I show the war room about Bill Clinton's ninety two campaign, they weren't even anywhere near born. They don't know Bill Clinton. They only know Hillary Clinton barely because they were in kindergarten when she and Barack Obama were duking it out for the Democratic primary. So you see

what I'm saying. So like these important touchstones in our political understanding of this moment. How we have to understand Reagan right, to understand Trump, How we have to understand the backlash against Barack Obama, to understand how Joe Biden, how did you not think people werenk going to work

with you, like just because you're old and white? Like thought that because he thought he was old and white, right, And it's like you walked into this black man for eight years and saw them say no at every single turn, so like you just thought you'd be different. Okay, but you know, so the thing is I'm teaching kids who they weren't around for that, because you know when when they say like oh, I was six, and I was like, oh, so you guys were obviously actively reading at the Times

every morning. They're like yeah, right between ball patrol right. So like, so I'm also trying to contextualize the history of this moment because I'm like, listen, guys, you all are too young to sort of be of the soap opera generation. You remember, like, you know, we were days of our lives and you know, like all those stuff. I was like, so, you guys didn't grow up on soap operas, but I was this is nothing but like sex and intrigue and backstabbing and all types of stuff

if you sort of look at it that way. And I'm not trying to say it's a game, but I'm like, you should be wholly invested in it, because if you don't want them to rip out your ovaries and give them to your daddy, if you have student loans, if you care about the environment, if you have asthma or you know a sibling with an asthma, if you went to a public school and you're like this place is crappy, It's like, not all public schools are crappy. Maybe yours was,

but not everybody else's. If your parents had to take out loans to send you to a Catholic school because you couldn't go to your public school. That's something if you're in the military because you're trying to save money to go to school, or if your parents are in the military, right and you're wondering if they're going to come home. Even though we're not quote unquote actively involved, but like, uh, stuff still pops off. So I'm like politics. I literally take a piece of paper. I'm like, what

is political about this piece of paper? And they're like, it's literally a white piece of paper. I'm like, no, No, somebody's trees in somebody's country or somebody's state got chopped down by people who possibly weren't making real money. My grandfather worked in a paper mill for forty three years in northern Florida, right, and people missing hands, missing fingers, all types of wage theft, you name it, because the black people had to work outside and white people got

to work inside. Right Now, It's like then the truck's going through people's communities and the pollution going through the bronx. Right. So by the time this piece of paper gets to you, all the political mechanisms and the global company that has sold this paper company that is on the New York

Stock Exchange, right, so, like everything is political. A plastic pen is political, and you know, so I'm trying to get them to understand that everything around them involves them, and doing that because I have this sort of this privilege to kind of be at the forefront of people who will be in the future, I'm a little less freaked out the present is a mess. But I also keep reminding them and you know, one of my students was like, you're the only professor who keeps saying this.

I literally say every single class, we're in the middle of a global pandemic. Because we are because we are because we are being normal, quote unquote. And I'm like, hey, guys, I'm going to extend you a certain modicum of grace and grandas still don't take things that are late, because I'm like, I'm still got to teach you some lessons, right, and like, I can't have you out in the world thinking that everything's going to be you know, you get time and a half for everything. You just get to

hand this stuff whenever you feel like it. I was like, so we're still gonna have some rules and some sort of standards in this class, but I was like, I want you to extend me a modicum of grace because I'm in the middle of a global pandemic. I can't see my family as much as I want to, I can't see my friends as much as I want. You. I haven't seen you, i'ven't given you a hug since we're probably an MSNBC before the pandemic, you know what I'm saying. So it's like, all these things that make

me whole, I'm not allowed to do either. You guys are having a college experience that is not normal. You might be living in a dorm, but it's still not normal. So like just this latent pressure, yeah, that we're all in, coupled with the fact that this is roughly around the time the democracies die and we're kind of tiktoking on that time period for America as young as we are.

But this is kind of when, you know, when democracies tend to sort of unravel, the number of people who were willing to help it unravel is scary, right because it's not like, oh, it's just a few bad apples. It's like, oh no, got like we're orchards up in here. Yeah, with people who want to cross country burns. Yeah, across the country. And you know, again, you don't need to be white to have one sremacy. So it's not just

you know, looking over your shoulder for some hillbillies. It's like oh no, no, no, Like they come in all shapes and forms and colors and ethnicity and classes and economic status and listeners. Donald Trumps still got millions upon millions of votes, and he lost when he ran against Joe Biden, but seventy five or seventy five million people million people still, so I like what he's selling. I don't care that he said Mexicans rapists. I don't care

that he's tried tried to sign an executive order. I don't care twenty women accused him of sexual assault and or harassment. I don't I don't care that. Like you have kidnapped children with no plans to reunite them with their families, and there are still hundreds that will probably never be reunited. It's like I think that when you say to your students, we're in the middle of a

pandemic and like democracy is unraveling. I feel like the whole sentiment in America right now is just pushed through. Yeah right, it's just keep this is where, this is where a British this is where a British heritage is not serving us. Well you know that sort of just have a stiff upper lip, let's not talk about it. Let's just power through, you know, like the kind of the old school British style of like, let's not be hysterical.

And I think for me, when I look at my students, because I mean they're they're babies to me, right, I mean they're eighteen years old, what I have to do? And you said something key about democracy and raveling. First though, I have to explain to them what democracy is. I can't explain to them that democracy is unraveling. They don't understand what this country is, so like their understanding of

who America is and has been. Because I got to talk to you about how she has been, right, I was like, you guys have always been told that she's basically this Ritz Carlton or this you know, this four seasons that had to give us some moments of history. But that was so long ago, and it's like no, no, no no, no, no, this is a hojo. This country is a motels. It is exactly right in the middle

of nowhere. And you know when I tell them, because I mean, I don't know how old they think I am, because you know, ay, I'm black, so I could be anywhere between like eighteen and eighty seven. But I'm like, when I tell them, my mother only went to segregated schools her entire life, from k through high school. My father integrated his high school. And I'm like, I know

that you guys don't fully understand what that means. But I'm like, that means my mother was not allowed to go to school with white people, like not just oh she didn't want to and they lived on the other side of town. It's like, no, no no, it was illegal in the state of Florida where she was. So and you have to say that to them in the context of this was not a hundred years ago, no, right, That's what I'm saying. I'm like, this was like we love as a nation to say like, oh, this was

like centuries ago. No, there are people who are not that old right right now that has very clear and vivid memories. Oh how they grew up, what their families went through that were just let again, power through it. Oh, the civil rights move that was so long ago. No,

it wasn't was not. My dad is only seventy four, and you know, I went and lived with him for six weeks during the height of the pandemic in New York, where I was like, I gotta get out of here, and so I went to my dad, who lives in Delaware, and it was that's when I started birding, and you know, I just had space and I could be outside and I could go for walks without you know, sort of being so worried about catching COVID. This is you know, in the twenty twenty June of twenty twenty, so we

didn't have a vaccine. We didn't know how this thing was jumping from person to person. So it's like, let me just go kind of, you know, to a more suburban environment. And at night we had movie night every night, so we'd watch movies and it was great because I haven't lived with my dad since I was in high school. And he would tell me stories. Danielle, I'm like, this is stuff that's in history books. This man is having a cigar and a glass of rum. He is nice

and spry. He is not old at all. And you know the N words stuff. You know what I think is fascinating. He's an he's a Life Scout. You know, there's Eagle Scout is the highest of the boy scouts, right, and then I think Life Scout is like the second highest. And he was just like, oh, well, I wasn't allowed to be an Eagle Scout, So what do you mean

even un allowed to be an Eagle Scout. He's like, well, black people at the time in Miami couldn't be Eagle Scouts like across the country, but like, you know, he was in the Eagle Scouts of Miami. It was like, what do you mean? And he was just like, well, they would make it such that the last badge was at the fire department and you would never get it because obviously the fire department had no black firefighters. I mean,

like all these things. So he could tell me the black person in Miami the year, the name of the year that the black boy became an Eagle Scout because he was the first black kid to become an Eagle Scout,

something that none of them could have done. And so they're so proud and exciting all this other stuff Like this dude, I was like Ruby Bridges is not even seventy, right when we think about some of these pioneers, and so I think so much of the power of racism and went supremacy and anti blackness in this country has been to make us feel like everything's from Harriet Tubman

and Regid Douglas. But first of all, Martin Luther King would have been younger than Betty White when she died a few week younger, I mean like and not just about younger than Sidney Potier, you know what I'm saying. So it's like, and guess what, he didn't die of cancer. He didn't die of a heart attack like he was assassinated. And when you look at the public opinion from when he was assassinated and murdered, nobody liked him. White people wise, right,

They're just like, oh, he's a terrorist. So this this kind of mythology that we're obsessed within this country. That this is why I love being an educator because most of my students we're just like, oh, Martley Ding, I have a dream. I'm like, let's read these speeches from talking about Vietnam and emancipating poor white people. Let's talk

about that, because that's how you get yourself assassinated. Now when you're trying to free black people, when you're trying to have a global conversation about white supremacy, that's when folks are like, yeah, we gotta shut this man from Alabama real fast. I will say this one. I always appreciate our conversation so much because you just illuminated so many things for me, which is that America, like most places, is based on a set of mythologies, right, like I

can North Korea. Yeah, I continue to say, like, you know, there are people many, there are generations of people in China who have no idea about the Tianamen Square. Why because they don't teach it there, And like, if you know about it, it is because of oral history that has been passed down because it is nowhere written, it is nowhere talked about it. There is no museum, there

is no nothing. As a matter of fact, they passed a law in China that the parents of those people that were killed, those students that were murdered, we're not allowed to grieve in public, We're not allowed to mention those children's name. And so we wonder, like, well, how do people continue to go on right and not know because it has been extracted you're doing and your life has been extracted and set up in such a way.

So when I talk about on this show and others about the matrix that we are living in, the matrix that has been created around America, the beautiful America, the

great this is what the fuck I'm talking about. So to be able to sit with your dad and get a one on one history lesson just based on the vantage point of his life and how much gaslighting he is probably endured to be told that what he's experienced is something that happened generations ago, something that we don't need to talk about or understand the economic impressions of what has happened right and why we are where we are because of those times, because of those negations, Christina,

this is why I always want to have you back on the show, because we need to go back to one oh one, Because I don't know how we figure out how to rebuild, restore, reimagine when we don't know where we orient ourselves from, where we don't have a strong foundation and really integral understanding of this country and how to fix it. Like you can't fix something that you don't understand, you can't build something that you don't have the tools for, absolutely, And I'll leave it at this.

Whenever my students say the word slave, I stop them. And this is part of the mythology and the sort of erasure of history. And I'm like, listen, flavors and now table chair, cup, glass, pen, paper, slate. When we talk about us chattel slavery that carried out for centuries, I was like, I always use the word enslaved person or enslaved African. I was like, because that's a human being, and it's a relationship between two people. One is the enslaver and one is the enslaved. And I was like,

so in our history we're taught, oh, slaves. It's like, oh, well, the slaves, we're doing this. It's like, no, no, no no, no. These are people who could not reproduce on their own. They couldn't have their own family structure, they couldn't they couldn't eat when they felt like eating. I mean, they couldn't go to the bathroom when they felt like like these horrible things. You know. It's like, oh, Sally Hemmings dated Thomas Jefferson. I'm like, uh, if I'm enslaved, I'm

not dating anyone. I'm being raped, okay by one of the leaders of this nation. And so I think just even the minor ways that we need to change our language in this country. And this is why I appreciate Nicolehannah Jones so much, because she'll be in an interview I'm thinking of that god awful touch Chodo Chocho, yeah, interview, and he keeps saying, well, you know, parents and black's and she's like, so if you want to say white parents,

say say white parents, say your parents. Because the thing is, it was always, you know, when when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were running, it's like, well, woman versus a black a black person or a black man. And I'm like, no, no, no no, it's a white woman, right because women aren't white, not all women are white. But like this idea that womanhood is white womanhood and blackness is a black malehood, right.

And this is what's so interesting about Sherley Chisolm, who's right behind me, right when it's like, okay, in seventy two, it's like when we need a woman or a black person, so she's like, you know, goes to the black folks. It's like, okay, well we said a black person. I'm here and there like, uh, we actually meant a black man.

And then she goes to the women, Laurie Steinham and friends and it's like, okay, you said a woman, and they were like, uh, well, we actually meant a white woman, right, And so it's like, right, if you want to say a woman, say why woman? Then if that's what you're talking about. And so I think for my students, I'm really trying to be a lot more deliberate in my language because I I don't allow them to say like, oh, well, I'm a minority. I'm like, listen, I'm a global majority.

I'm a woman and a person of color. So globally, more people look like me and more people are either a woman or a person of color. So like, I'm not walking around saying that I'm a minority at all. And I think that in this country, because this mythology of white supremacy, anti black racism, patriarch and capitalism is so embedded in our foundation that Bell Hooks talks about this, We've got just folks believing the big lie, and the big lie is from before seventeen seventy six. Come on,

that's right, Oh, doctor Christina Greer. We need we need hugs. We need hug time, we need cocktail time, walking time, we need all of those things. Thank you so much for making the time to give us at wok F one on a one on one and a one on one with me education as to where we are, how we got here, and where, if anywhere, we are headed. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me.

That is it for me today. Dear friends on woke a F. You know I'm going to be starting something new this week, and you tell me what you all will think about it. But I want to leave you kind of with this moment of zen of reprieve of rest. I did a meditation earlier this morning. I meditate in the morning and in the evening before I go to bed, I kind of try in sandwich my day in that way, because you know, so much happens. And in one of the meditations that I did today and I use insight timer.

There is calm, there's insight timer. There you know, are many free apps that people can use. And what I like about insight timer is right now is that they will ask you, you know, to with happy faces, where is your mood? Great? Good, okay, bad, you know, and then they will provide you with meditations that correspond with

your mood. So this morning I did one that was on healing, because I realize that we don't talk about healing and pain and trauma enough, and grief and what it means to not just you know, power through bad situations or emotionally draining situations or traumatic experiences and situations, but what it means to honestly sit in that, not sit in it as into marinate, but to sit in and actually feel your feelings and recognize that our life right isn't about how successful we are, isn't about how

productive we are, but is about how aligned we can be in our state of being. We are so busy doing. There was a meme that I saw that it was always that was human doing instead of human being, that we never just kind of sit. We're told to fight through, muster on, you know, pull yourself up from your bootstraps, but nobody ever just says, sit, breathe, and feel and allow what comes up to come up right, not in a way to control it, but in a way to

observe it. And So moving forward with woke AF, I'm going to do my best to provide us with an ending note that isn't one that is steeped in rage and frustration and anger, but is one that as a collective, we can use this show, use woke a f and this platform to meditate on our rage, to get it out of our bodies and then leave ourselves more leveled and more at peace for having gone through this exercise of learning, expanding and growing together. Anger and rage are

important tools. And so I'm not saying we just pretend and be happy, go lucky all the time, but I do believe that there is an alignment and a settle, a settling that needs to happen. Once we rid ourselves of that kind of energy, there is a coming back into our bodies that I think is going to be really important, particularly as we move forward in these very

uncertain times. And so if you have tips and tactics and tricks that you are using to help keep your energy in a good place, in a glowing place, in a healing place, please you let us know in the comments section or DM me and let me know, because I'm going to be looking for opportunities for us to

find rest after our rage on a daily basis. Whether it be for a minute or ten, but just wanting to leave you all in a better place than I do than I have been when I pop off, and then just cut out so beyond the lookout for that as always, dear friends. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.