This episode is sponsored by FX's Fleischman Is in Trouble, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzie Kaplan, and Adam Brodie. The strama tells the story of recently divorced Toby Fleischmann, who dies into the world of at based dating with the kind of success he never had in his youth. Then his ex wife disappears, leaving him with their two children and no hint of her return effectus. Fleischman Is in Trouble, streaming November seventeenth only on Hulu. Greetings and
welcome to Woke f with me Danielle Moodye. This past week, we saw a major shift in American politics with the long awaited inauguration of President Joe Biden. But we still have a long road ahead of us to get to a place of justice and equality in this country. One path we need to take in pursuit of justice is the impeachment trial of the former twice impeached President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday's episode of Woke a F Daily, which you can hear right now at patreon dot com slash woke AF, I had the honor and privilege of speaking with one of our nation's impeachment managers. Congresswoman Stacy Plaskett about her role in impeachment and why Trump needs to be convicted even after leaving office. I have to tell you I've really thrown myself into work, and the work that I'm doing I think is so incredibly important as an impeachment manager.
And Jamie Raskin's words, I saw him on Cable News yesterday when he said he lost his son in twenty twenty and he'll be damned if he loses his country in twenty twenty one. You know, I have had the good fortune of also speaking with Representative Raskin and to think about how committed, you know, you have to be to this country, to the constitution, to this democracy, to be able to push through the unspeakable trauma of losing a child to now working so desperately not to lose
a country. Can you talk to us about what it is like to be an impeachment manager, what has come up for you as a representative but also as you know, just a believer in democracy, a believer in institution. Right, yeah, Well, you know, my legal career began in the Bronx District Attorney's office, which is kind of a trial by fireplace. You're given a week of training and then you're sent assigned to a courtroom and giving a stack of cases.
And you know, people pride themselves there on being very fast paced, my core, weekend, core, complaint room, the whole bit. And so I kind of took this the same way of just throwing myself into it. But one of maybe the things that as well comes as a bronch district attorney is being very i have to say, unemotional about criminal trial and just getting to the facts and to justice. And I've really tried to be this way in working
through how we are going to present this case. Is not getting caught up in the emotion of what we all experience, but how do we prove the elements of the crime place on January and leading up to January sixth, Right, because January sixth was the fulfillment of a conspiracy or throw this government. Insurrection doesn't occur at the beginning of an individual's time and office. It occurs at the end.
And this is classic to what our founding fathers anticipated when they were drafting the Constitution and discussed impeachment while an impeachment was going on in England while they were having the conversation about putting impeachment, because impeachment is two parts. One, it is removing that individual from the clear and present danger that they present, but it is also preventing that individual or individuals from ever being able again to do that.
It's qualification of the person from being able to run for office, from receiving the trappings of what we give those individuals who were our former presidents. That doesn't just include the tax player, social Security, retirement pay staff and the others. It includes briefings. Right say, right, do we want this individual to continue to have access to the leavers of power knowing what he will do to retain power for himself. Those are the reasons that we are
having in this drib. Tell me what is different between the one article that we are looking at right now, which is incitement and insurrection, correct, versus what we were looking at in twenty nineteen, which was obstruction of justice? Right? What are the what are the what are the impeachment one point zero and now impeaching two point zero? Right? Two point zero is always bigger better. The differences is
that we've all seen the crime. M hmm. The difference is that not only were we all witnesses, but that the jurors were actually victims of the crime. That is going to be the difference in how this is presented, And the issue is now for these senators. If they are able as victims and continuing ongoing victims, as they are threatened right by this president and by those conspirators who were with them with him, are they able to transcend that or to be protected from that, to be
able to render a verdict? Our nation's future is at stake. Are we going to hold a white supremacist demagogue accountable for his crimes against our country? And if not, what does that say about America? But to be honest, white supremacy is in our legacy and lineage, going back before the founding of our nation. I was also joined this week by the amazing Robert Jones Junior aka son of Baldwin,
author of the new brilliant novel The Prophets. In addition to talking all about the long journey that led to the creation of his first novel, Robert also discussed how white supremist patriarchy is tied to the legacy of slavery and the long held suppression of black queer love. It was an enlightening and emotional conversation which you can hear all thirty minutes of right now at patreon dot com slash Woke af Here's a taste of what we talked about.
Why do you think that it is still so difficult? We're talking twenty first century, so many decades removed from Harlem Renaissance, from these different iconic moments for us to talk still about black queer love for that question, for you still to ask that question, what about? And I would even say what about our love? Right right? Because there are so many answers to the what about love? People will point to what they believe to be representations
of love, But I say, what about our love? What is it about black queer love that is still something that is so underground, that is still so wanting and still seem so fictational? I know when I was doing the research, everything pointed to Christian indoctrination because when listeners might not know. But there are several chapters in a novel that go back to pre colonial Africa to discuss what life was like for pre colonial continental Africans in
terms of gender and sexuality and such. It is not until the European colonizer and the Christian missionaries show up to many of these African tribes that we begin to look at things that we deemed a normal part of the landscape, a normal part of life, as sinful and disgusting, and then internalize those feelings as almost to say that
they rose up out of themselves. And I tie it very closely to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, the desire to ensure that each black person is basically a machine to make more laborers and soldiers, So it needs to be in these heterosexual paradigms, under these rape cultures in order to produce more laborers and soldiers for the overseers and
the plantation owners. And that trauma has really affected the way in which black queer people are regarded and the ways in which we are able to be free about our love and care for one another. And it is deeply, deeply sad. But I hope that with a confrontation we could get to restoration and then eventually to healing. Oh my god, I can remember, and I still there are some sites that, you know, celebrate black queer life right
some you know, there are so many on Instagram. I think Native Suns is one of them that my friend of Meal and he says, and when years as well created because he has always been a visionary about the power of images, right, and the power of those images to transform our perception, our stereotypes, ourselves through those pictures. Right.
And I think about the way in which your writing creates this beautiful cinema in our minds of what we can see and smell and taste and connect with in such a brutal period of our history, you were able to articulate something that was also beautiful. How do you find you know? You know what I'm saying, because even in these moments, Robert, it is so hard to find
the beauty and the tragedy. Yes, but it was so necessary because what I realized when I was writing this book was the pain, the physical pain I was feeling on my skin as I was writing some of these scenes. I said, the reader is going to feel this thing too. So I have to imbue as much love and compassion for this situation and for these characters, particularly the black characters, as I can, because I have to remember, I'm writing
for the ancestors like this, this is a witnessing. I am giving testimony on behalf of the people who survived so that I could be here to do what was illegal for them to do, read and write, And so I had to ensure that their lives were as full as they really were, because when we whenever we think of this time period, we only think of the labor m and the brutality that they faced, But we don't think about how they loved and who they loved, and what made them laugh and when they went to bed,
where they dream about. You know, these were people. They were not slaves. They were people, and slavery was not their burden. Slavery is the burden of the white people who enslaved them. And that's the only reason why white characters show up in this book is because I wanted to make sure that the sin rested with the sinner, and the sinner and in my mind, are the white people who enslaved our ancestors. White supremacy is not in the past. Patriarchy is not in the past. Homophobia is
not in the past. The same forces that oppressed us from hundreds of years are still working out in the open to this very day. It's up to us to fight back to create a better world and sustainable future for ourselves and for those that come after us. These are the kinds of conversations I will continue to have this year on woke F daily. So please head over to patreon dot com slash woke F and subscribe so
you don't miss a single moment. Five dollars a month gets you five shows a week, as well as some bonus content, so you get a lot of me every single month. For now. I hope you stay safe and well as we enter into this new era of what America can be. Power to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.