Who Are Your People?

in Trouble, streaming November seventeenth only on Hulu. Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wik f Daily with Meet Your Girl. Danielle Moody recording from the Brooklyn Bunker, Folks. I've been going through the news today and what I find really interesting or a couple of things that have happened on the Republican side. I think I mentioned this earlier in the week, but we know that the RNC decided to issue their censure to both of the House Republican members

who are sitting on the January six Commission. Censure is usually used for people who have had criminal misconduct, who have had an ethical conduct, let's say, such as OH, I don't know being enthralled in a sex trafficking scandal, like a Matt Gates threatening to, you know, kill one of your colleagues, like Marjorie Taylor Green has done or use anti Semitism, which she continues to do as her favorite weapond entree. But instead the RNC decided to censure

both Adam Kinzinger and lizh Chaining. Now, these two are basically the only two Republicans who have any goddamn sense. They're the only two that actually believe in facts and law and recognize that by embracing the big lie and by essentially saying that our elections are not fair or free, that regardless of what party wins, that we are altering

our democracy moving forward. That these types of fights that we are seeing, that we saw waged from the former twice impeached disgrace President Donald Trump, we've seen the same articulation, the same talking points used in lower level races where Republicans just don't like the results, and so they are saying that there was fraud and essentially what they are

setting up and what they are interested in. And as Tucker Carlson, you know, loves to applaud the Hungarians and the hungry democracy government is that they want representation on its face, only they don't actually want legitimate government that is governed for and by the people. That they want to be able to choose their voters, and they want to be able to have their entire party in lockstep around a lie, around white supremacy, around homophobia and transphobia.

They want to be in the embodiment of the worst. And you know, you had the likes of a Mitch McConnell, and of course that, oh, I have such deep feelings Susan Collins come out and publicly right show their disdain for the decisions that the RNC made, particularly right not only censuring those two House Republican members that sit on the Commission, but to also right refer to the January sixth insurrection and violent overthrow of the government as legitimate

political discourse. You had so much breakdown there that Donald Trump of course found his way to weigh in to the controversy that he created by saying that no one listens to Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell is nobody's leader. And Donald Trump continues to endorse very far right radical cult members right that are part of the cult of personality

of Donald Trump and Trumpism. And he's endorsing people that have either discounted elections that they have lost in the past by huge fucking margins, or he's endorsing people to run against Republican incumbents that he does not like, that he does not think, as he has said, is a part of the future of the Republican Party because to him, the future for Donald Trump looks like authoritarianism, it looks

like fascism. It looks like a twice impeached, privileged white man that has had multiple investigations into his criminal business over the decades since Donald Trump became part of all of our lexicon back in the eighties. And you know, the reason, right that he's been investigated so many times is because the man is basically operating like a mob boss. And what's really interesting right now is that the New York Times is reporting that the one six Commission has

once again hit a roadblock. What is that roadblock? Oh, the fact that they are blatant gaps in communication from the White House on January six, meaning right, not that there was no communication because they know from other records of phone records that they have that Donald Trump was in very much in communication. But what do criminals do.

They cover their tracks and so, so long as you are making phone calls or using devices that are not monitored, right to ensure that everything that the president and his cabinet and his team is doing it is on the up and up, you use other devices. So right now,

what was going through the White House switchboard? If you've ever called let's say one of your members of Congress, excuse me, you know that what happens is this, you dial this generalized number you asked to be directed, it directs you through right and only certain people obviously have direct access to the White House and two different parts

of the White House. But what Donald Trump has done and what he's done with his entire career, why the man doesn't text, why he doesn't send email, why he doesn't write anything, Because he's a criminal, and only criminals operate in that way. There is no legitimate reason why any man that is in business or in politics doesn't put pen to paper or doesn't put his fingers on a keyboard, except when you don't want to have any of what you have said or what has been said

to you potentially used against you. In the court of law. The only people that operate in that fashion are fucking criminals, plain and simple. Just like Donald Trump had said that no one pleads the fifth right unless they have something to hide. Meanwhile, the last two middle management, middle level people that have been involved in the one six insurrection that we've talked about with Glenn Kirshner have played the

fifth over a hundred times right in their interviews. So here we now have the New York Times reporting that there is quote unquote gaps in information in phone records. So now they find themselves subpoena ing the cell phone records of those people that they know were in the White House, and through other exchanges and interviews that they have done, have known what Donald Trump was doing and

where exactly he was. So now we are continuing once again to go through the rigamarou that Trump knows will slow down the process and gum up the works to get to what we already know to be true. Donald Trump is solely responsible for the actions that took place

on January six. Donald Trump whipped a crowd into a frenzy, directed them to the Capitol Building and told them to go and take their country back and then when things began to get out of control, when there was violent when people were killed, when barricades were being broken open, when his own fucking Republican members were calling from underneath deaths right and barricaded doors, asking him to call off

the dogs, he was too busy. He's sitting on a couch somewhere in the White House popin bond Bonds with excitement and glee as he watched the mayhem that was unfolding in his name. That's what we know. And so the question that I continue to ask, with all of this information that is now out there for public consumption, is where the fuck is Merritt Garland's Department of Justice?

Because remember that this commission can only gather information and offer up recommendations, but it is the Department of Justice that actually has the parameters to be able to issue fucking indictments and subpoenas that bear criminal fucking charges. So how many I just want to know how many exposays are we looking at at this point, three hundred and sixty five plus a month days removed from the insurrection. How many exposays have been done, how many interviews have

been done? How many files are there from the low level people that storm the capital to the fucking donors that gave them money to begin with. We have so much information that is readily available in the public and the question that I continue to wonder is are we going to do anything with this? Are we going to do what we always do with fucking white collar criminals, right,

which is just let them go free. Because if you are white, if you are wealthy, if you are a headero, if you are siss, you can do whatever the fuck you want and there are no repercussions. You can be a criminal, fucking disgusting landlord like Donald Trump has been for his entire time right as somebody's real estate mogul in New York and become fucking president of the United States.

You know, folks like I personally, I have stopped really delving into the day to day of where things la and with the one six Commission, because frankly, you know that commission is only going to be up and in operations until November. Because when Republicans are able to take back the House successfully without breaking a sweat, when they're able to take back power in the Senate, they are going to halt all of those up all of those investigations.

They're going to open up bullshit, bogus investigations into right, the Eric Eric Saltswalwells, the Alexandro Costio Cortezes, you know, the Nancy Pelosi's. They're going to try and impeach Biden as a as retaliation against the impeachment of Donald Trump. They are going to turn our government once again into a fucking circuits that is being paid for by us.

That's what they're going to do. So you would think that with this finite timeline that Democrats are working under and that this administration is working under, you would see

some sense of urgency. You would see some alarms ringing, even when Mitch McConnell once again says the quiet part out loud and says, I denounce what the Republican National Committee has done in terms of censuring these two members and making it once again about twenty twenty and January six, because we are in a position to take back power.

Knowing that to be true, and that this Republican Party is trying to wash their hands of the twenty twenty election and trying to wash their hands of a insurrection, why wouldn't Democrats then be doubling and tripling down so that come November the American people do not forget who was responsible for that day and all of the actions taken therefrom. I mean, this is not rocket science, folks. You don't need a gree a degree in communications or in media or in publicity in order to get this

fucking done. And it's the same questions that you know, friend of the show Kurt Bardell would say, It's just like, why not use right the good things that were coming out of the Lincoln Project before it was you whipped up into a frenzy of its own scandal. Why not use the tactics right that they took from the Republican

playbook and use it to your advantage. Where are the fucking barrage of TV ads right now and radio ads lambasting the RNC reminding the American people exactly who was responsible for the insurrection, exactly who is responsible for the fact that we are never getting rid of COVID nineteen.

That instead of these blue state governors deciding to break to the will of capitalism right and lift up mask mandates against science, as I said yesterday, that why you would not be painting the Republican halt as the death cult. They told the American people who decided to vote against their own healthcare in the early aughts under the Obama administration, because they told them that they were going to have

death panels. Well, Republicans actually do have death panels right now, because that's what happens when you decide not to have public health mandates that would keep children safe in schools

in these red states. And so, you know, I sit around folks as I go through the news on a regular basis, and I just am at a loss because it's really hard in this Dane age to carry with you some type of hope that everyone who actually has the power and the platform to shift the course and the direction that our democracy is careening towards that then

decides not to. You know, I will say this somebody a follower of mine on Instagram am yesterday, not yesterday, but earlier in the week when I did woke Wednesday and I posted the full video on my Instagram page, a follower commented and said, you know, this week, have

you seen Michelle Obama's post this week? And if you get any information regularly emailed to you from the Obama Foundation, or from the former president, you would know that it has been fifteen years since the Obama's since President Obama announced his run for office, that would you know, change the course of the Democratic Party for a finite amount of time, because once again, there was no pipeline built, there was no work that was done to reinforce and

expand the Obama coalition. That everything that was done by the brilliant Obama apparatus just fell apart after Obama left office. One of the since why we find ourselves When we saw Hillary Clinton running, We're like, where is the excitement? Where are these people? Well, you put no money, no resources, built up, no pipeline, and had no one waiting in the wings. So Obama came and went and then Donald Trump comes in right after, and his main goal was

what to erase his presence to begin with. So a follower of mine said, what's the point of Michelle Obama pointing back to two thousand and eight? Like hearkening back to this long begotten time, as you know, because she found the memory in and of itself painful. And what I said is this, I said a couple of things. She goes, you know, was it just performance for performance? Sake, And I said, everything about politics is a performance and

everyone needs to just understand that it is. You don't vote for people with the best policy, because if you did, then Democrats would remain in power, right, and we wouldn't even have a Republican Party because they don't offer shit except for the word no and obstructionism. You vote for people that you fucking like, that you want to sit down and have a beer with, that you want to share a meal with, a share brunch with. Right, It is all about personality, and so a part, big part

of politics, unfortunately, is about performance. And Donald Trump knew that, but he was tap dancing and doing a jig for the deplorables. As Hillary Clinton had said, the Obama's wanted to elevate the country and bring us into this place where we could see just how good of a people we were again a very finite amount of time, kind

of like reconstruction. Nonetheless, I said that it is important to have these reminders because we are in such a dark place where we feel like the Obama years at least I do feels like they were forty fifty years ago at this point. So has happened, right, So much has gone wrong. But it is important for us to remember that the same country and the same people that were able to get that done right are still here, and the question is what the fuck happened to them?

We knew that whitelash was always going to follow the Obama administration, But if you had asked me right following the end of the Obama years, if I thought that the white lash was going to regress us all the way back to Jim Crow, I would have said, Nah, I don't think it's going to be that bad. I think it's going to be bad, but I don't think it's going to be like you can't vote, We're using the N word. Joe Rogan as our hero. The twenty twenty election was stolen, Like, I didn't think that we

were gonna go full fucking crazy. But once again, when you uncheck right, when white rage and white fragility, which is a deadly combination, goes unchecked right and all you want to do is set up fucking town halls and interviews understand the aggrieved racist, then of course we would

have ended up in this place. Right. So I think that it's always important to have a reminder of better times, but recognize that they wanted to hang Obama right, that they called that man everything but a child of God, that they made him show his long form birth certificate because white Americans could not wrap their fucking minds around the fact that a black man right had the rightful place as president of the United States, because in their minds,

that power structure was off limits. But we didn't have those real conversations because Obama wanted to tell us that, you know, we could be the change, that yes we can, that we can embody this American dream, that all of us can come to the table and be these better people. And when we saw these incredible crowds, you know, of such a multicultural, right, multiracial demographic, we were blinded by

the truth right. And so because we never had those real, heartfelt, hard conversations, and because they weren't modeled for us, and because we like to pretend that we were better than we are, we arrive here shocked and outdone. Coming up next is my conversation with activists and author Bacari Sellers about his new book, Folks. I am very excited to welcome back to Woke. F author, New York Times bestselling author, intellectual, academic, Bacari Sellers, who is the author of the new children's

picture book Who Are Your People? And you may remember that Bacari was on My God Have Been last year to talk about his book, My Vanishing Country Book. Cary, welcome back. I'm glad to be been too long. We got to do this in between, I know, in between all of the all of the things you write, UM and tending to your beautiful family. Um. But Cary, what prompted this this book? What prompted this beautiful children's book, which I have to say is um is illustrated also

by Reggie Brown. Um, what prompted this for you? Yeah? Let me let me just kind of where you chimed in a little bit. You know, Reggie Brown was just brilliant and he gave a lot of life to this book. So shout out to Reggie. UM. You know, for me, it was having twin toddlers who are three years old. UM, it was trying to find different resources to educate them and to get them to leave their mom and daddy

alone for a period of time. And you know, we did not have many things where they could see themselves in the images and the pictures and the animations, etc. And that frustrated me, like it frustrates parents all around the globe, and so I decided with my platform. And it was tough. I mean, people probably will not understand or believe that, you know, writing a children's book or breaking into the industry of children's books, it's tougher than

a notebooks. Really, yeah, I joke, but it has a great deal of honesty that I had to write a New York Times bestseller just to get the opportunity to write a children's book. And I just want to stay and live in this space for a while because I think giving having this level of representation at this time, during this moment, a lot like in contact, it means

a great deal to the reader. You know, it's so funny because I literally just watched just watch that Disney movie for the for the very first time over the weekend because I need it an escape from our impending a democracy doom. Um. You know what's really what I what I love about this is, you know, is a title in in and of itself, Who are your people? And you know, the innocence that comes from children asking one another where are you from? You know, why do

you look the way that you do? And I think that instead of my adult self, which the response to another adult that was asking me that question would be kind of would be quite brash. Actually, Um, you set up a way to have this conversation that is about curiosity as well as ancestry and the village that we all come from. Can you speak more to that? Yeah, I mean it's a colloquialism down south that kind of, to your earlier point, is rooted in some level of judgment.

You know, when you when you meet somebody for the first time down here, they're like, who are your people? And that they want to know whether your daddy went to church or like stole from folks. They just trying to figure out, you know, what family structure you come from, what stock you come from. And so that especially where I'm from, I mean, who are your people? People refer to me as little cleave, little cell and my daddy. That's just how they know my granddaddy. I mean, that's

just how it was growing up. And so I wanted to set that table with that familiar colloquialism, but also give some meat and flesh out who our people were and for the reader, for the young person who's reading this of any race, color, or creed, but particularly black kids. Wanted them to be able to have some pride in the images and have some pride in the in the in the culture that's represented throughout the pages, and so

who are your people? Yeah? We set that tone. We we we we set that tone for understanding that we come from a people who had to overcome so much and we're still standing. Book. It's funny because when you mentioned the movie in Kanto earlier, I was sitting and I was watching, and I was saying to myself, my god, kids these days are so lucky. They're so lucky to get like beautiful representation that is so rich and so colorful.

That story showed so many different shades of brown and black and hair texture and all of these things in the similar way that your book does. And you know, when I was a elementary school teacher teaching first and second grade, one of the things that I strive to do was to go from library to library, bookstore to bookstore to try and get books that would prompt conversation

and critical thinking. But we're also representative of the population that I was teaching, which was black and brown children. And you know, right now, we are at a time when all of these advancements have been made, and now there is a campaign of erasure and whitewashing that is now following all of the advancements that have been made since I was in the classroom as a teacher or in the classroom as a student. What do you make of where we are? And how do you balance that

with what you are trying to create? You're trying to create these images at a time when they're being blocked. What do I make of where we are? I think that my intellectual critique sitting across from you, although I wish we were in person, would be that I am astounded by the lack of curiosity, the anti intellectualism, and the asinine attempts to remove culture through books that people are boldly taking. I mean the steps of removing books.

Michelle Obama's book from Texas, for example. I mean they're trying to take it out at Michelle Obama saw hurt nobody. She tried to She tried to plan a garden for y'all and show her arms. Yeah, Michelle tried to get her family plan a garden and show her arms, and y'all try to take her book out of libraries. I mean, it's just it's brash, you know. I think that this may be something that people always wanted to do, but I'm simply, like fundamentally astounded by the fact they're taking

these steps. I think it contributes to kind of this moment that we're in, white hot moment surrounding these issues of race, the ignorance, and the infantile nature of the conversation. And it's going to take more books like who are

Your People? And books that you are going to write than yeah, you know, to feel that boyd and catch individuals at a young age where we can teach them to dream again and have this curiosity and maybe come forth with this sensatiable desire to learn as much as possible. You know, your family's history is so extraordinarily rich, right, and deep and deep rooted and entwined with white supremacy

in this country. And you know, I wonder, as now, the father of twin toddlers who are growing up at a time when it feels so regressive and yet hopeful, how do you manage what you are seeing, what you have seen learn and understood through your own family history, and then that mirroring America's history and violent racist nature, and trying to develop the hopefulness and the spirit of

twin toddlers, twin black toddlers. Well, I mean that the innocence of their the innocence of their eyes, and the softness of their smile, their genuine curiosity is what keeps you going, combined with the fact that you know the price that was paid for the progress that we have today.

You know, I think, and you know, a part of me says that people want to strip us of our history and the teaching of our history, not for their benefit or the way they feel or the guilt they feel, but so that we won't be empowered to keep going, so that we won't see the struggles and the sacrifices that were made and just keep pushing. When you take away one's history, you pretty much take away their spirit. And I refuse to let anybody do that to me.

And I think that, you know, the challenge for us and particularly me, raising these children is to fill our

house with love. You know, my kids will tell you how the Debtie loves them this much, and they love they you know, some of the first things they learn how to say in this house is I love you, because we know that when they go outside these doors, that this world will not love them the same because of the color of their skin, or who they may love, or who they may pray to, or those type of ideals. And so we just want to prepare them for a rough and tumble world while Daddy is out there trying

to change it. And if I can do my part to you know, leave it better than the way I inherited it, and raise my kids to believe that, you know, only a life live for others is a life worthwhile to quote Einstein. Then I think that maybe some where somebody will be able to look at me and say job well done. I mean, folks already look at you and say and say job well done. And I'm certain

that your children probably do on a regular basis. What do you what advice do you have for other for other parents, caregivers and frankly teachers right now who you know feel a sense of hopelessness in terms of wanting to educate, wanting to care for children in a way that provides them with stability in a world that is

increasingly unstable and uncertain. What do you offer to those to those folks you know in different camps of caring for young minds right whether it be your own or other people um that feel pinned up against the wall right now, right where where we're where we're making it, you know, impossible to develop critical thinkers, to have thoughtful conversations where we are working against the tide of intellectualism and entering into a new dark age's I don't know

a by entering, I think that might be the wrong participle. I think we're kind of there. We're there, so you know, one is like don't don't don't first of all, take care of yourself if you're feeling hopeless about where we are, or you feel some type of hollowness about where we are, and you know, talk to somebody to get thera. If you talk to us, understand that you're not by yourself

in this fight. I would encourage you that the minds that you're moting right now, even with the obstacles that you're facing externally, many times you will be and are the only persons who believe in them, and you are

the person who's pouring into them the most. And so without you pouring into them everything that you can, you this child would go forth into the world empty and so I don't I understand the sacrifices that you're making, and I understand the relationship that we have with our haters, but you know, understand it. It ain't about you, and it's not about the haters. It's about the minds and the people that you're pouring into. And I think if we keep that the center focused, that when we get

down we will take some time away. It's okay, you know, you got to change everybody's life, take some time away, juvenated, and then plug back in and do the work necessary. What do you say also to those activists and people who are just like, why am I still protesting this? Why am I still out marching? Why do I still have to create these signs? Why is this fight that was being fought in the nineteen fifties and the nineteen twenties, you know, and before, Why are we still fighting these

things now? I had an interesting conversation with another writer that I enjoy a lot, Michael Harriet, who said, you know that the goal is not eradication of white supremacy. He's like, if you set that up as your goal, you're going to fail, and you're going to be and

you're going to feel like a failure. What do you think that our goal is or should be in the continuation of our protests and lifting voices and trying to inspire people, whether it be through children's books, adult books, you know, conversation and podcasts, like what should our goal be so that we feel like we're continuing to move

forward and not constantly be pushed back. I think your goal should be simple, and I think your goal and I you know, I'm not trying to minimalize this or have some trindy kind of play on words, but I've always told folks that I'm tired of black people being in a position where we are trying to survive. I think that we need to move out of survival mode and ensure that we can thrive. I think the prosperity and wealth and health should be the goals that we

look to ascertain. Now that does that mean the eradication of white supremacy. No, I think that you know this is where we are, but also fundamentally don't believe there's anything that's irredeemable about this country. I just think we have to reimagine what she looks like. And I think when you reimagine this country. You should reimagine yourself in it, healthy,

wealthy and prosperous and building new generations thereof. So no longer do black folk in this country have to survive, but we can finally take that burden off and we can thrive. And what makes you see, you know, you mentioned earlier that breaking into children's books was harder than breaking into adult books. What may this particular audience or

part of the publishing industry so difficult? But also your new focal point simply because I just find that we are in this moment of urgency and we need to make sure that we are encouraging and feeding and nourishing a new generation of leaderships. Not that I've given up on certain well I kind of have given up on

certain generations, but I do. I mean, I have the generations to come are going to be our saviors, are going to be the ones who lead us out of that darkness, And so why not teach them about who they are now and begin to allow them to dream at this age? Yeah, I think that it. You know, that's what makes me very scared about the times that we are living in because I don't know how you teach people, how to dream, how you teach critical thought,

how you teach innovation. If you're afraid to open books, or if the books are not there and they're being taken off of the shelves, you know, and you're just looking at the cover right as many people will on your book, and I look at it with a sign of delight. Oh my goodness, look at this. You know, I feel represented. And I'm an adult, right, I feel I feel seen. What I'm looking to buy stories that

lift up the children in my life. So just leaving on this note with you, you know what continues to keep you inspired, Bakari in all of the work that you do and all of the conversations that you enter into in times that are just really trying, because people are desperate for inspiration right now, I think that they're desperate for hopefulness. So I mean, there are a couple of things, and I think a lot of it has

to do with my anxiety. Right in my book My Vanishing Country, I thought about anxiety being a black man's superpower. But I do not try to eat an elephant whole. I take one bite at a time. I don't try to live for the next five years. Today I try to live and have a good I figure that if I win today, and then I win tomorrow, and then I win more days than I lose, then I will be a winner in life. And so what allowed me to streamline that is focusing on intently being a good

father and a good husband. I think when you prioritize and when you look at life clear eye like that. And you know, I'm not saying don't have vices. I think everybody needs their vices, and you know you just manage them and vices and moderation is my matta. So go out, have to be afraid to have a drink and talk to your friends, and you know, regroup, relax, recoup and get back to it. Bacari, always a pleasure having you on, folks. The book is Who Are Your People?

By Bacari Sellers, author of My Vanishing Country. Thank you so much for making the time to join woke f and I can't wait to see all the bevy of children's books that are being dreamt up in that mind of yours. I appreciate you, thank you for having me. We're not gonna make it another three hundred and sixty five days. Yes, no, we're not We're going to see you before your next book comes out. You're going to come back to the show and give us inspiration and

hope and joy and thriving. Yes, we appreciate you, thank you. So you know, folks, I will leave you with this point today for our woke moment of wellness, which is this. I think that the past is so very important, right because in many ways it does in fact dictate how we understand the present and how we imagine our future to be. So I don't want to wipe memories of the Obama years because it's so difficult to look at now, right, It's difficult the pain in the remembering of that short

lived ease in time in America. And remember when the Obamas came into office, like the bottom was falling out. We had the tech bubble bursts, the housing bursts, we had healthcare issues up the wazoo, childhood obesity was through the roof. I mean, there were a lot of problems, but they didn't feel existential, right. It felt like with the right leadership and thoughtfulness and strategy, we would be

able to make it through. So I think that it is important to look back at those pictures to remember the feelings that we had and figure out how we can conjure them back right, how we can use our past successes to help us guide our way out of this darkness and into a better future. Now, folks, I tell you, I don't think it's going to be immediate. I think that we're in for a long haul. But I don't want us to forget the good because in this current moment it just feels too painful. We need it.

We need to remember who we were so that we can envision who we want to actually be. That is it for me today, Dear friends on woke a app as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.