Full Transcript for American in Context, Patritioc Blood n' Bones

00:10:13.250 So, Africans in America, whose purpose was basically to go and help colonize and eradicate the Native Indigenous so that America could expand. 00:10:15.810 --> 00:10:22.930 You have other wars, you have World War I, where technically we ain't supposed to be able to hold weapons and all this stuff. 00:10:23.009 --> 00:10:25.490 And yeah, I'm bypassing the Civil War, bypassing that. 00:10:26.210 --> 00:10:39.570 Y'all do enough reading on that, and and I hope you have enough understanding that that was over more so economic issues than it was over enslavement. 00:10:39.810 --> 00:10:44.129 Enslavement got boiled up in there, but it was it was economic stuff. 00:10:44.370 --> 00:10:56.850 That fight, that battle, that overall struggle to make sure that people were free, it was free economically, and it still wasn't for all of us. 00:10:59.650 --> 00:11:02.769 World War II, we finally get to actually do stuff. 00:11:02.930 --> 00:11:04.930 We finally get to be doing the big things. 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:12.450 We finally, well, uh, later on in the war, when things weren't working out so well. 00:11:13.090 --> 00:11:28.690 See, every war we have these specific units uh uh of melanated folks that get sent in to do stuff because well, maybe they can do it because we're struggling, and and and we go and and we become the beasts of war. 00:11:30.050 --> 00:11:37.330 We become the images and ravages of what people remember in their nightmares of when America goes to war. 00:11:38.690 --> 00:11:42.850 And we carry much of that back home, like in Vietnam. 00:11:54.610 --> 00:12:30.290 And there's Korea, there's Iran Contra, there's Iran, Desert Storm, like we we we are a nation of war, and that's not including Cuba, that's not included including so many call them conflicts or dark wars where we're not actually sending soldiers, we're just doing economic sanctions, like putting up an entire fleet so that you can't get power, or we're doing uh subversive methods to replace yours leader. 00:12:33.889 --> 00:12:43.650 All in the essence of making America safe, not necessarily great, just safe. 00:12:43.889 --> 00:12:52.930 We we need to have a certain influence on all of these different places so that we so that we can be safe as citizens. 00:12:54.370 --> 00:13:18.850 And so as a citizen, I have to have my flag, my banner, and wave and be proud of all fifty not contiguous states, plus the 30, 40, some odd territories and and and other properties or whatever you want to call them. 00:13:19.009 --> 00:13:24.610 Like we we we have forgotten. 00:13:25.570 --> 00:13:29.009 This is why I went through that long tirade and and ran. 00:13:29.330 --> 00:13:30.050 We have forgotten. 00:13:30.210 --> 00:13:47.090 We have forgotten that before 1776, and the following years and decades after, there were about the same. 00:13:49.570 --> 00:13:51.410 Put my head down a lot on this one because it hurts. 00:13:51.490 --> 00:13:54.530 I'm talking about my ancestors,

talking about my people, talking about my folks. 00:13:54.769 --> 00:14:03.170 Um the same, if not more, native indigenous people living on this land. 00:14:04.610 --> 00:14:11.410 You talk about the same in Puerto Rico and Cuba and Hawaii, uh, Alaska. 00:14:11.570 --> 00:14:14.129 I mean, wherever we go, we we wipe out. 00:14:16.450 --> 00:14:17.410 Wipe out. 00:14:20.450 --> 00:14:28.210 And don't necessarily incorporate, include, or bring them into the family. 00:14:28.769 --> 00:14:31.650 We're supposed to be this giant melting pot. 00:14:31.730 --> 00:14:45.490 I call jambalaya because jambalaya allows you to taste the different flavors of everything and and the fluctuations, and they all meld together in one big soup, but still give you this robust, diverse, eclectic flavor in your mouth. 00:14:45.650 --> 00:14:52.690 So I say we're supposed to be this jambalaya, but if we had a jambalaya that right now, the only thing up in there is some chicken. 00:14:54.129 --> 00:14:55.889 It's the only meat we really get. 00:14:57.650 --> 00:15:02.290 And the rest of us is starving. 00:15:03.889 --> 00:15:05.250 Starving. 00:15:06.610 --> 00:15:19.650 So, in context, the reason why it is so hard for many folks to to share, have, hold this patriotism, mind you, isn't actually because of just the empirical process as we go, it's because they can't afford to. 00:15:21.170 --> 00:15:24.370 Folks can't afford to be patriotic. 00:15:25.810 --> 00:15:30.129 They too busy trying to afford living. 00:15:31.650 --> 00:15:33.170 That includes soldiers. 00:15:33.490 --> 00:15:46.370 That includes the individuals that we have that are always out there protecting, defending, securing the American nation and the people fighting for the freedoms that we have. 00:15:47.490 --> 00:15:50.769 I know what that's like second person. 00:15:52.050 --> 00:15:53.970 I remember what it was like. 00:15:57.250 --> 00:16:04.370 I remember what it was like helping my father pack his bag for the first desert storm. 00:16:04.769 --> 00:16:17.889 I remember as a little kid going into the room as he's putting all these different things inside his bag, all these extra camos, all these uh uh uh shit it was something. 00:16:17.970 --> 00:16:20.769 I can't remember all of it, but but all these different things. 00:16:20.930 --> 00:16:22.690 And I'm sitting there asking, what's that for? 00:16:22.850 --> 00:16:23.889 Well, what do you need that for? 00:16:23.970 --> 00:16:25.009 Well, what are you going that for? 00:16:25.090 --> 00:16:35.650 And I and in my mind as a little kid, I'm imagining my father having to go and sit there and just brrrrr to duke out with all these uh people. 00:16:35.810 --> 00:16:40.370 I don't know like I I don't even know at that age who it is, right? 00:16:40.610 --> 00:16:42.450 I just know it's they're not us. 00:16:42.530 --> 00:16:48.930 And and and as he leaves, like I don't even get to go with him really to say goodbye. 00:16:49.009 --> 00:16:52.370 Uh my mom goes and drops them off, and we have to stay with a babysitter. 00:16:52.530 --> 00:16:56.129 So I don't I don't even get that real context of of seeing him leave. 00:16:56.450 --> 00:17:07.089 So my dad's leaving, and I'm I'm eight years, nine years old or something around that age, and I don't get to talk to him. 00:17:07.970 --> 00:17:14.289 This isn't emails, this isn't cell phones, this isn't any of the tech we have today. 00:17:14.450 --> 00:17:16.529 This is pen paper. 00:17:16.769 --> 00:17:22.450 This is this is phones that still have the dial the not the dial pad, but the ring pad. 00:17:22.609 --> 00:17:28.609 This is I can't even call because where he's stationed, dad, isn't safe. 00:17:30.529 --> 00:17:33.009 I don't I lost my dad. 00:17:34.369 --> 00:17:35.009 Lost. 00:17:37.009 --> 00:17:49.809 Every I want to say every maybe a couple weeks, got a phone call, got to talk to him for a couple minutes, but I lost my dad for period of like nine months, ten months, almost like maybe more. 00:17:50.450 --> 00:17:51.569 Because here's the dig. 00:17:51.970 --> 00:17:56.289 So he got to come back early. 00:17:58.049 --> 00:18:08.690 But it wasn't because the war ended, it wasn't because we were victorious, it wasn't even because he got hurt or injured, you know, it w it was it was because my grandfather died. 00:18:12.049 --> 00:18:19.730 I lost my father for over a year or so, when you add up all the time. 00:18:21.250 --> 00:18:45.569 And my grandfather, and the return of my father was the ultimate demise of my grandfather, who was a World War II vet, whose three or four children were Navy, Air Force, Air Force, whose like we we flagged up. 00:18:46.450 --> 00:18:48.049 We flagged up. 00:18:49.410 --> 00:18:58.930 And I remember going and sitting outside on July 4th as that same young kid when my father finally returned, and we're going inside a base housing, old base housing where I lived. 00:18:59.009 --> 00:19:07.009 It was old, it wasn't old, it was just they had built and constructed a new family uh housing. 00:19:07.250 --> 00:19:14.529 So we were at old base housing, and uh every July 4th, you gotta get up, and it's it's large. 00:19:14.850 --> 00:19:18.049 There's it was a large military community. 00:19:18.210 --> 00:19:23.890 The town I lived in went from like 25,000 to 20,000 after that base close. 00:19:24.130 --> 00:19:34.370 So we move it and we all go on over there to try to find the spot to sit because the the the fire engines, the the bands, all the different procession. 00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:43.970 Well, they just come in at one point and they do this long loop around all the big outside part, and then they come back around and they go exit out kind of right back before that same spot where they came in. 00:19:44.049 --> 00:19:46.769 So you gotta find a good spot because I need candy, homie. 00:19:47.329 --> 00:19:53.490 I need candy, I need to see the fire engines, I need to be able to be uh proud and see all this

stuff and excited. 00:19:53.569 --> 00:19:59.730 Sometimes the the base, which was just like maybe a mile away, no, no, no, no, half a mile away. 00:19:59.890 --> 00:20:02.370 Maybe the planes are gonna do a little flyover or something like that. 00:20:02.450 --> 00:20:03.730 It's just just amazing stuff. 00:20:03.809 --> 00:20:14.529 And we go to the airshow that was on base, which was uh, like I said, a half mile away, and we get some nice seats and we get to sit and actually be like where the where the planes actually take off when they were gonna go do some stuff. 00:20:14.769 --> 00:20:16.930 Oh man, it was amazing. 00:20:18.130 --> 00:20:23.730 I was I was I was everything and nothing but America as a young kid. 00:20:24.930 --> 00:20:27.410 And then black caught up with me. 00:20:28.610 --> 00:20:34.930 I was poor, so I didn't have the advantages of most things that you really want to have in life, so that kind of impacted things. 00:20:35.090 --> 00:20:37.730 Um, but most importantly, it was just my melanation. 00:20:38.450 --> 00:20:43.090 The melanation of my life dictated how patriotic I really got to be. 00:20:43.250 --> 00:20:53.329 I told y'all the story of what happened at 12 when I was out in Texas with a trunk full of fireworks, me, my brother, my cousins, and there were the other families that were sitting over there. 00:20:53.410 --> 00:21:01.970 And the only difference between us and them kids was that we had melanin and they didn't, and our whole trunk of fireworks disappeared inside that police car's uh trunk. 00:21:02.210 --> 00:21:03.009 Magic. 00:21:03.250 --> 00:21:05.170 Abra cadabra. 00:21:06.930 --> 00:21:10.450 No more patriotic celebration for us, little badlets. 00:21:11.650 --> 00:21:22.049 So take aside all of those interactions with the police, take aside that stuff because you know we still got the fireworks, we still got the other stuff that was amazing for us to be able to experience. 00:21:22.130 --> 00:21:25.009 And like I said, the base was right there, so we got to see that all the time. 00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:36.769 They had a airplane and helicopter museum sitting right outside that we got to go to regularly, regularly, hop in them digs, act like you fly. 00:21:37.009 --> 00:21:38.210 Man, it was amazing. 00:21:38.289 --> 00:21:43.569 I'm telling you, and everything was American, American, American, like flags and all this stuff everywhere. 00:21:43.730 --> 00:21:50.130 So the propaganda work is stuck until, like I said, my melanin and real life hit. 00:21:52.049 --> 00:21:58.049 See, 12 and 13 is also the age where you start wanting to go hang out with your friends. 00:21:58.289 --> 00:22:03.809 You want to go swimming at the swimming hole, you want to go to the movies, you want to go hang out at the mall. 00:22:04.049 --> 00:22:09.009 Well, you did want to hang out at the mall at that time, you did want to go to the movies at that time. 00:22:09.090 --> 00:22:12.049 You didn't want to sit at home and

do it because we have it at home. 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:13.170 We have it at home. 00:22:13.250 --> 00:22:16.690 We had just gotten off of VHS, we were just moving into DVDs. 00:22:16.769 --> 00:22:18.690 So we we what's up, Kitty? 00:22:18.930 --> 00:22:20.370 I know I'm talking away, man. 00:22:20.610 --> 00:22:21.009 I know. 00:22:21.250 --> 00:22:30.930 Uh so you wanted to be out, and it wasn't be out and do do do on your phone, and y'all just sitting there playing Pokemon against each other, or y'all just sitting and watching videos and sharing the video. 00:22:31.009 --> 00:22:35.730 No, you was out and you was riding your bikes, you was roller skating, you were something, you were doing something. 00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:40.210 I'll tell you one time um we were out skating. 00:22:40.610 --> 00:22:43.650 Me, my brother, two homies down the street. 00:22:43.809 --> 00:22:45.730 It was oh, we love it, it was amazing, right? 00:22:45.809 --> 00:22:48.930 So we skating, and uh we rollerblade, so y'all understand. 00:22:49.090 --> 00:22:55.410 We are rollerblading all around town, all around town, just took off. 00:22:56.049 --> 00:22:59.250 Told the folks, hey, we're we're gonna go skating, and just took off all around town. 00:22:59.329 --> 00:23:00.690 We took off all over. 00:23:01.569 --> 00:23:24.610 I can't tell you how many times inside of the stores or the restaurant or uh gas station or just anywhere we stopped, the four of us, how security and police or management followed me and my brother, but didn't follow the two homies. 00:23:26.930 --> 00:23:35.970 I can't tell you how many times going to the mall growing up, having had a job since. 00:23:36.370 --> 00:23:39.970 I was like 13, 14, 12. 00:23:40.049 --> 00:23:41.090 I would actually 12. 00:23:41.170 --> 00:23:42.690 I started I started I started at 13. 00:23:42.769 --> 00:23:43.009 That's right. 00:23:43.170 --> 00:23:43.410 13. 00:23:43.569 --> 00:23:44.210 Started 13. 00:23:44.289 --> 00:23:47.650 So 13, I started uh scorekeeping baseball games. 00:23:47.730 --> 00:23:49.329 I would just say that money up. 00:23:49.490 --> 00:23:53.490 You know, summertime, whoo we that's a lot of money, right? 00:23:53.569 --> 00:23:55.009 There's a lot of baseball games. 00:23:55.170 --> 00:23:56.690 And and I would just stack it. 00:23:56.769 --> 00:24:01.650 And then I go to the go go to the mall and try to try to buy some clothes or buy some this or buy some that. 00:24:01.730 --> 00:24:04.130 And you get tired of getting followed around. 00:24:06.130 --> 00:24:09.809 Not just from inside the store. 00:24:10.130 --> 00:24:20.210 You get tired of being followed from the store you entered, the big entrance, into the store, out of that store, into the other store. 00:24:20.370 --> 00:24:24.850 Mind you, passed off while they just kind of sit at the doorway and have the rest of the security follow you. 00:24:25.009 --> 00:24:34.930 You get tired of having police follow you in a car as you're simply just driving down the street to go get some fast food because you're hungry and you just finished football practice. 00:24:35.250 --> 00:24:43.970 You get tired of your life being a constant reminder that you're American in context. 00:24:48.610 --> 00:24:49.809 Context. 00:24:51.890 --> 00:24:54.049 My big, big understanding. 00:24:54.450 --> 00:24:55.970 Big understanding. 00:24:59.569 --> 00:25:01.890 I went to I went to Florida AM. 00:25:03.569 --> 00:25:04.769 Rattlers getcha. 00:25:05.410 --> 00:25:06.930 Yeah, still flossing the colors. 00:25:07.009 --> 00:25:09.090 Mind you I was flossing the colors before that. 00:25:09.170 --> 00:25:19.170 Uh I think I might be the only cat in in history to have ever picked a school based on its colors because they matched my colors. 00:25:20.850 --> 00:25:25.970 But I went to Fam U, which is a historical black college university, one of the best. 00:25:26.049 --> 00:25:31.650 And I tell you this, there's gonna be a whole lot of hate and a whole lot of imitate. 00:25:32.289 --> 00:25:39.809 But nah, you can't be the marching 100 or the rat. 00:25:41.090 --> 00:25:42.210 There's only one. 00:25:42.529 --> 00:25:52.049 So I'm at Florida AM, which is maybe a mile or so, maybe from Florida State. 00:25:52.769 --> 00:25:54.210 Florida State. 00:25:54.769 --> 00:26:02.930 I am 18 years old, and I have the entire city of Tallahassee surrounding me. 00:26:03.090 --> 00:26:08.049 And I grew up in California where we go hang out everywhere and anywhere. 00:26:08.370 --> 00:26:22.210 And Tallahassee, Southern Georgia, yes, Tallahassee, Florida, Southern Georgia was my first real, real, real awakening to the South. 00:26:23.569 --> 00:26:36.850 It's amazing to have two nationally recognized, world-recognized institutions in proximity of each other to where you could pretty much hop, skip, and jump, and you're there. 00:26:37.170 --> 00:26:38.930 And there's no intermixing. 00:26:39.970 --> 00:26:40.610 None. 00:26:41.090 --> 00:26:47.490 There were clubs that the FSU students went to, and there were clubs that the HB uh uh fam you students went to. 00:26:47.569 --> 00:27:21.009 There were areas of town that were specific for the fam you people, there was areas of town where that were specific for the FSU people, and there was a mall that was for like it was it was segregated, distinctly segregated, so much so that even going out to the nightclubs, there was nightclubs for the fam you folk, and there were nightclubs for the FSU folk. 00:27:23.809 --> 00:27:40.450 The only time you might catch some cats that were of a darker persuasion in the we'll call it FSU area, which so you understand, FSU is a predominantly white institution. 00:27:41.410 --> 00:27:47.170 Florida AM is a predominantly melanated, it's a historical black. 00:27:47.809 --> 00:27:57.730 I saw more white people at school with me at FAMU than I did when I went out anywhere else in town, unless I went to one of their parts and areas of town.

00:27:58.690 --> 00:28:03.009 See, we inclusive and we invite and we make sure. 00:28:04.610 --> 00:28:11.730 If not, then pretty much you better be an athlete or or or or got money or some elite status somewhere, somewhere. 00:28:11.809 --> 00:28:21.809 You better be one of the talented tenth to participate in the festivitize of the PW population. 00:28:23.250 --> 00:28:31.410 And it was a shock for me coming from Cali, coming from a small town in Cali where we didn't care. 00:28:32.370 --> 00:28:44.690 I grew up with a number of Vietnamese folks that I still hold and have uh an ability to say relationship today. 00:28:45.009 --> 00:28:49.250 Some of them were Hmong and go back and really held that culture. 00:28:49.490 --> 00:28:53.970 I know a bunch of folks that were uh Jamaican from the islands, picked up a lot of their food. 00:28:54.049 --> 00:28:56.850 We still cook the food today in the household now. 00:28:57.890 --> 00:29:00.210 It was a big mesh. 00:29:00.289 --> 00:29:17.009 And it wasn't because of the Air Force base, it helped because honestly, after Vietnam, there were a lot of individuals who had been displaced, who had become refugees from Vietnam that were able to finally build roots in that town. 00:29:17.329 --> 00:29:25.809 So what you had in that small town I grew up in was actually a very, very diverse immigrant town. 00:29:27.410 --> 00:29:31.009 So everybody was everybody, but it was still predominantly white. 00:29:31.170 --> 00:29:32.210 And there's no knock. 00:29:32.370 --> 00:29:38.690 I had cats who was Portuguese, who would talk deep about their culture, speak the language, cook some of their food, share it with us. 00:29:38.850 --> 00:29:41.090 Like it was a mesh. 00:29:41.730 --> 00:29:44.610 Some African cats, like mesh. 00:29:45.490 --> 00:29:49.250 Indian, some native indigenous, like mesh. 00:29:50.610 --> 00:30:08.610 So imagine going to southern Georgia and it's black, it's white, and the only other cultures that I really got to see there were folks of the institution at Fam U, and I might see them in passing if they weren't in my class. 00:30:11.250 --> 00:30:20.529 The different religions, faiths I was able to experience growing up. 00:30:22.289 --> 00:30:28.370 Allowed me to see so much of the world that I couldn't go travel to, couldn't go experience. 00:30:28.769 --> 00:30:34.690 It brought a richer understanding of life to me as a person, as an individual. 00:30:37.569 --> 00:30:42.049 And right now, America. 00:30:43.009 --> 00:30:45.250 We're blotting out all that stuff. 00:30:45.890 --> 00:30:51.490 We're specifically trying to uh smother and erase all of that. 00:30:52.210 --> 00:30:59.809 In an in an effort to to uh have a single unifying identity, American. 00:31:05.650 --> 00:31:13.009 But the context of that is is a hypocritical hyperbole. 00:31:13.890 --> 00:31:19.809 Because we even call American Indians or Native Indigenous. 00:31:19.890 --> 00:31:38.210 So we we can't have that and and and and fail to acknowledge the the first people, the original caretakers, the cats who without they blessing, not this cat, the native indigenous, we wouldn't be able to be here doing the stuff that we're doing. 00:31:39.090 --> 00:31:50.450 And that that therein lies in the hard or strange relationship that I personally have with patriotism. 00:31:51.650 --> 00:31:59.490 So my partner's father is an interesting individual. 00:32:01.009 --> 00:32:11.410 When all of the George Floyd stuff was happening, the protests and all of that stuff was happening, we we had a number of conversations. 00:32:11.569 --> 00:32:20.610 And one of the conversations, this cat sat down with me and was talking and was talking about how, well, I get what they're doing and I see where they're doing it, but they don't have to do all of that. 00:32:20.690 --> 00:32:22.690 And I thought, okay, so what should they be doing? 00:32:23.009 --> 00:32:28.930 And he said they should be doing stuff like Martin did instead of burning down buildings and so on and so forth. 00:32:29.170 --> 00:32:31.490 And I said, okay. 00:32:32.130 --> 00:32:34.289 And I brought up two points. 00:32:34.370 --> 00:32:35.809 I said, so what happens when that doesn't work? 00:32:35.890 --> 00:32:38.289 What happens when all that protest and all that stuff doesn't work? 00:32:38.450 --> 00:32:39.809 Um what what do you then do? 00:32:39.890 --> 00:32:41.730 What happens when you're still being shot and killed in the street? 00:32:41.970 --> 00:32:42.690 What's the next solution? 00:32:43.650 --> 00:32:47.650 Well, you you don't you don't start tearing up and burning up people's property. 00:32:48.049 --> 00:32:50.769 Ah, property, property. 00:32:51.009 --> 00:32:54.289 I said, Well, so you're saying property man is more than lives? 00:32:54.370 --> 00:32:56.690 And again, it's a huge long conversation. 00:32:56.769 --> 00:32:58.370 But then the other point I brought up was this. 00:32:58.450 --> 00:33:15.569 I said, uh, you know that basically almost all of the incidents of of arson, of uh stealing, and and all that stuff were people who weren't actually a part of the protest, were people that were actually plants, were people that were police. 00:33:22.289 --> 00:33:40.289 That became a different conversation and it became an argument, and and and it became a divisive topic of understanding, in that there was a uh a strong disbelief that the government would partake in something like that. 00:33:41.890 --> 00:33:45.650 We know that that's always been the purpose of the government. 00:33:45.730 --> 00:34:03.730 I mean, in relationship to us and our ability to strike out and be able to access, to receive, to be on the same level of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we've always had to do more. 00:34:03.890 --> 00:34:07.170 We've always had to protest, we've always had to strike and fight. 00:34:08.049 --> 00:34:12.849 There are Afrikaan immigrants coming into America right now. 00:34:13.329

--> 00:34:27.569 While we are deporting so many other immigrants, we're specifically seeking out Afrikan immigrants to help them ingratiate into a new life from nothing. 00:34:27.809 --> 00:34:47.809 They're not escaping anything dangerous, they're not running from a mob of war, they're not hiding from cartels, they simply are struggling because the residents, the natural citizens, the first peoples of southern Africa and their descendants are finding ways to redistribute the wealth. 00:34:48.690 --> 00:34:58.610 Because in in South Africa, like maybe 10-15% of the population is like Afrikaners and they have 90% of the land of property and wealth. 00:35:03.170 --> 00:35:15.409 Well, they kind of uh native, and they got like six, seven percent, you know, it's they're not really getting, and they need it because it was stolen. 00:35:15.489 --> 00:35:17.889 So they are simply redistributing it. 00:35:19.409 --> 00:35:22.690 Similar process here, actually, if you think about it. 00:35:23.889 --> 00:35:50.289 Most of the money, most of the big wealth, most of the ability and individuals to truly access the recourse of the American Constitution and the rights that we have, are individuals that in some manner, essence, are had access to the ability to have free access to a large economic system. 00:35:50.690 --> 00:35:51.570 And I mean that. 00:35:51.889 --> 00:35:56.050 And when I'm talking about money, I'm not I'm not talking about simple cats, I'm not talking about a LeBron. 00:35:56.130 --> 00:35:57.170 LeBron ain't got no money. 00:35:57.250 --> 00:35:58.530 LeBron ain't money. 00:35:58.849 --> 00:36:01.889 LeBron's not broke, but LeBron ain't money. 00:36:02.210 --> 00:36:03.730 I'm not talking Oprah. 00:36:04.369 --> 00:36:08.210 Oprah's got money, but Oprah's not broke. 00:36:08.690 --> 00:36:11.010 And to these cats, Oprah's broke. 00:36:11.170 --> 00:36:13.090 I'm talking to cats that you don't hear about. 00:36:13.170 --> 00:36:25.010 I'm talking to cats that uh like like uh what's it Berkshire Hathaway dude or whatever his name is every year he releases something, says he'll give a billion or a million dollars to whoever gets the the NCAA bracket. 00:36:25.329 --> 00:36:30.050 I'm talking dem cats that you only hear about if they want you to hear about. 00:36:31.490 --> 00:36:41.809 I hate to say it like this, but I'm talking to cats that if you were peeking somewhere to find out just where you know they hang out, you'd probably see their names in Epstein files. 00:36:41.889 --> 00:36:43.250 I'm talking dem cats. 00:36:43.490 --> 00:37:14.610 They go back to a history of money, a history of money that puts them in a position to where they're about that, you know, 10% of people that own 90-some odd percent of the wealth in the nation that own the pockets and the politicians, so that when it comes to trying to find ways to redistribute wealth or make sure that other folks are able to access it, well, nah, nah, we we keep in all of that home. 00:37:14.769 --> 00:37:16.769 You ain't gotta worry about nothing. 00:37:18.530 --> 00:37:22.929 So that becomes a whole institution, right? 00:37:23.570 --> 00:37:24.929 Like jail. 00:37:26.849 --> 00:37:27.490 Auburn. 00:37:28.130 --> 00:37:31.490 We're gonna call call it an Auburn system of jail. 00:37:31.809 --> 00:37:37.889 So in this auburn system of jail, we take individuals and we put them in a box. 00:37:38.530 --> 00:37:42.289 We throw them out there to do some work, tell them to keep quiet. 00:37:42.530 --> 00:37:43.570 You ain't talking. 00:37:44.050 --> 00:37:45.650 Whispers just hush. 00:37:46.050 --> 00:37:49.650 When you're done working, we're gonna throw you back in a box. 00:37:49.889 --> 00:37:59.010 If you act out of line, we're gonna water mort you or water drown you, or some other form of torture. 00:37:59.570 --> 00:38:07.250 We're gonna beat you, we're gonna just do all kinds of maniacal, mental, and physical torture. 00:38:08.449 --> 00:38:13.090 And we're gonna do it to you just because, well, you were black and you didn't have a job. 00:38:14.130 --> 00:38:22.849 Or you were woefully, woefully in debt for five cents to the Conestel. 00:38:23.650 --> 00:38:32.210 Or you were just not following a myriad of southern codes that were implemented just because, well, you are black. 00:38:32.849 --> 00:38:49.730 So that system was used to create products to make sure that Americans had access to capital gains by investing in pillows and couch cushions and beds, or just you know, no nominal stuff, nominal stuff. 00:38:49.809 --> 00:38:50.849 But look at this. 00:38:53.409 --> 00:38:56.369 They were put on display like animals in a zoo. 00:38:57.329 --> 00:39:03.889 People were able to pay to come and simply watch them work, watch the torture, watch the abuse. 00:39:05.090 --> 00:39:16.530 If you think about it, seems to be like the first footsteps to being able to go sit and watch somebody be uh the recipient of capital punishment. 00:39:19.170 --> 00:39:24.210 Our systems still today are based on the fruits of yesteryear. 00:39:25.809 --> 00:39:31.490 And many of us still live on the fringes of those systems. 00:39:35.409 --> 00:39:41.970 We don't really get to be included in all of the pieces and parts that are the American dream. 00:39:45.170 --> 00:39:52.050 So patriotism is is is a hard and strange thing for me to have a digest. 00:39:52.130 --> 00:39:55.889 And and and here's here's here's to a point. 00:39:56.849 --> 00:40:11.650 My hope is you went and you listened and checked out the uh that final verse of the national anthem, you know, the one that talked about the hireling the slave and how their demise is fortuitous. 00:40:13.889 --> 00:40:24.050 So Kaepernick sat down on a bench next to a water cooler to protest the national anthem. 00:40:24.769 --> 00:40:41.730 Then he talked to some soldier buddies of his to find a respectful way to be able to still give them the respect that they deserve for their ultimate

sacrifice in many forms, but otherwise their their sacrifice and going out and doing the duty that needs to be to help keep us safe. 00:40:41.809 --> 00:40:44.369 Because the the soldiers, our soldiers do do that. 00:40:44.849 --> 00:40:45.730 They do. 00:40:47.490 --> 00:40:49.730 So he took a knee. 00:40:50.210 --> 00:41:02.449 He respectfully took a knee, just like soldiers respectfully take a knee to respect the fallen, but not to stand for a flag and a national anthem that has never included us. 00:41:03.730 --> 00:41:05.409 Still doesn't. 00:41:11.010 --> 00:41:16.050 I say that because remember the slave and hireling is the song that's playing while that flag is glowing. 00:41:16.130 --> 00:41:31.170 And if that flag is a representation of this nation, and that song is the bread and butter, it's that anthem, it is the core, it's the foundation to what we believe, to what we sing, to who we are, what that song is saying. 00:41:32.769 --> 00:41:39.570 I do not get to partake in a piece of fat American pie. 00:41:40.210 --> 00:41:42.769 That American pie is whites only. 00:41:43.809 --> 00:41:46.369 And I ain't crazy enough to burn my tongue. 00:41:46.929 --> 00:41:50.769 End up standing on some goddamn glass soda bottles with my toe stuck in it. 00:41:50.929 --> 00:41:51.889 I love my pinky. 00:41:51.970 --> 00:41:54.449 Pinky don't need to be in those little bottles. 00:41:57.570 --> 00:42:15.490 So, but to the point of what I'm really saying is there are individuals that have flags that adorn their houses that are 50 foot big on these giant flagpoles outside their homes and all of these different decorations and adornments. 00:42:15.650 --> 00:42:22.530 And I would take my father's flag from the service he put and did, and I'd put it up above my mantle. 00:42:22.849 --> 00:42:38.530 I have family members that have served Marine, Army, Navy, Air Force, all right, like cousins all over, not just my my close, like cousins, whole entire just next, like yeah, it's a military get-together uh when we go to family reunions. 00:42:41.170 --> 00:42:48.289 Discussing with them, it's it's not necessarily what you would think. 00:42:48.369 --> 00:42:51.889 And I and I and I say this, discussing with buddies of mine. 00:42:51.970 --> 00:42:53.170 I have a lot of military friends. 00:42:53.409 --> 00:42:55.490 San Diego, military town, baby. 00:42:55.650 --> 00:43:04.130 So even discussing with folks uh uh uh that aren't family, it's the brother or the sister next to you. 00:43:05.490 --> 00:43:07.570 Like that's what you're fighting for. 00:43:08.690 --> 00:43:21.250 Yeah, you go through the code, the morale, the the oath, you you you uh I think it's uh faith, flag, faith, family, flag, all of that, right? 00:43:23.409 --> 00:43:32.849 So if what you hear from the soldier isn't even that it's the flag they're fighting for, it's the person next to them. 00:43:33.970 --> 00:43:48.130 Our patriotism might be twisted in some manners because we've we've forgotten that this country, the community, the town, the experiences we have, the life we live isn't made up by the flag. 00:43:48.530 --> 00:43:57.010 It's not made up by the anthem, it's not made up by us standing at attention and making sure we do the pledge of allegiance every time we see the flag or every morning when we see the flag. 00:43:57.170 --> 00:43:58.449 It's none of those things. 00:43:58.610 --> 00:44:18.610 Those are byproducts of experiences or feelings that we carry with us, but our life is going to be made up of moments that we go through with that cat that's next to us. 00:44:20.050 --> 00:44:21.889 It's the cats next to us. 00:44:22.849 --> 00:44:27.250 And for many of us, the first cats that are next to us is our faith, it's God. 00:44:28.210 --> 00:44:33.250 It's when we sit and pray and make sure we give those alms to where we're supposed to. 00:44:34.530 --> 00:44:36.289 And then it's our family. 00:44:37.409 --> 00:44:39.090 Then it's our friends. 00:44:39.650 --> 00:44:49.170 Like we actually can go down this long list of all these different things that become so important to us before we will actually go, oh, country, country, country, our country matters so much. 00:44:49.250 --> 00:45:12.369 And it's not to denigrate the the country, it's to simply be factual about these are the things that are tangible, that I can hold, that I can I can feel, that affect, and I affect in in a daily or emotionally or whatever context, but these are the things that move me. 00:45:13.329 --> 00:45:17.010 And I move with them on this chessboard of life. 00:45:17.250 --> 00:45:26.050 And yeah, there might be a flag back there that kind of designates where we're at, and that flag is something that we're gonna stand for because you know, if some cats come in, well, if they come in, they're probably trying to kill all of us. 00:45:26.130 --> 00:45:27.490 So, yeah, we're gonna stand up for that. 00:45:27.650 --> 00:45:30.929 But the first line of defense for me isn't necessarily that flag. 00:45:31.010 --> 00:45:32.369 That flag just gives the marker. 00:45:32.530 --> 00:45:35.970 That flag isn't necessarily gonna let me captured, but the first marker. 00:45:36.369 --> 00:45:41.970 For me is my family, my home, is the life. 00:45:46.369 --> 00:46:03.970 The conjecture around patriotism being the precipice, the first thing, the initial thing that we brandish and wear, even one of the main important things of our life is a strange personal opinion, misnomer. 00:46:08.289 --> 00:46:20.050 Without sporting events, without going to an initial level of education. 00:46:20.210 --> 00:46:32.369 And I mean, if you're not a teacher, if you don't work for the government, and if you don't go and work for a sporting event or sports team, how often do you really hear the national anthem played? 00:46:34.369 --> 00:46:40.610 If you did not experience those things, how often do you actually hear the national anthem? 00:46:42.530 --> 00:46:48.130 And

ironically, let's let's let's throw this let's throw this switch in there. 00:46:48.210 --> 00:46:49.090 You ready for this? 00:46:58.690 --> 00:47:05.010 Russia does an autocratic uh salute and pledge. 00:47:05.170 --> 00:47:07.889 Like I can keep going on this list. 00:47:08.050 --> 00:47:22.530 Turkey, Iran, like this is the list of countries that technically, by the practices that we do, we would be categorized over here. 00:47:26.849 --> 00:47:45.570 So before World War II started, the way that children would, well, and soldiers, I believe, as well, because that was just how we saluted, but the the salute that was done to give pledge and allegiance to the flag was not over our heart. 00:47:46.210 --> 00:47:47.090 It was here. 00:47:47.809 --> 00:47:49.170 We were Nazi-like. 00:47:49.490 --> 00:47:52.369 It changed when the Nazis were doing that. 00:47:52.610 --> 00:47:55.329 We couldn't be nationalists. 00:47:55.490 --> 00:47:59.409 We couldn't have any representation that would be similar to nationalists. 00:47:59.490 --> 00:48:00.449 So we couldn't do that. 00:48:00.530 --> 00:48:05.490 So we had to go put it over our heart where we're bestowing our love. 00:48:10.929 --> 00:48:12.610 It still goes back. 00:48:13.090 --> 00:48:15.090 We just made it look prettier. 00:48:15.809 --> 00:48:19.409 Jail is an institution of slavery. 00:48:19.650 --> 00:48:24.449 Most of the products that you get on your shelves nowadays in Walmart and all these stores. 00:48:25.090 --> 00:48:25.730 Yeah. 00:48:26.050 --> 00:48:26.690 Yeah. 00:48:27.250 --> 00:48:27.889 Yeah. 00:48:28.849 --> 00:48:33.570 Most of the products have slave or incarcerated labor. 00:48:33.650 --> 00:48:34.610 They're not paid for that stuff. 00:48:34.690 --> 00:48:37.090 They're not paid for fair wages. 00:48:38.130 --> 00:48:39.170 And I'll give you this. 00:48:39.329 --> 00:48:40.210 Ready for this? 00:48:40.769 --> 00:49:26.690 When cats in jail are able to get equitable pay for the work that they're doing to produce products that you are buying from a grocery store in public, for the fires that they help extinguish in public, for the different things in Louisiana that they do for the state governor, the mansion, the cars, and all that stuff that gets seen by the public for all the different things that end up in the public domain, then that means that the rest of the population that are living in the open-air cage side of prison, then that's when y'all will start to get real fair wages. 00:49:26.769 --> 00:49:30.369 That's when y'all will start to see an equitable aspect in life. 00:49:32.849 --> 00:49:38.050 They're making the products that you were spending real, real good money for. 00:49:38.769 --> 00:49:42.449 Mind you, you're also paying real, real good taxes for them to be in there. 00:49:42.610 --> 00:49:44.130 So you're paying them twice. 00:49:44.289 --> 00:49:45.889 And they ain't getting none of it. 00:49:47.730 --> 00:49:48.849 Auburn system. 00:49:49.329 --> 00:49:50.210 Say that again. 00:49:50.530 --> 00:49:53.010 Auburn system goes back. 00:49:54.369 --> 00:50:04.050 All of these things that we have as Americans now today, they haven't been brought into this change because we had this intellectual awakening. 00:50:04.369 --> 00:50:06.929 We have new ways of writing it into legislation. 00:50:07.090 --> 00:50:13.010 The 13th Amendment gave right to put people in prison to become slave labor. 00:50:14.449 --> 00:50:16.530 That is not enlightenment. 00:50:16.690 --> 00:50:25.010 That's a change in language to make it look a little prettier because now we feel like, oh, well, they deserve what they're getting because they committed a crime. 00:50:25.170 --> 00:50:25.490 Okay. 00:50:26.050 --> 00:50:27.090 Restitution. 00:50:27.329 --> 00:50:38.769 Why aren't they specifically working for that family and giving that family restitution for the crime that they committed against that family? 00:50:39.090 --> 00:50:44.610 Why is the restitution being given to the state or to the government? 00:50:44.929 --> 00:50:51.409 And why is the family never receiving any of that aside from the fact that that individual has been locked away? 00:50:51.570 --> 00:50:53.170 And now I feel safer. 00:50:53.650 --> 00:51:01.090 Because they're in a box making a product that I'm going to go buy in five minutes to quench my thirst. 00:51:03.650 --> 00:51:06.050 We can't continue this cycle. 00:51:07.329 --> 00:51:12.050 I feel, I feel, and be truly patriotic. 00:51:14.289 --> 00:51:36.369 If we are to be patriotic, to walk around bearing, brandishing, expelling all of the virtues of our nation, the bounty and beauty of Mother America. 00:51:37.889 --> 00:51:45.490 Well, then, shouldn't we be able to talk about how Mama America has been putting locks on the refrigerator so that we can't access real food? 00:51:45.730 --> 00:51:48.050 Because you know, I really want to talk to that mama. 00:51:48.610 --> 00:51:51.650 Her children are back here starving of nourishment. 00:51:53.409 --> 00:52:26.369 Or or or or can we discuss how the impacts of us going on these rampages of imperialistic conquest in manner to either take over or completely influence other folks' governments to better benefit our economy is costing us more than it's ever benefiting us because most of those immigrants that are coming to us are coming from areas that we went and we did our American resolve. 00:52:26.610 --> 00:52:27.570 The Iran. 00:52:27.889 --> 00:52:34.929 Well, it looks like Iran and Oman are about to come up with a nice big treaty so that they can control the Strait of Urmuz. 00:52:35.170 --> 00:52:37.970 Well, if they're controlling the Strait of Ormuz, well then guess what? 00:52:38.210 --> 00:52:44.849 We just lost an avenue of something that we were expecting to be able to have and that we had before. 00:52:45.010 --> 00:52:47.409 We're going on these conquests and we're losing. 00:52:48.050 --> 00:52:52.369 And more importantly than just

losing, we're expending. 00:52:52.690 --> 00:52:59.970 We're expending all of these things in order to be able to try to get this and still losing an end. 00:53:00.210 --> 00:53:01.889 So we've lost soldiers. 00:53:02.289 --> 00:53:06.769 That's our prized, our prized asset. 00:53:07.730 --> 00:53:23.570 It's our soldiers that are out there voluntarily, because we ain't got no draft, that are out there voluntarily working and doing the diligence for America to have safety, security, and family of hope and dreams. 00:53:45.409 --> 00:53:46.769 Like we can go down the line. 00:53:46.849 --> 00:53:54.210 Like they're all saying the same thing because they're all doing the same thing because we still ain't seen nothing for us lower-class folk. 00:53:54.449 --> 00:54:00.130 It's been a constant divide, growing and growing and growing. 00:54:01.329 --> 00:54:03.409 So how do we be patriotic? 00:54:03.889 --> 00:54:15.090 How do we be patriotic when our nation is not just leaving us behind, not just turning a blind eye? 00:54:15.409 --> 00:54:25.010 In fact, our nation isn't just neglecting so much of the way that things are being said right now, it's an intention. 00:54:26.449 --> 00:54:39.809 We are intentionally being deprived of so many different assets that are supposed to be ours, rights that are supposed to be ours, natural rights that are supposed to be ours. 00:54:39.889 --> 00:54:48.610 The Constitution, the the the national, the Bill of Rights, those didn't give us the rights. 00:54:49.650 --> 00:54:59.809 Those were rights that are supposed to be nationally, naturally imbued in us from birth, from God. 00:55:01.010 --> 00:55:11.889 It was just rewritten so that we remember, which I find strange, that in order for us to really be able to use those rights, oftentimes we have to sue. 00:55:12.130 --> 00:55:18.050 We have to sue the bad guy that came to tell us that what we were doing was wrong, because the government told them to do it. 00:55:18.130 --> 00:55:24.690 So then we have to go sue the government to let them know, hey, your dude was wrong, and then they have to go say, Yes, you were wrong. 00:55:25.090 --> 00:55:27.490 We don't get those rights. 00:55:27.970 --> 00:55:32.289 We don't get those freedoms, we have to pursue them. 00:55:33.970 --> 00:55:52.610 If we pursue the freedoms, then we're able to attain a certain aspect of life where we might feel like we have some liberties, and in the end, that is where we feel most happy. 00:55:55.809 --> 00:55:57.090 Maybe y'all do. 00:55:57.809 --> 00:56:02.369 And that's where my patriotism is this strange place. 00:56:04.210 --> 00:56:12.929 I'd love to be able to stand and pledge allegiance and and be able to show my vigorous support for a nation and a country. 00:56:13.329 --> 00:56:15.730 But y'all singing a song that don't want me. 00:56:17.570 --> 00:56:50.769 I'd love to be able to go out and say, yes, these individuals are definitely in line and in position to really help benefit and support the aspirations that I have, not for me, but for my children, to grow up in a nation that will allow them to be able to afford a home, that if they have kids, will be able to allow them to bring them kids into a home that has safety, that has access to good, healthy food, fresh water, that is not inundated with all of this nonsense that they can continue to have faith and spirituality, but what but they might be working five jobs. 00:56:51.570 --> 00:56:53.170 Between the two of them, ten. 00:56:53.889 --> 00:56:56.130 Kids might end up working at six. 00:57:00.369 --> 00:57:04.449 But I love the dream. 00:57:06.130 --> 00:57:10.130 I love the dream that that is just there. 00:57:12.449 --> 00:57:18.929 As it sits just there, we we we strive and reach and drive and grind. 00:57:20.769 --> 00:57:28.130 Because the aspiration is if if we reach that dream that we've made it, we're we're we're we're fully American. 00:57:29.170 --> 00:57:33.170 Because it's the dream, the American dream. 00:57:33.889 --> 00:57:41.490 And so often in life, that dream is never really accessible to too many people. 00:57:45.010 --> 00:57:46.929 I don't hate America. 00:57:47.889 --> 00:57:54.050 It's hard for me to be in love with America. 00:57:55.409 --> 00:58:00.929 Because from the action shown, America is not necessarily in love with me. 00:58:01.329 --> 00:58:11.889 Loves my body, loves the work I can do, loves the expenditure, loves the expense of it, but doesn't love me as a soul, as an individual, as an intellect. 00:58:14.530 --> 00:58:23.170 And it doesn't care for the stories that still drive, still drive how I have to navigate this world. 00:58:28.849 --> 00:58:47.329 And even if I put on a nice button-up suit, shave my beard, make my locks all nice and pretty, and put them in a corn roll so I look uber professional, I still get put into the bottom cast of society. 00:58:49.650 --> 00:58:56.929 I get to come out of it as long as I have enough money to show that my person now belongs. 00:59:00.289 --> 00:59:01.809 But it's never me. 00:59:02.369 --> 00:59:05.809 My person belongs because my purse belongs. 00:59:06.050 --> 00:59:09.970 Once my purse is out, my person should evacuate. 00:59:14.210 --> 00:59:16.530 So I'ma drop a little life lesson on you. 00:59:16.849 --> 00:59:18.849 Ready for it, ready for it, ready for it. 00:59:20.369 --> 00:59:25.490 The seeds of the stories we're grown. 00:59:32.530 --> 00:59:46.369 And it was around the fourth when I was still trying to get my my knowledge up and at the right angle to kind of have this conversation, and they were sharing these jubilant, happy fourth, happy fourth, happy freedom day. 00:59:46.610 --> 00:59:53.650 And I just sat back and listened, and as they continued, this thought hit me. 00:59:54.130 --> 01:00:01.409 And it was and I got to say it because somebody jumped in, America's so great, army was just so amazing. 01:00:01.490 --> 01:00:05.010 And I was like, America is a colonizing force. 01:00:05.490 --> 01:00:11.650 Everywhere that America has touched, they've taken over, and everything they've taken over, they've done harm. 01:00:11.889 --> 01:00:19.490 And I mean that in the context of they have never respected or acknowledged a single treaty that they've signed with the Native Indigenous. 01:00:19.730 --> 01:00:22.929 Never not a s not nah nut. 01:00:26.130 --> 01:00:47.329 So when you are in this area, which is surrounded by about a half dozen, if not more, native reservations, it's difficult to say and and be patriotic for America. 01:00:49.970 --> 01:00:56.929 Understanding, respecting, and appreciating the native culture, the native indigenous, the first people, the real caretakers. 01:00:57.170 --> 01:01:08.130 Well, all of that being in the process means that I got to really take in the stories that has birthed them to today. 01:01:08.929 --> 01:01:15.329 Same way I gotta respect the stories of the African ancestor folks who's today. 01:01:16.130 --> 01:01:24.449 In the same way, we need to respect those, and I've met quite a many who have traced back their ancestry to some of them pilgrims that actually came out here. 01:01:26.289 --> 01:01:30.530 First cats, we still have to respect their stories. 01:01:31.889 --> 01:01:52.610 And respecting those stories, we then need to break down those barriers, those walls, and understand that even if this nation that's so great and so strong and so beautiful is to stand and be great, it's only going to do so because of the cats that is sitting next to you. 01:01:54.289 --> 01:02:20.449 So share in the stories, share in the humanity, share in the people, sharing the love, sharing the culture, and then share in the patriotism to personage of people sitting next to you so that we can truly make this jambalaya smack. 01:02:24.289 --> 01:02:27.730 I got a new one for you too, because we have a holler at you. 01:02:27.970 --> 01:02:29.490 So free thought, thank you. 01:02:29.730 --> 01:02:30.210 Bless. 01:02:31.650 --> 01:02:33.250 Never enough knowledge. 01:02:35.170 --> 01:02:36.929 That's your revolution. 01:02:37.809 --> 01:02:39.090 Be revolutionary. 01:02:39.409 --> 01:02:40.690 Holler at your boy.