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The purpose of the show is to provide a critical examination of society and culture through the intersectional lens of race, gender, and class, more specifically it seeks to provide a COUNTER-NARRATIVE. The Show encourages a reflective assessment and critique of unique standpoints and their potential contribution to popular discourse.
Hello and welcome everyone. This is Rasheem with the counter narrative. Tonight's topic is race, social justice, and I'm forgetting the rest of the topic, race, politics and social justice. There you go. And I have two fantastic guests joining me tonight, and I'm going to let them actually introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about them. And then we're going to get right in. We're going to get right into the topic. I'm going to go ahead and start with Vicky. Go ahead Vicky, tell us who you are, tell us something that you're passionate about and tell us at least one thing about you that we can't learn from a bio,
all right. Well, my name is Vicky J It stands for Victoria James, and I am a beauty YouTuber by day and a social justice warrior by night, something that you cannot read in my bio. I don't, I don't think I have a bio, unless we count the one for legacy internet radio. But um, something that you probably wouldn't know about me from a bio. I am an only child. I don't know how relevant that is to a conversation.
Sometimes that could tell you a lot about a person. I
think it, I think it says a lot about
me, right? No, that's what's up, all right? And so did you say something that you were passionate
about? Oh, makeup, that's my thing,
right? You and my daughter. My daughter is like, Mom, I want to see how this look. Let me see. And she stay on YouTube videos doing it like my watch,
my watch later list is like, hundreds of videos
she makes like, her own, made up video. She's on like. And here I have, she's out with her number two pencil, and here I have this. And it's like, how old is she? She's eight. Is not real, alright? Carl, let us know. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Alright, I'm, I'm a minister and a student as well, a PhD student, and I'm living in Mobile, Alabama right now. To tell you something that you wouldn't find on my bio. I'm a singer also, so that would probably be safe to tell you about.
You got something that'd be the same thing that that'd be the fake thing. And what's something that you're passionate
about, rehumanization. You know, the RE humanization of the individual. Say more about that? Well, when I say rehumanization, they were things that were done in order to dehumanize us, culturally, spiritually, social, economically. So my perspective is, you know, the way to get us to a healthy place is to begin to look at ways that we can rehumanize our folks.
Okay, that sounds interesting. I might ask you a little bit more about that later. You have a little bit of a glare too on your um, like coming down to work on that kind
of subtly. I was like, Can I play it off? And
don't mind that. That's just my Halo. I want to get. I want to go right in. And a lot of this is going to seem and sound like old news, and to some degree it is, but I want us to at very least have a conversation about it. So the whole thing, of course, is everybody knows, unless you've been under a rock for the last year or few months. The whole thing with colon Kaepernick, and I'm not sure if I'm saying pronouncing his name right. Correct me, if I'm not, um, his national anthem protest for racial justice, I'm not sure where that is right. Now, I have heard a lot about sponsors dropping him. Have you heard anything about that? Vi,
yes, I did hear about sponsors dropping him, but I also see a lot of people joining his protest. I see on the high school sports level all the way up to the pro level, standing in protest with him, as well as students not standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't know where they still do that, but apparently there are some stories about people who are still, you know, doing the Pledge of Allegiance, and some children opting out of it. And, yeah, most, most of the protests are happening on the on sports teams and things like that, but there are lots of people joining in across racial lines. And I think that that is a beautiful thing. Yeah.
Uh, what's, what was your first response to that, Carl, when you heard about what colon was doing?
Oh, I was like, he, he's got a lot of a lot of strength behind him and his character, you know, to take that opportunity, to take that position, to take that risk, with all that money, you know, dangling in the wind, and just go ahead on and do that, you know, to have that kind of conviction that's off to him, real talk.
It's interesting, because I've heard some people say like, well, he not really taking that much, much of a risk because he has all of that money, like, if he was just Joe Blow on his corporate job, he wouldn't be able to do that. And then some other people take the same standpoint as you take into in terms of, like, he has a lot of money, a lot of sponsorships, a lot of things they risking in terms of doing that. What's your thoughts on that? Vicky,
I think that I agree with Carl. He has a lot to lose being in the position that he's in, and because he is more public, is more of a public figure, he's open to a lot more scrutiny, which is exactly what he's getting. This is this reminds me a lot of when Muhammad Ali wouldn't enlist in the army, right? And his reason behind not enlisting and how, and the backlash that he received in losing some of his titles, and, of course, some endorsements and things like that. And yes, he had plenty of money, and the whole nation calling him a traitor, like they're doing with Colin, and still sticking to his principles, because he knows that what he's doing is right, and he's thinking about he's thinking about the people who this is going who are going to be impacted by this, and you can see the impact of what he's doing. And I think that that is even more motivation to keep going, even with the people being paid to oppose his his stance, or the people who are truly against it, for whatever reason they're against it, I think that is, it does take a great strength of character to be able to withstand all of that and not succumb to the you know, sign on the dotted line and Don't and just shut your mouth and retract what you said. You know he's he knows that even if he doesn't have a team to to play for next year, that he will, he will still be supported. There are people who obviously support him, including veterans. I don't know why they keep talking about the veterans. About the veterans, that people who support him and he will be all right, right? You just gotta, you gotta hold, hang in there. And I think that too many people are, are willing to not rock the boat in order to stay safe and comfortable. And I just applaud anybody who's willing to step outside of that
and say and speak up. I'm I mean, I know, in light of, like, this is really like the age of black lives matter in terms of, hopefully it being a very highly racialized context, but people being more conscious and woke to it, so to speak, you know what I mean, like people are actually talking about it, their songs, in their music, and their, you know, in all of these different venues. And one of the things that I was really appreciative and just made me more of a fan, is like Beyonce whole shed and then her album lemonade, say what you want. I feel like that whole album is the visual album was like the black girl album
that was a letter to the black woman. It really was an open letter to the black woman. And honestly, I've been a fan of Beyonce since, no, no, no, and I was never considered myself a a member of the beehive. Never I said She is very talented. She's beautiful. She's a, you know, she's she's a good pop star. I'm here for it. But I never bought a ticket to any of her shows until this album. I said I'm going to see this tour, and I like not just listen to the album, but I actually stayed up and watched it on HBO, and I said, Well, who is this?
Sister? Been talking to her extensively, and I appreciate it. I think that, since she had a baby, that really played a huge part in her evolution and feeling like, you know, she's at a point in her career where she can, like, to a similar extent as Colin. I think that she is in a place in her career where even if people did decide that they didn't want to mess with her anymore, like if Pepsi said, Girl be gone. Yeah. That she could still do great things, and she would still be highly influential. So, you know, I think that she did it in a way that definitely rocked the boat, but didn't ruin anything for her. For example, Her Super Bowl performance during Black History Month, girl, that was so fantastic. And I watched that, I swear to y'all. I watched that about 25 times, because part of me, and this is me, starting to get into the way that I am on my show, part of me was just ecstatic at the reaction from mainstream media,
like just now realizing that she's actually like, yes, she's been black. SNL skit with that was, I love that skit.
Oh my goodness. I just had a field day. I spent that entire week in a fit of laughter because of the reaction, like it was just so strong. Like, who boy, there's a collective tantrum happening in this nation, and I'm just sitting back. I'm just sitting back like, super nanny and letting it ride out.
Yeah, no. I mean, I definitely feel you on the point that you made about with Beyonce. Like, I have been a fan of Beyonce this entire time, but when she, when I went, when she did this whole lemonade and formation thing where I immediately went and bought myself a ticket, and my cousin like, like we would, and the whole thing, I even hosted a thing at my house where we did, like, a viewing and a critique of it, because she has this poetry in there. She's talking about, I mean, she's talking about some of everything. And I remember my one of my first response to it when I posted on Facebook, was, has it, has there ever been something so beautiful, vulnerable, morbid, scary, dark and liberating, created in one work of art, I think not. Yeah. Carl, you have any take on? Oh, go ahead. Vicky, I was just
going to say really quickly, the way that she incorporated so many facets of black culture, collective black culture, throughout the diaspora and the continent and the African continent. It was, it was it was just great, like it made you want to learn more. It made you want to dig deeper. You know, a lot of people don't know who the Orishas are. They don't know the references, the cultural and religious, spiritual references that she used throughout the video. They didn't know about the young lady who wrote the poetry, right? They didn't know about the artist that some of the black artists that she used in the video. And it just really made you want to dive deeper into yourself. Essentially, I just thought it was so no, it was
fantastic. I mean, I know there's been conversations around whether or not she is a feminist, or whether or not she's a black feminist, and I'm really not. I'm one. I'm more of a womanist, but I'm also more interested in who she is, in terms of, like, what she is contributing to the dialog in terms of culture and in terms of what it means to be woman, a woman in today. And I really appreciate that, Carl, you have any stance or anything you like to say about point B,
oh, well, you know, um, I mean, I appreciate the dialog that you all because you were informing me some you know, I haven't had as much opportunity to follow her as I would probably like that time is freeing up for me a little bit now. Oh, you probably was thinking, I'm always appreciative from when you're talking about music and artistic expression. When someone is takes that position, that they are going to use that to craft a narrative that everybody can get on with, you know? So I definitely like that. I like the idea what what she's what she's done, and what she's doing, the direction that she's going, and using her influence to shift things to another direction.
Absolutely, I so felt like Solange has been talking to her.
Did you listen to seat at the table?
No, that's
Solange his new album, seat at the table. I listened to it on Spotify, and I said, Yeah, she definitely had a lot to lot of influence on a lemonade and vice versa. I
am going to check that out. So I mean, and you have, you have artists, you have public figures like Colin Kaepernick, Nick, Colin Kaepernick, and then you have Beyonce. And then on the flip side, you have Lil Wayne saying. And racism doesn't exist, and his his claim to fame, or his proof of it, is that when he looks out over the audience, he sees all of these white people in the audience. But my first thought was, like, black people been dancing on stage for all white audiences for years. Like, how is that your proof?
This is the this. I think that, you know, we got to remember, he's from Louisiana. Shout out to the south, right. Um, Carl is in Alabama, right now, yeah, my, my grandfather's from Alabama, my late grandfather's from Alabama. Most of my family is from the south Tennessee, Florida, etc, um, the what is considered racist is relative, you know, and I think that because of the way he has grown up, he's been wealthy for the majority of his life, and coming from where he came from, he may not feel like microaggressions are a big deal. He may not feel like he may not feel the he thinks blatant racism is racism. That's the longest short of that. And I think that subconsciously, maybe he does long for white acceptance and validation and seeing the sea of white people, you know, wrapping along to six foot seven foot seems to be this kind of, you know, validation for him. And he feels like, if this is what it's like for me, then this must be what it's like for most of us, and that's very unrealistic. And what I did appreciate was that he did say in that interview with skip that his answer to that question is not the the majority. This is not representative of the way that most black people will probably feel right. So he he kept it Central, Central, and he kept the individual in his response, and I appreciate that much. But the rest of it was very kind of off base and very linear. I felt the way that he in his line of thinking. And I was just like, all right, Wayne,
that was in the line, you know, that was along the lines of the Stacy dash, the Raven Simone kind of thing, you know, where, you know, there's just, I'm so removed that this doesn't apply to me. Why?
If Beyonce can see it, and trust me, she make more than his behind, if Beyonce can see it then. And her family's from Louisiana. Her mom's from Louisiana, her daddy's from Alabama. She said it right in formation. So how? I don't know. I mean, I just don't want to,
and I'm just like, is it that we get to a certain point and we buy our way out of blackness, or something like I and I'm wondering, if I'm wondering, how much of it like intersectionally, when we look at race and then we put class in there, because we're not experiencing some of those things that We would experience if we were of a lower class, like, how much experiences like just, just to even acknowledge that, because I feel like you can have more money and realize that people treating you like the XYZ, because you Oprah or because you little Wayne or because you got Lou, I
think it comes with Your interpretation of what racism is. I truly do. I really feel like you look at Oprah billionaire who goes overseas and go walks into an Hermes store in her plain clothes and is told by a representative who probably makes a smooth $10 an hour that she can't afford the bag that she's asking to look at. Right? Then you have someone like Will Smith, who is also very wealthy, who under who comes from West Philadelphia and understands and remembers it very well and will tell you racism hasn't changed. It has just changed clothes, essentially, like racism was all, no, I'm sorry he said something to the effect of, you know, racism isn't, has never been there. There just weren't cameras or something to that effect. So he's not, he's not so far removed from it. And he's hugely wealthy as well, combined with his wife. I mean, they are swimming in it, and their kids, although they have not directly been impacted in the same way that their parents were, perhaps also are very conscious of racial tension and racial bias and things of that nature, because they experience it from their critics. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's, it's really about the perspective, what you choose, and there are, and I add, to add another layer to that. I look at people like Wayne and like Kanye, and, you know, all these folks who seem to be grappling for a seat at the table, and I feel like they are so entrenched in the idea of validation and acceptance that they are willing to purposefully overlook things. So you know, you have to have both sides of the coin, and I want to say that that is truly always been there, since the inception of colonialism. Probably right.
Yeah. Definitely agree with that,
right? You want to add any more to that? Carl, what do you think about holding our entertainers? This is a question I have. I'll ask you. First of all, should we be holding our entertainers accountable? Our entertainers are artists. Artist is, you know, should we be holding them accountable? Should we be, you know,
art, music, rap, poetry, however you want to flavor it. Basically, it's always reflected cultural issues, you know, you know, among other things. So I think that we certainly have to hold artists accountable. You can't hold them to the same standard that you would hold a grad school ethics professor, though, you know, because he's more informed, he or she would be more informed. But an artist certainly, you know, whatever it is, however it is that they can approach and however it is that they can inform themselves properly, to be accurate, to be within a decent context, you know, that's gonna be helpful to larger society. I think that we have to say, okay, yeah. I mean, this is what I mean. It's not just that you go out and you do these records and you make a gazillion dollars, you also got to look at what's going on in society and say, Okay, well, how can I help push that in a positive way, as opposed to somebody writing me a fact check in I just say, Okay, well, us four no more. You know, we gotta go to a different place with with things. We gotta definitely appreciate the fact that we have our skills and we can speak to things from a perspective that other people may not be able to speak to
them from. And we have a page and a platform and a microphone, and right, I see what you're saying. What do you think, Vicky, should we be holding our artists, entertainers accountable?
I think that I ideally we absolutely should. I think that people who are in the public eyes should feel a sense of responsibility to the influence that they have on people. But from a realistic standpoint, I believe that there are genres in which that is more applicable than others. I'm certainly not going to expect a lot out of a reality show Star, for example, you know, to give me the word and and constantly be a shining example of what a human being should be for my future generations. I think you notice. I think that someone like Lil lane, for example, who is borderline pop, should for his own sake. I mean, lyrically speaking, the more you know, the better you are. As a lyricist, it would behoove him to actually be aware of social issues. But then you have someone like Kendrick Lamar who is familiar on social issues, or J Cole who is familiar on social issues, but that's their niche. That's what they, that's what they that's what they do. You know, that's what he raps about. So it makes sense that he is aware of social issues. Wayne raps about weed, vaginas and light skins, with with, you know, biracial hair types or something I don't remember exactly, but, um, you know, I'm not expecting him to have, you know, political commentary versus someone like Kendrick or J Cole, who I do expect to be more conscious honestly. Beyonce is lemonade album came out of left field for me because I felt like she was more of a women's anthem pop singer. I thought that's what I thought she was. She was all about women's anthems and and not to say that they weren't fantastic. I love green light. I love deja vu. Like you know, these songs are great, but I never expected her to do an album as smart and as deep as lemonade. Great, wonderful surprise, but I never expected that from her, and I wouldn't have been mad at. It never happened. I take someone like Michael Jackson, who did give us political, politically charged music, but he also wasn't very conscious. If we really listen to him talk, he wasn't all that conscious, because he was like his head was like his head was in the clouds. He's been famous since he was five years old, and he didn't really know that much about the real world, so I don't know. It's kind of a toss up for me. I feel like we need to take, we need to sort of accept these people for who they actually are, right, right? And thanks, Tanika, and we need to not expect as much as we do from them. I really think that we need to humanize celebrities more and say it's for example, for example, I could have been totally heartbroken over this, but I'm not Tim Burton, somebody who I have practically grown up on, someone who has given me the Nightmare Before Christmas, which I consider a classic holiday film, and and Edward Scissorhands, which introduced me to Johnny Depp, who became the inspiration for me pursuing acting when I was a teenager, like He is really somebody who kind of catapulted my love for theater and etc. And recently, today, he said that his films just simply don't call for people of color, and he doesn't think that everything should call for people of color, and we don't have to be politically correct in every facet of life, and blah And and I was just like, all right, whatever. Like I just, I just totally expect that, like I expected that from him, because it's true, he doesn't put black and brown people in his films. I've never seen a person of color in a Tim Burton film in my life,
you know what? Not again. So it actually haven't and really
notice. I didn't even notice it, and I don't necessarily care he you know what? He's right. You're right, sir, not everything calls for diversity, but your but your way of answering it and talking about it like back in my day, this is how it was and etc, and feeling annoyed by it, that's the part that irked me, but that's also the part that just, you know also doesn't surprise me. It I don't know. I just kind of expected
it, right? I know Damon, I heard he had a similar response, like, Why does there need to be diversity behind the camera, or something along those lines, did you guys did? And
I just thought that was absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, right.
Well, you know, I mean, the people, they still want things to be the way that they used to be. So, you know, something doesn't
affect you. You don't see any for it. Like we could say the same thing about gender, you know, why do there need to be female directors and writers and producers and etc, because you can't speak for that which you do not know, right, right? That's the bottom line about diversity. Now I will say about Tim Burton and his films. I don't necessarily feel like his films really call for people of color. The stories that he talks about like Sleepy Hollow, for example, there were no brown people in it. Now, they'll call me crazy, but that reboot of Sleepy Hollow with the black woman as the doctor was absolutely amazing. And tons of people loved it, and they loved the romance between her and what in the world, Ichabod, yeah, like people love that romance. I can tell you that I never watched it, but I heard it was amazing. And I also heard that a lot of people dropped off of watching it once they got rid of her. That speaks to that's a modern day interpretation of it, but he was going off the book version when he created that film. And I did watch it, and I thought it was great again. There were no black people in the in the book. They just stayed true to the book. And I was just like, all right, you know, like, that's the way it is. Same thing with Edward Scissorhands. That's just the way it was in the story. That's the way he did it. And I'm not even mad at that. But again, it was his response like, oh diversity. Gosh, that crap gets on my nerves. That was when I had a problem. I was like,
Excuse me, is I can get like, okay, that's not your thing. You're not into you're not into me that much, right? I can I get that my I think my annoyance is like, if you're not going to be into me, that's okay. However, I would like to have more people who are into me on the main stage. And
impossibility, we should not be flat out, shut out, right? And I Fresh Off the Boat, is an amazing show.
That's a. Lot blackish is great, right? And there's some where it's like, I feel like, right now, as much as I love Shonda and Shonda land and Shonda rhymes and so much that she's up to, I feel like there's so much force diversity. It's just like, we're gonna put I don't know if her, if her shows, are actual representations of what's going on, or her ideal of what it should be. And I also don't like feeling like it's her responsibility to put all of that to put every diversity, everything in all of her shows. And
I think about Shonda shows in the way that I think about shows that we had back in the day, like Living Single and Martin and the Cosby Show and all of these things where, or even taking it further back good times, and Sanford and Son and things like that, like those shows were necessary in that space, and may have at the time felt like forced diversity, like when they had the crossover of all in the family and the Jeffersons, that was something that was, was it was necessary At the time, because it was it was still segregated the way TV shows were written in casts and things like that. It still was quite segregated. So when they had the shows come together, and they had these families have dinner together, and we all know Archie is a full blown bigot,
right?
And they made it funny, but, you know, and then you also had George, who was, you know, also, you know, very prejudiced spectrum. And they, yeah, and they ended up kind of like meeting, meeting, and understanding that they kind of were very similar. Yeah, they're very similar. But then you have shows like Shonda show, and I think the first one was Grey's Anatomy, right? That was like the big take off, the breakout show. I think that the way that she does her writing, and, like with scandal and with I think I don't think she, I think How to Get Away with Murder is under Shondaland, but I don't think she actually directs it or writes it, but, um, I want to tell you that is that show right there. That's my show. I won't miss that. I don't learn a TV but How to Get Away with Murder I will absolutely never miss ever.
And you know, my favorite episode was, right? Vicki, which one, the one where she was in the mirror and she was taking makeup? Okay, that was my favorite. I feel like it was my favorite because I felt like her character was trying to be so strong. And I felt like she had this whole strong black woman strong thing. And that was like, I got to see a more dynamic character. I got my body who was bitchy and sexy and vulnerable and weak and not just one dimensional. That was, like one of my favorite that was the episode that made me keep watching more episodes
that, in itself, is why I love that show. Her character Viola Davis's character, Annalise Keating, is so human. You know what I mean? Like she's she's so multifaceted, she's so complex, and she's very vulnerable at different times. For example, my favorite episode is with her mama, played by my ex, my imaginary grandma, Cicely Tyson came through to help her child get better and sat her between her legs,
yes, freeze her self. That's moment
and they and you know, in addition to the very black moments that were in the episode, she also confronted her mom for allowing her to be molested, yes, and the response that her mother gave, you know, and all this time, you're feeling like her mom just kind of is weak and doesn't protect her. But then she finds out, and this is not a spoiler, you guys, you should have watched it already. Then she finds out at the end of the episode that she actually did protect her by killing that man burnt down the house with him in it. Come through, Mom, it was just like, it was just like, Yo, this, this show is absolutely brilliant, even without all the murder mystery aspect of it, I could totally watch this show anyway,
right? Carl, you want. Timing shows you do? You have any shows where it seems like there is a lot of diversity? Or what are your favorite shows that you like to watch when you see race and culture being
you know, I looked at I actually, I haven't had the time to look at TV the way that I used to. I used to be a television junkie, but I looked at Orange is the New Black. I looked at that on Netflix, and there were a lot of layers in there. Yeah, yeah. There were a lot of layers in that
cast. Yeah, it is. They
have everybody up in there. That's true.
Sectional diversity, intersectional diversity, not just racial diversity. That's what I really appreciate about the new shows that are coming out, because it's so much more than just we need to fit a quota. You know what? I mean? It's not just that, it's that we need different perspectives represented, because there's so much more to us than just who we are on the outside.
And it's not just diversity, it's like, like you said about the perspectives, it's inclusion. Because I don't just see the black girl or the black transgender woman. I get to know her story and her story,
and she becomes a human
being to you, it's absolutely
yeah, I do too. My friend Tanika made a really great point. She said, I wish the writers on Orange is the New Black words diverse. I agree with that.
How about that? I'm glad, because that's another layer of representation that is extremely important, because, like we mentioned before about Matt Damon and his nonsense, right? That it's it's about, you can't write it if you don't understand it. You can't write it well if you don't understand it, right? Let me give a quick shout out to people also, who are watching live and on this particular platform, it doesn't show me that you are on unless you type something. So type a hello and I'm going to say hello to Don John, thank you for being here. Steph,
thank you. Thank you. Vicky. J, thank you for being here, and of course, Carl, thank you also for being here. If I didn't mention you, please do just say hello in the chat so that I can see that you're there and say hello to you and all of that good stuff. So we talked a bit about race, and we talked a little bit about diversity on the screen, behind the screen, artists and that sort of thing. We're about to talk about one more, another character. Well, actually, two more characters, right? Um, how are you guys feeling that this election, or will this particular election impact race relations in America, whether it's one candidate, you saw that, right? So I'm gonna let Carl, how do you feel like this is going to impact?
Well, yeah, I mean, you got, I mean, you look at Hillary, and Hillary has that, that Clinton machine behind her, she, you know, you know she's had these high positions in government. You know she's a lawyer. You know she has everything going for her that she could possibly have going for her, as far as someone that is trying to come into that realm, on at the highest position in the country, then you got Trump over here, who has all of the old, I guess you wouldn't say the the 18th, the 19th century kind of stuff, that they would be up and no one's behind someone who's just gonna be the cowboy or whatever, you know, and take things in his in his own method, and and do whatever it is that he feels like he needs to Do, however he feels like he needs to do it. And you know, he's got a big following over here. She's got a big falling over here. And you know, you know, we're going to struggle up under each under either one, to be honest with you, because Hillary, on the one hand, was a part of the Clinton machine with Bill, and when he did some of the evil things, she was right there. She was right there looking, you know, she was right there looking over his shoulder, looking at him do all this stuff. And you know, I'm not saying that she had necessarily the power to completely stop him, but certainly, you know, there could have been some things done, like with the three strikes law, and, you know, all of these things that, you know, she was there when they occurred, you know, and then, but then you got Trump over here, you know, who's gonna, you know, who's erratic, you know, who's every kind of phobic you can think of. And, um, you know. So it's like people. So we're gonna struggle either way. I think we'll struggle a bit less under Hillary, even with the even with the things that have happened in the past, the things that she's done, the things that she's been a part of, the things that she's advocated, and the things that she's kind of glossed over. I still think that she'll probably be better simply because she knows the beast. You know she knows what it is. You know she knows how to she knows how to operate within that realm. Whereas you know Trump, even with his following or whatever you know, you that Joker might press the button any day, you know. And below all of us, there might not be another Earth, a planet earth when Trump is done. So you know, that's my perspective.
What'd you say? Vicky, deep breath.
I don't I'm gonna forget being nice. Listen, Trump is trash. Go down. Sorry, but, you know, sorry, not sorry. I just he is a buffoon. I think that he is an absolute clown. I really, truly do, and that orange layer of self tanner does not help his situation. I really feel like, I feel like he doesn't even have the ability to articulate himself like he's he's how you got all this money and you still this stupid. I just can't even wrap my head around it, right? You know, you have all the money in the world, like you said, you just big billionaire, Big Shot and all this. But you can't get a you can't get somebody to write for you. You can't get somebody to coach you for a debate. You can't get somebody to sit you down because you are so narcissistic, you are so immature, and you are so all those phobics that you just said that you can't even like you can't even be objective about yourself enough to see that you need help, that in itself, is aside from all the isms And the in the phobics that he is That's enough right there to tell you that he's not qualified to be president. He couldn't even hold his own in the first debate. That's supposed to be the easiest one, right? And you couldn't even hold your own in this debate. It was such garbage, like he was just and I wasn't on anybody's debate team, but I was on mock trial when I was when in high school. I'm most certainly not dumb. So you know, I could sit there and listen to a debate. I wouldn't necessarily call myself political, although I did work at the State House here in Boston for a little bit. I wouldn't call myself a political giant. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know all the ins and outs of politics, but I know when I am hearing somebody who doesn't know what they're talking about, and he most certainly has no clue what he's talking about. He makes George W Bush look like a genius.
Oh yeah, yeah, no doubt. But he's but, but he's convincing in his ignorance.
He is convincing in his ignorance toward the ignorant, the ignorant right? Only people that he has convinced, they are not hard to convince. So that's like saying, that's like saying, Oh, but he got the elementary school on his side, people with small minds.
Picture of him with the there was a news with a news photo with him, where he was, um, shaking hands and stuff. And there was this one lady was like, you know, I mean, you know, I she was like, you know, she was looking at him like he was Michael Jackson, and he was moving right. Remember
that? I do remember she looked at him like he was the second coming right, just like Madam, if you don't go back there with your cousin husband and just leave us alone. But yes, about Hillary, though, about Hillary, I will say like I'm one of the hashtag girl. I guess I'm with her. I'm that person. She can have my vote. I do, you know, I'm gonna be sitting back with my Am I here? Yeah, I see you. I'm gonna be sitting back with my arms folded, you know, and waiting for her at the door with my head cocked to the side, just to see what she does with her first term. And hopefully she you she uses her historical accomplishment and her absolute last hurrah at this right this is your last chance to really make a huge impact politically. What are you going to do with it? I feel like she could be as great as she's claiming she's going to be. I feel like that is a huge possibility. I feel like she could make, you know, kind of she could do something good with this, if, if that's her mission, if her mission is to actually do some good with this, I think that she has a lot of trust to build. And if she takes that seriously, I think that it could work in the favor of people of color. Yeah. Uh, to kind of undo what her husband did.
Yeah, that's, you know, like I have
some faith in that. I have some faith in that. So I don't know, but I do know that the answer is not Trump. I do know that these people who long for the Reagan era, and they feel like he's going to bring that back, and that back, and that they're suddenly going to be safer. I think that they are absolute dumbasses, and forgive me for the curse word I just you know, I think that they are extremely unintelligent people, and I and you can hear that when you hear them interview, when you when you look at an interview and they immediately contradict themselves, right? And look at you like you weren't supposed to make me look dumb, you know, like
it's just, it's just an intelligent question, right?
How dare you? How dare you? You know, challenge my words, and we have to, and we have to keep doing that. I think that we really need to keep challenging people to really think when they speak and so that we can become the nation that we claim we are sure, you know, and I don't think that he is somebody who is accountable enough to represent us globally.
I was really blown away when homeboy was like, Yeah, I play, you know, like acknowledging that he didn't pay federal taxes, and they made him smart for not doing that. I feel like that should automatically disqualify you from running for that seat. Like of all the other arbitrary stuff that would disqualify a person, like definitely not paying federal taxes, should be one of them. I mean, if
anything, you're supposed to be a shining example of what an American is, and if you're not even paying taxes like the majority, like all of us are, you know, I think that that's speaks volumes, yeah, how much you care about the nation,
right? That's ridiculous. Um, so as we talk about all of these different topic, you know, really could be ignored, especially when we get into politics, is all of these different movements that are coming up in all of these different policies that they're striving to get past, you know. So we talk about social justice, I want to hear what do you guys think? And I want to hear a general, I guess was social justice yesterday, today and tomorrow, and then after that, I want us to I want each of you to be able to give everyone a way that they can reach out to you, contact you, Facebook, Twitter, and all of that stuff. But first I'm going to go ahead and go to Carl. Carl, let us know what you think about social justice yesterday, today and tomorrow,
when you speak about social justice in terms of yesterday, some of the things that our predecessors did in that realm, King and ant camp, Malcolm X, all of those. What they did was there were, there were three pillars. There are three pillars that uphold social justice. That's education, advocacy and activism. Now, if you don't learn about and teach about whatever the issue is first, then you know you have this. You know you have people scattered, and they're, you know, they're approaching things from this from a passionate, but not as well informed position as they need to be. Then you have the activism part. This is where you begin to negotiate with the politicians and the people that are represent the power structure. And when you sit down and you go and you have the handshakes and the agreements and all these kinds of things, and the activism is the part when you get in the street and you say, Okay, well now you're gonna live up to what it is that you agreed to do to straighten out this particular situation. When you understand that and when you understand that order, it's easier to be successful with difficult situations, because you have this in, you know, in your mind, okay, this is how we're going to approach this. This. These are the steps. This is what needs to happen. That's what they understood very well back then. They didn't have any choice but to be almost perfect in their delivery of dealing with that, because there was so much pressure and tension. There were dogs, there were, you know, everything else, you know, you know, you we didn't. It was at the beginning, this was for civil rights. We're in a human rights era now, you know, where we're beginning to understand that it's not, you know, the Civil Rights was like, you know, one through three, you know, now we're in like, four through six or so, you know, with the human rights perspective. And so tomorrow, you're not going to, even, I believe that once we get past the human parts aspect of it, we're not going to really have to think it's hard, um, you know, people are just going to be, everybody's going to understand more. You. US, the majority of people, at least, you know where we begin and what it looks like to be human, that there are certain things that goes, that go along with being human being. And you know, cultural, social, socio economic, what have you. All of those things were stripped away from us, and so we have to have those things restored. You know, you have to re humanize. You know, whether you're talking about someone that was incarcerated, whether you're talking about someone that was a drug addict, you know, whether you're talking about someone that was put out of the family, or whatever. You know it, we prison walls are not just physical, you know, and that's what we're beginning to understand now in this era of human rights, as opposed to civil rights, you know, civil rights didn't do it. It didn't get us there. So now we're understanding that is really about human rights, yeah, so that's pretty much my spin on it. To contact me. Lowry, call@gmail.com you can give me a call. I'll put my number out there, 872-333-6476, or you can reach me on Facebook. Reader. Carl. Lowry,
anytime. Thank you, Carl. Don't go nowhere, because I wanted to give you a chance to repeat that for people who may not have, people who may not have gotten and can I say this, I love the way you said civil rights. I love that. I love it. I'm from the south. My grandmother's from Mississippi, yeah. So, no, I was just feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. So Vicky, social justice yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I tend to be a great like a huge fan of the Black Panther Party and the legacy that they carried into the modern day. I am someone who follows. I'm the I feel like so much of what played out in the 60s is playing out right now, and the way that they went about it is something that we can look at and learn from. The entire Civil Rights Movement is something that we can look at and learn from. And I'm talking about not just the not just the key points and and you also, Carl explained very, very well about the three steps of social change, if you will. I think that there's, there are certain things that I when I watched the documentary of the Black Panthers that I see playing out right now with the Black Lives Matter movement, and I'm seeing them learn from some of the things that that the Black Panther Party fell short on, and they're actually like they're while they're experiencing a lot of the same things. Because you know what appeared to work back then is what is being utilized to try and take down this group now. But the difference is that these young people have learned from their their predecessors, and now they are. They are working in a more organized manner, right? And they're, they're, they're actually, like, really making a difference, and I am seeing I'm seeing it in Campaign Zero, which is all about police reform, I believe very strongly that they had a lot to do with the upcoming dismantling of private prisons. And I think that when I look at the things that they are doing that are positive, and I see people trying to demonize them. It's very difficult for that to stick now, versus right, versus when, you know, in the 60s, before we ever had the imagination for smartphones, it was very easy to sort of pin things on black people because of what was already ingrained in the minds of the masses about us, I think that the difference now is that we have social media to immediately call them on their lies. A wonderful example of this would be Dallas police shooting and how CNN began to implicate a man who was not involved, and immediately social media came to his defense with proof, right, almost as soon as they said it right. And that is something that would have never happened in the 60s. Would have never been able to happen by the time they had time to prove it, it would have already been embedded in people's minds that this person was guilty. Mm. And they very well may, could, may have been dead. So I think that's a very huge difference. I think that that's a difference that is extremely helpful to our cause. And I think that for the future, there is so much information that is privy to everyone, and there are so many of us who are in diverse relationships, and that's not just romantically speaking, but you know in your schools, in your work, in your you know family life, you know extended family and things like that, there's so much diversity there that there's more of an opportunity for people to see things from an objective level and from a human level and actually have these conversations with each other. You see a lot more young white people pushing their families to be less ignorant and more aware, and the same thing for or when it comes to the intersectionality of social hierarchy, you know, with homosexuality, with transgender identity, with sexual identity, gender identity. I'm sorry things like that, that we are really children are feeling more comfortable coming to their parents and their authority figures to talk about these things. I think that by the time we reach, am I still here, or am I breaking up, you're here, okay, by the time we reach, maybe a future where this is the kind of thing that is less taboo and is something that is more kind of mainstream that we can get to just talking about what's where I'm looking for here, Carl mentioned human rights, that Right now we're focused on human rights, and I absolutely agree with that. I think that in the future, we will be focused on I think the conversation will shift to environment that's
interesting.
I think once we have tackled this huge social issue this, it's a global social issue, because colonialism has been the the freaking Black Plague of the of the globe that I think that by the time that we have tackled that the future will be all about focusing on the environment, because we're already there. We're already focusing on clean energy. We're already focusing on, you know, trying to make, you know, work with nature again, the the focus. We won't have to talk about this stuff anymore, and I think that's a long way off, years now. I'm talking about a good couple centuries from now. That's future. The future is when we have weeded out almost everything. They're almost like all gone. And I think that that is when we will reach a point where we can shift our focus to something else.
Awesome. Vicki, tell everybody how they can reach you. Tell that you have what days it comes up, come Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
You all right? Cool. Well, I am Vick on every social media platform. I am. I have a beauty channel here on YouTube, and it's also called Vicky j and then I co host a social justice show called The woke squad, on which airs on legacy internet radio every friday from seven to 9pm you can listen to it via tunein.com or the app tune in, t, u n, e, i n. It's on every mobile device. And the woke squad is also on facebook@facebook.com, slash woke squad. We're on Twitter at the woke squad pod, and myself, again, I'm Vicky J on every social media platform, so you can just find me that way. And the woke squad, we generally air on fire talk, but if fire talk is not available, we do the same thing we're doing tonight, a Google Hangout on our YouTube channel.
That's what's up. So, Carl, you want to let them know one more time? Um, a way that they can get in contact with you. Or what are you up to next?
I'm so sorry, real quick. Carl, I'm sorry before I forget, we filmed the show on Sunday at 11am the show airs on legacy internet radio Friday from
seven to nine. Oh, okay.
With me again?
Yeah, sorry. I think I want, I think my thing is, like, delayed
a little bit, just a little bit.
Okay, go ahead.
That's Lowry. Carl@gmail.com, is a good way, and I'm also on Facebook. That's reader, just like reading a book. Reader. Carl Lowry, on Facebook, and you can also find me on on Skype, Reverend Lowry, you. All you know, all lowercase, and I'm down here now in Mobile, Alabama, helping with a coalition that's dealing with the BP oil disaster, trying to make certain that the black voices heard and their proper resources are allocated for persons of color. Down here in mobile, that's pretty much what I'm doing right now, and got a few other things going, but that's probably that's the Paramount thing at this moment.
Awesome. I want to thank both of you guys for agreeing to participate in the counter narrative on this show on race and social justice, and I'm about to forget the whole name politics. It's politics and social justice. Thank you for helping me get my life together. Thank you to
everyone, as well as everyone who was watching the replay again, this has been another episode of the counter narrative, and we have been talking about race politics and social justice. You could all by s Rasheem. You could visit s rasheem.com s Rasheem on Twitter, Rasheem. Rasheem on Facebook, or right here, and you're on this channel right now, please do like the video. Click subscribe, share with some people, and you can also find some other videos. Check out Vicky J. I'm sorry. Do you go by Vicky J? Or just
channel, subscribe, like, follow funeral people, so check us all out and until next time, good night folks. Good night you.