August 2, 2024 • 33 mins
BIN News Anchor Rey Harris joins us on today's podcast to discuss the major stories of the week .
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's been another busy news week and we like to
review the major stories of the week here on the
Black Information Network. Today, we are joined by Black Information
Network news anchor Ray Harris to discuss this week's major stories.
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast, and I
am your host, ramses Jah. All right, mister Ray Harris,
welcome to the show. I know that Natasha Williams is
(00:22):
on vacation, but you and I are about to get
to the news. Have you been, sir since we last spoke?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Doing great? Sir?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Of course I'm going
to miss Natasha, but I'm excited for us to get
some time in, some bro time together. So let's get
to it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You'll miss her, I won't. I know some of our
listeners Thay Poyt, Ray and Natasha they go at it. No,
we love each other.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, absolutely, all right. Well, first up, in a scene
similar to a made for TV reality show for I'm
a President, Donald Trump accepted an invitation to speak at
the twenty twenty four National Association of Blacklist Convention. The
annual gathering took place in Chicago this year, and for
most accounts, things did not go well for mister Trump.
So give us your take on Trump's appearance at the
(01:08):
NABJ and a quick review of what happened during his discussion.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It was very interesting, John. First of all, it was
controversy surrounding his appearance in Chicago at the National Association
of Black Journalists convention. To give our listeners a better
overall view of what the National Association of Black Journalists is.
It's a gathering and a group of African American journalists
(01:37):
from all over the world who meet once a year.
It's a support organization's organization where you get support with writing, producing, editing,
learned the ins and outs of the business, and also
stay in contact with your fellow comrades who are at
(02:01):
other stations around the country. And it's also a time
to fellowship and really understand the nuances of the business
and where it goes from generation to generation. Since I
think back in the seventies, because I've been a member
of an ABJ for about twenty years. So back in
(02:23):
the seventies, job they started inviting vice presidents and presidents
and it usually would happen during election years, so this
was nothing new. This time around, mister Trump decided to
come and he accepted the invitation, and he was in Chicago,
(02:48):
and before the program even got off the ground, it
started on the wrong foot, he berated. The African American corresponded,
her name is Rachel Scott. I'll get more into Rachel
in just a moment, but he pretty much set the
tone and described her as disgraceful and rude during the introduction.
(03:15):
But it's a page out of his emo. That's who
he is and that's the way he carries himself. Of course,
it turned for the worse as the event went on,
because the former president went on to attack the Vice
President of the United States, Kamala Harris, even questioned her race.
(03:39):
And we've heard that before with other people. The Vice
President could not make this event because she had other
prior commitments and to give our listeners a perspective on
that she is, she went to she was on her
way to Texas for previously scared scheduled event with another sorority,
(04:03):
and she's also there to eulogize a very outstanding congresswoman
was called home last week, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who
passed away. Now that African American lawmaker, she was a
fixture and she held Kamala Harris's hand when when she
(04:26):
first came to Washington. So they were very close and
had a very tight relationship between Texas and Washington because
Sheila Jackson Lee was an advocate for civil rights and
women's rights. But that's why she couldn't make it, so
she at the time we're taping, she is still in
(04:50):
Texas for the funeral of Sheila Jackson Lee. But the
overall event just just started out wrong, and there were
some journalists who were taken back by the former president's
rhetoric and a lot of people were caught off guard.
(05:10):
But that's HISZMO. Same thing he did to President Obama,
or let's just go back to his vice president Pence.
He treats him with the utmost disrespect and basically said
he fired him. So anybody that's not in line with
(05:31):
his orbit, he will discount you and he will rage you.
And that's what happened in this particular situation.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Your take, well, I wanted to get you to lean
in a bit when you were discussing the conversation that
he had when he was first given his introduction, and
you mentioned he thought his introduction was rude, and you
would circle back to that because I know that there
is a little bit more there, and you know, I
(06:01):
think that that you would be able to articulate that
a little bit better for our listeners, just because I
know that I don't want you to forget that point.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Okay, to break it down to our listeners. I've personally,
I have not interviewed, uh, mister Trump, but I have
interviewed several other presidents living presidents of the United States,
George Bush one and two. I've done one on ones
with President Clinton and also President Carter one on one interviews,
(06:38):
so I know what it's like to be in a
press conference setting or an interviews setting, one on one
with the President of the United States. I want to
be clear so our viewers will understand. This is even
back when Trump was president. Anybody that's not Fox or Newsmax,
(07:01):
he has a problem. He will treat them harshly. Rachel
Scott knows this because she has interviewed not only Trump,
but numerous other dignitaries in Washington, and some of them
are just very abrasive. Trump will come directly at you.
So Rachel does have thick skin. She knew what was coming,
(07:25):
and she knows how to handle mister Trump, and I'm
sure in newsrooms in Washington and New York, ABC, CBSCNN,
Trump has always gone after those networks. As a matter
of fact, he even said a few things at the
convention in reference to quote unquote fake news. So this
(07:47):
is nothing new. When it comes to African American correspondents
or female correspondence, mister Trump treats them differently.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
You know, there's there's something in what you're saying that
makes the whole undertaking feel a little strange. Donald Trump
didn't need to go to the NABJ for us to
know who he is. Donald Trump didn't need to go
(08:21):
there for us to determine the content of his character,
for us to identify whether or not he's a candidate
that we need to vote for. He has been very
out loud about his the amount of respect that he
has to toward black people. We have been a tool
(08:45):
that he can use and plays up in the background.
But you know, with the exception of letting a handful
of people out of prison, because again it serves an
agenda that he may have or a narrative that he
wants chronicled, there's nothing thing that comes to mind that
is either specific to black people or has a ripple
(09:08):
effect that will benefit black people in mass and so
this platforming of Donald Trump felt a little strange. But
you know, there was the other a dvantage point that
we had that was, you know, these folks are going
to try to get him the answer, hold him accountable,
really highlight a or put a lens on Donald Trump
(09:30):
because there's a lot of unfortunately there's it's not the
majority of folks, but there's a lot of anti Harris
black people on social media, and so journalists have a
responsibility to keep the population informed with fact based news,
(09:52):
journalistic and credible news. And so there was the other take,
which was, Okay, the NIEBJ is going to get in
front of Donald Trump and hold him accountable and get
him to answer some tough questions so that we all
know that these attacks on Kamala are not well founded.
(10:14):
The attacks on Trump are well founded. They're based in
a shared reality. They're not going to let him slip
and slide his way out of answering the questions. And
what we learned is that despite it being a terrible
performance for Donald Trump, he still wins because when they
take that back to Fox News. The headline simply reads,
(10:36):
you know, Donald Trump was at the National Association of
Black Journalists. And to those viewers of Fox News and
the other far right media outlets that have, you know,
fifty million viewers or however many viewers they have collectively,
it appears as though Donald Trump is the candidate for
(10:58):
all Americans and he isn't leaving black people out of
the conversation, when the truth of the matter is that
he made a mockery of the NABJ. He made a
mockery of the panelist, he made a mockery of the
He's always made a mockery of any news source that
finds out things about him that he doesn't want discovered
or illuminates things that he feels is unflattering, and that's
(11:21):
never been a secret. And so it's almost like maybe
both sides kind of got played. But I don't love
the fact that the NABJ had Donald Trump didn't have
Kamala Harris, and didn't you know, and Q made this
point because we actually discussed this in a recent episode.
(11:45):
They didn't illuminate the fact that Kamala Harris wasn't there
simply because of a scheduling conflict. She attempted to do
a zoom in, she attempted to reschedule all these things,
and so you know, and then Donald Trump puts up
a post saying, hey, I went there and she didn't.
And again that's how things get chronicled. One of the
(12:06):
things that's true about this man is he's masterful at
manipulating a narrative. He takes the truth and twists it,
and for the people that want his version of the
truth to be true, he gives them just enough for
it to be their truth, and then they just continue
to march in step. And this is how the cognitive
dissonance that I find often in the minds of Maga
(12:28):
folks is so well pronounced. They will one hundred percent
say Donald Trump is not racist because they have all
the little bits and pieces that he has spoon fed
them to be able to lean on it, to keep
enough mental distance from the shared reality in which we
all live to where they don't feel like casting a
vote for him is anti black, anti Mexican, anti Arab.
(12:52):
They feel like it's pro America, pro patriotism, pro whatever,
and that's good enough for them, you know, props up
their worldview. They think they're decent people making a decent choice,
and you know, the show goes on. And you know,
I don't love a no win situation, but credit where
it's due. They didn't treat him like a hero when
(13:17):
he walked in the room, you know, and typically a
former president, even one that was unpopular, folks would you know,
still be very flattered by the fact that a person
like that's coming in the room. And that's not what
I gathered in terms of their reception of Donald Trump.
They did come to work. But he's masterful at what
he does, and so even if no one wins, he wins.
(13:37):
And that's kind of what it looks like to me.
Moving on up next, we have some sad news to
report out of Los Angeles involving another case of police
misconduct during an arrest. I won't get into the details
because I want you to tell us a little bit
more about this, So Ray, the floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Okay. A twenty eight year old black man in Los
Angeles was driving a vehicle when he was pulled over
last weekend Sunday afternoon. It was about five point thirty
specific time. The officers asked the gentleman to get out
of the car, He was later identified as Alexander Mitchell.
(14:23):
They went on to ask him to place his hands
around his back so they could handcuff him, and he refused.
He put his hands in his belt buckle to prevent them,
the officers, of arresting him. This was the result of
(14:49):
a traffic citation. So how did it get to the
point where the officers got so upset they wanted to
put the gentleman in handcuffs the incident. Much of the
incident was caught on video, which has been circulating on
social media. The victim involved in this case, the gentleman
(15:14):
that was pulled over, is devastated. Officers say he resisted,
But the point is, how do you go from quote
unquote a misdemeanor traffic violation to handcuffs. This has happened
time and time again in this country. The Los Angeles
(15:35):
Police Department itself has been through numerous incidents over the
years involving traffic stops and situations where they have been
called and it's been blown out of hand. So they
have had a public relations problem for years with the community,
(15:58):
not only the black community, also other minorities communities in
the Los Angeles areas. So this the police department is
well known for that. Now you have this, We have
yet another video that's spreading on social media showing a
black man being punched and buriated by police officers who
(16:26):
are just aggressive. The investigation continues. Mister Mitchell was taken
to the hospital, treated and released. Oh by the way,
Ramses given a citation for misdemeanor traffic stop. It's unfortunate
your thoughts, Yeah, so I watched this video.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I've been trying to take a break from watching these
videos just because again, I don't want to become desensitized
to anti black violence. I know that the police are
very good at rewriting the story, just like a Donald Trump.
(17:13):
And there's enough of the public out there that want
the police to be the heroes to where if they
can spin a version of the story that is even
slightly plausible, that's enough, and then they will echo the
sentiments that the police are trying to get them to echo. Well,
(17:33):
he should have complied. Nothing to see here, He's at fault.
The police officers are doing their job, right. I've seen
this happen. I've seen it happen numerous times. There will
be video evidence where we see we see the officers
doing exactly what we know they're doing because we can
see it with our eyes. It's not hearsay, it's not
(17:53):
the officers. Nope, there's a video, an objective lens into
the situation, and we see the police corruption, and we
see the police brutality. And in this instance, I remember
there was one instance, just to give you an example,
a man was handcuffed behind his back and so you
cannot see his hands behind his back, but the assumption
(18:16):
when you're watching video is that he's handcuffed right, and
the officers were like either punching him or whatever it was.
And because of the angle of the camera, the officer
said that the man grabbed the officer's testicles as an
assault and that gave the officer license to punch him
(18:39):
while he was in handcuffs. Of course, the man in
handcuff says, no, of course not, that's not what happened
at all. But it doesn't matter because that's what the
officer said. Because of the fact that it's remotely plausible,
and because of the fact that that's what people want
to see. We've all been indoctrinated by what is known
as coppaganda, where we've watched so many TV shows, and
(19:04):
there's this narrative that's fun nationally that suggests to us
subtly over the years that police are always the good
guys and anyone in handcuffs is the bad guy. And
for those of us who have been black and alive,
we know that that is not nearly as true as
many folks would like it to be. So when I
saw this video, I wondered the same thing, because in
(19:29):
the video you can see that his hands are behind
his back, and for the officers to say, well, his
hands are in his waistband or in his belt buckle
or his belt loop or whatever it was, they were saying, okay, maybe,
but once you punch him in the face, if my
(19:52):
hands are not handcuffed, I would do any number of things.
Before I stood there and took it with my hand
still behind my back, I would raise my hand to
cover my face. Where I got struck, I would raise
my hands in defense because I might get struck again.
(20:12):
I would move to catch my balance, and my arms
would naturally raise. You know, your arms don't stay behind
your back when you get punched in the face unless
you're handcuffed. And because people need that sliver of plausibility,
they will ignore what is a more likely truth. That's
(20:38):
how indoctrinated people have become. That's how anti black this
country is. When they see him in handcuffs, Oh he's
a criminal, What did he do wrong? What is he
doing wrong? Not ignoring the officers clearly violating this human
being's dignity, this human beings rights. And so when you
(21:01):
ask what I saw, that's what I saw. But that
doesn't really matter because we have a statement from his attorney.
Brad Gage puts it so beautifully here. Quote, there is
only one thing that they charged him with, and that
was after the fact, obstructing an investigation. So basically what
(21:22):
they say is, when you're handcuffed and getting punched, if
you're not talking to us, you're obstructing us. And so
the police get to be the victim. Despite the video
that we saw. Black Information Network News anchor Ray Harris
is here with us discussing this week's major stories. All right,
(21:45):
Next up, we had to Brookline, Massachusetts, where a lawsuit
was filed against the middle school that allegedly allows racist
bullying by white students using George Floyd references. Ray, give
us your thoughts on this story. And the details of
this story another heavy one, but the floor's yours, yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
The school in question is Amos Lawrence Middle School in Brookline, Massachusetts.
A fourteen year old back in December reported to his
teacher and school staff that he was being harassed by
another student and called a cotton picker. Well, it turns
(22:28):
out the complaint was addressed and a similar incident happened
a few months later in April. This time, the black
student in question was on the ground and another student
put his knee on the black student's neck and yelled,
(22:50):
George Floyd. George Floyd. The parents have gotten involved, and
now a civil rights lawsuit has been filed in Brookline,
Massachusetts against the school district and the staff and faculty
at Amos Lawrence Middle School. I did a little research
(23:13):
on this ramses, checking a few additional sources. I wanted
to find out what was done between the first incident
and the second incident. How was the first incident addressed?
And I really couldn't get any clear details on that
other than the students were reprimanded, So I don't know
(23:34):
if their parents were informed or the incident was just
left at that until the second incident, but the parents
are devastated and the student in question is very upset.
Apparently he's in an atmosphere where it's not only learning,
it's a tent to atmosphere where racism is involved. That's
(23:57):
what I think. This student is crying out that his
education is being interrupted by negative outside sources, and these
two incidents have taken place as a result of that,
And here we are with a civil rights lawsuit.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, and that's what it sounds like. It's things like this,
you know, and the frequency of stories like this that
we discussed on this show, and indeed at the BIM,
stories involving students at schools, stories involving you know, violence
(24:40):
in the workplace and the like, they become even scarier
with you know, this project twenty twenty five looming in
the distance, that there's an effort to weaken civil rights
(25:07):
and the guarantees of civil rights in this country. There's
an effort, a concerted effort, a brilliant, masterful legal effort
in place a legal framework to succeed to ensure that
(25:29):
one group of people who lives their life for the
most part in the promise of this country, continues to
have that and the rest of us good luck. You know,
(25:50):
if my son went to a school like this and
these things happened to my son, I know that he
would have. If I said a tough time, it would
be an understatement. I imagine waking up and going back
to school after something like that happened. And clearly there's
(26:14):
nothing significant or at least nothing that's documented that has
been done, hence the lawsuit. And you know, again, stories
like this, really they create a further concern or the
state of our politics and where we are going in
the future, because you know, you and me and Chris
(26:37):
can look at something like this and see how awful
it is, and see how problematic it is, and see
how it interferes with the educational pursuits of a student.
And there are people who will never experience this. They
can look at this story and say, well, these are
just kids picking on each other. They'll be fine. Stop
babying the kids, stop giving out participation trophies. Nothing to
(26:59):
see here, no special privileges for black people. And you
know where we have arrived after getting you know, equality,
as we've arrived at the pursuit of equity, and there
are people who would attack that. But we haven't even
(27:20):
gotten into the fullness of our equity, and now we
have to remount an attack on simply equality. And again,
in light of the political landscape of this country, stories
like this, they they concern me more than they should,
So vote please all right. Lastly, as the twenty twenty
(27:42):
four Summer Olympics to get underway in Paris, there's been
some controversy if you're brewing with one of the biggest
USA gymnast stars, Ray, you cover sports for the Black
Information Network and I clearly don't. So why don't you
bring us up to speed on this story? As we
close out, they bring you up to speed there, please.
Simon Biles has been in the spotlight for the past
(28:09):
fifteen years with her outstanding training and her outstanding showmanship
as a gymnast. She has had her ups and downs,
whether it's with performance or with injuries. She has been
(28:29):
through the ringer when it comes to being competitive and gymnastics,
and it's all based on performance. Now she's twenty seven
now and she's leading a group of young ladies in
the Olympics, Sunny Lee, Jordan Childs, Jade Carrey and Helsie Rivera,
(28:52):
and they're basically breaking down windows, really achieving outstanding getting
outstanding results as a result of their performance in Paris, France,
and Biles is leading the way. Now she has a
(29:18):
former coad gymnasts who.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Has gone to social media while they're in the middle
Ramsis of competing for gold, silver or bronze and trying
to place. They have enough pressure. But yet this young
lady who is a former teammate and has trained extensively
with Simone and several other gymnasts who are in Paris
(29:48):
competing and offered her criticism, saying that they were lazy
and lack of talent and questioned if they should be
Olympic champions. Wow, wow, that's crazy, perfect timing for that.
(30:08):
But Simone did fire back at her in a YouTube
video and Simone said, basically, to sum it up, if
you could do better, you would be here. But the
(30:29):
ladies are focused on continuing their efforts and their performances
to try and get gold. But this is basically I
guess you would call it social media fire because, to
be honest with you, Rameses, I think when Jesus comes back,
there's gonna be some people on social media saying why
(30:50):
did he come back today? Why did he come back?
Right now? There's gonna be something negative said social media.
Social media is what it is. You have people that
hide behind their little texts and their little messages, and
(31:10):
they're going to say inappropriate things. And I think that
comes with the territory of social media. It's a great
tool and at the same time it's a bad tool,
and that was the case here with Simone Biles and
her fellow gymnasts. We're in Paris trying to get the
gold and they're competing. They have one more round of
(31:32):
performances and it's really going to determine how much gold
they bring back. Even though they have already won. They're
going to be doing great and the momentum is on
their side. They've avoided a lot of the controversy up
until this point, so hopefully they will be able to
(31:53):
pull through and represent the United States and bring home
more gold.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Well, that is what I and all the rest of
us around here are looking forward to. Simone Biles is
the embodiment of black girl magic. And to be fair,
I'm not mad at you know, black girls going on
the defense. I know Kamala has gone on the defense
(32:18):
and the offense, and I see Simone Biles is doing
the same thing, and you know, it's about time, so
I want to see more of it. And you know, fortunately,
all this black girl magic, you know, there's you know,
the proof is in the pudding. It's not like these
folks are not qualified to do what it is that
they do, despite how there are these persistent attempts at
(32:45):
re chronicling the narratives about them. We're living in strange
and interesting times. But it's people like her and people
like the Vice President that remind us that we are
resilient people. We are beautiful people, and we are people
with a future that's brighter than ever. So my hope
is that we all stay fortified and invigorated and continue
(33:08):
to march because I think we're on the cusp with
something special. So we'll leave right there. As always, i'd
like to thank you very much for your time and
your insight. Once again, today's guest is Black Information Network
news anchor Ray Harris. This has been a production of
the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson.
(33:28):
Have some thoughts you'd like to share? Use the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app while you're there
be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes.
I'm your host, ramses Jah on all social media, and
I'll be hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend
on a station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info,
check Civiccipher dot com and join us Monday as we
(33:48):
share our news with our voice from our perspective right
here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
It's been another busy news week and we like to
review the major stories of the week here on the
Black Information Network. Today, we are joined by Black Information
Network news anchor Ray Harris to discuss this week's major stories.
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast, and I
am your host, ramses Jah. All right, mister Ray Harris,
welcome to the show. I know that Natasha Williams is
(00:22):
on vacation, but you and I are about to get
to the news. Have you been, sir since we last spoke?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Doing great? Sir?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Of course I'm going
to miss Natasha, but I'm excited for us to get
some time in, some bro time together. So let's get
to it.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
You'll miss her, I won't. I know some of our
listeners Thay Poyt, Ray and Natasha they go at it. No,
we love each other.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, absolutely, all right. Well, first up, in a scene
similar to a made for TV reality show for I'm
a President, Donald Trump accepted an invitation to speak at
the twenty twenty four National Association of Blacklist Convention. The
annual gathering took place in Chicago this year, and for
most accounts, things did not go well for mister Trump.
So give us your take on Trump's appearance at the
(01:08):
NABJ and a quick review of what happened during his discussion.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It was very interesting, John. First of all, it was
controversy surrounding his appearance in Chicago at the National Association
of Black Journalists convention. To give our listeners a better
overall view of what the National Association of Black Journalists is.
It's a gathering and a group of African American journalists
(01:37):
from all over the world who meet once a year.
It's a support organization's organization where you get support with writing, producing, editing,
learned the ins and outs of the business, and also
stay in contact with your fellow comrades who are at
(02:01):
other stations around the country. And it's also a time
to fellowship and really understand the nuances of the business
and where it goes from generation to generation. Since I
think back in the seventies, because I've been a member
of an ABJ for about twenty years. So back in
(02:23):
the seventies, job they started inviting vice presidents and presidents
and it usually would happen during election years, so this
was nothing new. This time around, mister Trump decided to
come and he accepted the invitation, and he was in Chicago,
(02:48):
and before the program even got off the ground, it
started on the wrong foot, he berated. The African American corresponded,
her name is Rachel Scott. I'll get more into Rachel
in just a moment, but he pretty much set the
tone and described her as disgraceful and rude during the introduction.
(03:15):
But it's a page out of his emo. That's who
he is and that's the way he carries himself. Of course,
it turned for the worse as the event went on,
because the former president went on to attack the Vice
President of the United States, Kamala Harris, even questioned her race.
(03:39):
And we've heard that before with other people. The Vice
President could not make this event because she had other
prior commitments and to give our listeners a perspective on
that she is, she went to she was on her
way to Texas for previously scared scheduled event with another sorority,
(04:03):
and she's also there to eulogize a very outstanding congresswoman
was called home last week, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee who
passed away. Now that African American lawmaker, she was a
fixture and she held Kamala Harris's hand when when she
(04:26):
first came to Washington. So they were very close and
had a very tight relationship between Texas and Washington because
Sheila Jackson Lee was an advocate for civil rights and
women's rights. But that's why she couldn't make it, so
she at the time we're taping, she is still in
(04:50):
Texas for the funeral of Sheila Jackson Lee. But the
overall event just just started out wrong, and there were
some journalists who were taken back by the former president's
rhetoric and a lot of people were caught off guard.
(05:10):
But that's HISZMO. Same thing he did to President Obama,
or let's just go back to his vice president Pence.
He treats him with the utmost disrespect and basically said
he fired him. So anybody that's not in line with
(05:31):
his orbit, he will discount you and he will rage you.
And that's what happened in this particular situation.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Your take, well, I wanted to get you to lean
in a bit when you were discussing the conversation that
he had when he was first given his introduction, and
you mentioned he thought his introduction was rude, and you
would circle back to that because I know that there
is a little bit more there, and you know, I
(06:01):
think that that you would be able to articulate that
a little bit better for our listeners, just because I
know that I don't want you to forget that point.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Okay, to break it down to our listeners. I've personally,
I have not interviewed, uh, mister Trump, but I have
interviewed several other presidents living presidents of the United States,
George Bush one and two. I've done one on ones
with President Clinton and also President Carter one on one interviews,
(06:38):
so I know what it's like to be in a
press conference setting or an interviews setting, one on one
with the President of the United States. I want to
be clear so our viewers will understand. This is even
back when Trump was president. Anybody that's not Fox or Newsmax,
(07:01):
he has a problem. He will treat them harshly. Rachel
Scott knows this because she has interviewed not only Trump,
but numerous other dignitaries in Washington, and some of them
are just very abrasive. Trump will come directly at you.
So Rachel does have thick skin. She knew what was coming,
(07:25):
and she knows how to handle mister Trump, and I'm
sure in newsrooms in Washington and New York, ABC, CBSCNN,
Trump has always gone after those networks. As a matter
of fact, he even said a few things at the
convention in reference to quote unquote fake news. So this
(07:47):
is nothing new. When it comes to African American correspondents
or female correspondence, mister Trump treats them differently.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
You know, there's there's something in what you're saying that
makes the whole undertaking feel a little strange. Donald Trump
didn't need to go to the NABJ for us to
know who he is. Donald Trump didn't need to go
(08:21):
there for us to determine the content of his character,
for us to identify whether or not he's a candidate
that we need to vote for. He has been very
out loud about his the amount of respect that he
has to toward black people. We have been a tool
(08:45):
that he can use and plays up in the background.
But you know, with the exception of letting a handful
of people out of prison, because again it serves an
agenda that he may have or a narrative that he
wants chronicled, there's nothing thing that comes to mind that
is either specific to black people or has a ripple
(09:08):
effect that will benefit black people in mass and so
this platforming of Donald Trump felt a little strange. But
you know, there was the other a dvantage point that
we had that was, you know, these folks are going
to try to get him the answer, hold him accountable,
really highlight a or put a lens on Donald Trump
(09:30):
because there's a lot of unfortunately there's it's not the
majority of folks, but there's a lot of anti Harris
black people on social media, and so journalists have a
responsibility to keep the population informed with fact based news,
(09:52):
journalistic and credible news. And so there was the other take,
which was, Okay, the NIEBJ is going to get in
front of Donald Trump and hold him accountable and get
him to answer some tough questions so that we all
know that these attacks on Kamala are not well founded.
(10:14):
The attacks on Trump are well founded. They're based in
a shared reality. They're not going to let him slip
and slide his way out of answering the questions. And
what we learned is that despite it being a terrible
performance for Donald Trump, he still wins because when they
take that back to Fox News. The headline simply reads,
(10:36):
you know, Donald Trump was at the National Association of
Black Journalists. And to those viewers of Fox News and
the other far right media outlets that have, you know,
fifty million viewers or however many viewers they have collectively,
it appears as though Donald Trump is the candidate for
(10:58):
all Americans and he isn't leaving black people out of
the conversation, when the truth of the matter is that
he made a mockery of the NABJ. He made a
mockery of the panelist, he made a mockery of the
He's always made a mockery of any news source that
finds out things about him that he doesn't want discovered
or illuminates things that he feels is unflattering, and that's
(11:21):
never been a secret. And so it's almost like maybe
both sides kind of got played. But I don't love
the fact that the NABJ had Donald Trump didn't have
Kamala Harris, and didn't you know, and Q made this
point because we actually discussed this in a recent episode.
(11:45):
They didn't illuminate the fact that Kamala Harris wasn't there
simply because of a scheduling conflict. She attempted to do
a zoom in, she attempted to reschedule all these things,
and so you know, and then Donald Trump puts up
a post saying, hey, I went there and she didn't.
And again that's how things get chronicled. One of the
(12:06):
things that's true about this man is he's masterful at
manipulating a narrative. He takes the truth and twists it,
and for the people that want his version of the
truth to be true, he gives them just enough for
it to be their truth, and then they just continue
to march in step. And this is how the cognitive
dissonance that I find often in the minds of Maga
(12:28):
folks is so well pronounced. They will one hundred percent
say Donald Trump is not racist because they have all
the little bits and pieces that he has spoon fed
them to be able to lean on it, to keep
enough mental distance from the shared reality in which we
all live to where they don't feel like casting a
vote for him is anti black, anti Mexican, anti Arab.
(12:52):
They feel like it's pro America, pro patriotism, pro whatever,
and that's good enough for them, you know, props up
their worldview. They think they're decent people making a decent choice,
and you know, the show goes on. And you know,
I don't love a no win situation, but credit where
it's due. They didn't treat him like a hero when
(13:17):
he walked in the room, you know, and typically a
former president, even one that was unpopular, folks would you know,
still be very flattered by the fact that a person
like that's coming in the room. And that's not what
I gathered in terms of their reception of Donald Trump.
They did come to work. But he's masterful at what
he does, and so even if no one wins, he wins.
(13:37):
And that's kind of what it looks like to me.
Moving on up next, we have some sad news to
report out of Los Angeles involving another case of police
misconduct during an arrest. I won't get into the details
because I want you to tell us a little bit
more about this, So Ray, the floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Okay. A twenty eight year old black man in Los
Angeles was driving a vehicle when he was pulled over
last weekend Sunday afternoon. It was about five point thirty
specific time. The officers asked the gentleman to get out
of the car, He was later identified as Alexander Mitchell.
(14:23):
They went on to ask him to place his hands
around his back so they could handcuff him, and he refused.
He put his hands in his belt buckle to prevent them,
the officers, of arresting him. This was the result of
(14:49):
a traffic citation. So how did it get to the
point where the officers got so upset they wanted to
put the gentleman in handcuffs the incident. Much of the
incident was caught on video, which has been circulating on
social media. The victim involved in this case, the gentleman
(15:14):
that was pulled over, is devastated. Officers say he resisted,
But the point is, how do you go from quote
unquote a misdemeanor traffic violation to handcuffs. This has happened
time and time again in this country. The Los Angeles
(15:35):
Police Department itself has been through numerous incidents over the
years involving traffic stops and situations where they have been
called and it's been blown out of hand. So they
have had a public relations problem for years with the community,
(15:58):
not only the black community, also other minorities communities in
the Los Angeles areas. So this the police department is
well known for that. Now you have this, We have
yet another video that's spreading on social media showing a
black man being punched and buriated by police officers who
(16:26):
are just aggressive. The investigation continues. Mister Mitchell was taken
to the hospital, treated and released. Oh by the way,
Ramses given a citation for misdemeanor traffic stop. It's unfortunate
your thoughts, Yeah, so I watched this video.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I've been trying to take a break from watching these
videos just because again, I don't want to become desensitized
to anti black violence. I know that the police are
very good at rewriting the story, just like a Donald Trump.
(17:13):
And there's enough of the public out there that want
the police to be the heroes to where if they
can spin a version of the story that is even
slightly plausible, that's enough, and then they will echo the
sentiments that the police are trying to get them to echo. Well,
(17:33):
he should have complied. Nothing to see here, He's at fault.
The police officers are doing their job, right. I've seen
this happen. I've seen it happen numerous times. There will
be video evidence where we see we see the officers
doing exactly what we know they're doing because we can
see it with our eyes. It's not hearsay, it's not
(17:53):
the officers. Nope, there's a video, an objective lens into
the situation, and we see the police corruption, and we
see the police brutality. And in this instance, I remember
there was one instance, just to give you an example,
a man was handcuffed behind his back and so you
cannot see his hands behind his back, but the assumption
(18:16):
when you're watching video is that he's handcuffed right, and
the officers were like either punching him or whatever it was.
And because of the angle of the camera, the officer
said that the man grabbed the officer's testicles as an
assault and that gave the officer license to punch him
(18:39):
while he was in handcuffs. Of course, the man in
handcuff says, no, of course not, that's not what happened
at all. But it doesn't matter because that's what the
officer said. Because of the fact that it's remotely plausible,
and because of the fact that that's what people want
to see. We've all been indoctrinated by what is known
as coppaganda, where we've watched so many TV shows, and
(19:04):
there's this narrative that's fun nationally that suggests to us
subtly over the years that police are always the good
guys and anyone in handcuffs is the bad guy. And
for those of us who have been black and alive,
we know that that is not nearly as true as
many folks would like it to be. So when I
saw this video, I wondered the same thing, because in
(19:29):
the video you can see that his hands are behind
his back, and for the officers to say, well, his
hands are in his waistband or in his belt buckle
or his belt loop or whatever it was, they were saying, okay, maybe,
but once you punch him in the face, if my
(19:52):
hands are not handcuffed, I would do any number of things.
Before I stood there and took it with my hand
still behind my back, I would raise my hand to
cover my face. Where I got struck, I would raise
my hands in defense because I might get struck again.
(20:12):
I would move to catch my balance, and my arms
would naturally raise. You know, your arms don't stay behind
your back when you get punched in the face unless
you're handcuffed. And because people need that sliver of plausibility,
they will ignore what is a more likely truth. That's
(20:38):
how indoctrinated people have become. That's how anti black this
country is. When they see him in handcuffs, Oh he's
a criminal, What did he do wrong? What is he
doing wrong? Not ignoring the officers clearly violating this human
being's dignity, this human beings rights. And so when you
(21:01):
ask what I saw, that's what I saw. But that
doesn't really matter because we have a statement from his attorney.
Brad Gage puts it so beautifully here. Quote, there is
only one thing that they charged him with, and that
was after the fact, obstructing an investigation. So basically what
(21:22):
they say is, when you're handcuffed and getting punched, if
you're not talking to us, you're obstructing us. And so
the police get to be the victim. Despite the video
that we saw. Black Information Network News anchor Ray Harris
is here with us discussing this week's major stories. All right,
(21:45):
Next up, we had to Brookline, Massachusetts, where a lawsuit
was filed against the middle school that allegedly allows racist
bullying by white students using George Floyd references. Ray, give
us your thoughts on this story. And the details of
this story another heavy one, but the floor's yours, yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
The school in question is Amos Lawrence Middle School in Brookline, Massachusetts.
A fourteen year old back in December reported to his
teacher and school staff that he was being harassed by
another student and called a cotton picker. Well, it turns
(22:28):
out the complaint was addressed and a similar incident happened
a few months later in April. This time, the black
student in question was on the ground and another student
put his knee on the black student's neck and yelled,
(22:50):
George Floyd. George Floyd. The parents have gotten involved, and
now a civil rights lawsuit has been filed in Brookline,
Massachusetts against the school district and the staff and faculty
at Amos Lawrence Middle School. I did a little research
(23:13):
on this ramses, checking a few additional sources. I wanted
to find out what was done between the first incident
and the second incident. How was the first incident addressed?
And I really couldn't get any clear details on that
other than the students were reprimanded, So I don't know
(23:34):
if their parents were informed or the incident was just
left at that until the second incident, but the parents
are devastated and the student in question is very upset.
Apparently he's in an atmosphere where it's not only learning,
it's a tent to atmosphere where racism is involved. That's
(23:57):
what I think. This student is crying out that his
education is being interrupted by negative outside sources, and these
two incidents have taken place as a result of that,
And here we are with a civil rights lawsuit.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, and that's what it sounds like. It's things like this,
you know, and the frequency of stories like this that
we discussed on this show, and indeed at the BIM,
stories involving students at schools, stories involving you know, violence
(24:40):
in the workplace and the like, they become even scarier
with you know, this project twenty twenty five looming in
the distance, that there's an effort to weaken civil rights
(25:07):
and the guarantees of civil rights in this country. There's
an effort, a concerted effort, a brilliant, masterful legal effort
in place a legal framework to succeed to ensure that
(25:29):
one group of people who lives their life for the
most part in the promise of this country, continues to
have that and the rest of us good luck. You know,
(25:50):
if my son went to a school like this and
these things happened to my son, I know that he
would have. If I said a tough time, it would
be an understatement. I imagine waking up and going back
to school after something like that happened. And clearly there's
(26:14):
nothing significant or at least nothing that's documented that has
been done, hence the lawsuit. And you know, again, stories
like this, really they create a further concern or the
state of our politics and where we are going in
the future, because you know, you and me and Chris
(26:37):
can look at something like this and see how awful
it is, and see how problematic it is, and see
how it interferes with the educational pursuits of a student.
And there are people who will never experience this. They
can look at this story and say, well, these are
just kids picking on each other. They'll be fine. Stop
babying the kids, stop giving out participation trophies. Nothing to
(26:59):
see here, no special privileges for black people. And you
know where we have arrived after getting you know, equality,
as we've arrived at the pursuit of equity, and there
are people who would attack that. But we haven't even
(27:20):
gotten into the fullness of our equity, and now we
have to remount an attack on simply equality. And again,
in light of the political landscape of this country, stories
like this, they they concern me more than they should,
So vote please all right. Lastly, as the twenty twenty
(27:42):
four Summer Olympics to get underway in Paris, there's been
some controversy if you're brewing with one of the biggest
USA gymnast stars, Ray, you cover sports for the Black
Information Network and I clearly don't. So why don't you
bring us up to speed on this story? As we
close out, they bring you up to speed there, please.
Simon Biles has been in the spotlight for the past
(28:09):
fifteen years with her outstanding training and her outstanding showmanship
as a gymnast. She has had her ups and downs,
whether it's with performance or with injuries. She has been
(28:29):
through the ringer when it comes to being competitive and gymnastics,
and it's all based on performance. Now she's twenty seven
now and she's leading a group of young ladies in
the Olympics, Sunny Lee, Jordan Childs, Jade Carrey and Helsie Rivera,
(28:52):
and they're basically breaking down windows, really achieving outstanding getting
outstanding results as a result of their performance in Paris, France,
and Biles is leading the way. Now she has a
(29:18):
former coad gymnasts who.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Has gone to social media while they're in the middle
Ramsis of competing for gold, silver or bronze and trying
to place. They have enough pressure. But yet this young
lady who is a former teammate and has trained extensively
with Simone and several other gymnasts who are in Paris
(29:48):
competing and offered her criticism, saying that they were lazy
and lack of talent and questioned if they should be
Olympic champions. Wow, wow, that's crazy, perfect timing for that.
(30:08):
But Simone did fire back at her in a YouTube
video and Simone said, basically, to sum it up, if
you could do better, you would be here. But the
(30:29):
ladies are focused on continuing their efforts and their performances
to try and get gold. But this is basically I
guess you would call it social media fire because, to
be honest with you, Rameses, I think when Jesus comes back,
there's gonna be some people on social media saying why
(30:50):
did he come back today? Why did he come back?
Right now? There's gonna be something negative said social media.
Social media is what it is. You have people that
hide behind their little texts and their little messages, and
(31:10):
they're going to say inappropriate things. And I think that
comes with the territory of social media. It's a great
tool and at the same time it's a bad tool,
and that was the case here with Simone Biles and
her fellow gymnasts. We're in Paris trying to get the
gold and they're competing. They have one more round of
(31:32):
performances and it's really going to determine how much gold
they bring back. Even though they have already won. They're
going to be doing great and the momentum is on
their side. They've avoided a lot of the controversy up
until this point, so hopefully they will be able to
(31:53):
pull through and represent the United States and bring home
more gold.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Well, that is what I and all the rest of
us around here are looking forward to. Simone Biles is
the embodiment of black girl magic. And to be fair,
I'm not mad at you know, black girls going on
the defense. I know Kamala has gone on the defense
(32:18):
and the offense, and I see Simone Biles is doing
the same thing, and you know, it's about time, so
I want to see more of it. And you know, fortunately,
all this black girl magic, you know, there's you know,
the proof is in the pudding. It's not like these
folks are not qualified to do what it is that
they do, despite how there are these persistent attempts at
(32:45):
re chronicling the narratives about them. We're living in strange
and interesting times. But it's people like her and people
like the Vice President that remind us that we are
resilient people. We are beautiful people, and we are people
with a future that's brighter than ever. So my hope
is that we all stay fortified and invigorated and continue
(33:08):
to march because I think we're on the cusp with
something special. So we'll leave right there. As always, i'd
like to thank you very much for your time and
your insight. Once again, today's guest is Black Information Network
news anchor Ray Harris. This has been a production of
the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson.
(33:28):
Have some thoughts you'd like to share? Use the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app while you're there
be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes.
I'm your host, ramses Jah on all social media, and
I'll be hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend
on a station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info,
check Civiccipher dot com and join us Monday as we
(33:48):
share our news with our voice from our perspective right
here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
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