BIN Daily Podcast. March 3, 2023

Host Ramses Ja recaps the biggest news stories of the week with BIN anchors Nichole Deal and Mike Eiland.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's been another busy newsweek 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 anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal to discuss this
week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast,
and I'm your host ramses Jah, So welcome back to
the show. You too, how's your week been? Oh? Pretty busy.

(00:22):
Glad to be here. Yeah, yeah, hi, Ramsis, I'm so
happy to be here again. Hey, all right, it's good
to have you both back. All right, well, let's get
to the stories in the news. So first up, the
political landscape in Chicago is changing as black encumbent Mayor
Laurie Lightfoot failed to get enough votes in this week's
runoff race. She's the first Chicago mayor to lose reelection

(00:44):
in forty years. Nicole, why don't you start us off,
bring us up to speed on this story, and then
Mike will follow up with you. Of course, you know,
when it comes to elections, we oftentimes hear the phrase
a landmark victory. Well, this is what I would refer
to as a landmark defeat. Lori Lightfoot finishing with roughly

(01:08):
only seventeen percent of the vote, coming in third place.
And as you've already stated, it's a historic loss because
she is the first Chicago mayor to lose reelection in
forty years. I mean that is that's just huge. As
the first black woman and the first openly gay person

(01:29):
ever to serve a best mayor of Chicago. I think
Lori Lightfoot is brave, and I think she is enlightened
and she's a trailblazer. I don't think that we can
point to her race or her sexual orientation as a
factor for her not being reelected, right. I mean, if

(01:52):
it was a non factor the first time around, then
the mayoral office was hers to lose, so all she
needed to do was an office and prove herself. I
would say one of the most notable things that she
did in the last four years as mayor was raising
the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. I think

(02:13):
that she she tried to get a handle on violent crime.
I think she tried to protect workers, you know, during
COVID and things of that nature. But I just don't
think that she I think she lacked the confidence of
her constituents, and so I think she was really confident
going into the elections. She even said that she was

(02:38):
the only person who could beat Paul Vallas because she
had a record of accomplishments. So I thought that was
kind of ironic that she had had a lot of
confidence going into it, but didn't play out well for
her in the end. I think she underestimated the competition,
and I think the good people of Chicago just didn't

(02:58):
feel like Laurie light It deserved a second term. So
she talked to her supporters after conceding defeat, saying that
her heart was full of gratitude, and she mentioned how
the city came back from a once in a lifetime
pandemic and how she made progress on public safety and
things of that nature. So, but it's going to be
Brandon Johnson, who's also black, facing off against Paul Vallie

(03:22):
in the April fourth runoff election, and that's going to
decide who the next mayor of Chicago will be. I
think Johnson has a real chance here because he may
pick up some of the black votes that some of
the voters that voted for Lightfoot the first time around.
So we'll just have to wait and see, Okay. I

(03:46):
also want to mention that. In Vallas's victory speech, he
says public safety is the fundamental right of every American.
It is a civil right, and it is the principal
responsibility of government. And then he kind of goes into
this other end. He goes, we will have a safe Chicago.
We will make Chicago the safest city in America. And

(04:09):
that's kind of what he ran on, you know, and
I think that's probably what got him elected. So we'll
just have to wait and see. Sure, Sure, Mike, let's
hear your thoughts. Yeah, Lightfoot was a little um. She
did have some confidence, but she just didn't show it.
She was a bit low key for maybe the voters.

(04:32):
She kind of went through I won't say that she
went through the motions, but she just had the appearance
of maybe doing that, and maybe that's what lost voters
conference confidence. But a lot happened while she was mayor
you know, going through the last throws of the pandemic.
She did have the victories, as Nicole said, with the

(04:54):
raising the minimum wage and getting them through the pandemic,
but her problems, the problems with the city of Chicago,
weren't unique to Chicago as far as crime, So, you know,
that that can't be penned on her because crime rose
everywhere in every major city. So uh, but when you're

(05:14):
in Chicago, the crime is a Chicago problem. The pandemic
is a Chicago problem, and it's all on the leaders.
So I can't say that anything was specific to her,
but I was kind of hoping she would be like
Vallis was, as far as you know, uh, pledging to
make Chicago safe. I don't think she's ever really said that.

(05:37):
She told what problems she would tackle, and those those
problems were not really they got out of control. But
if she had maybe made some type of maybe a
mission statement or some type of goal in her in
following her campaign, I think that maybe her first campaign,

(05:59):
maybe voters would have had more confidence. But when they
see things going like the you know, the unemployment rate,
in crime and all that, it's really it's not always
the leader's fault, as just the feeling that voters get
the very fickle things are going. Right, she'd be in
you know, if the crimers going down, if the numbers

(06:20):
looked right, you know, the math fell in her favor,
she'd be mayor again. Sure, sure, you know the thing
about this situation is that. I'll be very honest, I
was not a fan of her politics. All of her politics.
Some of them, obviously they made sense, and some of

(06:41):
them I thought that there was more intelligent ways to
go about accomplishing what I believe she was trying to accomplish.
I think that in a lot of parts of this country,
especially when it comes to law enforcement, in the criminal
justice system and its entirety, too many people, and indeed

(07:02):
too many people in elected positions, have an approach or rather,
there is an underlying philosophy underneath these systems of criminal
justice and so forth that assumes that people left to
their own devices in mass will behave in criminal ways,

(07:27):
rather than people will resort to criminal activities when other
options are inaccessible or otherwise unavailable, or there are no
alternatives when it comes to procuring the fundamental necessities to

(07:48):
have a life that is equal in weight to the
lives of the people around us in a society. And
because of that flawed premise, many of the people that
we've seen elected and have failed to kind of thrive
in their capacities. You know, there are people who look

(08:12):
at those folks and say their puppets, or they get
in and they reinforce white supremacist ideals and institutions. You know,
there's a big part of me that feels that that
is very true. In my own Phoenix or city in Phoenix, Arizona,
we had a police chief, Jerry Williams, who I believe,
in her heart of hearts, also wanted to do good.

(08:35):
But again, there's a fundamental premise that assumes it makes
a felonious assumption from the start, and therefore all of
the policy and all the investments and so forth are
they end up bolstering a framework that does nothing for
no one and allows opportunities for other folks to come

(08:58):
in under this sort of law on order banner that
people feel like, UM is going to change things and
this is this is these people play the same hits
they've been playing for eighty years, maybe more. UM. And
I think that when when we have the courage its

(09:21):
voters to really um put rather adopt a fundamental change
in how we view the world in which we live
and how we imagine the world in which we could live. UM,
I think that we'll start to see candidates rise to
the occasion who not only will be able to create change,

(09:41):
but will also be less likely to fall short of
um these sort of markers that we put in place
for our politicians. You know, this one term elected official
thing is not something that anybody wants to see and
it's not really realistic to see any real changes come
about regardless of where your policies fall. So it'll be

(10:02):
interesting to see what happens in the next phase of this.
But it's it's a sad story because I think that
everybody in all of our heart of hearts hope for
the best and what she could do that she would
end up doing. But now it seems as though, well,
she'll just be remembered for, you know, what she was
able to accomplish, and more importantly, remembered for losing. And

(10:26):
I don't think that that's really fair either. So no,
we'll see Black Information Network News anchors Mike Island and
Nicole Deal are here with us discussing this week's major stories.
Moving on. In a recent survey from job recruitment site

(10:47):
Indeed that revealed that half of all black workers want
to quit their jobs. The same survey also revealed what
companies can do to keep them. So this time, let's
start with you. Mike, tell us a bit more about
this survey and you know, give us your thoughts on
what's going on here. Well, just let you know I'm
not one of those I just want to put that

(11:08):
out front there. I'll go ahead, but uh, you know,
it's it's really the percentage is new, but that sentiment
is nothing new. UM. A lot of it has to
do with um there are problems that the black workers

(11:30):
are going to face, uh, you know, for you know,
some time on their jobs. A lot of things, uh
what they think won't change, a lot of things that
they just don't think will change. And one of those
things is pay transparency issues. They they will you know,
there will always be they will always feel devalued, uh,

(11:54):
you know, to a certain point. But it's so loud. Now.
We had that term quiet quitting that was going on
for a while, But now these guys are quitting loudly,
and I think they there's less fear of quitting loudly because, Uh,
it's an employees market versus an employer's market. Employers need people,

(12:15):
and the people who are working now who are unhappy
know that. So they're they're much more willing to be
louder about their dissatisfaction in the workplace. But again, the
COVID nineteen pandemic changing the workforce dynamic had a lot
to do with that too, and a lot of black

(12:36):
workers have become entrepreneurs uh in that time and COVID
nineteen the pandemic forced us into a new way of thinking,
and a lot of it worked in a positive way. UH.
In this case with black workers leaving the corporate workforce
to go into entrepreneurship, I can't I don't have any

(12:58):
statistics to say how successful that's been, but there have
been many examples over the past couple of years, especially
of seeing this transition but quitting their jobs loudly. A
lot of the companies try for to do their best
with diversities with excuse me, the diversity, but I don't

(13:20):
think some of the people in charge of that really
know what what to do with it. I'll just give
you an example. A company ut put a black person
as head of diversity and pretty much about that would
do it, you know, but nothing really happened after that.
That person pretty much kept the status quo. And this

(13:44):
was happening with a couple of companies where they kept
the status quo, but that diversity officer was black, and
they thought that was Dan dall be all to show
a diversity. So they're a lot of bad attempts at
at diversity. And and I think diversity is really more
than just color of skin. You can have you know,

(14:05):
ten black people in a workforce environment and if they
all think like the people who put them in that
nothing really changes. So diversity is really a difference of beliefs,
a difference of view, difference in politics, that type of thing.

(14:25):
So if nothing really changes with the people other than
the color, you won't really have true diversity. And right now,
I think diversity is a more of a color thing
and not really getting into a variance of thoughts and
and you know, different views and things like that to
really make things diverse. I think that's what the problem is.

(14:47):
And I think black workers are seeing that, and that's
why they continue to be dissatisfied no matter what the
color margin is in their particular work environment. Nicole any
thoughts of course, Well, my reaction to this issue is

(15:07):
really a plea directed to the employers themselves. No matter
how big or small your company or corporation is, you
can do better by applying two words to your vocabulary
and your company culture, and those two words are inclusion
and diversity. If you're an employer, you need to take

(15:30):
a look at your leadership staff and be honest about
what you see. Okay, I mean, if there are no
black and brown faces, that could be not saying it
is always, but that could be indicative of a bias.
And anytime those bias. When that exists, you're going to

(15:52):
have issues like what Mike is describing. You're going to
have disparities and pay and all sorts of other issues. Um.
And if you don't know where to start to address that,
you can start within your own organization by talking with
people that have black and brown skin. Just start right
there and listen and be open minded and sincere and

(16:16):
take them seriously if you want change, and definitely seek
the services of professionals in the diversity and inclusion spaces.
Ask for pay. You know, I think it's sad that
that that percentage is so high. Forty nine percent thinking
about quitting or wanting to quit, And I think that's
really sad. Ask for pay. I think part of that

(16:39):
responsibility lies with the employee, regardless of their race. M
If you are unhappy about your pay, you need to
have one of those uncomfortable conversations, and you need to
ask for an annual review. And I'm sorry bread all right,

(17:02):
all right, UM there was a song about that. It
was expletive better have my money? Uh, and you can.
You need to be prepared to tell your employer why
you're so great, right, you know, if you want to
raise go in there and say, you know, hey, this
is what I've done in the last twelve months. And
you know I've executed on ABC and D and you know,

(17:24):
raised revenue by X dollars. And this is why I
think I deserve this. You know, there's Um, I think
there's a lot behind this number. You know of black
workers want to quit their jobs. Um. But I'm gonna

(17:47):
make another I'm gonna double down. I think that this
shows the importance of voting. Um, I'll I'll make my point.
So I was researching this sort of case study recently,
the uniquely American combination Pizza Hut, Taco Bell KFC. Right,

(18:11):
such a strange thing. But how that came about is
because Pepsi realized that it was cheaper to get its
soft drinks into those restaurants by buying the restaurants outright
than it was to compete with Coca Cola in the
restaurant fountain drink market space. So Pepsi acquired those three

(18:36):
restaurant chains and then spun them off underneath a separate
company called yum Brands. And then yum Brands felt like
they could do more with the same real estate footprint
and reached, you know, geographically, reach the same amount of people.

(18:57):
So they consolidated the operations, which is why we see
the combination KFC Pizza Hut you know was the other one,
KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Yeah. And then because
of the nature of capitalism and because of the way
the laws work, they lobbied young brands, lobbied politicians to

(19:18):
keep minimum wage low. Right now, this is one example,
and this doesn't affect all black people. Will recognize the
black people make up a disproportionate amount of low paying,
unskilled laborer jobs. This is one of the things that
lobbyists can get away with when we don't vote in
mass in local elections. We have to realize the sobering

(19:41):
reality of the situation, which is that we are underpaid
and undervalued economically and in a lot of other areas too.
But rather than foster engagement. Oftentimes it kind of puts
us off. We feel an unheard, we feel unsupported, and
you know, the politicians don't represent our intest which I'm
not going to argue with because that often times is true.

(20:05):
But when we've all come together and there's unity and
there's strength in those numbers, then we can push back
against things like this. So I think in illustrating this point,
who would want to work at a combination KFC Taco
Bell Pizza Hut for seven dollars and twenty five cents
an hour when looming on the horizon? There's automation? Who

(20:33):
would want to drive for Amazon or Uber or whatever
when looming on the horizons automated vehicles? Who would want
to do any number of things? Now that chat GPT
has the artificial intelligence model, has been opened up for
other app developers to incorporate that artificial intelligence, brain and

(20:59):
language model in two apps all around us. By the
end of this year, we're going to see it everywhere
in places we probably haven't haven't even conceived up yet.
And again, the nature of work is shifting and has
been shifting since the pandemic, and now people recognize, okay,
I can work at home. All that stuff I was
doing that was stressing me out was not strictly necessary.

(21:21):
And there's this two sided push. One side is trying
to push people to do what we used to do,
and this other side is letting us know daily that
we are very much disposable, we are not valued, and
we can be easily replaced. And so we find ourselves,
and indeed other folks, really people, working people, anybody who
has a job, find ourselves in the middle of these

(21:43):
two forces, and it can really knock the wind out
of your sales. I recognize that people have passions, and
you know, folks might not want to That's not to
be all into all those working at a pizza hut,
but it certainly is a stepping stone and it certainly
does help frame the workforce, which is why I think
to your point, we see a lot more entrepreneurs and

(22:04):
people trying to step out and you know, cut their
own path through life and be able to have some
fiscal independence from the quote unquote rat race, because it
seems like the nature of the race is changing itself.
So these numbers don't surprise me, but we're going to
have to see how everything develops. Per usual, so we'll

(22:27):
keep monitoring in it and keep reporting Black Information. Network
News anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal are here with
us discussing this week's major stories. All right, According to
health and wellness experts, exposure to videos of police brutality
can be harmful to the mental health of black people.

(22:50):
Black mental health counselor Sharie Johnson offered eight critical tips
in her latest article to help combat the trauma associated
with videos of this nature. Nicole tell us more about
this article and share a few of the tips that
she suggested. Absolutely, these heartbreaking and sad graphic videos of

(23:10):
black people being killed by police are extremely difficult to watch.
Case in point, Tyree Nichols pulled over for traffic stops,
senselessly beaten, etc. Etc. We all know that story. And
not only are the videos hard to watch, but all
of the additional aftermath videos from the decedent's parents and

(23:33):
husbands or wives and brothers and sisters and community members
and all of those come along with that too, Right,
And we watch those because some of those videos make
the news, and we watch the news. Right. I for one,
I am thankful for modern technology that allows us the

(23:54):
proof of police brutality that is happening against blacks. But
as a black person, it is hard not to identify
with the victims of these heinous killings. I mean just
looking at their skin and watching those videos. They do
negatively impact us, and they impact our emotions, whether we

(24:18):
realize it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not,
they do impact us. And as you said, Charie Johnson,
she's a licensed clinical mental health counselor and she is black,
and she did have some tips on how we might
be able to cope with those emotions when they surface
after watching some of those videos. One of her first

(24:39):
suggestions is to spend less time on social media. Right.
That's almost a given, you know, if because all of
those videos will recirculate and recirculate and you know, over
and over again on Twitter, on TikTok, on all these
social media platforms. So that was one of the tips,
that she can just spend less time on social media.

(25:03):
I thought this was a good when she said, consider
just reading about what happened as opposed to watching any
of the videos. So when we hear about something in
the news and we know there is a video, just
don't even click on it, right, just don't even watch it,
just go to the news article associated with that, you know, incident,
and read it instead. She also suggested speaking to a

(25:26):
therapist about your feelings. I think that's valid. You know,
sometimes you don't want to put your you don't want
to burden someone else, a friend or family member necessarily
with that emotion, because then you might trigger their emotion.
So I think if it's necessary, you can speak to
a professional theist, a therapist about what you're feeling. Get

(25:49):
adequate rest, you know. And I thought this was interesting.
Some of these things apply whether you know, just every day.
We should be doing these things anyway, get it. Getting
adequate rest was on the list. Um and moving your
body through exercise. She suggested exercise or yogura, you know, etc. Um.

(26:09):
And then one of the other things she said is
meditate when you are feeling overwhelmed. And I thought that
was really important because even even if you don't know
how to meditate, you know, there are all sorts of
videos out there and things that we can read to
tell us how to get started. Or just close your
eyes for a minute and take a deep breath and

(26:30):
just take five minutes or so to decompress. After you've
watched something like that. So sure, Mike, We've be sure. Thoughts. Yeah,
it's it's a little hard to hear. Uh. You know,
someone say, just read it, don't watch, because when you
read it and they describe it, you want to know more.

(26:51):
And so what do you do? You click on the
video to find out more. I was I was pretty
young when Rodney King's beating happened, but when I saw
the image, it still frightened me anyway. But the one
thing about it, you couldn't hear anything. You only saw
the video. You saw the bats going up and down
in that thing, and then you saw him and he

(27:13):
basically saying why can't we all just get along? And
that was widely panned because we didn't hear what happened. Okay,
so these videos are not only hard to watch, but
they're also hard to hear. So now you know, in
our modern day, with the phones and the technology we
have now, you can hear them say I can't breathe.

(27:34):
You can hear them calling for their mama. You can
hear them say stop man, I'm dying. Okay, that really
gets to you. Now. I went through some things, you know,
with some of these images, and a lot of more
of what I heard on the video versus what I saw,
because a lot of the violence I see in these videos,

(27:55):
even though these are real, I've seen so much fictational,
fictional violence that it didn't move me as much as
hearing the violence and hearing what it's actually doing to someone,
you know, in the real so that that has more
of an effect, you know, in my case, especially in
this conversation, because I really had a problem with the

(28:17):
things that I heard on these videos during those violent acts,
where if the volume had been turned down, maybe I
wouldn't have been quite as affected, but knowing that what
I saw was pretty bad. Sure, you know, there's something
about us, the three of us and people that work
in this space in that we I don't want to

(28:43):
say have to, but we kind of have to watch
all of these videos. So I think that, you know,
working in media is a great case study. I'm not
going to speak for all of us who work in
this space, because I do know some folks. My partner
key word is one of them, where we so often
he has to take a break. So building in breaks
for yourself is very important. If you feel overwhelmed, you know,

(29:06):
take as you know, take a step away, we'll pull
a guest in, or we'll run an evergreen episode or
a rerun for those not familiar with that terminology, and
we'll take a break from it. But I think that
the one thing that a good amount of us who
work in this space have at our disposal in reviewing

(29:29):
so many of these videos, and most all of them,
in fact, is that we get to talk about them.
We get to talk about the videos, we get to
say how we feel, We get to we have an
audience and an outlet. We don't feel enclosed in the
same way someone might feel if they perhaps don't have
an audience and are not accustomed to sharing their thoughts

(29:52):
on something and their fears and their concerns and their
worries about their families. It's just them in a phone.
And so if I could offer anything that I found
useful in having to watch probably more videos than most
folks of you know, police brutality against black and round bodies,

(30:13):
I would suggest that you know, sharing your thoughts, talking
to someone, even calling someone out of the balloon and say, hey, man, listen,
I just saw a video. Did you see it? Man?
It was crazy? You know, even if it's not like,
you know, you're not the sort of person, which I'm
not the sort of person if you're not the sort
of person to say, hey, listen, I'm down, I just
need to talk to someone. I need to vent. I
would never say that. I just couldn't even imagine saying that.

(30:34):
But to bring something up in a safe space where
someone who is able to receive that from you and
just say, hey, man, you know I saw his videos
and you know troubling me man as you see that,
it was crazy. Man, I just can't can't stop thinking
about it now, and then just kind of have a quick,
little five minute conversation. You'd be surprised at how much
that kind of diffuses the intensity of that moment across

(31:00):
the rest of your life. Correct road, Hey man, you
hit a point on for sports and music that used
to be my how I got away from things, and
now these types of things what's happening now is in
sports and music. So I reverted to talking to more

(31:20):
people now talking about these things, just like you suggested,
And so that's how I'm dealing with it now, because
sports and music have been invaded by these same conversations
now absolutely absolutely black information Network News anchors Mike Island
and Nicole Deal are here with us discussing this week's
major stories. All right, well, finally I like this, Chris.

(31:49):
Here's one from our you Can't make this Stuff Up file.
During his speech at an event for the Georgia Department
of Labor, Atlanta's former fire chief and resounding ignoramus stated
that it was God's divine plan that quote allowed Africans
to be brought to America a slave. Apparently this isn't

(32:11):
the first time this black former fire chief has gotten
into trouble for his comments. Mike, tell us more about
this story, and then, of course Nicole will follow up
with you. Well, they say, you can't make this stuff up,
but if you're a great story teller, you're a great writer,
you can't stup. But in this case, it is the truth,
the absolutely truth, you know. And if I knew this

(32:32):
guy's history, I probably wouldn't have been as shocked. But
you know, a decade ago he made some had some
homophobic views, and yeah, he's got a history of it.
So once I realized he has a history of it,
the impact of what he just now said, you know,
was blessened greatly. You know, and I believe his name

(32:53):
is Kevin Cochrane and I and it took me a
while to figure out that he was also African American.
I didn't know that at first. I just saw the story.
I didn't see any videos or pictures, and I immediately
thought of some other people of color who have said
some quite amazing things about slavery, is as yeay or

(33:14):
what Kanye West, you know, has said. You know, slavery
was a choice. You know, I still won't forget that.
So when you know the history of the person, the
impact is lesson. But the people who don't know, and
these words hurt, you know, especially coming from people of color,
the same way that you know, the Tyree Nichols thing
was was especially hurtful because it was brought on by

(33:37):
you know, African Americans. So it's really really hard to
hear this type of stuff. But I'll have to give
it to him. He has got he's got quite a platform,
but uh, there's just no truth from it. But the
way he brings about his views, if if you're really good,
you know, as far as you know in oratory, if

(33:59):
you're very good about expressing your views, you're going to
get people to believe it. If you choose your words
carefully and you get it out and you repeat rents
and repeat, you know that type of thing, people are
going to believe it, and they're going to be more
hurt by it. But he, you know, he uses the Bible,
he uses some twisted parts of history and that type

(34:22):
of thing, and he just pounds away at it, and
uh and and go, I want, I don't want to
say that it's funny, but it almost. It's to the
point where it's it is almost comedic, and I have
to laugh it off. And that's my own therapy. I
have to have these things off and you know, and
look at it as fiction, you know, because you really

(34:46):
can't analyze what he what he says here because is
wrapped up in non truths, you know, and and so
you really can't pick it apart. Uh, you know, and
I part, you know, it's it's a this is a
hard weading and it's hard to repeat some of the
stuff that he says because it is almost a good

(35:08):
Norman lyric comedy there. You know, it's crazy, Nicole, let's
teach your thoughts on this. Thanks ramsas Ignoramus made me laugh. Hope,
I don't get in trouble. I doo wanted to know that.
Um My turn fire away. Let's all keep in mind

(35:31):
this is the same guy who was fired from the
Atlanta Fire Department after he wrote a book expressing some
of his views on sexuality, adultery, homosexuality, etc. Like Mike stated,
that was about ten years ago, and now poop, he
pops back on the scene and says, I'm back. Um

(35:51):
this is one of his quotes. Slavery in America did
not catch God by surprise, he says, in his sovereignty,
God allowed Africans to be brought to America as slaves.
Africa was on the eve of social, spiritual, and economic
catastrophe and famine still going on today. So he brought

(36:14):
six million Africans to America through the Middle Passage as slaves.
One of the most egregious things about this is that
he said what he said during a Black History Month celebration.
I mean, oh my gosh, I just like like I said,
I just it's almost comical, and it's just infuriating that

(36:40):
he's a black person saying these things. I would almost
I don't know, maybe I would be less mad if
if he weren't. But I hold him more accountable he is.
I hold him more responsible with his words and his actions.
I really, I don't even have the words for this one.
My elementary some is completely completely tone death, especially something

(37:07):
like this being said by a person of color. Sure, sure, Nicole,
I think we're right it. I think we are in sync.
You said it a different way, but you know you
ended up, uh saying just flabberg acid, not knowing what
to say or how to react. Our our summation was
the same. So I'm glad I'm not alone in this. Absolutely, Yeah,
I have to I have to defer to ancess on this.

(37:29):
Not just well listen, you know I got something to
say already, I got something to say, So I guess
I'll begin um first and foremost. Uh, this is a
slap in the face to everybody who came before me
and the two of you, and indeed him. This is

(37:50):
a slap in the face to our ancestors. For somebody
to compare, uh, the goings on in Africa at the
time during the Transatlantic slave trade to the manifestation of
God's plan and somehow posit that the Africans themselves were

(38:16):
to blame for that shows a complete failure to acknowledge history.
I don't know that this man has ever studied it
or is just overlooking it to make a case for
his awkward and unusual belief system. But the fact of
the matter is that the colonization of Africa is what

(38:41):
led to the commodification of slavery and of slaves, and
to that whole economic system that exported slaves, black African
slaves only exclusively around the world. So, in brief, Africa

(39:03):
is the home of the resources of the world of
planet Earth. Africa historically, over the vast majority of human history,
has never had a problem socially, economically or otherwise. It
was a couple of things. One I have to mention religion,

(39:26):
the spread of the Abrahamic faiths, but to a larger
extent will say disease brought brought over by Europeans. And
I think the most important, most impactful element to this
equation is gunpowder. Guns And those three things in different

(39:51):
combinations altered the trajectory in the history of Africa and
allowed Africa to be colonized by white people, European white people,
and so um same thing happened with natives over here,
same thing happened in many places around the world. A
lot of islands that are vacation spots. You see a

(40:12):
lot of white folks there. White folks did not do
not come from islands. You know, white folks come from
very cold climates. Uh so Uh. The those inventions are
really the the soul invention gunpowder, which was invented by
the Chinese and used to conquer much of the world

(40:34):
by white folks in a very um, barbaric and in
human way, is what led to the what was a
precursor to the economic conditions that this man is referring
to um where you have tribes warring for power and
position because such as human nature, and when slaves When

(41:01):
when it was discovered that slavery was in in Africa
and that there were folks who were conquering other tribes
and had the tribes enslaved, and that they could be sold,
and an industry was built around that. Then, rather than
conquering tribes for political reasons or to you know, grow

(41:22):
your footprint, you know, of your empire, or to provide
resources for your tribe, the conquering of other tribes solely
became for the purpose of getting more slaves. And I
believe that the people in Africa who sold their countrymen
into slavery did not know the full extent of the

(41:46):
slavery that those folks would endure, not that their descendants
would also be enslaved, not that they would it would
be slavery by skin color, not that they would be
forever enslaved and not able to provide any sort of
outlet for themselves or procure any outlet for themselves, that

(42:09):
they would live harsh, short lives and be brutalized. So
a lot of these things come together, and then what
we see today in Africa, since that's what he wanted
to talk about, is more of the same Africa is
a lot of the countries in Africa are subject to

(42:30):
sanctions and taxes and loans and so forth that they
simply cannot repay because of legislation. You know, you cannot
export this material that has to be the raw material,
which doesn't allow these countries to make money. They have
to export their textiles and everything. They cannot make enough
money to pay back the loans, ensuring that they're forever
in debt. And for this man to make an ignorant

(42:54):
statement like that, and somehow suggesting that it's God's will
that we came over here and now we're living it
up shows a complete lack of his understanding of history,
his understanding of current events in Africa, and I think
his understanding of pretty much anything having to do with
basic human emotions. And so, again, a very funny story

(43:18):
to come across. I'm sorry that I gave him as
much time on this show that I have, But if
you come across this story anywhere else, there's our take
on it, and hopefully you don't give it any more
than a couple of laughs, which is all that it deserves.
So I'm gonna make a sit time, but I'm gonna
produce a sitcom on it. Just watch for it. Yeah, exactly, Well,

(43:39):
we'll see what We'll see what develops there. But I
don't anticipate that that's going to catch too much team,
because any scholar can pick that apart, and I'm far
from a scholar. I just happen to know exactly what
he thinks he's talking about. So again, we'll leave it
right there. So I'd like to thank you both very
much again for your time and is always your insight
once aga in today's guest or Black Information Network news

(44:01):
anchors Mike Island and Nicole Deal. This has been a
production of the Black Information Network. Today's show was produced
by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts you'd like to share,
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(44:22):
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