January 17, 2025 • 28 mins
News anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis join Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward to discuss this weeks major stories
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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 anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis to discuss
this week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network
Daily Podcast, and I'm your host ramses Jah and i
am your host q Ward. All Right, welcome back to
(00:21):
the show, Esther and Doug. Esther, what's the latest and
greatest in your world? Want to catch up a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's a little cold here in the New Jersey area.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And I heard about that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, and just you know, back into the school swing
of things. My son backed to school at the old
IP meeting today, so I'm off and running.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I've had one of those before. I know all about it. Doug,
talk to me, man, what's the latest?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh? Man, twenty twenty five is our year. Man, twenty
twenty five is our year. Great year. Great way to
kick things off. I mean it was pretty difficult with
the you know, the chair attacks and things like that.
But personally, man, things are moving forward in my life.
I'm feeling more spiritually grounded, I'm feeling more energetic. I
just came into the you know, the new year running.
You know, I mean track shoes on, baby, let's go.
(01:10):
I like that. I like that, man.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
My motto is thrive in twenty five man, so feel
free to use it because it seems like it's consistent
with what you on. So we're gonna manifest positivity and
success and all of that this year. You know what
I'm saying. We're not going to focus on the negative.
But first, we don't have to talk about something. So
(01:32):
y'all gonna have to help me out, all right. First,
as the nation prepares to celebrate MLKAY weekend, one Atlanta
based restaurant has been caught using the image of the
Civil Rights icon in a very unflattering manner. Esther, let's
kick things off of you give us more details on
this news story, and then Doug bren It come to
you for your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, this story is about a restaurant by the name
of Mela atl Restaurant and Lounge. It's an Ethiopian restaurant,
and the story is about a flyer that allegedly was
created by this restaurant. The flyer was flagged by a
user on x formerly known as Twitter, by the name
of Arthur Watkins Junior. He identifies himself as a litigant
(02:10):
with the American Freedman Legal Fund and Freedman Nation. He
posted this flier because it disturbed him so much, and
it basically was asking people to come to their MLK
Weekend celebration, but had a very explicit name, which I'm
not going to say on the air. The image was
(02:32):
altered an altered image of Martin Luther King Junior wearing
a gold medallion around his neck behind an altered image
of Rosa Parks, which appears to be on her knees
wearing lingerie. The post says that he alerted MLK Junior's daughter,
Bernice King, and she allegedly told him to take action
against the misuse of her father's image, and the restaurant
(02:53):
later released a statement saying that it did not approve
of the flyer and wasn't made aware of the situation
until January fifteenth. So that's where it's at right now.
They're saying they'd never they didn't know anything about it,
and the man who brought it out is saying that
this is disgusting and it's, you know, rather disturbing when
(03:14):
you see the image of the of the post.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Oh yeah, Doug. You know, there's a lot of angles
I can take on this one. But yeah, pretty disturbing story.
When I first heard it, you know, I will I
scratched my head. I'm like, okay, is this a joke
or something? I think there is an important point to
make if the restaurant indeed did produce this flyer. Now
(03:37):
I know and people who know Atlanta, Atlanta is spicy, okay,
but Atlanta has pride and they love their icons. So
my point is this Okay. So Arthur Watkins Junior, the
man who you know, uh unveiled this negative post, right,
he's connected, like Esther said, to the Freedoman Nation and
(03:59):
the American Free Legal Fund. Now there's significance in that
because American Freedoman is the term that the federal government
defined in the thirteenth Amendment pertaining to enslave people are Africans.
So there's a notion in some black communities that African
immigrants or folks from the African diaspora who may not
have gone through the systematic struggles that we have as
(04:22):
Black Americans don't quite understand, you know, what we've been through,
you know, and what our descendants have been through as well.
They haven't technically faced that, you know. You know, we've
heard the lazy stereotypes Africans say, oh, you know, Black
Americans are lazy. You know, we don't realize opportunity. You
(04:42):
know that we have in fun of us. And again
folks think that they don't get it, they don't understand again,
how this oppression has kept many of us in the hole.
So I want to say that it's an Ethiopian restaurant
and if they produce this flyer, it's indicative of this
kind of mindset that some African Americans have about Africans
(05:06):
and that they just really don't get our struggle. They
may be black like us, but they don't know because
they haven't been there. They're not like experiencing the same thing.
So again that's my opinion on it. You know, I
think it's I mean, we could look a lot of
different ways. It could be coming from a white supremacist
or extremist group or what have you. But I did
(05:26):
want to bring up this issue about you know, there
is some some issues between Black Americans and African descendants
or African immigrants.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
You know, as a former club nightclub DJ, sometimes we
would get asked to do gigs at restaurants that would
then do nightlife type events, day parties, or you know,
simply turning the menu down, the food menu down, and
turning the.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Bar menu up.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And in a lot of cases, a promoter was brought
in to do these things. And I'm thinking, I don't
know for sure because I didn't investigate it, but just
from what I saw that maybe the restaurant could have
not really known what the flyer was because a promoter
came in to do an event at the restaurant for MLK,
and the promoter put out a flyer without getting it
(06:15):
approved by the restaurant first. This is me trying to
give the maximum benefit of the doubt because I do
know some I actually know a lot of first and
second generation African immigrants who have a lot of love
for American black people and do understand our struggle and
what we've been through.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Just assume that they were grossly insensitive and put this
flyer out themselves. I'd like to imagine that a promoter
who thought it was funny, who thought he was doing
something he or she was doing something slick by putting
this flyer out and thought people would get some type
of kick out of it, maybe a young person who
doesn't have the proper reverence and level of respect for
(06:54):
our icon, and someone who really probably the most in
human history to move our collective calls forward, you know,
doctor Martin Luther King Junior. So that's just a different
perspective on that story. Up next, we head to Chicago
for another story involving white folks behaving badly and getting
(07:15):
caught in the act.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Doug.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
This time, let's start with you. Tell us more about
this story, and Nestra will come to you for you
to weigh in.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well. The Chicago Blogger recently exposed that a white Cook County,
Illinois judge reportedly shared a racist meme that was apparently
taken from a TikTok video that shows a black boy,
clean cut, you know, good looking kid, smiling with the
nice fade, probably around six years old, wearing an ankle monitor,
mimicking the child toy company Little Tykes, in a digital
(07:45):
ad that reads my first ankle monitor. Wow. The woman
in question is Cook County Judge Carolyn Glennon Goodman, and
she's in some hot water right now. She's been temporarily
reassigned from her role as the Judicial Inquiry Board investigates.
Goodman said she intended to send the meme as a
joke to a friend, but mistakenly sent the meme to
(08:08):
another judge. Now just sin on that for a minute,
you know, sin on that that's a joke. Huh. And
this is someone that has prosecutorial power. Goodman was previously
a public defender for twenty years. She's now undergoing implicit
bias training, and the Chicago Bar Association has spoken out
(08:29):
condemning the meme.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Asther your thoughts, Well, this to me perpetuates the damaging
stereotypes and link black children to criminal behavior. So kind
of piggybacking on what jug was saying. So when a
judge circulates something like this, it not only validates these stereotypes,
but also contributes to the stigma to hate, stigma to
(08:55):
stigmatization of marginalization in black communities. Because this judge is
supposed to uphold fairness and the quality in the justice system.
It appears that from this image that she thought was
a joke, just kind of shows a lack of judgment
and that she has a bias against black boys, many
(09:15):
who are thrown into the system. For her, it reflects.
It just reflects that detaining and incarcerating black boys who
become black men is funny, and that that's terrifying as
a mom of a black boy and it's going to
be a black man, and that just it's concerning for
(09:36):
a lot of people that she would be allowed to
stay in a position knowing that to her, putting black
men in the system and essentially ruining their lives is
a joke. And that's really all I have to say
about it, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I think to your point esther, you know, we have
lots of conversations Q and myself, we have lots of
conversations about system invisible systems that are oppressive in their nature,
and they continue to affect outcomes for black people and
(10:12):
brown people and marginalized people in this country. And when
we talk about that, there's often a big swath of
the population that pushes back, almost like you and I
are talking about the Boogeyman, like it doesn't really exist
a system. Come on, you guys have this victim mentality system,
you know whatever. So I think stories like this help
to personify those systems. Now, this lady is an individual,
(10:38):
but she is one such individual representing a system that
has a certain bias built into it. So they are
the reason that black people get harsher sentences, longer sentences.
They collectively judges right impose harsher sentences on black people
(10:58):
relative to white people for this same crimes. This is
you could look this up and I think it's the
The FBI has the data on this, and this is
this is well researched. This isn't just my opinion, certainly
not que's opinion. And then they are a part of
a larger system where we include you know, police, we
(11:20):
include you know, uh, prison prison guards, we include uh,
you know, things and things external to that. You know.
We can talk about the school to prison pipeline. We
can talk about housing inequalities. We can go back to Redline.
We can find the source material of all this sort
of stuff. We can we can look at the war
on drugs, We can look at a lot of different
things that ties in politics and economics and education and
(11:43):
healthcare and all these things together. And uh, once you
have a human being at the center of a story,
I think it's a little bit easier for people to
recognize that a system can exist and it can be
fronted by a person.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
The reason reason that this one is a particular interest
to me is because recently we've had to have conversations
with our own black people who voted for the incoming
administration about exactly what that represents. Because many of the
(12:22):
people that cast their vote for him, I'd say a
good amount of people that voted for him did so
not because he's the best, you know, candidate, not because
he's going to lower the price of eggs or whatever.
It was that the complaint was a huge number of
people voted for him because he was going to slow
(12:42):
the dispossession of the United States of America away from
white people. That was the reason that they voted for him.
His policies, if implemented. I think that's a direct quote
from an interview from a gentleman who was voting for Trump,
even though he was an intellectual, recognized that Trump was
certainly less qualified than you know, the candidate that he
(13:05):
was running against, or the candidates that he was running
against in the primaries.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
And so.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
This story is one of many stories. This story is
of a woman who got caught. Let's not forget that
part too. You know, there's people that feel this way
that share these things that never get caught, and they're
at the front of a system. Look how many judges
are white, and look at how many judges are black,
and even some of the black judges are susceptible to
this same type of thinking, the same type of indoctrination,
(13:36):
if you will. And so these are things we need
to be aware about because in a democracy, the only
way that we can shape it is by voting. And
a lot of us didn't vote last time. And here
we are Black Information Network News anchors Esther Dillard and
Doug Davis are here with us discussing this week's major stories.
All right, new updates surrounding the Justice departments months long
(13:59):
investigation into the nineteen twenty one Tulsa race massacre made
headlines this week, and some of the findings from the
Justice Department's research on the case were disturbing. Esther, let's
come back to you for this one, share some more
info on the Justice Department's findings. And then Doug, obviously
we're going to come to you to get your thoughts next.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, I have to go back to kind of explain
this to give context. It appeared back in at first
that the nineteen twenty one Tulsa race massacre in Oklahoma
spontaneously irerupted from one incident, But the Department of Justice
just did a four month study and it concluded that
(14:36):
concluded on January tenth, that it was a coordinated, systemic
attack on the black community. And the initial thing that
supposedly started this Tulsa race massacre was an accusation of
a nineteen year old African American man by the name
of Dick Roland, and the word was that he assaulted
a white woman in an elevator that he was operating.
(14:58):
Yeah supposedly led to law enforcement in the area deputizing
dozens of white men in the area who were quote
looking to do a lynching in the area. And then
that group went on a rampage, going home to home,
business to business, shooting people, burning businesses and homes. And
(15:19):
the Department of Justice says that they interviewed historians, living
relatives of those who lived through this massacre. They went
through documents to piece together this entire story, and they
learned that it was a coordinated attack, that it was
in fact law enforcement that was the main coordinator of
this entire massacre that happened in Tulsa in nineteen twenty one. Unfortunately,
(15:43):
none of the people who were a part of this massacre,
that as far as the people that were deputized by
the law enforcement are alive today, so it appears no
one is accountable. But the fact that the DOJ did
this deep dive into it to explain kind of the
(16:06):
the underpinnings of what exactly happened is a really interesting thing,
and I think it's important that it's it's on the record,
and that's what I think is a really a good thing.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, Doug, Yeah, it is a positive thing. However, I mean, okay,
so from what I gathered, because the DOJ stated that
they can't prosecut anyone to late to the massacre, that
there's no way for them to award reparations to, you know,
the two beautiful sisters, the survivors, Viola Fletcher and Leslie
Benningham Randall. I think it is important for the DOJ
(16:39):
to not only acknowledge the painful part of our American history,
but to recommend that there's some sort of retribution to
be made, whether it be reparations in some form, something
has to be done. I mean, geez, let's just think
about it. The country's paid surviving members of the Japanese
community who were in turned during World War Two, twenty
(17:02):
grand each paid out reparations to Holocaust survivors, giving money
to and some land back to Indigenous Americans. So why
not us? You know why? Is what is so bad
about Black Americans or American freedmen that you can't even
repay us for the harms you put against us and
(17:22):
the things that we've done to build this country, to
build this country. We see the disparities. It's not hard
to understand. They get it. We get it too, But
they're not going to They're not going to repair anything
that they've done from our past. I hate to say
it like that. It's just my opinion, so you know,
(17:46):
I don't know. I'm very disturbed by this story and
by the results of the well not the results, but
the actions from the DOJ. I'm very disturbed.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
This country's original sin started with them deeming kidnapped, tortured
Africans as less than human as property. And the reason
why they haven't and never will provide us with any
type of restorative justice is because they feel they were wronged,
(18:22):
their property was taken away, they were the ones who
were treated unfairly, and because of that, other human beings
who were wronged got restorative justice, got some form of reparation.
We were property, called black people, because we were supposed
to permanently be property. That's what that was for the
(18:46):
white race, where the people, the black lives were supposed
to be permanently enslaved pieces of property. And as we
can see, some close to seventy million people are still
trying to reconcile how they can get their reparations for
(19:07):
having their property taken away, how this dei and reverse
racism is displacing them and making their lives.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Less fair and less equitable.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
So thank goodness for the Department of Justice letting us
know that it wasn't our imagination that we were wronged
in such a way and proven that it was a
system of the government law enforcement that worked against us
to take away from us. Again. However, no restorative justice
and no actual accountability just shows that the original sin
and the original thoughts are the same. We are less
(19:40):
than they are, We are worth less than they are.
We are less human and less deserving of the life, liberty,
and happiness pursuit that was promised to all men. They
were not talking about us, and they are still trying
to make that clear. For our final story time, talk
(20:00):
show host Wendy Williams made a rare appearance this week
on The Breakfast Club and discussed her current health status.
Needless to say, her comments and overall appearance raised a
few eyebrows. Doug, give us your thoughts on this story
and reaction to Wendy Williams interview, and then esther, We're
going to come to you to close us.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Out, all right, Yeah. Williams called into The Breakfast Club.
It was her first live interview since her conservatorship began.
She talked about her health issues, of course, her diagnosis
with dementia and other illnesses. She expressed that she feels
like she's in a luxury prison because of the restrictions
from her conservatorship, and that her guardian manages her entire life,
(20:38):
including you know, even how she spends her money and
where she lives. Williams also cleared up the rumor that
she's cognitively impaired. She said she's not, and the conditions
of her confinement are harsh. Again. Her niece even called
in to support her. She did talk about Sean Diddycombe's
legal problems. That said, and she said that the hammer's
(21:00):
gonna come down on the Diddler in a major way
and you'll probably never see the light of day again.
And then she finally broke down and said that she
talked about how she couldn't visit her dad on her
ninety fourth birthday, you know, because of her guardian sad
still praying for Wendy. It's just a very disappointing, uh,
(21:22):
not disappointing. I'm trying to find the right words. I'm
extremely empathetic and sympathetic about Wendy and what she's going
through right now, and I think most of us are. Man,
we just we just we just pray for her, man,
you know. That's that's I can't say a lot of center, Minister,
are a lot of emotions. But I remember her back in
(21:43):
the day when she was a fire starter in the nineties,
and to see her where she is now, man, it's
just wow. It's just mind blowing. Prayers out to Wendy esther.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
When I saw this, it reminded me, which is kind
of iron If you ever get a chance to go
to Netflix and see a movie, it's a short movie
called I care a lot, and it's about a woman
who shows up at the door of a woman who's
in her sixties or so with a piece of paper
and saying, you have to go to a facility because
(22:16):
your doctor says you're in mental decline, and now I'm
taking over as your caregiver. And the whole story is
like a bit of a nightmare where this woman's like
where what is going on? They put her basically in
a very pretty prison, and they sell off everything she has,
and they put the caregivers has like ten or more
(22:38):
people just like her on her wall, like trophies on
a wall, and they're pretty much living off of all
these people that they find that are elderly, that are quote,
they could take to the court and say, you know,
they are in mental decline, so they need a they
need a conservator. So to me, just the whole story
(23:00):
of Wendy is kind of a nightmare. I'm just wondering
if there are any checks and balances on this conservator
and who does that, because I'm kind of looking side
eye at some of this stuff that has happened under
the conservators leadership, part of it being that documentary, So
it just makes me wonder how the system, why the
(23:21):
system is the way it is. And when you have
Wendy crying saying she just wants to go see her
dad and for his birthday. He's about ninety some years old.
I guess our eighty seven years old. I can't remember
how old he is, but he's pretty much up there.
And she's like, no day, you know, nothing is promised
to us, whether he'll make another birthday, and they won't
(23:45):
let me out of here. And I was just like
really heartbroken listening to that. So it's just those are
the things that I wonder about. It just makes you
question the system. You know.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
One of the things that I never want to do.
I never want to be accused of. I never I
don't even want to touch it as being sort of
like talking out of both sides of my mouth. And
(24:18):
you know, our listeners know that. You know, my background
is in hip hop radio. I started on a show
called Friday Night Flavors where we played underground hip hop music.
You know, I'm a DJ q's of DJ and this
is kind of our origin story. Mine goes back a
little bit further though, and you know, I have an
(24:38):
older brother who's an MC and a group called Dilated
People's Right. So I've always been kind of connected through
him and his friends Exhibit and you know, Tash to alcoholics,
all these like West Coast legends, to the hip hop industry,
and then of course I became a radio personality. Over
(24:58):
the years, Wendy Williams has not been a name that,
in my story, has been associated with positivity. Wendy Williams's
name has been associated with often enough, the tearing down
of people and the embarrassing of people and that sort
of stuff. And that never really that that that was
(25:21):
always very unsettling. Now I have never said anything bad
about Wendy Williams. I'm not going to start today, But
I would be disingenuous if I was to offer more
than I could in this moment. I I I do
hope that her situation ends up better for her, because
(25:50):
you know, I don't wish anything bad on her. I
just I don't have enough to offer more than that.
It just it feels very sad that it would happen
to anybody. But again, in my story, Wendy Williams has
often been associated with a lot of pain for a
(26:13):
lot of people, a lot of families. I know Method
Man had to like she was making fun of Method
Man's wife. She was battling cancer and she'd lost her
hair and he was very upset by her comp There's
just stories like this, and of course I wish her
the best. It's not my way to really tear down,
you know. I always say tear down another black man,
but a black woman is obviously included in that. But
(26:39):
I don't want to say one thing without being true
to who I've been historically speaking. So what I will
say is I wish Wendy Williams the best. And I
can say that and it be consistent with the support
that I've given to these other artists over the years
when they've been at odds with or I don't want
(26:59):
to see any thing bad happen to anybody. I wish
Wendy Williams the best, and I hope that we can
all learn a lesson from what it is that she's
dealing with, so that we don't end up in that
same predicament, or our family or relatives don't end up
in that predicament. And that way I can be honest,
I can be true to myself, and I can be consistent,
which I try to be with, you know, the entirety
(27:20):
of my broadcasting career. So good luck to everyone involved,
and I'm going to have to leave that one right there.
As always, i'd like to thank you both very much
for your time and your insight, your brilliant responses, and
of course, you know, just taking us to places that
we probably wouldn't get to ourselves. Once again, Today's guests
(27:42):
or Black Information Network News anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis.
This has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback beature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I am
your host Rams's Jaw on all social media. I am
(28:04):
q Ward on all social media as well. And we'll
be hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend on
a station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info,
Jeckciviccipher dot com and join us Monday as we 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 anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis to discuss
this week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network
Daily Podcast, and I'm your host ramses Jah and i
am your host q Ward. All Right, welcome back to
(00:21):
the show, Esther and Doug. Esther, what's the latest and
greatest in your world? Want to catch up a little bit.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's a little cold here in the New Jersey area.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
And I heard about that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, and just you know, back into the school swing
of things. My son backed to school at the old
IP meeting today, so I'm off and running.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I've had one of those before. I know all about it. Doug,
talk to me, man, what's the latest?
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh? Man, twenty twenty five is our year. Man, twenty
twenty five is our year. Great year. Great way to
kick things off. I mean it was pretty difficult with
the you know, the chair attacks and things like that.
But personally, man, things are moving forward in my life.
I'm feeling more spiritually grounded, I'm feeling more energetic. I
just came into the you know, the new year running.
You know, I mean track shoes on, baby, let's go.
(01:10):
I like that. I like that, man.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
My motto is thrive in twenty five man, so feel
free to use it because it seems like it's consistent
with what you on. So we're gonna manifest positivity and
success and all of that this year. You know what
I'm saying. We're not going to focus on the negative.
But first, we don't have to talk about something. So
(01:32):
y'all gonna have to help me out, all right. First,
as the nation prepares to celebrate MLKAY weekend, one Atlanta
based restaurant has been caught using the image of the
Civil Rights icon in a very unflattering manner. Esther, let's
kick things off of you give us more details on
this news story, and then Doug bren It come to
you for your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, this story is about a restaurant by the name
of Mela atl Restaurant and Lounge. It's an Ethiopian restaurant,
and the story is about a flyer that allegedly was
created by this restaurant. The flyer was flagged by a
user on x formerly known as Twitter, by the name
of Arthur Watkins Junior. He identifies himself as a litigant
(02:10):
with the American Freedman Legal Fund and Freedman Nation. He
posted this flier because it disturbed him so much, and
it basically was asking people to come to their MLK
Weekend celebration, but had a very explicit name, which I'm
not going to say on the air. The image was
(02:32):
altered an altered image of Martin Luther King Junior wearing
a gold medallion around his neck behind an altered image
of Rosa Parks, which appears to be on her knees
wearing lingerie. The post says that he alerted MLK Junior's daughter,
Bernice King, and she allegedly told him to take action
against the misuse of her father's image, and the restaurant
(02:53):
later released a statement saying that it did not approve
of the flyer and wasn't made aware of the situation
until January fifteenth. So that's where it's at right now.
They're saying they'd never they didn't know anything about it,
and the man who brought it out is saying that
this is disgusting and it's, you know, rather disturbing when
(03:14):
you see the image of the of the post.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Oh yeah, Doug. You know, there's a lot of angles
I can take on this one. But yeah, pretty disturbing story.
When I first heard it, you know, I will I
scratched my head. I'm like, okay, is this a joke
or something? I think there is an important point to
make if the restaurant indeed did produce this flyer. Now
(03:37):
I know and people who know Atlanta, Atlanta is spicy, okay,
but Atlanta has pride and they love their icons. So
my point is this Okay. So Arthur Watkins Junior, the
man who you know, uh unveiled this negative post, right,
he's connected, like Esther said, to the Freedoman Nation and
(03:59):
the American Free Legal Fund. Now there's significance in that
because American Freedoman is the term that the federal government
defined in the thirteenth Amendment pertaining to enslave people are Africans.
So there's a notion in some black communities that African
immigrants or folks from the African diaspora who may not
have gone through the systematic struggles that we have as
(04:22):
Black Americans don't quite understand, you know, what we've been through,
you know, and what our descendants have been through as well.
They haven't technically faced that, you know. You know, we've
heard the lazy stereotypes Africans say, oh, you know, Black
Americans are lazy. You know, we don't realize opportunity. You
(04:42):
know that we have in fun of us. And again
folks think that they don't get it, they don't understand again,
how this oppression has kept many of us in the hole.
So I want to say that it's an Ethiopian restaurant
and if they produce this flyer, it's indicative of this
kind of mindset that some African Americans have about Africans
(05:06):
and that they just really don't get our struggle. They
may be black like us, but they don't know because
they haven't been there. They're not like experiencing the same thing.
So again that's my opinion on it. You know, I
think it's I mean, we could look a lot of
different ways. It could be coming from a white supremacist
or extremist group or what have you. But I did
(05:26):
want to bring up this issue about you know, there
is some some issues between Black Americans and African descendants
or African immigrants.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
You know, as a former club nightclub DJ, sometimes we
would get asked to do gigs at restaurants that would
then do nightlife type events, day parties, or you know,
simply turning the menu down, the food menu down, and
turning the.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Bar menu up.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And in a lot of cases, a promoter was brought
in to do these things. And I'm thinking, I don't
know for sure because I didn't investigate it, but just
from what I saw that maybe the restaurant could have
not really known what the flyer was because a promoter
came in to do an event at the restaurant for MLK,
and the promoter put out a flyer without getting it
(06:15):
approved by the restaurant first. This is me trying to
give the maximum benefit of the doubt because I do
know some I actually know a lot of first and
second generation African immigrants who have a lot of love
for American black people and do understand our struggle and
what we've been through.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So I don't want to.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Just assume that they were grossly insensitive and put this
flyer out themselves. I'd like to imagine that a promoter
who thought it was funny, who thought he was doing
something he or she was doing something slick by putting
this flyer out and thought people would get some type
of kick out of it, maybe a young person who
doesn't have the proper reverence and level of respect for
(06:54):
our icon, and someone who really probably the most in
human history to move our collective calls forward, you know,
doctor Martin Luther King Junior. So that's just a different
perspective on that story. Up next, we head to Chicago
for another story involving white folks behaving badly and getting
(07:15):
caught in the act.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Doug.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
This time, let's start with you. Tell us more about
this story, and Nestra will come to you for you
to weigh in.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Well. The Chicago Blogger recently exposed that a white Cook County,
Illinois judge reportedly shared a racist meme that was apparently
taken from a TikTok video that shows a black boy,
clean cut, you know, good looking kid, smiling with the
nice fade, probably around six years old, wearing an ankle monitor,
mimicking the child toy company Little Tykes, in a digital
(07:45):
ad that reads my first ankle monitor. Wow. The woman
in question is Cook County Judge Carolyn Glennon Goodman, and
she's in some hot water right now. She's been temporarily
reassigned from her role as the Judicial Inquiry Board investigates.
Goodman said she intended to send the meme as a
joke to a friend, but mistakenly sent the meme to
(08:08):
another judge. Now just sin on that for a minute,
you know, sin on that that's a joke. Huh. And
this is someone that has prosecutorial power. Goodman was previously
a public defender for twenty years. She's now undergoing implicit
bias training, and the Chicago Bar Association has spoken out
(08:29):
condemning the meme.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Asther your thoughts, Well, this to me perpetuates the damaging
stereotypes and link black children to criminal behavior. So kind
of piggybacking on what jug was saying. So when a
judge circulates something like this, it not only validates these stereotypes,
but also contributes to the stigma to hate, stigma to
(08:55):
stigmatization of marginalization in black communities. Because this judge is
supposed to uphold fairness and the quality in the justice system.
It appears that from this image that she thought was
a joke, just kind of shows a lack of judgment
and that she has a bias against black boys, many
(09:15):
who are thrown into the system. For her, it reflects.
It just reflects that detaining and incarcerating black boys who
become black men is funny, and that that's terrifying as
a mom of a black boy and it's going to
be a black man, and that just it's concerning for
(09:36):
a lot of people that she would be allowed to
stay in a position knowing that to her, putting black
men in the system and essentially ruining their lives is
a joke. And that's really all I have to say
about it, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I think to your point esther, you know, we have
lots of conversations Q and myself, we have lots of
conversations about system invisible systems that are oppressive in their nature,
and they continue to affect outcomes for black people and
(10:12):
brown people and marginalized people in this country. And when
we talk about that, there's often a big swath of
the population that pushes back, almost like you and I
are talking about the Boogeyman, like it doesn't really exist
a system. Come on, you guys have this victim mentality system,
you know whatever. So I think stories like this help
to personify those systems. Now, this lady is an individual,
(10:38):
but she is one such individual representing a system that
has a certain bias built into it. So they are
the reason that black people get harsher sentences, longer sentences.
They collectively judges right impose harsher sentences on black people
(10:58):
relative to white people for this same crimes. This is
you could look this up and I think it's the
The FBI has the data on this, and this is
this is well researched. This isn't just my opinion, certainly
not que's opinion. And then they are a part of
a larger system where we include you know, police, we
(11:20):
include you know, uh, prison prison guards, we include uh,
you know, things and things external to that. You know.
We can talk about the school to prison pipeline. We
can talk about housing inequalities. We can go back to Redline.
We can find the source material of all this sort
of stuff. We can we can look at the war
on drugs, We can look at a lot of different
things that ties in politics and economics and education and
(11:43):
healthcare and all these things together. And uh, once you
have a human being at the center of a story,
I think it's a little bit easier for people to
recognize that a system can exist and it can be
fronted by a person.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
The reason reason that this one is a particular interest
to me is because recently we've had to have conversations
with our own black people who voted for the incoming
administration about exactly what that represents. Because many of the
(12:22):
people that cast their vote for him, I'd say a
good amount of people that voted for him did so
not because he's the best, you know, candidate, not because
he's going to lower the price of eggs or whatever.
It was that the complaint was a huge number of
people voted for him because he was going to slow
(12:42):
the dispossession of the United States of America away from
white people. That was the reason that they voted for him.
His policies, if implemented. I think that's a direct quote
from an interview from a gentleman who was voting for Trump,
even though he was an intellectual, recognized that Trump was
certainly less qualified than you know, the candidate that he
(13:05):
was running against, or the candidates that he was running
against in the primaries.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
And so.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
This story is one of many stories. This story is
of a woman who got caught. Let's not forget that
part too. You know, there's people that feel this way
that share these things that never get caught, and they're
at the front of a system. Look how many judges
are white, and look at how many judges are black,
and even some of the black judges are susceptible to
this same type of thinking, the same type of indoctrination,
(13:36):
if you will. And so these are things we need
to be aware about because in a democracy, the only
way that we can shape it is by voting. And
a lot of us didn't vote last time. And here
we are Black Information Network News anchors Esther Dillard and
Doug Davis are here with us discussing this week's major stories.
All right, new updates surrounding the Justice departments months long
(13:59):
investigation into the nineteen twenty one Tulsa race massacre made
headlines this week, and some of the findings from the
Justice Department's research on the case were disturbing. Esther, let's
come back to you for this one, share some more
info on the Justice Department's findings. And then Doug, obviously
we're going to come to you to get your thoughts next.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Well, I have to go back to kind of explain
this to give context. It appeared back in at first
that the nineteen twenty one Tulsa race massacre in Oklahoma
spontaneously irerupted from one incident, But the Department of Justice
just did a four month study and it concluded that
(14:36):
concluded on January tenth, that it was a coordinated, systemic
attack on the black community. And the initial thing that
supposedly started this Tulsa race massacre was an accusation of
a nineteen year old African American man by the name
of Dick Roland, and the word was that he assaulted
a white woman in an elevator that he was operating.
(14:58):
Yeah supposedly led to law enforcement in the area deputizing
dozens of white men in the area who were quote
looking to do a lynching in the area. And then
that group went on a rampage, going home to home,
business to business, shooting people, burning businesses and homes. And
(15:19):
the Department of Justice says that they interviewed historians, living
relatives of those who lived through this massacre. They went
through documents to piece together this entire story, and they
learned that it was a coordinated attack, that it was
in fact law enforcement that was the main coordinator of
this entire massacre that happened in Tulsa in nineteen twenty one. Unfortunately,
(15:43):
none of the people who were a part of this massacre,
that as far as the people that were deputized by
the law enforcement are alive today, so it appears no
one is accountable. But the fact that the DOJ did
this deep dive into it to explain kind of the
(16:06):
the underpinnings of what exactly happened is a really interesting thing,
and I think it's important that it's it's on the record,
and that's what I think is a really a good thing.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, Doug, Yeah, it is a positive thing. However, I mean, okay,
so from what I gathered, because the DOJ stated that
they can't prosecut anyone to late to the massacre, that
there's no way for them to award reparations to, you know,
the two beautiful sisters, the survivors, Viola Fletcher and Leslie
Benningham Randall. I think it is important for the DOJ
(16:39):
to not only acknowledge the painful part of our American history,
but to recommend that there's some sort of retribution to
be made, whether it be reparations in some form, something
has to be done. I mean, geez, let's just think
about it. The country's paid surviving members of the Japanese
community who were in turned during World War Two, twenty
(17:02):
grand each paid out reparations to Holocaust survivors, giving money
to and some land back to Indigenous Americans. So why
not us? You know why? Is what is so bad
about Black Americans or American freedmen that you can't even
repay us for the harms you put against us and
(17:22):
the things that we've done to build this country, to
build this country. We see the disparities. It's not hard
to understand. They get it. We get it too, But
they're not going to They're not going to repair anything
that they've done from our past. I hate to say
it like that. It's just my opinion, so you know,
(17:46):
I don't know. I'm very disturbed by this story and
by the results of the well not the results, but
the actions from the DOJ. I'm very disturbed.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
This country's original sin started with them deeming kidnapped, tortured
Africans as less than human as property. And the reason
why they haven't and never will provide us with any
type of restorative justice is because they feel they were wronged,
(18:22):
their property was taken away, they were the ones who
were treated unfairly, and because of that, other human beings
who were wronged got restorative justice, got some form of reparation.
We were property, called black people, because we were supposed
to permanently be property. That's what that was for the
(18:46):
white race, where the people, the black lives were supposed
to be permanently enslaved pieces of property. And as we
can see, some close to seventy million people are still
trying to reconcile how they can get their reparations for
(19:07):
having their property taken away, how this dei and reverse
racism is displacing them and making their lives.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Less fair and less equitable.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
So thank goodness for the Department of Justice letting us
know that it wasn't our imagination that we were wronged
in such a way and proven that it was a
system of the government law enforcement that worked against us
to take away from us. Again. However, no restorative justice
and no actual accountability just shows that the original sin
and the original thoughts are the same. We are less
(19:40):
than they are, We are worth less than they are.
We are less human and less deserving of the life, liberty,
and happiness pursuit that was promised to all men. They
were not talking about us, and they are still trying
to make that clear. For our final story time, talk
(20:00):
show host Wendy Williams made a rare appearance this week
on The Breakfast Club and discussed her current health status.
Needless to say, her comments and overall appearance raised a
few eyebrows. Doug, give us your thoughts on this story
and reaction to Wendy Williams interview, and then esther, We're
going to come to you to close us.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Out, all right, Yeah. Williams called into The Breakfast Club.
It was her first live interview since her conservatorship began.
She talked about her health issues, of course, her diagnosis
with dementia and other illnesses. She expressed that she feels
like she's in a luxury prison because of the restrictions
from her conservatorship, and that her guardian manages her entire life,
(20:38):
including you know, even how she spends her money and
where she lives. Williams also cleared up the rumor that
she's cognitively impaired. She said she's not, and the conditions
of her confinement are harsh. Again. Her niece even called
in to support her. She did talk about Sean Diddycombe's
legal problems. That said, and she said that the hammer's
(21:00):
gonna come down on the Diddler in a major way
and you'll probably never see the light of day again.
And then she finally broke down and said that she
talked about how she couldn't visit her dad on her
ninety fourth birthday, you know, because of her guardian sad
still praying for Wendy. It's just a very disappointing, uh,
(21:22):
not disappointing. I'm trying to find the right words. I'm
extremely empathetic and sympathetic about Wendy and what she's going
through right now, and I think most of us are. Man,
we just we just we just pray for her, man,
you know. That's that's I can't say a lot of center, Minister,
are a lot of emotions. But I remember her back in
(21:43):
the day when she was a fire starter in the nineties,
and to see her where she is now, man, it's
just wow. It's just mind blowing. Prayers out to Wendy esther.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
When I saw this, it reminded me, which is kind
of iron If you ever get a chance to go
to Netflix and see a movie, it's a short movie
called I care a lot, and it's about a woman
who shows up at the door of a woman who's
in her sixties or so with a piece of paper
and saying, you have to go to a facility because
(22:16):
your doctor says you're in mental decline, and now I'm
taking over as your caregiver. And the whole story is
like a bit of a nightmare where this woman's like
where what is going on? They put her basically in
a very pretty prison, and they sell off everything she has,
and they put the caregivers has like ten or more
(22:38):
people just like her on her wall, like trophies on
a wall, and they're pretty much living off of all
these people that they find that are elderly, that are quote,
they could take to the court and say, you know,
they are in mental decline, so they need a they
need a conservator. So to me, just the whole story
(23:00):
of Wendy is kind of a nightmare. I'm just wondering
if there are any checks and balances on this conservator
and who does that, because I'm kind of looking side
eye at some of this stuff that has happened under
the conservators leadership, part of it being that documentary, So
it just makes me wonder how the system, why the
(23:21):
system is the way it is. And when you have
Wendy crying saying she just wants to go see her
dad and for his birthday. He's about ninety some years old.
I guess our eighty seven years old. I can't remember
how old he is, but he's pretty much up there.
And she's like, no day, you know, nothing is promised
to us, whether he'll make another birthday, and they won't
(23:45):
let me out of here. And I was just like
really heartbroken listening to that. So it's just those are
the things that I wonder about. It just makes you
question the system. You know.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
One of the things that I never want to do.
I never want to be accused of. I never I
don't even want to touch it as being sort of
like talking out of both sides of my mouth. And
(24:18):
you know, our listeners know that. You know, my background
is in hip hop radio. I started on a show
called Friday Night Flavors where we played underground hip hop music.
You know, I'm a DJ q's of DJ and this
is kind of our origin story. Mine goes back a
little bit further though, and you know, I have an
(24:38):
older brother who's an MC and a group called Dilated
People's Right. So I've always been kind of connected through
him and his friends Exhibit and you know, Tash to alcoholics,
all these like West Coast legends, to the hip hop industry,
and then of course I became a radio personality. Over
(24:58):
the years, Wendy Williams has not been a name that,
in my story, has been associated with positivity. Wendy Williams's
name has been associated with often enough, the tearing down
of people and the embarrassing of people and that sort
of stuff. And that never really that that that was
(25:21):
always very unsettling. Now I have never said anything bad
about Wendy Williams. I'm not going to start today, But
I would be disingenuous if I was to offer more
than I could in this moment. I I I do
hope that her situation ends up better for her, because
(25:50):
you know, I don't wish anything bad on her. I
just I don't have enough to offer more than that.
It just it feels very sad that it would happen
to anybody. But again, in my story, Wendy Williams has
often been associated with a lot of pain for a
(26:13):
lot of people, a lot of families. I know Method
Man had to like she was making fun of Method
Man's wife. She was battling cancer and she'd lost her
hair and he was very upset by her comp There's
just stories like this, and of course I wish her
the best. It's not my way to really tear down,
you know. I always say tear down another black man,
but a black woman is obviously included in that. But
(26:39):
I don't want to say one thing without being true
to who I've been historically speaking. So what I will
say is I wish Wendy Williams the best. And I
can say that and it be consistent with the support
that I've given to these other artists over the years
when they've been at odds with or I don't want
(26:59):
to see any thing bad happen to anybody. I wish
Wendy Williams the best, and I hope that we can
all learn a lesson from what it is that she's
dealing with, so that we don't end up in that
same predicament, or our family or relatives don't end up
in that predicament. And that way I can be honest,
I can be true to myself, and I can be consistent,
which I try to be with, you know, the entirety
(27:20):
of my broadcasting career. So good luck to everyone involved,
and I'm going to have to leave that one right there.
As always, i'd like to thank you both very much
for your time and your insight, your brilliant responses, and
of course, you know, just taking us to places that
we probably wouldn't get to ourselves. Once again, Today's guests
(27:42):
or Black Information Network News anchors Esther Dillard and Doug Davis.
This has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback beature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribe and download all of our episodes. I am
your host Rams's Jaw on all social media. I am
(28:04):
q Ward on all social media as well. And we'll
be hosting another episode of Civic Cipher this weekend on
a station near you. For stations, showtimes, and podcast info,
Jeckciviccipher dot com and join us Monday as we share
our news with our voice from our perspective right here
on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
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