Episode Transcript
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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 Terry McCready and Kevin Brown to discuss this
week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast.
I'm your host ramses Jah and I'm your host q Ward.
All Right, Terry McCready and Kevin Brown. Welcome back to
(00:22):
the show. Terry, talk to me. What's the latest in
your world?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, this has just been a very interesting, sort of
I guess, preliminary look at what's going on with the
Trump administration. We've had you know, multi multi executive orders,
confusions in terms of memos, and federal funding freezes going on.
So it's just basically never a dull moment. We're on
(00:47):
our toes every single day.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Oh man, I know the feeling, Kevin Man, I'm sure
you're feeling something similar.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Oh my goodness, we are slow walking right and right
into a dictatorship. That's what it feels like.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I hope you're wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And before we get started, I do want to acknowledge
the plane crash that took place in DC for full coverage,
you please check the website bion News dot com. But
first up for today's episode, we are going to discuss
how Donald Trump continues to make front page news as
he uses executive orders to legislate changes in immigration policy, DEI,
(01:27):
the military, and more. However, some black leaders are now
beginning to weigh in and push back against the President,
including notable civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who recently shared
his thoughts on changes the DOJ plans to implement. Terry,
let's start with you give us some details on Ben
Crump's DOJ comments, and then Kevin and QB we're going
to get your thoughts after.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So ramsays, this is just a snapshot of how this
is impacting prosecutions. Ben Crump is commenting about how discouraging
it is, to say the least. He's conveying the frustration
that this action is eliciting. So in a memo to
the Civil Rights Division, they're being told that new civil
complaints and rolled into that is other civil rights related
(02:09):
items that may not be filed during a temporary freeze,
which is what's going on right now. Trump, I'm sorry,
rather Crump says, this is just profoundly disturbing for the
family of say Breonna Taylor, her mother is still awaiting
prosecution of those police officers involved in her murder. It's
an incident that happened at her Lousville, Kentucky apartment, and
(02:32):
so these officers lied on probable cause appidavit to enter
her home. It's a no knock warrant. So Taylor's mother
says that they are not going to give up. And
you know the bottom line is really that, you know,
freezing DOJ prosecutions feels just a bit like their condoning
criminal activity. And Crump says, you know, when they speak
(02:53):
with the mayor, so the approach is going to be
direct when making you know, any inferences about a consent
decree to say, you know, hopefully you don't condone what
happened to Brehanna. So let's remember she was an innocent,
twenty six year old black woman who I believe was
shot eight times. So this is very serious where we're heading.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, Kevin, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
The other side of the coin is the other descent
decrees or places like Louisville, Kentucky, Minneapolis, Chicago have all
been under the DOJ descent decrees because of the way
those police departments handle their interactions with citizens, So all
(03:37):
of those things are now paused. And the other side
of the coin, which I find intriguing, is the silence
and the lack of a consistent and laser focused messaging
from the Democratic side. As all of these initiatives are
coming through, there doesn't seem to be a cohesive rallying
(04:02):
of the troops to address all of these shortcomings. Ben
Crump is obviously looking out for his clients, for the
best interest of his clients, but for the larger issues
about what this means nationwide. I'm concerned that there's a
(04:25):
lack of message coming from the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I want to echo what Kevin saying.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
It seems like from election day the Democratic Party just
folded up and went home. I know it feels like
an insurmountable stacked deck by the opposition, but people do
want some leadership and some guidance and some next steps.
In the Democratic Party, I think is failing and showing
up with any type of resistance. You have outliers like
(04:57):
Jasmine Crockett who speak up loudly. As a collective, the
party seems to have just wiped their hands and say Okay,
we lost and just retreated to the back and are
watching Trump's administration and the GOP kind of do what
they want.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I'm glad that there are.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Some judges, some litigators, and you know, a small number
of legislators who are not just giving up, you know
what I mean. But I think part of people's anxiety
and stress and fear coming from there being no clear
message on what's next and what we're supposed to do
to oppose all these things that seem or that are
(05:33):
just generally unfair and attacking to a lot of people
who felt a lot of disappointment in the wake of
the election. Up next, Harvard University is back in the
news again, and this time the story involves staffing changes
for its slavery remembrance program. Kevin, I'm gonna start with
you this time. Give us some insight on this story,
(05:54):
and the terry will come to you and rams us next.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
I my, my, this is a fascinating story. Well, and
it seems like a lifetime ago. Harvard came to the
conclusion that, you know, the school, looking at their history,
(06:17):
had was pretty active in the slavery market, and as
a result, they came to the conclusion that, you know, well,
maybe we ought to since the school has been built
on the backs of slaves. Maybe the descendants should be
given an opportunity to benefit from their ancestors hard work. Well,
(06:40):
on paper, it seemed like a good idea, but how
things have changed. They have the slavery Remembrance program has
been dismantled. It was supported with one hundred million dollars,
but the university decided that leadership, faculty, and staff should
(07:04):
not participate. Matter of fact, the head of the program said,
four months ago he was told not to find people.
Could you find fewer people as you're going through this process?
Ultimately three hundred people were found descendants of slaves, and
(07:30):
they just decided on the twenty third of January, to
reading the political feeling, the political wins, that they would
on January twenty third dismantle the entire, the entire program.
This is also under that DEI wink Wink umbrella. So
(07:56):
here we are, here we are, and more of this
to come.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Jerry, Well, as they say in the sound of music,
let's start from the very beginning. So this transferring the
Enslaved Descendant i D program to the third party American
ancestors was just fairly blatant right from the beginning, as
Kevin said, you know all of this, you know, research
(08:23):
happened with these members shown the door at the very end.
These were the people who were the boots on the
ground helping Harvard with this genealogical work in iding descendants
of enslaved people of their founders. So no good deed
goes unpunished. This move does seem rather sudden. It was
(08:46):
certainly arbitrary. So the newspaper, The Crimson says that there
were no further discussions about any layoffs. And so when
you know, the HSRP discovered the several hundred people enslaved
by the founders, this was between sixteen sixty and eighteen
eighty five, then suddenly, yes, all the bells and whistles
(09:06):
went off. So yes, that is the caveat is just
you know, too many descendants, not enough time, very cryptic.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You know. The thing about this one that.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Kind of bothers me is that the argument that a
lot of these a lot of people on the right,
a lot of people that oppose reparations, whether or not
they're on the right, that they have the argument is that, well,
you didn't participate in slavery, you weren't a slave. Why
should you get reparations for work that you didn't do?
(09:41):
You know, sort of what's holding you back? And of
course they're being, you know, to quote something you would say,
intellectually dishonest. You know, they're ignoring, leap frogging over the
benefits of having generations of inheritance make its way to
(10:03):
you potentially. And you know, you end up in a
place like Harvard, where you know, the systems that have
come about over the time that this country's existed.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
They work against you. They absolutely work against you.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
And when you're having conversations with people that don't want
to hear that, that that are not willing to even
entertain the idea of it, they simply say, you're not
a slave, you don't get any you don't deserve anything.
You you feel like you're kind of fighting a losing battle,
especially when there's a lot of them over there. It's
if they're not willing to have that conversation, it's a
(10:48):
really tough it's really tough to get around that. But
then you have this institution, Harvard itself, saying hey, you
know what, we've got blood on our hands. We've we've
participated in this country's original sin, we will take steps
to remedy that. And I believe that, you know, while
I've been very critical of a lot of companies, private companies,
(11:12):
and they're about face with respect to DEI I believe
that when it comes to institutions like Harvard, they may
have their hands tied. You know, I kind of peek
behind the curtain, and I'm no lawyer. I don't know anything,
and of course no one's getting a free pass for me.
But I understand it a little bit better, a little
bit more, I should say, because you know, for institutions
(11:35):
that rely on you know, federal funding, grants, things like that,
when there's a new federal administration and power, it's almost
like they kind of have to play ball, and anything
that might cause them to find themselves in the line
of fire, they have to kind of adjust. And so
what they did was they transferred this effort to one
(11:58):
of their partners to continue the work. And my hope
is that they'll revisit it and at a point in
the future when there's an administration that understands, indeed what
the effects of slavery were and is not intentionally being
intellectually dishonest with black people and with the rest of
(12:19):
us in the country.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And so.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
My hope is that Harvard will continue the good work
at a time when during a season when the work
can be fruitful.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
The Harvard endowment is a zillion dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
That's fair. That's more than fair. But you know, here's
a little bit of grace that I got. You know,
I said, nobody's getting a prepass. But that's the tiny
bit of grace that I had.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yes, and I understand that they have enough money for
this lifetime.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And the next, and that's when they were able to
give back something to black volks.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
But you know, again, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Black Information Network news anchors Terry McCready and Kevin Brown
are here with us discussing this week's major stories. All right,
next up, Ice raids topped the headlines this week as
enforcement agents began apprehending people they deemed as illegal immigrants
in several sanctuary cities. There's a lot of controversy surrounding
this policy, and there's also a lot of confusion about
(13:22):
why it's happening. Terry, let's come back to you to
start this segment. Give us a quick summary on the
latest info on what's happening with these raids, and then
Kevin and Q of course we're gonna hear from you
as well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yes, it's been pretty brutal for municipalities like you know,
New York, Jersey, Phoenix, Denver, Miami, Atlanta. Officials are in
a very very precarious position of defending civilians but also
really wanting to legitimately cooperate to drive out criminal actors.
But in New Jersey, for example, there was a workplace raid.
(13:52):
It was a small business, and so the mayor there,
Black Mayor Rosparaka, describes people being fingerprinted and IDs being taken,
and so really this is just scratching the surface. This
is just the beginning. ICE has arrested hundreds of people nationwide.
Question is, so what is the goal? Is the priority
violent criminals or is the mission to just drive scared,
(14:14):
hard working families. We're talking about women and children out
of the shadows. I've heard some Republicans say, well everyone
is fair game. If you enter the country illegally, you're
a criminal. So that means we can't expect any grace,
you know, or any sanctuary at churches, hospitals, or schools.
I think we need Atticus Finch to help us out,
(14:35):
because this argument is, you know, you know, pretty obscure
violent criminals, does not you know, sort of describe what
it is to enter the country because you're fleeing for
your life, You're fleeing persecution, so you come to America.
So I think that term is being tossed around rather loosely.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Heaven, I'm waiting for the raids at slaughterhouses, at beef
and meat processing plants that depend on immigrants for labor farms.
I haven't seen or heard any of these companies or
corporations being affected by this frenzy to eradicate criminals and
(15:27):
illegals from the States. Thus far, it seems to be
very selective. And because doctor phil was given access to
a raid in Chicago, actually allowed to ride along with
federal officials and film and question someone who was detained,
(15:55):
it leads me to believe that much Ado about nothing
television show. Because the president is of the reality TV show.
He has a background and understands how important images are
(16:16):
to achieving goals, and this is something that the Democrats
still don't understand. This comes back to my original point.
There are no optics that you can look at, and
there's no message coming from the other side saying hey,
this is wrong.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Watching the president act in bad faith, wrapping it in
the propaganda of trying to rid the country of criminals
and bad actors is laughable considering the way that he's
doing it. We shared on another show, you know that
my children's school sent me a notice that we should
(16:59):
prepare for there to be raids. My children are five
and seven years old. So we're going to go and
to this criminal sanctuary elementary school and root out all
the bad actors. Is a pretty ridiculous thing to say
when you say it that way. And what will realize
is that what this will cost taxpayers, This, as Kevin
(17:23):
said so brilliantly, this television show, this propaganda camera pointed
at pretend to be looking for something bad television show
will cost us far more than the taxes they say
immigrants aren't paying here. So this was never about trying
to do the right thing. This was never about acting
(17:44):
in good faith to try to rid the country of
criminals and bad actors. This was always a way to
placate his base. We're going to point cameras at all
the people that we hate, other them and call them criminals.
And make a show of mass deportation, a very inefficient
and effective way to tackle the problem that he says
(18:05):
we're facing from these people who hold up so many
industries in this country. Talk to so again, we're talking
circles about this. I'm hoping for only four years according
to the GOP. Maybe there's three, four or five more
terms coming for President Trump. But I don't want to
take us down that doom and glue water slide, So
(18:27):
I'll move on. Our final story today falls under the
umbrella of Republicans behaving badly towards black people. Now that
Trump has returned to office, I'm sure we'll have plenty
of stories.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
In this week.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Kevin share with the audience more about the story involving
one governor's choice to forget to exclude an HBCU from
his fiscal budget, and then Terry and Rambs, I'll follow
up with you guys.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Well, well, well, this happened in Indiana, Mississippi, where Martin University,
predominantly black school, started receiving state funding about two years ago,
and this year Republican Governor Mike Brown in the latest
(19:13):
budget left the university out of funding. State Representative Gregor
reporter said it's racist, which it is. For quite some time,
not only in Indiana, but all over the country. When
(19:35):
it came time for state budgets to allocate funds for
state schools, black schools were shortchanged. However, black people in
those states continued to pay taxes well, well, well, and
(19:57):
fortunately Representative Gregory reporter.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Said what needed to.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Be said, which is it's racist. And unfortunately, I see
a lot more of this coming because matter of fact,
a lot of these schools, a lot of these states,
oh black schools have underfunded these black schools for decades
(20:29):
and owe them billions of dollars, and this is an
attempt to sweep it under the rug I wish. I
was surprised by that, Terry. Can you give us some more.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, this is really a decision by design because the
fish rot from the top. Braun signed an executive order
to eliminate DEI programs. So this is a death knell
for a struggling institution like Martin. But it remains, you know,
unclear whether or not officials there have actually inquired about assistance.
(21:06):
The budget also doesn't include funding for what they're calling
the College Success Program, which received about five million dollars.
That was in twenty twenty three, and that went toward
first generation students and minorities. But the big picture is
the landscape. The landscape is just being radically changed. And
so perhaps now we'll see more grassroots initiatives coming down
(21:28):
the pike, like black sororities and fraternities, black business organizations
and entrepreneurs leaning in to help problem solve. And by
the way, I think what the Democrats are doing right
now right now are just sort of playing it cool,
waiting for the midterms, just to go in there and
clean house.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
At least.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I hope that's what's going to happen. That's what I hear,
that they're really planning to, you know, really build up
and come back strong in a couple of years.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
Fingers are cross, terrier, I hope tell you that you're right, Yeah,
can you close us off?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
I was going to say that. I hope that that's true.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Just kind of watching everything happen, not not just these stories,
but all the stories that we look at it it
feels like, Okay, the buildings are coming down, the fires
are blazing, you know, here we go and then there's
some there there are you know, to Ques earlier point.
There are some standout individuals out there. You know, Ben
(22:27):
Crump was was here in town yesterday where we are,
and he was meeting with our lawyer, and so we
were kind of privy to to that meeting. And so
there's there's conversations that we're aware of.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
Of individuals, you know, doing things.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
But you know, Democrats as as a whole, it's I
think that while they licked their wounds, they got a
bear in mind that their supporters, their their base is
dealing with a lot of hopeless right now, and it's
far too easy for people to give in to despair
(23:05):
and accept their reality as a new normal. I know
I've certainly knocked on that door myself, and without clear
leadership and well defined, a well defined path forward, hope
and hopelessness, hope and or hope and dissipates and hopelessness
sets in, as what I mean to say, and so
(23:28):
so yeah, I'm hoping that you're right. It feels like
that's a more plausible explanation than what it seemed like
prior to that, which is that you know, Democrats are
just like Okay, well, maybe Gavin Newsom in a few years,
but for now, let's just let them do what they
want to do, because that I mean, these people are
so passionate and they fought so hard for decades. You know,
(23:49):
these are career politicians, and again the standout individuals have
certainly been guiding lights. But as a whole, it'd be
really nice to to see that strategy not only come together,
but be effective in the midterms and clod back some
of the control of this country's derailment. So here's hoping.
(24:12):
But for now, I'd like to thank you all very
much for your time and your insight into these stories.
It's always a joy, and hopefully we'll do it again
sooner than later.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Once again.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Today's guests are Black Information Network news anchors Terry McCready
and Kevin Brown. 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
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be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I'm your host Ramsey's Jaw on.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
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 share our news with our voice from
our perspective right here on the Black Information Network Daily
Podcast