June 17, 2024 • 23 mins
Brand Journalist Mimi Brown joins Ramses Ja on today's episode to review some of the big new stories from the past weekend
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here at the Black Information Network, we know how important
it is for you to start your week.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Off energized, engaged, and enlightened.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
There are always major stories that break over the weekend,
and we feel you should know about the ones we
are talking about today, So stay tuned for our weekend
recap featuring BN News anchor Mimi Brown. This is the
Black Information Network Daily Podcast and I'm your host, ramses Jah.
All right, Mimi, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
How have you been?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I've been great. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
How are you man? Listened? Yesterday it was Father's Day.
I am.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In a good, happy place. I got a lot to
be grateful for, so thank you for asking. But you know,
I know that we've kept the people waiting long enough.
Let's get to the news. So first up from mother
Jones dot com. Last week, we witnessed Rudy Giuliani's a
parent attempt to convince the Christian right to help him
amid his dire financial troubles. That effort saw Giuliani airing crude,
(00:53):
conspiratorial rhetoric before the Faithful, which at one point saw
Guliani calling Fannie Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney and
Donald Trump's Georgia case a hoe. Now, Willis is responding,
condemning the conservative critics who have relentlessly targeted her since
you took on Trump's Georgia election interference case. While speaking
the leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia,
(01:14):
Willis appeared to single out the former New York City
Mayor's denigrating remarks. She declined to call out Giuliani by name,
but the subject of her remarks was evident. Quote, I've
lived the experience of a black woman who was attacked
and over sexualized.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
See.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I am so tired of hearing these idiots call my
name is Fanny in a way to attempt to humiliate me,
because like silly schoolboys, the name reminds them of a
woman's rear or her behind.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This was in.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Response to Giuliani saying, quote, I'm not calling her Bonnie,
he said last week, mocking the pronunciation of Willis's name.
I could drop the whole part if she'd just quit
and go away. But to me, if you spell your
name fa Ni, your name is Fanny end quote.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So obviously that was a very low.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Blow from Giuliani and Fannie Willis is I guess taking
it in stride. What were your thoughts in terms of
how she was dealing with that, or first your thoughts
and how that Giuliani headline hits.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
You Giuliani to probably go somewhere and worry about his
financial troubles. It seems like he is worried about all
the wrong things. And it seemed to me that he's
just picking on somebody to rile up the base to
get them going, because you know, what does that have
(02:39):
to do with anything?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Literally?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
You know what I mean, like, what is the argument here?
So her name is Fannie, and I take take really,
my mother's name is Fanny, Okay. And so when I
read this, I was like, you know, so this is
so And I mentioned it.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
To her and she was like, yeah, I've heard it all.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
You know, this is such a sixth grade argument on
the playground, Like, oh, a six.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Grade argument from like the fifties.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Right exactly, And that's exactly what she said growing up.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know, I've heard it all.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Like I don't expect anything else from Rudy Giliani. Let
me just say that, but I do think him calling
her a hoe. You know, yes, black women are over sexualized.
You know, just all the things that she said I
stand in agreement with. I think that there's so much
that he could be focused on. I mean, you know,
(03:32):
Trump is in all kinds of legal trouble. You know,
are you even a lawyer anymore? Is it even an
attorney anymore? I mean, there's just so many things going
on where he should be focusing on himself and not this.
Like I just don't understand why he woke up and
chose this to focus on.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, honestly, you know, I think you put it quite well.
He's got a lot to worry about from what I understand.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
At that event they give send go.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
He only raised sixty one thousand dollars, so you know,
and Donald Trump's not helping him out, and we all
saw that coming. And you know, again this this word
Fanny Fani and like I kind of understand, you know,
Fanny maybe, but again, like that's that's something from like
(04:23):
the sixty Nobody's said that in a lifetime, you know
what I mean. And the truth is there's people named Richard,
and then there's a nickname for Richard, right, and so
you know it's and then the word ho, let's go,
let's let's go there, the word ho typically implies either
(04:49):
a woman who has sex for money maybe, or a
woman who is promiscuous or whatever. This is a woman
who had a boyfriend who was also sharing the same
passion and work schedule as her, which is typically how
you meet someone, you know what I mean, You meet
someone who shared passion, someone that you know has something
in common with you. So for her sexuality, for her
(05:14):
romantic life to be on display, for him to deduce
from that that she's a hoe just shows exactly her
point that black.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Women are over sexualized.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Like if she would have been pregnant or something, they
would have probably made a big deal out of that.
Anything short of being married for a very long time
can be, you know, problematic, because I remember that when
Barack and Michelle Obama, when Barack was still campaigning, people
would refer to Michelle Obama as his baby mama instead
of his wife. Right now, that they've been in the
(05:46):
public spotlight for such a long time, they would never
do such a thing because they've been established in that
way for such a long time. But you know, it's
hard for black women to get the respect that they deserve.
And that came from Fox News, by the way call
him calling her his baby mama. So really it's the right.
You know, you see a lot of the disrespect for
(06:07):
black people coming from the right, like the out loud disrespect.
I'm not going to say that, you know, the left
is blameless in their disrespect, but when you the insulting
stuff like okay, y'all know better than that, that typically
comes from the right. And it turns out that the
right doesn't respect Juliani either. So I think your point
is well made in that he needs to go somewhere
and focus on his real issues.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Can I just say one more thing too, I just
think it's also important that when addressing Fannie Willis, you know,
everyone including the right, need to put some respect on
her name because she is the District Attorney of Fulton County,
which encompasses like fifteen cities. Right, She graduated from Howard University,
went to Emory Law School. There's just so many things
about her, you know, and we want to take this
(06:49):
one incident and make it bigger than life. When we
are forgetting or they are forgetting her accomplishments. I don't
think we are, but I think that they want to
take that and focus in on that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Sure, and I'll take it a step father. She didn't
do anything illegal. She didn't even really do anything wrong.
You know, there's not even any rules that say, you
know what I mean, like, there's there's no real insofar
as I can tell, there's no real conflict of interest. Now,
to be fair, I did speak with a lawyer, and
a lawyer told me that, you know, if I was
(07:19):
on the opposite side of that, I would be doing
the same thing, you know, providing some sort of defense
for Trump. I'd try to pick apart the nature of
that relationship or whatever. And so in terms of a
legal strategy, sure, you can try to convince a judge
that maybe there is a conflict of interest, but the
truth of the matter is that, you know, it might
be a little too close for comfort for some people,
but there's not even anything wrong there, you know what
(07:42):
I mean. So, yeah, but you know, they'll take they'll
exploit any gap that they can, you know, instead of
focusing on the fact that this man tried to steal
an election, like, oh, she had a boyfriend who worked
on the same case.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
There might be something there, let's go, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So, again, your point is well made. Moving on next
step from Foxnews dot Com. Yeah, I know, but hear
me up. On June fourth, Mayor Eric Adams sent a
letter to Comb's that would be Sean Ditty Combs, informing
him that the key to the City of New York
had been rescinded and requested its immediate return. Copies of
(08:22):
the letter were mailed to the Rappers Company, Comb's Enterprises
LLC's offices in New York and in Los Angeles. Fabian Levy,
Deputy Mayor for Communications, confirmed the Fox News Digital on
Saturday that the key had been returned to the possession
of the city on June tenth, quote, Like many people,
I was deeply disturbed by recent footage of Sean Didtycomb's
(08:44):
assaulting his then partner. I strongly condemned these actions and
stand in solidarity with all survivors of domestic and gender
based violence. Our city has worked tirelessly to make sure
survivors are heard and seen by our administration. Goes on
to say, after internal deliberates, the Key to the City
of New York committee recommended nullifying and rescinding mister Combs's key. So, yeah,
(09:09):
you know, when it rains it poors man it's all
crumbling down around around Diddy. How did this one?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, you know, I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think I did a story about three weeks ago
where the committee was deliberating on what they were going
to what they were going to do, if they were
going to take it back or if they were going
to allow him to keep it. They said, they've never rescinded,
you know, a key before, but I think in this
case it was warranted. I mean, the award is a
symbol of civic recognition, for gratitude reserve for individuals whose
(09:42):
service to the public and the common good rises to
the highest level of achievement. That's according to the press
release that they put out for this, and you know,
before we knew what we knew, Yes, perhaps those things
applyed to Diddy, But what rings true now is that
he is the subject of you know, eight civil lawsuits,
(10:03):
that there's a federal investigation where they're preparing to bring
accusers before federal grand jury, you know, and all of
that signals the Justice Department is moving toward potentially seeking
an indictment.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I mean, we've all.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Seen the video now of him and Cassi see at
the hotel room there are other people who have come forward.
So I just think that there are you know, some
some some truth.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
To what we're seeing.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And so if you're going to give somebody the key
to the city, they've got to be you know, what
you think they are, and not have so many surprises
behind the veil. So you know, I think that they
did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Sure, yeah, you know, I've seen.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
That this isn't the only thing.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
You know, he's lost all of not all, but you know,
much of his his sponsorships and his business deals. Howard
revoked his honorary degree. They returned his million dollar scholarship
or sorry, disbanded his scholarship, and returned to his million
(11:10):
dollar donation.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
They said the donation was never given. Actually it was
just kind of like you know.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Offered maybe offered yes, okay, but you know they've decided
that they don't want that money, and then yes, and yeah,
there's just it's it's it's all crumbling down.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Join us for the National Urban League Conference in New
Orleans July twenty fourth through the twenty seventh at High
ad Regency, New Orleans. Don't miss out register today and
nuilconference dot org.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
B I in news brand anchor Mimi Brown is here
with us discussing the weekends major stories. All Right, some
good news. Maryland Governor Wes Moore will be issuing a
mass pardon for more than one hundred and seventy five
thousand marijuana convictions today. The pardons will be one of
the country's biggest acts of clemency involving the drug that's
(12:07):
now widely used recreationally. In an interview with The Washington Post,
More said it will be a step to heal decades
of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harm people of color.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I'm ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what
I'm signing to write a lot of historical wrongs.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
He goes on to say, quote, if you want to
be able to create inclusive economic growth, it means you
have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately
sit on the communities of color. I kind of love
this story, and I feel like this is a strong
case for voting in local elections. And I know that
(12:47):
this probably hits you in the same way, So give
us your thoughts here.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Absolutely, I lived in Maryland, and so when I saw this,
you know, I was just like, Wow, this is because
I know the communities that this will affect. You know,
when you read this, it tells you about Baltimore being
hit super hard with a lot of these convictions, as
well as Prince George's County, which is where I lived,
and you know, there was nothing but black people there.
(13:12):
You know, of course Baltimore is gonna it affects them
a lot more, but a lot of Prince George's County
will be affected by this, you know, And both of
those cities or counties have a history of over policing
black communities. So you know, there's only I think there
was something like it's over seventy percent of the male
population of Maryland's male population is black, even though excuse me,
(13:38):
seventy percent of the jail population, even though the male
population makes up only thirty three percent. So and a
lot of those this will do wonders for them because
it will it will get rid of their record. But
I was reading somewhere too which I really wanted to
make clear that even though this will harden their conviction,
(14:00):
they have to file for an expungement.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
So they have to. So this affects you in any
kind of way, you have to file.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
The paperwork for this to actually leave your record, but
you will be pardoned from the conviction. But if you
want to go somewhere and apply for something, you need
to file for that expungement.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Sure, but you know that's again, that's not nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
That's nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So, and you know what it's I think that when
you have a black governor who can appreciate the optics
of the war on drugs and can appreciate the effect
of the War on drugs on black people and can
(14:47):
have a very honest conversation with himself about whether or
not that was effective, did it bring about good or
did it bring about harm? Because the war on drugs
was won by drugs. It wasn't one by people, you
know what I mean. Drugs have never gone away. The
DARE program never changed any outcomes, and all it did
was put black people in jail. That's really it. And
(15:09):
the truth of the matter is that, you know, we
know that the original like push to really heavily criminalize
marijuana use was done to disrupt the Black power and
the hippie movements, you know what I mean. This was
on this is on record. I believe it was the
director of the CIA or something like that under maybe
(15:30):
the Nixon or the Reagan administration, one of the two.
It's on record saying that that's exactly the purpose of
criminalizing marijuana, so that they can disrupt the black power movement.
So when you look at the result of you know,
the war on drugs, and you look at the result
of all these convictions, has it shaped outcomes?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Has it done?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
You know, especially when it comes to marijuana, which is
not it's not even it's it's not even schedule it's
what they changed the schedule from schedule one to schedule three,
Schedule three.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
There you go, So.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You know, and then you know, hindsight is twenty twenty
you look back and you're like, dang, you went to
jail for a WE charge, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Like that was and it's it's just to just to
to even point that out, is that you cannot in
good conscious in twenty twenty four send somebody to jail
for a WE charge when there are dispensaries on almost
every corner.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Now, you see, yeah, and so for that charge to
keep people from you, you have to look back and say,
you know what that was wrong? We you know, the
the criminalization of marijuana started maybe in the twenties, maybe
even earlier, and it was by propaganda by the tobacco
(16:47):
companies because they wanted to be the main whatever it was,
the main supplier vocable products in the country and in
the world, and so there was this campaign, if I
remember correctly, I've seen this years ago, some documentary on it.
But basically there was this campaign where they were targeting
(17:07):
jazz musicians again, black people and all this other sort
of stuff, and they were trying to associate marijuana with
like criminality and moral behavior, and then all these health
consequences from smoking marijuana. And the truth is the tobacco
companies were the ones that were causing all these health outcomes.
(17:29):
But because they were funding bogus science and so forth,
they convinced lawmakers to relegate marijuana to like more of
the fringe, right, and so tobacco became the main smokable substance.
And you know, that was true for many years, and
then millions of people died smoking cigarettes, you know, and
(17:51):
you know, in the history of marijuana, not one person
has ever died from smoking marijuana.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
You know, alcohol was.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Illegal for a moment, but for the most part, it's
been legal throughout the country's history, and I believe Snoop
said it best. You can put a bunch of dudes
from rival gangs in a room with a bunch of alcohol,
and you can put the same bunch of dudes in
a room with some weed. And if you put them
in an alcohol room, they're going to drink it up
and eventually they're gonna start fighting each other. You put
(18:18):
them in a room with a bunch of weed, eventually
they're going to start freestyling. And you know what I'm saying,
like laughing and at every joke and eating up all
the food, you know what I mean. So you get
to see that we really can look back on this
and say this was wrong the whole time, and this
affected disproportionately these communities of color on purpose, and we
(18:39):
need to make that right. And a black person in
a position of power that understands and appreciates those optics,
with the position to make those changes, is doing something
about it. And this is why I say local elections
matter because you can take all that into context and
you don't have to worry about the insecurities or the
fears or whatever the sensibilities of people who haven't walk
(19:00):
that path, who haven't directly seen their community ravaged by Again,
we charges so you know, voting your local elections. We
are definitely celebrating for June teenth, and just know that
this is the way you repair decades of harm.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
All right.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Finally, this from the Black Information Network and attraction featuring
Princess Tiana, Disney's first black princess, will soon replace a
ride with the racist ties at Walt Disney World in
Florida and California's Disneyland. According to the Associated Press, Tiana's
Bayou Adventure is set to debut at both theme parks
on June twenty eighth. The ride is replacing Splash Mountain,
which was based on a movie with racist undertones. Disney
(19:40):
initially announced that they would be reimagining Splash Mountain in
twenty twenty, amid widespread criticism over the ride's connection to
the controversial Song of the South. Over twenty thousand people
signed a petition urging the company to address Splash Mountain's
outdated and offensive themes. Amid Disney's decision to make Princess
Tiana the star of its new a team conducted research
(20:01):
trips to New Orleans. To capture the city's essence in
the attraction. According to reports, Keianus Bayou Adventure preserves the
essence of log ride experience of Splash Mountain while including
the updated storyline from the two thousand and nine film,
The Princess and the Frog Writers will be transported into
nineteen twenties New Orleans with music, scenery, and characters from
the film. So I've been waiting for your thoughts on
(20:24):
this year.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Talk to me, you know, So just to get.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
A little bit of background, when Disney first decided that
they were gonna make Tiana their first black princess, they
actually invited me out and allowed me to tour the
resorts and see all the things that they were doing.
And this was before the ride actually came out. They've
been working on this for a really long time. That
maybe was like a year almost two years ago when
(20:50):
they first started this big rollout with Princess Tiana.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And I have to say, you know, at first, I was.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Like, oh, kind of like the statues, like okay, it's
just you know, do we really mean it? But I
have to say it's Disney and the people that I
met were really intentional about replacing this and making this
something that was more inclusive for everybody, and so for
me and my little niece Abigail, I think that this
(21:18):
is amazing. I think it's very important for little black
girls to see themselves in.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Disney princesses and all the things. You know.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I felt this way when The Little Mermaid came out.
You know, I think that representation is everything, and so,
you know, I think that a lot of things in
America are rooted in racism, a lot of things that
you just wouldn't even think about. You're thinking, yeah, but
who's thinking that a ride of Disney World or Disneyland,
you know, from nineteen forty six has been named after
(21:51):
the song of the South that's deeply rooted in No
one's thinking that you're just getting on Splash Mountain with
your hands up ready to go down the slide, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
And so well, you know, I just think.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
That once we start unpacking all the layers, you know,
not specific to Disney, but unpacking all the layers of everything,
there are probably so many bodies buried that you will be,
you know, amazed, just to kind of realize that this is,
you know, something we do every day is probably deeply
rooted in racism. So kudos to Disney for doing this
(22:22):
for you know people. You know, yes, black little girls
will benefit off of this, but I think people in general,
we just need to go back and clean it all up,
all of it, start from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Just tear it all down and build it back up.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Hey, that's what I'm on. I like that energy. Burn
it all down and send it all crumbling to the ground.
Let's build something that includes all of our input and
contributions and that has a history that we can all
be proud of and that we can all stand by.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, so let's burn it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
With that in mind, we'll leave that one right there
before I get my bullhorn out and start protesting again.
As always, i'd like to thank you for your time
and your insight. Once again, today's guest is being in
News anchor Memi Brown. This has been a production of
the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson.
(23:14):
Have some thoughts you'd like to share, use the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there,
be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I'm your host.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Ramsey's job on all social media and join us tomorrow
as we share our news with our voice from our
perspective right here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
Here at the Black Information Network, we know how important
it is for you to start your week.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Off energized, engaged, and enlightened.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
There are always major stories that break over the weekend,
and we feel you should know about the ones we
are talking about today, So stay tuned for our weekend
recap featuring BN News anchor Mimi Brown. This is the
Black Information Network Daily Podcast and I'm your host, ramses Jah.
All right, Mimi, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
How have you been?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I've been great. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
How are you man? Listened? Yesterday it was Father's Day.
I am.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In a good, happy place. I got a lot to
be grateful for, so thank you for asking. But you know,
I know that we've kept the people waiting long enough.
Let's get to the news. So first up from mother
Jones dot com. Last week, we witnessed Rudy Giuliani's a
parent attempt to convince the Christian right to help him
amid his dire financial troubles. That effort saw Giuliani airing crude,
(00:53):
conspiratorial rhetoric before the Faithful, which at one point saw
Guliani calling Fannie Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney and
Donald Trump's Georgia case a hoe. Now, Willis is responding,
condemning the conservative critics who have relentlessly targeted her since
you took on Trump's Georgia election interference case. While speaking
the leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia,
(01:14):
Willis appeared to single out the former New York City
Mayor's denigrating remarks. She declined to call out Giuliani by name,
but the subject of her remarks was evident. Quote, I've
lived the experience of a black woman who was attacked
and over sexualized.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
See.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I am so tired of hearing these idiots call my
name is Fanny in a way to attempt to humiliate me,
because like silly schoolboys, the name reminds them of a
woman's rear or her behind.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This was in.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Response to Giuliani saying, quote, I'm not calling her Bonnie,
he said last week, mocking the pronunciation of Willis's name.
I could drop the whole part if she'd just quit
and go away. But to me, if you spell your
name fa Ni, your name is Fanny end quote.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So obviously that was a very low.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Blow from Giuliani and Fannie Willis is I guess taking
it in stride. What were your thoughts in terms of
how she was dealing with that, or first your thoughts
and how that Giuliani headline hits.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
You Giuliani to probably go somewhere and worry about his
financial troubles. It seems like he is worried about all
the wrong things. And it seemed to me that he's
just picking on somebody to rile up the base to
get them going, because you know, what does that have
(02:39):
to do with anything?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Literally?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
You know what I mean, like, what is the argument here?
So her name is Fannie, and I take take really,
my mother's name is Fanny, Okay. And so when I
read this, I was like, you know, so this is
so And I mentioned it.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
To her and she was like, yeah, I've heard it all.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
You know, this is such a sixth grade argument on
the playground, Like, oh, a six.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Grade argument from like the fifties.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Right exactly, And that's exactly what she said growing up.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know, I've heard it all.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Like I don't expect anything else from Rudy Giliani. Let
me just say that, but I do think him calling
her a hoe. You know, yes, black women are over sexualized.
You know, just all the things that she said I
stand in agreement with. I think that there's so much
that he could be focused on. I mean, you know,
(03:32):
Trump is in all kinds of legal trouble. You know,
are you even a lawyer anymore? Is it even an
attorney anymore? I mean, there's just so many things going
on where he should be focusing on himself and not this.
Like I just don't understand why he woke up and
chose this to focus on.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, honestly, you know, I think you put it quite well.
He's got a lot to worry about from what I understand.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
At that event they give send go.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
He only raised sixty one thousand dollars, so you know,
and Donald Trump's not helping him out, and we all
saw that coming. And you know, again this this word
Fanny Fani and like I kind of understand, you know,
Fanny maybe, but again, like that's that's something from like
(04:23):
the sixty Nobody's said that in a lifetime, you know
what I mean. And the truth is there's people named Richard,
and then there's a nickname for Richard, right, and so
you know it's and then the word ho, let's go,
let's let's go there, the word ho typically implies either
(04:49):
a woman who has sex for money maybe, or a
woman who is promiscuous or whatever. This is a woman
who had a boyfriend who was also sharing the same
passion and work schedule as her, which is typically how
you meet someone, you know what I mean, You meet
someone who shared passion, someone that you know has something
in common with you. So for her sexuality, for her
(05:14):
romantic life to be on display, for him to deduce
from that that she's a hoe just shows exactly her
point that black.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Women are over sexualized.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Like if she would have been pregnant or something, they
would have probably made a big deal out of that.
Anything short of being married for a very long time
can be, you know, problematic, because I remember that when
Barack and Michelle Obama, when Barack was still campaigning, people
would refer to Michelle Obama as his baby mama instead
of his wife. Right now, that they've been in the
(05:46):
public spotlight for such a long time, they would never
do such a thing because they've been established in that
way for such a long time. But you know, it's
hard for black women to get the respect that they deserve.
And that came from Fox News, by the way call
him calling her his baby mama. So really it's the right.
You know, you see a lot of the disrespect for
(06:07):
black people coming from the right, like the out loud disrespect.
I'm not going to say that, you know, the left
is blameless in their disrespect, but when you the insulting
stuff like okay, y'all know better than that, that typically
comes from the right. And it turns out that the
right doesn't respect Juliani either. So I think your point
is well made in that he needs to go somewhere
and focus on his real issues.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Can I just say one more thing too, I just
think it's also important that when addressing Fannie Willis, you know,
everyone including the right, need to put some respect on
her name because she is the District Attorney of Fulton County,
which encompasses like fifteen cities. Right, She graduated from Howard University,
went to Emory Law School. There's just so many things
about her, you know, and we want to take this
(06:49):
one incident and make it bigger than life. When we
are forgetting or they are forgetting her accomplishments. I don't
think we are, but I think that they want to
take that and focus in on that.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Sure, and I'll take it a step father. She didn't
do anything illegal. She didn't even really do anything wrong.
You know, there's not even any rules that say, you
know what I mean, like, there's there's no real insofar
as I can tell, there's no real conflict of interest. Now,
to be fair, I did speak with a lawyer, and
a lawyer told me that, you know, if I was
(07:19):
on the opposite side of that, I would be doing
the same thing, you know, providing some sort of defense
for Trump. I'd try to pick apart the nature of
that relationship or whatever. And so in terms of a
legal strategy, sure, you can try to convince a judge
that maybe there is a conflict of interest, but the
truth of the matter is that, you know, it might
be a little too close for comfort for some people,
but there's not even anything wrong there, you know what
(07:42):
I mean. So, yeah, but you know, they'll take they'll
exploit any gap that they can, you know, instead of
focusing on the fact that this man tried to steal
an election, like, oh, she had a boyfriend who worked
on the same case.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
There might be something there, let's go, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So, again, your point is well made. Moving on next
step from Foxnews dot Com. Yeah, I know, but hear
me up. On June fourth, Mayor Eric Adams sent a
letter to Comb's that would be Sean Ditty Combs, informing
him that the key to the City of New York
had been rescinded and requested its immediate return. Copies of
(08:22):
the letter were mailed to the Rappers Company, Comb's Enterprises
LLC's offices in New York and in Los Angeles. Fabian Levy,
Deputy Mayor for Communications, confirmed the Fox News Digital on
Saturday that the key had been returned to the possession
of the city on June tenth, quote, Like many people,
I was deeply disturbed by recent footage of Sean Didtycomb's
(08:44):
assaulting his then partner. I strongly condemned these actions and
stand in solidarity with all survivors of domestic and gender
based violence. Our city has worked tirelessly to make sure
survivors are heard and seen by our administration. Goes on
to say, after internal deliberates, the Key to the City
of New York committee recommended nullifying and rescinding mister Combs's key. So, yeah,
(09:09):
you know, when it rains it poors man it's all
crumbling down around around Diddy. How did this one?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, you know, I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I think I did a story about three weeks ago
where the committee was deliberating on what they were going
to what they were going to do, if they were
going to take it back or if they were going
to allow him to keep it. They said, they've never rescinded,
you know, a key before, but I think in this
case it was warranted. I mean, the award is a
symbol of civic recognition, for gratitude reserve for individuals whose
(09:42):
service to the public and the common good rises to
the highest level of achievement. That's according to the press
release that they put out for this, and you know,
before we knew what we knew, Yes, perhaps those things
applyed to Diddy, But what rings true now is that
he is the subject of you know, eight civil lawsuits,
(10:03):
that there's a federal investigation where they're preparing to bring
accusers before federal grand jury, you know, and all of
that signals the Justice Department is moving toward potentially seeking
an indictment.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I mean, we've all.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
Seen the video now of him and Cassi see at
the hotel room there are other people who have come forward.
So I just think that there are you know, some
some some truth.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
To what we're seeing.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
And so if you're going to give somebody the key
to the city, they've got to be you know, what
you think they are, and not have so many surprises
behind the veil. So you know, I think that they
did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Sure, yeah, you know, I've seen.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
That this isn't the only thing.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
You know, he's lost all of not all, but you know,
much of his his sponsorships and his business deals. Howard
revoked his honorary degree. They returned his million dollar scholarship
or sorry, disbanded his scholarship, and returned to his million
(11:10):
dollar donation.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
They said the donation was never given. Actually it was
just kind of like you know.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Offered maybe offered yes, okay, but you know they've decided
that they don't want that money, and then yes, and yeah,
there's just it's it's it's all crumbling down.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Join us for the National Urban League Conference in New
Orleans July twenty fourth through the twenty seventh at High
ad Regency, New Orleans. Don't miss out register today and
nuilconference dot org.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
B I in news brand anchor Mimi Brown is here
with us discussing the weekends major stories. All Right, some
good news. Maryland Governor Wes Moore will be issuing a
mass pardon for more than one hundred and seventy five
thousand marijuana convictions today. The pardons will be one of
the country's biggest acts of clemency involving the drug that's
(12:07):
now widely used recreationally. In an interview with The Washington Post,
More said it will be a step to heal decades
of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harm people of color.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I'm ecstatic that we have a real opportunity with what
I'm signing to write a lot of historical wrongs.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
He goes on to say, quote, if you want to
be able to create inclusive economic growth, it means you
have to start removing these barriers that continue to disproportionately
sit on the communities of color. I kind of love
this story, and I feel like this is a strong
case for voting in local elections. And I know that
(12:47):
this probably hits you in the same way, So give
us your thoughts here.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Absolutely, I lived in Maryland, and so when I saw this,
you know, I was just like, Wow, this is because
I know the communities that this will affect. You know,
when you read this, it tells you about Baltimore being
hit super hard with a lot of these convictions, as
well as Prince George's County, which is where I lived,
and you know, there was nothing but black people there.
(13:12):
You know, of course Baltimore is gonna it affects them
a lot more, but a lot of Prince George's County
will be affected by this, you know, And both of
those cities or counties have a history of over policing
black communities. So you know, there's only I think there
was something like it's over seventy percent of the male
population of Maryland's male population is black, even though excuse me,
(13:38):
seventy percent of the jail population, even though the male
population makes up only thirty three percent. So and a
lot of those this will do wonders for them because
it will it will get rid of their record. But
I was reading somewhere too which I really wanted to
make clear that even though this will harden their conviction,
(14:00):
they have to file for an expungement.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
So they have to. So this affects you in any
kind of way, you have to file.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
The paperwork for this to actually leave your record, but
you will be pardoned from the conviction. But if you
want to go somewhere and apply for something, you need
to file for that expungement.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Sure, but you know that's again, that's not nothing.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
That's nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So, and you know what it's I think that when
you have a black governor who can appreciate the optics
of the war on drugs and can appreciate the effect
of the War on drugs on black people and can
(14:47):
have a very honest conversation with himself about whether or
not that was effective, did it bring about good or
did it bring about harm? Because the war on drugs
was won by drugs. It wasn't one by people, you
know what I mean. Drugs have never gone away. The
DARE program never changed any outcomes, and all it did
was put black people in jail. That's really it. And
(15:09):
the truth of the matter is that, you know, we
know that the original like push to really heavily criminalize
marijuana use was done to disrupt the Black power and
the hippie movements, you know what I mean. This was
on this is on record. I believe it was the
director of the CIA or something like that under maybe
(15:30):
the Nixon or the Reagan administration, one of the two.
It's on record saying that that's exactly the purpose of
criminalizing marijuana, so that they can disrupt the black power movement.
So when you look at the result of you know,
the war on drugs, and you look at the result
of all these convictions, has it shaped outcomes?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Has it done?
Speaker 1 (15:51):
You know, especially when it comes to marijuana, which is
not it's not even it's it's not even schedule it's
what they changed the schedule from schedule one to schedule three,
Schedule three.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
There you go, So.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You know, and then you know, hindsight is twenty twenty
you look back and you're like, dang, you went to
jail for a WE charge, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Like that was and it's it's just to just to
to even point that out, is that you cannot in
good conscious in twenty twenty four send somebody to jail
for a WE charge when there are dispensaries on almost
every corner.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Now, you see, yeah, and so for that charge to
keep people from you, you have to look back and say,
you know what that was wrong? We you know, the
the criminalization of marijuana started maybe in the twenties, maybe
even earlier, and it was by propaganda by the tobacco
(16:47):
companies because they wanted to be the main whatever it was,
the main supplier vocable products in the country and in
the world, and so there was this campaign, if I
remember correctly, I've seen this years ago, some documentary on it.
But basically there was this campaign where they were targeting
(17:07):
jazz musicians again, black people and all this other sort
of stuff, and they were trying to associate marijuana with
like criminality and moral behavior, and then all these health
consequences from smoking marijuana. And the truth is the tobacco
companies were the ones that were causing all these health outcomes.
(17:29):
But because they were funding bogus science and so forth,
they convinced lawmakers to relegate marijuana to like more of
the fringe, right, and so tobacco became the main smokable substance.
And you know, that was true for many years, and
then millions of people died smoking cigarettes, you know, and
(17:51):
you know, in the history of marijuana, not one person
has ever died from smoking marijuana.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
You know, alcohol was.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Illegal for a moment, but for the most part, it's
been legal throughout the country's history, and I believe Snoop
said it best. You can put a bunch of dudes
from rival gangs in a room with a bunch of alcohol,
and you can put the same bunch of dudes in
a room with some weed. And if you put them
in an alcohol room, they're going to drink it up
and eventually they're gonna start fighting each other. You put
(18:18):
them in a room with a bunch of weed, eventually
they're going to start freestyling. And you know what I'm saying,
like laughing and at every joke and eating up all
the food, you know what I mean. So you get
to see that we really can look back on this
and say this was wrong the whole time, and this
affected disproportionately these communities of color on purpose, and we
(18:39):
need to make that right. And a black person in
a position of power that understands and appreciates those optics,
with the position to make those changes, is doing something
about it. And this is why I say local elections
matter because you can take all that into context and
you don't have to worry about the insecurities or the
fears or whatever the sensibilities of people who haven't walk
(19:00):
that path, who haven't directly seen their community ravaged by Again,
we charges so you know, voting your local elections. We
are definitely celebrating for June teenth, and just know that
this is the way you repair decades of harm.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
All right.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Finally, this from the Black Information Network and attraction featuring
Princess Tiana, Disney's first black princess, will soon replace a
ride with the racist ties at Walt Disney World in
Florida and California's Disneyland. According to the Associated Press, Tiana's
Bayou Adventure is set to debut at both theme parks
on June twenty eighth. The ride is replacing Splash Mountain,
which was based on a movie with racist undertones. Disney
(19:40):
initially announced that they would be reimagining Splash Mountain in
twenty twenty, amid widespread criticism over the ride's connection to
the controversial Song of the South. Over twenty thousand people
signed a petition urging the company to address Splash Mountain's
outdated and offensive themes. Amid Disney's decision to make Princess
Tiana the star of its new a team conducted research
(20:01):
trips to New Orleans. To capture the city's essence in
the attraction. According to reports, Keianus Bayou Adventure preserves the
essence of log ride experience of Splash Mountain while including
the updated storyline from the two thousand and nine film,
The Princess and the Frog Writers will be transported into
nineteen twenties New Orleans with music, scenery, and characters from
the film. So I've been waiting for your thoughts on
(20:24):
this year.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Talk to me, you know, So just to get.
Speaker 4 (20:28):
A little bit of background, when Disney first decided that
they were gonna make Tiana their first black princess, they
actually invited me out and allowed me to tour the
resorts and see all the things that they were doing.
And this was before the ride actually came out. They've
been working on this for a really long time. That
maybe was like a year almost two years ago when
(20:50):
they first started this big rollout with Princess Tiana.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And I have to say, you know, at first, I was.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Like, oh, kind of like the statues, like okay, it's
just you know, do we really mean it? But I
have to say it's Disney and the people that I
met were really intentional about replacing this and making this
something that was more inclusive for everybody, and so for
me and my little niece Abigail, I think that this
(21:18):
is amazing. I think it's very important for little black
girls to see themselves in.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Disney princesses and all the things. You know.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I felt this way when The Little Mermaid came out.
You know, I think that representation is everything, and so,
you know, I think that a lot of things in
America are rooted in racism, a lot of things that
you just wouldn't even think about. You're thinking, yeah, but
who's thinking that a ride of Disney World or Disneyland,
you know, from nineteen forty six has been named after
(21:51):
the song of the South that's deeply rooted in No
one's thinking that you're just getting on Splash Mountain with
your hands up ready to go down the slide, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
And so well, you know, I just think.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
That once we start unpacking all the layers, you know,
not specific to Disney, but unpacking all the layers of everything,
there are probably so many bodies buried that you will be,
you know, amazed, just to kind of realize that this is,
you know, something we do every day is probably deeply
rooted in racism. So kudos to Disney for doing this
(22:22):
for you know people. You know, yes, black little girls
will benefit off of this, but I think people in general,
we just need to go back and clean it all up,
all of it, start from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Just tear it all down and build it back up.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Hey, that's what I'm on. I like that energy. Burn
it all down and send it all crumbling to the ground.
Let's build something that includes all of our input and
contributions and that has a history that we can all
be proud of and that we can all stand by.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, so let's burn it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
With that in mind, we'll leave that one right there
before I get my bullhorn out and start protesting again.
As always, i'd like to thank you for your time
and your insight. Once again, today's guest is being in
News anchor Memi Brown. This has been a production of
the Black Information Network. Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson.
(23:14):
Have some thoughts you'd like to share, use the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there,
be sure to hit subscribe and download all of our episodes.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I'm your host.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Ramsey's job on all social media and join us tomorrow
as we share our news with our voice from our
perspective right here on the Black Information Network Daily podcast
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