May 11, 2025 • 45 mins
News anchors Nichole Deal and Mike join Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward on today's podcast to discuss this week's major stories.
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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 Nicole Deal and Mike Island to discuss this
week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast.
I Am ramses.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Jah and I Am q Ward. All Right, Nicole Deal,
Mike Island, welcome back to the show. I think we'll
start with you. Nicole. What's the latest and greatest in
your world? Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Man, I mean everything is great and all my bills
are late.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
So.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We don't fix that, all right today, get you back
on track? How about that? All right? Mike Island, Man,
talk to me. Tell me something good man.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Well, my bills are paid on time.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Okay, that's not nothing.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Let you know that I got everything and the mortgage
is paid. No worries until June first.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, I'm all good. That's okay. Well, we're all going both.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
We're all gonna help collectively getting the cold back, right, Okay, yeah, right,
I like that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
All right, Well, let's get to the news.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
First up, the Department of Homeland Security grabbed headlines this
week with the announcement of their latest immigration strategy, Nicle,
We're going to start the show off with you bring
our listeners up to speed on this story, and then
Mike and Q we'll get your thought chapter.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Absolutely so kind of a dramatic change of events from
what we've been seeing from the Trump administration just rounding
up illegal immigrants kind of off the streets and while
they're working. The Trump administration decided that illegal immigrants can
now get one thousand dollars if they support themselves, and
(01:36):
how they would do that is through US Customs and
Border Protection through an app that the US Customs and
Border Protection offers. It's also known as the CBP app.
So according to the Department of Homeland Security, the funds
are away for those who are in the country illegal
(01:58):
illegally got get my words right today to facilitate travel
back to their home country. So once they are back
in their home country, they will reportedly and they confirm
their location, et cetera through the app, they will reportedly
get that money. So in the interim, if you go
(02:18):
on the app and you report an intent to depart,
that will kind of remove them from the top of
the round up list, so to speak. So here's what
I think about that. I mean, illegal immigration is a big, big,
big problem in this country, and other countries don't seem
(02:41):
to have this issue that at the same level and
scale that we deal with it here in the US.
And something has to be done, right, and it can't
be one of the It can't be a one off.
It can't be these one offs where you're using multiple
police departments and multiple law enforcement agencies, dea, Homeland security,
(03:04):
National Guard, et cetera. Because all of that takes time
and money and resources. And you can't do all of
that just to ship out a couple of dozen people
at a time. So you have to do something. And
I just have to say, I mean, at least the
Trump administration is trying to do something. But I say
that with the overstanding that this is not a new problem, right.
(03:33):
This is a problem that has taken decades and decades
to create and it's simply getting worse. So this is
a systemic problem of epic proportions that will take real
funding and real resources to correct. I don't know if
(03:53):
this is the right corrective measure to take. I don't
have you know the answer to the real about immigration,
but I do have to say I kind of like
this idea as long as I'm not the one paying
for it, right, But of course that begs another question,
which is where is the money coming from to pay
(04:17):
for this? So I'm a pseudo fan I think of this.
I'm a closet fan of this. I think it would
work even if the amount were lower. I think there
would still be people signing up if it were half
that amount. But I'm kind of taking a kind of
wait and see approach on this one. Don't think it's
(04:37):
a bad idea, though, maybe a step in the right
direction with a few tweaks.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's very true. I'm kind of a
wait and see person too, because a lot of times
when these things first come about or announced and the
beginning strategies are pretty much made known, there's sometimes a
three sixty that happens there. And this is with every
idea with immigration and others in this current administration. It
(05:07):
starts off one way and then within sometimes within days
or weeks, you're something completely different and they take a
new approach. So that's why there's I'm sure that's why
Nicole's taking await and see, and I'm taking await and
see as well.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
The lower amount.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Definitely go for that, but in a way I still
see it on the surface level as lives being played
around with just a little bit that that part stays
with me with this current immigration policy. So I'll just
wait and see what happens and see if we if
we were to do this podcast a week from now,
(05:45):
if we would be saying something different.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, Q. So.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
The difficult thing with discussions like this is that the
word illegal does so much work. An example that I
use is I switched insurance companies recently and the new
insurance company didn't report to the lender that I'm borrowing
money to buy my car with that I had switched,
(06:13):
so that lender couldn't report to the Department of Motor
Vehicles that I had switched.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So they said he's.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Driving uninsured, suspended my license, revoked my registration, and suspended
the license plate on my car. So I was driving
around illegal when they pulled me over. According to the law,
my car should have been impounded and I should have
been taken to jail as a criminal for a clerical error.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And here we arrive at the word illegal.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Now, thank goodness, a human being pulled me over because
had a police officer pulled me over. My car would
have been told and impounded, and I would have been
arrested and taken to jail. But the human being looking
at the insurance that I was showing them said, hey,
this is probably just a clerical error. So when you
get a chance, go to the DMB and get that fixed.
(07:06):
But that level of nuance in context and humanity does
not exist when you label all improperly documented immigrants as
illegal to make them criminal, to justify however you treat
them when you feel like it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So is this a more humane way of deporting people?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Sure, But I think there is a clear reason why
prior to now, illegal quote unquote immigration has not been
the priority that everybody wishes that it was. And it's
because illegal immigration is not the problem that it's marketed
to be. About twenty percent of America's workforce is illegal immigrants,
(07:45):
and it's the job that almost no one else wants
to do, like picking fruit in one hundred degrees and
cleaning your house and cooking your food and watching your
children and doing your garden, et cetera, et cetera, And
a lot of wealthy people and a lot of corporations
make a lot of money because of that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
But when you have.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Somebody who has used racism and xenophobia and bigotry and
all of these things to galvanize their base, they have
to make this problem number one and make it a
huge problem so that everybody's okay with doing whatever we
have to do to fix it. I don't trust the
administration to do what they say, so I'm not a
(08:24):
fan of this, but I think it's more way more
humane than what they've been doing. But do I think
they'll keep their word that all these people that self
deport will get home, push a button on the app
and get a thousand dollars. I don't and I also
won't act like one thousand dollars. There's a lot of
money when they're saying, pick up your life from where
you live, all your things, get out of the least
(08:46):
that you sign, quit the job that you have, and
go back to the country that you don't live in,
and start your life over with a thousand dollars. On
the question of how are we going to pay for it?
We send trillion dollars to other countries to help them
with their problems, and the question of how we're going
to pay for it seems to never come up when
(09:07):
it comes to doing something that's going to help or
benefit black and brown people. We never know where we're
gonna get the money from. Oh my god, the tax
pair of dollars. Do you really want your money to
go to helping other people? And our collective answer seems
to always be no. But when they make that decision,
you unilaterally, they spend as much money as they want
to help themselves and to make themselves better business partners
(09:29):
to people and other places in the world. So it's
always going to be a tricky topic topic because it's
intentionally approached without nuance and context. So we'll see, Like
you guys said, we'll see moving on. During an interview
earlier this week, former President Joe Biden shared his reflectings
on the twenty twenty four election and the impact of
(09:51):
his timing to exit the race. Mike, this time, let's
start with you, Yeah, and Nicole and Rampers, you guys
follow up.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Sometimes, I when I heard that he was going to
be having to sit down, I was thinking too soon,
only because I was hoping he would be out of
the spotlight just a little bit longer in light of
what's what's happened. Not that I don't want to hear
from him or anything, but it might be too early
for him to be, you know, commenting on the race.
But pretty much it was a you know, it all
(10:24):
started with concerns about his health and then that weak
debate you know, against Donald Trump in July, and then
you know, he subsequently withdraw his candidacy, but he confirmed
that he continues serving, you know, as president until the
conclusion of his term. But you know, at the very
beginning of all this, he was saying that I am
(10:45):
going to be the next president of the United States.
And now he turns around and says, you know, as
far as the outcome, I don't think it would have mattered.
You know. He said that things moved so quickly it
made it difficult walk away when he decided not to run.
But I think that's what turned the election around. I
(11:07):
still say that Kamala Harris didn't have enough time to
state her case, although she did a very good job
in that short period of time. But I think it
was the actions of Joe Biden, you know, wanting to
run again. I think that if he had stopped then
I think that it would have been a different outcome,
But I just think it was I think he needs
(11:29):
to uh reflect a little bit more on what actually
took place, you know, the ensuing months after he left office,
after he was Kamala Harris was defeated. But he's he's
a lot of you know, he was overshadowed by gaffes
and a lot of ramblings, and it led to many
(11:50):
to question whether he is his cognitive powers were strong enough.
And I was wondering if his cognitive cognitive powers that
would be strong.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Enough for this interview.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
But he he stated, you know, he made his case,
and he stated it pretty clearly. But I just thought
that maybe he needed to look at a few more things,
maybe comment on a few more things that's happening with
the current administration, and may have may have had a
stronger position to state than he did earlier this week.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Cool, okay, all right, gentlemen, placate me for a moment here.
Why don't we play an easy trivia game? Shall we?
Did President Joe Biden stand the twenty twenty four presidential
race too long? Answer? Yes, yes, didden stay in the
(12:42):
race too long and potentially hinder the Democratic Party's chances
of defeating Donald Trump answer. Yes, yes, yes, If Biden
had stepped aside sooner, would that have changed the outcome?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Perhaps?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, well, the answer for me there is probably not
back not because of the answer Biden gave about Trump
having too much momentum at the time. Blah blah blah.
I don't think that's the answer. I think that issue
is more about the Democratic nominee. Again, with the aforementioned
(13:22):
questions being true, I think the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris's
is more the focus there. I just personally think that
no matter how qualified she is or was, this great
nation that we live in simply was not ready for
a woman to be president, and certainly not ready for
(13:44):
a woman of color that had any black DNA to
lead this country forward in twenty twenty five. But you know,
I'll just suffice it to say, if Biden had stepped
out of the race sooner, I believe that would have
I've opened the door for other qualified potential candidates to
step in and perhaps put up a respectable fight.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
All right, Well here's what I think now.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I don't know everything, but you know, I got to
work pretty closely with the campaign along with Q, and
I understand all the arguments that everyone's making, not just
the conversation that we're having here. But in my lifetime,
(14:39):
I saw a woman win the popular vote for president
of the United States in twenty sixteen. In my lifetime,
I saw a black person win the presidency twice. So
I feel that there are enough people who exist out
there who would not be turned off at the idea
(15:04):
of a woman who is black being the president of
the United States. I feel like there is enough of
these human beings out there based on the data that
I've seen. I feel like Joe Biden could best be
advised by the great philosopher Jamie Fox, because why don't
(15:29):
he just sit down right?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
As another inside joke for.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Que all right, anyway, there is something to be said,
and who knows how it would have shaped the outcome
of the election, but I say it wouldn't have hurt.
There's something to be said about having a robust primary
(15:56):
where everybody in the Democrat Party gets to state their
case and the good not only the good candidates, but
the good ideas rise to the top where people say
Because a lot of what people had to say about
Kamalo was well, what is is she listening to the
(16:19):
American people that she is she providing what the American
people want. And a lot of times when you have
a primary, you know, as people drop out, they lend
their support and their endorsement because they lend their ideas
to the candidate that they feel best embodies their vision
for what the country should should be and the direction
(16:41):
the country should go in. And so they'll sit down
behind the scenes and they'll say, hey, look, you know
my idea about preschools. I want you to incorporate that
into your campaign. If you do that, then I will
give you my endorsement and tell all the people that
support me and to support you. And so this in
this way, not only the candidates, but the ideas rise
(17:02):
to the top. And so perhaps you can make an
argument that perhaps the American people would have felt heard.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Democrats are going to vote for Democrats, Republicans are going
to vote for Republicans. But the independence is where a
lot of the opportunity lies. Kamala Harris had to effectively
pick up Joe Biden's campaign in the middle of his
support for Israel. And I've made this case on the
show a few.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Times, and.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You know, this is something that a conversation we had before,
she had to play sort of the middle because Joe
Biden was always the candidate that was the most the
furthest right to get the people that didn't want to
vote for Donald Trump in twenty twenty to vote for
a Democrat finally, and he was a Democrat, so the
(17:55):
Democrats were going to be able to vote for him.
And this is why Joe Biden won in twenty twenty.
He won the popular vote anyone the electoral college, of course.
So my thinking is that by Joe Biden sticking around
for too long, overestimating, as men do, his ability to
do anything, indeed, he still is overestimating that he's a
(18:17):
very confident man. For you know, I pray I have
the confidence that he has at his age. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
I just hope it doesn't cripple a nation.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
But I think that if you wanted to, you could
make an argument at minimum that Joe Biden leaving the
race earlier doesn't hurt Kamalist chances one bit. And I
think that if you have that conversation and the conversation
is well fleshed out, full of facts, kind of like
(18:48):
what I'm saying now, not trying to say that my
argument is stronger. But if you have a fact based argument,
then you can begin to have an argument whether or
not it would have actually helped Kamali's chances. He could
throw all his support behind her. But as long as
she's in the field with the Pete Buddha judges and
the you know, the the aocs, if she wanted to
(19:11):
all these you know, the Bernie Sanders everyone else, right,
then the Democrats that that set out the election, that
felt like they weren't being listened to, the people that
felt like the single issue voters, all that sort of stuff,
they would have at least had a chance to feel
like they were involved in the democratic process. And there's
(19:34):
a lot more people that are making the case for
Kamalin than just her herself.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Right, So, you know, who's to say?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know that I don't want to you know, dwell
too long on it, but you know, I think that
Joe Biden didn't do any favors to Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Hey, what's up?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
This is Ramsy's Jah and I am q Ward and
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Speaker 6 (19:58):
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Speaker 2 (20:16):
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Speaker 1 (20:21):
Black Information Network news anchors Nicole Deal and Mike Island
are here with us discussing this week's major stories. All right,
up next, we have an update on the state level
trial of the Tyree Nichols case that wrapped earlier this week. Nicole,
let's go back to you give us some details on
the story, and then Mike and Q you're going to
get your thoughts after Nicole. Okay, good luck, guys.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well in insummation. You know, I think a lot of
our listeners in particular are familiar with this case about
Tyree Nichols. He was isotentially beaten to death by three
Memphis police officers back in twenty twenty three. So the
(21:09):
verdict was read off this week. So let me just
give some context to this. And let me first say
that we have to understand that to Tadarius Being, Demetrius Haley,
and Justin Smith are three black ex police officers in
this case who were already found guilty in a federal trial. Okay,
(21:33):
but this recent case this week is actually a state trial.
There was an all white jury picked out of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
which I found interesting, and they decided that all white
jury decided that all three of these black men were
not guilty on every count that they were charged with,
(21:56):
including murder in the second degree, et cetera, et cetera.
So let's just understand that these three black police officers
beat him to death and he suffered blunt force trauma.
He also eventually went into cardiac arrest. And there were
(22:20):
multiple opportunities. You know, these videos are very public, they're
out there in the audio, etc. There were multiple opportunities
where they could have stopped and perhaps Tyree Nichols would
still be with us, but they didn't. So this is
(22:44):
a tough one for me. Tyree Nichols is dead. And
yet the three men, regardless of their race, sat suited
up in a Tennessee courtroom while a not guilty verdict
was read black civil rights attorney Ben Crump, calling it
a miscarriage of justice, And in that moment, I just
(23:10):
had to put myself in the shoes of his mother,
or his father, or his brothers and family members. This
is just it's a painful tragedy all around. And I
just shudder to think what kind of message we are
sending in any courtroom in the United States, that if
(23:34):
you have on a uniform, that you can kill a
black man and not be found guilty. And again, I
don't want to focus too much on race, right because
Tyree Nichols is black and the three officers involved are black.
So it's just kind of it's kind of ironic that
(23:55):
it happened this way because so many times this year
and years before this, we've seen white officers kill a
black man and be found not guilty. Excuse me, So
it's just kind of ironic that in this case we
have three black men who killed another black man and
(24:18):
they are all found not guilty. So it's just this
is just a tough one for me. My heart goes
out to the family. The family, of course, has filed
a civil lawsuit, so hopefully they get some sort of restitution,
but it won't bring Tyree Nichols back. I just I'm
not enthusiastic about this verdict at all. But I do
(24:42):
feel as though if the three officers involved were white,
I would feel even more outraged.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Mike well Nicole, I tried to leave the race narrative
out of it, because it is truly ironic that we
have this happening. I guess, you know, the hardest thing
for me to see after the not guilty verdicts were
read was the seed officers hugging each other. And I
immediately thought of myself as Tyree Nicholls's parents when I
(25:15):
saw that.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
That was a hard.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Image to digest to see that after, but that's what happened,
and again, the race narrative is definitely awkward. I don't
know if there could have been a different outcome if
one or the other had been white, what would have
happened in this case. But as Steve Mulroy, he's the
(25:40):
Shelby County District Attorney, and he said, it's hard to
imagine how someone could say that none of the defendants
were guilty of any of the charges. He said he
thought that any fair minded person who watched the video
of that night would come to the conclusion that everybody
there had some responsibility for Tyre Tyree nicholls death. So
(26:00):
it's all we know is Tyree Nichols is dead, deserves
to be alive, and that this is definitely a tragedy.
And I think Mulbray said that too, and I think
he also added that his hope that the is that
the public understand this is just part of the system
and that our office will continue to push for accountability.
She's talking about Shelby County in Memphis, Tennessee. But it
(26:23):
was really, really hard, they said. The officers argued that
they may have been able to arrest Nichols lawfully, but
the prosecution said that changed the second that another officer
kicked Nichols in the head, and at that point or
after any of the other kicks and punches, the prosecution
argued that Bean and Smith had a duty to intervene.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
But as we.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Saw how that turned out. But yeah, very difficult and
it's not over even they still face prison charges for
others from another result of a trial. So there's more
to see, more to come.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Sorry, brother, than you.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Know, white supremacies inability to hold white supremacy accountable will
always be an issue. And the interesting thing about the
subject of race in this case is that it doesn't
go away because the officers were black, because the victim
was black. And that's the issue. You'd have a hard
(27:35):
time finding a case where a white victim is killed
on video by black police officers and they are all
found not guilty of anything because guilt or innocence wasn't
on trial. There's a video of them killing the young man.
So what's on trial is is the state right and
(27:55):
a trial in Chattanooga instead of Memphis so that the
jury can be all white, is not unintentional? Is the
state going to find these officers guilty and hold them
accountable of the crime we're watching them commit on video
and Mike, you said it, them hugging, celebrating that nothing's
going to happen to us after we killed this young
(28:17):
man because we felt like it, not because we were afraid,
not because we were threatened, but that's just the move
we were in that night. And they get to go
out of that courtroom feeling relieved, and that young man's
family has to accept something that they probably feared the
whole time. Black police officers can uphold a white supremacist
(28:41):
system that they work for as long as their victim
is black. Nothing to see here, and we have to
collectively accept that this is the truth far more than
it's not. You know, I've been on a back road
in Mississippi two or three o'clock in the morning, pulled
(29:03):
over by State Highway patrol officers, and an interesting thing
happened because Ramses was with me. There's a moment where
you cannot see the officers, you see the lights, you
see the flashlight in your face, and you hear their voices,
and you hear Mississippi law enforcement officer and whatever your
(29:23):
imagination told you that sounded like is exactly what it
sounded like. And they had us both get out of
the car, but me first, and while Ramsa sat in
the car hoping, I was okay. I saw that both
the officers were black, and I had a moment of relief, like, Okay,
maybe we don't die to night where there's no light,
(29:47):
not even the moon could get through the trees, and
there's two officers and drug dogs. And it's a longer
story than I'll tell right now. But Ramses had a
much different response because ravers is understood. Yet these officers
are black, but they're still officers. And in a lot
of these cases, they are officers before there are black men.
(30:08):
They are officers before there are men. Sometimes the humanity
is completely gone. There are officers and they're there to
uphold I do quotations, but people can't see me the law,
and that's interpreted in real time by whoever pulls you over,
and however power they feel like flexing on you in
that moment. So you have to be fully compliant and
(30:30):
fully submissive and almost give up all of your self dignity,
all your self worth, all of your self determination, so
that you don't die for nothing. On a routine traffic
stock and our routine traffic stop where we've done nothing,
no speeding, no swerving, no changing lane without signal, nothing,
we were now being accused of somehow traffic and drugs
(30:54):
and we have to get the drug dog. And after
they get the drug dog and search the car and
take everything out of this brand new car that we
just bought, so the only miles it has on it
is us driving from the dealership to where we are.
At that point they find nothing, but they still determine
there's been drugs in this car, because that's how it works.
(31:15):
That's how it works when you look like us. That's
how that system is designed. And thank god, one of
those officers was at least a man first, even if
not a black man first, and he was a human being,
and he had empathy and he realized in the moment, okay,
there's nothing to see here. The other officer, however, was
(31:37):
super officer, and he'd made up his mind there were
drugs present, even if you guys parked somewhere and someone
with a joint in their pocket brushed up against the
car six hundred miles ago when you stopped. So this
system is designed to put us in that position no
(32:00):
matter what, and most of them know that it's also
designed to protect them in the in the event that
they step across the line. Even when on video they
stomp us out until we pass away, until we perish.
They can go to court and jurors can look at
that video and still say nothing to see here. Those
(32:23):
officers were just doing their job. Finally, while teaching black
history is under attack across the country. A different type
of history course is being offered that focuses on our
president Mike Man.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I'm too old.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
I was brought up when we had Black History Week
and I watched Black History Week turn into Black History Month.
So I saw nothing but progress, you know, our first
black mayor, and I saw nothing but progress. Just to
think that no one's going to be taught that history
(33:02):
you know, of of of when they came up, or
generations afterward. But that's that's what we're trending. You know,
in Oklahoma, they instituted some update, updated academic standards trying
to you know, uh, trying to change how people find
out about us in the history of US. Uh required
(33:24):
they're requiring schools to teach high school students that widespread fraud.
Excuse me that, uh that the teachings of black history
a lot of there was some fraud in it, like
so so and so didn't really invent this. That they're
making it like they were old movies or something, and uh,
(33:45):
it's really it's really crazy. There's a story out about
churches now taking over black history teachings. I believe I
read about a church in North Carolina, another one in
Florida that you know, amid these bands that they're taking
black history into their own hands and I think there
was about three hundred churches hold their own black history
(34:06):
lessons to combat the state wide attacks and the nationwide
attacks on race inclusive education. So it's going to be
up to the churches to take care of that, because
in school, I don't think it's going to happen. My
wife made sure to get the Black Encyclopedias to teach
help teach our daughters about black history that wasn't being
(34:28):
taught in their schools despite the fact that they had
Black History Month. A whole lot of things left out,
a whole lot of things they learned just from having
the encyclopedias. And she made sure that anytime they did
a profile and anyone, whether it had to do with
black history or not, that the person they profiled was black.
And that's the route that we're going to have to take.
(34:51):
I don't know how to what's going to happen as
far as any legal fights against the way black history
is being edged out. You know, our history is being
wiped away. It may have to be up to the
churches and the communities and parents at home, you know,
to those to do those things to fight this. It's
(35:13):
deeply upsetting, But like I said, I never thought i'd
see the day, you know, because of the generation I
grew up in.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
That's it, Nicole, I know you're following this. What do
you got for us?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Okay? First of all, this is happening in Oklahoma and
they are planning to teach high school students the debunked
twenty twenty election fraud theories as fact. This is so interesting.
New academic standards will promote us President Donald Trump and
(35:48):
his allies is groundless. Twenty twenty election conspiracy theories, baseless
conspiracy theories fact.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Really, jeez, come on, where we are.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Real or as my Louisiana people might say, I know
you line, What in the pneumonia?
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Is this?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Seriously? So? While the Trump administration is busy eliminating DEI
jobs from just about every program we can think of,
stripping federal funding from HBCUs, and the Department of Education
threatened to being dismantled, stopping the advancement of critical race theory,
(36:40):
you mean to tell me that we're just gonna start
teaching lies instead. This is exhausting. I mean, who approved this,
who co authored this, who co signed on this?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
Who?
Speaker 3 (36:57):
This is ridiculous? I have questions? Who is this class
for who's paying for this. This is absolutely ridiculous. I
can barely dignify this with a response. I don't like it.
I think it's absolute foolishness. And there's no way that
(37:17):
if I were in the state of Oklahoma that I
would want my tax dollars paying for this period.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Thank you. I tried to stay away from this part
of it, Nicole and go with Black history only because
all teachings are going to are going to lean in
this direction. They're going to We're going to be taught
what they want us to learn. You know, there's just
gonna there's just gonna brainwash us or attempt to do
(37:46):
that with this particular thing in Oklahoma. And and I
dwelled on black history because I think the same methods
are being applied.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
The interesting thing before you chime in, Ramses, is that
the people in charge in the state of Oklahoma most
likely voluntarily did this to flatter their president. Like I'm
sure this was not some mandate that was passed down,
Because we're seeing legislators and school board directors across the
country preemptively do things like this so they can land
(38:17):
on the good side of the guy in the white house.
It's a really disappointing thing to see. But please share
your thoughts with.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Us, sir. Yeah, so I get it.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
I understand the history is written by the victors, right,
And you know, this superintendent here feels as though his
(38:52):
side won a great battle, and when they lost that battle,
it was in twenty twenty, it was because someone stole
it from them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
That reality is more comfortable for him. And so.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Clearly he was tuned into Fox News and the conspiracy
theories and the wild videos and the documentaries and all
that sort of stuff, but not tuned into all the
courts with all the Republican and Trump elected judges, all
of them, all of them that actually had to do
a legal, critical, thorough examination of evidence, not make films
(39:35):
and not make television for ratings, and not pander to audiences. No,
they had to deal with facts in courtrooms across the country,
all of them, I reiterate, So ignoring all of that
to put this curriculum into the schools, you know, at
the expense of the taxpayers, right, because that's a more
comfortable truth for him, and that's what you know, he
(39:57):
wants his students to learn. Now, the thing that I
felt was interesting about this story was that it's not
teaching lies and teaching propaganda. The truth is, we think
of that as being the sort of thing that happens
in North Korea, the sort of thing that happens in Russia,
you know, communist countries, that sort of thing, right, China,
(40:18):
state controlled TV in Middle Eastern countries, that sort of thing. Right.
We think that is propaganda, and we ignore the fact
that it's happening right here. We think that we're above it.
We have this superiority complex. We as often as we
say it and said it when this man was running,
that we are.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Headed toward a dictatorship.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
We cannot conceive of a reality where we actually live
under a dictator because we still go to the same
job and shop at the same store, and life is
still the same, but the power has shifted. And you know,
little stories like these they add.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Up over time.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
There are people that are happy about this dictatorship because
he embodies and represents the future that they want to
see uh in this country. Something we've shared before, Q
and I've shared before is that many people, many intellectuals,
who can see that the president is he's clearly not
a smart person.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
He's clearly objectively not a smart person.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I mentioned on a recent episode that Bill Clinton was
a seeming seemingly a simpleton himself, right, but he was
actually a Rhodes scholar.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Right. Obama is a Harvard lawyer. Right.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
These people are there, they represent excellence, and at least
for the past couple of presidencies that were controlled by Republicans.
You know, George Bush was a c student and Donald
Trump you can just listen to him talk.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, we're gonna have.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's going to be the biggest, the most big leest,
you know that. That's this guy the whole time. Forget
his morals, just the lack of intel religence, right, But
the reason people voted for him, and it was put
so plainly, and again I've shared this before. Intellectuals who
happen to also be white men, who could look past
(42:13):
all of his flaws and cast a vote for that
man did so because Donald Trump's policies, if implemented, slow
the dispossession of the United States of America from white people.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
That's it, That's the whole story. Right.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So there are people that will support a dictator and
the rest of us are just watching it.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Happen. But we don't have to. And I'll leave us
with this.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
We don't have to because even in a place like Oklahoma,
places like Tennessee, places you know, these places right where
you know, there are battles that need to be fought.
This man is not the president, this man is not
the chief police. This man does not this man is
a person that ran for superintendent. And we can do
(43:00):
the same thing. Okay, it is not hard to do that.
And the only reason that this particular curriculum was implemented
into that school was because of a tech illegal technicality
because this superintendent introduced it. But Republicans and Democrats both
tried to after the fact reject this. The implementation of
(43:24):
these conspiracy theories based off of Fox News. What Fox
News got sued for the literal thing. They had to
pay almost a billion dollars for lying to the American
people about. Okay, the only reason it's implemented is because
of a legal technicality. Again, bipartisan efforts to try to
kill that, because even Republicans knew that the twenty twenty
(43:46):
election wasn't stolen. If it was stolen, why wasn't the
twenty twenty four elections stolen right. So these people knew this,
but this far right lunatic who happens to sit on
that board and is the superintendent of this school district
was able to introduce something. It passed the line because
(44:06):
of a technicality, and now he gets to implement it.
And the truth is, we can do the same thing.
There's only one system in this country, and you run
for office and you vote for office. That's the only
way you engage. That's the only way that you shape outcomes.
And I'll say it for the next three and a
(44:28):
half years. If you stay home, then you didn't learn
the lesson that we all had to learn in twenty
twenty four. Because as bad as you think it is,
it can always be worse. Just look at what's happening
in Oklahoma. So I'll leave it right there. Thank you,
as always for your time in Insight once again. Today's
(44:48):
guests are Nicole Deal and Mike Island. This has been
a production of the Black Information Network. Today's show is
produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thought you'd like to share,
use the red microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download
all of our episodes, I'm your host Ramsey's Ja on
(45:09):
all social media.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I am Qward on all social media as well.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
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 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 Nicole Deal and Mike Island to discuss this
week's major stories. This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast.
I Am ramses.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Jah and I Am q Ward. All Right, Nicole Deal,
Mike Island, welcome back to the show. I think we'll
start with you. Nicole. What's the latest and greatest in
your world? Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Man, I mean everything is great and all my bills
are late.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
So.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We don't fix that, all right today, get you back
on track? How about that? All right? Mike Island, Man,
talk to me. Tell me something good man.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Well, my bills are paid on time.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Okay, that's not nothing.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Let you know that I got everything and the mortgage
is paid. No worries until June first.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, I'm all good. That's okay. Well, we're all going both.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
We're all gonna help collectively getting the cold back, right, Okay, yeah, right,
I like that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
All right, Well, let's get to the news.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
First up, the Department of Homeland Security grabbed headlines this
week with the announcement of their latest immigration strategy, Nicle,
We're going to start the show off with you bring
our listeners up to speed on this story, and then
Mike and Q we'll get your thought chapter.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Absolutely so kind of a dramatic change of events from
what we've been seeing from the Trump administration just rounding
up illegal immigrants kind of off the streets and while
they're working. The Trump administration decided that illegal immigrants can
now get one thousand dollars if they support themselves, and
(01:36):
how they would do that is through US Customs and
Border Protection through an app that the US Customs and
Border Protection offers. It's also known as the CBP app.
So according to the Department of Homeland Security, the funds
are away for those who are in the country illegal
(01:58):
illegally got get my words right today to facilitate travel
back to their home country. So once they are back
in their home country, they will reportedly and they confirm
their location, et cetera through the app, they will reportedly
get that money. So in the interim, if you go
(02:18):
on the app and you report an intent to depart,
that will kind of remove them from the top of
the round up list, so to speak. So here's what
I think about that. I mean, illegal immigration is a big, big,
big problem in this country, and other countries don't seem
(02:41):
to have this issue that at the same level and
scale that we deal with it here in the US.
And something has to be done, right, and it can't
be one of the It can't be a one off.
It can't be these one offs where you're using multiple
police departments and multiple law enforcement agencies, dea, Homeland security,
(03:04):
National Guard, et cetera. Because all of that takes time
and money and resources. And you can't do all of
that just to ship out a couple of dozen people
at a time. So you have to do something. And
I just have to say, I mean, at least the
Trump administration is trying to do something. But I say
that with the overstanding that this is not a new problem, right.
(03:33):
This is a problem that has taken decades and decades
to create and it's simply getting worse. So this is
a systemic problem of epic proportions that will take real
funding and real resources to correct. I don't know if
(03:53):
this is the right corrective measure to take. I don't
have you know the answer to the real about immigration,
but I do have to say I kind of like
this idea as long as I'm not the one paying
for it, right, But of course that begs another question,
which is where is the money coming from to pay
(04:17):
for this? So I'm a pseudo fan I think of this.
I'm a closet fan of this. I think it would
work even if the amount were lower. I think there
would still be people signing up if it were half
that amount. But I'm kind of taking a kind of
wait and see approach on this one. Don't think it's
(04:37):
a bad idea, though, maybe a step in the right
direction with a few tweaks.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, that's yeah, that's very true. I'm kind of a
wait and see person too, because a lot of times
when these things first come about or announced and the
beginning strategies are pretty much made known, there's sometimes a
three sixty that happens there. And this is with every
idea with immigration and others in this current administration. It
(05:07):
starts off one way and then within sometimes within days
or weeks, you're something completely different and they take a
new approach. So that's why there's I'm sure that's why
Nicole's taking await and see, and I'm taking await and
see as well.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
The lower amount.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Definitely go for that, but in a way I still
see it on the surface level as lives being played
around with just a little bit that that part stays
with me with this current immigration policy. So I'll just
wait and see what happens and see if we if
we were to do this podcast a week from now,
(05:45):
if we would be saying something different.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, Q. So.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
The difficult thing with discussions like this is that the
word illegal does so much work. An example that I
use is I switched insurance companies recently and the new
insurance company didn't report to the lender that I'm borrowing
money to buy my car with that I had switched,
(06:13):
so that lender couldn't report to the Department of Motor
Vehicles that I had switched.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So they said he's.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
Driving uninsured, suspended my license, revoked my registration, and suspended
the license plate on my car. So I was driving
around illegal when they pulled me over. According to the law,
my car should have been impounded and I should have
been taken to jail as a criminal for a clerical error.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And here we arrive at the word illegal.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Now, thank goodness, a human being pulled me over because
had a police officer pulled me over. My car would
have been told and impounded, and I would have been
arrested and taken to jail. But the human being looking
at the insurance that I was showing them said, hey,
this is probably just a clerical error. So when you
get a chance, go to the DMB and get that fixed.
(07:06):
But that level of nuance in context and humanity does
not exist when you label all improperly documented immigrants as
illegal to make them criminal, to justify however you treat
them when you feel like it.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So is this a more humane way of deporting people?
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Sure, But I think there is a clear reason why
prior to now, illegal quote unquote immigration has not been
the priority that everybody wishes that it was. And it's
because illegal immigration is not the problem that it's marketed
to be. About twenty percent of America's workforce is illegal immigrants,
(07:45):
and it's the job that almost no one else wants
to do, like picking fruit in one hundred degrees and
cleaning your house and cooking your food and watching your
children and doing your garden, et cetera, et cetera, And
a lot of wealthy people and a lot of corporations
make a lot of money because of that.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
But when you have.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
Somebody who has used racism and xenophobia and bigotry and
all of these things to galvanize their base, they have
to make this problem number one and make it a
huge problem so that everybody's okay with doing whatever we
have to do to fix it. I don't trust the
administration to do what they say, so I'm not a
(08:24):
fan of this, but I think it's more way more
humane than what they've been doing. But do I think
they'll keep their word that all these people that self
deport will get home, push a button on the app
and get a thousand dollars. I don't and I also
won't act like one thousand dollars. There's a lot of
money when they're saying, pick up your life from where
you live, all your things, get out of the least
(08:46):
that you sign, quit the job that you have, and
go back to the country that you don't live in,
and start your life over with a thousand dollars. On
the question of how are we going to pay for it?
We send trillion dollars to other countries to help them
with their problems, and the question of how we're going
to pay for it seems to never come up when
(09:07):
it comes to doing something that's going to help or
benefit black and brown people. We never know where we're
gonna get the money from. Oh my god, the tax
pair of dollars. Do you really want your money to
go to helping other people? And our collective answer seems
to always be no. But when they make that decision,
you unilaterally, they spend as much money as they want
to help themselves and to make themselves better business partners
(09:29):
to people and other places in the world. So it's
always going to be a tricky topic topic because it's
intentionally approached without nuance and context. So we'll see, Like
you guys said, we'll see moving on. During an interview
earlier this week, former President Joe Biden shared his reflectings
on the twenty twenty four election and the impact of
(09:51):
his timing to exit the race. Mike, this time, let's
start with you, Yeah, and Nicole and Rampers, you guys
follow up.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Sometimes, I when I heard that he was going to
be having to sit down, I was thinking too soon,
only because I was hoping he would be out of
the spotlight just a little bit longer in light of
what's what's happened. Not that I don't want to hear
from him or anything, but it might be too early
for him to be, you know, commenting on the race.
But pretty much it was a you know, it all
(10:24):
started with concerns about his health and then that weak
debate you know, against Donald Trump in July, and then
you know, he subsequently withdraw his candidacy, but he confirmed
that he continues serving, you know, as president until the
conclusion of his term. But you know, at the very
beginning of all this, he was saying that I am
(10:45):
going to be the next president of the United States.
And now he turns around and says, you know, as
far as the outcome, I don't think it would have mattered.
You know. He said that things moved so quickly it
made it difficult walk away when he decided not to run.
But I think that's what turned the election around. I
(11:07):
still say that Kamala Harris didn't have enough time to
state her case, although she did a very good job
in that short period of time. But I think it
was the actions of Joe Biden, you know, wanting to
run again. I think that if he had stopped then
I think that it would have been a different outcome,
But I just think it was I think he needs
(11:29):
to uh reflect a little bit more on what actually
took place, you know, the ensuing months after he left office,
after he was Kamala Harris was defeated. But he's he's
a lot of you know, he was overshadowed by gaffes
and a lot of ramblings, and it led to many
(11:50):
to question whether he is his cognitive powers were strong enough.
And I was wondering if his cognitive cognitive powers that
would be strong.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Enough for this interview.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
But he he stated, you know, he made his case,
and he stated it pretty clearly. But I just thought
that maybe he needed to look at a few more things,
maybe comment on a few more things that's happening with
the current administration, and may have may have had a
stronger position to state than he did earlier this week.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Cool, okay, all right, gentlemen, placate me for a moment here.
Why don't we play an easy trivia game? Shall we?
Did President Joe Biden stand the twenty twenty four presidential
race too long? Answer? Yes, yes, didden stay in the
(12:42):
race too long and potentially hinder the Democratic Party's chances
of defeating Donald Trump answer. Yes, yes, yes, If Biden
had stepped aside sooner, would that have changed the outcome?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Perhaps?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, well, the answer for me there is probably not
back not because of the answer Biden gave about Trump
having too much momentum at the time. Blah blah blah.
I don't think that's the answer. I think that issue
is more about the Democratic nominee. Again, with the aforementioned
(13:22):
questions being true, I think the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris's
is more the focus there. I just personally think that
no matter how qualified she is or was, this great
nation that we live in simply was not ready for
a woman to be president, and certainly not ready for
(13:44):
a woman of color that had any black DNA to
lead this country forward in twenty twenty five. But you know,
I'll just suffice it to say, if Biden had stepped
out of the race sooner, I believe that would have
I've opened the door for other qualified potential candidates to
step in and perhaps put up a respectable fight.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
All right, Well here's what I think now.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I don't know everything, but you know, I got to
work pretty closely with the campaign along with Q, and
I understand all the arguments that everyone's making, not just
the conversation that we're having here. But in my lifetime,
(14:39):
I saw a woman win the popular vote for president
of the United States in twenty sixteen. In my lifetime,
I saw a black person win the presidency twice. So
I feel that there are enough people who exist out
there who would not be turned off at the idea
(15:04):
of a woman who is black being the president of
the United States. I feel like there is enough of
these human beings out there based on the data that
I've seen. I feel like Joe Biden could best be
advised by the great philosopher Jamie Fox, because why don't
(15:29):
he just sit down right?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
As another inside joke for.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Que all right, anyway, there is something to be said,
and who knows how it would have shaped the outcome
of the election, but I say it wouldn't have hurt.
There's something to be said about having a robust primary
(15:56):
where everybody in the Democrat Party gets to state their
case and the good not only the good candidates, but
the good ideas rise to the top where people say
Because a lot of what people had to say about
Kamalo was well, what is is she listening to the
(16:19):
American people that she is she providing what the American
people want. And a lot of times when you have
a primary, you know, as people drop out, they lend
their support and their endorsement because they lend their ideas
to the candidate that they feel best embodies their vision
for what the country should should be and the direction
(16:41):
the country should go in. And so they'll sit down
behind the scenes and they'll say, hey, look, you know
my idea about preschools. I want you to incorporate that
into your campaign. If you do that, then I will
give you my endorsement and tell all the people that
support me and to support you. And so this in
this way, not only the candidates, but the ideas rise
(17:02):
to the top. And so perhaps you can make an
argument that perhaps the American people would have felt heard.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Democrats are going to vote for Democrats, Republicans are going
to vote for Republicans. But the independence is where a
lot of the opportunity lies. Kamala Harris had to effectively
pick up Joe Biden's campaign in the middle of his
support for Israel. And I've made this case on the
show a few.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Times, and.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You know, this is something that a conversation we had before,
she had to play sort of the middle because Joe
Biden was always the candidate that was the most the
furthest right to get the people that didn't want to
vote for Donald Trump in twenty twenty to vote for
a Democrat finally, and he was a Democrat, so the
(17:55):
Democrats were going to be able to vote for him.
And this is why Joe Biden won in twenty twenty.
He won the popular vote anyone the electoral college, of course.
So my thinking is that by Joe Biden sticking around
for too long, overestimating, as men do, his ability to
do anything, indeed, he still is overestimating that he's a
(18:17):
very confident man. For you know, I pray I have
the confidence that he has at his age. Right.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
I just hope it doesn't cripple a nation.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
But I think that if you wanted to, you could
make an argument at minimum that Joe Biden leaving the
race earlier doesn't hurt Kamalist chances one bit. And I
think that if you have that conversation and the conversation
is well fleshed out, full of facts, kind of like
(18:48):
what I'm saying now, not trying to say that my
argument is stronger. But if you have a fact based argument,
then you can begin to have an argument whether or
not it would have actually helped Kamali's chances. He could
throw all his support behind her. But as long as
she's in the field with the Pete Buddha judges and
the you know, the the aocs, if she wanted to
(19:11):
all these you know, the Bernie Sanders everyone else, right,
then the Democrats that that set out the election, that
felt like they weren't being listened to, the people that
felt like the single issue voters, all that sort of stuff,
they would have at least had a chance to feel
like they were involved in the democratic process. And there's
(19:34):
a lot more people that are making the case for
Kamalin than just her herself.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Right, So, you know, who's to say?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know that I don't want to you know, dwell
too long on it, but you know, I think that
Joe Biden didn't do any favors to Kamala Harris.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Hey, what's up?
Speaker 5 (19:50):
This is Ramsy's Jah and I am q Ward and
we're inviting you to subscribe to Civic Cipher.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Are we the social justice podcast? Right here in the app.
Speaker 6 (19:58):
We pride ourselves on creating a show that foster's allyship,
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Speaker 1 (20:21):
Black Information Network news anchors Nicole Deal and Mike Island
are here with us discussing this week's major stories. All right,
up next, we have an update on the state level
trial of the Tyree Nichols case that wrapped earlier this week. Nicole,
let's go back to you give us some details on
the story, and then Mike and Q you're going to
get your thoughts after Nicole. Okay, good luck, guys.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well in insummation. You know, I think a lot of
our listeners in particular are familiar with this case about
Tyree Nichols. He was isotentially beaten to death by three
Memphis police officers back in twenty twenty three. So the
(21:09):
verdict was read off this week. So let me just
give some context to this. And let me first say
that we have to understand that to Tadarius Being, Demetrius Haley,
and Justin Smith are three black ex police officers in
this case who were already found guilty in a federal trial. Okay,
(21:33):
but this recent case this week is actually a state trial.
There was an all white jury picked out of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
which I found interesting, and they decided that all white
jury decided that all three of these black men were
not guilty on every count that they were charged with,
(21:56):
including murder in the second degree, et cetera, et cetera.
So let's just understand that these three black police officers
beat him to death and he suffered blunt force trauma.
He also eventually went into cardiac arrest. And there were
(22:20):
multiple opportunities. You know, these videos are very public, they're
out there in the audio, etc. There were multiple opportunities
where they could have stopped and perhaps Tyree Nichols would
still be with us, but they didn't. So this is
(22:44):
a tough one for me. Tyree Nichols is dead. And
yet the three men, regardless of their race, sat suited
up in a Tennessee courtroom while a not guilty verdict
was read black civil rights attorney Ben Crump, calling it
a miscarriage of justice, And in that moment, I just
(23:10):
had to put myself in the shoes of his mother,
or his father, or his brothers and family members. This
is just it's a painful tragedy all around. And I
just shudder to think what kind of message we are
sending in any courtroom in the United States, that if
(23:34):
you have on a uniform, that you can kill a
black man and not be found guilty. And again, I
don't want to focus too much on race, right because
Tyree Nichols is black and the three officers involved are black.
So it's just kind of it's kind of ironic that
(23:55):
it happened this way because so many times this year
and years before this, we've seen white officers kill a
black man and be found not guilty. Excuse me, So
it's just kind of ironic that in this case we
have three black men who killed another black man and
(24:18):
they are all found not guilty. So it's just this
is just a tough one for me. My heart goes
out to the family. The family, of course, has filed
a civil lawsuit, so hopefully they get some sort of restitution,
but it won't bring Tyree Nichols back. I just I'm
not enthusiastic about this verdict at all. But I do
(24:42):
feel as though if the three officers involved were white,
I would feel even more outraged.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Mike well Nicole, I tried to leave the race narrative
out of it, because it is truly ironic that we
have this happening. I guess, you know, the hardest thing
for me to see after the not guilty verdicts were
read was the seed officers hugging each other. And I
immediately thought of myself as Tyree Nicholls's parents when I
(25:15):
saw that.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
That was a hard.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Image to digest to see that after, but that's what happened,
and again, the race narrative is definitely awkward. I don't
know if there could have been a different outcome if
one or the other had been white, what would have
happened in this case. But as Steve Mulroy, he's the
(25:40):
Shelby County District Attorney, and he said, it's hard to
imagine how someone could say that none of the defendants
were guilty of any of the charges. He said he
thought that any fair minded person who watched the video
of that night would come to the conclusion that everybody
there had some responsibility for Tyre Tyree nicholls death. So
(26:00):
it's all we know is Tyree Nichols is dead, deserves
to be alive, and that this is definitely a tragedy.
And I think Mulbray said that too, and I think
he also added that his hope that the is that
the public understand this is just part of the system
and that our office will continue to push for accountability.
She's talking about Shelby County in Memphis, Tennessee. But it
(26:23):
was really, really hard, they said. The officers argued that
they may have been able to arrest Nichols lawfully, but
the prosecution said that changed the second that another officer
kicked Nichols in the head, and at that point or
after any of the other kicks and punches, the prosecution
argued that Bean and Smith had a duty to intervene.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
But as we.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Saw how that turned out. But yeah, very difficult and
it's not over even they still face prison charges for
others from another result of a trial. So there's more
to see, more to come.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Sorry, brother, than you.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Know, white supremacies inability to hold white supremacy accountable will
always be an issue. And the interesting thing about the
subject of race in this case is that it doesn't
go away because the officers were black, because the victim
was black. And that's the issue. You'd have a hard
(27:35):
time finding a case where a white victim is killed
on video by black police officers and they are all
found not guilty of anything because guilt or innocence wasn't
on trial. There's a video of them killing the young man.
So what's on trial is is the state right and
(27:55):
a trial in Chattanooga instead of Memphis so that the
jury can be all white, is not unintentional? Is the
state going to find these officers guilty and hold them
accountable of the crime we're watching them commit on video
and Mike, you said it, them hugging, celebrating that nothing's
going to happen to us after we killed this young
(28:17):
man because we felt like it, not because we were afraid,
not because we were threatened, but that's just the move
we were in that night. And they get to go
out of that courtroom feeling relieved, and that young man's
family has to accept something that they probably feared the
whole time. Black police officers can uphold a white supremacist
(28:41):
system that they work for as long as their victim
is black. Nothing to see here, and we have to
collectively accept that this is the truth far more than
it's not. You know, I've been on a back road
in Mississippi two or three o'clock in the morning, pulled
(29:03):
over by State Highway patrol officers, and an interesting thing
happened because Ramses was with me. There's a moment where
you cannot see the officers, you see the lights, you
see the flashlight in your face, and you hear their voices,
and you hear Mississippi law enforcement officer and whatever your
(29:23):
imagination told you that sounded like is exactly what it
sounded like. And they had us both get out of
the car, but me first, and while Ramsa sat in
the car hoping, I was okay. I saw that both
the officers were black, and I had a moment of relief, like, Okay,
maybe we don't die to night where there's no light,
(29:47):
not even the moon could get through the trees, and
there's two officers and drug dogs. And it's a longer
story than I'll tell right now. But Ramses had a
much different response because ravers is understood. Yet these officers
are black, but they're still officers. And in a lot
of these cases, they are officers before there are black men.
(30:08):
They are officers before there are men. Sometimes the humanity
is completely gone. There are officers and they're there to
uphold I do quotations, but people can't see me the law,
and that's interpreted in real time by whoever pulls you over,
and however power they feel like flexing on you in
that moment. So you have to be fully compliant and
(30:30):
fully submissive and almost give up all of your self dignity,
all your self worth, all of your self determination, so
that you don't die for nothing. On a routine traffic
stock and our routine traffic stop where we've done nothing,
no speeding, no swerving, no changing lane without signal, nothing,
we were now being accused of somehow traffic and drugs
(30:54):
and we have to get the drug dog. And after
they get the drug dog and search the car and
take everything out of this brand new car that we
just bought, so the only miles it has on it
is us driving from the dealership to where we are.
At that point they find nothing, but they still determine
there's been drugs in this car, because that's how it works.
(31:15):
That's how it works when you look like us. That's
how that system is designed. And thank god, one of
those officers was at least a man first, even if
not a black man first, and he was a human being,
and he had empathy and he realized in the moment, okay,
there's nothing to see here. The other officer, however, was
(31:37):
super officer, and he'd made up his mind there were
drugs present, even if you guys parked somewhere and someone
with a joint in their pocket brushed up against the
car six hundred miles ago when you stopped. So this
system is designed to put us in that position no
(32:00):
matter what, and most of them know that it's also
designed to protect them in the in the event that
they step across the line. Even when on video they
stomp us out until we pass away, until we perish.
They can go to court and jurors can look at
that video and still say nothing to see here. Those
(32:23):
officers were just doing their job. Finally, while teaching black
history is under attack across the country. A different type
of history course is being offered that focuses on our
president Mike Man.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I'm too old.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
I was brought up when we had Black History Week
and I watched Black History Week turn into Black History Month.
So I saw nothing but progress, you know, our first
black mayor, and I saw nothing but progress. Just to
think that no one's going to be taught that history
(33:02):
you know, of of of when they came up, or
generations afterward. But that's that's what we're trending. You know,
in Oklahoma, they instituted some update, updated academic standards trying
to you know, uh, trying to change how people find
out about us in the history of US. Uh required
(33:24):
they're requiring schools to teach high school students that widespread fraud.
Excuse me that, uh that the teachings of black history
a lot of there was some fraud in it, like
so so and so didn't really invent this. That they're
making it like they were old movies or something, and uh,
(33:45):
it's really it's really crazy. There's a story out about
churches now taking over black history teachings. I believe I
read about a church in North Carolina, another one in
Florida that you know, amid these bands that they're taking
black history into their own hands and I think there
was about three hundred churches hold their own black history
(34:06):
lessons to combat the state wide attacks and the nationwide
attacks on race inclusive education. So it's going to be
up to the churches to take care of that, because
in school, I don't think it's going to happen. My
wife made sure to get the Black Encyclopedias to teach
help teach our daughters about black history that wasn't being
(34:28):
taught in their schools despite the fact that they had
Black History Month. A whole lot of things left out,
a whole lot of things they learned just from having
the encyclopedias. And she made sure that anytime they did
a profile and anyone, whether it had to do with
black history or not, that the person they profiled was black.
And that's the route that we're going to have to take.
(34:51):
I don't know how to what's going to happen as
far as any legal fights against the way black history
is being edged out. You know, our history is being
wiped away. It may have to be up to the
churches and the communities and parents at home, you know,
to those to do those things to fight this. It's
(35:13):
deeply upsetting, But like I said, I never thought i'd
see the day, you know, because of the generation I
grew up in.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
That's it, Nicole, I know you're following this. What do
you got for us?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Okay? First of all, this is happening in Oklahoma and
they are planning to teach high school students the debunked
twenty twenty election fraud theories as fact. This is so interesting.
New academic standards will promote us President Donald Trump and
(35:48):
his allies is groundless. Twenty twenty election conspiracy theories, baseless
conspiracy theories fact.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Really, jeez, come on, where we are.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
Real or as my Louisiana people might say, I know
you line, What in the pneumonia?
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Is this?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Seriously? So? While the Trump administration is busy eliminating DEI
jobs from just about every program we can think of,
stripping federal funding from HBCUs, and the Department of Education
threatened to being dismantled, stopping the advancement of critical race theory,
(36:40):
you mean to tell me that we're just gonna start
teaching lies instead. This is exhausting. I mean, who approved this,
who co authored this, who co signed on this?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
Who?
Speaker 3 (36:57):
This is ridiculous? I have questions? Who is this class
for who's paying for this. This is absolutely ridiculous. I
can barely dignify this with a response. I don't like it.
I think it's absolute foolishness. And there's no way that
(37:17):
if I were in the state of Oklahoma that I
would want my tax dollars paying for this period.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Thank you. I tried to stay away from this part
of it, Nicole and go with Black history only because
all teachings are going to are going to lean in
this direction. They're going to We're going to be taught
what they want us to learn. You know, there's just
gonna there's just gonna brainwash us or attempt to do
(37:46):
that with this particular thing in Oklahoma. And and I
dwelled on black history because I think the same methods
are being applied.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
The interesting thing before you chime in, Ramses, is that
the people in charge in the state of Oklahoma most
likely voluntarily did this to flatter their president. Like I'm
sure this was not some mandate that was passed down,
Because we're seeing legislators and school board directors across the
country preemptively do things like this so they can land
(38:17):
on the good side of the guy in the white house.
It's a really disappointing thing to see. But please share
your thoughts with.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Us, sir. Yeah, so I get it.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
I understand the history is written by the victors, right,
And you know, this superintendent here feels as though his
(38:52):
side won a great battle, and when they lost that battle,
it was in twenty twenty, it was because someone stole
it from them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
That reality is more comfortable for him. And so.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Clearly he was tuned into Fox News and the conspiracy
theories and the wild videos and the documentaries and all
that sort of stuff, but not tuned into all the
courts with all the Republican and Trump elected judges, all
of them, all of them that actually had to do
a legal, critical, thorough examination of evidence, not make films
(39:35):
and not make television for ratings, and not pander to audiences. No,
they had to deal with facts in courtrooms across the country,
all of them, I reiterate, So ignoring all of that
to put this curriculum into the schools, you know, at
the expense of the taxpayers, right, because that's a more
comfortable truth for him, and that's what you know, he
(39:57):
wants his students to learn. Now, the thing that I
felt was interesting about this story was that it's not
teaching lies and teaching propaganda. The truth is, we think
of that as being the sort of thing that happens
in North Korea, the sort of thing that happens in Russia,
you know, communist countries, that sort of thing, right, China,
(40:18):
state controlled TV in Middle Eastern countries, that sort of thing. Right.
We think that is propaganda, and we ignore the fact
that it's happening right here. We think that we're above it.
We have this superiority complex. We as often as we
say it and said it when this man was running,
that we are.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Headed toward a dictatorship.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
We cannot conceive of a reality where we actually live
under a dictator because we still go to the same
job and shop at the same store, and life is
still the same, but the power has shifted. And you know,
little stories like these they add.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Up over time.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
There are people that are happy about this dictatorship because
he embodies and represents the future that they want to
see uh in this country. Something we've shared before, Q
and I've shared before is that many people, many intellectuals,
who can see that the president is he's clearly not
a smart person.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
He's clearly objectively not a smart person.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I mentioned on a recent episode that Bill Clinton was
a seeming seemingly a simpleton himself, right, but he was
actually a Rhodes scholar.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Right. Obama is a Harvard lawyer. Right.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
These people are there, they represent excellence, and at least
for the past couple of presidencies that were controlled by Republicans.
You know, George Bush was a c student and Donald
Trump you can just listen to him talk.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, we're gonna have.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's going to be the biggest, the most big leest,
you know that. That's this guy the whole time. Forget
his morals, just the lack of intel religence, right, But
the reason people voted for him, and it was put
so plainly, and again I've shared this before. Intellectuals who
happen to also be white men, who could look past
(42:13):
all of his flaws and cast a vote for that
man did so because Donald Trump's policies, if implemented, slow
the dispossession of the United States of America from white people.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
That's it, That's the whole story. Right.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
So there are people that will support a dictator and
the rest of us are just watching it.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Happen. But we don't have to. And I'll leave us
with this.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
We don't have to because even in a place like Oklahoma,
places like Tennessee, places you know, these places right where
you know, there are battles that need to be fought.
This man is not the president, this man is not
the chief police. This man does not this man is
a person that ran for superintendent. And we can do
(43:00):
the same thing. Okay, it is not hard to do that.
And the only reason that this particular curriculum was implemented
into that school was because of a tech illegal technicality
because this superintendent introduced it. But Republicans and Democrats both
tried to after the fact reject this. The implementation of
(43:24):
these conspiracy theories based off of Fox News. What Fox
News got sued for the literal thing. They had to
pay almost a billion dollars for lying to the American
people about. Okay, the only reason it's implemented is because
of a legal technicality. Again, bipartisan efforts to try to
kill that, because even Republicans knew that the twenty twenty
(43:46):
election wasn't stolen. If it was stolen, why wasn't the
twenty twenty four elections stolen right. So these people knew this,
but this far right lunatic who happens to sit on
that board and is the superintendent of this school district
was able to introduce something. It passed the line because
(44:06):
of a technicality, and now he gets to implement it.
And the truth is, we can do the same thing.
There's only one system in this country, and you run
for office and you vote for office. That's the only
way you engage. That's the only way that you shape outcomes.
And I'll say it for the next three and a
(44:28):
half years. If you stay home, then you didn't learn
the lesson that we all had to learn in twenty
twenty four. Because as bad as you think it is,
it can always be worse. Just look at what's happening
in Oklahoma. So I'll leave it right there. Thank you,
as always for your time in Insight once again. Today's
(44:48):
guests are Nicole Deal and Mike Island. This has been
a production of the Black Information Network. Today's show is
produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thought you'd like to share,
use the red microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
While you're there, be sure to hit subscribe and download
all of our episodes, I'm your host Ramsey's Ja on
(45:09):
all social media.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I am Qward on all social media as well.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
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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