Topics covered in part 1 of today's podcast are: Trump Administration Cancels LGBTQ Suicide Prevention Hotline / Viral Racist Preacher Teaches Slavery as a Gift to Africans
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to another episode
of the QR Code, where we share perspective, seek understanding
and shape outcomes.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I am your host, Rams's job, and I am qboard.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And that's my guy right there, and we both need
you to stick around because we have an excellent show
in store for you today, particularly because we have a
very special guest in the building and we are going
to be having a conversation about the protests in Los
Angeles in downtown. This is something that we've been wanting
to get to and get the right voice on to
(00:36):
kind of give us some insight, and I think that
we have found such an individual. She goes by the
name of Wendy Amara. She's an activist, a board member
of Roots and Wings, which is a content creator group
that uplifts the stories of immigrants, and she's also the
host of Yes muher Build It podcast. She can be
found online at Wendyamara dot com and she is connected
(00:58):
via family, so and my family is full of activist
and so I know she comes highly recommended and I'm
really excited to have a conversation with her today. We're
also going to be discussing Trump's I guess it might
be intentional, but the suicide prevention hotline that had special
(01:21):
services for lgbtq I A plus individuals is no more,
and we're going to talk about that. In the implications
of that, we're also going to be responding to a
video that went viral a couple of years back, and
it's being reintroduced to the cultural zeitgeist again. This is
a video of a preacher who is basically saying that
slavery was good for black people. It's a white preacher
(01:43):
saying slavery was good for black people because if we
had stayed in Africa practicing voodoo, that we would be
in hell burning, and that none of the black people
live today did any slavery work, and all that sort
of stuff, and so we kind of need to speak
to this type of mentality that's still prevalent. But before
we get to all that, it is time to start
the show, and as always, we start with some feel
(02:05):
good news. Our feel good feature today comes from NBC.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a highly effective
new HIV prevention med medication, Gilead Science has reported Wednesday.
In clinical trials, the drug nearly eliminated HIV spread among
people given an injection every six months. Ya called and
(02:27):
please forgive me if I get this wrongk Lena kabevir,
the highly effective drug, has inspired feverish anticipation among advocates
for HIV prevention. The hope is the medication could accelerate
the stubbornly slow decline of HIV transmission in the United States.
Lena kapevir, which is given by healthcare workers and clinics,
is significantly more effective than the existing oral HIV prevention drugs,
(02:50):
experts said, because it appears to address the challenges of
sticking to a daily pill regimen for people who are
at high risk of HIV. Gillia's chairman and CEO, Daniel
O'Day suggested an State and Wednesday that line kapevir could
end the HI HIV epidemic once and for all. The
drug was approved after astounding results in Gilliad's large clinical
(03:11):
trials of the drug. The trials randomly assigned people at
risk of HIV to receive their injections every six months
or a daily Truvada pill from a pre exposure prophylaxis
or PREP. Among game, bisexual men and transgender people the
medicine had an eighty nine percent lower HIV than the
(03:32):
group taking travada and a ninety six percent lower rate
than Gilead estimated would have been expected absent any prep. However,
lenik Kapavir's use as prep against HIV emerges in a
political climate that experts Warren could derail progress against the
viruses spread. The Trump administration's recent sweeping cancelations of research
grants and its severe cuts to the Centers for Disease
(03:54):
Control and Prevention staffing has dramatically affected HIV prevention field
in particular. So good news, but you know, we've still
got more work to do. Sorry that was a little wordy,
but I like to start off on a positive note.
All right, let's get to the.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Real Q and.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I want you to jump in here. But I'm going
to kind of paint a picture for folks that maybe
they haven't been listening to us for a long time.
Q and I, we were very, very fortunate in our journey, right.
We've always been able to be among the more celebrated
individuals in the cities in which we've lived, mostly because
(04:42):
of the work that we do. More people are able
to know us than we're able to know and this
is true now across the country because of the work
we do. We're broadcasters and again I'm speaking for us,
but you can correct me if I'm wrong. C we
there's a part of us that always felt like we
(05:02):
have to do more with that attention and that platforming
that comes with the work that we do, then just
kind of be the man and you know, get celebrated.
We always kind of felt like, Okay, we should probably
be responsible with this and share our talents and shine
(05:23):
lights on things that you know, maybe people don't know about.
And so Q and I have kind of always worked
in a space that could be considered you know, charitable, nonprofit, altruistic,
that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
For ten years we worked with homeless populations. We had
an event famously called hashtag lunch Bag and we worked
with you know, food banks, and we had huge corporate sponsors,
and we had a thousand plus volunteer base and it
was me and my friend and we got a chance
to really make a difference in the lives of a
lot of people, providing hygiene, providing clothing, providing meals.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And and so forth.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
And that's just the kind of thing that you do.
That's not the only thing we've done. We've done.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
We used to throw parties for.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Kids that were stuck in hospitals or in domestic violent
shelters and they couldn't celebrate their birthdays outside. And we
get all the radio personalities and DJ equipment and go
throw parties for the kids where they were.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
They couldn't leave.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And there's a long list of things that we've done,
you know, Britney Bash's cashtag, lunch bag, all these sorts.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Of things over the years. And we've also worked with.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
LGBTQ IA plus individuals and as you can probably imagine,
over the years, these groups of people have become very
special to us. Right these vulnerable populations, these populations are
often overlooked. They become like extended family for me and
Q and we think this is the right way to be.
(07:03):
I'm going to get into this article. I just wanted
to frame that, but I'm going to let you fill
in any gaps or any blanks that I might have
missed you before I get into this article that explains
kind of what has happened as a result of the
Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I mean, our story is kind of an unintentional one right,
we're trying to do the right thing. I guess, like
when we first connected, before we were friends, our story
starts there, right, Like I was a person that was
new to the professional space in Arizona. I had already
been in Arizona for probably five or six years, but
(07:42):
you know, I had a roommate that was a professional
ballplayer that went to ASU, a best friend that went
to ASU, and they were the reason I was in Arizona.
But when I, you know, had to start trying to
make a path for myself, RAMS just noticed another young
black man trying to do something positive and unsolicited, you know,
(08:02):
took it upon himself to amplify that and to shine
some light on me. And that's how we actually connected.
And now we've met before that, but that's how our
story started. And from that moment, both of us kind
of had this we can't tell our story like it was.
(08:23):
They're difficult parts of our story that we don't highlight, right,
parts of our childhood, parts of our upbringing that are
very similar stories to a lot of people. But we
both knew that we'd be dishonest if we told our
story that way, right, Because I can tell a story
where I was raised by a single mom and I
have eleven siblings, and we were poor, and we grew
up in Detroit and there was crime and there was
(08:44):
blah blah blah. But both of us knew that wasn't
our story, even though it was true. Framing our narrative
that way wouldn't have been fair because we both understood
we've been given so much, even though that was the
circumstance that we were born into, and that there was
so much more that we could do then just shine
or just be the man. And without even having a
(09:04):
meeting first, Ramsens and I joined forces in this way
that we wanted to say, we have this platform, we
have these gifts, we have these talents, but they're not
for us, and anything good that comes of those gifts,
we have to share them. You know, from our very
first conversations, we could have been trying to throw parties
and run it up, but we threw parties for kids
in hospitals that didn't pay us because they couldn't experience
(09:26):
things right. We had friends in Los Angeles that were
feeding the homeless, not from some organization but from social media,
i e. Hashtag lunchbag. You know, four or five friends
that woke up on Christmas and decided to take things
that they had and give them back to people, And
collectively we fed over two million people all around the world,
(09:50):
all at the same time, a bunch of groups, you know,
waving that same flag in that same banner. So from
DJs to organizers, we were still very much in an
entertainment space and wanted to do a lot for people,
but we didn't really have a specific way, you know,
that we were going to do that, and life's circumstances
just kept delivering to us different ways to give back,
(10:11):
different ways to have impact. And you know, a lot
of our story has been chronicle now and people can
look it up, but it started from very very humble
beginnings and the two of us, without ever even having
to talk about it, understanding that not only did we
want to do more, but that it was required that
we did so.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Bearing that in mind, you know how damaging and how
hurtful this article is for us, So I'll share the
nine eight eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline specialized services for
LGBTQ plus youth, will no longer be in operation starting
July seventeenth, according to a statement from the US Department
(10:53):
of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration. The administration said in its statement that everyone
who contacts the nine eight Lifeline will continue to receive
access to crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse,
or mental health crisis or any other kind of emotional distress,
but there will no longer be the LGBTQ plus Specialized Services.
(11:14):
And according to the latest dative, more than fourteen point
five million people have called texts that are sent chats
to the nine eight Lifeline and have been transferred to
a crisis contact center since July twenty twenty two. One
point three million of those were routed to the LGBTQ
plus Specialized Service. And there's a quote on July seventeenth,
the nine eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline will no longer
(11:36):
silo LGB plus use services also known as the Press
three option, to focus on servicing all health seekers, including
those previously served through the Press three Option. SAMSUS statements
at Tuesday, So, a lot of the work that we
did in this in this space, in the nonprofit space,
it was derailed by COVID, But again our heart still
(11:59):
beats for these communities. We understand that there are unique
challenges and you know, some people need special attention, some
people need special services. And I think that you know,
it's not just me and Q, I will speak for
you now, but a lot of people really do believe
that life is precious.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And there are people.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Who have a really tough time right now and they
don't feel special, and they don't feel valuable, and they
don't feel like they belong and they wake up with
that pain every day. And this was kind of like
their last line of defense, and there was a group
of people dedicated to, you know, making sure that they
were they at least had someone to talk to about
(12:43):
their unique circumstances. And for the Trump administration roll that back,
I feel that's particularly a heinous.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Your thoughts, Q, you know, rams, you and I have
talked about that this. You know, we're past it now.
But the first hundred days of Trump and everything is
about taking away from people. Man Like they don't even
disguise the evil like it's benefiting someone, you know what
(13:15):
I mean, Like you could you could, you could make
something like it's benefiting one group, and then in the
small print you realize it's taking from another group. They
just lead with the take, they just lead with the hate,
They just leave with harm and over and over again.
Like it's mentally and emotionally exhausting that every time there's
a press release it's about who we can harm and
(13:35):
who we can take things away from.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Well, if you know someone who identifies as you know,
from one of these communities, of them a little tighter today,
and real quick, I want to shout out the New
York Times for the article. All right, moving on, you know,
as I mentioned, there is a video that is recirculating
on social media, and we have some opinions on this video,
(14:03):
so we don't really need to do too much in
the way of song and dance. I'll just go ahead
and play the video and then you'll hear our thoughts.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So here we go.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You know what, I bet you there's a lot of
Africans that if they hadn't have been brought over not
saying it was right. Don't misunderstand not justifying the slavery
in the situation. But God, I still believe used it.
And now I'm sure there's a lot of Africans that
got the gospel and they're in heaven right now because
they got the gospel. You know, what would be better
for them to have lived their entire life in Africa
(14:34):
free doing their voodoo or whatever, and then dying and
going to hell right or what happened, and then they
go to heaven. They get the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Again, it doesn't justify it. The ends do not justify
the means. But this is how God works. This is
what God does in the Bible. And we got different.
We have black people in here. I don't think any
of you guys were ever slaves. You know, I was
never a slaved. It's like, oh, you know white privilege.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You were never a slave.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
You were never living during the time. You know, unless
you're very old, like sixty or seventy maybe or eighty
years old, you're never even living during the time or
segregation was a thing in this country. I mean, what
are you crying about? Nothing even happened to you. Are
you just making up stuff? You can't look at the
you know, the facts that I was reading and just
(15:22):
a tribute that to some kind of white privilege.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It does it's not real.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Get over it. Quit having all the excuses. Why don't
you take some responsibility for your choices, be content with
whatever situation you were born into and make the most
of it.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
You want to go first, Q, stop laughing around solo.
I was real mad, and then you laughed, and you
unmad at me. I need get the audience to hear
my mad. No, I just knew.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I knew you were flabbergasted, so I just cut you
off guard. But yeah, I'm serious if you want to go, person, Oh.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
You were like okay. So look, man, if I was
a white person confused about the idea of white privilege
because I'm not wealthy, because my life is still hard,
because I'm still living check to check, and I was
(16:21):
looking for something to grasp a hold too, this preacher's
message might have caught my attention. But if I was
a good faith white person in those same circumstances who
was also intelligent, once he said get over it, he
(16:42):
would have lost me, He should have, and would have
lost a lot of his congregation, even even those who
were riding with him on You know, we weren't there,
and you weren't a slave, and even those people. But
when he hits you with the get over it, it
(17:02):
would have like shook the cowboys off and woke you
up from the trance that he was trying to talk
you into. Everyone is supposed to be intentionally obtuse when
it comes to slavery and its impact on this entire country,
the entire history of this country from its inception to
(17:28):
present day, and that get over an idea.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I was listening to his message as a person that
was racist, that felt guilty about his racism, and I
was starting to empathize, right, I was starting to empathize
with a person. Oh, he feels guilty about his racism.
He feels guilty that his ancestors owned slaves. So he's
(17:57):
trying to talk himself and everybody else around him out
of that guilt until he said get over it. Then
it was like, oh no, this guy doesn't feel guilty,
And he shifted gears right there towards the end. It
was strange his tone changed, his like the messaging even
changed there, Like it seemed like he was trying to
grasp onto some very untrue, some blatantly untrue history lesson,
(18:20):
whereas like none of you would even remember slavery unless
you're like seventy or eighty, not unless you were five hundred.
Because he was talking like, that's the age he should
have said, you would even be familiar with that unless
you were like six hundred, because it was that long ago. Nope,
this man says seventy or eighty. There's thirty people in
(18:40):
that congregation at seven year eighty at least. I'm looking
at the church. I'm listening to his voice. It's some
seventy eighty year olds in there.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
That was like, oh, you you had him, rev youw
you had him, and then you threw out sixty years
years old, which means you were born sixty years ago roughly.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, and get over it. Let me fully acknowledge this
thing that actually happened, and tell you people, you people
who weren't even actually slaves, to get over it.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
When I leave service to them, I'm going to go
back to the generation of wealth that my family left
me that I didn't work for, that I wasn't present for,
to live in the house that was passed down from
my grandfather to my father, and so on and so on.
But you people, get over the trauma and the life
that your ancestors had to pass down to you because
we kidnapped them, brought them here, forced them to work
for us. For free, declared them property, made them less
(19:40):
than human, and labeled them black a race that was
supposed to declare them as property into perpetuity.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Just get over it, and sorry, but my laugh were off. Okay, well,
stated sir. Couple of things jumped out at me. You know,
the first time I saw this video, and then of
course recently now that it's making it rounds again, they
(20:08):
just let anybody be a minister. Isn't that crazy? Like you,
you would think that this is a person that has
to have not just like empathy and compassion and whatever,
but like intelligence.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
You know, you're like leader, You're a leader of men.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
You know, men and women of course, but you know
you're a leader of men. That's the way the phrase goes.
And if you're going to like say something with your
whole chest, I would imagine that you would have a cogent,
like well formulated argument for it. But as you mentioned,
(20:47):
he kind of switched gears in the middle, like he
was trying to say, you know, the ends don't justify
the means, and you know, he was like kind of
tiptoeing and soft shoeing around it, and at the end he's.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Like, get over it. You know. So it's like, I don't.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Think that you really plan to say that, and as
a result, I don't think that you really know how
to say it. So you know, when it gets scrutinized
by not just me and Q, but everyone on the
Internet and everyone in.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
The world, you know, this guy gets ripped apart.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
And the reason we're talking about it is because, unfortunately,
there are people who actually feel this way. So allow
me just a couple of moments just to address a
couple of things he's talking about. First things, First, Christianity
was in Africa before it was in Europe. Facts, it
was in Ethiopia. The Bible was in Ethiopia before it
(21:36):
was in Europe. So Jesus and God and everybody else
was in Africa before your second thing, God, if God
is indeed all powerful, doesn't need to subject just one
group of humans, the first group of humans that God
ever made, to slavery in order to find their way
to God. That just feels like a cruel way for
(21:59):
God go about doing that, especially if Christianity was already
in Africa.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay, So that's first.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Okay, So none of us were born slaves. I don't
think anybody has ever argued that right now, that's such
a weird, weak argument. No one is saying, hey, you
owe me for the slavery that I participated in. It's
to say, hey, our people endured this, and now our
people are being measured against the wealth and the prosperity
(22:28):
of you all, and you built that wealth and prosperity
on our backs and we were compensated.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Zero for it.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
And this reparations conversation is meant to write that historical injustice.
It's not about me the individual. But it speaks to
the legacy of hang on housing discrimination. It speaks to
the legacy of redlining. It speaks to the legacy of
the war on drugs. It speaks to the legacy of
environmental racism. It speaks to the legacy of the unfair
(23:01):
dispersement of the GI Bill after World War One, World
War Two. It speaks to land theft. It speaks to
black codes. It speaks to the New Deal and how
black people were left out of that. It speaks to,
you know, the civil rights movement. It speaks to did
I mention Jim Crow?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It speaks to.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The injustices with the education system. It speaks to the
injustices and the healthcare system and disparate outcomes with those,
and on and on and on. This is a much
longer list. And so if that is the legacy of slavery,
then you can't just say you weren't a slave, get
over it, because the legacy of slavery very much shapes
(23:43):
the lives of black people in mass to this day.
Sometimes the show is tough to do, but we're the
right ones for the job. Right now, it's time to
discuss who better do better, and today we're talking about
how well Ted Cruz was obliterated in an interview with
Tucker Carlson. Now, to be fair, I did not see this.
(24:04):
Que did, so I'll read this and let Q fire
off a couple of shots. This is from MSNBC dot com.
Talk show host Tucker Carlson skewered Senator Ted Cruz, the
Republican from Texas, and what could be considered a minute
and a half version of the meme the worst person
you know just made a great point. I'd go along
with that. In the segment of his show released Tuesday,
Carlson bombarded Cruise with questions related to his support for
(24:27):
regime change and Iran, as the US supports Israel's war
on Iran and Carlson was effective despite being motivated by
right wing isolationist ideas rather than progressive anti war sentiment.
Quote at all, Carlson asks, no, I don't know the population.
Cruz says, you don't know the population of the country
you seek to topple. Carlson presses. After Carlson tells Cruz
(24:52):
that Iran has about ninety million people, he asks, how
could you not know that? Cruse retorts that he doesn't
sit around memorizing population tables. Carlson insists it's relevant because
Cruz is calling for the overthrow of the government. He
then quiz's Cruise about the ethnic makeup of Iran, and
eventually Cruise erupts an exasperation, saying this is cute, and
(25:12):
defending himself by saying, okay, I am not the Tucker
Carlson expert on Iran. Despite Cruise's fear mongering about the
prospect of a mushroom cloud over New York City or
Los Angeles, the US has many other more realistic threats
to worry about, and neither Cruz nor any of his
war hungry colleagues have explained why Iran wouldn't theoretically be
deterred from using nuclear weapons by the same principle that
(25:35):
has long prevented nuclear warfare around the world, mutually assured destruction.
Throughout the rest of the interview clip, Carlson pushes Cruz
to clarify how dangerous Iran actually is and.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
What the exact scope of.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
The US's involvement in Israel's operations are, and he does
it with a kind of doggedness often absent from Marie.
Mainstream reporters when they interrogate American politics about war. Okay,
I know that this was a takedown just because I
saw people talking it online.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
But you know, give some more insight you, I mean,
that's all I got for you. It was everybody, go
to your Google's, Yeah, go to your YouTube's and watch it.
It's amazing, and listen to me.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Man.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Hate is not the word that we use often, but
it's a couple of people in this world that have learted,
you know what I mean, Like they going, they're going
hard to like earn my hatred. Even if he's not
there yet. Tucker Crossing has been trying with all of
(26:38):
his being to get on my you know what I mean,
to get me to say it on a microphone or
a stage or a bullhorn, or text it to my mom,
like he trying real hard to get me there. And
when I tell you, I stand in ovation our Senio
(26:59):
Hall Rue Crossing in this conversation ramses is so beautiful
because it's the It's the type of thing that only
he could do. If you and I did it, people
would dismiss it on its face, no matter how true,
no matter how honest, no matter how it would be. Gotcha. Yeah,
But the fact that he's doing it makes a bunch
(27:21):
of people pause, like, oh wait, maybe they don't ever
know what they're talking about. Maybe they are taking us
to the brink of world war with no clue, because
owning the Libs is what it's all about, even if
everybody might die, Like the ideas are so ridiculous, and
(27:44):
it takes Tucker Crossing to have someone so under educated
and underinformed like Ted Cruz and just dog walking. It's
embarrassing for their party, it's embarrassing for their movement. And
a sitting senator who's the loudest and most excited about
(28:04):
the potential world war knows nothing about the country that
he's saying. We're already at war with that. She also
tries to walk back. Google this interview. Watch every second
of it. It will enrich your spirit, It will enrich
your ministry. It will bring tides into the storehouse for
(28:25):
your church. Listen to me, man, so there might be
meet in my house. Listen improve me now herewith said
the Lord of hosts. Okay, if you will not open
up the windows of heaven and pour ye out of blessing,
that there should not be room enough to receive, go
watch the video. Church. The folks don't know Q grew
(28:47):
up in church.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I grew up in church, so you know, we might
we might have to, you know, pull from our childhood
from time to time. But masterful, masterful sermon there, Minister
q Ward. Listen, I'm right there with you, Man, Tucker
Carlson of all people, you know, to be fair. A
(29:08):
lot of times, consuming content from people like him is
like it's just not good for my spirit. It's like
it just it makes me feel ill like a little bit,
and it makes me really sad, and it's really depressing.
So I have to kind of throttle the intake. But
this is by far and away my most favorite interview
(29:29):
from both of them because it shows Tucker Carlson, at least,
for whatever his intentions, he's at least being a journalist
and standing up for something. And it puts the you know,
Ted Cruz in the hot seat, and he's not making
life comfortable for him, and those two things need to
happen more often.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Be sure to keep it close, don't forget Part two.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
We have our very special guest, Wendy Amara, the activist
board member of Roots and Wings and the host of
the Muhir Builded podcast, giving us some insight onto the
LA protest coming up next
Broadcasting from the Civic Cipher Studios. Welcome to another episode
of the QR Code, where we share perspective, seek understanding
and shape outcomes.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I am your host, Rams's job, and I am qboard.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
And that's my guy right there, and we both need
you to stick around because we have an excellent show
in store for you today, particularly because we have a
very special guest in the building and we are going
to be having a conversation about the protests in Los
Angeles in downtown. This is something that we've been wanting
to get to and get the right voice on to
(00:36):
kind of give us some insight, and I think that
we have found such an individual. She goes by the
name of Wendy Amara. She's an activist, a board member
of Roots and Wings, which is a content creator group
that uplifts the stories of immigrants, and she's also the
host of Yes muher Build It podcast. She can be
found online at Wendyamara dot com and she is connected
(00:58):
via family, so and my family is full of activist
and so I know she comes highly recommended and I'm
really excited to have a conversation with her today. We're
also going to be discussing Trump's I guess it might
be intentional, but the suicide prevention hotline that had special
(01:21):
services for lgbtq I A plus individuals is no more,
and we're going to talk about that. In the implications
of that, we're also going to be responding to a
video that went viral a couple of years back, and
it's being reintroduced to the cultural zeitgeist again. This is
a video of a preacher who is basically saying that
slavery was good for black people. It's a white preacher
(01:43):
saying slavery was good for black people because if we
had stayed in Africa practicing voodoo, that we would be
in hell burning, and that none of the black people
live today did any slavery work, and all that sort
of stuff, and so we kind of need to speak
to this type of mentality that's still prevalent. But before
we get to all that, it is time to start
the show, and as always, we start with some feel
(02:05):
good news. Our feel good feature today comes from NBC.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a highly effective
new HIV prevention med medication, Gilead Science has reported Wednesday.
In clinical trials, the drug nearly eliminated HIV spread among
people given an injection every six months. Ya called and
(02:27):
please forgive me if I get this wrongk Lena kabevir,
the highly effective drug, has inspired feverish anticipation among advocates
for HIV prevention. The hope is the medication could accelerate
the stubbornly slow decline of HIV transmission in the United States.
Lena kapevir, which is given by healthcare workers and clinics,
is significantly more effective than the existing oral HIV prevention drugs,
(02:50):
experts said, because it appears to address the challenges of
sticking to a daily pill regimen for people who are
at high risk of HIV. Gillia's chairman and CEO, Daniel
O'Day suggested an State and Wednesday that line kapevir could
end the HI HIV epidemic once and for all. The
drug was approved after astounding results in Gilliad's large clinical
(03:11):
trials of the drug. The trials randomly assigned people at
risk of HIV to receive their injections every six months
or a daily Truvada pill from a pre exposure prophylaxis
or PREP. Among game, bisexual men and transgender people the
medicine had an eighty nine percent lower HIV than the
(03:32):
group taking travada and a ninety six percent lower rate
than Gilead estimated would have been expected absent any prep. However,
lenik Kapavir's use as prep against HIV emerges in a
political climate that experts Warren could derail progress against the
viruses spread. The Trump administration's recent sweeping cancelations of research
grants and its severe cuts to the Centers for Disease
(03:54):
Control and Prevention staffing has dramatically affected HIV prevention field
in particular. So good news, but you know, we've still
got more work to do. Sorry that was a little wordy,
but I like to start off on a positive note.
All right, let's get to the.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Real Q and.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I want you to jump in here. But I'm going
to kind of paint a picture for folks that maybe
they haven't been listening to us for a long time.
Q and I, we were very, very fortunate in our journey, right.
We've always been able to be among the more celebrated
individuals in the cities in which we've lived, mostly because
(04:42):
of the work that we do. More people are able
to know us than we're able to know and this
is true now across the country because of the work
we do. We're broadcasters and again I'm speaking for us,
but you can correct me if I'm wrong. C we
there's a part of us that always felt like we
(05:02):
have to do more with that attention and that platforming
that comes with the work that we do, then just
kind of be the man and you know, get celebrated.
We always kind of felt like, Okay, we should probably
be responsible with this and share our talents and shine
(05:23):
lights on things that you know, maybe people don't know about.
And so Q and I have kind of always worked
in a space that could be considered you know, charitable, nonprofit, altruistic,
that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
For ten years we worked with homeless populations. We had
an event famously called hashtag lunch Bag and we worked
with you know, food banks, and we had huge corporate sponsors,
and we had a thousand plus volunteer base and it
was me and my friend and we got a chance
to really make a difference in the lives of a
lot of people, providing hygiene, providing clothing, providing meals.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And and so forth.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
And that's just the kind of thing that you do.
That's not the only thing we've done. We've done.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
We used to throw parties for.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Kids that were stuck in hospitals or in domestic violent
shelters and they couldn't celebrate their birthdays outside. And we
get all the radio personalities and DJ equipment and go
throw parties for the kids where they were.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
They couldn't leave.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And there's a long list of things that we've done,
you know, Britney Bash's cashtag, lunch bag, all these sorts.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Of things over the years. And we've also worked with.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
LGBTQ IA plus individuals and as you can probably imagine,
over the years, these groups of people have become very
special to us. Right these vulnerable populations, these populations are
often overlooked. They become like extended family for me and
Q and we think this is the right way to be.
(07:03):
I'm going to get into this article. I just wanted
to frame that, but I'm going to let you fill
in any gaps or any blanks that I might have
missed you before I get into this article that explains
kind of what has happened as a result of the
Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I mean, our story is kind of an unintentional one right,
we're trying to do the right thing. I guess, like
when we first connected, before we were friends, our story
starts there, right, Like I was a person that was
new to the professional space in Arizona. I had already
been in Arizona for probably five or six years, but
(07:42):
you know, I had a roommate that was a professional
ballplayer that went to ASU, a best friend that went
to ASU, and they were the reason I was in Arizona.
But when I, you know, had to start trying to
make a path for myself, RAMS just noticed another young
black man trying to do something positive and unsolicited, you know,
(08:02):
took it upon himself to amplify that and to shine
some light on me. And that's how we actually connected.
And now we've met before that, but that's how our
story started. And from that moment, both of us kind
of had this we can't tell our story like it was.
(08:23):
They're difficult parts of our story that we don't highlight, right,
parts of our childhood, parts of our upbringing that are
very similar stories to a lot of people. But we
both knew that we'd be dishonest if we told our
story that way, right, Because I can tell a story
where I was raised by a single mom and I
have eleven siblings, and we were poor, and we grew
up in Detroit and there was crime and there was
(08:44):
blah blah blah. But both of us knew that wasn't
our story, even though it was true. Framing our narrative
that way wouldn't have been fair because we both understood
we've been given so much, even though that was the
circumstance that we were born into, and that there was
so much more that we could do then just shine
or just be the man. And without even having a
(09:04):
meeting first, Ramsens and I joined forces in this way
that we wanted to say, we have this platform, we
have these gifts, we have these talents, but they're not
for us, and anything good that comes of those gifts,
we have to share them. You know, from our very
first conversations, we could have been trying to throw parties
and run it up, but we threw parties for kids
in hospitals that didn't pay us because they couldn't experience
(09:26):
things right. We had friends in Los Angeles that were
feeding the homeless, not from some organization but from social media,
i e. Hashtag lunchbag. You know, four or five friends
that woke up on Christmas and decided to take things
that they had and give them back to people, And
collectively we fed over two million people all around the world,
(09:50):
all at the same time, a bunch of groups, you know,
waving that same flag in that same banner. So from
DJs to organizers, we were still very much in an
entertainment space and wanted to do a lot for people,
but we didn't really have a specific way, you know,
that we were going to do that, and life's circumstances
just kept delivering to us different ways to give back,
(10:11):
different ways to have impact. And you know, a lot
of our story has been chronicle now and people can
look it up, but it started from very very humble
beginnings and the two of us, without ever even having
to talk about it, understanding that not only did we
want to do more, but that it was required that
we did so.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Bearing that in mind, you know how damaging and how
hurtful this article is for us, So I'll share the
nine eight eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline specialized services for
LGBTQ plus youth, will no longer be in operation starting
July seventeenth, according to a statement from the US Department
(10:53):
of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration. The administration said in its statement that everyone
who contacts the nine eight Lifeline will continue to receive
access to crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse,
or mental health crisis or any other kind of emotional distress,
but there will no longer be the LGBTQ plus Specialized Services.
(11:14):
And according to the latest dative, more than fourteen point
five million people have called texts that are sent chats
to the nine eight Lifeline and have been transferred to
a crisis contact center since July twenty twenty two. One
point three million of those were routed to the LGBTQ
plus Specialized Service. And there's a quote on July seventeenth,
the nine eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline will no longer
(11:36):
silo LGB plus use services also known as the Press
three option, to focus on servicing all health seekers, including
those previously served through the Press three Option. SAMSUS statements
at Tuesday, So, a lot of the work that we
did in this in this space, in the nonprofit space,
it was derailed by COVID, But again our heart still
(11:59):
beats for these communities. We understand that there are unique
challenges and you know, some people need special attention, some
people need special services. And I think that you know,
it's not just me and Q, I will speak for
you now, but a lot of people really do believe
that life is precious.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And there are people.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Who have a really tough time right now and they
don't feel special, and they don't feel valuable, and they
don't feel like they belong and they wake up with
that pain every day. And this was kind of like
their last line of defense, and there was a group
of people dedicated to, you know, making sure that they
were they at least had someone to talk to about
(12:43):
their unique circumstances. And for the Trump administration roll that back,
I feel that's particularly a heinous.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Your thoughts, Q, you know, rams, you and I have
talked about that this. You know, we're past it now.
But the first hundred days of Trump and everything is
about taking away from people. Man Like they don't even
disguise the evil like it's benefiting someone, you know what
(13:15):
I mean, Like you could you could, you could make
something like it's benefiting one group, and then in the
small print you realize it's taking from another group. They
just lead with the take, they just lead with the hate,
They just leave with harm and over and over again.
Like it's mentally and emotionally exhausting that every time there's
a press release it's about who we can harm and
(13:35):
who we can take things away from.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Well, if you know someone who identifies as you know,
from one of these communities, of them a little tighter today,
and real quick, I want to shout out the New
York Times for the article. All right, moving on, you know,
as I mentioned, there is a video that is recirculating
on social media, and we have some opinions on this video,
(14:03):
so we don't really need to do too much in
the way of song and dance. I'll just go ahead
and play the video and then you'll hear our thoughts.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So here we go.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
You know what, I bet you there's a lot of
Africans that if they hadn't have been brought over not
saying it was right. Don't misunderstand not justifying the slavery
in the situation. But God, I still believe used it.
And now I'm sure there's a lot of Africans that
got the gospel and they're in heaven right now because
they got the gospel. You know, what would be better
for them to have lived their entire life in Africa
(14:34):
free doing their voodoo or whatever, and then dying and
going to hell right or what happened, and then they
go to heaven. They get the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Again, it doesn't justify it. The ends do not justify
the means. But this is how God works. This is
what God does in the Bible. And we got different.
We have black people in here. I don't think any
of you guys were ever slaves. You know, I was
never a slaved. It's like, oh, you know white privilege.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You were never a slave.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
You were never living during the time. You know, unless
you're very old, like sixty or seventy maybe or eighty
years old, you're never even living during the time or
segregation was a thing in this country. I mean, what
are you crying about? Nothing even happened to you. Are
you just making up stuff? You can't look at the
you know, the facts that I was reading and just
(15:22):
a tribute that to some kind of white privilege.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It does it's not real.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Get over it. Quit having all the excuses. Why don't
you take some responsibility for your choices, be content with
whatever situation you were born into and make the most
of it.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
You want to go first, Q, stop laughing around solo.
I was real mad, and then you laughed, and you
unmad at me. I need get the audience to hear
my mad. No, I just knew.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
I knew you were flabbergasted, so I just cut you
off guard. But yeah, I'm serious if you want to go, person, Oh.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
You were like okay. So look, man, if I was
a white person confused about the idea of white privilege
because I'm not wealthy, because my life is still hard,
because I'm still living check to check, and I was
(16:21):
looking for something to grasp a hold too, this preacher's
message might have caught my attention. But if I was
a good faith white person in those same circumstances who
was also intelligent, once he said get over it, he
(16:42):
would have lost me, He should have, and would have
lost a lot of his congregation, even even those who
were riding with him on You know, we weren't there,
and you weren't a slave, and even those people. But
when he hits you with the get over it, it
(17:02):
would have like shook the cowboys off and woke you
up from the trance that he was trying to talk
you into. Everyone is supposed to be intentionally obtuse when
it comes to slavery and its impact on this entire country,
the entire history of this country from its inception to
(17:28):
present day, and that get over an idea.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
I was listening to his message as a person that
was racist, that felt guilty about his racism, and I
was starting to empathize, right, I was starting to empathize
with a person. Oh, he feels guilty about his racism.
He feels guilty that his ancestors owned slaves. So he's
(17:57):
trying to talk himself and everybody else around him out
of that guilt until he said get over it. Then
it was like, oh no, this guy doesn't feel guilty,
And he shifted gears right there towards the end. It
was strange his tone changed, his like the messaging even
changed there, Like it seemed like he was trying to
grasp onto some very untrue, some blatantly untrue history lesson,
(18:20):
whereas like none of you would even remember slavery unless
you're like seventy or eighty, not unless you were five hundred.
Because he was talking like, that's the age he should
have said, you would even be familiar with that unless
you were like six hundred, because it was that long ago. Nope,
this man says seventy or eighty. There's thirty people in
(18:40):
that congregation at seven year eighty at least. I'm looking
at the church. I'm listening to his voice. It's some
seventy eighty year olds in there.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
That was like, oh, you you had him, rev youw
you had him, and then you threw out sixty years
years old, which means you were born sixty years ago roughly.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, and get over it. Let me fully acknowledge this
thing that actually happened, and tell you people, you people
who weren't even actually slaves, to get over it.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
When I leave service to them, I'm going to go
back to the generation of wealth that my family left
me that I didn't work for, that I wasn't present for,
to live in the house that was passed down from
my grandfather to my father, and so on and so on.
But you people, get over the trauma and the life
that your ancestors had to pass down to you because
we kidnapped them, brought them here, forced them to work
for us. For free, declared them property, made them less
(19:40):
than human, and labeled them black a race that was
supposed to declare them as property into perpetuity.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Just get over it, and sorry, but my laugh were off. Okay, well,
stated sir. Couple of things jumped out at me. You know,
the first time I saw this video, and then of
course recently now that it's making it rounds again, they
(20:08):
just let anybody be a minister. Isn't that crazy? Like you,
you would think that this is a person that has
to have not just like empathy and compassion and whatever,
but like intelligence.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
You know, you're like leader, You're a leader of men.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
You know, men and women of course, but you know
you're a leader of men. That's the way the phrase goes.
And if you're going to like say something with your
whole chest, I would imagine that you would have a cogent,
like well formulated argument for it. But as you mentioned,
(20:47):
he kind of switched gears in the middle, like he
was trying to say, you know, the ends don't justify
the means, and you know, he was like kind of
tiptoeing and soft shoeing around it, and at the end he's.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Like, get over it. You know. So it's like, I don't.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Think that you really plan to say that, and as
a result, I don't think that you really know how
to say it. So you know, when it gets scrutinized
by not just me and Q, but everyone on the
Internet and everyone in.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
The world, you know, this guy gets ripped apart.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
And the reason we're talking about it is because, unfortunately,
there are people who actually feel this way. So allow
me just a couple of moments just to address a
couple of things he's talking about. First things, First, Christianity
was in Africa before it was in Europe. Facts, it
was in Ethiopia. The Bible was in Ethiopia before it
(21:36):
was in Europe. So Jesus and God and everybody else
was in Africa before your second thing, God, if God
is indeed all powerful, doesn't need to subject just one
group of humans, the first group of humans that God
ever made, to slavery in order to find their way
to God. That just feels like a cruel way for
(21:59):
God go about doing that, especially if Christianity was already
in Africa.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Okay, So that's first.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Okay, So none of us were born slaves. I don't
think anybody has ever argued that right now, that's such
a weird, weak argument. No one is saying, hey, you
owe me for the slavery that I participated in. It's
to say, hey, our people endured this, and now our
people are being measured against the wealth and the prosperity
(22:28):
of you all, and you built that wealth and prosperity
on our backs and we were compensated.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Zero for it.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
And this reparations conversation is meant to write that historical injustice.
It's not about me the individual. But it speaks to
the legacy of hang on housing discrimination. It speaks to
the legacy of redlining. It speaks to the legacy of
the war on drugs. It speaks to the legacy of
environmental racism. It speaks to the legacy of the unfair
(23:01):
dispersement of the GI Bill after World War One, World
War Two. It speaks to land theft. It speaks to
black codes. It speaks to the New Deal and how
black people were left out of that. It speaks to,
you know, the civil rights movement. It speaks to did
I mention Jim Crow?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
It speaks to.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The injustices with the education system. It speaks to the
injustices and the healthcare system and disparate outcomes with those,
and on and on and on. This is a much
longer list. And so if that is the legacy of slavery,
then you can't just say you weren't a slave, get
over it, because the legacy of slavery very much shapes
(23:43):
the lives of black people in mass to this day.
Sometimes the show is tough to do, but we're the
right ones for the job. Right now, it's time to
discuss who better do better, and today we're talking about
how well Ted Cruz was obliterated in an interview with
Tucker Carlson. Now, to be fair, I did not see this.
(24:04):
Que did, so I'll read this and let Q fire
off a couple of shots. This is from MSNBC dot com.
Talk show host Tucker Carlson skewered Senator Ted Cruz, the
Republican from Texas, and what could be considered a minute
and a half version of the meme the worst person
you know just made a great point. I'd go along
with that. In the segment of his show released Tuesday,
Carlson bombarded Cruise with questions related to his support for
(24:27):
regime change and Iran, as the US supports Israel's war
on Iran and Carlson was effective despite being motivated by
right wing isolationist ideas rather than progressive anti war sentiment.
Quote at all, Carlson asks, no, I don't know the population.
Cruz says, you don't know the population of the country
you seek to topple. Carlson presses. After Carlson tells Cruz
(24:52):
that Iran has about ninety million people, he asks, how
could you not know that? Cruse retorts that he doesn't
sit around memorizing population tables. Carlson insists it's relevant because
Cruz is calling for the overthrow of the government. He
then quiz's Cruise about the ethnic makeup of Iran, and
eventually Cruise erupts an exasperation, saying this is cute, and
(25:12):
defending himself by saying, okay, I am not the Tucker
Carlson expert on Iran. Despite Cruise's fear mongering about the
prospect of a mushroom cloud over New York City or
Los Angeles, the US has many other more realistic threats
to worry about, and neither Cruz nor any of his
war hungry colleagues have explained why Iran wouldn't theoretically be
deterred from using nuclear weapons by the same principle that
(25:35):
has long prevented nuclear warfare around the world, mutually assured destruction.
Throughout the rest of the interview clip, Carlson pushes Cruz
to clarify how dangerous Iran actually is and.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
What the exact scope of.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
The US's involvement in Israel's operations are, and he does
it with a kind of doggedness often absent from Marie.
Mainstream reporters when they interrogate American politics about war. Okay,
I know that this was a takedown just because I
saw people talking it online.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
But you know, give some more insight you, I mean,
that's all I got for you. It was everybody, go
to your Google's, Yeah, go to your YouTube's and watch it.
It's amazing, and listen to me.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Man.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Hate is not the word that we use often, but
it's a couple of people in this world that have learted,
you know what I mean, Like they going, they're going
hard to like earn my hatred. Even if he's not
there yet. Tucker Crossing has been trying with all of
(26:38):
his being to get on my you know what I mean,
to get me to say it on a microphone or
a stage or a bullhorn, or text it to my mom,
like he trying real hard to get me there. And
when I tell you, I stand in ovation our Senio
(26:59):
Hall Rue Crossing in this conversation ramses is so beautiful
because it's the It's the type of thing that only
he could do. If you and I did it, people
would dismiss it on its face, no matter how true,
no matter how honest, no matter how it would be. Gotcha. Yeah,
But the fact that he's doing it makes a bunch
(27:21):
of people pause, like, oh wait, maybe they don't ever
know what they're talking about. Maybe they are taking us
to the brink of world war with no clue, because
owning the Libs is what it's all about, even if
everybody might die, Like the ideas are so ridiculous, and
(27:44):
it takes Tucker Crossing to have someone so under educated
and underinformed like Ted Cruz and just dog walking. It's
embarrassing for their party, it's embarrassing for their movement. And
a sitting senator who's the loudest and most excited about
(28:04):
the potential world war knows nothing about the country that
he's saying. We're already at war with that. She also
tries to walk back. Google this interview. Watch every second
of it. It will enrich your spirit, It will enrich
your ministry. It will bring tides into the storehouse for
(28:25):
your church. Listen to me, man, so there might be
meet in my house. Listen improve me now herewith said
the Lord of hosts. Okay, if you will not open
up the windows of heaven and pour ye out of blessing,
that there should not be room enough to receive, go
watch the video. Church. The folks don't know Q grew
(28:47):
up in church.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I grew up in church, so you know, we might
we might have to, you know, pull from our childhood
from time to time. But masterful, masterful sermon there, Minister
q Ward. Listen, I'm right there with you, Man, Tucker
Carlson of all people, you know, to be fair. A
(29:08):
lot of times, consuming content from people like him is
like it's just not good for my spirit. It's like
it just it makes me feel ill like a little bit,
and it makes me really sad, and it's really depressing.
So I have to kind of throttle the intake. But
this is by far and away my most favorite interview
(29:29):
from both of them because it shows Tucker Carlson, at least,
for whatever his intentions, he's at least being a journalist
and standing up for something. And it puts the you know,
Ted Cruz in the hot seat, and he's not making
life comfortable for him, and those two things need to
happen more often.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Be sure to keep it close, don't forget Part two.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
We have our very special guest, Wendy Amara, the activist
board member of Roots and Wings and the host of
the Muhir Builded podcast, giving us some insight onto the
LA protest coming up next
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.