February 19, 2025 • 49 mins
During his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order aimed at removing birthright citizenship provided via the 14th Amendment. This is not the first time birthright citizenship has been challenged. The first time was during the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Back then, the Constitution passed the stress test, but we can't promise it will again this go-round.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
As media from the land. Don't say you hate LA
if you ain't been below the ten. One of the
truest statements of many true statements that Kendrick Lamar has stated,
and most of us who are from LA have made
this claim many times. Most people that hate LA have
only been to Hollywood. They've never been to La. North
(00:25):
of the ten is the freeway, the ten Freeway that
anybody else would call the I ten. We don't call
our freeway's eye anything. It's the which the strong small
piece of history is because our freeways weren't just numbers.
They used to be locations. So the ten was the
(00:47):
Santa Monica Freeway, the one ten was the Harbor Freeway,
the sixty was the Pomona Freeway, so it was named
after city, so you'd call it the Harbor, so like
now it's the one ten. Anyway, you wouldn't know that
because you're not from the land. What do we mean
by the land. We're talking about the entire culture. It's
(01:09):
not just being born here. It's about embracing the territories
and jurisdiction thereof, and all that comes with understanding our slang,
our way of life and all that. And we have
no problem naturalizing citizens. Obviously you got to put in
some work. But what we love and respect is like
(01:31):
even if you, even if you rep the land, even
if you live here, you know where you're from. That
can never be taken from you. And that's something that
we value. And if you know me, and also Sophie,
you cut us open, we bleed Los Angeles and Sophie
is you know, she's from the West Side, but the
part of the West Side she's from is one that
(01:52):
would never, ever, ever, ever, I would ever question her certification.
Sophie a real one and although she may not live
here now, nothing can take that away from her. But
what makes somebody from where they from? I am from
South Central but I was born at the Fox Hills
Hospital in Inglewood. But as many times as I've said
(02:14):
in my music, I'm from the six to six. What
does that even mean? Six to six is twenty minutes east.
That's where I grew up. So as far as street terms, yeah,
I went to high school in the Inland Empire, lived
there for a little bit. You would say, are you
from where you went to high school? No, because I
that's not in my soil. It's part of my story
(02:38):
I am from Los Angeles, can't take that. But how
long do you have to be somewhere before you can
rep it? What do you have to embrace? Like what
makes you from Why are we? As said in many lyrics,
at least if I've said West Coast, we get defensive
about our homeland. Listen, I admitted we are easily offended
(02:59):
because out of our reputation comes from transplants. Like a
lot of the stuff that people don't like about La
is people that's not from la So that kind of
bothers us sometimes because it's like, that's you not even
from here. Yeah, And if you're gonna come here and
talk trash about it's like, have you even seen Los Angeles?
You've seen Hollywood talking about the Palisades. You only know
(03:21):
Alta Dina because it caught on fire. That's the only
reason you know what that is. So we're very defensive
about our homeland. But at the same time, if you
were born here and left immediately your family packed up,
you can't help that. Your family packed up, moved to Colorado,
you grew up there, And if I met you and
(03:41):
you was Hella Granola, then I would be like, oh,
you from Denver, and they'd say, well, I was born
in La. Am I allowed to tell this person they
not from la that's where they was. That's where you.
I mean, you can't. That is an immutable unless I
have a time machine. This fool's from La. Do they
carry our culture? No, because they wasn't raised in it.
(04:04):
Their home was different. But I can't take that from you.
It would be ridiculous to say that your citizenship has
nothing to do with where you were born. We need
to talk about the history of birthrights, citizenship, the politics, y'all.
(04:36):
I love this. I love these times where I get
to do something that I think can be a little
more evergreen, if you will, meaning I can record this
at any time. Because of the way that our politics
is set up, It's going to be relevant for a
long time, right, and has been relevant for a long time.
Because we're talking about the fourteenth Amendment. Now here is
(04:58):
my premise as President Trump so brazenly suggested that we
need to change the fourteenth Amendment that if your parents
were here illegally, you are not a citizen no longer,
no matter where you were born. And I made statements
about like you need to take this man serious. While
most of you Internet constitutional scholars are like, it's gonna
(05:19):
get shut down. It has to get of course they're
going to shut it. It is a constitution. It's in
the constitution. You can't you could just not have it
in the constitution, to which I responded, take him serious,
And some of my more you know, brunching liberal friends
shout out, my dog in my group text, Uh, he's
(05:42):
very calm about this and has evidence, and it did
happen that the Supreme Court shut it down. But I
feel like we're dealing with a different animal, which is
why I want to give you this history here, because
his ever so young sidekick, mister J. D Vance is like, hey, listen,
if the Supreme Court would tell a general what to do,
(06:05):
none of us would take that serious, because that's not
a jurisdiction. If a Supreme Court would tell the attorney
general what they should prosecute, we would all be like,
that's an overstep of power. You're not supposed to do that.
So why are we saying when the president has something
to say the executive branch, why is that not an
overstepping of bounds. Now, this logic is essentially a constitutional crisis,
(06:28):
which we'll talk about later. But they what he's basically
saying is why does the president have to listen to
the courts? Now? I need you to pause for a
second and think about what just came out of my mouth.
Why does the president have to listen to the courts,
Because it's the court's job to decide what is say
it with me constitutional? So if the president decides he
(06:51):
don't need to listen to the courts, and you saying
I don't worry about birthfright citizenship because it's in the Constitution,
I feel like, you know, paying attention, like you ain't
been around for the past twenty sixteen and beyond. What
I'm trying to say is this man is a different animal.
(07:12):
But in your defense and for your information, we've been
here before. Allow me to introduce you to Wong Kim Hart.
(07:39):
I love this stuff, y'all. Now, before I could take
you back to San Francisco in May of eighteen ninety six,
before I could do that, I gotta take you back
to something that I've taught y'all before, which was the
dread Scott case, which is where we get the fourteenth Amendment.
There's gonna be a lot of reviewing here because I'm
(08:00):
still trying to teach y' all something. This is teacher
prop you feel me, mister Petty, shout out all my
old students that listen to this show. They grown now.
But we've talked about how the Supreme Court works. But
we also talked about specifically this dreg Scott case, and
the dread Scot case was essentially a slave who got free.
(08:21):
This was still this was during the separate but equal time.
This was during the time that well, no, this is
for separate equal What am I talking about? This is
during slavery, right, So during this era when the country
was growing and if a new state came in, for
every free state there had to be a slave state.
For every slave state, there had to be a free state.
(08:42):
For some reason, we have not learned a lesson that
you cannot play kate racist. Still we ain't learned that.
But at the time, this is what was going on. Now, Remember,
the argument, at least the front facing argument of the
Confederate States, was that the states have rights and that
the states rights should not be abridged by the federal rights.
(09:05):
Don't we want a small federal government, y'all? Are just
there to make sure the paperwork gets pushed through. But
we carry the rights that we have, and in my rights,
in my stated segregation now segregation forevil like they you know,
they trying to keep the they way of life going
without the encroachment of those city northerners. Right. Well, one
(09:28):
of these brothers escaped, Dred Scott, and he escaped North. Now,
when a slave escapes, the owner gets to hire a
slave hunter, which eventually becomes the police that evolved through
(09:48):
the police. I wish I was making this stuff up.
But anyway, this brother gets to a free state. And again,
since states have rights once you cross these borders, just
like Mexico said, there's no slavery in Mexico. So if
a slave gets to Mexico, look up the city of
Vera Cruz. You know Richie Valens and bad bah Bah,
(10:11):
go look up that area. Why is it so many
black people there? Well, besides it being a part of
the Transatlantic slave trade, if you got there, he was free.
We've had centuries of solidarity, despite what people may think,
or even what some of these young folks might say,
there's been centuries of solidarity among us. Anyway, So Dred
Scott got got up north, started a business, became a
(10:33):
family because in the state that he's living, he's free.
He's been able to dodge these slave hunters. But one
day the slave hunter found him and was like, hey,
you're our property. We got to go back. And the
state he was in was like, what are you talking about.
They're like, no, no, no, no, no, he escaped from our plantation.
He is my property. They're like, the fuck he's not.
(10:56):
This man ain't going nowhere. You whether they were anti
racists or not, they was like, you don't get to
tell me what to do in my house. Does that
make sense. You've ever been in a situation where it's
like it's not so much that I think you right
or wrong. I just don't think you get to tell
me what to do about it. This is what's happening.
They was like, you don't get to tell us who's
(11:16):
a citizen and who's not. We have rights, And the
Southern state was like, we also have rights. I've been
hired by a person to do a job. This person
has not been freed. They are still legally the property
of somebody, saying hold on, hold on, hold hold up,
hold on, hold on, let me stop you right there, chief,
that's according to your state. This man don't live in
your state. A man run a business here, you got family,
(11:38):
got you. This man live right there, we shop at
his stove. He's a citizen of our state. It was like, no,
he not, yes he is knowing not, yes, he is
all the way to the Supreme Court. And like I
told y'all before, it's a lot of times the Supreme
Court is not really about the case itself. It's about
the principle of the case. So the principalities the situation
(12:01):
was who's state laws gets to trump who else's state law.
At some reason, I don't know why these people did
not think that this moment was coming, that one of
these situations was gonna be like that where you have
to decide between two states that have differing laws. Does
that sound familiar to you? You ever heard of abortion?
Are we not dealing with this right now? This is
(12:25):
why we keep trying to say, Look, we need a
federal law to calm all this stuff down. So this
thing goes all the way to the Supreme Court. And
it's not so much about dread Scott himself. It's about huh,
whose laws trump who's? And wait, a minute. But is
a citizen then, because if this person's a citizen, they
(12:47):
are entitled to certain inalienable rights. I love I love history.
So the Supreme Court had to be like, oh, I
don't know, and remember I told you how the Supreme
Court works. It's a whole gang of what ifs. So
they shot a ton of one ifs. Who I got
stuff all in my beer, y'all, ain't say nothing. It's soap.
(13:08):
I promise I just showered because now I gotta do
this stuff visually anyway. So they shot a whole lot
of what ifs. All right, so what what if? This?
What if this? And eventually the court decided, in typical
American fashion, dred Scott's gotta go back, so we had
to go back and be a slave again. So the
(13:28):
Fourteenth Amendment, after the Civil War and reconstruction was designed
to fix that, to say, this is absurd. Okay, if
you are born here within the jurisdiction and territories of
the United States, you are in fact a citizen. So
(13:51):
if you are a citizen, you have zero right to
enslave another citizen. Can we just like, can we what
are we like? What are we even talking about? That's
the deal. Now, this is the basis of the conversation
that we're talking about. Now. Obviously, if you racist, that
(14:14):
don't sit right with you. There's a part of you
that feels like we know what we mean when we
say American, an American citizen, and that feeling has not
changed because it has traveled all the way through the
twenty twenty five presidential election. They know what they mean
when they just like the same thing. They know what
they mean when they say DEI. And it's funny watching
people saying, oh, man, one hundred and fifty people on
(14:36):
stage during Kendrick Lamar's performance and not a single white guy. Oh,
you want diversity, equity and inclusion? Does that feel unfair
to you. I've seen a picture of a Governor Abbott
out of Texas in his wheelchair because apparently he hurt
himself rolling into his office, and I'm like, I wonder
(15:01):
if he used ramps that were installed because of diversity,
equity and inclusion. But you know, it's the new hard
art anyway. The dread Scott K says, this is the
fourteenth Amendments. All persons born or naturalized in the United
(15:22):
States and subject to its jurisdiction. There are thereof are
citizens of the United States and of the state wherein
they reside. One of those things where it's like, all right,
clearly we have to stay this. So now we're saying it.
But that's not what I want to talk about today.
That's just that's your precursor. You feel me, that's your prequel.
(15:43):
I want to talk about Wong kim arc after this.
(16:19):
All right, we're back. So wonkim arc a brother from
the eighteen hundreds, clearly Chinese, born in San Francisco. As
a matter of fact, we had an address, and I'm
gonna tell you where the address is a little later.
But why is he so special? Well, let me talk
to you about him. So Wankim Park was, like I said,
born in San Francisco. But he became the subject of
(16:41):
what's called a test case in eighteen ninety six. What
is this test case? It's a test case about the
fourteenth Amendment. Now, have you ever been the test case
of something? It really don't feel good. You ever been
in a situation where a bunch of y'all have done
a bunch of things, but you're the one that gotten
So they just want to see you feel me, right, Yeah,
(17:05):
it's just that that's awful. I've been the test case
a few times where it's like, well, let me just
let me see how serious we are about this a
test case, right, And a lot of times it's the
luck of the draw because you have to again remember
that the Supreme Court is not dealing in their brain.
It's not humans we talk about. We're talking about abstract
(17:26):
concepts of the laws. So the persons involved in these
things really are besides the point to them, which is
why they seem so heartless. But if you can find
a Supreme Court justice that understands the humanity of it all,
you win it. Anyway, I'm gonna tell you his whole narrative,
but I'm gonna cut to the beginning of the scene
because I think the scenes the movie should start with
(17:48):
this moment. It's been a three month journey, no yeah,
three months, yeah, no, no no, It takes about a month
a month journey coming back from China. This brother is
a cook. He got it out the mud. He was
back in China visiting his parents and his newly found wife.
And like every every immigrant story, you know, you you
(18:09):
grind away, you know, you send money back. You know
what I'm saying, Try to support the family, try to
support yourself, to try to make trying to make ends meet.
Get your weight up, get your lady here, have a
great life, right She his wife is from China, which
I'll talk about later. But he again was born in
San Francisco, but he was going back and forth, so
obviously he speaks the language, he understands the culture. He's
(18:29):
doing a cancer and because he lives in Chinatown, a
lot of his cultural sort of presentation, it's Chinese because
of segregation. I'll talk about later. And while he was gone,
something crazy happened in America, but he don't know that yet.
He gets to the port, pulls out his papers and
he's like, all right, what's up y'all doing. I'm glad
(18:50):
to be back. I've been gone for a while. I'm
glad to be here. They was like, hold up, cuz
where you going? And he was like, I'm going home.
They was like, uh, are you a sit He's like,
what the hell you talking about? Pulls out his papers, right,
So he pulls out his papers and get this. About
the papers, he kind of knew this was coming because
(19:11):
you gotta go get it all notary republic, you know,
to prove that you are who you say you are.
So just like a leftover from slavery, about three slaves
had to show them them papers. Basically, if anybody that
don't look American, wink wink, you need to carry papers.
So he carrying papers, and those papers have to be
certified by get this, three white witnesses, because that'll stand
(19:34):
up in the court of law. That'll prove that he
was born where he said, Yes, I grew up with homeboy.
I've seen him over there. You know here it is,
I'm from here. But what was happening in the team
the time that he left to go see his girl
and came back with something called the Chinese Exclusion Act. Now,
let me put you on some game. If you don't
(19:55):
know what the Chinese Exclusion Act is, I'm gonna read
from the National Archives. The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved
on May sixth, eighteen eighty two. It was the first
significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the
spring of eighteen eighty two, the Chinese Exclusion Act was
passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur
(20:17):
Have you even heard of that? President? The act provided
watch this an absolute ten year ban on Chinese laborers
immigrating into the United States. For the first time, federal
law prescribed entry of an ethnic working group on the
premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.
(20:38):
This happened while he was gone. The government decided, let
me tell you what's wrong wal racism. Back it up
a little bit, because a few decades ago, y'all was
loving the Chinese coming. Now why was they loving the
Chinese coming? As we know, the Chinese were the people
that ended up building our railroad, syst doing a lot
of the hard work, opening up our laundries. They did
(20:59):
all that good stuff. Now why you think that happened? Nigga?
They freed the niggers because, well, we can't make the
niggers work, so we gotta find somebody else to work.
It seemed to me like what I'm learning is because
after this happened, Now, does this sound familiar to you?
Because who're doing our work now? The Mexicans. Right, It
seemed to me like Americans just don't like to work,
(21:20):
Like y'all, Just why you keep bringing other people to
do the work and then complaining you ain't got no
work because what happened. What had happened was America decided, Okay,
it's too many of y'all. It's too many of y'all.
Like I it's all like look at it, y'all gotta go,
and don't be bringing no mo. Doug like, don't don't
(21:43):
be bringing no mo Chinese. Chinese. My grandma used to
say that. She used to say Chinese. I'll be like, Grandma,
you can't. I mean she oh this heid obviously, but
she was like, yes, I'm gonna go get Chinese food. Now,
I'm like Grandma, She'd like what she give you that look?
And I'm like I can't correct her. Anyway, this happened
while he was gone, So they looking at him like
are you a laborer? He's like, yeah, I'm a laborer,
(22:04):
but I'm a citizen. They was like, I don't know
about that. Chief, wait right here. So he sat there
and waited. Now, even though he had the paperwork, that
basically is like, yo, who's man? Is this your boy? Hey?
Who know? Cuz they have to ask white people, Hey
do you know cus this is ridiculous, But this was
(22:27):
our laws people. They was like, we don't know if
you're a citizen he like, I got the white boys
to proprove it. I live I can see my house.
I live right there. And not only do I live
right there, fam I was born right there. I have
never moved. I've never applied for no citizenship nowhere else.
(22:50):
There's no confusion on no paperwork. My wife is still
in China. I like, I don't understand what the problem is.
I say this to say, just because some'm in the constitution,
don't think for one second that you really protected if
you got a little Meloni is all I'm trying to say.
(23:12):
This is why I'm bringing this up. We have been
here before, the challenge of birthright citizenships. Now in this moment,
this thing goes all the way to the Supreme Court. Now,
why they picked this is because they're like, wait a minute,
we need to we need to stress test this law.
And like I said, the way the Supreme Court works,
when there is something on the books, you need to
(23:34):
make sure I'm gonna stretch this as far and as
absurdly as I possibly can, because I'll need to see
where it breaks. I need to see the edges. Now, Conceptually,
like I said, this is actually a great practice because
that's how you know, if a law is written well
or is good is once you start throwing absurdities at it,
(23:56):
if it still stands, if you could take it, then
it's good. It's the same with people and rappers. Some
rappers can't take the heat. They get on stage with
fake bullet holes coming out their shirts. Oh man. So
the Chinese Exclusion Act was like, look, man, you can't
come if you're a laborer. He's like, Nigga, I was
born here. They was like, you don't look like you
(24:18):
was born here. You look like a Chinese. You talk
like a Chinese, to which he could probably be like,
I'm from Chinatown, But what the hell difference does that
have make? I'm born right there? Like, and when I
say right there, I mean literally seven fifty one Sacramento
Street in Chinatown. You can go now, it's a little school. Now.
(24:39):
It's a little school now, but it's there's a plat like,
it's right, you can go to it. I'm born right here. Now.
These are not the only laws that existed at this
time that were designed to make sure that nobody else
succeeds but white people. There was the Page Act, which
barred Chinese win except for the wives of merchants from
(25:02):
entering the United States, which is why this man's wife
was still in China, so he can't even bring her here. Right.
There's also the Geary Act, which required all Chinese immigrants
to constantly walk with identification papers kind of like breed slaves,
kind of like immigrants and green cards. There is any
(25:25):
of this sounding familiar to you, So anyway, let me
give you a little more background of him, right, So
that's where the camera starts right here, right, So here's
some background. So again, as he says, he was born
on like the living room floor in what is now
a school, but it used to be like a little
store with an apartment on top of it, a store
(25:46):
that his parents ran, right, seven to fifty one, Sacramento
a f right, So so he was born there and
just like that, like if your parents come from another country,
every once in a while, y'all go back, right, So
he goes back one time when he was a his
parents go back and they decide to stay. So then
he comes back because again, can't stress this enough, he's
(26:10):
an American. So he comes back to SF again, lived here,
worked for his uncle. You know, al Vanas did what
he had to do. He worked there did He had
to do it till he was about twenty, in which
case he was getting a little lonely. He needed him
a trying to find him a lady. Friend. Now, because
of anti missigenation laws. You ever heard that word. It's
(26:32):
because it used to be illegal to marry outside joe race.
So because of anti misigenation laws. And you think this
is just the eighteen hundreds, let me tell you something.
It's only been the past sixty years, seventy years now.
It's very recent the way I like to think of
it as like this. You know, Michael Jordan when he
was in kindergarten, he couldn't marry a white lady anyway,
(26:56):
since race mixing was illegal, and because Chinese women wasn't
even allowed to come. It just wasn't a lot of
Chinese girls here. Those are his only choices. It's slim pickings.
So he has to cross the salt, you know, the ocean,
another one month travel, which I honestly cannot imagine. I
(27:18):
don't think I go anywhere. Took a month to get there.
I'm good anyway, finds a lady since she can't come
because he's not a merchant, you know, he has to
go back and forth sending money doing these You know,
it's a hard life. I don't know if you know
any immigrants, it's really a hard life. My own in
laws like the choices that my mother in law, my
(27:39):
swaged I had to make in reference to her own children.
You know, my wife was It's in her book, So
I don't feel bad about saying this. But you know,
she was born here literally Boyle Heights, you know, and
then lived in Mexico and Acapoco till about fourth grade,
and then one by one, her mom so for a
(28:02):
long time she didn't live with her siblings. You know,
she the siblings came one by one right back to
America as her mom can afford it. She lived with her,
like she lived with her grandma in Mexico, and then
one by one her mom was able to bring her
and like, I just don't know. I honestly, I know
I don't have a fortitude for that, to send my
(28:23):
kids to go live. Nah, I'm good unless the situation
back home is that desperate you feel me that, I'm like,
I have to get my kids out of this life.
I've been to where my wife's from. Now I'm going
as someone who is from a fully developed first world country,
even though I'm black. So there's that. But I'm looking
(28:45):
at this place like this is a tropical paradise. It's
southern Mexico. It's right at the coast of Chica. Like
it's freaking beautiful. Acapulco is be uta ful. But as
you go, as you're there, you realize what is her
best options If she stays here, run a grocery store,
hold a have a cart on the beach, sell the tourist,
(29:10):
like there's there's unless you're gonna go be one of
your ancestors and exists in the forest. There's really no
what do you I get it. You're like, there's nothing here,
there's nothing, like we've maxed out, there's nothing here. I
don't want my kids to do what I did, which
was nothing. Let's roll now. I don't mean that derogatory
(29:31):
because she had one of her uncles that was a doctor,
Like there are It's not like it's not like you
couldn't go to college and you know what I'm saying,
but just the chances, the opportunities. I get it. Now,
it's like, y'all, we gotta we gotta go and It's like,
it's just my sister's there, so I'm going to go
(29:51):
get it out the mud and bring my children here.
You know, it's an amazing thing. My father in law,
like he was selling little fruits in downtown, you know,
Mexico City, little fruit cups, and as an eighth grader,
fam this can't be it, Joe said, I get it,
you know what I mean. So anyway, he's send him
(30:12):
back and forth, you know, making money, figuring it out,
doing he got to do, going back and forth, seeing
his lady come back. Because again, I don't know how
else to say this, he's not a Chinese citizen. He's
an American. He can't stay in China. He's an American.
(30:36):
So this was his life. So he gets there. This
situation tells me who he is. He's sitting there and
basically the answer was this. Now, if this ain't Dajavu,
I don't know what is the basic argument as to
why they won't let this man off this boat and
he got to stay in this limbo is if your
(30:56):
parents are not citizens, even if you were born in
the US, you are not a citizen of the United States,
and you are barred from entry or deported from the
United States, does this This is the eighteen nineties. This
is the eighteen nineties. So let me tell you what
(31:17):
happened after that. Next so we're back. So what's the situation.
(31:52):
The man is just stuck on this boat. There ain't
nothing he could do, right, he just he's just a
he's just a cook, like he's not breaded up. But
here's what happens. The word gets out because again I
don't know how else to say this, it's from San Francisco.
People were expecting him. So there's an entire community that
is waiting to see their homeboy. I just why. I
(32:14):
don't understand what y'all don't understand about this. And one
thing that segregationists do not understand is that when you
force us to live together, we form bonds, we form solidarity,
We learn to look out for each other. There's one
thing that I would say that I in some ways
envy an experience my parents had. Now, obviously the situation
(32:38):
is much different, but my father went to an all
black high school. So with that, there is a certain
type of solidarity among your community that while I am
completely grateful, unbelievably grateful for the multicultural raising I've had.
I feel like it's made me a global citizen in
a way that a lot of people don't have. Stratification,
(33:01):
the full experience of what it means to have a
community that loves you and has shared your experience is
something that I don't have. Because if you go to
a black school, that means you got a black principal,
you got black teachers, the janitor, the mayor, everybody in
your experience from every socio economics stratus is black. You seeing,
(33:21):
you have full representation. You are seeing your world on display, educated, uneducated,
right worker, white collar, blue collar. You're seeing it all
because you live. We were forced to do this right. Obviously,
the situation is awful, but that meant that, Like, although
I can remember moments where I'm like, oh yeah, you know,
Ms Rose down the street, braid of my sister's hair,
(33:43):
you know what I'm saying, You have a bunch of
different parents. So the guy that runs the corner store,
mister Johnson, when I see Missy, how you doing, mister Johnson?
You know what I'm saying, Like, there's a community that
comes with and he understands what it's like to be
a little black boy. My mother, my father. They had that.
Now I had it in my own way, but it
was like black and Latin, you know. Either way. The
point I'm trying to make is when what segregation is
(34:04):
still don't get is that this is how we organize
against your system. Because organized they did. Think you think
they just gonna lead a homeboy on that vote. You
think he don't know nobody with power. So the word
gets out and six wealthy Chinese companies are like, oh no,
we're gonna we're gonna fight for you. They pulled their
(34:27):
money together and they got him a case and they
took it to the courts. They was like, this man's
a citizen. Now, why would they do that? Because when
you live in solidarity and when you live with each other,
you understand that if it could happen to him, it
could happen to us, which is I'm hold my tongue here.
I just don't understand how anyone could vote against the
(34:49):
best interests of their entire community in exchange for their
own goodness. I just I don't get it, because again,
if it can happen to them, it could happen to you.
And on top of that, fuck y'all. That's my own boy.
That's my dog. I don't even care if he's wrong.
He with us? Who man's with this? He with us?
You got a problem with it? I got the bread
(35:13):
some of that's some street stuff too, Like y'all following me.
Man Like, even if my little homy mouth full, like
I said, you don't get to tell me what to do.
It's the same prime even if he wrong, y'all don't
get to say it. And look, I got the education,
I got the bread. You ain't finna look at I'm
off this boat. I don't care how bad. I don't
care how bad my accent is either. That's what I
(35:33):
love about this moment. These are wealthy Chinese people, so
they probably speak with a heavy accident. But that man,
that's just working the borders. You just pole, little white boy.
So you may't have these things you saying about them,
But these men is like, listen, he can't go all right.
Bet so he posts a two hundred fifty dollars bill,
which clearly didn't have and they thought at that time
(35:54):
that's like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Them ridged
Chinese folks, was like, you need a check. I love
it I love it. So this mug goes to the courts,
goes all the way to the Supreme Court, and guess
what happens. I ain't gonna tell you. I'm just kidding,
of course, I'm gonna tell you. So we in the courts,
and he fought it based on the Fourteenth Amendment. Because
(36:15):
you just said, according to you, would you like me
to scroll up on my notes, you could see me
scroll up on my notes to read to you the
fourteenth Amendment again, I'm gonna do that for you. The
Fourteenth Amendment all persons born and naturalized in the United
States and subject to its jurisdiction thereof is, citizens of
the United States and the state for which they reside. Fool,
(36:37):
that's your law. That's what they fought on. I don't
understand what you're talking about. Where was this man born
in San Francisco? What is your argument? What are we
talking about here? Did he win? I don't know. I'm
gonna tell you in a minute. But the court went crazy.
It lasted for a while, There was many appeals, which
is the okay, that's the reveal. He won, But he
(37:01):
didn't get to get off the boat yet. The only
reason he was off. The boat was because he made bail.
But case wasn't over because for some reason about white people,
especially white races, they don't take too well for losing.
I feel like they still why is Obama still get
brought up because they still mad that a nigger was
(37:21):
in the office. Like, I don't understand why y'all still
talk about that man, that man with zero scandals, a
husband or one wife, with extremely successful children. What is
your problem with him? I think we know? So how
could the courts have any leg to stand on to
(37:45):
say that this man's born here, he's not a citizen.
How could that make sense in any way all the
way to the Supreme Court? And why would the Supreme
Court take this case? It's because they have a chance
to be like again, Okay, now, actually this is interesting.
Your argument is, well, his parents aren't born here, so
(38:06):
he's not Okay, we got time talk to me nice now.
None of this mattered until white people got involved. As
far as at the k of course, the court level
right and what the argument against him went like this,
The fourteenth Amendment has some caveats, and the caveat one
(38:28):
is about Native Americans. Obviously, because none of this can
count towards them. They're clearly here, you were here before us, right,
But it kind of works like this, this where the
race has got to dance. Actually in the brief, this
is from the brief that like the fourteenth Amendment argues
guarantees the citizens to all of those born in the
(38:48):
United States. But it's got an asterisk. It's got a caveat, right,
and the caveat is those who are born in the
United States who are subject to it. It's jurisdiction, born
here and subject to its jurisdiction. Well, what he's saying
is jurisdiction can be two types. Your authority what like,
(39:17):
who do you who is your og of? What range
do you exist on? Let me talk to y'all. Let
me talk to y'all LA folk about Pomona's Pomona in
La or the Inland Empire? What jurisdiction where you're like, Well,
it's La County. It's the last city in La County.
No Claremont. Is is it l A or is it
i E? Well it's the nine on nine. Well, the
(39:37):
nine on nine is the IE. What's what's what is
it subject to its jurisdiction? What is its culture? It's
culture is very LA. But then again, so is Ontario.
But Ontario is the ie. Nobody questions if Ontario is
the I E. What is jurisdiction territorial and political? Let
me translate this for you. You was born in La,
(40:00):
but you act on New Yorky you real easty. Well
that's because you was born here, but your mama from
the Bronx, so you talk like yo mama. Or you
was born here, but you packed up and moved to
New York, so you got a real easty year son.
You walk around here at Thames, we like LA won't
(40:21):
wear tams oh Man. I was raised in New York
and I'm like, so, then you not from La. He's like, no,
I'm from La. Nigga, know you not? You are not
subject to its territorial and political jurisdiction. You chose Drake
my nigga. You ain't from no La. How you from La.
You ain't being below the ten. You are not subject
(40:43):
to its jurisdiction. So their argument is these people, his
family and in turn him, clearly are subject to the
jurisdiction of the Chinese emperor. This man is culturally Chinese,
he dressed like it. He sound like you look like
(41:04):
a Chinese. So no matter where he was born, he
is not also subject to our jurisdiction. He is politically
and culturally Chinese. Therefore he is Chinese. So we can't
so yeah, like he I can't call him a citizen
according to the fourtheen Amendment because the fourteenth Amendment has
(41:25):
a caveat. So what is he saying? You know what
he's saying? He don't act white. You don't act white.
(41:46):
You don't act like us. You know, you ain't never
crip walked, You ain't never you you ain't like us,
you got accent. Therefore you can't possibly be Is this
sundy familiar? He is subject to the jurisdiction and the
(42:10):
territorial allegiance to the Chinese. Therefore he cannot possibly be
an American. We obviously don't own a time machine and
have not. This is an interesting part. We can't move
back in time and prove that he was not born
here because, like I said, three white people agreed that
he was born here. So I can't argue that one.
(42:34):
But I can argue he's not subject to our jurisdiction.
And now it was Wong's lawyer's terms. And do you
know what they said in defense when it translated to you,
for you who are not watching but are listening, I
(42:57):
just put my hand, you know, when you put your finger.
You know when when your significant other is obviously lying
and you just want to hear the rest of the story,
so you put your finger. You know, you kind of
got a ball fist with a thumb up under your
chin and your finger on the side, and you're just
looking at him, just about like trying to figure out
if this person knows how dumb they sound like if
(43:19):
you and you're just like, I can't believe you said
that with a straight face. You are dead serious, ain't you?
Their defense? Was this the dumbest shit ever heard in
my life? Is their defense? What are you talking about?
(43:44):
We went through this with the black codes when y'all
said a person can't vote unless they grandparents could vote.
Do you think the States did the course didn't understand
what you were saying. This is ridiculous. And furthermore, they said,
do you know how many Europeans got here? Hell, we
haven't even got to the future of the Homestead Act,
(44:07):
which brought a bunch of Europeans here to fill out
the West. I've already did an episode on a Homestead
Act when the government was giving handouts to poor white people.
Government and handouts so that they could build wealth. I'm
telling you, I can't make this shit up. So if
this is the case, if the sons and daughters of
(44:29):
Chinese citizens are not citizens, what of the sons and
daughters of the English, the Irish, the Germans, the French,
the people have come to the United States. If he
ain't a citizen, they ain't a citizen. If that man
ain't a citizen according to your laws, George Washington, ain't
a citizen. What the hell are you talking about? And
(44:50):
let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.
Do it start with your mama? Okay, So if my
parents weren't citizens, then that means I'm not okay. What
about my grandparents? Well, if my grandparents weren't citizens, then
that would mean that my parents ain't citizens, which would
mean that even though they was born here, I'm not
a citizen. Now check this out. What if it was
my great grandparents, what are immigrants? Then that would mean
(45:14):
to them two non citizens gave a birth to a
non citizen, who gave birth to a non citizen who
gave birth to me? What are you talking about? That
means that no one's a citizen? Dumbass was the argument
that Chinese made. The fuck are you talking about? Well,
if you got here illegally and you're a child, your
(45:35):
parents got here illegally and they gave birth and neither
of you are citizens, what the okay? Then I need
you to dig up every relative, every ancestory you had.
I need you. And if you find a single person,
then that means that all of the descendants ain't citizens either.
You gonna go You're gonna do that? How many people
getting how many people getting deported? Do you not gonna
(45:57):
do that? Have a tall glass of horse shot? The
fuck up, oh man, And guess what the court said, touche,
you are absolutely correct, and birthright citizenship stood that stress test.
(46:23):
Now that was eighteen ninety six. Now, that pole man,
that poor man Wan kim Ark was on that boat
for four months till he was finally able to just
go back home. And what did he go back home? To? Poverty?
(46:46):
His wife still in China. And I don't know enough
of the story to know if he continued to go
visit his wife, because like most immigrants, be scared to
leave because apparently the system hasn't figured out who's protected
(47:08):
and who's not. So yeah, Trump's talking about birthright citizenship
right now. We've been here before, and praise the Lord
God Almighty, Hallelujah, the highest praise Shondo it worked or
we stood the stress test. I just don't know if
(47:28):
we're gonna stand it again. Betch I'm from the land.
Don't say you hey la if you ain't been below
the ten all right now, don't you hit stop on
(47:48):
this pod. You better listen to these credits. I need
you to finish this thing so I can get the
download numbers. Okay, so don't stop it yet, but listen.
This was recorded in e slows Boil Heights by your
boy Propaganda Tap in with me at prop hip hop
dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got
(48:09):
terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use
promo code hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee.
This was mixed, edited, and mastered by your boy Matt
Alsowski killing the beat softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski
dot com. I'm a speller for you because I know
m a t t O s O W s Ki
(48:34):
dot com Matthowsowski dot com. He got more music and
stuff like that on there, so gonna check out. The
Heat Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive
produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network.
Your theme music and scoring is also by the one
and overly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen.
(48:56):
Don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand pop po ittics. These people is not smarter
than you. We'll see y'all next week. M
As media from the land. Don't say you hate LA
if you ain't been below the ten. One of the
truest statements of many true statements that Kendrick Lamar has stated,
and most of us who are from LA have made
this claim many times. Most people that hate LA have
only been to Hollywood. They've never been to La. North
(00:25):
of the ten is the freeway, the ten Freeway that
anybody else would call the I ten. We don't call
our freeway's eye anything. It's the which the strong small
piece of history is because our freeways weren't just numbers.
They used to be locations. So the ten was the
(00:47):
Santa Monica Freeway, the one ten was the Harbor Freeway,
the sixty was the Pomona Freeway, so it was named
after city, so you'd call it the Harbor, so like
now it's the one ten. Anyway, you wouldn't know that
because you're not from the land. What do we mean
by the land. We're talking about the entire culture. It's
(01:09):
not just being born here. It's about embracing the territories
and jurisdiction thereof, and all that comes with understanding our slang,
our way of life and all that. And we have
no problem naturalizing citizens. Obviously you got to put in
some work. But what we love and respect is like
(01:31):
even if you, even if you rep the land, even
if you live here, you know where you're from. That
can never be taken from you. And that's something that
we value. And if you know me, and also Sophie,
you cut us open, we bleed Los Angeles and Sophie
is you know, she's from the West Side, but the
part of the West Side she's from is one that
(01:52):
would never, ever, ever, ever, I would ever question her certification.
Sophie a real one and although she may not live
here now, nothing can take that away from her. But
what makes somebody from where they from? I am from
South Central but I was born at the Fox Hills
Hospital in Inglewood. But as many times as I've said
(02:14):
in my music, I'm from the six to six. What
does that even mean? Six to six is twenty minutes east.
That's where I grew up. So as far as street terms, yeah,
I went to high school in the Inland Empire, lived
there for a little bit. You would say, are you
from where you went to high school? No, because I
that's not in my soil. It's part of my story
(02:38):
I am from Los Angeles, can't take that. But how
long do you have to be somewhere before you can
rep it? What do you have to embrace? Like what
makes you from Why are we? As said in many lyrics,
at least if I've said West Coast, we get defensive
about our homeland. Listen, I admitted we are easily offended
(02:59):
because out of our reputation comes from transplants. Like a
lot of the stuff that people don't like about La
is people that's not from la So that kind of
bothers us sometimes because it's like, that's you not even
from here. Yeah, And if you're gonna come here and
talk trash about it's like, have you even seen Los Angeles?
You've seen Hollywood talking about the Palisades. You only know
(03:21):
Alta Dina because it caught on fire. That's the only
reason you know what that is. So we're very defensive
about our homeland. But at the same time, if you
were born here and left immediately your family packed up,
you can't help that. Your family packed up, moved to Colorado,
you grew up there, And if I met you and
(03:41):
you was Hella Granola, then I would be like, oh,
you from Denver, and they'd say, well, I was born
in La. Am I allowed to tell this person they
not from la that's where they was. That's where you.
I mean, you can't. That is an immutable unless I
have a time machine. This fool's from La. Do they
carry our culture? No, because they wasn't raised in it.
(04:04):
Their home was different. But I can't take that from you.
It would be ridiculous to say that your citizenship has
nothing to do with where you were born. We need
to talk about the history of birthrights, citizenship, the politics, y'all.
(04:36):
I love this. I love these times where I get
to do something that I think can be a little
more evergreen, if you will, meaning I can record this
at any time. Because of the way that our politics
is set up, It's going to be relevant for a
long time, right, and has been relevant for a long time.
Because we're talking about the fourteenth Amendment. Now here is
(04:58):
my premise as President Trump so brazenly suggested that we
need to change the fourteenth Amendment that if your parents
were here illegally, you are not a citizen no longer,
no matter where you were born. And I made statements
about like you need to take this man serious. While
most of you Internet constitutional scholars are like, it's gonna
(05:19):
get shut down. It has to get of course they're
going to shut it. It is a constitution. It's in
the constitution. You can't you could just not have it
in the constitution, to which I responded, take him serious,
And some of my more you know, brunching liberal friends
shout out, my dog in my group text, Uh, he's
(05:42):
very calm about this and has evidence, and it did
happen that the Supreme Court shut it down. But I
feel like we're dealing with a different animal, which is
why I want to give you this history here, because
his ever so young sidekick, mister J. D Vance is like, hey, listen,
if the Supreme Court would tell a general what to do,
(06:05):
none of us would take that serious, because that's not
a jurisdiction. If a Supreme Court would tell the attorney
general what they should prosecute, we would all be like,
that's an overstep of power. You're not supposed to do that.
So why are we saying when the president has something
to say the executive branch, why is that not an
overstepping of bounds. Now, this logic is essentially a constitutional crisis,
(06:28):
which we'll talk about later. But they what he's basically
saying is why does the president have to listen to
the courts? Now? I need you to pause for a
second and think about what just came out of my mouth.
Why does the president have to listen to the courts,
Because it's the court's job to decide what is say
it with me constitutional? So if the president decides he
(06:51):
don't need to listen to the courts, and you saying
I don't worry about birthfright citizenship because it's in the Constitution,
I feel like, you know, paying attention, like you ain't
been around for the past twenty sixteen and beyond. What
I'm trying to say is this man is a different animal.
(07:12):
But in your defense and for your information, we've been
here before. Allow me to introduce you to Wong Kim Hart.
(07:39):
I love this stuff, y'all. Now, before I could take
you back to San Francisco in May of eighteen ninety six,
before I could do that, I gotta take you back
to something that I've taught y'all before, which was the
dread Scott case, which is where we get the fourteenth Amendment.
There's gonna be a lot of reviewing here because I'm
(08:00):
still trying to teach y' all something. This is teacher
prop you feel me, mister Petty, shout out all my
old students that listen to this show. They grown now.
But we've talked about how the Supreme Court works. But
we also talked about specifically this dreg Scott case, and
the dread Scot case was essentially a slave who got free.
(08:21):
This was still this was during the separate but equal time.
This was during the time that well, no, this is
for separate equal What am I talking about? This is
during slavery, right, So during this era when the country
was growing and if a new state came in, for
every free state there had to be a slave state.
For every slave state, there had to be a free state.
(08:42):
For some reason, we have not learned a lesson that
you cannot play kate racist. Still we ain't learned that.
But at the time, this is what was going on. Now, Remember,
the argument, at least the front facing argument of the
Confederate States, was that the states have rights and that
the states rights should not be abridged by the federal rights.
(09:05):
Don't we want a small federal government, y'all? Are just
there to make sure the paperwork gets pushed through. But
we carry the rights that we have, and in my rights,
in my stated segregation now segregation forevil like they you know,
they trying to keep the they way of life going
without the encroachment of those city northerners. Right. Well, one
(09:28):
of these brothers escaped, Dred Scott, and he escaped North. Now,
when a slave escapes, the owner gets to hire a
slave hunter, which eventually becomes the police that evolved through
(09:48):
the police. I wish I was making this stuff up.
But anyway, this brother gets to a free state. And again,
since states have rights once you cross these borders, just
like Mexico said, there's no slavery in Mexico. So if
a slave gets to Mexico, look up the city of
Vera Cruz. You know Richie Valens and bad bah Bah,
(10:11):
go look up that area. Why is it so many
black people there? Well, besides it being a part of
the Transatlantic slave trade, if you got there, he was free.
We've had centuries of solidarity, despite what people may think,
or even what some of these young folks might say,
there's been centuries of solidarity among us. Anyway, So Dred
Scott got got up north, started a business, became a
(10:33):
family because in the state that he's living, he's free.
He's been able to dodge these slave hunters. But one
day the slave hunter found him and was like, hey,
you're our property. We got to go back. And the
state he was in was like, what are you talking about.
They're like, no, no, no, no, no, he escaped from our plantation.
He is my property. They're like, the fuck he's not.
(10:56):
This man ain't going nowhere. You whether they were anti
racists or not, they was like, you don't get to
tell me what to do in my house. Does that
make sense. You've ever been in a situation where it's
like it's not so much that I think you right
or wrong. I just don't think you get to tell
me what to do about it. This is what's happening.
They was like, you don't get to tell us who's
(11:16):
a citizen and who's not. We have rights, And the
Southern state was like, we also have rights. I've been
hired by a person to do a job. This person
has not been freed. They are still legally the property
of somebody, saying hold on, hold on, hold hold up,
hold on, hold on, let me stop you right there, chief,
that's according to your state. This man don't live in
your state. A man run a business here, you got family,
(11:38):
got you. This man live right there, we shop at
his stove. He's a citizen of our state. It was like, no,
he not, yes he is knowing not, yes, he is
all the way to the Supreme Court. And like I
told y'all before, it's a lot of times the Supreme
Court is not really about the case itself. It's about
the principle of the case. So the principalities the situation
(12:01):
was who's state laws gets to trump who else's state law.
At some reason, I don't know why these people did
not think that this moment was coming, that one of
these situations was gonna be like that where you have
to decide between two states that have differing laws. Does
that sound familiar to you? You ever heard of abortion?
Are we not dealing with this right now? This is
(12:25):
why we keep trying to say, Look, we need a
federal law to calm all this stuff down. So this
thing goes all the way to the Supreme Court. And
it's not so much about dread Scott himself. It's about huh,
whose laws trump who's? And wait, a minute. But is
a citizen then, because if this person's a citizen, they
(12:47):
are entitled to certain inalienable rights. I love I love history.
So the Supreme Court had to be like, oh, I
don't know, and remember I told you how the Supreme
Court works. It's a whole gang of what ifs. So
they shot a ton of one ifs. Who I got
stuff all in my beer, y'all, ain't say nothing. It's soap.
(13:08):
I promise I just showered because now I gotta do
this stuff visually anyway. So they shot a whole lot
of what ifs. All right, so what what if? This?
What if this? And eventually the court decided, in typical
American fashion, dred Scott's gotta go back, so we had
to go back and be a slave again. So the
(13:28):
Fourteenth Amendment, after the Civil War and reconstruction was designed
to fix that, to say, this is absurd. Okay, if
you are born here within the jurisdiction and territories of
the United States, you are in fact a citizen. So
(13:51):
if you are a citizen, you have zero right to
enslave another citizen. Can we just like, can we what
are we like? What are we even talking about? That's
the deal. Now, this is the basis of the conversation
that we're talking about. Now. Obviously, if you racist, that
(14:14):
don't sit right with you. There's a part of you
that feels like we know what we mean when we
say American, an American citizen, and that feeling has not
changed because it has traveled all the way through the
twenty twenty five presidential election. They know what they mean
when they just like the same thing. They know what
they mean when they say DEI. And it's funny watching
people saying, oh, man, one hundred and fifty people on
(14:36):
stage during Kendrick Lamar's performance and not a single white guy. Oh,
you want diversity, equity and inclusion? Does that feel unfair
to you. I've seen a picture of a Governor Abbott
out of Texas in his wheelchair because apparently he hurt
himself rolling into his office, and I'm like, I wonder
(15:01):
if he used ramps that were installed because of diversity,
equity and inclusion. But you know, it's the new hard
art anyway. The dread Scott K says, this is the
fourteenth Amendments. All persons born or naturalized in the United
(15:22):
States and subject to its jurisdiction. There are thereof are
citizens of the United States and of the state wherein
they reside. One of those things where it's like, all right,
clearly we have to stay this. So now we're saying it.
But that's not what I want to talk about today.
That's just that's your precursor. You feel me, that's your prequel.
(15:43):
I want to talk about Wong kim arc after this.
(16:19):
All right, we're back. So wonkim arc a brother from
the eighteen hundreds, clearly Chinese, born in San Francisco. As
a matter of fact, we had an address, and I'm
gonna tell you where the address is a little later.
But why is he so special? Well, let me talk
to you about him. So Wankim Park was, like I said,
born in San Francisco. But he became the subject of
(16:41):
what's called a test case in eighteen ninety six. What
is this test case? It's a test case about the
fourteenth Amendment. Now, have you ever been the test case
of something? It really don't feel good. You ever been
in a situation where a bunch of y'all have done
a bunch of things, but you're the one that gotten
So they just want to see you feel me, right, Yeah,
(17:05):
it's just that that's awful. I've been the test case
a few times where it's like, well, let me just
let me see how serious we are about this a
test case, right, And a lot of times it's the
luck of the draw because you have to again remember
that the Supreme Court is not dealing in their brain.
It's not humans we talk about. We're talking about abstract
(17:26):
concepts of the laws. So the persons involved in these
things really are besides the point to them, which is
why they seem so heartless. But if you can find
a Supreme Court justice that understands the humanity of it all,
you win it. Anyway, I'm gonna tell you his whole narrative,
but I'm gonna cut to the beginning of the scene
because I think the scenes the movie should start with
(17:48):
this moment. It's been a three month journey, no yeah,
three months, yeah, no, no no, It takes about a month
a month journey coming back from China. This brother is
a cook. He got it out the mud. He was
back in China visiting his parents and his newly found wife.
And like every every immigrant story, you know, you you
(18:09):
grind away, you know, you send money back. You know
what I'm saying, Try to support the family, try to
support yourself, to try to make trying to make ends meet.
Get your weight up, get your lady here, have a
great life, right She his wife is from China, which
I'll talk about later. But he again was born in
San Francisco, but he was going back and forth, so
obviously he speaks the language, he understands the culture. He's
(18:29):
doing a cancer and because he lives in Chinatown, a
lot of his cultural sort of presentation, it's Chinese because
of segregation. I'll talk about later. And while he was gone,
something crazy happened in America, but he don't know that yet.
He gets to the port, pulls out his papers and
he's like, all right, what's up y'all doing. I'm glad
(18:50):
to be back. I've been gone for a while. I'm
glad to be here. They was like, hold up, cuz
where you going? And he was like, I'm going home.
They was like, uh, are you a sit He's like,
what the hell you talking about? Pulls out his papers, right,
So he pulls out his papers and get this. About
the papers, he kind of knew this was coming because
(19:11):
you gotta go get it all notary republic, you know,
to prove that you are who you say you are.
So just like a leftover from slavery, about three slaves
had to show them them papers. Basically, if anybody that
don't look American, wink wink, you need to carry papers.
So he carrying papers, and those papers have to be
certified by get this, three white witnesses, because that'll stand
(19:34):
up in the court of law. That'll prove that he
was born where he said, Yes, I grew up with homeboy.
I've seen him over there. You know here it is,
I'm from here. But what was happening in the team
the time that he left to go see his girl
and came back with something called the Chinese Exclusion Act. Now,
let me put you on some game. If you don't
(19:55):
know what the Chinese Exclusion Act is, I'm gonna read
from the National Archives. The Chinese Exclusion Act was approved
on May sixth, eighteen eighty two. It was the first
significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the
spring of eighteen eighty two, the Chinese Exclusion Act was
passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur
(20:17):
Have you even heard of that? President? The act provided
watch this an absolute ten year ban on Chinese laborers
immigrating into the United States. For the first time, federal
law prescribed entry of an ethnic working group on the
premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.
(20:38):
This happened while he was gone. The government decided, let
me tell you what's wrong wal racism. Back it up
a little bit, because a few decades ago, y'all was
loving the Chinese coming. Now why was they loving the
Chinese coming? As we know, the Chinese were the people
that ended up building our railroad, syst doing a lot
of the hard work, opening up our laundries. They did
(20:59):
all that good stuff. Now why you think that happened? Nigga?
They freed the niggers because, well, we can't make the
niggers work, so we gotta find somebody else to work.
It seemed to me like what I'm learning is because
after this happened, Now, does this sound familiar to you?
Because who're doing our work now? The Mexicans. Right, It
seemed to me like Americans just don't like to work,
(21:20):
Like y'all, Just why you keep bringing other people to
do the work and then complaining you ain't got no
work because what happened. What had happened was America decided, Okay,
it's too many of y'all. It's too many of y'all.
Like I it's all like look at it, y'all gotta go,
and don't be bringing no mo. Doug like, don't don't
(21:43):
be bringing no mo Chinese. Chinese. My grandma used to
say that. She used to say Chinese. I'll be like, Grandma,
you can't. I mean she oh this heid obviously, but
she was like, yes, I'm gonna go get Chinese food. Now,
I'm like Grandma, She'd like what she give you that look?
And I'm like I can't correct her. Anyway, this happened
while he was gone, So they looking at him like
are you a laborer? He's like, yeah, I'm a laborer,
(22:04):
but I'm a citizen. They was like, I don't know
about that. Chief, wait right here. So he sat there
and waited. Now, even though he had the paperwork, that
basically is like, yo, who's man? Is this your boy? Hey?
Who know? Cuz they have to ask white people, Hey
do you know cus this is ridiculous, But this was
(22:27):
our laws people. They was like, we don't know if
you're a citizen he like, I got the white boys
to proprove it. I live I can see my house.
I live right there. And not only do I live
right there, fam I was born right there. I have
never moved. I've never applied for no citizenship nowhere else.
(22:50):
There's no confusion on no paperwork. My wife is still
in China. I like, I don't understand what the problem is.
I say this to say, just because some'm in the constitution,
don't think for one second that you really protected if
you got a little Meloni is all I'm trying to say.
(23:12):
This is why I'm bringing this up. We have been
here before, the challenge of birthright citizenships. Now in this moment,
this thing goes all the way to the Supreme Court. Now,
why they picked this is because they're like, wait a minute,
we need to we need to stress test this law.
And like I said, the way the Supreme Court works,
when there is something on the books, you need to
(23:34):
make sure I'm gonna stretch this as far and as
absurdly as I possibly can, because I'll need to see
where it breaks. I need to see the edges. Now, Conceptually,
like I said, this is actually a great practice because
that's how you know, if a law is written well
or is good is once you start throwing absurdities at it,
(23:56):
if it still stands, if you could take it, then
it's good. It's the same with people and rappers. Some
rappers can't take the heat. They get on stage with
fake bullet holes coming out their shirts. Oh man. So
the Chinese Exclusion Act was like, look, man, you can't
come if you're a laborer. He's like, Nigga, I was
born here. They was like, you don't look like you
(24:18):
was born here. You look like a Chinese. You talk
like a Chinese, to which he could probably be like,
I'm from Chinatown, But what the hell difference does that
have make? I'm born right there? Like, and when I
say right there, I mean literally seven fifty one Sacramento
Street in Chinatown. You can go now, it's a little school. Now.
(24:39):
It's a little school now, but it's there's a plat like,
it's right, you can go to it. I'm born right here. Now.
These are not the only laws that existed at this
time that were designed to make sure that nobody else
succeeds but white people. There was the Page Act, which
barred Chinese win except for the wives of merchants from
(25:02):
entering the United States, which is why this man's wife
was still in China, so he can't even bring her here. Right.
There's also the Geary Act, which required all Chinese immigrants
to constantly walk with identification papers kind of like breed slaves,
kind of like immigrants and green cards. There is any
(25:25):
of this sounding familiar to you, So anyway, let me
give you a little more background of him, right, So
that's where the camera starts right here, right, So here's
some background. So again, as he says, he was born
on like the living room floor in what is now
a school, but it used to be like a little
store with an apartment on top of it, a store
(25:46):
that his parents ran, right, seven to fifty one, Sacramento
a f right, So so he was born there and
just like that, like if your parents come from another country,
every once in a while, y'all go back, right, So
he goes back one time when he was a his
parents go back and they decide to stay. So then
he comes back because again, can't stress this enough, he's
(26:10):
an American. So he comes back to SF again, lived here,
worked for his uncle. You know, al Vanas did what
he had to do. He worked there did He had
to do it till he was about twenty, in which
case he was getting a little lonely. He needed him
a trying to find him a lady. Friend. Now, because
of anti missigenation laws. You ever heard that word. It's
(26:32):
because it used to be illegal to marry outside joe race.
So because of anti misigenation laws. And you think this
is just the eighteen hundreds, let me tell you something.
It's only been the past sixty years, seventy years now.
It's very recent the way I like to think of
it as like this. You know, Michael Jordan when he
was in kindergarten, he couldn't marry a white lady anyway,
(26:56):
since race mixing was illegal, and because Chinese women wasn't
even allowed to come. It just wasn't a lot of
Chinese girls here. Those are his only choices. It's slim pickings.
So he has to cross the salt, you know, the ocean,
another one month travel, which I honestly cannot imagine. I
(27:18):
don't think I go anywhere. Took a month to get there.
I'm good anyway, finds a lady since she can't come
because he's not a merchant, you know, he has to
go back and forth sending money doing these You know,
it's a hard life. I don't know if you know
any immigrants, it's really a hard life. My own in
laws like the choices that my mother in law, my
(27:39):
swaged I had to make in reference to her own children.
You know, my wife was It's in her book, So
I don't feel bad about saying this. But you know,
she was born here literally Boyle Heights, you know, and
then lived in Mexico and Acapoco till about fourth grade,
and then one by one, her mom so for a
(28:02):
long time she didn't live with her siblings. You know,
she the siblings came one by one right back to
America as her mom can afford it. She lived with her,
like she lived with her grandma in Mexico, and then
one by one her mom was able to bring her
and like, I just don't know. I honestly, I know
I don't have a fortitude for that, to send my
(28:23):
kids to go live. Nah, I'm good unless the situation
back home is that desperate you feel me that, I'm like,
I have to get my kids out of this life.
I've been to where my wife's from. Now I'm going
as someone who is from a fully developed first world country,
even though I'm black. So there's that. But I'm looking
(28:45):
at this place like this is a tropical paradise. It's
southern Mexico. It's right at the coast of Chica. Like
it's freaking beautiful. Acapulco is be uta ful. But as
you go, as you're there, you realize what is her
best options If she stays here, run a grocery store,
hold a have a cart on the beach, sell the tourist,
(29:10):
like there's there's unless you're gonna go be one of
your ancestors and exists in the forest. There's really no
what do you I get it. You're like, there's nothing here,
there's nothing, like we've maxed out, there's nothing here. I
don't want my kids to do what I did, which
was nothing. Let's roll now. I don't mean that derogatory
(29:31):
because she had one of her uncles that was a doctor,
Like there are It's not like it's not like you
couldn't go to college and you know what I'm saying,
but just the chances, the opportunities. I get it. Now,
it's like, y'all, we gotta we gotta go and It's like,
it's just my sister's there, so I'm going to go
(29:51):
get it out the mud and bring my children here.
You know, it's an amazing thing. My father in law,
like he was selling little fruits in downtown, you know,
Mexico City, little fruit cups, and as an eighth grader,
fam this can't be it, Joe said, I get it,
you know what I mean. So anyway, he's send him
(30:12):
back and forth, you know, making money, figuring it out,
doing he got to do, going back and forth, seeing
his lady come back. Because again, I don't know how
else to say this, he's not a Chinese citizen. He's
an American. He can't stay in China. He's an American.
(30:36):
So this was his life. So he gets there. This
situation tells me who he is. He's sitting there and
basically the answer was this. Now, if this ain't Dajavu,
I don't know what is the basic argument as to
why they won't let this man off this boat and
he got to stay in this limbo is if your
(30:56):
parents are not citizens, even if you were born in
the US, you are not a citizen of the United States,
and you are barred from entry or deported from the
United States, does this This is the eighteen nineties. This
is the eighteen nineties. So let me tell you what
(31:17):
happened after that. Next so we're back. So what's the situation.
(31:52):
The man is just stuck on this boat. There ain't
nothing he could do, right, he just he's just a
he's just a cook, like he's not breaded up. But
here's what happens. The word gets out because again I
don't know how else to say this, it's from San Francisco.
People were expecting him. So there's an entire community that
is waiting to see their homeboy. I just why. I
(32:14):
don't understand what y'all don't understand about this. And one
thing that segregationists do not understand is that when you
force us to live together, we form bonds, we form solidarity,
We learn to look out for each other. There's one
thing that I would say that I in some ways
envy an experience my parents had. Now, obviously the situation
(32:38):
is much different, but my father went to an all
black high school. So with that, there is a certain
type of solidarity among your community that while I am
completely grateful, unbelievably grateful for the multicultural raising I've had.
I feel like it's made me a global citizen in
a way that a lot of people don't have. Stratification,
(33:01):
the full experience of what it means to have a
community that loves you and has shared your experience is
something that I don't have. Because if you go to
a black school, that means you got a black principal,
you got black teachers, the janitor, the mayor, everybody in
your experience from every socio economics stratus is black. You seeing,
(33:21):
you have full representation. You are seeing your world on display, educated, uneducated,
right worker, white collar, blue collar. You're seeing it all
because you live. We were forced to do this right. Obviously,
the situation is awful, but that meant that, Like, although
I can remember moments where I'm like, oh yeah, you know,
Ms Rose down the street, braid of my sister's hair,
(33:43):
you know what I'm saying, You have a bunch of
different parents. So the guy that runs the corner store,
mister Johnson, when I see Missy, how you doing, mister Johnson?
You know what I'm saying, Like, there's a community that
comes with and he understands what it's like to be
a little black boy. My mother, my father. They had that.
Now I had it in my own way, but it
was like black and Latin, you know. Either way. The
point I'm trying to make is when what segregation is
(34:04):
still don't get is that this is how we organize
against your system. Because organized they did. Think you think
they just gonna lead a homeboy on that vote. You
think he don't know nobody with power. So the word
gets out and six wealthy Chinese companies are like, oh no,
we're gonna we're gonna fight for you. They pulled their
(34:27):
money together and they got him a case and they
took it to the courts. They was like, this man's
a citizen. Now, why would they do that? Because when
you live in solidarity and when you live with each other,
you understand that if it could happen to him, it
could happen to us, which is I'm hold my tongue here.
I just don't understand how anyone could vote against the
(34:49):
best interests of their entire community in exchange for their
own goodness. I just I don't get it, because again,
if it can happen to them, it could happen to you.
And on top of that, fuck y'all. That's my own boy.
That's my dog. I don't even care if he's wrong.
He with us? Who man's with this? He with us?
You got a problem with it? I got the bread
(35:13):
some of that's some street stuff too, Like y'all following me.
Man Like, even if my little homy mouth full, like
I said, you don't get to tell me what to do.
It's the same prime even if he wrong, y'all don't
get to say it. And look, I got the education,
I got the bread. You ain't finna look at I'm
off this boat. I don't care how bad. I don't
care how bad my accent is either. That's what I
(35:33):
love about this moment. These are wealthy Chinese people, so
they probably speak with a heavy accident. But that man,
that's just working the borders. You just pole, little white boy.
So you may't have these things you saying about them,
But these men is like, listen, he can't go all right.
Bet so he posts a two hundred fifty dollars bill,
which clearly didn't have and they thought at that time
(35:54):
that's like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Them ridged
Chinese folks, was like, you need a check. I love
it I love it. So this mug goes to the courts,
goes all the way to the Supreme Court, and guess
what happens. I ain't gonna tell you. I'm just kidding,
of course, I'm gonna tell you. So we in the courts,
and he fought it based on the Fourteenth Amendment. Because
(36:15):
you just said, according to you, would you like me
to scroll up on my notes, you could see me
scroll up on my notes to read to you the
fourteenth Amendment again, I'm gonna do that for you. The
Fourteenth Amendment all persons born and naturalized in the United
States and subject to its jurisdiction thereof is, citizens of
the United States and the state for which they reside. Fool,
(36:37):
that's your law. That's what they fought on. I don't
understand what you're talking about. Where was this man born
in San Francisco? What is your argument? What are we
talking about here? Did he win? I don't know. I'm
gonna tell you in a minute. But the court went crazy.
It lasted for a while, There was many appeals, which
is the okay, that's the reveal. He won, But he
(37:01):
didn't get to get off the boat yet. The only
reason he was off. The boat was because he made bail.
But case wasn't over because for some reason about white people,
especially white races, they don't take too well for losing.
I feel like they still why is Obama still get
brought up because they still mad that a nigger was
(37:21):
in the office. Like, I don't understand why y'all still
talk about that man, that man with zero scandals, a
husband or one wife, with extremely successful children. What is
your problem with him? I think we know? So how
could the courts have any leg to stand on to
(37:45):
say that this man's born here, he's not a citizen.
How could that make sense in any way all the
way to the Supreme Court? And why would the Supreme
Court take this case? It's because they have a chance
to be like again, Okay, now, actually this is interesting.
Your argument is, well, his parents aren't born here, so
(38:06):
he's not Okay, we got time talk to me nice now.
None of this mattered until white people got involved. As
far as at the k of course, the court level
right and what the argument against him went like this,
The fourteenth Amendment has some caveats, and the caveat one
(38:28):
is about Native Americans. Obviously, because none of this can
count towards them. They're clearly here, you were here before us, right,
But it kind of works like this, this where the
race has got to dance. Actually in the brief, this
is from the brief that like the fourteenth Amendment argues
guarantees the citizens to all of those born in the
(38:48):
United States. But it's got an asterisk. It's got a caveat, right,
and the caveat is those who are born in the
United States who are subject to it. It's jurisdiction, born
here and subject to its jurisdiction. Well, what he's saying
is jurisdiction can be two types. Your authority what like,
(39:17):
who do you who is your og of? What range
do you exist on? Let me talk to y'all. Let
me talk to y'all LA folk about Pomona's Pomona in
La or the Inland Empire? What jurisdiction where you're like, Well,
it's La County. It's the last city in La County.
No Claremont. Is is it l A or is it
i E? Well it's the nine on nine. Well, the
(39:37):
nine on nine is the IE. What's what's what is
it subject to its jurisdiction? What is its culture? It's
culture is very LA. But then again, so is Ontario.
But Ontario is the ie. Nobody questions if Ontario is
the I E. What is jurisdiction territorial and political? Let
me translate this for you. You was born in La,
(40:00):
but you act on New Yorky you real easty. Well
that's because you was born here, but your mama from
the Bronx, so you talk like yo mama. Or you
was born here, but you packed up and moved to
New York, so you got a real easty year son.
You walk around here at Thames, we like LA won't
(40:21):
wear tams oh Man. I was raised in New York
and I'm like, so, then you not from La. He's like, no,
I'm from La. Nigga, know you not? You are not
subject to its territorial and political jurisdiction. You chose Drake
my nigga. You ain't from no La. How you from La.
You ain't being below the ten. You are not subject
(40:43):
to its jurisdiction. So their argument is these people, his
family and in turn him, clearly are subject to the
jurisdiction of the Chinese emperor. This man is culturally Chinese,
he dressed like it. He sound like you look like
(41:04):
a Chinese. So no matter where he was born, he
is not also subject to our jurisdiction. He is politically
and culturally Chinese. Therefore he is Chinese. So we can't
so yeah, like he I can't call him a citizen
according to the fourtheen Amendment because the fourteenth Amendment has
(41:25):
a caveat. So what is he saying? You know what
he's saying? He don't act white. You don't act white.
(41:46):
You don't act like us. You know, you ain't never
crip walked, You ain't never you you ain't like us,
you got accent. Therefore you can't possibly be Is this
sundy familiar? He is subject to the jurisdiction and the
(42:10):
territorial allegiance to the Chinese. Therefore he cannot possibly be
an American. We obviously don't own a time machine and
have not. This is an interesting part. We can't move
back in time and prove that he was not born
here because, like I said, three white people agreed that
he was born here. So I can't argue that one.
(42:34):
But I can argue he's not subject to our jurisdiction.
And now it was Wong's lawyer's terms. And do you
know what they said in defense when it translated to you,
for you who are not watching but are listening, I
(42:57):
just put my hand, you know, when you put your finger.
You know when when your significant other is obviously lying
and you just want to hear the rest of the story,
so you put your finger. You know, you kind of
got a ball fist with a thumb up under your
chin and your finger on the side, and you're just
looking at him, just about like trying to figure out
if this person knows how dumb they sound like if
(43:19):
you and you're just like, I can't believe you said
that with a straight face. You are dead serious, ain't you?
Their defense? Was this the dumbest shit ever heard in
my life? Is their defense? What are you talking about?
(43:44):
We went through this with the black codes when y'all
said a person can't vote unless they grandparents could vote.
Do you think the States did the course didn't understand
what you were saying. This is ridiculous. And furthermore, they said,
do you know how many Europeans got here? Hell, we
haven't even got to the future of the Homestead Act,
(44:07):
which brought a bunch of Europeans here to fill out
the West. I've already did an episode on a Homestead
Act when the government was giving handouts to poor white people.
Government and handouts so that they could build wealth. I'm
telling you, I can't make this shit up. So if
this is the case, if the sons and daughters of
(44:29):
Chinese citizens are not citizens, what of the sons and
daughters of the English, the Irish, the Germans, the French,
the people have come to the United States. If he
ain't a citizen, they ain't a citizen. If that man
ain't a citizen according to your laws, George Washington, ain't
a citizen. What the hell are you talking about? And
(44:50):
let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.
Do it start with your mama? Okay, So if my
parents weren't citizens, then that means I'm not okay. What
about my grandparents? Well, if my grandparents weren't citizens, then
that would mean that my parents ain't citizens, which would
mean that even though they was born here, I'm not
a citizen. Now check this out. What if it was
my great grandparents, what are immigrants? Then that would mean
(45:14):
to them two non citizens gave a birth to a
non citizen, who gave birth to a non citizen who
gave birth to me? What are you talking about? That
means that no one's a citizen? Dumbass was the argument
that Chinese made. The fuck are you talking about? Well,
if you got here illegally and you're a child, your
(45:35):
parents got here illegally and they gave birth and neither
of you are citizens, what the okay? Then I need
you to dig up every relative, every ancestory you had.
I need you. And if you find a single person,
then that means that all of the descendants ain't citizens either.
You gonna go You're gonna do that? How many people
getting how many people getting deported? Do you not gonna
(45:57):
do that? Have a tall glass of horse shot? The
fuck up, oh man, And guess what the court said, touche,
you are absolutely correct, and birthright citizenship stood that stress test.
(46:23):
Now that was eighteen ninety six. Now, that pole man,
that poor man Wan kim Ark was on that boat
for four months till he was finally able to just
go back home. And what did he go back home? To? Poverty?
(46:46):
His wife still in China. And I don't know enough
of the story to know if he continued to go
visit his wife, because like most immigrants, be scared to
leave because apparently the system hasn't figured out who's protected
(47:08):
and who's not. So yeah, Trump's talking about birthright citizenship
right now. We've been here before, and praise the Lord
God Almighty, Hallelujah, the highest praise Shondo it worked or
we stood the stress test. I just don't know if
(47:28):
we're gonna stand it again. Betch I'm from the land.
Don't say you hey la if you ain't been below
the ten all right now, don't you hit stop on
(47:48):
this pod. You better listen to these credits. I need
you to finish this thing so I can get the
download numbers. Okay, so don't stop it yet, but listen.
This was recorded in e slows Boil Heights by your
boy Propaganda Tap in with me at prop hip hop
dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got
(48:09):
terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use
promo code hood get twenty percent off get yourself some coffee.
This was mixed, edited, and mastered by your boy Matt
Alsowski killing the beat softly. Check out his website Matdowsowski
dot com. I'm a speller for you because I know
m a t t O s O W s Ki
(48:34):
dot com Matthowsowski dot com. He got more music and
stuff like that on there, so gonna check out. The
Heat Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive
produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network.
Your theme music and scoring is also by the one
and overly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, so listen.
(48:56):
Don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand pop po ittics. These people is not smarter
than you. We'll see y'all next week. M
Host
Prop
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