As the USA celebrates 250 years this week, I figured I'd read an excerpt of Frederick Douglass' 1852 4th of July speech. You can read the full speech here: https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1852FrederickDouglass.pdf
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Calls media. Okay, y'all, this one's on me. Okay, it's
on me. It's my bad. I had turned on two
mics when I was recording this today's episode, so it
sounds like there's mad reverb on it. It's too good
(00:24):
to re record and also very difficult to redo. But
Matt did his best. So just bear with me because
this message so important. All right, hey, come get this work,
(00:59):
mister President and fellow citizens. He who could address this
audience without qualling sensation has stronger nerves than I have.
I do not remember, ever to have appeared as a
speaker before and Assembly more shrinkingly, nor with the great
distrust of my ability than I do this day. A
(01:20):
feeling has crept over me, a quite unfavorable to exercise
my limited powers of speech. The task before me is
one which requires much previous thought and study for its
proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are
generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine
(01:41):
will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease,
my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I
have in addressing public meetings in accounting schools and houses
avail me nothing on this the present occasion. The papers
(02:02):
and placards say that I am to deliver a fourth
of July oration. This certainly sounds large and out of
the common way for me. It is true that I
have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful
hall and to address many who honor me with their presence,
But neither their familiar faces nor their perfect gauge I
(02:25):
think I have of Corinthian Hall seems to free me
from embarrassment. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking
at the camera right now. The distance between this platform
and the slave plantation from which I escaped is considerable,
and the difficulties to overcome in getting from the latter
(02:47):
to the former are no means light. That I am
here today is to me a matter of astonishment as
well as gratitude. You will not therefore be surprised if
in what I have to say I eventced no elaborate preparation,
nor grace my speech with any high sounding extorium. With
(03:10):
the little experience and with less learning, I have been
able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together, and
trusting your patients in generous indulgence, I will proceed to
lay them before you. This is July fifth, eighteen fifty two,
Frederick Douglas's air quotes, fourth of July speech hood politics.
(03:37):
Y'all all right, yay America, fourth of July, raw, raw
America two fifty whatever, Okay, It is not a surprising
(04:02):
understanding for anyone who is has an ounce of melanin
have felt the crushing, crushing, crushing weight of the oligarchical,
neo capitalistic world that have just made purchasing basic things impossible,
(04:23):
or have felt the weight of the institution doing its
best to stamp out your existence, having to be forced
to be grateful for the rights that we were told
that this country has given us. Only they weren't. We
had to wrestle them out of the country's hands. And
then you just want us to smile and cook our
(04:46):
hot dogs and wave our flags to be happy about
America two fifty because America gave you this life. Guys,
we wrestled it out of their hands. Anyway, if you
do want to believe in the American dream and the
heroes that have especially the America that is on the
(05:08):
brochures right, the one that you're trying to sell us
the greatest embodiment of that concept. I mean, argue with yo, mama,
it's Frederick Douglas. I would vote for him to be
the reverse bastard this year. You know, I can't make
(05:34):
Robert do anything, nobody can make Robert do anything, but
I would vote. I would vote for him to be
probably the best embodiment of all that romantic bootstrapping that
these folks talk about. He did you talk about a
man who wrote three autobiographies but was illiterate until he
(05:56):
was off a play plantation. Y'all don't understand the man
taught himself how to read. Okay. He was born a slave.
He was separated from his mom in infancy. He was
raised by who he's calling his grandmother. His mom was
twelve miles away at another plantation. He was sold by
(06:16):
his owner into a shipyard, for which they beat him mercilessly.
They have stories. He has stories in his autobiography about
how wet his foot was and the rock that was
happening within his shoes. Like, there's these visceral moments in
his story that it's yeah, a lot of like I
(06:45):
don't know how to explain this. A lot of war
movies they do this grandiose and heroic view of war
and how a person dies, like you know, you know,
you get when the guy like is laying after the
coroic battle, then he looks down at his chest or
stomach and somehow he's bleeding from the side. It's always
(07:05):
that same spot. It's not a war goes like, no,
you get hit in a martyr hits you under your
cheek and this part of your face falls off, like
it's gruesome, Like that's no, it's like no, you're you're
you're talking about a guy, you know what I'm saying,
Like it's not pretty like that it hits your upper thigh,
(07:28):
it takes half the leg off, but then the shrapnel
hits up and hits your ears, so your ears, like
it's gross. But any stories about World War One that
really make you understand, like I'm jumping around here, but
I'm trying to get you to understand the visceralness of
this is when they talk about socks, like you're dying
(07:48):
because of the wet socks, Like if you you ever
had like just a wet sock in your shoe, that
miserable feeling, okay, And then after a while starts smelling
and then you tap the next to you to tap
you next to you. Being dead for three weeks, not
three weeks, but for like hours, you understand what I'm saying.
Like this, there's a visceral experience, the little things like
(08:11):
when you think about the Middle Passage, how Africans were
brought to the States. These aren't flights. They're three and
four month journeys where you're laying on your back shoulder
to shoulder, so you just shit on yourself and you're
feeling the shit of the person next to you, like
(08:34):
little stuff. There were pregnant women, like the hall was
in the way to where you're laying down and you
can't extend your arm all the way up like this.
Just I wish I could stop what I'm doing and
(08:54):
download all of this understanding of the horrificness of this experience,
what it really meant to be a slave on a
slave plantation, and the type of braver you have to
have to escape. Frederick Douglas escaped. He got a gig
working for this like railroad thing. He met a woman
(09:16):
who happened to be free, which was like the bonkers
to him, and he escaped His plantation, got out of Maryland.
He scaped, got out of Maryland to Philadelphia. He escaped slavery,
like escaped, like he got away. I just I like,
I'm I'm frustrated because words are failing me. If if
I could get you to read the narrative his autobiography,
(09:40):
like if you like the Christmas Gift to prop is
you read Frederick Douglas's about autobiography. I think there's a
reality that auto that Frederick Douglas is who converted because
to go from that to the White House, he became
he basically best friends to Abraham. He's a magical black
(10:01):
man for Abraham Lincoln. Because I am positive because it's
written the evolution of Abraham Lincoln, the understanding that like, no,
the moral imperative here is freeing the slaves, because he
didn't come in with that, like we all know the
(10:23):
moral imperative is the freedom of the slaves. Was Frederick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass did that to him, the first black man
in the White House, Like I just words would fail
me to express the importance of this man and his story.
Now he's obviously flawed, he's just a human. There are
(10:49):
there's reality that he was a little fair skinned, and
there's something about his fair skinnedness that maybe played a role.
I'm just talking just complicating situations here, but either way,
eighteen fifty two, this black man is about to give
a speech to the halls of power and justice about
(11:13):
the fourth of July. And the gist of this speech
is very simple. We're gonna get to it, and this
might it's a little long, so this might go into
the tap in, but the gist of it is very simple.
This ain't my independence, and I don't know how to
hell you can call this independence while owning slaves. You
(11:37):
feel me, So excuse me if I'm not excited about this.
Two fifty It's complicated. Okay, it's complicated, and I think
Frederick Douglas captured that complication very well in this speech. Okay,
(12:30):
So his speech starts off there's a little bit of
eighteen hundred speech because apparently we used to be smarter
than so the floweriness of this prose may make you
lose the point he's saying. So he starts off cooking, okay,
about the bravery of their ancestors and why it's important
(12:56):
to celebrate the fourth of July. Now, listen and my
hip hop years, I just I really want you to
understand this. Obviously I haven't left my hip hop years,
but in my Christian hip hop years. I put out
a record in twenty twelve called Excellent, and that album
is the one that actually gave me a career, right.
(13:18):
And on that record was a song slash poem called
Precious Puritans, which was almost like the death and ail
endto me ever really becoming like a Christian artist like Star,
because it just it didn't work. Because for some reason,
the wing of the American Christian that controlled the radios
(13:44):
and the industries and the festivals and stuff like that
was it was just Southern Baptist conservative like Nashville, and
for some reason there was this weird era where they
just kind of fell in love with the Puritans. And
I remember feeling like I was and like pranked because
I was like, why are y'all so excited about these Puritans.
(14:06):
I'm like, nigga, the slave owners, well, you know, Puritans
didn't own slaves. No, they was chaplains to the damn
slave owners, to the slave ships. Nigga, you was there.
It must be nice to sit around and write the
Valley of vision and contemplate the stars. Why cause the
Niggers are doing the fields. So like, I mean, I
(14:28):
don't understand why you acting like these people is infallible.
So essentially the way the poetry worked in that is
I'm like basically a hit dog on holler, so I'm
cranking the thing back, but then the hammer hits on
the other end because I'm talking about how you guys
are quoting these precious people like they're infallible, and I'm like,
(14:52):
but look, include me too, I'm fallible too, Like so
like it ends with your precious propaganda. You understand what
I'm saying. And it's like the last line is man,
God used crooked sticks to make straight lines, where I'm like,
I guess that's true. Maybe you had a lot to
learn from them, but nigga, you stop it. What the
fuck are y'all talking about? Was really like my attitude
(15:14):
about this where I'm just like and like, do you
know you know how it sounds to a slave descended
nigga to a Native American the way you praising these
people like and then you want me to just worship
yo God, you trip it cuz. So that was kind
of the attitude about it where I'm like, if you
want to protect your gospel voice, which you say you
(15:35):
want to do, then why are you talking about massing
them like they understood the gospel better than us? The
what are you talking about? But the point is you
crank the hammer back so that you could turn the
camp turn it there. I have another poem on this
record called Crooked that's called I Hate Cats, right, and
(16:00):
it's about racism, you know, like that, It's about that,
it's heritage, not hate. There is a long standing history
with black people in our distrust for cats. So I'm
kind of like playing on that. And then we got
a cat because my daughter won and one, and then
I was like, damn, I think I just I'm holding
this even though I really have no reason to hate
this animal. It's just my heritage. Once you meet a cat,
(16:26):
maybe it's not what you thought it is. So that
was so it was about racism, but either way you
get people cheering alone with the first part. Yeah, yeah,
you're right, man, I can't stand cats. Man, Hey, I
but a dog person. And then you realize I'm not
even talking about cats. So Frederick Douglas is setting these
people up like that so so he goes on. After
(16:49):
he says, I'll proceed before you. He says, for this
purpose the celebration of the fourth of July. It's the
birthday of your national independence. It is your political freedom. This,
to you, oo wink wink, is what the Passover was
for the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds
back to the day and to the act of your
(17:09):
great deliverance, and to the signs and to the wonders
associated with the act that day. This celebration also marks
the beginning of another year of your national life. And
it reminds you that the Republic of America is now
seventy six years old. I am glad, fellow citizens, that
your nation is so young. Seventy six years though a
(17:32):
good old age for a man is but a mere
speck in the life of a nation. Three scores and
ten is the allotted time for an individual man, but
the nation's number their years by thousands. According to this fact,
you are even now only in the beginning of your
(17:53):
national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat,
I am glad this is so. There is hope in
the thought, and hope is much needed under the dark clouds,
for which lower above the horizon, the eye of the
reformer is met with the angry flashes portending disastrous times.
(18:15):
But in his heart may well beat the lighter at
the thought that America is young, and she is still
in the impressive stage of her existence. May he not
hope in the higher lessons of wisdom, of justice and truth,
yet give the direction to her destiny. Were that nation older,
(18:38):
the patriot's heart might be sadder and the reformers brow heavier.
It is its future might be shrouded in gloom, and
the hope of its profits go out in sorrow. Kind
of feels like how we feel now. There is a
consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams
(18:58):
are not easily turned from channels worn deep in the
course of ages. You see what you're saying. It's still early, guys.
You could fix this flast forward to hundred and fifty years. Okay.
There may sometimes be a rise of quiet and stately
majesty and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth
(19:23):
with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in the
wrath of fury and bear away on their angry waves
the accumulated wealth of the years of toil and hardship. They, however,
gradually flow back into the same channel they flow on
as severally as ever. But while the river may not
(19:47):
be turned aside, it may dry up and leave nothing
behind but a withered branch in an unsightly rock. To
how that the abyss of sweeping wind the sad tale
of departed. As with rivers, so with nations. This a
man that was illiterate ten years before this ten is
(20:09):
an exaggeration, But follow me. You see the point he's making, y'all.
It's early. It's hard to change the mind, like teaching
the old dog nutrients, It's hard to change your mind.
It's hard to bend this river if we don't do this,
if they're older. So I'm glad y'all young, and I'm
glad you're celebrating your freedom. Then he goes on to say, hey, listen,
(20:33):
I don't need to rehash y'all. Know y'all's origin story,
and it's one of beauty, and he hashes it in
the most beautiful ways. Ma rita expert of that. Feeling
themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the Home government, your fathers,
like men of honesty and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress.
They petitioned and remonstrated. They did so in a declor
(21:00):
respectful and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however,
did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with
sovereign indifference, coldness, and scorn. Yet they pierced, persevered, They
did not look back. As the sheet anchor takes a
firmer hold when the ships is tossed by the storm.
(21:22):
So did the cause of your forefathers grow stronger as
it breasted the chilling blast of keenly displeasure. The greatest
and the best of the British statesmen admitted its justice,
and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senates. Senate came
to its support. But with that blindness which seems to
(21:45):
be the unraveling characteristic of tyrants. Since Pharaoh and his
hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British government
persisted with the exactions complained of the madness of this course,
we believe is admitted now even England. But we fear
(22:07):
the lessons is wholly lost on our present rulers. You
see what you're doing. You saw injustice, and you fought
against it, even though your oppressors don't see where they
were wrong. But y'all fought through you saw, and now
(22:29):
you can see that your old oppressors realize, like, yes, yeah,
we were triven. Funny, don't seem like you've learned this lesson?
Stike a cooking. Check this out. Oppression makes a wise
man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they
did not go mad, they became restive under it's distreatment.
(22:52):
They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable
in their colonial capacity. With brave men, there is always
a remedy for oppression. Just here the idea of total
separation from the colonies from the crown was born. It
(23:13):
was a startling idea, much more so that we, at
this distance time regarded the timid and the prudent as
have been intimated of that day, were of course shocked
and alarmed by it. Such people lived then, and lived before,
and will probably ever in the place of this planet,
and their course in respect to this great chance, no
(23:36):
matter how great the good to be attained or the
wrong to be redressed by it may be calculated with
as much precision as can be in the course of
the stars. They hate all changes but silver and gold
and copper. Of change, of this sort of change, they
(23:58):
are always strongly in favor. So he goes on to say,
if you're following, like, oppression makes you crazy, right, but
a good crazy, is his argument, because what man would
not demand his freedom? And I would love to Besides
the smell of how that might have smelled in that room,
(24:20):
I would have loved to have been seeing them nodding.
And then yes, that's right. But then somebody realizing in
the back that he that that's a that's a runaway
slave on that stage and realize like, oh shit, like
I'm man, Please Jesus, if there, if we get to glory,
(24:42):
can you replay this tape for me and let me
see in they head, the one or two white people
in the back, that's like, oh no. He goes on
and talks about how the result of the colonies happen,
and then I'll jump back in right here. He says, citizens,
you're fathers made good that resolution, they succeeded, and today
(25:04):
you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained
is yours, and you therefore may properly celebrate this anniversary.
The fourth of July is the first great fact in
your nation's history, the very ring bolt in the chain
of your undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism not less than
(25:25):
gratitude prompt you to celebrate and hold its perpetual remembrance.
I have said that the declaration of independence is the
ring bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny. So
indeed I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument
are saving principles. Stand by those principles, Be true to
(25:48):
all of them, in all occasions, in all places, against
all foes, at whatever costs. So then the next part
(26:38):
is called the present, where what he says is essentially like, hey, listen,
here's where we are. Now watch this, he says. Essentially
he is let me, let me, let me, let me
paraphrase it. But he basically goes on to say, hey, listen,
now it's your job to carry the torch. You have
(27:00):
your past, you have your heroes, and now it's on
you this new thing. It's still early, okay, there's still time.
Your ancestors seventy six years ago handed you a brand
new nation and the rivers have not yet been set.
(27:20):
The lines are not drawn already, okay, And we know
why we did your freedom, your independence. You understood that
oppression and tyranny would drive a person mad. Why would
someone not demand? And then you put together this amazing
Declaration of independence. He goes on and talks about how
beautiful this document is. It's brilliant, it's amazing. This is
(27:43):
a god given gift. Your forefathers handed you, one of
the most beautiful and I will continue to celebrate this
with you, right and it's on you now, it's your turn, Okay.
Then he says this, fellow citizens in me, allow me
to ask why am I called upon to speak here today?
(28:06):
What have I or those I represent to do with
your national independence? Are the great principles of the political
freedom and of natural justice embodied in the Declaration of
Independence extended to us? And am I therefore called upon
to bring our humble offering to the national altar and
(28:28):
to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the
blessings resulting from your independence to us? Nigga, Did you
catch that what the fourth of July got to do
with me. You want me to come celebrate with you?
Does your document include us? It don't seem like it
(28:49):
do Do you see how he'te cooking? Then he says,
what to God, both of your sakes and ours, that
an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions,
like tell the truth? Think about that for a second.
You want me to express gratitude, then would my task
(29:14):
be light and my burden be easy and delightful? For
who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could
not warm him? Who so obdigate and dead to the
claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits.
(29:37):
Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his
voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation in jubilee
when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs?
Am I not that man? In a case like that,
(29:59):
the dump might eloquently speak, and the main man and
the lame man leap as in heart, saying, I mean,
why would I not yell raw America? If you rip
the chains off my arms? I'd be like, hell yeah,
I'd be like, give me a little sparkler. This is
eighteen fifty two, y'all. But such is not the state
(30:22):
of the case. I say it with a sad sense
of the disparity between us. I am not included within
the pale of the glorious anniversary. Your high independence only
reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessing in which
you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The
(30:48):
rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, independence, bequeathed on your
father's is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight
that broke through life and healing to you has brought
stripes and death to me. This fourth of July is yours,
not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn to drag
(31:12):
a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of
liberty and call upon him to join in your joyous anthems.
Where inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony do you mean citizens
to mock me by asking me to speak today? If so,
(31:32):
there's a parallel to your conduct, And let me warn
you that is a dangerous to copy the example of
a nation's crimes towering up to heaven, we're thrown down
by the breath of the Almighty, burying the nation in
irrevocable ruin, I can today take up the plaintive lament
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and of appealed and wolled mitten people. Then a man
quotes the Bible. Watch this by the rivers of Babylon.
They sat down. Yeah, we wept when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof For there they that carried us away captive required
(32:17):
of us a song, and they who wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, sing one of the songs of Zion?
How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
If I forget the old Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee let
(32:37):
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Do
you hear what he's saying? Please fast forward to the
Zionism we're dealing with right now. What he's saying is,
oh my eighteen fifty two, y'all, it's the same thing
we're saying to Israel Palstein. You are doing to these
(32:57):
people what what's done to you? Can you not see this?
They invited Vedrick at eighteen fifty two. He was like,
are you mocking me? You listen, if you had said
(33:18):
it right now, are you fucking with me? You wanted
to come to speak on fourth of July, you didn't
set me free. I escaped, so it still don't count.
How the hell you gonna sit here and demand for
your slaves and celebrate freedom? The what are you talking about?
Oh man? I still get chills when I think about
this speech. Oh man, He goes on to say, at
(33:46):
a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument is needed.
Oh I had the ability, and I could reach the
nation's ear. I would today pour out a fiery stream
of bite, ridicule, blasting, reproach, within, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
(34:06):
For it is not light that is needed, but fire.
Is not gentle shower, but thunder. We need storm, the whirldwind,
and the earthquake. The feeling of a nation must be quickened.
The conscience of a nation must be roused, The property
(34:29):
of the nation must be startled. The hypocrisy of a
nation must be exposed, and its crimes against God and
man must be proclaimed and denounced. My Lord cooking, cooking, y'all,
I'm gonna link this in the show notes for you
to read the rest of it. I just want you
(34:50):
to have this right now, y'all. This just page seven.
He only halfway down. Then he goes on and talk
about just the horrendous story that slavery starts with. Y'all
ready for this. I was born amid such slight scenes.
(35:11):
I met the American slave trade in its terrible reality
when a child. My soul was often pierced with a
sense of its horrors. I lived on Phillip Street, Fells Point, Baltimore,
and we watched from the wars slave ships in the basin,
anchored on the shore with their cargoes of human flesh,
(35:34):
waiting for favorable winds to waft down the Chesapeake. There
was at a time a grand slave market that carrier
kept at the head of Pratt Street by Austin Woodfolk.
His agents were sent there, were sent into every town
and country in Maryland, announcing their arrival through their papers
(35:58):
and their flaming hand bills headed cash for negroes. These
men were generally well dressed men and very captivating in
their manners, ever ready to drink, intreat, and gamble the
fate of Many a slave has depended upon the turn
of a single card. Many a child has been snatched
(36:18):
from the arms of their mother by bargains arranged in
a state of brutal drunkenness. These fleshmongers gathered up their
victims by the dozens. He's saying this in front of
the entire government, by their flesh mongers. These fleshmongers gathered
these victims by the dozens and drive them chained to
the General Depot of Baltimore. When a sufficient number had
(36:43):
been collected, a ship chartered for the purpose of conveying
a forlorn crew to mobile or to New Orleans. From
slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in
the darkness of night, for since anti slavery agitation is
certain caution to be observed in the deep darkness of midnight.
(37:08):
I have been often aroused by dead heavy footsteps and
the pious cries of the chained gangs that passed our door.
The anguish of my boyish heart was intense, and I
was often consoled when speaking to my mistress in the morning,
(37:30):
to hear her say that the custom was very wicked,
that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains
and the heart rending cries. I was glad to find
one who sympathized with me in my horror. Fellow citizens,
this murderous traffic is to this day in active operation,
(37:51):
and is in this boasted republic. In the solitude of
my spirit, I see the clouds of dust race on
the highways of the South. I see the bleeding footsteps.
I hear the doleful whale of the fettered humanity on
the way to the slave markets, where the victims will
(38:11):
be sold like horses and swine, knocked off to the
highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken
to gratify the lust, caprice, and rhapsody of the buyers
and sellers of men. My soul sickens at that site.
(38:36):
I don't know. I don't know where this lands in
the heart of the people listening, or even in the
timeframe of what happens later. But I do know it
took a war to end it. And you may know
that thirteenth Amendment has a caveat that freed us unless
(39:03):
you go to prison. And then if you're in prison,
we can force you to labor. Do we know what
happened after Jim Crow and reconstruction was mass incarceration. I
fear we have not learned these lessons. He goes on
to talk about the church's responsibility that he was like,
y'all saw this right. You're not you are not. You
(39:27):
are no exception. This happened. If you are supposed to
be the voice of God, you did this on your watch.
But then he ends with an admiration to remind America
to keep its promises. He goes back to the beauty
(39:48):
of the document that was written, and we'll go to
that part on the tap end. But right now, I
need you to sit and get this work a politics.
Thank y'all. All right now, don't you hit stop on
(40:14):
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 East Lost Boyle Heights by your
boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prop hip hop
dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got
(40:35):
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 Beast softly. Check out his website Mattowsowski
dot com. I'm a spell it for you because I
know M A T T O S O W s
(40:59):
ki 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 nobly matdow Sowski. Still killing the beat softly, So listen,
(41:22):
don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you.
We'll see y'all next week.
Calls media. Okay, y'all, this one's on me. Okay, it's
on me. It's my bad. I had turned on two
mics when I was recording this today's episode, so it
sounds like there's mad reverb on it. It's too good
(00:24):
to re record and also very difficult to redo. But
Matt did his best. So just bear with me because
this message so important. All right, hey, come get this work,
(00:59):
mister President and fellow citizens. He who could address this
audience without qualling sensation has stronger nerves than I have.
I do not remember, ever to have appeared as a
speaker before and Assembly more shrinkingly, nor with the great
distrust of my ability than I do this day. A
(01:20):
feeling has crept over me, a quite unfavorable to exercise
my limited powers of speech. The task before me is
one which requires much previous thought and study for its
proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are
generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine
(01:41):
will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease,
my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I
have in addressing public meetings in accounting schools and houses
avail me nothing on this the present occasion. The papers
(02:02):
and placards say that I am to deliver a fourth
of July oration. This certainly sounds large and out of
the common way for me. It is true that I
have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful
hall and to address many who honor me with their presence,
But neither their familiar faces nor their perfect gauge I
(02:25):
think I have of Corinthian Hall seems to free me
from embarrassment. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking
at the camera right now. The distance between this platform
and the slave plantation from which I escaped is considerable,
and the difficulties to overcome in getting from the latter
(02:47):
to the former are no means light. That I am
here today is to me a matter of astonishment as
well as gratitude. You will not therefore be surprised if
in what I have to say I eventced no elaborate preparation,
nor grace my speech with any high sounding extorium. With
(03:10):
the little experience and with less learning, I have been
able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together, and
trusting your patients in generous indulgence, I will proceed to
lay them before you. This is July fifth, eighteen fifty two,
Frederick Douglas's air quotes, fourth of July speech hood politics.
(03:37):
Y'all all right, yay America, fourth of July, raw, raw
America two fifty whatever, Okay, It is not a surprising
(04:02):
understanding for anyone who is has an ounce of melanin
have felt the crushing, crushing, crushing weight of the oligarchical,
neo capitalistic world that have just made purchasing basic things impossible,
(04:23):
or have felt the weight of the institution doing its
best to stamp out your existence, having to be forced
to be grateful for the rights that we were told
that this country has given us. Only they weren't. We
had to wrestle them out of the country's hands. And
then you just want us to smile and cook our
(04:46):
hot dogs and wave our flags to be happy about
America two fifty because America gave you this life. Guys,
we wrestled it out of their hands. Anyway, if you
do want to believe in the American dream and the
heroes that have especially the America that is on the
(05:08):
brochures right, the one that you're trying to sell us
the greatest embodiment of that concept. I mean, argue with yo, mama,
it's Frederick Douglas. I would vote for him to be
the reverse bastard this year. You know, I can't make
(05:34):
Robert do anything, nobody can make Robert do anything, but
I would vote. I would vote for him to be
probably the best embodiment of all that romantic bootstrapping that
these folks talk about. He did you talk about a
man who wrote three autobiographies but was illiterate until he
(05:56):
was off a play plantation. Y'all don't understand the man
taught himself how to read. Okay. He was born a slave.
He was separated from his mom in infancy. He was
raised by who he's calling his grandmother. His mom was
twelve miles away at another plantation. He was sold by
(06:16):
his owner into a shipyard, for which they beat him mercilessly.
They have stories. He has stories in his autobiography about
how wet his foot was and the rock that was
happening within his shoes. Like, there's these visceral moments in
his story that it's yeah, a lot of like I
(06:45):
don't know how to explain this. A lot of war
movies they do this grandiose and heroic view of war
and how a person dies, like you know, you know,
you get when the guy like is laying after the
coroic battle, then he looks down at his chest or
stomach and somehow he's bleeding from the side. It's always
(07:05):
that same spot. It's not a war goes like, no,
you get hit in a martyr hits you under your
cheek and this part of your face falls off, like
it's gruesome, Like that's no, it's like no, you're you're
you're talking about a guy, you know what I'm saying,
Like it's not pretty like that it hits your upper thigh,
(07:28):
it takes half the leg off, but then the shrapnel
hits up and hits your ears, so your ears, like
it's gross. But any stories about World War One that
really make you understand, like I'm jumping around here, but
I'm trying to get you to understand the visceralness of
this is when they talk about socks, like you're dying
(07:48):
because of the wet socks, Like if you you ever
had like just a wet sock in your shoe, that
miserable feeling, okay, And then after a while starts smelling
and then you tap the next to you to tap
you next to you. Being dead for three weeks, not
three weeks, but for like hours, you understand what I'm saying.
Like this, there's a visceral experience, the little things like
(08:11):
when you think about the Middle Passage, how Africans were
brought to the States. These aren't flights. They're three and
four month journeys where you're laying on your back shoulder
to shoulder, so you just shit on yourself and you're
feeling the shit of the person next to you, like
(08:34):
little stuff. There were pregnant women, like the hall was
in the way to where you're laying down and you
can't extend your arm all the way up like this.
Just I wish I could stop what I'm doing and
(08:54):
download all of this understanding of the horrificness of this experience,
what it really meant to be a slave on a
slave plantation, and the type of braver you have to
have to escape. Frederick Douglas escaped. He got a gig
working for this like railroad thing. He met a woman
(09:16):
who happened to be free, which was like the bonkers
to him, and he escaped His plantation, got out of Maryland.
He scaped, got out of Maryland to Philadelphia. He escaped slavery,
like escaped, like he got away. I just I like,
I'm I'm frustrated because words are failing me. If if
I could get you to read the narrative his autobiography,
(09:40):
like if you like the Christmas Gift to prop is
you read Frederick Douglas's about autobiography. I think there's a
reality that auto that Frederick Douglas is who converted because
to go from that to the White House, he became
he basically best friends to Abraham. He's a magical black
(10:01):
man for Abraham Lincoln. Because I am positive because it's
written the evolution of Abraham Lincoln, the understanding that like, no,
the moral imperative here is freeing the slaves, because he
didn't come in with that, like we all know the
(10:23):
moral imperative is the freedom of the slaves. Was Frederick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass did that to him, the first black man
in the White House, Like I just words would fail
me to express the importance of this man and his story.
Now he's obviously flawed, he's just a human. There are
(10:49):
there's reality that he was a little fair skinned, and
there's something about his fair skinnedness that maybe played a role.
I'm just talking just complicating situations here, but either way,
eighteen fifty two, this black man is about to give
a speech to the halls of power and justice about
(11:13):
the fourth of July. And the gist of this speech
is very simple. We're gonna get to it, and this
might it's a little long, so this might go into
the tap in, but the gist of it is very simple.
This ain't my independence, and I don't know how to
hell you can call this independence while owning slaves. You
(11:37):
feel me, So excuse me if I'm not excited about this.
Two fifty It's complicated. Okay, it's complicated, and I think
Frederick Douglas captured that complication very well in this speech. Okay,
(12:30):
So his speech starts off there's a little bit of
eighteen hundred speech because apparently we used to be smarter
than so the floweriness of this prose may make you
lose the point he's saying. So he starts off cooking, okay,
about the bravery of their ancestors and why it's important
(12:56):
to celebrate the fourth of July. Now, listen and my
hip hop years, I just I really want you to
understand this. Obviously I haven't left my hip hop years,
but in my Christian hip hop years. I put out
a record in twenty twelve called Excellent, and that album
is the one that actually gave me a career, right.
(13:18):
And on that record was a song slash poem called
Precious Puritans, which was almost like the death and ail
endto me ever really becoming like a Christian artist like Star,
because it just it didn't work. Because for some reason,
the wing of the American Christian that controlled the radios
(13:44):
and the industries and the festivals and stuff like that
was it was just Southern Baptist conservative like Nashville, and
for some reason there was this weird era where they
just kind of fell in love with the Puritans. And
I remember feeling like I was and like pranked because
I was like, why are y'all so excited about these Puritans.
(14:06):
I'm like, nigga, the slave owners, well, you know, Puritans
didn't own slaves. No, they was chaplains to the damn
slave owners, to the slave ships. Nigga, you was there.
It must be nice to sit around and write the
Valley of vision and contemplate the stars. Why cause the
Niggers are doing the fields. So like, I mean, I
(14:28):
don't understand why you acting like these people is infallible.
So essentially the way the poetry worked in that is
I'm like basically a hit dog on holler, so I'm
cranking the thing back, but then the hammer hits on
the other end because I'm talking about how you guys
are quoting these precious people like they're infallible, and I'm like,
(14:52):
but look, include me too, I'm fallible too, Like so
like it ends with your precious propaganda. You understand what
I'm saying. And it's like the last line is man,
God used crooked sticks to make straight lines, where I'm like,
I guess that's true. Maybe you had a lot to
learn from them, but nigga, you stop it. What the
fuck are y'all talking about? Was really like my attitude
(15:14):
about this where I'm just like and like, do you
know you know how it sounds to a slave descended
nigga to a Native American the way you praising these
people like and then you want me to just worship
yo God, you trip it cuz. So that was kind
of the attitude about it where I'm like, if you
want to protect your gospel voice, which you say you
(15:35):
want to do, then why are you talking about massing
them like they understood the gospel better than us? The
what are you talking about? But the point is you
crank the hammer back so that you could turn the
camp turn it there. I have another poem on this
record called Crooked that's called I Hate Cats, right, and
(16:00):
it's about racism, you know, like that, It's about that,
it's heritage, not hate. There is a long standing history
with black people in our distrust for cats. So I'm
kind of like playing on that. And then we got
a cat because my daughter won and one, and then
I was like, damn, I think I just I'm holding
this even though I really have no reason to hate
this animal. It's just my heritage. Once you meet a cat,
(16:26):
maybe it's not what you thought it is. So that
was so it was about racism, but either way you
get people cheering alone with the first part. Yeah, yeah,
you're right, man, I can't stand cats. Man, Hey, I
but a dog person. And then you realize I'm not
even talking about cats. So Frederick Douglas is setting these
people up like that so so he goes on. After
(16:49):
he says, I'll proceed before you. He says, for this
purpose the celebration of the fourth of July. It's the
birthday of your national independence. It is your political freedom. This,
to you, oo wink wink, is what the Passover was
for the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds
back to the day and to the act of your
(17:09):
great deliverance, and to the signs and to the wonders
associated with the act that day. This celebration also marks
the beginning of another year of your national life. And
it reminds you that the Republic of America is now
seventy six years old. I am glad, fellow citizens, that
your nation is so young. Seventy six years though a
(17:32):
good old age for a man is but a mere
speck in the life of a nation. Three scores and
ten is the allotted time for an individual man, but
the nation's number their years by thousands. According to this fact,
you are even now only in the beginning of your
(17:53):
national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat,
I am glad this is so. There is hope in
the thought, and hope is much needed under the dark clouds,
for which lower above the horizon, the eye of the
reformer is met with the angry flashes portending disastrous times.
(18:15):
But in his heart may well beat the lighter at
the thought that America is young, and she is still
in the impressive stage of her existence. May he not
hope in the higher lessons of wisdom, of justice and truth,
yet give the direction to her destiny. Were that nation older,
(18:38):
the patriot's heart might be sadder and the reformers brow heavier.
It is its future might be shrouded in gloom, and
the hope of its profits go out in sorrow. Kind
of feels like how we feel now. There is a
consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams
(18:58):
are not easily turned from channels worn deep in the
course of ages. You see what you're saying. It's still early, guys.
You could fix this flast forward to hundred and fifty years. Okay.
There may sometimes be a rise of quiet and stately
majesty and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth
(19:23):
with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in the
wrath of fury and bear away on their angry waves
the accumulated wealth of the years of toil and hardship. They, however,
gradually flow back into the same channel they flow on
as severally as ever. But while the river may not
(19:47):
be turned aside, it may dry up and leave nothing
behind but a withered branch in an unsightly rock. To
how that the abyss of sweeping wind the sad tale
of departed. As with rivers, so with nations. This a
man that was illiterate ten years before this ten is
(20:09):
an exaggeration, But follow me. You see the point he's making, y'all.
It's early. It's hard to change the mind, like teaching
the old dog nutrients, It's hard to change your mind.
It's hard to bend this river if we don't do this,
if they're older. So I'm glad y'all young, and I'm
glad you're celebrating your freedom. Then he goes on to say, hey, listen,
(20:33):
I don't need to rehash y'all. Know y'all's origin story,
and it's one of beauty, and he hashes it in
the most beautiful ways. Ma rita expert of that. Feeling
themselves harshly and unjustly treated by the Home government, your fathers,
like men of honesty and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress.
They petitioned and remonstrated. They did so in a declor
(21:00):
respectful and loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, however,
did not answer the purpose. They saw themselves treated with
sovereign indifference, coldness, and scorn. Yet they pierced, persevered, They
did not look back. As the sheet anchor takes a
firmer hold when the ships is tossed by the storm.
(21:22):
So did the cause of your forefathers grow stronger as
it breasted the chilling blast of keenly displeasure. The greatest
and the best of the British statesmen admitted its justice,
and the loftiest eloquence of the British Senates. Senate came
to its support. But with that blindness which seems to
(21:45):
be the unraveling characteristic of tyrants. Since Pharaoh and his
hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British government
persisted with the exactions complained of the madness of this course,
we believe is admitted now even England. But we fear
(22:07):
the lessons is wholly lost on our present rulers. You
see what you're doing. You saw injustice, and you fought
against it, even though your oppressors don't see where they
were wrong. But y'all fought through you saw, and now
(22:29):
you can see that your old oppressors realize, like, yes, yeah,
we were triven. Funny, don't seem like you've learned this lesson?
Stike a cooking. Check this out. Oppression makes a wise
man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they
did not go mad, they became restive under it's distreatment.
(22:52):
They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable
in their colonial capacity. With brave men, there is always
a remedy for oppression. Just here the idea of total
separation from the colonies from the crown was born. It
(23:13):
was a startling idea, much more so that we, at
this distance time regarded the timid and the prudent as
have been intimated of that day, were of course shocked
and alarmed by it. Such people lived then, and lived before,
and will probably ever in the place of this planet,
and their course in respect to this great chance, no
(23:36):
matter how great the good to be attained or the
wrong to be redressed by it may be calculated with
as much precision as can be in the course of
the stars. They hate all changes but silver and gold
and copper. Of change, of this sort of change, they
(23:58):
are always strongly in favor. So he goes on to say,
if you're following, like, oppression makes you crazy, right, but
a good crazy, is his argument, because what man would
not demand his freedom? And I would love to Besides
the smell of how that might have smelled in that room,
(24:20):
I would have loved to have been seeing them nodding.
And then yes, that's right. But then somebody realizing in
the back that he that that's a that's a runaway
slave on that stage and realize like, oh shit, like
I'm man, Please Jesus, if there, if we get to glory,
(24:42):
can you replay this tape for me and let me
see in they head, the one or two white people
in the back, that's like, oh no. He goes on
and talks about how the result of the colonies happen,
and then I'll jump back in right here. He says, citizens,
you're fathers made good that resolution, they succeeded, and today
(25:04):
you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained
is yours, and you therefore may properly celebrate this anniversary.
The fourth of July is the first great fact in
your nation's history, the very ring bolt in the chain
of your undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism not less than
(25:25):
gratitude prompt you to celebrate and hold its perpetual remembrance.
I have said that the declaration of independence is the
ring bolt to the chain of your nation's destiny. So
indeed I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument
are saving principles. Stand by those principles, Be true to
(25:48):
all of them, in all occasions, in all places, against
all foes, at whatever costs. So then the next part
(26:38):
is called the present, where what he says is essentially like, hey, listen,
here's where we are. Now watch this, he says. Essentially
he is let me, let me, let me, let me
paraphrase it. But he basically goes on to say, hey, listen,
now it's your job to carry the torch. You have
(27:00):
your past, you have your heroes, and now it's on
you this new thing. It's still early, okay, there's still time.
Your ancestors seventy six years ago handed you a brand
new nation and the rivers have not yet been set.
(27:20):
The lines are not drawn already, okay, And we know
why we did your freedom, your independence. You understood that
oppression and tyranny would drive a person mad. Why would
someone not demand? And then you put together this amazing
Declaration of independence. He goes on and talks about how
beautiful this document is. It's brilliant, it's amazing. This is
(27:43):
a god given gift. Your forefathers handed you, one of
the most beautiful and I will continue to celebrate this
with you, right and it's on you now, it's your turn, Okay.
Then he says this, fellow citizens in me, allow me
to ask why am I called upon to speak here today?
(28:06):
What have I or those I represent to do with
your national independence? Are the great principles of the political
freedom and of natural justice embodied in the Declaration of
Independence extended to us? And am I therefore called upon
to bring our humble offering to the national altar and
(28:28):
to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the
blessings resulting from your independence to us? Nigga, Did you
catch that what the fourth of July got to do
with me. You want me to come celebrate with you?
Does your document include us? It don't seem like it
(28:49):
do Do you see how he'te cooking? Then he says,
what to God, both of your sakes and ours, that
an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions,
like tell the truth? Think about that for a second.
You want me to express gratitude, then would my task
(29:14):
be light and my burden be easy and delightful? For
who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could
not warm him? Who so obdigate and dead to the
claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits.
(29:37):
Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his
voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation in jubilee
when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs?
Am I not that man? In a case like that,
(29:59):
the dump might eloquently speak, and the main man and
the lame man leap as in heart, saying, I mean,
why would I not yell raw America? If you rip
the chains off my arms? I'd be like, hell yeah,
I'd be like, give me a little sparkler. This is
eighteen fifty two, y'all. But such is not the state
(30:22):
of the case. I say it with a sad sense
of the disparity between us. I am not included within
the pale of the glorious anniversary. Your high independence only
reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessing in which
you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The
(30:48):
rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, independence, bequeathed on your
father's is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight
that broke through life and healing to you has brought
stripes and death to me. This fourth of July is yours,
not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn to drag
(31:12):
a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of
liberty and call upon him to join in your joyous anthems.
Where inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony do you mean citizens
to mock me by asking me to speak today? If so,
(31:32):
there's a parallel to your conduct, And let me warn
you that is a dangerous to copy the example of
a nation's crimes towering up to heaven, we're thrown down
by the breath of the Almighty, burying the nation in
irrevocable ruin, I can today take up the plaintive lament
(31:56):
and of appealed and wolled mitten people. Then a man
quotes the Bible. Watch this by the rivers of Babylon.
They sat down. Yeah, we wept when we remembered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof For there they that carried us away captive required
(32:17):
of us a song, and they who wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, sing one of the songs of Zion?
How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
If I forget the old Jerusalem, let my right hand
forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee let
(32:37):
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Do
you hear what he's saying? Please fast forward to the
Zionism we're dealing with right now. What he's saying is,
oh my eighteen fifty two, y'all, it's the same thing
we're saying to Israel Palstein. You are doing to these
(32:57):
people what what's done to you? Can you not see this?
They invited Vedrick at eighteen fifty two. He was like,
are you mocking me? You listen, if you had said
(33:18):
it right now, are you fucking with me? You wanted
to come to speak on fourth of July, you didn't
set me free. I escaped, so it still don't count.
How the hell you gonna sit here and demand for
your slaves and celebrate freedom? The what are you talking about?
Oh man? I still get chills when I think about
this speech. Oh man, He goes on to say, at
(33:46):
a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument is needed.
Oh I had the ability, and I could reach the
nation's ear. I would today pour out a fiery stream
of bite, ridicule, blasting, reproach, within, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
(34:06):
For it is not light that is needed, but fire.
Is not gentle shower, but thunder. We need storm, the whirldwind,
and the earthquake. The feeling of a nation must be quickened.
The conscience of a nation must be roused, The property
(34:29):
of the nation must be startled. The hypocrisy of a
nation must be exposed, and its crimes against God and
man must be proclaimed and denounced. My Lord cooking, cooking, y'all,
I'm gonna link this in the show notes for you
to read the rest of it. I just want you
(34:50):
to have this right now, y'all. This just page seven.
He only halfway down. Then he goes on and talk
about just the horrendous story that slavery starts with. Y'all
ready for this. I was born amid such slight scenes.
(35:11):
I met the American slave trade in its terrible reality
when a child. My soul was often pierced with a
sense of its horrors. I lived on Phillip Street, Fells Point, Baltimore,
and we watched from the wars slave ships in the basin,
anchored on the shore with their cargoes of human flesh,
(35:34):
waiting for favorable winds to waft down the Chesapeake. There
was at a time a grand slave market that carrier
kept at the head of Pratt Street by Austin Woodfolk.
His agents were sent there, were sent into every town
and country in Maryland, announcing their arrival through their papers
(35:58):
and their flaming hand bills headed cash for negroes. These
men were generally well dressed men and very captivating in
their manners, ever ready to drink, intreat, and gamble the
fate of Many a slave has depended upon the turn
of a single card. Many a child has been snatched
(36:18):
from the arms of their mother by bargains arranged in
a state of brutal drunkenness. These fleshmongers gathered up their
victims by the dozens. He's saying this in front of
the entire government, by their flesh mongers. These fleshmongers gathered
these victims by the dozens and drive them chained to
the General Depot of Baltimore. When a sufficient number had
(36:43):
been collected, a ship chartered for the purpose of conveying
a forlorn crew to mobile or to New Orleans. From
slave prison to the ship, they are usually driven in
the darkness of night, for since anti slavery agitation is
certain caution to be observed in the deep darkness of midnight.
(37:08):
I have been often aroused by dead heavy footsteps and
the pious cries of the chained gangs that passed our door.
The anguish of my boyish heart was intense, and I
was often consoled when speaking to my mistress in the morning,
(37:30):
to hear her say that the custom was very wicked,
that she hated to hear the rattle of the chains
and the heart rending cries. I was glad to find
one who sympathized with me in my horror. Fellow citizens,
this murderous traffic is to this day in active operation,
(37:51):
and is in this boasted republic. In the solitude of
my spirit, I see the clouds of dust race on
the highways of the South. I see the bleeding footsteps.
I hear the doleful whale of the fettered humanity on
the way to the slave markets, where the victims will
(38:11):
be sold like horses and swine, knocked off to the
highest bidder. There I see the tenderest ties ruthlessly broken
to gratify the lust, caprice, and rhapsody of the buyers
and sellers of men. My soul sickens at that site.
(38:36):
I don't know. I don't know where this lands in
the heart of the people listening, or even in the
timeframe of what happens later. But I do know it
took a war to end it. And you may know
that thirteenth Amendment has a caveat that freed us unless
(39:03):
you go to prison. And then if you're in prison,
we can force you to labor. Do we know what
happened after Jim Crow and reconstruction was mass incarceration. I
fear we have not learned these lessons. He goes on
to talk about the church's responsibility that he was like,
y'all saw this right. You're not you are not. You
(39:27):
are no exception. This happened. If you are supposed to
be the voice of God, you did this on your watch.
But then he ends with an admiration to remind America
to keep its promises. He goes back to the beauty
(39:48):
of the document that was written, and we'll go to
that part on the tap end. But right now, I
need you to sit and get this work a politics.
Thank y'all. All right now, don't you hit stop on
(40:14):
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 East Lost Boyle Heights by your
boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prop hip hop
dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got
(40:35):
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 Beast softly. Check out his website Mattowsowski
dot com. I'm a spell it for you because I
know M A T T O S O W s
(40:59):
ki 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 nobly matdow Sowski. Still killing the beat softly, So listen,
(41:22):
don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living,
you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you.
We'll see y'all next week.
Host
Prop
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