October 16, 2025 • 46 mins
A burger run after a high school football game should be forgettable. Instead, teens were pulled from their cars, handcuffed, and taken to a station for violating a 10 p.m. curfew - no drugs, no fights, no vandalism. We follow that one night in LA County to its bigger meanings: how “law and order” becomes spectacle, how small policies teach big lessons about power, and how a first brush with policing can harden into lifelong distrust.
From there we widen the frame. A leaked trove of messages from young Republican leaders celebrates Hitler, throws racist slurs, and jokes about rape. It isn’t an outlier - it’s an accelerant. We talk about what broke for some white Americans during Obama’s presidency and why euphemisms no longer help. If you’re tired of talking about race, imagine living with it daily. Allyship can’t be a bumper sticker; it’s the choice to speak up in rooms where it’s easiest to stay quiet, to challenge family myths, and to back policy changes that stop criminalizing kids for being kids.
There is light. Nearly every major outlet just rejected a Pentagon demand to sign a gag agreement, drawing a line for press freedom. Organizers are mobilizing for No Kings Day, a reminder that power answers to the people, not the other way around. We share practical steps: push for diversion over arrests, demand proportional policing, support local journalism, and rotate rest so burnout doesn’t win. The throughline is simple: dignity should not be a luxury, and a late-night order of fries should never be a criminal act.
If this conversation moved you, share it with a friend, leave a review, and hit follow so you won’t miss what’s next. Your voice matters - how will you use it this week?
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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carmen Lezeth (00:00):
Hey everyone.
Welcome to All About the Joy.
This is Culture and Consequencewith Carmen and Andrea.
So what's up?
How you doing?
You're great.
Yeah, I'm great too.
I'm not.
I think I told you this.
Well, I think I told you thisweek.
I'm just tired.
I think I'm also sick.
But I think mostly I'm done.
(00:22):
Sick and tired.
Sick and tired.
I'm done.
I'm tired of the everydayconversation of um this
administration.
Andrea (00:33):
Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth (00:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's our show for today.
Uh, thank you for stopping by.
No.
You said you were gonna sharesomething that happened
regarding um the policerecently.
Andrea (00:48):
Yeah, I don't want to talk about it.
Uh this was just uh a small andrelatively insignificant
addendum to the conversationthat we had last week about um
about cops.
Carmen Lezeth (01:02):
About how much you love the police and how much
I am loving ice.
Andrea (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So um I don't even know whereto begin.
So my god, what happened?
No, for real, what happened?
Yeah, yeah.
So I'll just tell you thestory.
I'll try to make it relativelybrief.
So um, across the nation,across the United States, Friday
nights in the fall is footballnight, right?
(01:28):
For high schools, it's highschool football night, Friday
night lights, right?
Um, so that's a pretty normalthing that a lot of the high
school kids do.
Um, no different up here whereI live, I think there's eight or
nine high schools or somethinglike that.
And um there also happens to bein a lot of places uh curfews,
(01:49):
juvenile curfew ordinances,right?
And so is that normal?
I I mean I don't know.
It is, I found out, because ofcourse, you know, whatever.
So there's curfews and it'sgenerally like uh 10, 10, 80
p.m.
to dawn or 10 here, it happensto be 10 p.m.
to 6 a.m.
Right.
(02:09):
So uh last Friday night, uhthere was a football game, and
or there were a lot of footballgames, but there was, you know,
so it's uh 10 o'clock ish, nine,nine, they end at like nine
between nine and ten, right?
So uh the kids tell me the kidsas they do go out to get like a
(02:32):
burger and fries and hang outafter the football game, right?
Like what's more American thangoing out to get a burger and
fries after a football game?
Pretty much nothing, right?
Um so here in LA County, I livein the LA County Sheriff's
jurisdiction, um, they decidedto have an enforcement action
(02:53):
where they went around to theplaces where the kids hang out.
We're talking In N Out, TacoBell, because there's, you know,
maybe a Denny's, I don't know.
There's nothing else that'sopen late.
Um, and they started arresting,arresting, handcuffing, putting
kids in the back of the car,taking them to the station for
(03:15):
being out after 10 p.m.
They were not doing anythingelse wrong.
As far as I know, this hasnever been like truly, truly
enforced.
So this is something that theydo all of the time.
It's an ordinance, so theycould have very easily given all
of these kids tickets and hadtheir parents come pick them up
or whatever.
(03:35):
Instead, they are literallypulling kids out of the kids in
the drive-thru line it in andout, which we know is like a
30-minute line.
Carmen Lezeth (03:44):
It's a 30-minute line.
Andrea (03:45):
Taking them out of their cars, having them park, leave
their cars, get their carsearched.
The kids don't know whatthey've done wrong.
The kids think like, oh,they're looking for drugs or
whatever, right?
Kids haven't been told.
They are up against the copcars with their hands up, they
are cuffed with their handsbehind them, they are put into
the cop cars, they are takendown to the station, and their
(04:06):
parents are called to come andpick them up, and then they have
to go get the car and all ofthis stuff because they were out
after 10 p.m.
I'm confused.
This happened like the otherday.
Yeah.
This happened Friday night,last Friday night.
And so, me being who I am, likemy kids were not there.
My kids happened to be home,but I heard about this like
(04:29):
second hand or third hand orwhatever.
Um, a good, I don't know howmany kids, but one girl got
picked up at the gas stationputting gas in her car to go
home.
Right.
Um, so I do all of my research.
I made a bunch of calls.
I called the LA CountySheriffs, I called the board of
supervisors, I called the schooldistrict.
Oh, I forgot to mention theschool district sent an email
(04:52):
sometime on Friday, maybe Idon't know, two o'clock, three
o'clock, whatever in theafternoon.
Just as a reminder, the curfewis 10 p.m.
to 6 a.m.
And I was, and I I didn't thinkanything about the email,
right?
I was like, yeah, and you'resupposed to stop at a stop sign
when no one's there, but do wedo that?
No, we don't.
So I know you do.
(05:14):
I mean, I got you, I got you, Igot you.
Right?
So I was just like, okay,whatever.
So in my head, I'm like, schooldistrict knew this was
happening and left their kidsout like lambs to the slaughter
to go get arrested, right?
Um, so I called everybody,right?
And of course, me being me, oneof the things I said when I was
(05:37):
talking to the lady at thesheriff's department was, this
is why people hate cops, ma'am.
That's uncalled for.
And I was like, I'll tell youwhat's uncalled for.
Arresting kids doing kidthings.
Like, she's like, Well, thatyou know, our job is to enforce
the law, ma'am.
Do they have nothing else todo?
Carmen Lezeth (05:58):
So wait, is this was actually the sheriff's
department?
This is LAPD.
Andrea (06:02):
Yeah, this was one of the things I said was number
one, do you not have enough todo?
Number two, if you don't haveenough to do, there's probably
too many of you.
So maybe we should start layingsome people off.
And number three, why are youdoing this to families?
Because now these kids have,you know, they've got this thing
on their record, so theirinsurance is gonna go up.
(06:24):
There, they have a fine thatthey have to pay, they have to
go and do community service.
Carmen Lezeth (06:29):
And it's on the record.
Andrea (06:30):
Yeah, it's on their record.
I mean, they're you know,teenagers, so maybe it won't
matter when they turn 18.
I don't know.
The all the ins and outs of thestuff.
And I would think it's a littletraumatic.
Uh yeah, and a lot of the onekid who I actually heard from
specifically, not that it shouldmatter, straight A student, AP
classes, does like hands andresearch at UCLA, has a
(06:52):
part-time job, model model kidthat you, you know, who just was
like hungry and wanted to goget something because he was at
the game.
Did they answer why theydecided to do this as they're
meant to do?
That's this is what I was told,right?
I didn't get any good answersfrom anybody, right?
(07:13):
It was like, well, that that'sthe law, you know, the kids
aren't supposed to be out.
And I'm so it's just a show offorce, right?
Like to me, I'm like, this isjust a show of force.
Maybe they were jealous thatICE was getting all the
attention and they needed tolike, you know, get in on some
of the fun.
I don't know, but you know, mymy main reason for even talking
about this is because I sort ofshared my story about my first
(07:34):
interaction really with the copsand the uh you know tone that
that set for the way I feelabout the cops really for the
rest of my life.
And so, like you were saying,they were traumatized, right?
They were scared.
A lot of these kids, I'm sure,had either a neutral or even a
good impression of the police.
Really?
So now, well, okay, you know,like they like whatever they're
(07:58):
not thinking about.
Maybe, I don't know, right?
Um these mostly white kids fromyour neighborhood.
I don't know.
The one kid that I heard fromis Asian.
I did ask my daughter to askthe question when he was sitting
in like the holding area, ofcourse.
You know, me first question Iwas like, can you ask him what
the ethnic makeup of uh was ofthe kids who are in the room?
Like, I'm not gonna ask himthat, mom.
(08:20):
You know, um, but I love I washot.
I'm like taking notes, I'm inthere like looking up the laws
and all of this kind of stuff,you know.
Uh, because I was pissed.
I was like, why would you dothis to all of these kids and
their families?
What is the purpose of this?
Carmen Lezeth (08:39):
I don't even understand the part of like
yeah, I don't understand thepart of actually handcuffing
them and bringing them to jail.
I could see them stop.
I mean, back in the day, lookit.
I hate cops.
There's no doubt about it.
I as we talked about last week,there are some good cops that I
have interacted with, but ifyou're part of the whole
collective and you do nothing totalk about the bullshittery,
(09:01):
you become lumped in with thebad cops.
So there you go.
But I just remember we would betold you guys have 10 minutes
to disperse.
You know what I mean?
Like you need to go orwhatever.
Like it just seems weird to methat they went through the whole
thing of actually arrestingthem, putting handcuffs on them,
bringing them down to thestate.
(09:21):
That seems excessive.
Exactly.
Speaker (09:24):
Yeah, that's what I that's those are the words that
I use.
This is excessive.
Why why would you put the kidsand their families through this?
Like, what is it?
Uh, we're enforcing the law,ma'am.
You know, the families shouldknow that their kids shouldn't
be out after 10 p.m.
Carmen Lezeth (09:41):
Okay, and the reason why you're mimicking it
that way is because you do livein a predominantly white area.
That's why I asked thequestion.
Speaker (09:48):
That's why I would say it's majority at this point.
It's not necessarilypredominantly anymore, but it's
majority white, yeah.
And it's kind of uh, we'll callit purple, right?
I mean, there are definitelysome very, very conservative
pockets, but it's you know, wehave a democratic rep,
democratic rep right now.
They do this kind of thing, andthen they wonder why community
(10:14):
doesn't trust them.
People say all cops arebastards, people say I hate
cops, you know, like like I toldthe lady on the phone, this is
why people hate cops.
Man, that's not called for.
I was like, is it though?
Is it well how how do you thinkthese kids feel who were maybe
didn't have any bad impression,and this is what you've done to
them?
Carmen Lezeth (10:33):
I think one of the most interesting TikToks I
saw this past week was um awhole bunch, like there were
people protesting.
I think it's Oregon orwhatever, and there's a cop or a
military person with the sh,and he's black, and he has the
helmet on with the with theclear shield, so you could see
(10:54):
his face.
And they're all chanting, andhe's chanting with them, but
trying not to, like, but he'strying not to, and the thing is,
is you can see the the theconflict, you know what I mean?
And and people on the TikTokwere like, oh my god, this is
making me cry, this is making meso sad, because he's clearly
doing something he does not wantto be doing, you know what I
(11:17):
mean?
And he's just standing therewith the whole with the bunch of
them, but the somebody zeroedin on his face because they
caught it, and it was like, itmust be a weird thing.
I'm not saying that I knowyou're not feeling that way
about the cops in the situationyou're talking about, but I
mean, just to bring it to thebigger picture, I just think
we're in a weird place.
Like if they are actuallyescalating because they're not
(11:38):
getting enough attention or theywant to prove that they're
being hard on crime and thengoing after teenagers, like
yeah, I don't know what thereason was.
Speaker (11:48):
I just that was like my impression.
I was like, okay, whatever.
I I have no idea.
It's the first night offootball.
I don't know.
No, yeah, that's what I'mwanting.
Like, I'm trying to figure outlike what is the logic.
We're all trying to figure outwhat the logic was.
I mean, there was like I youknow doing all kinds of
research.
I guess there was some kind ofissue with some kids hanging out
in one of the parks uh back inAugust or whatever, like after
(12:11):
10 years.
Yeah, and I'm like, makessense.
Okay, so deal with the kids atthat park.
Like, what why are we literallyarresting people who are
getting food?
Like, I don't know, you're notdoing anything other than
regular yes, they were probablybeing loud.
Yes, they were be doing, youknow, doing teenager things.
Carmen Lezeth (12:30):
And I mean, this is the kind of thing that like
all Okay, but you can't okay,but here's the thing now.
Now we have to be carefulbecause this is exactly what JD
Vance is saying about thefucking young Republicans.
Like, no, they're doing teenageboy things, and of course,
these boys are like 18 to 45 orsomething.
I'm fucking they are gettingburgers after the game.
(12:53):
I know, Andrea, but I'm justsaying, I'm trying to get us a
segue.
You're like totally missing thepoint, Anna.
Speaker (13:01):
You're so stressed about it.
I don't know how to fix it.
I know, I'm hot about it.
It's a small thing, but likeI'm just it's not looking.
Carmen Lezeth (13:08):
I no, no, no, I'm not saying it's a small thing,
but the idea that they are justkids and that they are doing
this, it is a big deal, you knowwhat I mean?
But yes, uh, to move on to yourthe Mine, you're the one who
brought it up.
I hadn't I didn't even know.
I didn't even know you sent itin the email, and that's how
well I was so look at I I hadtwo projects I was working on
(13:30):
for my clients, which yeah, andI got really into it because one
of them I was learning so much.
You know how like that happenswhen all of a sudden you're like
doing something like, wait aminute, I did not know.
It was like so.
I was working on this project,and I just I like for two days
didn't watch or listen to thenews, and I actually took it off
my phone just because I waslike, I just needed a break
because I'm tired.
(13:51):
I'm I'm winded, you know.
And then you emailed me and yousaid we should talk about the
young Republican.
Well, you didn't say it was theyoung Republicans, but that's
who it is.
Speaker (14:01):
I did say it was not.
Carmen Lezeth (14:02):
Oh, you did say that okay.
Young Republicans, um, whoselet me just uh their private
chat called whatever, I'm notgonna say what it is, was leaked
to political revealing 2900plus pages of messages from
young Republican leaders acrossmultiple states.
The messages included, youknow, this stuff does not
(14:25):
surprise me, but I knoweverybody else is hot about it.
But praise for Hitler,including fantasizing about
using gas chambers, nice racistslurs like watermelon people and
monkeys to describe blackindividuals, anti-Semitic
tropes, white supremacistwhatever references, and jokes
about rape being epic.
(14:46):
Wow, nice.
Um, the endorsements of slaveryand violent fantasies against
political opponents.
Um I am not trying to act likeit's not a big deal.
What I'm saying is, like, I'm II'm not surprised.
I I feel like this goes on allthe time.
This isn't even like a Trumpismthing.
(15:08):
What's like, and as a woman ofcolor, and I don't care if it
bothers you that I say that.
I got I got a couple of emailsof people saying, Do you always
have to talk about race?
Yes, yes, we do.
Speaker (15:20):
Yes, yes, because we have to bring this up because
it's not surprising, it happensall the time, and when I say
racism, this is why.
Yeah, it's permeate, it's noteven like it's it's a completely
a part of who these people are.
Carmen Lezeth (15:41):
Yeah, well, and part of who the United States
is.
Let's just be straight aboutit.
So I'm gonna play a clip fromuh Chris Hayes' show.
It's Jennifer Welch, who is oneof the co-hosts of a podcast
called I've Had It Podcast.
I didn't really know who shewas, but it's uh two white women
who do a very comedic, funnypodcast.
And she happened to be on ChrisHayes' show last night.
(16:05):
So I'm gonna just play this andthen we can talk about it
because it goes with this.
And she's she is uh referencingtheir they're talking about
this exact subject, and she'scoming up with an idea as to why
this is happening.
It's interesting.
Jennifer Welch (16:20):
I think this is a part of their authoritarian
play.
The rules don't apply to us.
We're gonna rub it in yourface.
And Megan Kelly said it best onher podcast.
We haven't felt the same sinceObama.
And something broke in whitepeople that had some racism.
Some white people.
Some white people had someracism stewing in them in
(16:42):
communities that I grew I grewup in and a totally red state.
And something broke in themwhen there was a competent,
wonderful black president, maybethey disagreed with, that was
eating off the China, sleepingin the bed at the White House.
And I remember in Oklahoma Citywhen Obama came, he was greeted
with Confederate flags inOklahoma City.
(17:03):
So all of this was there.
You remember that uh JohnMcCain debate where John tried
to tone that woman down?
It was all there.
This none of this surprises me.
As a person that lived in a redstate, I always looked for the
federal government to temper allof this.
And to Miles' point, now thatthis is mainstream, it's just
(17:23):
devastating.
Carmen Lezeth (17:24):
Yeah, she's kind of touching on a point that I
want to talk to you about.
I I've lost like four whitefriends this past year, four
very good, close white friends,because they won't talk about
racism to other white people inthe way she just did.
I don't know who she is, but Ihave absolute respect for her
(17:45):
because she totally saidsomething that feels like it's
so taboo, but that somethingbroke in white people when
Barack Obama was president andwhen she said he slept in the
bed and he ate off the china.
I was like, Yep.
Just wondering what you thinkabout it.
Speaker (18:05):
They can't bear it.
They just they literally cannotbear it.
And it's like I, you know, Idon't have people like that in
my life who, you know what Imean?
Like I have managed to callwhoever I need to call.
Um, so I I'm not, I don't hearany of those kinds of things
from people, but um that's myimpression exactly.
(18:29):
What she talked about, right?
Carmen Lezeth (18:30):
Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean?
Wait, wait, back up.
I'm sorry.
What you don't hear that typeof things from people.
What do you mean by that?
Speaker (18:37):
You don't hear racist remarks from like no one is
saying any of those kinds ofthings to me in a private
conversation, right?
Carmen Lezeth (18:45):
But if they were, so let's say you go and have
dinner with your friends and uhor a family or whatever, and you
have like Uncle, you know, thestereotypical Uncle Joe who's
104 says something and everybodylaughs about it.
Would you say something toUncle Joe?
Yeah.
Speaker (19:02):
Well, that's what I'm talking about.
I mean, you know, I will comewith my fact be like this, this,
and this, you know, um, if ifit's a factual thing, or I'll
just call them out and be like,well, that's But I think, but I
I think that's what we'retalking about.
Carmen Lezeth (19:19):
Like, I don't I don't surmise that oh surmise.
I don't I'm sorry, I'm usingwords I don't use.
I don't even know what itmeans.
It just came out of my mouth.
I don't assume that people, um,white people, when they see
other white people, especiallypeople that I know and consider
friends, are uh engaging in thebullshittery.
(19:41):
You know, now some of my blackfriends and Latino friends would
be like, yes, they are.
You know what I mean?
But whatever.
I know my friends pretty wellthat they would not be engaging
in the bullshittery.
However, in the same respects,it is not good enough.
It will never be good enoughfor me that you do not do the
work that needs to be done, butyet you're touting all the time
(20:01):
that you are an ally, that youcare, that you are doing
something when you're not doingnothing is affecting your life
at all, but it is affecting mylife every single day.
And the reason why you tap intome is so you can feel good
about your motherfucking self.
Sorry, that's what I've beenpissed about.
You know what I mean?
Like, yeah, so it does notsurprise me that these uh men,
(20:23):
these are not young men, butthese people in the Republican
Party in this chat room orwhatever were saying this stuff
because I've heard it my entirelife.
I heard it when I was incollege in Vermont in a
classroom of 300 people, I heardthe teacher saying shit, the
professor saying shit that wasinappropriate and uncalled for,
(20:44):
or call or I heard iteverywhere, you know what I
mean?
Like, and it's not, you can beas quiet as you want, but your
behavior tells you so much more,you know?
Um, and again, it's just thatkind of thing where it's like if
you are a white person in thiscountry and you are not racist,
and I say racism and you getoffended, that is a you problem.
(21:05):
That's not a me problem.
Why are you getting offended ifyou're not fucking racist?
If anything, you should beacknowledging the racism and
doing something about it whenyou can, when you have the
opportunity.
Because here's the thing whitepeople are gonna hear what she
said, yeah, much easier thaneverything I just said for the
past five minutes.
(21:26):
Well, and but look, bottomline, black people can't fix
this.
Speaker (21:32):
They cannot fix this.
We've tried, they tried, right?
Like they and and continue totry, God love them.
You know what I mean?
Like, this is not as you said,it's it's not a problem that
lies in the black community.
This is a this is a huge, huge,overarching problem, uh, the
(21:53):
overarching problem, in myopinion, in this country, in the
white community.
Fucking deal with it.
Carmen Lezeth (22:01):
Call that, but that means people who are allies
do things like this.
You have the conversations, youcall people out, you say what
the truth is.
I don't know what it is.
Seriously, I I am trying tounderstand what it is about
white people that they fearabout people of color, whether
it's Asian or black or Hispanicor whatever, anybody who isn't
(22:22):
them, you know.
Um, I I don't I I know peoplelike it's power, it's blah blah.
But when you talk to individualregular people, they're not
don't get mad, although maybeyou should because we'll get
ratings.
No, I'm just gonna like I don'tthink people are most good
people are intentionally beingracist.
(22:42):
I think they don't know whatthey're doing.
These guys, they knew what thefuck they were doing.
You don't call peoplewatermelon and monkeys and all
that shit, whatever.
But the rest of you who are sooffended by talking about race,
bitch, you think I want to talkabout this all the time.
Like, I don't want to do this,but we need to fix this shit
(23:04):
because I'm tired.
I'm tired, and I am the mostpatient person when it comes to
this shit.
I think I'm I'm at my limit.
I'm mad in a way that you toldme about this.
I I mean I would have seen itanyways.
Yeah.
Because it got me so upset.
Like in a like, usually I getupset, I cry, and I'm like,
(23:25):
whatever, and we move on, and Ijust, you know, pick myself up
by my bootstraps and like brushmyself off and walk along,
anyways.
But this is like infuriatingme.
And it's mostly because JDVance, that piece of crap, JD
Vance, who has a wife who is notwhite, who has children who are
(23:49):
biracial.
Somebody said, I forget who itwas, said if he's not gonna take
care of his own family, whywould he take care of you?
I she might have said it.
I don't know.
Somebody said it.
I was like, he used to callTrump Hitler, and now he's all
up in his business.
Andrea (24:10):
Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth (24:12):
People, if you're tired of racism, I promise you
every other person on the planetwho is of color is exhausted
talking about racism, but wewill keep doing it because it's
so bad.
It's so bad.
And if you can't figure thatout, if you can't see it, yeah,
what I said it's survival.
Speaker (24:32):
Like you can't you can't not talk about it or deal
with it, it's in your face everyday.
Carmen Lezeth (24:41):
Somebody dropped to the N-word at the grocery
store the other day.
Andrea (24:45):
Oh my god.
Carmen Lezeth (24:47):
Oh my god.
I also live in a predominantlywhite neighborhood, and uh,
although I have to say it's muchuh it's what did you say, not
predominantly, but majority?
Majority.
What is that?
What's the difference?
Because I don't know.
Speaker (25:00):
Well, like it's just closer to whites not being like
the mass, like predominantlysays like a big, you know,
large, like I'm thinking like60, 70 percent.
Carmen Lezeth (25:10):
So, okay, so if you see like three or four black
people during the day, maybeokay.
Anyways, there's a lot morepeople of color that live in
this neighborhood now than whenI first moved here for sure.
But uh yeah, but uh it was inthe grocery store, and then and
I I never do this because Idon't want to react because I
(25:31):
don't want to get my ass kickedby a bunch of white people, you
know what I mean?
Like I well, you grow upknowing that, you know, you
know, like if people saysomething bad, you just walk
along, you know?
And they weren't saying it tome, but they didn't see me
coming, right?
They didn't, they were sayingit in some jokingly music
something way or whatever.
I stopped that cart, I slammedthat cart, I looked right at
(25:55):
them, and then I moved my cart,like they knew, and then I was
like, fuck, what did I just do?
Oh my god, my god, oh my god,like it was like five of them.
You know what I mean?
Like, what am I doing?
But other people heard it too,and there were other people who
were also like, oh, that is ashame, that is disgusting.
And I was like, all right,well, whatever.
Speaker (26:17):
Um when I tell you it's every day, it's every day, it's
every day, every day, every dayin all kinds of different ways,
you know, not not just the moreovert of someone calling you
name, but you know, theinstitution.
Carmen Lezeth (26:35):
They didn't call me a name, I want to be very.
Speaker (26:36):
Oh, yeah, I know.
I'm just saying, like hearinghearing that, right?
There's the institutional, thefinancial, that you know, like
it's it's all encompassing.
Carmen Lezeth (26:47):
Yeah.
And I think um, I don't knowhow this became the thing, but I
think the other part of this isthat when we have the
administration who is clearly, Idon't, they're clearly trying
to make sure.
I mean, it's it's so obviouswhat's happening.
Speaker (27:06):
Uh why there's no there's no denying that this is
what's going on.
I mean, the you know, there wasthey had oral arguments in
front of the Supreme Courtyesterday to gut the voting
rights act.
I mean, like, it's just asyou're saying, this relentless
stream, uh, even just multiplein one day.
Carmen Lezeth (27:25):
Right.
Of absolute bullshit.
And it's the framing, right?
The voting rights act, thereason why they're trying to get
rid of that another section ofit, because it's it's be it's
been being deleted, you knowwhat I mean, like for a long
time now over the years.
But the way it's framed, like,because it makes white people
feel good, like, yeah, we wantit to be equal, we want it to be
(27:47):
there.
That's racism.
No one should be favored,right?
Andrea (27:51):
Right.
Carmen Lezeth (27:52):
And it's it makes people feel good because then
they don't have to deal with thefact that there actually is
institutional racism here in ourcountry on a regular basis.
Yeah.
So how do you fix it?
Speaker (28:11):
Um, I I mean, I've said this before, like, you gotta
call it out.
Like the the clip that youshowed, you know, in our own
small way, us calling it out.
Like you can't just let it blowby.
Carmen Lezeth (28:23):
Speaking of blowing by, can we talk about
Pete Hegzeth and thejournalists?
Yeah.
There's some good news.
Speaker (28:32):
Like, there's okay, there's yes, let's find our joy
here.
Carmen Lezeth (28:36):
I I take it in the smallest way possible.
So, Pete Hegzeth, for those ofyou who don't know, is the
Secretary of Defense.
I refuse to call it whateverthe hell he thinks we're calling
it now.
Um, tried to force journalistscovering the Pentagon to sign a
restrictive agreement that wouldbar them from reporting any
information not officiallyapproved by him and the
(29:01):
Pentagon.
Nearly every major outletrefused, calling it
unconstitutional andunprecedented, including his Fox
News.
Um, so they all walked out andthey all gave it their press
badges back because theyrefused.
That's good because you know,First Amendment and all.
Speaker (29:22):
Yeah.
And I bet you they get somefantastic scoops from people.
Andrea (29:28):
Right.
Carmen Lezeth (29:30):
But even that, like even the idea that somebody
in that high, first of all,he's so incompetent, but we can
talk about that another day.
Just that whole everybody thatTrump has hired is incompetent.
That it's not even just sayingit, it's actually true.
Yeah, by design.
Um, but the idea that anyonewould think that would be an
(29:52):
okay thing to make journalistssign, did you not watch all the
president's men?
Like, did you?
I'm just saying, you clearlyyou've never read the
Constitution because it's thefirst one, right?
It's the first.
It's not buried.
It's not even hard.
It's really easy to understand.
But I was like, I can't evenbelieve like the cojones, right?
Speaker (30:16):
That I think is again by design, right?
The cojones of it all.
It's like, let's just do somecrazy shit.
Let's do a bunch of crazy shitthat's just, you know, who cares
if it's constitutional or not?
Like it's impossible to find itall, and some of it will slip
through.
Carmen Lezeth (30:32):
But you know, it doesn't even make sense because
they're trying to, I mean,they're trying to say it's like
for the safety and thepreservation and the company,
but it's all bullshit.
Right.
It's all bullshit.
We've had journalists at thePentagon reporting on things
forever.
Like that's not, but I it itjust shows to me how um I don't
(30:56):
know what the word is, but likeI keep saying Kohona is, but
like just the audacity, right?
To steal Barack Obama's word,but the audacity to think that
you could do this and pull oneover on the American people in
this way.
I mean, but here's the thing.
When I first saw it, I waslike, oh my God, they're gonna
capitulate, right?
Because so many places.
Speaker (31:17):
Yeah, I totally was like, oh, yeah, they're gonna
sign it.
I'm I'm actually surprised,pleasantly surprised that so
many didn't.
Carmen Lezeth (31:26):
Yeah, only one did, and I'm not even gonna say
who they are because they're notworthy, but I mean who is it?
Newsmax.
Speaker (31:35):
No, no, Newsmax didn't.
Oh, they did.
Carmen Lezeth (31:38):
I thought it was no more than three dozen
outlets, including no no, itwasn't.
It's the O OAN or whatever.
Oh, they're all the it's it's abullshit.
It's it might as well be TrumpNetwork.
Um more than three dozenoutlets, including Fox News,
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC Newsmax,Washington Examiner, refused to
sign.
Yeah.
Okay.
I was actually surprised byNewsmack and Fox.
(32:00):
What I said, my bad.
No way it's not, but we wewould have thought.
Yeah, we would have thought,you know what I mean?
So um, are you doing anythingthis Saturday?
Um so this Saturday is NoKing's Day.
Is that what they're callingit?
No King's Day.
I don't know if they're callingit that, but yes.
But it's no kings.org.
(32:22):
Go check it out if you want tojoin uh what they think is going
to be millions of peopleprotesting that we don't have
kings in this country, right?
That we do not want kings inthis country.
And I think that's what Trumpis really trying to do.
I mean, we can call it all theother words we want, but he
really, really, really wants tobe a king.
Speaker (32:43):
A king, a dictator.
I mean, all the gold in theWhite House is a good indicator
that he wants he wants the pumpin the circumstance of being
royal and having some lineage sohis family can carry on after
him and all of that.
Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth (33:01):
I I don't even understand why somebody doesn't
tell him that all that goldlooks tacky.
Do you know what I mean?
Like it just doesn't even lookgood.
Speaker (33:10):
I think he loves it.
I think it looks good to him.
It makes him feel good.
Carmen Lezeth (33:14):
I think he loves the new Time magazine cover of
himself, too.
Speaker (33:19):
I think I noticed actually on that cover that his
ear has miraculously healed sowell.
Carmen Lezeth (33:26):
Well, Andre, what you don't know is that they
probably retouched it becauseyou know that's what they would
do for the ear, but not theneckline.
That I I think they did it onpurpose.
That's a horrible picture.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Speaker (33:42):
I mean, not that there are any really fantastic
pictures of him, but that's abad picture.
Carmen Lezeth (33:47):
I think they did it on purpose, which is you
know, everyone protests theirown way.
Speaker (33:56):
If you can't make it this Saturday, there are plenty
of other things you can do.
Carmen Lezeth (34:02):
That's right.
And you can use your socialmedia, you can, you know, wear
yellow and and do your littlevideos on TikTok or whatever,
because yellow seems to be thething everyone's wearing.
Um, but yeah, I was cracking upbecause I thought like it was
uh, you know, again, not allheroes wear capes, you know.
We all do things.
I I thought it was mean, but Ilaughed a little tiny bit, you
(34:24):
know.
Speaker (34:24):
So I saw it and I was like, I mean, it was like a jump
scare.
Like I was like, oh shit,what's going on there?
Carmen Lezeth (34:33):
Um okay, so I'm gonna bring it back to our
original conversation because Iwant to ask you a question.
What is the final result of thekids that were arrested by the
cops?
They were let go, clearly, whentheir parents their parents had
to come and pick them up.
Speaker (34:48):
Um, as I said, they got um essentially there were
written tickets, uh, which couldhave happened before all of the
uh drama, but they were so theygot tickets and then also have
to do like community serviceclasses or something like that.
I know.
I know.
Like what, what, what I don'tit's it's yeah, uh it's my
(35:14):
little small part of the world,and it's like a little thing
that got me all hot under thecollar, and you know, it's not
uh comparable to some of themany of the other things
happening around here, but I wasjust like, why are you doing
this to people?
Carmen Lezeth (35:26):
I don't think it has to be I mean, I think this
is part of the other thingthat's happening, right?
Like we also are living ourlives every day, so it's every
day having to hear theadministration doing something
ridiculous, stupid, out of thenorm, whatever, the racism, the
the you know, the ice agents,the bullshit, like all that
(35:47):
crap, you know.
I mean, calling, I mean, my I Ithink one of my favorite things
this past week is seeingPortland having all their, I
don't even know what it is, allthe puppets, all the like
everybody in costumes.
Speaker (35:58):
Oh yeah, their costumes, they're fine.
Carmen Lezeth (36:00):
All their costumes and like the
juxtaposition of like these allthese military ice people or
whatever it is, and then likeall of these costume-esque
people, which is totally whatPortland is like.
100% and and and and themcalling it, you know, like this
is a horrible zone of whatever'shappening.
And then, of course, themarathon happened this weekend
(36:22):
in Chicago, which is supposed tobe some on fire military zone
place as well, and all of theselike people were running a
marathon and it was a beautifulsunny day out, and it's just
this weird thing where we'rehaving our actual lives, right?
Then there's all this otherbullshittery that makes no sense
that in normal times, any otherpresident, we'd we would be
(36:44):
talking about this as thepodcast, right?
That would be the topic, like,why is this happening?
Whatever, but you can't, youcan't rest because then you have
to deal with all the otherstuff, even if you're not paying
attention to it.
Speaker (36:58):
Yeah, well, and I think, you know, look, we you
when you wrote me, you werelike, I'm tired and overwhelmed,
and and I think that's part ofthe point, right?
That's part of the point.
And you know, you hear peoplesay this all the time like this
that's why you need community,that's why you need coalitions,
because everybody can't be likeon it all the time.
(37:20):
You have to step back, like youwere talking about, like you
didn't look at the news, and youyou know what I mean?
Like, you have to take sometime to build your energy back
up to fight this, because weneed everybody in the fight, but
we don't necessarily needeverybody in the fight every
single day, you know what Imean?
Carmen Lezeth (37:38):
Like, you have to there's a difference between
being in resting and justavoiding.
Yes, like yes, no, no, becausethat's I mean, I'm going back to
the four friends that I am nottalking to anymore, and I don't
give a shit if it's for the restof my life because you show me
who you are, not when things aregood and not when everything's
(37:58):
easy, it's when things are hard.
And look at I don't thinkthey've lost anything by me not
being in their lives, clearly.
You know what I mean?
But to me, it's such a goodindication that even the best of
people suck when it comes rightdown to it, you know?
No, I'm I'm just saying it'slike we do need everyone in the
fight.
You do need to rest, butavoiding the fight because you
(38:23):
can, because it's no problem foryou to go travel and go skiing
and go doing whatever it is youhave to do, and you don't have
to worry about ice agents whenyou come back.
I had two people call me and belike, oh my God, it was so easy
when I came back from blah,blah, blah.
It was so easy.
It was like, I mean, it was noproblem.
I'm like, you're white.
(38:45):
I didn't know how else to sayit.
And they got mad at me, and I'mlike, I don't know how else to
explain to you what ishappening.
Yeah.
How do you not see it?
Like, please don't actoblivious.
So, yes, you need to rest,rest.
Use your privilege to resthowever you need to rest.
(39:05):
I'm serious, you know.
I'm trying to rest as wellbecause I'm I it's not even that
I'm just exhausted, I am sosad.
I am sad.
It's not depression, like it'ssad for my country.
Yeah, you know, and you knowhow much I have loved this
(39:27):
country, right?
I have always been thepatriotic one out of the two of
us.
Not to be mean, I'm justsaying, you know, like look at
J's like, yeah, no problem.
No, I'm just saying, like, Ialways believed in, and and it's
I think it's disheartening toadmit that I was wrong, and that
and I and and and it's doublingdown on how much I was wrong,
(39:50):
you know what I mean?
Andrea (39:51):
Well, and it hurts it true.
I mean, it truly does hurt yoursoul to know that this many
people, even if it's not amajority, but that so many
people do not give a shit.
They don't care, they areperfectly fine with the racism,
(40:12):
with the violence, with thedestruction of our country, with
the financial destruction, allthe corruption.
It just feels like it justtruly does hurt to to know that
so many people don't care aboutany of that as long as they get
(40:33):
to, you know, be racist.
Carmen Lezeth (40:35):
I I think the thing that um made me really
sad, and I was like, I just needa break, was I was watching on
TikTok, somebody went andinterviewed all these people in
different countries, and thequestion was, would you want to
go visit the United States?
And it was all these differentpeople from different countries,
you know, and I was like, wow.
And it's not they didn't justsay no, they said no and then
(40:59):
gave reasons, whether it was thegun violence, whether it was uh
the racism, whether it was thelies that we have freedom.
Somebody was like, 120 othercountries have freedom, like we
actually have freedom, like andit just made me so sad how
little we know as Americans inthe United States about
(41:20):
geography, this country,history, you know what I mean?
And and now, on top of it all,like we've always had this big
ego for no reason.
Um, but now other countries arejust like, yeah, you're
kryptonite, bye.
Speaker (41:35):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, somebody saidsomething like, um was talking
about uh, you know, a lot ofpeople don't realize that the
the coup has already happened orsomething.
Like I saw that somewhere onsocial media.
And and then somebody underthat was like, the coup happened
in 2000.
Andrea (41:56):
Right.
Wow.
And I was like, I was thinkingabout it and I was like, I have
been like kind of low tomid-level enraged for 25 fucking
years about like where this allis.
And I remember even like youknow, traveling outside the
(42:17):
country and having a realwake-up call, the difference of
being outside the country inlet's say the early 90s versus
the early 2000s, yeah, and howmuch people hated Americans.
You remember, like it used tobe like, I'm an American, and
then you're like protected andeverything's good.
(42:40):
I remember very specificallypeople telling me when I was out
of the country, don't tellpeople you're American.
Carmen Lezeth (42:47):
But you know, when you say that, I mean it
goes back, and and we might haveto close this out or edit or
whatever, but um if you sayearly 2000s, that's when Barack
Obama was president, right?
Andrea (43:03):
Yeah, I mean, and there was a stretch in there.
There was, I'm not trying todeny that there was a stretch in
there where we had some hope.
But when I talk about the rage,let's talk about exactly what
that woman was saying.
Yes, Barack Obama was elected,and look at what happened to the
Republican Party as a result ofthat.
You remember that State of theUnion where the dude stood up
(43:25):
and was like, liar, yeah, and itwas never happened.
Shocking, shocking.
How fucking dare that man dothat, right?
Well, no, because he's a blackman.
I know, but I'm just saying,like for me, I was like the
fuck, how do you do that at theState of the Union?
And and then you sit down andnobody does anything, right?
(43:48):
Right?
Like, so there was a part of methat was still enraged for that
whole eight years about whatwas happening with the Tea Party
and all of those kinds ofthings.
Carmen Lezeth (43:57):
And for someone like me, and and I'm not
speaking for all people ofcolor, but remember Barack Obama
was elected because of thebullsittery of the Bush
administration.
Like we forget how bad the Bushadministration was.
I mean, we don't forget, but sohe was elected, and and then I
(44:20):
think I told you this for eight,at least the first four years
for sure, but the whole eightyears, I thought he was gonna be
assassinated.
Yeah, like that was a commonthing that most people of color
just assumed was going tohappen.
We were waiting for it, right?
We're waiting for it.
We were waiting for it.
It was like this weird, like,oh my god, this is great.
Oh my god, this is gonna behell.
You know, terrified.
(44:41):
Yeah, terrified.
And and and you know, whetheryou like him or not, he was a
respectable leader, right?
Whether you agree witheverything he said or not, he
was a respectable leader.
And and then and then we cameto this.
I don't know what else to say.
Like, I don't know, and here weare.
Um it's a shame.
(45:02):
And here we are.
Yeah, I don't know.
God, imagine this world ifHillary had been elected
afterwards.
Jesus.
If Al Gore had been elected, Iknow okay.
On that note, I'm gonna stop.
I can imagine there's aparallel universe somewhere.
(45:23):
It says in quantum physics,right?
In the in the crazy people whothink about quantum physics in
this way.
There's a parallel world whereAl Gore won that race.
Well, we won the race and theSupreme Court agreed with him.
We should be clear, right?
Yeah, I don't know.
Anyways, all right.
Well, Andrea, thank you somuch.
(45:44):
Thank you.
All right, thank you, everyone.
Remember, at the end of theday, it really is all about the
joy.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for stopping by, allabout the joy.
Be better and stay beautiful,folks.
Have a sweet day.
Hey everyone.
Welcome to All About the Joy.
This is Culture and Consequencewith Carmen and Andrea.
So what's up?
How you doing?
You're great.
Yeah, I'm great too.
I'm not.
I think I told you this.
Well, I think I told you thisweek.
I'm just tired.
I think I'm also sick.
But I think mostly I'm done.
(00:22):
Sick and tired.
Sick and tired.
I'm done.
I'm tired of the everydayconversation of um this
administration.
Andrea (00:33):
Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth (00:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that's our show for today.
Uh, thank you for stopping by.
No.
You said you were gonna sharesomething that happened
regarding um the policerecently.
Andrea (00:48):
Yeah, I don't want to talk about it.
Uh this was just uh a small andrelatively insignificant
addendum to the conversationthat we had last week about um
about cops.
Carmen Lezeth (01:02):
About how much you love the police and how much
I am loving ice.
Andrea (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So um I don't even know whereto begin.
So my god, what happened?
No, for real, what happened?
Yeah, yeah.
So I'll just tell you thestory.
I'll try to make it relativelybrief.
So um, across the nation,across the United States, Friday
nights in the fall is footballnight, right?
(01:28):
For high schools, it's highschool football night, Friday
night lights, right?
Um, so that's a pretty normalthing that a lot of the high
school kids do.
Um, no different up here whereI live, I think there's eight or
nine high schools or somethinglike that.
And um there also happens to bein a lot of places uh curfews,
(01:49):
juvenile curfew ordinances,right?
And so is that normal?
I I mean I don't know.
It is, I found out, because ofcourse, you know, whatever.
So there's curfews and it'sgenerally like uh 10, 10, 80
p.m.
to dawn or 10 here, it happensto be 10 p.m.
to 6 a.m.
Right.
(02:09):
So uh last Friday night, uhthere was a football game, and
or there were a lot of footballgames, but there was, you know,
so it's uh 10 o'clock ish, nine,nine, they end at like nine
between nine and ten, right?
So uh the kids tell me the kidsas they do go out to get like a
(02:32):
burger and fries and hang outafter the football game, right?
Like what's more American thangoing out to get a burger and
fries after a football game?
Pretty much nothing, right?
Um so here in LA County, I livein the LA County Sheriff's
jurisdiction, um, they decidedto have an enforcement action
(02:53):
where they went around to theplaces where the kids hang out.
We're talking In N Out, TacoBell, because there's, you know,
maybe a Denny's, I don't know.
There's nothing else that'sopen late.
Um, and they started arresting,arresting, handcuffing, putting
kids in the back of the car,taking them to the station for
(03:15):
being out after 10 p.m.
They were not doing anythingelse wrong.
As far as I know, this hasnever been like truly, truly
enforced.
So this is something that theydo all of the time.
It's an ordinance, so theycould have very easily given all
of these kids tickets and hadtheir parents come pick them up
or whatever.
(03:35):
Instead, they are literallypulling kids out of the kids in
the drive-thru line it in andout, which we know is like a
30-minute line.
Carmen Lezeth (03:44):
It's a 30-minute line.
Andrea (03:45):
Taking them out of their cars, having them park, leave
their cars, get their carsearched.
The kids don't know whatthey've done wrong.
The kids think like, oh,they're looking for drugs or
whatever, right?
Kids haven't been told.
They are up against the copcars with their hands up, they
are cuffed with their handsbehind them, they are put into
the cop cars, they are takendown to the station, and their
(04:06):
parents are called to come andpick them up, and then they have
to go get the car and all ofthis stuff because they were out
after 10 p.m.
I'm confused.
This happened like the otherday.
Yeah.
This happened Friday night,last Friday night.
And so, me being who I am, likemy kids were not there.
My kids happened to be home,but I heard about this like
(04:29):
second hand or third hand orwhatever.
Um, a good, I don't know howmany kids, but one girl got
picked up at the gas stationputting gas in her car to go
home.
Right.
Um, so I do all of my research.
I made a bunch of calls.
I called the LA CountySheriffs, I called the board of
supervisors, I called the schooldistrict.
Oh, I forgot to mention theschool district sent an email
(04:52):
sometime on Friday, maybe Idon't know, two o'clock, three
o'clock, whatever in theafternoon.
Just as a reminder, the curfewis 10 p.m.
to 6 a.m.
And I was, and I I didn't thinkanything about the email,
right?
I was like, yeah, and you'resupposed to stop at a stop sign
when no one's there, but do wedo that?
No, we don't.
So I know you do.
(05:14):
I mean, I got you, I got you, Igot you.
Right?
So I was just like, okay,whatever.
So in my head, I'm like, schooldistrict knew this was
happening and left their kidsout like lambs to the slaughter
to go get arrested, right?
Um, so I called everybody,right?
And of course, me being me, oneof the things I said when I was
(05:37):
talking to the lady at thesheriff's department was, this
is why people hate cops, ma'am.
That's uncalled for.
And I was like, I'll tell youwhat's uncalled for.
Arresting kids doing kidthings.
Like, she's like, Well, thatyou know, our job is to enforce
the law, ma'am.
Do they have nothing else todo?
Carmen Lezeth (05:58):
So wait, is this was actually the sheriff's
department?
This is LAPD.
Andrea (06:02):
Yeah, this was one of the things I said was number
one, do you not have enough todo?
Number two, if you don't haveenough to do, there's probably
too many of you.
So maybe we should start layingsome people off.
And number three, why are youdoing this to families?
Because now these kids have,you know, they've got this thing
on their record, so theirinsurance is gonna go up.
(06:24):
There, they have a fine thatthey have to pay, they have to
go and do community service.
Carmen Lezeth (06:29):
And it's on the record.
Andrea (06:30):
Yeah, it's on their record.
I mean, they're you know,teenagers, so maybe it won't
matter when they turn 18.
I don't know.
The all the ins and outs of thestuff.
And I would think it's a littletraumatic.
Uh yeah, and a lot of the onekid who I actually heard from
specifically, not that it shouldmatter, straight A student, AP
classes, does like hands andresearch at UCLA, has a
(06:52):
part-time job, model model kidthat you, you know, who just was
like hungry and wanted to goget something because he was at
the game.
Did they answer why theydecided to do this as they're
meant to do?
That's this is what I was told,right?
I didn't get any good answersfrom anybody, right?
(07:13):
It was like, well, that that'sthe law, you know, the kids
aren't supposed to be out.
And I'm so it's just a show offorce, right?
Like to me, I'm like, this isjust a show of force.
Maybe they were jealous thatICE was getting all the
attention and they needed tolike, you know, get in on some
of the fun.
I don't know, but you know, mymy main reason for even talking
about this is because I sort ofshared my story about my first
(07:34):
interaction really with the copsand the uh you know tone that
that set for the way I feelabout the cops really for the
rest of my life.
And so, like you were saying,they were traumatized, right?
They were scared.
A lot of these kids, I'm sure,had either a neutral or even a
good impression of the police.
Really?
So now, well, okay, you know,like they like whatever they're
(07:58):
not thinking about.
Maybe, I don't know, right?
Um these mostly white kids fromyour neighborhood.
I don't know.
The one kid that I heard fromis Asian.
I did ask my daughter to askthe question when he was sitting
in like the holding area, ofcourse.
You know, me first question Iwas like, can you ask him what
the ethnic makeup of uh was ofthe kids who are in the room?
Like, I'm not gonna ask himthat, mom.
(08:20):
You know, um, but I love I washot.
I'm like taking notes, I'm inthere like looking up the laws
and all of this kind of stuff,you know.
Uh, because I was pissed.
I was like, why would you dothis to all of these kids and
their families?
What is the purpose of this?
Carmen Lezeth (08:39):
I don't even understand the part of like
yeah, I don't understand thepart of actually handcuffing
them and bringing them to jail.
I could see them stop.
I mean, back in the day, lookit.
I hate cops.
There's no doubt about it.
I as we talked about last week,there are some good cops that I
have interacted with, but ifyou're part of the whole
collective and you do nothing totalk about the bullshittery,
(09:01):
you become lumped in with thebad cops.
So there you go.
But I just remember we would betold you guys have 10 minutes
to disperse.
You know what I mean?
Like you need to go orwhatever.
Like it just seems weird to methat they went through the whole
thing of actually arrestingthem, putting handcuffs on them,
bringing them down to thestate.
(09:21):
That seems excessive.
Exactly.
Speaker (09:24):
Yeah, that's what I that's those are the words that
I use.
This is excessive.
Why why would you put the kidsand their families through this?
Like, what is it?
Uh, we're enforcing the law,ma'am.
You know, the families shouldknow that their kids shouldn't
be out after 10 p.m.
Carmen Lezeth (09:41):
Okay, and the reason why you're mimicking it
that way is because you do livein a predominantly white area.
That's why I asked thequestion.
Speaker (09:48):
That's why I would say it's majority at this point.
It's not necessarilypredominantly anymore, but it's
majority white, yeah.
And it's kind of uh, we'll callit purple, right?
I mean, there are definitelysome very, very conservative
pockets, but it's you know, wehave a democratic rep,
democratic rep right now.
They do this kind of thing, andthen they wonder why community
(10:14):
doesn't trust them.
People say all cops arebastards, people say I hate
cops, you know, like like I toldthe lady on the phone, this is
why people hate cops.
Man, that's not called for.
I was like, is it though?
Is it well how how do you thinkthese kids feel who were maybe
didn't have any bad impression,and this is what you've done to
them?
Carmen Lezeth (10:33):
I think one of the most interesting TikToks I
saw this past week was um awhole bunch, like there were
people protesting.
I think it's Oregon orwhatever, and there's a cop or a
military person with the sh,and he's black, and he has the
helmet on with the with theclear shield, so you could see
(10:54):
his face.
And they're all chanting, andhe's chanting with them, but
trying not to, like, but he'strying not to, and the thing is,
is you can see the the theconflict, you know what I mean?
And and people on the TikTokwere like, oh my god, this is
making me cry, this is making meso sad, because he's clearly
doing something he does not wantto be doing, you know what I
(11:17):
mean?
And he's just standing therewith the whole with the bunch of
them, but the somebody zeroedin on his face because they
caught it, and it was like, itmust be a weird thing.
I'm not saying that I knowyou're not feeling that way
about the cops in the situationyou're talking about, but I
mean, just to bring it to thebigger picture, I just think
we're in a weird place.
Like if they are actuallyescalating because they're not
(11:38):
getting enough attention or theywant to prove that they're
being hard on crime and thengoing after teenagers, like
yeah, I don't know what thereason was.
Speaker (11:48):
I just that was like my impression.
I was like, okay, whatever.
I I have no idea.
It's the first night offootball.
I don't know.
No, yeah, that's what I'mwanting.
Like, I'm trying to figure outlike what is the logic.
We're all trying to figure outwhat the logic was.
I mean, there was like I youknow doing all kinds of
research.
I guess there was some kind ofissue with some kids hanging out
in one of the parks uh back inAugust or whatever, like after
(12:11):
10 years.
Yeah, and I'm like, makessense.
Okay, so deal with the kids atthat park.
Like, what why are we literallyarresting people who are
getting food?
Like, I don't know, you're notdoing anything other than
regular yes, they were probablybeing loud.
Yes, they were be doing, youknow, doing teenager things.
Carmen Lezeth (12:30):
And I mean, this is the kind of thing that like
all Okay, but you can't okay,but here's the thing now.
Now we have to be carefulbecause this is exactly what JD
Vance is saying about thefucking young Republicans.
Like, no, they're doing teenageboy things, and of course,
these boys are like 18 to 45 orsomething.
I'm fucking they are gettingburgers after the game.
(12:53):
I know, Andrea, but I'm justsaying, I'm trying to get us a
segue.
You're like totally missing thepoint, Anna.
Speaker (13:01):
You're so stressed about it.
I don't know how to fix it.
I know, I'm hot about it.
It's a small thing, but likeI'm just it's not looking.
Carmen Lezeth (13:08):
I no, no, no, I'm not saying it's a small thing,
but the idea that they are justkids and that they are doing
this, it is a big deal, you knowwhat I mean?
But yes, uh, to move on to yourthe Mine, you're the one who
brought it up.
I hadn't I didn't even know.
I didn't even know you sent itin the email, and that's how
well I was so look at I I hadtwo projects I was working on
(13:30):
for my clients, which yeah, andI got really into it because one
of them I was learning so much.
You know how like that happenswhen all of a sudden you're like
doing something like, wait aminute, I did not know.
It was like so.
I was working on this project,and I just I like for two days
didn't watch or listen to thenews, and I actually took it off
my phone just because I waslike, I just needed a break
because I'm tired.
(13:51):
I'm I'm winded, you know.
And then you emailed me and yousaid we should talk about the
young Republican.
Well, you didn't say it was theyoung Republicans, but that's
who it is.
Speaker (14:01):
I did say it was not.
Carmen Lezeth (14:02):
Oh, you did say that okay.
Young Republicans, um, whoselet me just uh their private
chat called whatever, I'm notgonna say what it is, was leaked
to political revealing 2900plus pages of messages from
young Republican leaders acrossmultiple states.
The messages included, youknow, this stuff does not
(14:25):
surprise me, but I knoweverybody else is hot about it.
But praise for Hitler,including fantasizing about
using gas chambers, nice racistslurs like watermelon people and
monkeys to describe blackindividuals, anti-Semitic
tropes, white supremacistwhatever references, and jokes
about rape being epic.
(14:46):
Wow, nice.
Um, the endorsements of slaveryand violent fantasies against
political opponents.
Um I am not trying to act likeit's not a big deal.
What I'm saying is, like, I'm II'm not surprised.
I I feel like this goes on allthe time.
This isn't even like a Trumpismthing.
(15:08):
What's like, and as a woman ofcolor, and I don't care if it
bothers you that I say that.
I got I got a couple of emailsof people saying, Do you always
have to talk about race?
Yes, yes, we do.
Speaker (15:20):
Yes, yes, because we have to bring this up because
it's not surprising, it happensall the time, and when I say
racism, this is why.
Yeah, it's permeate, it's noteven like it's it's a completely
a part of who these people are.
Carmen Lezeth (15:41):
Yeah, well, and part of who the United States
is.
Let's just be straight aboutit.
So I'm gonna play a clip fromuh Chris Hayes' show.
It's Jennifer Welch, who is oneof the co-hosts of a podcast
called I've Had It Podcast.
I didn't really know who shewas, but it's uh two white women
who do a very comedic, funnypodcast.
And she happened to be on ChrisHayes' show last night.
(16:05):
So I'm gonna just play this andthen we can talk about it
because it goes with this.
And she's she is uh referencingtheir they're talking about
this exact subject, and she'scoming up with an idea as to why
this is happening.
It's interesting.
Jennifer Welch (16:20):
I think this is a part of their authoritarian
play.
The rules don't apply to us.
We're gonna rub it in yourface.
And Megan Kelly said it best onher podcast.
We haven't felt the same sinceObama.
And something broke in whitepeople that had some racism.
Some white people.
Some white people had someracism stewing in them in
(16:42):
communities that I grew I grewup in and a totally red state.
And something broke in themwhen there was a competent,
wonderful black president, maybethey disagreed with, that was
eating off the China, sleepingin the bed at the White House.
And I remember in Oklahoma Citywhen Obama came, he was greeted
with Confederate flags inOklahoma City.
(17:03):
So all of this was there.
You remember that uh JohnMcCain debate where John tried
to tone that woman down?
It was all there.
This none of this surprises me.
As a person that lived in a redstate, I always looked for the
federal government to temper allof this.
And to Miles' point, now thatthis is mainstream, it's just
(17:23):
devastating.
Carmen Lezeth (17:24):
Yeah, she's kind of touching on a point that I
want to talk to you about.
I I've lost like four whitefriends this past year, four
very good, close white friends,because they won't talk about
racism to other white people inthe way she just did.
I don't know who she is, but Ihave absolute respect for her
(17:45):
because she totally saidsomething that feels like it's
so taboo, but that somethingbroke in white people when
Barack Obama was president andwhen she said he slept in the
bed and he ate off the china.
I was like, Yep.
Just wondering what you thinkabout it.
Speaker (18:05):
They can't bear it.
They just they literally cannotbear it.
And it's like I, you know, Idon't have people like that in
my life who, you know what Imean?
Like I have managed to callwhoever I need to call.
Um, so I I'm not, I don't hearany of those kinds of things
from people, but um that's myimpression exactly.
(18:29):
What she talked about, right?
Carmen Lezeth (18:30):
Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean?
Wait, wait, back up.
I'm sorry.
What you don't hear that typeof things from people.
What do you mean by that?
Speaker (18:37):
You don't hear racist remarks from like no one is
saying any of those kinds ofthings to me in a private
conversation, right?
Carmen Lezeth (18:45):
But if they were, so let's say you go and have
dinner with your friends and uhor a family or whatever, and you
have like Uncle, you know, thestereotypical Uncle Joe who's
104 says something and everybodylaughs about it.
Would you say something toUncle Joe?
Yeah.
Speaker (19:02):
Well, that's what I'm talking about.
I mean, you know, I will comewith my fact be like this, this,
and this, you know, um, if ifit's a factual thing, or I'll
just call them out and be like,well, that's But I think, but I
I think that's what we'retalking about.
Carmen Lezeth (19:19):
Like, I don't I don't surmise that oh surmise.
I don't I'm sorry, I'm usingwords I don't use.
I don't even know what itmeans.
It just came out of my mouth.
I don't assume that people, um,white people, when they see
other white people, especiallypeople that I know and consider
friends, are uh engaging in thebullshittery.
(19:41):
You know, now some of my blackfriends and Latino friends would
be like, yes, they are.
You know what I mean?
But whatever.
I know my friends pretty wellthat they would not be engaging
in the bullshittery.
However, in the same respects,it is not good enough.
It will never be good enoughfor me that you do not do the
work that needs to be done, butyet you're touting all the time
(20:01):
that you are an ally, that youcare, that you are doing
something when you're not doingnothing is affecting your life
at all, but it is affecting mylife every single day.
And the reason why you tap intome is so you can feel good
about your motherfucking self.
Sorry, that's what I've beenpissed about.
You know what I mean?
Like, yeah, so it does notsurprise me that these uh men,
(20:23):
these are not young men, butthese people in the Republican
Party in this chat room orwhatever were saying this stuff
because I've heard it my entirelife.
I heard it when I was incollege in Vermont in a
classroom of 300 people, I heardthe teacher saying shit, the
professor saying shit that wasinappropriate and uncalled for,
(20:44):
or call or I heard iteverywhere, you know what I
mean?
Like, and it's not, you can beas quiet as you want, but your
behavior tells you so much more,you know?
Um, and again, it's just thatkind of thing where it's like if
you are a white person in thiscountry and you are not racist,
and I say racism and you getoffended, that is a you problem.
(21:05):
That's not a me problem.
Why are you getting offended ifyou're not fucking racist?
If anything, you should beacknowledging the racism and
doing something about it whenyou can, when you have the
opportunity.
Because here's the thing whitepeople are gonna hear what she
said, yeah, much easier thaneverything I just said for the
past five minutes.
(21:26):
Well, and but look, bottomline, black people can't fix
this.
Speaker (21:32):
They cannot fix this.
We've tried, they tried, right?
Like they and and continue totry, God love them.
You know what I mean?
Like, this is not as you said,it's it's not a problem that
lies in the black community.
This is a this is a huge, huge,overarching problem, uh, the
(21:53):
overarching problem, in myopinion, in this country, in the
white community.
Fucking deal with it.
Carmen Lezeth (22:01):
Call that, but that means people who are allies
do things like this.
You have the conversations, youcall people out, you say what
the truth is.
I don't know what it is.
Seriously, I I am trying tounderstand what it is about
white people that they fearabout people of color, whether
it's Asian or black or Hispanicor whatever, anybody who isn't
(22:22):
them, you know.
Um, I I don't I I know peoplelike it's power, it's blah blah.
But when you talk to individualregular people, they're not
don't get mad, although maybeyou should because we'll get
ratings.
No, I'm just gonna like I don'tthink people are most good
people are intentionally beingracist.
(22:42):
I think they don't know whatthey're doing.
These guys, they knew what thefuck they were doing.
You don't call peoplewatermelon and monkeys and all
that shit, whatever.
But the rest of you who are sooffended by talking about race,
bitch, you think I want to talkabout this all the time.
Like, I don't want to do this,but we need to fix this shit
(23:04):
because I'm tired.
I'm tired, and I am the mostpatient person when it comes to
this shit.
I think I'm I'm at my limit.
I'm mad in a way that you toldme about this.
I I mean I would have seen itanyways.
Yeah.
Because it got me so upset.
Like in a like, usually I getupset, I cry, and I'm like,
(23:25):
whatever, and we move on, and Ijust, you know, pick myself up
by my bootstraps and like brushmyself off and walk along,
anyways.
But this is like infuriatingme.
And it's mostly because JDVance, that piece of crap, JD
Vance, who has a wife who is notwhite, who has children who are
(23:49):
biracial.
Somebody said, I forget who itwas, said if he's not gonna take
care of his own family, whywould he take care of you?
I she might have said it.
I don't know.
Somebody said it.
I was like, he used to callTrump Hitler, and now he's all
up in his business.
Andrea (24:10):
Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth (24:12):
People, if you're tired of racism, I promise you
every other person on the planetwho is of color is exhausted
talking about racism, but wewill keep doing it because it's
so bad.
It's so bad.
And if you can't figure thatout, if you can't see it, yeah,
what I said it's survival.
Speaker (24:32):
Like you can't you can't not talk about it or deal
with it, it's in your face everyday.
Carmen Lezeth (24:41):
Somebody dropped to the N-word at the grocery
store the other day.
Andrea (24:45):
Oh my god.
Carmen Lezeth (24:47):
Oh my god.
I also live in a predominantlywhite neighborhood, and uh,
although I have to say it's muchuh it's what did you say, not
predominantly, but majority?
Majority.
What is that?
What's the difference?
Because I don't know.
Speaker (25:00):
Well, like it's just closer to whites not being like
the mass, like predominantlysays like a big, you know,
large, like I'm thinking like60, 70 percent.
Carmen Lezeth (25:10):
So, okay, so if you see like three or four black
people during the day, maybeokay.
Anyways, there's a lot morepeople of color that live in
this neighborhood now than whenI first moved here for sure.
But uh yeah, but uh it was inthe grocery store, and then and
I I never do this because Idon't want to react because I
(25:31):
don't want to get my ass kickedby a bunch of white people, you
know what I mean?
Like I well, you grow upknowing that, you know, you
know, like if people saysomething bad, you just walk
along, you know?
And they weren't saying it tome, but they didn't see me
coming, right?
They didn't, they were sayingit in some jokingly music
something way or whatever.
I stopped that cart, I slammedthat cart, I looked right at
(25:55):
them, and then I moved my cart,like they knew, and then I was
like, fuck, what did I just do?
Oh my god, my god, oh my god,like it was like five of them.
You know what I mean?
Like, what am I doing?
But other people heard it too,and there were other people who
were also like, oh, that is ashame, that is disgusting.
And I was like, all right,well, whatever.
Speaker (26:17):
Um when I tell you it's every day, it's every day, it's
every day, every day, every dayin all kinds of different ways,
you know, not not just the moreovert of someone calling you
name, but you know, theinstitution.
Carmen Lezeth (26:35):
They didn't call me a name, I want to be very.
Speaker (26:36):
Oh, yeah, I know.
I'm just saying, like hearinghearing that, right?
There's the institutional, thefinancial, that you know, like
it's it's all encompassing.
Carmen Lezeth (26:47):
Yeah.
And I think um, I don't knowhow this became the thing, but I
think the other part of this isthat when we have the
administration who is clearly, Idon't, they're clearly trying
to make sure.
I mean, it's it's so obviouswhat's happening.
Speaker (27:06):
Uh why there's no there's no denying that this is
what's going on.
I mean, the you know, there wasthey had oral arguments in
front of the Supreme Courtyesterday to gut the voting
rights act.
I mean, like, it's just asyou're saying, this relentless
stream, uh, even just multiplein one day.
Carmen Lezeth (27:25):
Right.
Of absolute bullshit.
And it's the framing, right?
The voting rights act, thereason why they're trying to get
rid of that another section ofit, because it's it's be it's
been being deleted, you knowwhat I mean, like for a long
time now over the years.
But the way it's framed, like,because it makes white people
feel good, like, yeah, we wantit to be equal, we want it to be
(27:47):
there.
That's racism.
No one should be favored,right?
Andrea (27:51):
Right.
Carmen Lezeth (27:52):
And it's it makes people feel good because then
they don't have to deal with thefact that there actually is
institutional racism here in ourcountry on a regular basis.
Yeah.
So how do you fix it?
Speaker (28:11):
Um, I I mean, I've said this before, like, you gotta
call it out.
Like the the clip that youshowed, you know, in our own
small way, us calling it out.
Like you can't just let it blowby.
Carmen Lezeth (28:23):
Speaking of blowing by, can we talk about
Pete Hegzeth and thejournalists?
Yeah.
There's some good news.
Speaker (28:32):
Like, there's okay, there's yes, let's find our joy
here.
Carmen Lezeth (28:36):
I I take it in the smallest way possible.
So, Pete Hegzeth, for those ofyou who don't know, is the
Secretary of Defense.
I refuse to call it whateverthe hell he thinks we're calling
it now.
Um, tried to force journalistscovering the Pentagon to sign a
restrictive agreement that wouldbar them from reporting any
information not officiallyapproved by him and the
(29:01):
Pentagon.
Nearly every major outletrefused, calling it
unconstitutional andunprecedented, including his Fox
News.
Um, so they all walked out andthey all gave it their press
badges back because theyrefused.
That's good because you know,First Amendment and all.
Speaker (29:22):
Yeah.
And I bet you they get somefantastic scoops from people.
Andrea (29:28):
Right.
Carmen Lezeth (29:30):
But even that, like even the idea that somebody
in that high, first of all,he's so incompetent, but we can
talk about that another day.
Just that whole everybody thatTrump has hired is incompetent.
That it's not even just sayingit, it's actually true.
Yeah, by design.
Um, but the idea that anyonewould think that would be an
(29:52):
okay thing to make journalistssign, did you not watch all the
president's men?
Like, did you?
I'm just saying, you clearlyyou've never read the
Constitution because it's thefirst one, right?
It's the first.
It's not buried.
It's not even hard.
It's really easy to understand.
But I was like, I can't evenbelieve like the cojones, right?
Speaker (30:16):
That I think is again by design, right?
The cojones of it all.
It's like, let's just do somecrazy shit.
Let's do a bunch of crazy shitthat's just, you know, who cares
if it's constitutional or not?
Like it's impossible to find itall, and some of it will slip
through.
Carmen Lezeth (30:32):
But you know, it doesn't even make sense because
they're trying to, I mean,they're trying to say it's like
for the safety and thepreservation and the company,
but it's all bullshit.
Right.
It's all bullshit.
We've had journalists at thePentagon reporting on things
forever.
Like that's not, but I it itjust shows to me how um I don't
(30:56):
know what the word is, but likeI keep saying Kohona is, but
like just the audacity, right?
To steal Barack Obama's word,but the audacity to think that
you could do this and pull oneover on the American people in
this way.
I mean, but here's the thing.
When I first saw it, I waslike, oh my God, they're gonna
capitulate, right?
Because so many places.
Speaker (31:17):
Yeah, I totally was like, oh, yeah, they're gonna
sign it.
I'm I'm actually surprised,pleasantly surprised that so
many didn't.
Carmen Lezeth (31:26):
Yeah, only one did, and I'm not even gonna say
who they are because they're notworthy, but I mean who is it?
Newsmax.
Speaker (31:35):
No, no, Newsmax didn't.
Oh, they did.
Carmen Lezeth (31:38):
I thought it was no more than three dozen
outlets, including no no, itwasn't.
It's the O OAN or whatever.
Oh, they're all the it's it's abullshit.
It's it might as well be TrumpNetwork.
Um more than three dozenoutlets, including Fox News,
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC Newsmax,Washington Examiner, refused to
sign.
Yeah.
Okay.
I was actually surprised byNewsmack and Fox.
(32:00):
What I said, my bad.
No way it's not, but we wewould have thought.
Yeah, we would have thought,you know what I mean?
So um, are you doing anythingthis Saturday?
Um so this Saturday is NoKing's Day.
Is that what they're callingit?
No King's Day.
I don't know if they're callingit that, but yes.
But it's no kings.org.
(32:22):
Go check it out if you want tojoin uh what they think is going
to be millions of peopleprotesting that we don't have
kings in this country, right?
That we do not want kings inthis country.
And I think that's what Trumpis really trying to do.
I mean, we can call it all theother words we want, but he
really, really, really wants tobe a king.
Speaker (32:43):
A king, a dictator.
I mean, all the gold in theWhite House is a good indicator
that he wants he wants the pumpin the circumstance of being
royal and having some lineage sohis family can carry on after
him and all of that.
Yeah.
Carmen Lezeth (33:01):
I I don't even understand why somebody doesn't
tell him that all that goldlooks tacky.
Do you know what I mean?
Like it just doesn't even lookgood.
Speaker (33:10):
I think he loves it.
I think it looks good to him.
It makes him feel good.
Carmen Lezeth (33:14):
I think he loves the new Time magazine cover of
himself, too.
Speaker (33:19):
I think I noticed actually on that cover that his
ear has miraculously healed sowell.
Carmen Lezeth (33:26):
Well, Andre, what you don't know is that they
probably retouched it becauseyou know that's what they would
do for the ear, but not theneckline.
That I I think they did it onpurpose.
That's a horrible picture.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Speaker (33:42):
I mean, not that there are any really fantastic
pictures of him, but that's abad picture.
Carmen Lezeth (33:47):
I think they did it on purpose, which is you
know, everyone protests theirown way.
Speaker (33:56):
If you can't make it this Saturday, there are plenty
of other things you can do.
Carmen Lezeth (34:02):
That's right.
And you can use your socialmedia, you can, you know, wear
yellow and and do your littlevideos on TikTok or whatever,
because yellow seems to be thething everyone's wearing.
Um, but yeah, I was cracking upbecause I thought like it was
uh, you know, again, not allheroes wear capes, you know.
We all do things.
I I thought it was mean, but Ilaughed a little tiny bit, you
(34:24):
know.
Speaker (34:24):
So I saw it and I was like, I mean, it was like a jump
scare.
Like I was like, oh shit,what's going on there?
Carmen Lezeth (34:33):
Um okay, so I'm gonna bring it back to our
original conversation because Iwant to ask you a question.
What is the final result of thekids that were arrested by the
cops?
They were let go, clearly, whentheir parents their parents had
to come and pick them up.
Speaker (34:48):
Um, as I said, they got um essentially there were
written tickets, uh, which couldhave happened before all of the
uh drama, but they were so theygot tickets and then also have
to do like community serviceclasses or something like that.
I know.
I know.
Like what, what, what I don'tit's it's yeah, uh it's my
(35:14):
little small part of the world,and it's like a little thing
that got me all hot under thecollar, and you know, it's not
uh comparable to some of themany of the other things
happening around here, but I wasjust like, why are you doing
this to people?
Carmen Lezeth (35:26):
I don't think it has to be I mean, I think this
is part of the other thingthat's happening, right?
Like we also are living ourlives every day, so it's every
day having to hear theadministration doing something
ridiculous, stupid, out of thenorm, whatever, the racism, the
the you know, the ice agents,the bullshit, like all that
(35:47):
crap, you know.
I mean, calling, I mean, my I Ithink one of my favorite things
this past week is seeingPortland having all their, I
don't even know what it is, allthe puppets, all the like
everybody in costumes.
Speaker (35:58):
Oh yeah, their costumes, they're fine.
Carmen Lezeth (36:00):
All their costumes and like the
juxtaposition of like these allthese military ice people or
whatever it is, and then likeall of these costume-esque
people, which is totally whatPortland is like.
100% and and and and themcalling it, you know, like this
is a horrible zone of whatever'shappening.
And then, of course, themarathon happened this weekend
(36:22):
in Chicago, which is supposed tobe some on fire military zone
place as well, and all of theselike people were running a
marathon and it was a beautifulsunny day out, and it's just
this weird thing where we'rehaving our actual lives, right?
Then there's all this otherbullshittery that makes no sense
that in normal times, any otherpresident, we'd we would be
(36:44):
talking about this as thepodcast, right?
That would be the topic, like,why is this happening?
Whatever, but you can't, youcan't rest because then you have
to deal with all the otherstuff, even if you're not paying
attention to it.
Speaker (36:58):
Yeah, well, and I think, you know, look, we you
when you wrote me, you werelike, I'm tired and overwhelmed,
and and I think that's part ofthe point, right?
That's part of the point.
And you know, you hear peoplesay this all the time like this
that's why you need community,that's why you need coalitions,
because everybody can't be likeon it all the time.
(37:20):
You have to step back, like youwere talking about, like you
didn't look at the news, and youyou know what I mean?
Like, you have to take sometime to build your energy back
up to fight this, because weneed everybody in the fight, but
we don't necessarily needeverybody in the fight every
single day, you know what Imean?
Carmen Lezeth (37:38):
Like, you have to there's a difference between
being in resting and justavoiding.
Yes, like yes, no, no, becausethat's I mean, I'm going back to
the four friends that I am nottalking to anymore, and I don't
give a shit if it's for the restof my life because you show me
who you are, not when things aregood and not when everything's
(37:58):
easy, it's when things are hard.
And look at I don't thinkthey've lost anything by me not
being in their lives, clearly.
You know what I mean?
But to me, it's such a goodindication that even the best of
people suck when it comes rightdown to it, you know?
No, I'm I'm just saying it'slike we do need everyone in the
fight.
You do need to rest, butavoiding the fight because you
(38:23):
can, because it's no problem foryou to go travel and go skiing
and go doing whatever it is youhave to do, and you don't have
to worry about ice agents whenyou come back.
I had two people call me and belike, oh my God, it was so easy
when I came back from blah,blah, blah.
It was so easy.
It was like, I mean, it was noproblem.
I'm like, you're white.
(38:45):
I didn't know how else to sayit.
And they got mad at me, and I'mlike, I don't know how else to
explain to you what ishappening.
Yeah.
How do you not see it?
Like, please don't actoblivious.
So, yes, you need to rest,rest.
Use your privilege to resthowever you need to rest.
(39:05):
I'm serious, you know.
I'm trying to rest as wellbecause I'm I it's not even that
I'm just exhausted, I am sosad.
I am sad.
It's not depression, like it'ssad for my country.
Yeah, you know, and you knowhow much I have loved this
(39:27):
country, right?
I have always been thepatriotic one out of the two of
us.
Not to be mean, I'm justsaying, you know, like look at
J's like, yeah, no problem.
No, I'm just saying, like, Ialways believed in, and and it's
I think it's disheartening toadmit that I was wrong, and that
and I and and and it's doublingdown on how much I was wrong,
(39:50):
you know what I mean?
Andrea (39:51):
Well, and it hurts it true.
I mean, it truly does hurt yoursoul to know that this many
people, even if it's not amajority, but that so many
people do not give a shit.
They don't care, they areperfectly fine with the racism,
(40:12):
with the violence, with thedestruction of our country, with
the financial destruction, allthe corruption.
It just feels like it justtruly does hurt to to know that
so many people don't care aboutany of that as long as they get
(40:33):
to, you know, be racist.
Carmen Lezeth (40:35):
I I think the thing that um made me really
sad, and I was like, I just needa break, was I was watching on
TikTok, somebody went andinterviewed all these people in
different countries, and thequestion was, would you want to
go visit the United States?
And it was all these differentpeople from different countries,
you know, and I was like, wow.
And it's not they didn't justsay no, they said no and then
(40:59):
gave reasons, whether it was thegun violence, whether it was uh
the racism, whether it was thelies that we have freedom.
Somebody was like, 120 othercountries have freedom, like we
actually have freedom, like andit just made me so sad how
little we know as Americans inthe United States about
(41:20):
geography, this country,history, you know what I mean?
And and now, on top of it all,like we've always had this big
ego for no reason.
Um, but now other countries arejust like, yeah, you're
kryptonite, bye.
Speaker (41:35):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, somebody saidsomething like, um was talking
about uh, you know, a lot ofpeople don't realize that the
the coup has already happened orsomething.
Like I saw that somewhere onsocial media.
And and then somebody underthat was like, the coup happened
in 2000.
Andrea (41:56):
Right.
Wow.
And I was like, I was thinkingabout it and I was like, I have
been like kind of low tomid-level enraged for 25 fucking
years about like where this allis.
And I remember even like youknow, traveling outside the
(42:17):
country and having a realwake-up call, the difference of
being outside the country inlet's say the early 90s versus
the early 2000s, yeah, and howmuch people hated Americans.
You remember, like it used tobe like, I'm an American, and
then you're like protected andeverything's good.
(42:40):
I remember very specificallypeople telling me when I was out
of the country, don't tellpeople you're American.
Carmen Lezeth (42:47):
But you know, when you say that, I mean it
goes back, and and we might haveto close this out or edit or
whatever, but um if you sayearly 2000s, that's when Barack
Obama was president, right?
Andrea (43:03):
Yeah, I mean, and there was a stretch in there.
There was, I'm not trying todeny that there was a stretch in
there where we had some hope.
But when I talk about the rage,let's talk about exactly what
that woman was saying.
Yes, Barack Obama was elected,and look at what happened to the
Republican Party as a result ofthat.
You remember that State of theUnion where the dude stood up
(43:25):
and was like, liar, yeah, and itwas never happened.
Shocking, shocking.
How fucking dare that man dothat, right?
Well, no, because he's a blackman.
I know, but I'm just saying,like for me, I was like the
fuck, how do you do that at theState of the Union?
And and then you sit down andnobody does anything, right?
(43:48):
Right?
Like, so there was a part of methat was still enraged for that
whole eight years about whatwas happening with the Tea Party
and all of those kinds ofthings.
Carmen Lezeth (43:57):
And for someone like me, and and I'm not
speaking for all people ofcolor, but remember Barack Obama
was elected because of thebullsittery of the Bush
administration.
Like we forget how bad the Bushadministration was.
I mean, we don't forget, but sohe was elected, and and then I
(44:20):
think I told you this for eight,at least the first four years
for sure, but the whole eightyears, I thought he was gonna be
assassinated.
Yeah, like that was a commonthing that most people of color
just assumed was going tohappen.
We were waiting for it, right?
We're waiting for it.
We were waiting for it.
It was like this weird, like,oh my god, this is great.
Oh my god, this is gonna behell.
You know, terrified.
(44:41):
Yeah, terrified.
And and and you know, whetheryou like him or not, he was a
respectable leader, right?
Whether you agree witheverything he said or not, he
was a respectable leader.
And and then and then we cameto this.
I don't know what else to say.
Like, I don't know, and here weare.
Um it's a shame.
(45:02):
And here we are.
Yeah, I don't know.
God, imagine this world ifHillary had been elected
afterwards.
Jesus.
If Al Gore had been elected, Iknow okay.
On that note, I'm gonna stop.
I can imagine there's aparallel universe somewhere.
(45:23):
It says in quantum physics,right?
In the in the crazy people whothink about quantum physics in
this way.
There's a parallel world whereAl Gore won that race.
Well, we won the race and theSupreme Court agreed with him.
We should be clear, right?
Yeah, I don't know.
Anyways, all right.
Well, Andrea, thank you somuch.
(45:44):
Thank you.
All right, thank you, everyone.
Remember, at the end of theday, it really is all about the
joy.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for stopping by, allabout the joy.
Be better and stay beautiful,folks.
Have a sweet day.
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