Holiday Special: Juneteenth

In this holiday bonus episode, Greg and Judy sit down to talk about Juneteenth.

Join us, wont you?

Links:

• https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/what-juneteenth
• https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFiLiwRx-Mx/
• https://youtu.be/hVJ4dcU7QEk
• https://youtu.be/BGNGx4q9Jfw
• https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth
• https://youtube.com/shorts/obJ46L9-zLo?si=Jojfdt367iSH_6PC
• https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/04/nea-terminates-grants-trump-proposes-eliminating-agency
• https://www.wowktv.com/top-stories/morrisey-wont-give-state-workers-day-off-for-juneteenth/
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-smithsonian-executive-order-improper-ideology/
• https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/meet-opal-lee-grandmother-movement-make-juneteenth-federal/story?id=78356537
• https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/daily-news-lessons/2025/06/what-juneteenth-means-for-americans-according-to-teacher-opal-lee

Ear Worm:

• https://open.spotify.com/track/26PwuMotZqcczKLHi4Htz3?si=uZC7CjRQT4et-wPwPlrIyg

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
This is At the Extremes, beloved.
Welcome back to At the Extremes,the podcast where we discuss the
extremes in our society and how we got here.
As always, we're your host. I'm Greg.
It's Judy. And today we're going to be
discussing Juneteenth. But before we get into all that,
Judy, you get a silver lining for us.

(00:29):
I do go for it. Well, first of all, thank you
for having me back. The fans have spoken and they
would like to see more duty in their lives, so it's really
great to be here this evening. I just came back from a really
big high as far as friend trips go.
I went to a undisclosed area of the Florida Panhandle on the

(00:55):
Gulf of Mexico side. Gulf of Mexico, they say, except
that a lot of businesses really took to the whole Gulf of
America thing. It was incredibly offensive.
It's America, We don't need to get into it.
But here's what I'll say in about Florida in general and as
a whole. Love your beaches.
Strongly, strongly, strongly. Dislike slash hate your

(01:18):
politics, but we had a beautifultime, me and my 2 very best
friends from 20 plus years and we just we reconnected and we
had solid like quality time together for the first time in a
really long time, probably in like a decade or more.
It's. Incredibly important too.

(01:40):
So good. Good on.
You it is and I really, I, I recognized how much I had been
lacking that and it was really just a lovely time for such
simple reasons. Like we, we all like, we got
along, you know, like we coexisted in the same residence
together, like just peacefully and easily.

(02:01):
We, you know, we, we were on thebeach, we swam in the ocean, we
ate good food. We drank a lot of rose, like
probably my body weight in rose and we just had the best time.
And I cannot wait to do it againnext year and all the years that
followed because we decided to make it an annual thing.
And I'm just really pleased as punch that that occurred.
So shout out to that whole trip and everything about it.

(02:26):
And today is 3 whole years sincewe brought our little Princess
home, Ruby Prinkles. She though she was not born
today, this is her gotcha day, the day she came, her coming
home day, and she has been with us for three whole years and
she's looking at me with stars in her eyes and we are obsessed

(02:47):
with each other. Well, that's funny because you
took my my silver lining. I just wanted to talk about
Ruby. So.
Oh. Sorry, but you still can.
You can. Talk.
Oh, no. I mean, she's a terrorist.
She she's my little, my little, my little sweet bird.
So I'm glad that she's here withus.
But yeah, I know you, you you kind of brought it home with the
three years in now. So she's, she's our, she's our

(03:09):
little little baby. We got to take her picture out
front, in front of the tree. We do.
We it's a it's a thing. OK.
All right, fair. Well, I'll, I'll let I'll leave
that to you. OK.
We'll do. We'll do it tomorrow.
Well, now that we've gotten our Silver Linings out the way,
let's go take a real quick breakWhen we come back, Berger
actually going to discuss a surprise douche can do.

(03:38):
We're back. So this week, well, this special
episode, this bonus episode bonus owed.
Bronus. Bronus we we are going to cover
well, the the main story is Juneteenth is this is a holiday
episode. But Judy, I recognize that you

(03:59):
you've got a couple of things that you need to get off your
chest and it's been a couple of months.
So I'm going to turn it over to you for real quick.
What do you got? First of all, you can't see me,
but I'm shimmying. Oh, I can see you.
I'm shimmying. I'm.
Shimmying. So I actually put in a special
douche canoe request for KKK Caroline.

(04:21):
You guessed it. Caroline Leavitt, the White
House press secretary. The one and only, yeah.
So yeah, can I start now? Go for it, yeah.
So I don't really know where to begin, but I hate her.
Well, that's going to be a all right, let me let's start here.

(04:44):
Why do you why do you dislike her so much?
Like, what is it? I mean, I know why I dislike
Caroline Levitt, but why do you dislike Caroline Levitt so much?
Let. Me count the ways.
Yeah. I mean, like as a woman, I
really strongly oppose her views.

(05:04):
And that is my own personal plight.
But like I recognize. It what's what about her
personal views? Don't.
Don't you? Like, oh, she's a trap wife,
Sure, big time. I mean, like, as you know,
that's that's not my jam. So fundamentally we disagree.
But her politics clearly, I meanshe is a staunch Republican and
big time Trump supporter. She's anti abortion heavily.

(05:27):
Like I grew up Catholic blah blah blah.
My faith is so important to me. She's a she's she's.
Like I know that you took a little bit of time this week to
like look into her a little bit like, so she is Catholic, She
grew up Catholic or like what's her, what's her back story?
So there's a really long back story, but since you asked about
her religion, we can go there first.

(05:48):
She's really big into like, family life and her Catholic
education. She went to college at Saint
Anselm College in Amherst, NH, where she, I mean, really like
pledges, that whole sanctity in of human life, which is a big
thing that you hear in the Catholic Church.
It also makes me gag a little bit each time I hear it because

(06:09):
it's often said by a white man and it's just it's incredibly
triggering to be a female and to.
Say a man who's never been well,hopefully never been in a sexual
relationship. Or if if they have been in a
sexual relationship, hopefully it's been with a woman.
Well, you know, I sometimes, sometimes there are deacons in
the Catholic Church and they can, they can have wives.

(06:31):
But no, you're right. If it were a priest saying that,
let's hope not. But but even still, like priests
can have lives before and after becoming a priest.
So here's the thing. She was quoted saying the issue
of life is of the utmost importance.
It is very clear in our constitution.
Without the right to life, nothing else matters.

(06:55):
And right off the jump, we are ahypocrite.
Because here's the thing. Oh, you see?
You already know where I'm going.
You already know. Are we talking about white lives
only, Caroline? I think we are, Yeah.
Well, if you're associated with the Trump administration, I have
to assume that that's the case. I am annoyed with her on so many

(07:16):
levels but like the way she doesn't answer questions because
let's be honest, she doesn't answer questions but sometimes
she does, usually if it's a white person.
Happened to have noticed that ingeneral, there aren't a lot of
like diverse folks in the press room at this point.
In addition to them eliminating like certain news outlets and

(07:36):
like limiting people's access, they've also begun this thing
called the new media seat where they let like, you know,
unqualified folks, Instagram influencers, for instance, to
like come in and like sit in that new media seat and you
know, like. Tik Tokers.
Get a get a crack at things. Yeah, in the press room.

(07:58):
So like they they allow for likeeven like like extreme right
wing people. Coming and have a new.
Media seat, Yeah, I've seen that.
I've seen that. That's a thing.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so The thing is, is that she
is very like, and her, the beginnings of her, her political

(08:18):
career are, are pretty interesting too.
So first of all, she is 27 yearsold.
She's 28 this year, but like shegraduated in 2019, which is like
we were literally in the house that we bought at that point and
well into our 30s. So like, I, I look at her and
I'm just like, Mar a Lago face. Is that you?

(08:39):
But also like wait. What's Mar a Lago face?
We're going to have to put a pinin that and come back to it
because we will. We'll come back to that.
There's another clip that I can send you if I can, like, fire
fingers, like fast enough. But her political journey began
when she was in college at that St.
Anselm College in New Hampshire that we talked about.
And she interned at Fox News andlater in the White House Office

(09:01):
of Presidential Correspondence. So she served when she graduated
in 2019, she served as assistantpress secretary under Kaylee
Mcanany, which is like the whitest Mcanny, sorry, which is
very white, that name. Kaylee Mcaney was the former she

(09:23):
had. She had her job before KKK.
Oh, neat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right. Cool.
And she served as the communicate communications
director for Representative Elise Stefanik.
Stefanik. Yep.
Stefanik. Yep.
OK, Sure. Did you want to get into her
personal life at all? Or her.

(09:44):
Husband. Get into.
It I mean, I'm here to listen. Absolutely.
Well, you know, her husband's net worth is valued at around
6,000,000, which is a little like, it's kind of small.
I thought what? What does he do for a living, do
you know? Or well, he is.

(10:05):
I believe he's a, he's a real estate developer, Nicholas.
Love it. Did she not take his last name?
No, his last name is like Ricchio or something.
So she so, OK, hold on real quick.
So she's like a trad wife, like I believe in, like the the
sanctity of marriage, like traditional women's roles
doesn't take her her husband's surname.

(10:27):
I don't think she's been marriedlike super long.
I didn't I didn't do that deep of a dive on her personal life.
But like, I do know that he is 32 years her senior, so I think
he's around 59 years old. Interesting.
If my math is correct. Yeah.
So, yeah, so it's what's it whatwhat I thought was interesting
was there were a couple figures around like her annual salary as

(10:49):
the press secretary, 'cause we know that like this party has
been purchased, you know, we canalso put a pin in that.
But her annual salary is estimated to be somewhere in the
ballpark of around 180,000 to possibly up to $220,000 a year,
which actually in like 2025 economy isn't that much money.

(11:13):
But then so husband's net worth is around 6,000,000.
Her estimated net net worth as of 2025 is somewhere between 5
and 10 million. She does bring in.
Well. So I, if we did a deeper dive,
you know, we'd be able to see that she does some speaking
engagement, some book signing. So she's got some additional

(11:35):
income coming in as well. Sure.
But anyway, so I just, I find her very troubling.
I do think that she tells a lot of lies in that press room and I
I think she's an idiot too. She's not very intelligent,

(11:55):
although she seems to have the education and the, you know,
political accolades as a heavy Trumper to to back her.
But I think she's sort of a DingDong.
So you know. Well, that's funny because, you
know, in in anticipation for theshow tonight, you sent me over a
couple of clips. You are flying on an airplane

(12:16):
with your loved ones, which every one of us in this room
has. Do you pray that your plane
lands safely and gets you to your destination, or do you pray
that the pilot has a certain skin color?
Think we all know the answer to that question.
And as President Trump said yesterday, it's common sense.
I'll, I'll, I'll turn it to you first.
I've got my own opinions about that on this Juneteenth episode.

(12:37):
No, I actually would like to hear from you first.
I've done a lot of talking, sure.
OK, fair enough. What I think about, the last
thing I think about is skin colour, and I think that white
folks in the MAGA party think way more about like people's
sexual orientation their. Race their.
Skin colour more than like most.People do.

(13:01):
I've never thought about while there's turbulence in the air.
Oh my God I hope the pilot's white.
What a weird comment. Or that the pilot's black but
like why is there man like that?Because she's a racist.
It was such a weird way to say it though, like it's almost like
code language bullshit. Is it coded?

(13:22):
No, I don't really know what I'mI.
Feel like it's just like we're. We're saying any sense?
We're saying the quiet part out loud now though.
Well. Yeah, but she but she wasn't she
was vague and like, was she? Yes, I, I don't know her exact
wording. I I would need to hear the clip
played again. Let's play it one more time
because I think that that that it this, this, that, that, that

(13:44):
it's required at this point. Flying on an airplane with your
loved ones, which every one of us in this room has.
Do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to
your destination? Or do you pray that the pilot
has a certain skin color? Think we all know?
So she said, do you pray that your plane gets there safely or
do you pray that your pilot has a certain skin color?

(14:07):
And I just don't know anybody who's ever taken a flight who's
gone. I hope my pilot's white.
Like, I think that the white MAGA contingent feels like that
all of the time. I hope that my bus driver's a
white guy. I hope that my trash guy is a
white guy. I hope that the people who are
working in my fields, like picking food for us are white
people. Because that is.

(14:28):
Their well, that is how they think, but it was the way that
she phrased the question. She said are you praying that
your plane lands safely? Yes, everyone does.
But, she said. Or are you praying that the
pilot has a certain skin? Color.
So it's either your pilot's white and your plane lands
safely, or they're black and youcrash, or you have a help like

(14:49):
or. OK, I guess I didn't hear it
exactly that way when I heard itthe first time because I was so
confused by her choice of language that it was hard to
process, like the statement itself.
But then she went on to ramble about like common sense, which
is like, that's a thread that like you hear a lot as like a
almost like a collusion term, like, like over here, like
common sense, common sense. But the way that they're framing

(15:11):
it is not the definition of common sense kind of thing.
So yeah, like they're just, it'sword salad.
That's what I'm, that's what I'mreaching for, is that I feel
like that was word salad, but almost as if to like, quell
anxiety. No, we're not racist.
But actually you are guys, because it's the way that you
speak all the time. You're racist.

(15:32):
Like it's ingrained in you. We're just looking for qualified
individuals. We're not looking for, you know,
oh, you know, who needs DEI whenyou've got qualified white
dudes? Not not to look there.
There's no one in no one would say anything different.
I think when when you're when you're flying on a plane, I
don't really give a shit what color you are, what race you
are, what sex you are. I just want to land safely.

(15:54):
Why is she worried about it other than being a racist?
Well, she's also she's a puppet for propaganda.
Like, that's her like little Nicki name.
She blames the left for everything.
And it sounds just like how Donald Trump immediately points
the finger at Joe Biden. Every time something goes wrong
and he's held accountable for something or someone points the

(16:15):
finger at him, he immediately points it back at someone else.
She does that too. Honestly, during my friend's
weekend it came up like, is she sleeping with Donald Trump?
Because she really seems to like, lick his balls.
Well, let's go ahead and spill the tea, Queen.
I'm saying like, I mean, is there not like kind of a weird
relationship between the two of them, but also like why are?

(16:37):
You starting a conspiracy on this show?
Perhaps I am next I'll start a cult.
No, no, no. This.
This could be like an E, not an E What is it?
Yeah. E like Real Housewives of like
Washington, DC, but exclusively for the White House.
Her, Melania, They're all like sleeping with Donald, watching

(16:59):
his big tubby body slam on top of God.
Yam tits. Well, you know, you you also
sent over another one that another clip that is that.
Yeah, while we're on the subjectof how she may or may not feel
about specific races, why, why don't we go ahead and play this

(17:19):
clip, I mean. Warned that any protests on
Saturday would be met with force.
Can you clarify what kind of protest President Trump does
support or find acceptable? The president absolutely
supports peaceful protests. He supports the First Amendment.
He supports the right of Americans to make their voices
heard. He does not support violence of

(17:40):
any kind. He does not support assaulting
law enforcement officers who aresimply trying to do their job.
It's very clear for the president what he supports and
what he does not. Unfortunately for Democrats,
that line has not been made clear.
And they've allowed this unrest and this violence to continue,
and the president has had to step in.
There were peaceful. Protests on Saturday for the
military parade. President Trump would allow

(18:01):
that. Of course the president supports
peaceful protests. What a stupid question.
In the president's comments yesterday, though, he just said
protesters would be strongly dealt with.
Why is he not out saying all peaceful protesters will be
protected? I think two things can be
important at the same time. And the president, as I just
answered, supports the right of Americans to peacefully protest.

(18:24):
He supports the First Amendment,but that is not the majority of
the behavior that we have seen taking place in Los Angeles.
We have seen Mom. Let me, I want to stop there
real quick because I, I take great issue with this because
I've been reading a lot of really good reporting from, from
a reporter from, from The Intercept by his name is Nick
Terse and he, he's been doing anincredible job on the ground

(18:46):
covering what's actually been happening.
Go off, King. And there is nothing more
frustrating than reading than reading like what's actually
happening versus like hearing like this nightmare scenario
that's coming out of the White House where there the entire
city of LA is on fire. We covered in the last episode
where it's like right, like a couple blocks away there's an

(19:09):
active pride parade. Like this is very localized.
There was like line dancing in the street.
Peaceful protests and they're out here saying things like, Oh,
well, there's violence in the streets.
There's cars are being when you send in Marines, the Nash, you
federalize the National Guard and then you start beating the,

(19:30):
I mean, not the LA police are doing a really good job.
I just watched a video before wegot on the air where there was
Ala police officer. There was a woman who was
standing in the middle of the street.
Her arms were up and they just came and just shoved her to the
ground, knocked her unconscious,dragged her off of the street,
found a woman in a wheelchair, rolled her into protesters.

(19:53):
I want to I'll link to it. And it's just like, what are we
doing? Like we're talking about
peaceful protests against something that is so UN UN
American and you have this this this woman who is up there

(20:14):
spouting off. Propaganda bullshit coming out
of the White House and it is so upsetting.
And she she is a newborn baby asfar as life is concerned, but
also just, I mean, she licked the balls of Donald Trump from
the moment she rolled out of herlike, Catholic education

(20:35):
protected white life in New England.
And I'm just, I'm not here for it, if just to further the rage.
I mean, not only does she tell lies on behalf of Yam Tits McGee
up there, but like. I like that that you're calling
him Yam tits. I, I can't claim that as my own,

(20:55):
but I am going to, I may, I am going to perpetuate it.
But she just, she's working for the devil and she knows it.
And This is why her net worth has increased and This is why
she is just, she shuts down anything that may or may not
remotely question like this administration and does not
allow for free speech and then tells lies in the face of

(21:17):
people. And it's just Fox News all the
way. And there's something else that
she said. I mean, she's, she is obviously
very pro pro-life apparently, except if it's a black or brown
life, obviously, but something that she said.
Gay queer life. Correct.
Anything other than, you know, white life.

(21:37):
White cisgendered individuals. But regarding abortion, she said
it's not about women's reproductive rights.
It is not about Women's Health, it is about life and protecting
that period. And I think I saw the surface of

(21:57):
the sun inside of my irises whenI read that because I yes, it is
about women's reproductive rights.
Yes, the fuck it is about Women's Health, especially
people of color who die at exponentially higher rates
because of this bullshit, in honor of the woman who whose

(22:18):
baby was born to her lifeless body this week in Georgia while
her family pulled her off life support just a day or two ago.
What the fucking fuck? Yes, it is about that.
But you know what it isn't about?
It's not about protecting life, Not at all.
And that is why she is the biggest liar of all time.

(22:39):
And she is unequivocally her very own douche canoe of this
week. Yeah, no, Caroline is.
She's a special kind of bootlicker.
Caroline Lovett, she defended. This is one of the clips that I
found that I sent over to you where she defends the firing of

(23:02):
the Librarian of the Library of Congress.
Oh, boy. Carla.
Carla Hayden, Yes. Who, by the way, was not only
the first African American, but the first woman as well to hold
this post so. Yeah, like this is completely,
there's no coincidence here. This is this is completely

(23:24):
without coincidence question. The president fired the
Librarian of Congress. Why did he choose to do that?
We felt she did not fit the needs of the American people.
There were quite concerning things that she had done at the
Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting
inappropriate books in the library for children.
And we don't believe that she was serving the interests of the
American taxpayer well. So she has been removed from her

(23:47):
position and the president is well within his rights to do
that, John. So you're laughing, and I want
to know why you're laughing. Talk.
Talk to me about why you're laughing about that clue you.
Stupid bitch. Oh boy.
Oh, she doesn't know. She doesn't know that the
Library of the Librarian of Congress doesn't put, doesn't

(24:09):
doesn't doesn't rent books to children.
Yeah, the Library of Congress is.
It's one of those institutions that is without a preference
because it's a library and it belongs to the people of this
country. And when we come back, we're

(24:32):
going to talk a little bit aboutwhy what she just said there in
that last clip is so incredibly consequential, especially when
we talk about things like the celebration of Juneteenth.

(24:55):
We're back. Oh, my goodness gracious.
Well, I, I have to say, after listening to those clips of
Caroline, she is a, she is a proper douche canoe.
So thank you for bringing that to to the table.
She's a twat. I hate that motherfucker.

(25:16):
Let's go ahead and turn to something maybe a bit more
celebratory. We're going to start a little
bit more on the Caroline Levitt end of things and work our way
towards something a little bit nicer.
So it's going to start a little darker.
We'll end up in the nice spot. But I I wanted to talk about
Juneteenth. And for the listeners who are

(25:36):
are tuning in, you might feel like, duh, of course we know
what this is, blah, blah, blah. But if you don't, here's a real
quick refresher. Juneteenth is significant in
American history because, and specifically in the African
American history because it is the day that the Union Army made
its way to Galveston, TX under the leadership of General Gordon

(25:59):
Grandeur. And he announced to the people
of Texas that all enslaved African Americans were free.
So this happened, I believe, twoyears after the Civil War ended
and they finally made their way out to Texas and said, hey,
listen, folks, you're, you're working in these fields.
You're free. You, you, you no longer have to
do this from the Smithsonian. With the end of slavery,

(26:22):
searching for family members whohave been separated or sold away
became the focus of many formerly enslaved individuals
after the General grantor showedup.
The number of years of separation did not deter people
from hoping to reunite with their lost loved ones.
Newspaper advertisements, letters and word of mouth were

(26:44):
all employed as a part of the search.
The hope was that a positive response might lead to a
reunion. A family member.
So there's a lot of, when you think about just like the
general scope of history, right?Like this is a really big
moment, right? Like you've got these people who
didn't even know that slavery was over and now we're being

(27:05):
told, hey, you're free. Like, oh, and now you can like
you can leave this plot of land and just go do whatever you want
to do that that's incredibly like, imagine the weight of
that, that moment, right? Like probably.
Doesn't feel real. It can't, right?
Like, that's I, you know, I try to put, you know, when we went

(27:26):
to Rome, I tried to put myself in like the shoes of like Caesar
or Nero or like, you know, like,or, or a gladiator who is being
dragged through the streets. Like what?
Like we're walking through thesecobblestone streets.
I'm going, Oh my God. Like the amount of history that
happened here. Imagine putting yourself in that
kind of place where you're just like, all right, now what do I

(27:46):
do now? Right.
Like what, what, what do I do now?
Juneteenth is often associated with celebrations of a physical
emancipation from slavery. It also signaled another type of
liberation for the newly freed. Between 1861 and 1900, more than
90 institutions of higher education were founded for Black

(28:07):
Americans who could not otherwise attend predominantly
white institutions because of segregation laws.
These schools and historically blocked colleges and
universities. HBC US, of course, became
repositories for African American history, culture and
safeguarding generations of memorabilia and documenting the
rich history of HBCU traditions.For nearly 4 million mostly

(28:32):
illiterate and recently freed African Americans, education was
a crucial first step after emancipation to becoming
self-sufficient. Learning to read was not only
desirable, it was often times necessary to protect their
freedoms, find employment, and communicate with separated
family members. It makes me think back a little

(28:53):
bit a couple of episodes ago where we were talking about, I
think we actually did the straight of the Black History
Month. But the idea of like being able
to read like the, the whole likegrandfathered in thing.
Like we were talking about that North Carolina thing, you know,
during during Black History Month.
And it was just like, Oh my God,like the amount of like catch up

(29:19):
work that was required to get toa place where you could settle a
town and make money and and haveland and like all this stuff.
And people wonder about privilege.
That's what's crazy to me. It's like you when you set those
scales where they were set at this time, they had so much work

(29:41):
to do to catch up to where even the most basic idiot of
privilege was at a starting point.
And that's fucking insane to think about.
And. Let's also be fair and clear
here, right? Like a West Virginia coal miner,
you know, indentured servant didn't have like, through their

(30:03):
own power and persuasion, a leg up, but they did because they
weren't a slave and they could read and they could barter and
they had money. And that's not to say that oh,
they had it so much better. But when you're not a slave, Oh
my God, life looks a whole lot different for you than it does
if you don't know how to fuckingread.

(30:25):
Reading is such an important piece of being a human being,
and to have that stripped from you, like intentionally stripped
from you is a really disastrous place to start.
It's it's that old adage, right?Knowledge is power.
And when you have no knowledge, you literally have no power.
That's right. And and there's no way to
navigate this world. You're right, like without

(30:46):
immense struggle. And that doesn't mean that the
kid in West Virginia who grew upin a coal mining town to drug
addicted parents perhaps, or in an in an abusive home.
Come back to the 1800s, where, like, they didn't have to worry,
like, drugs weren't as much of aproblem.
It was just like, hey, this is your plot of land.
You're going to work it as an indentured servant.

(31:07):
But like, in 20 years, you're free from from the land.
There was no option for black folks back then, right?
Like, that was not an option. Yeah, so back to our story,
though. The first schools and colleges
for African Americans were created largely through the
support of civic and religious organizations like the Freeman's
Bureau, the the American Missionary Association, and the

(31:28):
African Meth Methodist EpiscopalChurch.
I went to an AME church when I was a kid.
My grandmother on my mom's side,her husband was a part of the
AME church. And if you ever want to go to a
church where like just the the music is really, really good and
like the people running up and down the aisles and AME

(31:51):
churches. I've never heard of an AME
church. Yeah, yeah.
So the African Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal Church is,
it is one of the more memorable experiences of my church
upbringing because it was just so the they had a live drummer,
they had a live guitar player, everyone was singing like they

(32:11):
had. It was incredible from a
performance perspective. Sounds very celebratory.
It was it, you know the AME church is very much tied to this
period of time, though, right? Like you're talking about people
who are coming out of slavery and, and slave songs.
You know, the, the whole thing, like that whole period of time

(32:34):
is really encapsulated the AME church where it's like, hey, the
Lord is going to save us and we're going to do our very best
to praise the Lord. Hell yeah.
I don't necessarily agree with the the church's stances on much
of anything, but if you want to go see a really good live show,
go to an AME church. Thanks for that hot tail.
But in 1890, the Second Moral Act required states to establish

(32:58):
or provide land grants to createseparate colleges for black
people in admission to existing institutions was not offered,
leading to the expansion of black colleges and universities
throughout the Southern states. There are lots of incredible
black institutions all throughout the South.
Fucking think about Maryland. We've got Morgan, we've got

(33:18):
Coppin. Right, like.
Right up the road from each other.
Yeah, like, you've got these incredible institutions.
Bowie State. Bowie State.
I mean, there are plenty of them.
I'm forgetting Howard. Yep, Yep.
In DCI. Mean so you've got all these
incredible institutions and and you know they're leading to the
expansion of black colleges throughout the southern states.
The these institutions became places not only of self

(33:40):
discovery and enlightenment, butplaces that helped define what
it meant to have and pursue freedom.
And that's an incredibly moving part of this story for me.
When I was, you know, going backand I was thinking about my
family's experiences and thinking about the people who

(34:00):
came before them. And just to think about my my
grandmother comes from my great grandmother comes from Opelika,
which is just outside of Auburn,but she comes from a slave
family. And to think like she was the
one who could not read. She could not read from my
understanding at least, right? Maybe she could read, but like
I, I didn't know her to be a learned person.

(34:23):
And from my understanding, my great grandfather on my mom, my
grandmother's side was, he was alaborer.
Like that's what he did. He, he picked up shovels, he
moved dirt around, you know, to,to go from that place to having
the opportunity to, to, to go touniversity and like to have like

(34:44):
what looks like on paper at least, equality.
Oh my God, like how? How?
Like how? That is generational wealth
right there. Yeah, yeah.
So when you, I don't know, don'tenslave people, they can do good
things. As it turns, they are just as
capable as anyone else, as it turns out.
Yes and Speaking of anyone who'sjust as capable as anybody else,

(35:04):
Booker T Washington, the founderof the Tuskegee University,
describe the establishment of the first goals for black adults
and children as an act of quote lifting the veil of ignorance
from recently free communities who sought to receive the
education that had been barred from them during slavery and
entered to a whole new class of paid laborers.

(35:26):
Booker T Washington said this. If you can't read, it's going to
be hard to realize dreams and that that's hard to to they
conceptualize like you and I grew up in a world where reading
is a default. It's a default setting, but it's
a default setting for many people in the 21st.

(35:47):
Century it was always available,right?
We never had. We never had to question it,
not. Once and there are people who
who we're going to talk about here in a little bit who grew up
in a time where black people reading was seen as a danger.
And that's really, really scary because the folks like Caroline

(36:08):
Levitt might want to see that return.
How about that? So one of the, one of the dreams
that, that, that that sits in the hearts of many black
Americans during this period of time after General Granger comes
to town and, and, and says, hey,look, you're all free.
Now is, is this period of time where they are trying to reach

(36:32):
out to find their family memberswho have been sold or kidnapped
during a period of legal enslavement in the United
States. Reading would be critical to
communicating with the the newlycreated Friedman's Bureau.
The Bureau was created by Congress in 1865 to assist in
the political and social reconstruction of post war

(36:53):
southern States and to help formally enslaved African
Americans transition from slavery to freedom and
citizenship. In the process, the Bureau
created millions of records thatcontain the names and
information of hundreds of thousands of people across the
United States, including including formerly freed, sorry,
formerly enslaved African Americans and those who were

(37:14):
free before the Civil War, whiteSoutherners, Northern educators,
elected officials and more. Now, I reached out to my dad a
couple days ago and I was like, hey, give me great grandma.
Great. Give me great grandma's surname
on both sides of the family, andI was able to locate like 10's

(37:37):
and thousands of records associated with those last
names. To be fair, I did not go through
every one of them. It's a lot of work, but it is an
incredible critical log of what our history is right.
And if you think about it like the Smithsonian is one of those

(37:58):
places in American culture whereit's not very political, right?
Like when you think about the Smithsonian, you think about the
Natural History Museum, you think about all the museums that
are downtown in DC, right? And if you are.
Free, by the way. Free for all of us because we
pay taxes. And it turns out, folks, that
when you pay your taxes, they gotowards good things.

(38:21):
But it's important for our country to recognize that this
indeed happened, right? Like that's why these records
exist. And as a result, a significant
part of our population can find out where they came from.
Well, at least here in the United States, right?
Like we can now know all right, well, hey, look, my great
grandmother came from OPA. Like there are only four

(38:44):
plantations in that immediate area.
So let's go ahead and like startto like circle in on that one
thing, right? But it's incredibly powerful
thing to see your family historyshow up, right?
Like there are lots of I was listening to a a podcast where
there's a a gentleman who was saying white folks, there are

(39:06):
some white folks who can go all the way back to the Township
that their families from black folks.
Unfortunately, in the United States, many of us, myself
included, can only go back to what farm we come from.
We don't know where we come from.
Many of us, a majority of us don't know.

(39:27):
And to at least have that one little piece of a record is
really important. And, you know, Juneteenth
becomes a holiday in our currentenvironment in 2021, but under
the Biden administration and making it the first national
holiday that was created since Martin Luther King Junior Day in

(39:47):
1983. In a weird twist.
And, and we're about to take a turn to the left, so buckle up.
In a weird twist though, Opal Lee, who's considered to be the
grandmother of Juneteenth, walked from Fort Worth, TX to
Washington, DC at the age of 89.She walked the entire distance

(40:12):
at 89 years old to convince thenpresident President Obama to
make it her federal holiday. Sadly, America's youngest
national holiday is now caught up though in the crossfires of
raging culture war. Trump has done his best recently
to end diversity, equity, inclusion programs and to end

(40:34):
funding that goes towards them, including the very fucking
funding that goes towards the Smithsonian holding the fucking
records of the Freeman's Bureau.It goes towards that.
That federal funding goes towards more than just Black
History Month, more than just Juneteenth, but Pride Month,
environmental justice agendas, Women's History Month, you know,

(40:56):
any program that might go towards providing assistance
towards communities that have been largely ignored or
intentionally excluded in this country.
Why do we think that in more recent years in our existence
here on Earth for the past 40 years?
Whoops. For the past 40 years, we've

(41:18):
been alive, right? And in our lifetime we have seen
an insurgence of being taught that these things, these people,
these groups are important. We've seen more inclusion, we've
seen more diversity. We've seen more equity across
groups in our lifetime. We are also watching it be

(41:38):
stripped away in our lifetime, in our very short, still very
young and youthful lifetime. In a blip in blip of time,
right? This is fucking wild.
Yeah, You're seeing something that back in the 1800s that
started, they're trying to do their very best to strip funding
from because the Smithsonian is participating in, quote, DEI

(41:59):
practices by just keeping records.
Of real people whose lives existand whose families still exist,
who are equally as qualified as everyone.
Else just like the librarian whowas fired.
Carla Hayden say her name. Carla Hayden.
Carla Hayden. Respect.
Shout out Carla Hayden. Big ups to Carla.

(42:21):
But the Trump administration hasbeen talking about DEI and quote
woke culture as a hindrance to the American culture as it's
been called. And many times you hear Trump
and and the ones who are like him say things like it's a mind
virus, right? Like I've heard Elon Musk say

(42:42):
it. Woke mind virus, yes.
I've, I've heard that countless amount of times at this point,
but you know, can I ask you justfor one second, if you could, to
put on your white supremacist hat?
No, you cannot. I'm sorry all.
Right. Well, let's just have a
discussion about this then. What does it mean to be like,

(43:04):
what does DEI mean? What does woke mean in the mind
of a white supremacist? Like, what does that like?
Like if we were both to like, goto a different world in our
minds. Like what?
Does that look like it's a threat?
What do you mean? It's a threat.
They are threatened to what? There is no other explanation
for why white supremacy exists other than fragile white men who

(43:31):
feel like no one can be above me.
Like what? About.
But what about the likes of likea Caroline Levitt though?
Right? Like who?
I don't know that fully buy intothis though.
You know what I don't? Know that she has freaking.
People that you know, that I know who are white women who buy
into this kind of shit, it's notjust white men like let's, let's
well. Sure, I trigger warning.

(43:51):
Yeah, we do know women who participate in this as well.
Yeah. I mean, like, we know, we know
that in in the most recent election that a majority of
black men, a majority of Hispanic men all went towards
the right. Like what is it?
Majority of black men. I'm sorry, a majority of white
men and you saw in a gigantic shift.

(44:14):
A big shift in Hispanic men, butnot majority black men, no.
Yeah, I apologize for for the for the language.
Yeah, you're right. Flying off the handle over
there. Get it together.
But my question then is like, all right.
I can't think from the mindset of a white supremacist, but this

(44:35):
is, you know how there's 4 main emotions?
Mad, mad, sad, glad and scared. This is scared.
That's what fuels all of this. So being scared that someone
other than a white person is going to take your job or fly

(44:56):
your plane or do this or do that, that's fear.
That's scared. That is that's reptilian brain.
And you know what, those of us who have arrived in our emotions
and can understand that it is healthy for humans to have
differences between one another.We are in our frontal lobe

(45:19):
brain. We are we are thinking
critically and we are not livingin fight or flight or reptilian
brain. And sorry to bring brain into
it, but. Hashtag all brains matter.
All brains matter, and you know,some people are not fully using
theirs. But when you are fully using
your brain and you are fully living your life, you're not

(45:41):
feeling as angry as these peopleare and you're not hating on
large groups of people and you're not white supremacists.
I mean, like, I this isn't woke.This is called compassion and
humanity. And many of us are living in
this world. And another reason not to keep
throwing her under the bus that I really dislike Caroline

(46:02):
Leavitt is that she tells lies also about how many people in
this country actually voted for Donald Trump.
Because if you want to go down arabbit hole with me tonight,
let's talk about how I don't think that many people actually
voted for this, to be honest. Like.
You're full of. Conspiracy it is.
It is reeking of conspiracy, like the the way that like all

(46:23):
those swing states, we can get into that on another episode.
But I'm just making a plug for it back on track.
Back on track, I think, you know, one of the things that
came to my mind when I was writing this up and it was like,
Oh my gosh, like, what? What does it look like to come
from like an exclusively white space, right?

(46:44):
And to think about these issues in this way, I can't help but to
think that if you are looking atthe Trump, the Trump
Organization, the Trump administration and their desire
and anyone who's around the Trump orbit to eliminate DEI

(47:08):
programs and initiatives, you know, just general, you know,
good heartedness and like being a good person.
I can't help but to think about it through the lens of like,
we're just trying to erase your history.
Yeah, we want to scrub it clean and make it white.
I mean, we're going. To white literally whitewash as

(47:28):
much as we can. Yeah, that's all I can think
about. It's.
Because we're afraid it's. Believable.
Of the demographic shift that's coming.
Diversity, diversity is a threat, except it's all so much
hypocrisy because y'all fucking came here on a boat.
None of you are from here. Like it's just and but I saw OK,
so like all of this is is makingme recall and I hate when I

(47:51):
don't have something in front ofme and I'm trying to recall it.
But like this mean it's like, you know, it says all of you who
basically these people that we're talking about, but you'll
be the first ones like on 23andMe trying to figure out
like which type of immigrant youare.
Have you? Did you see that this week?
I've seen something similar to. That yeah.
And it's just like, but it's butthat's it's so true, though.

(48:12):
Like you are like, I'm so American.
I'm, you know, my feet are firmly planted.
However, like what you mixed with, you know?
Oh, you're French? Cannot wait to submit that DNA.
Right. Yeah, No, you know, actually
very funny enough, I I was looking on blue sky and there
was a video that was posted of aNative American activist group

(48:36):
that I follow and they got arrest, not arrest.
They were pulled over. I think it was in Arizona or New
Mexico, and the police pulled them over.
They were ICE agents and there was two women in the car and the
driver was being very polite, doing like the thing that you're
supposed to do. Anyone who's ever been pulled
over by the police, who's any person of color, knows this.

(48:59):
Like Keep. Your head down.
Keep your head down. Do what they say.
You have your license, your registration out immediately,
Bop bop, bop, you're ready to go.
And the passenger start recording the conversation.
And they were like, are you guysAmerican?
And they were like, are you American?
Because we were here fucking first.
Like who's actually American? We're Native American.

(49:19):
And they gave them like their Native American like paperwork.
And then they were like, oh, go on your way.
And they were like the entire time.
This woman is berating these ICEofficers.
Rightfully fucking so. Were they even in uniform or
were they just the the unmarked kind as I like to call them?
We let's put a pin in that like we.
Another episode there's. There's so much, there's so much

(49:43):
material there. But yeah, I, I, I just
reflecting back on what you weresaying about like real Americans
coming in on a boat, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, like.
That's interesting. There's just a lot of like that
material there. And what I think that to me at
least says is like, all right, let's stop thinking about who
was first. And let's just all consider each
other to be like, I don't know, human beings who deserve fucking

(50:05):
respect because we're here. And what are you going to do?
Like, are you going to arrest everybody and throw them out of
the country until the country isjust exclusively white?
We are all like on, we are all on stolen land, right?
But like, OK, like we can do land considerations and things
like that, like this belong to this Susquehanna.
And like I fully acknowledge that piece of it.

(50:26):
But like, even if we're to just say like, this is the 21st
century. Now that we're here, we're here.
Right, let's just accept the fact that.
The whole point, the whole pointis to live together.
The whole point, the whole pointis the melting pot.
The whole point is diversity, equity and inclusion.
It always has been. That was the founding fathers
vision. Sort of.

(50:46):
OK, go that far, but OK, well, you know.
But you know, I, I, I think it, it should be noted as a result
of all these federal actions, like the, like the things that
Caroline Leavitt are saying, thethings that Trump has been
saying this entire time about getting rid of DEIJE Vance,
talking about white replacement.You know, Thomas Rousseau of, of

(51:08):
Patriot Front, who talks about having an America for Americans.
You've got, you know, countless others that we've talked about
this podcast. It should be, it should be
noted, companies that once saw diversity, equity, inclusion as
righteous causes have dropped the mask now and have dropped
their DEI initiatives with theirwithin their organizations.

(51:30):
These are not private firms. These are companies that are
traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.
I'm going to read off a couple for you real quick.
Pepsi, Home Depot, Target, Google, Microsoft, Ford, John
Deere, Meta, Amazon, Tesla and unfortunately, because they're
tied to federal funding, the National Endowment for the Arts.
God damn it. Comply or we're going to sick

(51:54):
our dogs after you, Home Depot. We're going to make sure that
anybody who doesn't appreciate diversity, equity, inclusion is
going to go after you. And that's a really fucking
shameful place to be in this country in the 21st century.
And. If you choose not to spend your
money at those places, fucking great job folks.

(52:16):
That's what I was going to comment on, which is that I
think a lot of times in all of this overwhelm with everything
that happens and all of these threats of things being stripped
from us that we fought so hard as a people to like make a
thing. You know, I, I know I will, I
will fight my ass off to keep Juneteenth a federal holiday, to

(52:38):
keep Black History Month, to keep Pride month, to keep
Women's History Month, Men's History Month, mental health
awareness month, all of the fucking months.
Like that's important and it. Is it's because representation
matters? Absolutely.
Representation matters. Diversity matters.
It all of it. All of it matters.
Before we take another break, many June tea celebrations are

(53:00):
being cancelled all around our country right now, and for many
reasons. It's not just because of racism,
although you know you could. You could.
A lot because racism. A lot of it.
Most of it, actually, probably all of it.
A large reason though, right nowis due to a lack of funding, but
also fear of right wing retaliation, specifically in

(53:20):
Bend, OR where community organizers have cancelled this
year's celebration due to threats that are racially
motivated. There are organizations, and we
talked about this in our earlierseries, our first series that we
did on the Pacific Northwest andracism out there.
But the Pacific Northwest is a bastion for white supremacy.

(53:44):
And in Bend, OR there are outsider organizations, Patriot
Front as being one of them, who will have already said, hey, if
you celebrate Juneteenth, we're coming to your town.
And so it's really, really disheartening to hear things
like that, right? But in West Virginia, closer to
home, the governor refuses to give employees paid days off for

(54:07):
this federal holiday because of budget constraints.
I would argue that private firmsand state governments and, you
know, even local governments arehaving to make hard decisions.
Or it's maybe it's an easier explanation, maybe for them
cutting funding to something that they don't see as valuable,

(54:28):
like initiatives for celebratingDEI programs.
They don't want to put money towards that and support a
program that the country that the president has said is
ruining our country to extend that further.
Blacks, Browns, women, gays, they're ruining our country and

(54:49):
we shouldn't recognize them by putting any money towards
something that might ruin our country.
According to yeah, evangelical Christian white nationalists.
Yeah, and I think the Trump administration falls firmly
within that, within that category at this point.
Recall this, though, when Trump got elected, they destroyed the

(55:13):
former Black Lives Plaza St. mural just two blocks N through
his EO. They're looking to rewrite our
history, not acknowledge those who suffered or those who have
of those communities that have been seen as equals in the eyes
of the law. This is a systematic breakdown
of our country's history, the people who inhabit our country.

(55:37):
And to see, even if it's just a symbol today, they renamed all
of the former Confederate Army bases back to from their
reformed name back to their former names.
Oh, fun. So they did that as of today.
So Fort Hood, who was celebrating A Confederate

(55:59):
soldier, a Confederate general, someone who betrayed his
country's oath, Fort Polk, Fort AP Hill, all these, all these
forts and bases around the country are being renamed back
to their former glory, so to speak.
And while there's a law in placeby Congress that you cannot name

(56:23):
anything after a Confederate general or a Confederate officer
or anything like that, they are finding people with the same
last name and just renaming it after them.
You if do you know what I'm saying?
Like if your last name is Polk, well she fought in the Army at
on the island of Iwo Jima and earned a Silver Star versus A4

(56:46):
star Purple Heart awardee. They, so they renamed, just as a
real quick example, they renamedFort Hood back to from Fort
Cavazos back to Fort Hood, even though the one guy who they
named it after, they renamed it after in Cavazos was a Purple
Heart awardee, I think. And also was caught behind enemy

(57:09):
lines and fought by himself. And like was like fighting off
all these people and, and they decided that that wasn't good
enough, that sacrifice for his country wasn't good enough.
If sacrifices don't matter, likeapparently not, lives don't
matter. Apparently not.
Not in any regard. Not in the military, not in not

(57:30):
with regards to healthcare, not with regards to FEMA.
I mean, don't get me started. But they want us all dead.
Yeah, and and you shouldn't be surprised because the cruelty.
I mean the point. I mean the.
Cruelty's the point, right? Like that's, that is the whole
entire point behind all this is that it is cruelty towards our

(57:50):
sensibilities, cruelty towards our bodies, cruelty towards our
minds. That is what this is about.
Well, let me take it a step further.
Not to go off the rails completely, but cruelty is where
it begins, right? Treat the people cruelly and
then what happens to the people then?
Then they turn on each other. And we've already started to see

(58:11):
that happen over the past week as as we've heard in the
previous part of the week's episode of this podcast, you
know, like a full recap of of the events that occurred that
claimed the lives of two and almost.
Four in Minnesota. They killed.
He killed two more people or injured 2 more people.
It did well, last I heard they were still in critical condition

(58:32):
but stable. But but yes, well.
And if we count the dog Gilbert,is that his name?
Gilbert I. Don't remember the dog's name?
That was that. Yeah.
OK, well, here we are, you know,like we're already there.
We're already at that point where you have the people
turning on the people. You have the Republicans turning
on the Democrats. And you hear this very coded

(58:53):
language, but it's also very plain language.
Caroline Levitt is guilty of it.She does blame the Democrats.
She blames the left. She like this is the people
turning the people against the people.
Donald Trump junior said something earlier today.
I don't know if you saw this or not, but they.
I did not. They launched a Trump phone
company. Oh, I thought that was a joke.

(59:14):
Oh, no, it's not. It's very real.
And there was an interview that they were doing with Don Junior
where they were talking about they got the shooter in
Minnesota and he was like, oh, well, he was a Democrat
operative and he was like, well,no, he voted for your father.
He's like, I don't believe that until I see it.
You can tell them truth to theirface, supported, and they don't
care. They just don't care.

(59:34):
Well, did you also see that Donald Trump was very blatantly
like refusing to to telephone Tim Walz?
Yeah, to extend because. It's not going to be any good.
He's what he said I think, right.
He said. He said why would I?
I could be nice, but why would Ibe nice to him?
He's basically like, he's crazy,he's off the rails.
Like why would I call him? If if, if he doesn't like me,

(59:57):
why would I call him? That's yeah, this is a temper
tantrum like like this is. He's in a He's in a grown adult
child. He is.
I mean, he's, but I mean, again,that that reptilian brain like,
and I, I think that that's so freeing for me to understand as
a human being that oh, he hasn'tarrived in anywhere past like

(01:00:18):
the brain stem part of his brain.
He is, he is completely reactive.
He is operating in fight or flight at all moments.
Like this man is completely traumatized and he is running
our country and he's fully unhinged.
He's at this point possibly senile, but let's continue to
let him make calls about like what's best.

(01:00:38):
And but these, these worshippersthat follow him around.
I, I, I know that like, you know, I don't want to get off
topic, but. I think we've already done that.
I you know, it, it just it all it all ties in with like trying
to understand you. You asked the question actually
about the white supremacist point of view.
Like, I think you have to get inside the mind of Donald Trump

(01:00:58):
and the people who who would follow you've.
Got to say, you've got to say whites matter.
Blacks don't. They say it, but I want to take
a real quick break when we come back.
I actually want to close the show out with some hope and good
vibes because I feel like we've we've, we've, we've sat in the
bathwater for a long enough at this point.
Dirty, dirty bathwater. Yeah, I'm going to come back and

(01:01:19):
I want to talk about celebratingus people, the people who fought
for freedom, equality, equity under the law, and those of us
who are continuing to do that yeoman's work today, pulling the
equality plow further and further down, you know, our our
own fields, so to speak. But when we come back, we're
going to talk about a beautiful woman by the name of Opal Lee.

(01:01:52):
So we started our segment on Juneteenth discussing a woman by
the name of Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth.
Well, Miss Opal is still alive at 97 fucking years old.
Hell yeah. And she wrote Trump earlier this
year to discuss, to explain to him why his executive order
wasn't good for the country. And I'd like to read it for you

(01:02:14):
if I could. Please do.
I'm going to cry during this, bythe way, because this is this is
absolutely beautiful. And I'm already starting up.
Oh boy. Dear President Donald Trump,
today is your Inauguration day and also the day for honoring
the legacy of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and his
stance for unity and hope. As a lifelong educator, I know

(01:02:36):
what the we teach people today shapes tomorrow.
So if people can be taught to hate, they can also be taught to
love. I've spent nearly a century
working for human dignity and the simple right to enjoy.
I've spent nearly a century working for human dignity and

(01:02:56):
the civil right to enjoy the freedom of being an American.
Lately, I've walked for miles insupport of that freedom, not
just for one, but for all. I found this promise of freedom
is only as strong as those who choose to uphold it.
The question is, will you rise to the occasion, or will you

(01:03:17):
stand still as history passes you by?
I've learned that courage is theonly thing that can turn hope
into action. Leadership is more than policy,
it is example. Division is an easy choice.
Unity is the courageous one. It takes leaders like you to

(01:03:37):
choose that path, even if it's hard.
You have that power to teach us all what is possible.
When service replaces spectacle and humanity takes center stage.
Let your legacy, one that lifts us, not one that weighs us down.
The road to true freedom is long, but I've walked my whole
life. Will you walk with me?

(01:03:58):
Name the place, name the time, and I'll meet you there.
Miss Opal is a beautiful soul, an advocate, and an agent for
real change, positive change. But it would not surprise you,
though, to find out that Donald Trump decided to not meet with
her and walk with her. A woman who has walked her

(01:04:19):
entire life for change, to bringus forward, to take us forward.
A man who is so stubborn and so filled with his own ego that he
cannot find it within himself tocross the barrier between his

(01:04:40):
ego and being with people. I'd like to give my final
thoughts and I want to pass it over to you, Judy, to close the
show out. There are lots of really
incredible people doing many incredible things to celebrate
Juneteenth and Pride Month and also Caribbean American History

(01:05:01):
or Heritage Month. But however you celebrate,
whether that's how to click out,listening to Motown's Best,
celebrating Pride while listening to Motown's Best, or
taking a personal day, closing your shades, putting on some
white noise and forgetting that the sun exists for a day while
listening to Motown's best, of course, take a moment to think
about just how vibrant our history is.

(01:05:23):
Think about Opal. Think about Miss Opal.
She is a she's a Sentinel in ourhistory.
There are people who exist in our history.
I'm thinking about maybe like the of the likes of Harvey Milk,
an incredible activist for the gay community in San Francisco

(01:05:44):
who were they are renaming the boat they named after him so
that way they could get rid of DEI during Pride month.
They did it during Pride month just to rub the salt in the
wound some more. They are doing their very best,
their level best to strip our country, our history books, our

(01:06:10):
actual physical history from us.What I plan on doing this
Juneteenth is reflecting on whatthis country can do.
When good hearted men and women decide that enough is enough,
you know it's time for change. And we saw that in LA this past

(01:06:30):
week. We saw it the solidarity in
Minnesota. We've seen solidarity all across
this country with record settingprotest numbers, people who are
stepping outside of their comfort zone to say, I've had
enough of this. We have to continue to do that.

(01:06:51):
And on this Juneteenth, it's notjust about black Americans as
much as it is about our history,our black history.
It is also about our history as Americans.
If you cannot see yourself in that, I ask you to dig a little
deeper because your history is is wrapped up in, in, in this

(01:07:12):
history. Our history as black Americans
is wrapped up in the nation's history and vice versa.
So Judy, I'm going to toss it over to you to close this out.
I'm sorry. I said, Lord, that was a, that
was a. Emotional Roller.
Coaster We're just playing volleyball with crying back and
forth at the table. Roller coaster I'm.

(01:07:34):
Sorry. Yeah, it was.
Thank you for that. Well, in the true spirit of the
feelings and the emotions, what I always think is what can I do?
You know, like that's kind of where I begin.
And when it comes to things likeBlack History Month, Juneteenth,
literally every fucking day, I can continue to show up for the

(01:07:57):
people of color in my life and lift them up to be the equals
that they are. And I can do the work to
deconstruct what has been programmed in me.
Simply put, as a white person, that is the work that I can
actively do every day is to deepdeconstruct and deprogram.

(01:08:17):
So I, I enjoyed this beautiful history lesson.
It, it's fun because we all all week at work, we've done Juteep
lunches. Yes.
And what that looks like is thatwe have catering from a local
black-owned restaurant with that's, you know, specializes in

(01:08:40):
like soul food, like Juneteenth type celebrations, black food.
Oh my God, so good. So, you know, we had the, we had
the baked salmon, we had the greens, we had the Mac and
cheese, we had the cornbread, the banana pudding, like you
name it. There was fried chicken too.
Was there Mac and cheese? Oh yes, of course.
Now let me ask you a question onthe Mac and cheese front though.

(01:09:02):
Was it? Could you taste the butter or
could you not taste the butter? You could.
You couldn't taste the butter. Actually, it was good.
Mac and cheese it was. Was it like, was it like my
level Mac and cheese? It was.
Or was it just different? I'm I'm going to give it the
shouts it deserves, but I also. Have you had better Mac and
cheese? Of course.

(01:09:22):
Yeah. I mean, yours is better, but it
wasn't. It was like it was more, it was
OK. It was more Velveeta quality,
but I don't think it was Velveeta kind of thing.
Yeah. Like yours is more like chunky
authentic. Like you know the shredded
cheese is in there. No shredded cheese could be
found in this SO. Black Mac and cheese.
OK, so. Please, black cheese.
But, you know, what was fun was sitting amongst my colleagues,

(01:09:46):
you know, of all backgrounds, just kind of honoring like why
we do this. And we don't, in fact, we, we
don't get all the federal holidays off, but but we, but we
find a way to. Yeah.
And, you know, like, that's unique to my workplace and not,
you know. Everywhere else.

(01:10:06):
Most, most places do honor it and, and it is just as recent as
20/21 that that became a federalholiday.
You know, so like what's important to do is to remember
the reason why this was made a federal holiday and what people
sacrifices led to in order to get this acknowledged and and
and and recognize the privilege in just that people have to work
that much harder to have their experiences acknowledged when

(01:10:29):
they are not white an. 89 year old has to walk from Fort Worth
to fucking DC to proven point yeah.
And and more power to her. I mean, there are reasons why I
say I want to live till I'm 100 and I know that that can be a
lonely Rd. in some ways, but if I could dedicate my life to do
this type of work, that would bepretty awesome, you know?
So like, for sure, that's inspiring.
Like I, I, I, I don't know if I have much else to say because

(01:10:53):
this episode was geared towards like what it was meant for,
which is to recognize, like why Juneteenth has, has, has gained,
you know, the, the notoriety, notoriety that it has well.
Yeah, I think like, you know, wecan really quickly close it up
and wrap it up with this. Like I knew that I didn't get
told about this in middle schoolor high school.
Absolutely not. I, I mean, like I literally part

(01:11:14):
of the luncheon experience this week was, was trivia and and
we're not going to go through the trivia because honest to
God, like you're going to get all the answers right.
You like you covered it in the history lesson that was this
episode, which is cool, But likeI, I, you know, that wasn't
taught. And that already tells you that
like we don't do enough of a, ofa good job in teaching black

(01:11:37):
history and in teaching like actual American, our history,
American history, right, Not just the parts that that favor
like white folks and like paint the country in a exactly in a
comfortable light. Tell, tell the truth, tell the
truth, Caroline Leavitt, tell the fucking truth.
Like stop telling lies that makepeople comfortable because we

(01:11:58):
don't want to like push outside the boundaries of that comfort.
I don't want to feel bad about being white when no one's asking
you to feel bad about being white.
We just want you to accept the fact that, yes, bad things have
happened because this country isthe way that it is.
And that's not like to say that you're responsible for slavery.
It's to say, hey, look, you had a leg up generations before this

(01:12:24):
because you weren't enslaved, and that's not your fault.
But let's also do our very best to, like, help balance the book.
But let's just do that the cut our country.
By the way, the United States has never actually done what
Germany has done about the Holocaust, which is to claim
full responsibility. Nope, we're instead we're just

(01:12:47):
denying that it's we're gaslighting everyone.
To say that you can fly the Confederate flag in the United
States isn't a hate crime is a really big deal to me.
For me, Judy, I, I feel like we could probably go on for another
hour and a half. But in the sake of us getting to
bed and getting this little Rubydog to bed, I think we should

(01:13:10):
probably wrap it up. So listeners, we want to thank
you again. You're enjoying another episode
at the extremes. Do subscribe, do share.
It goes a long way. Of course, you can reach out to
us on Blue Sky. You can check the show notes and
until next week, educate. Yourself, but you got to get out
of bed, out of bed, out of bed. Yes.

(01:13:30):
She don't know what to do. She's got everything.