Truth Be Told

On this episode of ‘Grab A Glass’, DT examines why fear has made the truth so rarely told.

Intro: James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni "A Conversation". Full Broadcast Video (1971)
Uploaded to YouTube by: LoVetta Jenkins
Original video from SOUL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4OPYp4s0tc&si=8n9FS9OvB5fgqMip

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You don't have a dream, fakeit, but the relation. You can't
fink a dream. You got tofake it because we don't have dreams these
days. How the hell can youhave a dream for what? Well?
This is so everybody's everybody's driving.But let's jive on that level. If
I love you, I can't lieto you. Of course you can lie
to me, and you will ifyou love me and you going off of

(00:21):
Matty someplace. You're lying to me, cause what the hell do I care
about the truth? I care ifyou're there what Billy Holidays say. Hush
now, don't explain, alright,I accept that of course, of course
you lie to me, cause Idon't even wanna care. What does the
truth matter? And why are yougonna be truthful with me when you lie
to everybody else? You lied whenyou smile at that cracker down the job
right, lie of me, smile. Treat me the same way you would

(00:43):
treat him. I can't treat you. You must him, you must,
because I've caught the I've caught thefrowns and the anger. He's happy with
you, of course he doesn't knowyou were unhappy. You grant anymore all
day long. You come home whenI catch out. Because I love you,
I get least of you. Iget the very minimum. And I'm
saying, you know, fake itwith me. Is that too much for

(01:06):
the black woman to ask of theblack man for ten years so that we
can get a child on his feet? That says yeah. Father smiled at
mother. He talked to me aboutschool today. Who cares that you can
read or can't read? Most Americanscan't read. Most people can't read.
They look at the pictures, thebother ry and the hobby of his nice

(01:29):
Gonna keep it fly, hears onthe line, last flat we kicking fly,
the last lasting, so craver live. I am struggling with our aversion

(01:57):
for telling the truth or seeing thetruth be told. Definitely struggling with that.
This week, I am getting increasinglyuncomfortable. I think uncomfortable is the
right word. I'm getting increasingly uncomfortablewith the growing percentage of people willing to
turn a blind eye to hypocrisy,deception, clout chasing, and just like

(02:25):
the narcissistic power controlling narratives that seemto be all over the place. I
am so disappointed in our willingness towatch people be punished for speaking a collective
truth, or being punished for sayingsomething that should be questioned. If you're

(02:53):
aware of any current social, political, artistic, business, sports, or
really anything public climate, you probablycould sit right here, right now and
identify a moment in our society wherethe truth just feels shaky. Like there's

(03:15):
a group of people right. Let'scall this group a Group A. They're
yelling at the top of their lungsabout something identified as the truth. Truth's
not really up for debate in thissituation. It's backed by facts and numbers
and eyewitness accounts, not up fordebate. But there's another delegate of people,

(03:44):
let's call this group Group B,yelling at the top of their lungs,
also perhaps louder in fact, witha completely opposing viewpoint of those facts
and figures and eyewitness accounts. Now, and some in this is sure,
there's room for interpretation. They saythe truth is not absolute whatever. I

(04:08):
don't know how I feel about thatin certain situations, but sure, So
let's say this group B, thissupposing viewpoint, this completely opposition led group.
Some of those people in Group Bhave identified this opposing viewpoint as the
truth. They found a way toconstruct and construe the numbers, the facts,

(04:29):
the figures to present a version oftheir own truth. Data absolutely can
be manipulated without context, of course, can't you ever at a science project
in college? You can make thisshit look like you know, it's green
when it's blue. Some of thosepeople, though, are yelling with all

(04:50):
that conviction, knowing damn while they'relying. If you have a favorite movie,
TV show, or hell, evenstage play, guess what you know
that under light's camera and the wordaction, a motherfucker can make a story,
a total story, look like thereal deal. And some of those

(05:15):
people are doing so in Group B, knowing that it's a lie, but
they believe that the lie is betterfor them than the truth, and so
they go with that. And someare just so ignorant that they swear what
they say is fact without the abilityto back it, just full conviction.
It's just a feeling. They wouldn'teven care to know the truth if it

(05:36):
hit them in the head. Whendid the lies become so prevalent? When
did the lines of truth become soblurred? Things all adults know at this
point are now up for debate,or seemingly up for debate. I can

(05:57):
only conclude it to be for onereason from two places, but really one
reason that feel like the same butare very different if truly compared. Let's
see if I can do this.Let's see if I can I can map
this for you. I think allpeople lie because of fear, but from
two places. Fear from a placeof loss and fear from a place of

(06:20):
wanting to gain. Let's start withloss, loss, loneliness, lack.
They have something, whether godden throughearnest or evil means, be possessing shit
from evil means, that's for sure, and in order to keep that thing
that they possess, they feel theymust lie on that evil side that they

(06:46):
potentially gain stuff from. An exampleof that is clearly racism, definitely based
on that evil shit. White powerand privilege came up with the lie that
African people and their descendants were threefitts of a man. Cheating is based
in this shit. Surety, gothrough your phone and seeing you with sexting

(07:10):
your ex, and you don't wantto lose her because you know there are
too many benefits in the relationships,So and then you lie like a rug
and say that it wasn't you becauseyou don't want to lose her fear of
loss. Fear of loss, that'swhy people lie. People also lie because

(07:30):
they want to gain. Greed gluttonyis all the same shit. They don't
have something that they want or notenough of it, so to get it,
they feel they must lie, andin order to gain, lying comes
into play. Of course, thisis where some of the narratives come into

(07:54):
play that we talked about earlier,especially for those that have and want more
the media spend pr machines. Let'scome up with some examples real quick that
I haven't uh taking notes on thecelebrity admissions scandal. A bunch of rich
motherfuckers lying about what their kids' testscores are to get into schools that they

(08:16):
probably could just pay to get intoor whatever the hell. Tax fraud for
the wealthy, just lying to gain. And that's not just for reserved,
for those that already have. Imean, perhaps there's something evil in the
way that's stopping you from getting somethingthat you deserve. We been all been

(08:37):
cheated before, and shit like Unoand Sorry and Monopoly, and so those
that do not have begin to playthese games as well. I know for
a fact, I know for afact, you niggas is scanning them in

(08:58):
organic fruits and vegetables at the selfcheckout as regular non organic vegetables and fruits.
I know it, I haven't seenit. I know y'all are fear
of not gaining. That could alsobe fear of loss. You don't want
to lose the money. The pursuitand protection of like positions of power and

(09:22):
wealth have muddied the waters of truthin just crazy ways, and to me
from where I sit, it's gettingworse. We're questioning shit that we see
with our own two eyes from assassinationattempts to finals, MVPs being left off

(09:46):
of Olympic rosters because the lying hasgotten so damn good. Reality as we
know it, or I guess aswe once knew it, is being mimicked
in a way that everybody is agreat Thespian even though they are clearly not

(10:09):
a good actor. The problem,as I see it, with what Nikki
and Jimmy discussed at the top ofthe show is that collectively, this pursuit,
this pursuit of protection of positions ofpower and wealth, have fostered a

(10:30):
planet in which we cannot always tellwhat the truth, even is, and
we can't tell the truth. Welearned that as kids. I feel like
that some places we must lie.We have to pretend, like work in
school, in order to get by. It's the reason an adult has to

(10:54):
go to work, put up withall types all types of shit to feed
their family. And now all ofthat mess, all of that lying,
the need to eventually tell the truthcomes out elsewhere. The truth in order
to survive can only come out incertain places where power has already been established.

(11:18):
So if you're in some lousy,dog shit, predatory, low brow
ass job, especially in twenty twentyfour where the market, the job market
is terrible, you go to workand smile at the motherfucker who's the conduit
to all the mess that you're in, and then you can no longer pretend

(11:39):
outside of that space. And sothe people that you actually care about,
the people who actually would never putyou through that bs they get the truth,
no matter how ugly it is.Nicky and Jimmy were onto something,
as they always are, always are, always were. And I think I
have more to say about this,especially if we want to talk about what

(12:01):
the truth is or isn't, butnot now to be continue next week.
Much love to the creators, nomatter your flavor, May God forever being
our favorite. A YO cheers everybody, love y'all, thanks for listening.