July 23, 2023 • 38 mins
Ever wondered what a superhero movie could teach us about real-world politics? Strap in, because we're venturing into an intriguing intersection of pop culture and politics, with DC's The Flash as our cinematic pivot point. This episode will unravel intriguing parallels between Barry Allen's timeline alterations and the current attempts to rewrite history within the US government, as we navigate the depths of the Flashpoint Theory and discuss Ezra Miller's stellar performance.
We're not stopping at superheroes, though. This conversation also digs into the critical issue of affirmative action laws in the United States—originally designed to uplift minorities but later colonized and co-opted. We'll dissect how these mechanisms, tainted by white privilege and racial advantage, inadvertently contribute to societal resegregation and could be hindering the progress of diversity. And if that's not enough, we'll also shed light on the power of voting and its capacity to effect real-world change. So, are you ready to connect the world of superheroes with the hard-hitting realities of politics and societal norms?
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-
1199_hgdj.pdfhttps://www.britannica.com/topic/affirmative-action
http://holmesforhighpoint.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3tochTgPVc
http://www.youtube.com/@superheropoliticspodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi everyone and welcome to the latest episode of
superhero politics.
I'm your host, michael Holmes,and we're going to talk about
jacking up some timelines.
Alright, thank you guys forbeing with us and coming back at
the end of this episode.
We got some really big newsfrom really great news that is
(00:26):
going on both in the comic bookworld and the political world.
I've got some announcements tomake, but we're going to get
into this episode and, for thoseof you watching on YouTube, you
can see that I am wearing myflash t shirt because we're
going to be talking about theflash today.
We're going to do a quickreview of the movie and then
(00:47):
we're going to talk about theflash point theory and how it
intersects today with therewriting of history that is
being attempted in our USgovernment.
So, really quickly about themovie.
Obviously, it didn't do as wellat the box office as I think DC
(01:08):
had hoped it was going to do.
Certainly, they had high hopesfor the production of this film,
the script of this film, theplace where this film was coming
out in terms of the transitionfrom the Snyderverse over to the
new MCU or DCU.
(01:29):
I'm sorry.
And so, after a string of boxoffice kind of failures, with
one woman in 1984 and Shazam,fury of the Gods and Black Adam,
just kind of misses from theDCU.
There was hopes that the flashwas going to be that Well, that
(01:49):
flash point, that reset thatthey were able to jump off, and
just only aesthetics of themovie.
I would say, you know it waspretty good.
You know there was some shoddylittle quirks with the, with the
CGI there, but you know,overall, I think, for what the
(02:12):
flash is, I think it was adecent.
I think it was decent.
I think the visuals were decent.
I mean the cast itself.
They had some really big timecameos in there.
I mean from you know, threedifferent Batman with Keaton and
Affleck and at the end, forthose of you who haven't seen it
(02:33):
, I mean Clooney shows up asBatman, and so they had Gal
Gadot in there as Wonder Womanand Mamoa Michael Shannon as odd
.
I mean they had some really,you know, really big cameos in
there, and so Sasha Calli wasthere as Carrizo or else.
(02:53):
So I think, overall, I thinkthe film itself had potential.
I just think it got derailed byforces outside of its own power
.
And so you know, as we we lookat what happened to the film and
look at how it performed worsethan Green Lantern, which was a
(03:16):
surprise.
It performed worse than GreenLantern.
I think a lot of that had to dowith the controversy surrounding
Ezra Miller and so but myreview of the film has a lot to
do with Ezra Miller'sperformance.
Now, whatever you think abouthim personally, whatever you
(03:38):
think about Ezra Millerpersonally, if you take a step
back, if you just take a stepback and really, really, really
take a look at that performance,that was a S tier, god level
(03:59):
acting performance.
There's no really other way tosay it.
There's no other way to say it.
For him to establish playing adual role of the same character
with completely and utterlydifferent personalities,
(04:21):
completely and utterly differentpersonalities, and to have
character development in both ofthose in opposite directions,
to have character development ofboth of the variations of the
flash in opposite directions,was astounding.
(04:42):
I found myself literallysitting in the in the theater
marveling at this guy's abilityto portray this character.
Now I try to suspend judgment.
I just go to the film, watchthe film and just review.
But there is no way that youcan sit there and say that that
(05:05):
was not a top notch performanceof not only Barry Allen the
character, but the youngerversion of Barry Allen and the
flash.
I'm sorry, this was a fantasticacting portrayal by Ezra Miller
and I hope everyone who gets achance to see the film suspends
(05:29):
everything that you know abouthim.
I know that's hard in this day,but you got to take a look at
this, this performance.
It was to me, one of the mostincredible acting performances
that I've seen, not just in asuperhero film but in the last
10 years in movies.
I thought it was astounding.
And I've seen people play todual characters, but I've never
(05:53):
seen I've never seen the entirefilm be centered around the
interaction between the samecharacter in the dual character,
with that much of the dialoguebeing against back and forth
between the two with completelydifferent personalities.
I'm sorry, but this was afantastic performance.
(06:18):
So I just wanted to give thatquick review of the flash and
then connect it to our politicaltheme of the day, which is the
rewriting of history.
In the film, barry runs back intime because he wants to save
(06:38):
his mom, because he feels likeit's a tragedy and it messed up
his life.
It messed up his dad's life.
His dad was in prison, about tobe sentenced to death because
of his supposed murder of hismom.
They couldn't figure out whyhis mom was killed and his dad
(07:02):
took the fall for.
So he's decided look, I boughtthis power and stability, I can
run back in time and fix it all.
And even when he was talking toBruce, then I flex Batman.
He said, hey, look, I can, Ican say my parents, I can say
your parents, I can go back, Ican do all of this.
You make it like it neverhappened.
(07:25):
And obviously Bruce, being thegenius that he is, said hey,
look, hey, you have tounderstand.
And even Barry was cognizant ofthe fact that.
Yeah, you know, there's gonnabe some potential pitfalls.
I can't, you know, interactwith myself.
I can't do all this.
And immediately he comes acrosshimself and so the the entire
(07:50):
Endeavor shot the shit likeright out the gate.
But he tries to make the bestof it.
But then he starts to realizethe incursion that he created
had already Messed up thetimeline and not to get all
quantum.
You know, e equals mc squarehere in this episode.
(08:11):
But you think about time in thesense of like a rock hitting
your windshield, right, you'regoing down the road 70 miles per
hour and a rock hits yourwindshield and it glances off.
So, depending on the size ofthe rock At this peak, at this
point it could be a small divotor a small little crack in your
windshield with little Splintersright like a little stars,
(08:37):
little starfish, littlesnowflake, or you could hit it
and it could just make a bigsingular crack and just kind of
run along the expanse of yourwindshield.
So, yeah, that could.
That could be what Barry wasintended.
Okay, we're gonna make thisencouraging point with little
Indention and then this timelineis gonna go, but the potential
(09:03):
for so many different timelinesor what centered around that
point of impact and we saw thatlater in the film.
As he's going back and he'skeeping, he's keep trying to
undo this cannon event.
That is going to happen,regardless of what you do, and
this is why I want to talk aboutwhat happened in the Supreme
(09:26):
Court and how, across thecountry, conservatives are
trying to rewrite history,specifically black history, in
terms of education andaffirmative action, and so
they're attacking education andthey're doing it by trying to
rewrite history first in Floridabefore we get to affirmative
(09:49):
action.
In Florida, governor RonDeSantis and the Florida
legislature just passed the billthat highlighted how to teach
black history.
Now, no other, no other Historyhas these caveats or these,
these Designs aroundMisinformation or miseducation
(10:18):
of groups, api, hispanic orNative.
None of these groups have thetype of stringent, divergent
curricula that black history has, and so, in the latest, just
frontal assault on black history, florida has decided that you
(10:45):
can teach slavery, but you mustteach that slavery had some
inherent benefits forAfrican-Americans or enslaved
people.
Slavery had inherent benefitsfor Slaves.
(11:06):
That is what Florida isteaching now.
It it boggles my mind and itmakes, and it makes this episode
all the more poignant, simplybecause, if you look at what
they're doing, they're trying torewrite how we view the
(11:28):
atrocities of slavery, so thegenerations coming behind us
will have this Watered-down viewof how bad slavery was and the
ripple effects that carriedforward Hundreds of years later.
This essentially cements theability of certain of groups to
(11:55):
continue to discriminate againstAfrican Americans generations
to come, simply because Kidswon't know how bad the history
of this country country is.
And so it is not just startedat the K-12 level, it is now
also moved into the collegiatelevel, because the Supreme Court
(12:18):
rolled back affirmative action.
Now this is just the next waveof assaults on civil rights era.
So 1963 to 1968, lbj passed aseries of civil rights acts
around discrimination andhousing and voting and so many
(12:41):
things that have closed that hadattempted to close the gap in
achievement and wealth for blackAmericans.
This is just the first wave ofviolence versus white Americans
and they have never not stoppedbeing attacked in undermined.
(13:02):
So 2008, barack Obama wins.
Two years later, the SupremeCourt gets rid of the VRA,
section 4 and section 5 andsince then voter suppression all
through the south has been, hasbeen rampant, whether it's been
voter ID, the closing ofpolling places, the inability of
(13:29):
DMVs to be able to issue thecorrect drive, the correct IDs,
getting rid of Sunday voting,getting ready to same day
registration, getting ready toregister, registering 16 year
olds, getting rid of all thethings that would inspire a
generation to be able to takepart in voting All those things
(13:49):
have been attacked.
Gerrymandering, wiping outblack centers of voting power,
diluting, diluting them,splitting districts to that can
further dilute power.
Hell, in Alabama there's a townthat's 85% black, yet the
(14:14):
entire town council and mayor iswhite, and now we have a black
mayor and they refuse to seethem in a town in Alabama.
They just refuse to see him.
And the new mayor said that thetown in 2023.
A lady told the new mayor, thenew black mayor that was elected
(14:35):
, that the town wasn't ready fora black man.
It's 2023.
But here we are now, fastforward to the Supreme Court.
Who is just rolled back In thedobs decision?
Just roll back abortion accessand rights.
(14:57):
Roe v Wade Now taking onaffirmative action.
So 100 years of precedent isgone in just one session of the
Supreme Court.
The John Roberts Court willlive in infamy forever.
But the rewriting of history isnow front and center because
(15:27):
we're talking about getting ridof vast sections of the Voting
Rights Act because they aredeemed discriminatory to white
people.
Now I really want you to hearthat they are discriminatory to
white people.
Now let's take a look at thestatistics.
(15:50):
Black people make up 3% ofHarvard and Harvard and
University of North Carolina.
My home state was named in thissuit because they explicitly
said we are going to considerrace in our decision making.
(16:10):
Why?
Because we want the mostdiverse counts.
We want the most diverse campus, but the most diversity of
thought, the most diversity ofbackgrounds that we possibly can
.
We understand that.
That makes learninginstitutions, better we get that
.
So what are we going to do?
We're going to consider that.
So they were explicitly namedin the lawsuit.
(16:33):
When this decision comes down,it says Harvard, north Carolina,
every no school can take intoaccount race and admit on the
basis of race.
Now the irony of all this isthat Clarence Thomas, second
African American to ever sit onthe seat on the Supreme Court,
(16:58):
benefited from affirmativeaction.
He's literally where he istoday because of affirmative
action and now he's trying torewrite history so that he can
say that he made it on hismirrors.
And I'm not saying he's not.
I didn't say I'm not sayingthat Clarence Thomas didn't earn
(17:18):
his way there.
What I know for a fact is, interms of being a, being a
constitutional scholar, clarenceThomas was never thought of as
that level of judicial thought.
So whatever you want to say,maybe he's projecting a little
(17:40):
bit, but right now they'resaying that African Americans
have disproportionatelybenefited at the expense of
Asian Americans and whiteAmericans.
Now, asian Americans Asiansmake up 25% of Harvard's student
(18:01):
body.
Asians are 6% of the population, maybe less, so Asians are
represented four times theirpopulation.
African Americans make up 12%,which is right in line with the
population, 13% of thepopulation, the United States.
(18:22):
Now where the issue comes in isthat legacy students make up 33%
, a third, and of that third,70% are white.
40% of that they would notqualify.
(18:45):
Now here's the thing aboutaffirmative action.
Affirmative action didn't takea D student out of the inner
city of Detroit and put them inHarvard.
No, every single student,minority student, who would have
otherwise been consideredaffirmative action, qualified on
(19:05):
the merits of their academicperformance, every one of them.
A lot was made by people likeJoy Reed and Michelle Obama
saying Sheila Jackson Lee,saying yeah, I went to Harvard
because of affirmative action.
And what they really said washey, I was in a place where
(19:28):
Harvard would never come torecruit.
Affirmative action only forcedHarvard to come to find me.
They didn't lower the standards, they didn't change any of the
admission process.
They just had to come and findme now because there was a
direct edict from the federalgovernment that said they had to
(19:51):
expand admissions forminorities to balance the
playing field of his againsthistorical inequities that this
country never fixed.
And now here we are, just barelyover 50 years and everybody
(20:14):
saying, oh, everything's good.
As a matter of fact, we've gonetoo far and we're hurting white
people.
Now this is going to be toughwhite people.
It's about you, about to getsome tough words.
So you know, if you're stillhere after this, know I'm saying
it in love the reason whyyou're so against affirmative
(20:36):
action.
And white women have benefitedfrom affirmative action more
than any other group, any othergroup.
White women have been thebeneficiaries.
White women were included as aprotected class in the
affirmative action originalaffirmative action case and
white women have since.
We've reached the benefits ineducation, in, in
(20:58):
entrepreneurism and corporateAmerica, finance, government,
wherever.
It is 77% of the jobs that areconsidered affirmative action
with the white women.
So even the laws put in placeto help minorities were co-opted
and colonized and black womenminorities lost out.
(21:23):
So now, just like Barry runsback in time and damages
timeline and has unintendedconsequences, this will also
have unintended consequences,and the reason why I say that
progress is a canon event isbecause it always happens.
(21:44):
Now, if you're watching themovie over and over, barry tries
to stop Sasha, callie,supergirl Kara Zorrell from
dying.
He runs back, he runs back intime, he runs back, back, back.
But every single time she dies,every single time he runs back,
she dies Every time he changessomething, she dies, and it
(22:07):
doesn't matter, it's a canonevent, it is supposed to happen.
It is going to happen, nomatter what you do.
It's going to happen and, byGod, progress in this country is
a canon event.
Slavery ended, reconstruction,jim Crow, segregation All these
(22:32):
things happened.
In every single point, progresscame through.
Now, is it 100%?
No, but the country is movingforward.
African Americans are movingforward.
We're making progress, and Ithink that is the fear is
because here comes the, herecomes the tough love.
White people, your privilege andyour inherent racial advantage
(22:58):
has made you soft, it has madeyou mediocre, and I always say
this is the same.
You keep talking about themeritocracy that you say you
want, but you really don't, andthe reason I say that is is
because you can't hidemediocrity in a meritocracy.
(23:23):
You can't do it.
So as black people become moreeducated, as opportunities open
up for Hispanics and immigrants,you find yourself struggling to
compete on the field that youdesigned.
And so what do you have to do?
(23:43):
You have to take out thestructural components of your
competition.
You have to take out theability to gain a, an education
equivalent to yours.
You have to take out theability to to acquire capital
(24:05):
equivalent to yours.
You have to segregate throughpolicy rather than fear and
violence, and it's gettingharder and harder and harder for
you to maintain those controls,especially in a world that is
(24:26):
now seeing the value ofembracing the diversity that is
changing this country.
Now the problem, the unintendedconsequences of these actions,
could be that white Americasuffers.
And I say that because at somepoint it's going to occur to
(24:50):
people of color that we are notwanted in your spaces and there
may be a natural resegregationwhich you may see is you may see
black kids, instead of theirdream to get into Harvard and
Yale and Stanford and Brown InColumbia, we're going to turn
(25:13):
around and say you know what?
I'm going to go to NorthCarolina A&T and I'm going to
bring up North Carolina A&T.
I'm going to go to Coppon State, I'm going to go to Howard, I'm
going to go to Morehouse, I'mgoing to go to an HBCU and I'm
going to bring that up, andyou're going to see black
academics doing that andultimately, ultimately, what may
(25:39):
be the linchpin is when theblack athlete follows, because
here's some more tough love.
You may not want us in yourclassroom, but you damn sure
want us on your field.
You damn sure want us on yourbasketball courts and your
baseball diamonds you damn surewant us there.
(26:00):
So you can try to erase historyall you want and keep us out of
your classroom, but the historyyou're trying to keep is you
used to segregate us and not putus in your locker rooms, but
you don't want that to go away,and so the unintended
(26:22):
consequences are going to be.
Eventually, we are going tofigure out a way to overcome
this, and what?
One way that's always happenedis guess what these same groups
that have fought to protectaffirmative action have now said
(26:43):
.
You know what the worstaffirmative action is legacy
admissions.
You're unqualified.
You're only at Harvard becauseyour dad's name is on the
building, your granddad name ison the building, your families
and your family gives $100million every year to an
endowment.
That's why you're there.
(27:04):
You're a mediocre student, butyou're at Harvard.
At Harvard, you're at Yale,you're at Brown in Columbia,
you're at Vassar, you're at allthese Ivy League schools and you
don't qualify.
And so now they're attackinglegacy admissions.
And so now what you're going tohave is you're going to have a
(27:24):
bunch of rich scions who justknew they were going to wake up
one day with their last namebeing whatever it is, and walk
into an Ivy League school.
And now that opportunity isgone, that entitlement is gone,
simply because you couldn'taccept the 3% of black kids who
(27:48):
went to Ivy League universitiesvia affirmative action.
I believe we call this hoistedon your own petard.
Oh, and look at the here I amfacing the consequences of my
actions.
And so what happens is, everytime Barry went back, he tried
(28:09):
to rewrite history, he tried tochange it, but it just kept
coming and just like, just likeAfrican Americans, we're going
to keep coming.
We are not going to stop.
Affirmative action is justanother bump in a long, winding
road to ultimately, what blackAmericans are going to achieve.
(28:33):
Polling after polling says that, no matter what happens in this
country, the most optimisticpeople in this country are black
people Because we know whatwe've overcome, we know the
adversity we faced and we keeppersevering because we know
we're going to be victorious.
So Barry ultimately came to therealization as I believe white
(29:00):
America will.
I believe that, for whateverClarence Thomas's machinations
are he may not in his lifetime,but the generations that follow
him will is that this country isbetter when it's diverse, and
so economic studies have shownand I'm doing this because
(29:22):
that's something that I'mworking on right here in High
Point, north Carolina, and I'mworking on restorative economic
policies as a member of citycouncil.
I wrote a policy brief on thisis that over the last half
century, the $50 billion in GDPhas been lost Brookings,
(29:45):
international Monetary Fund,cnbc, harvard School of Finance
you can find this anywhere andI'll put some of those links in
the show notes.
But every single one of thosestudies has shown that this
country has lost $50 trillion$16 trillion since the year 2000
(30:10):
.
Because of structural racism,because of institutional racism,
this country is poorer andweaker.
If we were less racist, thereis not a single country on earth
that would be within amillennia's, and that's the
(30:30):
biggest chance of catching us asan economic power.
We're $30 trillion economy.
We should be an $80 trillioneconomy, but because of
structural racism, because ofthe denial of capital and
entrepreneurialism, because ofhigher interest rates and higher
full closure rates on AfricanAmericans, because of our
(30:50):
xenophobic inability to embracethe immigrant population who
comes in and is falling apartright now, is falling a fucking
part, because the Santas and hispolicies have chased off that
segment of the labor populationand houses are falling apart
that can't get finished beingbuilt, crops are riding in the
(31:12):
field, you've got freakinghotels who can't staff because
they don't have the people, allbecause mediocrity has won the
day in the white community, allbecause you're trying to hide
(31:34):
your mediocrity in a meritocracy, and it will stick out.
And so what's going on is nowyou're suffering, and I'm trying
really hard not to haveSchadenfreude because I don't
want the pain that's inflictedon my country, but it's hard not
to sit back and realize what'shappening.
(31:57):
Because of the choices that youmade, because you've tried to
rewrite history, because you'vetried to change the past, the
future is in doubt.
So, yes, we're at a flashpoint.
We are at a flashpoint, we areat a reckoning, we're at a nexus
and we're facing a canon event.
(32:20):
Because, guess what?
Progress has never been stopped.
It's been slowed, but it'snever been stopped.
It's been delayed, but it'snever been denied, and progress
will continue in this country.
So, as we wrap up, I just wantyou guys to think about what it
(32:45):
means to have a diverse country,what it means to have diverse
opinions and diverse circles offriends, extended family, what
that means, and how much betteryou're much, much more rich.
Your life has been because ofsomething, because you've
learned from some folks and somepeople that you don't know.
(33:06):
Think about the richness thatdiversity has brought into your
life.
Think about every time that youtravel to a new country.
You come back with a differentperspective.
You come back with an expandedworldview.
But if you segregate yourselfand you wall yourself off from
(33:26):
all the things that aredifferent from you, when you are
faced, inevitably, with thosechanges, you can't cope, and
that's what I'm afraid is goingto happen years from now and
this country will be torn apartbecause of it.
(33:48):
I believe that we're going toovercome it.
I'm continually optimistic, butwe've got work to do, folks,
and I am really grateful to bein the fight as an elected
official.
And so one thing thank you,guys for being with us today.
(34:11):
There's a lot of informationthat's going to be in the show
notes coming up here, but bignews, guys, big news.
Next weekend, I and superheropolitics podcast will be will be
moderating my first fan panelat Galaxy con in Raleigh, north
Carolina, and so I've alreadyI've been checking it daily and
(34:37):
folks are lining up and they'reliking the event and they're
going to come and we're going tofilm live from there and we're
going to take questions and I'mgoing to get a lot of great
footage there.
But it's a really huge event.
You know, speaking of the flash, one of the guests will be
there will be Grant Guston,stephen Amell from Arrow, karen
(35:00):
Gillian from, who plays Nebulaand the the Guardian series, a
lot of Star Wars fans, a lot ofStar Wars folks there, billy Dee
Williams a lot of a lot ofgreat folks.
Vampire diaries, folks inSummer Holder, paul Wesley a lot
of cool folks are going to bethere.
I'm going to try to get someinterviews going to try to, you
(35:22):
know, not ambush folks, butmaybe just step in and introduce
myself and maybe, down the road, have some of these great
guests on superhero politicspodcast.
So I'll be there next Saturday,the 29th, and we'll broadcast
live from there and we'll alsorecord our next episode.
(35:42):
And it is political season.
Guys, you can't have superhero,can't have superheroes and not
have politics, because it'ssuperhero politics podcast.
I am running for reelection.
Guys officially launched mycampaign on July 7 and things
are going well and if you wantto follow my campaign, if you
(36:03):
want to get to know what we'redoing, the issues that matter,
my platform.
You can go to homes for highpoint dot com, hol MES FOR H I G
, h, p O I, ntcom, and that'llbe in the show notes as well.
So please go check out mycampaign If you want to
(36:26):
contribute.
Cool, if you don't just send awell wish and just say hey, I
appreciate the support and theencouragement.
This is a tough job but I loveit and we continue to do the
best that we possibly can tomove high point and the state of
North Carolina and ultimatelythe country for it.
So, love you guys, thank you,enrich your lives, get to know
(36:50):
someone is different from youguys, be kind to one another,
show compassion and rememberwe're coming up on political
season and voting season.
If you ever feel powerless,always know that you do have a
power If you are eligible tovote.
Make sure that you exercisethat, because voting is a
superpower and you can changethe world with it, and I know
(37:13):
that for a fact.
So just remember, until nexttime, this is your host, michael
Holmes, this superhero politics, and remember you don't have to
be superhuman to be asuperhuman.
Until next time.
Love you guys, we're out.
Hi everyone and welcome to the latest episode of
superhero politics.
I'm your host, michael Holmes,and we're going to talk about
jacking up some timelines.
Alright, thank you guys forbeing with us and coming back at
the end of this episode.
We got some really big newsfrom really great news that is
(00:26):
going on both in the comic bookworld and the political world.
I've got some announcements tomake, but we're going to get
into this episode and, for thoseof you watching on YouTube, you
can see that I am wearing myflash t shirt because we're
going to be talking about theflash today.
We're going to do a quickreview of the movie and then
(00:47):
we're going to talk about theflash point theory and how it
intersects today with therewriting of history that is
being attempted in our USgovernment.
So, really quickly about themovie.
Obviously, it didn't do as wellat the box office as I think DC
(01:08):
had hoped it was going to do.
Certainly, they had high hopesfor the production of this film,
the script of this film, theplace where this film was coming
out in terms of the transitionfrom the Snyderverse over to the
new MCU or DCU.
(01:29):
I'm sorry.
And so, after a string of boxoffice kind of failures, with
one woman in 1984 and Shazam,fury of the Gods and Black Adam,
just kind of misses from theDCU.
There was hopes that the flashwas going to be that Well, that
(01:49):
flash point, that reset thatthey were able to jump off, and
just only aesthetics of themovie.
I would say, you know it waspretty good.
You know there was some shoddylittle quirks with the, with the
CGI there, but you know,overall, I think, for what the
(02:12):
flash is, I think it was adecent.
I think it was decent.
I think the visuals were decent.
I mean the cast itself.
They had some really big timecameos in there.
I mean from you know, threedifferent Batman with Keaton and
Affleck and at the end, forthose of you who haven't seen it
(02:33):
, I mean Clooney shows up asBatman, and so they had Gal
Gadot in there as Wonder Womanand Mamoa Michael Shannon as odd
.
I mean they had some really,you know, really big cameos in
there, and so Sasha Calli wasthere as Carrizo or else.
(02:53):
So I think, overall, I thinkthe film itself had potential.
I just think it got derailed byforces outside of its own power
.
And so you know, as we we lookat what happened to the film and
look at how it performed worsethan Green Lantern, which was a
(03:16):
surprise.
It performed worse than GreenLantern.
I think a lot of that had to dowith the controversy surrounding
Ezra Miller and so but myreview of the film has a lot to
do with Ezra Miller'sperformance.
Now, whatever you think abouthim personally, whatever you
(03:38):
think about Ezra Millerpersonally, if you take a step
back, if you just take a stepback and really, really, really
take a look at that performance,that was a S tier, god level
(03:59):
acting performance.
There's no really other way tosay it.
There's no other way to say it.
For him to establish playing adual role of the same character
with completely and utterlydifferent personalities,
(04:21):
completely and utterly differentpersonalities, and to have
character development in both ofthose in opposite directions,
to have character development ofboth of the variations of the
flash in opposite directions,was astounding.
(04:42):
I found myself literallysitting in the in the theater
marveling at this guy's abilityto portray this character.
Now I try to suspend judgment.
I just go to the film, watchthe film and just review.
But there is no way that youcan sit there and say that that
(05:05):
was not a top notch performanceof not only Barry Allen the
character, but the youngerversion of Barry Allen and the
flash.
I'm sorry, this was a fantasticacting portrayal by Ezra Miller
and I hope everyone who gets achance to see the film suspends
(05:29):
everything that you know abouthim.
I know that's hard in this day,but you got to take a look at
this, this performance.
It was to me, one of the mostincredible acting performances
that I've seen, not just in asuperhero film but in the last
10 years in movies.
I thought it was astounding.
And I've seen people play todual characters, but I've never
(05:53):
seen I've never seen the entirefilm be centered around the
interaction between the samecharacter in the dual character,
with that much of the dialoguebeing against back and forth
between the two with completelydifferent personalities.
I'm sorry, but this was afantastic performance.
(06:18):
So I just wanted to give thatquick review of the flash and
then connect it to our politicaltheme of the day, which is the
rewriting of history.
In the film, barry runs back intime because he wants to save
(06:38):
his mom, because he feels likeit's a tragedy and it messed up
his life.
It messed up his dad's life.
His dad was in prison, about tobe sentenced to death because
of his supposed murder of hismom.
They couldn't figure out whyhis mom was killed and his dad
(07:02):
took the fall for.
So he's decided look, I boughtthis power and stability, I can
run back in time and fix it all.
And even when he was talking toBruce, then I flex Batman.
He said, hey, look, I can, Ican say my parents, I can say
your parents, I can go back, Ican do all of this.
You make it like it neverhappened.
(07:25):
And obviously Bruce, being thegenius that he is, said hey,
look, hey, you have tounderstand.
And even Barry was cognizant ofthe fact that.
Yeah, you know, there's gonnabe some potential pitfalls.
I can't, you know, interactwith myself.
I can't do all this.
And immediately he comes acrosshimself and so the the entire
(07:50):
Endeavor shot the shit likeright out the gate.
But he tries to make the bestof it.
But then he starts to realizethe incursion that he created
had already Messed up thetimeline and not to get all
quantum.
You know, e equals mc squarehere in this episode.
(08:11):
But you think about time in thesense of like a rock hitting
your windshield, right, you'regoing down the road 70 miles per
hour and a rock hits yourwindshield and it glances off.
So, depending on the size ofthe rock At this peak, at this
point it could be a small divotor a small little crack in your
windshield with little Splintersright like a little stars,
(08:37):
little starfish, littlesnowflake, or you could hit it
and it could just make a bigsingular crack and just kind of
run along the expanse of yourwindshield.
So, yeah, that could.
That could be what Barry wasintended.
Okay, we're gonna make thisencouraging point with little
Indention and then this timelineis gonna go, but the potential
(09:03):
for so many different timelinesor what centered around that
point of impact and we saw thatlater in the film.
As he's going back and he'skeeping, he's keep trying to
undo this cannon event.
That is going to happen,regardless of what you do, and
this is why I want to talk aboutwhat happened in the Supreme
(09:26):
Court and how, across thecountry, conservatives are
trying to rewrite history,specifically black history, in
terms of education andaffirmative action, and so
they're attacking education andthey're doing it by trying to
rewrite history first in Floridabefore we get to affirmative
(09:49):
action.
In Florida, governor RonDeSantis and the Florida
legislature just passed the billthat highlighted how to teach
black history.
Now, no other, no other Historyhas these caveats or these,
these Designs aroundMisinformation or miseducation
(10:18):
of groups, api, hispanic orNative.
None of these groups have thetype of stringent, divergent
curricula that black history has, and so, in the latest, just
frontal assault on black history, florida has decided that you
(10:45):
can teach slavery, but you mustteach that slavery had some
inherent benefits forAfrican-Americans or enslaved
people.
Slavery had inherent benefitsfor Slaves.
(11:06):
That is what Florida isteaching now.
It it boggles my mind and itmakes, and it makes this episode
all the more poignant, simplybecause, if you look at what
they're doing, they're trying torewrite how we view the
(11:28):
atrocities of slavery, so thegenerations coming behind us
will have this Watered-down viewof how bad slavery was and the
ripple effects that carriedforward Hundreds of years later.
This essentially cements theability of certain of groups to
(11:55):
continue to discriminate againstAfrican Americans generations
to come, simply because Kidswon't know how bad the history
of this country country is.
And so it is not just startedat the K-12 level, it is now
also moved into the collegiatelevel, because the Supreme Court
(12:18):
rolled back affirmative action.
Now this is just the next waveof assaults on civil rights era.
So 1963 to 1968, lbj passed aseries of civil rights acts
around discrimination andhousing and voting and so many
(12:41):
things that have closed that hadattempted to close the gap in
achievement and wealth for blackAmericans.
This is just the first wave ofviolence versus white Americans
and they have never not stoppedbeing attacked in undermined.
(13:02):
So 2008, barack Obama wins.
Two years later, the SupremeCourt gets rid of the VRA,
section 4 and section 5 andsince then voter suppression all
through the south has been, hasbeen rampant, whether it's been
voter ID, the closing ofpolling places, the inability of
(13:29):
DMVs to be able to issue thecorrect drive, the correct IDs,
getting rid of Sunday voting,getting ready to same day
registration, getting ready toregister, registering 16 year
olds, getting rid of all thethings that would inspire a
generation to be able to takepart in voting All those things
(13:49):
have been attacked.
Gerrymandering, wiping outblack centers of voting power,
diluting, diluting them,splitting districts to that can
further dilute power.
Hell, in Alabama there's a townthat's 85% black, yet the
(14:14):
entire town council and mayor iswhite, and now we have a black
mayor and they refuse to seethem in a town in Alabama.
They just refuse to see him.
And the new mayor said that thetown in 2023.
A lady told the new mayor, thenew black mayor that was elected
(14:35):
, that the town wasn't ready fora black man.
It's 2023.
But here we are now, fastforward to the Supreme Court.
Who is just rolled back In thedobs decision?
Just roll back abortion accessand rights.
(14:57):
Roe v Wade Now taking onaffirmative action.
So 100 years of precedent isgone in just one session of the
Supreme Court.
The John Roberts Court willlive in infamy forever.
But the rewriting of history isnow front and center because
(15:27):
we're talking about getting ridof vast sections of the Voting
Rights Act because they aredeemed discriminatory to white
people.
Now I really want you to hearthat they are discriminatory to
white people.
Now let's take a look at thestatistics.
(15:50):
Black people make up 3% ofHarvard and Harvard and
University of North Carolina.
My home state was named in thissuit because they explicitly
said we are going to considerrace in our decision making.
(16:10):
Why?
Because we want the mostdiverse counts.
We want the most diverse campus, but the most diversity of
thought, the most diversity ofbackgrounds that we possibly can
.
We understand that.
That makes learninginstitutions, better we get that
.
So what are we going to do?
We're going to consider that.
So they were explicitly namedin the lawsuit.
(16:33):
When this decision comes down,it says Harvard, north Carolina,
every no school can take intoaccount race and admit on the
basis of race.
Now the irony of all this isthat Clarence Thomas, second
African American to ever sit onthe seat on the Supreme Court,
(16:58):
benefited from affirmativeaction.
He's literally where he istoday because of affirmative
action and now he's trying torewrite history so that he can
say that he made it on hismirrors.
And I'm not saying he's not.
I didn't say I'm not sayingthat Clarence Thomas didn't earn
(17:18):
his way there.
What I know for a fact is, interms of being a, being a
constitutional scholar, clarenceThomas was never thought of as
that level of judicial thought.
So whatever you want to say,maybe he's projecting a little
(17:40):
bit, but right now they'resaying that African Americans
have disproportionatelybenefited at the expense of
Asian Americans and whiteAmericans.
Now, asian Americans Asiansmake up 25% of Harvard's student
(18:01):
body.
Asians are 6% of the population, maybe less, so Asians are
represented four times theirpopulation.
African Americans make up 12%,which is right in line with the
population, 13% of thepopulation, the United States.
(18:22):
Now where the issue comes in isthat legacy students make up 33%
, a third, and of that third,70% are white.
40% of that they would notqualify.
(18:45):
Now here's the thing aboutaffirmative action.
Affirmative action didn't takea D student out of the inner
city of Detroit and put them inHarvard.
No, every single student,minority student, who would have
otherwise been consideredaffirmative action, qualified on
(19:05):
the merits of their academicperformance, every one of them.
A lot was made by people likeJoy Reed and Michelle Obama
saying Sheila Jackson Lee,saying yeah, I went to Harvard
because of affirmative action.
And what they really said washey, I was in a place where
(19:28):
Harvard would never come torecruit.
Affirmative action only forcedHarvard to come to find me.
They didn't lower the standards, they didn't change any of the
admission process.
They just had to come and findme now because there was a
direct edict from the federalgovernment that said they had to
(19:51):
expand admissions forminorities to balance the
playing field of his againsthistorical inequities that this
country never fixed.
And now here we are, just barelyover 50 years and everybody
(20:14):
saying, oh, everything's good.
As a matter of fact, we've gonetoo far and we're hurting white
people.
Now this is going to be toughwhite people.
It's about you, about to getsome tough words.
So you know, if you're stillhere after this, know I'm saying
it in love the reason whyyou're so against affirmative
(20:36):
action.
And white women have benefitedfrom affirmative action more
than any other group, any othergroup.
White women have been thebeneficiaries.
White women were included as aprotected class in the
affirmative action originalaffirmative action case and
white women have since.
We've reached the benefits ineducation, in, in
(20:58):
entrepreneurism and corporateAmerica, finance, government,
wherever.
It is 77% of the jobs that areconsidered affirmative action
with the white women.
So even the laws put in placeto help minorities were co-opted
and colonized and black womenminorities lost out.
(21:23):
So now, just like Barry runsback in time and damages
timeline and has unintendedconsequences, this will also
have unintended consequences,and the reason why I say that
progress is a canon event isbecause it always happens.
(21:44):
Now, if you're watching themovie over and over, barry tries
to stop Sasha, callie,supergirl Kara Zorrell from
dying.
He runs back, he runs back intime, he runs back, back, back.
But every single time she dies,every single time he runs back,
she dies Every time he changessomething, she dies, and it
(22:07):
doesn't matter, it's a canonevent, it is supposed to happen.
It is going to happen, nomatter what you do.
It's going to happen and, byGod, progress in this country is
a canon event.
Slavery ended, reconstruction,jim Crow, segregation All these
(22:32):
things happened.
In every single point, progresscame through.
Now, is it 100%?
No, but the country is movingforward.
African Americans are movingforward.
We're making progress, and Ithink that is the fear is
because here comes the, herecomes the tough love.
White people, your privilege andyour inherent racial advantage
(22:58):
has made you soft, it has madeyou mediocre, and I always say
this is the same.
You keep talking about themeritocracy that you say you
want, but you really don't, andthe reason I say that is is
because you can't hidemediocrity in a meritocracy.
(23:23):
You can't do it.
So as black people become moreeducated, as opportunities open
up for Hispanics and immigrants,you find yourself struggling to
compete on the field that youdesigned.
And so what do you have to do?
(23:43):
You have to take out thestructural components of your
competition.
You have to take out theability to gain a, an education
equivalent to yours.
You have to take out theability to to acquire capital
(24:05):
equivalent to yours.
You have to segregate throughpolicy rather than fear and
violence, and it's gettingharder and harder and harder for
you to maintain those controls,especially in a world that is
(24:26):
now seeing the value ofembracing the diversity that is
changing this country.
Now the problem, the unintendedconsequences of these actions,
could be that white Americasuffers.
And I say that because at somepoint it's going to occur to
(24:50):
people of color that we are notwanted in your spaces and there
may be a natural resegregationwhich you may see is you may see
black kids, instead of theirdream to get into Harvard and
Yale and Stanford and Brown InColumbia, we're going to turn
(25:13):
around and say you know what?
I'm going to go to NorthCarolina A&T and I'm going to
bring up North Carolina A&T.
I'm going to go to Coppon State, I'm going to go to Howard, I'm
going to go to Morehouse, I'mgoing to go to an HBCU and I'm
going to bring that up, andyou're going to see black
academics doing that andultimately, ultimately, what may
(25:39):
be the linchpin is when theblack athlete follows, because
here's some more tough love.
You may not want us in yourclassroom, but you damn sure
want us on your field.
You damn sure want us on yourbasketball courts and your
baseball diamonds you damn surewant us there.
(26:00):
So you can try to erase historyall you want and keep us out of
your classroom, but the historyyou're trying to keep is you
used to segregate us and not putus in your locker rooms, but
you don't want that to go away,and so the unintended
(26:22):
consequences are going to be.
Eventually, we are going tofigure out a way to overcome
this, and what?
One way that's always happenedis guess what these same groups
that have fought to protectaffirmative action have now said
(26:43):
.
You know what the worstaffirmative action is legacy
admissions.
You're unqualified.
You're only at Harvard becauseyour dad's name is on the
building, your granddad name ison the building, your families
and your family gives $100million every year to an
endowment.
That's why you're there.
(27:04):
You're a mediocre student, butyou're at Harvard.
At Harvard, you're at Yale,you're at Brown in Columbia,
you're at Vassar, you're at allthese Ivy League schools and you
don't qualify.
And so now they're attackinglegacy admissions.
And so now what you're going tohave is you're going to have a
(27:24):
bunch of rich scions who justknew they were going to wake up
one day with their last namebeing whatever it is, and walk
into an Ivy League school.
And now that opportunity isgone, that entitlement is gone,
simply because you couldn'taccept the 3% of black kids who
(27:48):
went to Ivy League universitiesvia affirmative action.
I believe we call this hoistedon your own petard.
Oh, and look at the here I amfacing the consequences of my
actions.
And so what happens is, everytime Barry went back, he tried
(28:09):
to rewrite history, he tried tochange it, but it just kept
coming and just like, just likeAfrican Americans, we're going
to keep coming.
We are not going to stop.
Affirmative action is justanother bump in a long, winding
road to ultimately, what blackAmericans are going to achieve.
(28:33):
Polling after polling says that, no matter what happens in this
country, the most optimisticpeople in this country are black
people Because we know whatwe've overcome, we know the
adversity we faced and we keeppersevering because we know
we're going to be victorious.
So Barry ultimately came to therealization as I believe white
(29:00):
America will.
I believe that, for whateverClarence Thomas's machinations
are he may not in his lifetime,but the generations that follow
him will is that this country isbetter when it's diverse, and
so economic studies have shownand I'm doing this because
(29:22):
that's something that I'mworking on right here in High
Point, north Carolina, and I'mworking on restorative economic
policies as a member of citycouncil.
I wrote a policy brief on thisis that over the last half
century, the $50 billion in GDPhas been lost Brookings,
(29:45):
international Monetary Fund,cnbc, harvard School of Finance
you can find this anywhere andI'll put some of those links in
the show notes.
But every single one of thosestudies has shown that this
country has lost $50 trillion$16 trillion since the year 2000
(30:10):
.
Because of structural racism,because of institutional racism,
this country is poorer andweaker.
If we were less racist, thereis not a single country on earth
that would be within amillennia's, and that's the
(30:30):
biggest chance of catching us asan economic power.
We're $30 trillion economy.
We should be an $80 trillioneconomy, but because of
structural racism, because ofthe denial of capital and
entrepreneurialism, because ofhigher interest rates and higher
full closure rates on AfricanAmericans, because of our
(30:50):
xenophobic inability to embracethe immigrant population who
comes in and is falling apartright now, is falling a fucking
part, because the Santas and hispolicies have chased off that
segment of the labor populationand houses are falling apart
that can't get finished beingbuilt, crops are riding in the
(31:12):
field, you've got freakinghotels who can't staff because
they don't have the people, allbecause mediocrity has won the
day in the white community, allbecause you're trying to hide
(31:34):
your mediocrity in a meritocracy, and it will stick out.
And so what's going on is nowyou're suffering, and I'm trying
really hard not to haveSchadenfreude because I don't
want the pain that's inflictedon my country, but it's hard not
to sit back and realize what'shappening.
(31:57):
Because of the choices that youmade, because you've tried to
rewrite history, because you'vetried to change the past, the
future is in doubt.
So, yes, we're at a flashpoint.
We are at a flashpoint, we areat a reckoning, we're at a nexus
and we're facing a canon event.
(32:20):
Because, guess what?
Progress has never been stopped.
It's been slowed, but it'snever been stopped.
It's been delayed, but it'snever been denied, and progress
will continue in this country.
So, as we wrap up, I just wantyou guys to think about what it
(32:45):
means to have a diverse country,what it means to have diverse
opinions and diverse circles offriends, extended family, what
that means, and how much betteryou're much, much more rich.
Your life has been because ofsomething, because you've
learned from some folks and somepeople that you don't know.
(33:06):
Think about the richness thatdiversity has brought into your
life.
Think about every time that youtravel to a new country.
You come back with a differentperspective.
You come back with an expandedworldview.
But if you segregate yourselfand you wall yourself off from
(33:26):
all the things that aredifferent from you, when you are
faced, inevitably, with thosechanges, you can't cope, and
that's what I'm afraid is goingto happen years from now and
this country will be torn apartbecause of it.
(33:48):
I believe that we're going toovercome it.
I'm continually optimistic, butwe've got work to do, folks,
and I am really grateful to bein the fight as an elected
official.
And so one thing thank you,guys for being with us today.
(34:11):
There's a lot of informationthat's going to be in the show
notes coming up here, but bignews, guys, big news.
Next weekend, I and superheropolitics podcast will be will be
moderating my first fan panelat Galaxy con in Raleigh, north
Carolina, and so I've alreadyI've been checking it daily and
(34:37):
folks are lining up and they'reliking the event and they're
going to come and we're going tofilm live from there and we're
going to take questions and I'mgoing to get a lot of great
footage there.
But it's a really huge event.
You know, speaking of the flash, one of the guests will be
there will be Grant Guston,stephen Amell from Arrow, karen
(35:00):
Gillian from, who plays Nebulaand the the Guardian series, a
lot of Star Wars fans, a lot ofStar Wars folks there, billy Dee
Williams a lot of a lot ofgreat folks.
Vampire diaries, folks inSummer Holder, paul Wesley a lot
of cool folks are going to bethere.
I'm going to try to get someinterviews going to try to, you
(35:22):
know, not ambush folks, butmaybe just step in and introduce
myself and maybe, down the road, have some of these great
guests on superhero politicspodcast.
So I'll be there next Saturday,the 29th, and we'll broadcast
live from there and we'll alsorecord our next episode.
(35:42):
And it is political season.
Guys, you can't have superhero,can't have superheroes and not
have politics, because it'ssuperhero politics podcast.
I am running for reelection.
Guys officially launched mycampaign on July 7 and things
are going well and if you wantto follow my campaign, if you
(36:03):
want to get to know what we'redoing, the issues that matter,
my platform.
You can go to homes for highpoint dot com, hol MES FOR H I G
, h, p O I, ntcom, and that'llbe in the show notes as well.
So please go check out mycampaign If you want to
(36:26):
contribute.
Cool, if you don't just send awell wish and just say hey, I
appreciate the support and theencouragement.
This is a tough job but I loveit and we continue to do the
best that we possibly can tomove high point and the state of
North Carolina and ultimatelythe country for it.
So, love you guys, thank you,enrich your lives, get to know
(36:50):
someone is different from youguys, be kind to one another,
show compassion and rememberwe're coming up on political
season and voting season.
If you ever feel powerless,always know that you do have a
power If you are eligible tovote.
Make sure that you exercisethat, because voting is a
superpower and you can changethe world with it, and I know
(37:13):
that for a fact.
So just remember, until nexttime, this is your host, michael
Holmes, this superhero politics, and remember you don't have to
be superhuman to be asuperhuman.
Until next time.
Love you guys, we're out.
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