This Ain’t Slavery, But It Damn Sure Ain’t Freedom

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We’re in a different kind of cage now. No chains, no auction blocks, BUT the bondage runs deep. 

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
I was walking my dog and I was thinking to myself,
we're all fucking slaves.
Everybody on this goddamn planetis a slave to some degree.
Like it's a slave planet.
I was just like, yeah, that'swhat it is.
We're all enslaved to something,whether or not it's a ideology,
whether or not it's we'reenslaved to our own fear,

(00:21):
whether or not we're enslaved tothe grind, something.
We're all enslaved.
And then as I was walking, I'mlike, okay, well, is that really
true?
Because it's if anyone knows me,they know that I love words and
I love the meaning of words.
I love using words the waythey're meant to be used based
off their fucking definition,right?

(00:43):
So I'm like, well, before I saywe're all enslaved, what's the
actual definition of slavery?
And there we begin a rabbithole.
Hold tight.
All right, I'm back.
And the background might sounddifferent because I'm in a
different location.
I got notes and everything.
I'm serious.
Let's get into it.
So the definition of So I said,aye, okay, bet.

(01:07):
So technically, what I saidain't true, right?

(01:33):
Everybody ain't enslaved basedoff that definition.
Then I was like, okay, well,maybe what it is, maybe a better
word would be bondage.
We're all in fucking bondage,right?
We're all beholden to something,whether or not it's a habit, a
thought process, a belief, areligion, something.

(01:55):
And so I'm like, all right,well, let me look into this a
little bit more.
Let me look up the definition ofbondage.
And better yet, let me look atit at the etymology of both of
those words like let's get tothe root for real and that's
what I did so the definition ofbondage the condition of being
bound as a serf or slayed orservitude hmm so the expanded

(02:17):
definition says a state of beingbound or held down physically
mentally emotionally orspiritually often against one's
will or without awareness nowwe're getting somewhere So when
we look at it like that, so wecan have people in mental
bondage, emotional bondage,cultural bondage, spiritual

(02:38):
bondage, economic bondage, allof the fucking things.
And when we look at it likethat, I would say 99.9999.
Y'all, why was that my watchgoing off saying that my blood
pressure was going up and thatI'm stressed the fuck out?
Obviously, this topic stressesme the hell out or it just gets
my blood boiling.
I'm thinking that's what it is.

(02:58):
So when we think about it, allof those different forms of
bondage.
So Mental bondage.
So limiting beliefs, right?
Thinking you're not good enough.
Thinking you're not worthy.
Being in a scarcity mindset.
Thinking you got to proveyourself.
Being jealous of other peoplebecause of what the fuck they
got.
Emotional bondage.
You're feeling shamed.
You have all this trauma and howthat impacts you.

(03:18):
Cultural bondage.
Oh, well, I have to assimilate.
Or, you know, my culture saywomen aren't as good as men.
Or I'm in a culture that says Idon't get to say no.
Spiritual bondage.
Oh, you know, religion says thedog The guru says this, that,
and the fucking other.
And of course they are above me,quote unquote, as an authority.
So I have to give up my right,my individuality to whatever the

(03:42):
fuck this religious or spiritualorganization is telling me
what's right.
And then economic bondage.
How many out here chasing amotherfucking bag, trying to get
ahead in life, grinding to thepoint where they are sacrificing
their mental health, theirphysical health, their
relationships, and every goddamnthing else just to survive.
So with that being said, Who isnot in bondage?

(04:04):
I'm just asking.
I'll wait.
Okay, that was long enough.
And I'm asking these questionsto myself mainly because I'm
really wondering about thecurrent state of humanity,
right?
Like what has really gotten ushere?
And I did a really deep diverabbit hole earlier today.
I'm not going to go all intothat right now, but I'm talking
about looking at the ice age andwhy Europeans seem to be the

(04:27):
main ones colonizing the entireworld.
Like what the fuck happened withthis particular cultural group
of people that put them in aposition where they're deeply is
to conquer, right?
Like, what is that really about?
So I did a deep dive into that.
We'll talk about that on anothertransmission because that's what
I'm calling this instead ofepisodes.

(04:49):
And what it did lead me to haveis a level of empathy that does
not excuse, that does notdismiss, but helps me to
understand what could havehappened culturally,
economically, relationallycenturies ago that have been
passed down through generationsand generations and shaped the
epitome genetics of a people tothe point where their whole

(05:11):
survival is based on subjugatingother people, right?
Because I'm like, all right, notsaying that other cultures or
people weren't on that bullshitbecause yes, they were, right?
Every other culture on thisplanet at some point had some
form of slavery or subjugation,right?
Everyone did.
However, it looked verydifferent because what is unique

(05:32):
for the colonization andEuropean folks is that it was
built on saying that a peoplewas less than than others
because of their very the waythey were made up right there,
their race, their color, theirhair texture, their facial
features.
That was what really set apartslavery.

(05:58):
done by Europeans.
Now let's look at the etymologybecause this definitely adds a
layer of context.
All right, so again, I'm lookingat my notes.
So of course, slavery comes fromthe word slave and the origin is
from old French, which isesclave from medieval Latin,
sclavus, meaning Slav, as inSlavic people.

(06:23):
Y'all hear me?
Slave originated from the wordSlav or Slavas, which means Slav
as in Slavic people.
This is an ethnicity, right?
I'll have to go make sure I wassaying the right thing.
Yes, that would be considered aethnicity, Slavic.
Also a culture, right?

(06:43):
Because usually an ethnicity hasa certain culture.
So I just wanted to make thatclear.
So why is this important?
Because during the early MiddleAges, Slavic people, which were
Eastern Europeans were capturedand enslaved by invading forces
A lot.
To the point where the wordsclavos became synonymous with

(07:06):
enslaved person.
So what this is, is thatslavery, the word, developed in
the mid-16th century, meaningcondition of a slave or
servitude.
Now this carried into Englishlaw and colonization as a legal
and economic status.
Not just a condition, but asocial class.

(07:28):
So what does this mean?
What this means is that the veryword slave is rooted in a
racialized and geopoliticalhistory, originally describing a
people, an ethnic group, anethnic European group.
Then it became a condition, thena permanent caste system,

(07:49):
particularly in the context ofBlack folks when we're talking
about African American chattelslavery, which this just
intensified the brutality ofthat whole fucking system.
All right, now let's get intobondage and the etymology of
this word.
So bondage comes from the rootword bond, and this opens up a
much more interesting door whenwe're talking about how it could

(08:11):
be applicable to the collectivehuman species at this time.
So from the old English banda orbunda, it means a householder,
husband, peasant, which I findvery interesting.
And it derived from the oldNorse bondi, which meant farmer
or freeholder.
Now, this was later connected tobind, which means to tie, to

(08:33):
fasten, or to hold, right?
This is the etymology of bond.
Now, bondage emerged in Englisharound the 14th century or so.
And it originally meant thecondition of being a serf or
vassal, which is a person tiedto the land or to service.
Now, that's interesting.
A person tied to land orservice.

(08:54):
You are bound by the land or youare bound by your service.
Now, to extend metaphoricalmeaning could be a state of
being bound, subjugated, oroppressed, even when not legally
enslaved.
Hmm.
So let's dig a little deeper.
So where slavery is talkingabout outright ownership and
dehumanization, which wetechnically don't have unless

(09:18):
you're talking about the, what'sthat, the prison pipeline?
Yeah, that.
But anyway, so slavery, outrightownership, and dehumanization.
Okay.
Bondage talks more about arelationship a relationship, an
obligation, a binding, beingbound to, that's not always
force, but also can beimplicated through duty,

(09:42):
Tradition, death, a belief, orfear.
So while the system of slaverystill echoes through our
collective consciousness, itstill echoes through the systems
that we are still beholden toright now, that we are still
living under, what I wasactually thinking about when I

(10:05):
used the word we're all slavesis that we are all bound to
something.
We are all under theseconditions to something.
And until we become conscious ofthese contracts, until we
intentionally lean into breakingcontracts that does not serve us
and the collective, that doesnot serve us and the collective,

(10:27):
not us or, not just us, but usand the collective, not until we
break those chains, not until wenullify those contracts as a
collective, Can we have peace?
And here's the thing, doing thiswork, doing this healing work,

(10:48):
really acknowledging all of thefucking contracts, all of the
goddamn binding that you arewrapped in is hard as hell.
There's so much grief.
There's so much sadness.
There's so much pain physically,mentally, emotionally that goes
into excavating who you reallyare underneath all of the

(11:11):
programs, all of the bindings.
all of the bullshit can beexhausting.
It can feel never ending.
It can feel like you're in atunnel with no goddamn light in
sight.
However, the reality of it isthat there is so much potential
beauty.
There is so much joy.
There's so much pleasure.
And you could possibly hear mydog snoring in the background.

(11:33):
You see, he's chilling, right?
But the thing about it is thatuntil we collectively get our
head out of our fucking ass andhave the courage to reckon with
ourself, with our history, howwe have been implicit in the
shit that we're now in.
We start that as individuals.

(11:54):
And you don't have to do it in asilo.
As a matter of fact, itshouldn't be done in silos.
If we can have smallercommunities where we can hold
one another accountable withlove as we begin to shed all of
the different bindings, as webegin to loose the bondage from
all of the different things thathave us living in a way that is

(12:16):
not in alignment with ourhighest version of self that is
not connected with thecollective with love and
curiosity until we are willingto look in the motherfucking
mirror and admit that we arepart of the motherfucking
problem and this does notdismiss our traumas this does
not dismiss how we've been donewrong it does not what it does

(12:37):
is give nuance what it does isallow us to hold both with
understanding and curiosity, notjudgment, not to criticize, but
to analyze so that we get theinformation and the
understanding we need so that wecan intentionally do something

(12:58):
fucking else.
But people do not want to dothat because if you have been
conditioned to believe that youare meant to be at the top, that
in order for you to have a senseof worthiness, that means that
other people have to be lessthan you.
And for that whole idea to beshifted, oh, this motherfucker
loud in the background.
Okay, I'm going to take that asa hallelujah, as an amen in the

(13:20):
background with this dog.
But until you are able torelinquish attachment to an idea
that you are better than someoneelse, and in order for you to
maintain that belief, someoneelse has to be under your boot,
then there won't be change,right?
And until those who are underthe boot understand that you are

(13:41):
not less than them, then thatthis was some propaganda that
you've been living under formillennia.
It might not be millennia.
That might be an exaggeration,but y'all know what the fuck I'm
saying, right?
We have to be willing to shakeshit up.
We have to be willing to allowthings to be completely
destroyed.
We have to eliminate the entirefoundation, the very root,

(14:02):
because it was foul from thebeginning.
The root was foul from thebeginning.
It was tainted.
When we're talking aboutAmerican history specifically,
It was always found.
And so we cannot rebuild onsomething that's infected.

(14:23):
We cannot heal with taintedblood.
We must cleanse.
We must bloodlet this bitch.
We need to let all the bloodout.
It needs to die.
And death is painful.
Death is difficult, especiallyif it's your entire lived
experience, your entire beliefsystem that has to die.

(14:43):
And this goes for everyone inthe and bound to this belief of
this fake ass American dream.
Everybody collectively to somedegree is bound.