December 19, 2025 • 33 mins
From a museum mishap that redefines “art” to a Memphis journalist who lost her job for speaking her truth, this episode dives into class, culture, and courage. Michael Berry talks with Dalisia Ballinger about crime, community, and the cost of honesty in today’s media landscape.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time. Time, time, time, Luck and load. The
Michael vari Show is on the air. The following feature
has been rated R. It is intended for mature audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I just wanted to say to everyone out there, I'm
no longer mainlining acid or smoking PCP.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's official. Well here's a story, you know.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
The wretch says a lot about what most of us
think of art, particularly what would be called fine art.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
A museum volunteer.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Was cleaning the museum voluntarily, big fan want to help,
accidentally destroyed an art piece. No, not moving it, not
lifting it or hanging it, after mistaking it for a
(01:02):
dirty mirror and cleaning it because it well, if you
see a picture of it, it looks like a dirty mirror.
The work by Chin Sung Chi is said to symbolize quote,
the distorted self awareness of the middle class. A volunteer
(01:23):
at the Key Lung Museum of Art in Taiwan actually
destroyed a valuable artwork by cleaning it with toilet paper.
The piece, entitled Inverted Syntax sixteen, features a dust covered
mirror mounted on a simple wooden board with a smudge
in the center. The piece, which symbolized the cultural consciousness
of the middle Class was created by Chin Sung Chi.
(01:47):
I guess you're supposed to know who that is. The
volunteer thinking the mirror was dirty, wiped away forty years
of dust, irreparably damaging the artwork.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh no, the dust was part of the artwork.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
The museum's management has apologized to the artist and is
discussing potential compensation. The artwork was part of the We
Are a Me exhibition, showcasing works created from building materials
and everyday objects. The report mentioned that some critics even
argue that the accidental cleaning has become part of the artwork.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And should be left as it is. So there you.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Talk about a class differential when when you see cases
like this, you know Rauschenberg did did the white painting
where there was nothing on there and it represented I
guess infinity or limitlessness, And you know your average rednecks going, well, hell,
(02:50):
I could have done I could have done the blank canvas.
I mean I could have done that. There is a disconnect,
and there's nothing wrong with it. There are people who
would say, when I walk in and look at that stuff,
I don't see anything. I see a bunch of I
see people making a mockery of their hoity toity ways,
(03:13):
and a lot of people standing around pretending that they
love this. Because if you don't love it, you don't
get it. And if you don't get it, you're a heathen.
So in order to show how much you how smart
you are. We see this with bands. It's less pretentious,
but still the same mindset. People will say they like
a particular song or a particular band because you're supposed to,
(03:36):
if you're sophisticated, you're supposed to like that particular thing.
And so we see this, and we see this with caviar.
I don't believe caviar tastes good, and in fact, caviar
was cheap until relatively recently, until it was made available
to a larger until it was until it was.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh what was story?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I just read this the other day. How the price
of caviar spid Oh, it doesn't matter. But the point
is caviar used to be considered trash, and then once
the value shot up, you had sturgeon being pulled out
of the water, cut open for the caviar, the eggs,
and just discarded as trash because the price went up.
(04:24):
It does feel to some of us I think a
lot of people that there are things that are given
an artificial value because they are supposedly so rare, or
so elegant, or so special. And there is a class
of people who reinforced this notion because it adds to
their unique I get it, and you don't. It's hipsterism
(04:47):
writ large, just refined and more expensive.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But I also understand that there is a place in
the world for art and for artistic be and for
stopping and smelling the roses. That's just not what I
sense when I go to an art gala, or I
don't go to art gather it's to an art gallery.
That's not what I sense is going on. I just
I don't see that as as I don't see that
(05:15):
they are celebrating art in natural beauty story out of well,
it's out of Florida, but it involves three Houston men.
They were involved in a scheme with another man to
try and cash a US Treasury check worth more than
twenty seven million dollars in Florida.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Go big or go home, I guess.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
According to the federal criminal complaint, agents arrested Carlos Manuel
Villa via Nueva thirty seven of Hyalia, Florida, Eric Renard
Bedford forty four of Houston, Jorge CRUs Garcia thirty of Katie,
and John Ryan Boxey forty three of Houston. The four
men face one count of conspiracy to defraud the United
(05:59):
States in one count of theft of government property. The
tax refund check, which totaled twenty seven million, nine hundred
ten thousand that's almost twenty eight man, was supposed to
go to an unnamed company in Richmond, Virginia, and it
had not been cashed. According to the criminal complaint, a
source of information told federal agents that Vieanueva had access
(06:22):
to the check.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
On November fifth.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Vianueva opened talks with a man called Banker in the complaint,
who he believed could help him cash the check. The
banker was an undercover officer with the US Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration. Theanueva showed the undercover officer photographs
and videos of the check and said that three other
(06:45):
men who lived outside Florida had it. He added that
the trio could travel to Florida, but stressed that he
needed help cashing the check because the company was closed
and the check was expiring on November twelfth. Vianueva told
the agent that his cut of the check could be
five point six million, and he asked the officer to
(07:05):
create three separate bank accounts to disperse the funds. He
allegedly added that the men had quote access to other
checks of a large amount and can get more. According
to investigators, Garcia quote claimed to have extensive experience in
negotiating stolen checks, particularly US Treasury checks, and also mentioned
(07:29):
that he operates a business that is used to funnel
the proceeds from these stolen checks. The four men made
their first appearances on No. Number twelfth in a federal
court in Fort LAUDERDALM. So these people are running a
syndicate to get a hold of foreign checks, to get
i mean stolen checks, to get these checks, to steal them,
(07:53):
take possession of them, cash them, and then launder the
money out afterwards. These are very sophisticated operations. This is
happening all around us. And what about the person or
company who's checked it really is that maybe went under
and wouldn't have but for that. The number of frauds
(08:16):
and schemes that are being carried out in this country
and not being prosecuted sufficiently. If people feared that they
would be locked away for a very, very long time,
I don't feel.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
They'd do this. Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Delicia Ballinger, I hope I pronounced that correctly. We'll find
out in just a moment. Lives in Memphis, Tennessee. She's
a mother journalist and until last month, a freelance reporter
for the Tri State Defender. The Tri State Defender publishes
online news, entertainment, and information specifically focused on the African
American community in the greater Memphis area.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's black people, Remont. It's not Elon. I don't when
you get.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
A stupid idea, and they have since nineteen fifty one. Well,
in September, as you know, President Trump signed in an executive
order ordering the National Guard into Memphis to help combat crime,
which is good for the people of Memphis. A few
weeks later, Delicia shared her observations and her experience, but
apparently her experience did not conform to the standard. She
(09:12):
wasn't reading the rules. She was not going to be malmoued.
She wasn't going to be told what to do and
what to say. She's an independent black woman, and I thought,
remind me, I thought that was a good thing.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
No, it's not.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It's only if you say what you're supposed to say.
People like Delicia are far more damaging and detrimental and
dangerous and subversive than I could ever.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Be, because she.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Is a black woman who dares to have her own opinion,
and that makes people angry.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
She's our guest. Welcome to the show, sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy
to be here.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You have a great voice, Delicia.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
All right, so tell your story. Let's first catch up
with who you are. Where were you born, who were
your parents? Where'd you go to school?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yes, so again, I'm Delisia Blinger, and I'm o Mysia.
I've been a lifelong Miphian and I did spend a
little bit of time away in Chicago, so I'm a
little mixed with the little Midwest there. My parents are
originally well, I have one that's originally from Florida and
then another one that's also a Memphian here too, you
know as well. I'm a mom, a wife, I'm a boy,
(10:19):
mom of two amazing children, and I love Memphis and
I love being a journalist and just being for the people.
That's just always been my thing is to always just
kind of see things from my point of view, seeing
things from my eyes, and just being honest. And that's
just something that I've just always just kind of carried
with me throughout the years. I've always been outspoken. I've
(10:41):
always been the type to just say how I feel
and again just from a point, from an honest point
of view.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And how did you get involved as a freelance reporter?
What was your professional background?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
So I come from the media world. Of course, I've
been a freelance journalist for well over ten years. This
was just a dream that I had and I was
actually taken off of the street by the publishing editor
at the time, benal Smith for The Tried State Defender,
and he merely just saw my extreme passion and my
(11:18):
love and just my gift of writing, and he hired
me off the spot, off the street. At the time.
I didn't have a degree or anything. He just merely
just saw my passion and he knew that I was
there for the people, and he actually hired me off
of the street. And from that point going forward, I
just kind of tapped a little bit more into the
(11:41):
entertainment side, working doing entertainment for quite some for years,
and then pretty much kind of towards the middle of
my tenure it kind of shifted one to the educational side,
working with the government, doing things of that nature, and
just kind of just doing a tidbit of everything at
that point.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And so, how long had you been reporting for the
African American community for the Tri State Defender.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So I've been there nearly eight years?
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Okay, all right, so you've been at this for a while.
And the art of storytelling, which is something I'm passionate about.
I think that I think that good preaching and storytelling.
I think that good book writing and storytelling, his songwriting, songwriting,
stories and film is storytelling. A good salesman is a storyteller.
How if you look back in your life, sit on
your therapists couch here, and tell me why you think
(12:35):
you wanted to tell stories? Who was that influence in
your life that you think led you to want to
tell stories?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You know, really it was from my own personal experiences
that made me want the story that to me, you
want to tell stories? You know, I was pregnant and
homeless with my first child, I've also before that too.
You know, I was wasn't on the straight and narrow.
I was in and out of the system for quite
some time. I didn't make the decisions, but I knew
(13:03):
what my focus was. I knew that my purpose was
bigger than me. I know that God had something planned
bigger for me. It was changing my mindset, and that
came from me telling my own story and changing the
own my own narrative for my life. And once I'd
done that, it opened a sick way for me to
be able to do that for others. And that's what's
something that I try to incorporate within my writing, is
(13:24):
to be able to not only narrate the story, but
to be able to, you know, tell the truth and
to be able to capture what it is that my
audience wants to know and be able to fully grasp
and tell that story. But I can honestly say that
my own story was pretty much my foundation on being
(13:45):
able to do the same thing for others.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It's a gift.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
You know, A journalist should be a truth teller, and
that should be the top of the mountain, the gold
the gold standard. It should be what a journalist is
seeking to do, and the belief that sunlight is the
best disinfectant, that telling the stories and exposing things, people
(14:12):
will come to the best conclusions. You know, Thomas Jefferson
famously said, do you want the media regulating the government
or the government regulating the media, And I think we
all know where that stands. But now we moved to
the next step. How did you find out living in
Memphis that the President had signed the executive order? What
can you remember the first time you heard that he's
going to be sending troops to Memphis? Because Memphis is
(14:33):
never Look, I'm an Elvis fan, been to Beale Street,
There's FedEx, there's Saint Jude, which we're one of their spokesmen,
So I understand Memphis, but it does not come up
in the conversation of major cities. You expect federal troops
to go into La Chicago, Atlanta, New York. Memphis is
never on that list or DC. And then it was
(14:54):
do you remember when you learned that?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Absolutely? I started hearing rumors rell around the top September
and it wasn't until I woke up one morning and
I saw President Trump. I believe it was on Good
Morning of America or something like that of the sort
where he basically said, hey, Memphis is pretty much next
on the list, and I was like, wow, you know,
(15:17):
I was pretty skeptical at first. I'm thinking, okay. On
behalf of me is saying, okay, relief, because again, I
live in these neighborhoods where I'm pretty much a victim,
and I'm seeing others around me are become victims of
the high crime here within the city. So I'm relieved
(15:38):
that he's doing this. And then the other half of
me is kind of like, so, what is this going
to be like, because again you have the fear mongering
coming in from the community, from the media here, especially
the local media here at this point that's basically just
kind of pouring into us. That's like, oh my god,
they're going to come down here. It's kind of giving
Nazi vibes. You know, they're going to be marching down
(16:00):
the streets. You're going to be doing this in the
third and doing a bunch of harassing so that she's
you know, be prepared, you know for that. So I
was a big fifty sixty on the fence about it.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
But wait right there.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Licia Balinger is our guest more with her and how
she lost her job.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
When first I've been destroying the black community is to
dismantle the black family.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
To Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Why don't we ask missus Willie Brown if Kamala Harris
cares about black families.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Licia Balinger was a reporter for the Tri State Defender
in Memphis, and she dared to write about her perspective,
her observations, her experience after President Trump signed an executive
order ordering the National Guard into Memphis, where crime was
notoriously bad. Luisa, let's start before we get to your
(16:53):
perspective on that action and the result. How bad was
it in Memphis? Because we hear stories.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
It was awful. I again, I lived in a neighborhood
it's majority black, and the crime is extremely high, and
there were things that I was dealing with, such as burglaries,
you know, the shootings. That was a constant, constant thing.
It was a normalcy for my family. I just think
(17:24):
we remember being on the phone one day with my neighbor.
We I'm pretty close with my neighbors, and I just
happened to be on a phone call with my neighbor
and as we're chatting, I'm hearing gunshots. It sounds like
a machine gun. It's just like thirty shots within a
span of minutes, and we're both on the phone like
what's happening here? And then literally five minutes later, we're
(17:47):
seeing crime, seeing tape, and we couldn't even leave off
of our streets. You know, this is going on both ends.
It's again, it was a normal sea. I was afraid
for my children to come outside because I'm afraid that
we were going to be innocent bystanders from bullets. You know.
There was an instance where I was in my backyard
(18:08):
just trying to pull some yards on, some weeds and
things out of my yard, and before you know it,
I'm hearing gunshots and I had to run in the house.
You know, I couldn't complete the things that I wanted
to do around my home because I was so fearful
of going outside. And it was to the point that
I did not let my children outside. They were not
outside plane and if they did, it was heavily supervising.
(18:29):
It wasn't for long with us being outside. So the
crime was absolutely terrible. You couldn't go places, you couldn't
do things without you know, things happening. You know, people
pulling out guns, people shooting everywhere. This is even happening
in spaces where children are and people aren't in full
(18:49):
control of themselves. It was very scary for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
What led President Trump to make the decision to make
that executive order, but I have spent a lot of
time and you would have no reason to know this.
But in my early life I was in politics. I
was a citywide city councilor for the city of Houston,
and I was the Mayor pro tem and I got very,
very involved in the parts of town that most people
never go to. And these are the almost exclusively black
(19:21):
parts of town. And Houston has a great and rich
history legacy in our black community. Barbara Jordan was the congressman.
Music came out of this area, and culture and cuisine
and personalities and the like. But one of the things
I found was there was the sense of quote unquote
black leaders who were themselves black, and before that it
was white liberals. And I've always said that they referred
(19:45):
to this as their own little fiefdom and they don't
want anybody from the outside coming in. It's like when
Boris Yeltsen came and visited Houston, Texas, and he saw
the grocery store. It was a Randall's grocery store, and
he saw all the options in produce. He said, Communism
is sunk. America wins. Communism won't last in Russia because
(20:06):
when the people realize there are all these options, so
many different grapes and apples and bananas, they won't live
under our system. Again, it's as if it's as if
these elected black officials, the Democrats don't want people to
see that you don't have to live this way. There
don't have to be drive bys, there doesn't have to
be filed. This could be a nice place to live
(20:26):
in America. And so I'm really proud of President Trump
that he was willing to say I'm going to do
the right thing for the people who live there, even
though their elected officials are going to make me out
to be a monster. It would be easier to just
forget about Memphis, which is what's typically done.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Mm hmmm, yep. I agree with you, you know, And
that's why I feel like a lot of this, when
you're talking about President Trump, I feel like a lot
of people's anger are is totally misdirected. And that's where
that separates me from the majority, because at first I
(21:03):
felt like everyone else, I'm like, what is President Trump doing?
What is he on? But then once I realized and
took a look at the scope of things, and I'm like,
this is the He's an actionable president. He came in
swiftly after I've seen that interview. It was nearly two
weeks later before we saw an influx of the Tennessee
(21:26):
Highway State Patrol or the Memphis Pass Force and a
bit of the National Guard. And that was when that
viral video was made. Because that's when the light bulb
clicked in for me and was like, Wow, my local
city leaders have done nothing. They've done nothing, and these
(21:48):
are the people who we've elected and have been in
office for quite some time, and it's nearly taken two
weeks of President Trump's action for them to come in
and swiftly give me peace and give me and my
family peace. That was an eye opening moment for me
and made me realize that I have been voting incorrectly.
(22:10):
I've been voting wrong. I've been I have not been
making the best decisions not only for my family but
for the citizens of mythist Because he created this action.
He gave me peace to me and my family. He
restored some form of order within my city. And again,
this was just in two weeks for me to feel
(22:31):
like this, and I commend President Trump for it.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
You know the line, the line they use online is
we don't have to live like this, and it's so true,
it is so very true. I can remember going into
communities and campaigning, and then I can remember I was
on city council for a week and we got a
call to our office from one of the black pastors
who had endorsed me, and almost all of them did.
(22:56):
And here I was a Republican, but we we took
care of our people. And they had a hole out
in front of the church that was a crater you
could you could lose a car in. And they called
and said, we just want this hole in front of
our church fixed because there's one way in and one
way out of our church, and everybody there's scraping the
undercarriage of their vehicle and it's frustrating, and why can't
(23:19):
we get it fished? And they had supported the mayors,
and we had a black mayor and he had been
to that church and he had received their endorsement, and
he had received all their votes and nobody ever did anything.
And they called us on like a Tuesday, and by
Friday we had the hole field.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And he brought me up to.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
UH to the pulpit that Sunday, and he said, I
know what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Why are you letting that white boy up.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
At the pulpit, Because he's my white boy, and he
took care of my people, and he's my counselman, and
he cares about us. And what he was trying to
say was open your eyes to good government. And I
think this is a problem that plagues I hate to
term black communities because there are well it's a complicated question,
(24:05):
but I think this is a problem that plagues communities
that are exclusively or close enough to being black. Is
this is the brainwashing that the people who are here
to represent you are the people who keep telling you
that white he's evil.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well, that's not true.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
You want everybody working for you, you want everybody trying
to trying to protect you.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Hold On Delicia Ballinger in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
We're going to talk about how she was fired from
doing something she loved to do, reporting truth telling in Memphis,
because she dared say nice things about President Trump making
Memphis better.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
The hell I'm gonna be. She was twelve, I was thirty.
But it was wonderful to have you, mister President. The
Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Delicia Balalinger is our guest. She came to my attention.
I should probably tell you. We have a listener in
just outside of Houston about two hours named Dan Agan.
And he started a charity a few years ago, a
charity with a real purpose called we Won't be Canceled
dot org.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
We Won't be Canceled dot org.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And when he first told me about it, everybody's going
to start a charity and nobody ever does it and
ever funded, and he's funded it. He seated it himself
with money and lo and behold, I would have people
on like the guy who went to prison for a
meme about Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
How ridiculous is that?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I had to got on, and in short order he
had sent him the cash to get back up on
his feet. When people speak out and do the right thing,
then this charity with a purpose advocates on their behalf
and provides financial assistance so that they don't suffer from
being fired. It's called we won't be canceled dot org.
It's a pretty pretty neat deal. So instead of him
(25:50):
this time hearing me talk about somebody and saying I
want to support them, which I think he's done that
for thirty people or so so far, and it's real
money every time, real money, he reached out and said, hey,
I want you to know about this woman to Luicia Balinger,
and we've had her on. Now what happened? How did
you find out that's saying something nice? Where did you
say that the support that President Trump was giving was
(26:12):
a good thing?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And then how did it happen that it fell apart?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
So this was a day, this is a Friday, and
I'm something getting postponed, and so I had a moment
to sit.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Out on my porch and I grabbed some tea and
that's when the light bulb clicked in. For the first
time in five years of me being in my neighborhood,
I am hearing the bird's turn. I am seeing families outside.
I'm seeing a family. I'm seeing a father throw a
football at these kids. I'm seeing families walking. It's peaceful,
it's quiet, it's different, and I'm like, what in the
(26:51):
world this is peace. And I grabbed my phone and
I set on my porch and I talked about it.
And that's when I said, you know, I again, you know,
I'm not into politics or anything. I don't like to
get into all of that, but thank you President Trump,
(27:11):
because who else could I have thanked for doing this.
It was President Trump that did it. So I merely
told him to thank you and shared my experience on
what was happening in my neighborhood at that time. And again,
I'm not thinking anything of it, you know, I'm just
to share my experience, and before i know it, I'm
just seeing the numbers just blow up and I'm like,
(27:34):
oh wow, this is I didn't I wasn't expecting this.
So I ended up reaching out to the Tri State
Defender because again I'm a journalist. I believe in communication,
and I reached out to some of the editors there
and when I first initially told them, you know, they
were they were fine with it. You know, I told
them my experience. My editor at the time, she's also
from a different community. She's from Jackson, Mississippi, which is
(27:55):
basically like a smaller version of Memphis, so she understood
at that time where I was coming from. But then
the numbers started climbing and climbing and climbing some more,
and then eventually, I guess people started sending her the
video and then she reached out to me and said, hey,
why did you thank Trump? And I'm like, well, he's
(28:16):
the president. Because she was like, well that made me
want to cut your video off because you said thank you,
And I said, well, who else am I supposed to think,
because he's the person that did this, and then she
went silent, and then I began to tell her like, hey,
you know, I'm getting other opportunities to be on Fox
(28:39):
News things of that nature. She was like, well, if
you go, because these people are pro Trump, they're going
to make you look like Diamond and Silk. They're going
to make you look like these supremes, like pretty much
she ever wants you to a boot licking Trump supporter,
and if you do this, you will no longer be
affiliated with the tri State Defender. And I sat there
(28:59):
for a minute and I was just like okay, and
then it just kept bothering me. It just kept itching
away with me because I'm like, I feel like I'm
being silenced. I feel like I'm being biased because the
whole time before all of this came about, I'm in
the city. I actually filmed where the state troopers rolled
(29:19):
upon us while i was talking to a family that
was pulled over. I'm covering so many different viewpoints of
what's happening in the city, and they were fine with it.
But the first moment that I said thank you to
Trump or anything in relation to the Trump administration, my
career was on the line. And so from that point
I went back online and I just kind of gave
(29:41):
my following update was like, hey, like, my media company
is actually trying to silence me all because I'm telling
the truth. And before I know it, the next day,
I'm getting they removed me from all of their social
media platforms. I'm getting emails stating that my assignments that
I had, you know, longer wanted me to do and
(30:01):
that was it. They no longer wanted anything else to
do with me. And then they came out with this
statement like I've never worked there when I've been there
for almost ten years, and just tried to, of course,
make it seem like it was my decision to do
or voluntarily to do. When they gave me an ultimatum,
(30:23):
and so yeah, it was really, you know, disheartening because
again it's like having your own people slammed the door
in your face because I actually told the truth, which
again opened my eyes even more to the fact because
I'm like this whole time, I'm thinking I'm working for
a company that's not biased, and the whole time I'm
(30:44):
on a side and I did not know, And it's disheartening.
It was very disheartening. I worked as I did my
research more and more the owners they're very far left,
and so me saying what I said was a huge no.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
No, you know, I could go through.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
So Marcus Charles, good friend of mine, he wrote the
book Lone Survivor began a movie and he had to
go through hell and in his three mates, his his
fellow seals, his his his buds, his.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Brothers died for this story to be told.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
And I often think about, you know, and and as
a as a believer, and I think of Christ's suffering
and that it was it was, it was preordained, it
was destined, and I think about the suffering that has
to happen, that the things we go through in order
to reach the point that our voice has meaning. The
(31:49):
fact is it brought us together for you to tell
this story to a lot of people, and it's brought
you to a lot of people, and there's somebody out there,
maybe they're black, maybe they're white, maybe there's something else
who is saying. You know, I might not be exactly
like Alicia Bellinger, but in my life I'm ready to
be a full person as well. I consider the suppression
(32:13):
and repression of black independent thought in this country to
be absolutely disturbing. And I see it every day. I
see it, and I see it being done by other blacks.
The crab in a bucket theory, the social hierarchy, political hierarchy,
and the way that there is a regimented system of
enforcement like a capo system, And it bothers me, It
(32:36):
really really bothers me.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You know, this makes me think a whole lot in
which I have to sit back and think a lot
about Charlie Kirk. And I owe that man an apology
because I realized I am him, you know. He The
difference is, especially when you're talking about the black community.
You know, I'm black, okay, And it's bad enough that
(33:01):
me as a black person that I can't say anything
about my community. And it's different, even even more different
when you have a white man that's literally think the
exact same thing that I'm saying, and it did not
so well recepted.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Delicia Allinger, we're up against a break. You are wonderful.
I adore you.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
You be strong.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Anyone out there that wants to learn more reach out
to her. You can go to we Won't be Canceled
dot org and us see her as one of the
people on that site. We won't be Canceled dot org,
and you can support the great work they are doing.
It's one man funding at all. He can't fund it forever.
He's not wealthy. He's made a little money, but he
wants to make a difference, and he's putting his money
(33:41):
up to make a difference for people like Alicia and.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Lust. Thank you and good night.
It's that time. Time, time, time, Luck and load. The
Michael vari Show is on the air. The following feature
has been rated R. It is intended for mature audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I just wanted to say to everyone out there, I'm
no longer mainlining acid or smoking PCP.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
It's official. Well here's a story, you know.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
The wretch says a lot about what most of us
think of art, particularly what would be called fine art.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
A museum volunteer.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Was cleaning the museum voluntarily, big fan want to help,
accidentally destroyed an art piece. No, not moving it, not
lifting it or hanging it, after mistaking it for a
(01:02):
dirty mirror and cleaning it because it well, if you
see a picture of it, it looks like a dirty mirror.
The work by Chin Sung Chi is said to symbolize quote,
the distorted self awareness of the middle class. A volunteer
(01:23):
at the Key Lung Museum of Art in Taiwan actually
destroyed a valuable artwork by cleaning it with toilet paper.
The piece, entitled Inverted Syntax sixteen, features a dust covered
mirror mounted on a simple wooden board with a smudge
in the center. The piece, which symbolized the cultural consciousness
of the middle Class was created by Chin Sung Chi.
(01:47):
I guess you're supposed to know who that is. The
volunteer thinking the mirror was dirty, wiped away forty years
of dust, irreparably damaging the artwork.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh no, the dust was part of the artwork.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
The museum's management has apologized to the artist and is
discussing potential compensation. The artwork was part of the We
Are a Me exhibition, showcasing works created from building materials
and everyday objects. The report mentioned that some critics even
argue that the accidental cleaning has become part of the artwork.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And should be left as it is. So there you.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Talk about a class differential when when you see cases
like this, you know Rauschenberg did did the white painting
where there was nothing on there and it represented I
guess infinity or limitlessness, And you know your average rednecks going, well, hell,
(02:50):
I could have done I could have done the blank canvas.
I mean I could have done that. There is a disconnect,
and there's nothing wrong with it. There are people who
would say, when I walk in and look at that stuff,
I don't see anything. I see a bunch of I
see people making a mockery of their hoity toity ways,
(03:13):
and a lot of people standing around pretending that they
love this. Because if you don't love it, you don't
get it. And if you don't get it, you're a heathen.
So in order to show how much you how smart
you are. We see this with bands. It's less pretentious,
but still the same mindset. People will say they like
a particular song or a particular band because you're supposed to,
(03:36):
if you're sophisticated, you're supposed to like that particular thing.
And so we see this, and we see this with caviar.
I don't believe caviar tastes good, and in fact, caviar
was cheap until relatively recently, until it was made available
to a larger until it was until it was.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh what was story?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I just read this the other day. How the price
of caviar spid Oh, it doesn't matter. But the point
is caviar used to be considered trash, and then once
the value shot up, you had sturgeon being pulled out
of the water, cut open for the caviar, the eggs,
and just discarded as trash because the price went up.
(04:24):
It does feel to some of us I think a
lot of people that there are things that are given
an artificial value because they are supposedly so rare, or
so elegant, or so special. And there is a class
of people who reinforced this notion because it adds to
their unique I get it, and you don't. It's hipsterism
(04:47):
writ large, just refined and more expensive.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It's as simple as that.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But I also understand that there is a place in
the world for art and for artistic be and for
stopping and smelling the roses. That's just not what I
sense when I go to an art gala, or I
don't go to art gather it's to an art gallery.
That's not what I sense is going on. I just
I don't see that as as I don't see that
(05:15):
they are celebrating art in natural beauty story out of well,
it's out of Florida, but it involves three Houston men.
They were involved in a scheme with another man to
try and cash a US Treasury check worth more than
twenty seven million dollars in Florida.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Go big or go home, I guess.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
According to the federal criminal complaint, agents arrested Carlos Manuel
Villa via Nueva thirty seven of Hyalia, Florida, Eric Renard
Bedford forty four of Houston, Jorge CRUs Garcia thirty of Katie,
and John Ryan Boxey forty three of Houston. The four
men face one count of conspiracy to defraud the United
(05:59):
States in one count of theft of government property. The
tax refund check, which totaled twenty seven million, nine hundred
ten thousand that's almost twenty eight man, was supposed to
go to an unnamed company in Richmond, Virginia, and it
had not been cashed. According to the criminal complaint, a
source of information told federal agents that Vieanueva had access
(06:22):
to the check.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
On November fifth.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Vianueva opened talks with a man called Banker in the complaint,
who he believed could help him cash the check. The
banker was an undercover officer with the US Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration. Theanueva showed the undercover officer photographs
and videos of the check and said that three other
(06:45):
men who lived outside Florida had it. He added that
the trio could travel to Florida, but stressed that he
needed help cashing the check because the company was closed
and the check was expiring on November twelfth. Vianueva told
the agent that his cut of the check could be
five point six million, and he asked the officer to
(07:05):
create three separate bank accounts to disperse the funds. He
allegedly added that the men had quote access to other
checks of a large amount and can get more. According
to investigators, Garcia quote claimed to have extensive experience in
negotiating stolen checks, particularly US Treasury checks, and also mentioned
(07:29):
that he operates a business that is used to funnel
the proceeds from these stolen checks. The four men made
their first appearances on No. Number twelfth in a federal
court in Fort LAUDERDALM. So these people are running a
syndicate to get a hold of foreign checks, to get
i mean stolen checks, to get these checks, to steal them,
(07:53):
take possession of them, cash them, and then launder the
money out afterwards. These are very sophisticated operations. This is
happening all around us. And what about the person or
company who's checked it really is that maybe went under
and wouldn't have but for that. The number of frauds
(08:16):
and schemes that are being carried out in this country
and not being prosecuted sufficiently. If people feared that they
would be locked away for a very, very long time,
I don't feel.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
They'd do this. Michael Berry's show.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Delicia Ballinger, I hope I pronounced that correctly. We'll find
out in just a moment. Lives in Memphis, Tennessee. She's
a mother journalist and until last month, a freelance reporter
for the Tri State Defender. The Tri State Defender publishes
online news, entertainment, and information specifically focused on the African
American community in the greater Memphis area.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
That's black people, Remont. It's not Elon. I don't when
you get.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
A stupid idea, and they have since nineteen fifty one. Well,
in September, as you know, President Trump signed in an executive
order ordering the National Guard into Memphis to help combat crime,
which is good for the people of Memphis. A few
weeks later, Delicia shared her observations and her experience, but
apparently her experience did not conform to the standard. She
(09:12):
wasn't reading the rules. She was not going to be malmoued.
She wasn't going to be told what to do and
what to say. She's an independent black woman, and I thought,
remind me, I thought that was a good thing.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
No, it's not.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It's only if you say what you're supposed to say.
People like Delicia are far more damaging and detrimental and
dangerous and subversive than I could ever.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Be, because she.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Is a black woman who dares to have her own opinion,
and that makes people angry.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
She's our guest. Welcome to the show, sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy
to be here.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You have a great voice, Delicia.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
All right, so tell your story. Let's first catch up
with who you are. Where were you born, who were
your parents? Where'd you go to school?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yes, so again, I'm Delisia Blinger, and I'm o Mysia.
I've been a lifelong Miphian and I did spend a
little bit of time away in Chicago, so I'm a
little mixed with the little Midwest there. My parents are
originally well, I have one that's originally from Florida and
then another one that's also a Memphian here too, you
know as well. I'm a mom, a wife, I'm a boy,
(10:19):
mom of two amazing children, and I love Memphis and
I love being a journalist and just being for the people.
That's just always been my thing is to always just
kind of see things from my point of view, seeing
things from my eyes, and just being honest. And that's
just something that I've just always just kind of carried
with me throughout the years. I've always been outspoken. I've
(10:41):
always been the type to just say how I feel
and again just from a point, from an honest point
of view.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And how did you get involved as a freelance reporter?
What was your professional background?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
So I come from the media world. Of course, I've
been a freelance journalist for well over ten years. This
was just a dream that I had and I was
actually taken off of the street by the publishing editor
at the time, benal Smith for The Tried State Defender,
and he merely just saw my extreme passion and my
(11:18):
love and just my gift of writing, and he hired
me off the spot, off the street. At the time.
I didn't have a degree or anything. He just merely
just saw my passion and he knew that I was
there for the people, and he actually hired me off
of the street. And from that point going forward, I
just kind of tapped a little bit more into the
(11:41):
entertainment side, working doing entertainment for quite some for years,
and then pretty much kind of towards the middle of
my tenure it kind of shifted one to the educational side,
working with the government, doing things of that nature, and
just kind of just doing a tidbit of everything at
that point.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
And so, how long had you been reporting for the
African American community for the Tri State Defender.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
So I've been there nearly eight years?
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Okay, all right, so you've been at this for a while.
And the art of storytelling, which is something I'm passionate about.
I think that I think that good preaching and storytelling.
I think that good book writing and storytelling, his songwriting, songwriting,
stories and film is storytelling. A good salesman is a storyteller.
How if you look back in your life, sit on
your therapists couch here, and tell me why you think
(12:35):
you wanted to tell stories? Who was that influence in
your life that you think led you to want to
tell stories?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You know, really it was from my own personal experiences
that made me want the story that to me, you
want to tell stories? You know, I was pregnant and
homeless with my first child, I've also before that too.
You know, I was wasn't on the straight and narrow.
I was in and out of the system for quite
some time. I didn't make the decisions, but I knew
(13:03):
what my focus was. I knew that my purpose was
bigger than me. I know that God had something planned
bigger for me. It was changing my mindset, and that
came from me telling my own story and changing the
own my own narrative for my life. And once I'd
done that, it opened a sick way for me to
be able to do that for others. And that's what's
something that I try to incorporate within my writing, is
(13:24):
to be able to not only narrate the story, but
to be able to, you know, tell the truth and
to be able to capture what it is that my
audience wants to know and be able to fully grasp
and tell that story. But I can honestly say that
my own story was pretty much my foundation on being
(13:45):
able to do the same thing for others.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It's a gift.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
You know, A journalist should be a truth teller, and
that should be the top of the mountain, the gold
the gold standard. It should be what a journalist is
seeking to do, and the belief that sunlight is the
best disinfectant, that telling the stories and exposing things, people
(14:12):
will come to the best conclusions. You know, Thomas Jefferson
famously said, do you want the media regulating the government
or the government regulating the media, And I think we
all know where that stands. But now we moved to
the next step. How did you find out living in
Memphis that the President had signed the executive order? What
can you remember the first time you heard that he's
going to be sending troops to Memphis? Because Memphis is
(14:33):
never Look, I'm an Elvis fan, been to Beale Street,
There's FedEx, there's Saint Jude, which we're one of their spokesmen,
So I understand Memphis, but it does not come up
in the conversation of major cities. You expect federal troops
to go into La Chicago, Atlanta, New York. Memphis is
never on that list or DC. And then it was
(14:54):
do you remember when you learned that?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Absolutely? I started hearing rumors rell around the top September
and it wasn't until I woke up one morning and
I saw President Trump. I believe it was on Good
Morning of America or something like that of the sort
where he basically said, hey, Memphis is pretty much next
on the list, and I was like, wow, you know,
(15:17):
I was pretty skeptical at first. I'm thinking, okay. On
behalf of me is saying, okay, relief, because again, I
live in these neighborhoods where I'm pretty much a victim,
and I'm seeing others around me are become victims of
the high crime here within the city. So I'm relieved
(15:38):
that he's doing this. And then the other half of
me is kind of like, so, what is this going
to be like, because again you have the fear mongering
coming in from the community, from the media here, especially
the local media here at this point that's basically just
kind of pouring into us. That's like, oh my god,
they're going to come down here. It's kind of giving
Nazi vibes. You know, they're going to be marching down
(16:00):
the streets. You're going to be doing this in the
third and doing a bunch of harassing so that she's
you know, be prepared, you know for that. So I
was a big fifty sixty on the fence about it.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
But wait right there.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Licia Balinger is our guest more with her and how
she lost her job.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
When first I've been destroying the black community is to
dismantle the black family.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
To Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Why don't we ask missus Willie Brown if Kamala Harris
cares about black families.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Licia Balinger was a reporter for the Tri State Defender
in Memphis, and she dared to write about her perspective,
her observations, her experience after President Trump signed an executive
order ordering the National Guard into Memphis, where crime was
notoriously bad. Luisa, let's start before we get to your
(16:53):
perspective on that action and the result. How bad was
it in Memphis? Because we hear stories.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
It was awful. I again, I lived in a neighborhood
it's majority black, and the crime is extremely high, and
there were things that I was dealing with, such as burglaries,
you know, the shootings. That was a constant, constant thing.
It was a normalcy for my family. I just think
(17:24):
we remember being on the phone one day with my neighbor.
We I'm pretty close with my neighbors, and I just
happened to be on a phone call with my neighbor
and as we're chatting, I'm hearing gunshots. It sounds like
a machine gun. It's just like thirty shots within a
span of minutes, and we're both on the phone like
what's happening here? And then literally five minutes later, we're
(17:47):
seeing crime, seeing tape, and we couldn't even leave off
of our streets. You know, this is going on both ends.
It's again, it was a normal sea. I was afraid
for my children to come outside because I'm afraid that
we were going to be innocent bystanders from bullets. You know.
There was an instance where I was in my backyard
(18:08):
just trying to pull some yards on, some weeds and
things out of my yard, and before you know it,
I'm hearing gunshots and I had to run in the house.
You know, I couldn't complete the things that I wanted
to do around my home because I was so fearful
of going outside. And it was to the point that
I did not let my children outside. They were not
outside plane and if they did, it was heavily supervising.
(18:29):
It wasn't for long with us being outside. So the
crime was absolutely terrible. You couldn't go places, you couldn't
do things without you know, things happening. You know, people
pulling out guns, people shooting everywhere. This is even happening
in spaces where children are and people aren't in full
(18:49):
control of themselves. It was very scary for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
What led President Trump to make the decision to make
that executive order, but I have spent a lot of
time and you would have no reason to know this.
But in my early life I was in politics. I
was a citywide city councilor for the city of Houston,
and I was the Mayor pro tem and I got very,
very involved in the parts of town that most people
never go to. And these are the almost exclusively black
(19:21):
parts of town. And Houston has a great and rich
history legacy in our black community. Barbara Jordan was the congressman.
Music came out of this area, and culture and cuisine
and personalities and the like. But one of the things
I found was there was the sense of quote unquote
black leaders who were themselves black, and before that it
was white liberals. And I've always said that they referred
(19:45):
to this as their own little fiefdom and they don't
want anybody from the outside coming in. It's like when
Boris Yeltsen came and visited Houston, Texas, and he saw
the grocery store. It was a Randall's grocery store, and
he saw all the options in produce. He said, Communism
is sunk. America wins. Communism won't last in Russia because
(20:06):
when the people realize there are all these options, so
many different grapes and apples and bananas, they won't live
under our system. Again, it's as if it's as if
these elected black officials, the Democrats don't want people to
see that you don't have to live this way. There
don't have to be drive bys, there doesn't have to
be filed. This could be a nice place to live
(20:26):
in America. And so I'm really proud of President Trump
that he was willing to say I'm going to do
the right thing for the people who live there, even
though their elected officials are going to make me out
to be a monster. It would be easier to just
forget about Memphis, which is what's typically done.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Mm hmmm, yep. I agree with you, you know, And
that's why I feel like a lot of this, when
you're talking about President Trump, I feel like a lot
of people's anger are is totally misdirected. And that's where
that separates me from the majority, because at first I
(21:03):
felt like everyone else, I'm like, what is President Trump doing?
What is he on? But then once I realized and
took a look at the scope of things, and I'm like,
this is the He's an actionable president. He came in
swiftly after I've seen that interview. It was nearly two
weeks later before we saw an influx of the Tennessee
(21:26):
Highway State Patrol or the Memphis Pass Force and a
bit of the National Guard. And that was when that
viral video was made. Because that's when the light bulb
clicked in for me and was like, Wow, my local
city leaders have done nothing. They've done nothing, and these
(21:48):
are the people who we've elected and have been in
office for quite some time, and it's nearly taken two
weeks of President Trump's action for them to come in
and swiftly give me peace and give me and my
family peace. That was an eye opening moment for me
and made me realize that I have been voting incorrectly.
(22:10):
I've been voting wrong. I've been I have not been
making the best decisions not only for my family but
for the citizens of mythist Because he created this action.
He gave me peace to me and my family. He
restored some form of order within my city. And again,
this was just in two weeks for me to feel
(22:31):
like this, and I commend President Trump for it.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
You know the line, the line they use online is
we don't have to live like this, and it's so true,
it is so very true. I can remember going into
communities and campaigning, and then I can remember I was
on city council for a week and we got a
call to our office from one of the black pastors
who had endorsed me, and almost all of them did.
(22:56):
And here I was a Republican, but we we took
care of our people. And they had a hole out
in front of the church that was a crater you
could you could lose a car in. And they called
and said, we just want this hole in front of
our church fixed because there's one way in and one
way out of our church, and everybody there's scraping the
undercarriage of their vehicle and it's frustrating, and why can't
(23:19):
we get it fished? And they had supported the mayors,
and we had a black mayor and he had been
to that church and he had received their endorsement, and
he had received all their votes and nobody ever did anything.
And they called us on like a Tuesday, and by
Friday we had the hole field.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
And he brought me up to.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
UH to the pulpit that Sunday, and he said, I
know what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Why are you letting that white boy up.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
At the pulpit, Because he's my white boy, and he
took care of my people, and he's my counselman, and
he cares about us. And what he was trying to
say was open your eyes to good government. And I
think this is a problem that plagues I hate to
term black communities because there are well it's a complicated question,
(24:05):
but I think this is a problem that plagues communities
that are exclusively or close enough to being black. Is
this is the brainwashing that the people who are here
to represent you are the people who keep telling you
that white he's evil.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well, that's not true.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
You want everybody working for you, you want everybody trying
to trying to protect you.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Hold On Delicia Ballinger in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
We're going to talk about how she was fired from
doing something she loved to do, reporting truth telling in Memphis,
because she dared say nice things about President Trump making
Memphis better.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
The hell I'm gonna be. She was twelve, I was thirty.
But it was wonderful to have you, mister President. The
Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Delicia Balalinger is our guest. She came to my attention.
I should probably tell you. We have a listener in
just outside of Houston about two hours named Dan Agan.
And he started a charity a few years ago, a
charity with a real purpose called we Won't be Canceled
dot org.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
We Won't be Canceled dot org.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
And when he first told me about it, everybody's going
to start a charity and nobody ever does it and
ever funded, and he's funded it. He seated it himself
with money and lo and behold, I would have people
on like the guy who went to prison for a
meme about Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
How ridiculous is that?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I had to got on, and in short order he
had sent him the cash to get back up on
his feet. When people speak out and do the right thing,
then this charity with a purpose advocates on their behalf
and provides financial assistance so that they don't suffer from
being fired. It's called we won't be canceled dot org.
It's a pretty pretty neat deal. So instead of him
(25:50):
this time hearing me talk about somebody and saying I
want to support them, which I think he's done that
for thirty people or so so far, and it's real
money every time, real money, he reached out and said, hey,
I want you to know about this woman to Luicia Balinger,
and we've had her on. Now what happened? How did
you find out that's saying something nice? Where did you
say that the support that President Trump was giving was
(26:12):
a good thing?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
And then how did it happen that it fell apart?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
So this was a day, this is a Friday, and
I'm something getting postponed, and so I had a moment
to sit.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Out on my porch and I grabbed some tea and
that's when the light bulb clicked in. For the first
time in five years of me being in my neighborhood,
I am hearing the bird's turn. I am seeing families outside.
I'm seeing a family. I'm seeing a father throw a
football at these kids. I'm seeing families walking. It's peaceful,
it's quiet, it's different, and I'm like, what in the
(26:51):
world this is peace. And I grabbed my phone and
I set on my porch and I talked about it.
And that's when I said, you know, I again, you know,
I'm not into politics or anything. I don't like to
get into all of that, but thank you President Trump,
(27:11):
because who else could I have thanked for doing this.
It was President Trump that did it. So I merely
told him to thank you and shared my experience on
what was happening in my neighborhood at that time. And again,
I'm not thinking anything of it, you know, I'm just
to share my experience, and before i know it, I'm
just seeing the numbers just blow up and I'm like,
(27:34):
oh wow, this is I didn't I wasn't expecting this.
So I ended up reaching out to the Tri State
Defender because again I'm a journalist. I believe in communication,
and I reached out to some of the editors there
and when I first initially told them, you know, they
were they were fine with it. You know, I told
them my experience. My editor at the time, she's also
from a different community. She's from Jackson, Mississippi, which is
(27:55):
basically like a smaller version of Memphis, so she understood
at that time where I was coming from. But then
the numbers started climbing and climbing and climbing some more,
and then eventually, I guess people started sending her the
video and then she reached out to me and said, hey,
why did you thank Trump? And I'm like, well, he's
(28:16):
the president. Because she was like, well that made me
want to cut your video off because you said thank you,
And I said, well, who else am I supposed to think,
because he's the person that did this, and then she
went silent, and then I began to tell her like, hey,
you know, I'm getting other opportunities to be on Fox
(28:39):
News things of that nature. She was like, well, if
you go, because these people are pro Trump, they're going
to make you look like Diamond and Silk. They're going
to make you look like these supremes, like pretty much
she ever wants you to a boot licking Trump supporter,
and if you do this, you will no longer be
affiliated with the tri State Defender. And I sat there
(28:59):
for a minute and I was just like okay, and
then it just kept bothering me. It just kept itching
away with me because I'm like, I feel like I'm
being silenced. I feel like I'm being biased because the
whole time before all of this came about, I'm in
the city. I actually filmed where the state troopers rolled
(29:19):
upon us while i was talking to a family that
was pulled over. I'm covering so many different viewpoints of
what's happening in the city, and they were fine with it.
But the first moment that I said thank you to
Trump or anything in relation to the Trump administration, my
career was on the line. And so from that point
I went back online and I just kind of gave
(29:41):
my following update was like, hey, like, my media company
is actually trying to silence me all because I'm telling
the truth. And before I know it, the next day,
I'm getting they removed me from all of their social
media platforms. I'm getting emails stating that my assignments that
I had, you know, longer wanted me to do and
(30:01):
that was it. They no longer wanted anything else to
do with me. And then they came out with this
statement like I've never worked there when I've been there
for almost ten years, and just tried to, of course,
make it seem like it was my decision to do
or voluntarily to do. When they gave me an ultimatum,
(30:23):
and so yeah, it was really, you know, disheartening because
again it's like having your own people slammed the door
in your face because I actually told the truth, which
again opened my eyes even more to the fact because
I'm like this whole time, I'm thinking I'm working for
a company that's not biased, and the whole time I'm
(30:44):
on a side and I did not know, And it's disheartening.
It was very disheartening. I worked as I did my
research more and more the owners they're very far left,
and so me saying what I said was a huge no.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
No, you know, I could go through.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
So Marcus Charles, good friend of mine, he wrote the
book Lone Survivor began a movie and he had to
go through hell and in his three mates, his his
fellow seals, his his his buds, his.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Brothers died for this story to be told.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
And I often think about, you know, and and as
a as a believer, and I think of Christ's suffering
and that it was it was, it was preordained, it
was destined, and I think about the suffering that has
to happen, that the things we go through in order
to reach the point that our voice has meaning. The
(31:49):
fact is it brought us together for you to tell
this story to a lot of people, and it's brought
you to a lot of people, and there's somebody out there,
maybe they're black, maybe they're white, maybe there's something else
who is saying. You know, I might not be exactly
like Alicia Bellinger, but in my life I'm ready to
be a full person as well. I consider the suppression
(32:13):
and repression of black independent thought in this country to
be absolutely disturbing. And I see it every day. I
see it, and I see it being done by other blacks.
The crab in a bucket theory, the social hierarchy, political hierarchy,
and the way that there is a regimented system of
enforcement like a capo system, And it bothers me, It
(32:36):
really really bothers me.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You know, this makes me think a whole lot in
which I have to sit back and think a lot
about Charlie Kirk. And I owe that man an apology
because I realized I am him, you know. He The
difference is, especially when you're talking about the black community.
You know, I'm black, okay, And it's bad enough that
(33:01):
me as a black person that I can't say anything
about my community. And it's different, even even more different
when you have a white man that's literally think the
exact same thing that I'm saying, and it did not
so well recepted.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Delicia Allinger, we're up against a break. You are wonderful.
I adore you.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
You be strong.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Anyone out there that wants to learn more reach out
to her. You can go to we Won't be Canceled
dot org and us see her as one of the
people on that site. We won't be Canceled dot org,
and you can support the great work they are doing.
It's one man funding at all. He can't fund it forever.
He's not wealthy. He's made a little money, but he
wants to make a difference, and he's putting his money
(33:41):
up to make a difference for people like Alicia and.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Lust. Thank you and good night.
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