[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey Los Angeles, are you Looking for unique 4th of July plans for you and your friends or family? LA's greatest rivalry returns to Rose Bowl Stadium for a July 4th edition of the El Trafico soccer matchup. As the LA Galaxy returned to their original home to defend their turf against LAFC last year, a record crowd of over 82,000 fans were on hand to witness the Galaxy victory. That's July 4th at Rose Bowl Stadium. Guaranteed fireworks both on and off the field and a celebration for all of LA LA Galax versus LAFC. The Rose bowl edition
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[00:00:47] Speaker B: Welcome back to now, no opportunity wasted. I'm your host Angelica Ross and so much has gone down this week. So let's just get things started. Let's set the tone, get the energy right with a word from Buddhism. Day by Day Wisdom for Modern Life by Daisaku ikeda Today's Monday, May 20 and it says quote, the Lotus Sutra has the drama of fighting for justice against evil. It has a warmth that comforts the weary. It has a vibrant, pulsing courage that drives away fear. It has a chorus of joy at attaining absolute freedom throughout the past, present and future.
It has the soaring flight of liberty. It has brilliant light, flowers, greenery, music, paintings, vivid stories. It offers unsurpassed lessons of psychology, the workings of the human heart, lessons on life, lessons on happiness, lessons on peace. It maps out the basic rules for health. It awakens us to the universal truth that a change in one's heart can transform everything.
I love that quote. And what I love about it is that the Lotus Sutra just has everything. Everything that you need.
It has just it sometimes reads like beautiful poetry, but there's just so many gems that just stick with you.
So I definitely recommend checking out the Lotus Sutra. You can actually read it for free@nan library.org now. In other news, it's been a lot of drama, baby. The award for the most insincere apology goes to one Sean Diddy. Puffy Love Combs.
Only after security footage was released from the Intercontinental Hotel showing Cassie running for her life towards the elevator to escape Diddy in nothing but a towel did Mr. Combs finally release an apology on social media. And in true narcissist fashion, he made it all about him and the dark time he was going through. Cassie's attorney issued a statement to Us Weekly following Diddy's apology, saying quote com's most recent statement is more about himself than the many people he has hurt. When Cassie and multiple other women came forward, he denied everything and suggested that his victims were looking for a payday.
That he was only compelled to apologize when once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation. And no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words. End quote.
[00:03:49] Speaker C: You better read, Meredith.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Many of us didn't even need to see video proof to believe the allegations. But now no one can deny the abuse caught on tape. My heart goes out to Cassie and to all survivors of domestic abuse.
Now let's talk about President Biden visiting Morehouse College and being met with mixed reactions. I saw Stacey Abrams child was bowing.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: Down to this dude like he was the queen bee.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: And to be honest, I have been asking myself, where has Stacey been in all of this? Ain't heard not one word about the millions of Georgia's tax dollars that went to genocide. But that bow told me everything I needed to know.
Thankfully, others like Reverend Reginald Wayne Sharp Jr. Preached a sermon. Honey, he spoke about the millions of dollars being invested in building Cop City here in Atlanta while displacing black families to build a mock city for police training. Baby, he was reading in that sermon. Thankfully, everyone who was handed the mic said everything that needed to be said with the president having to sit there and listen. Speakers spoke about the need to call for an immediate ceasefire and you can see the president clapping along. Biden even went on into his speech and called for an immediate ceasefire. But girl, I call bs. I don't believe it when your actions continue to show where your allegiance really lies. He just sent more money for war. Is still telling us that we don't have money to address America's problems. And yes, America has a problem.
We need leaders who are going to invest in our future more than they're investing in Israel's genocide. At one point you can see faculty holding up a flag from the Democratic Republic of Congo to bring awareness to the other genocide that's happening in Congo and the Sudan so that we can have the latest technologies and phones at our fingertips.
And what I really didn't like was the fact that the protests that happened at Morehouse that have folks turning their backs and raising their fists in silent defiance, holding up Palestinian flags is being compared to the other protests that have been happening around the country at university campuses and implying that those protests weren't peaceful. And we all know that those protests were peaceful until the police showed up.
Those protests were peaceful until pro Israel Zionists showed up with bats and knives and weapons and assaulted the peaceful protesters while the police stood by and did nothing.
So I'll say this I'm tired. I am done with white people creating an alternate narrative and an alternate reality where words don't mean what we know they mean. We're woke is supposed to be some bad thing.
I personally have been a part of grassroots movements my entire life. I started in high school being a peer educator for hiv.
So activists, we have worked long and hard to create shared language that gets to the root of the issue. So when you conflate anti Semitism and anti Zionism, you are undermining the work of so many grassroots organizers and activists and doing so very disingenuously. So miss me with all of that.
Also, shout out to Macklemore for using his platform to. To push back on these false narratives and shine a light on the truth. While other rappers decide to go back and forth in a rap beef that has the entire Internet gagging. A nice distraction for those of us who are constantly looking to be distracted.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: But for the rest of us who.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Know how to walk and chew gum at the same time, all I can say is they not like us.
Now today's guest asks and answers the question, why does everything have to be about race? The conversation was so intense that we had to break this into two episodes. So take a listen to my conversation with author Keith Boykin.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: Hello there, Keith. How are you?
[00:08:26] Speaker D: Hi, Angelica. I'm doing really well. How are you?
[00:08:28] Speaker C: You look good. You're wearing my favorite color. You know, somewhere in the spectrum of golds and yellows. I love that. And it loves us.
[00:08:36] Speaker D: It was the last minute choice. This is the first time I've gotten dressed up in several days. I've been under the weather, so.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Yeah, so I totally understand that. We are living in a world that demands for us to keep it going. Even though there are lots of forces around us that, you know, from racism to Covid that we have to kind of to flu and everything else that we have to dodge, you know, So I totally understand because I just got over the flu and Covid myself, so. So I guess that kind of answers the question. But my first question to you would be, how are you doing now?
[00:09:16] Speaker D: Well, I guess I'm. I'm feeling better now. I. I have been on book tour for the past few weeks and went all around the country and then I took a few days off. Originally I was going to go to Texas this week because my mom celebrated her 80th birthday yesterday.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:09:36] Speaker D: But I couldn't make it because I wasn't feeling well enough. So I'm staying. I'm stuck here in LA and I'm going out again this weekend, so hopefully by the time I head out this weekend, I'll be better. I'm going to Memphis this weekend and to Atlanta, but.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Oh, you coming to Atlanta?
[00:09:54] Speaker D: Are you in Atlanta?
[00:09:56] Speaker C: I am. What you come to Atlanta for? You got more work or plea. Pleasure?
[00:09:59] Speaker D: I have a book signing. I have a book signing on Sunday in Atlanta. On Sunday in Atlanta at Acapella with Acapella Books and Jericho Brown. You know Jericho Brown?
[00:10:08] Speaker C: I don't know if I know them personally, but you know what? I am going to look at my. I'm pretty sure I'm available, so I'm, I'm gonna be at that book signing.
[00:10:15] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. It's going to be really hot. Jericho. Jericho is a wonderful friend and he wrote a blurb for my last book and he's a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and I'm really excited. He's agreed to be my conversation partner for the event on Sunday with Acapella Books.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: And the name of the book is why is why is everything about race?
[00:10:41] Speaker D: Everything have to be about race.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: Why is everything. Now listen, what I love about that. Do you know, are you familiar with a man by the name of Dr. Jamie Washington?
[00:10:51] Speaker D: How do I know that? I know Jamie Washington somehow. How do I know that name?
[00:10:55] Speaker C: He's a, he has a Washington Consulting.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Group or something like that.
[00:10:58] Speaker C: But for years, he helped to facilitate the Racial Justice Institute training for the National LGBTQ Task Force.
Yeah. And they used to be called the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, obviously, until we learned to put push them to be more inclusive even in their name. But one thing that he would, one thing that has stuck with me that.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: He said that I learned from him.
[00:11:20] Speaker C: Was when he goes, is everything, is everything always about race?
Yes.
Is race always the most dominant issue at play in the moment? Maybe not, but it is always an agree, an ingredient in the, in the situation, in the conversation. So, you know, I, I, I always feel like when we were having conversations, whenever folks are unwilling to talk about the ingredients in the moment, is I kind, I think, a telltale sign that we have a problem.
[00:11:57] Speaker D: Well, yeah, I think that's part of what's going on right now in the country, that people don't want to talk about these things. They're kind of sweeping under the rug. I just saw a story in the news yesterday that in Florida, a Miami school made students get a permission slip signed by their parents just to have, just to be able to go to school and listen to a black author speaking to their class. This is this is outrageous. But that's what they're doing now. They don't want any of our history to be taught, so they're sweeping it under the rug. You know, I can tell you just from my experiences traveling around the country the past few weeks, everywhere I've been, there's been a story that's been related to this. Yeah, I was in Boston a few weeks ago and I went to the place where Crispus Attucks was, was killed. He was the first martyr of the American Revolution, March 5, 1770. He was a black man. And this, even that story was about race because when, when they actually had a trial for the people who killed him, they played to the jury's racism. So none of those people were ever convicted of murder. That was back in 1770, before, right before the country even started. I went to Philadelphia. I did a book signing there. And I went to the place on 6221 Oage Avenue where the police, the city of Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb on black, black residents who lived in this building in 1985 in order to, to get them to evacuate the building. This move organization and destroyed 60 homes in the neighborhood and let a fire burn that displaced two hundred and fifty people. This was 1985 in Philadelphia. Then I went to Washington D.C. i went to Constitution hall where Marian Anderson back in 1939, was denied the right to sing at this, this, this auditorium by the Daughters of the American Revolution. So she had to go sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead. And I went to the home of Carter G. Carter, Carter G. Woodson, the founder of the Negro History Week, which became Black History Month. I went to Atlanta and I went to Ebenezer Baptist Church and had a chance to, to see that history, the history there, which is all about race, and went to St. Louis, Missouri. And that's where I'm from, where I was born and saw the history there in St. Louis, where there's a home that was two or three blocks from where I lived, which was a famous house that white people went all the way to the U.S. supreme Court in 1948 to sue the black people who live there to prevent them from living there because it was a racially restrictive covenant. And they had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to allow them to. The black people had to go all the way to the Supreme Court just to be allowed to live in a house that they bought. I went just last week. I went here in Los Angeles. I went to the home of Hattie McDaniel who was the first black person to win an Oscar back in 1940 for her role and gone with the winner. And I went to her home. And the stunning part about it is that A, that she lived in this beautiful neighborhood and the white people, her white neighbors didn't like her living there, so they sued to get her to leave the neighborhood in 1949. But B, even when she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in the 1949 Academy Awards, she couldn't even sit with her castmate. She had to sit at the back of the room in the hotel at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. And she couldn't go to the cast party with, with the cast party members that night because they went to an all white facility. And just every part of our history, everywhere I go, all around the country, it's just the story of race is a part of who we are. And it's, it's, it's unavoidable in this country.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: Is it though? And the reason why I say because is it though? Because like it seems like a lot of people have developed, you know, I think the, one of the things that comes with white supremacy is the ability to avoid and the privilege. You know what I mean? To think about something as either not your problem or not something that is even a conversation in your world because your world you've created and curated in such a way in which that does. Is not necessary, that is not. You don't find that conversation to be valid in your world. And I see unfortunately a trickle down of that attitude in ways in which our own people, as black people, who at one point I believe were really focused on fighting for liberation.
And now I think it's a little gray in that some of us are fighting for access, you know, to privilege and access, access to the privilege to not, not, not all these issues that affect the world, but they don't affect me. Even to see some of our young black folks who would say racism. Why? Whatever do you mean?
[00:17:17] Speaker D: Well, yeah, there's two parts to that question, I think. And so the first part is about how white people perceive this. And truth is, yeah, you're right, a lot of white people don't perceive racism as an issue that affects them.
[00:17:29] Speaker C: And it's their problem, ain't it? I mean, I know we are experiencing the brunt of it, but you know, I've heard it spoken about in certain ways in which it is a white problem.
[00:17:41] Speaker D: Well, it is, it is largely a white problem because white people are the ones who created it in our country. But the other part of it is that they still are affected by it, even though they don't realize it. I mean, the reason why we spend billions and billions of dollars on police forces in our country is because white people are afraid of black people.
[00:18:01] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:18:02] Speaker D: I mean, imagine if we didn't. If they didn't.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: I mean, if we're going to speak it plain. If we're going to speak it plain. That's exactly it. Yes. And protecting white property. Yes.
[00:18:11] Speaker D: Imagine if we lived in a world where black and white people were treated equally from the beginning and they didn't have to be afraid of us and they didn't have to spend billions and billions of dollars trying to lock us up in jail where people actually had equal access to jobs and healthcare and education.
[00:18:24] Speaker C: Well, can I make a connection? And I don't know. I might be wild. This might be wrong. We might even have to edit it out. I don't know. But what I'm going to say is this.
When you say.
Because I'm thinking about that same. I'm thinking about Palestinians who have been experiencing ethnic cleansing since 1948, and the. The Nakba and all of the things or whatever. And then again, none of us wants to be someone who is excusing violence and saying that violence is ever the answer, but it always seems like it is the answer for white people when it comes to how they respond to their fear of us, how they respond to certain things and what the. At least some of the reflection I'm seeing in this moment is. I feel like a lot of white folks have been afraid that we as black people would one day respond in a way that ain't about church and forgiveness, but is a way that is about violence and. And, you know, and responding in a different way.
[00:19:32] Speaker D: Well, there's that saying. I can't remember who said. I want to say. Kimberly Latrice. Kimberly Trial, who said that white people should be grateful that black people are. All black people are looking for is equality and not revenge. And, you know, the other.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: I think that they.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Some of them think that we're.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: That in their hearts. If I had went through that stuff, I'd be looking for revenge.
[00:19:53] Speaker D: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, and the other. Other saying is that if you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. So a lot of people feel like the threat of giving up that privilege is oppression to them. But we're not looking for revenge for. For black people. What we are looking for is. Is some sort of sense of equality and justice. And I go back to what Dr. King said years ago, that there's a difference between a negative piece and a positive piece. Negative peace is the absence of tension. The positive piece is the presence of justice. And I think a lot of white people simply just. They just don't want any tension. They don't want any smoke. Right, exactly. But we as black people, want the actual positive piece. You know the old saying, no justice, no peace. If white people really want peace in this society, in America and throughout the world, there has to be a just world. You can't have a. You can't expect a peace. When you are living in an equitable world where 1% of the population controls 90% of the resources, or where 1% of the population is dominant politically, militarily, socially, economically, throughout the rest of the planet, that's a recipe for disaster. And we're starting to see that in so many different ways. We're seeing in debates about immigration, foreign policy, policy here in the United States, domestic policy. It's just that you can't fight your way into peace. You know, you were mentioning Israel and Gaza a moment ago. My saying about this is the same thing I say about Americans here. The problem is you can't fight your way to peace. You have to.
The way to peace is peace. You have to have to approach it from a point of view of justice and peace and humility. And that doesn't mean you come in with guns blazing. It means you come in figuring out how we can make this work out. And anybody who thinks you can just fight somebody who is opposed to you and kill them, and that means that they're going to be submissive and never want to get revenge. Isn't living on the planet Earth, anytime you kill somebody, that's going to make them want to kill somebody else in return? It's going to. It's going to create a cycle of revenge that never ends. There has to be adults in the room who stand up and say, this is not the way. We need to. We need to. We need to focus on creating a just society. So everyone.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: What I thought was pretty wild was there was a moment while back when President Biden was asked, does he think that a ceasefire is possible? And he was just like, no, I don't think it's possible. And I just was stopped in that moment because I'm like our leader, the leader of our country and the leader of the free. Whether they say the free world does not believe that peace is possible in this moment and also self identifies as a Zionist, I went, what was A struggle for me is the gap in understanding of language, knowledge, history, terms. All of this to the point of which when we talk about why is everything about race?
And then we get black folks in our own space that may not. That may also start to believe that everything is not about race or that. So I see this disconnect between those of us who are in circles with the National Black Justice Coalition and, you know, black movement for lives and all these things. And we're talking movement, language, and we're doing all those things. And it's another in the comment section at the Shade Room and the Zeus Network and what have you, and maybe even some somewhat of a younger generation that is seeing things through a different lens, that white supremacy has created the filter that they've created. How do we get our own people to see when history is being attacked in the ways that they are coming up in school and they're not getting the full story?
How do we.
With. How do we work with the youth as well as folks now to understand the elements that are at play?
[00:24:01] Speaker D: Well, I think you said something earlier that is important, which you said that a lot of people who don't necessarily want justice, they just want access. They want access to that privilege. And I think that that's a troubling trend, but it's unavoidable because that's what America teaches us.
And the truth is that that access will never apply to everyone.
You can have all the money you want, but at some point you're still black. If you walk outside and you're a billionaire and you're black and you try to get a taxicab in New York City, the taxi cab driver doesn't know you're a billionaire. They just say you're a black person on the street and they don't pick you up. If you walk into a department store and you're a billionaire and you're black, the security guard doesn't know you're a billionaire. Unless you maybe.
[00:24:47] Speaker C: They got Oprah together at Hermes back in the day, didn't they?
[00:24:50] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, they sure did. When Oprah went to the. What was it?
They wouldn't let her in. No. I mean, your black skin is an indicator of fear to a lot of people in this country and throughout the world because of the racist programming that comes from our country. And it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can't buy your way out of that. And that's what people miss out. So, yes, it's important for us to have access, to be able to take advantage of the opportunities society has for us. But access for what? Access just to be able to sit in our comfortable corners and be away from all the oppression other people in our communities are suffering through. Or access to use your power and privilege to be able to make a better world for everyone else.
[00:25:38] Speaker C: Well, so let yo. Yep. I mean, yeah, because I feel there's a lot I can definitely unpack there, but I want to go. There's so much that I want, you know. Oh my God, I'd love talking to you, number one, because you're. I don't know how you have all this stuff, information in your brain. Like even when you were first talking about naming years of this, when that happened in the south, in Philly and wonderful. And I love that we have folks like you that can do that.
What, so what year was it? What year was it when you were a White House a with Clinton? What. What was about that time?
[00:26:09] Speaker D: 1990S, 90. I worked for Bill Clinton from 1992 to 1995, essentially.
[00:26:14] Speaker C: So. So my question to you is because I have had my own experience as a black person, as a black person with decolonized politics, you know, or at least, you know, decolonizing in that space. What was the transition and what were the challenges like for you, going from working in the administration and the system and seeing. And having a closeness to seeing how things kind of work to then transitioning into. What I've been seeing from you is this sort of personal power that is outside of sort of any sort of organizational stamp of approval or what have you. And you even founded your own organization, co founded the National Black Justice Coalition. So what was happening with you in that transition from being so close to power to that kind of power and then walking into your own?
[00:27:17] Speaker D: Well, I think I've always, not always, but for a long time I've been close to or had access to power, but I've never felt like I was a part of that group. You know, I went to high. I went to three different high schools. But the last high school I went to in Clearwater, Florida, it was an upper middle class community and it was mostly white school and there were a lot of rich people in that school and I wasn't one of the rich people, but I was there and I knew what they were like. And I went to Dartmouth College for undergrad and went to school with two Rockefellers. Even one of our buildings that I studied classes in my government, political science classes was named after my schoolmate Nelson Rockefeller's father.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:00] Speaker D: So you know, I was never a part of that, but I knew that. I knew those people were around me. And then I went to law school with President. Future President Barack Obama, you know, and then worked in the White House with Bill Clinton and so many other people.
And I think despite those experiences, I never felt like that those. Those things identified me, that I still had core beliefs. And part of it was that I knew that I was a black gay man. I mean, I didn't always know that, but by the time I came out, I knew it was a black gay man. I knew that I didn't. I was never going to be welcome and fit into a lot of the spaces that other people were. I think a lot of that has changed, fortunately, thanks to so much work that's happened. But. But still, there was a sense of being an outsider from the beginning, a sense of not being fully included. So by leaving the White House and going to work, the first job I worked was with was a black LGBT group in Los Angeles, and then I wrote books. And that was all part of the effort of really just understanding who I was, understanding that my identity was just as important as the causes of all these other groups and people I've worked for. And I'd worked for, I think, six political campaigns over the course of the year. But I have to tell you this. I mean, I've worked for a lot of political candidates. I never agree with any of them completely on 100% on any issue, and some issues I vehemently disagree with. I've always been opposed to capital punishment my entire life, but Bill Clinton supported it, and you have to reconcile those things when you're working for somebody. I supported the idea of LGBTQ inclusion and gays in the military, and Bill Clinton came up with some horrible compromise called Don't Ask, don't tell, which was unworkable and unsustainable. Even he acknowledges now that that was a mistake. But that's part of the challenge of working in an. In a political environment. And you sometimes have to work for people whose views you don't completely share, but you feel like you're moving the ball forward in some ways, advancing.
Advancing the agenda as much as you can. So that's part of the reason I.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Was able to do it, you know.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: Because it's just what I.
What I feel like when I'm watching this political circus is I just feel like I've gone from being a child who didn't know how a lot of this stuff works. I hearsay and, you know, whatever, to being a 43 year old adult and realizing you got a lot of people who we have put in position who do not know what they're doing or who do not know what they're talking about or who do know what they're doing in order to, you know, create the chaos that they're trying to create.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: What I, I guess the question I'm trying to ask you is like, when.
[00:30:57] Speaker C: Did you know that?
Because like you said, maybe you always know because, because maybe you always know because like, as you were saying you went to law school with, you know, them, you know, now President Barack Obama. Um, so knowing that is what I'm, what I'm, what, what's challenging me is I feel like, you know, you are smart and you know a lot of things and yet you're acknowledging that you have to work with folks who you may not agree with on, you know, certain things or policy. But does there ever become a point where you might assess that working with the system in certain ways is not as anything as maybe doing things the way. Because I see right now like you're, you have, you're building such a authority outside of the system. We see you all the time, you know, being called on commentary on various issues on CNN and MSNBC and all these different things. But I also am looking at you and I'm like, well, brother, is you running for President? Because you could. I feel like, and I'm not even that smart, but I feel like you are smarter than a lot of the people in there. Is that even, is, is that even in something? Or do you feel like you wouldn't be able to have the similar effect in the system as you do right now?
[00:32:30] Speaker D: I think you hit the nail on the head. I think, I think a lot of people in office are probably smarter than we give them credit for, but, but the system either corrupts them or doesn't allow them to be free about who they are and what they can accomplish. The system is broken. And that's, that's the fundamental problem.
And it's true on almost every issue. You can't get anything done because the system is broken. Yeah, I mean, I, the classic example I always mention is that I live here in the state of California. We have 39 million people who live here and it's the largest state by population in the country. And we only have two US Senators.
Meanwhile, the tiny little state of Wyoming, which is overwhelmingly white, rural and Republican with only 600,000 people, they also have two US senators.
That's unfair that they have the same representation for that 600,000 white people in that rural Republican state that we have for nearly 40 million people here in this diverse state of California. That's, that's a structural impediment that can't be changed just by me being elected to the Senate or something like that. You need to make sure that there are systemic, systematic changes so that that can't continue to happen.
[00:33:53] Speaker C: Well, do you think, do you think that there is a solution or approach? What can we be doing? Because you say, you say, okay, the system's broken on almost so many. Yes, and I completely agree because even as I start to do the discovery work of my own path to politics, my point of concern is this two party system. And I, it's a huge concern for me because I feel like it is def, it's like the bedrock of so much that's going wrong right now and people even pretending to be on one side and really being on another because it's two sides. And so when I look at the, Even if we wanted an independent candidate and someone to come through, it's almost, it's like an impossible path for them to be on the ballot because of the two party system. So is there a way, do you see? Because listen, I'm asking the right person, so how do we, can we fix a broken system?
Can we, is there any way we can get past this two party system?
[00:35:09] Speaker D: Well, I don't think the two party system is the problem because it's technically not a system. It's just a de facto situation. The Constitution doesn't set this up. There's nowhere in the federal law that requires us to have two parties. And it wasn't originally designed that way. Originally it was designed not to have political parties, but it came across, came along very soon afterwards. The problem is that the system was designed to prevent radical change. It was designed to protect white male property owners. That's who they created it for. I mean, the Constitution said that black people like us were 3/5 of a citizen. We weren't, we weren't supposed to be included in this at all. And we couldn't even elect senators directly in the original Constitution. That was, that was wrong. It still didn't allow you to directly elect the President of the United States. We have to go through the electoral college, which needs to be abolished. But all these different systems are, are, are really the, the core of the problem. And once you uproot that, then you can, then you can start to have, have the, the real positive progressive change that people want. But I say that there's a two, two pronged strategy, a short term and long term. Short term is the part that people don't want to hear, but it's really the most important thing. And that is people have to vote.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I, I know it's, I agree.
[00:36:27] Speaker D: Boring thing in the world. Oh, that's, that's. My grandmother did this and my great. But you know what, that's how people get in power. And when I say vote, I don't just mean voting for president. That's the easiest thing to do. All the local elections, state senator, state representative, judge, school board, city council, mayor, governor, all those things, those are the people who have far more impact on your life than what the President, United States does. And once you start voting for people who you actually believe in at the local level, then you can create the infrastructure. We can have a party that can run, a third party or fourth party or fifth party that can run and win. But if you vote for a third party candidate for president, I mean, you're welcome to do that, but that person will never be able, first of all, there's virtually no chance that person will be able to be elected because the ballot restrictions, that's what I mean. Yes, it's hard to get on the ballot in all those states. But secondly, even if they were somehow elected, it would be impossible for that person to get anything done because they still have to get it through Congress, which is filled up with people from the two major political parties, both the House and the Senate. Then they have to get it approved by the judges who are, who are appointed mostly by the people from those two political parties. So the way to create that change is to start from the bottom up and vote at every election. And if you don't, where does the.
[00:37:49] Speaker C: Independence start on the state level? I mean, on the local level? Like, meaning, do you always have to go in as a Democrat, even on the, on the, you know, on, you know, state senators, house representatives, you know, what have you.
Because the reason why I'm asked. The reason why. Let me give you context why I'm asking this. The reason why I'm asking this.
I'm just going to draw a fantasy world for a second. The reason why I'm asking this is I personally have come into this evolving of my being to not be as binary as I used to be in my life. In my presentation, I'm now identifying as a non binary woman or trans person or what have you. And so non binary, not ex, not, not sort of attached to the extremes. And then, you know, Look, I have never agreed with Republicans on a, like, on their foolishness. But there is a saying, I'm with you when you're right now, I don't know when that has ever been. But what I'm saying is in essence and in theory, when you got someone like me who's a black trans person and all their life grew up under the oppression of this system and all the things. For me personally, I would never co sign foolishness from the right, but I also wouldn't co sign foolishness from the left. Do you understand? I'm saying in a means of, like, I'm with the left. I'm actually Democratic in nature. Do you. Independence is independence. But I'm Democratic in nature. But like we have a Democratic Party full of conservatives, so. And also full of other things. And so I feel like the answer is coming up.
[00:39:35] Speaker D: No, I don't think Democrat. I think the problem is, I think, I honestly, I think the Democratic Party has changed a lot in my lifetime. I think Democratic Party has become much more progressive. But the problem is that's not the, that's not all the party. But it only takes a few people to. A few people to stop things. Go back, right? The minimum wage bill. A few years ago they had a bill to, to raise the minimum wage and, and two people essentially killed it. One was Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia, and the other was Kirsten Sinema, who was the Democrat.
[00:40:09] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:40:10] Speaker D: They're both Democrats that Kirsten Cinema famously walked on, walked onto the Senate floor with a little skirt on. She did a little, little thumbs down, cutesy little twirl like she was so happy to kill the minimum wage. I was like, why the hell are you a Democrat? This has been, this has been the core of the Democratic Party philosophy going back since, since the New Deal when Franklin Roosevelt was president.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: And hrc.
[00:40:38] Speaker D: Huh.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: I'm saying. And also folks like hrc, you know what I'm saying? We're backing her.
[00:40:43] Speaker D: She's bisexual. But, but just because she's.
[00:40:47] Speaker C: It'd be your own people sometimes. Sometimes it'd be your own just because.
[00:40:51] Speaker D: You know, sometimes we learn the hard way just because somebody is, is LGBTQIA or just because they're African American, a person of color doesn't mean they're going to be supportive of the agenda of the people within those communities. And for her to, to be the decisive, deciding vote. But, but, you know, the. But there are, there is no squad. You know, I think about the squad like aoc, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley. There is no squad in the Republican Party. Also some of the most progressive people in politics and those people only.
[00:41:24] Speaker C: There's no squad. Because I feel like, no, I mean.
[00:41:27] Speaker D: There'S a squad of, squad of progressive people. There's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's none of that in the Republican Party. No. 0, none of that. But there are people like that in the Democratic Party and they do have a voice. There is no Bernie Sanders in the, in the Republican Party. You know, all those, all those, the people who are, who are. There are people in the Democratic Party who do support a lot of the issues that I agree with. It's just that they're not the only people in the Democratic Party. There was just a big election recently. Yesterday. I don't know when this is going to air, but it was just yesterday when Democrat Tom Suozzi won election for George Santos's old seat. Yeah, yeah, he beat a Republican candidate, but, but tops wise, he's pretty much a conservative Democrat. I mean, they ran a conservative Democrat because they felt that was the only way they could win in that, in that suburban white district. But you know, it's problematic because in some areas you had to have these, you have to have these conservative white Democrats.
But other areas, you know, and we really have to get to the point, I think, where we continue to push for larger policies. But the other thing I was trying to make mention too, the second part, the short term strategy was voting.
Long term strategy is we have to dismantle the whole system while we're voting, while we're doing these daily steps along the way. We have to be focused on a larger goal. I personally have very radical ideas about what we should do to dismantle the whole system. And you know, I, I don't think that they're things that people normally talk about, but I think we should eliminate the Electoral College. Completely abolish it so we have direct elections of the President. I think we should abolish the United States Senate entirely because it's underrepresented for the reasons I told you before. I think we should, we should eliminate gerrymandering in congressional districts in the House. We should also eliminate life tenure for, for judges who are appointed. There's term limits for judges.
[00:43:33] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:43:34] Speaker D: And I think we need to have a Constitutional Convention to rewrite the Constitution because there's so many. And this is something a lot of people, even people on the left are scared of doing because they're afraid it's going to open up a can of worms after death.
[00:43:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I would. Yeah.
[00:43:45] Speaker D: But I, but I feel like there's a lot of things we've learned just from watching Donald Trump that the Constitution clearly wasn't ready. Ready for, didn't anticipate what situation we're in. But if there's no way we would create a country in 2024 with the rules we set up in 1788.
[00:44:01] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:44:01] Speaker D: And so we need to rethink this whole, the whole thing, the whole way we did this in South Africa in the 1990s when Nelson Mandela became president after the, after decades of apartheid, they rewrote their constitution. They put marriage equality into the Constitution. They put support and support for LGBTQIA rights in the Constitution. They put environmental rights in the Constitution.
They wrote a constitution for the modern era, for the 18th century, which is what we were governed.
[00:44:30] Speaker C: You say that. I think that, I think a lot of America's problem is nostalgia is holding on to things that no longer work for us. You know, you know, I, I, I also feel like when you talk about dismantling systems, you know, I, I'm definitely on the same page. My, my challenge is, how do you dismantle these systems that don't want to be dismantled? Meaning they, no one's whiteness has never given up power. Just, hey, here you go.
And, you know, even these strong institutions who have been the most reluctant to change, you know, they say will be the hardest to fall. One of those, I feel like that has been falling is the sort of Christian hierarchy, because it's now placed in a, is putting its force and energy through a certain place and not in the, in the ways in which, because so many people have been exiting the church in ways where they don't, aren't speaking to the modern society.
Because what I, because what I know about a system is that obviously it's not just the white people and white supremacists and folks like that who are keeping that system working. And the fact is, is that how, you know, there are certain people who are benefiting from the system and therefore are not going to be involved with completely dismantling it. And you have this world in which, you know, I think about angel from Pose played by India Moore, and there was a scene between her and Pray Tell and Pray Tells telling them, like, you got, y'all gotta get serious and want to go protest this. Our lives are on the line and certain things are happening. And she go, she goes, I have a modeling gig and blah, blah, well, that's not important. She's like, well, wait, what? Am I not supposed to.
We all running from the same boogeyman. Am I not supposed to ever stop on the way and enjoy something for myself? And I think about what it means to stop and smell the roses. I think about what it means to enjoy what there is to enjoy. But when we. When we. In Buddhism, we have the saying, enjoy what there is to enjoy, suffer what there is to suffer, but never stop chanting nam yoho renge kyo, or whatever. But basically just in the meaning of.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Saying.
[00:46:54] Speaker C: There'S a time for all things in this. And I think that right now. And it feels like we're in a culture that only wants to enjoy the good vibes.
[00:47:06] Speaker D: Well, Frederick Douglass said, power concedes nothing without a struggle, without a demand. And so we have to demand what we want. Not going to happen, because people are going to voluntarily give it to us. And Audre Lorde said, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house, which means that we have to be creative about the way we choose to go about that. Part of the reason why I wrote my book, why Does Everything have to Be About Race? Is because I wanted to provide tools for people to help dismantle that. I wanted people to know that, yes, you don't have to. Another famous quote I want to mention, too, from Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison once said, a speech in 1975 at Portland State University, she said, the function of racism is distraction.
They say, the very serious function of racism, distraction. Somebody says, your head is in shape, right? So you have scientists proving that. That it is. Somebody says, you have no art, so you have to dig that up. Somebody says, you had no culture, so you have to prove that. And she says, none of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing. The purpose of it is they want us to be distracted. So I say, in response to your question, we have to do two things. Yes, we have to take care of ourselves. First, because if we don't take care of ourselves, we can't help anybody else. Part of the reason why I'm sitting here at home sick, recovering from my illness, instead of being out on the road doing something right now. And then secondly, we also have to understand that we are connected. We have some. We have to have some sort of consciousness. We don't have to spend all day, every day, thinking about all the problems of the world and being burdened by them. But we have to be conscious enough to know how we can use our power, our wealth, our celebrity, or whatever it is that we have, whatever kind of privilege we have, if we have any, to use that to leverage it for good. So yes, there's a combination of things. Live your life by all means, enjoy your life by all means, but also recognize that there are people who, who are still struggling and need help and you can, you can be the person to help provide that to them.
[00:49:15] Speaker C: You know, and what I love about what you said as well, you know, because you said, you know, if you're a celebrity and you know, you have that privilege or platform to use, use, you know, and, and you know, one of the messages that I want to continue to share to folks, everyone listening is that privilege is perspectival and that, you know, you, you have so many folks who take for granted the very real privileges in their life, whether that is the privilege to hear this podcast, whether that is a privilege to see and watch the video on YouTube or what have you.
And so there's many ways in which I think we, we're in such a world of problems and we sometimes can get trapped in our own problems like and, and that you, you don't. Or even oppression Olympics can get trapped in these spaces, but not realizing these places where we can turn our perceived privileges or our real privileges into some form of power in a, in a, in a place, whether that is speaking up and saying, I actually, I would love it if you could put the subtitles on because my hearing is not that great from back here. So if I, you know, so that maybe the person who hasn't revealed their death in the room doesn't have to be the one, you know, speaking up on those things. I, I don't think that we unders. And I, this is where I feel so much synergy around is I feel this gaslighting energy around the term we the people.
And I feel that it's been this cliched thing that has so much of our power has been co opted to cliches in a space that we talk about the thing, but we aren't about the thing and don't believe, don't have the real faith in it. You got people who follow a faith and can repeat like parrots some powerful phrase, but not actually feel it as they're speaking it. And so I think right now what I feel is part of the solution is us awakening to the power of the people and actually invoking that power and not being afraid to evoke it. But I feel like right now we're lifting the carpet up right now and seeing there's some fear here of evoking power and there's rightful fear because your livelihood and job might be in threat. But realizing we, I think that we have, we're in a system right now that seems to have so much control.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: And power over our lives that is very real.
[00:52:05] Speaker C: It's political, it's policy, it's written in structure.
But I'm coming from now a spiritual place and saying, you know, no opportunity wasted in saying, I believe in a space of awakening from the people to realize that these structures are not more powerful than our will to change them.
[00:52:27] Speaker D: I think that's right. Angelica, first of all, privilege is perspectival. I hadn't heard it phrased that way, but I like that I always say that privilege is relative because every person has some sort of privilege over, over someone else, even though we may not realize it. I like the example you mentioned about people who are deaf because my brother is deaf and I understand how that affects him and his life. And I also understand the spirituality element to this because, you know, I believe in the spirituality of abundance as opposed to scarcity. I think that people play on the scarcity mentality often that there's limited resources in the world, so we have to constantly fight each other because if this person gets something, I might not get something this immigrant gets in this country, then that means I won't be able to have my job job or if this trans person can use a bathroom, then that means that somehow that's going to affect my, my safety or if, if this black person can, can go and vote at a voting booth that.
[00:53:25] Speaker C: That fly a plane.
[00:53:28] Speaker D: Fly a plane or operate and operate as a surgeon or anything else that somehow that's going to impair affect me. And all these things are based on this scarcity model of thinking, which is in my, my judgment, anti spiritual. It's so, it's so ironic to hear these people who call themselves Christians by the way, going, talking about locking people up and deporting immigrants and how hateful they are to all these different groups of people. And I'm like not wanting to feed.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: The poor, not wanting to protect children.
[00:54:00] Speaker D: For real, what form of Christianity. But these are the same people who use Christian. If they're not the same people, they're descendants of the same people who use Christianity to justify slavery and segregation for hundreds of years too. So, you know, it's scary how people can subvert and subvert their religious beliefs to use, to oppress other people. But I believe in using my voice, my Power to the extent that I can, whatever privilege I have to try to help people and try to encourage other people to do the same with their lives. And part of that is just letting people realize that they do have some form of power that they can use. Sometimes we don't even recognize that we have power. Sometimes it's just being able to communicate to somebody in your own sphere that's sometimes the most important thing to do. You don't necessarily have to speak to 10,000 people on a stage at a rally, but just be able to talk to the 10 people you know, talk to your friends and your family members and have an impact on them and be a positive force in their lives.
That's the way we can take our power and use it to continue to multiply, to affect many, many, many, many other people. People.
[00:55:07] Speaker B: Well, thank you again, Keith Boykin, for writing such a powerful book, a much needed book. And I need y'all to stay tuned for part two next week. Also, I'm launching the Winner Circle this week. I want all of our listeners to know that they are all winners. And I want to help us focus on the wins, big and small. So go to win.missross.com to find out more information. But before we go, I just want to drop another Buddhist breadcrumb and I want to talk about the ten worlds and the world of humanity. In Sanskrit, the word for human being is manusha, meaning thinking, being, or one who thinks. When in the state of human being, we can perceive cause and effect and distinguish right from wrong discernments that are the basis of wisdom and common sense. This is where people strive to control their impulses and make sound decisions in this state.
Now, I bring this up because I believe that so many people are not just losing their religion, they're losing their humanity and giving way to their lower selves, or living and dwelling in anger, arrogance, animality, hunger and hell. In living Buddhism this month, it says, quote, acting solely out of self interest and self preservation are hallmarks of the lower worlds. Yet from this state of humanity, we can start stepping out of the lower worlds and make our purpose in life the betterment of ourselves and others.
That's how we can tap the life force of the higher worlds that's in this maze, Living Buddhism. So this week, I'm going to need y'all to tap into your humanity. Collectively, our humanity is on life support. We are losing lots of lives because we cannot see the value inherent in all life, in all children, regardless of nationality. May you be part of the resurgence of our humanity.
No opportunity wasted.
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