ANDREW CHAPADOS ｜ ‘Who is paying you？!’ Bryson Gray vs Chivona Newsome (BLM)
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Andrew and Siobhan sit down with political activist Sivana Newsome and hip hop artist Bryson Gray to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement, the state of America, and much more.
Transcript
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Sivana Newsome is a political activist and co-founder of BLM Greater New York,
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notably spearheading protests against the Brooklyn Nets for their treatment of Kyrie Irving.
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And leading the battle in New York against vaccine mandates,
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Bryson Gray is a number one Billboard charting artist with hit songs like Let's Go Brandon
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and Controlled shooting to the top of iTunes and Amazon Music charts.
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He's also had his songs banned for medical misinformation multiple times.
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And as the artist best noted, is having a song removed from Spotify.
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Thanks, you guys. How are you doing? Thanks for joining me.
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Say whatever you want. We're not going to censor this.
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We're not going to cut you guys off. It's going to be simple.
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I'll ask a question to one of you, give your answer,
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and the other one will get a chance to make a rebuttal to the question.
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but let's try our best to not talk over each other.
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If you agree on something, maybe that's a good thing.
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And at the end, we'll give you both a chance to give a closing statement on culture,
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politics, the state of America, basically whatever you'd like.
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So, Siobhan, I want to start with you and talk about the summer of 2020.
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It saw both peaceful protests and rioting, I think most people would say,
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But was the property damage and violence of these protests justified, in your opinion?
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I think that people forget that Black people are American.
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Every single race that Americans have gained from the foundation of this country
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First thing first, I noticed she didn't even answer the question about if it was justified or not.
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No, it's not justified to kill people, to riot.
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but people that get mad at the January 6th riots don't understand that these Black Lives Matter riots,
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we saw people on video dying, being beat to death for no reason.
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The difference is these people that they are killing are literally innocent,
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Matter of fact, a lot of these companies have Black Lives Matter signs to support Black Lives Matter
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I think that you made the point that you are paid to make.
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You're political whoring, just like people like Candace Owens.
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What hasn't been gotten by bloodshed in this country?
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Because it's Black people, we're supposed to sing and dance?
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If you want to go off the Constitution, off the Bible, everything has been achieved by war.
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Black people are beaten, killed, and living oppression in this country,
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and we're supposed to sit back and take it, who's coming to save us?
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It's not the Democratic Party, and it's sure not the Republican Party,
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who a lot of Black folks are capitalizing on, chucking and jiving for.
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I'm willing to bet you that between me and you, only one of us is getting paid to say anything,
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Then the second thing you said is we've been oppressed and beat and things like that in this country.
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I'm almost willing to bet my entire bank account that you have not been beaten or anything
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or oppressed in really any way, shape, or form.
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September 2020, I'm still suffering back change from the NYPD,
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who you guys go around and quote law and order from.
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I just came back from there for fighting for justice for Jason Walker,
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an unarmed Black man who was murdered by an off-duty cop,
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So before you traded in being a liberal for this paid conservative,
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like, it's really clown-like to show up places with large hats to garner attention.
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And then you say you're a conservative Christian.
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What is it for a man to profit the whole world and to lose his soul?
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So once again, I'm assuming it's because you're a woman.
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I'm not sitting from my bedroom shucking and jiving for the white man.
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As I said, as you interrupted me, I understand that you are emotional,
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so you're going to keep attacking rather than making me...
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If you keep saying that, because that's patriarchy.
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I've owned too many companies, and I am too smart of a business mind.
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But please keep going if you actually have a point.
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Yeah, as you brag about yourself, if I could continue this time, I understand this.
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So I understand that you don't have any real arguments that you're going to attack my character as per se,
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but everybody that knows me knows I'm the person who can pay the lease.
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If I was doing this for money, then obviously I would be really shucking and jiving, as you would say.
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But, Dad, you sold out your own people, and you worship Donald Trump, who dog whistles to the Proud Boys,
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You need to call Kevin Owens because you fail it.
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Because I can't conceive why someone who claims to have been a liberal, which I am not,
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because I'm a student of Malcolm X, I know how both the Democrats and Republicans betray my people.
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Make me understand, because right now it seems like you're just tap dancing for attention and not profit.
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And then, Shyvana, you can have one more rebuttal to that, and then we'll get to the next question, okay?
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So the issue here is nobody sold out to anybody.
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You're trying to pivot because you can't really logically explain any of your positions.
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If you look at the seven pieces of legislation I've gotten passed in the last year,
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if you go to blackopportunities.com, it will explain that.
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You have no justification as to why you're making a mockery of yourself as a strong Black man for nothing.
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Don't just credit the work of the ancestors who came before me, because there's always going to be housing growth.
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But I thought, when I Googled you and I seen you on Billboards, I thought you were at least making a profit.
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The tweet that I received from Donald Trump took me into hiding.
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Makes me ride around in an armored car in a bulletproof vest.
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Because he sent the people who you entertain after me.
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So I don't get what point you're coming from at that position.
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And obviously, you don't know who you're talking to.
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So the FBI came to my parents' house to try to attack me.
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Nancy Pelosi picked me on her government hit list.
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I don't think you did a good enough research on me, which is why you're trying to come across as attacking me.
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Move to the next question, because she's going to keep repeating the same thing and brag about herself.
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Actually, I didn't say a strong black woman, because that's what you do to tear away from my argument.
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You have to point out the fact that I've had tons of arguments.
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I mean, maybe you're not able to comprehend them.
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I need somebody with a law degree or something.
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My next question for Bryson, we'll start with, are black Americans at an inherent disadvantage in America compared to other races?
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You have people that come over here with darker skin tones than us from Nigeria, and you see the numbers they're doing is better.
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They even almost have a higher median household income than white people in this country.
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So they come over here and have an easy way to success, and they come here and actually grind.
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If you know any Nigerian people in America or know a lot of the families, they come here and grind.
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The gaming rate is lower amongst Nigerians in this country.
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So if Nigerians can do it, I don't see how we can't do it.
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Also, the reason why that doesn't make sense is because once upon a time, our economic success was surpassing white people in this country.
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So if you're going to, and of course, he's probably going to bring up, oh, black Wall Street, things of that nature.
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I don't know, so I don't want to assume, but that's what a lot of people usually bring up.
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That can't really be a good excuse because if we already had a point in this country where we were doing well, we wasn't relying on the government, we had economic success, then how can you say it's inherent?
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Havana, are black people in America, black American-born citizens at a disadvantage compared to other races?
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I see that Bryson chose to talk about Nigerians or any other immigrants, my people being a foundational black American, we were imported here as a commodity, as slaves and as workers.
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And if we look at any statistics for black people in America, descendants of slaves, we see a negative wealth gap.
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Statistics and data actually proves that it's much harder to be a black person in this country.
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If you talk about redlining, since he wanted to talk about immigrants coming to this country, the government made it so that people coming to this country who were immigrants could actually get a house that they couldn't carry on that wealth.
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The way that we achieve wealth in America is generational wealth.
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As we see in a lot of people under the white Banneker immigrants who came to this country who actually didn't build America, what we see with them is they got life insurance policies and they were able to pass that along.
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Our school system is failing, and I love that people love to talk about black-on-black crime or crime statistics, but as you see anywhere that there is a high rate of unemployment, there's a high rate of murder.
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And statistically, black people have higher unemployment rates.
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And I love the fact that you brought up Tulsa, actually did a 3,000-person armed march there to commemorate the 100-year anniversary.
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And you see anywhere that black people were thriving, there have been roadblocks and obstacles put in the way that no other race has had to experience.
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That's why the black experience is so unique to this country.
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That's why we are disproportionately taken advantage of, and that's why systemic oppression and racism do exist.
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So, unfortunately, she just conceded to the point, if you play what she said, that black people were thriving in this country.
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And then, obviously, she brought up what happened to Tulsa.
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And white America destroyed it with the crack at the epidemic.
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They destroyed it with welfare, where they helped the farmers, but black families couldn't stay together.
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Tell me how much black people have in this country.
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Tell me about, since you wanted to talk about being a black woman, why is it that for the same education and the same work experience, I only get paid 63 cents on the dollar?
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But I have every single opportunity here in this country.
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Let me try to finish this time, as I let you finish every time.
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So, as I said, she already conceded to the point that black people were thriving.
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Then, obviously, she brought up the Tulsa situation, which is one situation.
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Then, she just brought up welfare, which I found interesting.
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But the thing about welfare is people was lined up for it.
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The government promoted it to black folk, and black folk ate it on up.
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So, when we start lining up for things like that, it obviously is going to affect us in a negative way.
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But she acknowledged that we were thriving in this country.
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And there were systems put into place to take away our wealth.
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It wasn't like we collectively got up and decided to be lazy, because remember, we were
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the best and hardest workers when we worked for free and shut up and sang about it.
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The Democratic Party has destroyed black folks.
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That's why I've created other organizations, Black Opportunity, which is about taking care of
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Andrew can tell you this, because I've been on here.
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I pull out both when they're putting my black people's lives and liberty in jeopardy.
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Well, you already told me you aren't a liberal, so I never brought up you being a liberal.
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The only point I brought up the welfare situation is because it's not like welfare was forced
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It was wrapped up in a nice little boat, and the government pushed hard for it the same
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And unfortunately, a lot of people took the bait.
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When they took the bait, that's what led to the destruction of the black community.
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You know, there were times the black community, my grandmother was a black panther.
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There was times the black panthers used to go to even poor white neighborhoods and feed
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The black panthers, even though a lot of them were communists, but just on a social level,
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they were pro-black, but they were trying to help.
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And this is where we model our organization after it, but they have to create and paint
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us as these crazy, angry people burning down buildings.
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But even say during the deep freeze in Texas that happened early last year, it was poor
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As a Christian, I can't say, hey, you're white and not get a plate.
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Black folk and black people, we just aren't that type.
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So I'm happy that we can find things we can agree on and some things we're going to go to
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But hell yeah, this government and this system has been created to oppress black people.
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So you are actually conceding to the point of the disadvantage of the black person in
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So we agree on what's happening, but we don't agree on the issue.
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And what I mean by that is the issue is what the government is doing, is pushing at the
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And by the way, there's more white people on welfare, of course, by individual number,
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But my face and a black woman's face is opposed to good welfare.
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So what I'm saying, though, is that we took the bait.
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That's the part I have an issue with, is that we took the bait.
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Because a lot of the pro-black leaders of that time were speaking against the welfare
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So it's not like we didn't have people fighting against it, telling you not to do
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Like now, there's always going to be some crazy folks standing up who get shadow banned, who
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get censored, who get blocked, all these things, who get harassed by telling the truth.
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This is the price you pay for being a truth seeker.
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But when you think about it, and people are going to say, oh, I'm pushing segregation, right?
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Even Martin Luther King, before he died, said that we were running into a burning house.
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It's like, how has it helped us wanting to be with white people instead of concentrating
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It's that when we beg to go sit at our counters, we forgot about Papa Joe, who had been feeding
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I think the only way the black people are going to do it is if we come together collectively,
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if we pool our resources, and we stop waiting on someone to save us, whether it's the PPP
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money, the welfare system, you'll never hear a black revolutionary preaching for any of
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But I do have one more question, though, Andrew, before you start.
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Do you think that black people deserve some of the blame for taking the bait?
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Because the reason we're in this position, because even back then, they used to go into
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the house to make sure there was no man in there for you to continue to receive the benefits
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So my question is, do you think we deserve any of the blame for taking the bait?
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A starving man, unfortunately, is going to take bread.
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I'm sure people reached out to you as they've reached out to me regarding the vaccine.
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And I have people who feel they were betrayed by God.
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They betrayed these things because they went ahead and got the vaccine because that was the
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If you needed to eat and welfare and food stamps was the only way that you're starving babies
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to eat, I'm not going to hold that against you if that was the bait being dangling.
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Do I blame more people for not joining this idea and taking to the streets, hiring people,
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electing people who believe in them, voting more so than down the line, which has gotten
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But if I was starving and I had to feed my proverbial children, I would.
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So I guess that's just where we're going to have to agree to disagree there.
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But you can't understand why they chose to do it, though, right?
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I don't think that you can understand if you couldn't feed your children why you would
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Now, the problem is where I do put the blame on us is welfare is not generational, okay?
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Like, if you lost your job, things were bad for a year or two, so be it, economic crisis
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Yeah, you're supposed to take that and then move on to the next level.
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We should not be inheriting housing project, apartments, or your grandma's on aid and you're
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That's why we are creating STEM programs and programs to help single mothers and people
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and formerly incarcerated people so we can break the cycle.
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But that comes with Black people helping ourselves.
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So the reason I don't understand why they took the bait is because during the time when
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full-scale, I'm going to call it full-scale welfare for now because we know smaller forms
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of welfare was presented earlier, but when full-scale welfare was presented, we had more
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of a sense of community in the Black community, so I feel like people would have helped each
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Also, economically, we weren't that bad out of time where we had to take it.
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I think the way they, during those times, the way they wrapped it in a nice bone, the package
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they sold it to us was just so enticing that we took the bait.
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If you look at the media and the tools of the media, it'll have you loving the oppressor
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Look at the way that everything has been packaged that's from the vaccines to tax credits to inflation
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So I don't want to say we're more woke than our ancestors because it was people screaming
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just like you and me, but imagine if that's what you're being fed.
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Like, most people don't even know why they're voting or who they're voting for, what they
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So I don't really blame people for being ignorant, but it's our job to try to wake them up.
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No, I just want to move on to different topics.
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Shavonna, this one's going to be directed at you.
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We're seeing a lot from the Democratic government, the Joe Biden administration right now, talk
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about, you know, the Russian and the Ukrainian border.
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We have to have sovereignty on the Ukrainian border.
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It's confusing a lot of people compared to how the American-Mexico border is treated.
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The question is, do you think black communities are hurt by illegal immigration more so than
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Um, no, I'm not going to say that because people who come here and whatever reasons they migrated
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to America for, we pointed out the Nigerian population coming here to work hard.
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I think there's enough resources in America for people who are seeking to work.
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Uh, that's why I fight so hard to break down the racist barriers that keep us from owning
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Do I think it's hypocritical of the American government to go around spreading democracy
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and the way that it treats black people, the way that the voting rights bill did not pass?
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Um, I think it's hypocritical, but we're doing, with inflation rate and everything that's
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happening, this war, I know I'm going to be super censored now, um, it's a distraction.
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Um, we have no business being over there, but we know that war is profitable and Americans
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tend to, well, some Americans, usually the 1%, tend to thrive when blood is on the street.
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Um, it's above my pay grade, my clearance to know why we are inserting ourselves into that.
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But, um, we have real big problems here in America.
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I won't sit here and lie for a bleeding heart type of a thing, but America needs to take
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I'm not sure the, uh, YouTube sensors have caught up to the Ukraine-Russian debate yet.
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But Bryson, the question to you is, are, does illegal immigration hurt black communities?
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It's, it's, it's, it's lower cup communities, period.
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Cause that, those are the jobs they're going to take.
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I mean, it's, it's actually quite simple, but they're going to come here.
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They're usually going to work at the, at the same job with the warehouses.
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I know I used to work in warehouses and you see a lot, a lot, a lot of people who couldn't
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And I worked at three separate ones, separate ones.
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Matter of fact, I worked at a fiberglass fiberglass plant called PPG.
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It's not like they're coming over here already rich, but those are the jobs they're going
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It's poor white people, uh, poor legal immigrants that came here and it's just poor people, period.
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But yes, unfortunately a large percentage of black people, uh, will be affected by that.
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So I don't, I don't even think there's any numbers to combat that.
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I think that we have enough education, we have enough healthcare, we have enough resources
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When we think about second generation immigrants, um, I think that we should remember black people
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when we talk about the things that immigrants do get in this country, when we talk about
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the advances that non-white people have, uh, those came off the struggles in the backs
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of black people who do what I do, who fight for freedom, who fight for legislation and
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Bryson, is that the same as illegal immigration though?
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I think Siobhan is talking about, you know, legal immigrants, if I'm not mistaken, Siobhan.
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I don't really, I don't think anyone's illegal.
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Um, I think that we, America, since we're going to get into it and talk about it, America
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is racist as hell when it comes to its immigration policies.
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When you look at when Donald Trump banned nine nations, about four or five of them are black.
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America has a huge problem when black and brown people come here, but you never see
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poor European neighborhoods where people with white skin getting raided.
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I would love if America had equality across the board for their immigration policy, but,
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We see people who are dark migrants, uh, treated horribly by this country.
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People are based on the laws, just like many other countries have laws, just like Mexico
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If you, if you, if you have, if you go, if you try to go to Mexico illegally, you can
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Most countries understand that across the, across the globe is common sense, really.
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Um, so obviously, I think the issue is, cause I'm bad with this, you know, I'm gonna chop
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This country was supposed to be founded off of people coming through Ellis Island, fleeing
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religious persecution, uh, looking for new, new resources, all these things.
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Like since when that's how all these people were currently in power, these white folks, because
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they're, they're not indigenous and they were not bought here as slaves.
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So they, their families came over here seeking a better opportunity, but now we're going
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So I like how you brought the religious persecution because even a lot of conservatives don't realize
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that the American revolution was in large part, a religious war.
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A lot of people think it was only about taxes, which is just simply ignorance.
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So I'm glad you mentioned that, but nonetheless, countries have borders, countries have to
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So it can't be, I don't know how you can view it as racist if it's happening in countries
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I mean, you know, I call racism, racism, like anywhere there's injustice against black people
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I can't go to about four different African countries for speaking out against their dictators.
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I call bullshit or BS, uh, wherever it's happening, but we see that America's, um, look at when,
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Um, the same people who were screaming at Donald Trump and let's be crystal clear.
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I am no fan of Donald Trump who was screaming at him for saying the China virus really wanted
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to start calling it the African South African street.
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That's the racism I'm talking about in America.
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That's the anti-blackness and we see it, whether people are foundationally black American or
00:25:41.920
So I guess maybe you just disagree how a country is supposed to be ran.
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So I'm, I just want to talk about how countries are.
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So, but let me focus on how countries are ran though.
00:25:52.380
Most countries have borders because they understand that they have, and I agree that you have to
00:25:58.500
So in this sense, multiple, you, it's, it's illegal to go to, I want to go to
00:26:03.420
say the majority of countries in the world and there is punishment for being there illegally.
00:26:07.960
Now in United of America, you come over here illegally for some reason in a, in a too many
00:26:12.960
cases, not only do you not get punished, but you get benefits, you get benefits.
00:26:21.040
So I, so, and then not only that, they let you get here, you get your cars and then you
00:26:26.000
can actually get a job while being here illegal.
00:26:28.020
Meanwhile, if some, if a black person get called trespassing or anybody, a regular American
00:26:33.020
get called trespassing or something, you can end up in prison.
00:26:35.900
So it's, it's kind of interesting how that works.
00:26:37.980
I think I want to say about political asylum, because you're talking about the legality
00:26:41.760
If you make your way anyway onto this country's soil, you're supposed to be able to cry political
00:26:48.160
You're supposed to be able to say that as a grounds to say, and there's a law and there's
00:26:54.040
And we look at the countries where people are fleeing from as much as I am, because
00:27:01.680
My family built this country and built the white house.
00:27:03.900
But if people were fleeing to America because they're leaving crime ridden places, the cartel
00:27:09.220
is on their tail and they get here and they say political asylum, like I'm a political prisoner,
00:27:14.280
something to that effect, whatever they actually need to say, that's in the law.
00:27:20.780
Uh, because that's not why the majority of illegal immigrants come over here.
00:27:26.500
Matter of fact, in a few countries, it's actually promoted that you could just come over here.
00:27:35.260
Well, those of all the white folks watching this show, they probably want to send me back
00:27:47.400
No, listen, listen, listen, I have conversations with actually, I have conversations with actual
00:27:57.380
Well, I have conversations with anybody because the only way to get past something is to understand
00:28:05.300
There are some white supremacists not to tell you to go back to Africa.
00:28:07.340
The only issue is they're usually, uh, not conservative.
00:28:12.500
All right, I want to move on to one more question and then I want to talk to you both, uh, with
00:28:22.880
Bryson, does the LGBT movement help or hinder progress of black Americans or groups like
00:28:29.880
I mean, it hinders, it hinders progress for humanity.
00:28:32.760
I mean, especially with black folk, because once again, we're only 13% of the population.
00:28:38.360
We don't have the same luxury as other people have Hispanic, the Hispanic population is growing.
00:28:44.740
The white population is decreasing by a bit, but they're still the old woman majority in this
00:28:51.540
We don't have time to be promoting things that obviously goes against the black family unit and
00:28:59.940
the LGBT screw politics, screw anything just inherently by nature.
00:29:06.900
It does that obviously the higher gay population you have, the less people you have starting
00:29:15.220
families get, uh, uh, uh, and progressing the community, but even screw the black community,
00:29:26.920
There's only a net negative with the, with a higher LGBT population, only a net negative.
00:29:37.200
So just to be clear, you're asking if the LGBT community is hindering the black lives matter
00:29:43.920
As in like their viewpoints and their ideology and everything.
00:29:48.440
I believe in personal freedom as much as the next person.
00:29:52.360
But the ideologically speaking, um, if you look back in history, we talk about Warren
00:29:59.580
Luther King a lot because, you know, everyone hated him, but he's been whitewashed.
00:30:04.360
We don't call him a communist and things anymore.
00:30:06.900
Um, there's that, that's what happened years and many years from now when I'm gone, they'll
00:30:10.720
act like I was the greatest person ever instead of this angry black lady.
00:30:14.220
Um, but there was a man called Baynard Rustic, who, who was a queer black man.
00:30:19.480
There was another person by the name of Audrey Lord.
00:30:25.900
So black queer people, I want you to be able to get a job.
00:30:33.720
There's so many black trans and queer people who have been on the front line.
00:30:37.000
And to talk about when you're talking about the population growth and black people, of course,
00:30:41.000
I'm tired of the fact we've been there for, for 13, we've been at 13% my whole life, but
00:30:48.700
I believe that every person in this country, no matter race, sex, or creed should have equity
00:30:55.120
I do not believe that they are pushing away my doctrines and what I believe in, because
00:31:01.620
And I understand there are many roads and many different avenues and we all won't agree.
00:31:06.680
We all won't get along, but the ultimate goal is black liberation.
00:31:11.000
So, I feel like the only way to have black liberation in the root, in the core of advancing
00:31:17.180
any community in the history of the world, I don't care what community it is, is the
00:31:22.760
If the family unit is intact, just statistically and historically, you will have more success.
00:31:27.740
Then you can pass down the generational wealth that you obtain.
00:31:31.620
Then you're more likely to even have that wealth in the first place.
00:31:34.240
So, an obvious threat to the black family unit is not only just the LGBT as is, like
00:31:41.540
literally as is, the idea of it as is, but it's the agenda to push it more, especially
00:31:50.420
I never even seen a transgender person until I was like 18, 19.
00:31:55.660
Now they're trying to push it on the black people.
00:31:56.920
I grew up in New York, so it's a little different.
00:32:01.280
But so, so I, well, I'm from though, like, I don't, I don't, you didn't see it.
00:32:08.840
There was nobody in the South who lived with an uncle who was with a partner.
00:32:12.260
I knew, so, so, so, I knew, I knew gay people, but I never knew a transgender.
00:32:17.600
Even still, I don't think there's a transgender in my family.
00:32:19.400
But, um, so when now, when I see things becoming more common, but then you look at it, when
00:32:25.220
you look at McDonald's, when they do their marketing, they specifically promote black
00:32:29.800
Or when I had a class of black lives matter, they had less black lives matter flags, but
00:32:37.920
I think I only saw three ones that only said black lives matter.
00:32:40.860
So our flag is the black liberation, but it's the red, black, and green.
00:32:44.800
I'm like, if you Google me, you see it everywhere.
00:32:49.400
So when I fight for black people, I include all of them.
00:32:53.140
Right now, with us only being 13% of the population, any black folk who want to come
00:32:57.800
over and join this fight against this oppressive system, who wants to fight to get legislation
00:33:02.580
passed, fight for black people, I'm not turning them away.
00:33:06.140
I'm not judging you on based on who you sleep with and who you lay with.
00:33:14.180
It breaks my heart to its core that more black babies are murdered in New York City than
00:33:29.520
I've sat down with my pastors about this, right?
00:33:33.040
And it was like, if I show people love, it will lead people to Christ.
00:33:39.780
When I get up there, God's going to ask about what Shavonna Renee Newsome did with her time
00:33:45.700
It's not going to ask me about my trans homegirl, who I'm about to start a protest and a rally
00:33:55.980
Because the thing is, we like to do is, we like to make people the new nigger on the block.
00:34:03.100
Gay people got their rights because of black people.
00:34:05.440
Immigrants got their rights because of black people.
00:34:07.340
All these things have came, I'm not turning my back on anyone who is oppressed and marginalized.
00:34:11.620
Just real quick, though, and I'm sure you looked me up.
00:34:16.580
So since you brought up Jesus and God, we're going to have to get to the Bible.
00:34:21.580
You say your job is to love, but it's really not, though.
00:34:24.640
And what I mean by that is, you said God's going to ask you, what did you do?
00:34:29.840
In Ezekiel 3, 18 through 19, it says, if you warn somebody that they would die in their
00:34:39.340
But if you don't warn somebody that they will die in their iniquity, if you don't warn somebody,
00:34:46.380
It's actually your job to warn people and turn people from sin.
00:34:49.980
Leading somebody to Christ, what's leading somebody to Christ is not telling them about
00:34:55.380
Because there's no such thing as being within Christ if you're not changing your life.
00:35:01.340
Yeah, I know about Sodom and Gomorrah, but I don't have the power.
00:35:15.080
I'm a horrible, terrible sinner who tries to be more like Jesus every single day.
00:35:21.780
And I hope that through my actions, I'm showing that I'm a servant of Christ.
00:35:27.200
But the way I've interpreted the word in the reading, yes, we know what the sins are.
00:35:46.900
This is literally what I do when it comes to the Bible.
00:35:50.520
When people say I'm a worthless, rugged sinner, yeah, the thing is, that's not what Jesus calls
00:35:55.340
Jesus actually says, be perfect as ye, your Father, is perfect in heaven.
00:35:58.380
Matter of fact, Jesus said, walk like how I walk.
00:36:00.760
Matter of fact, in 1 John, it says to really be like Christ, you have to actually walk like
00:36:06.220
So, you're not supposed to just live in sin for the rest of your life.
00:36:11.720
Because he was the greatest revolutionary to ever live.
00:36:14.280
I'm calm compared to how Jesus was like kicking over tables and wilding out when he
00:36:24.820
He wasn't hanging out with these people who were righteous, who thought they were perfect
00:36:30.220
He was hanging out with sinners to get the job done.
00:36:42.580
I don't know their sexual identities, whatever was working with them back then.
00:36:46.860
But the Lord called people who are usually forgotten, who are usually outcasts, who are usually
00:37:00.460
So my question is, if you're going to be Christ-like, though, in the same situation,
00:37:03.080
do you tell your trans friend to turn to sin no more?
00:37:06.260
Not only that, Jesus, he didn't like the Pharisees, but not because they thought they were righteous.
00:37:10.480
Jesus called the Pharisees righteous, but what he said, what they say righteous.
00:37:14.180
He said, do as the Pharisees say, but not as they do, because they talk, but they don't
00:37:23.280
So Jesus' whole point was that the Pharisees were hypocrites, but do as they tell you to
00:37:27.680
Do as they tell you to do in Matthew, because the Pharisees were considered the gold standard,
00:37:35.640
But so my question is, do you tell your trans friend to go and sin no more?
00:37:43.980
I invite every single person because we are Christians, my brother and I both.
00:37:49.040
Before we start, any action, any rally, any meeting, we pray to Christ.
00:37:55.380
I pray and hope that my life is enough to lead people to Christ.
00:38:01.660
So if I am guilty of that, that's something I'll have to take up with the good Lord.
00:38:10.920
Psalm 5, 5, Malachi chapter 1, verses 2 through 3.
00:38:21.260
Like if we're going to be employees of Christ, we have a job description.
00:38:29.480
Do you condemn these neo-Nazis who you love to talk to?
00:38:33.580
Do you tell them that they're wrong for hating and want to kill black people?
00:38:41.160
The same way that I should be talking to trans people, right?
00:38:43.700
Who are on the ground, who are beating people, who are getting their heads cracked by the NYPD,
00:38:48.140
who are fighting for legislation, who are out there doing the work.
00:38:51.300
Like they're really side by side, lifting and moving things.
00:38:53.760
Do you tell these white supremacists and neo-Nazis to love black folk?
00:39:00.560
I tell them that they're painting their skin color over God.
00:39:19.660
Hey, I got the friends taking that people to pay money.
00:39:27.480
There's a KKK, like the KKK white knights was in my area in North Carolina.
00:39:36.280
Like that's a whole other in-your-face, sim-crow-ass reason.
00:39:43.120
I used to go out at night like 3 o'clock in the morning making things happen,
00:39:46.660
But what changed is the more you read the Bible, the more I came to Christ,
00:39:51.940
I realized that my people weren't people because they had the same skin color as me.
00:39:57.100
My people are those people that are on a narrow path.
00:39:59.680
So I instantly, you sort of have to leave that ideology.
00:40:06.400
Like even when Jesus comes back, you can't take everybody.
00:40:09.720
But while I'm here, right, I feel, you know, whatever you're doing,
00:40:14.420
I feel like it's my call from God to lead people to liberation.
00:40:19.100
My personal mission in life is to eradicate poverty.
00:40:44.420
We're like Twitter buddies after one interview.
00:40:49.580
So I want to go to Shavonna for this last first thing.
00:40:53.140
We talked about, last time I spoke to you, about Kyrie Irving and all that stuff.
00:40:57.620
And obviously, you guys were on the front lines, let's call them, of those protests.
00:41:02.120
I think that was somewhat of a victory, even if it's not directly caused by the protests that happened.
00:41:11.140
And I want to know, in your line of work, you had all these people probably, just like myself, reach out to you and telling you that they agree with you.
00:41:19.200
And they're happy to have BLM and BLM Greater New York champion the same type of things that they're working on, against vaccine passports, for example, against forced vaccination.
00:41:30.240
How often do you come up against people, and it doesn't matter if they're progressive or not, who have a problem with you as being a Christian person, you being against the mandates?
00:41:40.040
Is this something you have to battle with a lot of the time?
00:41:50.520
Say, when I called Kamala Harris, when they announced her nomination, the Times, the Wall Street Journal, made CNN, I said that she was a top cop who had never done anything good for black folks.
00:42:02.500
If I speak out against the GOP, I think that that's just the role that comes with being a truth teller.
00:42:08.280
I've had liberal friends unfollow me, people I knew before social media, because I don't drink the DNC's Kool-Aid.
00:42:16.040
I just think it's something that comes along with the work.
00:42:19.080
Every week, people find a new reason to hate me or something I say.
00:42:27.400
Tell us what else you're up to right now, and then we'll head over to Bryson.
00:42:30.160
Anything you want to let people know that you're up to?
00:42:33.900
We're still feeding the families of the Bronx, Nation's poorest congressional district.
00:42:45.380
But right now, the big push is black opportunities.
00:42:52.720
This is about creating healing centers where families can get child care, health care.
00:42:57.180
We currently have a school, a Montessori school, where kids are receiving a $50,000 free education in the Bronx.
00:43:13.960
This government does not care about you, whether they're Republican or Democrat.
00:43:24.660
I agree with that last statement so much as crazy.
00:43:28.360
I have a tweet to conservatives that sit at home waiting on the government to save them.
00:43:39.480
Bryson, I know that when I talked to you previously, you considered not voting at all or voting for a third party.
00:43:45.500
Where are you standing these days on the Republican Party?
00:43:48.140
And just as a quick update up here, we've got the Conservative Party in Canada.
00:43:58.040
It's been two years and they said nothing, but now it's politically convenient.
00:44:01.940
What are you thinking moving forward about who you want to support, who people who listen to Bryson Gray should support?
00:44:11.740
I don't know as of now, but I do my action based on what they do.
00:44:15.540
So if they do something that I think is not right, that I will continue.
00:44:19.220
I was a Democrat that turned to independent and turned to Republican and back to independent.
00:44:26.980
If you can't see, the Republican Party is gay, bro.
00:44:32.920
Like, I mean, obviously I like the Democrats less, but I don't do the less of two evils type thing.
00:44:39.620
So, I mean, unless I can convince me otherwise, then I'm going to continue that path.
00:44:45.400
Google, I ain't voting until Black Lives Matter.
00:44:56.940
And yeah, we actually withheld our vote for the general election, a couple of us.
00:45:01.540
It was just like nobody wanted to play the lesser of two evil games.
00:45:04.900
We knew, like, super predators and all of the work that she had done.
00:45:12.980
I was an independent my whole life until I ran for Congress.
00:45:15.460
And then, yeah, I'm back to being an independent now.
00:45:34.040
No, it was about something about the lesser of two evils, but it's slipping my mind.
00:45:48.280
Anything either you guys want to say before we let you go?
00:45:51.780
Thank you, Andrew, for having us go out there, do the work, keep fighting, stop being a couch
00:46:03.420
If you are a person who believes in the Constitution and the founding rights of this doctrine,
00:46:11.720
These are the things that you're God giving rights.
00:46:25.580
Stop being on the couch thinking you're going to make a change from there.
00:46:41.860
There's some people that literally are unable to be outside.
00:46:51.160
People can't get outside talking on the Internet.
00:46:54.760
I'm hit New York, full word, V-O-N-N-I, New York Bonnie.
00:47:00.700
And I'll follow you back because we have to continue this conversation.
00:47:10.240
I'm going to fight for you on that every week, Bryson.