Ep. 508 - The White Privilege Myth
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Summary
We're told that all white people in the country are the beneficiaries of privilege. But I have some examples of white people that would appear to have no privilege at all of any kind. And I think that's because our notion of privilege, this idea of white privilege, is far too simplistic and literally too black and white.
Transcript
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Today on the Matt Walsh Show, we're told that all white people in the country are the beneficiaries
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of privilege. But I have some examples of white people that would appear to have
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no privilege at all of any kind. And I think that's because our notion of privilege,
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this idea of white privilege, is far too simplistic and literally too black and white.
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So we'll talk about that. Also, five headlines. And then today in our daily cancellation,
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I will cancel the mayor of Oakland for claiming that a swing in a public park is a hate crime.
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Somebody put up a swing in a public park and is now being accused of committing a hate crime.
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And it gets even more ridiculous than that. So you have to stick around for that. But here's
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something. We'll start with this. Here's something you probably didn't hear about. A few months ago,
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a region of our country was gripped by a natural disaster, devastated by it. That region is eastern
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Kentucky. It was flooded, entire neighborhoods, towns, underwater. Here's some footage from WHAS
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in Kentucky. As you can see there, I mean, it looks biblical. Everything underwater, right?
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And you never heard about this, did you? And that's not your fault. If you don't live in the area,
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if you don't live in Kentucky, the national media doesn't talk about it, then how are you going to
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hear about it? Here's an account from one man, a trailer park resident, who lost everything in the
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floods. And here's here's what he has to say. Listen, I walked outside and saw everything that
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it was already up. And I knew it had to be deep already up to my knees, at least. And I came
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through the house and told my wife, you know, don't freak out. But we got to get out here right
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now. We got to get kids out. And I carried two kids in the van, got her in the van, drove over there
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and I was freaking out. I didn't know what to do. The only thing I could do was just try
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to run over here and grab anything that I thought was sentimental and we possibly couldn't
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buy back. I lost everything. Everything that took us years to build is gone. One night,
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one day. Rebuild, try to find someone safe. One of my kids won't have to go through that again.
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Start off small. Make it back somehow. Now, why? Why didn't you hear about this?
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Well, because it's Eastern Kentucky. This is happening mostly to poor white people in trailer
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parks. And the media simply doesn't care about poor white people in trailer parks.
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And when I say poor, you know, I mean poor. I think the word poor almost doesn't quite
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capture the situation for many people that live in that part of the country.
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Now, as I tell you about Eastern Kentucky, I'm going to put up on screen, on the screen,
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some pictures taken by Shelby Lee Adams, a photographer. These were published in an article
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in NPR a few years ago. These are not pictures from the 19th century. This is life in Eastern
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Kentucky today. Nine of the poorest counties in the entire nation. Nine of them are in this one
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little small part of the country, Eastern Kentucky. The poverty rate in one county,
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Owsley County, is 45%. That's nearly half. Nearly half of the residents are in poverty.
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Across the entire Appalachian region, the poverty rate is almost 20%. The average income is
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$37,000 across the entire region. In Eastern Kentucky, it's $30,000. That's $16,000 less than
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the average income nationally. In 2014, the New York Times Magazine tried to compile
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a list of the places in the country with the worst quality of life. And according to this calculation,
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the worst place in the country to live, the worst quality of life in the entire country,
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is Eastern Kentucky. Let me read from their article. This is published in NewYorkTimes.com
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The team at the Upshot, a Times News and Data Analyst venture, compiled six basic metrics to
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give a picture of the quality and longevity of life in each county of the nation. Educational attainment,
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household income, jobless rate, disability rate, life expectancy, and obesity rate.
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Weighting each equally, six counties in Eastern Kentucky's coal country rank among the bottom
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10. Clay County in dead last might as well be in a different country. The median household income
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there is barely above the poverty line at $22,000, which is $22,296. That's the median income. And it's
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just over half the nationwide median. Only 7.4% of the population has a bachelor's degree or higher.
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The unemployment rate is 12.7%. The disability rate is nearly as high at 11.7%. Nationwide,
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the figure is 1.3%. Life expectancy is six years shorter than average. Perhaps related,
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nearly half of Clay County is obese. Later on in the article, it says,
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Despite this, rural poverty is largely shunted aside in the conversation about inequality,
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much in the way that rural areas have been left behind by broader shifts in the economy.
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The sheer intractability of rural poverty raises uncomfortable questions about how to fix it or
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to what extent it is even fixable. I should mention the suicide rate in Appalachia is 17% higher than
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the national average, which is not surprising given everything that I just read. And then,
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of course, here's the one thing that you probably have heard about Eastern Kentucky and the Appalachian
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region generally is that it's beset by drug addiction, particularly opioid addiction. The opioid
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crisis has hit this part of the country perhaps harder than anywhere else. Now, why do I bring all
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this up? Because I have a question for you and it's something to consider. Take a hypothetical person
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living in Clay County, Kentucky. Apparently, perhaps the worst place in the country to live,
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Clay County, Kentucky. And let's say a child, a white child living in a trailer park in Clay County.
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Father committed suicide years ago. Mother's addicted to painkillers. Household income is $18,000 a year
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in a good year. He lives in a two-bedroom trailer in a low-lying area susceptible to flooding.
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According to New York Times Magazine, he has maybe the worst quality of life of anyone anywhere else
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in the country. Now, this is a hypothetical example, but it represents the situation that a great many
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children in that part of the country are in. There's nothing absurd about this hypothetical.
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It's not far-fetched by any means. And now the question, in what sense, in what possible sense,
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in what specific sense, could we say that this child is privileged?
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You know, we hear a lot about white privilege. We hear that all white people everywhere in the
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country are the beneficiaries of this privilege. And yet, when we look at the reality, okay,
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when we look into, to borrow a phrase from the left, when we look at the lived experiences of so
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many white people in the country, this privilege doesn't seem to amount to very much at all.
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So again, where does the privilege come in for this child? When does he get to cash it in?
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In what particular moment of his life can we say, oh, that happened because of white privilege?
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What kind of privilege? What do you mean? What sort of privilege is this? He's dirt poor,
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so it's not economic privilege. He doesn't have access to a good education, so it's not an
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educational sort of privilege. He doesn't have good healthcare, so it's not healthcare privilege.
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There's no privilege in any of those senses. What about systemically? Does the system favor him?
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I think this is, in fact, what we would be told. We would be told that, okay, yeah, I mean, he doesn't
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have economic privilege. He doesn't have educational privilege. He doesn't have privilege in terms of
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his health, but he's got systemic privilege. Really? Do you think the system favors this child that we're
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talking about? I mean, whatever system we're referring to here, it would seem to me that
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all of the systems have forgotten about this child and everybody else living in that part of the
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country. There is just no sense in which you can say that a poor white kid in a trailer in Appalachia
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is favored by the system. There is no system, no system anywhere that favors him. He is forgotten
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by every system. Do you think when he walks into a job interview one day, if that day ever arrives
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for him, which very likely it won't, but do you think if he does as a poor Kentucky kid with a thick
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accent, you know, living in poverty all his life, do you think his resume is going to go to the top of
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the sack? Do you think he's not going to suffer any discrimination, any negative assumptions given
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his background, his economic, his economic status, his accent, his mannerisms and so on?
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What employers are going to favor hiring people out of trailer parks?
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It would seem like none of them do because if they did, there wouldn't be trailer parks because
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all those people would have jobs and good jobs by now. The claim of white privilege just doesn't
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hold up to the reality that many white people experience and live through. And in fact, I would
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argue that the very concept of white privilege, the very claim of white privilege is proof that white
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privilege doesn't exist because the only way you can claim it is if you have completely forgotten
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about and discounted the millions of dirt poor white people forgotten by the system across the
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country. That's the only way that this, the whole notion of white privilege, when you hear white
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privilege, your mind immediately comes to, you know, relatively well-off white people living in the
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suburbs. That's what you think of as the sort of the picture of white privilege. And so we have
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erased, to borrow another popular term from the left, we have erased all of the white people who don't fit
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into that. Just, they don't count forgotten about them. And for this hypothetical child, who is not
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really hypothetical because millions of kids are in this position for this child and for the people
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there, that's what they're used to. They're worse. They're used to being forgotten. They've been
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forgotten by every single system. There is no system, no system that is saying, let's go to those
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people and help them out. This is why our discussion of privilege is too simplistic.
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It is literally black and white, which is absurd. It doesn't work with the reality.
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And this is when we get into the, you know, the back and forth of anecdotes.
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And so somebody will respond by talking about a black child growing up in the inner city
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and the struggles and hardships he faces. Struggles and hardships which are immense, of course.
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And just like the white child in the trailer park, these are struggles and hardships that
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for many people are insurmountable. But the problem is we could go back and forth with anecdotes all day
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long. You give me one, I give you one. Literally of millions of examples on both sides.
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Maybe, maybe that that's a good signal that it's, we're thinking about this topic of privilege all
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wrong. Because I, you know, I personally would not want to go up to someone living in one of those
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trailer parks, which is now water damaged because of flooding that nobody cared about.
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I wouldn't want to go up to someone like that and tell them about their privilege. That's not,
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that's not something I would want to do. I don't know about you.
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So I think it's time to expand our notion of privilege. And here, because I'm not saying that
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privilege is non-existent. I'm not saying that privilege is a myth. I think white privilege
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is a myth. Privilege though is not. There is something called privilege. There are, there are
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people who are privileged. But what does, what is privilege? I mean, how do you get privilege?
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Who are the privileged people in this country? And I think that, that we could, we could think
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of privilege in two broad categories. So there's economic privilege. We could say that someone who's
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born in a well-off family, a well-off community is privileged in many different ways. You know,
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they're going to, they're going to get the best of everything in terms of, of luxuries and necessities.
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And they're going to probably have good schools and they're going to have good healthcare and
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they're going to have access to whatever they want. That's privilege, of course.
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But we already have established that not every, what to put it mildly, this is an understatement,
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not every white person is economically privileged. A great many of them are not.
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So that is not something that can be separated by race.
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But then there's a deeper sense. I think there's a deeper sense of privilege.
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The sense in which I would say that I am privileged.
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I mean, I wasn't born to a well-off family or rich, I wasn't born in dirt poverty either.
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So I suppose I did, I am the beneficiary of, of some kind of economic privilege.
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Just to be born in the middle class is a lot better than being born in a trailer park or being
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born in the, in a, in the inner city, economically speaking.
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But I'll tell you the real privilege that I had. Okay. The real privilege that I had in modern
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society is that I was born to a household with two parents, um, who were both living,
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both in the home, married, stay married, stayed married throughout my entire childhood and are
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still married today, by the way, uh, cared about my wellbeing, cared about my education and cared
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about my moral formation as a person. That is, I think the real privilege that I inherited.
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And I think that's what privilege really is for most people. If you have that, if you, if you have
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that, if you have, if you have that going for you, then you're going to probably get a fair shake at
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life. And there are plenty of people in trailer parks in Eastern Kentucky or in the inner city who
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have that, but a great many don't. If you look at the fatherless rate, the rate of broken homes and,
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uh, domestic violence and, and domestic turmoil in the inner city and in, uh, poor trailer park areas
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in, in, in the Appalachia region, you're going to find that those rates are very high, much higher
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than they are for a lot of us. And that doesn't, that doesn't explain everything. I mean, if you,
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if you are born to a two parent household with parents that love you and care about you and you
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live in dirt poverty, you're still going to have a lot of challenges. And there's a very good chance
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that you're going to be, you're going to be in that dirt poverty for your entire life because
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it's going to be a very hard obstacle, obstacle to get over even then. But even so, that is a,
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that is a great advantage. That's a great leg up for any kid. Now it's kind of sad that, um,
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these days we have to talk about this as being a privilege because this should not be a privilege.
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This should, this, this, this is natural. This is how it should be for everybody. This should be a
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given, but that's not the case. And we know that the rates of broken homes and, and, and fatherless
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homes are high and getting higher for communities across the country. In the black community, it's,
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you know, 70% about the 70% of black kids, uh, in the inner city, it's even higher grow up without
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fathers in the home for white people. The rate is lower, but it's much higher than it should be. And it's
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getting higher. That's what we should be focusing on. If we're really, if we're really, if we really
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want to talk about privilege, I think these are the two areas we should be looking at.
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And we shouldn't be looking at them because we want to punish the people who have that kind of,
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someone who has the privilege, uh, the economic privilege or the privilege, uh, the, the, the,
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the much better privilege, a much deeper privilege of being born to a, you know, two parent household
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with loving parents. Uh, it's not like we're looking to punish them or take anything away from
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them to even the score. That's not the right way of approaching this. It's to look at the kids who
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don't have that and figure out what can we do for them so that they do have it. I think that's how
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our discussion of privilege, uh, should work. We're going to move on now to headlines. Uh, number one,
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and here's a thing that no one could have seen, seen coming. Um, well, no one could have seen it
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coming except for, you know, people with brain cells, people with brain cells did see this coming
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protesters. That would be Reed felons pulled down a statue of George Washington in Portland last
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night. Uh, here's the, here's the footage of that. Yes, nobody could have seen this coming.
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Nobody at all, except like I said, people with brains, uh, because this was inevitable. Some of
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us like yours truly years ago were warning that tearing down the Confederate statues, allowing the
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mob to tear them down or tearing them down at the behest of the mob would lead to this. It was always
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going to lead to this. And yet a lot of dumb, weak, spineless conservatives said, no, no, that's not
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going to happen. You know, three, four years ago when they were going around tearing down all the
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statues, uh, there were even a lot of conservatives were saying, yeah, this is time. It's time to
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take them down. The left will stop here. I'm sure they'll stop and they'll be satisfied and we'll
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get rid of the Confederate statue. And they're not going to cross any other lines after that.
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These people will never learn. They'll just never learn. The mob does not stop. The left doesn't
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stop. Never going to be satisfied. It's not hard to see how one leads to another. That's the very
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frustrating thing is that you didn't have to be a prophet to prophesy into the future. Uh, you didn't
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have to look into a crystal ball to know that this was going to happen. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's a,
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it's not hard to see it. The Confederates were slave owning secessionists. The founders were slave
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owning secessionists. Okay. Now there are nuances. There are just, there are ways to distinguish the
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two. There are distinctions you can make, of course, between the two groups, but the mob doesn't do
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nuance. And that's why I've been saying all along, even if you don't like a particular statue and you
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think that, yeah, it'd be better if that statue didn't exist. Yeah. It'd be better if that, if we,
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if we could take that statue down, we don't take it down now in this circumstance, in this situation
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at the behest of, of, of the, the raging mob, because it sends the wrong message. It's the wrong
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symbolism. And it's not a thoughtful act taking down a monument that has stood for a hundred years or
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more, a priceless piece of art. Taking that down should be a thoughtful act. And everybody should
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understand why we're doing this if it needs to be done at all. But this is not thoughtful. It's
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mindless and simplistic. So we take down the, the statues. What do they say when they're taking down
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Robert E. Lee statue or Jefferson Davis? Um, what do we hear? We hear these were racist. They were
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slave owners, you know, um, or they were traitors. Those are the three things we hear racist, slave
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owner, traitor. Okay. Well, if that's the standard now, um, for tearing down a statue, then a lot of
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other statues are coming down. Arguably all of them, certainly for racist, as I've talked about many
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times over the last couple of weeks, everybody in the 19th century was racist by our standards today.
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Everybody by our standards, racist. Um, and certainly before that, you want to go back to Columbus
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500 years ago? Yeah. Everybody was, it was horrible bigots by our standards today. So all the statues are
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coming down. Slave owners, there are slave owners all over the world. And if not slave owners, people
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who, uh, were fine with slavery, you know, either supported it or just had no problem with it,
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didn't, didn't question it. Traitor. Well, George Washington was a traitor of the British crown. If,
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if, if, if the revolutionary war had gone the other way, they would have been hung as traitors.
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Um, if that's the standard, those statues are going down and it's not going to stop here either.
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I mean, I think we see now all the statues are coming down, all of our historical heroes
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and icons, all of them. Number two, here's the CEO of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy doing,
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I know we're starting to get into some of our closing moments here, but a story that was
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shared with me by a dear friend who shared with me about a revival that was taking place at a church
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in Texas. And, uh, at that revival on the front seat was an older African American young, uh,
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older African American men, man that was sitting there. And this young man got up that, uh, was
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there in that service. And he'd been so gripped with conviction about the racism that was in that
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local community in a small town in Texas that he, he took a, uh, a shoe brush and he walked over to
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this elderly gentleman and he knelt on his knees and began to shine his shoes and, uh, tears began to
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flow, uh, in that service. Uh, it was an attitude of, uh, conviction. So I, I invite folks to just to,
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to put some words to action here. And if we need to find somebody that needs to have their shoe shine,
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we need to just go right on over and shine their shoes. And, uh, whether they got tennis shoes or
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own or not, maybe they got sandals on, it really doesn't matter. But there's a time in which we need
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to have, you know, some, some personal action here. Maybe we need to give them a hug too.
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Brother. And some, and some, and some stock in Chick-fil-A.
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But, uh, I bought about 1500 of these and I gave them all our Chick-fil-A operators and staff a number
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of years ago. And, uh, so any expressions of a contrite heart of a sense of humility, a sense of
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shame, a sense of embarrassment, uh, began with an apologetic heart. I think that's what our world
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needs to hear today. I'll tell you what, Dan, here's my, here's my alternative suggestion.
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How about I don't shine anybody's shoes or bow to anyone or kneel to anyone or apologize to anyone
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for things I didn't do because I have no remorse and I have no guilt and I have no shame and I have
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no embarrassment for historical racism or slavery. And do you know why? Because I had nothing to do
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with any of that. And that's not some sort of, uh, technicality. Okay. I'm not being pedantic here
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by saying, well, technically I had nothing to do with it. I didn't, I didn't exist. I didn't exist
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when those things were happening. How could I possibly be responsible? And my ancestors were
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in Ireland, in fact, and they didn't have such a great life either. Historically, they were persecuted
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by the British. Are any Brits going to shine my shoes? And then they came here and they were
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discriminated against too. The Irish people, my ancestors historically have not had a, had a,
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had a good time of it. Many other groups could be, you could say the same about. So what am I
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supposed to be sorry for? My ancestors were busy dying in the potato famine while people were buying
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slaves in this country. They weren't slave owners. I literally cannot apologize for it.
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It wouldn't make any sense for me to do. And I'm not going to do something that's incoherent and makes
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no sense just because the emotional mob has demanded that I do it. Um, but Dan Kathleen, you know what?
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Chick-fil-A, if you want to apologize for something, don't apologize for racism. Uh, but you could
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apologize for your waffle fries because let's be honest about that. Your waffle fries are bad.
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Certainly overrated. I would call them outright bad most of the time. And I think it's, it's time
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we have an honest conversation about Chick-fil-A. Yes, their chicken sandwich, the number one on the
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value meal is good. That's it. They have nothing else on the menu. That's anything to write home
00:25:19.400
about. Their wraps are actually bad. Um, like stale and it's like something you'd buy at a gas
00:25:26.580
station. Uh, salads are okay, but you get a salad just as good at McDonald's or any other fast food
00:25:31.340
place. Waffle fries are not good. Undercooked, under seasoned, bland, flimsy, flabby, disgusting.
00:25:38.060
If I want great fries, I'll go to Arby, get a curly fries. I go to Sonic, get a, get, get tater tots.
00:25:43.040
Okay. Any of those options. I mean, go to McDonald's or their fries are better than Chick-fil-A. That's
00:25:50.400
the real point here. That's what we need to talk about. Number three, here's something that happened
00:25:53.200
in Southern California. A mother was attending a protest with her child. Um, the child stopped
00:25:58.040
breathing. She screams for help. A cop rushes in. This is the footage right now. Clears the child's
00:26:03.120
airwaves and saves his life. Now, I, you know, you see that and you think, okay, if we defund the
00:26:07.440
police or if there are no police, who's running in to save the kid's life? Call a social worker to come
00:26:12.880
in. Who are we calling? A lawyer? Somebody from the ACLU? They're going to come save his life?
00:26:19.740
This is what cops do all the time throughout the country every day. I mean, there's hundreds
00:26:24.480
of examples probably every single day of cops saving somebody's life. Um, all that's going
00:26:32.120
out the window if we get rid of the cops. Number four, Amy Klobuchar is, uh, withdrawing her name
00:26:36.620
from the VP consideration, saying that a woman of color should be picked instead. Here she is.
00:26:40.460
You know, Lawrence, uh, I have never, as you probably know, on many, many shows, um, since
00:26:46.860
I endorsed, uh, the vice president on that joyful night in Dallas, I've never commented
00:26:51.920
on this process at all. Um, but let me tell you this, after, uh, what I've seen in my
00:26:57.700
state, what I've seen across the country, uh, this is a historic moment. And America must
00:27:05.560
seize on this moment. And I truly believe, uh, as I actually told the vice president last
00:27:11.820
night, uh, when I called him, uh, that I think this is a moment, uh, to put a woman of color
00:27:18.400
on that ticket. Um, and there are so many incredibly qualified women. Um, but if you want
00:27:26.100
to heal this nation right now, my party, yes, but our nation, uh, this is sure a hell of a way to
00:27:33.680
do it. Um, and that's just what I think after being through this in my state, I am very inspired
00:27:39.900
by that. I find that so inspiring that I like to announce that I am also withdrawing from
00:27:44.020
consideration to be Joe Biden's VP so that a woman of color can be picked instead. Hashtag hero
00:27:50.440
hashtag and racism. In fact, I'm withdrawing from consideration. I'll go, I'll go a step further.
00:27:57.000
I'll go several steps further. Okay. I withdraw from consideration to be VP. I also withdraw from
00:28:01.600
consideration to be a NASA astronaut, to be a professor of physics at Princeton, to be a head
00:28:07.380
chef, to be a, the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I will not accept any of those
00:28:14.380
positions. I'll tell you right now, I will not accept it. I am withdrawing from consideration.
00:28:19.540
Don't even consider me. I'm not going to take the job. And I'll tell you why a woman of color
00:28:24.440
needs to be in all of those positions. I will cede my position, which I don't have to her.
00:28:32.000
You want to talk about heroism. There it was folks. You're welcome. Number five. Finally,
00:28:39.280
a report from the daily wire says flyers passed among members of the New York city police departments
00:28:44.860
NYPD are reportedly urging officers to go on strike on July 4th. The New York post reports that
00:28:50.400
multiple cops inform them that the flyers are retribution for police reform and a perceived
00:28:55.420
anti-cop climate following the outrage over high profile police killings of unarmed black men across
00:29:00.680
country. One text message that has been shared among police officers reads, NYPD cops will strike
00:29:05.400
on July 4th to let the city have their independence without cops. Cops that say we can't strike because
00:29:09.920
of the Taylor law, the people and the city doesn't honor us. Why honor them? And then it goes on from
00:29:17.100
there. So I don't know if this is actually going to happen or not, but you hear reports of this all
00:29:19.880
across the country of cops that are going on strike or will go on strike. And, you know, and I think
00:29:24.360
they should, this is one area I'm not, I'm not always in favor of or impressed by strikes, but
00:29:33.440
in this case, yeah, I think that if there was ever a time, if there was ever a time for a group of
00:29:39.540
people to go on strike, I think this is it. And I hope they do it. We're going to get to our daily
00:29:43.260
cancellation just a second before we do. If you're not a daily wire member, you should consider getting
00:29:49.120
a reader's pass to dailywire.com. Um, it's a great value for only $3 a month. And when you sign up,
00:29:55.920
you get that first month for only, um, 99 cents. And the thing is, you know, there's a lot of leftist
00:30:01.740
spin and, uh, you know, there's, there's a lot going on in the news. It's hard to know exactly
00:30:07.540
what to think of all these things and what the truth is. And that's why you need, um, a daily wire
00:30:15.040
pass. Uh, if you, uh, one of the, one of the articles, for example, that you could
00:30:20.800
read, if you get a reader's pass is a article I just wrote last week called it's time to face the
00:30:26.940
facts. We cannot be united. Um, kind of a depressing article. I've talked about it on this show. The fact
00:30:33.380
that I think unity is impossible in America at this point, and we are headed for some kind of
00:30:39.160
fracturing or break. I think that's almost inevitable at this point, but I make my case for that in that
00:30:43.300
article. If you get a reader's pass, you can read that. Um, and, uh, go to dailywire.com right now
00:30:49.380
and sign up. All right. Today for our daily cancellation, I'm, uh, canceling the mayor of
00:30:58.620
Oakland, mayor Libby Schaff. I think that's how you pronounce it. Some background here. A few days ago,
00:31:05.160
somebody was walking through a park in Oakland. They found some rope hanging in a tree, which they
00:31:10.440
interpreted immediately as a noose and as a hate crime. Here's the footage of that.
00:31:14.760
You could, you could sort of barely see some rope there. That's actually not a noose, but it is a
00:31:20.720
rope with like a little loop at the end. Um, it doesn't really look like a noose to me at all.
00:31:26.600
I see that. And I think of the context, it's in a park. The first thing I'm going to think is that
00:31:32.720
that was there for someone to like, there's probably something connected to that. And it was there as a
00:31:37.440
swing or some sort of activity. Um, you know, there was a, people were climbing the tree with it.
00:31:44.080
That, that looks exactly like the sort of thing I see in a tree, trees around my house, like where,
00:31:49.460
where my kids will put, put, you know, ropes and stuff and trees so they can climb and they can
00:31:53.760
make, uh, swings and all kinds of different things. That would be my first assumption.
00:32:00.320
And what do you know? That's exactly what it is. A guy named Victor, a black man,
00:32:05.660
put the rope there for kids to play on. There used to be a whole swing system for exercising and
00:32:11.540
for playing. And, um, and he put it up there. And in fact, here he is on camera explaining that he
00:32:18.120
put it there and why he put it there. You know, out of the dozens and hundreds and thousands of people that have walked by,
00:32:24.000
no one, you know, has thought that it looked anywhere close to a notice.
00:32:29.880
So there you go. There's nothing here. There's no hate crime, nothing. It is a hundred percent confirmed.
00:32:35.760
With zero doubt. That is, this is not a hate crime. It's a completely innocent and even, you know,
00:32:41.640
there's no hate crime, nothing. It is a hundred percent confirmed with zero doubt. That is, this is not a hate crime.
00:32:50.760
So there you go. There's nothing here. There's no hate crime, nothing. It is a hundred percent confirmed
00:32:59.840
with zero doubt. That is, this is not a hate crime. It's a completely innocent and even friendly act
00:33:06.940
by a black man who was on camera saying, not a hate crime folks. I just put it there for, you know,
00:33:13.060
you're, you're, you're wildly misinterpreting this. So let's all move on. Can we move on? No,
00:33:20.760
apparently we can't. The patrols will start around the clock here at Lake Merritt starting tonight
00:33:26.560
until Sunday. Organizers say they want to create a presence to ensure safety. We can organize ourselves
00:33:34.420
to take care of ourselves. That's what's happening tonight at Oakland's Lake Merritt. I'm going to be
00:33:39.160
behind you guys trailing. A group called Community Ready Corps is taking to the streets. Three to five
00:33:45.380
nooses that have been found hanging around the lake. Folks can't quite identify where they come from
00:33:51.680
and who did it. It all started Tuesday when someone spotted what appears to be a noose tied to a tree
00:33:58.620
branch on the Grand Avenue side of the lake. A Facebook video of that rope with the hashtag end
00:34:05.080
racism went viral. Mayor Libby Schaaf is condemning what she calls symbols of hate. These symbols are
00:34:12.240
symbols of racial violence and it's incumbent on all of us to have that sensitivity, to have that
00:34:18.320
knowledge. The mayor says even though there are claims, the ropes aren't nooses and were used for
00:34:24.800
exercise equipment that doesn't excuse the person who put them there. She is calling for a hate crime
00:34:31.180
investigation. A man shared this video with us telling us the ropes have been there for months
00:34:37.460
and there was no malicious intent behind them. That's not how the public feels about it tonight,
00:34:44.100
especially after two men found hanging from trees in Southern California were ruled suicides and are now
00:34:50.800
being investigated. For a noose to show up on Monday morning after two Black Lives Matters events
00:34:57.520
just seems far too coincidental. And for those who are patrolling, it is not acceptable. We have to
00:35:04.580
transition into systems of community safety. In Oakland, Cheryl Hurd, NBC Bay Area News. Yes, it is
00:35:11.520
100% confirmed that this is not a hate crime, but that's not how the public feels about it. They don't
00:35:16.900
feel that way. That's not how they feel. Their feelings are wrong. They were wrong in how they felt.
00:35:22.920
They felt a certain way. They interpreted a certain way. They're just wrong. That's it. You're just
00:35:27.720
wrong. People are wrong all the time. And this is one of those times. So you're wrong. Stop being
00:35:34.980
wrong. I don't know what to tell you. But the feelings. No, the feeling is what matters. Not the fact.
00:35:40.580
Not the reality. So they're going to go on patrols. They're setting up patrols because of a swing in a
00:35:49.140
tree. Did they say they're doing overnight patrols? I don't know if I wasn't really.
00:35:56.540
I was too depressed to pay very close attention. Are they setting up like overnight
00:36:06.000
Then, you know, the one person says it's not it's not a coincidence that these ropes showed up after a
00:36:10.640
Black Lives Matter protest. Well, you're right. It's not because they didn't show up after the
00:36:14.460
protest. They've been there for months. It's just that you just noticed it. But the truth doesn't
00:36:21.300
matter. The truth doesn't matter at all anymore. It makes no difference. Here's the mayor doing a
00:36:25.800
press conference about the swing. And keep in mind, as you listen to this, she knows that it's a swing.
00:36:34.660
The Oakland Police Department has turned over the evidence to the FBI. We have to start with the
00:36:41.020
assumption that these are hate crimes. We cannot take these actions lightly. These symbols are
00:36:47.860
symbols of racial violence. And it's incumbent on all of us to have that sensitivity, to have that
00:36:53.960
knowledge. And that is why I've directed our staff to remove any such symbol of hatred, regardless of
00:37:01.740
the intention of what put it there. What a privilege for those of us that don't feel complete fear and
00:37:09.160
terror when we see a rope in the tree. That is a privilege that so many of our African American
00:37:17.980
residents do not enjoy. You see an overwhelming amount of anguish, of rage, of fatigue, of grief.
00:37:31.200
And yes, the fact that we had an extremist charged with the murder of Patrick Underwood, an extremist
00:37:40.820
group, the Boogaloos, that is trying to ferment a race war. We have to see this moment for what it is,
00:37:51.180
a reckoning. And in Oakland, we cannot further terrorize or traumatize our black residents. And yes,
00:38:00.380
the incidence of the last few weeks, but frankly, of the last few centuries is the backdrop upon which
00:38:08.060
we have to make these decisions today. Enough is enough. And again, the intentions do not matter
00:38:16.060
because the harm is real. Okay. First of all, I want to note for the record that she did say that
00:38:21.740
extremists are trying to ferment hate. I don't think I misheard that. She did say ferment, didn't she?
00:38:27.120
So they're putting hate in like a big barrel and they're letting it ferment for a few days
00:38:32.240
to get that alcohol content. And then they're bottling it, selling it like moonshine on the
00:38:36.220
street. Fermented hate. Delicious. But of course, I shouldn't be surprised that this woman doesn't
00:38:42.560
know the difference between foment and ferment because she is, of course, profoundly, deeply,
00:38:47.540
impressively stupid. Notice at the beginning, she says, we have to start with the assumption
00:38:54.460
that it's a hate crime. Those were her actual words. Start, we have to start with the assumption
00:39:01.420
that it's a hate crime. No, no, we don't. No, Mayor. You see, that's exactly the opposite
00:39:07.140
of what we have to do. That's not, no. When something happens, you don't come in and say,
00:39:16.160
okay, everybody, calm down. Calm down. Let's just begin with the assumption that your worst
00:39:23.180
possible interpretation of this event is correct. Let's begin with that, okay? In order to clarify
00:39:27.880
things, imagine in your head what is the worst possible explanation and just assume that it's
00:39:33.080
true. No, that's not what you do. And in this particular case, when it comes to assumptions,
00:39:40.280
the assumption should be that it's there for a swing. That should be your assumption to begin with.
00:39:45.680
Because all you have to do, all you have to do is count how many swings are hanging in parks
00:39:51.700
versus how many racist nooses are hanging in parks. And I think that the ratio is probably
00:39:59.040
something like 80 billion to one, approximately, which means that your assumption should be that
00:40:05.040
it's a swing until evidence to the contrary emerges. And in this case, evidence for the swing
00:40:09.760
emerged. Evidence in the form of a black man saying, yep, it's first swing. I put it up.
00:40:14.300
And then this white woman goes on about what a privilege it is for people who aren't traumatized
00:40:21.500
by ropes. A black man put it there. You're saying that what? He's privileged? You're saying that the
00:40:31.140
black man put a swing up for kids because of his privilege? What are you babbling about?
00:40:37.560
And of course, the coup de grace at the end where she says, intentions don't matter.
00:40:45.880
Intentions don't matter. Yes, Libby. And I love that her name is actually Libby, by the way.
00:40:53.140
Libby the Lib. Yes, Libby. Intentions do matter. They're all that matter, actually. When it comes to
00:41:00.200
a hate crime, the only thing that matters is the intention. That's how you judge if a hate crime has
00:41:08.020
been committed or not. When it comes to a person's actions, when it comes to an action, a statement,
00:41:20.440
an event that can be interpreted in multiple ways, the only deciding factor is intention.
00:41:29.780
If somebody does something and you're not sure how to interpret it, what you do is you go to them and
00:41:37.160
say, why did you do that? And then they'll tell you and they'll say, oh, I did it because of this.
00:41:42.400
And that's it. Now, if they tell you that, oh, I did it because it's, you know, I, I, I'm trying to,
00:41:50.080
I'm a racist. I'm a Klan member. It'd be kind of, it'd be kind of odd for that particular gentleman to
00:41:55.000
say that. But, you know, because the other thing is like, if, if there's a racist group out there
00:42:02.780
that are planting nooses and trees, they, they would, I imagine like terrorists. Okay. Terrorists want you
00:42:11.440
to, when they commit an act of terrorism, they want you to know that it was terrorism and they're
00:42:15.840
going to claim credibility, credit for it because that's the whole point. They're trying to terrorize
00:42:20.840
you. And so if someone for a racist reason, put a noose in a tree to terrorize the community and
00:42:28.240
then someone else comes along and claims credit for it and says it was just a swing. Well, then the
00:42:31.940
person who put it there is going to come out and say, no, no, no, no, no. My point was to terrorize
00:42:35.480
you. Here's no, that's what that's. So be terrorized. I mean, words to that effect will
00:42:41.200
be communicated. So that's why when it comes to intention, um, attentions do matter. Number one.
00:42:48.720
And in order to know the intention, you have to ask someone. And when they tell you,
00:42:52.260
all you can do is just take them at their word. That's all you can do.
00:42:56.820
If I say something and you're not sure how to interpret it,
00:43:00.000
it sounds like it could be horrible or maybe it could go at, all you could do is say to me,
00:43:04.300
Matt, why'd you say that? And I'll gladly tell you, this is why I said it. This is what I was
00:43:09.660
trying to communicate. It doesn't make any sense for you to then say, you claim that's what you
00:43:15.880
meant, but I feel like you meant this other thing over here. So I'm just going to assume that that's
00:43:19.880
what you actually meant. What now you're a better authority on what was in my head than I am there.
00:43:27.780
When it comes to actions and intentions, there is only one authority on earth. There is only one
00:43:34.260
person on earth who is an authority and an absolute authority on that subject. And that is
00:43:39.480
the doer or the sayer, the doer of the deed or the sayer of the words. That is the, that is the one
00:43:44.640
absolute authority on planet earth on that subject. The only person who can speak to their own
00:43:51.160
intentions is the individual themselves. And once you hear them explain it, all you can do as a
00:43:56.160
thinking person is just accepted. Uh, but again, I mean, I, here I am trying to be reasonable and
00:44:04.320
explain and give arguments and everything. And it doesn't matter because we're way past the point of,
00:44:09.040
uh, of explanation or logic or rationality. And this is just blind hysteria.
00:44:16.920
Um, and that's why the mayor of Oakland is canceled. Like so many other mayors across
00:44:23.720
the country are canceled and really have just canceled themselves, I guess, by stepping back
00:44:27.000
and letting anarchy take over in their streets. So maybe it's a little bit redundant to cancel
00:44:30.380
them. We'll leave it there. Have a great day, everybody. Have a great weekend. We'll talk on
00:45:04.380
Edited by Danny D'Amico. And our audio was mixed by Robin Fenderson.
00:45:09.200
The Matt Wall Show is a Daily Wire production. Copyright Daily Wire 2020.
00:45:13.840
If you prefer facts over feelings, aren't offended by the brutal truth, and you can still laugh at the
00:45:18.560
insanity filling our national news cycle, well, tune in to the Ben Shapiro Show. We'll get a whole lot