Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's that time again, always time to make
Speaker 1: that change. I am Nina Turner here with the wonderful,
Speaker 1: incredible doctor Cornell West. You are listening to Truth Time, Doc.
Speaker 1: We're gonna explore some things today. So we know that
Speaker 1: the Trump administration is pushing to try to really erase
Speaker 1: the history of black people in this country and by extension,
Speaker 1: other marginalized folks. But this may be proven difficult for
Speaker 1: him to do. For every action, there's an equal and
Speaker 1: opposite reaction, and there are a lot of folks on
Speaker 1: the community side and also on the academic side or
Speaker 1: doing things differently, maybe not directly through their institutions, but
Speaker 1: in communities. And that is really how black folks actually
Speaker 1: learned from one another and lifted our respective history. Black artists,
Speaker 1: black educators, black leaders, black activists, black people are finding
Speaker 1: ways to learn more about our history and in some
Speaker 1: ways what they meant for evil may actually turn out
Speaker 1: for good. And then why the gala celebration for black
Speaker 1: dandyism matters? For this moment, our style, our swag always matters.
Speaker 1: We are the most emulated people on the face of
Speaker 1: the planet. Before we get to those topics and many more,
Speaker 1: the doctor is in the house, doctor Wes. What is
Speaker 1: on your heart, your soul and your mind.
Speaker 2: My dear sister, I'm full of joy. Anytime I'm in
Speaker 2: conversation with you, you're gonna talk about black style and dandyism,
Speaker 2: and yes, we're gonna talk about how it is I
Speaker 2: erase Black history. There have been efforts for four hundred
Speaker 2: years to do that, and every effort has failed. And
Speaker 2: one of the reasons why it has failed is because
Speaker 2: we are living history. You can't wipe out living history.
Speaker 2: History is not in a book. History is not in
Speaker 2: a library or museum. History is when you see jamar
Speaker 2: All walking with style, and Letitia's smiling and you see
Speaker 2: a sparkle in her face, singing a song, writing a poem,
Speaker 2: or herself loving her children. That's what history is. And
Speaker 2: so let us first call in the question this claim
Speaker 2: about omnipotencey somehow people have the power to erase history. No,
Speaker 2: not at all. But at the same time, it means
Speaker 2: that we need a spiritual awakening and a more renaissance
Speaker 2: so that we live our history in such a way
Speaker 2: that people will know it can never be erased. And
Speaker 2: what is spiritual reckoning awakening? What is moral renaissance. It
Speaker 2: is an explosion of self love, self respect, self regard.
Speaker 2: It is an explosion of self determination and self defense.
Speaker 2: It is an explosion of grace and ignity being enacted
Speaker 2: and in body in the black world every day, every moment.
Speaker 2: And so anytime I hear this talk about, well, they
Speaker 2: banned another book, God ain't banned the book. But they
Speaker 2: ain't banned our energy. They haven't banned our fire. They
Speaker 2: haven't banned our determination. They haven't banned our vision, they
Speaker 2: haven't banned our love of our now. If we our
Speaker 2: sells no longer a living history grounded in the best
Speaker 2: of our visions, the best of our efforts and self determination,
Speaker 2: then we can end up consenting to the waning of
Speaker 2: a black history. You can have a lot of Black
Speaker 2: folk around but have no connection to the best of
Speaker 2: their history, and they end up being spiritual zombies, just
Speaker 2: fitting in and assimilated and amalgamated into a white mainstream, such
Speaker 2: that Martin Luther King Jr. And Fentny Neuhama and Nina
Speaker 2: Simone and others are far God can completely overlooked. That's
Speaker 2: the kind of focus we need to have in terms
Speaker 2: of a spiritual awakening, moral renaissance with political courage to
Speaker 2: tell the truth not of white supremacy, but about predator
Speaker 2: capitalist processes.
Speaker 1: With oh, I'm with it. Spiritual awakening, moral renaissance coupled
Speaker 1: with political courage, and you're right.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Fred Hampton said something to the effect you could try
Speaker 1: to kill the revolutionary, but you can never kill the revolution.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty much what you're saying. Unless we give
Speaker 1: up and give in and give out, that's when it's over.
Speaker 1: But just having some leader that wants to be an
Speaker 1: authoritarian to try to dictate what's taught formally, that ain't
Speaker 1: gonna change it.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, that's exactly right. And let us be honest.
Speaker 2: I mean, they talk about banning these books, and they wrong,
Speaker 2: and we got to fight it. But then we got
Speaker 2: to raise the question, you know, when's the last time
Speaker 2: we took our children to the library and read them
Speaker 2: a book. When's the last time we've immersed ourselves in books.
Speaker 2: We ourselves have to be enactments of the history. We're
Speaker 2: not spectators of something in the past. That's not what
Speaker 2: history is. History is lived in the present, and the
Speaker 2: pastness of the present makes the present what it is,
Speaker 2: and there is no future unless the best of our
Speaker 2: history is inside of us in the present to authorize
Speaker 2: a better future. That's yeah, time, all past, present and future.
Speaker 1: We always live, especially us as a people based on
Speaker 1: the past, the president in the future. You cannot uncop
Speaker 1: for any of those. They're all connected like that. That
Speaker 1: quilt is there, all them pieces coming together and the
Speaker 1: enactment of history that in some ways when I said,
Speaker 1: what they meant for evil is gonna turn off for good.
Speaker 1: Black people are more in tuned now, and maybe we
Speaker 1: will start to do collectively and communally the things that
Speaker 1: we should have always done, which is to never lose
Speaker 1: our connection to the past, the present, and the future,
Speaker 1: to begin to be the teachers and the you know,
Speaker 1: the griots in our own community and not waiting for
Speaker 1: somebody to do it formally in a classroom. That part
Speaker 1: right there. Listen when we come forward, doctor West, and
Speaker 1: I are going to continue. You're listening to truth time
Speaker 1: you because you can't be true to anybody else unless
Speaker 1: you're true to you first. That spiritual awakening, that moral
Speaker 1: renaissance wrapped in political courage. Do you think the fact
Speaker 1: that the Trump administration is going so hard centering an
Speaker 1: anti black sament. I mean, there's no doubt about that
Speaker 1: as they try to roll the teaching of black history,
Speaker 1: the true teaching of America's history, that other marginalized communities
Speaker 1: are getting swept up in that there's a loss of
Speaker 1: a sense of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Speaker 1: But on the other side of that, the positive nature
Speaker 1: in this pain point that there's in other words, there's
Speaker 1: promise in this problem. And it is a problem to
Speaker 1: try to rewrite history.
Speaker 2: Oh, and you're making a powerful point. It may be
Speaker 2: that the vicious attack on us and our history will
Speaker 2: lead us to wake up more quickly and therefore to
Speaker 2: intensify our own And it's interesting you think about woke
Speaker 2: and all these attacks on woke. You know, you want
Speaker 2: to say the folk, so are you in defense of sleepwalking?
Speaker 1: How when you say that?
Speaker 2: Nil? Are you this in defense of the Austrich keeping
Speaker 2: his or her head in the sand? Is that? Is? That?
Speaker 2: Is that what people mean when they attack woke. Now
Speaker 2: we can understand that they may be critical of certain
Speaker 2: practices associated with WOKE because if if you know, you
Speaker 2: don't want to be you know, mistreating folk and so forth. No,
Speaker 2: that's wrong, there's no doubt about that. But if it's
Speaker 2: a matter of the question for truth and people have
Speaker 2: no interest in the truth, therefore their anti woke and
Speaker 2: their anti truth. Oh wait a minute. When Martin King
Speaker 2: and the others talk about it's time to wake up,
Speaker 2: they were saying, it's time to acknowledge your living in
Speaker 2: a racist society that's been lynching and degrading and enslaving
Speaker 2: black people for two hundred and some years. And if
Speaker 2: you don't wake up, you're gonna lose your society. That's
Speaker 2: what Martin was saying. So, folks know, I can't stand
Speaker 2: being woke. I want to go back to sleep. So
Speaker 2: you want to go back to the denial. Oh so
Speaker 2: what are we talking about. Let's be very clear in
Speaker 2: this regard, and I think that we have to continually
Speaker 2: say that over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: And that you're making many critical points. The main one
Speaker 1: are you in defense of sleepwalking? So because you're right,
Speaker 1: just very simply, what is the opposite not being woke
Speaker 1: is being sleep absolutely On the other hand, you know,
Speaker 1: just reminding our audience how the terminology of being woke
Speaker 1: was co opted by neo liberals, bastardized by them, because
Speaker 1: that is not originally for the Black vernacular, for the
Speaker 1: Black experience. Woke mint, keep your head on a swivel,
Speaker 1: woke miant, don't get caught asleep as you're laying out,
Speaker 1: because your very life might be in danger. But let
Speaker 1: me go in there and read it, you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of how it's laid out here. Woke is an
Speaker 1: adjective derived from African American English you since the nineteen
Speaker 1: thirties or earlier, to to refer to awareness or racial
Speaker 1: prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The
Speaker 1: term acquired political connotations by the nineteen seventies and gain
Speaker 1: further popularities in the two thousands. So for Black people,
Speaker 1: woke has always meant you got to have a consciousness
Speaker 1: about your surroundings, to stay physically safe first and foremost,
Speaker 1: in a more broad sense, to be woke, to be
Speaker 1: aware of where you are physically, mentally, and spiritually in
Speaker 1: these United States of America. And it is unfortunate that
Speaker 1: Neil liberals then used it to expand in other territories
Speaker 1: that it was never meant from the black vernacular standpoint,
Speaker 1: and thereby given an opening for these conservatives and these
Speaker 1: anti woke people by any any measure to co opt
Speaker 1: it and to use it in a negative way. Again,
Speaker 1: Black folks being sacrificed on the altar once again at
Speaker 1: the hands of neoliberals and used by these conservative maga people.
Speaker 2: M No, no, you broke it down. You broke it down.
Speaker 2: That the woke emerged in the black context. That had
Speaker 2: to do with shattering callousness, shattering indifference, and chattering cowardliness.
Speaker 2: It had to do with unleashing us for truth.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. And I gotta tell you, I
Speaker 1: am I'm disturbed, you know, I'm really upset that it's
Speaker 1: being used in this way and because people who did
Speaker 1: not respect us on either side of this have found
Speaker 1: a way to make this a negative term. It was
Speaker 1: meant for black people to stay alive literally literally, mentally, physically,
Speaker 1: and spiritually and all of a sudd and being woke,
Speaker 1: even if you understand it in a more expansive way,
Speaker 1: it is all of a sudden, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: something bad. There's something disturbing about that.
Speaker 2: And of course even the right wing, though they find
Speaker 2: themselves in a double buying because they say, okay that
Speaker 2: we're going to fight this wokeness, we're anti woke, which
Speaker 2: means the way they are saying, we need to be
Speaker 2: woke about anti wokeness. So it's just another form of
Speaker 2: wokeness anyway. And the question then becomes, well if if,
Speaker 2: if you're woke or anti woke, what are you woke about?
Speaker 2: And what are your anti woke about?
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: That becomes a question that sounds like a logical paradox,
Speaker 2: but it's just a matter of concrete reality. Either you
Speaker 2: acknowledge people suffering, you acknowledge their humanity, and you think
Speaker 2: something ought to be done about it, or you're in
Speaker 2: denial about it and you don't think anything should be done.
Speaker 2: Whatever should be done, should be done fairly, should be
Speaker 2: done justly across the board, but something must.
Speaker 1: Be done, Something must be done, and something so beautiful
Speaker 1: as being woke. You know, even if I put the
Speaker 1: attachment to black culture and black consciousness in the parking
Speaker 1: lot for just a minute, they ain't gonna stay there long.
Speaker 1: To your point, do you want to sleep walk? Another
Speaker 1: point to be made is what though inherently is wrong
Speaker 1: with being woke?
Speaker 2: Though seriously, now I must admit, you know, when the
Speaker 2: younger generation talked about me being woke about fifteen years ago,
Speaker 2: and I said, well, as an older brother, I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna suffer from insomnia, which means I ain't gonna take
Speaker 2: a nap. I'm gonna get me some sleep. I got
Speaker 2: to stay fortified. That's always been my slogan. Stay forty five,
Speaker 2: I stay. Everybody need taking that and go sleep. Sometimes
Speaker 2: folks stay woke for twenty five years. They not highly
Speaker 2: reliable comrades. They may sleep on you right in the
Speaker 2: middle of battle because you ain't got no they've been
Speaker 2: woke for too long. Get some sleep, mother, mother, shut
Speaker 2: your mouth.
Speaker 1: So so we need some highly fortified comrade in some senses.
Speaker 1: You know, even in the art world, which you always
Speaker 1: bring up music so beautifully. You know sister Rika Baidu,
Speaker 1: you know her track Master Teacher. You know feature the
Speaker 1: words by Georgia and the Modre is wildly credited with
Speaker 1: reintroducing the whole notion of stay woke to the modern lexicon.
Speaker 1: We're making some major points here. Dot woke has always
Speaker 1: or wokeness has always been a part of the consciousness
Speaker 1: of black people because we had to so whatever our
Speaker 1: ancestors was calling it in the eighteenth century, the seventeenth century,
Speaker 1: the sixteenth century. It was always some version of the
Speaker 1: notion of wokeness. But in terms of modern day they're saying,
Speaker 1: you know, the Legal Defense Fund put out that. Rikabaydu's
Speaker 1: her track from two thousand and eight Master Teacher is
Speaker 1: widely credited with reintroducing stay woke to the modern lexicon. However,
Speaker 1: Watson believed it was by DU's use of the phrase
Speaker 1: on Twitter while advocating for the freedom of Russian feminist
Speaker 1: protesters that ultimately helped propel woke in a twenty first
Speaker 1: century way around the globe.
Speaker 2: No, that's real, and Eric Abadu, she's got the spirited
Speaker 2: Nina Simone in her and she recognizes that to stay
Speaker 2: woke is to always be forty five, be for truth telling,
Speaker 2: be ready for courageous witness, be ready for fighting and resisting.
Speaker 2: And when you are fighting, you got to not just
Speaker 2: be woke. You need powers of discernment that part ABSOLUTELYSS
Speaker 2: or not just matter woke. You need to get your
Speaker 2: eyes together and you got to feel deeply. You got
Speaker 2: to get your heart together, and you got to fight sincerely.
Speaker 2: You got to get your soul together so that you
Speaker 2: know woke is just that first step toward Efesian six
Speaker 2: and Ephesian six. Ain't just stay woke, it's put on
Speaker 2: the whole arm. I see, Grandmama got it more right
Speaker 2: than almost everybody I know. She go back to her Bible.
Speaker 2: I go back to my Bible to say, put on
Speaker 2: the whole arm. And I think Erica do would agreed,
Speaker 2: and of course I think Nina Simone would agreed too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that you are able to withstand the wives
Speaker 1: of the of the devil, of the enemy, of the
Speaker 1: of the of the spirits of opposite that want to
Speaker 1: take people down, I mean, that's it, Doc. And so now,
Speaker 1: to some extent, not to some extent, we know that
Speaker 1: woke now is being used in a very negative accoonnotation.
Speaker 1: They use it to stand in for diversity, equity inclusion,
Speaker 1: is used to stand in for Black Lives Matter, is
Speaker 1: used to stand in for critical race theory. You know,
Speaker 1: you name it, and all of those things add up
Speaker 1: to one thing, anti black.
Speaker 2: Well in a way that that kind of focus on
Speaker 2: us means that we still constitute the threat that we're
Speaker 2: not inconsequential. You see, if you're inconsequential, people ain't nobody
Speaker 2: praying attention to you. Ain't nobody even can, and whether
Speaker 2: you there are not. But if they targeting you at
Speaker 2: the highest levels of government, trying to erase your history,
Speaker 2: trying to break your spirit, trying to undermine your fire,
Speaker 2: all that means is that they still fear you, even
Speaker 2: if it's a form of hatred. It's still a matter
Speaker 2: of we're trying to control you, trying to subjugate you.
Speaker 2: They understand that black people at our best, with love
Speaker 2: in our heart and commitment to freedom and our soul, yes,
Speaker 2: we do constitute a threat to lies. We constitute a
Speaker 2: threat to crimes, We constitute a threat to oppression. So
Speaker 2: in a funny kind of way, it's a compliment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that part die. We are relevant. We are more
Speaker 1: relevant than what we understand. And it is true that
Speaker 1: we are, especially from a popular culture standpoint, the most
Speaker 1: emulated people on the planet. Nobody even close. Now, I
Speaker 1: said from a popular culture standpoint, and I can also
Speaker 1: add in from a social political liberation context, we are
Speaker 1: the most emulated people on the face of the planet
Speaker 1: because as marginalized people fight for their dignity and justice,
Speaker 1: they almost always look to the fight of black people
Speaker 1: for liberation at various times in our sojourn on this soil.
Speaker 2: That's true, that's true. I mean the challenge has always
Speaker 2: been that the genius in our music and our styles,
Speaker 2: the genius in our art is so difficult to translate
Speaker 2: into institutional capacity for freedom, and it's so difficult to
Speaker 2: translate into the same level of courageous political leadership. If
Speaker 2: we had political leaders who were as free as Erika Badu,
Speaker 2: we'd have been free long time ago.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, four.
Speaker 2: Political leaders who are half as free as Nina Samon
Speaker 2: on a Curtis Mayfield. We would have been more free
Speaker 2: a long time ago. Now, that's not to say that
Speaker 2: we don't have any political leaders who are free. We
Speaker 2: do have a few. But we got whole lot of musicians,
Speaker 2: We got a whole lot of folk with style and
Speaker 2: smile who are free in terms of their art and
Speaker 2: in terms of their style. But we don't have it
Speaker 2: in political leadership or an institutional form and capacity. That's
Speaker 2: the challenge that we have.
Speaker 1: It's a very big challenge. Shot. And to add to that,
Speaker 1: what we must be concerned about is the manipulation of
Speaker 1: the term woke and to use it in such a
Speaker 1: detrimental way impacts policy. I mean, you have people like
Speaker 1: Governor DeSantis, as you probably remember, and all these other
Speaker 1: Republicans that have lots of power, criminalizing in many ways
Speaker 1: woke and they're proud to be anti woke and that
Speaker 1: how then does that translate into public policy that impacts
Speaker 1: not only the African American community but the entire nation
Speaker 1: writ large. We don't want no wark policies. Well, it's
Speaker 1: wanting people to have health care or woke policy. Not
Speaker 1: wanting people to put insulin on credit cards or ration
Speaker 1: their insulin. Is that a wok policy? Wanting people to
Speaker 1: have a living wage? Oh, I guess that's walk policy too.
Speaker 1: So what started off to be meant for evil for
Speaker 1: just solely black people, whenever the system comes after black people,
Speaker 1: it ain't for too long before they're coming after everybody.
Speaker 2: Else, or at least poor and working poor.
Speaker 1: In working class absolutely always and sometimes poor and working
Speaker 1: class people from other ethnic or racial groups, even though
Speaker 1: race is a social construct. But that in the parking lot,
Speaker 1: they don't always realize that black people continue to be
Speaker 1: the canary in the coal mine. When we come forward,
Speaker 1: we will continue this conversation. You're listening to Truth Time
Speaker 1: with Doctor Cornell West and Nina Turner. I guess we're
Speaker 1: staying for Yeah, well we'll stay right here. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the fact that some people don't recognize that attacks on
Speaker 1: black people in this way, they think it's just about
Speaker 1: us until it comes knocking at their door.
Speaker 2: Exactly right, Yeah, right, And that's part of the end
Speaker 2: callousness that we were talking about to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very much, very much, very callous. Absolutely, just the
Speaker 1: lack of humanity. You know, it's quite disturbing, and you
Speaker 1: and I will be wrestling with this for a long time.
Speaker 1: We've been wrestling with it before our Magnificent show and
Speaker 1: we continue to wrestle with it because the level of
Speaker 1: hatred that it takes to have a whole system bend
Speaker 1: to ensure that one group of people does not rise.
Speaker 1: That is quite quite chilling, Doc, very very chilling. Listen,
Speaker 1: you're listening the Truth Time with Doctor Cornell West and
Speaker 1: yours truly. When we come forward, we'll try this again.
Speaker 1: We're gonna continue this conversation as we are. Love and
Speaker 1: truth is the place that doctor West and I hang
Speaker 1: out a lot. We are loving it Doc about this time.
Speaker 1: You know what we do? We go to our live
Speaker 1: chat on the tube, and we are so thankful to
Speaker 1: our viewers, our audience, for the folks who are on
Speaker 1: here on a regular basis building strong community, not just
Speaker 1: with us, Doc, but one to another. So I'm about
Speaker 1: to get this party started. Mister Morris Phillip's good afternoon,
Speaker 1: Senator Turner and doctor West. Thank you for your courage,
Speaker 1: and we thank him for his courage as well. Doc.
Speaker 2: That's y.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got h Dorvilius. Good afternoon, Doctor West. Morris
Speaker 1: Phillips again, Doctor West, you must be talking about Burkina
Speaker 1: Fasco Africa self determination. Did I pronounce his name properly? Okay,
Speaker 1: So there are two questions in there while we're on him, Doc,
Speaker 1: let me just go on and jump to that Blessed
Speaker 1: Peacemaker is in that same lane. Senator Turner, please ask
Speaker 1: doctor West and give us your insights too about Trey
Speaker 1: or Burkina Fasco. Please. The US is wanting to take
Speaker 1: out yet another African leader working for his people, and
Speaker 1: we got quite a few questions that in that vein
Speaker 1: that and that's Blessed Peacemaker, by the way.
Speaker 2: Maker really has a has a fine focus on what
Speaker 2: is going on not just in Africa, but that particular
Speaker 2: part of Africa, because you know, the going back to
Speaker 2: the Berlin Compass of eighteen eighty three and to scramble
Speaker 2: for Africa and in colonial and imperial attempt to subsume
Speaker 2: not just African lands, but African leaders under their aeges,
Speaker 2: under their authority, and it goes on to this day.
Speaker 2: People think that the struggle against imperialism was over because
Speaker 2: we now have African leaders over African nations. Know that's
Speaker 2: not true. You can have African leaders who themselves are
Speaker 2: subordinate to imperial powers and the people are still yearning
Speaker 2: for self determination, especially poor and working people are yearning
Speaker 2: for self determination. And the use of Africaan as a
Speaker 2: strategy of the American Empire to expand and extend US
Speaker 2: imperial power in Africa over its resources, land, and peoples
Speaker 2: is something that you and I have talked about on
Speaker 2: this show and it's something that is it's that we
Speaker 2: need to zero in on. And in the particular instance
Speaker 2: that they have, we have another African leader who was
Speaker 2: so easily subordinating himself to US imperial interests in order
Speaker 2: to suppress the authentic and genuine yearnings of the self
Speaker 2: determination of an African people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even some that we touched on a little
Speaker 1: bit and yesterday's show about in Rwanda wanting to get
Speaker 1: some of the contracts to lock up other people's people,
Speaker 1: you know, immigrants, and so you're gonna ship them not
Speaker 1: only just to El Salvador, but you're gonna ship these
Speaker 1: people all the way to Rwanda on the continent of Africa.
Speaker 1: I mean, what kind of sickness geopolitical sickness.
Speaker 2: Oh no, but it takes you back to the nineteenth century,
Speaker 2: takes you back to the nineteenth century and in some
Speaker 2: ways to the eighteenth century. Remember, Australia itself was founded
Speaker 2: by convicts who were pushed out of Britain and were
Speaker 2: used as settlers to subordinate indigenous peoples in Australia. The
Speaker 2: very state of Georgia in the United States has the
Speaker 2: same history, so that you can see history repeating it
Speaker 2: not in close imitation, because it's different historical circumstances now
Speaker 2: than it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, but
Speaker 2: it is repeating itself in terms of the domination.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the pattern remains the same as ra Yeah, go
Speaker 1: ahead and teach teacher. So Morris Phillips and Blessed Peacemaker
Speaker 1: hope that gets closer. We got h Doorvilius again, Hello,
Speaker 1: how are you, Senator Nina Turner? I am mighty fine,
Speaker 1: h Dervilius, and I hope you are mighty fine as well.
Speaker 1: We got b bill of pat On bullies. Turns out
Speaker 1: White Washington doesn't actually make you clean.
Speaker 2: Ooh that's pop.
Speaker 1: Ain't that deep? Go ahead and be bail and b
Speaker 1: Bell says, good afternoon, fam. B Bell is really doing
Speaker 1: that thing a piece. And grace my kb LA peeps
Speaker 1: all of that, all the love. And then the inner
Speaker 1: conversation between everybody with one another, just not directed towards us,
Speaker 1: Doctor West. We got Darryl Evans Hi, Doctor West and
Speaker 1: Senator Nina Turner, hope you both are well and we
Speaker 1: are hoping the same thing for you. And then Blessed
Speaker 1: Peacemaker has a recommendation for a book if anyone wants
Speaker 1: to get woke about the US Empire, check out the
Speaker 1: New Confessions of an Economic Hitman and the Jarkata Method.
Speaker 1: Doctor West, have you read either of those?
Speaker 2: No, I haven't read those books. We just get educated
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 1: There we are. This is reciprocal. It's not just so again,
Speaker 1: those two recommendations are the New Confessions of an Economic
Speaker 1: Hitman and the jar Kata Method. Yeah, we're gonna check
Speaker 1: those out. Blessed Peacemaker, thank you so much for that.
Speaker 1: And then Daniel Samir Kirn doctor West got me busting up.
Speaker 1: Me too, Daniel all the time, Me too, Oh pro
Speaker 1: proster John. I miss Nina's glasses. I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: bring them back, y'all. Sometimes people don't even recognize me
Speaker 1: sometimes not without my glasses. A lot of people because
Speaker 1: I've worn them for so long. That's their preference. That's
Speaker 1: how they know it's really really me. So I gotta
Speaker 1: bring my.
Speaker 2: Glasses back, put them back on.
Speaker 1: Definitely, so much, so much, so much so, doctor oh
Speaker 1: Ronnie Thomas. Anti black is a real situation we face
Speaker 1: daily here in America, a topic that is overdue. And
Speaker 1: I thank you all for your service in telling the truth.
Speaker 2: No, weigh in it together.
Speaker 1: We are, and I mean we wish it were not true,
Speaker 1: honestly we do. And they acting like we want this
Speaker 1: to be true. We don't, but it is true and
Speaker 1: we got to keep raising it up. Tears, Alan Duncan
Speaker 1: peace and blessings, leaders and peace and blessings back to you,
Speaker 1: all of that good stuff. So, Doc, you know, we
Speaker 1: are in a deep moment, you know, for our lifetime.
Speaker 1: And of course there are generations that have spanned several
Speaker 1: decades where they're able to take a glimpse at times
Speaker 1: when in their childhood and young adulthood to what is
Speaker 1: happening now. And then we got generations who never experienced
Speaker 1: anything like this before. Again, Gen X is the first
Speaker 1: generation that did not have to live under legalized It's
Speaker 1: still happening in fact the facto, but not in dejure
Speaker 1: legalized segregation, and because of the Civil Rights you know,
Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act and also the Voting Rights Act. But
Speaker 1: that's not that long ago. That those are people who
Speaker 1: are under the age of sixty. That puts a finer
Speaker 1: point on what you and I talk about on the
Speaker 1: regular basis in terms of understanding the impact of anti blackness,
Speaker 1: the impact of trying to stop black people from having
Speaker 1: full liberation, and how it has serious consequences for everybody
Speaker 1: and one of the reasons why we need to continue
Speaker 1: to lift up that history. You're listening The Truth Time
Speaker 1: with doctor Cordnell West and Nina Turner. When we come forward,
Speaker 1: Doctor West, thoughts on all of that God and thank
Speaker 1: God for each and every one of you. If you
Speaker 1: missed any part of today's show or shows in the past,
Speaker 1: please download the KBLA app. You gotta do that for
Speaker 1: us and all the amazing shows. You know, our dear
Speaker 1: brother Jesse Jackson, it comes up right after us, So
Speaker 1: make sure that you stay in the house. Just a
Speaker 1: few more comments that really feed into you know, the
Speaker 1: more that not only just the Trump administration, but even
Speaker 1: some governors before President Trump got his second chance at
Speaker 1: this White House, we're trying to minimize the history of
Speaker 1: black people. I think the more that folks like the
Speaker 1: Santis and others push back against our history, the more
Speaker 1: we want to make sure that more people learn about it.
Speaker 1: In other words, when you think everything is okay, you
Speaker 1: just kind of la laid back. But when you're under attack,
Speaker 1: it provokes a certain type of response. And I think
Speaker 1: that response is for not just only the African American community,
Speaker 1: but people who understand what is happening here to say,
Speaker 1: oh no, not on our watch. We're gonna teach it
Speaker 1: regardless it might be in my friends' basement, big mama's basement,
Speaker 1: the basement of a church or mosque. But this history
Speaker 1: will be.
Speaker 2: Taught absolutely in the end. It has to do with
Speaker 2: truth and justice. You see that. We wanna teach the truth.
Speaker 2: Let's tell the truth about the country and its own
Speaker 2: weak will to truth when it comes to black people
Speaker 2: being treated justly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Always fear of and.
Speaker 2: The denial of justice go hand in hand.
Speaker 1: That's a word Doctor preaches all day long. We got
Speaker 1: makial doctor Wes Cinner Turner. Have you already discussed allegations
Speaker 1: against Smokey Robinson. No, we have not. That is not
Speaker 1: this kind of show. We not doing that. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that I read that because I
Speaker 1: want our viewers to know we will take the hard questions.
Speaker 1: I have not been keeping up with those allegations either,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't fit with the mode of this show.
Speaker 1: But thank you for raising that. P Black three. The
Speaker 1: Berlin conference was in eighteen eighty four to eighteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: not in eighteen eighty three.
Speaker 2: Cool. Appreciate that, correct and pray for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah all, I love that. Please, anytime if Doctor West
Speaker 1: and I mistakenly get something wrong, let us know we
Speaker 1: ain't too proud we receive it, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1: And then we have oh, we have miss Gibbs. I
Speaker 1: think it's just Shonda, just Chandra Gibbs ask absolutely you
Speaker 1: two beautiful souls, Doctor West. We share a mutual friend,
Speaker 1: my pastor, doctor Stanley tobert.
Speaker 2: Ooh, the one and onlys stan let Old Bard, PhD,
Speaker 2: Union Flotical Seminary, the last student of the Great James Cohne,
Speaker 2: the founder of Black Liberation Theology and his church right
Speaker 2: there on no man d in l A. And he's
Speaker 2: also a distinguished professor at Pepperdine University with my beloved
Speaker 2: and I heat graduated leader. Hey, PhD is another player,
Speaker 2: but yeah, Stanley's special brother. He really really you know,
Speaker 2: brother Stanley.
Speaker 1: I do, I do. We're not close, but I definitely
Speaker 1: know of his greatness.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, this generation he really.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you Sister Gibbs for bringing that out. We
Speaker 1: appreciate that so much. And so Doc. What kind of
Speaker 1: encouragement though, can we? I mean, we are always always
Speaker 1: concentrating on encouraging people in this moment really to keep
Speaker 1: on keeping on despite what the powers that be ultimately
Speaker 1: try to do to deter us and the teaching of
Speaker 1: American history and all of its forms is important for
Speaker 1: our growth, you know, as a not just as a people,
Speaker 1: as a black people, but also as a country. You
Speaker 1: gotta know from whence you came, as James Baldwin so
Speaker 1: eloquently laid out, to be able to know exactly where
Speaker 1: we're gonna go. Doc, hold that thought, you're listening the truth.
Speaker 1: Time with doctor Cornet wasn't needed. When we come forward,
Speaker 1: the doctor will speak. I want to combine two things
Speaker 1: we got Blessed Peacemaker in here. One of the things
Speaker 1: Blessed Peacemakers said, African Americans and Africans are facing the
Speaker 1: same evils. It's really important we all understand each other
Speaker 1: and love one another. Solidarity and kinship teachings get us
Speaker 1: understanding one to another. So as you respond to that.
Speaker 1: But he also is saying that some things we need
Speaker 1: to put some clarity on. He wants us to revisit
Speaker 1: trayor that Rwanda's Kagamin or Kagami, I'm not sure and
Speaker 1: pronouncing his name right, but Rwanda's one of Randa's leaders.
Speaker 1: Was horrible that there's a mix up between this leader
Speaker 1: with Burkina Fasco's Treyor who is a real Pan Africanist
Speaker 1: like Patrice Lamumba. So he's saying that there's a kind
Speaker 1: of mix up there between those leaders.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you, Lamooma sets some of the highest
Speaker 2: standards in terms of his truth telling and in terms
Speaker 2: of his seeking justice for his people. And anybody who
Speaker 2: comes close to the standards of Lamomba deserves our support
Speaker 2: and deserves our affirmation.
Speaker 1: Okay. And one more point, Doc Blessed Peacemaker saying that
Speaker 1: the Burkina Fasco's tray Or is the real Pan Africanness
Speaker 1: in the tradition of Lamomba.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think that's That's what I think our
Speaker 2: brother is saying. And all I'm saying is is that
Speaker 2: when you talk about Lamomba, who sets such high standards,
Speaker 2: if the brother who he's talking about comes anywhere near Lamomba,
Speaker 2: that brother warns our support. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Amen to that. And the point he made Doc about
Speaker 1: you know, the kinship and understanding our collective really from
Speaker 1: a disporat desperadic the Black diaspora lens that we have
Speaker 1: to get understanding one for another, have solidarity one from another,
Speaker 1: and that teach ins is a way to help us
Speaker 1: cultivate that.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's absolutely right, absolutely right. You. Solidarity has got
Speaker 2: to cut across national boundaries, got to cut across country lines,
Speaker 2: no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: Why is that so hard? Though? It seems hard people
Speaker 1: for some people to grasp that.
Speaker 2: I think it's hard for all of us because all
Speaker 2: of us in our local context have so much to
Speaker 2: deal with, so much. They have to deal with the
Speaker 2: local context and then make the connection of local contexts
Speaker 2: in other countries and be honest in the solidarity and
Speaker 2: still be rooted in your local struggle and your own
Speaker 2: community and context. It's difficult, but it's imperative.
Speaker 1: Difficult, but imperative. Well, Doc, listen, we didn't talk that
Speaker 1: thing today. You talked about spiritual awakening, a moral, a moral,
Speaker 1: a political courage, spiritual awakening and a moral.
Speaker 2: What was that Renaissance?
Speaker 1: Renaissance all renaissance? We need that today, And Doc, my goodness,
Speaker 1: we didn't get the dandyism. But the cliff notes version
Speaker 1: is baby. Our style is all. It's all that. That's
Speaker 1: all you need to know. We're go look at it.
Speaker 1: They have some fine suits and things or doctor West,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe it. It's our time again. We want our
Speaker 1: folks to live on purpose, live out their purpose, understand
Speaker 1: their purpose, but above all, understand that titles are good
Speaker 1: for purpose is better. Until next time,