Denzel Washington, Nikki Giovanni, Ben Affleck And White America
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If everything gets replaced, to be replaced by AI.

AI can write you excellent imitative verse that sounds a little beef and it cannot write you Shakespeare. The function of having two actors or three or four actors in a room and the taste to discern and construct that is something that currently entirely eludes AI's capability and I think will for a meaningful period of time. What AI is going to do

to do is going to disintermediate the more laborious, less creative, and more costly aspects of filmmaking that will allow costs to be brought down. He's clueless. He's clueless. He is totally clueless. That's Ben Affleck there. I think that was a month or so ago, whenever it was, at a forum on CNBC, some kind of forum that they were doing somewhere. Ben Affleck is, this is somebody, listen to your listener, welcome to this edition of the Politic Rep Daily Podcast.

I am going to launch into this. He's clueless. Ben Affleck is privileged. Look, this guy is Hollywood's darling. And he is a multimillionaire. He's very comfortable financially. Yes, I know he's had his personal problems.

and all of the rest of it. All of us have personal problems. You can't go through a life and not have at least one personal problem in your whole life experience. And if you told me that you've never had any kind of personal problem or issue in your life, you're lying to yourself, let alone myself, let alone me. So Ben Affleck has had his ups and downs, as have we all, right? And Ben Affleck

Unlike the vast majority of people in the world, is very privileged in the sense that he is financially privileged. That's what I'm talking about here in terms of privilege. And he's a white male, so he's white male privilege as well. White privilege, white male privilege, privilege.

And he is financially privileged. He's very well off, very comfortable. And he's saying that the movies are going to be one of the last things to be affected by AI. Well, Ben Affleck, where have you been the last two years when there was a writer's strike, when there was an actor's strike, the Screen Actors Guild that you belong to had an actor's strike over the last two years or so? Did you not remember that?

Did you not remember that that strike was about these issues of AI and using the actor's likeness in perpetuity and not giving the actor whose likeness they were using royalties off that experience and also phasing out those actors? Ben, Benny, Benny, where were you? Where were you, Benny?

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Did you support the Screen Actors Guild strike Ben Affleck? That's what I'd like to know from him. Now, listen, I didn't look it up to see whether he did or not. The bottom line is, is that a comment like that, and I only played a portion of the comment, to me is very shallow to make a comment like that. And it reveals a very narrow mindedness. Does he not know about what's happening in the music industry? Does he not know that?

Oh my goodness me, it's just crazy. And you think that the movies are not going to go that way? You're already seeing an atomizing of the cinematic experience, Ben Affleck. The movie theater is no longer the primary place where people are watching their movies. A, the cost has become highly prohibitive, and B...

You've got a gazillion streaming services where movies are put out on a daily basis. And they are now, as they have been for more than 20 years, simultaneously in movie theaters. And really, the only movie theaters that are left these days are the big mall movie theater, the AMC of the world, the Regal Cinemas of the world.

right those types of big budget movies that get shown in those big mall movie theaters those are the only theaters that exist anymore and some of the smaller chains have gone i mean even around here in northern california i have seen over the last year alone the i've read about the close in fact in the last couple of days i've read about the closings of at least five

theaters in Northern California, and over the last year in San Francisco alone, the closing of at least three movie theaters. And San Francisco in the last 10 years has lost about seven movie theaters. So Ben,

If the movie theater itself is dying and you still do have some mom and pop owned theaters, the small ones, art house cinemas here and there. And some of them have gone by the wayside as well after COVID, after the pandemic.

But Ben, if the movie theater experience is being atomized now, where you've got a gazillion different streaming platforms to stream a movie on, day and date release that's been on for years now, and all of these things are happening, you can stream something in two minutes on Netflix, you can binge watch, you can put pop out and pump out sequels on Disney Plus, you've got all these movies now popping up

literally on a daily basis now on these platforms, and they're all theatrical, they're so-called theatrical releases, but they're rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. Ben, if you've got that going on, what makes you think that somehow the movie itself is not somehow going to be going the way of AI? Of course it will.

Does it mean every movie will? No, but a chunk of movies will. It's heading in that direction. And Ben, you have to ask yourself, who profits off of this and who loses off of this?

By the way, Ben, I think you should have a conversation with Fran Drescher. If you want to know about whether or not the movie experience and the movies themselves are going to head to AI, you might want to have a conversation with Fran Drescher, who I think was or is the Screen Actors Guild president or definitely was somebody who was the president of this union. And I forget the exact name. But the Screen Actors Guild had a strike, Ben.

Did you cross the picket line? I mean, this strike was literally a year or two ago. 2022? 2023? It's incredible. Anyway, I had to get that off my chest on this episode because I just think that that is a really obtuse and very narrow view of, I think, rather, quite frankly, rather naive view from Ben Affleck, someone who's been around the movies now for 30 years.

You know, he's won Oscars. He's directed movies. He's acted in movies. He's written movies. I just, you know, won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting writing that with his buddy Matt Damon. You know, these are the same two guys who arrogantly...

I think Matt Damon was the one who said it, told a black woman during that Operation Greenlight series that was on HBO years ago. Oh, well, I don't think that your view about this is relevant. You know, whatever he said. You remember that, what Matt Damon said or Ben Affleck, both of them? And then they apologized or half-heartedly did. And those guys, you know, ugh.

Jesus Christ. You know, really, you're listening to these two privileged white men and Ben Affleck here specifically talking

about how, oh, the movies are, it's only going to be a residual thing. Only some roles will get changed. Well, some roles is something. And behind that some roles is a human being who is being laid off. Multiple human beings who are being laid off. Ben, why don't you take a look at your grocery store, Ben? Take a look at your Target, Ben. Take a look at your Whole Foods, Ben. Take a look at any supermarket, Ben. Most of them.

Many of them have automatic checkouts now and have for 15 years at least where it's self-service automatic checkout. You don't have to see a human being except for the person next to you who's also using the same self-service checkout. There's eight or 10 of them in every freaking supermarket now. You go to a Target, you go to a Walgreens. I don't. You go to a freaking Whole Foods.

And you'll see at least 10 of these blooming things where a cashier used to be, where a family would have been fed used to be. A family who would have been fed used to be there. And they're not now because there's some automated checkout that you've patronized and actually helped to take the food and the money out of the mouths of a family.

Which is why I never go to self-service checkouts. They represent not just one job lost, but a family that doesn't get fed. And if we started to think about it collectively that way, we'd stop patronizing these stupid self-service places. But it's all about convenience and getting out of somewhere 25 seconds earlier or a minute earlier to go nowhere.

And it's one more avoidance of human contact and human interaction. And that's one more case of atomizing our experiences, limiting our human contact and our human interaction in the world.

And I get it. There are some people who will say, oh my God, I don't really want to talk to people anyway. And yeah, I get it. I get that feeling sometimes I don't really want to interact with some people because people are nuts, especially at this time of year, dear listener. This is the silly season. And once we get to Christmas and we're in the Christmas season now,

You notice the craziness that's going on. I'm not just talking about in the news. I'm just talking about in your neck of the woods, in your neighborhood, on your street, right?

The looks on people's faces, the anxiety, the anger, the pressure, the stress, the depression. People are upset. People are angry. People are depressed. It's a tough time of year. There's a lot of pressure on you. If you have a family, you've got to get all these gifts and presents for people. The cards you've got to write, this, that, the other. You've got to do it by the 18th of December or right or else. That's the Christmas season as you know it, dear listener.

And so when I think about those families who aren't getting fed because there's a checkout where their face used to be, a self-service checkout where their face used to be, yeah, I kind of feel for them. And so I definitely forgive the moral high ground here. Definitely do not patronize.

Self-service checkouts. Never have, never will. Well, you know, I've had one or two occasions where someone did it for me. Someone who worked there happened to be there and did it for me. But that's two or three times in my life. But I have never voluntarily, outside those two or three times in my life ever, gone to a self-service checkout.

Ever. I've never used them by my own accord. It's always been in there. I've ever, this has been three times in my life. And it's been when someone said, I'll do it for you. Cause I've been very adamant not to use these things for that reason. So Ben Affleck, all of this is to say, Ben, you need to check in with some of your colleagues, right?

And you really do need to understand that people will lose their jobs. People will lose their economic livelihoods. And especially in the United States, as anywhere across the world, but especially here, don't F with somebody's livelihood, man. You know that you are F-ing with their life. And what these CEOs and these corporates do not care to realize, and they don't want to realize, they don't give a damn,

is that people's livelihoods are in the balance. People's lives are in the balance. When you F with their livelihoods, with their healthcare, you're F-ing with their life. And that's a serious thing. Speaking of serious things, why don't I get to the case of what has been going on in the news lately with the killing of a CEO. Exactly one week ago today, I think it was, Brian Thompson, I think his name is, the UnitedHealthcare CEO was gunned down

in broad daylight on a morning, I think it was the 5th of this month or maybe the 4th of this month, Wednesday, the 4th of December, outside or inside, I forget, outside in New York City, down in the midtown Manhattan. I want to talk about that because I think the reaction to all of it has been very revealing.

And love means nothing unless we are willing to be responsible for those who love us as well as those whom we love. People don't just love you out of the blue. You let them. And people have loved me when I needed to be loved. So as an adult, I must give some of that love back to those who want it or would have all have been for nothing. I think I'm no different from any other colored girl who has to grow up and make decisions and live by them.

I think we are all capable of tremendous beauty once we decide we are beautiful, or of giving a lot of love once we understand love is possible, and of making the world over in that image if we choose to. I really like to think a black, beautiful, loving world is possible. I really do, I think.

That's Nikki Giovanni reading from one of her poems from years ago. And yeah, I think that that black, beautiful, loving world is possible as well. In fact, I think that black, beautiful, loving world has always been here. I think it really has. Then you think about it.

Our ancestors had to be of a loving kind, a loving people to get us to where we are now, to go through the experience that our ancestors went through, to pave the way for us. They had to be a loving people. It's simple as that. And I think that's obvious that they were a loving people. So because come on. And if they didn't think that,

We could survive and make it and thrive in this world that they laid down for us. Do you think they would have gone through the things they went through? I mean, come on. I think you can completely understand the answer. You know what the answer is. Nikki Giovanni there. And I continue to celebrate Nikki Giovanni this week. And there will be more to come.

excerpts from interviews that she has done during the course of the rest of this week, Nikki Giovanni, who passed away this past Monday at the age of 81. Nikki Giovanni was a revolution. I fervently believe that. She wasn't just revolutionary. She was a revolution. And her ways of thought, her ways of thinking, her ways of

inspiring us to reach deeper, to go farther,

engage our brains, our minds to love abundantly and thoroughly as black people to stand up and be counted for who we are to be proud of our beautiful black selves these are the kinds of things among many things that Nikki Giovanni was all about Nikki Giovanni who should be celebrated not just on one day but should be celebrated every day she is an ancestor now

And that conversation that I played the last couple of episodes, parts one and two with James Baldwin that she had in 1971 in London, is a conversation that you need to check in with and listen to. If you have not already done so, please go back the last two episodes of this podcast and listen to

Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin, two of the great thinkers of the 20th century and the great literary giants of the 20th century as well. Their writing, their poetry, their prose, their intellect, their activism. Think about that. Go and read and research them both. I really do think that they were terrific. And that's just putting it mildly. These are two people who really embody

Black thought, black progression, black liberation, black freedom. I really do urge you, whoever you are, to listen and read them. James Baldwin's books, I've talked about them endlessly on this podcast. The Fire Next Time is a good place to start. The Fire Next Time, that's a good place to start with James Baldwin. He's written so many, wrote so many books. The

Oh, my gosh. I can just go forever of all the books he's done. Notes of a Native Son and Another Country. Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone. Goodness, we go tell on the mountain. I can go on and on. If Beale Street Could Talk. I can go on and on with all the work that James, Giovanni's room. A Million Things that James Baldwin wrote. And of course, Nikki Giovanni's work as well. Black Thought, Black Feeling.

Oh my gosh. Love poems. I can go on and on with Nikki Giovanni's writings and work as well. And she's done so many books. She did so many books. And of course, she did some albums as well, spoken words. So you really need to get in touch with Nikki Giovanni and read her writings and her work and

her conversations, listen to them. So I wanted to mention Nikki Giovanni again here. I'll be playing more clips from Nikki Giovanni coming up as well as we celebrate Remember Her here on the Politocrat Daily Podcast. Yoshiru Leomar Moore here on this Thursday as the rain has been falling here in the city of San Francisco, California. I do hope the weather's been good where you are. There's been wildfires in the Los Angeles area.

There has been a lot of that going on, you know, 400 miles or so south of here in the Los Angeles area and places around there. And of course, in various parts of the world, there are all kinds of floodings and all this climate change that has happened, this global warming that has punished the planet because of our, not yours or mine, but because of mankind's behavior to the environment and the desecration of it.

And you see what has been going on around that as a result. So I want to get back. Speaking of desecrations, I want to go back to the thing I left you with at the end of the last block, which was this CEO who was shot to death in New York just over a week ago now in broad daylight. Brian Thompson, I think his name was.

United Healthcare CEO. And when it was clear that the person who the police were looking at as the suspect was a white man, even though one of the police department spokespersons called him a light-skinned man. And clearly, you know, you're trying to make it seem like this guy's a light-skinned black man. Because when you say light-skinned man, that's exactly the implication that you're bringing forth. Well,

We all know that this guy is white and he was arrested in Altoona, Pennsylvania, just a couple of days ago this week. And, you know, it took him three or four whole days to find him, you know, five days to find him, for God's sakes. And this guy allegedly is allegedly the one who killed Brian Thompson, the CEO, whatever his first name is, I forget. But the bottom line is he was killed in broad daylight.

Shot to death. 50 years old. Young guy. The young guy, 50, that is young. And so...

The social media reaction and social media is absolute garbage. I'm sorry. Yes, I'm on social media. I have definitely limited my time on there. It's a waste of time for the most part. Yes, you can have good interactions with people and there's some good stories and you can learn some really good things and good insights from some people. Yes, that's true. But social media is a waste of time.

More and more, I am convinced by that. It's not something that just happened overnight, a eureka moment. It's always been that way, I think. But social media, the less time you can spend on it, the better, and the more time you can spend actually doing things in your life, whether it's your work,

whether it's your work away from work, whether it's spending time with your family, whether it's whatever it is, spending time with your significant other, your partner, your spouse, whatever it might be, doing things around the home that you want to take care of or doing things outside the home that you want to take care of, getting your Christmas shopping done, whether it's doing exercise and getting a walk in, getting a run in, spend more time on you rather than on social media.

And opening your mind to all these opinions on things and some of that stuff you disagree with, you disagree with me half the time probably on social media, you know, one way or the other. But the bottom line is, it's not about me. It's about you. It's about us. It's about tuning into yourself. How much time do you spend with yourself? And by the way, before I do really get into the CEO thing, I want to play this game.

From Mr. Denzel Washington. I can tell you 50 years of experience, I've learned to put it down and go home. My happiness doesn't come from the roles I play or the accolades people have given me. And was that always true? No, absolutely not. I'm telling you from 70 years of experience, don't listen to them. Yeah.

listen to yourself yeah spend quiet time five minutes every morning just be quiet hard to do yeah i'm talking to everybody in this room very hard to do five minutes of quiet don't reach for it don't think about it which is impossible don't reach for it you know what i'm talking about your devices here's a question for you all

What would you do with five minutes of silence? I pray for your generation because we did not have to deal with what you've had to deal with. And it's our fault for putting it in your hands. There were no nine million opinions of every moment of my day. No documentation of this. And people that like you and then suddenly they hate you and you don't understand why. I never had, I don't even know what you call it, an Instagram account. Never had one. Link, what's the other name? Link?

I don't have any of them. You don't have a LinkedIn? No, no. I have a Cadillac. And on that note... Yeah. And on that note, yes, Denzel Washington, recently there...

In an interview, I think with, not Screen Rant, Screen something, Screen Script, whatever, Screen Off Script or whatever that company is. And he was talking there on his press gaggle for the movie Gladiator 2, which of course he is currently in, in a supporting role, which has been getting a lot of favorable reviews.

reviews and press and all that and he may well be up for something Oscar wise on this who knows I've not been getting into the heart of awards season as much as I should with the films and all the rest but definitely some really wise advice as always from Denzel and he's been saying there what I've been saying for quite some time which is

You need to spend more time with yourself. That doesn't mean you have to be a hermit. It means that you need to spend some time being silent, having time with yourself. How many times have I done episodes, dear listener, in this podcast where I've talked about the importance of being quiet, meditating, playing peaceful music, or just having silence in your life? How many times have I talked about that? As recently as last month, I talked about this on this podcast, the importance of

meditation and eating healthy and just taking time to spend time with yourself, lie in bed for 10 minutes and just do nothing at all after a long day. Or as Denzel said, in the morning, first thing, five minutes of silence. It is hard to do that. It is hard. Whether you are presently employed or not, it's hard to start your day and just

Not turn on the television or not look at your phone. And I've been able to not look at my phone first thing in the morning. I think it's a very healthy thing to do. Meaning to not look at your phone is a very healthy thing to do. But it's not easy. But you have to get used to doing that. And trying to spend at least five minutes of just being into you. And by that I mean just being silent. Just being.

Having ambient noise be the thing that you are immersed in. No headphones, no music, but just silence. And we don't do that enough as human beings. And we certainly don't do that enough here in the United States of America. We are very uncomfortable with silence in general in this country. Americans at large, and of course there's always exceptions, are deeply uncomfortable with silence.

In our conversations, we have to fill every silence. You heard just then when Denzel was talking about

social media and how it's ridiculous and he feels sorry for this generation and we put this in your laps and you know millions of people who used to like you now hate you and the guy who was interviewing him kept talking over him oh it's terrible oh it's a shame oh it's gross oh we didn't have any documented we're back in your I mean can you just listen to what Denzel's saying and the thing is we don't listen in this world

In this country, we don't listen enough. We don't. We wait for the other person who's speaking to us to finish talking and then we jump right in. We don't listen to each other. And you know what? I think one of the reasons among many why we don't listen to each other is because we don't even listen to ourselves. We don't.

We don't take that five minutes that Denzel was talking about to just be quiet, to be silent. As he said, what would you do with five minutes of silence? I love that line from Denzel. It's not from one of his movies. It's not from a script. It's from him. And these are the nuggets of wisdom that Denzel has been giving us for 50 years of the 70 that he's been here. Isn't it incredible Denzel's going to turn 71 today?

In the next few days, next couple of weeks. His birthday is on the 28th of this month. I think it'll be 71, something like that. Remarkable, remarkable. What would you do, dear listener, with five minutes of silence? We need to start listening to ourselves. Take those five minutes or more that Denzel talked about in the audio you just heard and learn something about ourselves.

And then when we are interacting with other human beings, with fellow human beings, I'm trying to stop using the word other, right? It's one of my things now I'm trying to do. When we are interacting with fellow human beings, we really do need to listen to those fellow human beings. And hopefully they will listen to us. Listening is a really important skill. It's not an easy skill to have.

Many of us are very impatient. I like to think that I am a pretty darn good listener. I think I can improve. I definitely think I can do that. And I think that no one is the genuine article or rather the finished article, I should say. But listening is extremely important. Listening means that you're being valued or that you are valuing someone that you're listening to and that they feel heard. That's so important. That's such an important thing.

And it means everything when you're communicating. It means everything in a relationship. It means everything in life in general. The ability to be heard and the ability to listen. The ability to listen without opening your mouth and talking over someone. Without instantly reacting to them. Thank you, Denzel, for the wisdom that you continue to provide.

to us all, the guidance that you have imparted and continue to impart. It never stops in this world. It doesn't matter how young or how old you might be. Advice is something that doesn't ever stop from the day you start in this world to the day you leave it. And so...

I wanted to interject that clip as well, that Denzel provides to us all with that wisdom he provides to us all. And really, it's about social media and the point that I really want to amplify now about this reaction to the CEO that was killed. White male CEO last week in midtown Manhattan in New York City, gunned down. And when it was clear that a white man was the suspect, oh, baby,

The social media kingdom or queendom went absolutely wild. They were very pleased. No sympathy at all for the white male who was shot dead.

That he and his family won't see each other ever again. His family will be without. And no, none of that. Oh, no. Those insurance premiums, they're ridiculous. And it's a rip off and it's terrible. And it's, yeah, these scammy CEOs and da da da da da da da. And even the press coverage, very much.

In the bailiwick of, well, you know, is it true? Does the health care system need an overhaul? Is it true? Will these claims now be actually put forth and will they be granted? Well, by the way, claims get granted every day.

Medicare claims get granted every day. Medicaid claims more often than not get granted every day. I know people who are on both Medicare, who have been on, who are on Medicaid. And I know people who are on Medicare and they have never told me they've had issues with their claims. So first of all, this whole notion that claims, now again, that's just a small sample size of people I'm talking about. But by and large, Medicare works. Medicare works in this country.

Could we scrap part B or part D, I think it is, and have men...

Medicare cover 100% of things? Yeah, we should. But you know why that Part D happened, right? Because again, it was part of a deal done in 64, I believe, with LBJ and the Republicans in the Senate and the Congress who said, oh, well, if we're going to do this, if we're going to pass this, we are going to have to have a deal where the Medicare paying customer, the Medicare customer still has to pay maybe 20% of that back

to the insurance company, Medicare Part B or D or whatever the heck it is. That's where that came from. That's the 20% that doesn't get covered. Anyway, I digress slightly. But this is the thing, you know, the media narrative. And again, I have stopped watching. Again, I know I've said this before, but I really have stopped watching all of these corporate news media channels. Where do I get my information, you might ask? Associated Press is one place.

Another place is ProPublica. Another place, democracynow.org. Another place, well, Reuters. They're corporate, but they are very good with their information. Reuters, R-E-U-T-E-R-S. And Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network is another place I get my information. I mean, so those are just a few of the places I go to. But let me say this to you, dear listener. Let me say this.

All of this reaction now on social media from people who are basically cheerleading the fact that this white male CEO was killed and aren't shedding any tears for it. I mean, that's where we've got to now in this country. That's the country that elected this orange piece of garbage. That's the country that this country has always been.

Right. It's always been like this in this country. Just ask the Native Americans. Just ask black people. That's the country that we're. And the thing is, I think that a lot of the white population in this country is beginning to finally see that. But the question then becomes, what is the majority of that white population doing about that? Now that they some of the white population begins to see that.

this country for what it truly is. And look, I'm sure that there were a lot of white people in the 1960s who were beginning to see the United States of America for what it is. But those people have become older, like we all are. And what are those people, if some of them are still here with us, doing about it? Some of them may be doing something about it.

but not nearly enough. And now we are going to, in just over a month, have a dictator in the White House on a second tour. And we have this kind of response to a human being. I know he's a CEO and whatever your feelings are about CEOs and who likes the fact that CEOs are making 40, 50, 60, 100, 200, 300 times the wage of

of an ordinary worker at the same company who likes that no one except the CEO and that CEO's family. The person is still a human being at the end of the day. And the fact that he was killed, that's the thing that should be spotlighted, not that people are ticked off at CEOs. And that's the narrative that gets built

No time to say that was awful that the life of the man was taken. No time to even reflect on that because life is so disposable in the United States of America. You know, never mind the fact that that happened, that the man was murdered in cold blood, right? Never mind that. That doesn't even get looked at. The social media crazies are all there cheerleading,

Oh, that guy did public service for a minute. Did he? Really? And the way the media is covering that. Now, here's the thing about all of this, because we all know that that is a white man who killed him or allegedly killed him, right? We all know this, right? Let me say this to you. If that was a black man who had killed that CEO, that white male CEO last week in New York,

Do you think that there would be this big cheerleading in the social media world? Do you think that people would be cheering on, cheerleading this brother? You know the answer to that as well as I do. You know the answer to that. I posed that question on social media, by the way, and pretty much everybody told me no one, no one would be cheerleading this brother.

Black man, had it been a black man who had killed that white male CEO last week in New York, the media coverage, and that's this is me now speaking, the media coverage would be very different. The media coverage would not be about, well,

Are these claims going to get put through? Are healthcare companies going to start now changing their ways? Are they going to be forced as a result of this killing to change their ways and start to process these claims and process them faster? Now this killing, does it set a chilling effect? That wouldn't be the media narrative if it were a black man who had put those bullets into the back of

of that white male CEO last week. It would have been an entirely different narrative. It would have been all about this black man

It would have been all about how this CEO should have been able to live his life. It would have always been about this hatred for corporate America and we need to put these people in line and corporate America has the right to do its business the way it wants to and no one should be met with these bullets. They should be able to go about their lives. It's not going to change anything and corporate America

People should be allowed to do what they're doing without having to worry about being killed. And this black man is an evil beast and he needs to be thrown under the effing jail. That would have been your coverage from wall to wall, from network to network, from cable station to cable station. You and I, dear listener, know that well. Because you and I, dear listener, know and know well how America works. We know this easily.

intimately and intricately. This is how the United States of America, the United States of America works. This is how it works. And so, you know very well the answer. Had a black man been the one arrested in this killing of the white male CEO last week, we all know that the vitriol would have been raining down

It would have been all over Fox News and all these other stations. There would have not been any sympathy or support of this brother. Now, there would have been one or two people. Of course, there would have been a few people. There might have been some black folk who might have been in his corner as well. There might have been a few white folk who might have been in his corner as well. But

Let's be honest here. Let's be really honest. The vast majority of this country, certainly the vast majority of white Americans in this country, would not, I repeat, would not be cheerleading, be it on social media or anywhere else, cheerleading this brother for killing a white male CEO. You know that, and I know that. And here's the other thing. Why are people cheerleading, killing, regardless of who is doing it?

Why are you, the proverbial you, cheerleading killing? I mean, that's been a facet of the United States of America, as I've said before, for many a century. Cheerleading killings of Native Americans, cheerleading killings of black people. What was that? I mean, what bigger cheerleading session was there in this country than cheerleading the lynchings of black people?

where you'd have thousands of white people, white families standing under trees, pointing up at the dangling dead bodies of black people and taking pictures of them doing so with the dangling dead body there, man, woman and children smiling and pointing up. What bigger cheerleading of killing was there in America?

than cheerleading the burning of a black person alive at the stake, burning them alive at the stake in towns and villages throughout the United States of America in the 1950s, in the 40s, in the 30s, in the 1800s, in the... Come on now.

You'd have 60,000 people in Kansas City, in Tennessee, in this city, in that city, in their Sunday bests, standing around some black person who is being burnt to death, burned alive. Men, women, children. You can go look up the pictures of this. You can read the books on it. What do people think Red Summer was about in 1919? What do you think that means?

Go and read Ida B. Wells' books where she's chronicled these things. In New Orleans, the lynchings, the brutalities. Again, the cheerleading by white people. The cheerleading of the killing of black folk by white people. What happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921? What happened in Rosewood, Florida in the 1930s? That cheerleading continues today.

The cheerleading in a courtroom where Jordan Neely, having been dead for over a year and a half, the cheerleading of the not guilty verdict this past Monday of the white man Jordan Neely was killed by, Daniel Penny, the white man, cheerlead, cheerlead. He was being cheerlead by members of his family.

and others in the courtroom as that not guilty verdict came out. You tell me about cheerleading. Another black man killed on video as well. And people are cheerleading that. It did not start in 2024 or 2023. This has been a 500 year thing. White people, and I'm not picking on white, all of them, but quite a few of them think they have a right to have more than everybody else.

And I think we have to teach them, and I don't know that we can. It's not my responsibility at this point, that there is something called enough. And I think white Americans have not learned what it means to have enough so that they're never satisfied. They're always wanting more. And you cannot always have more because that means someone else has less.

Yeah, I agree. That was Nikki Giovanni earlier this year on a Channel 4 podcast called Ways to Change the World. Nikki Giovanni in conversation there with, and I forget his name now, Krishnan G. Murthy, I think. Gosh, I've mangled your name, Krishnan. I'm sorry. On Channel 4 in the UK.

And she talks about a number of different things, including white supremacy. And also, again, on what I talked about yesterday, interactions with the

Virginia Tech shooter who she warned officials at her school there at Virginia Tech where she taught that this student that she was teaching was going to be a real danger and a menace. And this was before the shooting took place. And she threatened to quit had he not been removed from her class. And of course, within a few days and weeks, what happened? He ended up killing 32 people at Virginia Tech.

So, you know, again, that was Nikki Giovanni just this year on a podcast on Channel 4 News in the United Kingdom talking about white people. And I totally agree with what Nikki Giovanni said. Nikki Giovanni, by the way, passed away, as you know, by now, the great author, poet, freedom fighter, liberator, thinker, writer. I can go on and on with the accolades and all the great things she did.

passing away at the age of 81 this past Monday. But she's spot on about white people in this country, especially here in the United States, white people who, yeah, they think that the world, white people, and I know that you, dear listener, are white, maybe white listening to me. You know this is true, that many in your group and perhaps yourself at one point or another or presently believe that you are entitled to everything.

Not just the basic things, humanity and human rights. I mean, that you're entitled to everything. And the advertising in this country reiterates that to you. The Madison Avenue crowd that throws you this, throws you that, right? That says you're entitled to have this object, this material thing, that thing, or that.

The advertising that says, oh, if you want to lose weight, just put this lap band around your waist and you'll lose it in 25 minutes. The drug that gets marketed to you. You can take this and you'll lose weight. Maybe you will, maybe you won't. Maybe there's side effects though. But there's a big side effect to all of this. To platform off of what Nikki Giovanni said in the clip you just heard. And that is that there is no limit. The...

Everything isn't enough. And that's what happens to us. And that's what happens to the vast majority of white people who buy into this. That the world is my oyster, but the world is not enough. Isn't that a James Bond movie? The world is not enough. I mean, maybe it is, maybe it's not. But that's the thinking. And you want and want and want and want, but

The other side effect of that is you don't care about who loses as a result of what you want. And that people have died for what you want. They've died in service of what you want. Because somewhere in some factory in Cambodia or in China or on the African continent or somewhere else, South America, people are making no money.

to get what you want so that you can have what you want. People are dying working in these abject conditions, but you don't care about that. You don't care. You just care about what you want. Enough is enough. And I agree with Nikki Giovanni. The word enough needs to be much more of the vocabulary for the vast majority of white Americans, for the vast majority of white people. The word enough is

Because if you are in a space in your mind, in your heart and soul, where everything is not enough, you will be a profoundly unhappy and profoundly miserable human being. Which explains why there are so many profoundly miserable human beings, many of whom are white, who look down on and resent white.

Why there are black folk in the same country that they're living in, America, who are so seemingly happy, who have black joy. And what are you supposed to be downtrodden and upset? Because you're not rich. You're not a CEO who isn't Brian Thompson of UnitedHealthcare. You're not him. You're some...

Black person who's just getting by. And I know the wealth gap is, what, 15 times between you and I? 11 times? I make 11 times more than you do, black person. So why are you so happy? Well, really, the question should be, why are you so miserable with all your white privilege? I mean, that's the real question. But you see, that's the narcotic that flies around this country. The narcotic of privilege and entitlement, which renders...

Any real cohesive and coherent understanding of the way the world is supposed to work, useless. And also, anesthetizes oneself from all of the evils that have to be perpetuated and perpetrated in order for you, as a white person, to get what it is that you want at any cost, at every cost. And that's one way that whiteness kills. That's one way.

that you are insulated as a white person from the monstrosity you think that you aren't a part of when your entitlement exceeds the realities of the world in which you live. And so you then become upset and angry, short-tempered, disappointed, resentful in life in general. And then you look at black folk who walk down the street who

aren't looking so angry and downtrodden as you might hope they would be. And they have a pretty darn decent life. Even though everything ain't perfect and they're going through their struggles, they're not wearing their struggles. They are learning to adapt in a world hostile to them and are making a way out of no way, as Carter G. Woodson would say, and would somehow function with a modicum of happiness.

And that black joy that you resent so deeply. You hate to see black people happy, some of you. And so then you try to do a so-called Karen move and then call the police because black folk are having a good time at a barbecue, which is permitted in Oakland, California on the grounds that it's on. And so you in Oakland, California, white woman,

calls up the police and says, "They're having a barbecue over there and they shouldn't be. Oh, by the way, they're allowed to and it ain't your damn business." But because you're miserable and upset and racist, you find the need to occupy precious moments, minutes, days, hours, seconds of your day, of your life, complaining about the black joy and the black experience.

that you wish you could have, by the way. But because you're so limited and truncated and blinded by your privilege and your ambition and your hatreds and your racism and your resentment, you are stuck in this very narrow place of all or nothing, of zero-sum game. Zero-sum game is your anthem. And so if you can't have it, no one can. That is where you operate.

So if you're not feeling good, black folk don't have a right to feel good. No laughing, no talking, no singing. You can't educate yourselves under penalty of death. That was the law in the United States. You can't educate yourself. It's illegal to educate. Did you know that? The resentment, the white resentment of a black person who would dare educate himself. And then the

Pure arrogance and the hypocrisy of telling people, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, when it's you who forbid black folk to read and write in this country. And then you're turning around and telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Okay. Okay. And you're the one that took away the bootstraps and the boots. You get where I'm going with all of this. And all of that is the platform of Nikki Giovanni and...

More clips to be played on Nikki Giovanni in the next day or two, as promised, dear listener. And I do hope that you do enjoy your Thursday or whenever you happen to be listening to this particular episode of the Politocrat Daily Podcast. Lots to talk about, of course.

As ever, more pardons. President Biden has issued a lot more of them and some clemencies as well in the last 24 hours or so. You'll be hearing a lot more of that. And look, all of this hullabaloo and noise around pardons and people like James Clyburn, who really are embarrassing themselves at this point. I'll get into James Clyburn as promised. I think I'll do that tomorrow, actually. It's just absolutely insane.

But I'll talk about that perhaps tomorrow, I think, and more on Nikki Giovanni as well. So stay tuned to the Politocrat Daily Podcast. You know where you can find this particular podcast. It's on Apple, on Spotify, and numerous other podcasting platforms. I'm on social media. A lot less these days, though, but you can still find me on X, even though I'm barely there, at the popcorn R-E-E-L. You can also find me on spoutable.com.

spoutable.com forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L on threads, threads.net forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L on fanbase, fanbase.app forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L. Get on board the fanbase revolution today. Social media has never been better. Isaac Hayes III with fanbase. Please join fanbase today and invest in fanbase at startengine.com forward slash fanbase. Follow me on sez, S-E-Z dot U-S forward slash popcorn R-E-E-L.

And look, Blue Sky is also available. Follow me there as well. Popcorn, R-E-E-L dot B-E-Sky dot social. Thank you very much for listening to this edition of The Politocrat. I'm Omar Moore.