The Myth Of Systemic Racism

Video Transcript:

Do you think that race plays a part in wealth distribution or either a mindset that you can't? True they? Yeah, no. You don't. No, I don't. I know. You and I, we're proof. Why would race have anything to do with it? Stick your mind to what you want to do and go for that. It's kind of like religion to mean. It's a good excuse for not getting there. Where are we in the United States of America in race relations and what you see from day to day in your life? Skip, they wouldn't want to ask me that. They wouldn't want my answer to represent it because God knows I have been nothing but blessed. My whole path, my all these 33 years have been nothing but a blessing. I have never, you know, never as strong or never dealt with races and I'm glad I didn't have to. There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well. That was said by Booker T. Washington. How are we going to get rid of racism and stop talking about it? I'm going to stop calling you a white man. And I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. You know, it's frustrating to me that people take race and they make it personal. You know what I mean? Like we're at a loss in this generation. If you look at in the 80s, Archie Bunker was a stark racist. If you don't know Archie Bunker, look him up all in the family. Great show. The Jefferson's, stark racist, Fred Sanford, stark racist. But you know what black people and white people did? They laughed. You watched $48 with Eddie Murphy and Nick Noti, both of them hated each other because he was black and because he was white. You know what they did? They laughed. They asked you what the racial breakdown was. You're an audience. Do you remember this? You told me the only black face you could see in the whole audience was your makeup artist. I believe that's what you said. She was in the front row, right? A lot of white kids love rap. Yes. Explain that. What does that say to you? What's the message of it? What's the bigger picture of it? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's sad, but I thought that was clearly a message that there was no such thing as racism. That's what I thought that was. You know, I said, it's probably getting me in trouble, but I said to some of my colleagues recently said, so I know that it's an issue, but it seems like every single day on television I'm talking about race, and it's because of the news cycle. It's in the news. But sometimes I get so tired of talking about it. I want to just go, this is over. Can we move on? And if you talk about it, it exists. Right. It's not like it exists, and we've refused to talk about it. But making it a bigger issue than it needs to be is a problem. And right now, we are in a society where we can't have a conversation because no one's willing to listen. People are just shouting. People are just shouting. People walking down the street, hashtagging everything, but no one's listening. Using wrong examples to present an argument leads us nowhere forward. I understand the emotion, and I respect my opposition. But when you go into the areas of making false charges and living in the past, you do not address the issues of the present. And incarceration in the race in America has been a problem, especially as opposed to minorities. And Roman delves into the issues around the legal system. Do you think we've made any headway in the legal? I think it's more important to make headway in our own house. By the time the system comes into play, the damage is done. They're not locked enough, seven-year-olds. In the 1960s, 80 plus percent of blacks were two parent homes. Today that is reversed completely the other way. I was in Chicago a couple of three, four weeks ago, and we saw these little kids on bikes with masks on the side of their head, like five or six of them. And the driver said, yeah, they're little yummies. I said, who? He said, little yummies. Look up. Google, little yummy. Little yummy was 11-year-old murderer. Wow. And you look at his picture, you'll see the headshot on him and he's like this. And he got murdered at 11 by a 14-year-old. Wow. Who's doing life now in a 16-year-old? That makes no sense. You blame the system? Where was his father? No one wants to talk about perception when it comes to racial profiling. No one wants to talk about stereotypes when it comes to racial profiling. Blacks are convinced that the number one issue facing the country right now is social justice, racist white cops, discrimination, systemic racism, microaggression, whatever new word they come up with, and it's a bunch of nonsense. This is what I know. I'm a certified scuba diver. My first day of class, they told me this, when you're in shark-infested waters, everything in that water is considered a threat until proven otherwise. If it's a guppy, it could be a shark until you know it's a guppy. And I think as black men, we need to realize we're in shark-infested waters. And if we don't sit our young men down and we don't talk to them about perception and we don't talk to them about stereotypes, we're doing them a huge disservice. It starts in the house. It starts in the home. And yeah, well, my father got locked up. Well, where was his father? Yeah. You know, like I did talk about my three closest friends and they did, you know, 15 and 25, I wanted to 28, isn't that? I was only one or the three to have a father in my life, even though my parents were together, but I still had a father who was a gentle man and a good example. And they didn't. We can blame the system if we won. But they didn't lock any of us up at seven. We were all doing enough to get locked up. At 13, my parents sent me in another direction. They didn't have anybody to help them and they kept doing what they was doing and the system got them. So I don't, the system is rigged, but all the more reason I have to help it. It's a number one problem domestically facing this country is a breakdown of the family. And President Obama said that I didn't, a black kid or a kid, not just a black kid, a kid raised without a dad, is five times more likely to be poor and commit crimes, nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in jail. So your former like it end up in jail without having a dad than you are because of a white racist cop. Prime example, I got pulled over by the police, come over to my window, flash his light in my face, hand on my pistol. I can handle that two ways. I can start yelling and screaming and telling him, he or racist and he don't know me, are you doing this wrong? Or I can say, yes, officer, no officer, are we done officer? And both of them are going to have drastically different outcomes. Half the homicides in this country are committed by and against black people. That year there were 14,000 homicides, not talking about suicides, I'm talking about homicides. Half of them were black, 96% of them black on black, of that 7,000. Where's a black lives matter people on that? What happens with young black men, everything is susceptible to the question of your manhood. And what's going on in these streets? And got nothing to do with my manhood. Interesting. I'm going to fight a police, I'm going to fight him in a controlled environment, a court of law. I'm not going to fight him on the streets. In Baltimore where Freddie Gray was killed, Freddie Gray died in a van, I shouldn't say was killed, died in a van. You have a city that's 45% black. City Council is 100% Democrat. The majority of City Council is black. The top cop at the time was black. The number two cop was black. The majority of the command staff is black. The mayor is black. The AG is black. And yet here we are talking about racism. I mean, it's absurd. All cops aren't black. 99% of cops are really good dudes and women. 99% of the people I've met are cops are dope. I have a lot of friends that are cops. But that 1% that's the problem. And you want to give yourself every opportunity not to end up a statistic. 965 people were shot by cops last year and killed. 4% of them were white cops shooting unarmed blacks. And in Chicago in 2011, 21 people were shot and killed by cops. In 2015 there were 7. In Chicago, which is a third black, a third white, and a third Hispanic, 70% of the homicides are black on black. About 40 per month, almost 500 per year, last year in Chicago, and 75% of them are unsolved. Where is the black lives matter on that? The idea that a racist white cop shooting unarmed black people is apparel to black people is BS. Black history month, you find ridiculous. Why? You're going to relegate my history to our month? Oh, come on. What do you do with yours? Which month is white history month? Well, come on. Tell me. Well, I'm Jewish. Okay. Which month is Jewish history month? No, there isn't one. Oh, oh. Why not? You want one? No, no. I don't either. I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history. Abraham Lincoln, as my colleague said, fought a war to preserve the union. That republic allowed for the people of the United States under our constitution to amend it, therefore removing slavery and then moving forward to the Voting and Civil Rights Act and also the suffrage movement for women. That same time, and you would say it's as strong as anyone, it's no excuse for bombing and destroying your own neighborhood. That is. And burning down. Where have it taken? Burning down storefront stores that people with moms is how they get their parents. Turned into that. What's to be gained? You know, you stop from one split second to think burning and looting doesn't help you in any way. I understand your upset. Like it was already said, I doubt you have as upset as I am. So if I'm not over here, while in hell, if I'm not over here, blowing up stuff, if I'm not over here, messing up my community, what are you doing? I will always continue to say that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that non-violence is the most potent weapon available to oppress people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. Let's switch it up, y'all. Let's switch it up. Yes, I do. Don't espacefully. Please. My brother moved here from Houston. And I used to talk to him on the phone. He loved it here. He started driving truck. He was good. So I don't, I highly doubt. No, I don't. I know. He would not want you to be doing this. So I will continue to condemn riots. Continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. Continue to affirm that there is another way.