Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello, welcome to Call It Like I See it, presented by Disruption. Now, I'm James Keys. And in this episode of Call It Like I See it, we're going to discuss Ice Cube's contract with Black America and how he has tried to get some traction for it in our politics and also the blowback he's gotten from many angles and how he's gone about this.
Joining me today is a smart brother, one who has more sense than many.
Tunde. Ogunlana Tunde, are you still out here living just enough for the city?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Of course I'm out here living for the city, man.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Hey, man. There we go. Now we're recording this on October 19, 2020.
And we noted the controversy surrounding Ice Cube last week. First came word from the Trump campaign that Cube was working with them as far as their platinum plan that's directed at black Americans.
Following that, Ice Cube received a lot of blowback, with many claiming he was being played or being used by the by Trump just for the election.
And to his credit, Ice Cube came back and said that black progress was not a partisan issue and that he talked to both campaigns and was willing to work with whoever is in power to try to address the inequities faced by black Americans.
So, Tunde, to get us started, what did you think of Ice Cube's contract with Black America and how he sought to move it to the forefront of our political discussions?
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Great question, man. Obviously, the first answer would be generally, I think it's a positive thing that he did. I read it 22 pages, pretty thorough.
A lot of them. The things I saw were ideas that I think have been discussed, you know, over time and through different periods of when these things come up, I think in the national conversation. And there were some things that I had never seen. And just, I think like anything else, when there's a plan like this that's 22 pages long and has a lot of detail, there's some things that personally I agreed with and some things that I didn't necessarily agree with. So I commend Ice Cube for making this effort. I believe he had two economists with him that helped him on this. And, you know, I commend them too. And I think that, you know, this is a, it's a well meant document to be taken seriously for people that are looking to address and get our country past this kind of hump of this, this racial inequalities that leads to kind of us all, every generation. You know, when you and I were kids, it was the Rodney King riots and you Know, that was supposed to be, you know, ushering some moments of change generationally and all that. And then here we are again. Right now we got to worry about our own kids.
So for those of us that just want to get past this as a country and kind of start healing the country and moving forward and all that, this is a serious document for people that are looking to win elections and just do things for political reasons. I mean, that's kind of obvious.
Ice Cube came out and said he's not being political with it. He brought it to both campaigns and you know, he's trying to solve issues. And so it's a positive thing that he's done it. And like you said, that he's tried to rise above politics. But unfortunately, in our hyper, I think, sensitive and polarized environment, which we all know we live in, the fact that he did this becomes political in itself. I guess that it came out. So that's kind of the sad part. Let's see. I know we're at the beginning of this conversation as we're recording this, so let's see how it plays out. And if it is, if it can rise beyond the political discourse and actually lead to some sort of long term. Beginning of long term solutions.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, and for me, I mean, I was encouraged by the substance of it, but then also that someone of a certain level of fame attached their name to it. Like you said, a lot of these things are ideas that have been bantered about before and some of them are maybe not completely new, but organizing them in a fashion like this, things that may not have been overly popular before, I think that's all good. There are several large scale problems that face many in black America. You know, black folks in America, a lot of them stem from historic treatment, some stem from just current views and how just our minds work. You know, the biases we all walk around with in terms of how we interact with each other in our society. In any event, outcomes, when these things are measured objectively, outcomes for black Americans are oftentimes lesser than on average them out over a large number than with other groups. And if there are systemic barriers or systemic issues that can be addressed to try to make things more equitable, more egalitarian, I think we should try to do that because I mean, honestly, that's my worldview is that we want more egalitarian in terms of opportunity, in terms of what you can do with your life, the, the, the whatever you set out to do. I like outcomes to be more tied to talent and hard work. Than other things that happen to just be whatever they are. So I say all that.
I do think the, the way it was presented right now, as if no one had done this before, or as if it was like, hey, I'm trying to do this and enough talking, we need to make this happen.
While I can appreciate that thought, because result wise, we seem to be stuck in the mud, there doesn't seem to be substantial difference in terms of the average everyday person, the opportunities that may have been available now versus 10 years ago or the circumstances of the neighborhood or whatever it would be.
But beyond that, though, I think there are a lot of people that have been working on this a long time and there are a lot of different approaches. And so while I would defend Ice Cube for taking his approach as he's doing it right now, and we can get into some of the issues surrounding that, I also would say that the disregard or I think that I don't know that enough was done to show that this was building on or could be made a part of our other efforts that have been going on as far as to try to, to, to make things more equitable. And so from that standpoint, just, just the, hey, I'm presenting my plan almost in a I'm going on this on my own type of thing. I didn't necessarily like that, you know, like, because you're not going it on your own, you're not coming in where nobody else has tried to solve anything. People have been trying to do this for a long time, you know, so I commend, again, someone who doesn't need to do this. So someone who has, you know, their level of fame and a level of success independent of any of this stuff, putting their name on it and really pushing it forward. But at the same time, the approach I thought was a little bull in a china shop, so to speak. If you want to say, just coming in saying, hey, I'm just going to turn this all up. And you know, so that part about it just did not seem overly, it seemed like it might undermine you a little bit and that might lead to some of the blowback that you see where people are like, well, we've been in this space for long time, right? You're parachuting in and coming in like you got all the answers. So I don't know, that part about it just was, was notable as well to me. And I think you could get some legitimate criticism from that.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying about the bull in the china shop of how maybe it's presented. I think part of it is probably a little bit of the messenger himself. I mean, Ice Cube has never been, you know, as we've been watching him for 30 plus years as a rapper, entertainer, actor. He was never seemed like a soft, cuddly kind of guy, you know, in terms of just, you know, his demeanor as a human being. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, he just. He just kind of tells it how it is.
And then the second thing is, you know, maybe personally he was just kind of sick and tired of the politics around all this stuff. You know, I could see somebody just saying, like, to your point, he's got a voice. He's. He's someone that, you know, is in the popular culture, in the media space. So he might have just said, you know what? Screw this. Let me just, let me put this out here and kind of stop all the, all this back and forth madness and let's just drop this in the middle of the conversation.
So that's why I do think it's. It's. And I commend him for at least trying, number one. I think this is the other thing too, James. I mean, a lot of people from outside the black community look at people like, whether it's him or Kanye west or Louis Farrakhan or someone as kind of the quote, unquote, leader of the blacks sometimes. And I think he's a good example that there is not one black person that represents all black people. So he just, you know, he's. He's one guy with a voice that has a right to say what he says. And I think what's interesting about him coming out with this is he also has credibility, at least from his history, because he's always kind of been the same guy when it comes to the subject.
So it doesn't appear to your point. He didn't have to do this. At 51 years old, already being well, famous for a generation or two, he could have sat on the sidelines and just, you know, counted his money, in a sense. So for him to do this, I believe there's a certain level of genuineness that he brings with it as well. Yeah, but I see what you're saying, and I think less. Less about him. I think the reactions we've seen.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Well, before we do the reactions, let's do a brief discussion on any points in there that really stood out to you.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah, there are. I want to just go back real quick and say some of this stuff you need to look at and say what's the why, and that's what I was thinking when I was reading the actual 22 page document is kind of like, well, what's the why here? Why is this important? Why are we still having this conversation?
And when you read it, you realize just there's a lot, there's a lot going on in this subject. It's very complex. There's a lot of historical stuff. I mean, that's the tough thing about, I think, dealing with this from a political and public conversation and dialogue standpoint because, you know, you first have to have a real understanding of the history of this country, which a lot of Americans don't, unfortunately.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: You know, and honestly, a lot of Americans would prefer not to because a lot of the stuff is pretty, it is painful. It's pretty, it's pretty painful to look at and it's.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: And it's not. And I mean, it's painful for everybody. It's not about, you know, it's only painful hearing about lynchings and things like that. You know, if you're a black person, I mean, a lot of white Americans don't want to be reminded about the history either.
And no one here that's sane and rational is going to blame a white American today for something that happened in the 1850s or the 1930s or whatever.
But these are the things that we all have to just look at them and accept them for what they are and figure out what do we want to do from here. So for example, one of the things that I was reminded about these are things I had learned, but you know, they're not in our everyday discussion, so you forget about it was when, when, when, you know, rules were applied during the era of reconstruction, the 10 year period from 1867 to 1877, that kind of forced integration and affirmative action, the original affirmative action, I guess over that 10 year period there were 2,000 black Americans elected to public office in the United through the various, you know, in the various states.
And immediately after 1860, sorry, 1877, when the Jim Crow laws were instituted, you know, there was a hundred years till you saw blacks elected again in many states.
So it's not that black people were deficient from having goals and being ambitious and being able to govern themselves and their communities.
It's just that they were prevented from doing it through Jim Crow laws and through aggressive actions by terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate them.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: What happened, by the way, just to add a little meat to that, is that was the 1876 election was contested. There was not A clear winner. And the deal that was made was that for Rutherford B. Hayes to take the presidency, he would withdraw troops from the South. Union troops during that 10 year period after the Civil War maintained the peace. They protected black elected officials, black business owners from being killed, from being firebombed by the former enslavers or the poor whites in the area that were mad that the Negro, so to speak, was advancing. And so federal troops were stationed in the south that whole time in Reconstruction to prevent terrorism against black people.
So the deal basically that was made, and this is the Compromise of 1876, it's a big moment in American history, was that in exchange for withdrawing the federal troops, then the contested election would be resolved in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes and he would remove the troops. And once that happened, then people started dying.
The black elected officials started getting killed, business owners started, you know, people getting their land taken. And then Jim Crow laws were enacted. Once the legislatures and the, the legislative bodies, excuse me, were once all the, the African Americans were out, either through death or voted out because voter suppression became a thing as well, disenfranchisement. And so that stuff didn't happen in a vacuum. Like it was, it was, it was a deal that was made from the Northerners and the Southerners to give, to give, to allow the Southerners to, quote, unquote, redeem. They're called the redeemers, the south, to turn it back into a white area. So. But go ahead, Tuni.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: I'm sorry, no. And so you know, that again, that's why this is hard to explain in even a show or anything. I mean, what you're just going down that road is a whole history lesson that we don't get as American kids in regular school. Right? You gotta like study American history at the college level and start, you know, to be able to get in the weeds. We don't get taught this in just regular high school or that kind of stuff in terms of this kind of depth. But it's important to understand because without that background, you know, I can see how a lot of whites just look at blacks as lazy and oh, maybe they are dumb.
Because if you don't understand that there was, you know, their group of people for generations were actually prevented from certain things like education and reading, for example, then you can understand how just a few generations out, these, these, these issues can still persist. And then, you know, going into some of the stuff, you know, in the 20th century, you know, things like the GI Bill, you know, excluding blacks originally, Social Security, excluding blacks you know, things like the FHA loan program, allowing redlining and the exclusion of, of mortgages to blacks.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Didn't you tell me before about the limitation on life insurance?
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Life insurance. Up until I think 1970, most blacks weren't able to get more than $10,000 of life insurance. The, the, the fact that even today on average blacks pay one and a half percent more on mortgage interest rates than whites. You know, there's still evidence today that, you know, for the same property, if a person puts in or if some, if an appraiser knows that someone is black, on average the value of the home being appraised is much less than if they don't know that. You know, these are all, and this is why it's difficult to deal with this because part of it is people's perception of other people. And you can't goes back to that Martin Luther King book we did, you know, discussion on over air earlier in the year, which is you can legislate what's in people's heads in their hearts.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: So the point you're making, which I think is a good point, is that to understand why these things are being proposed, you have to have some level of understanding of the things it's trying to remedy. Not just the current state, but how these things came to be. And without any understanding of how these things came to be, then this stuff a lot of times looks like why are it looks like special treatment if it's not contextualized in the context of all of the wrongs that it's trying to right. All of the compounded wrongs, compounded over generation.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, but I think it's a good start of a dialogue for anybody that wants to take this serious. I think that's kind of what you can take out of it. And unfortunately, I think like we've seen in our society a lot of these. If it doesn't fit into a 30 second soundbite, you know, at some point people just keep walking by it. And I fear that this will probably happen to this topic too after, you know, we're in election time, this is hot.
But after this, let's see if whoever wins this election, if their administration actually wants to follow through on getting serious about this stuff.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Well, you know, what's interesting about that is that that's kind of the point of having a republic, is that you elect officials who you believe have the right temperament and aptitude to deal with a lot of these complex issues so that people don't have to try to like, we don't need every member of the public to be knowledgeable on all 13 of the points that are made here and go through everything.
But we need to elect people who have, like I said, the temperament and the aptitude to be able to deal with this stuff and to really get into the weeds and negotiate as far as what can be done, what the government shouldn't do. You know, things like that. And so, yeah, I don't think that everyone needs to know this line by line, but it provides a good comprehensive look from somebody's perspective. This is a comprehensive look of all of the different areas where you can actually have government action to affect some change, to address issues where there, where we can see deficiencies in areas where, because not everything you see government action can address. And so that's one of the things we also have to recognize is that government can't solve everything. And so like, government can't change hearts and minds, but it can, it can adjust the system, it can adjust the incentive structure. Not just it can't tell a company to do X, well, it can tell a company to do X, Y and Z, but, but usually that's not the best way to do it, but it can set up an incentive structure that if you do X, Y and Z, then you, you get rewarded with this or that or whatever. So having someone take a, try to take a full comprehensive look, having a lot of different people take a full comprehensive look is valuable as far as, okay, well, these are all the areas we think that could be. If we could do this, then we would move us to a much, much a much better place. So, you know, and we'll link to this in the show notes. We'll link to what. But part of the blowback actually that we saw was last week as well. President Trump's, one of his campaign advisors published a tweet saying that Ice Cube was working with them or they were working with Ice Cube as far as the President's platinum plan, which is a two page plan or two page summary of things that Trump is saying he would do for black Americans. And so they said that Ice Cube was advising them on that or helping them with that or working with them on that. And so Blyce Cube got a lot of blowback from that, saying that he was being played or whatever. And then some people were saying, then there was blowback to the blowback, saying, hey, this isn't partisan. So big picture with that. Did you have any reaction to what we saw with the blowback that we saw?
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think, you know, because I Saw it on. It's funny, the reaction from both sides of the political aisle, because then I saw kind of some of the mainstream media, I hate to say it like that, but you know, the kind of regular NBC's and CBS and whatever, you know, when I'm reading on my newsfeed, you know, immediately attacking Ice Cube, like, oh, you know, there was one article titled From NWA to Maga. You know, like, in this whole, like, guy wrote this whole article about how, you know, Ice Cube, like, made this massive shift in his life. And I'm thinking like the same thing. Like, guys, everybody needs to chill out. The guy's trying to, trying to be a productive member of his society and giving some thoughtful insights with his voice. You know, everything that you always hear about people complaining about not only celebrities, but a lot of times rappers and maybe the younger black celebrity crowd is like, you know, you guys aren't role models. You guys don't give back to the community. And here's a guy that actually is putting something thoughtful out there and is getting kind of, you know, again, that's what I mean. It's not his fault. He's just, he's entering a conversation that's already so tense because of everything we know about, right? Just the landscape of back and forth between both political sides, this country.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Well, no, but I think that you pointed to something that was interesting as far as the blowback, and that was that we see sensationalism in our media and this is related to the inability to deal with issues is the sensationalism that is primarily driven because media companies are trying to make money. And you make money by capturing attention, and you capture attention through sensationalism. So the headlines that were provided and the way the context in which this thing was discussed because the Trump campaign made it political, you know, by, by putting it out there saying, hey, hey, Ice Cube's working with us. But the sensationalism that went along with that on primarily this would say, you know, in the mainstream, in the center, the media companies that are, you know, kind of in the center of these things, the CNNs and everything, they sensationalized it. You know, like they, the CNN's from the center sensationalized it, just like because they're in the business of making money. So it's not. This is an example where sensationalism happens across the political spectrum on the right, on the left and in the middle. And what ends up happening is that it does disarm our ability to think about these things and discuss these things. Because the sensationalism demands that you immediately take a position.
And so yes, when you see from NWA to maga, then that's not saying, hey, why don't you look at this and consider this thoughtfully? That's saying, hey, no, take a position and then shut your brain off and don't go for any more information. And so we see that and it doesn't lend us to be able to address our issues because we were almost required to take a position first. And then once we take a position, then we view any information we happen to come across from the lens of that position and then our brains go to work with confirmation bias and all those things and prevent us basically from being able to get an in depth understanding of these things.
But part of the blowback and part of the discussion in the blowback, the question was raised on, for example, it was pointed out that the Biden campaign got this stuff too, or talked to them as well and said, we'll talk to you more about it after the election.
Now, again, whether they were playing them or whether they genuinely would talk to them about it more after the election and just didn't wanna make it a political issue right now, nobody knows the answer to that for sure, but because it depends on events that haven't happened yet. But what do you make though, like, but I should say this, people look at that and say, see, that's example of how the Democratic Party takes black votes for granted and that they didn't seek to work with Ice Cube before the election on this and then publicize that. But what do you make generally of the sentiment that Democrats take black votes for granted or only deal with blacks? You know, like when it did, hey, get to the polls, get to the polls, get to the polls. And also I guess relatedly the numbers that show that blacks do generally overwhelmingly support Democrats in modern times, I don't
[00:23:44] Speaker B: know, man,
[00:23:46] Speaker A: we'll take, I don't know
[00:23:48] Speaker B: where to start because I get real annoyed by these kind of conversations about Democrats take blacks for granted and Republicans this or that.
And it always comes up around election time. That's it. I don't know what, you know, who black people should follow, Democrats or Republicans. First of all, I don't like to think like that. I think, you know, everybody's, if you really get into our country, right. The idea is that we're all free people that have a right to choose who we want to vote for in elections and all that. Clearly, I know culturally that, you know, there have been fault lines drawn over the last couple generations on the political spectrums. And you're right, more blacks seem to vote Democratic in the United States.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: Well, that's an argument. That's the number.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: It's like.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: So that's what I'm saying. That's a fact. So I think, you know, the question is why? And some people think that it's, you know, want to say that blacks get duped by Democrats and whatever. And other people will say, well, the Republican Party hasn't shed itself of, of some of the racist elements that seem pretty obvious.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Or they openly embrace it.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Or they openly embrace it. So. And that's what goes Tunde, and it's fascinating in today's political environment. And as we can all see, right, like you said, the president comes out with a platinum plan to kind of help solve some of the issues that are brought up in the Contract with Black America, but they come out two weeks after he's incapable of kind of denouncing white supremacist groups at a national debate. So.
And that's not to get on him so much. It's just to show the dynamic of our country and that this is a very difficult thing for many people to address because there are so many different factions in this argument that all require attention, let's put it that way. And from a political standpoint, right.
Politicians like power and being in power. And let's get basic with it kind of from the Machiavellian sense.
And each of these groups also represent an avenue to power. And it doesn't mean that all politicians are disingenuous. It just means that. And that's what I said. That's why it's interesting this last couple weeks with the president looking at it, because the transactional nature, politics, you know, he doesn't want to alienate anyone, which means it shows that it's interesting that, you know, it's almost like he's embracing two sides, that those two sides themselves don't have much in common. So that's what I think confuses the public as well on topics like this, because.
And that's when we have these conversations about blacks in the Democratic Party and all that. I mean, I don't, like you said, to try and make an assumption or judgment about the Joe Biden campaign and if they're genuine or not, about wanting to deal with this after the election. Like you said, time will tell. And the election hasn't happened yet. But I don't want to start criticizing, you know, Democrats, Republicans or black Americans for who they choose, because I think that's part of the Problem.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Well, see, I would disagree with you on that. I think that you are when you say that, you know, part of the thing with America is that we are free to choose who we want to choose. I think that is true in principle. Or you know, like in principle in theory that's true. But sometimes the choice can be made for you.
And I think this is one of those issues. Like I think it's actually a deficiency that should be corrected. I think we would all be better off if it was corrected. But the embrace of white supremacy by the Republican Party has made the choice in many instances for black Americans. Like they, it doesn't allow us room in the tent if part of the people in the tent want to see us dead or want to see us as second class citizens, you know, or say, hey, you guys shouldn't be able to vote if like that's, it doesn't leave room for us in that tent. And I think by default the Democrats benefit from that, which means they can underserve black Americans because they know that your alternative is to go over there where they're not going to even let you vote. And so the Democrats, then I think it makes the Democrats lazy, you know. And so I think for that reason black Americans don't, aren't well served by anyone. But the choice is being made for us is unless and until the Republican Party will denounce the certain elements of it that, that are trying to disenfranchise black people. And so to me, I look at that as the, the, the, the shoe that, the shoe that drops, that forces the, the issue if that, if we take that away, I think everyone is better served because I do think that we would benefit from black folks saying, okay, well I prefer lower taxes and less social services, so I'm going to choose Republican. Or I would rather have more social services and higher taxes, so I'll choose Democrats. I think all society would benefit if we can make choices based on those type of criteria. But fundamentally self preservation is going to be for most people, not for all people, but for most people, self preservation is going to be the number one defining decision or the character criteria, excuse me, that you use to make your decision. And right now self preservation by default unfortunately leads people into the Democratic Party. So yes, I do think the Democratic Party takes black people for granted. I think it's because they look at the way or the things that Republican Party does and says and says, look, what choice do you have? I mean that was kind of what Biden said when he said that, hey, you Know, like, you're not black if you don't vote for me. That was a terrible way to say that. But the point was being that this guy's over here telling you that white supremacists are very fine people. You know, so is that, Is that where you. It's either me or that. And that's terrible for black people. You know, it's.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: Well, I mean, look, you said in a much more eloquent way what I think I was trying to get out, actually, because I definitely didn't say it the way you said it because that was a very well put way to say it. And that's kind of. It reminded me, as you're saying it that it's still a fight. And I said this to one of my friends who's, you know, he's, he's, he's on the right, very conservative guy, and we were talking a couple months ago and I said, you know, it's interesting because, you know, blacks were brought here originally as slaves from Africa.
And, you know, if you believe that every human being is equal, right? And you believe in, let's say, the founding of our country and all those great documents we have about freedom, that every human being in the end, wants to be free.
There's an inherent nature of that. So black people, by default, have been asking for the same thing and fighting for it since they got here in various forms. Right. And even little things we know about, like Nat Turner, that's the famous slave revolt. We don't hear about the hundreds, if not potentially thousands of slave revolts that happen just randomly.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: And we know about Dred Scott, who tried to take it to the courts to just be considered a person.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: So what I'm saying is it's evolved because it was slave revolts back during slavery. Then it was, you know, the, the protests and riots and, you know, during Jim Crow, and it culminated in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. And then it's still happening now. I mean, it's all this stuff in the street this year or the last few years with, with what we've been seeing on cell phone cameras causing people to, to, to rise up and say, we want equality. So what I was telling my friend was, look, black people aren't going to change.
It's like, you know, we're, we're going to keep pushing to, you know, right. Some of the wrongs that we see in society and some of the stuff that have been discussed already in the show.
So I said, really? The conversation is amongst white Americans is between the moderate whites who believe in equality and who want to see some of that stuff go away as well. Some of the old ways of being of the country and against those that don't and how they're going to deal with it. Right.
It's kind of like my mom taught me that after teaching me about kind of World War II. And what happened, you know, over there was like, you know, you got the aggressor and you got the victim, but it's the 70% of the people in Europe that stood by and kind of let it happen as it was happening.
They're the ones that are really responsible, you know, and so I think that's really.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: They're the ones that could have stopped it.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: That's why you say they're responsible. They're responsible because they could have stopped it. The, the victim couldn't have stopped it. And the aggressor is going to be aggressive, you know, like, so everybody, the aggressor and the victim are just playing their role. And the person that stands by either can step up and say this is unacceptable or can allow it to happen. But they're the ones, they're the only ones really that have a decision.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Correct. And that's why even. Even reading the Contract for Black with Black America was. Was a good reminder. I mean, they keep alluding to the fact that the United States black population is currently at 13.4%.
So something that I tell both black and white people when I talk about this stuff is like, you know, blacks can't do this alone. You know, you can't have, in any kind of large population, 13% of the population, just doing all of their own heavy lifting alone and all that. So the reality is that, you know, white America needs to also be part of this conversation.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: These are the issues that really our country and the two sides, however, the two sides have changed in name and they've been reorganized several times along the way. But the two sides have been fighting over this is that are the guarantees of freedom and enfranchisement and all that. Are those for everybody or not?
So how black folks can better approach. I think that in this instance, I would say it's a strategic error to parachute in right before the election.
I think that it's genuine. It was genuinely done.
But right now, I don't think that there's any evidence that any promises you get now will stick after an election from either side.
But yeah, I mean, ultimately what we see now, we can't ignore the fact that it is this way. Not in a vacuum. It's become this way because of various decisions, because of various actions, and because of rhetoric that's existed, you know, over the last 50, 40, you know, 100 years or whatever in terms of the ongoing development of it. And so what Ice Cube is doing right now, he parachutes in. I mean, now, granted, I say parachute in. That implies that he comes in out of nowhere and drops something in that is, you know, that is noteworthy, but kind of, you know, it wasn't something part of some ongoing effort he's been doing, which is accurate, at least in terms of from an organized policy standpoint. But ultimately, we all benefit from more people trying to engage in this type of thing. So I definitely do not think it's the right approach to try to condemn what he's trying to do. Now you can go about and say, hey, you know, I think that the way you're trying to do it, you're kind of missing you're going to get played or you're going like. I think that's fair, though, you know, because you could. You can look at how political politicians operate, and they do play people, you know, and they think they can make a benefit either for themselves or harm their opponent. So I think that's fair as well. I don't think the sensationalism helps, though. You can point out how the strategy of how they're going about it could be flawed. The sensationalism kind of, though, is. Is just what our media environment is nowadays, you know, so that's kind of what we live with. So, you know, we appreciate everybody for joining us, you know, trying to take a look, you know, a little bit of the substance, a little bit of the strategy, and a little bit of, you know, just the overall framework that we. That we're dealing with, you know, as Americans and in our modern political system. So we appreciate everybody for joining us and, you know, until next time, I'm James Keys.
[00:35:16] Speaker B: I'm Tundellana.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: All right, we'll talk to you next time. Subscribe, you know, rate us, tell us what you think, review, check us on Twitter, all itdn and have a good week.
