 Well, welcome to our second Interned podcast I have Jermaine And then Olivier Yeah, you guys kind of got to get pretty close to these microphones in order to be able to speak so definitely lean in towards them And you can also move the arm to just Jermaine's pretty tall, so So We just watched Atlanta was this your first time watching Atlanta We watched season three episode not or episode yeah nine I believe Seven or nine one or the other second the penultimate episode of season three called rich wig a poor wig a lot Just starting off that episode is was kind of just about What do you think that episode was about let's let's start with y'all. What do you think that? Yeah, I'll sum up like that Yeah, yeah, and was there yeah, it was pretty much what it was about this mixed kid who Was dealing with his blackness not only his racial blackness, but his ethnic blackness. Um, I Would agree with what y'all said Was there any characters or specific moments you resonated with from that episode? yes Okay, so they were both determined not to be black and they both decided to burn the house Let's go down and so they meet and the other kid explained Why why they decided to say it was like Which was because you know where it came from and he traced where he came from and all the stuff That's pretty much the deal with me. So I was able to relate. Yeah, where was that kid from? Where was it? I was from Nigeria and his parents were from Nigeria He was from born in Nigeria, right? And he grew up in Lithonia Yeah, Lithonia is also in there's another suburb in Atlanta. I should have explained I Was like you aren't Lithonia though is the line from a don't Conversation so Yeah, because he was from Lithonia and then like he grew up here and he didn't really have the concept of what it is to And why do you think why do you think they viewed blackness in the sense of that they didn't know where? They were coming from feel free to jump in with I think I know it's gonna be really confusing for you But feel free to jump in whatever and we're gonna try to do our best to explain What happened throughout the episode we just watched. Yes like if you're if your skin was just black or if you're black like culturally which are like two different things that kind of work together in a way and So the high school they were offering scholarships to the people who were black culturally he wasn't like culturally because his friends came from Nigeria and On all that stuff and they knew their culture. Yeah, so you would say people who are black ethnically don't really know their culture and Or would or like don't know that like where they came from and what culture they have to draw from to inspire their I think they just heard traditions come from a different culture on this. What is a different culture, but do you Like with her case with our friend here from Nigeria and grew up in Lithonia like The reason why Aaron look our protagonist the character we followed doesn't Understand or he says what I get it. It's because you're from this place you have like a whole cultural to put culture to pull from yes, right and Like it's almost like you have the option to be culturally black Instead of just racially black, right, you know and like I guess people who are culturally black They don't have that option that other culture to pull from For tradition, and so that's and I think that's what you're saying, too I just wanted to kind of one get blown across in here and relate it to the The text of the TV show Specifically, but I think that's exactly I yeah, Olivia. Was there any part or character or anything that you related with? but I Wouldn't say that I'm related to but like I feel like the air in person that said like how at the end You have to change to be like accept it up. He's actually black Yeah, but like Do you think he changed or he just was because the way that that scene is called Aaron feeling his roots. That's what this scene is called. So do you think I don't do that? You think he changed himself, or did you think he just went to who he really was? Yeah, no, I don't think he changed. I think he just embraced who you want. Yeah, that's the feeling I got He was no longer straightening his hair He was no longer dressing ridiculously but Yeah, he eventually he was getting his way like you're feeling his roots and that's what that's how I viewed it But I think that's really it that thing that's an interesting perspective is that from where we started the episode we see him Changed that way However, if we go back farther and we start it with his life, I feel like it would be him going back Yeah, and so it's I don't know. It was really I don't know. It was really really There's there's a lot there that was there's a lot of comment especially when at the end when Aaron makes that comment That dark skin joke comment Just even touches on the colorism that is within the black community and people who are racially and ethnically black is How much are you black depending on? How people view you right the person was giving out scholarships to people who weren't even ethnically like we weren't even racially black You just had to be black You had to be bi-culturally so like Nate the native students were getting it the Latino students were getting it And I got a stuff So we open up we open up this whole thing with a very Long online scene where we pan through the where we pan through this kids room. He's playing a video game And they're saying Does that sound similar to online lobbies that you have been in? I wouldn't say similar. That was kind of why I mean it's kind of just like online You know when you buy online people just come to see me. I mean you don't know who you thought Hmm, and so yeah, I mean people say whatever but like I mean Aaron Aaron drops the hard R on the people he's playing with and really makes fun at one of them in a really racist way Yeah, that was right and like and when we first see Aaron since the whole episodes in black and white We don't we don't really we can't we can't tell Embraces blackness we didn't embrace his blackness so we didn't embrace his blackness. Yeah We all thought he was a white kid and pretty much being racist and yeah, he was being racist and like But now here's my question looking at looking at it back now After seeing that come by the end of the episode was that racist? Yeah, at the time he wasn't black Right, and he also dropped the hard R to He also dropped the hard on like it's not like he just he was just casually talking like he did say a really racist Yeah, he was calling black people monkeys But Like looking back on it you're like is it racist? Yeah, no No, just go out remember all right So yeah, he's in that scene right and then we open up or and then we go to the shot of him driving to school with his dad Right and his and that's when we first realized that this kid is black You know, I hear we've heard that he's racially black right and This whole episode really does a good job at Like you like is your main missing at the beginning of like separating the difference between racially and ethnically black and how they can both be tied But also separate In a conversation and that the conversation is very heavily nuanced Right, and so they're listening on the radio and they hear The police say that a person has been shot and killed by the police and then What is the dad say the dad's like damn shame, right? And and so He says that and then and then Aaron's like oh he kind of dismisses it because what does he say? What does Aaron say? It doesn't say something about the police yellow freeze. Yeah, that's the first thing they said Yeah, hadn't the guy froze. He would never share Yeah, why is that a hope like why does why does he hope that for Aaron because Aaron is his son And he obviously loves his son like I think he should I think you'd hope that so he's something to learn Yeah, I don't think Aaron How the police treat them different like when you first like Like it's a if it's a black kid getting pulled over and a white person getting pulled. Yeah, is there a difference? do you think there's a difference because Like I mean, I think there's a difference for sure and I agree with you But I'm just kind of asking clarify like is there a difference do the cops tell you to freeze before they shoot is that Do you think because Aaron thinks they'll tell you to freeze before they shoot? Yeah, and his dad's like no Because he's like you don't have me fooled like I know who you are, right? but of us when so if you were If you were to be pulled over or would you have been multiple times? Hold over right? Do you think that experience is different than your if you think that experience is different than your classmates I don't know Honestly I mean, I've had an experience with that buddy. I don't know. It's just everything that happened. It was I Don't know. It was just the right I guess I've never faced that kind of Abuse or unfairly trail. Well, yeah, because probably it's because you're so young I still don't know what one is saying Also, it depends on the situation. I don't think they're just gonna and where we are. Yeah, where we are is also pretty key Key thing like we're here in Vermont. However You can't cry your way out of a ticket No, no, right Do you think some of your classmates could? Cry Mean Yeah, I know you've never seen it But do you think they could not that they start crying that all of a sudden the cop will be like, oh, just make sure you get home safe I'm just letting you know The situation is like I'm saying it's the same situation as you right like you were most speeding right Could you cry your way out of that ticket? It depends like what kind of police food you over no, but no He's asking you why I'm asking you Right now They're about to give you ticket Take it away. I don't think that much people. No. Yeah, I don't think that's possible for me either, right? I don't think it's possible for anyone. Oh, I've heard some stories. Oh me I've heard a lot of stories and that is a go-to move for a lot of people Yeah, it's to instantly start crying and hope that the cop pities them enough to be let off with a warning But I can for all four of us here that is not a reality For Aaron. Yeah, that could possibly be a reality because he straightens his hair and He has that privilege, right? But for us four We're getting that ticket Yeah You cry or not And that's part of the problem, right Yeah, like I've literally been in the passenger seat and I've watched it happen Like I've literally watched this happen with my own eyes and I was just mind blown because I was like in my life I'm getting that ticket Like even if I started crying, they'll just be like why you cry I'm like and I'm not saying it's a bad thing because I don't think everyone should get ticketed for speeding I'm saying more so it's just the fact that like if we can let off a warning for someone because they're crying We can let off a warning for a lot of other people And Also the cops aren't always going to treat you in the sense of like they won't always tell you to freeze first Because of how they perceive the situation Right, because if you're frankly crying You must have done something, right? That's what they're thinking. They're not thinking like oh, you're just really scared to talk to a police They're thinking you've done something and That's the difference in perspective there, right? Even if you and I both get pulled over we're gonna have a completely different experience And you must probably all of us will be like we don't speak English That's the way to really do it So we see that first scene right where they're like Aaron Aaron's dad is like hey Like I just wish you were pulled over so that you can officially experience that right like and for those people who cry out of tickets So you kind of just wish that they were pulled over in your situation or they could really see that and that's kind of the thing that I think His dad is trying to get him to empathize and resonate with is the fact of like put yourself into my shoes And get pulled over It's a completely different situation because his dad's dark skin You didn't know he's a son his dad's dark skin So his dad is in a completely different situation and even Robert Shay leave and so does that too like you can come over And So After that we get to the school we see his group of friends who's all we find out they're all going to college They're all Like they all have it paid for and they all have it figured out right except Aaron doesn't have to pay for doesn't have it figured out his dad said we can't afford it And that was plain and simple and that he should have gotten the scholarships to afford it So After that we go into the gym his big announcement where we meet Robert Shay Lee. Oh, what also what's the school's name called? Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's it called it's you can't remember it's called Stonewall Um, do you know the Stonewall Jackson is one of us? No Stonewall Jackson is a Confederate general and slave owner who I'm not getting killed by the union because they're like you can't get through Stonewall Jackson and they just kind of trampled through him, but like But like he was a pretty major he was a major deal I'm not playing field and a lot of schools in the South are named after former slave owners in general so the Confederacy and Imagine going to a school where the person named after the person who owned your family as slaves All the schools you're just pretty much named after cities work I got on that's not all true. Is there a school that's named after a person? Ethan Allen Park But that's not a school, but that's still the same kind of idea. Why would you go to that? Why haven't is it feel to be in a park? Where you're where you're where the person had owned Slaves I don't really know exactly what he did, but I do know for a fact he owned child slaves And he was a eugenic That was Admiral Dewey fought in the Spanish War and you'll see his stuff all over the place He also leaves me very mad and I feel really bad for all our Filipino Our Filipino community members who have to go to places that are named after Admiral Dewey Because he really caused a lot of atrocities in the Philippines He he did a lot of atrocities in the Philippines yet, he's praised here and And It's kind of the same with Ethan Allen like a certain group of people praise him But he owned children slaves because in Vermont at the time even though slavery was abolished and in Vermont It's still written in our Constitution that you can own slavery only applied to people who are over the age of 18 so if you were a kid and you were enslaved you didn't count as a slave and So there would be plenty of Vermonters that would own slaves and consider themselves abolitionists But they would just have children slaves instead like Pocahontas is another example of that And I don't know I think that's a really Important thing to recognize is like so how would you feel to go to a school? That's named after something that or named after someone who owned your friend's family or your family Like would you feel good? Would you feel bad? There's plenty of things like that like Ethan Allen Park was the perfect example or like Ira Allen Even Allen is pretty much the same one for I know Yeah, I mean he was I bet he just I just he bit just bought a lot of land so that you can put his name on stuff Yeah But we'll move on So the person Robert Shae Lee who's also named after a Confederate general Robert Lee is also Confederate general however Robert E. Lee is the Confederate general however He even renamed himself to Robert Shae Lee Right, and so when he renames the school he renames it after himself So it's also that idea of black people Retaking their names their names of former slave owners and their former slave masters It's retaking their names like Malcolm X used to do that too. His name wasn't X. His name was Malcolm little Right, but he didn't like the idea that his name was tied to slavery and Tied to the idea of enslavement. So he changed it to Malcolm X and so it's that same idea of reclaiming your history and making it something that You and your community is proud of so changing his name changing the high school's name to Robert S. Lee Even though it's still the name after a general It's the name. It's his name Like it's Robert Shae Lee, you know, they have and I think that's what's really so important So do you find out something about you down? Yeah Yeah, I thought he was a business man Because I was like you don't own slaves if you were in the middle like going to the military, but it was a bunch of things Okay I'm just gonna look up controversy That's how you find anything Yeah, like and it's and it's real and I mean it makes me mad like I like the Ethan the spirit of Ethan Allen The spirit of what? enslaving children Like yeah, exactly so like and he was just a businessman and like he must have just really put brought a lot of money into this region But what he also did and then so when went before your slave child would turn 18 you would send them back to the south To go live the rest of their life and unsavement You see what I'm saying like you see how problematic that is and like even like And the fact that you don't even know To like how many of those kids you think knew that they were going to a school of a person who owned slaves Probably not all of them But now they do And like and and I mean I wouldn't sit right with me and it doesn't sit right with me so I don't um Especially in a city like Atlanta that is so predominantly black that is so black Yeah, but high school like that. It's just really um Mist really messed up. So what does robber esli do? What is the announcement that he makes? This is the most one of the most this is our inciting incident. This is the important part Mr. Robert No, no, you gotta sit the way you see it Okay, I'll see you yes, man. I'm like, yeah All right, I We have a scholarship Well, so the whole class was like, oh, yeah, yeah, we'll get his scholarship. They'll pay to listen for every student I'll sit down and clap in And then he's like, yeah, we're doing everybody's black and then all the black students just are I like to be to be one of the culturally black. You can't just say Well originally that originally that's not how it was phrased, right? No, that's not it was your mother was revealed and now and like and I also reveal something to us about how we perceive race as well How we thought it was just the people who Were just black or like that kind of puts that points that like shines the mirror at us And what did you even say at that part you're like, but what if the roles were reversed and I was like, well, hold on and also What else did I say? I also said like all all of erin's friends had school figured out They had scholarships to go to school. They had it like they could have afforded it erin and it seems from I guess What the what we're supposed to gather about the other students is that they were struggling with the financial aspect of going to school Not the fact that they couldn't get into school It was more so the financial aspect of it because they definitely could get into school But then that was my point too. I said that like a black man I'm not just giving scholarships to every black kid in school. But I then I was like, what if the the roles were That and I was I think what I said was uh Something about earning to go into school. I was like, uh What was like Oh, maybe all the kids that got the tuition they earned that situation to go to school and all the kids that they didn't They just did it. Yeah, and I Also, but now you start to realize how like that's not necessarily the case I'm almost like Like it's not I didn't make this clear but when you show that some of the kids that got the tuition Did any of black kids get a tuition? Yeah Tell the black kids about the oh, oh like before before they was given No And then all of a sudden they're posting on instagram that they're going to college Right, so it wasn't the fact that they couldn't go to college or that they couldn't like get into college But like what do you need in order to get a scholarship? You need time to apply to it. Yeah, you need a whole bunch of like recommendations and that kind of stuff Like if you're working on a job To support your family To support yourself even how do you have time to do that? Don't really And so that's also part of it right like and that's what even erin said it would be like well if you're black and poor like So let's talk about erin's friends reactions to All of the black students getting their tuition paid for their scholarships um What did they say exactly? Because they're like, isn't this what they were doing to black people in the 50s Yeah Which I want to kind of focus on for a second because One they never did that and they never They never well they always did that and they never stopped doing that um Black people are most likely to get Um looked over for scholarships Black people are far less likely to go to college You see what I'm saying so if they were doing it to black people in the 50s, when did they stop? Otherwise you would be able to tell me when it stopped Oh, yeah, no, it just became it became institutionalized Now we're starting to look at like now We're going to schools and the people were recommending scholarships To aren't the black kids You know like now it's starting to now it's becoming an institutionalized problem Rather than the fact that Rather than the fact that they were actively doing it to black kids in the 50s Because that was more so just to keep them out of these white spaces Now it's that they're able to be into these white spaces. It's more so about keeping The riffraff out of these spaces. Um, which is often black people Um In multiple different forms Or what they mean by that is they just mean black people But because all their friends all their friends already have their scholarships They have their stuff. So what would a scholarship have done to them? Nothing It wouldn't have added anything to the thing. They were all going to college. They all had it figured out So then if they were doing these things to black people in the 50s and they feel like that How come they were still able to go to college? Regardless of the outcome of that situation Like we saw it with his ex-girlfriend. She still went to college even though she didn't have the scholarship Just find out financially And I would argue it's not racist too because you didn't use black as the race You used black as the culture That's that's that's true. Which at the when we first heard it That's not what we heard. No, we didn't understand that until Aaron go saying what happens. Okay There's two parts. He goes into the foyer, which is that opening room with the vending machine It goes into that place and he's uh He meets someone Who's not black And uh, he's like why are you here and that what does that kid explain to Aaron? Oh sure Now the first like the first year to come out of it, right? No, first he goes into the room Where that kid who's like, oh Which is he can't that way The part that sees he wasn't fair That was the part where he's like he It's right before he's going into the room where he's about to I Didn't really get what the kid says is he's like well the way Robert Shae Lee is looking at this Is he's talking about blackness in the sense of what it culturally means to be black in america And he's taking a very new want Approach to it. I don't really know how to define new ones But everyone knows what that kind of story is like, you know what if you know the feeling of that word I don't like because I know the feeling of the word but I couldn't define it Just it's a complicated situation and every situation is different, right? So he's looking at it in a very nuanced Situation like a nuanced way, right? And so that's why we're starting to see latino kids also waving their checks, right because their experience of Or their family's experience or whatever of coming to america may have resulted in them having What it means to like having a similar experience of what it means to be black in america. Yeah, I think that's that's also the power Erin says like well my dad's black salt get the tuition for my dad's black, you know black. Yeah, and then he was able to find out Now that's not that was nothing serious What does he find out in our room so like what because someone walked me through that like What what happens? Do they just well he goes normally is questioning all this All this random stuff that doesn't really matter if he gets it right or not But um I think he's only like My dad's black so therefore i'm black Yeah, i'm doing like no What did they what did they call him? They called him. Yeah, they called him a specific thing You are white And why do they think they think that? Well, I mean He looks white. Yeah, but like He strains his hair He strains his hair That's also really cute Like it's a pinkie Like and I don't really I don't really comment on it very often, but like If I saw that kid, I would have slapped him inside the head. I was like what are you doing straight in your hair? What I didn't even get I I I'm not moment particularly was that they say he's white but If he was white then he would have Kind of gotten the same opportunities that the other white kids got earlier Well, yeah, so just when it all he was white but he was he was Sort of physically white back. It was I think there's two things that play here I think one that's the difference between that's the nuance of the situation the difference between racially and ethnically Right because ethnically He is white. Yeah, right, right, but racially He's black and the reason why like he didn't get the scholarships and that kind of stuff because he still has his black last name When they first see his application They assume A black person. Yeah, but like like they assume a black person and that that's like if I go in and my name's Jerome or Jamal, right? Jamal Washington Right Right like and people assume instantly in black even with my last name as it is People assume that I'm black before they even see me right and That's a systemic part of it and that's where racially being black Plays a role in your systemic Appearance and that's why he's such in the middle. That's why he's so stuck and he's so confused It's because he's like, where do I relate because he feels like he Well now that he wants his scholarship. He is too black for white people He didn't feel like that before but now that he wants to be black He'll say he's too black for white people Where you haven't shown up. You have a squatted up this whole time. But what I'm like, like He didn't have like the culture stuff some of that meaning black, but he still had the pretty much the same struggle that Every every black student had in the school like financially They have the same struggle like he wasn't coming to the same conclusions The same conclusions that his dad came to that those other black students came to that the Latinos came to In fact that and he still believed that he's what yelp reads at you first. Yeah, right And that's that's honestly the insta tell My rep was when they asked him like what what happens when like you're the police and stuff Like what happens when you hear somebody dead? Or something. Oh, yeah, and and he said something he explained like Oh, yeah, what happened to that story on the radio that they heard? Yeah, and he explained the whole story that oh A student got shy and squint and stuff and it was like, what did you say about that? He said something sorry or something About that kid and I like no, which was a damn shame Yeah, oh, those are these guys At the end when when the when the black kid goes in the ambulance gave a chat I think the robber guy in county goes like it's a damn shame and He's gonna make sure yeah, we score shoot And so yeah instantly um and So yeah, they called him white I also think one other point I wanted to make to that too was the fact that like We've been talking about there's racially an ethnically black and how being ethnically black is not being able to tie yourself to that culture Right in fact like you can draw from and that kind of stuff Or that's culture from Africa or the specific tribes from Africa or whatever But then what is whiteness? right into context Like if blackness is the opposite of whiteness whiteness must be that stripping of the culture Right And so when they call him white you're almost like you are stripping You you you are my oppressor. You have put me here. You have made me this race And I think that's what that guy was actually very mad when he said yeah when he was calling white Yeah, because he's like you are my oppressor You have put me here and now you want to come and ask for my money So you can go and do the same thing Like stripped him of his culture so much like he stripped his own hair the oils on his hair to make it straight Makes me so angry Like straightening air is a very complicated thing and it clearly makes me very very Great. Um So yeah, we're we're not even happily through this. Yeah I don't know about your things like because you didn't show so far like Are you getting the point of view? Yeah, like like are you getting like what we're talking about like Are you following along like what are your thoughts so far? I don't know From the beginning From where he started my point of view is just like a person This is sort of a person who's going through change and he's trying to figure out which part of Racial The cultural cultural place he belongs and he's kind of struggling Is by looking for that change Yeah, I mean pretty much I mean like There's this concept. Okay, so I think he's just using His racial slaps in the fifth. I don't think he's looking for it. I think he's looking for change It was trying to prove to people I don't think he's looking for change, but I think he's experiencing I think I think he's getting a mirror held up To the thoughts that he was predisposed to Like the thoughts that were anti himself and the thoughts that were anti-black, but wasn't he like confused between those parts from like where he belongs? Yeah, and I definitely like as a mixed person. I definitely resonate that with that I definitely understand what you're saying But I don't think this was necessarily about the fact of whether or not he was white or black. I think it's more so about Well, what did we talk about I was like there's two parts Your racial identity is your external perception. So how people perceive you Your ethnic and cultural identity is how you your friends your family They perceive you Right, and so he perceived himself as Right, like he like even straighten his hair. He was wearing sparrows. He was doing all the things And I think But racially he was mixed So I think I think he's just being confronted with the fact that because he is into of these worlds That the way he perceives himself Is going to dictate on whether or not he is white or black in the situation ethnically the way he sees himself and I think for pretty much part of Like the way the show starts in the beginning. It's just like it's kind of like what people normally think in in society right now and Why he goes through and learns from the beginning of the episode and it's pretty much what Anyone watching the show would learn like the truth behind How complicated or people who already live in it seeing how complicated Like I imagine some people like like I was being in the way of that of those two concepts before I watched that episode And it does a really good job at explaining it. Yeah, great. Like because I think briefly like last week I mentioned to you those two concepts. Yeah, you just looked at me so confused And that's why when I came in today I wanted to switch and I was hoping y'all would choose that episode because I wanted to switch because I knew That like when I mentioned that to y'all y'all looked at me because I was like, well And even emirates too. I need to get her on this I am Because y'all are looking at me like I was weird and like I had two heads and I like I understand that It sounded really complicated and you didn't actually see it. Yeah, it is complicated. It's nuanced. Yeah, like And if you didn't actually see it in action that nuance wouldn't really Be clear and that's why and so that's why I'm happy y'all watched it. I'm happy you said that too And Oh, so we just got the scholarships yada yada erin finds out he doesn't get his He gets called white um, he goes home Realizes his girlfriend that doesn't really matter realizes his girlfriend Is going to go see another black dude at ASC And so then all of a sudden he's like she's replacing me But how did with a black dude because at that point he's still because at that point he wanted to be black But he still was white And he still saw himself as white so it honestly makes a commentary on replacement theory And how replacement theory is just racism um And how that like no one's replacing you you just you just couldn't keep up you couldn't do it. No one's replacing you um And so but he feels like he's being replaced that he arms himself with a flamethrower to go burn down robber s lee high school Yeah, like this gets really complicated. Yeah, really second He builds it himself too. And what is what is that? What is that other kid felix? I think his name was or something He was from Nigeria. Yeah, what did what did he say when he first got there? He's like What did you do? You just walked down the street. Keep your black card tucked I had to assemble my thing behind a dumpster and I had to take the bus here right And air needed to send something about that to his dad earlier because his dad's like He's like walk four miles and he's like, oh, yeah, I know how you don't like that bus system All right, right. So yeah, so pretty much he could just walk around the neighborhood Yeah And no one said anything about a kid carrying a flamethrower down the street Yeah, no, it's black dude 60 shots in his back. Yeah, they wouldn't even ask for anything They wouldn't have asked they wouldn't even set freeze They didn't say freeze exactly yo, exactly and so well, we talked about this at the very beginning because that's what you said you really resonated with But like felix is like, oh, yeah, because he said I wasn't really black because my parents are from Nigeria and I spent my whole time in lathonia and Um And erin's like I get it because you have that whole cultural to pull from so you're not really black and then he makes a dark No, he makes the joke of He makes fun of him for having darker skin and that's Also a very very I wish they talked about that a little bit more Even though the whole episode was kind of about this, but I wish they talked about a little bit more That's something we call colorism Um, yeah, there's that I'm going to be the academic term for it. Um, you see my skin I'm not as dark as y'all Flat and simple, right? That means I'm give it a whole bunch of a different set of privileges Then you all are When people see me Yeah, because when some people see me, they don't immediately even associate black And that's a big deal like That completely changes my interactions with people That completely changes how people perceive me if I raise my voice that changes how people perceive me um At the same time I often find myself having to validate myself amongst my friends who have darker skin and darker complexions Right, like I have to validate the fact that I'm black like I have to reiterate the fact that I'm black, right Even though y'all don't ever have to do that People don't always see you and they're like, oh look at this african king right here. Yeah Yeah, right, but like And like I mean I do it all the time. I mean I'm spanish as well, but people can see that off my facial hair alone Like I got those colonizers in my bloodline And so like and that's the thing is so like when I mean, we even see that when the cops shoot who the cops shoot to even though he is black He is light skin, right? I shoot the darker person first Let me set you set up the scene for oh, yeah, let's set up the scene for bony So they get into a beef about this go ahead So the two black kids that are trying to burn in the school they kind of start fighting each other and The darker kid burns the other kid's shoes So he starts he throws he throws his weapon away and he starts like sort of like running And so the guy he says his weapon the darker kid says weapon So he's chasing you and then here comes the cops and you should ask him We don't even see here. What's the cops? We don't even see the cops come. We just hear a gunshot So This black kid the darker kid has a weapon and he's chasing this He's not chasing. He's standing still. Oh, yeah, he's actually standing still like But he's right after after this lesson and Well the cops just shoot him out of nowhere. I don't know where we don't see the cops After they shoot him they say freaks and then no the the last That's pretty much the whole thing But when I first saw it I was like, oh, yeah, totally normal because that guy has a weapon Shoot him because he's dangerous. But then what did you put in? You're running out of that. Was it was the cop in the bike all on the side or in the front? We don't even we didn't even really see the cops He didn't even come out Well, they were showing them shooting and then they showed the cop who he was in front of him But it doesn't matter where he is. He still shot him Before he said before he said anything Yeah, he the kid did not see the cop before the cop That's messed up. That is messed up. But the truth thing is because of like He was lucky like really, yeah, you know, that was what I said Yeah, and I don't disagree with that that kid had a weapon and there's your cop And you see one kid running without a weapon and one kid standing with a weapon I don't know. I don't know how both burning. They're both They're both the two suspects there that have burned the high school One kid's running away from flames in the high school and the other kid is holding a weapon Right to me personally if I walked in that situation, they both need to be arrested I would freeze and then they'll rest them both They both need to be arrested He's just running He's running and then all the signs will seize the other person and the person's like ha ha ha And then then all of a sudden you hear a shot And then that shot hits the kid then you hear freeze like three seconds later And then the kid like lifts his hands up and turns around because he still has his hair Do you think that's racist? Do you think that's racist that's right? The cop's right? The cop should have said freeze first No, the cop was right I don't know because So would it be different like I was white or black? It would be different Because like if they caught that shot but by a kid it was black That wouldn't do like racist it would be something else But I mean that's still white But still he still shot him Yeah, that would still be racist This guy was like self-defense He had a weapon So wait wait wait there was no self-defense No because in self-defense you have to give someone the warning that they can leave Yeah, he was a black person He made it self-defense you have to give someone a warning But like what if like that kid was about to shoot at the kid and he had self-defense It's a play thrower Why don't you answer that? Like you in your view And so in my view right now this whole situation Is really racist mainly because if you're going to shoot someone you have to one make sure that they can see that Their life is in danger number one. That's literally literally that's like a universal human contact Like you don't shoot someone while they're peeing and you don't shoot someone while they're sleeping Yeah, and so and like even if I saw Someone up there with a gun you still yell freeze first Right, you make your presence known as someone with A gun and a weapon as someone an armed individual and an armored individual Um because he's wearing a bulletproof vest too. He's far distanced away. He's had plenty of training. You see that And also the fact that literally the school's on fire behind them Well, like the school is on fire Like so he should have really yelled at them both freeze get them both on the ground If I imagine this you're a cop you come to a scene because Aaron's still got arrested You come to a scene the building's on fire and One kid is changed but when you're in that vision you'll see one kid chasing the other kid But they shot first and ask questions later. Yes, you know like that's just not something you do That's not something you do like Yeah, so imagine so remember uh The medley brothers and how they got um beat up here in burlington by two Burlington police officers after they got in an argument with each other and they were screaming at each other Well, they got beaten very badly by these two officers and they just showed up to the scene And just slanted slamming their heads against the concrete and the and the walls there on in downtown and Instead of just telling them both to stop or doing any of that they literally just went in and they just started pushing right um And I think that's the and I think that's why it's more so Trying to point out is that if there were two white people who are having a family dispute outside of a bar They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't have done anything. They'll be like calm down calm down not immediately pushing them, right and Yes, Aaron still got arrested and he still went to jail meaning that he actually did something wrong that day Meaning that that other kid also did something wrong too. I'm not taking that away from that other kid, but The fact that one ends up getting shot and not the other even though they both did the same thing That's crazy, right? And that's what I was saying too about like how jaylen walker gets shot 60 times by cops unarmed But the dude who shot and killed eight people On july 4th at a parade gets to leave that night Gets into a car chase same as jaylen walker gets into a car chase and gets arrested with his life While armed That's the difference And I think and that's what I think they were trying to point out in atlanta More so the fact that they were both because they were both at fault Yes, and the situation of course is complicated But your first reaction shouldn't be shooting and then yelling freeze at the other individual It should be yelling freeze at both of them And then if someone makes a move then you make your move You know Basic training that is basic de-escalation training And that's what erin thought should have happened too. Yeah freeze first Freeze first, but that's not what happens to black people as we know As we know Even when we're frozen Someone suffocating us Yeah, someone's knee on the neck, right? So like that's why I was like, hey, it's like straight up like this is a much larger thing And rather the fact that the cops shot one of them It's why did the cops shoot one of them and it wasn't and not the other one Because they were both at fault. They were both running from a building or a school on fire They're both suspects to me instantly. They're both suspicious because oftentimes when schools are on fire Someone has a firearm And so there's a lot bigger situation going on there. Um So you have to make sure they're both frozen check them both out Put them both in the back of the squad car. Even though I don't I mean, I don't really think I mean How do I get into my police abolition? So, um So, yeah, and then at the end of the episode kid shot He's getting loaded up into a van Right into an ambulance Because he somehow survived even though I thought he was shot in the head But like he somehow survived Um And what did robert shaylee shaylee came to the school? What did he say immediately? He said damn shame Damn shame We saw like this was the most blackest thing Oh, yeah, getting shot by the police is the blackest thing which I also really liked your evaluate So one of you said something being like, how does that make you black? And I'm like, that is a really good point Like how does that make you black? All this time he wasn't accepted as black, but all of a sudden after he gets shot He's all of a sudden black. How does him getting shot? Maybe it's because how the police saw him as Any other black man rather than they saw him as You know when the police first From Nigeria after you nearly died come on man Oh and his medical bills are paid for I nearly got I nearly died and now I want to give you He was laughing too. Yeah Well, who else was going to accept him? Well, if nobody tells me He's going to spend a year in jail It's like Aaron, right? He's gonna and like he was going to spend it probably even longer We didn't even see him at the end of it. He probably even spent longer time in jail, right? I mean Aaron was working in the whole whole and now scholarship could really be the seed money to like after you get out of jail No, I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. He survived thankfully And he got his street cred. He got his black card Yeah, now if anyone questions him, he'll be like well, I got shot by the police and people will be like, all right People will know because like I don't know when 60% of police shootings Happen to black men But him getting shot doesn't take away the fact that he can still trace his family back to Nigeria. No, it doesn't Yeah, but how is that? It does mean he's suffering through the same black experience and the same black oppression Would Robert Lee know that? Or Robert S. Lee Robert, oh yes, and that's why that's why he said originally you're not black But he didn't realize that this kid was getting into stuff like this He didn't realize that this kid was like actually Actually is black actually doing black things Even though burning your school is not a black thing. I do want to make that I want to make that very clear We don't burn schools down. That's a white thing And that's really important and then Aaron doesn't get the scholarship because he wasn't shot by the police He still wants to prison, but then at the end what happened was very different person Yeah, it was a different person. He did change Yeah Everyone's done that a few times, you know They got a chain, you know His accent even changed like that. We was talking It sounded a lot more like his daddy. Yeah. Yeah. And you could tell like in the beginning He wasn't singing like you know what's up At the end it was like, you know this and that Yeah, like he started using the accent that his mama gave him And that's what raised the accent embrace the accent Yeah, so any final thoughts from you too about like What you learned or Final thoughts Or even you too He It was like a little bit hard for him to accept who he was until he got in trouble and then went to jail for a couple years, right? One year and then he comes by like a different person I don't think he learned his lesson And he accepted his path that was was full Yeah, I think I've also been connected with this community too. I would argue I was with people who actually accepted him instead of His girlfriend who immediately saw Another black dude going to the same school as she is On the slide into those DMs like that's what he did, right? And embrace it but like Sometimes you're kind of like in the middle and sometimes you take a bad situation to make something good It's always like hard to embrace of who you are because you know the moment you embrace who you are It's always like you have to make tough decisions and you have to put in more hard work and people And that's it That's an interesting statement because do you think like because all you're doing is embracing who you are, right? Do you think that embracement of who you are could be considered to somebody like a protest to them who they are? I mean if you look in a different Different way, it could be considered as a protest like it's finding of who you are and He always takes like some hard work to do that You never find it out overnight because like Most changes never happen overnight. It takes time But I mean I think it depends on like It depends on the situation of who you are like if you're if you're a mix kid and you're in that situation Then it'll it'll take some work and like Listen, maybe if the kid was listening to his parents in the beginning He wouldn't have gotten in that situation the first place, you know what I'm saying But do you think he's like by being who he is? Do you think he's protesting like his other friends and being like hey? This is who I am. I'm not that white person. I am Yeah Because my friend Jess, she actually has a really interesting statement about this that she views black joy as a protest And us feeling who we are and feeling ourselves is like Is the protest because people People don't like who we are and people don't like to see us happy That's just pleasant But no, I I think also like depends on the situation like like they say like me like Like I don't have to embrace for you because I'm pretty much just wearing it, you know, but like if like if you're in that situation You have to like