Supreme Court's Horrific Vote Crosses the Line for Trump; America Hits Breaking Point

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0:36Black Americans across the country are facing a systemic attack on their right to vote by the MAGA Republican Party and Donald Trump's Supreme Court. This is how the president responded. Let's play the clip. We're confused about the changing maps, the changing dates, and the African Americans concerned that this is going to draw black members of Congress off the map. What do you say? Well, I think it's been a wonderful process. They've been the Democrats, or as I call the Democrats, because they are dumb in so many ways. They've redistricted for years. And now we took our shot, and it looks like we're going to pick up a lot of seats.

1:13And that's a good thing. All right. Joining me on IHIP News to discuss all of that fuckery is political and cultural commentator, Oscar-winning producer and co-host of the Higher Learning podcast. I've got Van Lathan Jr. Van, what's your take on all of that? And thank you for joining me. Well, thank you for having me. I love watching you guys. My take is two things. The first thing is, it's actually not just the MAGA Republican wing. Shelby versus Holder comes back, I think, around 2013 or whatever. This assault on voting rights and trying to roll back the rights that my ancestors legitimately bled for, shortened their lives for, put themselves in harm's way for, has been a Republican project for a whole generation.

2:06I think that Donald Trump and his MAGA wing have injected political steroids into this. But of all the things that have happened in the Trump era, this makes me feel differently. of all the stuff we've had to endure. And that's not for me to skirt over Dobbs or other decisions that affected people's lives so fundamentally. But this one feels like ripping the entrails out of Black America, reducing us back down to something. And I don't know how this is going to go if this can't be rectified. I completely agree. This is something that is so terrifying to see. What's going on in Tennessee is just absolutely horrible.

2:56And I want to show you this image of Congressman Justin Pearson being blocked from voting. Pop up this image, Kylie. So, Van, when I grew up, I was born in 1974. And I would, you know, go to social studies class, history class, and you see these images. of black school girl trying to get into school and white people kind of screaming behind her. You see all these brave black people and their allies fighting for civil rights. And in my mind, I thought, well, I'm glad we're behind that. I'm glad that's in the past. And I was traveling over the weekend and this popped up on my feed. And this just it's just so completely oppressive, backwards and overtly racist.

3:45It's just so overtly racist and disrespectful. And as a white woman who spent the last few days going to a couple of NBA games, go Thunder, I watch how a lot of people like to dip into black culture, which is American culture. and then they see shit like that, and they're not outraged. And so can you speak to what's happening in Tennessee and Congressman Justin Pearson? Yeah. I mean, it's so funny that you bring up those images that we were all educated on. They were part of this American story that the undergirding idea of all of that stuff was that we had moved past it, right? We were in the happily ever after part of the story.

4:38We would look at that stuff and be like, look how bad it was. But even then, we were wrong because we weren't paying attention to food deserts. We weren't paying attention to the environmental catastrophe that black communities were going through. We weren't paying attention to defunded schools, the drug wars, all of that stuff. We just knew that images like that didn't quite exist anymore. We didn't see them as much, right? Now we're seeing them again, along with abuses from the police. And what you said earlier about Black culture being American culture, I don't think that America thinks that.

5:21I think that America writ large believes that Black people are something to be contended with. to be dealt with. Because if there was any thought that the contributions of black people made America better, fuller, freer, richer, then they would stop trying to prevent us from contributing. They don't want our contributions, it feels like. They don't want us to contribute at the top of tech, black women being left out of tech. They don't want us to vote. They don't want our political voice. They don't want us to be the heads of companies, DEI. Like legitimately, the last two years, the right has pushed the narrative that if your pilot is black, your plane is more likely to fall out of the sky.

6:15So I sit here as a black man, 46 years old, feeling more orphaned by my country than I've always felt. But then there's something else. I see my grandmother and other people that I know that thought that at least they had got us past pictures like that. And I see them have to go through it. And it feels different. It doesn't feel like something that I'm going to be able to tolerate or be nice about. this feels like I'm watching the contributions and the sweat of so many people. I'm watching their pain and it's hard. Everything you said is true and it's devastatingly true. Sometimes the truth is so devastating.

7:05And my husband is a criminal defense attorney and he has always said, working in the courthouse, working with people that have been arrested, this is a really racist system, Jennifer. It's completely different for black people. And the attacks on DEI and the way how flagrant Pete Hegseth has been about firing accomplished black people in the military that are a million times more accomplished than his narcissistic ass have just been so disturbing to me. But I agree with you that this feels different. And what really concerns me about this is the lack of outrage at images like that. When we saw what happened to George Floyd, it was a collective outrage.

7:53Everybody collectively was like, no. and i feel like with all of this stuff trump and maga and i agree with you republicans for decades before that they keep moving the goalposts and normalizing this like the frog in boiling water and when i saw that image it and i'm a white woman obviously but it just it hit me it just it hit me when i saw the way that smug white man was staring at him and the imagery of that. And I haven't really seen that much outrage about this, about what the Supreme Court just did. And it's really a devastating reality. Yeah. You know, I actually feel for the American people in terms of their outrage meter.

8:46Like, if you're going to be outraged right now, what are you going to be outraged about? You're going to be outraged about inflation. You'll be outraged about foreign wars you're gonna be outraged about people being able to pay for pardons you're gonna be outraged about a billion dollars for a ballroom you're gonna be outraged by the brown people that you share your communities with being kidnapped and sent to places in latin america where you're gonna place the outrage if there's one thing that trump is good at he is good at giving you so much to where you just need a break to where you go you know what tonight I'm playing a video game.

9:24The reason why this is sticking with me, it all sticks with me. I mean, we do this for a living, so we're wearing a lot of this pain and trying to translate it to other people and tell them how they can be involved. This is sticking with me because this is fundamental. This is slavery. This is robbing people of political power, of a political voice. This is making Republican lawmakers in the South kings and queens. This is in perpetuity relegating people to second-class citizens, right? This is what we thought we could at least agree on. Like, at least you have to be cute with the discrimination.

10:03This is overt. And so the outrage to me is probably going to come when people see the reaction from black America to having their rights snatched. And just like we stopped society before, just like Martin Luther King Jr., the Santa Claus figure that America has made them into, said, hey, we're going to stop traffic. We're going to stop commerce. We're going to stop the way things functions. We're going to do it again and i'm i'm not i'm not in any way saying that with any trying to scare anybody i'm just saying this will we're not standing for this so i'm hoping that everyone can organize together and realize the moment that we're in because i am guaranteeing like levels of strife and organization and disruption that nobody wants to see if you try to steal the rights of black people in the south do you worry that the propaganda that fox news the right-wing media ecosystem you talked about black pilots earlier the the late charlie kirk was just overtly racist when he went to all of these campuses.

11:23And then it's always when black people stand up for their rights or they're marching, it's always like, they're so violent. It's always this, like, look at what they did. They threw something at the Taco Bell. And as you said, we're not going to stand for this. I thought, I think back to a lot of time that I've spent in Oklahoma City and why in circles of white people. And I remember during the Black Lives Matter marches, there were that, remember Remember that white couple in St. Louis and they had their guns out in the yard? Do you remember their husband and wife? And I remember, I just know that they were doing a march through my neighborhood in Oklahoma City and I remember a lot of people like freaking out.

12:03I was like, if they're peaceful, what do you care? We all just saw somebody get murdered on TV. I feel like the propaganda that white people can protest however they want to, as obvious by January 6th, they get pardoned, they get excused for it, and then a lot of them have recommitted. Black people have been labeled when they organize and protest as violent, even though we saw what happened on January 6th. How effective do you think that propaganda has been against Black organization and Black mobilization? The reason why that propaganda is so effective is because it reinforces a narrative that a lot of people already believe.

12:50There's a narrative that black people are prone to violence. They're prone to violent solutions. While the reality is the way that black people were able to get their citizenship in America was through one of the largest nonviolent movements in world history. OK, black Americans have never, ever, ever struck out against white America. in reciprocity to the type of horrors that we have been subjected to that's just never happened right that's never happened yet and still america has a vision and a version of criminal that they draw as black here's the thing jennifer i don't care but I there's so much tape right now you were watching the game right so if you're watching Shea do his thing you know flopping all around the league I watch it if if you watch his thing once you've seen enough tape on what he's gonna do you have to be cool with just going out there competing.

14:09All of the contradictions, I've seen them. I've seen white people riot. I've seen white violence. I've seen spree violence from white men, domestic terrorists shooting up places. I don't feel the need to tell black people to be cognizant of their behavior in front of white America. There's just too much tape now that it doesn't matter what happens. Whatever way we try to free ourselves is the wrong way. So what I'm concerned with right now is mission accomplishment. I'm also concerned with building communities with people where everyone's lives and rights are respected. So I don't want to see anyone hurt or robbed of anything.

14:57But what I am saying is that this moment, everyone organizing the center of the Democratic Party, the left of the Democratic Party, the left outside of the Democratic Party, anybody that would care, take the time to really understand how people are feeling. Like, I asked to come on your show. I've been watching you and mind you for a long time but I asked because this is not going to work and everybody needs to put their hats on to understand what we're going to do to get out of this what the plan is to change this I'm from Baton Rouge Louisiana I'm not gonna watch my people have they vote taken from them and so I'm just I'm hoping that we can continue to beat the drum in places like this and on higher learning about just how serious this moment is and about how this is different.

15:59I completely agree with you. And I think this is a time where we have to form alliances across all political spectrums against anti-Black racism. I think a lot of what we're going through right now is because we allow certain narratives to exist. We allow the South to still have their statues up. And then when people demand that the statues of slave owners and Confederate soldiers get taken down, there's a stage five meltdown. And it should be, fuck you, we don't want racists in our city. But we allow, there's a constant capitulation to right-wing framing, to racist framing. And I'm with you when I saw that image and I see what the Supreme Court did, which didn't surprise me because John Roberts has wanted this for a very long time.

16:55It really hits different and it feels different. And I think that now is a time for us to build the biggest alliances imaginable and to remind Americans that the history that we all look back upon with pride is the civil rights movement. It's incredible. It's incredible what people did. It's incredible what happens when people join hands and fight for equality for everyone. I want to put up a post from state representative Justin Pearson, who's literally on the ground with this fight. Pop this up. He says, Speaker of the Tennessee House, Cameron Sexton, just removed me and every Democrat and therefore every black elected official in the state legislature from any committee we served on.

17:39This move strips nearly 2 million Tennesseans from the representation they deserve in Tennessee state legislature. And they're not going to stop here. You mentioned you're from Louisiana. Speaker, I call him Moses Mike, Speaker Moses Mike Johnson is from Louisiana. He has a district, He has a district, 20 % black, one of the poorest districts ever. And the lies that these Republicans consistently tell people, I'm sure you've read this. I think it's E. Dubois where he talks about there's an exchange that, hey, you can hate these black people, but you're still going to be poor. And a lot of people take that trade.

18:24And that's just such a devastating shit that people are still so racist. But my God, they are. Yeah, I mean, there's very few people who gives less of a shit about Louisiana than Mike Johnson. I'll tell you one guy. I mean, Mike Johnson doesn't give a shit about Louisiana. He doesn't care about Louisiana. He cares about doing the bidding of President Trump. Whenever you even get him and corner him on problems happening in Louisiana, he doesn't have real substantive answers because, you know, he's a national politician masquerading as a Cajun. Somebody who does care about Louisiana is a guy named Gary Chambers.

19:05Now, as much as I am giving a rah-rah, that's a brother in Louisiana that actually has answers to those questions. I would love to see he's doing tremendous things. He's one of the guys I need to be four, five, six times more famous than me. We'd love to see a conversation with him because he can give people structural answers on how we organize past these problems. That's just a shout out to Gary. The statues that you mentioned early, to me, they're not statues. They're centuries. stories they're things that are legitimately imbued with the souls of slave owners that are sent there or put there should i say as a reminder that niggers don't need to get out of line so having a conversation about why there shouldn't be a statue in your community of somebody who raped your great grandmother is wild.

20:10Totally. Like trying to have a civil conversation about why somebody who had a thousand fucking slaves shouldn't have a street named after them is insane. But we've been trying to do it. We've been trying to have that conversation. We've been trying to kick that legacy out of the South because I love the South. I love being from Louisiana I love the community that I'm from in Louisiana I like the white people that I'm with in Louisiana that I fish with, that I hunt with that I watch LSU games but I'm nobody's nigger I'm not going to be and I'm not going to be Trump's nigger so what I'm saying right now is everything that you're saying is absolutely the way we need to talk about this and black people we are going to rely on each other.

21:07But if there are people outside of this that really care, that really care whether or not I have the right to vote, my grandmother has the right to vote, my sister has the right to vote in elections where they can make a difference, right? Then we need all hands on deck. And as far as also in trying to stem the tide of what the Trump administration is doing, there is no loyal, more loyal block of voters than black women. And we cannot take the vote away from black women. Yeah. You know, I, um, I've said a lot on my podcast that when, uh, the two protesters, white protesters were shot in, in, uh, Minnesota, that a lot of my friends or acquaintances would be like, oh my God, I can't believe that they shot them.

22:03And to black people, it was like, we've been trying to tell you guys, like the police are trigger happy. Like this is not a new, this wasn't something new. And I think that's one of the cardinal sins of this whole thing that has incubated this fascism. We have reconciled incrementally the civil rights issue, equality issue, and we haven't gone full tilt on it. We diminish black voices. We diminish black mothers that say, my kid can't walk down the street in a hoodie. I'll tell you a story. My son played AAU basketball and my friend Monique, her son, black, my son, white, her other son called. She's okay, honey, that's fine.

22:52You can walk to 7 11 you cannot put a hoodie on just freezing outside. I hang up and I said, Monique, why, why can't Trey wear a hoodie? And she was like, a black kid can't walk down the street with a hoodie on Jennifer. And I was like, Jesus Christ. I've never had to tell my kids that ever, ever had to tell my kids that. And I think the problem is we don't listen or we minimize black voices. Their problems are, you know, you need to be quiet. We can't hear your voices. And And I think if when we really, when the historians really diagnose how we got in this fascist fuckery with this fucking moron and all of the dipshit racists surrounding his cabinet, a lot of it is going to be that we have not completely reconciled this.

23:36When I lived in Oklahoma City, when Barack Obama was president, he came to downtown Oklahoma City. He was greeted by a mob of white racists with Confederate flags, the fucking president of the United States. and i remember i saw that it was on it made national news and i just thought jesus fucking christ what the fuck but it is so prevalent and it is so real and it is so disturbing and i want to get your take on sam alito's opinion in the voting rights act of course john roberts made him write it he um used data that is a lie pop this up Samuel Alito quoted fake data in his ruling getting the Voting Rights Act.

24:27First of all, to your friend Monique and Trey, shout out to Monique and Trey. They're awesome. He's in the NBA now, Trey. Trey's in the NBA? Yeah, he plays in the G League. He's a two-way player. He's great. Yeah, Trey Alexander, shout out. They're awesome. Oh, shout out to Trey, man. Get some buckets out there, man. As soon as you mentioned a black mother I thought the first thing And this is how my brain is working right now Is I'm happy she's alive Because I'm happy she survived childbirth Because when I think of the things that are Encumbering black people right now I think about the numbers surrounding black maternal mortality And the fact that our women die in childbirth at rates that are astronomical as compared to other races.

25:18I just think about every single statistic anomaly that befalls our people. So I'm happy that she's here. I'm happy that Trey can go out there and hoop. I hope he's not out there flopping like Shea. You better watch it. Getting salty about Shea. They just swept the Lakers, man. Oh, I know. I was there. I had my broom out. It's so hard. LeBron's gone. The Supreme Court has completely lost any legitimacy. Totally. And that's why for me right now, for the next leader that I elect nationally, the president, I want to hear about packing the court. I want to hear that from not just presidents. I want to hear that from senators because you're going to need to whip the votes to do that.

26:09And if they don't do that, which will tell me that they're not really serious about restoring legitimacy to the court or at least being able to roll back some of these insane rights violations that the court is responsible for, then reforming the court in terms of term limits, ethics codes, whatever it is to restore the legitimacy of the Supreme Court has to happen. If not, they are a bunch of rogue actors who are actually seeking to strip Americans of their rights for the purposes of power and commerce and allegiance to the worst parts politically of this country. The Supreme Court is one of the biggest hurdles to American freedom right now.

27:03And I cannot take a candidate seriously that is not zeroing in on ways to fix the court, because if we don't fix that, there can be no progress. I completely agree with you. I want the Democrats, when they get back in, one thing Trump showed us is you can govern all gas, no brakes. You can say, fuck you, I'm going to do what I want to do. And he's doing it for bad. And if we get power again, we have to govern that way. It has to be all gas, no brakes, fuck you, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, John Roberts, full investigations. Clarence Thomas' biggest donor, Harlan Crow, you know what he collects as a side hustle?

27:48Nazi China. He has a room with Nazi China. It's just crazy shit. And this guy has funded him. The same with John Roberts. You know, one thing that Trump unleashed, which I think made a lot of frustrated racists feel good, is when he said Obama wasn't born in the United States. And that really kind of people were upset that this black man was sleeping, you know, in the bed at the White House eating off the China. So it was like, oh, yeah, well, maybe he's not a real American. And yesterday in the Michigan senatorial race, they have started to slam Abdul Al-Sayed, who I've had on this podcast. I really like him a lot and said, he's not a real doctor.

28:36This motherfucker has an MD and a PhD. And they're saying he's not a real doctor. And you just see this pattern of the dehumanization and taking away from people that aren't white. And these are Democrats that started this slur and this trash against him. Pop this up, Kylie. Now he's ahead. Michigan Senate, Democratic primary, he's up 27 points. And now they're saying, oh, he's not a real doctor. And these are the things that you see, you mentioned it, you named it, they're used to delegitimize people uh when they're not white you can't be a doctor doctors are white you can't be a president presidents are white you can be a pilot pilots are white scientists scientists are white can't be a vc vcs are white um all of that stuff right uh but it's always interesting to me when the democrats get into that bag i have to say something to the party man i left the democratic party a while ago like obviously i caucus with the Democrats.

29:43You know, I could never see myself voting on the right because they're viciously anti-black, anti-progress, anti-climate, anti-woman, anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti-anti - whatever, I don't know. I don't know what they're pro. They look pro-oath keepers. So I'm a little bit to the left of most of these guys, but I do see them engage in a lot of the same bullshit that comes from the right when the rubber meets the road. And if the Democrats, the left in this country, the center left in this country, are going to present an actual obstacle to fascism, then they can't be fascists themselves. Agree.

30:29And I don't know why it's taken them so long to learn that lesson. If you're going to be anti-genocide, you can't be genocidal. If you're going to be anti-fascist, you can't be fascist. If you're going to be anti-racist, you can't be racist. You can't dip your toe into the pool of it and then hope that the rest of it doesn't get all over your body. And it just doesn't seem like the center corporate structure of the Democrat Party has that in them. But we got to keep kicking their ass until they learn the lesson. I agree with you. I feel like this moment, this where the Republicans and the Supreme Court have said, we're going to cheat.

31:07We get to gerrymander and you fucking don't. Tough titties, take it. We have to come back and the Democrats tend to not have the stomach for fighting. But the reason why people like Abdul Al-Sayed is because he's a fighter. He won't capitulate. He doesn't play patty cake with fascists. He calls a genocide, a genocide. He calls homophobia, homophobia. And there's too many people in the Democratic Party that play patty cake with these corporations. They play patty cake with APAC. And so once you seed one group, once you seed one group's rights, then everybody is on the chopping block. And lastly, I just want to tell you that my audience, and we have built a coalition over here, and my audience is very vested in universal human rights.

31:59And when we live in this fascist bubble, you get online and, you know, Trump's all of these loser bedwetting billionaires, you know, prop up all of his posts and they prop up all their own posts because they own all this stuff. When black people organize, we want to be allies with you. This is a fight for America. This is a fight for our brothers and sisters in America. And I am not a monolith in this. There are way more, way more anti-racist Americans than there are racist. And I know that you probably don't feel that as a black person in Trump's America, but I know it. It might not be a huge majority, but I know it.

32:42And I think we must partner together and build just a huge alliance against these fucking fascists. We just absolutely have to, because I agree with you, this hits different. It's terrifying, the imagery, the just months-long attack on the black community by this administration. Last thoughts, Fiam. You know, I'm still crazy enough that I don't disagree with you. I'm still crazy enough to where I believe in the goodness in people because I believe in the God in people, divinity in people, the thing that makes people look at the stars and go, oh my God, how beautiful. I believe in the humanity of people.