0:03

So for a while, like in the early nineties, I was

0:05

the coolest motherfucker ever because I was like, I

0:07

know him as Jollil, like

0:10

Sparkle, and like his favorite ice cream is cookies

0:12

and cream.

0:13

And when

0:16

I asked him how he's doing, he's like, yeah, I'm doing

0:19

good, or he'll be like not

0:21

great. Really, he's honest.

0:27

We just have that kind of relationship. It's really

0:29

open and honestly. Yeah, keep laughing at

0:31

or Kel or whatever. Cool

0:36

cool, cool, my

0:44

crop ships in your qual

0:48

racists,

0:53

honey

0:56

stuff can't

0:58

tell me all

1:02

right, there it is, yep, there it is.

1:04

There it is. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome

1:06

to another phenomenal episode

1:09

of My Mama Told Me the

1:11

podcast whill we dive deep,

1:14

deep into the pockets of black conspiracy

1:16

theories and we finally worked to prove

1:18

that Waldo Carraaldo Faldo

1:20

is the greatest character actor of all

1:23

time. That's right, ladies and gentlemen,

1:25

it's not up for debate. You want to talk

1:27

about cancel culture. What the funk

1:30

happened to Waldo? White people, you

1:32

devils, you evil motherfucker's

1:35

that you wouldn't hire this brave black

1:37

man who was doing goofy Niggas

1:39

ship back in the nineties when goofy

1:41

Niggas weren't even cool yet. This

1:43

motherfucker had a voice. He had he

1:46

had real potential, and you stole that from

1:48

him. I watched the video of him today. He's

1:50

old and gray and disappointing to

1:52

look at. And he didn't have to be that way.

1:55

He could have been our silly as Denzel Washington,

1:57

but you stole that from us. I'll never

2:00

fucking forgive you, you evil motherfucker's

2:02

anyway, I'm your host, Lanksning Kerman

2:05

coming in coming in pretty regular

2:07

this time. That honestly is usually how I

2:09

start most episodes, not come in hot. I'm

2:12

excited to be here. Our guest today.

2:14

I don't know how he feels about Waldo Waldo

2:17

follow up. He's smoking weed already,

2:19

so I gotta presume he fox with Waldo

2:21

pretty hard. He's hilarious.

2:23

He runs an amazing podcast that I

2:26

enjoyed very much called The Daily Sight

2:28

Guys. And he runs an even cooler podcast

2:31

that that I've been hearing about. It's called four

2:33

twenty Day Fiance. It's all about

2:35

ninety day Fiance, a show that I love dearly.

2:38

I hold it close to my heart. You're gonna

2:40

love him. Please give it up for Miles Gray.

2:42

Everybody, thank you so much for having

2:44

me. And yes, I fulk heavy

2:46

with Waldo follow up, Huge Family

2:48

Matters fan. My grandparents

2:51

regularly were extras on the show.

2:53

Really yeah, this is true.

2:56

Oh I got stories for you. So my

2:58

grandparents were like the if

3:00

you saw old black people in the background

3:03

of films, it was my grandparents whoa

3:06

deep, deep impact. When Blair

3:08

Underwood is like looking on the screen back to Earth,

3:10

my grandparents are in the background. Jerry

3:13

Maguire when Cuba Gooding Junior

3:15

gets hurt in the scene and Regina Kings like, oh

3:17

my god, she's she's holding onto

3:19

my grandmother and then my grandfather

3:22

after when he gets up, he's like, yeah, you know that's

3:24

that's that's us, baby.

3:27

Yeah, you come from like you're

3:29

like a prince. You're like the ground

3:31

royalty, baby, holy ship, you're

3:33

the Maggie Markle background

3:36

actors. This is and

3:38

I have the exact same birthday as Prince Harry.

3:40

So yeah, we got something going right. But

3:43

yeah, they So they used to be on Family Matters

3:45

a lot, and they had a relationship with Jalil

3:48

and I used to kick it with Jalil

3:50

White at my grandparents house because

3:53

he just like was kind of you know that he just was

3:55

like, Oh, these people are cool and kind of became surrogate

3:58

sort of family members that he was like a cool

4:00

dude. Yeah, it was a really nice guy. That's

4:02

fucking tight. I take

4:04

a lot of I or at least personally, I'm

4:07

always take solace in knowing that certain

4:09

people ended up just being nice at

4:11

the end of it, because I know, at least

4:13

from the rumors that I've heard, that the adults

4:16

on that show actually were super dicks to

4:18

the kids. And that's part of what the

4:21

kerfuffle was in all of

4:23

it, because it originally was bought as

4:26

a and look at us, we're getting into

4:28

conspiracy, alright. It originally

4:30

was was sold as like a black family

4:33

show, right, and then it didn't

4:35

do that well as a black family show. But then

4:37

they introduced Circle. They fucking

4:39

blew up, and all these adult actors

4:41

who would spend their lives like building

4:44

careers as legitimate professionals,

4:46

we're getting piste that this twelve year old

4:48

was like coming in and going yeah, and

4:50

they were you know, losing their

4:53

their credits because you

4:55

hate to see it. Yeah, no, I mean in

4:58

retrospect, if I'm forty five and some dort

5:01

pulls up his pants real high and steals

5:03

my job, I'd be pretty pissed too. And you're like,

5:05

he all he said was did I do that? But

5:09

you know what, Yes he did. He did do

5:11

that, and he did it every episode

5:14

for about seven or age season. So

5:17

all right, we can't. We can't dick around anymore.

5:19

We are as as charming as these these

5:22

stories are. We have we have a

5:24

hell of a conspiracy to get into and it's

5:26

an exciting one because this conspiracy

5:28

theory, this whole episode is really our

5:31

our four twenty episode. We're really

5:34

we're really connecting it, you know, connecting

5:36

the dots here and really making it a themed

5:38

episode. This is our big themed one. But

5:40

you you came to us with a conspiracy theory

5:43

that said, my mama told me what

5:48

free is the way to be? Tell

5:54

me a little bit about that. How much are you

5:56

sold on that idea? In the beginning.

5:59

I was sold up until

6:03

I think probably I saw half Baked whoa.

6:06

I was like, I spoke at my dare

6:08

graduation I'm

6:13

sorry, let's rewind here,

6:15

because that implies a couple of things.

6:17

Number one, you were a hell of a snitch.

6:20

But number two, DARE

6:23

graduation. You guys, you were

6:25

attending DAIR classes, know,

6:27

like, so the DARE program culminated

6:30

with like a certificate Sarah

6:33

in a T shirt. You know, that's when you got this shirt,

6:35

and that's when you got the like whatever, I'm

6:38

learning how to be a cop. I

6:43

actually think they're utility belts that are

6:45

pretty cool. I think, honestly, it was

6:47

more like an expression of me adapting to whatever

6:50

environment I was in because school I

6:52

went to, I was one of the few people, you

6:54

know, kids of color on black and Japanese. There

6:56

was maybe two other black

6:59

kids and two other Asian

7:01

kids and like a couple, you know, like

7:03

it was but mostly white Lutheran

7:05

school, so it's very religious. But I learned

7:08

I was just very quickly was good at like adapting

7:10

to be like, okay, so this is what they like or

7:12

whatever, this is how this is. You know, this is

7:15

a skill that many people have to have navigating these

7:17

spaces of like okay, where am I watched

7:19

me be? I'll kill this version of

7:21

however, y'all are acting. So when

7:24

the Officer Charles shows up, I'm

7:26

like, because I got. I was all about getting

7:28

good grades too, so I was always achieving

7:30

and ship. So I was like, oh, watch me be

7:33

a fucking you know young d e, a agent

7:35

in the make, can watch

7:40

exactly. I'm like, my dad's weed.

7:42

I found him, Like, Officer, I found this at my house.

7:46

Maybe you should talk to my dad. But

7:49

I never did that. But yeah, that's so initially,

7:52

yes, I definitely bought the

7:54

propaganda for sure. Okay, so you were

7:56

you were all in on dare as was that? Let

7:58

me let me now throw you under the bus

8:01

completely. I Uh. Similarly,

8:03

the DARE program showed up at our school

8:05

and we were asked to make a song like

8:08

a DARE too for like a big DARE

8:11

conference where each class was meant

8:13

to perform a song, and me and my my

8:15

best friend Michael wrote a

8:18

parody of uh of that

8:20

Black Street song I can't

8:22

fucking even think of it? Yeah,

8:25

yeah, yep, there you go, No Diggity. We wrote

8:27

a parody of No Dignity that was

8:29

basically an anti drug No Dignity,

8:32

and then performed that in front of literally

8:34

hundreds of other children. So

8:37

yeah, I bought in. I was with you. I

8:41

like how you're abstaining no dignity.

8:46

I feel like it was no dignity, no drugs.

8:49

Was We were in fourth

8:51

grade, so we weren't doing great uh

8:54

lyrics, but but yeah, it

8:56

was solid. Give it a C plus

8:59

even if he's at least you weren't no dignity,

9:01

no doubt to no diggity, no drugs exactly.

9:04

Yeah, at least it's d Yeah. We

9:06

we taught all the white kids in school, like the

9:08

little like uh this joint, the little

9:10

dance and ship like we had

9:13

him, We had him doing the thing you know, yeah,

9:15

exactly, turning up for Dare, turning

9:18

up for day Are. We were thought dare. So

9:22

I get it. At what point, so

9:24

you you're you're saying you watch Half Baked

9:27

and is it just because Half Baked is so funny

9:29

that you're like, fuck it, I don't want to I

9:32

don't believe in this anymore. Yeah.

9:34

It was just like, oh funk, Yeah, that's how I'm That's how

9:36

I'm trying to get live. I

9:38

was like, that's the life. That is the lifestyle,

9:41

right, like being with your friends,

9:44

smoking, laughing, eating,

9:47

and you're like and going through puberty and ship. So

9:49

you're like, yeah, bro, like let's eat a

9:51

fucking huge thing of cheese puffs or whatever. So it's

9:53

just it's sort of I don't know, it's

9:55

very easy reflection back to me of what I was

9:58

already living, except about added

10:00

benefit of wheat. So you like,

10:02

I I could be a gigly

10:05

motherfucker for the rest of my life as

10:08

these adult men are doing. So yeah,

10:10

weed allows that. I'm all in absolutely,

10:13

And I was talking and so it's funny like in the year

10:15

before I actually smoked weed, I talked like I was

10:18

smoking, you know, I

10:20

was like warming my mind up for it, like

10:22

kind of trying to melt away the words of

10:25

Officer Charles, because

10:27

my family didn't really was never really giving

10:29

me that like anti drug ship. Like

10:32

when when I started smoking weed, my dad

10:34

was like, oh, you just started smoking weed. He

10:36

thought I hadn't smoking weed a lot, like a

10:39

long time before that. Oh, So they didn't.

10:41

Not only were they not giving you anti drug

10:43

ship, they didn't give a funk. They were

10:46

they were sort of like, hey, whatever makes

10:48

you happy. Like my mom's

10:50

a film critic, you know, she's from Japan, so

10:53

she very like weed is not really

10:55

the thing there at all, So she wasn't

10:58

ever, she was definitely like you definitely

11:00

said like don't you know, don't do drugs. Don't do drugs,

11:02

don't do drugs. But my dad is an

11:04

artist, so he's trippy

11:07

and the I think the

11:10

biggest benefit I had was my dad's honesty

11:12

growing up. So if I asked him about he would

11:14

just tell me straight up, like he didn't fucking sugarcoat

11:17

anything. How old that was. Yeah,

11:19

Like I remember the first time I saw like on house

11:22

person, I said, like, what why why do these people

11:24

not have anywhere to live? He said Ronald Reagan? And

11:29

I was fucking five. And

11:31

I'll be honest, your dad was corrective.

11:34

He could have been said that about most things and

11:36

he would be correct. Truly

11:39

is the source of a lot of problems

11:41

in this country, right exactly. So I

11:43

think it's but you know, like that was his whole style,

11:45

so when it came to like drugs and things, he would just be like,

11:48

oh yeah, yeah,

11:50

we just you know, makes everything you know, it will just

11:52

be laughing, you don't have a good time. Yeah,

11:55

But I wasn't until I started smoking where I, you know,

11:57

would talk about it and that was much later,

11:59

but yeah, Half Baked made me. It just

12:01

resonated. I was like, it's it's

12:04

video games. I love. It was just gonna make

12:06

everything better. And like the older

12:08

you know, cousins relatives

12:11

in my life who were smoking and I looked up

12:13

to, just made it very easy for

12:15

that that that happened. Well,

12:17

let me there's a couple of things that I want to ask

12:20

because I think that this is super interesting. So

12:22

you get into drugs or at least smoking

12:24

weed, whatever, is there a point

12:26

where you find yourself starting to question

12:29

that? Are you just in you never

12:32

go back to your former

12:34

dare self? Oh? Yeah, I never gave

12:36

a funk after that. It was because you know, I was just like

12:38

it was all performative, you know, that was me

12:41

just adapting to a situation where

12:44

the the dominating

12:46

opinion was drugs are bad. Within

12:49

that construct, I was just you

12:51

know, trying to flourish within that because everything,

12:53

everything just felt like adapting to

12:56

some situation. So once I realized

12:59

that wasn't who I was, or like I didn't need that

13:01

or like the I guess the larger

13:03

community, I was trying to be a part of was not

13:05

that it was easy to

13:08

just be like, oh yeah, that's I'm leaving

13:10

that ship behind right right. So with that,

13:12

then, is there a point in which,

13:15

especially as like a black

13:17

person in this country, where where

13:19

we becomes in any way like a

13:22

danger in your life? Did where

13:25

like you get in trouble for the ship, where you

13:27

know, it gets criminalized in your little

13:29

local community you know what I mean?

13:33

Did that dissuade me you're saying or did

13:35

it actually did you have any like actual

13:38

like negative experiences? Yeah?

13:43

Yeah, Luckily I always say this, my

13:45

ratios were right when I intersected

13:48

with the cops. I mean, there were enough

13:50

white people around me that it

13:53

prevented me from actually

13:55

facing the fucked

13:57

up legal systems. I'm privileged

13:59

in that sense. Just

14:05

blow Mike all stop just coming

14:07

through blowing it up for me, and I'm

14:09

more done like bow like thank

14:11

you sir. Here.

14:14

Yeah he got a quarter pound

14:16

on him, run top over the

14:18

face at this house party, which I would do, yeah,

14:21

because I would start you know, I was serving and ship

14:23

in high school and that was like my you

14:26

know, I really got into it, it really felt like

14:29

and part of that was probably me trying

14:31

to unfortunately like some internalized

14:33

white supremacy of like, well,

14:35

like I am to do. I'm the

14:37

black kid, so I got that these

14:40

kids are sucking square, so I have weed

14:42

and ship. And I think

14:44

that definitely fed into it

14:46

on some level for sure. But it also

14:48

got me a lot of social credit to for

14:51

just being like, oh, he he's got wet,

14:53

like he's got you know, drugs or whatever. Yeah.

14:56

I always think that that's. Ah, it's

14:58

a weird pitfall for or uh,

15:01

for black kids and predominantly

15:03

white spaces of like trying

15:05

to adopt in a weird

15:08

way the stereotypes that don't even

15:10

necessarily belong to us in that

15:12

moment. It's just some ship we've seen that's

15:14

associated with black people and you

15:16

try to make it your own, and then with that comes

15:19

the type of like negative

15:21

or trouble or whatever the funk that that

15:24

follows it that you didn't even necessarily

15:26

need in your life straight absolutely,

15:29

And I think also being biracial does something

15:31

to that too, because you're I'm you

15:33

know, I'm Japanese and I'm black, and I'm an Black

15:36

American and you know, there there's

15:38

just a lot of I'm I'm I'm looking

15:40

in so many directions constantly, and I think

15:42

especially in your adolescence, when you have absolutely

15:45

you know, pure chaos from an identity

15:47

standpoint, yeah, it allows

15:50

for you know, just kind of being sort

15:52

of malleable in that way. And then all the time

15:54

I got over that ship. But yeah,

15:57

I mean, like, you know, there are plenty of times

15:59

they're you know, god household

16:01

when I didn't have weed and thank god I didn't and

16:04

it was just me and like and a couple

16:07

other you know, like black kids that

16:10

thank god nothing was happening then. But

16:12

then other times I would just be finishing where

16:14

I was just talking to one of my friends in high school. It

16:17

was a white guy. We were smoking weed and

16:19

his trailblazer, listening to fucking like

16:22

stink Onia or something. Ship and

16:25

just it was like me and two

16:27

other kids. We just faced a blunt and

16:29

we right as we ex like exhaled

16:31

and threw the fucking butt out the window. A cop

16:34

car pulled up and just puts the lights

16:36

on us, and we're like fuck And I had I

16:38

had weed on Luckily I

16:41

was in the back seat with again

16:43

my my offensive line in the front

16:45

seat in the former to privileged as white

16:47

guys who were like the cops

16:50

came up and they're like, what's going on, guys got smoking pot?

16:52

We're getting complaints here. And they're like, yeah,

16:54

we'll be honest, yeah, we were just smoking it. And

16:56

they're like where where's it at. We're like we this is

16:58

gonna sound wild, but we literal really just finished

17:02

and they're like huh. And he's just like

17:05

he looked at the driver, said and my other

17:07

home in the front. He said, your parents know that you guys

17:09

are doing this, and they're both like yeah, like

17:11

talking to this ship back to the cop and I was like, oh

17:14

my god. They're like yeah they

17:16

do. Is that all? It's the chapelle

17:18

but like the life right. I was

17:20

like, you just talk to them like there your

17:22

stepdad, and

17:24

they're like yeah, they know. And then the couples

17:27

like because of that, he was like, we'll go up

17:29

to Soto because we don't go up there and

17:31

gave them like and

17:34

I was just like okay,

17:38

uh like and I'm the one holding the fucking

17:40

weed. So it was just sucking. Yeah, There's

17:43

been a lot of wild things in

17:45

terms of like you know, identity and what

17:47

that means or doesn't mean in those situations.

17:50

That's fucking nuts. You know, you you hear

17:52

the comedy of it all, but it

17:54

is like fucking crazy that they never

17:57

for a second looked in that back

17:59

seat and like, we

18:01

might be putting miles in a little bit of danger. Maybe

18:03

we'll be chill and be like, now we're not, we'll

18:06

keep it moving. Officer of that ship.

18:08

They were like, yeah, man, we smoke weed.

18:11

It tastes good in our mouths and it makes

18:13

it feel silly. And I just fucking

18:15

blew a whole bloom's worth of smoke

18:17

up your mama's ass, and you're

18:20

like, please, man, Like he's like taking

18:22

up the street. My mother likes it up there better. Yeah,

18:24

it's like he

18:27

looked at me in my eye and somehow he's

18:29

still looked. It was the power of your whiteness,

18:31

that's saying, well, they

18:34

do believe in one of the good ones. And apparently

18:36

that was enough for him to feel like you were You

18:39

were in fact that yeah, exactly,

18:41

the ratios were you know, white

18:44

enough, the ratios were in your favor.

18:46

That so, so you are now

18:48

a total advocate for

18:51

weed and for for people

18:53

and drugs in general. Are you one

18:55

of these people, because I have talked

18:58

to a few people, some of whom are doctors, who

19:00

believe that we should just legalize everything,

19:03

that like everything should just become legal in

19:05

like whatever people do they do and and

19:09

what be it? Will? You know what I mean? Right?

19:11

I mean, I think obviously the criminalization

19:14

of drugs has just led to this you know, carcel

19:17

system that is absolutely

19:19

unnecessary. So I think not only

19:21

to just reduce that kind

19:23

of you know, criminality, also

19:26

having a society where like, yeah, you can do that,

19:28

but also it has to be like you can't

19:30

just have that and also not have support systems,

19:32

because I don't I think right now it's very

19:34

hard for people who are really on drugs, are addicting

19:37

to them to get the help they need truly

19:40

and to be able to enter a society where they're once

19:42

they feel able enough, they can do

19:44

whatever they need to. So yeah,

19:47

I mean, you look at a lot of the countries that have decriminalized

19:49

their drugs, and they don't necessary, they don't fall into

19:51

these pitfalls like I mean, look what happened Portugal.

19:56

It isn't it isn't, And

19:59

yes, people are and look people are look, they're

20:01

illegal and they still do drugs. So

20:04

I don't think of this idea that now

20:07

that it's legal, now everyone's

20:09

gonna start you know, slam a heroin and on

20:11

the fucking subway, Like come on, yeah,

20:13

I I've never once, uh,

20:17

I've never once saw somebody like leaned

20:19

over from some from some like pills

20:22

and thought like, man, I'm trying to try that ship.

20:24

Like truly, I think there's just something innate

20:27

in some of us that are like fuck it, I want to try

20:30

this, and I think I can get around

20:32

it or it won't affect me the way that it

20:34

affects other people, when some of us are just little

20:37

scaredy cats and aren't gonna ever take it that

20:39

far. And I think I fall closer to the ladder

20:41

than the former. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely

20:43

an explorer. Like, yeah, you

20:46

know, I went through a phase where I was like trying

20:48

to get as fucked up as possible

20:51

to know like what the fucking

20:54

limits were, because it's just you

20:56

know, at a certain point, like I started looking at the musicians,

20:58

I was like, oh, they're all getting fucked up,

21:01

and so again it's like this weird I'm

21:04

reflecting some kind of concept

21:07

of a celebrity to

21:09

my own life and ship. But also

21:11

I think you know, I was also like again,

21:13

chaos mentally, emotionally, so

21:16

it was going to be easy to be like, oh, let's get

21:19

you know, just off our faces

21:21

and watch the corn unplugged b

21:23

D. Yeah. See, my favorite rapper growing

21:25

up was Andre three thousand and that my friend

21:28

was vegan by the time I was like eight, so

21:30

I was like, yeah, as long as I can be

21:32

like this weirdo who doesn't drink or smoke

21:35

or do any of that, I'll be cool

21:37

for me method Man, Red Man, d

21:39

m X or some of my

21:42

favorite rappers. And when

21:44

that movie Backstage came out,

21:46

that documentary about the Hard Knock

21:49

Life Tour U one

21:51

of the wildest, truly one of the

21:53

wildest things I ever saw in my youth.

21:56

Yeah, I was like, we're

21:59

smoking all the goddamn

22:01

time now, but also like just

22:04

dudes getting there dick sucked and then doing

22:06

like full interviews afterwards, let's

22:09

go in this bathroom stall and you're like, what

22:13

ship? So yeah, I think

22:15

there was a lot of things like that too. That again,

22:18

the people who I idolized. Blunt smoking

22:21

was the norm, So that

22:23

also became the norm for me. You know,

22:26

like people love you know, these kids

22:28

now they love fucking easy, so

22:30

they'll just dabble in, you know, right wing

22:32

politics and big sweatshirts.

22:34

But for me, I was like Golden era hip hop

22:37

where it's all like mob deep and you

22:39

know Raucus Records type New Yorkers where

22:41

it's all smoking blunt. Yes is

22:43

it? This? Is it right in

22:45

California too? Is this mad wee? But yeah,

22:48

I feel like I would

22:50

be doing us a disservice

22:53

if I don't circle this back

22:55

to the larger premise of this episode

22:57

and really our our podcasts as a whole and

23:00

talk a little bit about race. So I'm curious

23:02

to know where you think some of

23:05

the the fear around

23:07

drugs and drug culture comes from

23:09

in relation to black culture,

23:11

in black the black community. Like

23:14

I think the anti drug

23:16

campaign for a while was

23:18

obviously built by white people, but certainly

23:21

championed in some ways by older black

23:23

people. And I'd love to to hear your thoughts on

23:25

some of that. I mean, I

23:28

think, you know, personally, growing

23:30

up and just anecdotally from

23:33

my relatives like my dad, grandfather,

23:38

it was always just about just

23:40

the intersecting with police that

23:43

had to be avoided at all costs.

23:46

At all costs, do not don't

23:49

want to be just you just don't want to have

23:51

to fucking encounter the police. So

23:55

that did create a very healthy fear

23:58

in me when I was

24:00

you know, had drugs on me and was

24:03

trying to be live a little outrageous

24:05

and ship like that. I'll just say, Um,

24:08

culturally, within my family, there was an openness

24:11

with drugs or you know, because

24:13

honestly, drugs are unfortunately

24:16

another form of upward mobility for

24:18

some people. So you

24:21

know what I mean, when you're in a

24:23

community that a sort of resource strapped

24:26

that unfortunately your

24:28

financial recourse is having to sell

24:31

drugs and things like that. And I think

24:33

just culturally, having my like

24:35

understanding what black people were up

24:37

against, it was sort of like, I mean,

24:39

you know, that's people people are to do that

24:41

ship to survive. It's uh, but

24:44

it was more like it's

24:46

life is fucked up. Yeah, I

24:48

mean, I think what you're saying is really

24:50

interesting, especially just

24:53

the idea that that it's

24:55

not often when I talk to black people

24:57

about it, it's not often us having this

25:00

active fear of the drug themselves,

25:03

but more the punitive correlations

25:06

that come with those drugs. So I'm

25:08

not afraid of fucking coke. I'm

25:10

afraid of getting caught with coke and

25:12

that being the thing that ruins my life. And

25:15

that's a very different I think relationship

25:18

than uh, you know, our white counterparts

25:21

often have, because

25:23

I think the privilege there is there the customer,

25:27

they're they're the end user to enhance

25:29

their lifestyle, where rather

25:32

being again a finding like your only

25:34

financial recourse as a black

25:36

person or any person of color in this country,

25:39

you know, like that's that's what it's

25:41

not. I'm not doing this because I want to,

25:44

but for me to make the kind of money that seems

25:46

like it's on par with someone

25:48

who's college educated, this

25:51

is this is a route to that, And I think

25:53

acknowledging that, or being able to have the

25:55

empathy around that is the difference between be like,

25:57

oh my god, I could someone so oh it's so discussed

26:00

thing and being like, you don't really get

26:02

what it actually means to sell

26:04

drugs for a lift. Yeah, And I do think

26:06

that that's part of what's always been misunderstood

26:09

in the way that hip hop, at least and it's it's

26:12

former shape used

26:14

to sort of do with with drugs

26:17

and drugs sales and all that ship. Jay

26:20

Z wasn't being like, Nigga, I love

26:22

selling drugs. It's my favorite thing in the world.

26:24

He's saying, like, Yo, this is what I

26:27

did to now get to a lifestyle

26:29

that I love and that I don't

26:31

want to lose. And while you

26:34

know, obviously there are a bunch of moral conundrums

26:37

cooked into the choices

26:39

that happened there, it's not a dude

26:41

being like I can't wait

26:43

to destroy my community. It's

26:46

it's a different energy than that, right, It's

26:48

like, this is the set of resources that

26:50

I have to work with other people. It's

26:52

generations of going to Ivy League

26:54

school. Yes, and you can fast

26:56

track your way to your six figure, seven

26:59

figure income like that. If

27:02

if you're actually looking at what it means

27:04

to live in this, you know, like a place

27:06

of oppression, you're not part of the hedgemonic class,

27:09

then it's a it's

27:11

a much different route that way. Yeah,

27:14

And then in a lot of ways,

27:17

it's no different than the than what we see

27:19

with like the justification that

27:21

all these billionaires and these super millionaires

27:23

make with their own like fucked up corporations.

27:26

Right, They're not going like I love kicking

27:28

people out of their housing, tricking

27:31

them out of the comfort of their homes. They're

27:33

just like, hey, man, I wanted a new apartment

27:35

building and I bought it. If some people

27:37

want to kick the funk out, that that's

27:39

on them. They're like, Also, you're kind of looking

27:41

too close to me. That's just a building. I'm

27:44

not looking at the motherfucker's inside there. That's

27:46

a building, and that's a check. And you're

27:48

like, why are you looking so close? There

27:51

were people in there. No,

27:54

no, no, you buy a property for the passive income

27:57

with the tenant. That's why I have a man

28:00

this company a right. Come on now, I

28:02

didn't kick anyone out. I hired a person

28:04

to kick something. That's a different energy.

28:06

If you want to be broke, keep zooming in, zooming

28:10

in. All

28:12

right, we're gonna take a break. We'll be back with more,

28:14

my mama told me, and more miles great, and

28:27

we are back. This

28:33

is one. Guys were like, step

28:39

into the bank like ha ha ha

28:43

ha ha ha ha ha

28:46

ha ha ha ha ha

28:50

ha. Yep,

28:55

there it is. We're back. It's our longest

28:57

drop yet we're still here with Miles. Great,

29:00

are still talking about the dangers and

29:02

the joys of enjoying drugs and

29:04

uh the possible pitfalls that

29:07

that the evil white man has cooked into

29:09

that experience. Yeah, I'd

29:13

love to kick into some of this research

29:15

with you. You have a fair amount of research that

29:17

I'd love to to talk about with you. And and

29:20

before we get into it, I want to preface it

29:22

a little bit that obviously there

29:24

are plenty of podcasts out in the world, and this

29:26

is more for the listeners than you, Miles, but there

29:28

are plenty of podcasts out there for you, dear

29:30

listener, that can walk you through all

29:32

the careful specifics about the U. S. Government

29:35

and how they bought tons and tons of cocaine

29:38

as a secret tool for helping to fund foreign

29:40

wars, and then that led to a surplus

29:43

of cocaine in America, which then led

29:45

to the crack epidemic, which ultimately landed

29:48

millions of black men and women in

29:50

jails. Right, Like, podcasts do that

29:52

shit already. I am not Henry

29:54

Lewis Gates. I don't give a funk that much

29:56

to give you the history lesson. Instead,

29:59

what I think would be more exciting is

30:01

for us to dig into some of the propaganda

30:04

related to drugs and drug paraphernalia

30:07

that sort of shaped the way that we understand

30:09

the world. Sure. So

30:13

one of the things that I thought was particularly

30:16

interesting is that I and

30:18

I did not know this was that weed,

30:21

up until nineteen thirty seven

30:24

was totally legal in the United

30:26

States. I had no idea. Yeah,

30:29

Okay, it wasn't like through

30:32

prescription or something. First it was like the first

30:34

restriction they had, and then it became fully

30:36

prohibited. And so not only was

30:38

it was it, yes, you're absolutely corrected,

30:41

was through prescription. But it wasn't just that

30:43

like, oh, they prescribed you some weed. Cannabis

30:47

as it was formally mainly known

30:49

as cannabis was in almost

30:51

every fucking drug that like, it

30:54

was just an ingredient that they included,

30:57

the same way fucking saturated fat

30:59

is just guarantee and everything.

31:02

You. Yeah,

31:04

it was high fruit past cord, sir, but

31:07

it was it was cannabis at the time, or

31:09

in this case maybe MSG because like

31:11

it gives a little flavor, you know, you

31:13

know, like it's not gonna hit unless you got

31:15

weed in Yeah, you gotta yeah,

31:19

so it's it's in every drug you can

31:21

buy over the counter. Under the counter,

31:24

all the drugs have weed in

31:26

it until the Marijuana Tacks

31:28

Act of nineteen thirty seven. And

31:31

part of the reason that they say that this Marijuana

31:33

Tacks Act happened it is not because

31:36

they realized that weed was dangerous,

31:38

but because there were other competing drugs

31:41

that sort of offered the same

31:44

experience of like of healing

31:46

that cannabis could offer, and

31:49

those companies pushed with the government

31:51

to basically get weed out of competition.

31:54

They didn't want weed like cannabis

31:57

to be the thing, so they pushed

31:59

themselves forward and paid off government

32:02

officials to make marijuana now

32:04

a taxable offense. Mm

32:06

hmm, Okay, this

32:09

is kind of like like

32:11

the Hemp Conspiracy essentially tell

32:14

this is more to deal with. Well, there's this.

32:17

This is something actually I just fucking had

32:19

to blow my own mind because Jack Herrara

32:21

wrote that book like The Emperor Has No Clothes

32:23

or whatever it's calling sort of like sort of a seminal

32:25

weed text talking about the Hemp

32:27

Conspiracy was essentially saying that the

32:30

prohibition of cannabis was

32:32

because of du Pont and other

32:34

companies trying to create nylon or

32:37

synthetic fabrics, and they had just figured

32:39

out how to separate hemp and the fibers

32:42

and all that ship. But actually

32:44

it turns out that wasn't true. I

32:47

thought that ship was true for the longest

32:49

time because the sort of the the sort of

32:52

three points that he lays out of the main ones is sort

32:54

of that like Andrew Mellon, who was I

32:56

think the Secretary of the Treasury directed

32:58

somebody like because he had a stake in

33:01

a specific company that was gonna from

33:03

DuPont or whatever. That's why he wanted this

33:05

to happen, which wasn't really true. A lot of historians

33:08

can't say that he had that sort of financial

33:10

connection, so that was like dubious

33:13

and just like the other things were just sort of like a

33:16

lot of historians who focused on how these

33:18

people invested their money, like the money doesn't

33:20

quite add up the way they said it does. Because they also

33:22

said Hurst had a big interest as well

33:24

because they owned Timber. But Hurst

33:26

was actually in a lot of debt at the time, so there

33:29

was yeah,

33:32

although of course he of course he

33:35

helped with the propaganda aspect, but that

33:37

that financial connection. Wasn't there?

33:39

Really what it boils down to, it's like all this other

33:41

ship, it was just racism. There you

33:43

go, and you know what I mean, I'm so glad

33:46

you said that. But this white guy writes the book

33:48

and it's like, man, you know, because DuPonts

33:51

fucking wants the hemp, but no, man,

33:54

racism. The more important

33:57

element of this marijuana attacks

33:59

that that happened, and I think you're you're putting

34:01

it perfectly, is that mari

34:03

marijuana was not what they

34:06

originally called it. They called it cannabis.

34:08

But then after the Mexican Revolution,

34:11

there's this massive influx of Mexican

34:13

people coming into the country, mainly

34:16

in like Texas, Louisiana, all these

34:18

southern states, and so they want

34:20

to start controlling that population,

34:23

and they introduce a bunch

34:25

of propagandists suggesting that cannabis

34:29

causes people of color to go crazy,

34:31

specifically Mexicans to be violent

34:34

and dangerous, and so part of it

34:36

is them just trying to control this population.

34:38

So now they start telling people the thing

34:40

that they've been enjoying in every drug

34:43

that they've had up to this point is marijuana,

34:45

and marijuana fucking makes you go nuts

34:49

and like, yeah, all the all kinds of ridiculous

34:52

stories, losing their minds,

34:54

killing their family with a hatchet, because

34:57

yeah, I'm pretty sure the first drug

34:59

arrest in calif Arena were of Mexicans in l

35:01

a in nineteen like fourteen or

35:03

something like. It's it's

35:06

all. It's all based on oppressing

35:08

people of color with whatever, you

35:11

know, sensational thing they compare with

35:13

the news. Uh, and at that time

35:15

it would be that or you know, protecting the virtue

35:17

of white womanhood. Yes, you gotta

35:20

keep those white pusses safe, because

35:23

these Mexicans they could do horrible things. So

35:25

these white pussons, if you don't control

35:27

them and beat the you don't want

35:29

that. You don't want that. Folks at home,

35:31

you don't want that. This, apparently,

35:34

this is super interesting for me, is the

35:36

exact same playbook that they used

35:38

with opium and Chinese people.

35:40

That when there was a massive influx of Chinese

35:43

people in this country, they outlawed opium

35:45

under the same premise that opium makes

35:47

you go crazy and it makes you do all this violent,

35:50

dangerous ship and it was just a way

35:52

of cracking down on a bunch of Chinese people

35:54

and putting them in prisons or kicking them out

35:56

of the country. Yeah, because at the

35:58

first drug laws were

36:01

against opium of target

36:04

Chinese people, and like they you

36:06

know, the whole thing was sort of known that it was

36:08

done for that reason, not really because

36:10

out of a public benefit, but as

36:12

a way just to fucking you know, put the brakes

36:15

on uh, this immigrant

36:17

community exactly. And so this

36:19

all connects, and this is the most

36:22

popular work relating to anti

36:24

drug campaigns. To refer

36:27

madness, I'm sure you've heard of Reefer

36:29

Madness. It's it's uh.

36:31

I watched it, or at least as

36:33

much of it as I could stomach. It's one of the worst

36:36

things I've ever seen in my life. Truly

36:38

a horrible film. That's uh,

36:40

not because of what it's saying. I don't give

36:42

a funk one where or the other. It's just poorly made

36:44

and not enjoyable to watch in any

36:47

way. But Reefer Madness, for those

36:49

of you that don't know, is an hour long

36:51

film that shows how marijuana

36:53

they spelled it with an H at this point.

36:56

They weren't respectful enough

36:58

to uh to Mexican people in Spanish.

37:00

They even spell it the way that they spell it, but

37:03

marijuana is public Enemy

37:05

number one. The opening credits read, and

37:07

this is just part of them. But the opening credits

37:09

read, its first effect is sudden, violent,

37:12

uncontrollable laughter. Then comes

37:15

dangerous hallucinations, space

37:17

expands, time slows

37:19

down, almost stand still. Fixed

37:22

ideas come next, conjuring

37:24

up monstrous extravagances,

37:27

followed by emotional disturbances,

37:30

the loss of all power to resist physical

37:32

emotions, leading often to acts

37:35

of shocking violence, ending often

37:38

in incurable insanity.

37:41

Wow wow, really

37:44

really really I remember, I feel like my only

37:47

it's like one of those things I've only seen like an

37:49

isolated maybe forty seconds

37:52

of where it's like this, Like one white woman was

37:54

like it's

37:56

like looking on Goofy and ship and I'm like I

37:58

just remember being seeing it and

38:00

saying, nobody thinks this could

38:02

be real. I mean, I'm sure back then it's different,

38:04

but like I remember thinking, you know,

38:07

what the fuck? How

38:09

how we've never even seen anybody like this? That's

38:12

the wild part is like they're truly

38:14

is zero evidence of people becoming

38:16

murderers from this thing that They're like,

38:19

they truly want us to just believe people

38:21

are manic and running the streets and chopping

38:23

heads off, and that's not what it

38:26

is. It's part of what they're saying

38:28

is totally true. You do become

38:31

very silly and uh sometimes

38:34

not able to control some of your

38:36

like, uh, extravagances.

38:39

I guess if if that's the word you want to

38:41

use it. But that ship ain't threatening, that's just that's

38:44

just a fun time. Yeah, they're see they're

38:46

describing like a like a black turn

38:48

up, control

38:50

their extravagances. What

38:53

you hating for? What the fund does that mean?

38:57

Because your ship is so dry over there?

39:00

Get that? Oh my god, they're extravagance, the

39:02

fun up, and that is at its core,

39:05

so much of what this is be it be it

39:07

uh the Chinese people that they're they're

39:10

trying to steal opium from the Mexican people

39:12

that they're trying to still marijuana from, ultimately

39:14

leading to the Black people that they're trying to steal literally

39:17

everything from like it. It truly

39:19

is just y'all don't get what we're doing,

39:22

and therefore your your criminalizing

39:24

it because it's foreign or scary

39:27

or looks more fun than you know how to

39:29

have, right exactly. And

39:32

it's interesting it falls into a pattern where

39:34

like the first countries that had like weed

39:36

prohibition are all uh places

39:39

where white countries formerly ruled

39:41

over black people. It's weird. It's

39:43

weird how that works out. Who know, Okay,

39:46

I don't know. Maybe there's something there. I don't know, maybe not, I

39:49

don't know. Hey, that's not this podcast

39:53

as a different podcast. Listen to that one. I

39:56

will specula come here.

39:59

I start did looking into the

40:02

first sort of anti drug campaigns,

40:04

like television ad campaigns, because

40:07

reefer Madness was more of like this film

40:09

that they would show in schools and ship. But

40:11

apparently the first anti drug campaign

40:13

was one of the most famous ones to just say

40:16

no campaign from Nancy Reagan. Again,

40:19

we're talking about Ronald Reagan. Nancy Reagan

40:21

to the lady he laid with, it's it's

40:24

uh. It comes in the early eighties, if

40:26

anybody's wondering. She also is a piece

40:28

of ship. And they basically used

40:31

this as a national

40:33

campaign sponsored by the government

40:36

as a way of monitoring the

40:38

drugs flowing in and out of black communities.

40:41

That's the whole deal. Mhmm, isn't

40:43

it her just saying like just it's her right,

40:45

just yeah,

40:49

just saying that like again,

40:51

tired, tired, Yes that you really

40:54

thought? That's what? Come on? Now? Uh?

40:57

Who was it that did? Um? Was it Darren Aronofsky

41:00

who did like anti meth commercials a few

41:02

years ago? So I if

41:04

you're referring to the Montana meth

41:06

project, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So

41:08

that comes in the the uh in

41:11

the early two thousand's uh

41:13

where basically meth Apparently Montana

41:16

was so overrun with meth that,

41:19

uh, this dude interjects like

41:21

a five hudred thousand dollars or

41:23

a million dollars into a campaign where

41:26

they make these horrifying videos

41:29

that are commercial ads, basically

41:31

like people beating the ship out of their mothers

41:34

and waking up in showers with like blood

41:37

all over themselves and then at the end

41:39

it's like, hey, don't do meth, You'll end up like this.

41:41

And that was like the whole ad campaign.

41:44

Yeah, those were like what I'm saying

41:46

is like those ones fucking hit, you

41:49

know what I mean, Nancy Reagan

41:51

being like just say no,

41:54

It's like come on, because I

41:56

remember those. I remember being like because that was like

41:59

when you had to like down a quick time video.

42:03

Yeah exactly. And I was like, Yo, you gotta see the

42:05

wold the funk up part.

42:08

You were sitting there smoking while you're watching it, like

42:15

real, so

42:19

one of the things. And I'm glad you brought that up

42:21

because Nancy's campaign

42:23

and most of the the campaigns

42:26

for like anti drug ship throughout

42:28

the eighties and nineties were hugely unsuccessful.

42:32

That like, they start off with these

42:34

like just say no campaigns telling

42:36

people to basically maintain total

42:38

abstinence away from drugs,

42:40

including that infamous this is your

42:43

Brain on Drugs UH commercial,

42:45

and UH I even found like there's

42:48

there's a drug commercial

42:50

with McGruff the crime Dog where he's

42:52

singing UH song

42:55

and playing the piano telling people not to

42:57

do drugs. Um, there's one

42:59

where the Ninja Turtles call people dorks

43:02

for not if you deal drugs. I

43:05

don't want that. No, it hurt my feelings

43:07

to say that the Ninja Turtles were acting like that.

43:10

And then finally Pee Wee Herman

43:12

had an ad out against crack

43:14

cocaine uh and apparently

43:17

his dick was out the entire time. They

43:19

didn't show his lower half, but he was just beaten

43:21

off and being like kids don't do crack wild

43:25

ship, guys like

43:28

fuck. But

43:32

they basically spend all this money to

43:34

get kids not to do drugs, and then all

43:36

the research shows that it's completely

43:38

ineffective. And so then in

43:40

the early two thousands, they start to change

43:43

their their tune and they make it

43:45

less about like just abstinence

43:47

from drugs, but more about like trying to

43:49

make people criminals from doing

43:52

drugs. So they start getting mean about the ship,

43:54

which is where the Montana

43:57

Meth Projects sort of interjects itself.

43:59

Right, wow, So I like how

44:01

it's seeing. That first starts off with a parent

44:04

being like, come on, come on, guys, knock

44:07

it off with the drugs. Take it from me,

44:09

some fucking loser perspect

44:13

and then when they don't listen, you're like, okay,

44:15

so now we have to turn it up, all right, so I gotta

44:17

beat your Okay, Yeah, you

44:19

want to see what prison looks like. We

44:23

see the inside of your butt hole a little bit. I'm

44:28

you want to goof around, boof around? What

44:31

does that even mean? Why are you talking like that,

44:34

my chemistry teacher? So

44:38

they again find out that none of this

44:40

ship works. It doesn't actually make

44:43

people stop doing drugs,

44:46

and then finally in two thousand and twelve,

44:48

the national government admits that

44:51

the ship doesn't work, that all the research,

44:53

all the complaints, all the people identifying

44:55

all of this stuff is racist, are

44:57

correct, and they stop doing that. No

45:00

commercials for anti drug campaigns,

45:03

they don't exist really anymore, except

45:05

there was a period during the Trump administration

45:08

where he created a campaign for

45:11

four hundred thousand dollars that was an anti

45:13

opiate opioid campaign, which

45:16

naturally makes sense. He was trying to say white

45:18

people from themselves, right exactly.

45:21

It's just funny because like the War on it's it's

45:23

so misguided because they're

45:26

spending all the money in this other just vapor

45:28

were when really it's about supporting

45:30

people, yes, to prevent drug use.

45:33

It's like when like Nancy Pelosi learning

45:35

the kine cloth and the rotunda. I

45:37

didn't need that. Yeah, it's like, why don't

45:39

you go and actually pass some fucking laws

45:43

because that's your that's Nancy, that's Nancy

45:45

Reagan saying just saying no, you

45:48

know, Nancy, you're

45:50

you're seventy something years old. I don't

45:53

need this. You're not healing

45:55

anybody with this exactly real

45:58

ship. Do some real ship, don't can pump

46:00

fake with that nonsense, just like and

46:03

then do you realize they're gonna

46:05

say, in fucking sixty years from now,

46:08

you know it really things moved

46:10

at a pace that was really insured

46:13

horrible outcomes. This this

46:16

you know, this committee has determined

46:18

after looking at the data, Like yeah, and

46:21

that's what it's gonna be, and it's gonna be such an insult.

46:23

But anyway, that's what this dumb ship is.

46:26

You threw your money away on a fucking big bird telling

46:28

me not to fucking smoke krills, Like

46:33

yeah, it's it's exactly right. You

46:36

hired you spent all the money

46:38

thinking that this was going to justify

46:40

the war that you created, and it doesn't.

46:42

It hasn't healed anything. And what they

46:45

did find out this Ohio State

46:47

University, which I don't respect

46:49

that place, but one of the things

46:51

that they did, I'm a Michigan

46:54

man, c l A right, uh

46:56

yeah, I'll never forgive you either, will

46:59

be got ours And then yeah, no, I was happy

47:02

to see it. That said. One of the

47:04

things that I discovered in in sort

47:06

of like unpacking some of this ship, Ohio State

47:09

University actually did a study where

47:11

they discovered that the only thing that actually

47:13

worked to keep kids from doing

47:15

drugs was not somebody being like,

47:18

just say no, don't do drugs. All this other

47:20

ship was just showing cool, regular

47:22

ass kids not doing fucking

47:25

drugs. So that's when you start inserting

47:27

all these commercials where it's like a cool

47:30

kid and he's skateboarding and then somebody's like,

47:32

hey, you trying to hit this and he's like, nah, dog, and then

47:34

he does a fucking ali and everybody's

47:36

like, hell, yeah, I want to be like that, just

47:41

did a grind on the handrail and

47:43

then to join out the kid's mouth, right,

47:46

but he ain't even trying to teach a lesson and he's

47:48

not being a fucking dweeb about it. Nobody

47:50

wants and that's what they don't understand is

47:52

nobody wants to be a cop. We're not fucking

47:55

gonna join your campaign, Nancy.

47:58

We just don't. If we don't want to do well, we're

48:00

not gonna do it. If we do, bitch, not

48:02

you getting on your knees and being just say

48:05

no or whatever it is isn't gonna stop me exactly.

48:08

It's just that. But yeah, they're just all they had

48:10

to do was normalize kids

48:12

having like agency, yes, and not

48:14

succumbing to be a pressure, which is like, yeah, okay,

48:16

you mean teaching people nurture

48:19

it, showing them by example is what you

48:21

mean? Like, again, what the funk?

48:23

Why did you have Big Bird in

48:26

a knife fight in Harlem over

48:28

like a fucking spider bag? What the

48:31

funk was that? Can I tell you my

48:33

my absolute favorite of some of the

48:36

anti drug commercials that I found, And

48:38

when I say favorite, I I mean that it's

48:40

the most fucked up of all of the ones that

48:43

I saw. Is this one where there

48:45

is this black dude right, and he's like he's

48:47

clearly like in a gang. It's a bunch of gangs.

48:49

Ship happened in him around him is like late

48:52

eighties, early nineties like ship and there's

48:54

like gangship happening around him. And he

48:56

looks at the camera. He goes, hey, yo, tell

48:58

your parents to leave the room. And then

49:01

he starts walking right, and he's looking

49:03

at the camera the whole time. He's talking to you at home,

49:05

Miles, and he says, he says, tell your

49:07

parents to leave the room. All right, They're gone.

49:10

Cool, you want to buy some drugs? You're

49:12

trying to get high. You're trying to ruin your

49:14

fucking life. And as he's walking,

49:17

this is where it gets super fucked up. As he's walking,

49:19

he slowly transforms into

49:21

an actual snake, Like he

49:24

physically transforms and his

49:26

head becomes the head of a snake and his

49:28

tongue starts getting along like a snake. And

49:31

then at the end he's like, I won't

49:33

sell you poison. And it's just

49:35

it's a just a nigga turning into a snake,

49:38

and we're not supposed to feel like this is the

49:40

type of racism and out of thank

49:43

you so much, again and again. When

49:45

people don't realize how they internalize

49:47

white supremacy, it's saying commercials like

49:49

that as a kid, where you saw

49:51

the anamorphous the hood drug

49:54

dealer version and then

49:56

you wonder why black people you are like, I don't yeah,

49:58

oh wow, I do have an jerk reaction. Yeah

50:01

that's what That's what they're steady feeding people.

50:04

Yeah, nigga snake was a possibility

50:06

in your head now because of this commercial,

50:09

right, and you're trying to be like, but I really

50:11

like Michael Jordan and Whitney Houston

50:14

also this snake.

50:17

God, I don't know what to do. My feelings

50:19

are mixed. Which

50:22

one is it? I'll leave you well,

50:24

we'll leave it to the commercial. With this, I

50:27

think it's it's an important sort of

50:29

caveat that I I should have thrown in earlier.

50:31

But also is is just a great

50:34

framing reference for anybody who's sort

50:36

of is in doubt about the positions

50:39

of like some of our leaders and their decision

50:41

making. Right that, like Ronald Reagan,

50:44

besides being potentially the the

50:46

literal the creator

50:49

of the crack epidemic, is also

50:52

a just outright racist.

50:54

And for years White America and

50:56

sort of like Republicans and moderates

50:58

and all these people have tree did him like he

51:01

wasn't that and it's not it's more complicated

51:03

than that, whatever, whatever, whatever. But recently

51:06

and in the last couple of years, they they

51:09

basically unpacked some tapes.

51:11

They went into the vault and found some actual

51:13

types of Reagan doing some racist ship talking

51:16

to Nixon. I don't know if you've ever heard this tape,

51:18

but he's talking to Richard Nixon on the

51:20

phone and they're having a conversation about,

51:23

uh, the African leaders in the U. N Where

51:26

he goes on a long rant describing

51:28

them as monkeys and saying that they're

51:31

not even comfortable yet wearing shoes

51:34

and basically complaining about the African

51:36

leaders and their relationship

51:39

with footwear. And Richard Nixon

51:41

is having a ball of a time. He thinks it's hysterical.

51:45

Damn. I mean makes sense that they

51:47

were just how yucking it up over that kind

51:49

of ship. Honestly, it was pretty funny

51:52

ship. When I listened back to it, I was like, Oh,

51:54

this motherfucker guy jokes, but I also

51:56

hurtful and also to know

51:58

that's but unfortunately, and that's the that's

52:01

the lens through which our leaders

52:03

govern this country. Yes, so many

52:05

of them. And even when people talk about like

52:08

oh I can't believe, you know, like

52:11

how could Joe Biden be bad or whatever,

52:13

just think about the generation of people that

52:15

you look at photos where it's a bunch of white

52:18

teenagers screaming at a black student

52:20

entering that they're in their

52:23

seventy right, Okay,

52:27

they're still part of the workforce, Yes,

52:30

they are alive right now.

52:32

A lot of these motherfucker's are holding

52:35

office and ship and are leading companies

52:37

and are running municipalities. So

52:40

don't tell me for like if people forget

52:42

that so easily, you know, just like

52:44

you could anyway. Just but I think

52:47

I think you're saying exactly what

52:49

I what they needed to hear. At its

52:51

core, that's the danger of all

52:54

of these campaigns. It's not that Nancy

52:56

Reagan saying just say no to drugs.

52:59

On its sur this is an evil

53:01

idea. Telling children that like

53:04

they should be more responsible around

53:06

these sometimes dangerous substances

53:10

is okay. But when you underlay

53:13

that with a bunch of biases

53:15

towards communities, towards colors,

53:18

towards even economic

53:20

positions in this country, you are

53:23

almost certainly going to introduce

53:25

a type of hate and prejudice

53:27

and violence that can't be uncooked

53:30

right exactly. And we'll take who

53:33

knows how long to undo yes, because

53:35

people are still we still to this day can

53:37

see how how much

53:39

of a visual bias even

53:41

exists for people just to merely appear,

53:44

you know, a black body in a space

53:47

where all nigga snakes, And it's thanks to

53:49

Nancy Reagan as far as I'm concerned,

53:54

We're gonna take a break. We'll be back with more Miles

53:56

Gray and more my mama told me, we

54:10

are back. People

54:15

who were en slavery wished that they have curbside

54:17

service at Applebee's. Yeah, we're back

54:19

here with more. More's

54:23

great more. And my mama told me,

54:25

we're still talking about these anti drug

54:28

campaigns and the dangers and

54:30

violence that it creates in black communities.

54:33

Did you enjoy the Don Lemon dropt? Yes,

54:36

I mean it's true,

54:38

it's true. You can't argue with that objectively,

54:42

with a slave saying no to Applebee's

54:45

curbside curbside service. Are you fucking

54:47

kidding me? Yes? Okay, fine,

54:50

okay, yeah, you got me. Don See,

54:54

you're so good. That's why they love a

54:57

journalist. I'll tell you that right

54:59

now. Capital j all

55:01

right, let's play a game. I have a

55:03

very fun game. This is a first

55:06

time game for us. It's a brand new

55:08

game that I'm calling. Uh

55:10

that nigg is a cop. That's

55:15

that nig is a cop.

55:17

It's a fun game where I am going to actually

55:20

read to you. Uh. Famous

55:22

quotes legendary quotes from

55:25

Harry J. Anslinger, who was

55:27

the director of the FBN the Federal

55:30

Bureau of Narcotics from nineteen

55:32

thirty until nineteen sixty two

55:35

famed racist Harry

55:37

j Anslinger. I'm gonna read you some of my favorite

55:40

quotes that he had out in the world, and I just would

55:42

love for you to unpack some of your feelings on

55:45

said quotes. Just whatever comes to mind

55:47

after we talk him through. Sound good? Yep?

55:52

Hell yeah. Here's

55:55

here's an easy one to

55:57

to start off with. He says, for

56:00

makes darkies think they're as good

56:03

as white men. Oh

56:15

my god, facts,

56:20

you know what I mean. Yeah, it opens

56:22

you up and you realize you can you can

56:25

unshackle yourself from limited

56:28

thinking as good. Oh

56:30

my god. That is so. Do

56:34

you know when like what year that quote was like

56:36

occurred. It's it's somewhere between nine

56:39

and nineteen sixty two. I don't know specifically.

56:41

I can just imagine how like at

56:45

that time, that's just such a hot

56:47

selling point for your for your like

56:49

anti marijuana laws to you know why,

56:52

because they start they when they smoke it, they think

56:54

they're as good as white people. Well, you

56:56

know what's funny about old Harry j Anslinger

56:59

is that he actually was so racist

57:01

that even other races were like bro chill,

57:04

like like take come on, man,

57:07

you gotta like not that that they

57:09

didn't agree with his points, but he would take public

57:11

in a way that it's like, yo, yeah,

57:14

you're making a hot ring. Yeah, we we like

57:16

this. Applebee's many slaves

57:20

wish that they could have Kirkston service at apple

57:22

Beaks. All right, well, don it's

57:24

okay when you say, which,

57:27

weirdly enough, was the second Harry j Anselinger

57:30

quote. Here's

57:33

a here's another fun one. There

57:35

are one hundred thousand total marijuana

57:38

smokers in the US, and most

57:40

are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos,

57:42

and entertainers. Their satanic

57:45

music, jazz, and swing result

57:47

from marijuana usage. This marijuana

57:50

causes white women to seek sexual

57:52

relations with Negroes, entertainers,

57:55

and any others. Mm hmmm

57:57

mmm exactly. I love

57:59

that that's nailed

58:02

on truth, because what you don't realize

58:04

is, uh, for your simple mind,

58:07

that all of this ship is just called charisma,

58:10

and that is why the women

58:12

are coming after us, okay, and the

58:15

talent that are is unleashed through expression.

58:17

It's not because we're repressed and

58:20

tying up to wearing the tightest fucking

58:22

underwear to prevent erections and ship. We're

58:25

out here just living, baby, just

58:29

the I mean, it's

58:31

just funny to see how it's really truly

58:34

this idea of they they're completely

58:36

in awe of the joy

58:39

that maybe these like communities of color they're

58:41

looking at like live with. It's like they have like

58:44

dance and stuff, Mexicans

58:46

play instruments, have a good

58:49

time and don't get me started, Harlem,

58:53

hell's going on? You know it's they it's

58:56

a it's a weird like this weird, this so

58:58

rife with like white and security, you know what

59:00

I mean. It is. And the other thing that has

59:02

always bothered me about a lot of this is is

59:05

how much they think that we

59:08

cherish white women also. And

59:10

I cannot express enough how

59:13

indifferent I am to like

59:15

the special mixture

59:17

of whatever they think you think

59:20

white women are. It ain't that deep. I

59:22

like pussy. It ain't got nothing to do with

59:24

her being white. If I'm chasing

59:26

a thing, it truly is just a primal

59:29

urge that, yes, maybe I need to unpack

59:31

as a human being. But it ain't got nothing

59:33

to do with her being special in that right because

59:36

she's white. I bet it started

59:38

off with like some white dude who did

59:40

not think much of his wife's looks. But to

59:43

compliment her, he was like, and you

59:45

see, they'll go after women like my hell

59:47

And because

59:50

this is obviously people

59:52

trying to get it, Helen, we all know that. And

59:55

she's like, thank you, Randall,

59:58

thank you, and then it's all now, it's

1:00:00

all fun. That just adds four years

1:00:02

to their marriage. Is this weird backhanded

1:00:05

compliment where he's like, I don't

1:00:07

like her, but black women apparently would suck

1:00:09

her. Yeah, black

1:00:11

men, I guess pushing into her. And that's yeah,

1:00:14

we gotta stop that. Who

1:00:16

and who else could love her? But me?

1:00:21

Me and a stupid black monkey.

1:00:23

Who else could love this woman besides

1:00:26

the two of us? Who? Well, all

1:00:29

right, here's one that isn't inherently

1:00:32

racist. He said. If if the hideous

1:00:34

monster Frankenstein came

1:00:37

face to face with marijuana, he would

1:00:39

drop dead of fright. Uh

1:00:43

shut, you're tired, ass,

1:00:46

Frankenstein. But

1:00:48

what the Frankenstein. That's

1:00:51

the best you can come up with, you fucking

1:00:53

lazy motherfucker. Really Frankenstein

1:00:56

met we'd he'd

1:00:59

run away the fuck

1:01:01

up For what the fund is that Frankenstein

1:01:05

met weed? He would say, Oh, I

1:01:07

wish you never brought me to life. Please

1:01:10

kill me now, And also

1:01:13

like, what if I smoked it, though,

1:01:16

maybe I'll be a super monster or

1:01:18

some ship. If Frankenstein met

1:01:20

Weed, he would say, well, technically I'm Frankenstein's

1:01:23

monster. Frankenstein was the doctor. Anyway,

1:01:26

Please keep that away from me. It's dangerous.

1:01:29

Please, And we don't we all know how horrific

1:01:31

Frankenstein is, right, ladies,

1:01:35

like you're talking about it. But

1:01:37

again, yeah, I wonder do you just see

1:01:39

the how like lame the attacks on drugs

1:01:42

have been over the years. It

1:01:44

started off with people like, oh

1:01:46

man, we'd so bad

1:01:49

Frankenstein would be fucking

1:01:51

shook, and now we're

1:01:53

at like, you know, fucking whatever

1:01:56

it is, uh, smashing the egg

1:01:58

over the stove and being black

1:02:01

men will turn into crack pipes that will

1:02:03

be inserted in your dre And

1:02:07

I do think at its core, the even

1:02:09

the ability for for him

1:02:11

to humanize Frankenstein more

1:02:14

than the the humans that

1:02:16

he is criminalizing is a

1:02:18

different type of propaganda and violence

1:02:21

and all the sort of like mixed messaging

1:02:24

that to your point, creates an environment

1:02:26

where a bunch of young kids grow up

1:02:28

and still have fear of people who

1:02:30

are the same as them. Yeah, and

1:02:33

you have to think, like all this is because

1:02:35

of the end of slavery? Was

1:02:38

their plan? B was Okay,

1:02:40

well, let's just make life as hard

1:02:43

as possible for these people at

1:02:46

every level, whether that's housing

1:02:49

policies, whether that's the amount

1:02:51

of resources that are allocated to them, whether

1:02:53

that's to education or insidious

1:02:56

messaging through the media. This

1:02:58

will be this is how will you know?

1:03:01

Level the playing field? I guess absolutely,

1:03:04

I'm gonna read you one more. And I'm not sure

1:03:06

that that this one's gonna do anything

1:03:08

that we haven't covered, But it's just a fun one

1:03:11

that, uh that maybe we could just enjoy

1:03:13

on the way out of this bad boy. This last

1:03:15

one says, no one knows when

1:03:18

he places a marijuana cigarette

1:03:20

to his lips whether he will become a

1:03:22

joyous reveler in musical heaven,

1:03:24

a mad, incessant, calm

1:03:27

philosopher, or a murderer.

1:03:30

No one knows. No one knows

1:03:33

or all of them. You know, that's

1:03:35

kind of what's cool, you know what I mean, Let's

1:03:38

see, that's what's that's what's beautiful about it. It's

1:03:40

all about what you bring to it, baby, you know. I

1:03:42

like that, and I do think that's a good thing to

1:03:45

be sending our listeners off with. It is

1:03:47

all about what you bring to it. Yeah.

1:03:49

Absolutely, if you have some you know, um

1:03:52

unchecked baggage so to speak. Uh

1:03:56

check, maybe check that at the counter

1:03:58

before boarding your flight them bags, Yeah,

1:04:01

exactly. You don't want to be you don't want to be way

1:04:03

down with all them bags, is Erica said,

1:04:06

bag lady, what you're doing with all them bags?

1:04:08

Cut it out. You gotta get rid of those

1:04:10

bags and then you can enjoy all the heroin

1:04:13

and cocaine and

1:04:15

methods. Mean that you feel comfortable

1:04:18

enjoying. And if you do it, it's just because

1:04:20

you funk with it and there's nothing and

1:04:23

if it kills you, that's it. That's on you. You still

1:04:25

bitch. No

1:04:28

empathy, No empathy here, No empathy

1:04:30

here, folks, No empathy, but a lot of

1:04:32

care. And that's I think the best way to

1:04:34

end this episode. Miles, we did it, We

1:04:37

did, We did the thing. Could you tell the con

1:04:39

folks at home where they can find you, what cool

1:04:41

ship you have going on? H Yeah,

1:04:43

you can find me on Twitter and Instagram

1:04:46

at Miles of Gray and also

1:04:48

yeah, Daily Zeitgeist is the daily political

1:04:51

cultural comedy, whatever

1:04:53

show just talking whatever is being talked

1:04:55

about. Um Langston, you've

1:04:57

been on it twice now, Yeah, and it's always a

1:05:00

right time. You get to talk about actual

1:05:02

stuff that's happening in the world, but you also

1:05:04

get to laugh about it and not just sort of

1:05:06

pretend like it's funny, but be real

1:05:09

serious about it. You gotta,

1:05:11

yeah, you gotta be able to laugh at this ship. That's the only

1:05:13

way you can be engaged with the news. Yeah, these

1:05:15

days. And also for Fiance.

1:05:17

If you like ninety Day Fiance and you like weed

1:05:20

and you want to, you know, to talk about white

1:05:22

savior behavior, uh, check

1:05:24

out Fance because that's

1:05:26

all we do over there. I love it. Please

1:05:29

listen to both of Miles podcast

1:05:31

follow him and that's always. You can follow me at

1:05:33

Lankston and Kerman and you can send us drops

1:05:36

or or notes or just sweet

1:05:38

little something's whatever it feels

1:05:41

good to you. It can be evil little something. So I don't

1:05:43

get to give a ship to my mama

1:05:45

pod at gmail dot com. And

1:05:47

uh, all right, my bitch as

1:06:00

were racist. They

1:06:03

are also players post the money

1:06:07

versions many turnkey stuff. You know. I

1:06:10

can't tell me about my