Next stop: blood quantum. After that: self-annihilation. Ask any NDN with a CDIB. — Transcript

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1. 0:00What is it now?
2. 0:01>> So, real quick, you are not pro-black
3. 0:03unless you you as a black person look to
4. 0:05your left and look to your right and
5. 0:07your spouse is black.
6. 0:10>> So, the amount of time that's passed
7. 0:13between now and the release of Every
8. 0:16Breath You Take by The Police
9. 0:19is the same amount of time that passed
10. 0:21between the birth of my grandmother and
11. 0:25the inclusion of the phrase till death
12. 0:28or distance do you part in the wedding
13. 0:31vows of black couples. That phrase was
14. 0:33included because just about every slave
15. 0:36was sold at least once in their lifetime
16. 0:39and that would be the end of their
17. 0:41marriages. And the tenuous security of
18. 0:44black marriages didn't end with slavery.
19. 0:47It persisted for several more decades. I
20. 0:50say that to say that black love and
21. 0:53specifically black marriages having the
22. 0:55same security and a relatively equal
23. 0:58footing as white folks is relatively
24. 1:01novel. This is why for those of you who
25. 1:03may not know or simply may not care,
26. 1:06there's such a ferociousness in the
27. 1:08black community about the sacredness of
28. 1:12black couples. That, combined with the
29. 1:14unfortunate reality that far too many
30. 1:17black men attach themselves to non-black
31. 1:20women as a repudiation of black women
32. 1:25leads certain people like this gentleman
33. 1:28to draw the line of pro-blackness at who
34. 1:32your spouse is. The problem with that
35. 1:35line of thinking is that there are lots
36. 1:37of reasonable places where that line
37. 1:40could be drawn and everybody could
38. 1:42decide to draw that line at their own
39. 1:45feet, which is where the people who draw
40. 1:48that line always do. For example,
41. 1:56I mean, I could I I
42. 1:58>> could selfishly decide that you can't be
43. 2:01pro-black if all of your words and
44. 2:04therefore all of your thoughts are in
45. 2:06the language of the invader or
46. 2:10>> What is this?
47. 2:12>> Do you just really like the lower case t
48. 2:16or have you adopted the religion of your
49. 2:19enslaver?
50. 2:21>> Of course I don't say any of this
51. 2:22because I actually believe it. I say it
52. 2:24to illustrate just how absurd it is. Our
53. 2:28ancestors who have fought and bled and
54. 2:31died for our liberation
55. 2:33fought for a liberation where we could
56. 2:35worship how we want and speak how we
57. 2:38want and love whom we want. Freedom does
58. 2:42not come with cages, [clears throat]
59. 2:43especially not those we build for
60. 2:46ourselves.