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Vann R. Newkirk II

👤 Person
40 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

Yeah, so the Second Amendment is supposed to be this thing that protects people from the government. The whole entire ethos of it is you get people, you give them guns, and you give them guns so they can build a militia to protect themselves against tyranny.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

Yeah, so the Second Amendment is supposed to be this thing that protects people from the government. The whole entire ethos of it is you get people, you give them guns, and you give them guns so they can build a militia to protect themselves against tyranny.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

And so you have teachers who are state agents, right, paid by the state, who are taking care of our kids, who have sometimes done bad things to those kids, and you're giving them guns. So, especially in Florida, you have a guy who... was known to use the N-word with his students and was suspended for doing it, you give that guy a gun.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

And so you have teachers who are state agents, right, paid by the state, who are taking care of our kids, who have sometimes done bad things to those kids, and you're giving them guns. So, especially in Florida, you have a guy who... was known to use the N-word with his students and was suspended for doing it, you give that guy a gun.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So what we want to do is challenge people. You know, we want people to read every single article in this issue and come away thinking about something new, something they had never thought about, something they never even fathomed about Dr. King. And what that does as a whole is so many times politicians bring up, or people who have an agenda bring up Dr. King. They quote the dream speech.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So what we want to do is challenge people. You know, we want people to read every single article in this issue and come away thinking about something new, something they had never thought about, something they never even fathomed about Dr. King. And what that does as a whole is so many times politicians bring up, or people who have an agenda bring up Dr. King. They quote the dream speech.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

They do the same thing, okay? He want us to live in a colorblind society where our kids can go to school together. They quote this one part, but they don't quote the part about him being against the Vietnam War. They don't say his speech, his letter from Birmingham jail, where he talks about the white moderate, and nobody asks themselves, am I the white moderate? Right.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

They do the same thing, okay? He want us to live in a colorblind society where our kids can go to school together. They quote this one part, but they don't quote the part about him being against the Vietnam War. They don't say his speech, his letter from Birmingham jail, where he talks about the white moderate, and nobody asks themselves, am I the white moderate? Right.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So nobody, everybody now is pro-King and not racist, but nobody's reading King now for how to be anti-racist.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So nobody, everybody now is pro-King and not racist, but nobody's reading King now for how to be anti-racist.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So I remember when I was in school and I had a teacher who told me straight up that the civil rights movement was victorious, that we won, that we we won. And what I could never reconcile was how did we win if Dr. King was assassinated while protesting? How did we win the civil rights movement?

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So I remember when I was in school and I had a teacher who told me straight up that the civil rights movement was victorious, that we won, that we we won. And what I could never reconcile was how did we win if Dr. King was assassinated while protesting? How did we win the civil rights movement?

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

How are we victorious if while protesting for higher wages for sanitation workers in Memphis, he was assassinated and his poor people's movement was derailed? So I always want to revisit that point. So when I wrote that essay, I was listening to Nina Simone's song, Why the King of Love is Dead. She wrote it three days after he was assassinated.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

How are we victorious if while protesting for higher wages for sanitation workers in Memphis, he was assassinated and his poor people's movement was derailed? So I always want to revisit that point. So when I wrote that essay, I was listening to Nina Simone's song, Why the King of Love is Dead. She wrote it three days after he was assassinated.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

And she's talking about will the country stand or fall? she's talking about a country that seemed then on the verge of an apocalypse. And so I really wanted to go back to that moment and see how we get from that moment, where you're talking about the end of the world, the black community in shambles and tears and unrest and riots, and how you go from there to here in 50 years and say we won.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

And she's talking about will the country stand or fall? she's talking about a country that seemed then on the verge of an apocalypse. And so I really wanted to go back to that moment and see how we get from that moment, where you're talking about the end of the world, the black community in shambles and tears and unrest and riots, and how you go from there to here in 50 years and say we won.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

Well, some studies are showing that that may not be the case. So we've got some studies out from the Economic Policy Institute that are saying that black wealth, black homeownership rates, segregation in schools haven't gone anywhere in 50 years.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

Well, some studies are showing that that may not be the case. So we've got some studies out from the Economic Policy Institute that are saying that black wealth, black homeownership rates, segregation in schools haven't gone anywhere in 50 years.

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So what are we talking about here? We're saying that the gap between blacks and whites now in terms of wealth is just so staggering that it's how do you even build policy to bridge that gap? Education has risen, but our kids are now in schools that are as segregated as they were in 1970. So what are we talking about?

The Daily Show: Ears Edition
TDS Time Machine | How Not to Celebrate MLK Day

So what are we talking about here? We're saying that the gap between blacks and whites now in terms of wealth is just so staggering that it's how do you even build policy to bridge that gap? Education has risen, but our kids are now in schools that are as segregated as they were in 1970. So what are we talking about?

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