BREAKING: SCOTUS DECISION TODAY! Who Gets To Be An American?!

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The Don Lemon Show 1h 9m 9 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 1 month ago
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Don Lemon 0:15
Good evening, everybody. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Hot Topics. We're happy that you're here this morning. We really appreciate you being here. Make sure you hit the like and the thumbs up because it does affect the algorithm. More people become aware of our conversation and our channel. So I am really happy that you are here because there are some major decisions. We'll put it up. Let's put up the Supreme Court right now. There are people gathering outside of the Supreme Court. There are reporters gathering. There are citizens gathering. They're deciding on some major, major decisions. and deciding on who actually gets to become a citizen, who is deserving of citizenship in the United States of America.

What is the Supreme Court deciding this term and why does it matter?

Don Lemon 1:00
So I want to talk to you about something, though, this morning as we get started that is bigger than a court case. It's bigger than a headline. This is really about whether this country is willing to look itself in the mirror and tell the one simple truth. And that simple truth is everything in America runs through black people. I know that sounds weird to some of you. You're like, wait, what are you talking about? But I want you to hear me out, okay? Black people, our pain built half this country, if not more. Our joy built the other half, if not more, together. And every single time we get close to something that looks like full citizenship, full belonging, full personhood, somebody shows up and then they take it away.
Don Lemon 1:40
Today, the Supreme Court could rule on birthright citizenship. And I need you to understand this because this is really important. Because they have been spending months letting you think that this is an immigration story. This is not an immigration story. It is kind of, but it's not really an immigration story. This is a story about Black history. It's a Black history story. wearing an immigration costume is what it is. The 14th Amendment was written in 1868, three years after the Civil War. So this is all after the Civil War. Again, I want you to hear me out because this is important. Again, this is the reason that they don't want you to learn black history because black history is American history.
Don Lemon 2:25
Everyone's like, I'm sure like birthright citizenship, this is about people who are not born in the country and mainly about probably Latino and people from South America and other, Yes and no. They're using black people in America to get to those other ethnicities, those other ethnic groups. The 14th Amendment was written in 1868, that was three years after the Civil War, and it didn't come out of nowhere. It came out of Dred Scott. If you know history, then you know what Dred Scott is. The 1857 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States looked at a man, his name was Dred Scott, And they said, Black people, free or enslaved, were never meant to be citizens. Said that we had no rights that a white man was bound to respect.
Don Lemon 3:20
That was the law of this land. So after the war, after a war that killed more than 600,000 people, after black men fought and died in that war for a country that didn't even consider them human, this nation wrote an amendment to say, never again, never again. And then what happened? Well, they said that never again, you are a full citizen here, full stop, no asterisks. No exceptions. That amendment is reconstruction in writing. OK, that amendment is the blood of black soldiers turned into permanent law. And today, a Supreme Court could carve a hole right through the middle of it. Now, I just want you to follow the pattern with me because this is not new. None of this is new. This is the oldest story in America that's happening right now.
Don Lemon 4:13
It wasn't just that reconstruction got dismantled in the abstract. Look at the actual sequence. Black men got the vote, the 15th Amendment, 1870, and for a brief window, They used it. They elected congressmen, black state legislators, black sheriffs. South Carolina State House had a black majority and in response was immediate. The response was immediate and it was organized. The Klan didn't form randomly, people.

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