The Double Standards of Whiteness-- A Discussion on Black Activism and Charlie Kirk

In this episode of Please Say The Dailey, host Vanisha R. Dailey reflects on the legacy of Assata Shakur, the impact of the Black Panther Party, and the systemic injustices faced by marginalized communities. The conversation delves into the historical context of activism, government opposition, and the media's portrayal of racial issues, particularly in light of recent events surrounding Charlie Kirk. Vanisha emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and the need to address double standards in public outrage and media narratives.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Personal Updates
• 2:10 The Legacy of Assata Shakur
• 5:27 The Black Panther Party: Origins and Mission
• 8:51 Government Opposition and COINTELPRO
• 11:53 Retaliation and the Formation of the Black Liberation Army
• 13:28 Conclusion: The Ongoing Struggle for Justice
• 15:59 Misinformation and Public Perception
• 20:55 Racism in Journalism
• 22:56 The Glorification of Hate
• 25:50 The Second Amendment and Charlie Kirk
• 28:01 Charlie Kirk and Misinformation
• 30:18 Do Your Research
• 30:48 A Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 00: 0:12

You are now tuned in to Vanisha R. Dailey. Please Say the Dailey. Hey, hey y'all! Welcome back to another episode of Please Say the Daily with me as your host, and I go by the name of Vanisha R. Dailey. And this is episode 12. How are you all doing out there? I am well, just trying to balance all of the things between school and personal life happenings. I do have some pretty cool news to share with you all though. Ever since I started this podcast, more than ever, I've been told that I need to become a voice actor of some sort. And after not even two weeks of attempting to venture off into that space, I booked my first narration gig. So now I'll have to be mindful of protecting my voice and not overworking it. But I don't even know how that's actually possible, especially with me always running my mouth about something. Anyway, let's switch up the vibe here because I've been needing to get some things off my chest. But before I do that, please go ahead and click the follow button on this podcast so that you can keep up with me in the future. There has been so much that has happened over the past couple of weeks, and boy, oh boy, do we need to have a conversation about it because we are really seeing some heavy division within society right now. So let's get into it. As soon as I got on Instagram a few days ago, I discovered the heartbreaking news that Assata Shakur had passed away. When I saw it, I was really hoping that it was just a rumor, because that wouldn't be the first time that certain rumors about Assata's existence has happened, and I'll explain why here shortly. But unfortunately, her passing away had been confirmed by her one and only child, her daughter, Pakuya Shakur, on social media. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Assata Shakur, she was a freedom fighter, initially a member of the Black Panther Party, and later became one of the most prominent members of the Black Liberation Army. She was also a godmother to the late West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur. She had been convicted of first-degree murder and life in prison for the death of a police officer. This was a situation that had taken place on a turnpike in New Jersey when two officers stopped the car that Assata and two other members of the Black Liberation Army were in. This resulted in two people being killed, one of the BLA members and one of the police officers. Assata continued to maintain her innocence throughout her life. She said that she had been framed, and based off of how other prominent black figures had been wrongfully accused by authorities during the same exact period, being held up on charges and serving time behind bars, I have reason to believe that there is a good chance that she was probably telling the truth. There had not been any evidence of her firing a gun. A neurosurgeon by the name of Dr. Arthur Davidson, associate professor of surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, testified that it would have been practically impossible for her to shoot a gun under these circumstances. She had been shot in her right armpit and left shoulder, which caused her to be paralyzed in one of her arms. Her clavicle bone was broken and a major nerve was damaged from the bullet impact. The doctor added that she was innocent, and that her injuries confirmed that her arms were raised when she had gotten shot by the officers. This was an extremely controversial case that scholars and activists have said was a politically motivated anti-black case. And despite all of this information, they still sent her to prison. She was there for a couple of years. She was tortured and even put in solitary confinement in the basement of an all-men's prison. Talk about unethical. She eventually escaped with the help of two other members of the Black Liberation Army who were also affiliated with the Black Panthers. It was later discovered that Assata had been living in exile in Havana, Cuba. She was granted asylum by Fidel Castro. And even though she no longer lived in the States, that did not stop her from continuing to be vocal about her activism. And she did that up until she passed away there in Cuba. In Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton created the Black Panther Party in 1966. They were anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, and anti-racism, and had 48 active chapters all across the United States from Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago. And I was surprised to learn that they eventually had a few chapters overseas as well. These young activists were outraged by the fact that the civil rights movement did not change the issues that Black Americans were facing at the hand of oppression and police violence. They were ready to hold politicians accountable and were willing to challenge police forces for what they believed in. They were very organized as a group and had an unbelievable amount of power, intelligence, and reach. We have not seen the mobilization of black activism in this way since then. And after thinking about it for a bit, I truly believe that it's because black people of the civil rights movement were largely Pan-Africanists. There was power in the unification of Black people from all over the globe. And that's why we haven't seen influential movements like these since, because we're so divided now. The members were well versed on their mission and what they were fighting for. Some of their focuses were education, full access to job opportunities, fair and impartial justice in the court system, access to land ownership, housing, and the ability to feed their communities. Contrary to popular belief, the Black Panthers were not a group based on violence, nor were they a hate group. They were just very focused and passionate about their mission. Freedom, equality, and justice for black people who had historically been mistreated in American society. They had a newspaper that reached over 100,000 people across state lines, and within this newspaper, they shared the stories of black people from all over that were dealing with racial violence and inequality. They educated the readers by teaching them how to spot political propaganda that was set in place to purposefully misinform, mislead, and redirect them from their focus. According to PBS.org, they had community survival programs that were there to develop positive institutions to help give access to viable resources in their communities. They had over 60 programs dedicated to this cause. They made sure to help other black people get registered to vote. They set up medical stations. They even had community food drives. We have the Black Panthers to thank for the free lunch programs that we see in public schools today. These black folks organizing in a successful manner amongst their own in a country that has continued to set obstacles in place to bar them from having access to upward mobility in society was huge. Racist white America was not okay with any of this. They felt threatened and had to figure out a way to dismantle them from continuing on. The Panthers often found themselves in so much trouble and just being caught up in acts of violence with authorities. They wanted to put an end to the Black Panthers. Edgar J. Hoover, who was actually the director of the FBI at this time frame, labeled the Black Panthers as being a terrorist group. Now just think about how the word terrorist is viewed in American society. This struck fear into people. After just two years of the organization running, they were targeted by the FBI under COINTELPRO. And I need y'all to hear me out on this because this is not an opinion nor speculation. It has been proven that the FBI, COINTELPRO, murdered, framed, and spied on people that were a part of the Black Panther Party, in addition to other leaders and organizations of the civil rights movement. Marcus Garvey, the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, and MLK, who was ultimately killed by them. Have you ever heard of the Angola III? This was Robert Hillary King, Albert Woodfox, and Herman Wallace, who were all Black Panthers that had been wrongfully imprisoned. They served over four decades of solitary confinement. They were innocent. Sadly, Albert Woodfox spent 40 years of his life in solitary confinement, which is apparently the longest time ever recorded in American history. He was in a six by nine foot cell and locked away for 23 hours a day. He passed away just six years after he was exonerated. Adding more salt to the wound, two Panther members that went by the names of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were both killed during an FBI raid. They basically set them up and hired an informant by the name of William O'Neill to give them inside details on the Black Panthers. And in this situation, William O'Neill spied on the members and relayed all of that information back to the FBI. This William person was able to give specific details on Fred Hampton's apartment layout, and he also drugged him so that the FBI could successfully attack him during the raid, where he was asleep in bed next to his pregnant partner. This case was eventually brought to trial, and the families of Hampton Clark received a settlement of over $1 million, making it one of the highest amounts paid out to a civil rights case. There are records of more than 20 different members being framed and set up by the FBI. This forced some of them underground and away from the public for their safety. The Black Liberation Army was created to refocus and continue pushing the goals of the Black Panther Party and their mission toward black liberation in American society, power to the people, they had to strategically move differently. It was only when the Panthers started exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms that the National Rifle Association all of a sudden started supporting gun legislation in America. Yes, you heard correct, it was only too much when black people displayed equal power and ability, aka racism. The members staged a protest on the stairs of the California State House, announcing that they would officially be bearing arms to protect themselves. They would march the streets wearing all black and carrying rifles. The powers that be were infuriated and wanted to put an end to black political organizations completely. It was fair game at this point. And you know that whenever situations like these happen in society, the black people are viewed as the issue while the main problem gets ignored. It's not the systemic inequalities, not the racism or injustice, it's the fact that black activists were beginning to outsmart the very system that was set in place to keep them struggling in every facet of their lives. They didn't want black people to have access to resources that could improve the overall quality of their lives. Even though the organization was slowly dismantled by the government, COINTELPRO, many of the members ventured into educational spaces and continued to do the work of grassroots activism. Imagine getting bullied every day at school. These five kids mess with you every day. And then finally, you muster up the courage, gather your friends to stand up in defense. Most people don't see an issue with that scenario. But when it's a black political group holding authority and politicians accountable, it's a threat. You know the rest. How are people not understanding this Charlie Kirk situation and how it's drawing attention to a much bigger problem that has always been present and always happening within American society since who knows when? Because let me tell you, if the depth in which you have to add to this conversation about Charlie is at the shallow, basic discussion level of whether someone's death by way of public murder is ethical or not, you, my friend, need to put on your critical thinking cap. There's so much more to unpack about this, starting with the racial double standards that only seem to have consequences when it's a black person or a person of color. Marginalized groups of people have never been given even a minuscule of the grace that has been allotted to CK. And yet here we are, showing up 200,000 deep at his military memorial, putting flags at half staff, and making him out to be some positive martyr. Utterly ridiculous, okay? When I saw all of this happening, I said to Jesse, I would not be surprised if they try to put up a monument dedicated to him. And lo and behold, the state of Oklahoma made it happen much quicker than I would have ever thought. They pushed a bill to have statues of Charlie Kirk placed on every university campus in the state of Oklahoma. I hate to say it, but I would not be shocked to see that happen across the United States. I just found out that they are working on trying to get his face on the silver dollar for next year. It still has to be signed off by Congress and the president. But the real question is, is how did we even get to this level of idiocy? This doesn't even seem real at this point. African Americans have been dealing with political violence since we were forcefully brought into this country. It is literally ingrained into the very fabric of America's history. Did we forget about police brutality? The same people that miraculously felt empathetic enough to speak up about Charlie Kirk have likely been silent about these other public murders. And how much you want to bet they were the same ones yelling, Blue Lives Matter! Back the blue! Three mass shootings took place just this past weekend, and we know that there is a high chance of the shooters being white men. Why? Because this is the common trend. There are also multiple genocides currently happening throughout the world. Why hasn't the discussion of political violence been brought to the table before now? Where was the public outrage from citizens prior to Charlie? Sounds like selective outrage. Hello, double standards of whiteness. Charlie Kirk's killer was abruptly charged with murder with the potential of facing the death penalty, not even a full week after his death. While families of black people who lost their lives to political violence have to hear that the person who killed their family member is on leave from their job, collecting a paycheck. And rarely do we see these families get justice from these acts of violence. People are literally being fired from their jobs for being vocal about the hatred that Charlie was so loud and proud about. Can you believe that a senior journalist from the Washington Post was fired for quoting the exact words of Charlie Kirk? At least 20 FBI agents are currently under fire because they were found in old photographs kneeling in response to George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer. But do you all remember how they kicked Colin Kaepernick to the curb after he started kneeling in protest to police brutality at the NFL games? Well, conservative fans of the NFL have typically preferred politics to stay out of the sport, at least that's what they said. But a lot of them seem to be in full support of the eight football teams who chose to commemorate Charlie Kirk. Hmm, gotta love those double standards of hypocrisy. You know what? The first thing that I took notice to when Charlie Kirk's death hit the headlines was how they were wording the titles of the news articles, mentioning that he had a wife and two young children before discussing the vitriol of the messages that he spread. Dr. Allison Wiltz posted on X, quote, George Floyd was a father too, and Charlie Kirk called him a scumbag. Hmm. Yeah, I'll give you a moment on that. These journalists are very aware of what they are doing. They use specific language to soften how a person is viewed, to encourage others to see the good nature and will within an individual by humanizing them. Now, why would they do that? Well, because they're likely right-leaning themselves and biased in Charlie's defense. Do you think that the media gave Assata Shakur the same grace? I'll let you be the judge. Here are two articles, both written by the Associated Press AP News.com. Assata Shakur, a fugitive black militant sought by the U.S. since 1979, dies in Cuba. And then we have Charlie Kirk, who helped build support for Trump among young people, dies after campus shooting. Do you see the difference there? They did the same exact thing with the Katrina victims in New Orleans, where literally everyone was going into stores trying to find food for survival. But they labeled the Black people as looters in the media, while white people were viewed as being resourceful in such an extreme time of need. What was even the purpose of using the word black in the headline about Assata? And then they mention young people when referring to Charlie, to once again show good grace to his character. Oh, he was just so passionate about leading the youth of the American people. Yeah, I bet he was, for good reason too. Because they are the most vulnerable and impressionable to groom into indoctrination. They needed someone to push those backwards messages of Charlie's, teach them early before they're able to consensualize the nonsense that they're being fed. In a Pew research study, they surveyed 5,000 Black adults to see how they thought black people were usually depicted in the media. An undeniable 63% of participants said that black people are typically viewed in a negative way compared to other groups of people. Only 28% of the participants said that they believe that it's equal. Now, why they lying? Charlie Kirk went to different universities to debate young adults about his beliefs that were solely Christo-centric, traditional, and very antiquated. He was unable to have an actual debate outside of his religious lens. And even when he ventured outside of that, his opinions were racist, xenophobic, sexist, misogynistic, heavily homophobic, transphobic. The way that he had this elitist way of presenting himself in these debates spoke volumes to how his fans had clearly been encouraging him. Them folks have been blowing his head up. When I Googled his name, you know how a person's stats will show up on Wikipedia? Well, apparently he was six feet two inches tall, and when I saw that, it made perfect sense that he felt even more so emboldened to conduct himself with this arrogant, hyper-masculine energy that he used to abuse other people to project dominance and power. It's an intimidation tactic. The most concerning thing about this man's death has been the extreme denial, not just from the media in general, but people on social media. Have we forgotten that we are in a digital age where any and everything that you post via the internet will forever exist? It's very easy to find so many examples of him spreading malice. And still, the amount of people that have tried to shift his character into being that of integrity is mind-boggling. William Wolfe, who is the executive director for the Center for Baptist Leadership, posted on X, quote, his entire project was built on reaching across the divide and using speech, not violence, to address and resolve issues. End quote. Now, why does this quote sound like it's about MLK? Somebody tell me. Because that would make way more sense if that's who this was about. But it ain't. Charlie has said that some gun deaths every year are necessary so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our God-given rights. This is at the same time that we are seeing a major influx of mass shootings all over. How much hatred and extremism can a person spread on a public platform and still be embraced by society? Clearly, more than I realized because the things that Charlie has said is wild. And I know you all have heard a lot of this stuff already, but trigger warning. He said that he supports public execution and that children should also witness these killings happen so that they learn early on that this is what happens to people that make bad decisions. Something else that Charlie asserted was that young women should do away with modernity and should get married earlier on and have multiple children. At another event of his, there was a 14-year-old girl who said that she wanted to go to school to be a political journalist, but she wanted to hear Charlie Kirk's opinion about it because she knew that he was not in support of higher education. This man really sat up there and said, there needs to be an MRS degree, which is the implication of women going to school just to find a husband. He said that she should go to school to find a life partner, and that college is a scam. But also, going to college is a good idea if you're going to find a husband. Um, is this your king? Okay, quick side story. I honestly contemplated not even adding this part into the episode because it's just so crazy and ridiculous. I don't even have the words for it, honestly, but I think it's necessary that I spread awareness and hopefully bring some attention to the weird stuff that is currently happening in our society. So while I was doing research for this episode, I wanted to find direct quotes directly from Charlie Kirk, things that he said, right? I ended up finding his podcast, which was featured on a website called Rumble.com. I've never heard of it, but there were so many red flags around this entire situation. Starting off with how when I finally found the video that I was looking for, the audio wasn't working on it. It was muted. And then they wouldn't let me skip any of the ads. Anytime I tried to skip the ad, it would just replay over and over. Then it clicked that they're likely trying to cover his tracks up a bit. Okay, fine. So I made a fake account to get onto the website and have full access to the video. When I got on the website, not even 15 seconds into the video, they kept trying to make me add more information to my account. It's almost like they were vetting me. They wanted to know what other types of things I was interested in as far as the podcasts. And of course, whose podcast was number one on the list and already selected? Charlie Kirk's. Go figure. When I finally made it back to the video, it kept playing these weird AI-generated ads, and something told me to just take a moment and actually look at what the ads were about. And wow, I could not have made this stuff up. This is not satire. This is real. This is what I saw and heard. They played an advertisement that talked about an ointment that you could use to grow a new set of teeth, y'all. I'm not kidding. There was another video that talked about an herb that cures dementia, as well as a berry that can cure your high cholesterol. All of these videos were literally centered around the healthcare industry, big pharma, and they kept using these trigger words and were basically prefacing the messages to make it seem as though you don't need the medical industry at all, and that you can take matters into your own hands. This sort of false information being publicized on such a major platform tells me that they know that they can pull the wool over their followers' eyes, because in the kindest way to say it, they'll be none the wiser. So of course they have people following this mess without question. Let's not forget, Charlie Kirk has a major organization by the name of Turning Point USA that was actually just listed as an extremist group. And even with that information, they still decided to intertwine that organization in public school systems across the USA. Unfortunately, this organization will continue to grow as Well, now that his wife is in control of it. There are so many issues with all of this. Do not let this be you believing this nonsense. Please do your research, ask questions, find trusted sources and individuals that are actual experts in their fields. Charlie Kirk was not an expert, and even with that, he still had such a big following. As I've observed how people are responding to all of this stuff that's happening and watching people align with Charlie, which is alarming in itself, more than ever, I can see just how deeply seated white supremacy is in this country. So we have to use discernment and the power that we do have to organize, educate ourselves, and those around us. Share information and continue to be aware. Because being silent, complacent, naive, or convincing yourself that this isn't your fight will not protect you from what is unfolding. And to close things off, I will leave you with a quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates. Quote: The honor that I draw out of this is not that things will necessarily be better in my lifetime, but that I will make the contribution that I'm supposed to make. And that, my friends, concludes this episode of Please Say the Dailey. I know that was a lot of information, but I hope that this message reaches the people that need to hear it most. And I hope that you out there currently listening were able to take something from this message that I shared today. Tell me your thoughts about all of this. How are you feeling about what's going on around us? Leave me a comment by clicking the link in the description box, or you can head over to Instagram and shoot me a DM at @VanishaRDailey. I would love to hear your thoughts surrounding these topics. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider becoming a sponsor of this podcast so that I can continue using my voice to educate and spread awareness. You'll find that link in the description box as well. Remember, there are many different forms of activism, and we all have an important role to play. We are in very interesting and concerning times. It's important that we consider our mental health in these fragile moments. So please take care of yourselves. Until next time,