Milwaukee: Part 1

All right, y'all. We have a racial problem in this country that everybody seems too uncomfortable to talk about. We are not guaranteed freedom from other people's opinion and biases. We are guaranteed the freedom of our actions. Amen. I now have access to a gun that I was not approved to have access to. I believe in gun laws. Red, white, and blue. These colors don't run, they reload.

That man, if he had his way, would have all of us back in the field pulling cotton, and all the Hispanics back out of the country. And you're going to vote for my country? Get out of here. If we want to come together as a society, we cannot have this. Why the f*** would I go vote for the Klan? Shut up. That is my business. Get out of here. Build that wall. Build that wall.

I'm sure it'll be lively. I think everybody is here ready to share, and I don't think anybody is coming in here to fight, which for me is a real requirement. I want to listen and be heard as well. Part of having political conversation is differentiating between argument and debate. So, debate is constructive. Debate is rational. It's logical. It challenges you, and those challenges make you grow. A lot of people, I think, either don't want to voice their true opinion because they're afraid, or they feel embarrassed, or they want to fit in.

And I think this is going to be a nice, non-judgmental opportunity to voice your true opinion without any lashes from friends or family. I happen to be a debater. I don't mind a good debate, but I also have facts with my debates, whereas a lot of people just be what they see off the internet with no knowledge. The main thing I said to myself is, Dale, when you come in here, just make sure you stay calm, make sure you're clear and articulate.

That's the only way you're going to get anything solved, is by talking. Get to know each other. I just want to make sure that no one is allergic to anything. I do have one allergy. What's that? Bad food. You're not going to get that here. No, no. It was nice meeting you all. You too. Nice meeting you. You too. Thank you so much. I look forward to your show. We're going to share, family style. That's all right. I mean, I'm okay with a bite of this, a bite of that.

Do we share at the table? Oh, yeah. Let's pass it around. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Okay, good, good, good, good. Here is an interesting way to start. Does anyone here own a firearm? No. My husband does.

So, you have a firearm in the home? Yeah. I have two firearms. Yourself, Missy? A few. Okay. And I'm sorry if you said... I don't, but I've been in three branches of the military. So, I know the both firearms, yeah. Correct.

Yourself? For me, I've never been into guns. As, sorry to say, as a black man in America, and all the things I've been through, seeing guns, I didn't want my kids having a gun. Do you want an assault rifle? Yeah. Now, why do you want an assault rifle? Why do I have to justify that to anyone?

See, now, there we go. Now, where can you shoot that assault rifle? Shooting range. Actually, that's it. No, I could actually take that hunting, too. Sure could. It's the most popular platform for hunting. It's also the most popular gun for killing and mass murders.

Why don't we just take the assault rifles and ban those right now like they did before? Because when they did that, we didn't have that many mass shootings. I don't mind any guns, but an assault rifle is for military, and that is for war. It should not be in society, because right now, numbers do not lie. We have a problem with mass shooters. The thing is, what is a mass shooting? And when you look at... They consider four more people... Four more, but those numbers have...

...is a mass shooting in this country. Those numbers have been changed before on what qualifies as a mass shooting, because most often, and I'm glad you know it's four, but when most people, the average person, hears mass shooting, they're thinking of Columbine.

But if a group of gangbangers goes outside and has a problem, that situation is called a mass shooting also. So, let us just be very particular about that. My thing is, most mass shootings, majority of them, are assault rifles are used. I told my sons, when you get older, 18, you can get your gun, get licensed, registered. Just do it the right way. It isn't just about the licensing and registration. I think the issue in this country is the training.

We are giving way too many guns to people who are not trained. If you don't know how to load the gun, you should not get the gun. Right. Okay? I want my daughter, when she's up age, to have her own protection, because pepper spray?

Ain't gonna do it in 2024. No? It's not gonna do it. No. We don't need regulations on guns. We need regulations on training. Right, so I live in Kenosha. My husband, he's like, I need a gun. When he got it, he got it out of fear. When the Kyle Rittenhouse, Jacob Blake riots, right? That was a very interesting time to live in Kenosha, right? So, we go to, I mean, Gander Mountain or whatever. It was relatively easy. You know, he applies electronically at the kiosk, right?

He applies and gets approved, so okay, he goes through the background check. I was floored that I now have access to a gun that I was not approved to have access to. That, to me, seems wrong. Just listening to everyone speak here, you all have valid points. I understand where everybody is coming from. So, I have some experience with weapons. I've carried an M4, M16.

I've carried a shoulder-fired assault weapon. So, I have some experience with weapons. In the military, we're taught to follow orders, right? Very simple. If someone says something, you do something, right? That's just how the military is. So, regarding Jacob Blake, if you're told to do something that's not unreasonable and putting you in harm's way, For your safety and for the safety of others, it is a smart, wise, intelligent thing to do as you're told, right? So, if you just follow instructions, education, training, respect, the choices you make have consequences.

Rittenhouse, he made a choice. Okay. Shouldn't have been there. Nobody asked him to come. Nobody asked him to come. Nobody that had any authority asking him to come. He was underage. He shouldn't have had a gun, you know? And he should not have shot the gun, right?

When we were talking about the Kenosha and the riots, and racism, and gun control, I could see and understand her points of view, and I share some of those sentiments and beliefs. This is what I saw was a white kid who was privileged, getting able to go on the state line, doing what he want. When he got shot, went by the police with an assault rifle in his hand, these police would roll right by him. Now, if that kid was a black kid with an assault rifle, do you think those police would have rolled right by him?

You can't say that. You don't know those cops. I'm asking her. I'm asking her. In your honest opinion, do you think the police... But let's not raise our voices, please. I don't think so. You think they would have stopped him and at least checked him out? Thank you. That's my only point. Everybody, your points are valid. We need more training, we need all of this, but we also need to look. Yes, Cece, I want to hear what you have to say.

Oh, obviously, I don't have anything to say. Oh, go ahead. Yeah. All right. Oh, you had a great point. You were talking about the training. You can look at my vehicle, and my vehicle's got the sticker that says, Rob someone else. Play it safe. I have guns, and I will not hesitate to kill you.

I'm not playing games. I've got another sticker that said, red, white, and blue. These colors don't run, they reload. Okay? Don't play with me. Training. It starts with training. I have every right to protect what's in my home, and I feel that that should be the way it is across the country.

I thought the idea of everybody being trained to have a gun... It was really valuable. Like, you can't operate a car unless you have an educated license, unless you earn it. And I think that's great. So, that really gives me something to think about with that, for sure.

Bob, talk to us about the food you have prepared. Our shrimp cocktail, obviously our shrimp cocktail sauce, and we have our crab stuffed mushrooms. Oh, yes, we are talking about this. With the green sauce. Yes. The long end of the tail. Crab stuffing is homemade, so, yeah, pretty much everything here, we are scratch kitchen, so. Oh, that is great. This is amazing. Well, I hope everyone enjoys. Thank you. We will, for sure. Thank you. Could we start cooking pasta? Yes. Right, right.

Can we have pasta? All righty. I was raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, so I knew racism then, and then being the only Black child, it was, can I touch your hair? You smell different. Is that cocoa butter? I mean, those are the, and of course, the word ****. That was a word that was always spewed. Now, we're talking that was the 80s and the 90s, bro. We're now in 2024. If you're going to say that race is a major issue in the country, I don't agree.

As an adult in the latter years compared to what I grew up with in the 80s and 90s, I've got to say it's a lot different. So, I am not black, but I've been the subject. Of racism. When I was younger, working at a restaurant, I was dating a girl at that same restaurant. I am Mexican-Italian. When I got to meet her parents for the first time, she had my watch. Dad, that was the kind of thing, you give her your watch, now we're going steady, right?

Shortly after I met her mom and dad, she came into work one day and had to give the watch back. Because they didn't want her dating someone like me. So, that was my experience with racism. Do you feel that racism is still a big issue?

For the United States as a whole. It's an issue to a point. I do think the news at home when I was in Iraq in 2004, 2005, Baghdad, a lot of negative, right? They didn't show a lot of the good that we were getting, the toys, the care packages for the children that were going in the five tons to a central location in Baghdad to give the gifts, all right, because that didn't sell. I would have loved to see that. That didn't sell, right?

So, the point of that is that I believe that Because of the media, it's filtered. They focus on that, and less of the good. As I said earlier, I'm Cameroonian-American in a very interesting way. I have eight siblings, but I'm the only one who was born and raised here.

I think from an immigrant, first-gen-ish perspective, I do not think racism is a gigantic or a big issue in America. I did not say it doesn't exist. I don't think it is a big issue. There is no doubt that there has been a very illustrious history of racism in America, stemming from slavery onwards to Jim Crow.

However, we are in a place where... There are not lynchings which are occurring, there is not racial animosity and violence. The biggest issues are more the divisiveness. Compared to where things have been in the United States and where they are in other parts of the world right now, I'm hard pressed to say that it is a big issue in America. His experience in this country is a little different. So, for him and me, nah. Because him, I just felt you're trying to tell me how I'm supposed to experience the racism that I'm going through.

These are things that I've experienced. I'm only going by my life. So, when I see it, this is what I experienced, I'll be damned if somebody over here will tell me what I experienced is completely different. Racism, systemic racism, is still a big-ass issue in America for me, and here are my examples. When I was born, 1963, that was the year LBJ signed the bill that said all Blacks now are legal citizens. We can't hang on to trees no more. We were allowed to vote.

1963, the year I was born. My parents couldn't vote until I was five. Because in 64, when they tried to go to the polls, if y'all remember, if any of y'all went to the history books and looked, when you saw Martin Luther King and all them getting hosed down, trying to go, that was 64. That mentality and a lot of those people who were in senators' office and stuff, they're still there. So, if y'all think that that mentality is gone, hell no.

Native Americans have gotten a formal apology from this country, even though they're on reservations. They do get reparations from this country because we apologized what we did to them. Japanese Americans, okay, got reparations. Ronald Reagan signed that bill. All the Japanese Americans that were put in concentration camps were sorry. When us Blacks say, hey, what about ours? Can we get our apology? Because we had 240, what, six years of slavery? Our ancestors built this country. They didn't get no overtime.

No vacation pay, no nothing. Do you know the ancestors you had that worked what farms and where? Yes, I do. What fields and where? Yes, my family is very tight. Then you may be eligible for some recognition. Exactly, I know. That's why I'm very serious about it. You're probably one out of three million African-American families that can find that information. Well, you want to know something? You can sit and scream and demand it. No, no, Mr. Dale, Mr. Dale, Mr. Dale.

You just don't know the truth. Mr. Dale, we're concluding on this topic. No, she's over here telling me that only me and we're lucky enough don't know that. You don't know the history. There's a whole lot of shit that's written. We're concluding on the topic. Mr. Dale, we're concluding on the topic. Yes, please conclude. He's much older than me. He could be my father, so he's experienced a lot more in life, and things that I only read and studied about. With someone like that, I think that those experiences have biased him too much.

However, I don't spend as much time trying to convince those people, because when people have faced trauma that's unhealed, there's not much you can do. It's gotten better. I understand he has had some bad experiences and has some post-traumatic stressors, right? President Day, the point of the story is that over time, over time, our awareness, which C.C. referred to, has gotten better. I have one question. I have one question for you, sir. Did you vote for President Obama?

Yes, I did. What was going on with race then? I thought race was such a... What? Race went out the window when we got our first black president. How did he get elected with the millions of whites in this country and the millions of blacks? I think that supports what he's saying. Yeah, it's gotten better. So, you're saying because we had a black president, racism's gone from America? No, no. What are you saying? Progress. Thank you. I never said we weren't making progress in certain areas.

I'm sorry, I've never heard progress. What I said is... We seem to be going backwards now that they took Roe versus Wade. You don't seem to care about that shit. What does that have to do with race? Okay, what does that have to do with race? Can I say something real quick without anybody cutting me off?

Yeah, because... It's going to blow your mind. Please make sure you guys look this up. You've given birth, so you have every right to talk about Roe versus Wade, sir. Go ahead. I'm listening. All right. Jane Elliott, the lady who did the brown-eyed, blue-eyed experiment, I saw an interview with her when she was talking about abortion in America, when I found out the true reasons about abortion. Ben Wattenberg wrote a book, 1984, The Birth Third. Okay, he was an advisor to the presidents.

He said one of the main problems in America today is that we're not having enough white babies being born, and then after a certain number of years, we as a white race will not be the majority in this country. We can pay women to have babies like they've been doing in European countries, but we don't want to do that because we'd have to pay all women.

Number two, we can add more immigrants into the country, but the majority of immigrants that want to come to this country are people of color, so we don't want to do that. The third thing, 60% of the fetuses that are aborted every year are white. If we can keep that 60% alive, that would solve our birth death. Then she said, does that sound like racism to you? Because if it doesn't, then you don't know what racism is.

I'm just going by what history. Now, if that's it, racism is definitely still here. What the hell is that? It had nothing to do with killing black babies. It was just the white babies. So, hold on. I'm confused. As far as on abortion, women's rights, baby's rights, what I believe is I believe that God decides. That's what I believe.

But from a Christian, biblical standpoint... I do not believe in abortion. I grew up very pro-life. My whole thing growing up was, we just want to protect the babies. That's, yeah. As I grew up, grew older, changed my philosophy on a lot of things just by living, watching the world, listening to other people. I started by saying, you know what, I think I'm politically pro-choice, but personally pro-life. When we lived under Roe v. Wade, you had the choice to... Keep the baby, to have your own philosophy on, I believe God decides, right?

Or someone else is like, well, I decide. It wasn't China where we were forced to have abortions, you know what I mean? No one forced you to carry. Not really, not really. Statistics show the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancies, which is what we all want to prevent if we don't want abortions. Abstinence.

Well, it's, it's, um... Comprehensive sex education and the availability of birth control. I'm sorry if you don't want your 15-year-old to have sex. They might. They might, and you would rather have them had condoms than you need to be talking about, are they going to carry? Are they going to abort? That's just statistics. So, for me, even though it's uncomfortable, I think it should be legal if there's viability. I think we can have that discussion. If we make it completely illegal, I think it's a step backwards.

When it comes to abortion, what I think of is a poor child who was raped by her uncle and now has to... Have that child. No, you abort that child. I'm sorry. So, I guess I'm pro-abortion. I would not want my 17-year-old daughter coming home from being raped and finding out that she's pregnant, and then you've got people that are like, oh, you're killing life. I get it. I'm compassionate for that. What you decide for your children and your life is your business, but for me...

If my daughter was to get pregnant right now, she would get an abortion. I'm sorry. Among the hot-button political topics, abortion has always been one that I've been staunchly against. For me, this was just a philosophical debate, but before Christmas this year, I had a situation with a woman I was involved in. Although I had expressed I was against abortion, well, foremost, she told me she was the same way. But after finding out that she was pregnant, and her and I having heated conversations back and forth, all of that changed.

She made the decision that she wanted to kill my child. It's just not a situation I thought I'd find myself in, so the abortion thing was always, it was always a philosophical thing. But now it's personal. Okay, so it doesn't affect your political stance, but you have... Your personal opinion is that you are pro-choice. Yes. However, your pro-choice stance does not affect your overall political stance. No, no, no, no. If Trump decides he's going to go against abortion, then I guess I'm against abortion for 2024, because we're voting for Trump.

And you are... I'm not sure I heard clearly, but your position would be what, and how does it... Who do I have? Don't, no, no, let's stop with Biden. You're going to come back to abortion? Yes, I'm trying. I'm trying to deal with abortion. No, no, no, no, no. Okay? No, no, no, no, no. Donald Trump had his people take Roe versus Wade away. Okay. And she's voting for him, and what did she just say? Well, if Donald Trump says we're going to this, then we're going to this.

We have a problem in this country that everybody seems too uncomfortable to talk about. Any black person who votes for Donald Trump, we find that very odd. You're mad because I'm voting for someone you don't like. No! That sounds like you're in a cult.

Are we forming a cohesive society when we are calling to question people's identity because they have different views? I do not judge you, you, you, or you. I'm going to let that camera right there do the judging.