Judah - Wangol
Sko: What's happenin family? Let's see… I walked up late, at like 2:08 so I want to give a shout out to the Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk and the Menominee.
[00:02:41] So, we out here talking about the theft of the lives of descendents of stolen people, on stolen land, and a bunch of folks are embarrassed about looting. Right? Is that right?
[00:03:07] I didn’t write no bars, I don’t have no songs in my pocket, I was brought almost to tears. One of the things, one of those lyrics 'Ti moun you pran lwa' that means roughly --it’s the invocation for young people to come to the gods of their ancestors. Now, I’m not a Christian, but Jesus was lynched. All my queer family, Stonewall was a riot led by Black trans women. So, what are you talking about?
[00:03:46] There’s people out here who heard about this day, were invited to this day, and I’m going to try to do well. At the time that they came out they were embarrassed, they were embarrassed at these young people with no degrees and you know like no education and no savoir-faire running around in the streets.
[00:04:15] And they wanted to say 'Yo, they out here. This is not right. This is not the way to dissent.'
[00:04:22] But I have to tell you when I see in L.A. they talking about major steps to defund the police.
[00:04:30] When I see the Minneapolis City Council talking about maybe like police is not what we need at all.
[00:04:37] Then I feel like for those who are embarrassed, like maybe you’re embarrassed because people got up in the street after hundreds of years, and decades, and even just these last four months, where the system told them over and over again that they didn’t care about them, they didn’t care about their voices, they didn’t care about their votes, and they tore down some capital, right? And in two weeks some things are actually changing faster than any of these votes changed anything.
[00:05:22] I’m not sure that I can add a whole lot to what Nick Davis and what brother Winchester and what that young sister Liana gave you. But I’m going to say this: a couple weeks ago a sister of mine called me weeping because there’s enough without George Floyd or Tony McDade or Breonna Taylor. There’s always something to weep about. She said, 'I don’t know. what does liberation look like?' And I can’t tell you that I know what that is, but I’mma just tell you the things that came through me when she asked me. And if you’re here and you’re about that, then you know, do something.
[00:06:17] My big brother Judah said, if you got some privilege risk it. So, we could talk about that, but I’m going to say liberation looks like, so far as I can tell, quiet to hear the voices of our ancestors and descendants.
[00:06:47] Space to live our purposes and destinies.
[00:06:50] Time and access to feel the earth, and touch the sun, and a deep practice of care and honor for each other’s humanity and divinity.
[00:07:00] And if you think that’s like feel-good shit then you don’t know about the strength of the spirit and what that looks like in practice and action. Sometimes what that looks like is self-defense.
[00:07:16] You know, Judah said tell the truth. Last time I was in a crowd this large or this mixed, I got myself in trouble. I was at Niles North High School talking about truth in Black history month. And afterwards I had to do a next set, which was like a teach-in with a whole bunch of faculty and staff to try to figure out how they were going to handle the outcome of what I said.
[00:07:56] Listen, here’s what I’ll say. I want you to listen critically. I want you to continue to talk to each other and among each other. And I want you to think about the things that were said today that were true. Think about the things that were radical, and think about the things that were said out of fear. Think about the things that were said because people want to hold on to the structures that we have right now and are afraid to imagine something new and something different.
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