Slightly Offensive - Elijah Schaffer - Should Black People Get Reparations?
Aired: 2019-06-26
Duration: 14:30


=== Why We Still Debate Reparations (12:25) ===

[00:00:00]  He's spray painting the floor.
[00:00:01]  He's literally spraying.
[00:00:02]  He's tagging the floor.
[00:00:04]  He's tagging the floor.
[00:00:05]  Oh shit.
[00:00:06]  No.
[00:00:07]  Oh, man.
[00:00:07]  Dude, you just tagged the floor.
[00:00:09]  Whoa.
[00:00:11]  What is this?
[00:00:11]  What group is this?
[00:00:13]  What group is this?
[00:00:13]  Is your name?
[00:00:16]  All right, I guess the police are here.
[00:00:17]  All right, he's gonna do it.
[00:00:18]  What is this?
[00:00:19]  Oh, here we go.
[00:00:19]  Here we go.
[00:00:20]  Slap, slap, slap.
[00:00:22]  How do we do the slap?
[00:00:23]  Is it we just look for do we look for we look for police?
[00:00:25]  Wait, we look for police, right?
[00:00:28]  We look for police and then we just slap it.
[00:00:31]  Is that a U.S. Postal Service?
[00:00:35]  It is.
[00:00:36]  Yes, it is.
[00:00:37]  It's U.S. Postal Service.
[00:00:38]  Yes, but it goes, it goes, it sticks on.
[00:00:42]  This is a little bit of a hide in this, right?
[00:00:43]  KFS?
[00:00:44]  Explain me, what's KFS about?
[00:00:46]  We know felons, known for style.
[00:00:51]  No f  ⁇ ing slaves with a K and sh Kings from South Central.
[00:00:57]  Yup.
[00:00:58]  Representing in Hollywood.
[00:00:59]  Representing.
[00:01:00]  Yeah, awesome.
[00:01:01]  Life fans tonight, living enemies toothless.
[00:01:04]  Not me.
[00:01:05]  We like, oh, babe, Banksy.
[00:01:07]  Welcome back to Slightly Offensive with your favorite gay black woman, me, Elijah Schaefer.
[00:01:11]  Yeah, we're doing LA.
[00:01:13]  What are we doing?
[00:01:13]  We just painting around and shit right here in Hollywood.
[00:01:17]  Yeah, but apparently here.
[00:01:20]  The city f  ⁇ ed up.
[00:01:21]  Trump.
[00:01:22]  Nobody likes Trump right here.
[00:01:23]  Yeah, some people do, but whatever.
[00:01:25]  We'll do that.
[00:01:28]  Anyways, we're here out in Hollyweird, California, talking to people about reparations.
[00:01:35]  Basically, this is the idea of actually giving back monetarily to certain groups that faced injustice due to things like slavery.
[00:01:41]  We're going to find out if the people here in California are down.
[00:01:44]  Make sure you like, share, subscribe.
[00:01:45]  Check out the links below to keep independent media and journalism alive.
[00:01:48]  We hope you enjoy the show.
[00:01:50]  There's a debate today about people talking about giving reparations to black Americans for what happened during slavery.
[00:02:15]  Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, they just had a Senate hearing about providing back payment to black Americans specifically and payment for slavery.
[00:02:25]  I think that we have got to address that.
[00:02:28]  Again, it's back to the inequities.
[00:02:30]  I absolutely believe that we need to have some kind of accounting for the persistent racial inequities today.
[00:02:36]  I believe it's time to start the national full-blown conversation about reparations in this country.
[00:02:48]  My feelings is, hell yeah, how much y'all want to give us.
[00:02:50]  Where do we get the money?
[00:02:51]  We get the money?
[00:02:52]  Bro, that's a good question.
[00:02:53]  I'm trying to still figure it out to this day.
[00:02:55]  I want to say that it's the f  ⁇ ing white people.
[00:02:58]  People are debating today whether or not we should have reparations and repayment and give money to the black people today for the slavery in the past.
[00:03:05]  Yes or no?
[00:03:06]  Oh, damn.
[00:03:07]  It's a good topic.
[00:03:08]  It's a good discussion and everything like that, but it's kind of pointless to have because it's never going to happen.
[00:03:13]  You already know what my feelings is on it.
[00:03:15]  I feel like, hell yeah, what's your feelings on it?
[00:03:17]  You the white person.
[00:03:18]  A lot of white people have a lot of white privilege, all right?
[00:03:21]  But racist, the U.S. is inherently racist.
[00:03:23]  Race has been vital to our existence.
[00:03:25]  We're nothing without slavery.
[00:03:26]  That's how we started as a country.
[00:03:28]  So it really come down to you because if you're willing to stand up, then okay, then your culture feels like, all right, well, why not?
[00:03:36]  Let's give them a shot.
[00:03:37]  And it's hard for a lot of us minorities.
[00:03:40]  I'm not just going to say black people because it's a lot of minorities out here.
[00:03:43]  That's hard for us to work.
[00:03:44]  It's hard for us to just be in this world as in society.
[00:03:50]  Why?
[00:03:50]  Why?
[00:03:51]  Because there's a lot of people who came from money, bro.
[00:03:54]  And money is the root of all evil.
[00:03:56]  What do you think?
[00:03:57]  Reparations?
[00:03:57]  Yes or no?
[00:03:59]  Ah, what you mean by that?
[00:04:00]  Reparations, like repayment for injustice.
[00:04:03]  I don't even know what that means, honestly.
[00:04:05]  Repayment for injustice.
[00:04:07]  Of course.
[00:04:08]  Yeah.
[00:04:09]  I think you may need to look at who actually enslaved people.
[00:04:14]  And it kind of comes down to no one alive today was actually there at the time, which means no one can actually be held accountable because they're all dead.
[00:04:27]  A lot of the candidates on the Democrat side actually said that they're going to push for that, including Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker.
[00:04:32]  They're saying that that's going to be one of their top platforms.
[00:04:36]  They've been promising that to us for a long, long time.
[00:04:39]  Yeah, Abraham Lincoln wanted to promise reparations.
[00:04:42]  I think it was actually the Republican Party, and then Andrew Johnson from the Democrat Party vetoed it because, you know, the Democrat Party originally started as the party of slavery.
[00:04:50]  That's what we're doing.
[00:04:50]  Right.
[00:04:50]  And they were the ones who started the KKK everything.
[00:04:53]  So they tried to do, the Republicans tried to push reparations as early as the late 1800s, and then they shut it down, shut it down, shut it down.
[00:04:59]  So why would we believe the Democrats are going to do it today?
[00:05:01]  In order for you to be somebody or have success, quote unquote, you have to have f  ⁇ ing money.
[00:05:09]  You know what I'm saying?
[00:05:10]  And like a lot of us, we came from nothing, bro.
[00:05:13]  And you know what I'm saying?
[00:05:14]  Huge shout out to everybody who came from nothing, myself included, grew up in poverty.
[00:05:18]  Poverty, bro.
[00:05:19]  You know what I'm saying?
[00:05:20]  Like, food stamp eligible.
[00:05:22]  Exactly.
[00:05:22]  EBT all day, air days.
[00:05:23]  Right, like make that money.
[00:05:25]  Like, get your money back for everything.
[00:05:27]  I mean, I don't really know how to answer this.
[00:05:29]  That's an answer.
[00:05:29]  What do you think?
[00:05:31]  Yeah.
[00:05:32]  I mean, yeah, like, do it.
[00:05:33]  Why not?
[00:05:34]  28% of free blacks during the time of slavery owned slaves.
[00:05:37]  And the first slave owner in the United States was a black person.
[00:05:39]  What about the families, the black families from the North and South, the people that owned slaves?
[00:05:44]  Do they get reparations too?
[00:05:46]  Should we go back and check if certain black families were slave owners?
[00:05:49]  Because there were a lot of them.
[00:05:51]  5% of slaves were owned by black people, actually.
[00:05:55]  So, I mean, what do we do with those black families that own slaves?
[00:05:59]  I think we should take a look at why they were slave owners in the first place.
[00:06:04]  You know, many white people were forcing blacks in Africa to catch their own people.
[00:06:12]  You said you disagree.
[00:06:13]  I want to hear you out.
[00:06:13]  I want to hear you out.
[00:06:14]  Like I said, we're centered.
[00:06:16]  Because you said Democrats were the ones who you don't believe if they're going to, they're for reparations right now.
[00:06:20]  No, they are.
[00:06:21]  I don't believe they're going to follow through with it.
[00:06:23]  They are fighting for reparations.
[00:06:24]  They just had the hearing.
[00:06:25]  There's a lot of candidates saying, including Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, and Kamala Harris, that they would fight for this.
[00:06:30]  I just don't believe them.
[00:06:32]  I think it's more of a platform they're using to try to bring in minority votes.
[00:06:35]  Racial disparities, racial inequities.
[00:06:37]  The inequity.
[00:06:38]  Reparations.
[00:06:39]  You stated how the Democrats, like they were, since the beginning, they were forced slavery.
[00:06:42]  And they were.
[00:06:43]  But obviously that changed throughout time.
[00:06:45]  In the 1900s, it changed.
[00:06:46]  That's when it was opposite switched from the Democrats to the report.
[00:06:49]  It wasn't.
[00:06:49]  Only 3% of Republicans in the South switched.
[00:06:51]  Only 3%.
[00:06:52]  Tax the white people?
[00:06:52]  Yeah, bro.
[00:06:53]  Tax the white people.
[00:06:54]  Bro, not even tax the white people, bro.
[00:06:56]  Like, f  ⁇  taxes.
[00:06:58]  Like, nobody needs taxes.
[00:07:00]  How do we get it from the white people?
[00:07:02]  Isn't that taxes?
[00:07:03]  Oh, he f  ⁇ ing mind f  ⁇ ing me right now.
[00:07:06]  It's a good thing to talk about.
[00:07:08]  It's a good thing to, a great discussion, but if it ever happens, I need my horse.
[00:07:16]  I need to ride on my horse.
[00:07:17]  That's all I'm saying.
[00:07:19]  I'm trying to take my horse to the Old Town Road.
[00:07:21]  I'm going to take my horse to the Uptown Row, and I'm going to ride to the camp no more.
[00:07:27]  I need a horse.
[00:07:27]  I don't want a mule.
[00:07:29]  What about a Moscow mule?
[00:07:32]  Yeah, Respect.
[00:07:34]  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:35]  I want 40 acres in a mule and two Moscow mules.
[00:07:38]  I think the Democrats and the Republicans as a whole have completely lost touch, not only with minorities, but look at what happened with Donald Trump.
[00:07:45]  Even white people started to feel like the government wasn't representing them.
[00:07:48]  They started to look out for their own interests, and I feel like they went rogue.
[00:07:50]  They don't give a crap about us.
[00:07:52]  They just want to stay in power.
[00:07:53]  No, I agree.
[00:07:54]  Even George Washington, the first president, was like, oh, the Democrat, I mean, the parties are going to destroy our country.
[00:07:59]  He warned, right?
[00:07:59]  The two parties.
[00:08:00]  He warned us.
[00:08:00]  He warned us.
[00:08:01]  It really was because it's all about politics.
[00:08:03]  It's all about big machines.
[00:08:04]  It's all about special interest groups are obviously influencing our parties.
[00:08:08]  A lobbyist, like, it's all about money now.
[00:08:10]  It's no longer about the people.
[00:08:12]  It's been about money since the 1800s.
[00:08:15]  If anything, they should do like how Alaska has it done.
[00:08:17]  Do you know how Alaska has it done?
[00:08:19]  No.
[00:08:19]  They get a thousand every month.
[00:08:21]  Everybody in that household gets a thousand every month.
[00:08:23]  So if they from Atlanta, if they from Georgia, then everybody right here, they get a thousand a month.
[00:08:28]  Like universal basic income.
[00:08:30]  I don't know what that means.
[00:08:31]  Like basically, it's called UBI.
[00:08:33]  Like basically for a living there, you get a certain amount of money per month.
[00:08:35]  That's all it means.
[00:08:35]  You get a thousand for what you're talking about.
[00:08:37]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:38]  Y'all should definitely do that for however long y'all can do that for.
[00:08:41]  You know what I mean?
[00:08:42]  But racist.
[00:08:42]  The U.S. is inherently racist.
[00:08:44]  Race has been vital to our existence.
[00:08:46]  We're nothing without slavery.
[00:08:47]  That's how we started as a country.
[00:08:49]  Could you say it's safe to say that a lot of the country is racist and slavery was illegal in the North?
[00:08:53]  And a lot of free blacks, 28% of free blacks owned slaves.
[00:08:56]  So it's actually an issue, not just American, but it was an issue in the South.
[00:09:00]  Like the North, the actual North at that time.
[00:09:02]  It was never just an issue solely about the South.
[00:09:04]  It was actually the North.
[00:09:05]  The North, we lost $558,000 about human lives, American lives, trying to fight to free the slaves.
[00:09:11]  So a lot of Americans weren't racist.
[00:09:12]  They really cared, including blacks and whites.
[00:09:14]  They really wanted to free the slaves.
[00:09:15]  A lot of the abolitionists.
[00:09:16]  So it's not like the whole country was racist.
[00:09:18]  A lot of people were.
[00:09:19]  And we lost our lives and people are still fighting it for it.
[00:09:21]  Like we all, like you, you're studying.
[00:09:23]  I'm studying.
[00:09:23]  We're trying to start conversations because we're trying to end it.
[00:09:25]  So I don't think we can say America's racist, but a lot of people were, and we're fighting against those people.
[00:09:29]  I have to have the rebuttal because the fact that Trump was elected, that shows you we're still inherently racist.
[00:09:34]  I can't stand the ignorance of all these people.
[00:09:37]  And I at least like, you know, appreciate the fact that you're trying to engage in dialogue, but I can't deal with the ignorance.
[00:09:42]  I'm so fed up with the ignorance of this country that I literally cannot have it.
[00:09:45]  I love him.
[00:09:53]  I found my toothbrush.
[00:09:56]  Thank God I was missing this.
[00:09:58]  Look, here it is.
[00:10:08]  Into purposely being cocky and assuming that I'm right, I'm...
[00:10:11]  I'm definitely probably wrong on some things, and I agree with that.
[00:10:14]  I was able to concede to that girl that there are some things that she probably knows that I don't.
[00:10:19]  But it didn't really seem like that was necessarily the case.
[00:10:22]  Because what happened is when you start whipping out facts and you start bringing out the truth, it's really hard to refute.
[00:10:28]  And luckily for us, though, in that situation, she actually was reasonable.
[00:10:32]  And that's why I don't want people to confuse passion and being upset with the lack of reason.
[00:10:36]  If you just calm someone down, say, hey, cool, I'll listen to you, I'll hear you out, and then you provide them with counterfacts, she was very reasonable and open at the end.
[00:10:43]  Said, yeah, it's probably true, and they moved along.
[00:10:46]  And that's how you handle it.
[00:10:47]  It's just simple.
[00:10:48]  It's chill.
[00:10:49]  It's easy.
[00:10:50]  You listen and then you speak.
[00:10:51]  That's how it's done, folks.
[00:10:52]  Not everyone is black just because they're from Africa.
[00:10:55]  I know a lot of white people who are African too.
[00:10:57]  Yeah, my wife's African and she's white.
[00:10:59]  Then she's from Tanzania because there are a lot of people from generations back.
[00:11:02]  Tanzania.
[00:11:04]  Uganda.
[00:11:04]  My sister-in-law's from Uganda and Tanzania.
[00:11:06]  If you're being an African-American, you actually have to come from Africa, you know, and then get American citizenship, and that would make you an African-American.
[00:11:14]  Otherwise, everyone else is just American.
[00:11:17]  Yeah, that's a good point.
[00:11:19]  So that's my point.
[00:11:19]  So those are two exceptions.
[00:11:21]  Like my sister-in-law is white.
[00:11:24]  She would be an African-American if she gets citizenship.
[00:11:26]  And then there's black people who technically were never involved.
[00:11:28]  So how do we like, you know what I'm saying?
[00:11:30]  How do we delineate between who gets the money?
[00:11:32]  I think it's more of a skin color thing at black as in black because if he's Nigerian, he's going to get treated the same way that we would be treated walking down the street.
[00:11:39]  He's going to get the same opportunity, the same lack of opportunity, I should say.
[00:11:44]  The first slave owner in the United States was a black guy, and a lot of free blacks owned slaves in the United States, like 28% of them.
[00:11:50]  So the question is, how do we remedy that?
[00:11:52]  You know what I'm saying?
[00:11:53]  We're not even going to bring that shit up because that shit don't really matter.
[00:11:56]  Right.
[00:11:56]  They didn't teach us that in the books.
[00:11:58]  So it doesn't matter.
[00:11:58]  That's like asking legal immigrants should get like legal citizenship automatically or just free money, like, I don't know, like financial help automatically GR and shit just because paid no taxes.

=== Why Everyone Deserves an Equal Shot (02:20) ===

[00:12:10]  That's a good question.
[00:12:12]  Just because, just because like, you know, they're getting deported back to the to Mexico and getting locked up with their families in cages and all that.
[00:12:21]  You know what I mean?
[00:12:21]  So I mean, I don't know.
[00:12:25]  I think everybody deserves an equal shot, you know what I mean, at freedom and coming to America or whatever, you know, when it comes to slavery or immigration, whatever.
[00:12:32]  So I would just say, I would say no.
[00:12:34]  Once we don't have Trump ripping people apart from each other, all right, then let's start to make this better.
[00:12:40]  You know what I mean?
[00:12:41]  America was never great.
[00:12:42]  So let's just make this better.
[00:12:44]  Woke up this morning with a smile on my face.
[00:12:52]  Hopped out of bed, took a shower, made me some breakfast.
[00:13:08]  Two scrambled eggs.
[00:13:11]  Grease.
[00:13:14]  Grab my keys, grab my wallet, grab my jacket off to work.
[00:13:20]  Beaming all the way down through me, babe.
[00:13:40]  Dang.
[00:13:41]  Hey, thanks so much for watching another episode of Slightly Offensive with your favorite.
[00:13:45]  They call me a gay black woman.
[00:13:46]  It's just a nickname.
[00:13:47]  I know.
[00:13:48]  A gay black woman, me, Elijah Schaefer.
[00:13:50]  We were out here in Hollywood talking about reparations.
[00:13:53]  We found out that people agreed to disagree.
[00:13:56]  A lot of people thought differently.
[00:13:57]  If you disagree or agree, what do you think is the future of this country?
[00:13:59]  Make sure you like, share, subscribe, comment below.
[00:14:02]  And remember, we are listener supported.
[00:14:03]  So check out the links to find ways to support independent media and journalism.
[00:14:06]  God bless the United States of America.
[00:14:08]  I'm signing out.
[00:14:27]  That's so good!
[00:14:29]  Oh, man, respect.