Senator John Kennedy's campaign ad claiming "crackhead" targets only Black people ignited a fierce debate on systemic racism versus individual responsibility. Hosts clash over whether the term implicitly racializes violent crime statistics or remains a universal descriptor for drug addiction, while criticizing Democratic challengers for ad hominem attacks. The discussion references the Young Turks and government policies in Black communities, ultimately questioning if focusing on personal accountability ignores deeper structural inequalities driving criminal justice disparities. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Blaming Criminals Over Police00:12:06
Violent crime is surging in Louisiana.
Woke leaders blame the police.
I blame the criminals.
A mom should not have to look over her shoulder when she's pumping gas.
I voted against the early release of violent criminals, and I opposed defunding the police.
Look, if you hate cops just because they're cops, the next time you get in trouble, call a crackhead.
I'm John Kennedy, and I approved this message.
I'm Kennedy, and I approve this message.
Now, some people are calling this racist.
How the hell is this racist?
Because he's got a bunch of niggas in that.
Well, that's a statistical fact, right?
But the violent crimes are black and brown people.
Well, yeah, it's a statistical fact.
Facts can't be racist.
But the reason why he's saying it's racist is because he said, call a crackhead.
Oh, I get it.
They're saying that he's implying that all crackheads are black.
And that's why it's racist.
To prove my point to you, I'm going to show you TYT.
That's a progressive news network on YouTube.
And I used to watch them when I was an idiot.
I still watch them.
We're faithful subscribers to TYT for the last 10 years.
Faithful.
I used to look at Chink's videos when he just had a desk.
Chink?
There's Chink in it.
It's Sink.
Sink?
Well, I said Ching.
I don't know.
I think it's Sink.
I thought it was Ching.
It's Sink?
It's something like that.
I don't really give a shit.
Why did you have a regular name like Charles?
It's Turkish.
Well, that explains a lot.
But anyway, listen to what they had to say about this ad from Kennedy.
He approves this message.
I've got a message for them criminals.
Okay, so Senator John Kennedy, they're running ads about calling a crackhead instead of the police because the police might come and kill you.
I'm sorry, he didn't say that part.
We've just seen that multiple, multiple times.
So I take it that you'd rather call a crackhead.
That's the only thing I could take away from it.
Yeah.
And it's funny.
Before I even go any farther, he's going to be calling us, implying that this guy's racist, but he's sitting there mocking the way he talks because of his southern draw.
Yeah.
It's okay when a black guy does it.
But if a white man dares to sound like a black guy, he's mocking him and he's racist.
Yeah.
All right.
Go to Nick.
I know.
Before we go to the more video, yeah, there's been instances where you, somebody called it cops and unfortunately they end up losing that life.
Yeah, the cops did a totally wrong thing.
But I still want a cop to show up to help me.
I don't want a crackhead showing up to my house.
Yeah.
That's the argument you make.
I mean, I can't, y'all seriously are making this argument?
Y'all will literally say anything to go against a Republican, no matter how stupid it sounds.
Yeah.
Like Trump could come out and have the cure for cancer.
Oh, no, no.
No, it can't be the cure of cancer.
He's lying.
He's not.
It's a, it's a, oh, fuck it.
Y'all would go against that.
Let's go to the next video.
Yeah.
He's got a bit of a tough on crime approach, no surprise, as he's running for re-election.
There's two other Democrats, though, that are challenging him, and they're actually pushing back on some of this rhetoric.
Gary Chambers Jr. did respond with a video of his own pointing out some problems and some holes in Kennedy's argument about we need more cops on the streets.
I'm coming after the crackheads.
Here's more.
Now this is Louisiana politics and his best.
If you hate cops just because they're cops, the next time you get in trouble, call a crackhead.
I'm John Kennedy, and I approve this message.
But it's also racist as hell.
And he ain't say nothing about opioid addicts, meth addicts, none of that other stuff, because he was trying to talk about a specific subset of people that he doesn't give a damn about serving in Louisiana since he's been elected.
We need leaders who have real solutions to the problem in our communities, not cowards like John Kennedy who drop one liners and do nothing on the job.
You piece of trash.
Dropping one liners, didn't you drop some one line?
You just dropped a one-liner.
So he trying to say only crackheads are black.
Yeah, that's what he's saying.
But you know what that term?
There's no such thing as a white crackhead.
There's no such thing as a Latino crackhead.
Only black people crackheads.
Don't you find that a little race that only you think that only black people are crackheads?
I mean, I know Dave Chappelle did that comedy sketch when he was a crackhead, but there's other races of people that are crackheads, not only black people.
Yeah.
I want to say this.
That's racist for him to imply that.
That only black people are crackheads.
Yeah, how many times are you going to say that?
I mean, like, you calling other people racist, but you implying that only black people are crackheads.
That's what I'm saying.
I'm pouring out his racist.
Well, keep kicking that dead horse then.
Let me say something.
Now, the term crackhead, that's universal for anybody that's strung out on drugs.
Yeah.
Meth has been strung out.
Look at that.
That's a no, it's not.
It's a crackhead.
You don't know.
Yeah.
Heroin.
Crackhead.
That's a universal term for somebody strung out on drugs.
Yeah.
And you, and like you were saying, you implying that all black people are the only crackheads.
It's just stupid.
Yeah.
He didn't touch on the fact of meth heads, opioids, but we all, no matter what they're addicted to, we always call them crackheads.
Go to the next video.
Gary Chamber says it much better than I did, but that was the first thought I had.
Was, oh, crackheads, huh?
Not fentanyl, not opioid users, crackheads.
What's the connotation behind that, Jess?
Yeah, so what they just say.
Before you even go, Star, fentanyl.
Who's the most well-known guy that's overdosed on fentanyl?
Don't say it.
They're going to say you're racist.
George Floyd.
So you're trying to prove that he's being racist by not using the word fentanyl users?
Yeah.
When fentanyl is like what niggas do.
Niggas do crack and fentanyl.
You know why?
Because it's cheap and niggas are broke.
They ain't got money for the white man shit.
They ain't got no money for that cocaine.
Yeah, they ain't got...
See, that's white mangrove.
They can afford that.
Somebody strung out on cocaine.
We refer to them as crackheads as well.
Yeah.
I mean, you just don't know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's just a universal.
I mean, all right.
So, um, yeah, man, this shit's pissing me off.
Yeah, y'all blatantly lying.
Y'all, I mean, why don't y'all attack his policies?
Why don't y'all go back and forth on policy instead of, you know, the ad hominem attacks?
You just blatantly call that man a race.
Well, that's all they got.
Yeah.
Let's go.
Okay, go ahead and finish the video.
Man, we got to watch this shit.
Yeah.
Watch what the hell.
He has criminalized the usage of crack, pump it into black communities across the country.
Then we have the war on drugs, and they over-police those neighborhoods disproportionately put black people in jail and prisons.
And then you have the audacity to say something like, if you're in a situation of trouble, call a crackhead instead of the police.
At this point, considering the role the police play in society, I would rather call a crackhead.
I mean, come on.
I mean, these people are dead serious.
White woman talking about she's going to call a crackhead to come save her when she's in trouble.
So even if that, okay, let's say you're going to call a crackhead.
You try to say a majority of the crackheads are black criminals.
So, you really gonna call a black criminal to come save you?
That's what they said.
That was a good one.
I like that.
I got Socrates on these fools.
Got Socrates on these fools, man.
And okay, so.
Hey, can I say something else?
No, I'm gonna talk.
The government pumped drugs into the black neighborhoods.
The government did that.
That's what she insinuated.
That government like pumped drugs into black neighbors.
Okay, even if they did, it don't mean you should take it.
People I seen do crack and just drugs in front of them.
It's like, no, that's not for me.
Hey, the government's putting that out.
The government brought it here.
He wants you to get addicted.
I'm not taking it because I'm smaller than you.
Why didn't you get hooked on crack?
Anybody on this news show?
Why don't y'all do crack?
You know why?
Because you got somewhat of a functional brain.
You can't tell it by what y'all saying right now, but y'all know doing crack is not good.
That's why that's not why you do it.
So now you victimizing crackheads, blaming it on the government's fault that you're stupid enough to do crack.
Only you.
And you calling a crackhead to come save you.
Y'all will say anything to go against what the right is saying.
Yeah.
Y'all will literally just, y'all know, y'all know that's not true.
You're not colorful criteria.
Yeah, and Kennedy is not singling out black crackheads.
Hey, you try to say that blacks are disproportionately put in prison?
Yeah, that's true disproportionately across America.
A majority of the criminals in jail is black and brown people.
We understand that.
But they're not in jail because they're black and brown.
They're in that because they're crackheads.
They're criminals.
Nah, see, I threw that one in there, right?
Yeah.
I put some salt in the wound.
I think it's one more video.
Them niggas in jail because they're crackheads.
Yeah, not because they niggas.
What's the penal code for nigga?
Or I just picked him up.
He was walking down the street 10, 4, 5, being a nigga.
Yeah, let's come up with a penal code for being a nigga.
What would it be?
I ain't got time for this shit.
Hey, we got enough video, I think.
How about 69, 69?
Y'all just got a nigga 69, 69 by the grocery store.
He was just standing there.
He's black as hell.
I rested his ass.
Wait, it's more video?
I think so.
The young Turks, man.
Honestly, growing up in a place where there were people who were using crack on the streets, they're not bad, scary people.
Oftentimes, they've got a lot of wisdom.
They're always, you know, saying some stuff.
Like, you could be walking down the street and a crackhead will say something like, you know, we're running in the rat race, but who's running the race and who's winning?
And, you know, it really changes the trajectory of your day.
You're just thinking about it for the rest of the day.
They're like Greek philosophers.
I was going to say.
So you call a crackhead, you might learn something.
You call the police, they might escalate the situation.
And the place we're in right now is one where people don't have resources.
They've intentionally stripped resources and opportunity from our communities.
And then people join gangs for protection.
They commit crimes of economic necessity.
They sell drugs.
And they end up being put in prison for conditions that were created by the state.
These people are.
So the drug dealers, the people join gangs for protection.
From who?
The cops?
I'm going to join a gang because I need protection.
Yeah.
From who?
Oh, the cops.
And they still out of economic necessity.
So it's not their fault.
It's because it's stupider than black.
It's society's fault.
I grew up with a lot of people who did all that stuff you just said.
I had more than my first share of opportunities to go down that path, but I decided not to.
You know why?
Because I don't want to go to jail.
I don't want to break the law.
I don't want to be in the gang.
I don't want to do drugs.
I don't want to sell drugs.
You're saying what they did is okay because it's the government's fault, society's fault?
I think they're trying to dictate that that's part of our culture.
That's what we do.
Yeah, that's what you're saying.
So that's our culture.
It's perfectly fine.
And black guy can sit now.
Oh, the white girl, she can say whatever she want.
Rejecting The Gang Life00:01:03
Yeah.
Why?
Because black people just end up being just stupid.
Yeah, that white woman pretty much said black people.
I mean, this is what I took from it.
Black people make stupid decisions that they're inferior when it comes to intellect.
Yeah, intellectually, they're inferior.
They can't think for themselves.
That's what I just said.
Yeah.
We trying to say I'm stupid.
Damn, you call them Greek philosophers.
I've seen crackheads.
They don't have teeth.
They look crazy as hell.
Y'all would not seriously call a nigga to come to y'all's house and save y'all.
Because y'all, I'm just using the, I'm just using what y'all saying.
That majority of crackheads are black people.
So y'all seriously going to call a nigga to come save you.