Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Bob Woodson, founder of The Woodson Center and 1776 Unites, to the newsmaker to discuss his recent announcement of retirement, why he left the Civil Rights movement behind, and what qualities he’s seeking in his successor.
Leahy: We are joined on the newsmaker line by our good friend, the great Civil Rights leader Bob Woodson. Bob, welcome to The Tenessee Star Report.
Woodson: I’m pleased to be here.
Leahy: First, congratulations on a fantastic career. You made news. Certainly, it’s well earned. But you made an announcement last week. You’re retiring after 40 years as head of the Woodson Center. What prompted you to make that decision?
Woodson: Well, age, first of all. And secondly, we want the organization to have a prosperous 40 more years. And therefore, succession is a key to that future. And so I want to prepare other young leaders to come in and take my place. We have a really deep bench, and we are excited about the future. I’m going to step aside. I feel like the adult kids, empty nesters. And you know, goodbye ain’t always gone.
Leahy: You’ve said something quite profound. I think maybe 30 years ago or perhaps even 40. You said, “I realized I was in the wrong struggle and the Civil Rights movement was beginning to morph into a race grievance industry.” When did that realization come to you, Bob Woodson?
Woodson: It came to me in the late 60s when we had picketed outside of a pharmaceutical company. When they desegregated, they hired nine Ph.D. chemists, and we asked them to join this movement. And they said they got their jobs because they were qualified, not because of the sacrifices of those on the picket line who were janitors, hairdressers, and ordinary folks.
I realized that, as Dr. King said, what good does it do to have the opportunity to participate if you don’t have the means and the where with all to do it? The Civil Rights movement never concerned itself with preparing poor people to take advantage of opportunities.
Instead, it concentrated on attracting resources to the middle class. And so I realized a bait switch game had been going on. We use the demographics of one segment of poor blacks as bait, and when the benefits arrive, it only helps those who are prepared.
And so I left the civil rights movement because it had morphed into a race grievance industry. And I began to work on behalf of low-income people of all races. The poverty programs came along and we spent $22 trillion, with 70 cents of that money didn’t go to the poor, it went to those who served the poor.
And so a lot of those Civil Rights leaders became Democratic officials running these cities. And they were the ones administering these poverty funds. So you have this huge classicism in the black community that no one talks about.
Leahy: That’s very interesting and quite a profound point. Last year, you started the 1776 Unites Project to push back against Critical Race Theory and the project – 1619 project in schools. Very divisive and very bad for America in my view. Tell us how that project has proceeded in the following year.
Woodson: Well, as I said, we pushed back. And since the radical left, I think, was using America’s birth defect of slavery and Jim Crow as a bludgeon against the country that got expressed in this 1619 Project.
Since they were using blacks as a messenger, we thought that the counter-voice should be black-led. And so I brought together a group of scholars and activists and journalists, and we produced a series of essays, about 28 of them with 1776 Unites.
And we were offering not a point-by-point debate, but a more inspirational and aspirational alternative narrative. In other words, the basic accusation is that many of the problems faced by low-income blacks in the crime areas and out-of-wedlock births are related to a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
That’s just a lie. And so in our essays, we talk about how, in the turn of the century, how blacks developed and built their own hotels and businesses and Wall Streets. They had $100 million dollars in real estate assets in 1929 in the city of Chicago and 731 businesses.
How schools were producing children who could read and write. And they closed the education gap between 1920 to 1940 within six months. We just were offering curriculum too so that school systems would have some counter-information and knowledge.
We have 15,000 downloads for our curriculum that celebrates America as really the country of opportunity, even for those who were enslaved.
Leahy: Now, let me ask you this, Bob. On what date will you officially be retired? Is it like, immediate?
Woodson: No, no, no. Nothing is going to happen tomorrow. We’re taking the rest of this year to search for my successor. In the meantime, the organization is prospering. We’re growing. I hope to name someone next year.
Leahy: Ah! So let me ask you this. In the search for your successor, what qualities are you looking for?
Woodson: I’m looking for someone of faith, someone who really loves and appreciates the richness of this country. We’re looking for people who are committed to looking at the strengths, the histories of resilience, people who understand. In other words, someone who is competent, loves this country, loves low-income people, and is forward-thinking, a visionary, and optimistic. Those are the qualities that we’re looking for.
Leahy: And how extensive will your search process be? And how many applications have you received so far to be your successor?
Woodson: We are not doing a national search as such. I mean, there are people who have been in this orbit walking with us over the past 30 years.
So we have a rich pool of people among those who we already know and had some experience with. The pool of people in this space are people already known to us.
Leahy: That makes sense.
Woodson: It’s just a matter of selecting which one will continue this message.
Leahy: When do you anticipate that process is likely to end? You’re staying in the gig full time until your successor is identified?
Woodson: Absolutely. I will be staying at the helm until my successor is named. I hope to when we identify someone who’ll work beside that person for a few months so we have an orderly transition.
But we will be making an announcement by the end of the year. We hope to be able to make an announcement and then perhaps a transition in the spring.
Leahy: Let’s say early January, your successor will be announced. You’ll work with that person for three months. And then April 1, when you officially retire, how’s your life going to be different?
Woodson: (Chuckles) Well, again, I’m going to step aside. I’ll be an ambassador. I hope to continue to lecture. I hope to teach and disciple my young leaders around the country as I do now. I hope to spend more time with my wife who has been very patient over these years.
I hope to just continue to offer a commentary. I want to continue to write a lecture and to disciple my young friends. But I want to step away from the daily administration. I want the organization to continue to move and to grow and allow new leadership to come in with new ideas as to how to expand our message.
So I’m looking forward to the next level of leadership and taking it to places that I never did. This organization is going to be around, and we’re going to be a fixture on the American scene, and we’re excited about the future. I’m just glad to be able to hand the baton to younger leadership.
Leahy: Bob Woodson, congratulations on a spectacular career and we look forward to having you back on the program. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Woodson: And thank you.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Robert Woodson” by Gage Skidmore CC By-SA 3.0.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the host of Pensive Politics Christian Watson to the newsmaker line to talk about his background, recent Orange County op-ed and the pushback he’s receiving based on his worldview.
Leahy: We are joined by Christian Watson on our newsmaker line. He is the host of Pensive Politics. It’s a podcast. And also is a spokesperson for a new group called Colors Us United. Good morning, Christian.
Watson: Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Good. Color Us United. It turns out that we’re friends with Fred Levin, who’s one of the organizers there. You probably know Fred pretty well.
And then also Christopher Rufo as part of this, as is Ward Connerly. Tell us a little bit about Color Us United.
Watson: Well, Color Us United really is, I think this sort of machine, an organization that is trying to organize Americans around a very basic and good principle.
A principle that America was founded upon, that our race, our identities, whatever they may be, do not define us. That we are colorfully united by one single similarity that we are all individuals.
And that should be the most important thing about us because that is something that is unique to every single one of us. It’s not a category.
It’s not a box. It’s not a statement. It’s not a political sentiment. It’s a sort of natural condition. And so we are formulated on that principle and we’re trying to push back against the ideology that says your race and other identities are the most important thing about you because we just don’t believe that’s true at all.
Leahy: Well, yeah, exactly. Tell me a little bit about Christian Watson. Who are you and how did you come to prominence here?
Watson: I host a podcast called Pensive Politics and I talk a lot about race issues on my program and on my YouTube channel where my podcast lives.
And I’m not quite sure I would say I’ve come to prominence quite yet. But I have been putting myself out there over the past seven or so months as Critical Race Theory has risen in the public consciousness.
And I have been doing my best to not warn people, but just to inform people about what it is and why there are better alternatives to these sort of fringe ideas of the academic movement and that America was much purer and much better for all of us.
Not someone who is of a particular group, Black or White, not someone whose particular sexuality, that all of us can tap into.
And that is the idea that we are all free people and that free people have access to reason and that we can use that to live good and productive lives. That’s how I kind of formulated my entire brand.
Leahy: Christian, where did you grow up?
Watson: I grew up in Pennsylvania for the first 10 years of my life, but then for the last 11 years, I’ve been living in Georgia.
Leahy: So you’re relatively young.
Watson: Yes, sir. I’m 21.
Leahy: Are you currently in college or what’s been your academic background?
Watson: I’m actually in college. I’m about to graduate in the next four to five months. I’m graduating a little bit early. I’m finishing up the first semester of my senior year.
I’m studying philosophy and journalism, which was a decision some folks question, but I have not regretted it one bit.
Leahy: Where are you going to school right now?
Watson: I go to school at Mercer University in Georgia.
Leahy: Oh, yeah. Good school. Good school, Mercer. Aren’t they a D-1 school now?
Watson: I think so. I’m not the guy to ask about sports.
Leahy: You’re not a sports guy?
Watson: My knowledge is iffy a little bit. I try to keep up, though.
Leahy: So there’s this opinion piece that you wrote for The Orange County Register out in Southern California, and the headline is kind of interesting. Black Americans Must Overcome Negative Self Concepts to Succeed. Tell us about that.
Watson: So there are these mindsets amongst African Americans. And I made my thesis from an article by Sonya Lewis and her academic partner and they were studying mindsets amongst Black youth, various demographics. This is not just inner-city Black youth.
This is inner-city Black youth, the urban Black youth of every demographic and every economic status. And they found one stunning similarity within all demographics: the youth were concerned about the idea of being authentic to their blackness, whatever that meant.
Or more simply put, acting Black. And this was much more than simply a fashion statement, although it was certainly a fashion statement as well.
They found that it was a statement about how one is supposed to interact with academics and academia. They found that it was a statement about how one was supposed to speak and then conduct themselves in their private and public affairs.
A lot of these Black youth thought acting Black should consume the whole of their existence. And this is not something I needed to study to confirm.
Throughout my youth, I have been accused of not acting Black sufficiently enough and actually acting White for certain things, and it’s always bothered me.
But until very recently, I’ve never really put a lot of thought into how to work past that. The article in The Orange County Register is an attempt or a product – is sort of a way to work past that mentality.
Leahy: I’m guessing then that a lot of people have been critical of you?
Watson: Yes. Yes. The mindset of acting Black, and especially in this era of wokeness, authenticity is the biggest thing because for a lot of people who happen to be, mostly – may not be, on the left and who happen to have woke ideologies, if you do not act a certain way that is different from how the norm is, you are embodying the language and actions of your oppressor.
This acting Black thing isn’t just some sort of colloquial thing that was concocted amongst a bunch of youth who just don’t know much about the world.
It kind of has roots in a broader movement, a broader system to critique what is understood as normal in America and to replace it with a sort of revolutionary technique.
So when you realize just the depth of this thing, oh yes. There is, sort of, no escape from criticism if you deny it.
Leahy: Let’s follow up on this. You attend Mercer in Georgia, a good school. And when you have these kinds of conversations at Mercer with people, how do they react to you when you say these things?
Watson: The interesting thing is we don’t really have this kind of conversation and that’s the unfortunate thing. A lot of people, at least in my experience, are very non-confrontational on this issue unless you force a confrontation.
If you force a confrontation, then you better believe there’s going to be holy rage to pay. But a lot of folks are very scared about talking about race.
They’re most certainly scared about talking about acting White or acting Black because they don’t want to be castigated as a racist or as an insensitive person.
And so I think my project at Mercer and abroad as well has been to allow – set a foundation that allows – for a productive conversation to flow forth. And sometimes when you do that, you get criticism.
But I don’t really worry about the criticism too much. I worry about: am I reaching the people who need to be reached and am I causing or encouraging people to be courageous in their opinions? And I think once I’ve gotten past that point, it’s all uphill from there.
Leahy: Let me ask you a little bit about your personal plan. So you’re about to become a senior right? Are you in your last semester?
Watson: Yes.
Leahy: So what do you do after that? How does somebody with your world view, what’s your next career move?
Watson: What I’ve been trying to do for the past few months, and I’m going to continue my podcast. I’m going to continue running the Pensive Politics program.
I’m going to continue working with Color Us United to fight for race behind society. I’m going to continue just doing things that will allow my voice to be utilized in productive ways.
And hopefully will bless people with a certain different kind of understanding. That’s my hope at least.
Leahy: Did you ever talk to your parents about this issue?
Watson: Yeah, sometimes. And those conversations can also sometimes be hard to have. Not because anyone has a particular belief, but just because, again, the confrontation issue, this is not a critique of other people.
I myself have had this problem in the past. There are parts of me that just don’t want to talk about this kind of issue with anyone.
But as I continue to get out there and do this, I am beginning to engage more people and my family about this. And I’m happy that I’m able to do that because there are some folks who cannot do that, unfortunately.
There are some folks that, if they do that, themselves will be castigated and scorned if they hold a certain kind of perspective. But that’s not a problem for me.
Leahy: Not within your own family. When we come back, we talk a little bit more about this view of the world and the pushback that Christian Watson is getting on it.
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Christian Watson” by Christian Watson.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to weigh in on the mentality of woke white liberals, what Black American’s are really thinking, and fascist China.
Leahy: In studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. Crom, good morning.
Carmichael: Good morning, Michael.
Leahy: Did you have a good weekend?
Carmichael: I did. It was fairly uneventful, but we had a nice time. My whole family came over for Friday night, and we played a very interesting game.
Leahy: What is it?
Carmichael: You pick a category like, for example, vegetables. And then everybody writes down the name of a vegetable on a piece of paper. And then it gets all wadded up.
One of the people who is playing with the moderator, so they read each one of the names of the vegetables. So there were nine of us.
So eight people played. It might have been 10 of us. Nine played. But anyway, everybody wrote down theirs. And then the moderator reads out the name of the vegetables and then reads the names again in the same order.
And then nobody can ask, what were some of those vegetables? You can’t ever ask that again. And then you’re trying to guess. It could be anything.
It can be state capitols. It can be Presidents of the United States or world leaders. It can be anything you want it to be. But then you’re trying to guess. You’re trying to say so and so, you are a turnip.
Leahy: Okay, there you go.
Carmichael: And then if that person is a turnip, then they have to come over. And they’re now on your team. They’re now in your family. And at the end of the game, there’s only one family.
Leahy: That’s fun. It sounds like a lot of fun.
Carmichael: I messed up.
Leahy: Were you a turnip? (Chuckles)
Carmichael: Well, one of them was authors. So I decided I’d be funny. So I wrote down I-M-A. And then my last name was C-O-L-D.
Leahy: Ima Cold. (Chuckles)
Carmichael: Kathy was doing the reading, and I didn’t write the D very well. And so she thought it was a B. So it wrecked the whole joke. (Laughter)
Leahy: Crom, so here’s the thing. When it comes to stand-up comedy, I said, don’t quit your day job.
Carmichael: That’s right. Thank you.
Leahy: I had a great weekend. I went up right after the show on Friday I flew up to Madison, Wisconsin, and I have to tell you, it’s run by crazy lefties, the city itself.
Beautiful city. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there. The prettiest, state capital in the entire country.
Carmichael: Wow.
Leahy: And I stayed it right downtown and had dinner with great friends up there. Lots of Conservatives up there.
Carmichael: Oh yeah.
Leahy: And the city itself has got a couple of Lakes. Big beautiful lakes surround the city. It was gorgeous. And the lefties haven’t ruined Madison yet the way they’ve ruined Portland.
Carmichael: Wisconsin is not a liberal state. They vote left most of the time. But I think the Republicans not long ago had control of the governor’s office and both Houses of the legislature.
And Scott Walker used that time in office to change a lot of laws that have not been changed back. And I don’t know that the left has gotten control of both Houses.
Leahy: The Republicans control both Houses.
Carmichael: Okay.
Leahy: But you’re right. It’s a bifurcated state. The urban areas are left-wing lunatics, but the suburban areas and the rural areas are very conservative.
Carmichael: That may change. I watched Waters World over the weekend and there was one segment on there that I just thought was fascinating.
This reporter went out and was interviewing and asking questions of people on the young White liberals on college campuses and was asking them if voter ID laws are good.
And specifically, they asked about Black people and whether or not it harms Black people, and whether it suppresses the Black vote. Every single one of the White liberals’ interview, now I’m sure they interviewed others but they all said oh yes.
A lot of Black people don’t have identification. And they truly meant it. Then they interviewed Black people, and the person will say to a Black person, do you have a driver’s license?
And the Black person would say yes, why are you asking me that? Do you think most Black people have identification? Yes. Why are you asking me that?
Then one of the White people said that a lot of Black people don’t have access to technology. So then one of the Black people was asked, do Black people have access to technology?
And one guy said that’s a ridiculous question. Why do you ask me that And he said a lot of young White people don’t think that Black people have access to technology?
And he said what? It was stunning the difference in what young White liberals think, who probably watch CNN and MSNBC if they watch anything.
Leahy: So the theme of this pic of this report was young white liberals are stupid.
Carmichael: They are stupid, ignorant. They were given a nice brain by God.
Leahy: They don’t use it.
Carmichael: They don’t have the correct information in it. (Leahy laughs) And this gets to when you were interviewing Carol Swan about the NFL.
And by the way, this has been true for centuries. This has been true since before the Civil War. The Democrat Party has been the party of division.
It gets its power there. Now it’s the party of both division and government. Its constituency is government, and it wins power by division.
And so you had Jesse Jackson starting it in the 80s wanting Black people to be referred to as African-American. Meaning they weren’t American.
They were African-American. Well, now I think we’ve gotten finally past that. I always referred to Americans who are Black as Black, because I believe that Americans who are White should be referred to as White, not European-Americans.
I think America has a set of virtues and a set of ideas that are unique in the world, and I think they’re valuable to our country. We are the most multiracial country in the world and we have to have common values to have a functioning, successful society.
And I think this notion of the Black national anthem is once again, it’s like African-Americans that Black people don’t want to honor the American flag.
I wonder whether or not Black people who are in the service, whether or not they think the Black national anthem is their national anthem, or whether or not the national anthem that we’ve been singing for and playing before sporting events for a century, or whether or not that’s the national anthem.
Leahy: I think the latter.
Carmichael: I do too. I also think most Black Americans believe that the national anthem is important. And so the NFL’s doing is surprising to me.
And hopefully, the next Republican president will sign an executive order that forces the owners of the NFL and Roger Goodell to live in ways that are very uncomfortable for them.
Because that’s what they’re doing to the country. And they need to get a chance to walk their talk, as it were.
Leahy: And the disappointing thing about the NFL is you would think they might actually kind of be paying attention to what’s happening to their brand and they’re not. They’re going in exactly the opposite direction.
Carmichael: It may be that what they’re trying to do is get some big contracts in China. And I really mean that. I think that may be what they are doing.
Leahy: Crom, I think if you look at it sort of the NBA led the way with China contracts, but now they’re run by China.
Carmichael: Now the NBA is run by China.
Leahy: Totally run by China. And the NFL may be thinking the same.
Carmichael: They may be trying to do the same thing. And so they may think that if they do this, then there’s more money in it.
Leahy: They can put teams in China and we can just stop going to the games for the teams in America.
Carmichael: The thing that’s so disgusting about it, and that’s really the right word, and it’s also true with the NBA. Probably more so with the NBA is that the owners are putting the almighty dollar ahead of their own citizens and they will cow-tow to anything.
And I’ve decided I’m not quite sure that the Communist Chinese Party is the right way to describe them because they’re not pure Communists, but they are pure fascists.
You have to be connected to the government to be successful in China. If you’re not connected to the government, then you’re not going to be successful.
You have to have permission from the government of China to be successful. That’s more in the line of fascism because there are people who own their own businesses.
The means of production are not owned by the central government in China, but they are controlled by it.
Leahy: What’s emerging is almost like global fascist feudalism. That combo.
Carmichael: Yes. And the reason that China is successful is that they steal our intellectual property. If they weren’t allowed to steal and then exploit our intellectual property, they would not be an economically successful country.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio who outlined the convoluted gun requirements to obtaining a firearm in certain blue states while making it harder for lower-income people to own, and how these resemble Jim Crow voting laws from the past.
(Maxine Waters clip plays)
Leahy: That is Representative Maxine Waters, who is Black and who is a Democrat and was up in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, the site of the second police shooting of a young Black man or the shooting of a young Black man who was resisting arrest and sounds like inciting violence to me. In Florida Ron DeSantis doesn’t like that kind of idea Crom.
Carmichael: What Maxine Waters said there was, we need to stay in the streets, correct?
Leahy: That is what she said. Now, the Constitution allows us to peaceably, assemble to address the government with our grievances. That’s what the Constitution allows. What Ron DeSantis and the Republicans in Florida have done is they’ve passed legislation that essentially says that if your protest turns to intimidation that is by definition of their law, not peaceful.
And so mostly peaceful in Florida won’t fly anymore. And if it’s two or more people, two or more people. I remember seeing videos, for example, of all the riots all over the country. But I also saw videos in Washington, D.C., outside of the Capitol, where you had some protesters, and they were just like the protesters in so many cities across the country that were acting intimidatingly against the Capitol Hill police. In Florida that will be an arrestable offense. That will be a felony, not a misdemeanor.
Leahy: There’s no state law, apparently that addresses that in Minnesota although there are certain constitutional elements to it. Here’s the story about Waters, from Breitbart. Waters in her remarks to reporters, that a protest in Brooklyn Center, where thousands have been protesting the death of Daunte Wright encouraged people to ‘take to the streets if Chauvin (Derk Chauvin the officer charged with, I think second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd back in May) we’re looking for a guilty verdict,’ Waters said.
‘And we are looking to see if all of the talk that took place and has been taking place. And after they saw what happened to George Floyd, if nothing does happen, then we know that we’ve got to not only stay in the street, but we’ve got to fight for justice.’ That’s what she said. That sounds like inciting violence to me.
Carmichael: Sure does. I would like to compare that to anything that Trump said. Trump didn’t say anything like that.
Leahy: Nothing like that.
Carmichael: And they’re claiming that Trump said this. But if I could, Michael, let me do a Jen Psaki here and circle back.
Leahy: Jen Psaki, the incompetent Press Secretary for Joe Biden.
Carmichael: No, she’s actually quite competent. She just provides zero information. She’s very competent. She does have information. She does exactly what the Biden administration wants her to do.
Leahy: Which is to give no information.
Carmichael: Which is to provide nothing. But anyway, let me give you some more information. We’ve talked about this previously, the Jim Crow laws. First of all the Jim Crow laws were passed post-Civil War by the Democrats in the South. This is extremely important that we recognize as it was the Democrats in the South who passed the Jim Crow laws. What did the Jim Crow laws do? They did two primary things. Anyway, the two things: one is they imposed poll taxes to make it expensive to vote.
Leahy: Right.
Carmichael: And the other is they set up certain standards and certain procedures, things that you had to pass in order to have the right to vote. And those were disproportionate. They truly did subdue the Black vote.
Leahy: Absolutely.
Carmichael: Absolutely did that. Now, let’s look at Illinois, and let’s look at Indiana. Of the people in Illinois, less than have a firearm. In Indiana 20 percent have firearms. And in Indiana, the cost of applying for a firearm is $12. In Illinois, it’s $450. Democrats control Illinois. Are Democrats trying to keep low-income people from owning a firearm?
Leahy: From legally owning.
Carmichael: From legally owning. Great point. The violence in Illinois is terrible. The violence in Chicago is terrible. The people committing the violence, do not own legal guns.
Leahy: And there are usually illegal guns.
Carmichael: These are mostly illegal guns. And so in Illinois, it is the Democrats who are trying to have a poll tax as it were on the right on the right of self-protection. Now in Illinois, you have to have 16 hours of training. If you live in the city of Chicago, you have to drive a long long way away to get training. But you have to have 16 hours. And that’s also expensive because you have to pay for the training.
Leahy: Pay for the training.
Carmichael: But that means if you tried to do it in two full days, eight hours a day, you’d have to drive someplace and stay overnight. So what they’re doing is they’re making it as difficult as possible in Illinois for a low-income Black person in Chicago to own a gun.
Leahy: Legally.
Carmichael: Legally. That is the definition. What the Democrats are doing in Illinois to keep black people from protecting themselves is the essence of Jim Crow.
Leahy: It’s a Second Amendment suppression.
Carmichael: It is Second Amendment suppression. No question about that. But it is the tactics. It is the tactics that they’re using. They’re making it expensive, and they’re making it almost like you have to jump through all kinds of hoops. And the results are that Black people, especially in Chicago, the honest Black people, which is the vast majority they can’t afford the time or the money to protect themselves. And the police and the mayor simply aren’t able to do it. For whatever reason, they aren’t doing it. And so this is resulting in murder. This is resulting in death. And it’s all Jim Crow gun laws. Jim Crow Gun laws.
Leahy: You make a very fine point there, Crom.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
