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DONKEY: ‘BMF’ Actor Da'Vinchi Sparks Backlash After His Comments On Slavery: ‘It’s Time To Move On...’ · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's Donkey of the Day. Made it. Damn, the hee-haw, dude.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's time for Donkey of the Day. I ain't trying
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to be Donkey of the Day no more.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: They should be embarrassed by what they already did.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not making these people do these things. It's called
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Donkey of the Day, and it really caught me off guard. Damn, Charlemagne.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Who got the donkey of the day today?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Well, Jessalarius, donkey of the day for Monday, October 5th
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: goes to Abraham DeJuiced. Okay, sakpa say to all my Haitians,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: did I get that right?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Juiced? Juiced? Okay. Commonly known to y'all as Da Vinci.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Good morning to the young King Da Vinci. I am
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: sending you positive energy, love, and light. I am not
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  Speaker 2: here to bash you in any way because this conversation
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: is bigger than you. You know, I always strive to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: not talk about individuals. I like to talk about ideas.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Issues, institutions. And this conversation is an opportunity to teach.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Now, Da Vinci was on Funky Fridays with my guy,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Cam Newton, dropping the blues bombs for Cam Newton. OK,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: doing great work in the media space. OK, love it
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: or hate it. He's really good at what he does.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But Cam and Da Vinci were having a conversation about race.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: And during that conversation, Da Vinci basically said.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We need to move on from slavery.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: OK, part of his reasoning was that white people enslaved
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: white people to black people, enslaved black people. So if
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: we keep looking at slavery strictly through the lens of race,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: we're cutting our own legs off.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Let's listen.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: I do think it's unfortunate that we have so many
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: people in the world that can't see past that. Like,
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: with everything that's going on, like, I can understand the
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: emotions that it conjure up because of what people of
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: African descent have gone through under the hands of Caucasians.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: But however... The story is much bigger. Like, Caucasians have
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: enslaved Caucasians. Black people have enslaved black people. We're looking
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: at history from a point of view that is cutting
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: our legs off from under our feet to really be
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: able to move forward and be, like, smarter and more, like,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I think just more awareness.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Now, listen, I tell you every day, I'm not the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: highest grade of weed in the dispensary, nor am I
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the strongest Avenger.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: But I understand, OK, the larger point he's trying to make.
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  Speaker 2: The point, I believe, is you cannot build your whole
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: identity around what somebody did to your ancestors.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I can agree with that. But Da Vinci, my brother, Mr. Juice.
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  Speaker 2: OK, there is a documentable connection between slavery and present
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: day slavery.
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  Speaker 1: Black American conditions.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have time to break it down for you,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: but I will point you in the direction of Dr.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Joy degree. Okay.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: She developed a term I read about years ago, and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: the term is post-traumatic slave syndrome. And it's a theory
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: that describes multi-generational psychological and behavioral effects of centuries of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: chattel slavery, followed by continuing oppression and racism. See, people
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: don't ever discuss that part. And that's where Da Vinci's
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: comments really fall short. When you say white people enslaved
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: white people, too, what exactly are we talking about? Because
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: if we're discussing black Americans, then let's discuss America, not
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: what happened globally around the world. OK, the slavery black
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: people experienced. here wasn't simply somebody making somebody else work
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: against their will okay the white indentured servitude i think
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  Speaker 2: you're referencing was a contract-based system okay that racial hereditary
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: chattel slavery and chattel slavery the law literally defined enslaved
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: people as property okay the condition was permanent the children
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: inherited that condition through their mothers okay human beings could
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: be bought sold family separated you didn't work off your
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  Speaker 2: debt and go home da vinci okay you were property
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: And your children could be property, too. That's not my opinion.
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  Speaker 1: That was American law. All right.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: The Library of Congress has the slave code. So, yes,
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  Speaker 2: Da Vinci, white people have enslaved white people throughout world history.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Black people have enslaved black people. OK, Africans participated
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: in the slave trade. That is true. But none of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: that changes what happened here.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: In America, okay, when you say black people need to
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: move on from slavery, hey, man, black Americans tried, okay?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: They did move on from slavery. The problem is America
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  Speaker 2: kept moving the goalposts. They kept moving the finish line,
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  Speaker 2: all right? Slavery officially ends in 1865. Almost immediately, sovereign
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  Speaker 2: states started passing black codes. restricting the rights and movement
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  Speaker 2: of newly freed black people. Some black people could be
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  Speaker 2: arrested for minor offenses and forced back into labor.
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  Speaker 1: Please, Da Vinci, watch Ava DuVernay's 13th.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, that breaks down the 13th Amendment and how it
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: abolished slavery except as a punishment for crime.
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  Speaker 1: It's really simple.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, yesterday you were property, today somebody tells you you're free,
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow they create a law that can put you right
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  Speaker 2: back to work for somebody else.
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  Speaker 3: How.
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  Speaker 2: Can black people just move on from slavery when they
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: got trick bags to put us right back in it?
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  Speaker 3: All right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: That's not moving on.
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  Speaker 2: Then, you know, reconstruction gets dismantled.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Then here comes Jim Crow. Now you got segregation.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: You know, black people getting blocked from voting restrictions on
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  Speaker 2: where we could live, where we could.
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  Speaker 1: Go to school, where we could sit, what businesses would
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  Speaker 1: serve us.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Da Vinci, for more than a century after the
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Civil War, laws and practices continued denying black Americans full
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: participation in American life.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: These are just facts. That's it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: So I'm just asking a simple question. When exactly were
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: black Americans supposed to just start moving on? All right,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: was it 1865, 1965?
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Pick a date.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, because every time black Americans tried to move forward,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: America had another obstacle waiting. Now, let me try to
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: explain this in simple terms before I land this plane. Okay, history...
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: It doesn't disappear because the law changes. If I stop
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: taking money out of your bank account today, that doesn't
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: mean tomorrow our bank accounts are equal. You still lost
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the money. OK, you still lost what that money could
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: have bought. You lost what you could have invested. Your
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: children lost what you could have passed down. That's how
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: history works as well. Consequences have children, too. That's why
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I don't like when people say that happened a long
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: time ago. That's just not true. There are black Americans
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: alive right now who lived under Jim Crow.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: OK, my my aunt and my mother included. All right.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964. That's not
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: ancient history. OK, that's your grandmother.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: All right. That's somebody's mother, depending on how old you are.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: There will be somebody sitting at your Thanksgiving table this
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: November who possibly lived through those things. And this is
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: why I think some people misunderstand the black American experience.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: OK, I would never tell a Haitian person, man, move
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: on from what France did to Haiti. Who am I?
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Who the hell am I to say that? OK.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: And that's what bothers me about these conversations. People look
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: at where black Americans are standing today. without asking how
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: we got here you cannot judge black people's position in
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the race without acknowledging how white supremacy spent generations putting
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: hurdles in our lane now i do agree da vinci
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: history cannot become.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: An excuse for where we stay All right.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: History can can explain where we are, but it cannot
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: become an excuse for where we stay. We have to build.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: We have to heal. We have to own businesses. We
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: have to buy property. We have to educate our children.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: We've got to take care of our bodies. We've got
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: to screen for our families. We've got to hold ourselves accountable.
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  Speaker 2: We've got to create institutions and we've got to protect
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: what we build. We've got to pass something down. That's
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: moving forward. But moving forward does not require forgetting. That's
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: why Jewish people say.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Never again.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: OK, that's why we talk about September 11th every year.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Nobody says, man, 9-11 was 25 years ago. Y'all got
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: to move on.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: We understand that remembering tragedy isn't automatically the same thing
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: as being trapped by tragedy.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: OK, memory can be instruction. That's what history is supposed
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to be.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: So Da Vinci, good brother, I understand you saying black
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: people need to move.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Forward with your history lesson. needs some history lessons, okay?
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Because white people were enslaved too, doesn't answer anything about
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: black American slavery and it doesn't explain what happened after emancipation.
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  Speaker 2: Black Americans didn't refuse to move on from slavery. We've
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: been moving forward the whole damn time. The fact that
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: we're still here is evidence to that. So don't tell
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: people to forget history in order to move forward. Teach
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: them the proper history so they understand just how far
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: we've already come.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: And then I say to us, keep going. Please give
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Da Vinci, Mr. Juice, the biggest hee-haw. Why you say
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: his last name like that? I don't know. I think
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: that's how Haitians pronounce it. Mr. Juice. Is it Juiced? Haitians,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. You asking this Dominican brother
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: over here. I'm not Dominican. I'm black. No, I'm black.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not Dominican. I'm not going to lie though, boy.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: What?
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Sometimes when you do think about our history, I'm like,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: how the hell are we still here? God is good.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: God must got a plan for us, right? Cause we're
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: supposed to be gone a long time ago. They've been
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: trying to kill us since we got here. Damn it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Lord have mercy. Well, thank you for that donkey today.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Now, when we come back, Dr. Puma will
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: be joining us.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Dr.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Puma is the founder and president of Soarin' Medical.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: Uh, we always talk about the heart scan and also
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: the full body scan to make sure that you're all right.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: You can check for aneurysms, uh, Things like cancer, tumors,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: blocked arteries, all that. And we're going to talk to
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: him next.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Don't move.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: It's the Breakfast Club.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Good morning. Donkey of the Day is sponsored by renowned
• 9:10
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• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Don't be a donkey when you need a fighter on
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• 9:16
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