Latest / Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News / “Drowning in excuses,” Pastor Corey Brooks shows the harsh reality of Chicago’s South Side

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“Drowning in excuses,” Pastor Corey Brooks shows the harsh reality of Chicago’s South Side · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:07
  You're listening to The Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:11
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:13
  There's another story out by Pastor Corey Brooks.
• 0:16
  And I really, really like Pastor Corey Brooks.
• 0:19
  I think that he just is so good at trying to reach the youth, especially in Chicago, to try to instill hop, to try to instill trades in people, teach and train them to do trades, uh, to change the economic future, and to break the cycle of generational poverty.
• 0:43
  I absolutely love it.
• 0:45
  And he wrote another article, and I've featured several stories about him, and uh I'll continue to do so as long as he uh says words of wisdom, we're gonna keep highlighting him and the work that he does.
• 1:01
  And this one really connected with me because I think he is so spot on.
• 1:06
  This might be the number one most spot on truth that I think Pastor Corey Brooks has ever spoken.
• 1:17
  I mean, uh it's just absolutely phenomenally spot on.
• 1:24
  He really has his finger on the pulse of what's going on in this nation, and part of it is disappointing, but the bigger part is incredibly insightful and inspiring and fantastic, and it gives me much hope.
• 1:39
  It gives a lot of hope because of the state of the nation through his eyes, through somebody who is walking across America, literally.
• 1:51
  The title of the article here is uh he wrote it, it's an opinion piece.
• 1:55
  The title of the article is Chicago's South Side is Drowning in Excuses, Dependency and Decay.
• 2:05
  Subtitle here is Rooftop Revelations.
• 2:15
  All right, so uh I'll I'll just put this out there.
• 2:18
  Let me summarize, and then we'll kind of get into the nuts and bolts of what he's saying here.
• 2:24
  So, in summary, he's saying that the South Side in Chicago is living in this delusional world where they've bought into the post-Civil War liberal left idea that everybody is hopeless, that we're we're beyond repair, that unless big government comes in and saves the day, we're all gonna drown, and uh everybody's racist, and uh because we're black, uh, life is automatically incredibly really difficult.
• 3:02
  Now, for a little bit of background, Pastor Corey Brooks is black, and he grew up at a time where he witnessed KKK marches, and he knows he's credible, right?
• 3:18
  Very credible, and so I tend to really trust his opinion because he's he's been there done that, he's lived it.
• 3:27
  He's seen and witnessed and experienced racism.
• 3:32
  So he gets it, he understands it.
• 3:35
  He really does.
• 3:38
  But he's saying that they've been taught uh we've been taught as a nation, we've been taught that people are inherently racist, that racism is is flourishing in 2026, that racism, in fact, under under President Trump, we hear this all the time, that racism has actually exploded, that it's taken off like crazy, that it's like a guaranteed part of our culture because we have a racist president, right?
• 4:12
  That's the narrative that they continue to spew, that President Trump is racist.
• 4:18
  Now, I'm no big fanboy of President Trump.
• 4:23
  Again, there are things that he's done that policies that I think are really good, but they're also policies and definitely things that he's posted that are an abomination.
• 4:36
  I mean, he's he's a narcissist, he's full of himself.
• 4:39
  There's no question that he is into himself.
• 4:44
  I think he thinks he's invincible, you know, on and on and on.
• 4:48
  Very arrogant man.
• 4:50
  But he also has some policies that I think are really good.
• 4:53
  But uh, like him or not, I don't think the man is racist.
• 5:00
  And I've seen the way that he treats people of all stripes and colors.
• 5:08
  And he does not, at least from what I can see, from what I hear, he does not discriminate.
• 5:17
  He's not racist, but that's a narrative, right?
• 5:20
  That's a narrative.
• 5:21
  Oh, he's racist.
• 5:22
  He's uh he's absolutely horrible.
• 5:25
  He mocks, he mocks people from the black and brown communities, and he he's awful, he's terrible, he's he's a racist, he's spread racism across America.
• 5:35
  We're the most racist that we've ever been.
• 5:39
  We hear these narratives, and that's exactly what Pastor Corey Brooks is talking about here.
• 5:46
  He said the Chicago South side is leaning on that crutch of well, we're just targeted by racism, and so uh life will never get better for us.
• 6:00
  And he said it's absolutely not true.
• 6:02
  I want to read a little bit of his opinion piece here because it's very worth reading, and it speaks for itself.
• 6:10
  I mean, it is excellent, it is just so well written.
• 6:15
  Pastor Brooks says, as I recover from foot surgery in Chicago, my break from the walk across America has given me time to do more than reflect.
• 6:25
  I've seen so many things on my walk so far, through small towns, big cities, ghettos, suburbs, open-air drug markets, posh farmers markets, and even the occasional country market.
• 6:40
  Throughout it all, I've seen Americans of so many stripes, and they're all moving forward, moving with a sense of purpose in their work and in their belief in God.
• 6:56
  I'm gonna stop right there.
• 6:59
  Amen.
• 7:01
  He's right.
• 7:01
  He's right.
• 7:03
  Is that not what we talk about on the show day after day after day?
• 7:03
  Is that not what we talk about on the show day after day after day?
• 7:11
  It's the idea, and not just the idea, it's the proof that America is moving forward.
• 7:11
  It's the idea, and not just the idea, it's the proof that America is moving forward.
• 7:17
  All of us are moving forward with the exceptions of small pockets of geographic areas.
• 7:17
  All of us are moving forward with the exceptions of small pockets of geographic areas, or small pockets of political.
• 7:26
  Or small pockets of political fire storms.
• 7:35
  Right?
• 7:36
  Generally speaking, we're all as a nation, we're moving forward.
• 7:41
  We're moving with a sense of purpose in our work.
• 7:44
  And we're moving forward in a sense of purpose in our belief in God.
• 7:50
  So Pastor Corey Brooks says, everywhere I go, I witness this.
• 7:55
  I see it.
• 7:56
  I talk to people.
• 7:59
  He said, and when I returned home to the South Side of Chicago, I was struck by the stillness I felt here.
• 8:09
  It pains me to say this.
• 8:12
  But it was as if I had never left.
• 8:15
  The same problems remained.
• 8:17
  People complained about the same issues they complained about the year before.
• 8:22
  And the year before that.
• 8:25
  Not recognizing that fateful pattern of doom.
• 8:30
  Although my team has greatly reduced violence in our immediate community, it remains high on the surrounding blocks.
• 8:39
  Herds of teens continue to raid the loop, wreaking havoc and destroying what others have built.
• 8:47
  This pattern is obvious and undeniable.
• 8:51
  On my walk across America, I saw people moving towards something better.
• 8:55
  No matter if it was one step a day or 20,000.
• 9:01
  They moved forward in the faith of a good life and an eternal reward.
• 9:11
  All right, that just is first of all incredible and fantastic and great and wonderful and good news.
• 9:20
  At least for most of America.
• 9:24
  The fact that people are moving forward, that people, right?
• 9:27
  We talk about it all the time.
• 9:28
  People are rebuilding.
• 9:29
  People are people who've been their communities have been ravished by natural disasters.
• 9:38
  Palisades California.
• 9:42
  Western North Carolina.
• 9:47
  Over and over and over again, we see people rebuilding.
• 9:52
  And they're doing it with joy.
• 9:57
  They do it happily.
• 9:59
  Neighbor helping neighbor.
• 10:02
  People stepping in and caring for each other.
• 10:07
  People raising money for people.
• 10:11
  Neighbors volunteering their time and their equipment and their energy and their talents.
• 10:18
  We see it over and over and over again.
• 10:25
  Now Pastor Brooks says, well, uh, in South the South side of Chicago, there's this stillness.
• 10:34
  They're not moving forward.
• 10:37
  People are complaining about the same issues they complained about the Europe the year before and the year before that and the year before that.
• 10:46
  Not recognizing that fateful pattern of doom.
• 10:49
  In other words, the more you complain, the more you complain about we're never going anywhere, we're never, we'll never uh we'll never make it, we're always oppressed.
• 11:02
  This area is always going to be full of crime.
• 11:08
  Right.
• 11:11
  They're repeating a fateful pattern of doom.
• 11:17
  So again, um crime remains high.
• 11:22
  They reduced crime on their immediate block, their immediate community, but everywhere else it's it's rampant.
• 11:31
  Herds of teens continue to raid the loop, wreaking havoc and destroying what others have built.
• 11:37
  Well, where have we seen that before?
• 11:41
  Where have we ever seen people encouraged to loot and to just destroy people's businesses?
• 11:51
  Huh.
• 11:53
  Pretty much every single protest that's run by the political left.
• 11:59
  They become violent, they're violent, they're angry, they shut roads down, they close interstates, they throw rocks at cops, they they cry wolf when they get pepper sprayed.
• 12:12
  They incite violence, and then when the police push back, they cry wolf and they play the victim.
• 12:21
  Well, we were minding our own business.
• 12:23
  We were peacefully protesting.
• 12:26
  No, you weren't.
• 12:30
  Looting is never okay.
• 12:33
  Wreaking havoc is never okay.
• 12:36
  Destroying what others have built is never okay.
• 12:41
  We're better than this.
• 12:44
  We know better than this.
• 12:46
  And not one of us would enjoy if somebody, we wouldn't sit back and just take it.
• 12:51
  If somebody burnt our business to the ground, if somebody tore down everything that we put our whole life into to build up.
• 13:04
  It's not easy.
• 13:06
  I mean, it is absolutely painful.
• 13:12
  We just had a family meeting again.
• 13:15
  Coming up with goals and timelines, and I mean, I gotta tell you, we're we're so far behind on our timeline.
• 13:23
  Things keep coming up, money's an issue, right?
• 13:29
  Everything costs more than what you expect.
• 13:31
  You you can plan all day long, but in the end, it's always going to be more expensive than what you expect.
• 13:36
  People who build businesses, it's not for the faint of heart.
• 13:40
  It's hard work to build a business.
• 13:44
  And people put their whole lives into this.
• 13:46
  My daughter's putting everything into this.
• 13:48
  I mean, everything.
• 13:52
  And I can't imagine in my wildest dreams if somebody came up and burned that business to the ground.
• 14:00
  It's what a terrible person.
• 14:00
  It's what a terrible person.
• 14:03
  I'm just gonna say it.
• 14:03
  I'm just gonna say it.
• 14:04
  People who loot, people who destroy people's property, they're terrible people.
• 14:04
  People who loot, people who destroy people's property, they're terrible people.
• 14:10
  It's not that they do terrible things, it's that for somebody to come up with that plan and to think that through and to actually follow through with it.
• 14:10
  It's not that they do terrible things, it's that for somebody to come up with that plan and to think that through and to actually follow through with it.
• 14:20
  You're a terrible, terrible person.
• 14:20
  You're a terrible, terrible person.
• 14:24
  Destroying somebody else's business that they put their sweat, blood, and tears into to build up.
• 14:24
  Destroying somebody else's business that they put their sweat, blood, and tears into to build up from the ground up to employ other people to actually produce and give back to society, and you burn that to the ground.
• 14:40
  You're a terrible person.
• 14:44
  And so Pastor Corey Brooks is talking about how South Chicago on the South side, they're they're just stuck in this mindset.
• 14:54
  They're stuck in this victimhood.
• 14:58
  He said here on the South Side, while many do struggle towards something better, the current moves overwhelmingly in the wrong direction.
• 15:08
  The current is moving in the wrong direction.
• 15:11
  Overwhelmingly, he says.
• 16:08
  This has been for as long as I can remember.
• 16:12
  When I drove truck through South Chicago, we were warned.
• 16:15
  Like you get close to Gary, Indiana.
• 16:20
  Like from that point on, you better keep your doors locked and just keep moving.
• 16:27
  It's rough.
• 16:29
  And it's that it's heartbreaking.
• 16:32
  It's really, really heartbreaking.
• 16:36
  It's just been it's been overrun by poverty and crime and generational poverty and generational crime and uh drugs and violence, dysfunction.
• 16:51
  It's really difficult to see.
• 16:53
  It's painful.
• 16:54
  Well, we're coming up on a break.
• 16:56
  We'll talk more about this, and of course, we're gonna share the good news, but uh we are coming up on a break here.
• 17:01
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• 18:31
  Well, only when the government bows to the people will America become great again.
• 18:39
  Join me in pushing back against censorship.
• 18:44
  Right at the top of America out loud.
• 18:48
  Many voices, one freedom, united in the first amendment.
• 18:56
  Now is our time, my fellow Americans.
• 19:00
  America outlawed.news, liberty and justice for all.
• 19:23
  And he's uh he's from South Chicago, and his goal is really to clean up the streets and to help eliminate crime and to give young people especially opportunity to get out of generational poverty and generational crime.
• 19:39
  And he started doing his walk across America, and he had a major problem with his foot and just had to stop it a few weeks ago, and he's in recovery from foot surgery.
• 19:54
  He's back in South Chicago, and that time away has given him time to reflect and to really think about what he's seen as as he's been walking across America, and especially as he's gone back to South Chicago.
• 20:10
  So his conclusion is that South Chicago is unlike many of the other areas in the United States in that they're stuck, they're kind of stuck, and the current, as he put it, is moving in the wrong direction.
• 20:25
  There's a strong current of helplessness, um perceived helplessness, uh negativity, mocking people who are trying to dig their way out of the gang life and a life of poverty.
• 20:48
  And he he's really heartbroken over this.
• 21:00
  Elect the right leader, they're gonna rescue us.
• 21:04
  And I've warned about this since I've been doing this show, since I started doing this show a year and a half ago.
• 21:04
  And I've warned about this since I've been doing this show, since I started doing this show a year and a half ago.
• 21:11
  I've been warning against this idea that government's gonna be the savior.
• 21:11
  I've been warning against this idea that government's going to be the savior.
• 21:17
  Yeah, we do it every single presidential election, or then people do it, of course, on the local levels, but it's like you know, you heard the whole drain the swamp.
• 21:18
  We do it every single presidential election, or then people do it, of course, on the local levels.
• 21:24
  But it's like, you know, you heard the whole drain the swamp.
• 21:28
  President Trump, I'm gonna drain the swamp.
• 21:28
  President Trump, I'm gonna drain the swamp.
• 21:31
  Drain the swamp.
• 21:33
  Well, the swamp is always going to be the swamp.
• 21:37
  Nobody's gonna drain the swamp.
• 21:40
  Do you remember too?
• 21:41
  The uh the ultra-conservative movement, the Tea Party movement.
• 21:46
  I had to think for a second what it was called.
• 21:48
  The Tea Party movement.
• 21:51
  Oh, these people that like they swept the Republicans swept the nation in the elections.
• 21:58
  The Tea Party is gonna, they're gonna come to the rescue, and they're gonna drain the swamp.
• 22:05
  Well, what happened?
• 22:08
  The Tea Party people started getting kickbacks.
• 22:13
  They got caught up into the same corruption that they vowed to stop.
• 22:20
  Right?
• 22:20
  And so people have been falling for this probably since the beginning of time.
• 22:27
  It's not just an American thing.
• 22:29
  It's people do this in politics all the time.
• 22:31
  It's if you look throughout history, honestly, since the beginning of time, people have done this.
• 22:37
  What did what did the Israelites do?
• 22:39
  We want to be like the other nations.
• 22:41
  We want a king, we want a king, and God is like, no, I'm your king.
• 22:45
  Trust me, you don't want a king.
• 22:49
  I guess God technically is the one, the one who uh owns the rights to no kings.
• 22:56
  Right?
• 22:57
  No king's day, no kings.
• 23:01
  Because God is like, no, trust me, you don't want a king.
• 23:05
  You get a king, you replace me as your king, and uh you're gonna get exactly what you deserve.
• 23:14
  The Israelites, we want a king, we want a king.
• 23:17
  Well, what happened?
• 23:20
  Immediate corruption.
• 23:23
  Yeah, corruption, violence, very corrupt government.
• 23:29
  I mean, on and on and on.
• 23:30
  So, you know, this this has been going on since the beginning of time.
• 23:35
  And people turn to the leaders and they're like, oh, we if we just elect the right one, like I know this hasn't worked, but if we elect the right leader, they're gonna save us.
• 23:47
  Well, here's the reality: it doesn't work that way.
• 23:51
  That's just let's just get to the point.
• 23:54
  It doesn't work that way, it never has worked that way.
• 23:58
  Yeah, you might have a good, a good leader and have a few years of peace and calm and prosperity, but all it takes is for one very corrupt leader to change that entire culture.
• 24:15
  And to set you back 50 years or a hundred years.
• 24:20
  I mean, look at what happens to some of these uh communist nations.
• 24:25
  Look at what happened to Iran in 1979.
• 24:30
  I mean, if you look at what Iran used to be, it was incredible, it was great.
• 24:36
  It was free, it was it was um there was freedom and fun, and people were living in in with joy.
• 24:44
  Uh it was fantastic, it was a beautiful, beautiful nation.
• 24:50
  And in 1979, it was like a light switch, it changed forever.
• 24:58
  Or at least until now.
• 25:02
  But I have a feeling it the effects of what happened in 1979 are going to be felt for a very, very long time in Iran.
• 25:12
  Even if the current regime is completely toppled.
• 25:17
  I mean, look at Afghanistan.
• 25:20
  We could give so many examples of this.
• 25:22
  Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti.
• 25:27
  On and on and on and on it goes.
• 25:31
  A lot of African countries.
• 25:34
  And there's just so much corruption.
• 25:38
  And this idea that, oh, if we just get the right leader, they're gonna save the day.
• 25:43
  It's absurd.
• 25:45
  It is utterly absurd.
• 25:49
  And so I I want to look at some of what Pastor Corey Brooks is saying here.
• 25:55
  Because it's fantastic.
• 25:56
  He's he's right, he's spot on.
• 26:00
  He said, um my time away revealed something I had grown too close to see clearly.
• 26:09
  And that is how fiercely we we protect the dysfunction around us.
• 26:13
  Now, he's specifically talking about South Chicago here.
• 26:16
  It has become our identity, our internal compass, our security blanket.
• 26:24
  It is almost as if we would not know who we were without it.
• 26:29
  That's a powerful statement.
• 26:32
  That's man, is that not fitting?
• 26:36
  We're so dysfunctional that we don't know what our identity would be without it.
• 26:42
  We wouldn't know who we were without the dysfunction.
• 26:47
  This sounds to me, I mean, honestly, like both political parties.
• 26:53
  There's so much dysfunction that they don't know what it would be like without stabbing somebody in the back.
• 26:58
  They don't know what it would be like without trashing somebody else, trashing their reputation, being helpless.
• 27:08
  Everybody's always a victim.
• 27:12
  Right?
• 27:12
  It's that victimhood mentality.
• 27:16
  And it's very rampant.
• 27:18
  It is absolutely rampant in in Washington and beyond.
• 27:22
  People are taught to think that they're victims.
• 27:27
  Right?
• 27:28
  You know that I complain about healthcare a lot.
• 27:31
  Our healthcare system is absolute trash.
• 27:36
  Sorry for anybody in that field.
• 27:38
  Not the workers, the workers are fantastic.
• 27:42
  I have a sister who's a nurse, I have a brother who's a doctor.
• 27:45
  Love, love, love, love, love and respect them.
• 27:49
  And I hope and pray that more people go into the profession.
• 27:54
  It's not the workers who are corrupt, it's the system.
• 27:59
  It's the system that's broken.
• 28:00
  That's broken.
• 28:01
  Our healthcare system has a fever.
• 28:01
  Our healthcare system has a fever.
• 28:04
  It is really sick.
• 28:04
  It is really sick.
• 28:05
  It's really broken.
• 28:05
  It's really broken.
• 28:08
  Right?
• 28:08
  Right.
• 28:09
  So I talk about that, but not as a victim.
• 28:09
  So I talk about that, but not as a victim.
• 28:11
  I'm not like, oh my goodness, the government needs to come, they need to increase subsidies.
• 28:11
  I'm not like, oh my goodness, the government needs to come, they need to increase subsidies.
• 28:15
  I am anti-subsidies for for many things.
• 28:15
  I am anti subsidies for many things.
• 28:23
  Health care is one of them.
• 28:23
  Health care is one of them.
• 28:26
  Now there's a time and a place for it.
• 28:26
  Now there's a time and a place for it, and I know people live in.
• 28:28
  And I know people live in an extreme poverty.
• 28:32
  I'm okay with subsidies for certain things.
• 28:35
  Child care is at the top of the list.
• 28:40
  Child care is ridiculously expensive.
• 28:45
  And you have to have child care if you want to have a job.
• 28:51
  It has to be available.
• 28:55
  All right, but even then I'm I'm hesitant because I just I don't love the idea of subsidies.
• 29:00
  But my point is, and I say this really often.
• 29:07
  I'm not protesting.
• 29:08
  I'm not out holding holding a sign, making signs and holding them up and protesting about the broken health care system.
• 29:15
  My thing is it's a broken system, it sucks, but our health care is still really good.
• 29:22
  Like the method to get care through insurance companies, absolutely broken, utterly broken, probably beyond repair at this point, or at least in the near future.
• 29:35
  This is not going to be a wave the magic wand and fix it problem.
• 29:42
  It is very, very broken.
• 29:44
  But my thing is just look at other options.
• 29:47
  There are other options out there.
• 29:50
  There are programs, there are nonprofit organizations, there are doctors who are cash only doctors, they will not accept any insurance, and they've dropped the rates down so stinking low that it really is affordable.
• 30:05
  There's alternative care.
• 30:06
  There are medical bill sharing programs.
• 30:10
  I'm a part of one.
• 30:13
  That's what we use in our family.
• 30:17
  For my wife and I anyway.
• 30:20
  There are alternatives.
• 30:24
  You just have to be willing to look.
• 30:25
  You have to be willing to fight for it.
• 30:27
  You have to be willing to uh to do the research and put the time in and the effort and to actually find alternatives.
• 30:35
  But what Corey Brooks is saying here is a lot of people have this learned helplessness, and it's like they don't know who they are with without being a victim, without being dysfunctional.
• 30:50
  So he goes on, he says, I've I have had many supporters in my efforts to build a transformative leadership and economic opportunity center on the south side.
• 31:02
  That was the last story that I did on Pastor Corey Brooks.
• 31:05
  That's why he's doing this walk.
• 31:07
  He wants to do it, it's literally called the leadership and economic opportunity center.
• 31:14
  He wants to build this, and he's raising funds to build this to teach trades to young people, to teach them to be leaders, to treat teach them trades, to be electricians and to be plumbers, to be construction workers, to break that cycle of poverty.
• 31:43
  But listen to this next sentence.
• 31:46
  But I have faced far more criticism.
• 31:51
  And I want to sit with that for a moment because it breaks my heart.
• 31:55
  Criticism for trying to get kids off the streets and into a safe environment where they can simply be children.
• 32:03
  Criticism for bringing trades, construction, electrical work, skilled work.
• 32:10
  So Americans can reverse the fortunes of their lives.
• 32:15
  Criticism for believing that the young people on my block deserve opportunity, not just sympathy.
• 32:23
  For these things, I'm being called a black conservative.
• 32:28
  As if that were an insult rather than a description of a man who believes his community deserves better than what it's being offered.
• 32:38
  These attacks have produced exactly the opposite of progress.
• 32:46
  This is fascinating to me.
• 32:47
  I am so intrigued.
• 32:51
  Because I've been saying this forever.
• 32:56
  That it's I I used to, I used to vote pretty much right down the line.
• 33:03
  Left and right, Democrat, Republican.
• 33:08
  I had no problem doing.
• 33:09
  I'm a registered independent.
• 33:11
  I do not lay claims to either party.
• 33:15
  But in recent years, I've been seeing this growing anger and hostility coming from the political left.
• 33:27
  That I just don't like.
• 33:28
  I'm not comfortable with.
• 33:30
  It doesn't resonate with me.
• 33:32
  Get angry, protest, burn cities down, burn businesses down.
• 33:37
  You're a victim.
• 33:38
  You're a victim.
• 33:39
  Everybody's out to get you.
• 33:41
  Everybody's racist.
• 33:42
  Everybody's homophobe.
• 33:43
  Everybody's Hitler.
• 33:45
  That doesn't resonate with me.
• 33:48
  At all.
• 33:52
  And here, Pastor Corey Brooks is saying, I'm being targeted.
• 33:57
  I'm being shouted down because I want young people to succeed.
• 34:05
  I'm criticized for trying to get kids off the streets.
• 34:09
  And I imagine that that conversation goes something like this.
• 34:15
  What world are you living in where you think that we as fill in the blank, whatever it is.
• 34:27
  We in the black community.
• 34:29
  We in the uh in the gangs, we in the drug community, whatever it is.
• 34:36
  Who are you to think?
• 34:39
  What kind of delusion are you living in to think that we stand any chance?
• 34:46
  The system is rigged against us.
• 34:48
  Right?
• 34:49
  I imagine that's kind of how those criticisms are going because we've heard these kinds of things coming from the political left.
• 34:58
  That everybody's a victim, everybody's everybody's out to get everybody.
• 35:00
  Everybody's everybody's out to get everybody.
• 35:03
  And it's just not true.
• 35:03
  And it's just not true.
• 35:06
  And so when you actually try to help people, and it's hard work.
• 35:06
  And so when you actually try to help people, and it's hard work.
• 35:13
  Right?
• 35:13
  Right?
• 35:14
  There is no magic.
• 35:14
  There is no magic.
• 35:15
  It's hard work.
• 35:15
  It's hard work.
• 35:17
  When you try to rescue people and pull people from the mire of that kind of a lifestyle that's tough.
• 35:17
  When you try to rescue people and pull people from the mire of that kind of a lifestyle that's tough.
• 35:28
  Tough lifestyle.
• 35:28
  Tough lifestyle.
• 35:30
  Full of poverty, drugs, gangs.
• 35:33
  When you try to pull people from that, people are they're criticizing you.
• 35:37
  How dare you?
• 35:39
  This is who we were born to be.
• 35:42
  We're supposed to be victims here.
• 35:45
  And you're saying that there's hope.
• 35:48
  And Pastor Corey Brooks is saying it's just it's heartbreaking.
• 35:54
  I don't think any of us like to see this learned helplessness.
• 35:58
  That's what I call it learned helplessness.
• 36:00
  We learn to be helpless.
• 36:03
  We learn from watching the people around us.
• 36:05
  We learn from listening to the other people around us.
• 36:08
  We learn from listening to the people with authority.
• 36:12
  Air quotes.
• 36:15
  The people who are supposed to be leading us, we learn from them.
• 36:20
  By we, I mean just a collective group of people.
• 36:25
  They learn that they're helpless and that there's no hope.
• 36:30
  That anything that's anything that's being painted as progress must be a sham.
• 36:38
  That's just not that could never, it's too good to be true.
• 36:42
  Unless it's government.
• 36:45
  Unless the government's there to hand out uh welfare stamps or whatever it is.
• 36:52
  Then all of a sudden it's it's good and right and just a really broken system.
• 36:59
  Uh, we'll talk more about this after the break, but man, there is a lot to be hopeful for.
• 37:04
  I promise you that.
• 37:06
  All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcast is heard on talk radio.
• 37:11
  You can hear them on Spotify, Stitcher Pandora, iHeartPodcast, Apple Podcast, many, many more.
• 37:16
  Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, share it, and when we come back, we'll talk more about how America keeps moving forward.
• 37:24
  Chicago might not be, or at least South Chicago, but the rest of America is.
• 37:29
  We'll be right back.
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• 39:11
  Pastor Corey Brooks has been walking across America.
• 39:15
  Now he's on a hiatus because he's got a severe foot issue, and he actually required surgery for it.
• 39:23
  But man, is he doing a lot to transform Chicago?
• 39:27
  And he has not given up.
• 39:28
  He's not going anywhere, he's not being intimidated.
• 39:31
  He's absolutely fantastic.
• 39:34
  And he cares about the youth.
• 39:35
  And he believes in the youth of this great nation.
• 39:39
  And I think that's really, really incredible.
• 39:44
  But he's talking about how his time away from Chicago and walking across America and then coming back to Chicago and sitting in the stillness of that really made him realize that he's been part of the system for too long.
• 39:59
  That being away, having that time away, and then coming back has really given him a different perspective.
• 40:05
  And here's what he concludes.
• 40:09
  He concludes that number one, America as a whole is moving forward, that we're all about progress, that every town, village, city that he visits across America, he sees progress.
• 40:24
  People moving forward, people linking arms and working together.
• 40:29
  And it's really inspiring to him.
• 40:32
  But he said as he comes back to Chicago, he realizes that the current is flowing in the wrong direction, that there's not progress, that people don't want there to be progress because they want to believe that they're victims, that they're victims of the system, that they're victims of America, that America's a racist, America's awful, it's it's it's full of white supremacists.
• 40:59
  And so they resist change because they don't believe that people legitimately can change.
• 41:08
  And man, this is one of the things that's so frustrating about hearing some of the rhetoric coming from the political left.
• 41:14
  It's it's that America's always bashed.
• 41:16
  America's a terrible place, America's racist, America's awful.
• 41:21
  President Obama went on the his apology tour of America.
• 41:24
  America's so terrible, America's awful.
• 41:27
  We apologize for the way that we treated our allies in the past.
• 41:32
  And they apologized for America.
• 41:37
  But Pastor Corey Brooks says we might not have much to apologize for.
• 41:44
  We're actually a great nation that's making great progress.
• 41:48
  It might be one step a day or 20,000 steps a day, but we're making progress.
• 41:52
  We're all moving forward together.
• 41:54
  We're moving forward in uh the economy.
• 41:57
  We're moving forward in our faith as a nation.
• 42:00
  Faith as a nation.
• 42:04
  But he says he's been greatly attacked in Chicago.
• 42:04
  But he says he's been greatly attacked in Chicago in his own city.
• 42:09
  In his own city, he's been attacked because he's trying to bring the youth up and train them to be family leaders.
• 42:11
  He's been attacked because he's trying to bring the youth up and train them to be family leaders.
• 42:21
  To be leaders at work, to work hard, to have a good work ethic, to to build a home, and build the economy.
• 42:22
  To be leaders at work, to work hard, to have a good work ethic, to build a home, and build the economy, and be producers and not takers.
• 42:36
  So he said these attacks have produced exactly the opposite of progress.
• 42:42
  Now listen to this.
• 42:44
  He says, I want to be honest about something that no politician in the city will say out loud.
• 42:50
  Unlike Mayor Brandon Johnson's belief, white supremacy does not run these streets.
• 43:01
  Do you hear this?
• 43:04
  This is coming from a very well respected, very credible black pastor.
• 43:14
  And he's saying no politician will say this out loud.
• 43:18
  Why?
• 43:19
  The implication here, at least to me, is because it's not popular.
• 43:24
  It's not a popular opinion.
• 43:26
  And so the politicians say, hey, it's you know, white supremacy is ruined, it's run in the streets.
• 43:33
  White supremacy is everywhere.
• 43:37
  We've been under the thumb of racism since the beginning of time.
• 43:44
  We hear Pastor Brooks is saying, unlike Mayor Brandon Johnson's belief, white supremacy does not run these streets.
• 43:53
  I saw the KKK march in the streets of Kenton, Tennessee when I was a boy, but I've never seen the march since then.
• 44:02
  And never in Chicago.
• 44:07
  Interesting folks.
• 44:09
  And he's right.
• 44:12
  Now that's not to say that racism isn't isn't here.
• 44:16
  There's always going to be racism.
• 44:18
  But he's saying it doesn't run the streets.
• 44:23
  Yeah, they want they want you to believe these politicians want you to believe.
• 44:27
  The media wants you to believe.
• 44:29
  Oh, everybody, there's so much racism.
• 44:31
  There's so much oppression everywhere you go, and it's just people, people can't ever get an upper hand.
• 44:38
  And we need to do reparations.
• 44:40
  We need to the government needs to do subsidies for everything because people just can't ever get an upper hand.
• 44:49
  How often have we been told?
• 44:50
  I mean, for at least the last decade.
• 44:55
  We've been told about white privilege.
• 45:00
  That white privilege is ruining the black communities.
• 45:04
  And here Pastor Brooks is saying, no, white supremacy doesn't, it doesn't run the streets.
• 45:11
  Not here in Chicago and not across America.
• 45:16
  Now I think that's really it's it's a bold thing for him to say because it doesn't make him a very popular person.
• 45:26
  He said there is no external force orchestrating our destruction from the shadows.
• 45:32
  In other words, nobody's making us self-destruct.
• 45:38
  If there is any racism holding us back today, it is the soft bigotry of low expectations.
• 45:46
  The quiet condensation of voices that tell us we're permanent victims who need government programs instead of God, family, and hard work.
• 45:57
  They peddle a lie that feels like comfort.
• 46:01
  It's not your fault.
• 46:02
  The system is rigged.
• 46:04
  Just vote the right way, and everything will change.
• 46:08
  And while they're saying it, another generation slips away.
• 46:13
  Man, this is powerful.
• 46:15
  This is powerful.
• 46:18
  And he is so incldibly right.
• 46:21
  He's so right.
• 46:25
  Now, I want you to hear this again.
• 46:27
  Hear this paragraph.
• 46:29
  There's so much to this.
• 46:31
  Man, I will link this article to the show notes.
• 46:34
  It is excellent.
• 46:36
  It's phenomenal.
• 46:39
  Pastor Brooks says on my walk across America, several Americans told me they feel that everything that could be done for black Americans has been tried.
• 46:50
  Government programs, affirmative action, protests, movements, decades of bending institutions and budgets in our direction, and still, they said nothing gets better.
• 47:07
  When I heard that, I did not get angry at them.
• 47:12
  I got sad.
• 47:14
  Because they are not entirely wrong.
• 47:17
  And the question that haunts me is not whether America has failed us, but whether we have failed ourselves by choosing the comfort of our grievances over the hard work of our freedom.
• 47:32
  He talks about how we've we've squandered a lot by prizing dysfunction over progress.
• 47:40
  We value victimhood over merit.
• 47:46
  This is heartbreaking.
• 47:49
  But it's not the end of the story.
• 47:52
  And there are plenty of areas where people are succeeding.
• 47:56
  And I say, you know, I've said this before.
• 47:59
  Man, we had we had the first black president in the United States history.
• 48:11
  That's incredible.
• 48:14
  What a feat.
• 48:16
  How cool is that?
• 48:17
  I mean, whether whether you love Obama or not, that's not really the point.
• 48:23
  The fact that we had our first black president twice.
• 48:30
  He was elected twice.
• 48:33
  It's absolutely fantastic.
• 48:36
  And then we had our first female vice president, who also happened to be black.
• 48:46
  That's really, really cool.
• 48:49
  I mean, again, policies aside, I'm not even talking about policies.
• 48:53
  I'm just talking about how the American people, the overwhelming majority voted for them.
• 49:01
  Black and white and everybody in between.
• 49:01
  Black and white and everybody in between.
• 49:06
  I think that's fantastic.
• 49:06
  I think that's fantastic.
• 49:08
  And I think that shows that we've made progress.
• 49:08
  And I think that shows that we've made progress.
• 49:10
  At a bare minimum, it shows that we've made great progress in this battle against racism.
• 49:10
  At a bare minimum, it shows that we've made great progress in this battle against racism.
• 49:20
  That's a great thing.
• 49:20
  That's a great thing.
• 49:23
  We ought to celebrate that.
• 49:23
  We ought to celebrate that.
• 49:26
  But now, according to Pastor Corey Brooks, people are.
• 49:26
  But now, according to Pastor Corey Brooks, people are snapping back into that default of permanent victimhood.
• 49:34
  Saying that the system's rigged against us, that we'll never get ahead.
• 49:40
  I don't care what you say, that you're not going to convince me, we will never get ahead.
• 49:48
  And it's it's heartbreaking on the one on the one hand.
• 49:51
  On the other hand, isn't it incredible to see what progress we are making?
• 49:58
  I mean, I gotta be honest.
• 50:01
  I love this country.
• 50:04
  I love what we stand for.
• 50:06
  I love the people.
• 50:08
  I love to travel.
• 50:10
  I love to meet new people.
• 50:12
  I love to talk to people.
• 50:13
  I mean, I literally make friends everywhere I go.
• 50:16
  It drives my wife bonkers.
• 50:20
  She's like, stop it.
• 50:23
  I'm like, I can't help it.
• 50:25
  Like people interest me.
• 50:29
  People's stories interest me.
• 50:32
  Talking to people, getting people to share, getting people to open up, sharing ideas with people.
• 50:39
  I love it.
• 50:40
  I think it's fantastic.
• 50:43
  Feeling safe enough to talk to people and open up to people and have them open up to you.
• 50:49
  That's what makes this nation so great.
• 50:53
  We are a free nation.
• 50:55
  I mean, probably most of us have talked to people who came from absolutely nothing.
• 51:02
  I mean nothing.
• 51:05
  And people who've been become wildly successful.
• 51:07
  And I try to share a lot of those stories on this show.
• 51:14
  Because I think that's what makes us so great.
• 51:17
  It's what separates us from the rest of the world.
• 51:21
  Is that people, anybody, literally anybody, I truly believe this.
• 51:26
  I believe it with all of my heart because I see it too many times to believe that it's a coincidence.
• 51:31
  I believe that anybody.
• 52:09
  Don't you dare succeed.
• 52:12
  Don't show people that you can succeed without government help, because that's not the right narrative.
• 52:18
  And I reject that wholeheartedly.
• 52:30
  Who didn't have privilege or white privilege?
• 52:37
  I've seen plenty of people of all stripes and colors make it wildly successful in their life.
• 52:48
  They've become incredibly successful.
• 52:51
  People who came from nothing.
• 52:55
  And for them to have that opportunity and the willingness to do it and to push through, and to not come up with excuses and to not tell everybody that they're a victim.
• 53:07
  I love it.
• 53:08
  I think it's fantastic.
• 53:09
  I applaud, I stand behind them.
• 53:11
  I will cheer them on.
• 53:13
  And my prayer, and I literally legitimately mean this.
• 53:17
  My prayer for them is that nothing but success and wealth will follow them for the rest of their days.
• 53:24
  They've earned it.
• 53:28
  And that's what most of America follows.
• 53:33
  That's the system.
• 53:34
  That's it.
• 53:36
  That's the formula.
• 53:39
  People believe in people.
• 53:40
  People cheer people on.
• 53:42
  And if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't cover all these stories all the time.
• 53:47
  We see it all the time.
• 53:48
  People live in an extreme poverty.
• 53:51
  And you know what the American people don't do?
• 53:53
  They're not like, well, this just proves that systems rigged.
• 53:59
  Systems rigged against them.
• 54:01
  Let's protest.
• 54:03
  Do you know that almost never?
• 54:06
  Almost never is protest the first response.
• 54:09
  You know what the first response is when we see somebody who's really struggling?
• 54:14
  The first response is, how can I help?
• 54:18
  How can I help them get back on their feet again?
• 54:21
  How can I encourage them?
• 54:22
  Hey, can you find a way to get this message to them?
• 54:25
  I want to send them a message directly.
• 54:28
  I want to tell them how much they matter, how much their life matters.
• 54:32
  I want to encourage them.
• 54:34
  I want to help them get back on their feet.
• 54:36
  And so Pastor Corey Brooks is right.
• 54:38
  This is what's going on across America, not what's happening in South the South Side of Chicago.
• 54:46
  What's happening on the South side of Chicago is an exception to the rule.
• 54:53
  And I believe, I really, really believe in Pastor Corey Brooks.
• 54:57
  I don't know whether he believes this or not.
• 54:59
  I think he does, or else he would have given up a long time ago.
• 55:03
  But I think they can change.
• 55:05
  I think that culture can change.
• 55:08
  They're a little bit slower than the rest of America.
• 55:12
  But that's just because it's a deeply entrenched cultural idea that we're victims first.
• 55:19
  That's a cultural idea.
• 55:21
  And it gets deeply embedded in people.
• 55:24
  And that learned helplessness really makes people stuck.
• 55:28
  And so he's right.
• 55:29
  His first response is sadness.
• 55:32
  It's not to get angry at people.
• 55:35
  His first response when he hears that is I'm saddened by that, that people feel that way.
• 55:42
  So we need to believe in each other.
• 55:43
  We need to cheer each other on.
• 55:45
  We need to help each other out.
• 55:46
  We need to hold a handout to people.
• 55:49
  And help them move through this life.
• 55:53
  There is opportunity all around.
• 55:56
  There's opportunity for people to succeed if we only grab a hold of it.
• 56:00
  Only grab a hold of it.
• 56:02
  Like I said, it's not easy.
• 56:02
  Like I said, it's not easy.
• 56:03
  It's hard.
• 56:03
  It's hard.
• 56:04
  It's tough.
• 56:04
  It's tough.
• 56:05
  It's a lot easier to burn somebody's business down than to help somebody start one.
• 56:05
  It's a lot easier to burn somebody's business down than to help somebody start one.
• 56:10
  But we've got to start.
• 56:10
  But we've got to start.
• 56:12
  We've got to start there.
• 56:12
  We've got to start there.
• 56:13
  We've got to encourage each other.
• 56:13
  We've got to encourage each other.
• 56:15
  So kudos to Pastor Corey Brooks.
• 56:15
  So kudos to Pastor Corey Brooks.
• 56:19
  Man, just what a stand-up guy.
• 56:19
  Man, just what a stand-up guy.
• 56:21
  What a what a great guy.
• 56:21
  What a what a great guy.
• 56:23
  And I always appreciate his insight.
• 56:23
  And I always appreciate his insight.
• 56:26
  And that, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:26
  And that, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
• 56:28
  You can find more out about.
• 56:28
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at AmericaOutloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 56:36
  You'll be in the know.
• 56:37
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 56:40
  When so much darkness envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 56:48
  Join me in being a light.