Trevor Speaks Out About the Murder of George Floyd

Jun 1, 2020

Trevor discusses the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, the Minneapolis protests, and how racial injustice and police brutality continue to impact black Americans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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hey what's going on everybody you know what's really interesting about what's happening in America right now is that a lot of people don't seem to realize how Domino's connect how one piece knocks another piece that knocks another piece and in the end creates a giant wave each story seems completely unrelated and yet at the same time I feel like everything that happens in the world connects to something else in some way shape or form and I think this

use this new cycle that we witnessed in the last week was a perfect example of that Amy Cooper George Floyd and you know the people of Minneapolis

Amy Cooper was for many people I think the Catalyst and by the way I should mention that all of this is like against the backdrop of coronavirus you know people stuck in their houses for one of the longest periods we can remember people losing more jobs than every anyone can ever remember people struggling to make do more than they can ever remember and I think all of that compounded by the fact that there seems to be no genuine plan from leadership like no one knows what's going to happen

no no one knows how long they are supposed to be good how long they supposed to stay inside how long they supposed to flatten the curb no one knows any of these things and so what happens is you have a group of people who are stuck inside all of us as a society we're stuck inside and we then start to consume we see what's happening in the world and I think Amy Cooper was one of the first

moments that the you know one of the first dominoes that that we saw get knocked down post Corona for many people and that was a world where you quickly realize that

while everyone is facing the battle against coronavirus black people in America are still facing the battle against racism and coronavirus and the reason I say it's a Domino's because think about how many black Americans just have read and seen the news of how black people are disproportionately affected by coronavirus and not because of something inherently inside black people but rather because of the lives black people have lived in America

so long you know coronavirus exposed all of it and now here you had this woman

who we've all seen the video now

blatant lie blatantly knew how to use the power of her whiteness to threaten the life of another man and his Blackness what we saw with her was a really really powerful explicit example of an understanding of racism in a structural way when she looked when she looked at at at that man when she looked at Cooper and she said to him I'm going to call 9-1-1 and I'm going to tell

them there's an African American man threatening my life she knew how powerful that was

and that in itself is telling you know it tells you how she perceives the police it tells you how she perceives her perception or her relationship with the police as a white woman it shows you how she perceives a black man's relationship with the police and the police has relationship with him it's it was

it was really it was it was it was powerful

because so many people act like they don't know what what what black Americans were talking about when they said any had Amy Cooper had a distinct understanding she was like oh I know I know that you're afraid of interacting with the police because there is a presumption of your guilt because of your Blackness I know that as a white woman I can weaponize this tool against you and I know that by the time we've sifted through who was right or wrong there's a good chance that you will have lost in some way shape or form

and so for me that was that was the first Domino and so now you living in a world where so many people are watching this video so many people are being triggered because in many ways it was like a it was like a gotcha you know it was like a it was like it was like the curtain had been pulled back aha so you do this because it's always been spoken about but this was like it was powerful to see it being used

and I think a lot of people were triggered by that a lot of people a lot of people were like damn we knew it was real but this is like real real you know

I think a lot of people so angry that some of the outrage that came to her was because of her dog and I mean I get it you know but it was it was

a lot of people felt like

a lot of people felt like it would have been great if the dog shelters had the same I guess power or or if police departments were run by the people who run dog shelters because they seem to act like this they didn't waste time they were like nope we'd like our dog back lady

which I'm going to be honest I think was that was a that was a I mean that was a hell of a punishment her job is one thing taking a white lady's dog that was a nice dog

so that was the first Domino you know I was the first Domino where

I felt like you could feel something stirring

and all of this again is in the back door of a backdrop it's coronavirus has happened the numbers have come out you know the story of armada burry in Georgia that story is coming all of these things are happening

and then the video of George Floyd comes out and I don't know what made that video more painful for people to watch the fact that

that man was having his life taken in front of our eyes the fact that we're watching someone being murdered by someone whose job is to protect and serve or the fact that he seems so calm doing it you know

oftentimes we always told that police feared for their life it was like a threatened and you know you always feel like an asshole wouldn't when you like you didn't fear for your life how why did you feel about how did you feel but now more and more we're starting to see that it's like not doesn't seem like there's a fear it just seems like it's you can do it so you did it there was a black man on the ground in handcuffs and you could take his life so you did

almost knowing that there would be no ramifications and then again everyone on the internet has to watch this everyone sees it it's floods our timelines as people

and

and I think

one ray of sunshine for me in that moment was seeing how many people instantly

condemned what they saw you know and maybe it's because I'm an optimistic person but I don't think I've ever seen anything like that especially not in America I haven't seen a police video come out and and just see across the board I mean even Fox News commentators and and police Chiefs from around the country immediately condemning what they saw no questions not what was he doing not just going no this what happened here was wrong I was wrong this person got murdered on camera

and then the police were fired great but I think what people take for granted is

is how much for so many people that feels like nothing you know how many of us as human beings can take the life of another human being and then have firing be the worst thing that happens to us and yes we don't know where the case will go don't get me wrong but it just it feels like there is no moment of Justice there is no you know if you're watching a movie you'd at least want the cops you'd want to see the perpetrators in handcuffs you want to see the perpetrators facing some sort of Justice

yes they might come out on bail Etc but I think there's a lot of catharsis that comes with seeing that Justice being doled out when the riots happened that for me was an interesting culmination of everything I saw so many people online saying these riots are disgusting this is not how a society should be run you do not lose and you do not burn and you do not this is not how our society is built and that that actually triggered something in me where I was like man okay Society what but what is society

and fundamentally when you boil it down Society is a contract is a contract that we signed as human beings amongst each other we sign a contract with each other as people with its spoken or unspoken and we say amongst this group of us we agree in common rules common ideals and common practices that are going to Define us as a group that's what I think is society as it's a contract

and as with most contracts the contract is only as strong as the people who are abiding by it but if you think of being a black person in America

who is living in Minneapolis or Minnesota or any place where you're not having a good time

ask yourself this question when you watch those people what vested interest do they have in maintaining the contract

why like why don't we all loot why don't why doesn't everybody take why don't because we've agreed on things there are so many people who are starving out there there's so many people who don't have this so many people there are people who are destitute they're people who when the virus hits and they don't have a second paycheck already broke which is insane but that's that's the reality but still think about how many people who don't have the Have Nots say you know what I'm still going to play by the rules even though I have nothing because I still wish for the society to work and exist

and then some members of that Society namely black American people watch time and time again how the contract that they have signed with Society is not being honored by the society that has forced them to sign it with them when you watch our mod our berry being shot and you hear that those men have been released and were it not for the video on the outrage those people would be living their lives

eggs what part of the contract is that in society when when you see George Floyd on the ground and you see a man losing his life

in a way that no person should ever have to lose their life at the hands of someone who's supposed to enforce the law

what part of the contract is that and a lot of people say well what good does this do yeah but what good doesn't it do that's the question people don't ask the other way around what good does it do to loot Target what does it how does it help you to Lou Target yeah but how does it help you to not loo Target answer that question because the only reason you didn't do Target before was because you were upholding societies contract there is no contract if know and people in power don't uphold their end of it and that's the thing I think people don't understand sometimes is that

is that we need people at the top

to be the most accountable because they are the ones who are basically setting the tone and the tenor for everything that we do in society it's the same way we tell parents to set an example for their kids the same way we tell captains or coaches to set an example for their players the same way you tell teachers to set an example for their students the reason we do that is because we understand and society that if you lead by example there is a good chance that people follow that example that you have set and so if they

simple law enforcement to setting is that they do not adhere to the laws then why should the citizens of that Society adhere to the laws when in fact the law enforcers themselves don't

there's a there's a really fantastic chapter in Malcolm gladwell's book David and Goliath where he talks about the principles what is it it's

he talks about the principles the principles of legitimacy

and he says in order for us to argue that any society I need any legal body or any power as legitimate we have to agree on core principles and those three principles if I remember correctly is number one we have to agree on what the principles are number two we have to believe that the people who are enforcing the principles are going to enforce them fairly

and number three we have to agree that everyone in that Society is going to be treated fairly according to those principles it is safe to say in this one week alone and maybe even from the beginning of coronavirus really blowing out in America black Americans have seen their principles completely delegitimized

because if you're a black person in America right now and you're watching this if you're a black American person specifically and you're watching this what principles are you saying I think sometimes the thing we need to remember and it's something I haven't remembered my whole life I'd like it's easy you you start to learn these things you know when you when you travel the world when you read when you learn about Society I think is that like when you are a have and when you are a have not you see the world in very different ways and a lot of the time people say

to the have-nots this is not the right way to handle things

when Colin Kaepernick kneels they say this is not the right way to protest

when Martin Luther King had children as part of his protests in Birmingham Alabama people said to having children as your protest is not the right way to do things when he marched in Selma people said this is not the right way to do things

when people March through the streets in South Africa during apartheid they said this is not the right way to do things when people burn things they say it's not there it's never the right way because there's never there is never a right way to protest and I've said this before there is no right way to approach us because that's what protest is it cannot be right because you are protesting against a thing that is stopping you

and so I think what a lot of people don't realize is the same way you might have experienced even more anger and and more just visceral disdain watching those people loot that Target

think to yourselves

or maybe it would help you if you if you think about that that that unease that you felt watching that Target being looted try to imagine how it must feel for black Americans when they watch themselves being looted every single day because that's fundamentally what's happening in America

police in America are looting black bodies and I know someone might think that's an extreme phrase but it's not because here's the thing I think a lot of people don't realize George Floyd died that is part of the reason the story became so big is because he died but how many George Floyd's are there that don't die how many men are having knees put on their necks how many Sandra Bland's are out there being tossed around we don't we don't it doesn't make the news because it's not Grim enough it doesn't even get us enough anymore

it's only the deaths the gruesome deaths that stick out but imagine to yourself if you grew up in a community where every day someone had then their knee on your neck where every day somebody was out there repressing you every single day you tell me what that does to you as a society as a community as a group of people and when you know that this is happening because of the color of your skin not because the people are saying it's happening because of the color of skin but rather because it's only happening to you and you are the only people who have that skin color

color

and I know there's people who say yeah but like well how come black black people don't care when black people kill the man is one of the dumbest arguments ever of course they care if you've ever been to a hood anywhere not just in America but anywhere in the world you know how much black people care about that if you know anything about under policing and over policing though you would understand how that comes to be

the police show black people how valuable their lives are considered by the society and so then those people who live in those communities know how to or not deal with those lives because best believe if you kill a white person especially in America there is a whole lot more Justice than is coming your way then if you killed some black body in a black neighborhood somewhere

and so to anyone who watched that video don't don't ask yourself if it's right or wrong to loot or don't ask yourself well what does looting Helper and no no ask yourself that ask yourself that question

ask yourself why it got you that much more watching a watching these people loot because they would destroying the contract that you thought they had signed with your society and now think to yourself imagine if you with them watching that contract being ripped up every single day ask yourself how you'd feel

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