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Hi, everybody.
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Welcome to our show.
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Hopefully, you're seeing this--
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this should be Thursday, June 4th.
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We taped the show a few days ago.
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Things are changing every minute in our country.
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Today is our first show airing since the protests of George
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Floyd started around the world.
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I have said this on my social media.
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But I want to say it again to my viewers.
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I stand with the protesters who are exercising their rights.
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And I want to be an ally fighting for change.
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As a white person, I don't always know what to say.
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I think right now white people have
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to just sit in our discomfort.
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And we have to admit that there's
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a lot we don't know about black people's lives
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and about a black person's experience.
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And there is horrible injustice towards black people
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that has been ignored for far too long.
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I've tried to use my platform to raise awareness
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on different issues over the years.
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I like to think that I'm doing my best.
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But I think it's time that we have to look at ourselves.
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And we have to say, we have not done enough.
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I want to learn how to be a better
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person, how to do better.
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I was the dancing lady for a little while.
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And now I want to help educate my audience.
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I want to educate myself.
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I want to say hi to my friend tWitch.
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tWitch, I think a lot of people are being silent right now.
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Because everyone is scared they're
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going to say the wrong thing.
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Yeah, I mean, there's part of me that gets it.
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Because we have a society now that's like, on social media,
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if you say the wrong thing, you get ripped apart.
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So here's the reason that that's problematic.
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And it can go on many different things, right?
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As a man, there's going to be times
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that I'm going to have to speak up
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for misogyny and all kinds of stuff like that.
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But I can't be silent because I'm
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afraid of saying the wrong thing.
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Out of love, out of love for the person
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that you're speaking up for, you have
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to be willing to make that mistake
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and then go back and correct it.
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So then you know.
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Because if you don't make the mistake, just by doing nothing,
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then that still is a stance.
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And non-stance is a stance at this point in time,
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you know what I mean?
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So when it comes to race relations
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and how we're yelling "Black Lives Matter"
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and speaking up for the injustices
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that we as black people have faced
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in this country for centuries now, at this point,
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we just need allies.
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We don't need you to be perfect, you know what I mean?
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Because-- and excuse my French-- but the [MUTED]
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we're fighting against, it's not perfect.
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So we don't need a well-formulated--
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we need people that care.
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We need people that are going to be willing to face the raw,
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uncut, I'll make mistakes, but I'll bounce right back to be
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being with y'all again.
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We need that, you know?
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So I understand that there's a little bit of resistance,
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and a little bit of hesitant forward motion for that.
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But at the end of the day, I love you.
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You have many, many, many people of color,
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black people, that love you, that will--
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and I'm not talking about the social media folks.
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I'm talking about people that could call you,
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and from a place of love say, yo, I
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saw what you were trying to say.
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But next time, word it this way, because this.
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And you know it's coming from a place of love rather than like,
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we're going to tear a celebrity down, you know what I'm saying?
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We don't have to worry about that right now.
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What we have to do is we have to connect on a human level
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and make sure that we're showing each other that we care.
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And on the flipside of that.
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We also have to find a place of patience
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and not rip each other apart for trying, you know?
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That sometimes things are going to be
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misspoken because we all don't have the same experiences.
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So there's a lot of things that need to work at the same time.
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But none of us as a people on either side can stop trying,
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you know.
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That was really long winded.
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I'm sorry.
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But it was-- yeah.
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No, not at all, not at all.
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And I think that that's what we have to have,
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a little patience for at least, if someone thinks
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they're trying to say the right thing, and we do
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need to understand if it wasn't said the right way, instead
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of being--
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there's so much criticism in the world.
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There's so much anger and hate.
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And I get it.
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But we need to learn how to be your allies.
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And learn what we've done wrong for so long
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that we didn't help change this a long time ago.
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But I think this is--
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it's gone on far too long.
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And now, you have, I hope, an army
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of allies that will help change all the things that have not
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been done right for so long.
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But that is what I think we need to hear,
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is that we won't get torn apart for trying
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to say something supportive.
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One of the things tWitch and I talked about on the phone,
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which has certainly been an aspect of my life,
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is when you know better, you do better.
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The prime example in my life has always been,
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I grew up making fun of my friends as a kid 40 years ago.
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Then I learned.
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And then I knew better.
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And now I do better.
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And I work for Ellen DeGeneres.
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Right, absolutely.
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And that is a perfect example.
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Because, listen, I am from--
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I was born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, right?
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And as much love as that place has, as far as
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like progressing with the times, and accepting
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people of all cultures, and things like that,
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those are things that I had to learn.
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So I had to look back on past mistakes that I had.
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And I've been corrected myself from numerous walks of life.
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But that's what it is.
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It's when you get corrected, you just
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go-- again, from place of love-- you go,
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you know what, I'm sorry, I understand.
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And moving on, I know how to address these things.
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Just know that I'm with you.
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Just know that I'm with you.
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I could take that correction.
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And then I'm still going to be walking right alongside you.
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And then even in times, I'm going to be in the back of you,
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holding you up, if I need to do that, you know?
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That's what--
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We have-- we have created a culture, and all of us
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are guilty of it, of it not being OK to make mistakes.
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And we need to be able to make the mistakes.
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Absolutely.
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The key is that we learn from those mistakes.