WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.380 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:03.510 align:middle line:90%
We have to go.

00:00:03.510 --> 00:00:07.127 align:middle line:84%
It's our neighbor and we have
to consider the possibilities.

00:00:07.127 --> 00:00:09.210 align:middle line:84%
And I want an answer to
know, as I share with you.

00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:13.350 align:middle line:84%
I know why we have not sent
a human being into space.

00:00:13.350 --> 00:00:16.170 align:middle line:84%
Everybody's always talking
about, oh, it's dangerous.

00:00:16.170 --> 00:00:17.820 align:middle line:90%
I live off of I-81.

00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:19.080 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:00:19.080 --> 00:00:21.792 align:middle line:90%
No, we call it the coffin.

00:00:21.792 --> 00:00:24.000 align:middle line:84%
Because that's what it is
between [? Bartow ?] County

00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.660 align:middle line:84%
and Whitfield, more
deaths occur than in the--

00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:84%
if you can drive I-81, you can
go into space, for God's sake.

00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:35.370 align:middle line:84%
It's not about that, it's
about what they send out.

00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:36.978 align:middle line:84%
And what NASA is
worried about-- and I

00:00:36.978 --> 00:00:39.270 align:middle line:84%
wanted to share that with
NASA as I share it with you--

00:00:39.270 --> 00:00:41.280 align:middle line:84%
they don't know if
what they send out

00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:43.710 align:middle line:90%
will be what they get back.

00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:45.030 align:middle line:90%
And I'm in a really good mood--

00:00:45.030 --> 00:00:46.980 align:middle line:84%
I'm not trying to hurt
anybody's feelings,

00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:51.810 align:middle line:84%
but the European mentality does
not do well in unknown spots.

00:00:51.810 --> 00:00:52.500 align:middle line:90%
They just don't.

00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:56.695 align:middle line:84%
These little low-grade
panics happen or whatever.

00:00:56.695 --> 00:00:58.320 align:middle line:84%
Well, let's consider
the history there.

00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:01.920 align:middle line:84%
If we considered-- in
September, late September,

00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:04.855 align:middle line:84%
we had a wagon train that
was pulling out of St. Joe.

00:01:04.855 --> 00:01:06.480 align:middle line:84%
If they had been
talking to the Indians

00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:07.920 align:middle line:84%
instead of killing
them, the Indians

00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:09.930 align:middle line:84%
would have said things
like, Kemosabe no go West

00:01:09.930 --> 00:01:10.680 align:middle line:90%
this time of year.

00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:12.480 align:middle line:90%
You'll run into huge storm.

00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.595 align:middle line:84%
End up in Donner Pass,
have to eat each other.

00:01:14.595 --> 00:01:15.345 align:middle line:90%
Very embarrassing.

00:01:15.345 --> 00:01:18.250 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:01:18.250 --> 00:01:18.750 align:middle line:90%
You see?

00:01:18.750 --> 00:01:20.792 align:middle line:84%
But they're white so they
knew everything so they

00:01:20.792 --> 00:01:21.960 align:middle line:90%
don't have to ask anybody.

00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:25.410 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:01:25.410 --> 00:01:27.990 align:middle line:84%
So they ended up
with this problem.

00:01:27.990 --> 00:01:31.170 align:middle line:84%
We all remember-- with
the Argentine soccer team.

00:01:31.170 --> 00:01:34.800 align:middle line:84%
Remember they had the
crash in the Andes there?

00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:35.670 align:middle line:90%
They had the crash--

00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:37.950 align:middle line:84%
before the plane has finished
landing all of a sudden,

00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:39.150 align:middle line:90%
it's like, what we going to eat?

00:01:39.150 --> 00:01:39.690 align:middle line:90%
Right?

00:01:39.690 --> 00:01:42.210 align:middle line:84%
And before they stop sliding,
well, let's eat Javier.

00:01:42.210 --> 00:01:46.860 align:middle line:90%
And so-- it's very embarrassing.

00:01:46.860 --> 00:01:48.957 align:middle line:90%
And so nobody wants to--

00:01:48.957 --> 00:01:50.040 align:middle line:90%
these were private things.

00:01:50.040 --> 00:01:50.707 align:middle line:90%
Can you imagine?

00:01:50.707 --> 00:01:54.045 align:middle line:84%
I mean, everybody watches
what goes on up in space now.

00:01:54.045 --> 00:01:55.920 align:middle line:84%
You can see that they
chomping on each other.

00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:57.340 align:middle line:90%
So nobody wants that.

00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:00.210 align:middle line:84%
So NASA has been trying to
figure out, what do we do?

00:02:00.210 --> 00:02:02.738 align:middle line:84%
Well, right here in
Arizona, of course,

00:02:02.738 --> 00:02:03.780 align:middle line:90%
they built the biosphere.

00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:04.985 align:middle line:90%
You're familiar with that.

00:02:04.985 --> 00:02:07.110 align:middle line:84%
And of course, they put
the people in the biosphere

00:02:07.110 --> 00:02:10.060 align:middle line:84%
to see if they could live
there and not kill each other.

00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:11.610 align:middle line:84%
But, of course,
that didn't work.

00:02:11.610 --> 00:02:13.830 align:middle line:84%
They snatched them out--
and we know just in time.

00:02:13.830 --> 00:02:14.580 align:middle line:90%
And I know--

00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:15.360 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:16.500 align:middle line:90%
They did!

00:02:16.500 --> 00:02:17.560 align:middle line:90%
You know they did.

00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:19.143 align:middle line:84%
And I know you're
saying, well, Nikki,

00:02:19.143 --> 00:02:20.610 align:middle line:90%
what about the Space Station?

00:02:20.610 --> 00:02:23.040 align:middle line:84%
Because we've got a spaceship
and it's 250 miles up.

00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:24.660 align:middle line:84%
But you can look in
the Space Station,

00:02:24.660 --> 00:02:26.160 align:middle line:84%
you can look down
you can see Earth.

00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:29.400 align:middle line:84%
You know exactly where you
are and people can see you.

00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:30.853 align:middle line:90%
So that doesn't quite work.

00:02:30.853 --> 00:02:33.270 align:middle line:84%
And so I wanted to share with
NASA as I share it with you.

00:02:33.270 --> 00:02:36.660 align:middle line:84%
You know, there's only been one
people in the history of Earth

00:02:36.660 --> 00:02:40.650 align:middle line:84%
who have been in an unknown
spot with no known landmarks

00:02:40.650 --> 00:02:43.440 align:middle line:84%
to keep them human,
except the Africans

00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:45.342 align:middle line:84%
who have come through
Middle Passage.

00:02:45.342 --> 00:02:47.050 align:middle line:84%
Those are the only
people have done that.

00:02:47.050 --> 00:02:48.990 align:middle line:84%
And one of the things
that disturbs me

00:02:48.990 --> 00:02:51.430 align:middle line:84%
is that we teach
slavery so badly.

00:02:51.430 --> 00:02:53.280 align:middle line:84%
And we teach it badly
because we're ashamed,

00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.450 align:middle line:90%
as well we should be.

00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:56.375 align:middle line:90%
It was a shameful period.

00:02:56.375 --> 00:02:57.750 align:middle line:84%
On the other hand,
very few of us

00:02:57.750 --> 00:02:59.560 align:middle line:90%
actually have slaves these days.

00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:02.370 align:middle line:84%
So I don't know why we're
picking up that guilt.

00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:03.780 align:middle line:90%
It's somebody else's problem.

00:03:03.780 --> 00:03:05.260 align:middle line:90%
But what we-- no it's true.

00:03:05.260 --> 00:03:07.200 align:middle line:84%
But what we need
to do is recognize.

00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:10.740 align:middle line:84%
Because we teach slavery
like the Europeans

00:03:10.740 --> 00:03:13.320 align:middle line:84%
went to Africa to
get slaves like you

00:03:13.320 --> 00:03:15.870 align:middle line:90%
go to Starbucks to get coffee.

00:03:15.870 --> 00:03:22.172 align:middle line:84%
They went to Africa to get
Africans to make them slaves.

00:03:22.172 --> 00:03:23.130 align:middle line:90%
It's a huge difference.

00:03:23.130 --> 00:03:24.900 align:middle line:84%
These were free
people, these were

00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:27.000 align:middle line:84%
people with their own
languages, their own gods,

00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:28.270 align:middle line:90%
their own communities.

00:03:28.270 --> 00:03:29.850 align:middle line:84%
And I tell you,
I'm so disappointed

00:03:29.850 --> 00:03:31.140 align:middle line:84%
in Skip Gates and
the thing that he's

00:03:31.140 --> 00:03:33.432 align:middle line:84%
doing, because he's sitting
there talking about tribes,

00:03:33.432 --> 00:03:34.217 align:middle line:90%
like, what?

00:03:34.217 --> 00:03:34.800 align:middle line:90%
Where are you?

00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:36.450 align:middle line:84%
I mean, you're supposed to
be some kind of scholar,

00:03:36.450 --> 00:03:37.222 align:middle line:90%
for God's sake.

00:03:37.222 --> 00:03:39.180 align:middle line:84%
These are family groups,
these are communities.

00:03:39.180 --> 00:03:40.230 align:middle line:90%
These are not tribes.

00:03:40.230 --> 00:03:42.570 align:middle line:84%
Nobody's tribes but
Indians and Black people.

00:03:42.570 --> 00:03:45.357 align:middle line:84%
You get sick of that and
you expect a little better.

00:03:45.357 --> 00:03:47.940 align:middle line:84%
There are communities all over
the world and then it's tribes.

00:03:47.940 --> 00:03:48.990 align:middle line:90%
And so you think, oh, Skip.

00:03:48.990 --> 00:03:49.500 align:middle line:90%
Do better.

00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:51.490 align:middle line:90%
No, that's the truth.

00:03:51.490 --> 00:03:53.850 align:middle line:90%
That's the truth.

00:03:53.850 --> 00:03:55.650 align:middle line:90%
These were a free people.

00:03:55.650 --> 00:03:58.718 align:middle line:84%
They were engaged in
a war and they lost.

00:03:58.718 --> 00:04:00.010 align:middle line:90%
There's no question about that.

00:04:00.010 --> 00:04:01.380 align:middle line:90%
We deal with all of this.

00:04:01.380 --> 00:04:03.570 align:middle line:84%
I'm not into it was
paradise or not, whether it

00:04:03.570 --> 00:04:05.220 align:middle line:84%
was or wasn't, they
were still free

00:04:05.220 --> 00:04:06.690 align:middle line:90%
and had a right to themselves.

00:04:06.690 --> 00:04:08.640 align:middle line:84%
These were people who,
in losing the war,

00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:11.340 align:middle line:84%
had their villages burned down,
had their cities burned down.

00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:13.860 align:middle line:84%
They themselves, of course,
those who were healthy

00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:17.399 align:middle line:84%
were chained, they were force
marched to the West Coast.

00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:21.023 align:middle line:84%
Now, people like me, I got
shot back in the village.

00:04:21.023 --> 00:04:22.440 align:middle line:84%
And it's not because
I'm a threat.

00:04:22.440 --> 00:04:24.700 align:middle line:84%
You can see me, I'm
not even in good shape.

00:04:24.700 --> 00:04:26.430 align:middle line:90%
I'm not big and I'm not strong.

00:04:26.430 --> 00:04:28.830 align:middle line:84%
You shoot me because
I'm an old woman,

00:04:28.830 --> 00:04:30.780 align:middle line:84%
because I know the
stories of my people,

00:04:30.780 --> 00:04:32.160 align:middle line:84%
I know the language
of my people,

00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:34.560 align:middle line:84%
I know the gods of my
people, I know who I am,

00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:36.090 align:middle line:90%
and I will teach the children.

00:04:36.090 --> 00:04:39.060 align:middle line:84%
And I will cause the rebellion,
so you just shoot me.

00:04:39.060 --> 00:04:41.610 align:middle line:84%
For those of you
who remember Roots--

00:04:41.610 --> 00:04:43.170 align:middle line:90%
you saw Wrestler on that ship.

00:04:43.170 --> 00:04:45.600 align:middle line:84%
Wrestler never made it to
that ship, as much as it--

00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:47.660 align:middle line:84%
Wrestler looked
like LeBron James.

00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:49.453 align:middle line:84%
Wrestler's like--
yeah, he's a big guy.

00:04:49.453 --> 00:04:51.870 align:middle line:84%
They would have loved to have
sold Wrestler but Wrestler's

00:04:51.870 --> 00:04:53.250 align:middle line:90%
going to be a problem.

00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:55.120 align:middle line:84%
You shoot Wrestler
so that you don't

00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:56.370 align:middle line:90%
have to be bothered with them.

00:04:56.370 --> 00:04:59.580 align:middle line:84%
The slave trade was a
trade in adolescence.

00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:00.420 align:middle line:90%
We know that.

00:05:00.420 --> 00:05:05.190 align:middle line:84%
The most famous slaves that we
know were Kunta Kinte, he's 14,

00:05:05.190 --> 00:05:06.870 align:middle line:90%
Phillis Wheatley is 12.

00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:09.900 align:middle line:84%
This is a slave-- you get rid of
everybody that can tell people.

00:05:09.900 --> 00:05:13.290 align:middle line:84%
And what a great people
they were that they somehow

00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:16.410 align:middle line:84%
managed to remember who they
were and where they came from.

00:05:16.410 --> 00:05:17.880 align:middle line:84%
Because we caught
them at a period

00:05:17.880 --> 00:05:21.420 align:middle line:84%
that everybody had hoped
that they would forget.

00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:22.950 align:middle line:84%
It's been an amazing
thing when we

00:05:22.950 --> 00:05:25.290 align:middle line:84%
watch what happened
with that trade

00:05:25.290 --> 00:05:27.240 align:middle line:84%
because what happened
is the babies that

00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.160 align:middle line:84%
got on people's nerves were
simply bayoneted and thrown.

00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.585 align:middle line:84%
I'm already dead-- the
babies are bayoneted.

00:05:32.585 --> 00:05:33.960 align:middle line:84%
And so what we
did was we brought

00:05:33.960 --> 00:05:36.960 align:middle line:84%
the jackals, and the
wild dogs, and the hyenas

00:05:36.960 --> 00:05:39.090 align:middle line:84%
closer into the
cities and they began

00:05:39.090 --> 00:05:40.830 align:middle line:84%
to follow it all
the way-- we changed

00:05:40.830 --> 00:05:43.950 align:middle line:90%
how wildlife did its business.

00:05:43.950 --> 00:05:47.340 align:middle line:84%
We got to the end and, of
course, we put the people down

00:05:47.340 --> 00:05:49.440 align:middle line:84%
in Cape Coast Castle
and Goree Island

00:05:49.440 --> 00:05:53.220 align:middle line:84%
and we waited until there
was something called a cargo,

00:05:53.220 --> 00:05:54.840 align:middle line:90%
until it was really full.

00:05:54.840 --> 00:05:58.830 align:middle line:84%
And then we sent a boat and the
boat rode out to pick them up

00:05:58.830 --> 00:06:00.168 align:middle line:90%
and took them back to the ship.

00:06:00.168 --> 00:06:01.710 align:middle line:84%
And they packed them
in the ship head

00:06:01.710 --> 00:06:03.085 align:middle line:84%
to toe, head to
toe, head to toe.

00:06:03.085 --> 00:06:04.950 align:middle line:84%
It was a terrible,
terrible thing.

00:06:04.950 --> 00:06:07.540 align:middle line:84%
Anything that came out of you
went down on somebody else,

00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:09.540 align:middle line:84%
whether it was tears,
whether it was sweat,

00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:12.220 align:middle line:84%
whether it was feces, whether
it was urine came down.

00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:15.072 align:middle line:84%
So as the ship started
to sail west, of course

00:06:15.072 --> 00:06:16.530 align:middle line:84%
the slavers
immediately recognized,

00:06:16.530 --> 00:06:20.670 align:middle line:84%
if we leave him down there, you
see, they're going to all die.

00:06:20.670 --> 00:06:22.290 align:middle line:90%
So they had to bring them up.

00:06:22.290 --> 00:06:24.180 align:middle line:84%
On the second day,
they bring them up.

00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.850 align:middle line:84%
And they take saltwater and they
throw this saltwater on them.

00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:30.210 align:middle line:84%
Of course they have wounds, they
have open sores, so this hurts.

00:06:30.210 --> 00:06:32.730 align:middle line:84%
But they did something that
we said, oh, they danced.

00:06:32.730 --> 00:06:33.930 align:middle line:90%
But they didn't dance.

00:06:33.930 --> 00:06:36.450 align:middle line:84%
There's a TV show
called Dancing.

00:06:36.450 --> 00:06:38.200 align:middle line:84%
That's not what the
slaves were doing,

00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:40.080 align:middle line:90%
what the Africans were doing.

00:06:40.080 --> 00:06:41.850 align:middle line:84%
The Africans had
people with whips

00:06:41.850 --> 00:06:43.290 align:middle line:84%
and the people
were whipping them

00:06:43.290 --> 00:06:44.940 align:middle line:84%
and they were being
forced to jump,

00:06:44.940 --> 00:06:47.232 align:middle line:84%
trying to get out of the way,
much like Rodney King was

00:06:47.232 --> 00:06:49.530 align:middle line:84%
trying to do, just trying
to get out of the way.

00:06:49.530 --> 00:06:51.600 align:middle line:84%
Just trying to get out
of the way of the pain.

00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:52.295 align:middle line:90%
Sure.

00:06:52.295 --> 00:06:54.420 align:middle line:84%
But when they were brought
up, they could look back

00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:56.502 align:middle line:90%
and they could see the land.

00:06:56.502 --> 00:06:57.960 align:middle line:84%
And of course,
Africans could swim.

00:06:57.960 --> 00:07:00.000 align:middle line:84%
We keep forgetting that
because Black Americans don't

00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:01.750 align:middle line:84%
swim because we're
worried about our hair.

00:07:01.750 --> 00:07:04.710 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

00:07:04.710 --> 00:07:08.760 align:middle line:84%
Like all my hair
go back, you know?

00:07:08.760 --> 00:07:11.500 align:middle line:84%
This is not a problem
that they were having.

00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:12.000 align:middle line:90%