A Conversation About That Uncomfortable Conversation With Emmanuel Acho | Higher Learning

[Music] who else has got a question you can be about anything doesn't have to be about this movie I'm ready to put it behind me you have a question I'm ready to move on okay how are you guys doing today I you wanted it to go there this is what happened and and I'll be you guys know me I'll be serious this will happen uh obviously Emmanuel acho came on the podcast it went left I've you know I've heard criticism on both sides and that's fair call Rachel and I I say to Rachel I say look should I post clips from the podcast correct Rachel what was your answer I said what's your intention behind it like what kind of response are you trying to generate by posting those clips okay in that case my co-host was right yesterday somebody is having a conversation with Emmanuel Auto this is after we've done another podcast it's like a week after this [ __ ] is over week yeah and they say something about the comment that he made about you know not having any generational trauma whatever and uh he said that I that one of the co-hosts reached and that he didn't really insinuate that or anything like that so I posted the clip the end and now [ __ ] people did what they were what I knew that they would do if they posted the clip and by the way I am not in any way reveling in the fact that he's getting kicked in this nuts like that because if we're being honest that's probably a net negative well we're having conversations about forward moving progress It's always better if someone can leave feeling whole and not pulled apart and shred it apart that's a fact if it's possible however in this specific situation like there's a there's a lesson here absolutely there's a lesson you you like you well this is and we kind of talked about this a little bit on the podcast and this is why I have such a problem with what's I've a lot of problems I really had to debate whether or not I I asked you like should I respond to the tweet and the reason if you haven't seen the tweets Emanuel is using my friendship our friendship and weaponizing it and against van and using it to further the narrative and what's disappointing about this and this is what I was saying that we alluded to on the podcast in our conversation after is that this could have been such a good conversation this could have been the conversation that he needed to have with black people you do a you do a whole series about black people but you never sat down and talked to black people about how they feel about it because what I was telling him off Mike is that I don't know one black person who's okay with the what you're the way you're doing it nobody's questioning your intention at least initially but they have an issue with the method and so I felt like at the end of the podcast we took up responsibility that things got intense that things went left there's been no accountability on his end which is what's bothering me all he's trying to do is prove a point on Twitter which is why I think so many people are attacking him for what he did I don't like if you've seen the tweets this is what I wanted to respond to is that he's talking to me like I'm some Earth about me like I'm a damsel in distress like van silenced me and Van manipulated me into having my friend come on the podcast so he could gum at him and that's not the case what also bothers me is this was a week ago I have talked to Emmanuel Thursday ran into him Saturday and had a full conversation and also talked to him on Monday this was put to bed it was done I have no idea why he decided to go on Twitter and bring all of this back up again and now here we are with Him trending on Twitter and it seems like everybody is jumping in on it black Twitter's trending again because black Twitter was coming at him and this is not how this needed to be it really could have been something great it really could have been that and with the and with what's happening in Memphis right now and with the releases video tonight I'm sure you guys are all aware of what's going on it's important to be intentional about the conversations that you have and the power of the conversations let me tell you what I mean by that prior to um prior to me meeting Emmanuel acho I just had a problem intellectually intellectually with things that are said okay there's a way that I look at freedom and Justice and how those things make people feel whole um and I would challenge anyone in this room to think of a time in history when Freedom was given when someone just went I've [ __ ] over you for long enough here you go now if we talk about the French Revolution the people stormed the castle and cut the head off the king if we're talking about the Haitian resolution of the Haitian revolution uh Toussaint and Bookman um killed not just they didn't just kill their slavers they killed the black upper middle class that would have prevented them from a full Revolution they did exactly what they had to do if you talk about this country built on a revolution from people who they thought were oppressing them I'm not talking about violence here I'm not talking about actual violence what I'm talking about is an understanding of what it takes to wrestle freedom and anything short of that is a half measure that's a fact and it doesn't matter whether or not it just it just is history has Rewritten stories of people that had peaceful methods and they've made it seem like those methods were non-confrontational it's not true it's just not and so prior to having the conversation with him I just thought he was a guy that thought he was going to hold hands with enough white people to end racism and that is quaint in a way it's like almost kind of like you know you know people like that kids in the in high school whatever where those khaki hats can curve like that and hang around with white boys and you know I just always judge them I'd be like [ __ ] what you wearing that for um but after having had the conversation with them and after all of this I don't think I'll be honest with you I think he's one thousand percent full of [ __ ] like in every way I think he is brilliant because he recognized the hole in the marketplace uh uh um after the death of George Floyd and that hole in the marketplace was someone to uh Pat white people in the black when everybody in the world was when I say white people let me be more specific Pat white supremacy on the back when everybody uh because I don't want to individualize we're talking about systems here when everybody in the world was demanding answers and I thought that there would be more substance to a conversation with him because look I've been on television for hundreds of hours I've said thousands of words there's nothing that strikes at the core of my intellectual belief that you can question me about that I can engage you on yeah yeah nothing yeah well it's never been challenged not publicly at least I I can't speak to any private conversations as he's that he's had but that's why this could have been so great it's never been challenged publicly he's never been questioned he's never had to face the conversations that he's had he can always speak to it in the way in the exact way that he was speaking to us you get more bees with honey than you do with vinegar and some people will take that that wasn't the type of conversation that we were ready to have this is what I will say because I was there at the beginning when he started uncomfortable conversations okay the intention at the beginning and I know because I was talking to him that first video I know I don't he wasn't trying to solve racism he really I don't like the way you're looking at me he really was trying to just talk right what he didn't anticipate is that it would take on the life that it did and people would respond that way and then he got I believe he got in over his head and he was not equipped to have those type of conversations in those circles with those people and that's why I asked them to go back to something that you were saying right if the goal is the same right the goal is the same for freedom to end racism to get to a better place the last question I asked him was here we are two and a half years removed from when you started uncomfortable conversations have things been better have things gotten better how have your conversations helped and if they haven't then they need to stop or you need to restructure how you're having these conversations that's what I wanted him to see like can we talk about that if your heart is pure if that is really your intention if that's really your goal and you're not accomplishing it well we got to start over but you don't think that that's his goal which is what you're saying and not because I know where the with the original idea was how do you get back to there and I think we're so far removed from it I don't know if we ever can I want to make it a bigger conversation now so we can like stop harping on one person but I just can't get this image out of my head it's 20 20. he's seen everything that's going on he's in his [ __ ] home gym he's like [ __ ] this [ __ ] that's not what happened I got something for these [ __ ] ain't nobody ever tried this [ __ ] before I'm the Man Emmanuel what are you doing I'm on 400 push-ups dog I'm gonna talk to these [ __ ] what color should the background be let's take everything away how are you gonna be like I don't want to harp on one person and then do this whole thing let's make it white drop me into the middle uncomfortable conversations with a black should we call it should we say [ __ ] is that too much [Music]

Channel: Higher Learning

Views: 23,864

Keywords: higher learning, higher learning podcast, ringer, the ringer, podcast, ringer podcast, the ringer podcast, van lathan, rachel lindsay, emmanuel acho, van lathan emmanuel acho, uncomfortable conversations, uncomfortable conversations with a black man, twitter, fox sports, fox sports 1, fs1, speak, speak for yourself, acho, emmanuel acho fs1, emmanuel acho uncomfortable, uncomfortable conversations emmanuel acho

Id: -lzgpoTZIp4

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2023