Whether you like or hate him, you have to agree Charlamagne Tha God knows how to strike a nerve.
As 1/3 of the syndicated show The Breakfast Club, he dishes out Donkey of the Day daily, or "the credit people deserve for being stupid." His years in therapy have rounded out his once very sharp and at-times hurtful edges into a more understanding and healed balancing act.
On his new show, Tha God's Honest Truth, he explores topics across white supremacy and its effects on the Black community.
The first episode opens with Decrackify America, exploring the term cracker which, coined by slaves for masters cracking the whip. And no this show isn't meant to ostracize white people. Charlamagne frequently shouts out GWP's or Good White People, recognizing there have been white people on our side that assisted in ushering us to the bit of freedom we now possess.
During the episode we take a look at Germany in 1945 when Denazification started. As a way to start the healing process post-Hitler, Nazi symbolism was erased from the social and economic make-up of Germany in the hopes of spreading peace and ending any chance that the Nazi's could ever gain political control. It is his hope that America can do the same, under the name Decrackerfication, which solely means ridding this country of any of its racist idolatry.
How does he suggest we go about it? By really addressing it, really doing the work. Never one to run away from a harsh reality, Charlamagne delves into historical reckoning, explaining the importance of rectifying the past.
In Germany, Germans were forced to take tours of concentration camps while school-age children clean the headstones of laborers worked to the bone by Nazi's. Here, we can't even have a conversation under the notion of Critical Race Theory so how are we ever supposed to overcome such an atrocity as slavery or present day racism?
Speaking of children, as the last few Spring seasons sprung into Summer, we watched protests happening all over the country. What we hadn't seen in a while were young white kids
and others across various backgrounds marching side-by-side with black people. And what we are noticing is that racism is having an impact on this generation that is vastly opposite
than the one that enslaved this country. We are moving into a more open and accepting world and one can only hope that racism is a topic that at some point we are open to exploring.
One great way to do that is through the one thing the black community needs the most: money.
$91 billion was given to the survivors of the Holocaust. Charlamagne suggested we sue for our reparations just like the three survivors of the Tulsa Massacre did, Viola Ford Fletcher, 107, Hughes Van Ellis, 100, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106.
Episode 2, Only the Feds I Fear, opens with investigating the FBI and one of their most notorious founders whose name happens to still be tagged on the building, J Edgar Hoover.
What the FBI is supposed to do is gather intel to combat the security threats aimed at America. We know the biggest threat to our security is the white man.
This particular white man, J. Edgar Hoover orchestrated a whole takeover called the Counter Intelligence Program or COINTELPRO, to infiltrate the Black Panther Party and the Civil Rights Movement.
Affectionately referring to him as the H.N.K.I.C or Head Nigga Killer In Charge, Charlamagne breaks down Hoover's illegal practices that left black families devastated and forever broken. This all was spearheaded by the idea to "stop the rise of a black Messiah."
Hoover not only succeeded in handling the assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the murders of prominent Black Panther Leaders Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark but he also made an example of political activist Marcus Garvey, by sending a black agent to infiltrate Garvey's United Negro Improvement Association which landed him in jail and later deported to his home country of Jamaica.
Charlamagne then asks the question, "why is his name still on the building," finding that the only possible reason could be that his ideology is still in the building.
To lessen the blow in the constant stream of white supremacy presented there are also sketches to break up some of the harsh reality that is America. One skit, What Does Ja Rule think, inspired by Dave Chapelle, we watch Hip Hop legend Ja Rule breaks down "What's in a name" giving a comical yet truthful account of one's name and the emotions that can be evoked when you hear a name like Hoover and then the atrocities he's committed.
Opening up the third episode, we jump right into Critical Race Theory and how America rather downplay the hatred in this country, opting instead to teach Critical Racist Theory. Why is America so afraid of black kids learning their history? Probably the same reason its always been. That if we recognize the greatness in which we are, that we will become more powerful then they are. With that kind of power they fear we will try and conquer them the way they have us, not realizing we couldn't care less about how they move and would just be happy with them out of our way uh, Karen. They also rather completely erase the fact that slavery existed just for the opportunity to coddle white children's feelings so they won't feel bad about themselves. All the while black children sit back and are forced to study the lies constantly told about the make-up of this country.
The bottom line is those who tell the story controls the narrative. The narrator has the power to omit or smudge the truth as they see fit. And because the oppressor never gives the oppress the keys to freedom, America will always consider black people the problem on their hands. As long as technology not slowing down neither are we, because the more access we have to the injustices being done here and around the world, like Haitians being whipped with horse reins, the more stand up.
In the words of activist Tamika Mallory "we don't need aliases, we need accomplices.” People who willing to stand on the front lines too. The world will always pit races and people against each other if we allow it. The division and hatred was here way before any of us got here and since the government won’t enlist ways for us to win together, we’ll have to do if ourselves.
America, yes revisiting the past is painful but if you are willing to see the part you played and be accountable for your actions we can get the ball rolling and be the great nation of melting potters we are. The truth ain’t pretty, But Tha God's Honest Truth does a great job of of holding up the mirror in hopes that we can rectify the past to move forward to a more diverse and inclusive future.
Excellent and informative article. Would like to see more of this.