Hard turn to a sad and tragic story out of Kansas City, where a young man,
16 years old, appeared to have gone to the wrong residence.
The man inside the 84 year old man inside responded to the young man at his
door with gunshots.
This is a tragedy, but there is zero evidence that it is racist.
>> Yes.
That is Fox News host Will Cain weighing in on the shooting of Ralph Yarl, that's
black high schooler who miraculously survived being shot in the head by
Andrew Lester, an 84 year old white neighbor of his, while the 16 year old,
as Cain noted, mistakenly went to the wrong address, and he ended up suffering
with two shots to his body, which is such an incredibly tragic thing.
But, of course, Will Cain doesn't think that we can draw any conclusions
whatsoever, despite the fact that this is something that happened in the south.
And also, we have an older white man and we have a young black boy.
>> You can imagine yourself on both sides of this door going to the wrong residence
to pick up your siblings.
Literally got the wrong address.
And all of a sudden, as you're standing at the doorbell, shots ringing out, you can
also imagine yourself on the other side, an 84 year old man with a six foot tall
guy outside your door, reportedly pulling on the glass outer door to come inside.
Here's what I would tell you.
This is a tragedy, but there is zero evidence that it is racist.
And that's the narrative today, that it is ringing a doorbell while being black.
I'll reserve judgment, as we all should,
until we get the facts to arrive at a conclusion.
>> I will not reserve judgment for Will Cain's nonsense and
the facts are pretty clear.
It's clear that Ralph was not anywhere near 6ft tall and
also not pulling on the glass door.
Check this out for CNN.
So Ralph stands at 5ft eight inches.
He also weighs £140, as high schoolers often do.
That's according to Ralph's attorney, Lee Merritt, what he said on Tuesday night.
Also, he's the least imposing kid that I've come across.
He is a 16 year old musician.
He is not known for his physical proudness.
And if many of you had seen his picture in the news circulating in media,
it's clear that Ralph is not some linebacker at all.
He is a small child, as would be the case for someone who is 16.
And Ralph also maintains that he never tried to open or
pull the door handle, which would be consistent with someone
coming there to pick up their siblings by pressing a doorbell.
And despite Cain's commentary,
it really seems to be the case that the man here, Lester, that even his own
family members are saying that he has racial bias really present in his past.
Check this out.
>> Well, the prosecutor in this case has suggested there was a racial
component to it.
Do you believe your grandfather is racist.
>> I believe he holds racist tendencies and beliefs.
I feel like a lot of people of that generation are caught up in this 24 hours
news cycle of fear and paranoia perpetuated by some other news stations.
And he was fully into that sit and watch Fox News all day,
every day blaring in his living room.
And I think that stuff really kinda reinforces this negative view of minority
groups and leads people to be a little doesn't necessarily lead people to be
racist, but it reinforces and galvanizes racist people and their beliefs.
>> Now 84 year old Lester probably feels very lucky now that he is becoming kinda
a star at Fox news, where he can watch individuals like Will Cain tell lies about
what happened that day, or at least the allegations out there that I'm sure Lester
will put forward in his defense to make it seem like it was justifiable for
him to shoot twice a 16 year old boy who came knocking on his door.
And we know that because Cain well, he went ahead and doubled down on Twitter.
He said this here's what we know about what happened with Ralph Yarl.
It was a tragedy.
Here's what we don't know that it had anything to do with race.
He also continued, any conclusions about whether it's criminal or his motive or
race are way out in front of the Fox.
But I'll tell you one thing I won't do.
I won't listen to Benjamin Crump.
Now, he's referring to the civil rights attorney that represents Yarl.
That's part of his legal team.
I'll also tell you that Will Cain is an attorney.
I used to work with him at ESPN.
Will Kane's a very smart man, but at the same time,
it really seems that he's jumping into a Tucker Carlson vote.
Here also what a lot of people like to do, smart or not,
they like to pretend racism isn't a factor.
The fact is that race factors into every conversation, everything we do.
It's how much it factors in.
And that's the thing, is everything in our world operates on a spectrum.
But to pretend that seeing a black person doesn't conjure certain thoughts in
people's heads is to completely and totally lie, just as to see a woman,
as opposed to a man, conjure certain preconceived notions, thoughts,
and theories.
And once our society finally embraces and recognizes that, we can all
start addressing some of the biases that are moving around in our subconscious and
that often come out through our behavior.
Cenk >> Yeah.
So there's two different problems with Will Cai's statement.
One of them is he says, let's reserve judgment on this.
I'm gonna tell you why that's a trick in a second, but
the first one is a doozy on this one.
He says, now, you can imagine yourself on either side of this.
And I thought, no, I can't.
So the 84 year old guy took a couple of minutes.
This is all according to police.
Okay, so he says, I don't know what the facts are.
Well, the police have already told you some of the very relevant facts.
He waited for two or three minutes.
In that two or three minutes,
he could have called the cops if he was really afraid for his life.
If I was afraid for my life, I wouldn't go anywhere near the door.
I'd call the cops.
And even if you had a weapon, get in the back of the house.
Wait with the weapon there, in case the guy breaks in and you've got an advantage,
he can't see there's a ton of things you could have done other than,
let me look at this guy.
He's a 16 year old, weighs £140.05, eight tiny little kid.
Let me open the door and blast him with a shotgun to the head.
No, I literally can't imagine it.
And look, guys, for the right wingers out there, I'm not lying.
I don't know for you guys, hey, black, and showed up my door.
Well, I can easily imagine blowing his head off for
the rest of us we don't think that way.
Look, in my case, it's definitive.
A guy broke into my house once, and a lot of people gave me grief for
not murdering him.
I didn't.
In that case, it was a grown man he was white.
But my instinct was not, there's a guy in my house.
My instinct was protect my family.
But it was not, let me make sure I kill him while I got the chance.
So I don't know how right wingers think if they look forward to it and
so they can empathize with that guy, but that's not how the rest of us think.
So, second of all, the six foot thing, he's like, there's no race here.
But studies have shown that, unfortunately,
it affects not just right wingers, but people generally think that young
black males are older than they appear and are taller than they appear.
We can get back to those studies in a minute.
So when he's a five, eight little kid and he calls him six foot tall, that is
the racism you claim doesn't exist, because to you, no matter how small or
fragile or skinny a black kid is, you're like, that's a menace.
There's a big, giant black guy, six foot black guy.
Right? Dude, that's in your head.
That's not real.
And the reason it's in your head is because of those stereotypes.
And then he says, he was reportedly pulling on the door.
No, nobody says that.
The only person who said that he was pulling on the door was Lester,
the alleged attempted murderer.
Y'all survived getting shot in the head.
And so no, the cop he made it seem like the cops were saying that.
Cops are not saying that.
You know what else the cops said it was racial.
So that brings us back to reserving judgment.
In old days, when there were some Muslim shootings in America, they're like,
bet all those bobs immediately, no reserving of judgment.
Now, there was a couple of trans Judas.
They're like Jacob white guns for trans people.
They're mentally ill.
They say, without a trace of irony, right?
But when it comes to a racist 84 year old who shot a black kid in the head for
no reason, like, Whoa, reserve judgment.
Reserve judgment.
We don't know what's happening here, okay?
And he's like, we don't know if we he said in the Tweets,
we don't even know whether it's criminal.
You think that it might not be criminal to shoot a 16 year old in
the head that didn't do anything, that didn't have a weapon,
that wasn't trying to break into your house to shoot him in the head?
You think that might not be criminal?
Well, that tells me not that Lester isn't dangerous.
It tells me that Will Cain is dangerous.
>> There's so much here that I can laugh and I can lose it at the same time.
So where do I start?
First of all, five eight is 6ft to the right wingers,
because Ron DeSantis is five nine, who claims to be 6ft.
Now, Adrian, you said you worked with Will Cain at ESPN.
If you worked for ESPN, you've seen large black men, okay?
So there's no mistaking this or whatever, but I'll tell you what the stereotype
is besides what Jenk said, and Jenk, it doesn't just apply to young black men.
It applies to young black women.
They're always assumed to be ten years older than they are and
sexually advanced and all of that.
But here's the thing, the superhuman strength, okay?
Every black man that gets shot has superhuman strength.
That excuse is built in right away.
I know because I'm a large black man, I've had superhuman strength since I was,
I don't know, 19.
You say this isn't racial.
There's no proof it's racial.
Well, his grandson said it's racial.
Okay?
Forget about the fact that he shot through the door.
And when you want to talk about mental illness,
this is the mental illness of our society, all right?
In the past week, we've had three of these shootings.
One in New York, one in this one, and the one in Texas, for
things that people used to say, I'm sorry or excuse me.
That used to be the reaction to someone knocking on the wrong door, to someone
turning around in your driveway, to someone reaching for your car door handle.
We used to say, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Now we attempt to kill you for it.
So the mental illness is our society.
Will Cain is on Fox News.
He's preaching to the choir.
This is nonsense.
I am so tired of having to even give this any words, any credibility.
Will Cain, it's a racist old man who shot a black man at his door.
Don't pretend it's anything else.
And the insult, the feigned ignorance is the most insulting part.
Because, Adrian, I agree with you.
Will Cain knows this is bull.
He knows it's a lie, and he's just spouting it because he's preaching to
the choir and he wants to sell his books or build his website or whatever.
I am so tired of young black men being shot for being young black men.
You know why? Will Cain has no empathy here.
You talk about imagining things because he can't imagine it happening to him or
anyone who looks like him,
because he knows a young white kid at the door does not get murdered.
And if he is shot by a black man, that black man's going straight to jail.
So I've had it.
And I'm done.
And if I see Will Cain, I'll slap the out of him and
show him what a large black man with superhuman strength can do.
Bitch ass.
>> All right. That is Alonzo's opinion.
Of course we don't sanction violence, and so
I'm going to say Alonzo should not do that.
>> But, Alonzo, if you fear for your safety, I think you should defend yourself
whenever necessary, because clearly when these individuals are safety,
always so afraid >> Because the person's black I'm sorry to
cut you off, I didn't mean to step on you, but that's their fear, right?
They're standing aground.
The fact that you are black or brown, they instantly fear for their safety.
>> Yes. And that's where the racism is built in.
And as you had mentioned earlier, in terms of young black people being
assumed to be older or more mature, that's the adultification that follows us.
And then if we're not adultified, then we are criminalized and
we are made out to be the villain and the bad guy.
And it's the thought that we're always up to something nefarious,
that is the racism that follows us.
And it is imbued in every action we take by virtue of the ignorance that is white
supremacy, and yet we continue to suffer as a result of it.
It's disgusting.
>> One more thing, Adrian.
Sorry, Jenk, but regarding your past history at ESPN,
I'm just betting this wouldn't be Will Cain's opinion in an NFL locker room.
Why do I think he would not spout this off if he
was in the New York Giants locker room?
Just saying.
>> So, Alonzo, we're out of time.
But in the bonus episode, I want to ask you a question.
Like you said, I'm large.
You're large, but I'm not black.
You are.
And so when people say, like, afraid of a large black male,
you've had to live with that your whole life as if it's okay to shoot you.
So, look, I wannna talk about it a little bit more.
Fulsome conversation in the bonus episode TYT.COM/ JOIN to become a member or
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