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