➡ The speaker shares their personal journey of overcoming economic hardship during a recession. They worked multiple jobs, including at a call center and Home Depot, while also attending school to earn a software engineering degree. The speaker emphasizes the importance of hard work, hustle, and personal responsibility in achieving the American dream, and criticizes those who make excuses or expect others to solve their problems. They express a lack of sympathy for those unwilling to put in the effort to improve their circumstances.

Van Jones apparently did an interview where he was, or did a story or an article for MSNBC, or CNN, as a matter of fact, where he basically went through and he found several Trump supporters, black Trump supporters, and he wanted to know how they felt about the current administration and the job that they’re doing. And so I have not seen this, but I figured that we want to share this with the class and have a conversation about it and see what you guys saw. This is Van Jones breakdown. We started off the broadcast tonight with the president’s cabinet shakeup, and that’s of course only a fraction of what’s unfolded over the last 102 days of the second Trump administration.

The question is, what are voters making of it all? CNN’s Van Jones has been talking to Trump supporters dating back to 2016. He is, as you know, a Democrat who was former senior advisor to President Obama. For tonight’s report, he met with a small group of black voters, a man and woman from South Carolina and another woman from North Carolina, all of whom voted for President Trump. CNN’s exit polling shows Mr. Trump got 8% of the black vote in 2016, and that grew slightly into the teens over the next two elections.

Here’s Van’s report from Greenville, South Carolina. You do well. Here we are in South Carolina with three Trump voters. You weren’t always a Republican. No. Actually, I come from a family that was like super Democratic. My first time voting, I voted Democrat. I voted for Joe Biden. What about you? That’s the story from a lot of us. A lot of us come from hugely, I’m not really sure that there are black families, black families collectively, that collectively vote Democrat. I’d be curious to see one. I mean, collectively vote Republican. I’d be curious to see that if there’s a family that historically mostly all voted Republican, not even just this year, but just historically.

The reason that we have such a disadvantage is because our cultural norms has messed up. We believe that we have to vote Republican, or we have to vote Democrat, and we have to overcome the matriarchy. We have to overcome stereotypes in our own families. We got to overcome our culture, and we have to overcome our voting patterns. It’s so much that you got to overcome within the black community, and I think that I’m not sure that there’s a family. I can’t think of a family at large, and I’m not even talking about just your immediate family inside of your household.

I’m talking about your whole family that was I think they all vote Democrat, 100%. Trump appealed to you. Are we allowed because? I mean, part of it is he’s an asshole. I like authenticity. You voted for Obama, and then you voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But 2020, you voted for Donald Trump. What made the change? I began listening to someone. Her name is Candace Owens, and I read her book, and it just opened my eyes to maybe he’s not this person that I have been led to believe that he was. So you voted against Trump in 2016, but then in 2020, you voted for him? Absolutely.

Why? I saw how things were going during his first term, and I was pleasantly surprised, and I was pleased with what was happening. I saw the economy getting better. I saw relations in certain countries getting better. What are some things that he’s doing that you do like? For me, I like the border. I just don’t like the idea of someone coming here illegally and getting benefits that can serve my community. So that’s the reason why I support him on that border policy. When you think about the border, you think about people coming here who are getting more help than people who live here who are born here.

Yeah, and I got that perspective, not from news channels. I got it from social media. TikTok is like a holy ground. We even see it with the things that we learn about the United States government outside of the United States. People are showing Americans, hey, look at what’s going on. Do y’all know that your government is doing this? Have you seen this? Have you looked at it from this perspective? People when they think about a Trump voter, they usually think about a white dude with a red hat on and a pickup truck, and y’all are not that at all.

So Donald Trump’s team went in. They took down Harriet Tubman’s picture for a quick minute. They’re trying to knock out the black museums. What does it have to do with the price of eggs and how did that impact you? In some ways, it’s a slap in the face. In other ways, I don’t care. I care more about how I’m going to take care of my children. I don’t think the average American cares about that. I know I’m frankly, I am sick and tired of seeing black people sit there and complain about something, but not taking action as steps to actually try to change things in an appropriate manner.

And we see that this is heavily edited, so they don’t want to get her full thought on. But she basically said that I’m tired of people complaining, but not taking responsibility for their lot in life. She said, I’m tired of people complaining, but not taking responsibility for their lot in life. And she didn’t call them out like how I call them out, but she definitely addressing it. She said, listen, people is capping and not taking personal ownership and responsibility of their life. And now they want to blame Trump for it. I’m amazed at the amount of people that’s blaming Trump for the lifetime of issues that they got in their life.

It’s not uncommon to see a 40 to 50 year old black woman complaining about Trump. I mean, 60 year old black women I’ve talked to. I mean, my own mother, for God’s sakes, my own mother is approaching 70. As beautiful as she is, she’s approaching 70. And you’re telling me that within the last hundred days, the decisions that has been made in your life, and you’re close to 70 years on this earth, that Trump is the person that mess it up. Get the hell out of here. I’m not going for it.

I talk to people that be 40 and 50 years old and they talk about Trump. Like fam, you do know that you’ve been here since 1975, 1970, 1965, 1960, 1960. And you’re talking about Trump? Bruh. Seriously, I see a black man that went to jail during Obama or Biden’s administration. I seen a black man. I know a black guy that went to jail during the time that Clinton was in office and he came out talking about Trump. And I was like, I mean, yeah, like you better off talking about Bush. At the very least, listen, I’ll give you Bush.

For all of my liberals, for all of my liberals, I’ll give you Bush. I’ll offer up Bush as tribute, both of them. One and two. Preferably two. I’ll give you two. I’ll give you Bush two. I think that Bush two was absolutely horrible. Horrific. One of the worst presidents in my lifetime. Honestly, I placed Bush two as a conservative, as a Republican. I placed Bush two. I think that Clinton actually was the precursor to Bush and Bush one was the precursor to that. I give Bush two in my personal opinion. I say Bush two is the worst president in my lifetime.

No, wait a minute. Biden is right there with him. Biden with Kamala Harris is right there with him. We got to let their legacy shake out. We got to find out what the rest of Doge is finding. But Bush two, I volunteer him as tribute. I volunteer him as tribute. I don’t have anything good to say about Bush two. You say Biden was worse. That’s probably because you wasn’t alive and you wasn’t really active. You know what I’m saying during Bush two. Bush two, in my opinion, absolutely horrid. Horrid. Bush was the worst president in my opinion.

He right there with Biden. The only reason I don’t give it to Biden, and I think that this is a personal preference. The only reason that I don’t give it to Biden is because I had grown to point to where I learned how to get rich regardless of who was in office. So financially, I’m personally not affected, but I do see the impact that it’s having on America. And so that’s the difference. Bush, I suffered under Bush. As a result of Bush, I suffered. I personally suffered. I personally dislike Bush. And so that’s the reason why I give it to Bush.

Honest to God. Honest to God. And then he used 9-11 to get himself reelected to stay in power when he was losing. My lifetime ain’t nothing worse than I wait. Nothing worse than I wait in my lifetime, personally. Seriously, I’m just going to be honest with you. And I’m a conservative and I’m a Republican and I don’t fuck with Bush. Biden administration, they came to certain agreements with police departments to be less brutal toward the black community. Trump has now ended all that. How does that help the black community? I have a lot of issues with police reform and just with how police officers are treated as a whole.

My husband is currently going through the process to become a police officer. The amount of hatred that cops get, even the best ones, I think has become a huge problem because it has been especially around election times when it definitely comes out of like, oh, no, the cops are bad. The cops hate you because you’re black. They’re immediately being this evil. This man is talking about running for it. Let me tell you something. For those of y’all that are saying, how did it affect you? Bro, we lost probably close to a million jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs as a result.

Listen, y’all sitting here complaining about Biden and the state of the economy, I know Bush was worse than Biden. And this is just real talk because a lot of times we have revisionist history. There were no jobs. Y’all complain on my dog. It wasn’t nothing to work at at a fast, wasn’t no fast food restaurants, wasn’t no sanitation, wasn’t no janitor jobs, wasn’t nothing. It was no jobs. You know what my first, bruh, bruh, my first like regular normal job back in the workforce during 2008 was a call center, right? And I was working at a call center and I was working at an insurance verification.

We was doing insurance verifications. And it was a place called Butco. It was in Highland Park, Michigan. And you know what we were doing? We were auditing companies. Companies were going through and doing audits. Auto companies, every single type of company that you could do, they would hire us to come in and audit whether or not people were supposed to be on their insurance in order for them to save money so that they didn’t have false people under their insurance. We were hired to help companies save money so that they can survive the recession.

That’s how bleak it was. That’s how bleak it was. Dude, I was ground zero. There were no jobs, zero jobs. People were willing to take anything that they could. Bruh, I applied at flower shop. People were about this. And I tell y’all this story all the time. There was a flower shop and it was this bee costume. And the bee costume would be out there, how the tax people would be out there spinning it and doing all of this stuff like that. It was a bee costume. And I seen two dudes get into it on a potentially being able to get a bee costume to get a job.

It was rough. It was rough. It was the roughest thing that I’ve ever seen in my life. I made up in that time and I would never go broke, ever again. I took the approach that I was willing to stay down for 20 years in order to get rich. Because I was like, no, this will never happen in my lifetime again. This will never happen in my lifetime again. And then I caught a break, caught a big break. And then I went to school also. So I caught a big break selling something and selling the app.

Bruh, I worked so, I worked so hard. I had three jobs, bro. I was doing insurance verification. I was doing sales and I was working at Home Depot overnight. I had three jobs. I was stacking shelves. I had to work in a stupid plumbing department. And plumbing had all of these little parts or whatever like that. And I remember it because this one guy, he used to play the same, same songs every single night. The first song that he was playing, he was playing a young bro. Yo, yo, yo. My girl got a good friend.

I remember him playing that. I just remember him playing young bro in TI every single night. And he was working on a high low and he was working in the lumber department and I had to come in and I had to first start doing returns and I had to start stacking the shelves for the plumbing department. And I was like, this can’t be life. This cannot be life. I was willing to work anything I got my hands on. I was going to not know the life that I had to suffer through or she would not have to experience the stuff that I had to suffer through.

She wouldn’t take out no student loans. She wouldn’t do none of that stuff. I got the battery in my back and I hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle. I was working almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I was going to school. And when I would go to the call center job, I would sit there and I would do all of my homework because I did all of my, I did all of my, I had classes on a weekend on Saturdays, but I was going to school full time too. But I did all of my homework while I was at the call center.

So I had that, that, you know, the headset on and I would do my script and I would be doing my homework and all of that stuff while I was at the call center in order to get my software engineering degree. And I was going to Oakland community college and I was hustling. I had to hustle. I had to get it. That’s why I don’t feel sorry for people when everybody sit there and say stuff like, Oh, you so disconnected. You don’t understand your boy. Don’t you know that while, you know why I worked so hard today? Because it was ingrained in me from the things that I had to suffer through ever since I ever, from the time I turned 18, I’ve been working 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

From the time I turned 18, I’ve been working 16 hours a day, seven days a week. I don’t have no sympathy for people that sit there and make excuses about the American dream because it’s about the hard work that you put into it. It’s about your work ethic. It’s about your grand. It’s about your hustle. We keep sitting there trying to wine and wanting somebody to do something for us and save yourself. Man, everybody ain’t got it like you. Everybody ain’t got it. What do you mean? I had to get it out the mud.

I’ve been working my whole life, hustling my whole life. Just last night, I didn’t even get home until four 30 in the morning. Just last night, I got home at four 30 in the morning. I was right back up at seven 30. Man, oh, you know, some of us is just in the hood. I was in the hood too. I just did a vlog of what my childhood home looked like. I mean, go get that. Go get it. Go get it. Go get it. I don’t want to hear nothing from nobody. I don’t have no sympathy from nobody because I’ve seen it and I’ve been through it.

So you’re not talking about somebody that didn’t go and get it yourself. I remember Home Depot. I remember Buck Co. I remember all of that stuff. I used to go and sell door to door, business to business, hustling, hustling, any means necessary, feet hurting every day, doing homework at the job, going to get that junk, working on apps in the meantime on Sundays. I never went out. People was going out. They was going to have fun. It was taking trips. Anytime you want to come? Nope. I’m good. Man, you’ll never go nowhere.

I know. We’ll talk about it in five years, six years. Man, you’ll never want to come. I know. I got a daughter now. I got people that depend on me. I got a father that I got to retire. I got a mother that I got to take care of. I got a daughter that I got to take care of. Man, but you’re 26 years old. You’re 27 years old. You’re going to miss out on the best days of your life. Nah, I think I’m going to figure it out. I got a different vision for my life.

I got a different vision for my life. Man, you’re going to miss out. Them same people doing the same thing, going to the same places today. Honest to God, the same people doing the same thing, going to the same places today and they complain and they vote in the same way. And it’s a difference. It’s a gap. And the gap is growing bigger every single day. So I don’t care nothing about what these people talking about. Oh, man. Oh, man. Don’t you will sell out. I know. I know. You’ve been saying the same shit since 08, 07, 06.

Man, you, you ain’t, man, suck my dick, nigga. What you going to do about it? I’m talking to him. I’m not about to grind. You don’t know nothing about the hustle. You don’t know nothing about working corporate. You don’t know nothing about leveling up. You don’t know nothing about sacrifice. You don’t know nothing about you. Don’t even know your own kids. You don’t even know your own daughter. I want to hear nothing about that. I can’t talk to me because I’m self-made. Can’t talk to me because I built it out of the mud.

No loans, no inheritance, no lawsuits. Whenever somebody always try to discount you. Tell you what, I give you all one thing too. Whenever there’s a lawsuit, whenever there’s something like that, there will always be public. It’s always going to be public. It’s always going to be public. You can go into the court system. You can go and look it up. You can go and look at the counties anywhere in Michigan. It is what it is. Go get that shit. Stop whining. I don’t want to work Amazon. I wish Amazon had had the infrastructure that it had at that time and I could have got a job at Amazon.

I wish Amazon was popping at that time. I could have went and got a job at Amazon. What’s y’all paying? For fast food? Y’all paying what? To work at the fast food market McDonald’s? Man, I would have went and got that McDonald’s job and a heartbeat. Just like that. Man, it’s hard on your dog. I’ll be tired. I’m doing construction. Me too. I was doing it too. [tr:trw].

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