Category: Worldwide

Over the past week, protests have ensued across the country to call for an end to police brutality and to mourn the murder of George Floyd. Many cities issued curfews as a way to quell looters and destruction of property, with some cities like Seattle issuing curfews as early as 5:30 pm. But many protesters who showed up to peacefully demonstrate found police were installing barriers that made it difficult for some to navigate home. But protesters in New York found a way to convey their frustrations over police barricades by reciting choice lyrics from Ludacris.

A video captured of a recent New York protest depicts a line of police officers forming a barricade against a compact wall of demonstrators. In order to try to get the police to allow them space, protesters began chanting a line from Ludacris’ 2001 Word Of Mouf track “Move B*tch.” As armed police officers faced the large crowd, protesters began chanting in unison. “Move b*tch / Get out the way / Get out the way, b*tch / Get out the way,” they loudly chanted.

This isn’t the first time protesters used music to support their cause. Over the weekend, reports flooded in that the activist hacker group Anonymous had taken over Chicago police radios and began broadcasting N.W.A.’s track “F*ck Tha Police.” In 2017, “Move” was used as a chant by anti-Trump protesters.

Watch protesters chant Ludacris’ ‘Move B*tch’ above.

Previously on the Best and Worst of Raw: “Crowds” returned to WWE events in time to watch Apollo Crews win the United States Championship, Nia Jax become the number one contender to the Raw Women’s Championship, and a side-splitting golf game between the brand’s top two tag teams.

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One more thing: Hit those share buttons! Spread the word about the column on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else you use. Be sure to leave us a comment in our comment section below as well. I know we always ask this, and that this part is copy and pasted in every week, but we appreciate it every week. We’ve finally started the build for Backlash, featuring Ricky Steamboat vs. Macho Man Randy Savage in an Edge vs. Randy Orton Match..

Quick note: You may have noticed we didn’t post anything on Tuesday, as UPROXX participated in black out Tuesday. We appreciate your patience in waiting an extra day to hear what we thought about MVP vs. Drew McIntyre.

And now, the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for June 1, 2020.

Worst: Nia-later

We might as well start off this week’s column with the perfect online conversational storm that is Nia Jax. To recap as succinctly as possible, we tend to like Nia Jax a lot as a person and a personality, but every time she gets put into the spotlight it feels like she (meaning her character) immediately ruins it by saying something embarrassing or doing something that reads more like clumsy violence than purposeful jobber ass-whippings. Admittedly at this point that could be a self-fulfilling Sin Cara prophecy where we’ve started looking too closely for the bad so OF COURSE we’ll find it, so let’s approach this week with understanding and caution.

Up first, here’s Nia “lashing out” at the Kabuki Warriors with one of those promos where she just really, really doesn’t sound like she means what she’s saying. Or that she read what she was supposed to say before she says it. Here she says Kairi Sane and Asuka “aren’t what they say they are,” as being friends, wearing bright colors, and speaking Japanese — the only traits she identifies — are, “all smoke and mirrors.” There’s a heel delusional belief that they’re in the right and being persecuted, and then there’s saying the Japanese friends who wear bright colors aren’t really friends, don’t really speak Japanese, and don’t wear bright colors.

My favorite part is this exchange between Santana Garrett and Chelsea Green in the crowd after Nia mocks Asuka and Kairi by going full ching chong ching chong and reading their language as, “oy mee mee mee mee Japanese neh neh neh”. In the one second the camera’s on them you can see Santana turn as if to say, “should she be saying that in a promo?” And Chelsea stares forward blankly and purses her lips like, “nope, probably not.”

Oh, and then Nia throws Kairi into the steps face-first and slices her open.

You know you’re doing well when you get a genuine “oh God” reaction from a loose gathering of developmental types who have spent the day getting yelled at over the PA system to be more lively. Buckle bombs just got banned because of Nia not knowing how to do one and hurting Kairi, so what, are whips into the steps next? Do we also ban shoulder breakers, catching moonsaults, and basic punches?

I want to approach this from a thoughtful perspective and not like, infantilize Kairi Sane like she’s some helpless flower who keeps getting hurt by the big mean Nia Jax or whatever. It’s not about that. Wrestling is dangerous. I think the issue is that Nia’s lazy danger has become her defining character trait, presumably because of how well the errant punch on Becky Lynch ended up working out for Becky, so now even when the violence is controlled, we’re fooled into seeing it as lackadaisical and unprofessional. Which is a shame, because if Nia was brutally lighting people up every week and it felt like a conscious decision EVERYONE IN THE RING was making, that could be fun. I can’t sit here as a fan of Stan Hansen, a man who once hit Vader so hard it popped out Vader’s eyeball, and act like I don’t like borderline ghastly wrestling violence from time to time. I think a lot of us just want to feel comfortable knowing everyone’s on the same page and doing things on purpose. Maybe it’s not for us to know. [shrug]

Nia returns later in the night to ruin the champion vs. champion match between Asuka and Charlotte Flair, which at least lets us get out of that match without Flair dunking on Asuka again. Asuka doesn’t seem like the kind of character who’d be that distracted by a sarcastic entrance and get herself counted out in a champion vs. champion match against the only person in WWE who seems to consistently have her number, but she also doesn’t seem like the kind to take one bad clothesline and be knocked out for five minutes, so who knows?

Best, Mostly: “rey mysterio retire bitch” — Seth Rollins

This might come as a shock to you, but the retirement ceremony for Rey Mysterio announced and hosted by Seth Rollins, the man who tried to end Mysterio’s career, didn’t actually involve Mysterio retiring. Crazy, right? It’s almost like Seth Rollins isn’t a reliable narrator.

This leads into a Seth Rollins vs. Aleister Black match, and while the roll-up ending and post-match attack were pretty lackluster, I want to give a shout-out to Raw creative for running a story in a conservative-ass company in the year of our Lord 2020 where Jesus is the villain and The Devil is the hero.

Later in the night, Mysterio brings it live via satellite to say he’s not sure when he’ll be back or if he’s retiring, but he sure wants to punch Bad Faith Jesus in the face about it. Dominick Mysterio, wearing a salmon t-shirt that I really hope is in reference to the greatest false retirement announcement of all time, swears that he’s going to go Hammurabi on Rollins’ ass for Road Warrioring his dad on Raw.

The real question: is Dominick already a Seth Rollins disciple, or does he become one the next time we see him?

This Week On Friday Night Smackdown

In a nice moment of babyface continuity, Kevin Owens helped Apollo Crews get the jump on Los Ingobernables de Central Florida which then led Crews to getting a United States Championship match and winning, so Crews is saying thank you by giving Owens the first title match. That’s how you build a character people can understand and like. Just have them do normal, nice things sometimes.

It’s 2020 and we’re floating on a speck of dust in the WWE Universe, however, so of course the match ends with Angel Garza and Andrade running in for the disqualification. That leads directly into a tag team match (player), which allows both the champion and challenger from the original United States Championship match to win and hold up each others’ arms. It’d be a lot better if they didn’t go to this well so often, as it ran completely dry of water like three years ago and they’ve been hoisting up buckets of damp, rocky dirt ever since. I like that Crews is legit now, though. That guy is too talented to have been stuck in Main Event purgatory for pretty much his entire WWE career. Shout to everyone from Titus Worldwide doing well except for Titus. Maybe the group should’ve been called Crews Worldwide, although that might’ve gotten them sued by Princess.

Also On This Episode

The Raw tag team division has officially become those old Goofy cartoons where a narrator explains sports to you while Goofy fucks it up. This week, the Street Profits and the Viking Raiders go bowling, and “hilarity” “ensues.” Not a lot of the jokes work for me, but I do like the old lady at the bowling alley realizing her cue’s about to come up and eavesdropping intently so she can nail the Street Profits’ mid-bowling-game entrance taunt. How early did Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins have to get there to set that up? The running joke about Ivar being attractive to any average blue collar woman isn’t particularly funny, but weirdly enough, them all thinking Erik is ugly and having to tell him about it to his face is.

Also, the Vikings didn’t win this game. Ivar surfing down the lane on his belly was clearly a foul, which means the pins don’t count. Ivar, this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling, there are rules. AM I THE ONLY ONE AROUND HERE WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THE RULES? MARK IT ZERO.

Billie Kay has pinned one half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions! You’ve got to think this puts them in line for a possible future title opportunity, Byron! What will happen as the IIconics continue to build momentum heading into Backlash? Switching gears now, we want to talk to you about the unique circumstances going on in the world this week.

Finally, Drew McIntyre continues to try to lure out the “real” Bobby Lashley by once again defeating a guy he knows he can defeat 100 out of 100 times, MVP. There’s honestly not much to this story, but I like the undercurrent that MVP and Drew McIntyre are basically accomplishing the same thing. MVP wants to separate Lashley from Lana to get his head in the game and make him a world title contender again. McIntyre wants to separate Lashley from all of the nonsense and enrage him into getting his head in the game and becoming a world title contender again. Honestly if this ended with the reveal that McIntyre and MVP have been working together all along to destroy Lashley’s life by inflating his sense of self-worth while separating him from his wife and humiliating him at the top of the card at Backlash, I’d be pretty into it.

Lord loves a full nelson push, though. Every few years Vince McMahon’s like, “YOU KNOW WHAT WE NEED, QUITE FRANKLY? A GOOD OLD FASHIONED [gravel intensifies] FULL NELSON.” Like you can’t picture him opening his eyes real wide as if to say, “see?” while mimicking a full nelson. I’ve got surprisingly high hopes for this title match.

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

EvilDucky

If KO retaliates by throwing HIS pants into Garza’s face, I promise I will be a WWE lifer and will do my best to only complain… let’s say once a month for the rest of 2020

Taylor Swish

Mocking Asians. Playing the victim. About to inflict unnecessary and reckless harm on an innocent? Nia should run for president.

AJ Dusman

*Kairi Sane gets hurt*
*Charlotte Flair instinctively comes out to slap her*

AshBlue

Lana has actually started to look like she’s being played by a different person.

troi

Call Dominic “The Demo” because he is an 18-34 year old male!

FeltLuke

Given Dominic’s mic skills, I’m starting to think Eddie might not be his real father.

Baron

The twist to this better be Charly charging the ring to protect Angel Garza from Kevin Owens.

JayBone2

Heel Level 1000 for Rollins having chairs available to Theory and Murphy.

The Real Birdman

Only winners get pins off Falcon Arrows

The year is 2080:

America has burned down in anarchy
Robot overlords rule the nation
The Street Profits are facing The Viking Raiders in a shuffleboard contest

Finally, Randy Orton believes he’ll win The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever when he faces Edge in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever at Backlash. Disagreeing with him is this Lululemon trucker Santa Claus they asked for some reason.

Is it weird to anyone else that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels look like your grandma and grandpa now?

Anyway, that does it for another episode of The Best and Worst of Quarantine Raw. Thanks as always for reading and supporting us. You can help us out tremendously right now by sharing the column on social media, as well as dropping down into our comments section to let us know what you thought of the show. I will keep trying to watch these and say something constructive about them, and I can’t wait to celebrate society finally coming together and ending the divisiveness to unanimously praise Edge vs. Randy Orton at Backlash.

See you next week!

Run The Jewels have been teasing the release of their fourth full-length LP for months now with a planned release of June 5, but as El-P says in a new post, “Why wait?” RTJ4 has officially arrived two days early, as protests continue to rip through the nation’s cities in response to the police killing George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black men, women, and children without consequence.

Along with the announcement that he and Killer Mike released their album early, El-P also shared a statement explaining why. “The world is infested with bullsh*t so here’s something to help you deal with it all,” reads the accompanying statement. “We hope it brings you joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving 2 friends the chance to be heard and do what they love. With sincere love and gratitude, Jamie and Mike.”

The album clocks in at 10 songs, including the previously released “Yankee and The Brave,” “Ooh La La” with Greg Nice and DJ Premier, and “A Few Words For The Firing Squad.” However, the track that speaks most to the current moment is “Walking In The Snow” on which Killer Mike utters those now inescapable words — written about Eric Garner but applicable to George Floyd and too many others — “I can’t breathe.”

Run The Jewels 4 is out now on Run The Jewels LLC and BMG Records. Get it here.

While the NBA’s return is not imminent — reports indicate things will tip back off on July 31 — the approval of a plan by the league’s Board of Governors appears to be a day away. According to reporting by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Adam Silver will bring forth a plan that the board is expected to approve on Thursday, one which will clear the path to games restarting at the end of next month.

The plan involves 22 teams heading to Orlando, with the 16 teams that were in the playoffs before the league’s COVID-19 shutdown gaining entry along with six squads that were on the outside looking in. Wojnarowski brought word of the six additional squads, which features five teams from the Western Conference.

Portland, New Orleans, and Sacramento all sit 3.5 games back of the 8-seed, currently held by the Memphis Grizzlies. San Antonio, meanwhile, is ever so slightly behind them, as they’re four games back. The gaps for both Phoenix and Washington, meanwhile, are a bit larger — the Wizards are 5.5-games behind Orlando in the east, the Suns are six games back in the West.

The proposal comes on the heels of Blazers star Damian Lillard saying that he would not participate in games if Portland did not have a path to making the playoffs. These teams will eventually participate in a play-in tournament for the 8-seed, and Charania laid out how that will work, writing that “If the ninth seed is more than four games behind the eighth seed, the eighth seed earns the playoff spot; if the ninth seed is four or fewer games behind, then the eighth and ninth seed will enter a play-in tournament that is double-elimination for the eighth seed and single-elimination for ninth.”

Millions of animals have been euthanized and buried in mass graves. Their bodies decaying after a life spent in captivity. It’s a staggering loss of life and resources. And the stark reality of how fragile and ill-prepared our industrialized food system was for handling a pandemic.

On the latest episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, the comedian breaks down how the Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the massive problems within our various supply chains. The episode starts off talking about our medical equipment supply chain as a warm-up for the thrust of the episode — targeting industrial meat supply chains across America.

As with all of these segments on comedy/ news shows, there’s a bit of an information dump, with a joke thrown in at the end of every point to keep you listening. But Minaj seems to understand the bigger issue well and does a good job laying bare how a centralized food supply, dominated by a few national brands has created a system that’s easily broken.

The episode pivots around a clip of famed food journalist Michael Pollan. “The trade-off with efficiency is resilience,” Pollan says. “A highly efficient system is so brittle that when you have a disruption — such as a pandemic — it starts breaking down.”

Minhaj then goes onto illustrate that the way the United States has acted to deal with this brittleness has been to throw the workers under the bus, so to speak. Minhaj explains how it took Trump two months to enact the Defense Production Act to start producing vital PPE for medical professionals across the country, but it only took him two days to enact the DPA to get the meatpacking industry back online. Basically, Trump issuing an executive order to “reopen” the meat industry was seen as vital to the American economy.

You know what’s coming. But, as Minhaj points out by, well, actually reading the executive order Trump signed — there actually wasn’t anything in the document explicitly about reopening plants. What’s damning about this is the montage of every major news network announcing that Trump is “forcing” the meat industry to stay open via executive order when, in reality, his executive order was actually absolving the six main industrial meat companies from any liability if their workers were to get sick and die. Minhaj and his team figured this out by, again, simply reading the executive order.

The kicker to the story? According to Patriot Act digging, of the 25 counties around the United States that have seen the highest spike in COVID-19 cases, half of them are traced directly to reopened meat factories. The cramped conditions, cool, damp air, and lack of basic services have allowed the meat factories to become what one expert called a “petri dish” for the virus. What’s more, Minhaj relays that Smithfield — one of the six parent companies that run big meat in America — used Trump’s executive order to get a case of worker abuse thrown out of court immediately after it was enacted. It just feels like a mess all around.

All told, this should be a huge wake-up call to move away from industrial meat and towards locally-grown and sustainably raised protein (plant and/or animal-based). Whether or not it will be remains to be seen.

You can watch the whole clip below. The meat factory report starts at the 10:30 mark.

Cardi B forced a Los Angeles news anchor to apologize to her after a segment about her recent comments in support of protests against police brutality across the nation when she took offense to how her words were taken out of context.

KTLA reporter Doug Kolk accused Cardi of using “her massive platform to promote the violence” in a segment about her recent post on Instagram encouraging protestors to vote. In her original post, Cardi says, “It makes me feel like, ‘Finally, yes. Motherf*ckers are gonna hear us now.’ And as much as people is so against it, at this point, I feel like I’m not against it even though it do scare me and I don’t want anybody to get hurt. It’s really frustrating because police brutality been going on even way before I was born, but it’s been more visible ever since social media started getting popping… How many peaceful protests have we seen? How many trending hashtags have we seen?”

After being tagged in a video of the report, Cardi, who does not play that way with news reporters getting too comfortable talking to or about her out of pocket, launched into a tirade after the report, letting Kolk know exactly how she felt. “Why your no-lip, square head-having ass ain’t put the part were I said to vote?” she wondered. “You cottage cheese breath-having b*tch. Why don’t you post how a conservative Christian Trump supporter posted my address and encouraged people to loot my home?”

Kolk replied a few hours later, apologizing for mischaracterizing Cardi’s words and promising to issue a retraction on his next segment.

Watch how the entire episode played out above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike, a known activist, has spoken up many times about police brutality, prison reform, and injustices in America. As the rapper prepares to release another album this week amid protests across the country, Killer Mike sat down with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to discuss how white people can effectively show their solidarity and become better allies.

Responding to Colbert, Killer Mike said that white Americans shouldn’t stay silent. “No. We don’t need you to stay out of the way,” he said, continuing: “Get your butt down there, and help those organizations in the physical. But, what I need white America to do beyond right now, is understand that right now is always. It isn’t just helping in the now. It is being a part of fixing it always.”

The rapper then offered “homework” for white American to learn about their indoctrinated racism:

“The first thing I want you to do, is go to YouTube and Google Jane Elliot, and spend one hour watching Jane Elliot teach people. Not just speaking. She’s not just speaking, she’s teaching people about the racism that is given to them that they aren’t even aware they have. She asks the question: ‘How many of you all see how Black people are treated in this country? If you’d like to be treated like that, stand up.’ And no one in the crowd stands up. So that immediately tells us that you know how we’re treated, you know how it’s burdensome, you know it’s troublesome and wrong, but you simply don’t do anything because its the ‘well it’s not me’ factor.

But if there’s a riot in the street, you’ve got to understand that it’s time to stand up with the people who are getting beaten up, with the people who are tired of being treated that way. So my homework for all the white Americans, including you, is to spend an hour learning from Jane Elliot on YouTube.”

While Killer Mike spoke to the Black Lives Matter movement on The Late Show, he also offered a succinct summary of Run The Jewels’ upcoming album: “It’s like drinking a cup of coffee and getting punched in the face […] and then smoking a joint and getting a hug afterwards.”

Watch Killer Mike on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above.

Run The Jewels 4 is due 6/5 via Run The Jewels LLC and BMG Records.

Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Lady Gaga’s return to dance-ready tunes and a whole slew of exemplary hip-hop collaborations. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

Lady Gaga — Chromatica

After much anticipation, Lady Gaga’s latest has arrived, and gone are the more stripped-down days of Joanne. Instead, she is back to her dance-pop ways, as she shows on collaborations with Ariana Grande and Blackpink to offer up one of the best new music releases of the week.

Lil Yachty — Lil Boat 3

Lil Yachty’s new album is the final release of his Lil Boat series, and he’s sending it off in style: Lil Boat 3 features guest spots from Drake, DaBaby, Lil Durk, Young Thug, ASAP Rocky, Tyler The Creator, and Tierra Whack, with those last three all appearing on one track.

Gucci Mane — “Both Sides” Feat. Lil Baby

Gucci Mane has been more productive than most rappers this decade, but the first few months of 2020 yielded no new songs from Guwop. He took care of that last week, though, when he linked with Lil Baby and dropped a video for “Both Sides,” his first single of 2020.

Young Dolph — “RNB” Feat. Megan Thee Stallion

Megan Thee Stallion is fresh off her first No. 1 song, so she’s as hot of a commodity as she as ever been. What timing this is for Young Dolph, then, who got the “Savage” rapper to join him on his boastful new single, “RNB.”

El-P — Capone (Original Motion Picture Score)

El-P has always been a versatile talent, and he has reinforced that fact with his latest endeavor: the soundtrack for Capone. Shades of Run The Jewels-style production are present on the album, and it’s a treat even as an entity separate from the movie.

Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist — Alfredo

The Alchemist has kept himself busy in 2020: He teamed up with Conway The Machine’s Lulu EP earlier this year, and now he is back with another joint project, this time working with Freddie Gibbs on their new Alfredo album. The effort is mostly feature-free, but Tyler The Creator and Rick Ross can also be found here.

RMR — “I’m Not Over You”

RMR only became a familiar (perpetually masked) face in the hip-hop community not that long ago, but he is already faring just fine for himself. For example, he just dropped a new song, “I’m Not Over You,” and the Timbaland-produced tune scored a premiere on Desus & Mero.

Juice WRLD — “Tell Me U Luv Me” Feat. Trippie Redd

The late Juice WRLD has popped up on a smattering of new tracks since his passing, but they’ve mostly been features. A posthumous album is supposedly on the way though, and if that’s the case, his estate just dropped what may be the latest preview of it, the Trippie Redd-featuring “Tell Me U Luv Me.”

Rosalía and Travis Scott — “TKN”

Now is your chance to hear Travis Scott rap in Spanish, as he does so on his latest collab with Rosalía, “TKN.” The pair first linked up on a “Highest In The Room” remix, and they’re a terrific pair, so here’s to hoping more from this duo is to come.

Blimes And Gab — “Shellys (It’s Chill)”

Disco-inspired music is having a moment right now, and Blimes And Gab have cemented themselves as a wonderful part of that with “Shellys (It’s Chill).” The latest taste from their upcoming debut album, Blimes And Gab have busted out a delightfully funky and upbeat tune that ought to soundtrack living room dance parties the world over.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

John Boyega is known worldwide for playing Poe in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and he’s using his platform for good. The actor, who’s been telling off racists out on Twitter (“I really f*cking hate racists,” he recently tweeted), delivered an impassioned speech in London’s Hyde Park on Wednesday, telling fellow demonstrators, “I’m speaking to you from my heart. Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but f*ck that.”

“Today is about innocent people who were halfway through their process, we don’t know what George Floyd could have achieved, we don’t know what Sandra Bland could have achieved, but today we’re going to make sure that won’t be an alien thought to our young ones,” Boyega said, according to Metro, his voice amplified by a megaphone:

“Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And now is the time. I ain’t waiting.”

Boyega referred to everyone at the protest as a “physical representation of our support” for George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and Stephen Lawrence, a British teen who was murdered in a racially-motivated attack in 1993. “I need you to understand how painful this sh*t is,” he continued. “I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing and that isn’t the case anymore, that was never the case anymore.” The 28-year-old actor also marched with the family of Belly Mujinga, a rail worker who died from the coronavirus after being spit on.

Hopefully the worst Star Wars fans are listening and learning.

(Via Metro)

Even in moments of crisis, we often don’t expect directness from the world of pro wrestling, especially not from a company as large and generally conservative as WWE. Sure, wrestlers speak up on social media (more than they used to, it seems), and WWE can release a statement that carefully avoids phrases like “police violence” and “black lives matter,” but we don’t expect to hear much on the actual TV shows.

Of course, WWE Backstage is a bit unusual as WWE programs go, because it’s a talk show rather than a wrestling show. And CM Punk’s role on it since the beginning has been to say what nobody else in the company will say.

Still, his frankness last night was pretty surprising. Talking with Renee Young, Booker T, and Mark Henry, Punk was visibly emotional as he addressed his fellow white people about the need to listen to black people, and use white privilege to protect them when possible. He also called out the President directly, which might not have gone over well with Fox TV or WWE.

Well, I think people people talk about the need to have a conversation. And you know, I’m a white guy. I’m not here to pretend to understand how black people feel, and I don’t think it’s my place to tell them how they need to react. This country has a problem, that much I know. I’m here to tell the white people: you need to listen to your black brothers and sisters, and you need to understand where they are coming from. It’s hard to try to walk in somebody’s shoes or try to understand where they come from, but this country — there’s almost two Americas. You know, when I get pulled over, I’m nervous that I’m going to get a ticket. I don’t want to live somewhere where, Mark, if your son gets pulled over, he’s worried he’s going to get murdered. So I’m just here to tell white people, you probably need to shut up more, and you certainly need to listen more. There is a problem, and the paradox is the only way to deal with intolerance is with intolerance. If you are a white person, you more than likely are privileged. Use that privilege and support your black brothers and sisters, especially now because we need it.

We live in a time where hatred is stoked at the highest level, and I don’t like things I see. I do what I can to stop it, and I think I’m hopefully using my voice for good, but fascism and racism cannot win, and if you’re struggling to try to come up with a way that you can help, the easiest way to help is combat that intolerance with intolerance. There’s no room for it. How I relate that all to myself — even though none of this is truly about me — is that the first tattoo that I ever saw in my life was a number on my grandfather’s arm. And he rode a horseback towards Nazi Panzer tanks. And now it’s 2020, and we live in a world where a President says that Nazis are very fine people. You can’t walk that back, and you can’t tell me that you meant something different. If you’re white, use your voice, protect your black brothers and sisters, and protect the people who this country was not built for. They might say it was, but everybody has a different experience. And just listen more.

Punk’s mention of combating intolerance with intolerance is a little confusing since he doesn’t give the line much context, but he seems to be alluding to Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance, which is the idea that a tolerant society can only be achieved by being intolerant of intolerance.