The Breakdown with Shaun King

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 646 - The single biggest factor impacting public safety in America? THE ECONOMY Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

Hundreds of micro-factors impact what makes a home safe. A neighborhood. A community. A side of town. An entire city. But NOTHING impacts the safety of a place like the health of its economy. The economy is the single biggest factor impacting public safety in America.

When a home, a block, a neighborhood have true economic security, crime absolutely plummets. And, of course, the inverse is true. Without true, deep economic security, where people earn enough money to make it through the month, to care for all of their needs, and to grow and thrive, where that is missing, the toxic mix of poverty and despair rises.

Nothing would solve drastically reduce crime more than addressing the root economic issues at play that cause it.

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Ep. 645 - It's time for Dave Chappelle to move on from the trans jokes Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

I am HUGE Dave Chappelle fan. I've met Dave. Been to his shows. I am friends with many of his friends. But it is absolutely time for him to move on from telling trans jokes.

Here's the thing - in America - we do indeed have freedom of speech. And because of that freedom, Dave can continue to tell trans jokes for this rest of his life if he wants to. And people can protest Dave for the rest of their lives if they want to.

But here's my rub... you can really only crack jokes about oppressed groups that you ARE NOT A PART OF a few times before people get irritated. Dave has hit that threshold.

This is true for all comedians. Jewish comedians can crack jokes about Jewish people for the rest of their lives, but limits exist for anybody else that wants to move into that space.

The same is true for white comedians telling jokes ABOUT Black people, at the expense of Black people. I don't wanna hear that shit AT ALL. Do it once or twice and you can get away with it, but anything more than that, and a line has been crossed. Does that make sense?

Generally speaking, I want all of us to have broad freedoms about what we are able to say, myself included. But sometimes we have to censor ourselves when our words are doing more harm than good.

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Ep. 644 - Pastors shouldn't be wearing a million dollars worth of jewelry. Let's start there. Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Did you see the video where the pastor in Brooklyn got robbed at gunpoint during a church service? I don't wish that on anyone. However, the truth is that it's foolish to wear a million dollars worth of jewelry ANYWHERE in public. And it's doubly disrespectful for a pastor in a poor and working class neighborhood to do such a thing.

Listen, again, I am not condoning armed robbery, but let me frame it another way. Would it be unethical for a man to walk down the middle of street in the hood with stacks of $1 million in cash? I say yes. It's inviting danger and it's tempting people who are struggling from day to day as it is. If you walked through the hood with a million dollars in cash in your hands, I would stop just short of saying you deserve to get robbed, but you damn near do.

Wearing $1 million in jewelry is the exact same thing. It's flossing. In the worst way.

Let me unpack and explain it. Listen to today's full episode here, and hundreds more, on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or at TheNorthStar.com.

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Ep. 643 - Do NOT allow your frustration with Joe Biden to cause you to stop caring about LOCAL politics Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

I get it. Joe Biden is terrible. 82% of Americans don't want him to run again. And he shouldn't.

But it is FOOLISH to allow our frustration with him to cause us to stop caring about who our District Attorney is. Or who are Mayor is. Or city councilperson or school board leaders.

Don't fall for that trap. We all must be simultaneously frustrated with the President AND fully plugged into important races.

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Ep. 642 - Return all land stolen from African Americans back to the rightful owners and descendants Jul 22, 2022

Show notes

In America, our deepest wounds rarely heal because the wrongs that have been done here are rarely made right.

Verbal apologies are rare when it comes to racial injustice in this country, but anyone who thinks a verbal apology is enough is sorely mistaken.

Enter Bruce's Beach. This week, the descendants of the original owners of the Los Angeles beachfront property that was stolen from a Black family 100 years ago, were given the deed back to the land - the first known time this happened.I commend the Bruce family, their attorneys, local organizers, and all of the government officials that helped make this happen.

Now, let's see it duplicated in every city, county, and state in America.

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Ep. 641 - Police DO NOT make cities safer. Here are the 3 things that do. Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

We all deserve to be safe in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities. And we all want this. But it is NOT police that make communities safe.

STOP FALLING FOR THIS LIE. The safest communities in America hardly have police. They have these 3 things...Wealth, access to resources, and quality education from pre-school to grad school. That's ACTUALLY what makes communities safe.

Let me unpack and explain it.

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Ep. 640 - The same organization that STILL refuses to give Buffalo victims millions of dollars is holding $14 million for Uvalde. And families are PISSED. Jul 20, 2022

Show notes

My blood is BOILING. And I cannot believe that the same sorry ass organization that is still holding millions of dollars that people gave to victims in Buffalo is now holding $14 million for families in Uvalde and REFUSING to distribute it.

Please. Whatever you do. DO NOT WORK WITH THE NATIONAL COMPASSION FUND. It is an almost exclusively white organization in suburban Virginia. They either do not understand the unique struggles of Black and Brown communities or do not care. And in both Buffalo and Uvalde they have left devastated families that desperately needed financial support without a dime.

And then heaped more pain and frustration on top of it all.

They are now saying it's going to be November, at the earliest, until they give any money that was raised to victims in Uvalde. And I don't care what they say. IT DOES NOT TAKE THIS LONG. It should not take this long. I have literally spoken with them and told them this myself. I told them exactly what they need to do to speed up the process and better distribute the funds to families. And they refuse to do any of it.

Now, families of victims in Buffalo and Uvalde are literally already going back to work. And many are on the brink of financial ruin, while this organization continues to give ridiculous excuses on why they can't speed things up.

ACTION STEP: Please email Jeff@NationalCompassion.org and let him know how you feel about this.

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Ep. 639 - Let's help the dear family of Millie Packer today Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

This weekend, a healthy, vibrant, young pregnant Black woman and her husband went to the hospital in Texas. 24 hours later, both the baby and the mother were dead.
Now her children are without a mother and her husband, Brennon, is without a wife.
And what we know, is that pregnant Black women all over the country are having HORRIBLE struggles with their pregnancies at rates far worse than white women. And every expert has said that it is basically systemic racism embedded in the medical field.
As soon as you can, please click the link in my bio on Instagram to chip in and help this family TODAY, OK?
Love and appreciate you all.

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Ep. 638 - Why are we ok with our taxes fully funding mass incarceration, but not education and healthcare? Jul 14, 2022

Show notes

On most episodes of The Breakdown, I come here to inform you of one important idea or issue going on in the world, but today I have one VERY important question...Budgets are moral documents. They show values and priorities.

And almost every developed country in the world, and many developing countries for that matter, fully fund education and healthcare, from birth to death, but not here in America.

We fully fund mass incarceration and all of the jails, prisons, and incompetent police money can buy but then saddle our people with student loans, co-pays, deductibles, and outrageous health insurance premiums every single month.

Why have we accepted this? It's foolish. Let's dig in together.

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Ep. 637 - Of course the US is leading coups around the world. Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

I know what OJ did. You know what OJ did. We all know what OJ did. That's very different than him going on CNN and openly admitting to it.

In essence, that's what former US Ambassador and National Security Advisor John Bolton did yesterday on CNN when he openly admitting to overthrowing governments around the world. We always knew this about the United States, but now a living official is on the record admitting it.

Let me unpack and explain it.

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